The only certain things in life are death and taxes.
Who said that, anyway?
I don’t believe it.
There is, for sure, one other certainty.
You can do your best. Give 110 per cent. Try really hard. Try harder.
And there will always be someone out there who can do your job better than you.
Just ask them.
Take print media.
The world is full of wannabe reporters who flip through the paper in disgust.
If only they had chosen journalism as a career, surely they could find more news, better stories and spot news photos that tell a thousand words.
Of course they don’t want hard news. It makes them squirm. They want fluff; stuff about new babies and Aunt Hilda’s award winning roses and Uncle John’s potato that looks like it has two heads.
And then there’s the other side. The hard news junkies.
They couldn’t care less about award winning roses and potatoes with two heads. They want the real stories. And lots of them. They don’t want to read between the lines. They want facts, figures and sensationalism. They are the realists of this world, not governed by emotional jargon and feelings.
Of course, because they are realists, they want the truth and only the truth printed, and do not accept the possibility that everyone’s truth is different.
Politics? Another easy job. Everyone should try it. We all know lots of people who are not politicians who can do the job better than those who are.
Politics is a blood sport. You don’t find people coming out in droves to sign up for political games but you sure find a lot of spectators who want to watch from the sidelines.
And those spectators truly believe they could do a much better job of running any level of government; municipal, provincial or federal, than the people who are in power now.
Just ask them.
The only catch is they don’t really want to play outside the spectator arena. It’s too dangerous.
A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing but often, the people who believe they should be running our governments don’t even have that.
They have rumours and innuendoes. They have second- and third-hand information. They have sentences that start with, “He said,” or even, “He said that he said.”
Coupled with this infiltration of watered down information, they have an insatiable thirst to not only be right, but to gleefully prove the people they elected are wrong. For some sad, unexplainable reason, this makes them feel good. In fact, it makes them feel better than good.
It makes them feel powerful.
It is truer than true that politicians can be wrong. Very wrong. They are, after all, human, and subject to errors and judgment calls they may live to regret.
But, should not credit be given where credit is due? They took the job, and, for the most part, they do it to the best of their ability.
It is true, their truth may not be your truth, but that is not their responsibility.
Every taxpayer has the democratic right to research, to ask questions, and to cross-examine all parties involved before making their own personal decision on any issue. Doing so, will only serve to increase their own knowledge base, giving them the best chance to make informed and wise decisions at a personal level.
One of these decisions may be to run for politics themselves.
But be forewarned.
It’s a sport. A blood sport. So be prepared!
— On The Other Side