Fear is the mind-killer

With 2012, in a few hours soon to be our past, and 2013 not yet our present but still our future, I thought I would briefly reflect on what has been.

This year has been a trying one for our community in which there was much fear. Fear of the unknown, of where we were going and why? Uncertainty was all around us and we knew not what to do. Until that is, the Ratepayers came back into being. They, like FDR before them, said "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." They took action on behalf of a community that demanded it.

A Mayor and council that tried to rule by dividing Pass society against itself, as a means of governing, found out our people will rise up to the challenge when their rights and freedoms (and pocketbooks) are in jeopardy of being lost to a bureaucracy that is out of control, serving special interests at the expense of the people they were elected to serve and protect.

My guess is that they now know we fear them no more. Their divide-and-conquer politics has backfired on them for we are more united as a people than we ever were, patiently waiting to take back what is rightfully ours. Their past and present actions of turning residents against each other by vilifying select institutions like our fire department has only made us stronger in the knowledge and commitment that soon our day will come to correct all wrongs and injustices, and to once against set things straight again.

A mayor should be a uniter of his people, not a divider. He must instill pride and strength, not shame and weakness. A Mayor must express a humble and achievable vision — one which all Pass residents can embrace. Not force-feed people something they don't believe in, and don't want. We are a small community that needs to be united behind a vision we can all believe in and work towards. Where there is no vision a people can buy into, a community will perish. We will not perish! We must restore our vision of who and what we are. We are a hardy people and 'Mountain Freedom' is more than a motto to us. It's a GD religion!

This community has shown throughout this long and trying year that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". We stood tall, proud, and defiant to the very end. We knew action had to be taken and that fear was the mind-killer. Knowing this, we did not waver in facing up to it when the time came:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

In closing out this blog post as my last for 2012, I want all Pass residents to know that although individually and as a community we have 'endeavoured to persevere' (as my man Chief Dan George famously stated) struggles will still be our lot and fate, for that I believe is what our intended purpose on this earth is all about.

It's not whether you win or lose but whether you stood up and gave it your all that matters. This community stood up and gave it its all and will continue to do so in the year and years to come. To borrow a phrase from my blog profile "In this life, one does not have to stand tall, but one does have to stand up". We do that here!

As long as we remember to keep this in mind, we will do well and go far. Also, on a personal note as much to myself as to you, when facing next year's many challenges and difficulties remember to live in the present "Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!




The past does not exist. The future has not begun. The present is an infinitely small point in time in which the already nonexistent past meets the imminent future. At this point, which is timeless, a person's real life exists.