Arbitrary power

We cannot be happy, without being free, that we cannot be free, without being secure in our property, that we cannot be secure in our property, if without our consent, other may, as by right, take it away…

JOHN DICKINSON,
LETTERS FROM A FARMER
IN PENNSYLVANNIA

Wandering through a museum last week I came across these words in a pamphlet written nearly 250 years ago. The American Colonies were bristling under the constricting yoke of British rule. New forms of taxation were reaching deeper into a robust emerging American economy— extracting treasure from the colonies and shipping it back to a distant King. Yet the people of these colonies exerted no control, nor had they the ability to affect decision making in London. John Dickinson wrote a series of letters warning that taxation without representation rendered people slaves of their government.

“No free people ever existed, or can ever exist, without keeping the purse strings in their own hands. Where this is the case, they have a constitutional check upon the administration, which may thereby brought into order without violence. But when such a power is not lodged in the people, oppression proceeds uncontrolled in its career, till the governed, transported into rage, seek redress in the midst of blood and confusion.”

Dickinson was a Quaker and had no interest in stirring up violent insurrection, he wasn’t interested in separation from British rule. Nevertheless, his letters are cited as an important catalyst toward revolution in 1776—and eventual independence.

Dickinson saw it as essential that people determine who should govern them and how they should be governed.

“The experience of all states mournfully demonstrates to us that when arbitrary power has been established over them, even the wisest and bravest nations that ever flourished have, in a few years, degenerated into abject and wretched vassals. It is not our duty to leave wealth to our children; but it is our duty to leave liberty to them.”

The words and ideas seem historic relics now. We elect our own governments—at three different levels. We throw them out when we feel they have strayed too far— whether by scandal, sloth or self-interest. We replace them with folks who we believe share our concerns and aspirations.

Yet there is something vaguely familiar in the frustration seeping from Dickinson’s words.

County residents have made it abundantly evident over the past two decades it views its hospital as a cornerstone in this community–a critical piece of its identity. They built the hospital to serve their needs. They funded it to the best of their ability. They served in its hallways— dispensing care and compassion voluntarily to their friends and neighbours. They rejoiced at new arrivals. They said goodbye to loved ones.

The people of this community have resisted with all their might repeated and concerted attempts to dismantle their hospital by a government and its institutions certain that they know best. They understand the pressures in health care; the people don’t. County people are emotional about their hospital and, therefore, their opinion doesn’t count. We are assured the decision to eviscerate the Picton hospital is for the greater good. But whose greater good?

Certainly not the lady suffering from pneumonia in Milford. Or the expectant mother in Cressy. Or the great number of seniors who live all across the County. There is nothing but bad in this for them. Yet no one is listening.

In a town hall in Demorestville provincial government lawyers are doing the heavy lifting for a developer eager to desecrate pristine Crown Land at Ostrander Point with a massive industrial wind turbines complex. Residents, local government, conservancy groups and scientists have said repeatedly that this is a bad idea—that it will wreak havoc upon birds, animals, humans and nature itself. Yet the government, its lawyers and spokespersons push on—deaf to the rising chorus of voices pleading with them to listen.

At Point Traverse, government contractors accompanied by security guards and OPP officers dismantle the fishing sheds of folks whose families have fished the waters around Prince Edward County for two centuries.

In the scheme of Ontario or indeed the nation, these are small issues. Yet Dickinson offers this warning: “For as violations of the rights of the governed, are commonly not only specious, but small at the beginning, they spread over the multitude in such a manner, as to touch individuals but slightly. Thus they are disregarded.”

Worse, through inattentiveness we become complicit in our own subjugation.

“They find their oppressors so strengthened by success, and themselves so entangled in examples of express authority on the part of their rulers, and of tacit recognition on their own part that they are quite confounded.”

From the echoes of history Dickinson urges vigilance.

“Every free state should incessantly watch, and instantly take alarm on any addition being made to the power exercised over them.”

rick@wellingtontimes.ca