decade of shame

Now it seems those yester dreams

Were just a cruel

And foolish game we had to play
~ Stevie Wonder 1969

I'm not a believer in an illusory golden past, but I do think that as this decade comes to a close, that it has been a dark one. I agree with Thomas Walkom that the West has taken a leap backwards:

"Historians will remember the first decade of the 21st century as the time when torture became acceptable again in Western democracies and when – in these same countries – people who happened to be Muslim could be arrested and jailed on the flimsiest of excuses.

Future generations will look back on this period as a decade of shame, a time when civil rights painstakingly earned over centuries were summarily rolled back. Britain, with its ubiquitous closed-circuit television cameras, has become a surveillance state. America, whose constitutionally-guaranteed civil liberties were once the envy of the world, has thrown them aside in the name of national security.

In Canada, the decade that began on Jan. 1, 2001 encompassed three federal governments. But it will be remembered as the Stephen Harper era, a mean-spirited time characterized by mandatory jail terms (even though crime rates are down) and Ottawa's grudging reluctance to stand up for Canadians in trouble abroad."

Stevie Wonder 1966

You know when times are bad

And you're feeling sad

I want you to always remember


Yes, there's a place in the sun

Where there's hope for ev'ryone

Where my poor restless heart's gotta run

There's a place in the sun

Where there's hope for ev'ryone

Where my poor restless heart's gotta run

There's a place in the sun

Where there's hope for ev'ryone...