This afternoon I was greeted by the ‘strong voice’ of this candidate for mayor and after I read her platform I could not help but think I hear a quiver in that strong voice. One of the few statements I agree with in Shelley Biermanski’s platform is that she is an advocate of promoting choices and voices by ‘directly listening to residents.’
Shelley wisely acknowledges that “St. Albert is on the verge of major changes, many of which could re-define St. Albert from its true self to blend in as any other city.” Now one must stop and ponder, what are these changes Shelley is seeing we are on the verge of? And what first comes to mind is council’s right decision to build affordable housing. This was an incredibly long and difficult process in which St. Albert had to debate and debate until, alas, the resistance could not stop the needs of the present — the reality of the generation that is rising to find its place.
Right now I am studying the great Roman Empire. It was built on the preservation of the aristocracy, an extremely conservative class because it needed to be to conserve its privileges above the vast wealth of slaves that served them. Growing up in St. Albert I could not possibly have understood that there were still aristocrats standing in our midst still somehow falsely deluding themselves that the future of leisure and separation from the ‘under-class’ could go on eternally. The Roman Empire did not have a happy ending. Despite the desperate pleas from the aristocracy the force of the future was too strong. The other class could no longer be shut up or forced to suffer quietly. The voice of revolution rose. It demanded to be given a chance — to be granted land to plant, to be heard, and to be valued equally — a life for a life, a voice for a voice.
The delusion we must not succumb to is that St. Albert is beautiful because it is a segregated oasis of wealth, because wealth that does not reach beyond itself to touch the life of others is the poison that will rot this city from the inside out. There is nothing uglier than a stagnant pond of greed.
But I believe in a St. Albert with a much brighter future — one that will shake our foundations to the very roots —one in which we will rise out of ourselves to discover there is so much beauty in transforming our community into an abundant river of giving, diversity and life.
The Roman Empire could not last. All aristocratic dictatorships will crumble. Because it is not our greatness that really is our strength, how we can rise above others, how much more successful we can be or how many more toys we can acquire. It is in recognition of our weakness and our common humanity that we are strong. When we look to our brother and see their lives as potentially our own, we grow mighty, because our spirits expand into our true selves — the self of charity. This self is the abundance that I believe we as a community are called to. Our foundations have already been shaken, St. Albert. That is inevitable. Reality is fast upon us and the present is calling for our care, lest we turn a blind eye and repeat the lesson of the Roman Empire (they do say that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it).
Now it is the time when we decide, will we continue to prosper in order to store away our barns of wealth or to open up our barns and let the abundance have its true life. I have not yet given up hope in you St. Albert. You have the potential to fulfil the hope of the future calling for your able hearts and able hands. We can have leisure but let us not forget we were created for so much more beauty than that — and that is precisely why the Romans fell — the love of self had overcome the love of one another. This love, I believe, is the strong voice speaking, and calling to us to truly see what is going on around us, and to act and vote in recognition of that true need. That will save our city from the hollowing out of its true life and its ‘true self.’
Genevieve McNab, St. Albert
