US Election

Autumn has arrived in the Discovery Islands. The leaves are dropping, the air is chill and the warm wet Pineapple Express storms are lining up. The rivers will be filling so the salmon can come home, and the whitewater kayakers are lining up for their kind of excitement.

Most of our sea kayaks are put away, although there are still lovely days and school group outings and a few intrepid souls using Discovery Islands Lodge as a base for ocean kayaking adventures. Coast Mountain gardens are put to bed, and as the rains begin to fall, we are not so unhappy to have inside jobs!

While we design next year’Äôs kayak trips calendar and begin 2005 advertising for Coast Mountain Expeditions, BC kayaking tours and our kayak lodge, it’Äôs a time to reflect on the kayak season just past and remember special people and special moments. There were so many!

We also have time to catch up on the world via CBC radio and magazines that have had to wait till now to be read (we enjoy New Internationalist, World Watch, and the Weekly Guardian as well as Canada’Äôs Walrus Magazine.) There is a constant stream of US election politics, and the depressing news of ongoing wars and human terror. It reminds us of the anger and anguish that so many of our American visitors this summer expressed about their government’Äôs policies . It’Äôs sad that the invasion of Iraq and the US foreign policy of global corporate domination has lead to much anti-American sentiment world wide and also right here on Quadra Island in British Columbia Canada.

We are part of the great majority of Canadians who condemn US foreign policy and the war in Iraq and we decry much that is evil in America. But we also remember the very many very wonderful American people who have crossed our doorstep over the years and we know that there are huge numbers (hopefully the majority!) who do not buy into the mainstream media propoganda touting terror and consumerism.

We conclude that America is a great nation full of great and generous people, but too many have been mislead by greed and terrible leaders who care more about accumulating obscene wealth for a few than about the real prosperity of the nation or the rest of the world. We admire the real Americans who believe in truth and peace, and against the odds continue to work for real democracy and world justice. We offer our sympathies to the many Americans who are in agony over the actions of their government and we hope your tears will turn to hope in the months ahead!