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Uninformed attitudes

I’ve grown up living in most of the smaller communities in B.C. and have never ceased to be irritated by the condescension of Urban Elites. The current debate over tourist cabins is a case-in-point. To them, we are uneducated rednecks who know nothing and can’t be trusted deciding what is right, good and proper. They view the world outside urban centres as a theme park that must be preserved at all costs. Uneducated rednecks realize that sustainable development and the sustainable use of natural resources is a necessary part of existence. We’ve grown up knowing that our continued livelihood depends upon using what we must, saving what we can and not abusing our place in the world. Loggers know that trees have to be harvested carefully and sustainably or they’re out of a job. When busloads of 20-something professional students and protestors try to tell me that they know more than I do because they’ve read it in a book or heard it at a seminar, I have to view it with some scepticism. Education does not equal intelligence. Knowledge is not gained solely in the ivory towers of academia. Most of the smartest people I know have gained their knowledge through real life experience. Professional students have no standing commenting on subjects with which they have no direct contact. The people who live in the affected area do. It’s their home and they know it better than anyone. We have to stop allowing ourselves to be hijacked by the snide, holier-than-thou attitudes of people who have neither the life experience or direct knowledge to be venturing opinion as fact.   Jason KittSooke