BC Libs are not evil

I think a crucial point to stress in the current teachers' contract dispute is that the Liberals are not "wrong" in the sense in which the pass laws in apartheid South Africa were wrong. Those laws were wrong in the sense of being evil. 

No, the BC Liberals are wrong only in the sense of being mistaken. They sincerely believe that rigidly limiting education spending, while funding their pet projects (e.g. a $500 million stadium roof), is what they must do to get the best results for BC citizens over the long haul. In this belief, they're "wrong" in the sense in which a thermometer can be "wrong": inconsistent with reality. 

Their ways really would - given a decade or so - begin to erode the social order in BC, as some politicians in Britain are now learning. Homegrown terrorists come out of neglected public schools. (The Brits have really let their public schools go downhill.) More simply, citizens who care nothing for their nation come out of second-rate public schools. Most importantly, systemic economic ills result from the under funding of public schools. All of these ills are very difficult to remedy once they get a foothold. 

But it's important for us to recall that the BC Liberals are not evil; they're just mistaken. This problem we must attempt to correct by reasoning and evidence. Patient, logical debate and compromise is the democratic way. 

For which of us has never made a mistake?
 
Sincerely yours,
 
Dwight Wendell