MLA’S farewell comments leave a bad feeling
Greg Brkich has been considered a good MLA, but in light of his “all lives matter” remark, maybe we all need to reconsider what being a good MLA actually means.
Choosing those as the last three words the Arm River-watrous MLA would utter in the Saskatchewan assembly was not being a good MLA. If anything, it was undoing an entire career of whatever good he might have done.
Come this fall, Saskatchewan will see a crop of MLAS who will have either knocked off incumbents or replaced Brkich and the 10 others that gave their farewell speeches Friday. But whether new or old to the game, what they all should know is they won’t be most remembered for how long they were around or whether they got a few roads built in the constituency or kept the hospital open as Brkich recently did for the people of Davidson.
There is massive wisdom in poet and Black civil rights activist Maya Angelou’s famous line: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
It should be carved into the desk of every politician and it’s damn fine advice for rest of us as well — whether you be a social justice warrior or someone somehow, sadly, heartened by Brkich’s final words or somewhere in middle.
We all could do and be better. And in the spirit of trying to make Brkich’s words a teachable moment rather than a self-righteous exercise in making our own selves feel better, allow me to start.
This space of the newspaper has been filled with countless mind-numbing comments over the decades, but let us review a column written a year ago of special relevance today.
The column was about the shabby way politicians are treated by internet trolls and mentioned the vitriol over Premier Scott Moe tweeting out a picture of a for-charity replica of the “General Lee” from the 1980s TV show
The Dukes of Hazzard that’s adorned with a Confederate flag.
A year later and after Black Lives Matter protests, how such symbols make people feel sure as hell feels more important.
Rather than a causal condemnation of the use of the flag and Moe’s tweet, the column should have been exclusively about the flag and the hurt it causes. After all, Black lives are a Saskatchewan issue, too.
According to 2016 Census data, there were fewer than 15,000 Black people in Saskatchewan — about 1.3 per cent of the population. Yet within months of one another, there will be two inquests in this province into the suicide deaths of young Black men — at least one of which clearly involved racial taunting in his rural high school.
We are also facing a plague of suicides among Northern First Nation kids. Friday, Rural and Remote Health Minister Warren Kaeding suggested all suicides are equally important. Essentially, “all lives matter.” A week earlier, his government wouldn’t support a general suicide strategy bill from the Opposition.
Brkich used better words earlier in his farewell speech, suggesting he was taught to respect all people and that he didn’t always do that in his younger years. He spoke about how tough it is adjust to a changing world. As a rural MLA, it’s unlikely Black racism would be a familiar issue.
But Saskatchewan demographics are changing and elected people need to figure out they’re elected to represent everyone. Multis e gentibus vires.
Look it up. It happens to be our motto and it answers today’s Saskatchewan problems, too.
Maybe Bkrich didn’t initially have a clue that “all lives matter” now is a demeaning taunt aimed at Black issues. Maybe he is somehow oblivious to how it plays into the culture war U.S. President Donald Trump seems intent on creating. But last speech or not, it was still Brkich’s job to learn.
That he would double down and repost “all lives matter” on his Facebook page suggests a sad, stubborn disregard for it how it would make Black people feel.
It’s a cautionary tale for other politicians wanting to leave a legacy.
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-post and Saskatoon Starphoenix.