Live~NRGY

Mark Bonokoski: Respect for Mike Duffy earned — and lost 2

http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/05/24/respect-for-mike-duffy-earned—–and-lost

With all due respect Mr. Bonokoski, without personally knowing you and understanding all the subtle elements of your interaction with Mike Duffy, I disagree and would like you to reconsider the last few words of your article this morning.

I will try and keep this brief. Having read your story this morning at the Delta Bow Valley Hotel lobby while sipping Starbucks coffee, the story struck a cord that I could not in all conscience dismiss without my 5 cents worth and some of your time to reflect on it’s impact with me and I am sure the general public nation wide.

That you are still in a position to view this from another angle and one that was initially triggered by the help of Mike Duffy, I would say you have an exceptional capacity to help with the outcome of this fiasco that has gone from secrecy to outright good men gone wild.

I will not intercede and defend what has transpired. I believe Mike Duffy did what any other reasonable person would have done in similar situations. That can be easily corroborated by the fact that the light also shines on other Senate members who have taken different course of action in response to what has happened with Mike.

The position I am taking is for you to allow more time to reflect on a favour and debt owed not only in your career achievements but also the impact it has had on your own personal Dance of Life & NRGY. To dismiss it so easily after a series of simple mistakes would only feed all those who have put Mike Duffy and others in this trap and situation knowing and understanding his strengths and weaknesses.

Mike as well as other Senators are caught in a trap of feeling entitled by the very fact that a Social Contract of being a Senate appointment has very few consequences in which they are allowed to almost do as they please without fear of being asked to resign or be fired for transgressions. I mean who in their right minds would think otherwise knowing that whatever happens the worst is an inquiry, more buried paperwork and time to heal all public wounds.

The sense of entitlement isn’t all different than the one people where trying to convince me that I owed myself after my separation and divorce while trying to groom me into corruption for their own purposes.

It is no different than the people I see day in day out on the floors of the Drop In Center in Calgary who have indulged themselves in whatever substances and excesses that have put them in those situations. If you look just at the history of Calgary, this has been going on for a long time. Calgary is pointed out, cause I’m here now. But this takes place all over the world for as long as men and women have been denied something only to have someone come along dangling that infamous stick and carrot metaphor throughout time.

The capacity of Mike to consume and retain speaks for itself with a simple visual diagnosis. Holistically speaking the body/mind/soul feels and needs entitlement and as an achiever Mike simply went for it. The SOCIAL ENGINEERING trap kept him in that feeding frenzy loop and cycle. Now that it is broken the spiral of change takes over as it should. That is how things change naturally. Hopefully with your help most of the shock wave can be mitigated somewhat as a favour returned and owed.

Only you can decide the value of what I am saying and understand it intuitively if it feels right within your own conscience.

I know, because everyday as I walk the streets and see and watch homeless people and compare that to everyday people going about their lives and business, I see no difference other than what a SOCIAL ENGINEERING contract of excess tends to lead. The wrong garden path and more often than not, blood – sweat and tears once it all breaks down.

I am fortunate that I can walk among all the temptation and not succumb to it all while being able to observe if first person and in real time despite the best efforts of the many to do away with me and my resolve to put a stop at all the harm inflicted unknowingly upon so many people who are simply trying to find respite in a bit of fun gone out of control because of so many little voices of temptation got the best of them.

This is where it gets personal for me. Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin were media personalities. They had the wool pulled over their eyes. Others I’m not so sure. If they have business or legal backgrounds in law, they should have known better. Whatever the case, being an unsuspecting victim by indulgence is no picnic to be in.

That is what it’s all about for me. I saw coming and made sure that I could gingerly as possible sidestep the whole damn thing. But trust me when I say, that I will never let my own 2 kids fall into these types of traps. And that goes for all other little kids smiling on C-Trains and sidewalks and daily life who smile at the wonder of being alive and curious about the ‘WHY’ of the Dance of Life.

Go back to your childhood memories and those special moments in Life. Now extend it to help Mike Duffy. If he deserves help, you are the one in that unique position to be able to do so by your own words.

For the record, if you turn to page 14 of the Calgary Sun, I see many DOTS that I can connect in subtle ways to what has happened here. Whether it’s MR. BIG or MR. SMALL… temptation follows the same path, only the speed differs.