Let's clean up our own back yard first

In June the "world's leaders" will gather in Canada to discuss world issues. The main theme, set by "Call me Steve" Harper as host of the meeting, is the maternal health of women in developing countries.

I'm not making this up. We have an economic crisis in Greece, wars in the Middle East and an environmental catastrophe unfolding [bubbling up? ed.] in the Gulf of Mexico, and the leaders of the world's most self-important countries are going to talk about how to help third world women use condoms and kill unwanted babies.

Seems to me it's about time that we Westerners start looking in the mirror at our own problems. We have more than our share. Let's stop making the world's problems our political agenda. The poverty and backwardness of the third world -- Africa and particular -- are saddening, but how can we solve other peoples' problems when we don't even want to deal with our own?

We have troops dying on the other side of the world who shouldn't even be there. We don't have enough jobs for our youth. Crime rates are becoming obscene, not in the Congo, but on our streets.

It's time for the silent majority to stand up and holler STOP! Stop making a political issue of matters that are really none of our business. Before we agonize over the weeds in the neighbour's back yard, let's cut our own.