Crying on Dec. 6th

Sometimes it is OK to cry isn't it? I am sometimes accused of crying too much, and at times when it is not appropriate. I have no control over it - I think I could squelch it only by getting armed, and I am a pacifist. I resist anger, I try to hold it back, I worry that if I let it go I might become homicidal, and so I cry.

Today I cry for the women massacred on December 6th but also for all the women experiencing violence - not just here but all over the world.


There are the women at the hands of soldiers and warlords, and mercenaries and corporatists - women being raped in Congo, (and children driven to despair mining metals, and accused of being witches, and recruited as child soldiers) driven from their homes (and raped) in Darfur, poisoned and drenched in acid for going to school, or running away from husbands 30 and 40 years their senior, in Afghanistan.




Won't embed - but another video - very recent - on women in Afghanistan can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpFP5-gsehY

So I cry.


In Canada, although the long gun registry reduced the number of women killed by their partners - the numbers are too high and the weapons remain - and now they want to (are about to) eliminate the registry. As a recent Vancouver Sun article puts it in context --

The biggest risk for Harper's Conservatives will be how women react, since women are predominantly victims of murder by long gun, a fact conveniently overlooked in mostly male anger over the registry.

Yet an Ipsos Reid poll in 2006 found three out of four Canadians want stricter, not more permissive, gun controls. Most agree the gun registry is flawed. They want it fixed, not dismantled to appease special interests. . .

Eighty-five per cent of domestic homicides involving firearms were committed with a non-restricted rifle or shotgun. According to a 2007 study of family violence by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, the victims of murder or attempted murder by a spouse or ex-spouse were women 87 per cent of the time.

Seventy-four per cent of firearms recovered from suicides and suicide attempts were unrestricted rifles and shotguns.

These statistics tell us that the decision by parliamentarians to scrap the long-gun registry is ideologically based pandering to a self-serving myth held by a minority of Conservatives and amplified by intense lobbying from a special interest group.

People in positions of power - teachers and priests but also Doctors and Psychologists and professors, and bosses, use their position to abuse their power and sexually abuse women and even children.

First nations women have disappeared in droves and who really cares? Where is the press?

Most days I am struggling to right wrongs, as I see them - I go to demos, I write hundreds of letters (OK they are emails) I organize, and I used to be angry. But anger has simply turned to sadness, even despair. Things have not got better as my life proceeds inevitably toward the end - but seem to be worse. Not worse for me necessarily. . . but worse overall, and nothing I have done seems to be working to improve things. I think in the future they will look back n this time (if we have a future on this planet) and say - ah -0 the worst of all possible times. Times of alienation (even if you are rich) times of despair and to many suffering from mental illness - why? Because we have lost shared values, community, and lost faith and trust in each other. I believe that all of this results in giving in totally to a system based on profit - capitalism. A system based on exploitation, a system based on atomization of individuals (every "man" for himself), and alienation and making us shop to feel better - See; www.thestoryofstuff.com

I wake up and find that we are heating up the planet and are not willing to do anything about it. Copenhagen starts tomorrow and all the news is that "nothing will come of it". . . Too many people drive big gas guzzling cars, and somehow feel OK about it.






Once, we had no cars, (living in Toronto) but in search of a simpler life we moved to the country in Nova Scotia, and now, have two cars (both gas efficient) as there is no transit and I need a car for work every day (I drive around for work not just to work) No one seems at all driven (as they are in places in Europe) to reduce their piles of consumer goods (and, we all have our foibles, I buy used, try to fix, do not "shop" for fun ever, don't do Walmart - ever- and try to avoid "Made in China" but we all have our foibles - I am not willing to give up Xmas presents for my children and grand children, and so there is always what feels like a lot of excess for Xmas).

Corporations have, slowly . . . over the last 25 years taken over the rights of individuals and now they have more rights than I do. See: Growing Gap

Somehow taxes were collected to keep soldiers in good equipment and to make sure that they economy gets "bailed out" (I wanted the jobs bailed out but not the investments - isn't that the point that it was all a big gamble to be in the "market'?) but not for a national daycare program, health care, employment and social services. They are all just too rich for us. Who is actually making that decision? Who decided that taxes - the way that we all share in the price of things that we all need or might need - are toxic or acid rain or just generally a bad thing. I watched the first iteration of Poor No More (a Canadian film, in development, about poverty) last week and the Swedes are all on camera saying - taxes? - taxes are a good thing . . . and I agree taxes are a good thing, but I want them spent on programs for people, not subsidies for the tar sands or a slight increase in taxes on the poor (e.g. GST AND HST) in order to continue to afford tax breaks for the rich and corporations. There was a great editorial in the Toronto Star a while back, on taxes, written by Hugh MacKenzie from the CCPA - see: editorial

And so I cry. I cry because my co-workers and members of organized labour unions (people I think should be progressive) too often think only of themselves, shop at Walmart, (some live in communities with no alternatives - but some have alternatives, and can afford NOT to shop there) drive gas guzzling beasts and think it is not racist to resist/oppose affirmative action for African Nova Scotians or First Nations, along with some being highly suspicious of so-called benefits (ha!) for newcomers. I cry because my friends who work in progressive non-profits see unions as "fat cats" instead of a way to organize people out of poverty. I cry for the women who say "I am not a "feminist", I cry for the men (and women) who think that pregnancy should be compulsory and for the women around the world with no access to contraception, abortion or education (and yes I think they are linked).

Sometimes, sometimes, like this morning, I just cry.

Tomorrow, though, tomorrow is another day.
Tomorrow I will return to the fray. Today I will just be kind and compassionate and loving.

This column by Gerald Caplan, in the Globe and Mail, this morning, spoke words I have been thinking. . .

My country seems to be slipping away in front of my very eyes. Our proud identity, our cherished core values – never mind the vast gap between aspiration and achievement – are being turned upside down. Gun control advocates are out, gun apologists are in. Peacekeeping is out, warriors are in. Preventing war is out, killing scumbags is in. Demonstrations for peace are out, demonstrations of a martial spirit are in. Thoughtful, restrained Canadianism is out, hand-on-heart Yankee-style patriotism is in.

What happened to "my Canada" and to "Canadian values" as I thought they existed? . . . in fact they still seem to exist. My mother who regularly listens to radio and watches TV news (can no longer read the paper due to macular degeneration) within the last year expressed a view that our soldiers in Afghanistan were "peace keepers" - they are not. I now wonder if the average Canadian "gets it". Maybe the values have not changed and people just don't get the slow erosion of them because they are too busy trying to find daycare for their kids, or working hard to stay in place, (cannot get ahead) or trying to figure out how to get out of debt, or where to move where things will be better?

Very few seemed to "get it" when, this year, I questioned Remembrance Day. I wanted tio know what it was people thought we were remembering? I am OK with the second world war as it appeared (although still a colonial/imperialist war) to hold back aggressor nations and mad men (or that's the story as I learned it - even though some continents were carved up afterwards) but I did not want to be wearing a poppy for the First World War, Korea or Afghanistan, although I would if I could wear one remembering the sacrifice as idiotic and without purpose and saying "never again", instead of as noble. . My white poppy was considered an affront although for me I wanted to remember the sacrifice of those who died in wars (civilians too!) but to pray for/wish for/hope for/work for peace.

People said - leave "politics" behind for one day - this is the day to remember their sacrifice - and by the way - they died for you. . . Really what is a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan doing to protect me? or my freedom, or my way of life? If it means saving women and children in Afghanistan - I will change/am willing to change my way of life. I was ambivalent when that war started because I wanted to save the women of Afghanistan but we have not done so - we have bombed their weddings, and put them between the Taliban, warlords of a number of "stripes", and "western" soldiers. I wish we could have built, staffed and kept open more schools, and built more hospitals, and kept it all from crashing, but we are losing the hearts and minds battle.

Anyway, this is not about Afghanistan, it is also about gun control - how can we be letting registering guns slip away? Yes the registry was a boondoggle and I will never know why it cost so much - but why can't we keep legal weapons, properly stored and registered so that we know where they are? It reduced the killing of women and I do not understand why it is onerous for the owners of the weapons? It is not expensive or time consuming I understand - so what's the issue? Why do people want to have unknown weapons in their home? And why did Peter Stoffer vote to end the registry? I am at a loss. I don't even have a party candidate in my riding ( still ADORE Megan Leslie!!!) that I can vote for (don't get me wrong I will, but I will hold my nose doing so, and if there are a whole lot more mis-steps - long gun registry, sending to committee the bill on the rights of the unborn - I mean COME ON Peter - I may have to review!) I am sure not voting Lib or Con - spoiled ballot here I come - Peter - get with the program!

On some other fronts I don't know where we are heading - we are heading to US style jails - consideration is being given to private, for profit prisons and to faith based programs/units in prisons, and yet we are increasing the time for minor drug offenses but not for rape?

There is decreasing access to abortion across the country and controlling family size is how one leads to liberation for women. Educating women makes them want to reduce the size of families/number of children (without pressure) and leads to peace and prosperity. When did we start moving to punishment in principle - oh and by the way that's what the "new" prisons are about.

I haven't always been lauding these sought after "Canadian values" -- I often thought I was ahead of the curve - I fought for equal access to abortion, women's rights, gay marriage, union contracts and workers rights at many times when they did not seem to reflect the mainstream "values", but there were certain things that one could take for granted - now, instead of peace, order and good government we get war, chaos and no safety net, and politicking in the house of commons.

Like I said - my values are not being reflected in Canada anymore - I think I would like to work outside the country for a while - not necessarily anywhere where these values are more espoused but somewhere where it will not wrack me with guilt and surprise that my values are not reflected since I will be a visitor or newcomer and not a long established citizen. Maybe that will let me appreciate that there is peace here even if we are exporting war, and that there is rape and femincide here but at least the police will pursue the perpetrators (oh, if they find your story credible and you are not a sex trade worker) and you will not be stoned, or that you can eat from a foodbank, or have shelter from the cold - though sometimes only in a bed with bed bugs. . .

Anyway - off today to participate in a pension and pre-retirement workshop for union members - way to improve women's lives in this country. . . JOIN A UNION! - get economic independence and education. . .