How a Poet Laureate Deepens the World

Wakan in front of sculpture by Nancy Crozier

Naomi Beth Wakan became the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Nanaimo three years ago. Wise, educated and with undeniable charm she won over the cold hard politics of city folk in a neoliberal economy. She has managed to unite the practical with the arts, offering a deeper expression of humanity.

Among Naomi's achievements are a high school poetry competition, a Nanaimo Poetry Map and Poetry in Transit. “So many people have told me how they have enjoyed reading the poetry while on the buses, and that involved a new bunch of poets too,” said Wakan. “I love to see people coming out who weren’t actually part of the poetry scene before, having the confidence to join the poetry gang and see themselves published.” (reported by Rachel Stern, Nanaimo News Bulletin, December 28)

A hundred people attended the December celebration honouring Wakan’s contribution. Many supporters of the arts listened, wrote and read testimonials that day. 

The arts are rarely given a million dollars whereas wars are purchased with trillions. Might this spell danger for life on this planet? Big questions like this can only be answered by fools and prophets.

Poetry is more than an important art form in today’s society. It is a renewable source of energy. To the point, economical and metaphorical, it begs us to think about the lives we live and what it means to be human in an age besotted with technology and money.

Poetry also offers ideals and reality within the same conversation by recording the unremarkable observations that many have been led to believe, are not important.

“For it can condense matter, / distill the essence, / purify the messy, / congeal the scattered. / Each word of a poem / can carry the weight, /of the universe within it” writes Wakan in her latest book, Bent Arm for a Pillow.

This brief observation gives me great comfort when against all the news of the day,  I need to be reminded of what I can do that will have meaning.

Wakan holds no grandiose conceit about her work. She may be exhausted before the end of the day in her 85th year, but understands that what we give is made up of what we get. In a poem from the same book she reflects on the power of words “It’s on their coattails that I ride, / and the journey fills my own pages / with a voice barely my own, / a poetry mid-wifed and nourished, / by a line of ghosts.”

The poet, like the wind or the click of a humming bird, becomes the voice of nature, as one among many voices. She came, she saw, she wrote! Surely we need more poets than conquerors.

The poet doesn’t want to manipulate organic forms for profit - she just wants nature to be itself. “We read to remind ourselves / that we already know / how life should best be lived, / but that we have,  for a moment, / forgotten.”

Of course, this kind of philosophy won’t sell pharmaceuticals or bombs, and could be seen as dangerous to a ruling ideologue. But hugely inspirational for the harried mind of humans in their rush to get through their days.

Where and How to Deal With Your Stuff

Hope you had a joyful holiday and now enjoy some peaceful rest time.

Wondering where to dispose of the unwanted stuff? David Suzuki foundation have a long list of where to go to recycle what you don't need now. Go here:

http://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/recycle-your-unwanted-stuff/?

The Light

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

Leonard Cohen, Anthem 

Bad Ass Muffins

1 cup oatmeal
1 cup gluten free flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sliced almonds
10 chopped prunes
1 cup plain full fat yogurt
1/2 cup grape seed oil
2 eggs

Blend dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and blend. Put 12 paper baking cups in a muffin pan. Drop muffin batter in the paper cups. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or longer if the tops need to brown more.

These do not rise a lot - they are heavy, solid and not too sweet. These are muffins with attitude - they are nutritious but won't win any baking contests.

Good for breakfast with a piece of cheese and fresh fruit.

And the word was Life

Let the ‘L’ gently come from the tongue
as it touches the upper gum of your tender mouth
let the ‘I’ fly lightly toward the fricative ‘F’
and let ‘E’ be the silent witness.
‘Life’. It’s easy to say.

Authentic and yet unassuming, non-judgmental.
It precedes ideology and makes every assumption
a conceit.

Say ‘Maisha’ like the mothers of Africa.
Say ‘Shxweli’ like the people of the river.

(from Infinite Power, Ekstasis 2016)

A Shift to Sustainable Peace and Common Security

"With no direct military threat to Canadian territory, we should restore and expand emphasis on war prevention and peaceful conflict resolution and give priority to building the United Nations envisaged by its Charter. Canada can be a beacon of hope in an unsettled world by pursuing and promoting, wherever possible, conflict prevention, the peaceful resolution of disputes and multilateral over unilateral responses. We can be a constructive, innovative problem solver, striving to bring conflicting parties closer together to resolve their differences. We can thereby stave off or hasten the repair of breaches of the peace, limit human suffering and environment degradation and minimize costly military interventions."

Rideau Institute Peggy Mason, President
Group of 78 Roy Culpeper, Chair
Canadian Pugwash Group, David Harris, Chair
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace Janis Alton, Director
Committee for Future Generations Candyce Paul, Outreach Coordinator
International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) Monia Mazigh, Coordinator
Les Artistes pour la Paix Pierre Jasmin, Vice President
PeaceQuest Jamie Swift & Michael Cooke, Co-Chairs
Science for Peace Metta Spencer, President
World Federalist Movement – Canada Fergus Watt, Executive Director
Project Ploughshares Cesar Jaramillo, Executive Director

Socialism and Capitalism

"The "American Dream" was all about class mobility." writes political economist and scientist, C. J. Polychroniou in the truth-out interview with Chomsky. 

If you were born poor you could study and work your way out of poverty, and with sustained effort could provide a better future for your children. You could find a home, buy a car and send a child to university. The city and town was based on those expectations. Jobs, malls, institutions, education - was built on the principle that we live in a civil society and a life without fear and anxiety - was attainable.

TV dramas were based also on a set of ethics around how to sustain the family, community and the work place. Then entertainments became more sensational - violence, sex, deal-making and power struggles became the meat of the story, where the winner was the one who had access to the most force.  The theme of ethics became pablum for the good old days. Societies where these programs became a steady diet put social justice issues off the radar.  

People who don't experience justice in their lives and who don't think about what a just society is, may look on their life as a personal inventory of win or lose. Parents who want to bring back social responsibility looked to discipline as reward and punishment (for other people's kids but not theirs). Equality became a struggle to keep up with the Jones's.  When dishwashers came out in different colours one had to get rid of the old sage green model for a more fashionable one. 

And then our worth was displayed on social media with the latest selfie. As if unexamined consumerism is not pornographic enough, the bullying and hate fills the air with a new fear: had we become so estranged from who we are we have to find it in public media? Have we become vacuous inflatable robots looking for the next definition to fill us up? 

No but that is how we are presented as a whole. What we need more than anything is to find hope in our work together. To establish what is good for most if not all through getting reacquainted with who we are. To work on our capacities together and not disrupt community work with bids for power.

Which means we need to move deeper into ourselves to check that which is ego and that which is integrity. "A genuine independent left party" says Chomsky.

The Snow is Quiet

It spreads itself over everything
one flake at a time
falls over any stem or twig
that rises above the earth
like an epiphany
the mind opening
saying "ah now I get it"

You knew it was coming
even though you didn't know when
but now it is here.

Millions of tiny flakes
weighing down the branches
that tree you always knew was there
but hadn't looked at for a long time
taking its presence for granted
suddenly illuminated with a mass.

I and Thou

Somewhere in Martin Buber's book "I and Thou" I remember the phrase - not necessarily in these words, but meaning "those who choose hate as a way out because they don't know what to do with their lives."

Now I confess I cannot find this quote although there are many by Buber or from people who write about his ideas.

I keep thinking of this phrase now that Donald Trump clearly directed his campaign through support from white supremacist, misogynist and an anti-immigrant demographic.

But what should "they" do with their lives when there are not enough jobs that will pay a living wage and will treat them with dignity?

The only thing that will come out of hate is a world of mute strangers competing with and afraid of the other.

Buber's main proposition is that we live in a dialogue with the world.  Either as I-and-It or I-and-Thou and that we find meaning through our relationships. I-and-Thou means I stand in relation to you as the meaning of  our lives unfold, giving me direction through inspiration in what to do with my life. The I-and-It is currently how our economic system is organized. People are workers, immigrants, criminals, customers and constituents. They are "Its" to be managed for the most profit.

I feel a burning rage inside that life has been reduced to this. I understand the rage coming from those made redundant by the ideology of neoliberalism. And I fear that hate will engulf the schools, the libraries, the clinics and malls just as it has in Syria.

It's not naivety to begin to live in relation to life - it is the reason for it.

There is a rumour on Facebook

that if you don't agree with the commercial Christmas shopping - the malls, the canned music, the fake jolliness of retail - all you have to do is not buy gifts.  People think they cannot get away with this, but they can according to Liz James of Saskatoon - because they did it and survived. That's right folks these rebels simply informed their families that they would not be purchasing commercial gifts and did not want to receive any either.

Furthermore this family reported that you can organize Christmas on your own terms and you will not be jailed or even ostracized (usually).  This is radical. Christmas on your own terms! Who knew?

The Begat of Gratitude

To those who gave birth to my ancestors
who told me stories of the world
who showed me how to love it.

To all those who by accident and brief encounter
brought me to some truth I did not want to know.

To those who, not knowing my name
helped when I needed help
and who received mine when they needed it.

To those who by commitment of their will
have learned to write, sing, dance or paint
the message we most need to learn.

To all those who have the courage to put their skill
on the public stage to serve
as doctor, lawyer, minister, teacher, publisher,
scientist or social worker.

To those whose names I may never learn
who clean the office, drive the bus, do the laundry
pick the fruit and stack the shelves.

To those who have listened to another
when they needed to be heard.

To all who embrace their vulnerability
and who enter into compassion.

For you are the names and the faces
of my gratitude.

(from Infinite Power, Ekstasis 2016)

For those who find Christmas painful.

Some thoughts for those who cannot enjoy the season.  Those who are still grieving a lost one - my heart goes out to you as you bring out (or in) the tree and can't bring yourself to decorate it because the grief overwhelms you and instead of making you happy you are struck by how locked outside you are feeling, like the little match girl with your nose against the window.

Or how focusing on choosing gifts for others seems so superficial and shallow even though you always enjoyed it in the past.

Or, if you are living in poverty and you can't spend money you haven't got, on presents for the most vulnerable in your family - how it just makes your situation more acute, And the thing you can't ignore is that anger sitting there like a stubborn goat.

Or, you recall a past Christmas where there was trauma - a relative that assaulted you or someone you love. Or a relative that drank beyond their ability to know what they were doing and the rest of the family spend the day walking on broken glass trying to avoid the elephant. 

Or, an unexpected break up after all the preparations and anticipation you put into the day.

Or because you do not identify as Christian and were excluded from these holidays. The memory of being left out made you feel like you didn't belong.

Whoever you are, wherever you live, I wish you good books, perhaps lots of sleep, or whatever it is you need most - a supportive and empathic family.

Crisis centres across Canada: http://www.partnersformh.ca/resources/find-help/crisis-centres-across-canada/

Plan the next 30 years

What is happening today was possibly planned 30 years ago, by many, thinking in their own board rooms, how to achieve their best outcomes. Along the way these plans would be adjusted, changed, some would have failed, but some came through well.

In her post "Message From Meg", Meg Riley of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, suggested that we, the stakeholders in our society, ask ourselves some difficult questions, before we plan the next four years:

1. How will you take care of your body in hard times
2. How will you take care of your spirit in hard times?
3. Who are your people?
4. How will you resist oppression, your own and that of others?
5. What would be the worst thing you could imagine yourself doing in this time?

I think these questions are required after any election but the recent one in the US is devastating to many who have worked so hard for inclusive justice.

Her message looks deeply into each question and is worth reading and thinking about. For the 30 year plan we might need to imagine how the world will look and then to write a future/back history.  How did it get there? What pressures caused what events? What visions empowered new movements for social justice, for the economy, for health, for the environment? 

Then to look into how we could organize a preferred future.  This would be a good exercise for a group, a family, a congregation.  You can read more about Imaging the Future (Elise Boulding) here. 

Being a citizen is not easy. It requires time, conversation, the patience to listen, the courage to speak, and a sober acknowledgement we are all in this together.

Humanity at Hazard: The Etiology of War

This paper by John Alexie Crane, published in 2008,  (and posted on Episyllogism) asks "Human beings are extremely creative at making weapons and war, but persistently inept at achieving lasting peace. Why is this?"

Crane explains this well and there are two main points that I took from it. One is that we are animals with animal instincts but our culture denies it. And the second point is that groups are led by males who have a strong drive for power and control. These alpha males arouse a fighting spirit among other males such as "Make America Great Again!"

Alpha males, when they are aware and responsible create better groups but if they are immature and unaware, they can destroy and devastate their group.

"Together," writes Crane, "we must develop a social order rooted in the reality of human nature rather than in denial and delusion, a social order that will make survival possible. Otherwise, this promising human experiment that has come so far in its development will end."

That is our task. That is the problem we must tackle.

The Source of Addiction

"Through the generosity and courage of their sharing, I saw that the sources of addiction do not originate in the substances people use but in the trauma they endured. In fact, the self-medications my patients employed were an understandable response to a set of unnatural circumstances, namely the historical trauma inflicted on First Nations throughout Canadian history, and up to the present. " Gabor Mate, First Nations Health Authority.

It's time for us to realize how we might be saved by our First Nations teachings.  They are teaching us that abusive power is toxic, and as we see our leadership becoming more ineffective in dealing with the toxicity of oil pipelines and tankers, seemingly unable to choose a clean future, we will be imprisoned in the residential school of economic tyrants.

Sacred Masculine and Sacred Feminine

“Human strengths such as willpower, compassion, and the seeking of freedom are kept alive when people are inspired by love and there is a blending of feminine and masculine qualities. Those who live deeply in love with the fullness of life are capable of fighting for what they care for with all that they have.” Arkan Lushwala, The Time of the Black Jaguar.

Where is the sacred masculine in the economy? Where is the sacred feminine in the neoliberal market? Where is the blending of willpower, compassion and the respect for life, human and all other, on the stock market or GDP? Where is the trail to our future?

When the world keeps telling you they have all the power and you have none

Remember where that voice is coming from.  Is it your family, your spouse, your company, the ad agencies, the government, the bank, or your mind?  Who keeps giving you the message that you have no choice or that we have no choice?

Once you've figured that out, ask that voice what a super-hero would do, or a genius? Ask Nelson Mandela what he would do.  What would your grandmother do?

Take notes. Write down all the other voices along with their answers.  Put the notes away and come back to them later.

Going over those answers - are there any that you are capable of doing. You don't have to do anything you don't think you can do.  Not now anyway.  There may come a time when you really have no choice and there is no time to weigh up the costs, but now you can ask yourself what you can do.

At the very least, this exercise is one of privilege, and it can help us feel compassion for those whose only option is a dangerous trip on the sea or perish beneath the bullets and bombs.

Saints Among Us

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver is a saint who prescribes self-compassion. Yes there are saints living among us today. There are people who are compassionate and who have made compassion part of their daily to-do list. They are not run off their feet trying to fix everything but are listening and seeing the sentient beings around them.

When they see things that are not right they think about how they can open the door to make it easier for us to care for those who suffer. The saints are working in medicine, healing, communications and community groups. They are journalists in war torn countries. They are advocates for those who are in prison because they protest oil pipelines to keep their water clean for drinking. They are lawyers who will defend those who have no money to pay for legal services.

Saints today are not perfect and not interested in being perfect or even the notion of perfection. They are tuned into the currency of moments and minutes for the greater good.

Conversations for a Kinder World

As public relations expert and former David Suzuki Foundation board chair James Hoggan writes in I'm Right and You're an Idiot, "polluted public discourse is an enormous obstacle to change." How, he asks, do we "create the space for higher quality public debates where passionate opposition and science shape constructive, mind-changing conversations"? David Suzuki Foundation.

But we don't have to keep replaying the right-wing end-game propaganda.  Right now there are many websites, blogs, institutions who have done the work and who write to inform rather than obsfiscate.  All we have to do is get off our diet of sensationalist drama, forget the gossip, and spend more time reading the stuff that will give you information.  It means more attention to words and ideas but with practice we could restore our attention spans.

Here are some links that are kinder:

I'm Right and You're an Idiot 

David Suzuki Foundation 

Logical Fallacies

Charter for Compassion 

Council of Canadians 

There are also many news organizations that still uphold the importance of journalism and who rely on donations to keep going:

The National Observer

The Tyee

rabble.ca

Three Dimensional World

One way to understand the system is to see how it got here. When did it begin? Division of labour? Industrial revolution? Class systems? Who created it? Was it us - masses? The landowners? The aristocracy? Wealthy merchants? Religion?

At what point did the system become the thing we must serve or die? Must we serve it?

With each century our system becomes more complex with layers and cracks from various interests and now we call it capitalism, democracy, the machine, fascism, globalization, the economy.

Are our minds and hearts becoming more marginalized by the algorithms of finance? We fear we are disposable.

This is not an easy idea to digest.  A gut reaction is to seek revolution, war, hatred, punishment. But not against the most powerful. Against those with the least political power.

But life becomes brutal when we convince ourselves that we can build a just system on hate. We lose touch with our problem solving abilities. However the answer to this problem is the mind and heart that brings the system back into its imagination.

We need to affirm that social systems were created to save life not exploit it. Once we cross that bridge we begin to see that there is a lot of work to be done. Clearly we can't fix it in one lifetime but we can begin to see the future as a co-creation rather than a prison.

Ban Ki-Moon on saving our planet

Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth... these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women's empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.

Ban Ki-Moon. https://www.brainyquote.com

Doing the right thing

What does that mean - to 'do the right thing?' The 'thing' we need to do generally is something life changing – affecting us personally – or the lives of others in close relationships with us. Or, it involves a broader social & political decision that will effect the entire planet – in the spirit of Hawking's warning: “[Humanity is facing] a number of [real and existential] threats to our survival from nuclear war, catastrophic global warming, and genetically engineered viruses.” Perhaps the right thing that needs to be done will consist of the sum total of all of the smaller 'right thing' decisions of people like us – decisions which taken together and across the entire planet could really effect world change.

Russell McNeil, PhD (Physics)
Presented November 20, 2016 at First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo

What Does Money Mean To You?

What do you think of when you have money? Is it food or fun or security? Is it something that belongs to someone else which keeps you from doing what you want to do? Is it something you need? Is it what keeps you outside of community? Is it power?  Does it reward you with love?

What is the minimum you need for life to be worth living?

Soup is Magic

There is something magical about soup. You just have to get a sauce pan out, fry up a few veggies, add meat or legumes, water, herbs, spices and simmer until ready. You don't need a recipe. Use your favourite things to make soup. Taste it and add whatever you think it needs. It is your soup after all. No-one besides you is an expert on your soup.

You can share it with someone else. Someone who doesn't or cannot make soup. The most effective way to serve soup is to invite them over to your place.  If you cannot do that you can put some in a tub and take it to them.

Emerging Community

Community is not just about organizing people, it is about gathering with others for the greater good of all. Most of the community we experience is unplanned. You might go for a walk and meet a neighbour with her dog coming towards you. You might smile when her dog barks and stop as it runs towards you letting him know it's okay for him to greet you. You might bend down and let the dog smell your hand and talk to it gently, musically. His eyes will look at you and his tail will wag if he's happy to meet you. He may be thinking "Oh dear, there's a person without a dog - she must be lonely all by herself". Or he may be thinking "What's that smell - must investigate". You won't know just what he is thinking but his energy and enthusiasm will greet you and you'll know you have been addressed.

This is mostly how community works - without planning and with some trust.

Community planning is good too, but when we begin to rely on someone else to make the rules we begin to feel powerless.

From the San Franciso Board of Supervisors (Bay Times November 24)

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently passed a resolution, introduced by Board President London Breed, in response to the election of Donald Trump. The resolution reads as follows:

 WHEREAS, On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump was elected to become the 45th President of the United States; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That no matter the threats made by President-elect Trump, San Francisco will remain a Sanctuary City. We will not turn our back on the men and women from other countries who help make this city great, and who represent over one third of our population. This is the Golden Gate—we build bridges, not walls; 

There are ten other resolutions which can be found on the San Francisco Bay Times website here http://sfbaytimes.com/san-franciscos-official-response-to-the-election-of-trump/ regarding women's rights, LGBTQ rights, Religious Freedom, Black Lives Matter, climate change, universal health care, internationalism, will remain a Transit First city, nor bullied by threats to revoke federal funding, and that they condemn all hate crimes and speech.

This is a gift worthy of inclusion in our Mind and Heart Advent Calendar because it is such a resounding confrontation against the fear mongering and hatred that has been broadcast over the last few months. Thank you San Francisco. Your words are truly poetic.

The Mind Heart Calendar Begins Today

By some accident or roll of the dice you are here.  Full of soft flesh, muscle and frantic nerves. You may be desperately trying to save the world by caring for others, working for security, researching climate change, fighting for the environment, but no matter how many questions you may have or how many nights you have lost sleep, it seems the bad guys keep winning.

The system is set up to convince you that this is the only way our world can work and no-one can break it. Controlling the world is easy if you have all the weapons. It's a lot easier to brag about the wars you have won than to control the future.

If the system can convince us that we are powerless and there is nothing we can do, we follow others and become robotic servants rather than thinking, skillful, ethical beings.

But we have achieved language, music, science. Hate will only choose who and when to kill. Life is so much more complex and rewarding than the will to control.

The only thing we can do is love life. Life is all we have. This one life to love, to nurture and to care.

When it's worse than you already think it is

This blog is going to begin a new project - The Mind-Heart Advent Calendar which will operate like the Christmas Advent Calendar but instead of chocolates or gifts, each day will be a gift of life-affirming community to recall our humanity. Rather than the oppressive messages of capitalism which have dominated corporate media.

Says Chris Hedges: "Our capitalist democracy ceased to function more than two decades ago. We underwent a corporate coup carried out by the Democratic and Republican parties. There are no institutions left that can authentically be called democratic."

Hedges points out the "long and ruthless corporate assault on the working class, the legal system, electoral politics, the mass media, social services, the ecosystem, education and civil liberties in the name of neo-liberalism has disemboweled the country."

Noam Chomsky compares this time to late Weimar Germany.  It has left the nation a decayed wreck. We celebrate ignorance. We have replaced political discourse, news, culture and intellectual inquiry with celebrity worship and spectacle.

Chomsky, in the article published in April 2010 predicted the sweep of right wing Republicans: "We will be told that white males are a persecuted minority. We will be told we have to defend ourselves and the honor of the nation. Military force will be exalted. People will be beaten up. This could become an overwhelming force. And if it happens it will be more dangerous than Germany."

Although I live in Canada - a different nation, we shall be impacted and we are threatened by this movement as much as Europe was threatened by the Nazi's.  The nature of our society with its deniers, thugs, and public activists is still the same.  Those who seek power know how to divide us and I am hoping that this blog might help inspire us to come together to respond.

Every day beginning December 1st this blog will post a new quote, image or aphorism or advice that will link us to our humanity to fight the darkness of hate and ignorance. Not by calling names to people but by calling out our vulnerability to defeat in spirit.  Please sign up to receive these posts as they become available every day. Also if you wish to contribute a piece please contact me via the comment section.

Protect People - Charter for Compassion

How Cities Can Protect People 

From Marilyn Turkovich, Director

Charter for Compassion International

"We should start organizing to make cities powerful bastions of noncooperation, resistance, and protection. Activists and organizations can start demanding in every city that city councils and mayors issue resolutions and statements saying

• Our city will not assist or cooperate with any raids or detentions or deportations of any immigrants. This includes assistance of local law enforcement or providing data to the federal government.
• Our city will not cooperate or assist with registration and surveillance programs of Muslims, or any attempts to make our friends, neighbors, and loved ones the enemy.
• Our city is a safe zone for all immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ people, women, and anyone fearing persecution from the Trump regime.
• Our cities reject any effort to criminalize or attack Black Lives Matter or other organizing for social justice, as Trump has suggested he might do.

This is a time to move to create compassionate communities in our world.  We’ve been hearing from many of our members who are thinking seriously about starting an initiative in their city, town or village
  Let us step forward to bind up what appears to be a very sorry world with our heart, hands and mind.  Register your community and we will be in touch to help you take the first steps"

A poem by Maureen Killoran

Image found on BBC

Spirit of Life and Love, I come before you
black and brown and red and yellow and alabaster,
I come longing for the simpler days that truly never were our lot.
And I am an American.

Hear these voices, as in the complexity of our days,
I am Humanist and Christian, Muslim and Jew,
Pagan and Atheist and Buddhist and UU
And I am an American.

I am one who fought for my country
and I am at the same time one who protested war
And I am an American.

Amongst the divisions of our days,
I’ve struggled in poverty
and I’ve accepted the profits of wealth
And I am an American.

I am an owner of weapons, and
I am one who would control our nation’s guns,
by limiting the who’s and what’s and how’s
And I am an American.

As light is shone on our divisions,
I live with often-unacknowledged privilege
and I am moved to rage at
the complexity of intersecting oppressions
And I am an American.

In the challenge of our days
I am one who supports my country, right or wrong,
and I am one claims the traditions of dissent
And I am an American.

In this polarized season,
I am Democrat and I am Republican,
I am Libertarian and I am Independent,
I am Green and I am confused.
And I am an American.

Spirit of hope, sit with us in our diversities.
Help us hear one another in our divisions.
Grant that, beginning in this community,
we may honor one another’s Truths,
and know that a just and faithful tomorrow
begins here, in our hearts.
For with all our problems, with all our pain,
with all our limitations and mistakes,
We are Americans.

Maureen Killoran, Developmental Minister at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Gainesville (UUFG) http://www.uufg.org/

Please stop racist attacks!

I implore you to stop not because I am African or Asian or Ojibway. But because I am white, I look white, I talk white. When I witness  or hear about racism, the hair on my back stands up, I begin to shake, my stomach aches, my heart sinks down into my bowels. It keeps me awake at night, and if this hatred hurts me it must be far worse for those who are targeted. and perhaps this is the idea – that the masses self destruct in opposition to the other.

I am not saying  YOU are racist. I don’t think we set out on our life’s journey to hate. Just as all Moslems are not responsible for 9/11, YOU  are not responsible for the woman who was pushed in front of a train because she was wearing a headscarf, the murdered and missing women, the holocaust, or the tone of the US elections. YOU are not responsible for the refugees whose cities have been blown apart, the unarmed teenager who was shot by a policeman, the overworked underpaid workers in Mexico, or increasing inequality that threatens what little democratic opportunity remains.

But you and I are responsible for the words that come out of our mouths, and for how we respond when we witness attacks. We are also responsible for knowing the cost of what we choose to purchase, where it comes from and who is oppressed by its manufacture.

We are responsible for understanding what happens when racism stalks the commons. The first casualty is dialogue. (There is too much pain both sides.) The second is observation. (We prefer not to look too closely at the deep penetrating destruction of hate and the entitlement given to those who assume superiority.) The third is acknowledgement of our own opportunity to heal the small moments.

Racism makes us powerless echoes of our ancestors' fear and pain. Problem solving is shut down like an iron gate when the narrative announces “it’s all their fault”. Racism cripples democracy. Racism alienates us from our human capacity to inquire, to feel empathy and to be compassionate. Racism locks our children into binaries of fear. Racism chooses violence first and smears all privilege with blame and spilled blood.

When we feel entitled to judge those we have never met, based on generalizations spread in media and on the street, racism is the first weapon of mass destruction. It begins as a tiny virus in the reptilian brain and spreads all over the world. It is the greatest servant of the arms industry and the psychopathic ruler. It is the door to war that keeps on spilling blood, making life unbearable and the future into something to dread.

So please remember the images of Aleppo and Auschwitz before you shout racial slurs on a bus or laugh at a friend’s jokes or click “like” in the comments field.

Racism is the most destructive and disabling fantasy of white supremacy.

Trans Pacific Partnership

Brief on the Trans-Pacific Partnership To the House of Commons Committee on International Trade Submitted by: The Council of Canadians 

from the Council of Canadians:

http://canadians.org/sites/default/files/Trade/brief-citt-tpp-1016.pdf

Letter to Department of Canadian Heritage Review of Cultural Policies, Regulations and Legislation from DC Reid

League of Canadian Poets Directory

To: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly Government of Canada 

Hi Justin Trudeau and Mélanie Joly

During the Department of Canadian Heritage’s review of cultural policies, legislation and so on, I hope you will keep as your first item: paying artists a living salary so they can make their art.

The sad reality is that artists receive so little income that the Writers Union has calculated that the median income for a writer is $5,000. It should not be this way, but it is this bad, and has been so for decades. It is finally time to pay artists for creating Canada’s culture just as is done in Europe. We don’t have pension plans either, and these would be thankfully received, as well. Please consider that when the time comes for you to receive your pension, one year of it will exceed what virtually all artists make in their entire careers.

My 13^th book will be published in early 2017, and the sad reality is that I have never been able to live off my 40 years of artistic writing, despite winning many awards. I am also at work on a half dozen other books that I don’t expect to earn me a decent income, if nothing changes. Don’t spend millions on your review, and then not pay artists. Please pay artists a living wage as your first priority, or don’t bother doing the review. Many arts, for example, poetry, can never provide an income for poets, yet it is important to Canada’s view of itself, now and in the future, that the poetry be written.

In addition, the Copyright Act needs updating, including Harper’s giving away all of our remaining income to the social policy goal of giving Canadians free access to the information they expect to get for free on the internet. Giving this away, should be coupled with governments paying artists for their work. I am also a digital artist and the situation is the same for those of us moving into the future of new art forms. In this new and exciting frontier, I have six websites and blogs. Google: DC Reid and you can find out what I do.

Finally, Access Copyright and Public Lending Right are shadows of what they should be. It grieves me to note that the base AC payment for an artist is about $75. It really is that bad.

Stats Can’s most recent figures – 2010 – for the industry perspective are that the GDP of culture industries was $53.4 billion, 3.4% of Canada’s GDP and 707,012 jobs. And yet artists have no income for their contribution.

Please address the ongoing reality of an artist’s life, and do the right thing.

Thanks

DC Reid

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This letter from DC Reid to Canadian Heritage Minister and our Prime Minister details the problem of culture in Canada - primarily that artists cannot sustain themselves. The question is how will we know ourselves if the only paid voice comes from the corporate world?

The Greatest Poverty

The greatest poverty of our age is when you have no control over the room you sleep in, or where the next meal is coming from. Or even worse, when social services assumes you are an unfit mother because you are too poor to give your children what they need, and you fear you will lose them.

The next greatest poverty is when you yourself assume that those living in poverty are there because they failed in some way. Or that people who have addictions are weak willed and have simply given up.

And the next greatest poverty is if you live in a society where these attitudes prevail. Because you will find categories but not the causes of social problems.

Categories really help the ones who organize society - but who are they now? Is the government organizing anything beyond budget, traffic and policing? When police officers, doctors, nurses and social workers keep fixing the wounds, go home, come back to find only more of the same, do they begin to question if they are helping at all?

Who is responsible for taking care of the bigger picture? If our prime minister is unable (or unwilling) to keep the promises he made during elections - who exactly is in charge? And if we don't know who is in charge of the infrastructures of our civilization, aren't we just refugees with debt?

The greatest poverty of our age, as I see it, is when we don't care about the infrastructures in terms of how it impacts our quality of life. It's Bleak House on a grand scale. It's like having plenty of electrical sockets in your house but you don't know which ones will charge your cell or blow you apart.

The emphasis on trade deals are saying to us - we cannot survive without plugging into a system we do not have the vocabulary to understand.

Poverty is not being able to navigate our future because the options are not available to us. Scrolling through Facebook is an inventory of injustices and structural violence from around the world. Nanosecond updates on all that is wrong and all that we (humanity) are failing at, and none of these observations and news items direct us on what we can do about it.

In this way we do not have a society, just overplayed myths about who we are, and who we are better than.

What can we plan without bullying or criticizing others? How can we hold onto a vision if no one else cares? How do we measure what matters if we have been reduced to the Gross Domestic Product?

How can we challenge one another without exploding the rage we all feel just under the skin?

Feeding Big Man (a story for adults)

Once there was a village near the river
like other villages, but in this village stood a man
taller than the others, jolly and bright. He built huts,
ploughed fields, caught fish, forged tools.

There was nothing he couldn't do. He grew
faster, stronger, with each passing day 

while others so impressed with his speed
saw their own skills pale in comparison. 

So in awe of his strength they left him to his jobs
while they struck a committee, elected a chairman
wrote up a roster to feed, wash and clothe him.
Villagers laboured to keep him strong and beefy.

Big man got bigger, got stuck behind his door.
Couldn't leave his house, couldn't do his chores
so the villagers had to do them as well as care
for him in the style and manner to which

he was accustomed, his large appetite, rich tastes

too big for his humble home, he demanded more

– a castle or a mansion, while the villagers bore

the cost with their labour, health, and savings

they were tired, worn down, enslaved by his needs 

but what could they do? What could they say?

Trapped! Until a child crept with courage to the castle
late at night to plead and show the man how the village

had become so poor, so weary, her last feint hope 
for reason and compassion and he wept, overcome with guilt 
he thanked the child, promised to care for all, the way
he had been cared for. She ran home to tell her folks

who were relieved, happy, and praised the child
until the mayor and town planner heard the story
charged the girl with treason, banned her
from the village for going above her station.

Just who did she think she was to enter
the sacred castle of the big man? The good
villagers argued with their neighbours.
Was the child right or wrong? 

Alone with a broken heart she wandered hills
and valleys, starved and cold she died
in a distant valley by a different river
while villagers wrote laws and manners

so that no child would embarrass her elders
by showing more courage and gumption
than they. Never again. The lesson well learned
life got back to normal, a solemn duty bound

tradition, a weary acceptance, the sober 
second thought, everyone in their place.
A trap they felt but never dared talk about.
The way things are.