Deepening our Knowledge

“[T]he great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. It could scarcely be otherwise, since it is to history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations.” —James Baldwin, quoted in History Holds the Antidote to Trump's Fascist Politics by Henry Giroux, Truthdig.

Giroux lists the many symptoms of this "state of crisis that touches every aspect of public life" --  economics, massive inequality,  crisis of ideas, agency, memory and politics. 

"Within this new nexus of power, anti-democratic principles have become normalized, weakening society’s democratic defenses" Giroux warns.  Exploitation, unchecked militarism, matched by a politics of disposability and terminal exclusion.   

How this was achieved was mostly vast wealth within the hands of an organized oligarchy.  For many centuries innocent working people have been corrupted, raped and pillaged, then brainwashed, above and beyond their own capacities to see or understand what is happening to them.

People like Arendt, Klein, Angelou, Atwood, Solnit, Giroux, Orwell, Hedges and Chomsky -- have managed to send warnings to us who are struggling to survive and who are vulnerable to a rage we are not supposed to express.  Now democracy is a bat for blaming whoever is at the bottom. 

The love of conquering, killing and controlling others, is the drive, not the economic benefit or civilizing claims.  If capitalism and technology is about making life easier -- it has to accompany a method of social justice, otherwise its just another device to clear the commons for the hidden bank accounts where money sits, achieving nothing. 

Giroux's article is long and his premise is disturbing, but if our survival is worth anything, its worth the "eternal vigilance" of society. 

Political Cleverness

Be careful of political cleverness.  The big trick with high stakes. The "gotcha" that's irreversible. I'm talking about political expediency. Creating division between peoples who have become friends. About shaming someone for the sake of maneuver. 

Ultimately what it creates is the disruption of a whole society because the operating principles have changed while the minority of the people are still using the culture they were born and raised in.

Now I know that empires have risen and crumbled on political cleverness and the losers are the ones who often have the most integrity. Political progress has, for the most part been corruption, disruption and violence.

It is no wonder that young people believe they have to give up integrity in order to win in politics and business. Cleverness has become underhanded, fraudulent, sophistry. The most vulnerable are thrown under the bus while psychopaths are rewarded with high positions.

This is not simple naivete. It is the underground train that logs old forests, pollutes the air and the ocean, turns populations into criminals, parents into agents and children into pawns. It turns all relationships into corporations, and leaves a void where the village used to be.

We are rightfully disturbed when we witness our democracy crumbling under authoritarian rule, when the news is a list of violent events, and the town hall becomes a supermarket.

The trickle down currency of inequality is exploitation but even that word is too polite. Citizens become consumers then the consumed (cell phones, social media, then data).

In this environment we lose our leaders to gamesmanship, we ignore facts, dismiss science and swallow fake news because it resembles the familiar soap opera.

Now I'm not saying we all take the easy way out. I'm saying the playing field is full of snakes and pot holes so even competing in the game can leave us with permanent injuries. I'm saying that our earthly home has become a site of domestic violence as the corruption penetrates the spirit and the heart and our kin become prison guards.

I'm saying that good mental and physical health includes a healthy community. Yup that's social conscience  I guess.

The Field Mice: a Folk Tale for Adults

(Originally posted in 2014)

Long ago in the olden days, field mice knew the meaning of life: to gather nuts and seeds no matter how cold or wet, how hot or windy, and to bring them back to the nest.

Were they happy? Who knew? There were seasons. There was birth and there was death, but no time to contemplate and no philosophers in the field.

Then came the hyenas across the river, hidden by long grasses, salivating at the sight of tender fresh meat. And these were not your common or jungle variety. These were a new breed who could plan, who saw ways of making the larder last longer.

In the river were beavers busy building dams. They looked too dank and tough to eat but the hyenas saw that they could be useful and entered into a contract called The Trans-River Deal which promised greater status for the beavers and wealth for hyenas.

Ah, a new way of seeing the world thought the beavers and they called it “The Economy”. Congratulating themselves on their ability to analyse and re-frame reality, they found ways of influencing the field mice, and to make capital from their labour.  

And so it came to pass that the beavers entered into the field with their blueprints. Luxurious nests with running water, separate bedrooms and indoor toilets in exchange for all the nuts and seeds they could gather which would be processed into cakes and preserved.  A vision of progress, bright futures with eight hour work shifts and time for leisure.  

At first everyone was happy.  Mice were comfortable, beavers were smug, and now there was time for parties and feasts. Sadly this didn't last forever because the hyenas across the river, which the mice had never seen and did not know about, were waiting to call in the debt.

“What debt?”, asked the beavers. They and the mice had provided the labour and the ideas – and the hyenas had contributed nothing. 

The hyenas reminded them of the deal they signed and were therefore obliged to provide the agreed-upon returns. If they did not comply there would be snakes in the rivers, rats in the field, storms and plagues, and the beavers would get the blame.

“For what ends?”, asked the beavers. All their profits would be destroyed and no-one would gain in the long run.  

The hyenas laughed and ridiculed the beavers for not understanding how power works. “Create a conflict among the mice, pit neighbour against neighbour with a manufactured crisis – be creative with the truth, divide and rule”, advised the hyenas, who were clearly above such sentiments as fairness. “As soon as we have everything we want we shall move on to the next field down river.”  

“What about the suffering, the misery and death you will cause”, asked the beavers.

Again the hyenas laughed. “We deal only in power. Life is fragile and finite whereas power is eternal and everlasting.  You have no choice and now you must go back to the mice and demand they do your bidding.”

Shaken and troubled the beavers wondered whether they should invent a crisis or tell the truth about the hyenas and the coming threat of snakes, rats, and plagues.  Should they defend their field or cave in? Should they train the mice in the art of war or the natural laws of justice?

They didn't know what to do so they told the mice the truth and after many hours of deliberation they all decided to have a party and enjoy life while they had it.

Eventually, after battles won and lost, they all died and their stories died with them. Their luxurious nests, their running water and indoor toilets, their BC ferries, their schools, their hospitals, their hockey teams, museums and libraries all crumbled into dust – and all that remained was silence, because politics never had the insight to see, that it too, could not live without life.

How Can I Fight Anti-semitism?

 "I never thought that in 2018 I would still have to speak about antisemitism", says Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

What happened to these decades where there was so much conversation about inclusion and social justice for everyone? What happened to the laws against hate crimes? I thought we had progressed beyond anti-semitism.

In March of this year an 85 year old Holocaust survivor in Paris was murdered because she was a Jew.

In May of 2017, the Globe and Mail reported "B'nai Brith Canada, which has been tracking anti-Semitic incidents for 35 years, said 1,728 anti-Semitic incidents were reported across the country last year — a 26 per cent increase from 2015 and the highest number the group has ever recorded." 

I had believed that Muslims were more at risk, however, in 2014, the FBI reported 609 incidents of hate crimes against Jews and 154 against Muslims.   Even Snopes reports more attacks against Jews than Muslims. 

Like bullying everywhere, a division is created and the majority beats up the minority by words or by silence. The after dinner conversation in what I think of as a civilized home is not about how to fix any given social problem. It's about who can be blamed without making anyone in the room feel uncomfortable. It was only much later in my life that I could see this as an acquiescence to prejudice. As one of my relatives said when I expressed concern about racism - well that's life I'm afraid.

Now we talk about injustice on social media which also allows anonymous commenters to harass, abuse and threaten minorities, and women who tackle these issues.

Writing about the recent attack in Toronto where a young man ran down pedestrians in a rented white van - Nora Loreto warns we must not overlook misogyny and social conditions as part of the cause. "We live in a society where our collectivity has been undermined in every way possible, and the Greater Toronto Area is ground zero for how we have been ravaged by forces that seek to drive average people into the ground."

The connection between the different groups who are targeted is the young white man. The previously privileged majority whose future has bottomed out.

But the question remains how can I (a white woman) fight anti-semitism without diminishing the dignity of the Jews who are vastly more educated and engaged in civil society than I am? Can I help or should I let the experts deal with this?   

 Self interrogation is a start but doesn't keep thugs from defacing synagogues and cemeteries.  I can listen  to the souls who are homeless and jobless, who can't find a place to belong but that won't help the unarmed women and men who are murdered as they walk home. 

I can examine the use and abuse of power to link antisemitism with our systemic habits of expressing contempt for life by glorifying hegemony and war. I can argue respectfully with white supremacists on facebook. I can look strangers in the eye and know they have a right be here just like me. I can support environmental and socially progressive groups with funds. I can eschew those who promote privilege by association and creating class divides. 

There is a border that I must defend and it's not against people from different countries but against beliefs that make life a resource to be exploited.

People who cannot earn a living wage, who can't access health services, who have nowhere to live, who are treated like objects, who cannot get justice when they have been harmed, who are marginalized by their sexual orientation, who are judged by their religion or skin colour, are victims of a system which diminishes humanity and although no-one can fix this within one lifetime it is the vigilance we are obliged to keep. It is the duty of all within the human race to fight antisemitism and all the other bigotries.

Social Justice Made Easy

Do you wince, feel queasy if you see someone getting hurt, or worse, beaten up? Not in TV programs or movies but in real life.

Do you feel for another being if they are publicly shamed and you can see the pain their eyes?

Do you get angry when you hear  a loved one retell an incident that caused them suffering because of someone else?

Are you filled with rage after listening to endless headlines about accidents, wars, flood and fires, with thousand to millions dying because of the ambitions of a few?

If you answered yes to more than one of these - remember this is empathy. This is a part of your human nature that implodes in your mind and heart.

You were born with compassion. It is your birthright and the reason you have lived long enough to read this - because those who cared for you mostly had compassion and empathy, and because those who cared for you were cared for by others.

Social justice is a complex and complicated subject, and unlike car mechanics, changes as we become more aware.  Also it is not easy to get other people to agree on all its parts. There are different reasons why we can't agree on everything, but one thing I believe is, in societies that treat some members like gods and others like trash we all suffer.

Unless we are psychopathic narcissists, our relationship to neighbours, leaders, and relatives, is a primary factor in our happiness. We need to live among healthy happy people most of the time in order to be happy ourselves.

So when sponsored sources claim that the market is the universal measure of success and there is no such thing as society, it is a lie and it will make you miserable - unless you're a narcissist of course.

And when slogans say over and over again, that you have a duty to yourself to win, to rise to the top, to be the best looking most sought after woman or man in the world, and you barely notice the refrain because you have heard it ever since you were a toddler - please ask yourself who benefits?

So to get back to the task of creating a world that allows you to be happy, a world you want your children to live in, think about all the things you have done in your life that made you or someone else happy. That's social justice in the making and you don't have to be a sociologist to do it.

However a world built on social justice will take the majority of our species to understand its value and work towards that, and not get side-tracked by money and status.

Fear of Social Conscience

Have you noticed how some of your relatives and friends get irritated when you mention a social issue that is not directly related to them?

Perhaps you are enjoying a good cup of coffee and a donut as you share 'what's up', and you blurt something about the threat to wild salmon, Neo Nazis in Charlottesville, or some other issue. And suddenly everything goes quiet while someone around that table gives you the evil eye.

Have you noticed in groups how some hate those who are sensitized to issues of injustice? One or two members of a board or club will target an anti-racist, a feminist, or environmentalist, who speaks up? Or mobbing at a University - how often is the target a person who has expressed a desire for social justice?

At dinner parties have you noticed if anyone mentions equal pay, equal respect, violence toward a specific group - they are quickly interrupted and the subject changed?

Why is this? Is it because we want to feel safe, that the world is just, and our co-workers and friends are ethical and have a good conscience? Or is it that any issue of injustice in our society strikes a tone of moral superiority? Or that most of us don't want to be reminded of prejudice or systemic violence when we are having fun?

Is there a flaming red flag around the aura of a person who makes it clear they are aware of the larger society? A sub conscious understanding that this person does not base their worth on getting your approval?

Is there a time and place for difficult conversations other than social gatherings? Is the common gap in all social intercourse a matter of privilege?

Stephen Metcalf wrote in The Guardian about how neoliberalism has swallowed up the world along with all the beating hearts and minds within.  "Peer through the lens of neoliberalism and you see more clearly how the political thinkers most admired by Thatcher and Reagan helped shape the ideal of society as a kind of universal market".  Social reality since then, says Metcalf,  has been reordered where the blood coursing through our veins means nothing other than the price the market will give it.

We have been dismissed. Art, science, intellect, music, love and family means nothing if they can't make a profit for someone.  We have swallowed this reasoning to the extent that any reminder of society as community, kindness, inalienable rights and duties, is almost an admittance of our gullibility over the last forty years. 

We've been had and had bad.

Recalibrating the System

System is the word I use to describe that collection of values and habits that form our society. We could call it - the world, truth, reality, democracy or capitalism - but whatever we call it we must engage with it. 

It isn’t always fair. The system seems to be indifferent towards our needs and wishes but we are not free of it until we die. Anger, love, hate, indifference, are some of the emotions we feel but we learn to adjust our responses for the least pain possible. 

BUT NOW OUR WORLD IS IN CRISIS. IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO JUST BE REFLECTIVE OR REACTIVE - WE NEED BOTH. 

Sometimes we will not submit and we find ways to change the system by talking, listening and planning to recalibrate. This is the politics that rarely gets covered publicly, although there are voices quick to claim failure or success at the end of all our work.

This post reflects on some of the initial stages of making changes. 

1. Examine Anger

Anger is a natural response to feeling threatened. Injustice, racism, phobia toward any gender or sexual orientation, religious intolerance, war, crime, all make me feel threatened. The retreat from civility to targeting (blaming) means I am not protected by principles of law or compassion. Any cruelty towards living entities and nature, means our system is moving towards brutality and away from civil society. Any fundamentalism or ideological authority means we are all at risk of being pushed through a mincing machine to produce a brand.

What makes you angry, what caused the source of your anger? To examine this question is to own your anger.

2. Choosing Hate is Not a Way Out

When does anger turn to hate? What thoughts lead us to find blame and to invest in violent “solutions”? What feelings enable us to feel sympathy for those who have chosen hate?

I have felt hate towards others when I fear, but hate for me has never led to a resolution. Hate makes me feel powerless, unable to move forward. It just makes me feel bitter and cynical.

If hell, as the saying goes, is other people, if all the problems I face are the fault of others, the biggest problem is that I have no agency. It's all the doing of the other who is entirely separate from me.  Hate doesn’t have a way out, an exit.

What hate does achieve is centralized power for those who seek to gain by violence. Hate enables the war strategist to blame the people for the conflict.

3. Invite People into the Conversation

Recalibrating the system is not about what any one person thinks the problems are. Rather it’s a conversation where friends and neighbours have a space to express their thoughts and to hear what others have to say. Some rules are necessary for participants to feel safe: (a) we agree not to share what is said in the circle outside the circle; (b) allow everyone the opportunity to speak, (c) be clear in establishing all participants are equal and valid members - there are no experts, (d) no personal insults or attacks, (e) don’t define others by their opinions, i.e. sexist, racist, bigot, snob. 

4. Plan 30 Years Ahead.

It took centuries to be where we are today. Each decade came out of the decade before. It took the current system thirty years to move from a general acceptance of social justice as a basic level of protection, to the market driven neoliberal focus that says the arbiter of all things is dependant upon “jobs and the economy”. 

Self interest is in our human nature. What are we willing to give up for our own interest? If we see a continuum where at one end there is security and peace, and at the other, we are free to do whatever we please as long as we keep a gun in the night table, we need to ask ourselves where we sit on that bench and where we would like to sit. 

To draw that bench and ask people to label the different stations from left to right can elicit a conversation about where their preferred place would be, and how can we move towards that?

5. How Will Anger Lead Us to Truth and Beauty?

O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede

 Of marble men and maidens overwrought,

 With forest branches and the trodden weed;

 Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought

 As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!

  When old age shall this generation waste,

 Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe

 Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,

 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

 Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'

 ( Ode on a Grecian Urn - John Keats.)

How have we personally endured the last three decades? What gave us hope and courage to choose integrity over despair when faced with personal crises? What have we learned about our own strengths? How have our views of beauty changed?

These are timeless questions for those of us who shall not live as long as Keat’s  Grecian Urn.

Facts Refute Myths About Homeless People

By understanding more about homelessness we empower ourselves as a community to solve the problem together. Below are a few common misconceptions about people who experience homelessness, along with some facts that refute those myths.

People need to earn their way back into housing.

When we talk about holding people accountable, we may assume that they've had the same chances that we have all had, but done less with them. We assume their parents packed them lunch for school and helped them do their homework. We may assume a lot of things, but we can be way off base. Most people who become homeless come from backgrounds of systemic abuse and neglect. Statistics in America reveal that the odds of someone in the general population becoming homeless is 1 in 194, whereas those same odds for kids coming out of foster care are 1 in 11.

Homeless people are dangerous.

Homeless people are more likely to be victims of violent crimes than to commit those crimes themselves. People without housing are vulnerable and lack the safety that a home provides. While it is true that homeless people often have lengthy arrest records, they are most often arrested for non- violent crimes associated with not having a home, like trespassing or panhandling.

Homeless people come to Vancouver Island because they have heard about our social services. 

Most people stay in the community where they first became homeless. According to data, only 25% of the homeless population is transient. The majority of people accessing homeless services in Nanaimo are from this area originally.

The greatest misconception about homelessness is that the people who experience it somehow deserve it, should be defined by it, and are less valuable because of it. In reality, homeless people are more often victims of trauma.

They have a right to be defined by who they are rather than by their housing status, and are equally as human and equally as valuable as those of us who have homes of our own.

Our first step as a society to end this tragic problem must be a fundamental recognition of the humanity we all share, regardless of where we sleep each night. Unitarians, being a pretty progressive bunch, generally have these core concepts figured out, as demonstrated by the inherent worth and dignity of every person as one of cornerstones of the Unitarian principles.

Opening our doors to those in need in our community and treating them with respect and kindness seems like such a wonderful way to walk that talk.

Unitarian Shelter Advisory Committee, published in the Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo newsletter.

We Don't Want Prosperity or Justice

Usually, all it takes is 30-40% of the population to determine the outcomes of our democracy. Less than half the population who have  chosen gadgets and toys above clean water, clean air, or good health. 40% who are not interested in equality, because, if they look closely at their preferences,  what they (we) want is superiority.

Superiority is a fantasy of being part of a tribe, race or nation that is wealthier, more intelligent, of good breeding, who are entitled to control others.

Political parties who claim to want equality have to be so careful how they phrase that. The word itself diminishes the hope of "getting ahead", "being on top", "control". Equality is a threat to the  massaged ego looking for any opportunity to win. How can anyone or anything prove itself in a world that values all?

There are many literary references to this ego. Othello, Death of a Salesman, and countless TV dramas.  George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, among many others, have offered the cautionary tale. Public intellectuals and journalists such as Chris Hedges, Noam Chomski, Naomi Klein, write about the cost of inequality, elitism and abuse of power.

Yet back in the early sixties Tommy Douglas managed to get medicare for the Canadian public, and CBC managed to broadcast the voices of ordinary people across Canada.  This was not too long after WWII where the call for equality and social justice was seen as a way to avoid the horrors of fascism that feeds off the vulnerable isolated people, in a world that values power more than justice and sustainability.

All that we have is under threat because of the ambitions of men and the rising gap between haves and have-nots. The battle is between the personal fantasies of our elite and the masses who have been robbed.

Trump's ability to win an election was because he had money, contacts, and a lack of conscience as he used every trick to divide and conquer the masses who are competing for survival.

To the ego that is so badly damaged through poverty, abuse and neglect, this feels like somebody will fix it all. This is what got Hitler elected and the result was death, torture and the destruction of an entire continent. The cost was millions of lives, herculean battles against despair, humility and cooperation.

Here we are facing this threat again and people can't be reached through facts, reason, justice or debate. As we look upon another election that threatens to return more power to large corporations, in a business climate that shows no conscience, willing to destroy the planet for the sake of profit, it appears as though we are ready to hand the reins again to the exclusive promise of jobs and the economy.

"Jobs and economy" has now moved away from living wages and healthy families, and is now shorthand for selling all of creation to the bottom line, sacrificing humanity to the tricksters of greed. We shall get sick in body and mind, angry and alienated from family and neighbours, in our pursuit of wealth.  We shall be starved of joy and peace, in a continual state of homelessness where violence and crime destabilize police forces, health care and education. And those human values dismissed as naive while politicians and business people think like lizards to compete for your vote.

How can we reach the emotions and integrity of those for whom politics is either an entertainment, irrelevant or a mystery?  How can we get the disenfranchised to care about what is really happening so they can see how their vulnerability is played against them?

For justice to find its voice, we have to care enough to read against ourselves. To find a way of resisting against the swamp like arguments and resurrect hope, compassion and cooperation for the greater good.

Some Wise Advice Circulating

Amended Post (especially related to #1 below) found on Be a King's FB page,  However I did find most of this on  Bernice King calls Shadow Banning President Trump.

Some Wise Advice Circulating: 

1. Use his name sparingly so as not to detract from the issues. I believe that everyone, regardless of their beliefs, deserves the dignity of being called by their name. However, this is a strategic tactic. While we are so focused on him we are prone to neglect the questionable policies that threaten freedom, justice and fairness advanced by the administration.
2. Remember this is a regime and he's not acting alone;
3. Do not argue with those who support him and his policies--it doesn't work;
4. Focus on his policies, not his appearance and mental state;
5. Keep your message positive; those who oppose peace and justice want the country to be angry and fearful because this is the soil from which their darkest policies will grow;
6. No more helpless/hopeless talk;
7. Support artists and the arts;
8. Be careful not to spread fake news. Check it;
9. Take care of yourselves; and
10. Resist!

Keep demonstrations peaceful. In the words of John Lennon, "When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you - pull your beard, flick your face - to make you fight! Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor."

When you post or talk about him, don't assign his actions to him, assign them to "The Republican Administration," or "The Republicans." This will have several effects: the Republican legislators will either have to take responsibility for their association with him or stand up for what some of them don't like; he will not get the focus of attention he craves; Republican representatives will become very concerned about their re-elections.

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.

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

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"

Naming the Disease - Social Atomization

Henry Giroux writes in his recent Truthout article titled "Donald Trump and the Plague of Atomization in a Neoliberal Age" of Leo Lowenthal who warned back in the forties about the atomization of human beings under a state of fear. "What he understood with great insight, even in 1946, is that democracy cannot exist without the educational political and formative cultures and institutions that make it possible."

This confirms my sense that we are trying to fight a social disease with rational arguments while the supporters of fascist movements just want a messiah who will deal with the big problems so we don't have to, but who have no idea of the danger in giving unconditional power to a single ego. A functioning democratic society can be annoying and tiresome but it has many conditions that challenge power.

In a free and democratic society that pays taxes for education, justice, and social protections for the most vulnerable - we are continually being updated with facts that challenge assumptions of how we can instinctively know the leaders we pick will protect us. That we have social standards that can't be broken. Or that we will be okay as long as the economy is okay. Or, even that we have progressed and would never push a woman in front of a train because she was wearing a headscarf.

In the fifties and sixties I was given an education based on social justice. It wasn't in headlines but it underscored all that I learned. It didn't guarantee fairness or security but assumed we had a responsibility to care about one another. We didn't read Giroux, Lowenthal or Arendt, but we knew of Socrates and Orwell.

Yet many who graduated from this era were quite happy to throw it away because it wasn't perfect.

Now we are at such a stage of civil entropy we shrug while finance capital rules and public benefits are eroded. Those at the bottom are left without a means of earning a living wage, without hope, continually ground down by endless poverty and denied human dignity.

"Mass fear is normalized as violence increasingly becomes the default logic for handling social problems." Giroux writes.

If we stop to read this age and condense all the hostility around us, we will see that life itself is the enemy of fascism. Fascism silences conversation, it wants unquestioned obedience, human sacrifices, the glorious sunset, robotic armies.

Totalitarianism wants power without the human stain, without competing organisms, without reflection or question or thought. It is the muscle without a brain, The sperm without the egg. The knife without flesh. The future without compassion. The masculine without the feminine.

The corporate media keeps telling us this over and over again, in a thousand different scenes and sound bites.

Infinite Power - a book of poems

Image: Heroic Journey by Paul Grignon Infinite Power, in Vickers eyes “is not a zero sum game  but a journey / a stone thrown in a lake / circular ripples emanating outward” and the danger of our age is that we have lost contact with that power, made it something to possess  like a personal bank account. In writing these poems she  hopes for a reconnection to that sacred universal relationship. Janet Vickers’s book of poetry, entitled Infinite Power,  has such an accurate title for this is an important, brave and,  indeed, powerful gathering of poems. She is on a search, a  compelling search, that draws the reader along with her as  she questions accepted concepts, ploughs through mankind’s  inhumanity and even tears nature apart in her quest for a core of hope amidst despair. “The distant bird singing,” as she puts it. This need to give reason for continuance is evidenced in  Vickers startling fresh and demanding metaphors and her  piercing questions. Hope comes in the last few words—“love  everyone, hate no-one, move to the edge.” It takes profound insight to come to such a seemingly innocent answer. ~ Naomi Beth Wakan, inaugural Poet Laureate of Nanaimo These poems are at turns thought-provoking, accusatory, or playful in their exploration of topics such as climate change, extinctions, greed or incidents from her own past. The thread always running throughout Janet's work is her commitment to honouring all that’s sacred, whether that might be in the world of nature or in the realm of the human heart.

~ Heidi Greco

This is Janet Vickers’s second trade book of poems. Her first book, Impermanence was published in 2012, also by Ekstasis. Her poems have appeared in anthologies in Canada (Down in the Valley, Ekstasis 2004) and the UK (Refugees Welcome and The Poet’s Quest for God, Eyewear 2016), in literary journals and online magazines. Janet is active in the community on Gabriola Island where she lives with Tony, her husband of 46 years.

To order go to Ekstasis Editions

Reflections on the future and elections

One election won't fix the looming crisis. What we need to do is see how the worship of power has got us to this point where people are actually willing to vote for governments that erode our hard earned human rights and democratic sensibilities.

We are organized by centralized power (herein referred to as CP) who have the means to buy media and government and then spin or omit the facts as they please, to their advantage. The strategy used is divide and conquer - set up false enemies or sensationalize distant threats.  Because we feel powerless we love to look for those who have less power - minorities, women, Asians, Africans, gay, lesbian, transgender, those with obvious disabilities and the poor.  These are the pool of punishables, so that whenever the government or big business is pulled up on bad choices and destructive outcomes - they can pull out, quick as a gun, an issue that blames one or two women who want to wear a niqab at a citizenship ceremony.

The CP keep giving us scape goats but not for our own good - to deflect their abuse of power. We do not need scape goats. We have evolved beyond that time when our sins were laid upon the rear of a sheep and sent off into the wilderness carrying all our fears.

According to scholars and scientists we have the capacity to turn our economy on renewable clean energy, the knowledge to create a just society, to house the homeless, to feed the hungry - but the reason we haven't is not because we can't.

Imagine that it goes deeper, right to the core of what we call our civilization and that no one outside of ourselves can effect real change, that our civilization, our governments are sick and that we are mentally ill and spiritually dead and that all our issues and crises are symptoms of this deeper sickness…. Charles Bowden 1945-2014.

Imagine that the majority of voters know better than to vote for the handmaidens of unregulated industry and they know their future depends on a minority who vote for a manipulative system, because they are afraid to look too close to the way it works.

Imagine that the resistance to CP causes that majority to re-create their own communities based on action, justice and peace, and that they are imprisoned, tortured and murdered, yet the guilty are not brought to trial.

Imagine that business goes on as usual and the masses become more afraid and more desperate to avoid seeing the world as it is, and that more of the innocent are harmed, starved and murdered, and that we lose our capacity to discuss ideas, to challenge injustice. Imagine that we forget what equality, freedom and democracy was, and we forget our culture.

Imagine that the world is so unsafe we lock ourselves up in our living rooms and watch the world from a 27 inch screen for that is the only way we dare participate in our society.

Imagine that this is not just a future possibility but what is happening and has happened all over the world. That the CP has manufactured false societies with false issues and false threats.  Then you get a picture of what is to blame for the conditions of war, poverty, domestic violence, climate change.

Imagine that you have learned there is no point to beheading the aristocracy, the ruling elite - as in the French Revolution - because you know that whoever takes over from them will institute the same system. Imagine that you and I finally get it!  The work and struggle of creating social justice is not just a matter of fairness it is a matter of mental health which is basic to the survival of our species.

Then we'll understand what the price of freedom really means, and what it is for us to do.

The Leap Manifesto

"We could live in a country powered entirely by truly just renewable energy, woven together by accessible public transit, in which the jobs and opportunities of this transition are designed to systematically eliminate racial and gender inequality. Caring for one another and caring for the planet could be the economy’s fastest growing sectors. Many more people could have higher wage jobs with fewer work hours, leaving us ample time to enjoy our loved ones and flourish in our communities.

We know that the time for this great transition is short. Climate scientists have told us that this is the decade to take decisive action to prevent catastrophic global warming. That means small steps will no longer get us where we need to go." The Leap Manifesto

Sign The Leap Manifesto

What is Love?

Beginning with Paul's letter to the Corinthians, love is patient, kind, it does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonour, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil, always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres.

So that is pretty straight forward. There are six things that love is and seven things it is not according to this Biblical passage. 

For Will Shakespeare - "love is not love which alters when it alteration finds ... it is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests ... and is never shaken.

You have to be older than twenty to appreciate Shakespeare's instruction. It is an idealistic notion and I can see how this might be true and how it might not. However he does carry some authority because of all the plays he wrote that we still love because his characters resemble a timeless authenticity. He has earned his credibility.

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
― Lao Tzu

In my life this is true. As a young child I was loved and so grew to be an adult, then was loved again. These are markers in my life where I could have discounted the love I received because it was less than perfect, or the courage to carry on when my love was also imperfect.


“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.”
― Robert Fulghum, True Love

Weirdness is another word for the unpredictable, for diversity of experience.  Love does not attempt to prove that it exists, it is not a chemical compound, the GDP, or "jobs and the economy".  Is love the reason for these things? Not exclusively but perhaps to allow love to remain.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” 

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

And so the most powerful people on earth might have been successful at locking away their hearts to leave a clear head for strategy - to keep their lovers on a leash to use at their convenience. Or the most broken people on earth have locked away their hearts because their experience leads them to believe that is the only way they can survive. This is what Karen Armstrong calls the "reptilian brain".

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

There are so many friends around, so many people who base their work on love and truth. We are not famous because we are abundant. We don't remark on them as something distant like a news headline because we know them. Diverse, imperfect - we need your help. Need you to be clear in mind and heart so that we can get behind the trends that lead us to more happiness and less suffering.

Yes all these quotes but one are from men. Why is that? Why did I choose men rather than women? I chose those who were well known in many nations and women are not as celebrated globally in that sense. However I will end with a quote by Hannah Arendt which I think is the most profound.

"Love, by its very nature, is unworldly, and it is for this reason rather than its rarity that it is not only apolitical but antipolitical perhaps the most powerful of all antipolitical forces." Hannah Arendt.

David Suzuki Foundation: Pete Seeger: "From way up here the Earth looks very small"

"Like me, he was inspired by Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring to become a strong defender of the environment as well as human rights. In both social justice and environmental causes, he believed in the strength of grassroots efforts. As he told the CBC Radio program Ideas, "The powers that be can break up any big thing they want. They can attack it from the outside. They can infiltrate it and corrupt it from the inside — or co-opt it. But what are they going to do about 10 million little things? They don't know where to start. Break up three of them and four more like it start up."  David Suzuki - Science Matters

Dear Prime Minister Harper

a river by Hwy 3 in BC

I forward this letter (italicized below), found on Rev. Frances Deverell's (President of Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice) blog in support of her fast for Climate Change.

I believe current world economic distress and natural disasters are caused by climate change and as a human race we must take action.  We must address the fact that we cannot grow our economies forever.  If our children and grandchildren are to have a chance at a quality of life we need real leadership from you and we need it now.

We need to direct our attention and our resources toward building an economy based on renewable energy.  We must slow the use of oil and coal and preserve reserves in the ground for future generations.  We can do this by:

•                Putting a price on carbon

•                Supporting all initiatives that develop and promote renewable energy

•                Supporting any and all methods of energy conservation

Slowing down the development of oil, coal, and nuclear will slow economic growth, but slower growth is inevitable because oil prices will rise as reserves are depleted.   This will impact our economy and cause labour disruption and unemployment.  We must prepare by designing social systems to cushion the blow and help people make the transition.  Current policies are pushing us towards instability and chaos instead.

We need your best, most creative leadership now to address these issues.  Will you enact policies that actively promote energy conservation and renewable energy?  Will you remove subsidies to big oil and introduce a tax on carbon?  Help us build an economy focused on creating quality of life for all, in a world without growth.

Respectfully,

Janet Vickers

Citizen of Canada