Your 2017.ca: Community and Compassion

Not sure if this is a Liberal Party thing, a Canadian thing or some empty attempt at positive thought but I think that maybe we, as citizens of the planet, need to be more active and look towards a positive future. So here is what I offered:

When the country regains it’s sense of community and compassion. That means that we make the hard decisions and look past what serves our own self interest. That means that we care for our neighbours and the planet that we inhabit and share. That means that we sacrifice for the common good and do what is right instead of what makes us ‘look good’ right now. That means that we stop depending on commercialization and industrialization and focus on urban sufficiency and promoting local business. That we stop caving in to private interests and start caring about free, accessible health care. That we share the wealth and help our less fortunate citizens realize their full potential.

That we dream instead of covet or envy.

I think we all need to pay attention to our common interests and our government before Canada becomes a relic of the persona that it once held.

Pain in the … Back

So, like every pain, there is the usual sliding scale depending on your experiences and environment. Pain from stubbing my toe may seem bad but being in a car crash seems higher on the scale. My scale also includes a little imagination on my part as I am relativley sure that I have not reached to maximum pain posssible.

This morning I think I may have topped my scale. I was in so much pain when my back spasmed that I could not even breath. Maybe it was just the muscles around my back screaming loudly enough to bring my chest muscles into the choir of discomfort.

It took my breath away

Boo!

Happy New Year!

Ahh science! What would we be without you.

I have this ongoing fascination with reading science articles. I often understand little about the subject  and retain even less of the material than I started with. Up to 10 minutes after reading an article I am fairly certain that I will retain about -1% of the content; not 1% of the words, like ‘the’ and ‘a’, but 1% less than I started with; hence the negative (-).

Wha?? Where am I?

Who are you people and what am I doing in this box? Why is it dark in here? It smells like socks!

What do you mean open your…

…ah! The light! It burns! It burns us!

Please tell me that the snow is finally gone. I might cry if it snows again.

Whose Kid is Messin’ With the Lights?

Come on. Some parent has apparently left their spawn unattended again except this time the child in question is flicking the switch between summer and winter.

You know the routine – we have all, at one point or another, tormented a room full of people by flashing the lights on and off. It gets real fun when you wait to see what they are going to do and then strategically turn the lights off when one of the adults gets bold enough to try walking towards you in a room full of toe-stubbing accidents waiting to happen.

Yesterday and the day before? Bitterly, soul crushing cold. Today: 11 degrees and rain. Tomorrow: -3 and snow. The next day? 13 degrees again.

It is not a big jump in temperature but it keeps flashing past the freezing point and leaving me wondering if I really need to shovel or just wait. Unfortunately if I just wait .. I’ll be shoveling chunks of ice.

The Canadian Election Choice: ABC(H)

Originally coined by Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, the ABC Campaign (which suggests that Canadians vote for Anybody But Conservative) has, in my world, become more refined into voting ABH (Anybody But Harper). I have been avoiding talking about politics, a topic that borders on religious belief and zeal, but my current perception of the Conservative campaign is increasingly drawn to their leader and how much I do not what him to win. Incidentally that was the unintended result of a voter-marketing strategy keyed to the leader and not the party; and I think that they have shone a light on the most critical weak point that they could have.

CBC Political Panel and Afghanistan: Revisited

So I get in the car this morning and I hear the same political panel discussion being replayed on CBC. I roll my eyes and think that maybe the morning show hosts have taken a well deserved break and are replaying yesterdays show.

Nope. After the clip, which was aired to apparently refresh the memory of the audience, they read my email…

Woooo!

CBC Information Morning Polictical Panel: Afghanistan

Note: In case anyone is wondering – I was listening to CBC this morning and there was a political panel discussion regarding our Canadian Afghanistan commitment. I was a little annoyed so I wrote the following and sent it in to the show. I realize that the contents are going to seem out of sorts  with lots of assumed information; you had to listen to the show to understand

Wow. I am utterly dismayed at this mornings political panel and their absolute lack of respect for our military. Both members of the panel did nothing but use the military as a political sounding board for their particular colour of the spectrum without any knowledge of or respect for the job that they are performing.

Ninety-nine soldiers have paid the price to bring stability and peace to Afghanistan by hunting and suppressing Taliban and Al-Queda extremists in a country that has seen nothing but war for decades. We are building schools, infrastructure and, most importantly, a sense of community in an area where killing and the rule of the strongest has been the norm for most of history.

I am not sure who educated the members of the panel on the role of a military but it is not as peacekeepers. That is a common delusion that Canadians have designed to keep the instrument of blood and death all happy, gay and full of flowers. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate and respect the thought that we as Canadians are willing to put ourselves and our troops into harms way for the good of others. Peacekeeping is a noble role but our troops are trained to close with the enemy and kill them. That is combat. That is war. That is what they are trained to do. And they are the best in the world – even if they are short in number and short of cash.

I am Canadian and I am tired of the shallow arguments that our political masters weave. We are smarter than that. We are better than that.

One last comment: I think both political panel members need to pay closer attention to the American election platforms before jumping on the bandwagon making fun of them. The recent banking problems have re-focused the campaign in a way beyond putting lipstick on a pig. Sure we can pick the fruit from the lowest branch and use that to prove a point but it shows out ignorance when we pick that from a tree we do not understand or, better yet, the wrong tree.

We are better than that.

The Loss of a Great Musician

It is a sad day for me. Richard Wright, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, died of cancer today. He was the keyboardist, and arguably the key member of the group. Through  his creative spirit and musical direction he provided an valuable contribution and influenced the music more than most people realize. Sure, you could point to the lyrics of Roger Waters, the moving guitar of David Gilmour, the solid drumming of Nick Mason or the creative flow of early member Syd Barret, but Richard brought a strong character to the music, something most people miss. Something I will miss…

Related Stories: Wikipedia, NPR and Entertainment Weekly.

Us and Them
And after all we’re only ordinary men
Me, and you
God only knows it’s not what we would choose to do