My heart aches and my prayers go out to send strength to each and every courageous person trying to stop this madness... and more prayers that eyes and hearts will open to the dire need to protect our Mother who gives us life.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Tar Sands = Corporate Madness
Who benefits from this madness? Short term gain is the name. Long term pain is our legacy to our grandchildren.
My heart aches and my prayers go out to send strength to each and every courageous person trying to stop this madness... and more prayers that eyes and hearts will open to the dire need to protect our Mother who gives us life.
My heart aches and my prayers go out to send strength to each and every courageous person trying to stop this madness... and more prayers that eyes and hearts will open to the dire need to protect our Mother who gives us life.
Sunday, January 06, 2013
Zimmerman: A Settler’s Guide to IDLE NO MORE
Idle No More is not just a "native" issue. Idle No More should be a wake-up call to all of us. This call is to those of us Canadians who are non-indigenous. Immigrants and children of immigrants to this country. We Settlers are also in danger of losing our access to precious air and water. We must educate ourselves on history and how prejudices and injustices from the past are perpetuated on and on in our present culture. It is time we all join in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the First Nations all around the world.
This has to be the best blog I have seen so far and it needs to be shared widely...
I'm posting the link here and also copying the text for you and for me so I can find it again and again (hugs) jan
We see now happening in this country a major unprecedented movement, that is the Idle No More movement. Many of us have seen them on the news or in person, large marches or flash mobs taking place in cities across this nation. The movement has even gone beyond borders, starting up demonstrations in the United States, but also in Europe and even in Cairo, Egypt recently. Many of us descended from settlers may scratch our heads. Years ago, if the movement had been raging on then, I too would be doing the same. We have seen aboriginal movement before; Oka, Burnt Church, Ipperwash, and more recently Caledonia. Never have we seen something so large-scale and concerted as Idle No More. I think it more likely than not that we are going to be seeing much, much more of it in the year(s) ahead. It is planned to be enormous and completely unprecedented. So, what is Idle No More about? What are the issues involving the first peoples of this country that makes them take part in such a huge movement that is so critical of the Canadian government? Let’s look into it.
I remember it was precisely in grade four, perhaps unlike previous generations, when I learned about the plight of the indigenous peoples. The story was that hundreds of years ago settlers came from Europe and took over the land from the native peoples. It was taught as tragic but I saw it as something from the past. The native Indian itself was something that belonged to a bygone age before the modern era, before even my great-grandparents time (incidentally most of my family came from Europe in the early 20th century). The context of the First Nations in this day and age was never taught, or even of the plights they faced in the first part of the 20th century. Learning more as I aged I was proud of the fact that the treatment of natives in Canada was not like the treatment in the United States where scenes like this happened as late as the 1890′s. Yes, natives in Canada were not “conquered” the way they were in the United States. The system of reservations were done with little bloodshed in comparison. Instead of violent conquest the modern nation-state of Canada entered into a series of treaties with First Nations peoples. I will return to this issue shortly below. At the time I thought this was at least something to be proud of.
And then I learned more. The most shocking thing (to me at first anyway) I find is the wide-spread casual racism towards aboriginal peoples in Canada. An overriding sentiment seems to be one of: “What’s wrong with the natives? Why are so many of them homeless and addicted to drugs or alcoholics?” Whenever I would bring up the context of the past the response was almost always: “It doesn’t matter. Now is now.” The past, in so many peoples eyes, doesn’t seem to add up to the present. Even in my mind, until the past few years, the reality of native peoples losing lands to settlers was a matter of the past.
One thing to understand about the past is that the colonial disruption to native peoples, that is, the tragedy of the colonial era when Europeans first started colonizing this northern land, the large-scale die-off caused by disease and settler violence, is not where the native tragedy ends. As recently as the past century First Nations children were literally forced into the federal and ecumenical residential school system. These schools were compulsory due to the pre-confederation Gradual Civilization Act (1857) and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act (1869). The schools in Canada were generally under provincial jurisdiction (as the public system is to this day) but aboriginal children fell under federal jurisdiction and Churches in Canada (Roman Catholic and Anglican mainly) provided the teachers to shoulder the cost. The goal of the system was to, as Canada’s government has now admitted in retrospect, cause the “killing of the Indian in the child.” The Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869, in particular, was designed to assimilate aboriginal people and make them citizens of Canada so that the treaty rights once negotiated between the Canadian state and First Nations no longer applied to them. In short, it was a long-term solution to de-Indian generations of native people in order to renege on Canada’s treaty obligations.
Of course we know this as Canada’s government has officially apologized for the abuse suffered by native children in the near full century (1884 – 1948) in which mortality rates were suggested to have been 30% to 60% at the beginning of the 20th century. The abuse is now well-documented and the long-lasting effects have been terrifyingly potent for generations of first peoples in Canada, giving scores of people post traumatic stress disorder, drug abuse and alcoholism, and leading to incarceration that is far more prevalent for indigenous peoples than any other culture within Canada. When I first read about the residential school system and it’s long-term effects I was ashamed. Eventually I managed to rationalize this sad legacy as also being “a part of the past”.
It gets worse though. The mistreatment of First Nations peoples goes beyond the residential schools system. To this day native children are still being taken from their parents. Add to that the dismal living standards they face compared to the rest of the country. The idea of the treaty system was that Canada and the various First Nations would be able to live peacefully with one another and that both Canadians (settlers and their descendents) and the first peoples would be able to share the land, it’s resources and wealth equally. The federal government has been criticized for underfunding native services, in particular child welfare services. An estimated 20,000 First Nations living on reserves have no access to running water or sewage. According to Canadian government statistics aboriginal women are five to seven times more likely to die as a result of violence than other women in the country, due to the long-term legacy of governmental policies that have broken families and communities, making their women more vulnerable as a result. Indigenous peoples, on top of numerous other terrifying realities, are more likely to have lifespans twenty years shorter than other Canadians.
Some might argue that Canada has no obligation to First Nations peoples, particularly since they do not consider themselves Canadians in all cases. This is a flat-out wrong way of thinking though for a number of reasons, the most obvious one being that Canada uses native-recognized lands and waterways to this day in order to subsidize the nation’s wealth. In short, Canada benefits from its use of native land and resources, yet the natives get no benefit in return from the Canadian government. Here is where Idle No More comes in. Just last month the federal government, as part of the omnibus bill entitled Bill C-45, overhauled the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) of 1882 and renamed it the Navigation Protection Act (NPA). The original NWPA was made to ensure that any projects, particularly industrial projects such as oil pipelines, were given environmental legislation, that is, any projects would be open for democratic discussion with all stakeholders on the potential environmental and ecological impacts. Nothing could be approved without consultation with all stakeholders, many of whom were first nations communities that were due to the treaties between Canada and their respective nations. If an aboriginal community did not want a pipeline, for instance, going over a river that belonged to their people, the pipeline would likely not be built at that location. The Harper Conservatives have been itching to expand the reach of the Alberta Tar Sands, proposing pipelines over to the Pacific Ocean as well as expanding pipelines Eastward to the maritime provinces. These pipelines would allow the rapid expansion of the Tar Sands (or Oil Sands if you are a government or petro-company spokesperson). The new Navigation Protection Act (NPA) that was passed with Bill C-45 made it so the approval process would only be required if the waterway in question was on a list set by the Minister of Transportation, thus giving the government more space to propose these projects.
Bill C-45 was passed toward the end of 2012. The New Democratic Party invited various First Nations leaders to the debate in Parliament, but they were barred from entry. This act of disallowing native leaders to discuss openly the use of their lands and waterways is rife symbolism of the current Canadian government’s true feelings towards the first peoples. Three women (Nina Wilson, Sylvia McAdam and Jessica Gordon) started the Idle No More movement in November 2012, starting with a teach-in in Saskatoon in response to the first introduction of Bill C-45 in Canada’s parliament. These teach-ins spread to Regina, and then spread quickly to the provinces of Alberta and Manitoba. Since then there have been flash mobs in Toronto’s Eaton Centre and Yorkdale malls, the Cornwall Centre in Regina, the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, as well as one at a mall in Minnesota, U.S. A few days passed before 400 people participated in a flash mob dance in Midtown Plaza in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. On the 17th of December First Nations issued a press release stating that they did not recognize the legality of any laws passed by the Government of Canada “including but not limited to Bill C-45, which do not fulfill their constitutionally recognized and affirmed Treaty and Aboriginal rights; as well as the Crown’s legal obligations to meaningfully consult and accommodate First Nations.” One of the more high-profile actions was taken by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence when she launched a hunger strike on December 16th, demanding that Prime Minister Stephen Harper meet with her to discuss the plight faced by First Nations in Canada. As of this writing PM Harper has refused to meet with her.
So how do we make sense of this, those of us who are not of the First Nations? Some may cringe from the criticism and scoff at the designation as being part of a settler society. Our generation did not commit the initial colonial crimes of the past, and this is true. There is no need in feeling personal guilt at causing the crimes, but there is a reality that we have benefited from the dispossession of indigenous peoples and continue to benefit to this day. Personal guilt over colonialism is irrelevant as it is, since this is not about any individuals but about societies as a whole and how we relate to one another. To feel personal guilt is to internalize the situation and make it about oneself rather than everyone else. Personally I knew the colonialism of the past was an injustice, yet I cannot dis-acknowledge that the present continues to be one of dispossession and land and resource grabbing on part of the modern nation-state to which I belong and the country that acts in my name. No one can alter the past, but one can do something about the present and in turn, the future.
There is no need also on part of those of us descended from settlers to feel threatened or blamed by the Idle No More movement. The movement is completely peaceful and inclusive. No one is talking about sending any of us “back” to Europe or any such thing. This is made clear by the official website on the Mission page: All people will be affected by the continued damage to the land and water and we welcome Indigenous and non-Indigenous allies to join in creating healthy sustainable communities. We encourage youth to become engaged in this movement as you are the leaders of our future.
The movement is grassroots and decentralized, having no clear leaders per say and thus being a form of grassroots democracy, not unlike the Occupy movement of 2011 and 2012. Although the aboriginal issues are at the start of the movement, the overall goal is to create a better future for all peoples in the land that is labelled Canada on the modern globe. The exploitation of the Tar Sands, for instance, threatens First Nations, Canadians and the world as a whole. NASA scientist James Hansen said recently:
“Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk.” (May 9, 2012)
Dr. Pamela Palmater, chair in Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University in Toronto and activist with Idle No More said even more recently that “First Nations, with our constitutionally protected aboriginal and treaty rights, are Canadians’ last best hope to protect the lands, waters, plants and animals from complete destruction — which doesn’t just benefit our children, but the children of all Canadians.” (December 28, 2012) Indeed the children of the world may depend on the success of this movement.
As I stated once before in another article, a little humility can go a long way. Taking part in this movement can teach everyone, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, a thing or two about different worldviews and different ways of doing things, leading us all to a sustainable and equally prosperous future. The past three years have seen incredible changes in the world, uprisings and global awakenings. Let’s see things finally made right here and everywhere else.
This has to be the best blog I have seen so far and it needs to be shared widely...
I'm posting the link here and also copying the text for you and for me so I can find it again and again (hugs) jan
Zimmerman:
A Settler’s Guide to IDLE NO MORE
I used to be such a proud Canadian. So much so that I now have a red maple leaf tattooed forever on my left arm. I had just traveled from Toronto to Vancouver; I felt particularly patriotic and zealous at the time. That’s what happens when you decide things on a whim, but sometimes people have to make such decisions and live with the consequences. It stands as a reminder to me of a time when national boundaries and ideas of intrinsic national character mattered to me. All it would take is some decent education and experiences and the worldly upheavals of 2011 and 2012 to shake me out of this mentality. Most importantly though, looking to the situations involving Canada’s First Nations would make me realize that there was little to really be proud of.We see now happening in this country a major unprecedented movement, that is the Idle No More movement. Many of us have seen them on the news or in person, large marches or flash mobs taking place in cities across this nation. The movement has even gone beyond borders, starting up demonstrations in the United States, but also in Europe and even in Cairo, Egypt recently. Many of us descended from settlers may scratch our heads. Years ago, if the movement had been raging on then, I too would be doing the same. We have seen aboriginal movement before; Oka, Burnt Church, Ipperwash, and more recently Caledonia. Never have we seen something so large-scale and concerted as Idle No More. I think it more likely than not that we are going to be seeing much, much more of it in the year(s) ahead. It is planned to be enormous and completely unprecedented. So, what is Idle No More about? What are the issues involving the first peoples of this country that makes them take part in such a huge movement that is so critical of the Canadian government? Let’s look into it.
I remember it was precisely in grade four, perhaps unlike previous generations, when I learned about the plight of the indigenous peoples. The story was that hundreds of years ago settlers came from Europe and took over the land from the native peoples. It was taught as tragic but I saw it as something from the past. The native Indian itself was something that belonged to a bygone age before the modern era, before even my great-grandparents time (incidentally most of my family came from Europe in the early 20th century). The context of the First Nations in this day and age was never taught, or even of the plights they faced in the first part of the 20th century. Learning more as I aged I was proud of the fact that the treatment of natives in Canada was not like the treatment in the United States where scenes like this happened as late as the 1890′s. Yes, natives in Canada were not “conquered” the way they were in the United States. The system of reservations were done with little bloodshed in comparison. Instead of violent conquest the modern nation-state of Canada entered into a series of treaties with First Nations peoples. I will return to this issue shortly below. At the time I thought this was at least something to be proud of.
And then I learned more. The most shocking thing (to me at first anyway) I find is the wide-spread casual racism towards aboriginal peoples in Canada. An overriding sentiment seems to be one of: “What’s wrong with the natives? Why are so many of them homeless and addicted to drugs or alcoholics?” Whenever I would bring up the context of the past the response was almost always: “It doesn’t matter. Now is now.” The past, in so many peoples eyes, doesn’t seem to add up to the present. Even in my mind, until the past few years, the reality of native peoples losing lands to settlers was a matter of the past.
One thing to understand about the past is that the colonial disruption to native peoples, that is, the tragedy of the colonial era when Europeans first started colonizing this northern land, the large-scale die-off caused by disease and settler violence, is not where the native tragedy ends. As recently as the past century First Nations children were literally forced into the federal and ecumenical residential school system. These schools were compulsory due to the pre-confederation Gradual Civilization Act (1857) and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act (1869). The schools in Canada were generally under provincial jurisdiction (as the public system is to this day) but aboriginal children fell under federal jurisdiction and Churches in Canada (Roman Catholic and Anglican mainly) provided the teachers to shoulder the cost. The goal of the system was to, as Canada’s government has now admitted in retrospect, cause the “killing of the Indian in the child.” The Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869, in particular, was designed to assimilate aboriginal people and make them citizens of Canada so that the treaty rights once negotiated between the Canadian state and First Nations no longer applied to them. In short, it was a long-term solution to de-Indian generations of native people in order to renege on Canada’s treaty obligations.
Of course we know this as Canada’s government has officially apologized for the abuse suffered by native children in the near full century (1884 – 1948) in which mortality rates were suggested to have been 30% to 60% at the beginning of the 20th century. The abuse is now well-documented and the long-lasting effects have been terrifyingly potent for generations of first peoples in Canada, giving scores of people post traumatic stress disorder, drug abuse and alcoholism, and leading to incarceration that is far more prevalent for indigenous peoples than any other culture within Canada. When I first read about the residential school system and it’s long-term effects I was ashamed. Eventually I managed to rationalize this sad legacy as also being “a part of the past”.
It gets worse though. The mistreatment of First Nations peoples goes beyond the residential schools system. To this day native children are still being taken from their parents. Add to that the dismal living standards they face compared to the rest of the country. The idea of the treaty system was that Canada and the various First Nations would be able to live peacefully with one another and that both Canadians (settlers and their descendents) and the first peoples would be able to share the land, it’s resources and wealth equally. The federal government has been criticized for underfunding native services, in particular child welfare services. An estimated 20,000 First Nations living on reserves have no access to running water or sewage. According to Canadian government statistics aboriginal women are five to seven times more likely to die as a result of violence than other women in the country, due to the long-term legacy of governmental policies that have broken families and communities, making their women more vulnerable as a result. Indigenous peoples, on top of numerous other terrifying realities, are more likely to have lifespans twenty years shorter than other Canadians.
Some might argue that Canada has no obligation to First Nations peoples, particularly since they do not consider themselves Canadians in all cases. This is a flat-out wrong way of thinking though for a number of reasons, the most obvious one being that Canada uses native-recognized lands and waterways to this day in order to subsidize the nation’s wealth. In short, Canada benefits from its use of native land and resources, yet the natives get no benefit in return from the Canadian government. Here is where Idle No More comes in. Just last month the federal government, as part of the omnibus bill entitled Bill C-45, overhauled the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) of 1882 and renamed it the Navigation Protection Act (NPA). The original NWPA was made to ensure that any projects, particularly industrial projects such as oil pipelines, were given environmental legislation, that is, any projects would be open for democratic discussion with all stakeholders on the potential environmental and ecological impacts. Nothing could be approved without consultation with all stakeholders, many of whom were first nations communities that were due to the treaties between Canada and their respective nations. If an aboriginal community did not want a pipeline, for instance, going over a river that belonged to their people, the pipeline would likely not be built at that location. The Harper Conservatives have been itching to expand the reach of the Alberta Tar Sands, proposing pipelines over to the Pacific Ocean as well as expanding pipelines Eastward to the maritime provinces. These pipelines would allow the rapid expansion of the Tar Sands (or Oil Sands if you are a government or petro-company spokesperson). The new Navigation Protection Act (NPA) that was passed with Bill C-45 made it so the approval process would only be required if the waterway in question was on a list set by the Minister of Transportation, thus giving the government more space to propose these projects.
Bill C-45 was passed toward the end of 2012. The New Democratic Party invited various First Nations leaders to the debate in Parliament, but they were barred from entry. This act of disallowing native leaders to discuss openly the use of their lands and waterways is rife symbolism of the current Canadian government’s true feelings towards the first peoples. Three women (Nina Wilson, Sylvia McAdam and Jessica Gordon) started the Idle No More movement in November 2012, starting with a teach-in in Saskatoon in response to the first introduction of Bill C-45 in Canada’s parliament. These teach-ins spread to Regina, and then spread quickly to the provinces of Alberta and Manitoba. Since then there have been flash mobs in Toronto’s Eaton Centre and Yorkdale malls, the Cornwall Centre in Regina, the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, as well as one at a mall in Minnesota, U.S. A few days passed before 400 people participated in a flash mob dance in Midtown Plaza in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. On the 17th of December First Nations issued a press release stating that they did not recognize the legality of any laws passed by the Government of Canada “including but not limited to Bill C-45, which do not fulfill their constitutionally recognized and affirmed Treaty and Aboriginal rights; as well as the Crown’s legal obligations to meaningfully consult and accommodate First Nations.” One of the more high-profile actions was taken by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence when she launched a hunger strike on December 16th, demanding that Prime Minister Stephen Harper meet with her to discuss the plight faced by First Nations in Canada. As of this writing PM Harper has refused to meet with her.
So how do we make sense of this, those of us who are not of the First Nations? Some may cringe from the criticism and scoff at the designation as being part of a settler society. Our generation did not commit the initial colonial crimes of the past, and this is true. There is no need in feeling personal guilt at causing the crimes, but there is a reality that we have benefited from the dispossession of indigenous peoples and continue to benefit to this day. Personal guilt over colonialism is irrelevant as it is, since this is not about any individuals but about societies as a whole and how we relate to one another. To feel personal guilt is to internalize the situation and make it about oneself rather than everyone else. Personally I knew the colonialism of the past was an injustice, yet I cannot dis-acknowledge that the present continues to be one of dispossession and land and resource grabbing on part of the modern nation-state to which I belong and the country that acts in my name. No one can alter the past, but one can do something about the present and in turn, the future.
There is no need also on part of those of us descended from settlers to feel threatened or blamed by the Idle No More movement. The movement is completely peaceful and inclusive. No one is talking about sending any of us “back” to Europe or any such thing. This is made clear by the official website on the Mission page: All people will be affected by the continued damage to the land and water and we welcome Indigenous and non-Indigenous allies to join in creating healthy sustainable communities. We encourage youth to become engaged in this movement as you are the leaders of our future.
The movement is grassroots and decentralized, having no clear leaders per say and thus being a form of grassroots democracy, not unlike the Occupy movement of 2011 and 2012. Although the aboriginal issues are at the start of the movement, the overall goal is to create a better future for all peoples in the land that is labelled Canada on the modern globe. The exploitation of the Tar Sands, for instance, threatens First Nations, Canadians and the world as a whole. NASA scientist James Hansen said recently:
“Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk.” (May 9, 2012)
Dr. Pamela Palmater, chair in Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University in Toronto and activist with Idle No More said even more recently that “First Nations, with our constitutionally protected aboriginal and treaty rights, are Canadians’ last best hope to protect the lands, waters, plants and animals from complete destruction — which doesn’t just benefit our children, but the children of all Canadians.” (December 28, 2012) Indeed the children of the world may depend on the success of this movement.
As I stated once before in another article, a little humility can go a long way. Taking part in this movement can teach everyone, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, a thing or two about different worldviews and different ways of doing things, leading us all to a sustainable and equally prosperous future. The past three years have seen incredible changes in the world, uprisings and global awakenings. Let’s see things finally made right here and everywhere else.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Idle No More
I have never
been good with words, with facts, with details. My personal problem has always
been that information going into my brain doesn't come back out easily as words
but it does affect how I feel. So I have
always listened to what my heart says and that gets me in trouble because
everyone wants words. When my heart speaks, people want me to back it up with facts. To somehow convince them. That's just not who I am. I became involved with Occupy because I saw some sort of hope there. Some way I could participate in a supportive role without having to use words.
And now it's time to be Idle No More.
Chief Theresa Spence says the pain of her people is too great.
She is on day 17 of her hunger strike and is prepared to die for her people.
I know nothing about navigable waters except what I hear
from Elizabeth May, our Green Party leader who I trust and pray can make a difference. I just see that our government is putting laws into place
that most Canadians know nothing about and doing it at a speed that is
frightening. Stephen Harper himself didn't like omnibus bills until he
gained the power to use them himself. At
this point I don't see any reasonable debate and I see a party line and a whole
bunch of sheeple in parliament that frighten me with the power they give their
leader. It's time our government began listening to the people and not to the
corporate need for a stronger 'economy' at the expense of Mother Earth.
I have spent weeks going thru the Indian Act and the
1995 Royal Commission and much time following the Truth and Reconciliation
hearings and recommendations coming from our church. So much stuff we never learned in
school. So many generations of people
living with damage to their souls that will take even more generations to heal.
I believe there is corruption everywhere, not just within
First Nations, so we need to clean our own slates before pointing fingers at
others. I believe the First Nations need
a stronger voice in whatever decisions they say affect them. I don't see them having this voice. Chief Theresa Spence is demanding a voice,
demanding respect for treaties signed by ancestors. I pray she can stay strong and healthy because I dread what could ensue if she dies.
Idle No More was started by four ordinary
women tired of the battle they have been waging. They also want their voices heard. The response has been overwhelming from the
grassroots level. I am prepared to
support them however I can.
later man, jan (hugs)
Thursday, March 08, 2012
Fire & Grace Contemplative Worship
Fire &
Grace Contemplative Prayer Service
Living Spirit United Church – March 8, 2012
Welcome
Opening
Reading (spoken together)
The
Beloved, through the energy of Love,
brought forth the world.
From
the rising to the setting sun,
Love radiates out to all the nations
perfect
in beauty.
The
Beloved has come
and will not keep silence; for
Divine
Love is a consuming Fire,
calling forth heaven and earth
to the
judgement of all peoples:
“Gather around, my loyal friends,
all who by repentance and recompense
follow the
Inner Way.”
The
universe forever proclaims justice,
And
the Beloved’s Indwelling Presence
guides those who hear with their heart’s ear.
(Psalm 50: 1-7 trans. Nan C Merrill)
Chant:
O God, we call. O God, we call.
From deep inside we yearn;
From deep inside we
yearn
From deep inside we
yearn, for You
VU #411(repeat)
Readings…
1st
reading – listen, what word or phrase draws you.
2nd
reading – listen, for an image that relates to your life.
3rd
reading – listen, what might God be calling you to?
“The life of faith carries with it many temptations,
and this is surely one of them – to imagine that the outward signs of our
devotion can constitute the whole of our relationship with God. The same culture that prescribes ritual also
insists that ritual itself is not omnicompetent; it is no substitute for
ethics, or for the surrender of self-will without which it is impossible to
love God or anyone else. Worshipping God
can look pretty perfect on the outside and still be empty on the inside.”
(Barbara Crafton)
Chant:
O God, we call. O God, we call.
From deep inside we yearn;
From deep inside we
yearn
From deep inside we
yearn, for You
VU #411(repeat)
Silent Meditation (15-20 minutes ended
by a bell)
Prayers of the people followed by Our Father.
Chant:
And Love says, I
will, I will take care of you…
And Love says, I
will, I will take care of you…
(repeat)
Closing: (spoken together)
Create
in me a clean heart, O Gracious One,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Enfold
me in the arms of Love,
and fill me with your Holy Spirit.
Restore
in me the joy of your saving grace,
and encourage me with a new spirit.
(Psalm
51:11-13 trans Nan Merrill)
Namaste.
Monday, March 05, 2012
Sunday, March 04, 2012
I Was Blind, But Now I See...
“All that is necessary for
evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” (Edmund Burke)
Where’s the problem? My life is just fine, thank you.
I used to be proud to call myself Canadian. Now I realize I have been blind. Conditioned.
To give more and more to charity to help more and more people who are
hurting more and more every day. How bad
does it have to get to wake me up?
My elected representative doesn’t actually represent me. He doesn’t believe what I believe.
Canada’s exit from the Kyoto Protocol shamed me before
the world. While I watched!
I wrote to protest Bill C-10 that will ensure that petty
criminals are imprisoned alongside the dangerous ones, encouraging further
crime. And received the ‘not now little
girl’ reply.
I wrote to protest Bill C-30 that will give our police force
the right and authority to monitor our e-mails, web history, and private
activity without warrants. And received
the ‘not now little girl’ reply.
And blindly following our neighbor into war? The next one with Iran? Iran has no weapons of mass destruction. The
only country which does have nuclear weapons in the region is the very country
we are siding with. Sounds pretty scary
to me with Russia and China in the wings.
Our freedoms are slowly being taken away and we are doing
nothing?
Heard of NDAA? The
National Defense Authorization Act in the United States… allows the military to
indefinitely detain American citizens considered ‘terrorists’ or threats to the
system. We now have the ‘Beyond the
Borders: Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness’ act, the recent
integration of ‘security’ between Canada and the U.S. which now makes it
possible for the U.S. to charge any Canadian as well.
Now we sit quietly to wait for new government budgets to bring
austerity measures that will tear down our society, our healthcare, our Old Age
Pension, our EI insurance and all the other social welfare programs our parents
worked so hard to achieve. I’m comparing
this to the dollars to be spent on fighter jets, battleships, super-prisons
around the country and even a glass dome on our Parliamentary building. Nothing there about recovering offshore money. I don’t like what I see.
The final straw should be this fraud in our elections. These so-called robocalls to confuse voters. I hear this has been under investigation
since June. Now the dirt is coming to
light. Enough light to wake up the
sleeping? I hope so.
We need to look in our mirrors.
We need to look deep in our hearts and accept
that we, the people, have not bothered to stand up for our
rights.
But all is not lost. Perhaps we, the people can turn this thing
around.
It’s time to stand up and be
counted.
What kind of country, what kind
of world, are we leaving behind for our grandchildren?
I have looked and I don’t like what I’ve seen.
I am speaking out.
Get Fraud out of Parliament NOW!
We call on ALL THE PEOPLE to join in PROTEST
-Sunday, March 11, from 2 to 4 pm on
the steps of Calgary City Hall
We the people of Canada demand …a FULL PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO THE ROBOCALLS AND BY-ELECTIONS IN ALL AFFECTED RIDINGS!
1) We ask for a public and independent criminal investigation.
2) We ask for by-elections in every riding affected by the scandal.
3) We ask for the resignation of any member of parliament found to be involved in any way.
This will be a peaceful protest and family friendly environment.
We the people of Canada demand …a FULL PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO THE ROBOCALLS AND BY-ELECTIONS IN ALL AFFECTED RIDINGS!
1) We ask for a public and independent criminal investigation.
2) We ask for by-elections in every riding affected by the scandal.
3) We ask for the resignation of any member of parliament found to be involved in any way.
This will be a peaceful protest and family friendly environment.
Get
Fraud out of Parliament NOW!
"our lives begin to end
the day we remain silent about things that matter"
(Martin Luther King)
Later man, jan
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