On the Road Again (almost) 2013)

I had the strangest dream last night. I was hitchhiking somewhere between Cambray and Woodville (just north of Lindsay, Ontario) in a T-shirt and shorts. I had left my black suitcase with wheels (like the one that I use when I fly) and I kept on having to go back and get it. And then through the magic that can only exist in dreams I was quickly transported to just outside of Ottawa and quickly got the perfect ride to the west.

While I don't very often remember details of my dreams, I was not surprised that I did this one. For the past week or so I have been aware  that thinking/day dreaming about traveling has gradually been moving from my sub-conscious  into my conscious mind. The other day  I was looking for a new dress shirt at Mark's Warehouse and before I knew it, I was looking at new light weight quick dry pants for traveling. On another day I started to look for new hiking boots. And while I am not yet at the point where I think about parking my car on the side of the road and flagging down a big truck I know that the obsession is starting.

It is only the middle of February and given the amount of snow on the ground, there is at least another seven to eight weeks of winter. I have another ten weeks of teaching. But I can feel the pull of the road upon my soul. That restless energy that starts to build within me until it is almost touchable. My thumb is getting itchy. It is time to start traveling again.

I have lots of potential places to go. I would love to go back to Yellowknife and spend some more time there getting to know the area, but I have yet to go to the Yukon, the last of the of the province/territory left for me to see. There is also a National Gathering in Montana and it would be great go and to see folks I have not seen for a year or two. There are so many places, little towns or valleys that one can see from the highway that I ache to visit at least just once.  

It is only February. I have lots of time to dream and to plan and to trace the miles on the map that I carry in my head. As I lay in bed I can see the routes, the good places to get a ride, the places to sleep and already the rides that I will get. At least for a while I just need to make sure that my dreams stay in my head during the quiet times. It is so hard to teach when I lose track of the conversation in the classroom and drift into thinking about being on the road again

Remarkable Happenings

There is something rather remarkable happening in provincial politics in Canada. 

At present, out of the thirteen Canadian provinces and territories, six of them are lead by women. A decade ago that would have been inconceivable for most Canadians.  A decade ago the vast majority of the  rank and file of the various provincial parties would not have ever thought that a woman would be electable as a leader in a provincial election.  Clearly the membership of the parties have realized ( a few generations too late) that their assumptions as to whom would make a good leader were wrong.

What makes this somewhat (if welcome) surprising turnaround even more remarkable is that women are still under represented in terms of actual seats in the various legislatures.  In Ontario, out of 107 seats - just 30 are filled by women. Ontario's abysmal rate of representation is about the same as Canada's. According to the Canadian Parliamentary Review in 2007 (http://www.revparl.ca/english/issue.asp?param=180&art=1231), Canada was 47th of the democratic countries in terms of female representation in Canada. Countries such as Mauritania, Uganda, Rwanda, Afghanistan and Iraq all have a higher rate of female representation in their Parliaments than does Canada (Canadian Parliamentary Review  2007). So what gives? How is it possible that only 27- 30% of Provincial legislators are women but just under 50% of the leaders are?

I am sure there are some remarkably bright political science students who are examining this issue with great interest and that there will be a flood (I probably over exaggerate) of papers published in small obscure academic journals that are not available to the public discussing why now. I think it is a worthy topic of for people to think about

However what I find really interesting about the whole thing is that no one is talking about it. While leaders such as the newly elected Ontario Provincial Premier  Kathleen Wynne get asked about what they will bring to the office as a woman, for the most part no one seems to care whether or not our leaders are males or females.

And that is the way it should be. Maybe we are growing up - finally.

Shingles

Shingles (herpes zoster) is a painful, blistering skin rash due to the varicella-zoster virus, the virus that causes chickenpox (U.S. National Library of Medicine - The World's Largest Medical Library http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001861/). It is a condition that is more likely to affect those over the age of 60 and from all accounts it is rather painful. 

There is a vaccine that apparently reduces the possibility of getting this virus. Obtaining the vaccine is somewhat complicated  in that
1) doctor needs to do a perscription
2) because it is a live vaccine - one needs to go to the drugstore who give it to you and then you need to rush back to the doctor.
3) doctor gives the needle.

It sounds as if it would take an hour or two to make it all happen. A bit of a nuisance but certainly it is manageable especially if the pharmacy in the clinic can obtain the vaccine. The only problem is the cost.

$150.00 per needle!!!!

The cost is not covered by any provincial or private medical plan.

I can afford it, but what about the 1000s of Canadians over the age of 60 who can not? It would seem to be outrageous that one's health is directly connected to one's wealth. If one can not afford to buy the vaccine  you run the risk of getting this preventable and painful condition. If you can - then you don't.

This is at the very least is unfair and unjust. It is the antithesis of what our public health system is suppose to be. It is wrong!!

 

Cutting My Hair

I would think that almost everyone who has met me in the last 10-15 years would, if asked to describe me, probably say "he has long hair". And it is true I do have long hair. In fact it is long enough that I can almost sit on it. And that is becoming too long.

I love the feeling of the wind blowing through my hair and how it feels on my bare back. I enjoy the looks I get from people and I especially like it when women complain that it is not fair that I have nicer hair than them! Having long hair has been fun.

But it is a nuisance. I seldom go out with my hair "free" (upbraided) because the slightest winds turns it into  a snarling mess of tangled hair; only on occasion do I walk around shirtless and therefore I almost never feel it against my bare back. It takes far too long at both bedtime and when I get up to brush it. I am tired of spending too much on conditioner, having to have a shower in the evening as I won't have time in the morning and of cleaning long hair out the sink and bathtub drains. It is time to get it cut.

In the fall as I was coming to terms with the psychological trauma cutting my "claim to fame", my identity etc, some students from the Lindsay Campus of the college announced that they were going to raise money for Rick Mercer's Spread the Net campaign. What a perfect opportunity! I like both the concept of the program and the fact that Mercer has created a charity that young people want to become involved in. So I contacted one of the organizers and made the commitment.

It is happening in 10 days time on January 30th. There are pictures up all over the school, people who I don't know are approaching me and asking questions. Some folks have even offered money to me to not to cut my hair. It seems as if people like my identity as much as I like it. Which is nice to know.

I suspect people are seeing me getting my haircut as a somewhat noble or "good" thing to do. But it is not really that noble. While it will be traumatic, I am not getting it all shaved off (12-13 inches still leaves near my shoulders). However I do think it is useful and important for people who label themselves teachers to sometimes set an example. To every once in awhile to go to the edge and rather than just talking about being actively engaged in the community, to do something.

People my age sometimes start to assume the mantle of being an elder within their community. If that is the case - then we need to lead by doing - not by telling others what to do.

Idle No More - or a 3rd conversation with an imaginary student

On Friday I took an hour or so off and went down to the intersection of Lansdowne and the Parkway to stop some traffic. Actually that is not why I went down there, but that is what happened. I originally thought that I, along with a hundred or so other people, were going to walk up the our local MP's office and invite him out to talk to us. But that would have been a rather silly exercise. One - because he was probably not even there, two - because if he had been there -  he would not have come out and three because even if he had come out, I can't believe he would have been at all be empathetic toward Idle No More's issues. Still that was the plan in my head. I wanted to be there to demonstrate my support for  the issues that are being raised by my fellow Canadians

It wasn't cold on Friday afternoon, but it was damp with enough rain coming down to require me to put my glasses in my shirt pocket. I really dislike having to view life through spotted glasses.  I am not very good about guessing how many people are at an event. There were certainly more than a 100 gathered at the corner but I don't think there were more than 200. There were lots of signs, a few flags and perhaps most surprisingly a wide range of people. While the majority of participants were probably from one of the close-by First Nations communities, there were also a number of people of European descent. There were some people who looked to be older than me and there were as well a number of young adults. I think the group reflected - as least in terms of demographics- the make-up of Peterborough.  I recognized a number of the people but there didn't appear to be anyone who I knew well. And that was disappointing. I had hoped that some of my colleagues from the college would have been there.

There were a few speeches from local members of the Idle No More movement which I unfortunately  couldn't hear very well as the megaphone was seldom pointed in my direction. I did however hear a number of the speakers mention that we were going to block traffic. I was not that excited about the prospect. It has been a few years since I have visibly protested and even more since I have knowingly engaged in civil disobedience. Still when the time came, I was glad to join the dance circle. It turned out that I did know the person beside me. It is always nice to hold hands with someone you know.

We circled - sometimes danced - blocking all four entrances to the intersection. Singers and drummers were in the middle of the circle along with photographers from the local media. It was not, quite frankly a particularly graceful or even energetic group. I think we needed more drums and more singers. Perhaps two concentric circles would have ensured that the circles moved around more quickly. We were not very practiced protesters. I think we should practice more.

Drivers that originally, I think, honked in support of the cause - started to honk far more aggressively. Cars that squeezed by the edges of the circle to make right hand turns more and more frequently seemed to spin their tires and roar their engines as they speed away. People were clearly getting irritated. The absurdity of their frustration is that Lansdowne is far more busy, more congested and far slower the few weeks leading up to Christmas than it was last Friday. The police eventually appeared. I have to assume that they were parked not so far away waiting to be called. I suspect they would have preferred not to have been called. There was not much that they could do. The three or four officers walked around trying to encourage the protesters to leave room for the cars to get through, they were not successful and then did nothing. They waited for us to stop blocking traffic.

After 15 or so minutes we walked back to the corner and dispersed. That was it. The protest, for that day, was over. One could wonder if it did any good. Did any of the drivers caught up in the traffic learn anything useful? Did anyone decide that they should investigate the issues further? Was anyone inspired to become engaged in the protest? Will the government change its policies because of this demonstration or even because of the accumulative pressure of all of the demonstrations?  I suspect not. So why do it at all?

Such acts of civil disobedience are not designed to change the world, at least not in the short term. They are however beneficial in strengthening the core protesters commitment to the issues. Whether or not I participated on Friday is not particularly relevant to the politics of Canada. But I hope that my presence there, along with the other hundred plus people will encourage and inspire those who started the movement to keep on educating us, to keep on telling our government that the time has come that they must listen to the people. I will be back there the next time.

A second conversation with imaginary students

Within the last two to three weeks there has been a minor but important shift in the Canadian political landscape. This has occurred not because the politicians have passed a new law or rescinded an old one (in fact it would appear that most politicians have been enjoying their Christmas vacation which means that they have been as effective as ever) but because some ordinary Canadians have gotten angry enough to do something.

When I first responded to a student's question as to what they could do to protest Bill C-45 - my answer was not particularly helpful or perhaps even hopeful. I suggested that the process to create sustainable change in the way our government made decisions would be at best slow.  For this change to occur, I argued that there would need to be a fundamental shift in the voting patterns of students and their families. I further argued that it was our responsibility to be better informed as to what the government was doing before they did it.

I was wrong.

I still think that it will take time to create a population that believes that it has both the right and responsibility to ensure that it is educated and informed. I think that we, as a collective of citizens, are still some distance away from being active participants in our government but the "Idle No More" movement has, in the last few weeks, has created a level of public awareness that just did not exist a month or so ago.

It strikes me that we are at a bit of an interesting crossroad.  For centuries it has been said (erroneously)  that the Indigenous People of Canada needed direction as they were not capable of leading themselves. Now they are leading us. They are the ones who have the commitment and the energy to stand up to the government. They are the ones who are educating their communities as to what the issues are. It is a model that the rest of us should pay attention to. There is no way at this point to know if this new movement "has legs". That is if they has the capacity to maintain their energies and to keep their issues in the forefront. But anytime a bunch of Canadians are committed enough to demonstrate in Winnipeg, in Northern Ontario or Toronto in the middle of winter they have my respect. Maybe it is time that the rest of us joined them. Maybe it is time that we too get up off of our collective behinds and in a clear and peaceful way tell the government that some things are just not OK. At the very least perhaps it is time that we started to talk to each other about what is important to us.

While I am appalled and embarrassed at some of the racist comments one can read on the various internet news pages, it seems to me that most of the comments are at least somewhat supportive. Maybe, just maybe that dialogue about what is important has finally started.

Join in the conversation. Don't let anyone tell you that it is not important to all Canadians.