Why blog?

Every day a new outrage.  So, why blog?  I began in 2014.   Two events: one personal, one political.  A need to, at the very least, shout into the wind.  But with the internet, a new wind tunnel opens up.

I hoped revealing my struggles might touch someone else who is struggling.  There is a whole supportive community now, so we don’t have to be alone.  And comments and conversations tell me it is a good path.

The bigger questions remain.  Inequality, racism, alternative facts, bizarre interpretations of religious texts.  Trump looming over all that is good like a schoolyard bully looking to dominate weakness and to exploit divisions for his own gain.  I thought perhaps I had some good arguments people could use against the bullies in power or to convince those who are uninformed to join the good fight.

But right now everybody and their brother is putting forth those same arguments, and the result is a digging in and doubling down of the ignorant and the privileged.

People Unclear On The Concept: Mother’s Day Edition

Barbara Kay of the National Post admits she has not read The Handmaid’s Tale, nor has she watched the new television show.

“Pious Christians are the last people on earth to dream up a system in which the state has control over everyone’s sexual and reproductive lives…”

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/barbara-kay-the-problem-with-handmaids-tale-is-that-its-not-a-believable-dystopia-its-sci-fi

It’s pretty clear she doesn’t know the story.  In Margaret Atwood’s book, there is a plot reveal halfway or maybe two-thirds of the way into the story that made me foot stomping mad.  Because… of course!  The men in charge of Gilead are certainly not pious, they are hypocritical oligarchs.

Here are some questions and answers for those pesky white supremacists

Their mantra is Asia for Asians, Africa for Africans, and Europe for Europeans. When someone says that to you, the obvious retort is:  Then you must believe that the Americas and Australia are for Aboriginals!  Then you must believe that European Colonialism was very wrong, and upset the “balance” of the continents!  (Perhaps the Europeans venturing into the other continents set up the history and politics that result in the current immigration from those countries back into Europe.)

What You’ll Find Here

Some fiction, lots of opinion of the world today and how it got this way, some photo essays of Montreal.  A lot of art throughout.  

Constructive feedback on my art and writing appreciated.  I’d love to hear from you.

Make America Great Again, please

Elect a Democrat…  or a Republican that is not a racist or a religious nut.

CBC had a good documentary on last night: “The Mad World of Donald Trump”.  His slogans stir up the latent anger in Americans.  Conservatives have a fear of  change, where liberals have hope for  change.  The conservatives in America who love Trump now, might be the ones most angry at him later.

Politically correct

Trump supporters are said to like him because he “tells it like it is”, and “says things people think but don’t say”, and of course because he is not “politically correct.”  If you define yourself as politically incorrect, what is actually happening to you beyond people speaking up and calling you out on it?  Are there laws about thought and attitude being passed?

Manchester, New Hampshire, June 17, 2015. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter

Bad Cops

©2001 Marion Pennell

Is there any other profession that fights as hard to protect its worst members? Where the mentality becomes us VERSUS them/our clients/citizens?  Where interactions become so rigid and one-sided as to continually produce results that undermine the very institution? 

Truth and Reconciliation – what we didn’t learn in school

©2001 Marion Pennell

Here are excerpts from the introduction of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final document (http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Exec_Summary_2015_05_31_web_o.pdf)

For over a century, the central goals of Canada’s Aboriginal policy were to eliminate Aboriginal governments; ignore Aboriginal rights; terminate the Treaties; and, through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal peoples to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada. The establishment and operation of residential schools were a central element of this policy, which can best be described as “cultural genocide.”

 

Physical genocide is the mass killing of the members of a targeted group, and biological genocide is the destruction of the group’s reproductive capacity. Cultural genocide is the destruction of those structures and practices that allow the group to continue as a group. States that engage in cultural genocide set out to destroy the political and social institutions of the targeted group. Land is seized, and populations are forcibly transferred and their movement is restricted. Languages are banned. Spiritual leaders are persecuted, spiritual practices are forbidden, and objects of spiritual value are confiscated and destroyed. And, most significantly to the issue at hand, families are disrupted to prevent the transmission of cultural values and identity from one generation to the next.

 

In its dealing with Aboriginal people, Canada did all these things.

The best year of my life

June 7th is my Liberation Day.  One year ago I shed the burden of anxiety, depression, and PTSD – when I learned my abuser – my teenage boyfriend – was not only merely dead, he was really most sincerely dead.

©2006 Marion Pennell

Music abounded: Let It Go, Brave, Everything is Beautiful, I am Woman, I’m Free… The soundtrack in my head flipped to joyous.

Darcy Oake is not a great illusionist.

Darcy Oake is not a great illusionist.  On Canada AM (May 5, 2015, repeated today:  Victoria Day) he gets the host to name 6 numbers between one and ninety-nine.  The end of the trick – he produces a 6/49 lottery ticket with the six numbers.  The host is astounded!! 

The only problem is it is called 6/49 – and your 6 numbers must be between one and forty-nine.  Two of the host’s numbers were 50 and 69.