What will it take?

I'm sitting here at my computer, alone for the weekend, enjoying some trivial celeb gossip and catching  up on email. Or I was anyway. While scrolling through the mindless and wonderfully entertaining smut online I came across a heading begging Americans not to follow in Canadian footsteps regarding their upcoming election. Why? Because in our federal election this week we Canadians didn't show up to vote. "Canadians shunned the polls during their national election with the lowest turnout on record... some 59.1% of voters went to the polls on Tuesday." (yahoo news)

I read the article and started to cry - actual tears formed and I rested my head in my hands. I'm struggling to find the right words here... I just can't understand why people didn't care enough to participate. It makes me so upset and frustrated, because I care so much and I pray for something, or someone, to come along that will inspire the rest of the country to get involved in the process. 59.1%? It's insulting to all the people who campaign, who work the polling stations, who stuff envelopes, who engage in intelligent and sometimes combative conversations during these times, to not at least make the effort to cast one vote for a say in our collective future. How can you not do that much? How can you not care what happens? For your children, for your parents who may be reaching an age where they rely on the government to survive, or for goodness sake, for YOURSELF!! Don't you care about the economy, about the states of education and healthcare, about equality and human rights, about keeping industry in Canada, about protecting our fragile environment? Seriously, do NONE of these things matter? 

I am so offended by the disrespect shown to the women and other minority groups who came before us - people who fought, with dire consequences, to have the right to vote. They cared so much about having a say that they were beaten, imprisoned, and ostracized, and it is a slap in their faces that we didn't even show up (literally and figuratively). They fought to give us the right to vote, and now it is our responsibility to use that right. It breaks my heart that pride of civic duty and pride of impacting our nation's future aren't strong enough incentives to get people involved. We have turned into a country of people who are not accountable anymore. Somewhere along the road to bettering ourselves the lessons about responsibility and community action fell by the wayside. We all want something for nothing these days, and we believe we're entitled to it all without necessarily earning it. Well, guess what? The reason we can take our abundant human rights for granted today is because our predecessors voted and fought to provide them for us!! We are so blessed and we owe it to ourselves and to those before us to respect these rights we have. We have a moral obligation to care! 

The world doesn't change by people complaining, it changes by participation and action. And 60.9% of this country chose to sit home and watch Dancing with the Stars instead of voting. We should all be ashamed.

"That's so gay."

Check out this video on perezhilton.com featuring Hilary Duff. It drives me crazy when people use "That's so gay" as a synonym for "That's so shitty", so when I saw this clip I had to share it with you here.  I really hope that this insulting phrase fades away as more people realize the true meaning behind the words.

http://perezhilton.com/tv/index.php?ptvid=c527bac2395be

Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity

 I'm posting a slightly edited version of an email I received this morning. The message remains in tact, but some of the phrasing was awkward and words were even missing from the version I got (friggin' forwards... something always gets lost in translation I suppose), so I had to extrapolate in a few places. If the original author comes across this, I hope they won't be upset that this isn't verbatim.

           So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year

           because - why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to

           get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

           Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's

           new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of

           the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain 

           at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I 

           needed the reminder.

           My friend, Wendy, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my 

           desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was -- with herself. 

          'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' 

           she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or

           don't use [my right to vote?]' Social studies and government teachers 

           should include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on 

           Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this 

           isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the

           numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

           It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to

           persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that

           she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is

           inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong,

           he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.  The doctor

           admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for

           insanity.' 

           We need to get out and vote and use this right that was

           fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Remember

           to vote. 

                       *PS  In Canada the women of Manitoba got the right to vote

           in 1916 thanks to the efforts of Nellie McClung and her

           colleagues. The rest of Canadian women were allowed to vote

           in federal elections when the Women's Franchise Act was

           passed in 1918. However, it was not until 1940 that the

           women of Quebec got the right to vote in provincial

           elections - the last province to accord them this right of

           suffrage.

It's so important to vote

"The price good men pay for  indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato 

I've attached links to the websites of our four main political parties here in Canada, in the hopes that it will jump-start your research into the issues that are surrounding us during this election period.

It's so easy to shrug it off, or to say that your vote won't count, but it will. Some people are elected into office by just a handful of votes, and it's in those instances where we see that each person really does influence our resulting government. Even if your candidate doesn't win, you still send a message to Ottawa that influences how policies get decided - more seats get allocated to other parties with different views, so debates become more layered and objective. That is how we ensure our democratic future.

Our country is full of many people: rich and under-priviledged, farmers and businessmen, men and women, liberals and conservatives, people of every imaginable ethnicity, religion and value system. It would be a shame for the voices of the voting minorities (including middle class women, btw) to hand over their rights and opinions over to those who have no understanding of the issues that affect them.

Their are so many issues to get behind, and I hope that you will get involved - at least enough to cast an informed vote on October 14th. Please take the time to look over the policies, platforms and history of the candidates. It may not be fun, but it is our responsibility to get involved in the electoral process.

www.ndp.ca

www.conservative.ca

www.liberal.ca

www.greenparty.ca

Word Bank Poem - Torn

Word Bank from writeanyway.com

nature

step

fragile

pair

knowledge

mistake

advice

rescue

time

devote

Is it a mistake

to pass on the advice of others,

and step into forgiveness?

As half of a fragile pair,

I attempted a brave rescue

and devoted too much of myself

to the task.

Now I must choose if her nature

can be negotiated with,

or if it's time

to acknowledge the truth.

That years alone

can not bind us.

It will all be undone

if the rope is too frayed.

A big week for my big boy

This has been a big week for my son. First he started crawling, and today his first tooth broke through! 

Man, for all the hell that the first 4 months of parenthood was, I'm now being rewarded big-time with the sweetest, most wonderful little boy. He has energy like you wouldn't imagine, and he is so curious that he's getting into everything - particularly the things he shouldn't get into like cables, cords and cat food. Today we had eachother in hysterics sticking out our tongues at one another. He started it, just playing with his own tongue, pointing it, rolling it around in his mouth, grabbing it with his fingers... you get the idea, and I stuck mine out at him to see if he would understand that we were doing the same thing. He reached for my tongue and started giggling, then stuck his own out and I would laugh, which would make him laugh even harder. It was the best moment of my day, just making my baby so happy like that - there's nothing like it in the world. 

I also took him out this afternoon to meet up with my girlfriend, and during the drive to the mall I kept glancing in my rearview mirror at him. He sat quietly, playing with his toy phone or tugging on a car seat strap, and I couldn't help but smile at him. My chest felt full and warm looking at my gorgeous, well-behaved little guy. Even though we were stuck in rush hour traffic I couldn't have cared less, because singing "Down by the Bay" to my baby, and reaching back to stroke his hair at red lights totally makes my life. Now, I know that during those first few months of colic and exzema I had doubts as to whether or not I was really ready for this whole motherhood thing. But as days of smiles, babbling, and laughter have become the norm, the days of freakouts and poor sleeping (his and mine!) fade into distant memories. I realize that not only was I ready for a child, but having this person to spend my life with has blessed me in ways that I'm only just beginning to discover.  I look forward to each new day with excitement about what he might learn or do, and in this particular stage (8 months) it seems that there really is something new every single day. I can only imagine what the coming days (and months and years!) will bring, and I wonder how my heart will manage not to burst with love for him, considering it's already so full. :)