Time Out

Did anyone else have just a really rough weekend?

I am not talking about family problems or anything like that. I mean more external pressure that you just couldn't shake? I felt as though I was on the verge of tears all weekend. Not because of anything that is happening to me personally but as a reaction to not only the group in Ottawa but also in seeing how many people I considered friends who completely bought into the rhetoric. 

I am pro-democracy, I am pro having your say and protesting the things that you can't live with. But in this country, my home, I never thought that people I know would be ok with Nazi flags being flown. I never thought that my countrymen would throw rocks at ambulances, or dance and urinate on a cenotaph to fallen soldiers. Never thought that they would deface a Terry Fox statue. Do they really think he would be on their side?

I am embarrassed by the people who call themselves patriots. Who goes to the capital and mocks indigenous drum circles, steals food from homeless people, yells racial slurs at the helpers, and thinks that they are fighting for me, for all of us. 

They don't get to use my voice, they don't get to walk away without consequence. The country I live in, the country I love, has no place for swastikas on red backgrounds, no room for confederate flags, and no room for white people having temper tantrums. 

There are much larger problems here that have existed for a long time. Residential schools, access to clean drinking water, pockets of white supremacy., corrupt provincial governments. These are the things we should be protesting. These are the issues that need to raise seven million dollars and more. These people have had the eye of the media and the ear of our provincial governments for too long.

If you think wearing a mask is worse than not having drinking water. If you think having to show proof of vaccine is worse than worrying that someone is going to attack you because of the colour of your skin, then you need to sit alone in a quiet room and really look at yourself. 

This country has always had things that needed to be examined. We should be growing as a nation. We should be banding together and figuring out how to fix real problems. As a parent, when my kids threw temper tantrums I would ignore them. Within a minute they would realize that they weren't going to get what they wanted as long as they acted this way. 

It's time to ignore the people that think they are victims because they aren't able to go get chicken wings. The time has come to focus on the real issues facing us. The world is watching. Let's live up to our reputation as peacekeepers, as the nice guys. Let's not give these convoy members any more time or attention, they aren't worthy of it.

In light of what is going on, I chose today's song as a reflection. I am not feeling a lot of hope right now, and this song lets me know that it won't be this way forever. A Change is Going to Come by Sam Cooke was released as part of an album in February 1964, and then as a single in December of that same year. The song was written as a response to Sam Cooke, his wife, and a few others who were denied a hotel room in Shreveport, Lousiana. After they were denied Cooke asked to speak to the manager, who then called the police. During the discussion, Cooke's wife nudged him to tell him to calm down. She was worried they would kill him. They did not shoot him, but he was arrested and held. The arrest caused an uproar within the community and eventually, the mayor gave an apology. After Cooke's death in December 1964, he was posthumously given the key to the city.