Domestic Sunrise/Alberta

 

Domestic Sunrise

The little boy slowly walked along

The darkened hall to his parent’s bedroom

And stood at the doorway, contemplating his

Next move and hoping to be noticed.

Quietly, 

Tentative,

Then more

Urgently

He called, “Daddy have to go pee.”

Father stumbled for his slippers and housecoat,

Walked over to the door and

Scooped up his waiting son who instinctively

Cuddled his little body close.

Together, they walked the darkened hallway

To the washroom.

The sun illuminated the low level morning clouds

With a fiery glow as father and son sat down at the

Long pine kitchen table. Neither making a sound 

As they sat in silent communion, one drinking dark

Coffee, the other warm milk. Ashley, their Cocker Spaniel

Lay wide awake at their feet in anticipation of any handout

That might reach the kitchen floor.

A tiny cry broke the stillness as his daughter awoke…

The morning shuffle began once again.

Brainstorming While Writing A Children’s Storybook

Brain-Storming While Writing a Children’s Storybook

 

Unicorns are stereotypes,

Gnomes, fairies and dwarves have

all been done,

dinosaurs are passe

tales of social responsibility have merit,

but getting tiresome, how much global

warming, bullying, environmental  teaching

can we absorb?

Should I use lyrical text with colourful illustrations?

Fiction or Non-Fiction?

 

Science, numeracy, oral language teaching

with scaffold learning and cultural values 

using frogs, bears eagles and ravens, 

a possibility but...

 

How about surreal, whimsical and verging

on the bizarre or fantastical

Just for fun!

 

Is my main character a child in an adult world

an animal as parable or metaphor?

Then do I cast pigeon, crow, seagulls

or squirrels, if my squirrels wish to migrant 

South do they travel by Greyhound bus, 

with other animals?  What luggage do they take?

Can they text?

 

Will a racoon family live in a Ford Pinto,

in a remote forest with a social media presence, or 

a Canada Goose who suffers learning disabilities,

a navigational impairment tragically

loses his way to Mexico only to connect

with a flock of swallows heading for Capistrano

meeting the love of his life sadly to be rejected 

by their families living a life of obscurity,

but happiness, in suburban San Diego. 

 

The swallow and the goose escaped the stereotype,

so it seems there is always a lesson to learn.

 

Undercover in a Cafe

Undercover in a Cafe

 

The three sat at their table

like an elderly summit meeting

running a play by play

of clandestine activities:

“Look, Joe at the door, stooped

hard to believe

he used to teach phys ed.”

 

“You know he

shouldn’t be driving now

his hands are so numb, doubt

if he can even feel the steering 

wheel, he picked up his coffee,

couldn’t feel it either, spilt all over,

there he goes shouldn’t be

driving, damn fool!”

 

I looked around me, in the cafe,

at 70 something, with my cane

parked at my side, probably the

youngest one there, I stared at

my book, The Gentleman from Moscow,

listening to every word like a Soviet

Cold War spy.

 

Cafes now are extensions of

Senior’s homes.

Popular hubs of intrigue, 

subterfuge and sharing 

of the everyday aches and pains

“My arthritis was flaring this morning,

couldn’t get my socks on 

too far to the floor these days”

 

“I come here because they have

free refills”

 

“Just makes me pee too much “

 

“I hit the John before I need to,

its an avoidance thing”

 

“Doesn’t seem to be working!”

 

There are hubs like the one near me

each a sleeper cell of secret activity.

Information is passed, stories exchanged

medical histories shared,

Behind enemy lines, who will ever know.

 

Marty

 

Learning Styles

Learning Styles 

 

Tom Wayman is a Canadian poet who wrote about what he called the “central experience of everyday life which is what people do for a living, their work.” His poems are often humorous and ironic.  In his poem entitled Students (1993)he writes about the learning styles of students.  These styles although now some 25 years old are still in vogue.  In my own teaching career spanning 40 years, I have encountered all of these strategies and many more.

 

The first of these styles he describes as, The Vaccination Theory of Education. Once you have studied a subject you are immune and never have to consider it again.  these students tend to be oblivious to the world, truth, knowledge, enlightenment and could likely grow up to be Trump supporters as they will only read fake news on social media sources and yet feel fully aware and act as if they know it all.

 

Other students entertain the Dipstick Theory of Education: as with a car engine, where as long as the oil level is above the add line there is no need to put in more oil, so if you receive a pass or higher, why put in any more learning?  These students are true minimalists and experience actually physical and emotional pain if they are forced to perform outside the narrow parameters of their comfort zone which is the size of a small closed box. 

 

The Kung Fu Theory of Education has to do with learning as self-defense. The more you understand about what’s occurring around you the better prepared you are to deal with difficulties.  This theory is the only one that seems to have a morsel of potential, yet it is one that does not engage the world.  It is the opposite of life long learning as it is isolationist by nature.  These students remain with the status quo and do not grow intellectually, emotionally or morally.

 

The fourth theory called the Easy Listening Theory of Learning has been almost universally adopted by students today, in which time spent in class is far more enjoyable with ear phones or ear buds implanted in their ears allowing for silent enjoyment in a pleasurable world of music.

 

When Wayman wrote he referred to: “her tape recorder earphones on”...my how the technology has changed.  This approach has been so alarmingly and overwhelmingly embraced that the tsunami of its advance is virtually unstoppable in the classroom.  Teachers are nearly paralyzed as many administrators and parents enable and promote the continued use of cell phones in a learning environment.

 

When it comes to the use of cell phones in class I have been physically attacked when separating a highly anxious student from his most valuable possession in life.  He went at me with fists flying like an Argentinian cowboy swinging bolo balls.  If viewed only from a slapstick perspective, from an out of body experience, the whole thing would probably appear quite comical even surreal.

 

I guess what I learned out of the attack experience,

that is trying to separate a student from cell phone...

as an educator, is that the Smart Phone is not a simile

for life.

 

It is not like life.  It is a metaphor. 

It is in fact life itself in all its multi media forms. 

 

I have witnessed a student sit and listen, text, email 

engage in social media activities during an hour of class time.

 

As I watched this phenomena unfold I bit my lip, said nothing, 

as oblivious to her surroundings she remained absolutely off task 

for the entire class.  

After class, as she slowly re-entered orbit and gained consciousness

she began gathering her effects. 

 

I then quickly asked if her Smart Phone was a distraction.  

She picked up her things, left in a huff, “I don’t want to talk about it.” 

Clearly I had crossed a line. 

Understandably many addicts can not face their addictions.

 

 

A Proportioned Response : "Freedom Convoy"

Proportioned Response

 

Given the invasion of the Ukraine we can put the pursuit of freedom in proper perspective.  The loss of democratic freedoms is in no ways represented by a group of truckers and their supporters as they blocked the Streets of our capital and various border crossings.  The true loss of freedoms is happening at this moment as Russian soldiers, tanks and missiles cross into the sovereign nation of Ukraine killing citizens, destroying property and decimating world peace.  Whining about a vaccine mandate on the democracy Richter scale does not register.

 

During the Freedom Convoy Trudeau and the Liberal party was compared to Hitler, Communism, Dictatorship, Socialism, Storm Troopers and worse.  Ironically, those calling Trudeau Hitler carried Swazticas and Confederate flags so maybe Trudeau was also Robert E Lee.  These terms and comparisons to Hitler and nazism can be bantered about readily and easily.  For example, Putin claims that he is currently invading the Ukraine to save it from Nazism.  This to is odd as the current president of the Ukraine is a Jew.

 

I think by know we have to recognize that no one really understands Nazism, not truckers and their redneck supporters, not Putin.  It does appear the important point is the need to blindly attack and slur your enemy, dirty the water and just hope the general population is naive enough or stupid enough to buy the spin. Our own politics have become more tribal and vile as it is easier to villenize our opponents.

 

Now we have a new basis of comparison the Freedom Convoy or the Invasion of the Ukraine.  As I look at the horrific news footage coming out of the war torn areas I have seen no glimpses of saunas, bouncy castles or hot tubs.  I have seen missile strikes on apartment buildings while people sleep in subways.  Not only are they losing their freedom, daily they are losing their lives.  Let’s now get freedom in proportion.  I would join a “Freedom Convoy” for the Ukraine if it would do any good. 

 

Storming the Bastille: The Freedom Convoy

 Storming the Bastille”. The Freedom Convoy

 

Now we are at the stage in which truckers and demonstrators are being arrested, funds are frozen and trucks are being towed away.  This all started out very Canadian as being about mandates, but morphed into a full on anti-government attack.  This is our version of the storming of Capital Hill.  It seems to resonate with Republicans in the United States including Trump and Fox News and with the similar elements within our own society; so that should help you set your political compass.  

 

Simply by examining the leadership of the “Freedom Convoy”  demonstrates a whose who of political and ideologic misfits and cretins who dislike authority, science,  the greater good, social contract, natives, muslims, immigrants, central authority, vaccines, libtards, Trudeau, and apparently mandates.  They seem to like chaos, God, speaking with God, Go Fund Me, Right Wing politics, Nazi analogies, Confederate flags, Canadian flags and trucks.  With leadership like this what could go wrong?

 

I think the protesters and the sympathizers are generally a group of people who live in fear as it is apparent they don’t like change because of their right wing political and religious leanings don’t allow it.  

 

The part of their brain that takes in new data in order to think analytically and make observations and new directions in thought and policies has experienced a failure to launch. They are fixed on the status quo and are threatened by anything that seems to threaten their little bubble which may include anti views on: native rights, gay rights, immigrants, police authority, mandates, masks and vaccines to name a few.   Many of the leaders have already been charged with various assault, weapons charges, disorderly conduct, etc which seems to demonstrate a problem with authority.  Mandates are a symbol of authority, but I guess at one time so were the Ten Commandments and remember what Moses did with the first edition.

 

The truckers and their anti science, thrive by creating noise, and diversions such as the honking of horns, a Jericho March and ranting speeches of hate directed at anyone not their skin colour, a desperate cry for their undefined version freedom while living the benefits in a liberal democracy.  

 

They are in fact a sad group of people who do not understand the world and through their fear hope to control it by remaining static.  Conservatives, meaning not the party but people of that nature, rarely move an agenda forward, but serve to block progress, criticize and judge others.  

 

They are the witch hunters, the gay bashers, the fundamentalist Christians, the anti immigration crowd and now the anti-mandate government crowd.  The ones that say freedom only to throw the first stone for they feel God speaks to them and they are without sin as they use their children to shield their cowardly actions from authorities as they proceed imposing their world view, blocking streets, impeding commerce, damaging public confidence in their warped quest for freedom.

 

The people who follow and support the cause perhaps need a cause in their life to follow.  I can think of my own family history.  My parent’s family was caught up in the Russian Revolution and World War l at the same time and place.  My own mother watched as her father was executed in their living room for the crime of wealth while my grandmother died of typhus, now preventable.  All of the family wealth was taken by the revolutionaries.  Then came Spanish Flu, Depression and World War ll. But my family made it to Canada.  As I grew up as a first generation immigrant’s child I was offered public education, where I got all the vaccines available.  I lost some friends to polio.  I have at odd circular scar on my left arm, a badge of ‘freedom” from all of the diseases I escaped growing up. 

 

Now as I look at the pictures of the demonstrators, including the independent truckers with their expensive rigs, and notice they are all younger than I am, it makes me realize that I and my little family history and those like it may be irrelevant, or perhaps  the new society has forgotten history, or-never learned it properly in the first place.  When these same people can say that not being admitted to a restaurant in the face of a global-pandemic because a mask is chaffing strikes me as perhaps petty in the broad historical scheme of things.  

 

They are not Storming the Bastille is some noble cause.  They are making a mockery of our cherished democracy in the worst way possible.  They mock our institutions, our science, our achievements and substitute it with jargon, slogans, fear and streets filled with trucks while using social media to preach their selfish gospel of fear. 

 

Historically, liberal governments world wide have changed society for the better and to entertain the thought that the present government is Nazi-like or dictatorial or communist or socialist shows a near total ignorance of history and the scope of human nature. 

 

I would join a truckers convoy today if there was a real threat to democracy,  but this isn’t it.

 

 

 

Freedom Convoy: Some Observations

 

Observations Based on the Truckers’ Convoy

I am writing this at a time when the Ambassador Bridge is being cleared of trucker demonstrators with little or no violence and the Liberal government has just set the Emergencies Measures Act into motion.  

At the Bridge a few truckers were arrested, trucks were removed and some fines given up.  The bridge was not bombed and no trucker, civilian participant or police officer was injured during this protest.  I think this part has been very Canadian although one person I was following on Facebook said, Trudeau brought in the storm troopers to put down a peaceful demonstration .

In a democracy we all have freedoms. We can be free to think our personal thoughts about religion for example.  We may believe that Mohammad was the last prophet, or that Jesus Christ lived amongst us on Earth and then died for our sins or that our ancestors look out for our well being .  These are all personal beliefs that individuals hold onto.  In addition to this set of personal beliefs that may seem objective to us there are also scientific facts that transcend borders and cultures.  For example, the value of pi is universal, the theory of relativity is the same anywhere on earth. There seems to be a universal divide between the rational analytical and the emotional, pseudo-science adherents when it comes to Covid 19.

 I think one big take away from the Freedom convoy is that first of all it is a misnomer.  Any convoy or collection of trucks that systematically through a process of parking their vehicles where they are not welcomed or allowed, in normal circumstances, does not to me represent my concept of freedom.  It is more like a Ignorance forum or a stupid train, perhaps a national tail gate party.  I’m sorry I lack the eloquence for a good and suitable name for how these long haul independent drivers are abusing the sensibilities of the country while waving the Canadian flag in our faces along with some other flags that should never be seen on any continent, ever. 

My conclusion is that some demonstrators are simply whiners.  Because of the mandates they can’t get into Denny’s on a Sunday afternoon if they don’t have a smart phone to show their proof of vaccine for scanning purposes and are therefore inconvenienced.  And they are and have a right to by annoyed, but to say the “government is beating down on them… I think an over statement.  If most of these truckers/ anti science/anti-vaxer/ crowd actually had to put up with a real crisis like the Spanish Flu, polio, famine, World War, Depression, Revolution, Drug Cartels, racism or voter suppression then they would know what a crisis really is.  To have the right to convoy their grievances in front of a government who, given its mistakes, whatever they may be, is basically trying to save these people from themselves.That is a pretty formidable task when these are self educated internet fools who think they know science immunology and epidemiology better than any Phd, who can wrap themselves in a flag like the best of them and plead their rights by choking the economy and holding the majority as hostage to their whims.

These people generally deny that vaccines do any good at all, in fact vaccines are satan’s work and direction from the government is to be ignored because anyone knows direction comes from God.  It’s like the Moses and the Ten Commandments model of governance without the middleman, Moses.  Just as Flat Earther’s equate a round earth concept with words and thoughts from the devil or do the convoy gang make the association with the evil of science and vaccines.  They are Republicans at heart and have patriotism, the flag and God on their side.  The rest of us are stuck with a liberal government who systematically is trying to beat us of our freedoms because apparently that’s what liberals historically do.  As I argue my case for “Hey let’s stand united and fight covid…you know together…”  I have been told covid does not exist, to use a simile it’s like a truck on an interstate and it has taken an exit we need not worry, life goes on.  I have also been told, often rudely that vaccines in addition to not working are actually not vaccines.  Can’t say I even understood that line of reasoning, but they at least quoted the CDC so I was mildly impressed.  

Another argument put forward is that covid mandates are ruining our supply chains.  While there may be an element of truth to that as everything is slow at all borders blocking a bridge that moves over a billion dollars of trade per day between our two countries does not free up supply chains.  And while I support free discourse and peaceful demonstration harming the economy over several weeks is only shooting ourselves in the collective foot.  If we want to do anything productively and in a collective sense it should be getting vaccinated.  

The American rate of death by covid per million is roughly four times what it is in Canada, soon republicans there will be celebrating the first million deaths due to covid as they”beat down” mandates and support financially and in other ways our truckers and their various supporters to do the same.  I have seen presentations why students should not wear masks, four Canadian provinces do not support the emergencies Measures Trudeau is bringing in as they feel they are not needed and are removing many of the covid mandates in their own provinces perhaps very prematurely.  

There is science and there is politics and in this case their followers seem to be beating to several different drum beats.  People who often don’t understand rhythm of any kind but seem to love the sound a honking horns are trying to call the shots, directing discourse through their ignorance and waving flags in our face. 

The worst pandemic to ever hit us, as a human population, was the Black Plague killing likely tens to hundreds of millions.  It appears to have originated from a bacteria not a virus starting like our own Covid pandemic in China.  It spread across the Silk Road and other trading routes and only stopped because people isolated themselves, literally closing the city gates to outsiders.  We call this a quarantine and those who practiced it lived.  In the 1300‘s there was no science to speak of, no vaccines, little hope.

Today, we have truckers travelling our own Silk Roads protesting loudly against measures that can potentially slow the spread of Covid. This would be one of those examples where we really don’t learn anything from history, yet excel in the follies of our present path.  Now vaccines are available, yet people value a version of freedom over science and go so far as to deny science. Perhaps, Covid didn’t hit us hard enough, plague-like, to shake us into reality as people still deny its existence or equate it to a flu.  

“Closing the Gates” today means taking precautions, as ignorance and bravado will not save lives.  Trucker protesters and their supporters are being irresponsible.  They should stay off the Silk Road or get vaccinated.