Archives April 2018

What Good Is ‘Community’ When Someone Else Makes All the Rules? https://nyti.ms/2qFV0no
Summary: Community implies joint ownership and responsibility in some kind of joint activity eg members of a neighbourhood or family. What happens when that ownership is transferred into private hands (eg Facebook or other tech/social media companies) and manipulated for profit? What does this mean for how we find genuine community and connections in the world that we are operating in?
What needs to change and what might those changes look like? Interesting discussion to dig deeper into.
 

https://www.change.org/p/kathleen-wynne-end-discriminatory-funding-for-catholic-public-private-schools-in-ontario
We have now reached 500 signatures (actually 517 signatures) – a strong start towards pushing the government towards much needed change.  Next goal: 1000 signatures.  Hopefully, soon, we will be at 10,000 signatures! 🙂
To help achieve the next goal (and others after that), I am asking for your help in two ways:

1. Please spread the word in your circles: family, friends, coworkers, social media and/or others. Sharing really does help to bring in additional support.
2. Contribute to the campaign. Every donation – even $1 or $2 – helps to share the petition with more people on the Change.og website. (NOTE: All of the funds go to change.org. I do not receive anything personally.)  As far as I can tell, every time that there is a donation, there appears to be a corresponding spike in signatures – so it really does help, whether that is a few dollars, or if you are able to give more.

Thank you for your support so far, and for your continued support on this important issue.

The Forrest Trump Presidency https://nyti.ms/2J6ylZn
Never thought that I would see a comparison between Trump and Forrest Gump, but the author makes some good points. At the core, one is fundamentally good, and striving for peace, justice, equality and love. The other is openly spreading hate and divisiveness for personal and financial gain at the expense of the common good.
Let’s hope that all parts of the world where divisiveness and isolationism is currently growing reorient towards peace and justice before things get any worse for everyone. Let’s match electing peaceful leaders with a massive grassroots movement to strengthen civil society and create the peaceful world that we want, deserve and need. 🙂

Right now, Trudeau is considering using your tax dollars to bail out Texas oil giant Kinder Morgan’s floundering pipeline and tanker scheme. [1]
Dozens of First Nations still don’t have clean drinking water. We’re facing a housing crisis. Renewable energy projects are desperate for more funding. But Trudeau thinks there’s enough extra cash lying around to hand over as much as $2 billion to bail out a corporation from Texas? [2]
We need to show the Trudeau government that taxpayers won’t let them get away with using our hard-earned money to bail out a billionaire oil corporation. But secret talks with Kinder Morgan are starting this week, so there’s no time to waste. [3]
Will you sign the petition right now to stop Trudeau from giving billions of our tax dollars to Kinder Morgan?
https://act.leadnow.ca/stop-the-kinder-morgan-bailout/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=blast2018-04-16 

Just saw this petition/letter-writing campaign in a newsletter from Citizens for Public Justice. Appears to be a joint effort with several groups. I can’t imagine why a country like Canada is still charging refugees for travel expenses – it is definitely time to make some significant changes to this system, and give our newcomers a warm welcome to Canada. 🙂
See text and link below.
“We all want refugees to settle well in Canada–to learn one of our official languages, find jobs, become integrated into communities. But Canada currently asks refugees to pay back the money that the government spent on their travel to Canada.
The evidence shows that these immigration travel loans have a negative impact on refugees’ ability to settle well. The pressure to pay them back can make it difficult to pay for necessities, push refugees to find jobs before they’ve completed their language training, and add unneeded stress to already stressful transitions.
The government knows this–which is why they just stopped charging interest on the loans. But it would cost just 40 cents per Canadian to stop asking refugees to repay these loans entirely.
We all want refugees to settle well in Canada–and for just 40 cents per Canadian, we can do it.
Ask the Minister of Immigration and your MP to exempt refugees from travel loan repayment!”
https://p2a.co/MZlo7zc?utm_source=justicENEWS&utm_campaign=7184a5d597-JEN_CAMPAIGN_2017_11_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_00b7fceacb-7184a5d597-100929949

http://www.canadianmennonite.org/stories/peace-everyone%E2%80%99s-business
Love this article from Lowell Ewert for CM.  Great summary of the value of peace education. Worth reading in full.  🙂
Here are a few highlights:

The political scientist Harold Lasswell once defined politics to be “who gets what, when and how.” If that is politics, peace studies in contrast can be seen as an attempt to answer the question “why” things are given to whom, when and how.

Work to achieve the goal of dignity for all requires creative thinking and mobilization of many resources. Imagine, for example, that the physical structure of a house symbolizes the laws, institutions and customs of society that are designed to regulate how we live with each other. These rigid and not easily changeable laws, institutions and systems—the floors, walls, roof, doors and windows—are set in place to protect the occupants from the arbitrary use of power or violence against them.

Figuratively, imagine the roof as protecting the occupants from the hail of persecution, the walls from the driving winds of hate, the floor from the seeping cold of discrimination, while the windows allow them to look at other options they may wish to explore safely, and the doors allow one to come and go yet be protected from interference from others.

Peace studies programs serve as one of many architects of a just society by helping to analyze the impact and design of the figurative house in two different ways.
First, peace studies architects analyze how a house may better serve its occupants and, through nonviolent conflict resolution, begin remodelling as needed.
…
But a house, even a very nice one with a kitchen and pantry (adequate food), living room (place for people to meet) and a bedroom (safe place to sleep), does not create community for the occupants.
…
Second, peace studies programs therefore complement structural analyses with an emphasis on what are referred to as soft skills—the study of mediation and negotiation, the appropriate use of rights and power, restorative justice, trauma healing, forgiveness, religious and cultural understanding—many of the same things that are central to our faith. These skills are an essential part of a vibrant civil society.

Constructing a house of peace that is inclusive, containing a healthy and safe environment in which the human soul can thrive, requires the involvement of all vocations and disciplines.