Masochistic Perceptions, Trials and Truths

These are my cyberfied cerebral synapses ricocheting off reality as I perceive it: thoughts, opinions, passions, rants, art and poetry...

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Letter to The Edmonton Journal


As teachers take their jibes about having two months off in the Summer, are portrayed as being greedy in the media and face the latest in Government reneging and cuts, I get both frustrated and annoyed.

Yes, I am a Teacher, so, you can take what I have to say as being biased.

Let us begin with the role of Educators in our society. To begin, Teachers play a massive role in the nurturing of our greatest resource: children. The first thirteen and most formative years of a person's being are under the care of Teachers who prepare our furture generation of trades people, health care professionals, lawyers, educators, bankers and business elite. Without the assistance of Educational professionals, these people would largely be non-existent. If you can read this or articulate an argument for or against what I am saying, odds are that you owe it to a Teacher. CEOs, brain surgeons and, yes, even politicians, all who make substantially larger salaries than any Teacher, came to their positions largely because of the knowledge, skills and passions cultivated at school. While I'm not advocating that a Teacher should earn the same amount as a heart surgeon, one could, quite reasonably do so, especially against the back drop of inflated wages in other professions.

Our perspective as a society is distorted. In professional sports it is completely acceptable to offer star players multi-million dollar contracts to put a team on top, yet we do not apply the same manner of thinking to a child's education. This is because society has come to take Education and Teachers for granted. Tax payers who moan that their taxes pay for school boards, even though they have no children themselves reflects this further. We pay significantly more each year to house maximum security inmates than we do for a single child's learning (inmates get paid to go to school while inside as well, and never have to learn on an empty stomach). What does this say about our priorities as a society?

I'm not going to talk about how difficult the job of being a Teacher is as I respect the fact that all careers have their share of stress and sense of being over-worked. I signed up to be a Teacher and accept the slogging and rewards that come with my chosen profession. It's the lack of respect that I take issue with. The fact that bureaucrats largely shape policy, not heeding the advice of Educational professionals (i.e. full integration of Special Needs students), that Teachers are often portrayed as being greedy and holding students as mere bargaining chips (pure Government propaganda), and that Governments continue to cut and take and expect Teachers to do more with less, while padding the accounts and giving massive tax breaks to the big corporations. And it's not just Teachers who receive such poor treatment as any health care professional can attest.

Perhaps the short sightedness of our politicians and much of the public opinion and apathy is a testament to how past cuts in Education are playing out in the present. As a Teacher, I simply want to share my perspective; to add my voice. Whether you agree or disagree with me matters little. What does matter is that you are able to look at this situation critically and form an educated opinion of your own.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Letter to the Edmonton Journal:

As a tax payer and someone who wants to 'live' in Edmonton, I grow weary of all this palaver about "putting Edmonton on the map as a world class city". Indy Car racing carrying costs in the millions, a World's Fair bid and Katz wanting to build an arena downtown but not flit the bill - the visionaries behind these notions are misguided (unless we look through to their ulterior motives of personal gain and lining their associate's pockets).

Think of any 'world class city': New York, London, Paris, Dublin, Tokyo. What draws people there consistently over the decades? Arenas? Specific sporting events? Fairs? No. People flock to these great cities because they are thriving with culture, history or reputations for having a variety of districts that satisfy a broad range of demographics. While advantaged by their age, these cities have been built up over time by the people who live there to serve their needs and create an aesthetic one would want to call home. If we want such a legacy for ourselves, then we need to sway from our urban sprawl and utilitarian cookie cutter architecture and begin to truly build our city. We are not thinking long term here.

As I stated in my opening, my desire is to 'live' in Edmonton. That means that I want my tax dollars supporting infrastructure and venues that will provide me with a variety of options in activities and aesthetics: green spaces and public parks, galleries, efficient transit system, unique neighbourhoods, good roads, safe streets, community festivals, etc. Indy Car races and arenas are fine, but not at the tax payers expense. The World's Fair's impact would be fleeting at best for Edmonton, and leave us with a debt legacy that would far surpass our global popularity. Let's make Edmonton an awesome place for Edmontonians to live, and that will attract more people and business to our city. To diversify our business and industry, we must provide a diversity of qualitative living experience that will make others want to make our city their home.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Quack

Bright and early this morning, my friend Kevin and I headed out to Elk Island National Park to put our kayaks in for the first time this year. Unlike last year, when our eagerness saw us on the lake before the ice had gone and I capsized my boat under the ice, this morning was as perfect of a day one could wish for. The trip toward the lake saw us pass large numbers of wild Wood and Plains Bison - some of these majestic creatures going about there way mere feet from the passing window of our car. being in the presence of such creatures gives me a sense of solace which has been absent from my being since winter's harshness sends me into that depressed hibernation, and provides me with perspectives on simplicity and life.

As our boats made their tour of the lake's shore and tiny Islands, the bird life around us offered entertainment, a colourful canvas amongst the rippling, sparkling waves, and a soundtrack that has substance and soul. There's the often irate Canadian Geese who scold you as they are temperamental at the best of times; this terse nature becomes amplified when protecting their nests. We hung out with a flock of some twenty pelicans for a while. Then there's the variety of ducks who make the boggy areas along the shore home.

I must say that I am partial to ducks. They are beautiful fowl who possess an amazing prowess in both flight and swimming. What I love most about ducks is there general playfulness and the pure satisfaction the 'quacking' sound gives me. In fact, a duck says more in a 'quack' then we could ever convey in our languages as humans.

Think about it: ducks have been around for millenniums - like the chicken, relatives of the dinosaurs. While we may mock their simplicity of being and bird-brainedness as we see our civilisations rise and fall, technology expand beyond the limits of what we ever perceived possible, blah, blah, blah., ducks have continued to be... well... ducks. Their limited lexicon communicates everything that they need to say in order to live, fly as a group, mate, etc. They have not fallen the victim to 'higher consciousness' as we would describe it, with our medical miracles, genocides, worship of the almighty dollar and promulgated laws that run contrary to, but are necessary because, of our nature. There are no lawyers, prisons or therapists in the duck world. They don't have problems with obesity or drug abuse. Life and the trials of their day roll off them like...er... water off a duck's back. Obviously humanity are not ducks, nor are we capable of living such simple lives, but that doesn't mean we can't gain some perspective from our observations.

Sometimes, 'quack' says it all....

Saturday, May 08, 2010

"Impressions, Ink..."

Gutenberg, 1440
Printing Press presents
gateways, escapes,
knowledge, life beyond;
muting mundane in chaptered moments
the weight of your spine, bound firm
cradled in kneading, calloused hands
organic musk of pulpy page, made more comfortable with every turn
ignites craving spirit as a slogan to revolution
filling world-heavy heart
with hope, release;
moments caressing each line, type faced
curves, fathom further, deeper meaning
often found, sometimes lost as we oftentimes, ourselves, find
this separate world, safely bound
between protective covers
keeping it safe so it can be
re-read and re-read as an oath or prayer,
comforting, regardless of our seclusion,
despite every story coming to
completion, leaving us
empty again, yet, somehow, full.

We continue to pull from the shelf...
burned, exploited, perceived
in many, many ways - torn, crumpled,
made into boats or planes
ink, like blood, bookmarks places:
paradise, purgatory, hell
I could never put you down,
despite distractions: TV, iBooks, the Net-
those cold plastic and glass projections, unnaturally powered,
void of substance and soul,
my blood, too, marks this page
as a testament to a dwindling empire-
can you feel your immortality?
life in a life,
spelling and weaving ways
that never I promulgated could come to pass,
perpetually bound, fearing only the dust
which inevitably will consume me
in a final chapter, perhaps never fully explored,
wherein, the end.