Midnight musings after the Al Noor shooting

So many things come to mind after the shooting but foremost is the leadership being shown by PM Ardern who truly seems to be a reflection of the New Zealand people.


First of all this prayer in school thing. I grew up during prayer in school - the Protestant version of the Lord's Prayer. I was not Protestant so I was constantly confused about the ending used. Also, I was not allowed to have the little bible they gave out. I just had to be the wrong flavour of Christian to stand out. I went to Sunday School, got first communion (white veil, nice gifts from nuns) and developed ethics which relies a lot on God judging people after death so I could concentrate of living a life of contributing to my community and being charitable.

All through elementary school I got to be one of the coloured kids. One teacher told me when I got old I would have very nice white hair because of my very black hair (ok, she was right). Another teacher waxed lyrical about Australia then casually said of course I wouldn't be admitted as a visitor because I'm not white. Then there were the people who asked where I was from (I told them) then said - no I mean where are you FROM to which I replied Canada.

When I moved to Alberta in the early 80s, it was pretty welcoming. Calgary was a little unwelcoming for "Canada's Friendliest City" but whatever. Now I hesitate to say anything about the Al Noor shootings for fear of hearing people I like say horrifying things like that asshole politician in Australia. At the provincial level there is the UPC leader who is under RCMP investigation for election manipulation. He tweets stuff like "come on out" to white nationalists and "unemployment level for men are the highest they've ever been for Alberta" as if only men support households. Having no real platform worked for Doug Ford and it apparently on track to work for Kenney - unless he's in jail. He'll create policies that impoverish families, destroy the environment, education and healthcare while failing to increase employment for men. Alberta's main oil customer is the US - that place that has just approved off shore drilling, delayed building/expanding oil pipelines and is on track to be a net exporter in 2019.

On the national stage I get to read ridiculous tweets about Canada being the homeland for people other than First Nations with the support of the CPC leaders. STFU and go back where you(r family) came from.

So I think I'm out of political discussions for awhile. I will vote based on policy documents. Regardless of who leads, we have enough money to follow our path to reduced environmental footprint. I have a passport so my citizenship is not at risk. It's pretty clear that bigotry and sexism is steering the conversation. We avoided this shit last election cycle; guess it was to good to last considering our proximity to the US.