Teach Your Children

Recently I watched an incredibly moving and powerful video about our planet (You can find it here and I encourage everyone to watch it with their families and friends: Home). After watching this movie, I sat for hours thinking of it and what I can personally do to contribute. I have already replaced the majority of my appliances, lighting and other electronic devices with energy efficient ones. In just a couple months I noticed a massive decrease in my month electricity bill. By massive, I mean about twenty five percent, which is significant considering the cost of electricity. I'm still not satisfied, but it is clearly a step in the right direction. Still it's not enough.

With this segment of my philosophy (as it were) to Occupied Mind blogs, I would like to share what I plan to do. This is to our fellow occupiers and those who support that movement. I hope that those people, in turn, will share this with everyone. Since it applies.

I know that I can't change the world, but I can change the way some people think about themselves, others around them and the world they live it. Those people I speak of are my children. As of this blog, I have three. All are young and impressionable. Pardon the expression...

I have another son, who is now an adult, but is already knowledgeable about the things I am writing about. In the future, I hope he too chooses to follow this path as it pertains for the future of our world. First I do have a gripe that must be put out before I forget it. The cost of electricity has sky rocketed in recent years and the reasons are obvious: Oil, and the quickly dwindling supply of it. As a species we are trying to find new, cheaper and more efficient methods of producing electricity, particularly with a green planet focus. The problem is that many countries are not following similar mandates. Canada, my country, is quickly becoming the most problematic of the developed nations. We export Asbestos to countries that say they need it, regardless of the consequences we know they invoke: Deadly Mesothelioma. Many countries today do not export it, mine it, or use it within their infrastructure, banning all practice with the toxic fibres. Canada, it would seem, is the largest exporter of a deadly substance that has no business being dug up in the first place. Personally, I think this is just Harper trying to be bum buddies with Quebec. Still, the dependency of electricity is our biggest global problem, and is not being address by our Parliament.

Since I am writing my opinion, I must say I personally believe that household electricity should be free, but that's just me. I cannot understand why solar power has not become a mandated standard everywhere in the world. It's unfortunate that it's illegal to live without it, especially with kids. So why make people pay? Nope, can't figure that out.

Now, when I see the damage being done to First Nation lands because of the oil sands, I see an immediate and necessary need to change the way we think and act. Those oil sands should be left alone until we as a species have the capacity to extract them cleanly. Our current barbaric methods are doing irreparable harm to the environment and no one in positions of power seem to be stepping up to make it stop. I know that my one little blurb here won't change the minds of the money makers in Canada and abroad, but I promise that my children will see the need for oil as a pariah. I will teach them that they must do all they can to consider their impact environmentally. I will teach them about recycling, as I always have. But more so, they will learn that when it comes time to leave the flock and take lives of their own, the desire for an electric car will be the only thing they will seek. They will know how to create and use renewable energy sources using solar and wind. Hydroelectric power has already done damage to our planet on a scale that I would call genocidal. In Canada's interior Rocky Mountains, an eight-thousand year old culture, the Sinixt Nation, was utterly annihilated by the development of hydroelectric dams in the US side of the 49th Parallel and their peoples displaced, unable to return to their ancestral home: In Canada. Last I checked, that is genocide. Want to know what Canada and US did to fix the damage done to an ancient Mother Nation? They threw them out of Canada, revoked their status as indigenous people and are now in the process of building highways through their burial land. Definitely genocide, only this particular form of genocide still continues across Canada.

Our ignorance has created a wake of destruction from which we, as adults, will never repair in time. While I'm not one to predict the future, I do believe that in the next ten years, a terrible ecological calamity will occur unlike anything we have seen in thousands of years. Something that we could have prevented, but refused to heed. Our polar ice caps have been reduced in thickness by forty percent. In fact, almost all the glaciers and permanent ice is thawing at an unprecedented rate. Methane released from the permafrost layers in Canada and Siberia will create a greenhouse affect on our planet that is a thousand times more damaging than any hydrocarbon. Scientist call it a runaway greenhouse effect. So what do we tell our kids? Can we be to blame for the ills of our fathers? If we do nothing, we will be as much to blame as anyone else who attempts to claim that the concept of global warming is a myth (Like our Prime Minister and his Minister of the Environment - someone without any credentials as a scientist). Consider this as a possible calamity resulting from global warming: A winter hurricane, ocean levels increased by thirty feet or more, changes in weather patterns made more violent by the amount of fresh water being dumped into the worlds oceans. Who can hold that tide back? Humans? I think we are a little soft to survive Earth's natural fury. Just ask the people in Burma, Japan, California, Florida, and under the ash of Mt. St. Helens and Pompeii. Those disasters were natural, but their magnitude no less significant. The only difference this time is that this next coming disaster will have been caused by the ignorance of human beings who claimed the earth as their own without the moral foresight to recognize that we share this planet.

So what do we do? We teach our children and we make changes to our personal daily lives. We find a way for governments, corporations and other powers-that-be to standardize renewable energies, first and foremost by NOT buying their oil based products. We look at different methods of creating plastic from materials that are not petroleum based. The production of carbon fibre materials would probably reduce the amount of hydrocarbons being released into the atmosphere. Carbon belongs in the ground, the very purpose of our trees. Simply put, vegetation pulls hydrocarbons out of the atmosphere and replenishes our oxygen. For my part, I will teach my children that it is morally wrong to buy a car that consumes fossil fuels. I will teach them that it is morally wrong not to recycle our every day items. I will teach them that the quest for successful living is in keeping nature natural. I do serve a Christian doctrine (sorry for you, folks that disapprove, but my humanity just says, I really don't care that you disapprove). Using the tenets there, I have raised my children, but also show that science and technology are not enemies of our beliefs, they are useful tools that will better their lives now and for future generations.

I will tell my children that the governments and corporations of the world seek only gain and excess and that to create a better world we should no longer rely on them or their empty promises. Of course, there will need to be some exceptions or even concessions. They will learn that the best method of travel in harsh times is mass transportation. In the near future hybridized and electric cars will likely be the norm. My oldest son, now an adult has purchased an e-bike. An excellent and viable alternative to the standard consumer vehicle. We all need to go green and take a giant step backward from gas and oil power industry and products. In five or even ten years if every sixteen year old decided that the next vehicle purchase they decide on is eco-friendly, imagine what that would do to the currently leaders in the vehicle industries. They would crumble overnight. We need to let those auto companies crumble or they need to start preparing now, because tomorrow no one will be looking to purchase vehicles of destruction. Fossil fuel dependant companies need to mandate renewable methods of energy with all their research and development.

Those corporations need to know that we are not going to buy into the products and services that affect our lives and environment so profoundly. When my children break from the shackles of low-income (and they will), they will have the necessary means and capital to invest their hard-earned assets solely in green technologies, health-care, and renewable resources. My promise as a parent is to teach my children that only they can repair the damage done to the planet, but they will not know how unless we teach them and teach them immediately.

PostScript

PS: I predict a major cataclysmic event within the next ten years that will affect the lives of two-hundred million people, probably more. I hope and pray that it is not sudden, but gradual enough for people to start preparing (ie, moving away from coastal cities).

Movement of Reason

Movement of Reason

I’ve viewed the vast changes happening globally and at first was surprised that the democratic movements happening everywhere else in the world against tyrannical leaders was also starting to happen right at home. That home, of course, being Canada. The idea of OWS intrigued me and opened my eyes to a great deal of injustice that I indirectly knew of, but was entirely asleep to. For my part, I suppose it would be easiest to tell a bit of my history and what makes me support Occupy, and support it with every fibre of my being.

Many years ago, I was kicked out of my home. Mostly for my own stubborn determination to hang with my buddies and forget my chores at home. I did not do drugs and I did not get drunk and stupid (well maybe a little). Breaking the law was one of those things I didn’t do, because I felt very strongly of how my mother would have felt. The last thing I wanted to do was make her ashamed of me. Breaking her heart would have broken mine. I was sixteen when she left this world. My defiance after her death did bring me to odds with the man would have married her had she still been alive. I’ll leave his name out for my own reasons. He was raised very differently from how I was and this is what created that conflict. I firmly believed I did not need fathering, since before he came along, I was always the “Man of the House”. At any rate, he kicked me out when I did not get the dishes done in a timely manner. Bear in mind, that this was not the first chore I skipped out on to hang around with my peeps. Still I was only seventeen and still in highschool.

That brought me to the crisis center in here in my fair city. For now, we’ll call this northern Ontario city the Corp. In Corp the crisis center stands next to another structure that is used to teach kids like me how to cook, manage bills, schedules and, of course, chores. However, while this would have been the ideal place for me to live, learn and potentially stay in school, it was not the place I ended up, at least right away. The applicant list to live in a center like this was long; and that meant I had to find a place to live and a job at the age of seventeen while I was still in school. I was unable to do all three and as a result, my constantly hungry belly urged me to quit school and find gainful employment. My marks in school, at the time were in the honours range in Art, Drafting, History, Science and a few others, my marks in Math and English were unfortunately low, but acceptable to complete the year. Two months before the end of that year, my grade eleven, I quit school, having found work to feed myself. Social Services would not provide me a government issued check until I was in the Center. WTF! Of course, this was a different time, and being old enough, they required I find work and that was the end of it.

Fortunately, before long, I was able to get into the Center. But not before discovering a few things about the less than savory life that some kids can live when no longer under the watchful eye of loving parents. I drank and I partied enough to find it whenever I wanted. I was very fortunate to have not ended up with a criminal record and can safely say that I still don’t.

The Center was a specialized place run by councillors hired by the city to teach young fellas like me how to live. It was another place where I did come to rebel in my own capacity in as much as I was able to and still maintain a certain status quo. I was there for nearly a year, and I did return to school, completing grade eleven. Here comes the part where everything went to hell. It was a repeat of circumstances that children, like myself, could not escape from.

In Corp the Center allowed us to live there, paying rent and receiving a government check for the rent and personal spending while I was going to school, for a total of one year. Then they kick you back out on to the streets with the hope that what they taught was sufficient. When a person is in school, needs to eat, pay rent and whatever other bills may crop up, it is far more difficult to jungle all the demands one person can face at such a young age. In this city, it is impossible, at least for me is was. Rent was just too high, and a burning desire to remain fed always puts strains on money that cannot be obtained. At least while going to school. This little bit of history would probably beg the question, what does that have to do with Occupy?

While I was living at the Center, near the end of my tenure there, I was out with a friend to have a few beers. To my delight I was nineteen then, so it was not illegal. During that night, another rather drunken teen thought it would be funny to pick a fight with my friend. We decided it was high time to leave. We did not get far and eventually I was shoved, and just as I was about to say something funny, I got kicked in the face. Hard. That kick, spun me around and I just started walking back to the center, ignoring everything else. All of my lower left teeth shifted inward slightly. My lower last molar was broken and my front teeth mashed together, no longer a straight line. I had to eat liquid soups for a week. That year, just prior to that kick, OHIP decided it would no longer cover the cost of dental care. Unable to pay for that dental care, I have been living with a mouthful of pain for twenty years as my teeth rot out. OHIP will cover the cost of ‘life threatening’ tooth damage, but usually by giving only antibiotics and pain killers. Can’t brush my lower left teeth because it hurts like hell, though I still do, and for the most part, I’ve done what I could to reduce the damage being caused by good ol’ Entropy.

There’s my first reason for Occupy. Dentists cost too fucking much and should be covered by our health system. Jobs for me became fleeting, bad teeth are defining trait. Now onward to my other reason for Occupy. Jobs I had that cover dental care only cover a portion of the cost and the dentists in Corp will not provide any care without full payment in advance. The receipt provided would be sent to the company that covers the bill and they in turn would send a check back to me for reimbursement. Needless to say, while my teeth are not so ‘perfect’ my children's teeth are. I can’t afford dental care for them, so I make sure they take of their teeth every damn day!

I am almost forty as of this article and I have a college diploma in Microcomputer Management from an Arts and Tech college here in Corp. Prior to getting into college, I did some great jobs. I worked with a local artist hired by the city to paint the walkways a series of grand murals. I worked as photo lab technician and photographer for a few years. Then I managed to sneak my way into college. I hadn’t completed high school yet, but there were options available to me because of my age. I think, by this point I was about 19 or 20. My first jump into college was into Graphic Design. Surprisingly, this did not peek my interest very much. I found that the photography professor was probably the worst teacher in the world, and the course curriculum taught me nothing I didn’t already know given my previous employment. I bored quickly. In retrospect, I should have take a university course in Fine Arts.

Leaving college for a year, I returned and took a general arts and science program to brush up on my general knowledge, which was badly lacking by this point. This is the stuff that people would typically learn in high school. This led me straight to the Microcomputer Management program. I suppose I should mention, given it’s huge importance in my life, that right before taking the computer course, I met a wonderful woman and we got married, pretty much right away. We are still together today after fifteen years. The marriage spurned me into motion. Getting my college program into swing and learning with the fervor of a child. After my first year, my daughter was born. My daughter’s tale would be an interesting one (for the ladies), but not relevant to where I am going.

After obtaining my diploma, I sought work and found nothing. Anywhere. At least not in the field I was trying for. Which was pretty much anything in computer repair. I did some minor work at the college, fixing computers and setting up network access on computers for students who were living the dorms. I worked for as an Internet help desk technician for a company that was quickly purchased and the parcelled off to the highest bidders in the city. I and everyone else lost their jobs and there were none available with the other companies in town. Eventually that landed me into the job everyone loves to hate. Call Centers. In fact, I think that the last and only thing my wife and I have done since I left college ten years ago. So, now I have an outdated diploma, osap loans yet to pay, 4 kids, a wife, and no job. My wife currently pays the bills, while I play at being Mr. Mom. Don’t get me wrong here, I love being Mr. Mom. The last time I found gainful employment within a call center, there were nearly six hundred people employed there. I was given a medical document indicating if I continued to work in such a high stress environment it would kill me.

Let me explain that part. Micromanaged companies, the place where your bosses tell you what to do because they were told what to tell you what to do. The place where if you provide input on increasing productivity and the well being of the employees it’s ignored, delayed, or constitutes as belligerence and deserving of a writeup (or firing). The mere mention of forming a Union amongst friends whilst having a smoke in the wrong line of hearing can get the entire group fired on the spot. It’s happened, I know. I give the finger to micromanage companies and yell “Occupy This!” Anyway, it was maddening knowning that I would keep a minimum pay job, never get a chance to work on the computers I was trained to fix and program, and still keep a wife and children safe, warm, fed and sheltered. I remember walking to work, stopping to get my morning ritual coffee, but then collapsing. I did not know that could happen to people. Doctor said stress, a primary cause for concern for someone with a high metabolism and already fast heart beat. I collapsed more than once before I took the cue to see a doctor. The business should have had a permanent nurse on staff, but they don’t and never did.

Okay, I guess I’ll recap: Reason 1: Healthcare does not cover ALL our basic health needs. Particularly for our elderly and general dental care. For me that dental care will costs thousands. Something I don’t have. Reason 2: Corp doesn’t have enough doctors for thirteen thousand people. That’s a lot of people; families, old, young, and everyone else in between are without a family doctor. I found that the elite all have doctors. The nursing practice opening up here is overwhelmed by the flood people vying for anything that can keep a person remaining healthy. Reason 3: Jobs in tech have dwindled and people with oldschool learning do not have the capacity to find gainful employment within the fast moving computing industry. I would love to go back to school! Wait, I’m nearly forty, why would I do that? I cannot and will not take another OSAP loan out for school, that would just put the myself and the province into further debt.

So now I will write, I will blog and I will try to get money the way I always have. By using the skills I have. I can play guitar so I teach it. I can draw so I sell art. I can write books, so I publish them. In the future, I hope to have some answers to my own questions within my own blogs. People will say all kind of things, and strip this apart, and others will concur and give me an encouraging pat on the back. My wife and children will always love me - that, BTW, is real success. For my children I want more; I want them to have the future I didn’t have, to have the education they deserve and have their health and safety needs met.

My question to all other Occupiers out there in the camps and on the Internet is that you tell your story. Tell it and spread it. Blog, post threads, reply to news articles, Occupy the Internet. Make OWS viral. We need to Occupy Minds from this point on and for as long as it take to see the changes we all want to have start becoming implemented. When I hear some mayor say ‘You have made your point and we have understand your grievance’ and then forcibly close a park I know they mean nothing by it. There’s a lot of hot wind blowing, but not a lot of action from the upper echelons of society.
What I have written here is only a piece of the puzzle that makes me...well...me. I am Watching, Canada is Watching, The World is Watching.

PostScript

PS. I think it would be really cool if my story was read out loud at a camp.