Refreshing vision

As the Canadian election campaign gears up I have to take a moment and send out my support to a Saskatchewan candidate in the Saskatoon-Blackstrap riding this year.

Mike Fornssler of the Green Party has undertaken a venture to film a documentary regarding his candidacy and the process of running for federal office. The CBC ran a story on this December 22 2005 titled "Lights, Camera...election!".

So why is it important for everyone to see? I mean it's not even your riding right?

Well, aside from the fact that Mike is my brother, his approach is novel. He's seeking to bring an important aspect of Canadian society into the lime-light, so to speak. Our political processes are often a complete mystery to those who are not involved directly and many have no idea what it takes, who to talk with, or how to go about becoming a Member of Parliament in this country. One thing I have always appreciated about Mike is his unique vision for the world, his ability to sort through the political BS to the core of the issue, and more than anything his unending sense of humor - which I believe to be the most important for a candidate in his position. And you may write this off as a proud, perhap boastful, sister of similar political mind - but when it comes to the seriousness of the leadership hopefuls in this country I make no false claims. Mike Fornssler is going to change the face of politics in this country, one film, one election, one speech, one interview at a time. Thank you Mike, we need your vision.

They thought they were free...

Just finished reading some blogs and I discovered a wonderful passage quoted by CathiefromCanada in her entry titled "Getting worse" posted Wednesday December 21, 2005.

The quote is linked to another blog called "My left wing". In the post titled "Slouching Toward Kristallnacht" author Maryscott O'Connor references Milton Mayer's They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933 - 1945. Here is a selection of what Mayer's wrote as quoted by O'Connor:

". . . one doesn't see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don't want to act, or even to talk, alone; you don't want to "go out of your way to make trouble." Why not? - Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.
"Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, everyone is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly sees none . . . in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, "It's not so bad" or "You're seeing things" or "You're an alarmist."
"And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can't prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don't know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic. You are left with your close friends, who are, naturally, people who have always thought as you have.
"But your friends are fewer now. Some have drifted off somewhere or submerged themselves in their work. You no longer see as many as you did at meetings or gatherings. Informal groups become smaller; attendance drops off in little organizations, and the organizations themselves wither. Now, in small gatherings of your oldest friends, you feel that you are talking to yourselves, that you are isolated from the reality of things. This weakens your confidence still further and serves as a further deterrent to what? It is clearer all the time that, if you are going to do anything, you must make an occasion to do it, and then you are obviously a troublemaker. So you wait, and you wait.
"But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and the smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in "43" had come immediately after the "German Firm" stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in "33". But of course this isn't the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.
"And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying "Jew swine," collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in, your nation, your people is not the world you were in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way.
"You have gone almost all the way yourself. Life is a continuing process, a flow, not a succession of acts and events at all. It has flowed to a new level, carrying you with it, without any effort on your part. On this new level you live, you have been living more comfortably every day, with new morals, new principles. You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things that your father, even in Germany, could not have imagined.
"Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven't done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing) . . . You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair.
"What then? You must then shoot yourself. A few did. Or "adjust" your principles. Many tried, and some, I suppose, succeeded; not I, however. Or learn to live the rest of your life with your shame. This last is the nearest there is, under the circumstances, to heroism: shame. Many Germans became this poor kind of hero, many more, I think, than the world knows or cares to know."
I said nothing. I thought of nothing to say . . . "Once the war began," my colleague continued, "resistance, protest, criticism, complaint, all carried with them a multiplied likelihood of the greatest punishment. Mere lack of enthusiasm, or failure to show it in public, was "defeatism." You assumed that there were lists of those who would be "dealt with" later, after the victory. Goebbels was very clever here, too. He continually promised a "victory orgy" to "take care of" those who thought that their "treasonable attitude" had escaped notice. And he meant it; that was not just propaganda. And that was enough to put an end to all uncertainty.
"Once the war began, the government could do anything "necessary" to win it; so it was with the "final solution" of the Jewish problem, which the Nazis always talked about but never dared undertake, not even the Nazis, until war and its "necessities" gave them the knowledge that they could get away with it. The people abroad who thought that war against Hitler would help the Jews were wrong. And the people in Germany who, once the war had begun, still thought of complaining, protesting, resisting, were betting on Germany's losing the war. It was a long bet. Not many made it."

It seems more than accurate in describing the uncertainty and inaction that I, and many like me, are experiencing.

So, in heeding this warning, where do we start?

That time of year

It seems that its 'that time of year' and life has been keeping me busy - aka away from my computer. This is likely a good thing, as I spend entirely too much time sitting infront of this screen. But this blog has certainly suffered from infrequent entries. I've also been rather tuned out - that is, I have refused to engage for a while, take some 'mind vacation' and catch up on my book reading. However, I've got to say it's been hard to miss the continual and on-going debate surrounding 'this time of year'. I'm just refusing to get into it. Though perhaps I've 'chosen a side' by simply saying 'this time of year' which may for some imply the crazy 'holiday season' (vague) or for others that I'm talking about 'christmas' (explicit). I just let everyone assume what they want to assume and diligently avoid using sentences or closing remarks that would lead me to have to choose...

To some degree I guess I don't have a problem with using the word Christmas, it's direct, exactly describing the reason for 'the season'. That is the Bible's reference to the birth of a boy named Jesus Christ. So - I guess my point is that at least in using the phrase Christmas you're acknowledging the history, the 'back story', in our culture which informs this holiday. (Notice I have not even touched the topic area regarding the 'truth' of this reference, the Bible's integrity, nor any other associated assumptions)

But, our culture also has a nasty habit of relying on history and origin to define the current context.

Perhaps 'this time of year' has come to be about much more than what it represented in the beginning. Maybe now it is simply a time that people can take out of their mundane everyday activities to appreciate the love shared between people, communities, family and even strangers. 'This time of year' brings about acts of kindness and giving unparalleled at any other time. It inspires people to reflect and enjoy the life they are living, sharing that with others only makes it greater. So, maybe 'the holidays' have evolved to represent something different in a secular society? (Perhaps I'm a heretic...)

It seems 'this time of year' really brings to the forefront the ongoing tension of church/state, secular/religious, evolution/...I won't even go there in this post.

I guess it's just my hope, that as this debate continues (and it will) that both 'sides' remain civil and allow for everyone to simply, enjoy.