Sing a Joyful Song

I love Celtic music. The jigs, the reels, indeed all the dances are a joy. Not to mention the musicians who play the fiddles, the mandolins and guitars, the accordions, whistles and more. But the lyrics of the songs are so depressing. They speak, for the most part, of death, separation, exile, hardship, rebellion, oppression and war. And they speak of and were written in times long past. But they are still sung today with much the same fervour, romanticizing and perpetuating the sorrow, rage and despair of an earlier age.

There are, of course a few songs that are joyful, very few. Yes horrible things have happened over the course of humanity’s existence on this planet. Some are natural; some are due to human failing. Yet, even those whose ancestors suffered centuries ago, or more recently, are better off than they might have been had their forbearers not been displaced or mistreated. In this country of ours, we are all displaced people. Everyone is here because someone long ago, or not so long ago, left somewhere else, due to poverty, war, persecution, environmental issues or social injustice.

Even the first people to inhabit what is now known as the Americas came from elsewhere. We are all immigrants and immigrants continue to arrive here and will always do so. But none of us own this land. We are merely caretakers of it. We have a responsibility to it,
and to each other. Let us sing joyful songs, full of hope for the present and the future. Let us find reason to be grateful that we now live here. As imperfect as it may be, or we think it is, it is far better than so many other places in this troubled world.

Bigotry Disguised

The expression, "Make America Great Again" is just a call to return to the good old days when white straight men reigned with their pretty little blonde bimbos at their side. I say "Let America Think Again". And this includes its neighbour to the north, Canada.  Sadly the right wing agenda has bled north into this land.

When I read about the anti-LGBTQ movement that is disguised in the misnomer "Parental Rights", I want to throw up. The late Queen Elizabeth II once warned that Human Rights hard won are easily lost. And that is what is happening. It's not just about gays, lesbians and transgendered or non-binary, it's about latinos, blacks, asians and indigenous people's too.

Perhaps this is a good thing. We minorities and marginalized people have become complacent with rights hard won and slowly won since the end of the second World War. We need to renew our vigilance. We need to  fight like some of us fought in the 60s, the 70s the 80s. Complacency seemed to settle in somewhere in the 1990s.

Canada warned recently that the USA was not a safe country for the LGBTQ+ community. Now Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick appear to be sliding in that direction too. The religious right is a dangerous enemy because they disguise christian faith in a cloak of hate fashioned from ignorance and fear of anything that is different. They are a wolf in sheeps clothing. But the shepherd would see through them and cast them out.

A New Coronation

I am so tired of the negative news coverage of the coronation of Charles III.

A waist of public money? No. Not only would much of the money be spent anyway on things like the military and the police, but without it, hundreds of millions of pounds would not be going into the public coffers.

It is colonial reminder: Maybe, but it is also a new day under a new and enlightened monarch who has dedicated his life to racial tolerance, liveable cities, sustainable agriculture, the environment and climate concern, inner city youth and much more. Without British colonialism, which was marshalled by a quasi-democratic government of the 19^th century, those who object could well have been exposed to far worse colonizers; slavery would likely have lingered longer than under British rule - as it did in an independent USA - and the complainers would not be situated where they are, or be as well off. 

And were people taken from better situations. Many yes. But the pre-colonial era in these continents were not the ideal many would try to paint. There is evidence that there were brutal tribal wars in Africa and North America, and even evidence of forms of slavery there long before colonization. Slavery was not created by the colonizers. It had existed in all societies and sadly, still does in some form in some societies today. 

Monarchy is anti-democratic. Who says? It’s not at all. Constitutional Monarchy is one of the most stable forms of democracy and one of the protections it has. Look to the USA and other republics. So many have descended into a dreadful form of authoritarianism, tribalism and fascism.

We should certainly learn from and acknowledge the mistakes of past generations, and from the ones we continue to make. But, stop whining. Stop clinging onto the misery of our ancestors as if it is necessary a shackle on you. The ancestors of the “privileged white settler descendants” in Canada and other countries were exposed to a form of “slavery” too. Call it feudalism, call it classism, call it what you will. It is why so many came to faraway lands and suffered incredible hardships to build a new life. 

And we are glad to be there. The whiners should be too. 

What is Woman, What is Man

There is so much in the media right now about transvestites, transsexuals and transitioning people. What is the fuss!

I blame the Bible. Adam and Eve and all that rot. What about the snake? We are and have been for millennia brainwashed to think there is only one sexuality and only two sexes. What is man, what is woman?

What two women or two men are the same. Not even identical twins are truly identical, or necessarily have the same sexuality. Sex and sexuality are on parallel spectrums, they are not defined points. It may be that most people identify clearly at one or other end of these two spectra. But not all do. And much harm has been done by this confined and confining view.

Some people born as biological women, are short, some tall, some obese, some skeletal, some pear shaped, some curvatious, some with very large breasts, some with none, some with mousy voices and some with deep and resonate voices, many can bear children, but some cannot, some are physically strong, some not. Some have body and facial hair, some do not. Some of these “women” can run ten miles at break-neck speed, scale cliffs, paddle in whitewater, and others struggle to get up off the sofa to turn off the TV.

So who are these uniform biological women athletes that the anti-trans advocates claim to be supporting. Are we to accept the innuendo that one must take from this position: i.e., that biological women are universally inferior in strength and endurance to men. And who are these men anyway?

And interestingly, I have yet to hear any objection voiced that a biological woman who has identified as male, should not be allowed to compete as a man. I wonder what assumptions and stereotypes that is based on.

And I haven’t even gotten into sexuality yet.