As many of you know, I was an elementary school teacher long before I ever became a blogger. For thirty years I spent a majority of my days in the company of small children. It was the best experience. Kids deserve far more credit than they get for how wise and compassionate and able they all really are. Being in their company helped to make me a better person. Looking back, I consider it to have been an honour and a privilege to have been welcomed so readily and completely into their world.
MacInnes Family art that speaks from the heart.
Throughout the entire course of my career, I functioned in my role as teacher against a backdrop of constantly pushing and pulling societal forces. On one side were those political operators who said that it was a teacher's main job to prepare students for the world of work. On the other side were those who claimed that it was my responsibility to train students to be critical thinkers and good citizens, so that they could chart their own course in life and help to make our world better for all. While I always strove to achieve a balance of both schools of thought, my ultimate allegiance lay with the kids in our classroom and their families. One of the greatest lessons that I learned as a teacher was just how unique all of us are and how that is OK. I never had 25 or so Grade 2 students in my classroom that acted as one homogeneous group. What I actually had were twenty-five or so little humans who each brought something interesting, challenging, funny, creative, etc., to the table on a daily basis. I taught kids who were loud and some who were soft spoken and made sure that both sets of voices ended up being heard. I worked with kids who were neat and organized and others who had no clue where their pencil was from one moment to the next and made sure that both types possessed strategies to help them complete tasks accurately and efficiently. I sat with kids who were the only child in their family and were used to getting all of the attention they wanted all of the time, as well as those from large families who had to fight to be seen every day, all of the time...and I helped them both develop the ability to listen to others and share the spotlight, safe in the knowledge that I knew they were there. The bottom line to all of this is that my experience as a teacher gave me a window into the makeup of our society and an appreciation for the differences that it contains.
In practical terms, this means that I can understand and yet still appreciate my neighbours who have different interests from me and my family. I can understand and appreciate the fact that some people in my town love differently than I do and that them being who they are doesn't hurt or hinder me and my family in the slightest. I know that my neighbourhood and town is composed of high income earners, middle class folks like me and those who find it hard to make ends meet from paycheque to paycheque. I don't envy the rich, nor do I denigrate the poor. We all need to treat each other with respect and dignity regardless of socio-economic status, so that is what I try to do each and every day. Finally, not everybody in my neighbourhood or town looks like me or speaks like me or has the same religious affiliation as me, and somehow the sun continues to shine and the birds continue to sing and it is all OK. It truly is.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
I am inspired to write today's post for two separate but connected reasons. The first is the news that the U.S. Supreme Court, which is filled with political appointees placed there during the Trump administration, has agreed to hear legal arguments stating that former President Trump is not legally liable for any of his actions during his time in office. If you follow U.S. political news at all, you will be aware that Trump has indictments against him coming out the ying yang…ranging from charges of rape, to tax evasion, to shoddy business practices, to stealing classified intelligence documents and much, much more. The Supreme Court hearing will have a direct impact on the upcoming U.S. elections. But even more importantly than that, if and when Trump's Supreme Court appointees rule in his favour, the court is basically making the legal precedent that states that a sitting president is above the law. I have always thought of leaders who put themselves above the law as being dictators, which is the antithesis of democracy. If this ruling comes to pass, a way of life that we have known seemingly forever will change on a dime. I imagine Trump followers will even stand and cheer for their own subjugation. Oh, the times we find ourselves in.
Homeless encampment in my hometown of Cobourg, Ontario. Photo courtesy of Pete Fisher, Today's Northumberland.
The second thing that inspired this post is something more local in impact to me, and yet it is something that can be seen happening in communities all across North America. That is the problem of homelessness and, more specifically, homeless encampments. I have always believed in the saying that a measure of any society was in how it cared for its weakest and/or most vulnerable citizens. Well, there is an encampment made up of three or four dozen tents less than a kilometre from where I live. It is difficult to say with any certainty if those in the encampment are there because of poverty or addiction or criminal activity or a combination of them all or something different altogether. But all that I can say with certainty is that the encampment in my neighbourhood is not the only encampment around. The fraying of our social safety net can be seen in the proliferation of the homeless all throughout my province, the rest of the country and into America, too. Ironically, this coincides with a building boom in which farmland and ecologically-sensitive lands are being devoured in record numbers by real estate developers intent on creating sub-division after sub-division of predetermined new communities complete with schools and chain store shopping plazas that all have outdoor entrances. That homelessness should be on the rise at a time of building booms seems at odds with how it should all be turning out. But, of course, at the root of it all is money and, more specifically, the difference between investment and profit. Furthermore, at the root of the difference between investment and profit is how we view our fellow human beings. All throughout my existence, Canada has been lauded for the nature of its social safety nets with regard to public education, public healthcare, our social services for those in need and so on. But recently, we have had a series of governments who have viewed investing in social services as being money not well spent because it does not have a healthy return on investment from a financial point of view. Thus, the agencies involved in providing social services have had to endure a seemingly endless series of budget cuts that have greatly hampered their ability to adequately respond to the challenges inherent in today's society. Through it all, suffering grows exponentially while a small minority grows more comfortable in the nature of their social, financial and political status with each passing day.
At the beginning of this post I spoke of teaching against the push and pull of external factions regarding whether my role was to prepare my students for the world of work or to enter the world as critical thinkers and good citizens. Well, the core of that political debate for me essentially forced me to decide for myself how I viewed my students. While I knew they needed skills and knowledge to thrive in the real world, I never viewed them as being less than human. My kids were never cogs in the future machine. They were always my kids…loud or quiet, messy or neat…compassionate or self-absorbed…they were always viewed as being the humans that they were. They still are, even though I am long retired. I share this view when it comes to my community, my country and the world, as a whole. I believe in the right of each human to exist. I believe that we should all be treated with dignity and compassion, too. I have never been concerned with limiting wealth accumulation, because with great wealth comes the opportunity for great philanthropy and for social good. But when wealth accumulation comes at the cost of dehumanizing others, then I have a problem with it. One of the best ways of explaining how corporate dehumanization works can be seen in the opening six minutes of a children's film produced by Jerry Seinfeld called The Bee Movie. (You can watch that clip by clicking here). There are no individual bees (except for Jerry, of course) in his graduating class. They are all one homogenous group of workers destined to work until they die for the benefit of the corporate bottom line. I don't know about you, but I find that view of life to be scary. It is also a view of life that I see happening increasingly in the world around us. When Art and life begin to merge into one shared reality, that is really scary!
Sam and Gert Bettens from K's Choice.
Our song today comes from a Belgian band named K's Choice and is called "Not An Addict". This band consists primarily of two siblings named Sam and Gert Bettens. Although they are well known in Europe, "Not An Addict" is their one big hit in North America. It is a song that talks about addiction in a way that elevates the topic into the often multi-faceted issue that it actually is. The song is non-judgemental. Instead, it simply states that addiction is a complex issue and that those who exist under its sway are real people deserving of understanding and compassion. I have never been a social worker or addiction counselor by trade. I imagine that it must be an emotionally draining job. However, the importance of helping those in need cannot be understated. The measure of a society and the measure of us, as individuals within that society, can be seen in how we view those less fortunate than us. While I don't have the resources to cure all the ills of the world with a stroke of a pen in my cheque book, I do know that the first essential step is to recognize and honour the humanity that exists within us all.
The link to the video for the song "Not An Addict" by K's Choice can be found here. ***The lyric version is here. FYI: This is a gorgeous version of the song. It is backed by a choir and sounds absolutely lovely.
The link to the official website for K's Choice can be found here.
***As always, all original content contained within this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this post shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2024 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com
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