THE FEMINISTS ARE COMING!

We are approaching that dreaded, eye twitching anniversary of December 6, 1989 when 14 young women were murdered and thirteen wounded at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal by a woman hating young man who thought the female students must be feminists, else why would they be taking engineering? Why indeed? What does feminism mean, anyway, except the push for equality on this earth? And certainly Marc Lepine was dead set against that. To the point of mass murder and suicide. But while women in professions do broaden the potential for equality just by the nature of going into what has traditionally been men’s fields, it certainly doesn’t mean they all, or most, or any, for that matter, had, or have, a feminist consciousness. Because in order to get into traditionally men’s fields, women must accept male paradigms. I’ve certainly learned all about this in court and in prison. This is not to say women professionals don’t try to skirt around the dictates of male constructs from time to time and in the process bring about a change or two. But it’s not enough. We need an all out feminist revolution.
The world is crying out for a feminist consciousness. Nothing less will do. We have reached the tipping point of everything. Anybody alive now besides me who remembers the second wave of feminism of the late 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s? After the exhilarating gains, I watched, dumbfounded, as a male back lash began to portray feminists as degenerate, drug and disease infected butch dykes or tight assed frigid women who hated men on general principals. Crazy, huh? That a push to equality excited such virulence? But the back lash worked. Few women these days will say proudly (or loudly)“I am a feminist”, unless, like AA meetings, it precludes an announcement that one is reforming and will hence forth try for the high road.
But the world is not just poorer because of this backlash, it is bereft. It may mean the end of us all. There is no other element in human society that could enforce a real turn about in climate change, or interrupt the corporate murder of entire countries through debt, assuage the hunger stalking the planet, the killing of civilians willy nilly to shore up corrupt and power hungry men, the increased selling of immature children’s bodies to men with no pride, to the drugging of much of the entire world population. I think we as women do have a choice. We can play dumb, pretend we don’t notice the ugliness and selfishness of male dominate structures, the sex violence, prostitution, child pornography, the accelerated sexualization of children in TV, movies, clothes, videos, because, well… why dwell on this disgusting stuff when we can’t really do anything about it? But we can. We can become feminists.
Men also need a revered up female consciousness. They think they don’t, but honestly, men are a mess without women. They can be brought to a higher consciousness by a little tough love; a little concentrated resistance from women would stiffen their spines. Too many men are easily distracted by ball games, porn, and love of violence which is offered them so they won’t think too deeply about much of anything. It is unnatural to have only the male consciousness making decisions for women and children of the world; most of our male leaders are either precariously balanced or completely unbalanced because they are constantly reacting to challenges from other men. We can’t just leave the field to them. We’ve tried that for the last ten thousand years. That’s a good long run. Long enough to know it doesn’t work. Our men and children need our feminism, the earth needs our feminism. Let’s stop being shy about it.

GAMBLING,GAMING, AND GOING BROKE

GAMBLING, GAMING, AND GOING BROKE

How have so many wonderful community programs become lovers of gambling? Well, maybe not loving gambling, but tolerating it? For the money, of course. But how is it that serious social needs like crime prevention, senior programs, youth programs, animal shelters, arts, health foundations, and many other social programs came to be dependent upon gambling? Most of us know by now that gambling is a serious health risk for a significant number of people, one that too often leaves them destitute and suicidal. And it is upon this suffering and death of some of our members that we as communities have been made to accept from a government that promised not to expand gambling, to bringing in the most addictive and insidious form of gambling…internet gambling.

The Campbell government operates like a dope pusher in the matter of gambling. First, they expose citizens concerned about the health of their communities to a small easy fix of a bit of money for social programs derived from restricted gambling with the promise of more to come. Later, a little more money from a little wider expansion of gambling. Even later, more gambling money for community programs from a continuous expansion of gambling until there is a steady stream of money for community programs from an all out gambling industry with the Campbell government in tow. Finally, the time arises when communities are so dependent on gambling money that citizens can no longer protest or even debate the moral implications of gambling. How can we with so many community programs now riding on this flow of money? But now that the Campbell government is cutting out all (or mostly all) of the programs that benefit from gambling, it does demonstrate how little the members of this government care for citizens.

But if these cuts hold, then it’s a good time to shove Gordon Campbell’s slot machines in his face. As the provincial government now gets all (mostly all) the benefits from gambling then let them wear the shame of coercing communities into accepting gambling money as being healthy and legitimate when in reality they know, and once actually said so, that funds from gambling have always been tainted money because of the lives it destroys. We pay taxes for our social programs, for health and education that includes art, seniors and children’s centres, and crime prevention. We want all of these things and we should have them, with clean money, with tax money, our own money, and we want the Campbell government to stop giving our tax money away to the biggest, sickest, slickest gamblers in town who are gambling non-stop, not only with our money, but with our natural resources. Who am I talking about specifically? Olympic promoters come to mind? Betty Krawczyk