Rose DeShaw » Politics

OMNIBUS BILL SONGS – C-10 (Canada)

Rose — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 23:16:33 +0000

Tune: Mocking Bird Hill

When a bill is one hundred pages or more
You have a funny feeling that what it is for
Is to keep you from reading the contents of it
Because if you knew them, you might throw a fit
Tra la la , tweedle dee dee
It gives us a chill
When a bill is so packed full it threatens to spill
Its contents all over those least fit to cope
And she who protests it is labeled a dope

2) When Canada’s crime stats are growing quite low
And a bill comes along that says this isn’t so
Then we’re full of suspicion, it’s throwing us back
To where the U.S. has abandoned that track
Tra la la, tweedle dee dee
We know more about crime
Than we did in the days of our grandparent’s time
We can help some and keep some
from offending again
Not just dump them all into one big prison den

3) So let’s take some time out and study this thing
Which is why we’ve come out here to talk and to sing
We’re wary of bills that are switfly passed through
Without contributiions from me and from you
Tra la la, tweedle dee dee
Let’s look at expense
This will cost our province
It doesn’t make sense
Let’s tell Stephen Harper
C-10 is a NO!
And have an election where Tories will Go!

SONG 2
Tune: Istanbul Not Constantinople
Just the chorus (an EASY & funny tune on youtube)
/watch?v=vankeSifSr0 or just google it on Youtube

Bill C-10 is UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Unwise, unjust and unconstitutional
Then why will our PM push it through?
Because HE’S not heard complaint from me and you!

2) Bill C-10 is just like an omnibus
Whole bunch of other bills sneaking quickly past us
All the way from immigrants to petty crime
Our PM plans to sneak it past this time!

3) Write your MP – tell him what you think of this
Stop Bill C-10 till it’s fully been explained to us
We know how to really make a ghastly fuss
Let’s show him that he can’t do this to US!

SONG 3
Tune: How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria

From the Sound of Music

How do we get a public groundswell going?
How do we stop a bill and bring it down?
How do we show its many faults to others?
We talk it up clear
We tell what we fear
We frown!
Many a thing we have to say about it
Many a thing you need to understand
So google C-10 today
And tell your MP NO WAY!
So many will be ruined by this plan
How do we solve a problem like this crime bill?
If we fight we’ll defeat it yes you & I sure can!

Rose DeShaw, Nov 22/11

ACTIVISM FOR THE LONG HAUL – Living For It, Not Just Coping Out by DYING for it.

Rose — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:25:27 +0000

When you see injustice happening, often increasing, your impulse is to jump right in and give 100% of yourself tryng to change it, often in company with interesting others.
Before you plunge in and let this cause gobble your whole self, consider that there will be other causes. Is this the one for you? Yes, you CAN be an activist without being chewed up and spit out by the opposition machines that are in the busines of chewing up & spitting out the mostly young people who rush to lay their lives on the line. As I did mine.
Rachel in front of the bulldozer is a hero to us all. But even she did not realize how valuable to us all living her life out might have been.
That great activist, Tooker Goomberg has always been my anti-model. He left a note, as so many bright flames do, that talked about how he wished he’d had BALANCE in his activist existence – a life completely apart from chaining himself to things, denouncing in public, running for office, getting headlines but gradually all of who he was as a person, trickling out till there was nothing left.
You can be a successful activist your whole life if you practice these principals: 1) keep your private self going. Interests and yes, even close friends who are NOT activists, who support and love you as a person quite outside your political career. 2) Keep your personal flame alight, pets, concerns, training, wide reading especially, yes, even light stuff, comic novels, anything to keep you from being Wally Onetrack, 3) Stay healthy and ready for anything. Especially get enough sleep to keep your thinking clear. 4) Don’t let your emotions influence your behaviour in the cold light of morning.
Of course I’m thinking especially of Occupiers these days and their heroism which will have to be paced over a long period. Just as heroic but less obvious will be those who influence government and economic policy in other ways. Far better were they to take turns, spelling one another while the activist rests from her labours and turns to something completely different.
Hot-headed activism can kill – not just the activist but the ill-considered plan conceived at midnight and put into frantic, desperate doings. The Weathermen didn’t set out to kill people but to make a point. Those who make bombs or even just come on down because they want to ‘bop a cop,’ are fighting with icons who don’t exist. Every face is that of a human being with family, friends, a dog or cat waiting at home, a heart full of hopes of their own. Their beliefs may be as strong as yours. Their own story may be more compelling.
Tooker said he’d do it differently, were he to do it over. He said he didn’t even have a favorite food. He’d given it his all and his all had failed.
Of course he was wrong about the failure, given his inspiration but he was right about the balance. Writing as an old activist, sometimes on the front lines, in the papers, giving the workshops, wishing the young could see how valuable the whole life is, not just the start, how many good things come from years of being built on, how the world opens up to your understanding, connections begin to be made, small kindnesses become important.
Standing in a crowd with the police on their way, teaching a new song that makes fun of the particular perpetrators of this injustice, giving off hints that life gets so much better as you age, yes, even with the aches and pains, continuing to Live This Life, despite injustice, always on every hand, learning to see Which Causes Are Yours and Which Ones Belong To Someone Else, rather than rushing at every windmill – all these are fruits of planting a life when young and living to see the thing a tree that others will climb and launch rom there.
If there’s one thing I believe about activism, it’s that it needs BALANCE. Also THOUGHTFULNESS, seeing EVERYONE IS A HUMAN BEING, especially those who oppose you, who probably seem evil, selfish, greedy, callous and just Wrong. BUT THERE ARE NO ICONS.
I know. I’ve been there. I am there still. With love.
About 10 years ago I wrote a song to encourage other women who were discouraged and thught maybe their raging against government policies and repression hadn’t been noted. The last verse was:
“Protest, just a thing that happens?
Or activist your whole life through?
Is it time to be a leader?
Won’t a follower always do?
Will we see change in our lifetime?
Who remembers that we care?
History already tells us
That it mattered, we were there.”
(Tune: Old union song, changed by the churches into Whatta Friend)

RAGING GRANNY DOLL

Rose — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:17:02 +0000

This is really a handpuppet made by Jo Vellacott. A friend asked about them and I went and found mine, the one in the picture. YOu can see about how big it is by the size of my feet. Mine has a tiny rubber chicken in one hand since that’s what I use to lead singing. The other hand is clutching sheet music. Jo only made a very few of the ‘dolls.’

ONE MORE RUN AT THE LAWN CHAIRS!

Rose — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:24:25 +0000

Yesterday I got 4 of the worst looking lawn chairs you can imagine, from garbage set out curbside that was mostly construction remnants. This green broken-back chair with paint stains is the very pits, so bad I leave it turned over outside.

This one, half sprayed with black paint is a contender for worst as well. There are two more dirty white ones. But it is SO nice to have something to sit on without going into the house for the nice chairs, afraid to leave them outside if I have to take a washroom break and then lugging them all back in when I’m done.
So now once again I have somewhere to set down a parcel when I arrive home with my arms loaded or just a spur of the moment sit when I’ve been gardening.
Everyone’s laying odds how long THESE chairs will stay around since I’m leaving them outside at night along with the real election signs for Gerretsen which his campaign, after telling me they were fresh out, brought around yesterday and stuck in three places in the yard.
I give the Gerretsen signs till the weekend and probably the lawn chairs too. I also replaced the ‘YOU WILL BE TOWED SIGN’ at the end of the drive which was vandelized at the same time as the campaign signs, conscientious vandals thinking why leave a job half done when there’s another sign on the premises?
I’ll let you know what happens.

THIRD GERRETSEN SIGN STOLEN

Rose — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:27:54 +0000

Smaller sign tells passersby that “THEY STOLE OUR 2ND SIGN TOO. THIS IS OUR THIRD SIGN.”
Sigh. I shall try to bring it in at night.

MY JOHN GERRETSEN SIGN STOLEN SO I PUT THIS ONE UP BUT IT WILL PROBABLY BE STOLEN THIS SATURDAY TOO (TOMORROW).

Rose — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:21:22 +0000

<
We put up this sign when our heavily staked oversize Gerretsen sign was ripped out of the garden last Saturday at a time of loud student parties. It would take at least 3 strong men to yank it out and haul it off.

Here’s the old sign. I called campaign headquarters and they said they were out of signs. Then I jiggled the sign I made and discovered it had been pulled out of the ground but not yet made off with. Probably will happen on Saturday.

I SUPPORT JOHN GERRETSON FOR PROVINCIAL M.P.P., WHO CONTINUES TO DO A GREAT JOB

Rose — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 21:45:18 +0000

Our local provincial representative to the legislature (Same as state for U.S.), John, continues to be ethical, caring and have a great staff ready to help. I’ve known him personally over the years and watched his hard work and genuine concern for Kingston, Ontario where I live.
His experience goes all the way to knowing how best to install a campaign sign so it can’t be easily ripped out by the midnight vandals that stalk our neighbourhood. As we are right on the corner, the sign gives me daily opportunity to share why I have it there with all those who ask – and plenty do.
My vote is reflective and thought out. While I am fond of many green policies as well as those of the NDP, John has not slacked off a bit on all he does, always approachable and available for personal talks.

Here’s that sign in my garden again, looking like a late zinnia, not at all out of place, with the renku around it. I am hoping that being on a fairly high profile corner will be an asset to Gerretson’s campaign. There are usually signs on all three corners, and usually all different. This year is starting out no differently.

TED HSU WON NOMINATION!

Rose — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 12:14:48 +0000

Now he needs to get elected Member of Parliament for Kingston & The Islands. Which will be a painful time for him and his family. Politics are a sesspool. Media attention is a blight. Your character is tested and every bit of weakness in yourself and your family is exposed to print and online. Who’d want to go there? Egotists of course or those martyrs seeking to do real good for their country.
Fingers crossed that Hsu gets his chance to do the latter. Lots of people watching and hoping.

VOTING TED HSU LIBERAL CANDIDATE TODAY, KINGSTON, ONTARIO (AFTER PETER MILLIGAN’S SEAT)

Rose — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 11:26:21 +0000

Though I hate to put ANY human being into the political trap we call ‘office,’ Ted deserves the chance he asks for. Good record in life outside. Seems to listen. Quiet. Good people around him & recommending him. What do you do? ‘
This voting stuff. Poll everybody whose opinion you respect, eyeball everyone else running, discuss them in the sauna and everywhere else till you get what’s out there – rumours and mistakes, history (when he was just a kid he -), pay attention to the press & the speeches, pray, try to meet them in person & look at how that goes: baby kissing, wife pinching, interrupting, best friends?
Finally you go down to a huge venue, in this case the hockey rink/concert venue and vote. We’ve been all the parties in Canada and some that exist no more: Rinocerus, (okay, phonetic spelling), National Party (only lasted 1 election, sabotage from inside), NDP (Abysmal choice of candidates), Green (Great neighbour as candidate, Bridget Doherty), lousy party platform), Tory/Conservative (Mostly to annoy them, also due to David Orchard, great candidate that year) and now Liberal (Ted Hsu) in 2010.
Are we fickle? Not so much. We’ve voted liberal before even though off and on, they’ve been pretty bad but no one’s ever been as bad as the money-grabbing, person-ignoring, dollar-worshipping, corrupt, religious pretentious, snobbish, Tories and even then I’ve been personally fond of some of their past candidates especially Keith Bilow.
Watch this site. I’ll take pictures & tell you how it goes. Rally at 1pm today, voting at 3:30 and I should be back shortly after.
Ah, politics and all the great US cartoonists weighing in. What am I going to do abut Ignatiff?? He wrote some good books. I respect his mind. A lot of the bad stuff lately has to be down to his advisors. Wish me luck up here in Canada.

KID IS NOT ALL RIGHT – Letter To Editor

Rose — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:58:07 +0000

This is a letter to the editor of the Toronto Globe & Mail July 15, 2010 from Janice McAlpine. I want to be sure it gets as much exposure as possible:

“When our kids are 15 years old, we pray they’ll see 20. Omar Khadr almost didn’t make it. But in his case, it wasn’t fast cars, alcohol poisoning or teenage angst that put his life at risk. It was his father taking him to Afghanistan.

On July 27, 2002, when the U.S. Army attacked the compound where Mr. Khadr was staying, he was shot and almost blinded, and he either did or did not kill a U.S. soldier with a hand grenade.

We don’t know how willingly Mr. Khadr fought against Canadian allies, but we do know how impressionable and dependent 15 year olds are. In Canadian law, a child soldier is not a murderer.

Omar Khadr should be repatriated and given help. If it turns out that this young man, who has now spent eight years in a cage, is embittered and a threat to society, we can put our new Canadian security czar to work. But if we don’t give Mr. Khadr a chance to begin his life again, we have to admit that Canadian justice is something we offer selectively.”

Janice McAlpine