Don't take it personally
"Everything is political," I used to say, and it really sucks.
It wasn’t personal.
What is that supposed to mean? I'm so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn't personal to you. But it was personal to me; it's personal to a lot of people.
You’ve Got Mail, 1998
This month in AB and beyond
It started with the Olympics. When a professional athlete cried foul, the people who desperately want to preserve the antiquated perception of women as “fragile” took notice. If a female athlete, competing for the top spot in the world, faces an opponent who is stronger, then that opponent must, through all flawed and twisted logic, be a man.
Her opponent wasn’t a man, despite a bunch of people who don’t know anything about her having the opinion.
Her opponent made herself extra pretty for the interview where she addressed the hateful onslaught of cyber-bullying aimed directly at her. Like that time I used a straightening formula meant for Black hair on my hair, fried it, and had to shave my head, I wore a lot more makeup and lots of cute skirts because I know full well that there is an expectation that I, as a woman, undertake any effort available to me to appear “more” feminine than the naturally-occurring body hair and plain features I was born with. Yes, I know I clean up nice.
Yet, as much as we’ve been reduced to our biology since time immemorial, suddenly there are people who want to have a say in what the “right” biology can be.
As usual, no one is worried about men’s, or transgender men’s, biology; just women and transgender women.
Almost as if it’s not really about biology, either.
Frankly, I’m so exhausted with people going after other people for not meeting some preconceived expectation and who have no business inserting themselves into the conversation.
Which brings us back to Alberta because Danielle Smith reiterated that she will use the strong arm of government to insert her party’s expectations in between parents, their children, and their children’s healthcare providers, as well as require parental consent for children under the age of 16 to change their name or pronouns at school.
The party of parental rights indeed.
The people who advocate for parents as the primary educator and decision-maker in their children’s lives wants to dictate what medical care is appropriate for other people’s children.
Now, a lot of people thought that allowing your two-year old to die from a treatable medical issue should be criminal. Yet, it wasn’t. Apparently you can’t be charged with failing to provide the necessities of life so long as you really — swear to god and hope to die — believe scented candles and words work better than medicine.
And parents should definitely be able to force their children to answer to the name they decided they should have, because they are totally the ones who have to live with it; looking at you, parents who named their kid Cliff Hills, and Justin Stead, and yes, even the often unpronounceable and consistently misspelt Deirdre.
A leadership review is on the horizon
It’s that time of the election cycle, again, when the leader of a party in government will face a review from those who have paid $10 to be a member, and are willing to drive to Red Deer in November.
Unlike her predecessor Jason Kenney, Danielle Smith will, I expect, be perfectly happy with the bare minimum of 50+1 per cent support. I also don’t believe she’ll shed any real tears if the membership sends her off to enjoy her retirement in Panama a few years early.
It’s win/win for her because she won’t have to deal with the consequences of her leadership in the future.
I’m not going to bother encouraging people to pay to vote in this leadership review because it’s not just $10 at the moment; it’s $10 plus $160 to attend, plus actually having to go to Red Deer.
However.
If a group with reach wanted to be heard, they could fundraise to send people to the event, and schedule a bus, and get people there to vote.
The reason they removed the requirement to vote in person for Jason Kenney’s leadership review is because thousands of people registered and the venue would not support the number of people who wanted to vote.
While I expect the usual suspects to be organizing already, it’s still an opportunity for any Albertan to let the UCP know what they think of Danielle Smith’s leadership thus far.
I reiterate, once again, that the worst person you can think of being Premier is not enough to ensure Albertans won’t vote for their ignorant AF representative anyway.
Food for thought.
Getting personal
My gramma-in-law passed away unexpectedly at the beginning of the month, my grampa-in-law (who was being cared for by her and has a number of health issues and had already talked to his doctor about MAiD) is making decisions, my Nana probably has lung cancer and was hospitalized with pneumonia and a small blood clot, and my mother, who has early onset dementia but has always displayed problematic behaviours, is threatening to move out of the care home because she doesn’t like the rules and she can “take care of” herself.
My youngest is starting grade nine, my eldest is making me a grandmother, my transgender stepson is still awaiting gender-affirming care at the age of 20, and the sheer impact of political decisions both past and present is absolutely overwhelming to me because those are just the things in my immediate vicinity and I still see what else is going on out there.
Government has a role in society and it’s not to “spur the economy” or “enable the free market” — if the market is free, then let it be, and if the government controls the economy then it’s not a free market.
Government is there to fill the gaps. We don’t want people to profit off sickness, loss, or hardship because profit only incentivizes creating an environment where those things thrive.
In my opinion, of course.
Wishing you all well in the last week of summer — I’ll be back :)