The forward, backward, up, down week
Somehow, I still manage to dig in again.
This week in AB
The politicos gathered
Last Wednesday, I attended Common Ground’s session in Calgary with some friends.
Chances are, you’re familiar with their research findings already. The most impactful of these for me has, and continues to be, the fact that when previous participants were asked to draw “a typical Albertan”, they rarely ever drew someone who looks like themselves.
Women drew a caucasian male cowboy or rig worker. People of colour drew a caucasian male cowboy or rig worker. Newcomers to Alberta drew a caucasian male cowboy or rig worker.
One of the things that came up in this session is that some people who now live in Alberta (even for a decade or two) still have difficulty seeing themselves as “Albertan”. They weren’t “born and raised” here and don’t feel comfortable claiming to be “Albertan”.
A woman I spoke with said that when people ask her where she’s from, she doesn’t claim Calgary, where she has lived for a number of years — she feels like they’ve picked up on the fact that she wasn’t “born and raised” here and claims the province she moved from instead.
Both of these admissions reminded me that we are doing a constant disservice to the thousands of people who move here every year, and the children who are “born and raised” in this province, by excluding them from an Alberta identity that reflects either them or their lived experience.
There are still real cowboys around and rig workers too — for now — but we need to do a better job of showcasing the Alberta that exists for the rest of us; because unlike the former, I’m sorry to say, it’s the latter that’s actually a growing population.
Hot girl summer
Just another summer in Alberta, where people living near our vast and beautiful forests are in danger of losing their homes, and we are all one step closer to having either unaffordable homeowner’s insurance, or none at all.
I’ll leave the blame game to the politicians and their partisan hacks, and the climate science arguments to those who know far more than I can ever hope to learn with Google.
My focus, as I mentioned last week, will remain on the threat of losing homeowner’s insurance due to the increasing frequency of “extreme” weather events. By that, I mean “extremely costly” to insurance companies who aren’t really in the business of providing a public service; they exist to make money on unclaimed benefits. When too many people make claims, it stops being the money-making opportunity it once was.
Unfortunately, a majority of forest fires in the province start with human carelessness; which is also a top reason for warning labels, and why the rest of us won’t be able to have nice things in the future.
I don’t care what anyone wants to label as the cause, I’m much more concerned about the very real effects this will have on every person who owns, or is hoping to one day own, a home.
For everyone who says they can’t do a thing about climate change, or “acts of God”, or whatever else they want to pass the buck on, I expect our politicians to have a solid contingency plan for the possibility that we’ll be left without insurance.
Americanadian Weirdness
The hot mess circling the drain is far too close for comfort
Last week started with some excitement as Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy for President in the upcoming election and then endorsed his VP, Kamala Harris to take his place.
I have never considered myself much of a feminist. To be honest, I kind of took for granted that women could do the same jobs as men, and have the same opportunities. In my defence, I was both young, and have an optimism that may be let down, but stubbornly returns on the regular to allow me to jump back in the fray again.
Lately, however, I’m being reminded just as regularly that taking man-given rights for granted is a terrible mistake.
I first heard the term “God-given rights” at the inaugural United Conservative Party convention in 2018. Now, I’m not sure if it’s because I’m a woman, or that I believe the Bible was written by men who wanted a utopian society that has never existed, or just that I’m passably knowledgeable of the history of a complete lack of rights for people in my own country, and America, Europe, and some East Asian countries… but I have never been given any reason to think “God-given rights” are a thing.
For me, and basically anyone who wasn’t born with a penis and the ability to deny their true self, all rights are man-given — and men, along with their counterpart of appropriately indoctrinated women, can (and will) take them away in some bass-ackwards pursuit of “freedom”.
I also move further away from considering myself much of a feminist because I don’t support the gendered divide that society has and continues to force upon us.
Women, girls, men, boys, and everyone else are shamed for not conforming to someone else’s preference of our dress, interest, appearance, speech, or affectation — as if there’s a “right” way to exist.
As if, through the act of conforming, even, and especially, if it’s not what you want, one manages to convey the impression that they are more “real”.
It’s a non-sequitur.
All I know for certain is that despite throwing around the word “freedom”, our leaders seem perfectly willing to forgo mine if I want to know how they’re making decisions. Or if my trans kid wants gender-affirming care. Or by providing my kid access to smaller class sizes via a separate school education (or a public education, for that matter). Or ensuring my pregnant daughter has access to pre-natal care regardless of where she lives in the province.
Their version of freedom doesn’t seem to extend to me, or my family; which really makes me wonder who they’re offering it to.
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Final thoughts
