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Dear Sustainable Maritimes people, The other day I overheard some students talking about how they had been invited to what sounded like a Liberal pep rally, where Jean Chrétien was to speak, at the Saulnierville legion. I thought of friend and fellow activist, Aaron Koleszar, who helped "pie" (entartiner) Chrétien because of Liberal support for companies producing GMOs... I realized this was an opportunity not to be missed! As anyone who has tried to communicate with the Prime Minister about any serious issue will find out, the man is incredibly insulated from our concerns. The pep rally was expressly organized not to allow any questions from the floor. ... People act as if it is an honour to have the prime minister visit us, but what kind of an honour is it if he goes to great lengths to avoid hearing anything but cheers? Unfortunately, while there were media there, we missed them. But I've written a couple letters-to-the-editor for local papers. I think you might enjoy reading them! all the best, Jan ********************************************************* Breaking Through the "Unconscious Civilization" Dear Editor, We "crashed" the pep rally the Liberals held with Jean Chrétien in Saulnierville last week. We'd like to explain why. We brought along signs asking when we will get a nuclear phase-out and protesting GMOs (genetically modified organisms). The organizers found out we had signs before the speeches and tried to get us to leave. They made it clear that if we started heckling, we would be escorted out. Well, we hadn't even thought of heckling. We wanted to make sure Chrétien saw our signs. (When we write to him, his office just passes our letters on to another minister; generally it seems he is ill-informed and uncaring about important issues.) The organizers announced that people were not to wave signs during the speeches and we weren't sure if we would go ahead with our plan. We did feel intimidated. There must have been about 10 security and public relations guys scowling at us. We couldn't remember when we ever had so many men looking so intently at us! But, especially after we heard Chrétien say how nice it was to be on stage with such pretty girls (the dance troupe, La Baie en Joie) we really wanted to stand up for what we believe in. Not only do we care about the specific issues we raised, we wanted people to see that there are other roles for women than "decorating" political speeches for the men. And we want to transform politics, to make it less of a horse race and more of a reasoned discussion of vital issues. As John Ralston Saul wrote in his book of the same title, ours has become an "unconscious civilization". We muddle along, rarely realizing how devestating some of our actions are. For example, Canada participated, at a cost of some $482,500,000, in the bombing of Yugoslavia, which has left that country with a legacy of depleted uranium and cluster bombs to deal with. And our government has made severe cutbacks in social spending, while continuing to pour millions into AECL (Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.). It was, we feel, another example of "unconsciousness" to see that the Yarmouth Memorial Club was in attendance. After all, the group supposedly exists to honour veterans, but our government has refused to recongnize veterans of the Gulf War as war veterans, and has failed abysmally to provide proper care to those veterans who have become sick with "Gulf War syndrome" or other ailments related to exposure to toxic chemicals. While we gather our faces were pretty red that night at the Saulneirville Legion, in the end we are not embarrassed by what we did. It took real courage and we are proud to have broken through the forces trying to keep real issues from being discussed and trying to push our society further along the road to "unconsciousness". Sincerely, Jan Slakov, CP 35, Weymouth, N.-É. B0W 3T0 837-4980 Sue Davis, Weymouth Mills, NS B0W 3T0 837-7176 (h) 245-2303 (w) Dora MacHutcheon, Pointe-de-l'Église, N.-É. B0W 1M0 769-0135 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I will not allow my life's light to be defined by the darkness around me. -Sojourner Truth ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ....until the great mass of people shall be filled with a sense of responsibility, social justice can never be attained. -Helen Keller ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Note: I also wrote a slightly different letter for the French language paper, Le Courrier. I can send it to anyone who would like a copy. -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The preceding message was posted on Sustainable Maritimes (sust-mar) -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- TELL A FRIEND! The more people who join sust-mar, the more interesting and diverse views we'll see ... and more people to read *your* messages. So ... pssssst! Pass it on ... To join sust-mar just send email to <majordomo@chebucto.ns.ca> As the text of your message type "subscribe sust-mar" (without the quotes)
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