Leaders – Sommer Season all year

I know it’s been a while since I’ve (#blogger #blog #somseason #YA #authors) blogged, but between taking time off to camp in nature, recovering from a medical procedure, and needing a break from this crazy world, I haven’t written anything for awhile. Time to change that.

A sister-in-law of mine recently got around to reading my book, A Shattered New Start, and she mentioned to one of my family members that she felt the book was really my story. I’ve been thinking a lot about that, and she is right. Yes, the book is based on many of my experiences as a school teacher, but I’ve come to realize that it is my story too. I was bullied (#bullying, #antibullying) as a child, laughed at and teased for being sensitive and different. At times, I was the bully. I especially remember a student who was bullied every day on the bus to our high school. I sometimes participated in that bullying and I always felt bad afterwards, especially for her. She did nothing to warrant it. So, my sister-in-law is right.

Bullying is awful, yet it is condoned by our culture. Everywhere you look, there is bullying, and it has always been that way. Television is full of it. As a kid I grew up watching cartoons on Saturday mornings. I remember watching Popeye the Sailor. The Bugs Bunny Show, and The Flintstones. Bullying was rampant in those cartoons, but as a kid, I didn’t see as bullying. They were just funny cartoons.

In Popeye the Sailor, there was always a villain. Typically, it was Bluto who made moves on Olive Oyl, Popeye’s girl. Bluto always bullied Popeye, usually by clobbering him, until Popeye eats a can of spinach giving him the superhuman strength to clobber his villain. In the Bugs Bunny Show, Bugs is characterized as clever and capable of outsmarting any bully. The bullies I most remember are Elmer Fudd, Tasmanian Devil, Coyote, and Daffy Duck. Bugs usually tried to avoid conflict by pacifying his bullies but when pushed too far, Bugs would use his catchphrase “This means war!” before retaliating in some manner. The Flintstones was characteristic of feuding between Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble who went back and forth bullying each other.

Bullying was prevalent in other shows as well. My siblings and I always watched Gilligan’s Island, a show about seven people stranded on an uncharted island following a torrential storm. The captain was always hitting his shipmate, Gilligan, with his hat and criticizing him for doing something stupid. One of my favourite shows as a kid was Lost in Space, a story about a space colony family who struggled to survive when the stowaway, Dr. Smith, threw their ship off course. Dr. Smith was a notorious bully, always sabotaging the Robison Family’s attempts to get back to Earth.

Today is no different, in fact, the bullying on television is worse today. On television, bullying is normalized as being acceptable and typical. I could write several blogs on this subject but my point is, bullying has always been portrayed as normal and acceptable on television.

Observing the world for the past months, I’ve witnessed inexcusable bullying by our politicians, mainstream media (MM), and health officials. It makes me wonder if these people were bullies as children, but more on that later.

In Canada, the Public Order Emergency Commission’s public hearing has completed . This was a commission looking into the federal government’s—more specifically Trudeau’s—use of the Emergencies Act to bring last winter’s ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests to an end. ‘There was no justification whatsoever to invoke the Emergencies Act,’ said a lawyer , and there appears to be no credible evidence to justify Trudeau’s claimed emergency. When a leader declares an emergency when there is no emergency, that person is a bully. The article, How the Bullying Tactics Politicians Use Affect Kids, says, “most of the bullying tactics that politicians use are the very same ones that middle school and high school students use,” listing: blame-shifting, name calling, reputation bashing, rumour spreading, and ushering obscure threats as methods used. Trudeau uses all these tactics as seen in this video, and then lies about it while on the stand during the commission hearings. Don’t believe me, have a watch.

Alberta’s new premier Danielle Smith calls the unvaccinated ‘most discriminated-against group’ in her lifetime. That provoked a Media Party taking aim at Danielle Smith over comments about unvaccinated residents. The Alberta premier has also apologized to unvaccinated citizens, and even considers dropping all lockdown prosecutions. When I tried to find articles about her apology in the MM, virtually nothing came up. Is MM trying to cover her apology up? Seems so. That is censorship! When MM attacks, they are bullying. She should be applauded for apologizing to a group of people who were indeed bullied via discrimination and segregation, just like the Indigenous people, Jews during Nazi times, and others were.

Mainstream Media and politicians told us the COVID shots protected against transmission, now saying they didn’t say that. This video is proof they did.

Yet, Pfizer did not know whether Covid vaccine stopped transmission before rollout, executive admits; saying that vaccines were never tested for transmission. Have a listen to the Pfizer executive in article’s video. Moderna CEO Now Admits COVID-19 is Like Seasonal Flu . That means we’ve been lied to. Lying is an element of bullying, as it enhances a bully’s power and influence. Spreading lies is used by bullies with the goal to socially alienate those being bullied. Since we were lied to, which caused social isolation of the unvaccinated, that mean the MM and politicians were bullying. This is why Canadians’ trust in the legacy media reaches a new low: report, and Americans’ Trust In Media Remains Near Record Low

Maclean’s Magazine in 1983 had an article entitled, Once a bully, always a bully. I’ve never believed that and I wrote my book, A Shattered New Start, with that premise in mind. Earlier I mentioned that I wondered if people who bully were bullies as children. Dan Pearce, who wrote the book, Single Dad Laughing, says: “People who love themselves, don’t hurt other people. The more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer.” That is exactly right! In other words, “Hurting people hurt people,” or “Hurt People Hurt People, and Healed People Heal People.” I believe bullies can change. Heal the hurt, and you heal the bully. That is what happens to the bully in my book. When I started planning my story, it is was going to be a story solely focused on the victim, Jonathan, but that is not how it turned out. Donovan, a Scottish musician, once said, “Sometimes the songs just come to me. I don’t sit down to write like you’d sit down to make a pair of boots.” The same is true for writing. When I finished my story, it turned out to be a story mostly about the transformation of the bully, Ryan, surprising even me.

Bullies can be changed, and I witnessed that as a teacher. Is it too late for many? Probably. As Dan Pearce suggested, bullies don’t love themselves, so they want others to suffer along with them. The ancient Roman poet Virgil who lived long before Jesus walked the earth said, “Love conquers all things.”

Everything in this universe has its own vibrational frequency. All humans, animals, plants, and all non-living things are vibrating at their own frequency. Albert Einstein said this, saying, “Everything is energy. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.” Love is said to be the highest vibration of all. If that is true, which I believe it is, then love can transform any bully. The bully in my book experienced trauma in his home life, and trauma has a low vibration. It is connected to emotions like fear, panic, anger, sadness, and so on. Those emotions vibrate at a low frequency. If you change the vibration to a higher vibration; to emotions like gratitude, joy, and love, then the bully transforms.

The highest vibration is unconditional love. The bully in my story is transformed because his school community had people who loved him unconditionally which raised his vibration. I wasn’t consciously thinking this when I wrote the book, but it is how Ryan, my bully character, changed. Author J. Andrew Herbert says, “Everything in life is choice.” Ryan’s transformation happened because Ryan chose to change. A bully has to want to change. Ryan was hurt, was open to changing, and love healed him. There is hope for the bullies of the world, but are they willing to change?

Often, my commentaries are about something negative happening in the world, and there are no shortage of those stories. The other day I was watching CTV News and they reported on 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, arriving in New York City to attend a conference on global warming. A while back, I saw a video of this young lady’s speech to the U.N, and she inspired me then.

Now, I’ve spent a career working with young people, and I’ve taught many who inspired me to be a better person. I’ve also taught many who were troubled and not so inspiring. Today’s youth are often portrayed as “bad news” by much of the media and it seems to be the ‘bad ones’ who make the headlines. On August 28, CBC ran this headline; Verdict in October for youth accused of shooting German tourist west of Calgary. In July the country was consumed with this story: How 3 killings in B.C. turned into the cross-Canada pursuit of 2 teenagers. There are no shortage of stories about “bad youth.” It made me wonder about the “good youth?” It seems the youth who are making a difference in our world are seldom recognized, so this post is dedicated to the “youth who inspire me.” Allow me to introduce some of them.

First, I’ll start with 16-year-old Greta Thunberg from Sweden. I first heard about Greta when I saw a video of her U.N. speech when she was 15 years old. If you haven’t seen it, here it is.

This is Greta’s story according to Wikipedia. Thunberg says she first heard about climate change in 2011, when she was 8 years old, and could not understand why so little was being done about it. Three years later she became depressed and stopped talking.

In 2018, at the age of 15, Thunberg took time off school to demonstrate outside the Swedish parliament holding up a sign calling for bold climate action. Her “school strike for the climate” began attracting media attention and other students then engaged in similar protests in their own communities. Thunberg addressed the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference, and she has inspired student strikes that took place every week somewhere in the world. In 2019, there were at least two coordinated multi-city protests involving over one million students each. I can’t help but admire these students who are standing up for the planet. Why wouldn’t they, since they are the ones who will inherit the mess my, and previous generations, left for them.

This teen is a much needed “mover and a shaker” on an issue our political leaders are ‘dragging their feet’ on. Why is climate change being touted as ‘not a big deal’ by many political leaders? Because of money, because making changes affects the economy, and likely the biggest reason, to maintain the lifestyle of the wealthily. The United Nations has said that “climate change is the defining issue of our time and we are at a defining moment.” Thank God for Greta Thunberg because she is motivating our youth to speak out, and take action; Greta has given young people a voice. I applaud this young lady!

CBC News has a story, Climate activist Greta Thunberg lands in New York harbour after Atlantic voyage, The 16-year-old landed in New York after crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a zero-emissions sailboat to attend a conference on global warming. She is set to speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit. The teenager refused to fly to New York to avoid a plane’s fossil-fuel emissions. This is a 16-year-old with integrity; a person who lives by what she preaches.

Global News reported a few days later that People’s Party of Canada Leader (a leader of a new political party in Canada) Maxime Bernier attempted to discredit Greta Thunberg by calling her “mentally unstable.” Mr. Bernier is one of those political leaders who thinks Climate Change is being exaggerated. Essentially, he is a Climate Change denier.

CNN has a story entitled, A 7-year-old wants to build a wall to highlight kindness around the world. The article explains that when 7-year-old Áine Peterson saw images of child migrants being detained at the US-Mexico border, she had to speak out about injustices in the world. The article says, “While some politicians see a divisive wall as a solution to the immigration crisis, Áine, who calls herself ‘the Kind Crusader,’ envisions a wall to bring people together. All the art work she is asking for has to be revolved around kindness, like giving shelter to those in need.” Aine says in a video promoting her campaign, “I want to put together a kindness wall, with art from people all around the world.”

Now I have taught 7-year-olds, and in my experience, this is no ordinary 7-year-old. No 7-year-old that I have worked with has a sense of injustice like Aine does. This is one special kid who deserves to be listened to. She is one to watch and is one who will have an impact on this world.

Another impressive young lady is Malala Yousafzai. She is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate. She is known for her human rights advocacy, especially the education of women and children in her native Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school.

Here is her story according to Wikipedia. In early 2009, when she was 11, Malala wrote a blog detailing her life during the Taliban occupation of Swat Valley in Pakistan. She rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television. On October 9, 2012, after taking an exam, Malala Yousafzai and two other girls were shot by a Taliban gunman in an assassination attempt in retaliation for her activism. The 15-year-old was hit in the head with a bullet and remained unconscious in critical condition. The attempt on her life sparked an international outpouring of support for her.

Following her recovery, Malala became a prominent activist for the right to education, especially for girls. She founded the Malala Fund, a non-profit organization. She was the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, and then aged 17, the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. In 2017, she was awarded honorary Canadian citizenship and became the youngest person to address the Canadian House of Commons of Canada.

This young lady is making a difference in this world. She comes from a part of the world where females were, and maybe still are, denied a basic human right of education. Article 26, of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, it says; “Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages.” Malala is fighting for a basic human right. Sadly, we still live in world where the sexes are not equal and basic human rights are denied to some people. Those of the female gender are not treated equally to males. As Plato once allegedly said, “If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.”

I applaud this young lady for her work to achieve equality between the genders. As Ban Ki-moon, the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, said, “Achieving gender equality requires the engagement of women and men, girls and boys. It is everyone’s responsibility.” Malala deserves to be recognized for her important work.

These are three young people who I admire for their bravery and passion. I will introduce others in my next post.