Rambling thoughts on politicians

It is disappointing that elected governments think they have the right to do anything they want.  They vilify the policies and laws of the prior government and then dismantle them without any apparent reason other than the other party put it into place.  It does not matter the party (NDP, Liberal or Conservative), it is the policy, the services or the laws that does not fit their ideology and therefore must be chucked out no matter the price the people pay. 

When we question it they ignore us, phrase and twist words to make it look and sound better than it really is, or, try to make us think they know better than us and speak down to us in rather condescending words.  They forget that we elected them to represent us and that they are responsible and accountable for all their actions and inactions to us.  They need to remember that they must consult with us and to inform us of what they are going to do.

All too often large companies, the rich and well-funded special interests seem to be dictating to the politicians what they can and cannot do like the current federal scandal that has the appearance of businesses dictating the actions of politicians.  Politicians are more worried about losing votes and power rather than doing what is right and what the law says.

What can be done?  For starters we need legislation at the federal, provincial and local government level that allows the people to forward a petition for the recall of the politician.  Once a specified threshold has been met there is a special election.  There may be limits such as how long after an election before a petition can be issued and how many more months before the next election also.  There needs to be a threshold on the number of people required and they must reside where the politician is and must be an eligible voter.  It may not be a cure-all, but, if politicians know that if they do not work on our behalf we can turf them from office and replace them with a person who will work on our behalf.

Another thing is for us to stop being hyper-critical of anything they do.  That isn't easy, but, if we look rationally at what they are doing and ask why and ask them why, maybe we will be more understanding of what is being done.  Also when you are reading those 'articles' ask yourself where the information came from, are they checking their sources and do other news sites are reporting the same thing.  I have seen 'articles' and while they seemed reasonable something was off and when I dug a wee bit I found that the 'Canadian' article was actually written outside of Canada.

The next thing is to completely remove their being funded by organizations and the rich.  They need to have a hard dollar limit per person and only a real person can contribute.  This will minimize the influence the rich and corporations have and force the politicians to solicit funds directly from the voters.  It won't be perfect, but, if they can see in their pocket book the effect of not listening to us it may be another way to persuade them.  Personally I have stopped taking calls looking for money and turfing their physical mail and emails and let them know why I have stopped and what it will take before I start contributing.  Will it stop them?  Right now it is 'no', not many are doing it and the hit on their bank accounts is minimal.

When there is an election try to go to the 'meet the candidate' meetings and have a short list of questions prepared for the candidates on the topics that matter to you.  Ask the incumbent why did they do what they did, ask the other candidates on what they will do and let them know if they break their campaign promises it will cost them their job.  Read up on the platforms and be a knowledgeable voter.

The next big, very big thing is to vote.  I have voted in EVERY municipal, provincial and federal election since 1988.  If you don't vote then don't complain as you not voting indicated that anyone who gets voted in is fine by you! Not everyone who I voted for got into office.  All too many were a disappointment or their party was a disappointment.  When that happens I look at the next election as an opportunity to correct that. 

Participate in the process.  Decades ago I volunteered for a campaign and got an excellent education on what it takes a candidate to run for office.

Why the hatred? Why the fear?

A lot of people are talking about the various hate groups and are much more able to articulate the racism, hated, intolerance these groups stand for and how to counter them.  For a long time I keep reading and hearing to 'hold back, wait, don't say anything as it will get better'.  Well it has not gotten better, we are seeing more and more of those who spout hatred, commit murder, exhibit racism of the worst type and use fear to try to intimidate people into standing by and be quiet and accept their message of hatred.  Well guess what?  I am tired of holding my tongue (and keyboard) and I will be starting to speak out.  I suspect there will be a few who empathize with the hatred and will either 'unfriend' me or spout even more hatred in the hope that I will shut up and be quiet.  For those who 'unfriend' that is OK, you have a right to your opinion and I am sorry that my beliefs in tolerance, love, and respect somehow threatens you.  For those who try to shout me down or intimidate me, go ahead and try, you may silence one messenger, but, the message will still go out from others.


Growing up my parents and family taught us to:

• Do unto others as you would want done to yourself. 
• Treat everyone with respect and courtesy.
• To speak out when I see something wrong.
• To help those who need help.
• To listen first, then ask 'how can I help?'.
• Recognize and acknowledge that I am imperfect, but, to keep striving to be better and not make the same mistake twice.
• Not to hate those who hate, but, to hate what they stand for.
• Not to judge a person by their religion, language, skin colour, nationality or sexual orientation, but, to judge them by how they treat themselves and others.

Seeing the problems south of the border by neo-nazis, KKK and other racist domestic terrorist groups (that is what they are, domestic terrorists) and stop using that sanitized term 'alt-right'.  Domestic terrorists is an ugly term and it should be applied to the ugly beliefs that neo-nazis and the KKK are trying to make us believe, that somehow being white is better, being white is being oppressed, being a 'white Christian' somehow makes you better without truly understanding what it is to be Christian and the work involved to be a true Christian. 

As a society here in Canada we unfortunately do have those who preach the gospel of hatred, fear, violence, intolerance and racial supremacy that we see happening south of the border.  As a society we need to acknowledge that and to address it head on with love, tolerance, learning and respect. 

I was reading online about one of the groups in Quebec and that they say they are not 'racist', just against Islam.  Well if that isn't racism I don't know what is.  For the ones who were 'protesting' in Quebec, why are you hiding your faces?  Could it be you don't feel 'pride' in what you believe in?  You don't want it known that you are racist, bigoted, small minded?  You were trying to avoid taking responsibility for your violence?  Another person expressed that they were not happy eating halal, well if you don't like halal food don't eat it.  Quick explanation from a Christian reading up on what is Halal (and I may be wrong or over simplifying)... It is what is permissible for their diet.  Nothing fancy, just a set of rules defining what they consider 'permissible' to eat, how it is prepared and for meat what type it is and how it is slaughtered.  From what I read I don't have a problem with halal, it is just a set of rules for their diet.

Update 2020-06-07

Almost three years and it has gotten worse.   South of the border POTUS is acting nore and more as a dictator. Someone who who can say anything, do anything and those in power apologize, rationize or downplay his words, actions and inactions. 

A small, but, big victory

For many people they may not think the following is a big thing, but, for someone who had a stroke and their caregivers it is a wonderful thing.

For the last week Jane has improved her dexterity and strength in her left arm and hand such that she can easily clean and make a new pot of coffee and to unload the dishwasher.  The first is nice, but, the second is huge to us.  Her left side was impacted by the stroke and she has balance and mobility issues still.  She is doing exercises for the arm and leg and over time the strength, flexibility and balance has been coming back.  With the dishwasher she has to bend over to lift dishes and utensils from the bottom rack, pivot and walk across the kitchen to put away the clean dishes.  While the glasses are done right handed she is using the left hand to lift and store the plastic cups, small pots and the dishes.  The first time she did it she called me at work to let me know what she could do.  It was a huge psychological boost for her and she felt that she was contributing more to helping out around the house.

For some time now if I partially prepare the meal and place it in the refrigerator and have the slow cooker on the counter she can prepare simple hot dinners.  It is more than just making meals, cleaning up, she feels that she is contributing to the house work and not dependent on others for everything.

Sometimes it isn't the major things that is a major victory in your recovery, it is the smallest things we do used to do every day and have taken it for granted.  The stroke has taken being able to many simple things away from Jane like making a pot of coffee and doing dishes, but, slowly over time she has started doing those little tasks again.

Another brick in the immigrant wall, NOT!

This is a short one, but, asks something that I have not seen anyone address in Canada or the USA.  Trump and too many people are wanting to deport 'illegals' and down in the USA to build a wall to keep them out.  Even if they do build a wall they will find their way over, under, around or through the wall.

They are only treating the symptom and not the cause.  Until they address the cause it will never get better.  The question that they are not asking or probably not wanting to ask is why do people take the risk, travel to the USA (and Canada) as undocumented workers?
 
I suspect that once they ask that question they will get answers to that question that they don't want to hear.  It is probably many things why they come, but, the simple answer is that life here is a lot better than where they come from.  If they start to determine the root cause then maybe they can help address those issues.

The other problem is people keep saying 'they are stealing jobs'.  Well people, how many of you are willing to work the hours they work, in the conditions that they work in, for the pay they are making for little to no benefits and no pension?  I am willing to bet most people won't.  If they don't then guess what, the price of the things you buy will go up as they have to pay a lot more for labour, or, if you don't want to pay that price you will import more from countries with a lower wage.  Either way the regular person will pay the price.  The rich & powerful won't, they never have.

There will also be others that say it isn't our problem, I disagree, it is our problem.  The best quote that sums it up was by Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol.  The section where Scrooge's partner Jacob Marley visited and when Scrooge said:

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” 

Those two short paragraphs sums up things on how we should be looking at this and helping out our fellow man.

Canada Post and community Mail boxes - Lock fix

Last year we were moved from door-to-door mail to using a community mailbox.  It wouldn't have been all that bad, but, the locks were NOT made for Canadian winters.  Any time we got precipitation that melted the water would get into the lock and then when it got colder it would freeze.  The lock would freeze so hard even lock deicer would not work the first time.  It would take three to four applications of the fluid and a lot of swearing before I could get into the lock.  It was so bad here in Ottawa it was difficult to find lock deicer as the stores would sell out in several minutes.  I went through several bottles and at times I would go a week before I could get access to my mail.  Canada Post finally acknowledged the issue and in the next several weeks they will be replacing the locks that "is less likely to freeze".  Still don't believe them until we get winter weather, rain and freezing rain and I can get into the mailbox.

Things I learned and still learning about being a caregiver.

This is just a short personal story of my being a caregiver for my wife. Nothing fancy or very organized, just a quick summary what we went through when my wife had a stroke.  A quick summary of the process and afterwards and the things I learned (some the hard way).

The Story

September 15th, 2015 at 07:00 she had a stroke.  She was lucky as both my daughter and myself were at home and we recognized the signs and called 911.  They did a quick assessment and then transported her to the Civic.  For the first week she was in the ICU and I was not totally sure if she would survive let alone how much function she would have afterwards. She lost the ability to speak or swallow and complete loss of voluntary movement on her left side.  For that period of time I was in the hospital with her almost 24 hours a day.  I was home only long enough for a shower, shave and change of clothes.  The staff at the Civic were great and had a chair that was fairly comfortable for me so I wasn't too far away and could nap at times.  When she was stable she was transferred up to the neurology floor for the next several weeks.  At that point I could go home for a few hours of sleep, do basic chores around the house (like getting meals for our teen-aged daughter).  I was still spending most of my time there.  I observed what the staff were doing, how they did it and why.  The staff were also willing to explain things to me as I was more than willing to learn.  With that information I was able to help assist my wife in the basics of recovering use of her hand, leg and voice.  I will admit it was long, frustrating at times and very tiring.  Most evenings I would go home barely able to walk and didn't think anything about that.

After almost a month she was transferred to the Bruyere hospital for rehab.  The staff there are great and pushed Jane and really encouraged Jane to push herself for recovering from the effects of the stroke.  At this point I was back at work and lunch hours I could walk to the hospital and then spend evenings there with her.  All that time I was helping her work on her various exercises she needed to do.  We also were able to go outside for short walks and the staff encouraged that.  At the end of the night I would take the bus home and like before I was so exhausted that I could barely walk.

On the 12th of November she was discharged as she could do a lot of basic tasks on her own without assistance.  They were little things like going up/down stairs, dressing herself and making a sandwich.  We then followed that up with several more months of physio therapy twice a week.  At that point I could work full time at work without worrying too much about her.  When I got home I would then prepare the meals, clean up the dishes, do some of the housework and other tasks.  Again, at the end of the night I was totally exhausted, but, I thought it was just the workload and stress.  Weekends were spent doing running around for food and other tasks that had to be done.  I also was taking time off during the weeks for all of her doctor appointments helping her get to where she had to be and then back home.

All through this I was going non-stop with no time off for myself.  Cooking, cleaning, shopping, helping her with the basic needs, doctor appointments.  My normal day started at about 06:00 and I was busy most days until 23:30 and on most nights 01:00 in the morning.  I thought I could do this, but, my body decided it had enough two weeks after she got home.  On a Saturday night I experienced chest pains that radiated out to both arms, sweating and nausea.  All the symptoms of a heart attack.  I did call 911 and the paramedics couldn't see anything on the monitors, but, when I explained my family history they quickly took me to the emergency room.  The doctors there are great and they had me wired up for just about everything.  It took a few hours, but, the figured out that it was just stress and one other problem that I didn't know I had and ignored the one sign.  The big clue was I was almost always tired.  Seems that my blood sugar when I was in emergency was way over 14, I was a diabetic and didn't know it.  I knew years before I had gout, arthritis and kidney stones and adjusted my diet and lifestyle for that.  My family doctor had more tests done and confirmed that I was diabetic.  He had a list of things for me.  Pills for the diabetes, lose more weight, eat a bit better and rest.  He explained that I needed to feel less guilty for taking some personal time off while caring for my wife.

That is the hardest thing for me to do.  I still feel guilty taking personal time off to watch a movie, read a book or check out what is on the internet, but, I am feeling a lot better now that I am getting proper breaks and rest.  I also learned to prioritize what is needed and what is nice-to-have.  The house isn't perfectly clean (like before), but, it is clean enough.  Laundry doesn't need to be washed, dried, folded and put away on the same night, it is OK to let the clean clothes sit in the bin for a day or two.  I don't have to cook massive gourmet meals every night of the week, some nights ordering out is a treat and I get to have a short break for meal preparation.

Another thing I learned is to keep track of what my wife can and cannot do.  When I see her doing something new I let her know and the positive feedback encourages her to keep working.  It is slow, but, even a simple thing like picking up a kleenex with her left hand was a major accomplishment.  Even after a year she quickly tires out, but, we are now going out once a week where she can walk 15-60 minutes and talk to people we know.  It is a small thing, but, she loves doing this and comes back home feeling accomplished.  There are those who don't quite understand and thinks she can go non-stop now for hours without a problem and is just faking it.  Trust me, it isn't faking, the last time we had a major outing (grandchildren bithday party) she forced herself for almost four hours and then was completely exhausted for the next two days.

Lessons I learned (some the hard way):

• Proper nutrition for the person who had a stroke, but, also for yourself as a caregiver.
• Time off to rest and recover.  If you don't take some time for rest your body will tell you enough and then you need a caregiver yourself.  It does not have to be a lot.  For me an hour or two most evenings helps with the rare day off.
• It is stressful, physically and emotionally.  You need hobbies and time to do the hobbies.
• Feeling guilty is normal.  It isn't selfish to want a bit of 'me' time.
• There are resources available, use them!  They are there for the stroke victim and for caregivers.
• Spread out the workload if you can.  You cannot be there 100% of the time.If friends and family want to help, and, can help let them!
• Be patient with the stroke victim.  It takes time for them to relearn how to make things work again.
• Be prepared for a lot of appointments.  Physiotherapy, family doctor, neurologists, eye specialists to name a few.  I was surprised by the number of appointments, usually 1-2 a week at the start and slowing down to 1-2 a month after about 6 months.
• Plan ahead.  For appointments have a plan on how the person gets to and from the appointment (even if it is just you).  Let the stroke victim know ahead of time so that they are not stressed about that portion of the appointment.  Ask them ahead of time if they have any questions, problems or concern and write them down for the doctor or physiotherapist.
• Track their medications.  Know what they are taking, dosage and when it needs to be taken.  Familiarize yourself with some of the side effects so you are aware of what they are and watch for them.  
• One of the things for medications is order my wife's refills a month before they run out.  It may be a bit ahead of time, but, things do happen and that way we don't panic as there are sufficient medications at all times.
• If the stroke patient was a smoker be prepared for the withdrawal.  My wife was a heavy smoker before her stroke and she is now smoke free.  The first few weeks in the hospital she was so heavily medicated that we were spared most of the symptoms.  After that she was moderately 'moody' for several weeks following that period.  For almost a year she was coughing up a lot as her lungs were cleaning out the crap that built up over the decades of smoking.  One of the benefits is that she now tastes food more and things she didn't like before she now likes!
• Never take anything for granted.  Every day is precious and should be enjoyed to the fullest.

Why do politicians think we serve them?

From the way politicians act and talk they "know" more than us and they are the only ones who have the only right answer.  If we disagree they tend to put us down or insult as we don't know better than them. They listen to 'elite' experts who advise them and then pompously inform us of what is right and what is wrong and things will go to hell if we don't follow them.

A good politician does not and should not use fear, hatred, intolerance to push society in the direction they want.  They should be leading by example, inspire us to be better, listen to ideas and opinions that differ and to help improve society as a whole.  Sometimes they need to tell us what we need to hear and not what we want to hear and not be afraid to tell us NO.

We need a way to make politicians accountable to the people again and make the people responsible to make informed choices and ensure that those we elect to make policies and laws that will do that and keep electing those who do so and to FIRE those who do not.  A start has been made by minimizing the role of money from businesses, the rich and unions.  Make the politicians go to the people to fund their campaigns by limiting how much each person can give.  Also limit the personal funds a politician can use as the ultra-rich can self fund their campaign and 'buy' their way to office.  Those with money, businesses, special interest groups and unions will scream that it is undemocratic and other bullshit reasons.  They will be afraid of losing their undue influence and control and let the ordinary citizen regain their rightful control of the process.

I am reading (and re-reading) the federalist papers.  Even after centuries the messages in the document is still relevant today.  This should be required reading by all politicians, even here in Canada as the ideas then still apply today.

At times I despair when seeing/reading about laws that politicians are wanting to enact.  I don't know if they are playing to fear or are ignorant about the constitution of this country, or the constitution of the country where they reside. Too many also display a lack of knowledge about basic economics.  Would it improve our politicians if they prove a basic knowledge about the constitution, economics, law, our political processes before running for office?  New citizens need to take a citizenship test and that would be a good starting point for politicians to demonstrate their basic knowledge of our country and political processes.