A sobering ponder –
Monthly Archives: June 2020
Do The Right Thing
Ponder Do the Right Thing by Portland, Oregon band Ages and Ages. Stumbled upon it while watching TV series Blacklist and can’t get it out of my head. Do the right thing. listen –
Inhumanity
I know the majority of people in this … or any nation … are decent human beings who care about the planet, wildlife, and their fellow humans. At least … I hope that’s still the case. But those ‘bad apples’ sure do stink and they seem to be everywhere you look! The latest example that slapped me across the face this morning was this one …
This woman was part of a counter-protest during a Black Lives Matter event in Branson, Missouri, on Sunday. Okay, the confederate flag is offensive enough, but we’re used to the fools waving those things around. And the maga hat … it doesn’t even offend anymore … it is a joke. It was what she screeched at the Black Lives Matter protestors that caused my jaw to drop …
“I will teach my grandkids to hate you all!”
Then she got to her feet with…
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Beryl Dickinson-Dash
In 1949 Beryl Dickinson-Dash was a third year arts major attending McGill University in Montreal. At the time, only 150 of 8,500 McGill students were black. Most blacks were international students, Beryl Dickinson-Dash belonged to a handful of Canadian born black students, notedly a black Canadian woman who knew of no other black female Canadian students.
Beryl with her mother Maisy
Winter Carnival was a big deal at McGill, a mid-winter festival presided over by Carnival queen and four princesses. Keen beauties required 25 signatures from male students to secure nomination. Without her knowledge, the roommate of Beryl’s boyfriend (whom she later married) submitted a photo she’d given her boyfriend on his birthday along with 25 signatures from black male students. Beryl was shocked to find herself one of 26 official candidates.
Next came the ceremonial tea, an afternoon of polite white glove decorum and radio interviews. 26 were cut to 15, 15 became 5 finalists after a second round of interviews and struts. Beryl made the final cut. Each candidate was assigned a campaign manager.
Campaigns reached fever pitch, Beryl’s boyfriend, his brother, roommate and black students rallied behind her. Telegrams were sent to McGill posing as endorsement from prominent companies and organizations. Posters of Beryl appeared in every classroom. Voting booths with scrutineers proved seriousness of a fair vote. Results were leaked several days before official crowning. Beryl won by a landside, so much so final numbers wouldn’t be released as doing so might “injure the other girls”. Just past midnight, March 5, 1949 on her 21st birthday, Beryl Dickinson-Dash was crowned McGill Carnival Queen at the Montreal Forum in front of 8,000 spectators.
A newspaper clipping from March 5, 1949, announcing the pageant victory. (Submitted by Bradley Rapier)
Beryl doesn’t know why a predominantly white student body elected her Carnival queen. “Perhaps they were tired of how things were” she said. Regardless, she became a media sensation, front page news in papers and magazines. South of the border, Color magazine sponsored Dickinson-Dash (now Beryl Rapier) for a two week trip to West Virginia – her first negro college. A painting of Beryl standing in front of West Virginia state capital building by artist William Edouard Scott titled Spirit of Democracy was presented to McGill as a token of appreciation from people of America. I remind you – it was 1949!
Color magazine sponsored a two-week trip to West Virginia for Rapier. A press clipping from that trip features photographs of her at West Virginia State College. (Submitted by Bradley Rapier)
Sadly, few people in Canada know the story of Beryl Dickinson-Dash. But for stumbling upon her story last week courtesy CBC Radio Doc Project, I’d remain oblivious to a remarkable moment in Canadian history. More photos and history at the link below –
Ping
This week Justin Trudeau announced implementation of a Canadian COVID-19 tracking app. Deemed ‘voluntary”, currently testing in Ontario, apparently available nation-wide on July 2nd, COVID Alert is hailed as an anonymous tracking app which pings subscribers with alerts when coming in close contact with consensual participants testing positive for COVID-19.
Sorry Canada. If you think I’m going to voluntarily download a COVID tracing app affording supposed “anonymous” Bluetooth access to daily activities with promise of a ping when coming in close contact to someone testing positive for COVID-19 – you have another thing coming!
Sweet mercy, surely contact tracing apps raise more red flags than my own?
Over Everything
Two of my favorite artists, Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett buddy up to sing Over Everything. “When I’m outside in a real good mood, you can almost forget ’bout all the other things, like a big ol’ ominous cloud in my periphery”. Know it’s okay to step outside by yourself to appreciate inexplicable subtleties of daily life all too often muddied by calamitous headlines. Sometimes we just need to breath. Enjoy….
What The Fudd?
On May 27,2020 HBO Max began airing a series of eighty, eleven minute reinvented classic Looney Tunes cartoons. Reinvented as in “we’re not doing guns” according to Peter Browngardt, series executive producer at HBO Max. Looney Tunes icon Elmer Fudd, bumbling shotgun wielding hunter of “wascally wabbits” since the early 1940s, now chases “wabbits” with a scythe. A scythe? What the Fudd?
Browngardt is quick to assure cartoon aficionados – “But we can do cartoony violence – TNT, the Acme stuff. All that was kind of grandfathered in.” Dynamite, booby traps, falling anvils, bank safes and pianos remain, guns and get this, “bullying” are out. What the Fudd?
On one hand there’s the NRA giving storybook characters guns – https://notestoponder.wordpress.com/2016/04/05/little-red-riding-hood-has-a-gun/ on the other HBO Max replaces Elmer Fudd’s shotgun with a scythe – https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/looney-tunes-has-taken-elmer-fudds-gun-away-for-hbo-max-revival/ar-BB158Dvu What the Fudd?
How about Yosemite Sam? Will HBO Max replace his pistols with machetes? If this is how American entertainment executives tackle gun violence, I give up. What the Fudd?
So that we remember
I Think Not!
Home province British Columbia, Canada has a population of 5.1 million. Population of U.S. state Maryland is 6.06 million. As of today the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in B.C. is 2,659. Of that, 183 cases are considered active. 2,309 persons recovered, 167 died. Of the 183 active cases, only 16 are hospitalized, 4 of those in ICU. Compare home stats to those of Maryland – 58.404 confirmed cases, 2,776 deaths, 4,240 recovered. Even when taking 900,000 or so more Maryland residents into consideration, the difference is staggering.
Closer to home, ponder Washington State, population 7.1 million – 1,300 new cases over the weekend, compared to 29 in B.C. To date Washington state accounts for 24,401 confirmed infections, 1,161 deaths. And there’s impatience to open the border, why?
Total number of COVID-19 deaths in Canada is 7,835. New York state alone accounts for 30,374 of America’s 112,579 COVID-19 deaths. As more than 20 U.S. states report increased cases in the past 14 days, Canada maintains a sharp decrease. Still think the Canada/U.S. border should open? I think not!
Try To Live With Polite Spiders
Several months ago a tiny spider appeared on the bathroom windowsill. I said hello. Odd as this sounds, Spring doesn’t officially arrive until a polite spider homesteads on my bathroom sill. It’s been that way every year of twenty one lived in this house. Suffice to say welcoming spring spider, keeping her polite existence to myself is problematic. Mine is not a family of arachnid sympathizers. I clean around her, know that when startled she retreats through a vent in the aluminum window frame and hope for the best. In two months she’s doubled in size. Twice as large, neither a threat or concern – polite spiders know their place.
Arachnophobia is real, I get it. Expecting others to embrace polite house spiders is a big ask. That said it’s important to understand how vital spiders are to the balance of nature. Their prime directive is to control insect populations be it aphid, fly, moth or mosquito. Everyone needs to relax, understand house spiders are polite and predictable without a lick of animosity toward the human race.
Why is it I embrace the annual appearance of polite bathroom spiders while my family feels obliged to eradicate them with insecticide, wads of tissue or unceremonious suction of a vacuum hose? All because house spiders are demonized as vile marauders! Oh my goodness, they’re not malicious, it’s so disheartening. I’m not asking you to hug spiders, I’m asking for restraint. Share your home with spiders, they mean no harm and conduct themselves with polite propriety if left alone. Sigh.
notestoponder 