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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2017-11-30, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017. PAGE 5. Other Views A simple human solution: be kind When the American actor Bryan Cranston, best known for starring in the 2008-2013 television series Breaking Bad, visited the CBC Radio show Q last week, he was, not surprisingly, asked about the current Hollywood sexual abuse scandal. After expressing his horror over the powerful men who hurt women and other men, he gave a prescription that could solve this, and most other human vs. human issues: `Be kind." Cranston argued for humaneness in our interactions with others. In the case of people like Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer, that means realizing that despite the fact he can make or break people's careers, his power does not give him the right to treat them as his playthings. For the rest of us, it means recognizing that although we are the centre of our own universe, we're also no more important than any of the other 7.6 billion people on the planet. Furthermore, people who dress differently than us, believe in different things than we do, live in ways that we might find abnormal, are as human as we are. The life of a person killed by religious extremists in an Egyptian mosque is just as important as the life of someone run down by a madman with a truck in New York. There's something in human nature that causes us to judge people: to divide between "us" and "them" and feel it's acceptable to mock or even persecute "them". By coincidence we pulled the movie Temple Grandin off the shelf to watch on the weekend. Actress Claire Danes gave an award-winning performance as Dr. Grandin, the remarkable U.S. professor who changed our understanding of animal behaviour. Today she travels the world giving speeches (she was in Elmwood recently, as reported in our sister publication Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk The Rural Voice) to help farmers improve animal handling, though she didn't speak a word until she was four. When she was diagnosed with autism in the early 1950s doctors advised her mother to put her in an institution. Luckily for her and us, her mother was intelligent, wise and stubborn and was determined not to consign her potential to the scrap heap. She doggedly worked to get past her daughter's fleeting attention span and taught her to speak, read and write. She sent her to schools, which some might have seen as parental cruelty because at every level she was ridiculed for being different. Temple persevered and when she discovered that the way her brain works, seeing things visually, allowed her to understand how animals see the world, she found her niche. The lives of farm animals and their handlers are better because of her discoveries. Packing plants have been redesigned to treat animals as gently and humanely as possible because of her. She also travels the world speaking about her experience as an autistic person and the breakthroughs made by her mother. She gives hope to the parents of autistic children with the message her mother gave her: "You are different but equal." I have great admiration for Dr. Grandin, having heard her speak several times, because she has accomplished so much by overcoming so many challenges. But that's where I must confront my own judgementalism. I have to keep reminding myself that people are still human even if they are not contributing to the betterment of the world. A homeless person sleeping on a Toronto street corner is just as much a human being as the fancy -dressed office workers who try to ignore her as they pass by. The drug addict overdosing because some lowlife spiked his drugs with Fentanyl is a loss of a precious human life, even if he did put himself in such a dangerous position. To accept this, I had to learn from Canadian author and broadcaster Ian Brown. A high achiever himself, and married to Johanna Schneller, another accomplished journalist, Brown had to re-examine all his perceptions about humanity after their son Walker's rare genetic disorder, Cardiofaciocutaneous Syndrome meant the 20 -year-old has a mind more similar to a toddler than to most adults. In his award-winning book The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son, Brown had to come to to a place where he could value Walker just for being human, not for what he could accomplish in a job or as a parent of children. In coming to grips with this, Brown studied the work of Jean Vanier, the Canadian Catholic philosopher, theologian and humanitarian who founded L'Arche communities, now in 37 countries, for people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them. I visited an Ontario L'Arche community once and it caused me, at least for a time, to correct my attitudes. What Brown and Vanier came to realize is that we all deserve respect simply for being human. And as Bryan Cranston says, being human we need to be kind to each other. MJ's [almost, kind-of]first holidays 0 ne or two days after this newspaper hits the stands and finds its way into faithful readers' homes, the month of December will have arrived and we here in The Citizen's editorial office will have turned our attention to Christmas. December is usually our busiest time of the year — between visiting individuals for the annual Christmas stories, talking to Grade 1 students and covering the plethora of Christmas -themed events around the community, Shawn and I are in high gear from Dec. 1 until we put out the last paper, this year on Dec. 21. This year, the International Plowing Match and the lead -up to it may give Christmas a run for its money, but most other years, Christmas makes for a busy time in our office. Then we take a break. We hang-up the camera bags, put our press pass -adorned fedoras on the hat rack and shut down the typewriters for a blessed few days of family time. This year, however, will mark the start of a new adventure for me with Mary Jane experiencing what I'm calling her first Christmas. Sure, last year was her true first Christmas (she was around four months old actually), but she needed to be propped up to open her gifts and play with them. This year will be the start of what I remember as a flurry of ripped paper, thrown ribbons and packaging as far as the eye can see (from when my siblings, 10 years my junior, started really appreciating opening presents). Whether she loves what we get her (or make her, as my plan is) or whether she prefers the boxes that her presents come in, this will be the start of Christmas with Mary Jane. Christmas for me, as many readers may remember, is kind of a measurement of where I am in my life. It started out, once upon a time, as a chance Denny Scott Denny's Den to get new toys and gadgets and when I dreaded opening a box to see new clothes. More recently, I started yearning for clothes as I ran out of socks that seemed to have been blessed (because they were holey, get it?). Christmas is a measure of where people are in life — you can tell whether someone has reached that fabled land of maturity by what they look for at Christmas. A single, mature person, for example, may look forward to spending time with family more than they did when they lived with them. A mature person in a committed relationship may look forward to a night in front of the television enjoying a loving embrace and a warm glass of cider or a cold glass of egg nog. A slightly -less mature married person may look forward to opening several gifts that include socks because their partner takes all the non -blessed socks for their own. I'm not saying that was me, but I'm not saying it wasn't either. Actually, I'll admit it, I'm already going to catch heck for calling Mary Jane "MJ" in the headline. Ashleigh steals my socks (and also my sweatshirts, but I find that cute). A (still, slightly -less) mature person like myself, however, is looking forward to Mary Jane's reaction to opening her own presents. The fact that the most recently -mastered addition to her vocabulary is "wow" will definitely make Christmas morning an event to experience. While I will be thankful for every gift I receive, the best one may just be Mary Jane saying "wow" when she opens a present from Ashleigh, myself or another friend or family member. Don't worry — I plan on recording it all so I never miss a syllable. Usually, I try to enjoy the moment without a camera. When you spend as much time behind a camera for work as I do, you start to realize that the real story can sometimes be outside the frame of the photo. When it comes to family, however, I always felt that I was missing something as a child: embarrassing videos to be relived later in life. I guess we never really had a video camera around our house so there aren't old VHS tapes riddled with embarrassing antics waiting for me to discover. I plan on enabling Mary Jane to enjoy that kind of embarrassment to the fullest. We've already got videos of her doing everything from sorting toys from one spot to another to dancing to songs from her favourite movie, Moana, and I'm sure there will be many more videos to come. It's kind of interesting that, just like when I was a kid, I now look forward to Christmas with a kind of giddy anticipation which brings the whole maturity theme full -circle. So whatever your role in life, be it someone looking forward to family, someone looking forward to children opening presents or someone looking forward to replenishing their sock drawer, remember to enjoy the coming month as much as you can. Christmas does only come once a year, after all. Final Thought "Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there." — John Wooden Shawn Loughlin limb Shawn's Sense Connecting the dots There is very often a direct cause and effect related to most societal problems. Those who don't think so simply have their heads buried in the sand. It's become fashionable as of late to hang those in need out to dry for one reason or another. Whether it's U.S. President Donald Trump turning his back on Puerto Rico or us looking down our noses at criminals, addicts and those left behind, we're not connecting the dots in regards to what makes our towns great or what fractures their landscapes. In Chicago, for example, there was a massive surge in gun violence in 2016. The murder rate nearly doubled to just under 725 killings. Shooting incidents in the city counted well over 3,500. This year is on pace to be just as bloody in the Windy City. So, what changed? Chicago's murder rate hadn't been low by any means, but it was relatively static in the 10 years before 2016, often fluctuating between 450 and 500. In 2015, Mayor Rahm Emanuel cut $200 million from the city's school budget, laying off 1,400 employees. Many of those resources were lost in schools in the city's south side, affecting poor, mostly black neighbourhoods, leaving the affluent north side untouched. It's not hard to draw a straight line from one thing to the other in this situation. However, many, among them Trump (again), are quick to label cities like Chicago renegade communities that make their own beds and now they must lie in them. After seeing a presentation by John and Heather Steffler at a recent Huron County Council meeting, I couldn't help but draw a similar line right here at home. Tanner, John and Heather's son, died from an overdose earlier this year. He wanted help and the county couldn't give it to him and he paid for that lack of resources with his life. In mid-October, esteemed journalist Mary Baxter published a piece on the TVO website about the drug epidemic in Huron County. Baxter reported that more than one in four residents admitted to regularly drinking heavily. She also highlighted Huron County's rising drug problem, which shocked many. While Huron County councillors were initially concerned with what kind of effect the story would have on the county's image, conversation soon turned to what to do next. If Baxter was right, and councillors had no reason to doubt her reporting, what could they do to help their residents in need? The story made it clear that Huron County has a problem. But, like the Stefflers said that day, are these simply weak problem children for whom we can do nothing? No, these are children that very often grow up in loving households with plenty of opportunities. In her piece, Baxter outlined many of the problems the Stefflers, through the Tanner Steffler Foundation, hope to address. There are no addiction treatment beds in Huron County that could have helped Tanner. What resources there are often come with long wait lists. Whether it's access to services, education or trained professionals, Huron County is failing its residents. Tanner, says his parents, hoped to access counselling on multiple occasions. He reached out for help and no one reached back. In a country that prides itself on leaving no one behind, stories like Tanner's are simply unacceptable. Huron County isn't full of bad apples. The lack of resources here has caused this situation. There are many great things about living here, but when we come up short, we need to find a way to be better. Lives are at stake.