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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-09-08, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2016. PAGE 5. Other Views The masked bandit strikes! Have a cigar — I just became a foster dad! I know I'm a little long in the tooth for parental duty but if you'd seen this kid you'd have signed up on the spot yourself. Irresistible. A pair of eyes that could melt a brick of Moose Tracks. Those tiny hands... those weensy fingers! The back story was compelling too. No parents on the scene of course. The mother, an obvious floozy, abandoned the tyke without so much as a note pinned to the diaper. In fact — no diaper! The father? Don't ask. For him it was probably just another one-night stand. A two - minute scuffle in the bushes. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am. The result: a tiny orphan waif. Hungry, naked, shivering and whimpering on my doorstep. Well, beside my garbage can, actually. And not so much whimpering as chittering. But garbage can or doorstep — that's no way to treat a baby raccoon. So I adopted him. Her. It. I put some warm milk in a bowl, cribbed a couple of spoonfuls of dog food when the resident mutt wasn't OKArthur Black looking, put it down on the ground and retreated. The raccoon, which was about the size of a Big Mac, eventually ventured over to the bowl and proceeded to make a hell of a mess with splattered milk droplets and meat juice smears all over the sidewalk. Obviously one of the first lessons responsible parent raccoons impart to the youngsters involves table manners. That option was not available for me because the kid, though indisputably Canadian, appeared to speak neither official language and I was not yet fluent in conversational raccoonese. Nor am I yet. But language is superfluous in a human/raccoon relationship. The human just needs to keep showing up with food. And I do. It's been three weeks now. My foster kid, which is now the size of a small house cat, has moved into a tall cedar in my front yard. Each morning I decoy my dog into the house and approach the base of the cedar, tip -toeing like an obsequious butler, a bowl of water in one hand, a plate of minced egg, dog food and diced prune -plums in the other. I surmount the language barrier by making ridiculous and demeaning clicking sounds with my tongue. The raccoon, which used to be shy and reclusive, practically ignores me in its scramble to get to the plate and chow down. Is he/she/it becoming a pet? Hardly. Whenever my charge does notice its towering two -legged servant it emits a ferocious hiss and bares a jawful of tiny, no doubt needle- sharp teeth. Obviously, fraternization with staff menials is simply not on the table. That's okay by me. I have no plans to become a helicopter dad hovering over he/she/its existence and micromanaging future career choices. I want that freeloader off social welfare as soon as possible. Sooner, even. What do I look like — a patsy? Have to run. I've got a hard-boiled egg that needs mincing. The finger beckon' and other sins Last week I found myself on the business end of a hand motion that has infuriated me for decades; the finger beckon. The finger beckon is, usually, the physical representation of commanding someone to come speak to you because you believe the person is in the wrong. I say usually because, in more mature situations, it can mean something completely different. To do the finger beckon, make a fist, direct it at a person with your fingernails up, and extend your index finger upwards and retract it several times. The finger motion is actually taught to officials of many different sports, which, in my mind is the only time it's acceptable to use it to deal with someone who isn't a dog or a misbehaving young child. I'm not opposed to chatting with people and explaining who I am, as a matter of fact, it's a necessity in this occupation. As part of my job I find myself the odd man out on several occasions. Standing in an awkward spot with a camera focused on people I'm obviously not intimately connected with can make me look a little out of place. That said, most people realize who I am before I pull out a business card. I've been with The Citizen for more than six years now and for most of that my face has graced the top of this column so I'm not completely unknown. It can happen, however, through turnover, going outside our normal coverage area or just happenstance that I run into someone I don't know. When that happens, I usually take the opportunity to introduce myself, drop a business card and encourage people to get in touch with me when they have stories to share. This particular exchange, however, left a very bad taste in my mouth. I was snapping shots, trying to capture the mood of the event I was at in a creative way, when I decided to scroll through the shots I had taken to make sure they were turning out. (Lesson number one of shooting digitally is have equipment you can trust. Lesson number two is not to trust your equipment is working.) After being satisfied that I had some usable shots, I raised my head and locked eyes with an individual across the room who decided to raise her hand and give me the finger beckon. Denny Scott Denny's Den Let's be clear here. I didn't know this person and she didn't know me well enough to use such a greeting. I approached her, against my better judgement, and discussed my presence at the event and explained who I was and what I was doing. Unfortunately, her attitude didn't seem to change at all as she continued to treat me like some kind of interloper and not someone who was just trying to do his job. As I walked away from the situation, I briefly turned back and noticed her sharing whispers with someone else and pointing and glancing at me. Suffice to say, I had gone from irked to flat-out angry. While the exchange was mercifully brief (for her, not me, if I had to deal with this person much longer, it likely would not have ended politely), it served to remind me of an extremely important lesson that I often forget when I write about how frustrating it is to see grammar, manners and good sense fall by the wayside with young people — that it isn't just young people. Sometimes it's people who should know better than to do such demeaning things that remind me how far common decency has fallen even since I was a child. Sometimes it's people who are my senior by a number of years. The finger beckon should only be used when beckoner is in a position of power, of authority over the target of the manoeuver and only when the target has done something wrong. Even hitting those criteria, it's still not something that should be used lightly. Like snapping your fingers for the wait staff in a restaurant, unless you're looking to get an earful (or your food sabotaged in that particular situation), it's a manoeuver from which you should probably stay away. As a soccer referee, I have used the finger beckon on occasion, however, those occasions warranted the demeaning nature of the manoeuver. I will only do it when someone has intentionally broken a rule. One of the first rules about being a referee in that situation is that you do not go to the player, the player comes to you. Players are supposed to have respect for the official and the rules they represent so, when they flagrantly violate them, they need to be reminded they are not acting in the way expected of them. I could also see a parent using the finger beckon if a child has willfully broken a rule (or broken a rule constantly) or if someone is dealing with a pet who decided to break a known rule. Respect is a two-way street. When I walk out on to a soccer field I do my best to show respect to each and every player, coach and fan out there until people prove they aren't deserving of it. I'd like to hope that, as someone doing his job, the same respect could be given to me unless I prove I don't deserve it. To employ the finger beckon, however, towards someone you don't know and to treat someone with such undue disrespect is unacceptable. I'm not going to lie here — I'm running on very little sleep recently (check last week's column if you're not sure why) and it's made keeping an upbeat personality and a smile on my face difficult at times. Not because I'm unhappy, but because being exhausted does make it all the more difficult to keep an upbeat attitude. This kind of action and attitude are a big hit to someone's smile on the best of days and definitely soured a good chunk of my day. Anyway, I'm not looking for sympathy or wallowing in self-pity here, I'm simply pointing out that, through disrespect like the finger beckon, people of all ages can have an impact on those around them. Remember to treat everyone with respect until they prove they don't deserve it. Final Thought Good leaders have vision and inspire others to help them turn vision into reality. Great leaders have vision, share vision, and inspire others to create their own. — Roy Bennett Shawn Loughlin Shawn's Sense Get up, stand up It was Jamaican musician and activist Bob Marley who implored people to "get up, stand up — stand up for your rights" but in the United States the past few weeks, some athletes have been sitting down or kneeling for their rights. Indeed, it all started with Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, who silently took a knee while everyone around him, teammates, coaches, support staff and fans, all stood for The Star Spangled Banner, the anthem for the United States. Questioned about it afterwards, Kaepernick said he did it because he was "not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of colour." At the team's most recent exhibition game, Kaepernick was joined by teammate Eric Reid. That same day, Jeremy Lane of the Seattle Seahawks also sat for the anthem. The move has stirred controversy, as standing for a country's national anthem is one of the world's most time-honoured traditions and a universal showing of respect. The anthem in sports has always been sacred. Earlier this year, basketball player Dwayne Wade was criticized for continuing his warm-up routine during the Canadian national anthem. And during the Olympics, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt stopped an interview and Sam Kendricks, a U.S. pole vaulter and Army reservist, stopped one of his runs in order to acknowledge and respect the U.S. anthem. The debate is not an easy one to wrap your head around. On the surface, it's easy to say that Kaepernick should stand for the anthem. He was born in the U.S. and it's the U.S. that has provided him with the opportunities he has today — his recent signing of a six-year $114 million contract and the ability to quarterback a team in the Super Bowl, every American kid's dream, among them. But Kaepernick's actions have been praised by many black athletes who, while they may have ruffled feathers decades ago, are viewed as civil rights pioneers today like Jim Brown, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson famously noted his contempt for the anthem in his autobiography, saying "I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world." It's tough to get into Kaepernick's mindset. For me, a white Canadian man, I can't pretend to put myself in the shoes of, for example, a man of colour living in the United States. So I certainly don't feel like I am in any position to tell Kaepernick how I feel he should or shouldn't fight his fight. And while his objection isn't with the national anthem or the American military, which is another connection that has been made by some Americans, Kaepernick has used on of the most visible moments on the stage he's on (American football games are viewed by millions of people every night) to help forward a message he thinks is important. Not everyone with a Facebook account and an opinion can reach tens of millions of people as Kaepernick has through one gesture. There are a few things I view as pretty sacred in this world and one of them is a country's national anthem. So, if it was my war to wage, I don't think I would have chosen Kaepernick's method, especially when a country has given me so much. Every country has its problems, but to wholly disrespect it in such a manner, to me serves to insult more people whose opinions it might influence.