Pankiw announces return to politics, says he ‘doesn’t need the media’ to win federal riding

“Former MP Jim Pankiw had two messages for reporters who accepted his invitation to a press conference Thursday morning.

“Yeah, I’m running in the next federal election in Saskatoon-Humboldt as an independent,” the 43-year-old chiropractor told a roomful of journalists after a series of introductory remarks about his personal background and views on what he considers to be “race-based privileges” for aboriginal Canadians.

“And I will win,” he said. “And I don’t need the media.”

No federal election has been called.

Pankiw announced the launch of his new, “state-of-the-art” interactive website — jimpankiw.ca — saying it would be up and running at noon Thursday.

“You know, it used to be the media was the way that you got your message out, but now I’ve got a very powerful tool, and that’s the Internet,” he said.

“And I’m gonna use the Internet. And my website is how I’m gonna communicate with people and do an end run right around the media. So, the media can misrepresent me all they want, but what I want is equality and that’s what I’m gonna get.”

When asked why he would call a press conference if he wants to avoid the media, Pankiw said, “I don’t know, to rub it in your face. Because I don’t need you.”

Pankiw went on to say he considers aboriginal people to be racists.

He called attention to a picture of FSIN Chief Guy Lonechild in a traditional headdress on the front page of Thursday’s StarPhoenix, calling him “a guy with a big headband thing on, like feathers and stuff. Like, if there was a guy with a white sheet with holes in the eyes, wouldn’t you say that guy’s a racist?” he asked.”

I know I was on a rant about Aboriginal racism, but this is clearly the most ignorant person I have ever heard of: Jim Pankiw. First off, does he understand that the internet is media? Secondly does he not understand the difference between a cultural headpiece and a racist headpiece. thirdly, calling a press conference to say you don’t need the media, what a moron, if he didn’t need the media, he wouldn’t have called them in the first place. What he did was a huge publicity stunt. He needs the media more than they need him.

What is sadder is that this man is not afraid to run for office? this scares me.  Maybe he should be evicted from Saskatoon

Mohawk community evicts non-natives

“The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake is ordering non-native people on the reserve to find another home.

Band council members went door-to-door Monday, issuing 26 eviction notices to those they say have no right living in the community according to Mohawk law.

Grand Chief Michael Delisle said the non-native residents have become a growing concern in the community just south of Montreal on the banks of the St. Lawrence River.

The council had no choice but to issue the evictions, the chief said.

“It’s been a longstanding custom that the community of Kahnawake is for the members of Kahnawake, and according to Mohawk custom code, tradition and Mohawk law reinstituted again in 2004, people of anything other than Mohawk unless they’ve transferred into our membership files can’t live in Kahnawake,” Delisle said.

Delisle said each aboriginal reserve or territory in Canada has the right to decide who lives there.

He doesn’t expect the evicted people to go quietly.

“I’m sure there will be some resistance, if you want to call it that, but obviously other external issues involving anywhere from human rights to individual rights versus the collective.”

Delisle said everyone in the community is strongly encouraged to marry a Mohawk or at least someone with native blood, otherwise their partners could be evicted from the reserve.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/02/02/que-mohawk-evictions.html#ixzz0eTtWqN7e“

This is a racist policy and I am against it. I get there is bad blood between this reserve and the local people, but evicting these 26  people, most likely families who are integrated,  doesn’t solve the problem and is only continuing to foster bad feelings.  I understand the hurt, but here it is misplaced. The Kahnawake reserve should be working on healing the rift between their reserve and the local community. They also need to focus on Gov’t policies that segregated and created this rift in the first place. I am ashamed of Delisle’s comment that Mohawk people should only marry their own. This type of comment is going to divide an already small community who need each other.

Racism

I had a very interesting conversation about racism recently and a good point was made. People view racism through a very narrow lens.  That is to say, the only racism that matters or is known about, is the racism prevalent in their community. For example, in Saskatchewan we think the only racism that matters is against First Nations people.  Although this may be the most obvious form of racism, there is obviously a lot of racism in Saskatchewan. I can think of any number of groups that are discriminated against and picked on. For example: Arabs, Jews, Blacks, Chinese, Pakistani, Indian (from India) and I could go on. And I am knowledgeable about about racism against the First Nations community, but First Nations communities are not innocent either. They are just as racist as any other group.

I asked a Metis leader if any First Nations and Metis groups are working together to bring awareness to Aboriginal issues. he said “no” and I thought about it. And it is true. We, the First Nations and Metis, are basically fighting for the same rights, with the same blood, and we have no groups working together. And why, it’s simple: racism that is prevalent in the First Nations community. We need to look past these petty difference and begin to focus on what is common and build on that. Start a movement to change Aboriginal Politics in Canada.

Next First Nations people think that “white” people are the problem. (I use this term  “White” people, as it is a common term I have heard about Non First Nations people. I do not agree with it.) Just because there are economic disparities between First Nations and other groups, doesn’t mean we get to hate “white people.” “White people” are not the enemy. If you think that, you are racist and ignorant to the real problems in Canada. The real problem is systemic and political. I just read a blog (My brother John’s) on the anger of the Aboriginal Youth and their growing population. He recommends that these youth become aware of politics. And being angry at your “white” neighbor isn’t going to solve anything. It will only create more heartache and frustration. Be angry at the system we are in. Read the constitution. Read the Indian Act. Get involved in politics. Find out where real change to our country can be made.

In any group of people, there will be those who are sympathetic to change; those opposed; and lastly, those who are undecided. The undecided are usually a large group and can be swayed. If we start fights with our non first nation neighbor, we will alienate those who are undecided. They will believe they stereotyped hype they hear about “Indians” and vote down policies that will help First Nations people.

Lastly, I love my people. But in any society there needs to be checks and balances. I am afraid that First Nations’ politics has went far to long with not being accountable to the people they serve. I am sadden to hear that the First Nations University of Canada is in turmoil. It is a situation where First Nations leaders think that we need a segregated school system. But for what? We live in an integrated society. Get used to it. It is not going away. This old school thinking has got to stop. We need to build bridges and communities with the people around us, regardless of culture or racial differences. Work with people and not against them.

The churches have given us an apology. The government has given an apology. We need to learn to accept and forgive.

Book Club

I started a book club at my house last year and realized that I have read some very interesting books. Some were bad, some were interesting, and some were great and if you are lost on what book to read, here are a few.

First we read, Illusions By Richard Bach. I read it a few years ago and then re-read it for book club. I like the book because it was filled with philosophical and spiritual questions. I disliked it because I do not agree with some of its guidance. But overall a good book and a short read.
Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut. This is one of my favorite books. Cynical, witty, and funny.
A Child called It – I don’t remember it, mostly because it sucked! Do not read this book unless you want to be frustrated by bad writing.
Hour of the Dragon – Robert E. Howard – The only Conan novel. It is a fast paced story and good if you are in the mood for something easy to read.
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy – Probably the most complicated book I have read. Very good story and sad about an Indian mother and her family in India. Very well and intellectually written which made it hard for me to follow in places.
The Road – Cormac Macarthy – Not one of my favorite books. it had an interesting story just no real ending in my mind. It is a slice out of a post apocalyptic world. A short easy read, and bleak and dark.
The Shack – Wm. Paul Young – this book got two ratings from me. One a 5 out of 10 as I am not a christian and do not agree with the way christianity is portrayed. But a 9 out of 10 if you are a christian. Probably will open your eyes and expand your faith if you read. it.  It is a dark story and well written, I just do not necessarily agree with the overt christian tone.
Ishmael – Daniel Quinn – One of my favorite books. Philosophically deep and is worth a second read for me. it challenges the common myths of science and religion and what places do humans have in the world. For too long the human species has made this world a hierarchy with themselves at the top. We need to be humbled and remember we are a part of the world as equals and not as its masters.
Beijing Coma – Ma Jian – this book was an eye opener on Communism and the Tianimmen Square Massacre from a human perspective. This book details the movement to get more human rights for students in China. The main character is shot in tianammen square and is in coma, very symbolic about that country indeed. But too detailed sometimes and could have been 100 pages shorter.
Stone Butch Blues – Leslie Feinberg – this was our last read. It is about a transgender person’s journey through the 50’s to modern day.  Very sad and hard to read as the hell this person had to suffer just to be themselves. Jess is a stone butch who is a person who lives their life in the open as a transgendered person as compared with the saturday night butches. The persecution and humiliation he/she suffered is morally reprehensible. Leslie wrote a book that opened my eyes and heart to the queer community and the plight they face everyday, even today in our supposed tolerant society.

The next book is “What is Stephen Harper Reading?” by Yann Martel. this book is free at the website (and is the website) http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca/. I am looking forward to it and hope it is a good one!

207

See that number? It has a life of its own. It’s has decided to haunt, stalk and live in my mind like a cricket. It constantly clicks and chirps at me. I want to find it and squish it. Better yet, I want to kill it like a woodtick. Heat up a hot needle and stick it into its fat little belly and pop it. But it is nested somewhere inside me and I can’t find it. Well I can find it, I just don’t want to because of what it represents. It can’t be a lucky number like 7 or 4. It can’t be my favourite number like 13. It can’t be a benign number like 0, neither here nor there. It has to be what it is. It is a number which can measure my beauty in this western civilized culture. It is a number that mocks me and tells me how much I stand to lose and gain.

“I hate my weight”, I yelled in my most whiny voice. The kind of voice that can drive a man to drink. The kind of voice that make women furl their eyebrows and say “shut up” with their silent stare. The kind of voice that kids mock incessantly in grade school.

“Stop whining and do something about it.” I chided myself. This wasn’t a time for baby steps; it required a serious overhaul of my life. So I wrote a blog about my weight in hopes that it would spur me on to do something about it. The End.

I rewrote this blog three times before posting it. I am hoping to someday be a writer. I like the process of creativity. My favourite idea is finding a normal common place thing and making it a story. So far I have some short stories but nothing really good yet. I am childish in my writing. I can tell. I have no real meat or bone, just a lot of black words on a piece of white paper, but the only way to improve is to write. So expect a lot more of this crap until a diamond gets squeezed out!

Probably my second greatest fear

One day I was feeling overtired and that immediately puts me in shitty mood so I wrote about what was in my mind. This poem comes from my childhood abandonment issues, ask anyone, I do not like rejection. Rejection to someone who already feels like an outsider is a death sentence. I’m always working on it but every now and then I lose.

The most dangerous place to be is Alone

Alone is just you and your thoughts.
Alone is a dark place that eats light and eats spirit
And eats your very breath
And produces nothing but more darkness

In Alone there are no walls, no feedback
Just you. Only you
And you can’t make the world seem right

In Alone there are no bodies, no feelings
And you can not fill the void with enough thoughts or with enough words to light up the dark
To pierce the skin of the dark
To pop the illusion of dark
It’s was always dark and it is always going to be dark.

You think you are going crazy
Going insane
You hear your words reverberate like echoes
You sink into silence
Cold and numbing
You curl up like a baby
And climb into the wombs of smaller words
Like stupid, dumb, ignorant
Vile, vulgar, sick
Ugly, festering,
Smelly
Fat
me
And when you open your eyes
You look for more darkness
On tv, in movies, in books
In faces, in sex, and you never run out of anger
you never run out of reasons
To hate
To run
To yell in your mind
To shut out the world
To sink back into Alone

After I wrote this poem I went for coffee and was instantly cured!

Self validation

The hardest skill, life lesson, mental exercise, … um, thing to learn is self validation. Self validation is the ability to recognize how well you have done something. And the bigger the task, the harder it is to recognize what value to place on it. For example, if you play hockey, there is an instant celebration of scoring a goal or getting an assist on the ice. This small part of the game gives instant feedback that you are doing something right. But then later you compare your overall stats with others. There are still some quick evaluations of yourself and if you are not the best goal scorer or play maker, then you need to recognize what strengths you do bring to the team. This “recognizing of strengths” is the harder part and it is where self validation comes in. You need to decide that what you are doing is still valuable.

“You’ve gotta learn how to let things be
Believe in what you feel
Relax and know that love, will set you free my dear”
- Jann Arden – Willing to Fall Down

Now, not everyone plays hockey where your tasks (goals, saves, ice time) are measured and can help you. In life, how do you know if you are “living it right?” How do you know if what you are doing has any worth in the long run or is the best thing for you? This validation is much harder to find. Your friends and family will not always give you what you need and may sometimes, if not often, miss the boat on your little successes. You will feel lonely and uncared for. So how do you know if what you are doing is good, right, productive or purposeful?

I have been unhappy with my work environment for a little while. Not my actual job, but the environment. I can do the day to day tasks and do them well. Fixing computers has given me a purpose and fills me with pride when I can solve quirky problems. I feel like I have accomplished something. But some people I work with do not have this attitude, or it is not apparent to me. They seem to do as little as possible and they are fine with that. Their attitude bothers me. I feel like I am working twice as hard but getting just the same pay and the same reprimands. But recently I realized that I need to stop focusing on what they are doing and focus on what I am doing. When I did that, I realized how good my work ethic was. It is a thing to be proud of and I should feel good about what I do. The self validation that I am a good employee is all I need to feel good about myself.

I am not saying “stay in a bad job” just to prove a point. If the job sucks, move on. But if you like what you do and you do it well; take pride in that. No one can take that away from you. I have written on my monitor: “I am proud of my work” to remind me not to focus on what others are doing, and focus on how well I am doing.

My Favorite Lyrics

I like music. I know that I am not the only one. I am pretty confident that everyone likes music. And people listen to music for all sorts of reasons. Some people like the beat, which explains why dance music is so prevalent. It is good for dancing and rockin’ out. Some people like guitar driven rock ‘n roll. It is full of loud ear screaming solos and catchy riffs and is usually my first choice when I listen to music. Some people like instrumentals and classical music. There is a wall of sound created by the orchestra and the sweet melodies that dance through the music. It is personally not my favourite, but it is enjoyable at times.

The main thing I like about music though, is the lyrics. I love to hear what artist have to say. Some of my favourite lyrics come from genres of music that I don’t really like, but I like the lyrics so much, I can’t help but listen to them. Here are some of my favourite lyrics, what are yours?

“The world is a vampire, sent to drain
secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames
and what do I get, for my pain
betrayed desires, and a piece of the game…
despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage”
- Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet with Butterfly Wings

“These times are so uncertain
There’s a yearning undefined
And people filled with rage
We all need a little tenderness
How can love survive in such a graceless age
And the trust and self-assurance that lead to happiness
They’re the very things we kill, I guess
Pride and competition cannot fill these empty arms
And the work I put between us,
You know it doesn’t keep me warm”
Don Henley – Heart of the Matter

“Everybody is just a stranger but
That’s the danger in going my own way
I guess it’s the price I have to pay
Still “everything happens for a reason”
Is no reason not to ask myself
If I am living it right?”
John Mayer – Why Georgia Why

“Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don’t like children anyhow
I’ve seen the future, baby:
it is murder”
Leonard Cohen – The Future

“Welcome to my country
Welcome to my home
You could stay forever
You won’t leave it alone
Welcome to the bush
Take what you may need
When shove comes to push
You want me to leave
I can’t let go of the painted desert
I can’t let go of the old way
I can’t let go of the homeland
Its in the blood, I can’t let go”
Robbie Robertson – In the Blood

And lastly

“Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.”
Bob Dylan – The Times They Are A-Changin’

My Biggest Fear

I was making a joke to a friend and it bombed, big time. Basically, he was telling me about a personal issue and I decided that I would cheer him up and I said something stupid like “you know what will make you feel better? Nothing.” Lame, yes. Rude, yes. Funny, no. This is not the first time I have made stupid comments that I thought were funny. Another time a woman was talking about her kids and she said she was getting it in both ends. I laughed and said something like “that must have hurt.” Anyway, she never spoke to me again.

So my biggest fear is that I am not funny and that people do not find me funny. They just think I am annoying and tolerate me because I happen to be with someone they actually like. I don’t want to be that guy that everyone avoids at parties because they never know what I am going to say and they have the general feeling that I can’t be trusted. So I am never speaking up again, starting now.

One more thing
Why is it my fault?
So maybe I try to hard
But it’s all because of this desire:
I just want to be liked.
I just want to be funny.
Looks like the jokes on me,
So call me captain backfire.
- John Mayer “My Stupid Mouth”

Addendum: I am not looking for sympathy or compliments. I just want to be honestly funny or at least learn how to keep my mouth shut when people are discussing serious personal issues.

Death Notices

I was reading the paper one day and like everyone, I scanned the obituaries for people I might possibly know. It struck me as being a morbid past time and inspired me to write this poem.

Death Notices
“Don’t cough because death notices.”
These words echo in my conscious skin and I am scared to breathe.
Every scratch, every pain and everything is to blame for my fear
And I can’t stop this train from delivering age from year to year.
Just once I need a robbery. Just once I want it to rest.
But its engine keeps on pounding against the ribs inside my chest.
Maybe if I pray, maybe if I am good
Maybe if I ate the way that they say I should
I could switch this track. I could find a way back
To live like a child who doesn’t hunt for responsibility
Does not think his age is a liability
And I would see the animals in the clouds
And I would laugh in and out loud
And death would notice and leave me alone.