Monuments - things to be fearful of? Insulted by? OR....

Monuments - things to be fearful of? Insulted by? OR....Could a monument really be something less than sinister?

This topic has been on my mind since all of the strife in Charlottesville triggered the tearing down of monuments. As I get ready to, as project lead, install a monument to honour the 158 souls who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country during the Afghanistan War, here in Grande Prairie, Alberta, I have to wonder.

158 names grace the monument, 158 names that are connected to families, wives, husbands, children, grand parents and uncles and aunts, cousins, all left here to miss them.

As the person who conceived the idea to build an Afghanistan War Monument & Memorial Gardens here in Grande Prairie, Alberta, it was with a heart that wanted to thank the soldiers and their families for their sacrifice and to remember that sacrifice. 

WAR IS UGLY. 

The Afghanistan War Monument does not glorify War and is not intended to.
It honours the sacrifice, the hurt, the pain, the sorrow, the promise cut short.

Our soldiers prepare for war, they train for it, but they do not seek it.
They go to battle by the orders they are given by the government of the day.

The men and women who answer the call to defend and protect our country, its allies and the defenceless around the world; they deserve to be thanked, to be remembered, to have their families embraced and supported.

That's what's in my heart.

That's why I have pushed relentlessly to build this monument and the gardens that will be forth coming.

MY SINGLE BIGGEST FEAR?

20 years from now, 50 years from now, 100 years from now, when I am dead and gone and can not tell you why I conceived this monument and these gardens, is someone going to take offence and pull it down? Will they decimate the gardens we are lovingly designing?

Will they deface the historical points of interest we create that tell the story of our history as a collective of humans who live on a land mass we call Canada?

If you go to Ireland, there are military monuments everywhere, even in churches.

All of these monuments thanking the people who sacrificed their lives, assuring that the story, the history of Ireland is kept alive. Many ordered at the request of a grieving spouse or family member.

Saying thank you, honouring the sacrifices of those who fought for what we believe in, is important, but what happens 100 years from now? What happens when the beliefs of our day give way to beliefs of a different nature as population demographics change?

Trying to hide the past, to rewrite it, is a dangerous thing. If something or someone being honoured is truly offensive, then build something instructive that puts the truth into perspective and park it RIGHT BESDIE THE MONUMENT. Let's remember that the art itself has a certain intrinsic value and that No one alive today knows what was in the heart of the person whose art they are defacing.

The sculpture, the foundry artist, was it just a job or a passionate creation for them?

We will never know.

AND REMEMBER - FREE SPEECH is a double edged sword.

OH, and remember something else - the whole - your rights end where they infringe on mine, is equally a double edged sword.

Now here is my stance on the politics in our country, Canada...on the removing of the names of men like John A Macdonald or removing plaques from the Confederate daughters like what happened in Montreal last week....

Without tension, pressure; carbon is just carbon. A diamond can not be created without tension or pressure. It also requires time. Canada is a young and imperfect lump of coal that is a diamond in the rough.

Our leaders have over the decades failed ALL OF US who live today in one way or the other. They were after all human. 

Many lived in a time that we can not truly fathom and they made decisions that we can only guess at the reasons behind them.

Wiping them out of our history is not going to change how we got to where we are.
My motorcycle has taught me to look to where I want to go, but to glance in my rearview mirror once in a while, to measure how far I have come. History is supposed to help guide our future, it can't do that if we hide it.

It's not going to make the hurt better.

It's going to create more hurt and hatred, because as I said before - there is a double edged sword called the Charter of Rights and Freedoms - and your rights stop where they infringe on mine.

Under the Charter is that other double edged sword called freedom of speech and expression. You have your right to feel, and believe what you feel and believe. You have no right to force that on me.

You have no right to deny me my speech or expression, because we are supposed to be EQUAL.

Let's approach tender topics as equals TODAY.

None of us can change the past but we can chart a better future.

Now that the political commentary is out of the way, here is a little bit of info on the project here in Grande Prairie:

This project has three phases. Phase one, the Afghanistan War monument and the memorials to the 4 fallen from the Afghanistan war that are tied to our city.

Phase two is the building of the memorial gardens, with little memory walks inside the bigger gardens.

The outer walk way is to be the history of Canada, in War and Peace time as told from the perspective of grade 6 students.

The idea that I have pitched to our principals and teachers is that there are 15 decades, when we know how many classes, we divide the decades up - we could end up with drilling down to 1/4 decades if enough sign on. The kids will research their time period as teams, the team will collectively write an essay, deliver that essay to their classmates. It will then go to a vote and the class will present us with the 200 word essay that they feel best represents the time period.

We will get French translations done, find appropriate photos and create the historical points of interest that will then be placed in our gardens in the "Canada at War & Peace" memory walk.

We have our first schools coming on board and we only had the meeting on Monday!

Inside of that outer walkway will be smaller ones.

There will be walkways devoted to our military services clubs from across the northwestern part of Alberta. There will be one talking about Army Training Base 32 Grande Prairie and the other bases in our region. There will be walkways devoted to the history of our First Nations & Metis soldiers and we will honour and remember the Canadian Soldiers who have taken their lives because of the burden their soul carried.

The third and final phase is to find a piece of military machinery to stand sentinel in the gardens.

Lest we Forget, because if we forget, we will repeat our mistakes and the lives that were cut so short, will have been in vain.

I hope you have a blessed day and if you are lucky enough to be riding today, please remember to ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you!

Belt Drive Betty,
Editor & Rider

Fear breeds Hatred and Perpetuates Violence

As I read the comments on my Facebook statement where I ask for courage, strength and love to prevail, comments that are spawned from hatred and fear, I am afraid for this beautiful country that I love with all my heart.  

As a female of Irish, Scottish, Polish, English and French decent I want to remind very Canadian that our forefathers all came from somewhere else.  

As I look back at the history of my family, I realize that some fled the potato famines, some fled persecution and all came here looking for opportunity and a better life, I am sure you can look at your family's past and see similar things. 

Even our First Nations people came from somewhere else before they settled in Canada. Our First Nations peoples have inhabited this country for some 10,000 years. 

I ask you to look at the beginnings of this country we call Canada….. First Nations people were slaughtered, and treated horribly by those who came here seeking a better life, not by all, but by some.  And see the divisions, the misunderstandings, the hurt and yes hatred this has caused for many.

I believe that we need to continue to strive to be better people than our forefathers were.

Did we learn nothing from our past?  Is history always going to repeat itself?

I believe with all my heart that our government needs look after those who already live here much better than they do.  I believe we need stronger immigration policies that help us weed out the bad apples BEFORE they arrive here. I believe that we need to look after our veterans, soldiers and their families better than we do. We need to hold our politicians and bureaucrats accountable far better than we do.  

I believe ALL OF THAT – HOWEVER…I have some questions to ask of those who are overcome by fear and hatred….

If I said that all Irish Protestants are violent because of the actions of the IRA or some members of the Orange party in Toronto between 1867 and 1892, would I be right?  My great grandmother’s family was Irish Protestant ; none of them was party to any of that, as far as our family history allows us to know.

If I said that all Canadian Frenchmen are divisive and ignorant because of the politics of men like Gilles Duceppe would I be right? My uncles and aunts that I just came home from visiting are for the most part, pretty open minded Frenchmen.  They accept this English speaking westerner and between my broken French and their broken English we get along quite well.

If I said that all Polish people were members of organized crime because of the conduct of those who were members of the Pruszków mafia would I be right?  My great grandma’s family on my dad’s side was Polish, but in none of their history can I find any reference to them being party to organized crime.

If I said that all Protestant Scotsmen were gang members and criminals because of the conduct of members of the Billy Boys of Brigton Cross, a  Scottish Protestant gang, would I be right?  Far as I know my great grandfather and grandfather, Scottish Protestants, were farmers, loggers, but no where in their history can I find a connection to the gangs that divided Scotland in the 1920’s and 30’s.

If I said that all Cops are drunks and murderers because of the actions of people like Monte Robinson would I be right?  My uncle Serge was a cop for over 35 years; he was and is a moral man, the same with my adopted uncle, Rick.

If I said that all priests were pedophiles because of the conduct of Father Eric Dejaeger, would I be right?  My great uncle Armand Plourd was a priest.  As far as I know he never molested anyone and was in fact a good man.

If I said that all Grey Friars were child molesters and pedophiles because of the conduct of Brother Stephen Baker would I be right?

My uncle Christopher was a Grey Friar, and as far as I know, he was not a child molester.

If I said all who ride motorcycles are criminal in nature because of the actions of some members of some clubs, would I be right?  I ride a motorcycle; I do not view myself as a criminal. 

You see if I bought into any of the above statements, my entire family, from every nationality, every walk of life would have to be condemned as “BAD”; myself included. 

We can’t say all Italians are mobsters or all Germans are Nazis.

We can’t say that all Muslims are extremists and murderers.

Generalizations, profiling cause a lot of harm to those who do not fit the generalization or profile. We as riders fight it all the time.

What we CAN SAY is that we, the human race, are composed of people who commit acts of kindness and acts of brutality.  We CAN SAY that there are good people and bad people in every walk of society, all around the world.

Organizations like Isis, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda etc. win when we let fear take over. When we profile, the cowards & bullies win. When we generalize, the cowards & bullies win.

When we use generalizations to describe any group of people we do a disservice to all people including ourselves.

You see they, ISIS et al, want the moderate Muslim to turn to them when we “Westerners” start targeting the moderate Muslim as if they were the same as the offenders.  Through our hatred and fear, violence perpetuates and we will add to their numbers until they become powerful.

Again I will state: I believe with all my heart that our government needs look after those who already live here much better than they do.  

I believe we need stronger immigration policies that help us weed out the bad apples BEFORE they arrive here. 

I believe that we need to look after our veterans, soldiers and their families better than we do. 

We need to hold our politicians and bureaucrats accountable far better than we do.  

I am not saying open our doors wide to all, I am saying open our doors after a thorough screening, do everything possible to protect our country and its values but don't close the door on all because some are assholes.  If we closed doors to all because we are afraid of a few, I wonder how many Germans, Poles, Jews, Irish, Scottish, French and English people would live in this melting pot we call Canada.

We need to remember that above all, be you black, red, white or purple, be you Christian, Jew, Muslim, Protestant or Catholic – we are all people first and to generalize, to profile is wrong. 

We riders know that better than most.

WE NEED:

Courage - we need to have courage, to exhibit courage.

One definition of courage is: "strength in the face of pain or grief."  Another is
"the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation."

Tolerance - we need to have tolerance, to exhibit tolerance.

One definition of tolerance is; the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behaviour that one does not necessarily agree with.

Caution - we need to be cautious, to be protective.

One definition of caution is: care taken to avoid danger or mistakes.

A wise man once said:

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it-always. Mahatma Gandhi

He also said: An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

That's how I see things, what say you?

Belt Drive Betty

Editor & Rider 


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