Declarations of Resistance - “What
you do not know will not hurt you – so mind your own business!”
Everyday “Declarations”
fill the air. “Mayor Ford” uses media scrums and voice to
declare a position and hold onto a belief in who he believes he is.
Government departments issue press releases and updates – hoping to
assure and maintain the “commonly held beliefs” of the citizens.
Such declarations in today's society are really words sought and
iterated to keep whatever story / group / true to whomever is making
the statement. There is no difference between Mayor Ford and the
Alberta Governments response to the Obed Coal Mine wastewater
containment failure as both are Declarations of Resistance.
I live by and drink water drawn from
the Athabasca River. I am a counsellor working with persons living
in violence cultures. I assist individuals to understand how others
may perceive the choices and behaviors such individuals choose. Much
of what I do is to try to name and explain my observations to shine a
sliver of light to open awareness and comprehension of those I meet
in my work. Such awareness and insights can lead to change and
growth to living in healthier relationships.
When one considers
“addictions” often present in any person or group statement –
the denial factor can be blind spots and a reactionary resistance to
any declaration presented to me. Time and changes to behavior is a
measure of the “evidence of change” in rehabilitation work. I
realize I am deluded by other's statements when I recognize and
experience actual behaviors which do not fit the viewpoint of the
declaration. The frequency of declaration might be a significant
cover up to truth. Such frequency may be a flashing light of
desperation of an unconscious broken inner child. When we live with
the myth of who we believe we are can be dangerous for our
well-being.
The media has been filled
with Mayor Ford's declarations of innocense and upstanding citizen of
meritorius service to the people. The people choose to accept or
deny such declarations. Mayor Ford's behaviors are ultimately his
choice and the ingrained behaviors of survival and what he
consciously or unconsciously has learned through life experience.
In terms of a story is it tragic comedy or pathetic reality of
reaching a vision somewhat unattainable in the near future of one
individual? The impact of Mayor Ford's behavior is an example that
may assist many others to recognize their own need for adjustment and
change. The story is important as I believe it is a current
individual reality of a large percentage of Canadians. The story
needs to be told.
Such addictions to our
current existence however painful – keeps many of us from seeing
and accepting our own needs to change. We believe our imagined
heavenly vision is descending upon us now. The declarations we
accept and believe hold us in our own denial. Recently in a “Chicken
– Little Dance” I too have been proclaiming things I believe to
be true but my declarations only stir resistance and hence rejection
by others. What I am about to declare may upset and stir anger in
many people who rely on the Ontario Teacher's Pension Fund for their
“secured future”. Shareholders in companies like Sherritt
International may include myself. CPP payments are connected to the
innvestments in a fiscal belief system so many of us are part of as
well.
The cost of the environmental
destruction of our way of life is an expense fast forwarded to the
future. It may also be a significant factor in our well-being and
health or not. The impacts of toxic chemicals released in the 2nd
largest coal mine slurry containment failure in North American
history is being flooded and covered over by declarations of
resistance by the Alberta Government. There is much more to this
story that needs to be told. Will our grandchildren really know what
happened? How is our lifestyle damaging our children's health here in
the “tragic gap of what is to what could be”. I will continue to declare resistance
to that what destroys life for all for such is the business we are all into!
