Cookies and Life Savers

Blood was the furthest thing from my mind, which might surprise you. As a Missionary Sister of the Precious Blood, not only am I steeped in the spirituality of the Precious Blood, I also work at a hospital.  Where else but in a hospital is there such close proximity to blood, the stuff of life? 

As a hospital chaplain, I rub shoulders daily with those committed to healing and saving lives. However, when two cellophane wrapped cookies were slapped on the palm of my outstretched hand, why would I think of blood?  It was the end of another emotionally draining day at the hospital and here was an instant energy booster - just what the doctor ordered. No, it wasn’t. The cookies were after my blood!  

Oblivious to how tired I was, a tiny sticker on those tempting cookies admonished me to “roll up your sleeves … donate blood.” As I tucked the cookies into my pocket, I got to thinking, “One can donate money. One can volunteer and give of one’s time but donating blood is a totally different story.” My friend, Sister Loretta, csj, whom I admire, has donated plasma, the colourless fluid part of blood, an awesome 625 times. If that’s not what shedding your blood for others is about, then I don’t know what is! My friend shed hers, over and over again. She is a true life saver.

I would think my friend is inspired by Jesus who shed his Precious Blood for her, for you and for me. As we read in the Book of Revelation “… you [Jesus] were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (5:9). Like Jesus, who poured out his Precious Blood for you and for me, all of us are invited to pour out our blood for others. Cookies do not inspire us to do so.  Jesus, our Life Saver par excellence, is the one who inspires us!  

Most of us are not called to literally shed our blood. However, in our fractured world, the blood of many women and men has been shed. We only have to think of the most recent horrendous bloodshed in Charleston, South Carolina. Hatred prompted a young man to end the lives of innocent women and men who were peacefully at prayer in their church.  

Many missionaries, like our sisters in Kenya, Tanzania and the Sudan, are at times working in very difficult situations where their lives are actually at risk. When a recent visitor to Kenya asked Sister Regina, cps, if she ever felt frightened, her immediate response was, “What? I am covered by His Precious Blood – why would I be afraid?”

Guest Blogger: Sr. Magdalena Vogt, cps

The Inconvenient Indian

Thomas King, a well-known Indian author admits to his biases and takes time in the beginning to explain his choice of two words in the title; “account and inconvenient”. Even though the book is filled with names, dates, battles, treaties and facts about the ongoing relationship between Indians and Whites, King says it is not a history but rather storytelling. It is an enlightening account that should be in every school and in every library.

The book is mostly a discussion about land ownership, cultural denial, and historical Solutions to the Indian Problem. Most of the history of North American Indians has been forgotten. With his sardonic wit King tells us we can watch the movie. Hollywood has given us the image of what King has called the “Dead Indian” as opposed to the “Live Indian” and the “Legal Indian”. Behind any problem land greed is at the core. For aboriginal people the boundary between Canada and the United States was not of their making but it is a political reality that has interfered with their land and their status. They are First Nations in Canada and Native Americans in the United States. Governments now decide who is and who isn’t an Indian.

Many North Americans believe that Canada and the United States gave treaty rights to Native people as a gift, however, those familiar with the history know that Native people paid for every treaty right, and in some cases, paid more than once.

The Indian is a Steward of the Land not owners. They have a deep spiritual connection to the land, whereas the white man views Land as a commodity to bought and sold.

1823 US law: Indians had right of occupancy but they did not own the land, 1831-1832 laws: Native nations were no longer sovereign nations. Indians were reduced to the status of children and declared wards of the state. All Indian land belonged to the federal government. Canada formalized an identical relationship in the 1876 Indian Act. Indians in all of North America were property. King fears that aboriginal culture and specifically aboriginal land will continue to be taken away until there is nothing left to them at all. The issue has always been land. It will always be land, until there isn’t a square foot of land left in North America that is controlled by Native people. There will always be “Live Indians” but North American laws make it difficult to claim Indian status, to be a “Legal Indian”.  Governments past and present have always aimed for assimilation to make the problem go away. History always impacts the present. The question has always been “What do Native People want?” however the real question is “What do White People want?”

I can’t express how much I appreciate having read this book. We need to pay more attention to the laws and acts that government enacts. Native Peoples/First Nations of North America have been systematically robbed of their land, their dignity, their values, and far too often their lives because they have been inconvenient.

Thomas King took six years to write this book.  He writes as if he were in a conversation with the reader. He uses anecdotes and humorous narratives while maintaining the serious message of the book.  His underlying anger is softened by his wit and his hope.

I never realized just how many Indian tribes, bands, and nations there are in North America each with its own identity, customs, and culture.

What I especially appreciated was the accounts King relates about the “Dead Indians” and how Hollywood portrayed them and more importantly what actors played the Indian roles. Interestingly Will Rogers is one of only two Indians to get a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame yet he never played an Indian on the big screen.

King himself, having Cherokee heritage, admits that as a child playing “Cowboys and Indians” he was always the cowboy. Read the book. It is filled with history, facts, humorous stories, sad stories, wit, irony, sarcasm, anger and hope for the future relationships between Natives and Whites.

Book Review of The Inconvenient Indian: A curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King, Anchor Canada 2012. Our reviewer is guest blogger Janet (Cole) Brisson, Resident of Residence Symphonie West Island, Pointe-Claire, Quebec

I'm a guy and I'm a feminist

According to the handy-dandy Merriam Webster dictionary, feminism is “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.” In no way does it mean that men should be lower in status than women; the overall goal of feminism is to simply have both sexes be equal.

Unfortunately, today’s Canadian society as a whole is still not accepting feminism. Canada is known to be welcoming of any religion, race, culture, and supposedly gender equality as well. Below is the 2014 Global Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum.  

North America is not in the top ten countries that are close to attaining gender equality. There are many factors (and it won’t be a surprise when given) as to why this is.

As a guy, there are certain expectations of me that come from my guy friends regarding the whole issue of gender equality, and one of them is about the Twitter Page, @TheMeninist. This Twitter page does say that their tweets uses sarcasm, but the tweets still convey messages that is not very good for females around the world. As a “man”, I’m expected to support and follow this page, but I don’t. I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t seen or even laughed at some of the tweets (I know some of you have done the same), but I know how to separate these jokes from my beliefs.

Another trending concept regarding women these days is the term “hoe” being used to generalize women. I’m sure you’ve heard of the line “These hoes ain’t loyal” at some point or another. This term is literally demeaning towards women, and I don’t get why people use it so much. Is the word woman or female or girl so hard to use? What’s worse is social media and pop culture are filled with these types of terms and ideas, that younger generations are exposed to these and it is making them think it’s okay to think that way. Dehumanizing women is just being passed down generation after generation if social media and pop culture do not change.

I’ve been exposed to strong women all my life. My mom raised me as a single parent with help from female nannies (who were very influential in my life); I grew up in a country where we had a woman president (Philippines). It’s safe to say that these factors helped build my feminist attitude. I sincerely hope that in the near future we wholly accept feminism because there is literally no justifiable reason as to why we cannot. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  I’m a guy and I’m a feminist

Guest Blogger: Paulo Castro
Reprinted from http://www.hercampus.com/author/paulo-castro

Paulo is a first-year English Major from the University of Windsor. He graduated from Vincent Massey Secondary School, and will always be a proud Mustang. 

HOLA! Let’s Celebrate!

This past May, 2014, I returned to the Zaña valley, Peru, with Sr Kitty (Stafford) and Nuccia McGrath. It was like a homecoming visit. Every where we went the people greeted us with hugs and good wishes. The older people in the village always asked about many of the Sisters who had journeyed with them through the years that the “Josies” were in Peru.

One particular memory stands out in my mind. Nuccia and I visited the Mocupe comedor (soup kitchen) supported by Heart-Links. Besides feeding the young children of the villages, the comedors also feed the very old. One of the visitors that day was a 94 year old woman, Carmela. She smiled at us and obligingly stood to have our photos taken with her. Nuccia and I asked her if we could help her carry her food home. On our way out to the highway we were met by an even older gentleman, who was Carmela’s husband, Francesco. They both gave us hugs and kisses and with tears in their eyes, could not thank us enough for supporting the comedor, for without it they would have no food.

This humbling experience certainly made us realize how important the work of Heart-Links is and how it continues in a small way to carry on the many good works started by the Sisters of St Joseph in Peru.

It is now been 20 years since Heart-Links began and so to celebrate we are inviting you to come and share in that history. Please join us on Saturday, November 8, 2014 at St Michael’s Parish Hall, 511 Cheapside, London, 11 am to 2 pm. Come and enjoy stories, music, silent auction, refreshments and more.

View the Flyer and read the Heart-Links Backgrounder

Loretta Brennan
CSJ Associate

Energy East is all risk, with few rewards for Canadians

Energy East is a proposal by TransCanada Pipelines to create a network of old and new pipelines stretching over 4,500 km from southern Alberta to New Brunswick. TransCanada wants to use Energy East to ship 1.1 million barrels of tar sands oil a day.

If approved, Energy East would be the largest oil pipeline project in North America. It would even be larger than Keystone XL, another controversial TransCanada proposed pipeline. This mammoth pipeline would put over 125 communities, including 52 First Nations and Métis communities, at direct risk of an oil spill. And, it would put the water of millions of Canadians at risk.

Energy East is not a made in Canada oil solution. Most of the oil would be exported. Energy East is expected to export between 800,000 - 1,000,000 barrels of unrefined oil out of Canada every single day. That’s the equivalent to filling nearly 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools with oil – every day.

TransCanada will try to convince Canadians that this risky project is in Canada's interest. To help provide the public with insight on the truth about this project, Environmental Defence has put together this handy poster to show how Energy East is all risk, with few rewards for Canadians.

Help Environmental Defence spread the word about the risks of Energy East. Share the link to the poster on Facebook and Twitter. Print it out and put it up in your workplace, local businesses and libraries. And if you haven't yet, raise your voice about the risks of Energy East. Take action here.

To learn more about Energy East, and the work of Environmental Defence, visit: www.RejectEnergyEast.ca

Guest Blogger: 

Liza Smithies
Senior Development Officer

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