War costs
Having grown up during the Cold War, I was taught how to take safety positions to take in case of nuclear attack. I watched my parents debate their friends over the merits of building a home bomb shelter. What’s old is new again.
Voices
ᐋ ᐄᔮᔨᐧᒫᓂᐧᐃᒡ
Ice road heroes
Winter ice roads have been a big part of life on the James Bay coast for decades. The road has existed in one form or another since the 1950s and 1960s when the American and Canadian military sent men and material north to build the Mid-Canada radar stations for the Cold War effort.
Shooting for the stars
As far as the stars go, I’ve traveled nearly three and a half billion miles in my life. That’s quite a distance but in the big scheme of things, it’s a mere blip on the speed radar of the universe. I remember one starry night when we were lucky enough to witness a supernova low in the eastern skies.
Deadly words
The social media culture war many of us have participated in over the past decade or more is bearing its fruit in a real blood-and-bullets war. Those incendiary posts and hate-filled comments are exploding in the hospitals, universities, apartment buildings and nuclear-power plants of Ukraine.
Spread the love
This Valentine’s Day was different. The rush to get chocolates and flowers in time for the pre-lineup rush hours and time to wipe that gooey face after a long day cloaked in a mask and settle down for some serious Valentine ventures.
A moral compass
February is Black History Month. For the occasion, I watched the very necessary documentary Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street that tells the stories of the African-American communities who fled the South to settle in Oklahoma in what was still considered “Indian Territory” at the time.
Quebec, convoys and vaccine rules
It’s hard for the average Canadian to know exactly what the hell is going on these days. Perhaps Quebec Liberal leader Dominique Anglade summed it up best by saying, “Curfew, no curfew, unvaccinated tax, no vaccinated tax, vaccine passport which was deployed, maintained, now lifted. The contradictory messages of François Legault have been numerous and now must stop.”
Good news hunting
As an Indigenous person, world news is very confusing and overwhelming for me. The world has always been troubled and now everything is getting more confusing. It is difficult to figure out what is true or false in the news. The way we use social media has complicated reality even more.
Matters of life and breath
The handshake, the two-cheek kiss, the back slap, the hug – remember those things? Yes, they’ve been around for thousands of years and now are on the edge of extinction. Is this an evolutionary turn of events for humankind, the end of the casual or affectionate greeting between good friends and family?
We got us a convoy
Before OnStar and cellphones many drivers in the past had Citizen Band radios. They were two-way communications devices that allowed drivers to talk to each other. Hailed as a safety need, they also became a way for drivers to warn each other about speed traps by letting each other know where the police were. The biggest customers were truckers, and that produced a popular song (and movie) in the 1970s called “Convoy”.