Poem: "If You Knew"
by Ellen Bass,
from The Human Line. © Copper Canyon Press, 2007.
Reprinted with permission.

If You Knew

What if you knew you'd be the last
to touch someone?

If you were taking tickets, for example,
at the theater, tearing them,
giving back the ragged stubs,
you might take care to touch that palm,
brush your fingertips
along the life line's crease.

When a man pulls his wheeled suitcase
too slowly through the airport, when
the car in front of me doesn't signal,
when the clerk at the pharmacy
won't say Thank you, I don't remember
they're going to die.

A friend told me she'd been with her aunt.
They'd just had lunch and the waiter,
a young gay man with plum black eyes,
joked as he served the coffee, kissed
her aunt's powdered cheek when they left.
Then they walked a half a block and her aunt
dropped dead on the sidewalk.

How close does the dragon's spume
have to come? How wide does the crack
in heaven have to split?
What would people look like
if we could see them as they are,
soaked in honey, stung and swollen,
reckless, pinned against time?

I hope the Saskatchewan Roughriders will win the Grey Cup today!

Pablo Picasso said, "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

This recent event in Tibet reminds me of why I dislike China's government.

http://www.tibet.ca/en/newsroom/wtn/279

I had this "letter to the editor" published yesterday.


What's in a name?

The StarPhoenix
Published: Thursday, October 18, 2007

I sometimes wonder how the Saskatchewan Party chose its name.
Did it think that people about to mark an "X" on a ballot were too stupid to remember anything other than the name of our province? Was the party conceited enough to feel that anyone who doesn't support it shouldn't be in Saskatchewan?
Of course, there could be a very practical reason: they were looking for free advertising on every map of Canada.


Donald B. Campbell
Saskatoon

© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007

"An act of meditation is actually an act of faith--of faith in your spirit, in your own potential. Faith is the basis of meditation. Not of faith in something outside you--a metaphysical buddha, an unattainable ideal, or someone else's words. The faith is in yourself, in your own 'buddha-nature.' You too can be a buddha, an awakened being that lives and responds in a wise, creative, and compassionate way."

Martine Batchelor, "Meditation for Life"

Copyright Wisdom Publications 2001. Reprinted from "Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations," edited by Josh Bartok, with permission of Wisdom Publications, 199 Elm St., Somerville MA 02144 U.S.A, www.wisdompubs.org.

The people of Burma haven't been defeated yet.

http://www.newsdeskspecial.co.uk/burma/

Stephen Harper's government has actually done something that I agree with!

http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/News/2007/Oct/69-Oct-2007.html

These so-called "religious" people (the Ugandan Muslims and Christians mentioned in the news story) deserve to go to whatever form of Hell they believe in.

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/10/101507ug.htm

Here's a reminder of why I dislike the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/10/101407movat.htm

I had this "letter to the editor" published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.


Economic pressure on China may influence Burma policy

The StarPhoenix
Published: Thursday, October 04, 2007

As we sit in (varying degrees of) comfort in our living rooms and watch the news, Canadians sometimes feel that we can't do anything to help people who are suffering overseas.
An example is the violent crackdown on peaceful protests that the military dictatorship in Burma is carrying out against Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as lay people who join the call for democracy. (By the way, I refuse to call the country "Myanmar" because that is what the military junta renamed it.)

I think that there is something we can do. The greatest political and economic supporter of Burma is China, which is also the source for much of Wal-Mart's merchandise. By refusing to shop at Wal-Mart (or at least refusing to buy Chinese-made products there) and by telling the company why we are doing this, Canadians might be able to encourage it to talk to the Chinese government about its support for the dictatorship in Burma.

China has already pressured the Burmese military to restrain its response to the protests, so that China won't look bad internationally before the 2008 Olympics. This worked at first, but protesters are now being killed.

Perhaps Canadians can indirectly pressure China to do more. Although it isn't a democracy, China understands the power of economic action.

Donald B. Campbell
Saskatoon
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007