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It seems to be getting harder and harder to find good news in the media! But
this being Thanksgiving, we need HOPE. We need to find what is beautiful in
our world, something to be thankful for.
Last Thursday I attended a breakfast to celebrate Persons' Day! In 1929 in
Canada, women were deemed to be "persons." The right to vote came 11 years
later. At the breakfast sponsored by the Women's Legal Education and Action
Fund (LEAF), Kate Quinn who for many years has worked with the Prostitutionn
Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton and Kathy King, a mother whose
mentally-impaired daughter met death on the street after seeking to drown
feelings of rejection with drugs and prostitution, spoke of their hope to
create a society where all are accepted and violence is never acceptable.
The next evening, Changing Together, a program that welcomes immigrant
women, honoured 12 immigrant women who are seniors, celebrating their
contributions to Canadian Society. One of the honorees, Bernadette Swan,
came to Canada 42 years ago. Her volunteer work stretches back to her
childhood in Guyana. She is the founder of the Black Women's Organization of
Alberta, earned a master's of theological studies, and serves on many
boards.
An article that certainly didn't have a hopeful title - The Worst place to
be a woman: Africa - revealed a gem of hope. Liberia where women, by and
large, have no power, elected Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a 67-year-old
grandmother as the first woman elected to lead an African country! Women
voted her in - women who want equal rights, healthcare and education.
An obituary in the Edmonton Journal, qualified Dorothy McDonald, Chief of
the Fort MacKay First Nation, as a woman who took on giants to help her
people. Alberta Aboriginal Affairs Minister Pearl Calahasen, described her
as tough, educated, well-informed and yet with a heart! The 59 year-old
woman was the first member of her community to graduate from high school.
Behind her, her father who could not read but insisted she go to high school
and the family in Edmonton who received her while she attended school. She
set up roadblocks to stop big logging companies from roaring through her
community, laid private charges agains Suncor for an oil spill into the
Athabasca River, her community's water supply.
This weekend I was among several hundred persons who attended a conference
on The Alberta We Want, in Canada and the World. I heard that HOPE is a
VERB. The bigger the DREAM, the stronger the HOPE.
