Gender Day – Dec. 5, 2008
I’d like to dedicate our first gender day of the year to the women who lost their lives at L’Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal on December 6th, 1989. If you are interested in learning more about what happened, visit the Montreal Massacre: CBC Archives to view videos and hear radio reports from the time.
image from Men for Change website.
I thoroughly enjoyed our day together yesterday. We had a heavy morning, but sometimes they are necessary … don’t you think? I was glad that Karen was able to come in and talk to us. She was wonderful – very honest and caring. Major thanks to Marie for setting that up.
Here is a link to what she was talking about, for yourself or if there is someone in your life who you are concerned about.
AA and young people
AA website
Our potluck was AMAZING. Chelsea, your chicken and rice rocked! Kyleigh, those meatballs reminded me of my great-aunt mmmmmmmmm! Sarah, thanks for giving me your green pepper stuffed with couscous so I didn’t have to wait in line 
I could go on and on…everything was so good. Jaime, your coffee hit the spot – even with all that sugar 
Oh, and Michele, your salad – YUM. And of course I can’t forget Sam’s pizza cookie and Lexy and Bridget’s decadent chocolate fountains. I think I gained 5 pounds yesterday afternoon. For real.
Kourtney – thanks for sharing some of your precious schpetzel, we all know how much you like it
(for more pictures, check out Kaitlin’s facebook photos. Someone remind me to upload the pics from Marie’s camera next week!)
As promised, here are the videos we watched. There are also some videos here I was going to show but didn’t because of time restrictions.
Heidi Rathjen’s story.
I only found this one today. Heidi was a student at the Ecole Polytechnique on the the night that the Montreal Massacre took place. She tells her story in this short documentary that includes news footage from the event.
Description from the youtube site:
“The film reports the tragic events by relating the journey of the young woman from the tiny student union rooms to the cosy lounge of the House of Commons. Armed with courage and her sense of civil justice, she’ll quit a lucrative job at Bell Canada to create the Coalition for Gun Control and win her battle against the powerful pro-gun lobby. In 1995, Ottawa adopted the bill C-68 on gun control. “
Causing Pain: Real Stories of Dating Abuse and Violence
It Ain’t Love
This one is really strong, pretty heavy.
Why?
short ad about the white ribbon campaign
When I was 14 – Performance by Dawn Saylor
Here is the poem she is performing:
When I was 14 by Dawn Saylor
When I was fourteen,
I got down on my knees
Because he said I would
If I loved him.
And what did I know then?
When I first betrayed my body?
Sold it for a kiss and a smile
Taught to please at any cost
Left to fight for independence
In the backseats of cars
On stained leather interior
Dank with the smell of expectations.
I traded integrity for security
And called it love.
Leaving pieces of an empty shell falling behind
My mother patting my head and saying
What happened to that nice boy you were dating?
While I pushed memories farther down
Buried beneath piercing sunlight
Dreamed my knight would come to save
And prayed scraping already skinned knees
While I cried myself to sleep.
So I bit the apple in confusion.
Abandoned my innocence beneath the tree of knowledge
And became as bitter as the fruit I couldn’t refuse
Time and again
Giving in, giving up
Waiting always wanting something more then pickup lines
Promising more then promiscuity
Clothing myself in false hopes
Enclosing my weariness in frail arms for years.
Cars turning into bars with one lamp and pile of discarded clothing
And I heard myself say no
Over and over but he didn’t hear me
Wouldn’t listen when he called me a whore, pinned me down
And took the only innocence I had left.
And I was searching still for purity.
Lurking in hidden corners
Hips swinging lips pouting
Trading a shattered innocence for bared
And brazen offerings.
I learned how to control
And three years of vengeance passed while I was that women despised
While they begged for plastic perfection
Found in the temptation inches from their faces I could feel the longing
The lies when they said
‘You’re so beautiful’
And it wasn’t enough
And so he loved music more then me, loved work more then me, loved money more then me, loved her more then me, and I loved him more then me.
And I gave in to where I thought love hid
To the times I thought it was real
We give in to what men want
We paint ourselves with what we think are colors of the rainbow
When we’re really cloaked in hips and lips
The brutal realities that leave us grasping
Tatters of the illusions of love and longing
And the shattered shreds of innocence
Until we wear our own colors
And part the curtains we drape over our mirrors in mourning
And look ourselves in the eye and say
With you I feel like Isis and I am beautiful.
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