Photos of Tamil Tuesday

No time to embed them into a blog post.

I took some photos of the Tamil-Canadian protests, added captions, and uploaded them to my Picasa account.

View the album here:

From Tamil protests 2009 on Parliament Hill

- RG>

A. Whitney Brown Supports the Troops

Someone pointed this out, and I thought it was most relevant. Watching this video really opened my eyes to something I had taken for granted for my entire life up to this point.

From today forward, my life will be defined as that which came before, and that which came after knowing that A. Whitney Brown supports the troops.

I mean, I thought I supported Motherhood and Apple Pie, but nothing like A. Whitney Brown supports the troops.

I'll let him tell it in his own words:



(Also see the sequel: "I support the Troops Still")

- RG>

Support Motherhood and Apple Pie this Wednesday!

At this Wednesday's City Council meeting (agenda), the following item is listed:

11. Notices of Motion (For Consideration at Subsequent Meeting)

MOTION

Moved by Councillor G. Brooks

Seconded by Councillor R. Jellett

WHEREAS Canadian troops and emergency services workers selflessly perform their duties for Canadians everyday;

AND WHEREAS Canadian troops and emergency services workers sometimes suffer injury or sacrifice their lives for other Canadians;

AND WHEREAS the Council of the City of Ottawa appreciates the service and sacrifice of Canadian troops and emergency services workers, wherever they may be serving at home or around the world;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Ottawa authorizes the use of ‘Support Our Troops’ decals on city vehicles;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Ottawa supports the decision of the Chief of the Ottawa Police Service to authorize the use of ‘Support Our Troops’ decals on police vehicles.

Don't be fooled. Even though it says "for consideration at subsequent meeting", it is entirely likely that they will vote to waive the rules of procedure, and consider it at Wednesday's meeting. They tried the same thing two weeks ago, but failed to get the three-fourths support needed to consider it then and there. If they do push it through, the decision would be final. Wednesday may be our only chance to fight it.

That's why on Wednesday, I'll be at City Hall with my red "Support Motherhood and Apple Pie" t-shirt, and my posters, stickers, and cards with the same logo.

I welcome you to download and print your own as well. Click on the image below for a high-resolution .png graphic:



While the ribbons are amusing, the issue is very serious. Just as with the Flying Spaghetti Monster movement. If you don't show your support for motherhood and apple pie, then this is what will happen to the debate on Afghanistan:

E-mail me (@gmail.com) if you want pdf versions of the ribbon graphics, including 3-up and 6-up versions. These are vector-based graphics, so they don't get fuzzy as you increase their size.

- RG>

"Support our troops", preview

On the night of August 24, as I was about to go to sleep at 2 am, I decided to check out the Ottawa Citizen's news feed to occupy me for a couple more minutes before going to sleep.

I didn't get to sleep until 8:30 am on Saturday.

It was this article that did it. Police Chief Vernon White has installed 180 yellow "support-our-troops" ribbons onto the back of municipal police cars.

It was not just that that pissed me off, but Mayor Larry O'Brien's ignorant stance expressed in the CBC article on the topic (this is the second night in a row that his ignorance lost me sleep, as I felt compelled to write an anti-O'Brien letter to the editor on Thursday morning at 2 am, which went into Friday's paper).

It seemed inherent to me that the "Support Our Troops" slogan implies support for the mission in Afghanistan, despite O'Brien's claim that they were semantically distinct. I wrote out a whole essay-length blog post about it, until I realized at 6am that I didn't have to prove that the two were the same to argue logically that the "Support Our Troops" slogan stifles dissent.

Support for Cullen is very weak, especially among councillors. Council narrowly avoided discussing it at last Council meeting, not getting the required number of votes to put it on the day's agenda without notice. The media have since reported that it will be up for discussion at the September 12 meeting of Council.

In today's Ottawa Citizen, Janice Kennedy has an editorial titled Why I don't wear red, which goes over some of the reasons why the ribbons are political. That will serve as some food for thought until I prepare and post my essay.

In the meantime, please check out this clever and poignant video video.

Until I get the second draft of the essay up, please consider this "1000-word" version:



- RG>