A Lesson in Democracy pt II

"I'm not going to vote for that Michael Ignatieff guy. He looks kind of sinister, or evil or something!"


As the federal election approaches, I've been asking all my clients if they plan to vote, and encouraging them to do so. The responses have been all over the place surprising mixed, to say the least.

Party Time

"If I were to picture my perfect guy, I think he would be, like, Wayne from Wayne's World."

Excellent.

The Wait

I’m still building up my caseload since I finished my Intake job. While doing intake, I supported nine people. Since February, I’ve had my numbers go as high as 16, but they now rest back at 14. It seems like every second person who get assigned to me has disappeared, or doesn’t want to engage in service beyond 1-2 visits. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising considering in most cases they’ve been sitting on a waitlist for over a year.

I really didn’t think it would take this long. I guess neither did they.

"The Longest Day" or "What am I doing here?"

Note: meant to post this last night, but was too wiped

I am sooo tired today after doing practically nothing.

First thing this morning I went with a client to the Courthouse to attend a free legal clinic. It is one of those places where you take a number then wait. And wait. And wait some more. Three hours later we saw the clerk for about 5 minutes (she was very helpful) before we got out of that place.

5 minutes to eat my lunch (yay! what luck!)

Afternoon spent tracking down the next client (inner monologue: I just saw him just yesterday, and rearranged my schedule to help him out today, wtf is the big idea disappearing now grr), then taking a long drive through traffic to get him to a treatment session at a downtown hospital. That clinic was running late so we waited. And waited. And dozed off….*snork* wha? What happened, where am I? Oh, and waited…I brought a book this time, so at least I was entertained when he finally went in for his appointment. And I waited. And texted my boss to beg her mercy for missing a team meeting I was supposed to be at right that minute. 2.5 hours spent before we left.

Then waded back into traffic for the long slog to get him home. Only to turn around and head right back into it to finally arrive at MY home where I try to reflect on the ways that I helped today.

What a day.

A Lesson in Democracy

My kiddo’s school is doing a number of things in April to celebrate Earth Day (April 22). One of these is a fundraiser to “help protect wild animals” with the Earth Rangers. According to kiddo, her teacher presented them with four different animals and let the class vote to choose which one to support.

Kiddo and her deskmate/bff voted for the wolverine* but they were the underdogs, so to speak. The rest of the class supported other animals, and ultimately the Peregrine Falcon was the winner.

“It’s so not fair” she says, as “now those other animals will not get our help. It’s so not fair that some of us wanted to pick other animals, but they don’t count because some more people wanted the falcon.”

As a perennial left-wing voter in this current Canadian election campaign, I can totally feel her pain.

It really sucks to feel like your voice is not being heard. I’m sure Elizabeth May knows how the kiddo feels right about now.

The English language debate happens tonight.



*according to her, because it is “such an unusual animal, but maybe we wouldn’t think it was so unusual if it was not endangered and there were more of them.” Her friend picked the wolverine because of XMEN.

Foot in Mouth Disease

A co-worker of mine is having a bad week.




She works in the front-reception area of our office. The other day a woman from a community partner came in to pick up a large box of information pamphlets. My co-worker kindly offered to help, as she told the woman she should not have to carry such a heavy load when she was pregnant!



Ah, turns out she wasn’t pregnant.



A day or two later, this same co-worker was at a community event hosting our information booth. She was handing out these little cards we have with a black square in the middle where you press your thumb to read your “mood” (kinda like the old mood rings). Red=tense, blue=relaxed, green=calm etc.



A man approached and she gave him a card. He looked at it and said, what is this, is it working? Oh no, she says, you’re black! Uh, yeah, I know I’m black he says. Because he was. Black. Ack, no, I meant you’re still black she stumbles. Offended and confused, he walked away saying I know that, you don’t have to tell me!



She went from white to about 5 shades of red.



It was good for a laugh back at the office at least. Which we all need every now and then to help go from red to blue (or green, whatever).