A letter to the Premier...

Dear Danny,

I am one of two first-generation Canadians in my family. But I am also a 7th generation Newfoundlander. My family has fought and bled and died for our nation. I had two great-uncles at Beaumont Hamel; one from each side of my family. One was wounded and one died. I believe I have the inherent right to speak for our people. I have to tell you that there was a time that I was proud to be both a Newfoundlander and a Canadian. But now I am just one - a Newfoundlander. The once great nation that took us in has withered. Canada begins to turn away from that great communal nation it was. It fragments into petty groups that offer bitter comfort to those in need. It beats plowshares into swords and regales in false glories.

You have two options before you. You must campaign against the Harper path and beat back the darkness that would follow him. If that should fail you must build high the bulwark that will shield us from the Harperites would sweep out of the West and engulf us all. Your response to recent cuts in arts funding does give me faint hope you will indeed rise to the clarion call.



James Butler
Black Bank, Bay St. George, NL

Life is strange...

Life is strange when you are uncentred. I realize I will be uncentred until I get back to Newfoundland. The country that we joined in 1948 has changed and now I feel like a stranger. Canada, once the bastion of the liberal democratic process is getting grumpy and bitter. Its very soul is withering and turning into a shrunken mockery of its heritage.

Even John Deifenbaker would be ashamed of what it presented as government in Canada today. He gave us our Bill of Rights. He had a wonderful vision of this land as a place that could be greater than the narrow limits of petty though. But now we are a nation managed by economists. We no longer dream of glory and greatness we seek to dismantle the very soul of this so briefly great nation.

Things have changed. Once Newfoundland and Labrador was the poor cousin taken in by kind relatives but they are gone now and in their place we are faced with petty bureaucrats who seek to dismantle the legacy of hope and wonder that they inherited. Why would we stay in such an arrangement? Perhaps it is time to breathe life into the Republic of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Things of note...

I have been remiss in my blogging the past few weeks mainly because I have been deep in thought, struggling with the oncoming fall and the fact that I am out there on the highwire and I'm not sure I have a safety net. And I cannot look down to see if it is there. I officially completed my last course as a student in the spring and after some 50+ years of being formally educated I am truly on my own. Well yes I will have a committee to guide me - somewhat. But the reality is that it is up to me to create my own structure; to establish the framework that I will use to take the next steps towards completing my PhD. And frankly that is both exhilarating and frightening at the same time. Thus the highwire analogy. But if it doesn't excite nearly past thepoint of endurance then why do it? There are many choices in life and the ones we make must matter the most otherwise we may as well simply pull the cover up over our heads and go back to sleep. I simply cannot sleep through this life. It is the only one I have ever had or will ever have so I intend to make the most of it.

But less I get maudlin here there are several other itmes of note. First, my son Evan successfully defended his Masters this week and now has a mere few formalities to complete. And this week my grandchildren Connor and Eden started kindergarten. I feel a sense of continuity that is almost blissfull.