One Year Later...

Good morning Cyberspace! It's nice to be back here with you writing out some thoughts and ideas. It's been some time since I really took the time to write a real blog entry. My last blog entry on breastfeeding in public seems to have found a certain level of popularity over the internet. By far it is my most successful blog post to date. Today I've got a little bit of time to spare (not really) and decided that I would write a little something for you; but perhaps more for me.

I've been thinking recently about my life; most especially how it has changed over the last year. I suppose I should start at a year or so ago from now. At this point in my life I was living off of an unemployment check which served to support myself, my girlfriend (she received a small income) and her little girl. Things were not so well. Being poor tends to create stress and divide in relationships; ours was no different. By the time September rolled around our relationship had reached a tipping point. Financially, things had improved slightly however the strain of the previous months had, unbeknownst to me, taken its toll on us.

September rolled in and as it was closing I was leaving my family behind. The two girls were staying in Yarmouth, both going to school, and I was moving to Halifax to attend school. This wasn't the first time I'd dealt with a long distance relationship. In fact, the first year of our relationship I spent in Newfoundland studying Philosophy & Political Science. Somehow I felt that this time around our bond may not be strong enough to hold us together.

With school starting and October rolling in I had my main focus on attending school and trying to salvage what was left of my five year relationship. Then, completely by surprise, something incredible (incredible to me) happened: the Occupy movement. I won't go into great detail about Occupy itself or the Occupy Nova Scotia to which I was a member and am still a supporter because I have covered much of this is previous posts. Occupy is one of the single events in my life that has carried with it some of the most far reaching impacts on my personal self I have ever experienced. It opened my mind up to so many new ideas, new ways of thinking and introduced to entirely different perspective on reality. I cannot stress enough how grateful for that experience I am. 

By the time December rolled around, the ONS movement was losing much of its steam. Personally, the stress and anxiety had taken a toll and so I retired to the solitude of my former life: focusing mainly on school and family. I continued to spend much of my online time sharing information regarding the ideas presented and expressed to me while actively participating with ONS. I brought to light injustices to friends, family and acquaintances that those responsible tried to keep from peering eyes. I did and continue to share knowledge and information to educate others on the realities of certain situations.

Then the Ides of March arrived. I know this day because it is the day I was meant to return to Yarmouth for a week's vacation with my partner and her daughter except fate had another plan. As it turns out, all that strain on our relationship had been, as suspected, too much. We mutually dissolved our relationship just a few hours before I was to leave. Ordinarily, as shown from past experiences, I would have been emotionally devastated; even returned to masking emotion with addiction but not this time. This time I was no longer the person I had been for the 30 years prior; this time I was more complete; balanced; harmonized.

I dealt extremely well with the sudden loss. I now had but one place to focus my energies: school. So that's what I did. I became entrenched in my education; more specifically the social media side of it. I began to spend more time exploring social media, connecting with new and interesting people, learning from others from across the world. For almost two months this was my life; well besides spending the occasional afternoon at a random protest, rally or with friends having open discussion. Then little coincidences began to occur which would inevitably lead me down an unseen path.

Around the beginning of May, ONS received an injection of energy when our legal charges stemming from our Remembrance Day eviction were dropped. With the sudden influx in energy and a revitalized sense of bringing change I dove back into the Occupy movement. It was rather short-lived. Despite having been given another opportunity to revive ONS to its once former strength, it was to be for naught. Within two weeks, this injection of hope had begun to fade. I began to question myself and my actions: had I wasted my time? What do I do now? How do I move forward as the person I had become? How could I continue to work towards change? Then the answer came in the form of an offhand comment made half in jest, half with the utmost seriousness: politics.

Having spent almost a year living in my new home, Halifax, I had come to understand a lot of the municipal issues and community issues that the people shared. Things like urban sprawl/over-development; an over-abundance of secret council meetings; property taxes; financial over-spending by city hall; a decreasing usage and disillusionment of our public transit system and several other important points. At a local social gathering with some friends from Twitter, I was told I should run in the upcoming Municipal election. Never in my life have the bells in my head rung so loudly and reverberated so deeply within myself. This, this is what I knew I had to do.

I quickly gathered together some friends, most that I had met through ONS and created a small campaign team. We went over many concerns, plans and ideas. In the end, as you can see here, I moved forward with the idea. At the onset I had many fears and anxieties about how I would be received; I should not have. From the beginning I have received such positive feedback and encouraging support that I have been reassured almost completely that I am following the right path. This brings us to our present day here in August; less than one month from the day I settled in Halifax.

What a year! From a stable family home to being alone in a city; from a narrow vision of direction to a broad spectrum of opportunity; from passive political criticism to spokesperson of one of the largest global activist movements in modern times; from the pursuit of an education to the journey towards bringing positive change to the people of a city of 400k+ people; from a scared, confused little boy to a matured, wiser, balanced human being. The one thing that has been constant throughout this past year, each one that preceded it and all those to come is change.

My life has continued to change. From my personally held spiritual beliefs to my friends, my family, my knowledge and my goals. I am constantly changing because the Universe and reality in which I live is always changing.  I think that perhaps learning to accept this constant, uncontrollable (in most cases) change has been one of my great accomplishments this past year. What will the future hold for me? Well, with the municipal election in less than two months as well as my graduation and the fact that my former partner and I are attempting to resolve our differences, it should be interesting to look back and see what my life will look like...one year later.

Sunday Afternoon Poetry #22

Good morning Cyberspace! It has been some time since I published any poetic content. As it so happens, I awoke particularly early on this Sunday morning. For no particular reason that I am aware, I was awake bright and early. Therefore I have found myself with a little extra time on my hands and felt a desire to suddenly publish a new poetic post. I have had a yearning lately to return to writing in my blog so I am starting simple and hoping to ease back into more frequent writing. I hope you enjoy today's entry and I'm looking forward to writing for you again. Enjoy your day as you can.

Today

Today is a beautiful day.
For what reasons, I cannot say.
Maybe it was the clear blue sky;
Or clouds floating up above so high.
Perhaps it was the warming of the sun
Whose course above is almost done.
Whatever reasons made my day so bright,
They leave me better into night.
Will tomorrow bring me this much joy
And make me though a younger boy?
For now I'll worry not about the dawn;
Dusk is coming, day almost gone.
But as the sun sets down beyond the sky,
I thank the gods to be alive.

-John Thibeau 22/April/2003

Sunset on inukshuk

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Breastfeeding: Are We Really Talking About This Still?

Good morning my friends. I had no intention of writing a blog this morning when I got up but several news stories have really got me worked up and I thought it best that I write out my frustrations rather than carry them around all day. So let's get this show on the road before I have a brain hemorrhage and my head explodes.

It continues to amaze me how intolerant and ignorant some people can be. The human race has been around for thousands of years (tens of thousands depending on what you believe) and yet still we continue to struggle with something so very simple as respect. You thought I was going to say equality, equity or some other idealistic achievement of human tolerance didn't you? Well I'm not because it isn't about those things because they mean nothing without a certain level of respect. Tolerating me because I'm gay (I'm not) and not liking me is nothing more than lip service which leaves the door open for more hate. Equality cannot be achieved without some form of respect and understanding.

My beef is breast feeding. Why is this conversation even happening? Why do I have to sit here and waste my energy and emotions on something that is more natural than most everything else we do as human beings? Let me explain to you how this process works. A woman has a child, the child needs food, the female body, coincidentally, produces food (really high quality, nutrient rich milk)...is any of this making sense? Good; it's supposed to. So what, in whatever God's name you worship, is the problem? Even if you're a hard core extreme religious zealot you must acknowledge that this process is God's plan but yet yesterday I had to deal with a Twitter feed for over an hour that was a debate on breast feeding in public.

Have you turned on the television lately? How about surfing through YouTube? Maybe you're one of those rare people who actually reads magazine's still? What do you see? Continued sexualization of women. Women used as sex objects to sell products or services; using the beauty and grace of female sexuality to convince people to buy this or do that. It's almost sickening; especially nowadays that we're doing it to our women younger and younger (go see what Miley Cyrus looked like as Hannah Montana when she started but I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about). All this constant bombardment and use of women as purely sexual creatures to be used and exploited but whip out a nipple to feed a starving baby and suddenly you are an affront to humanity? Sometimes less than human...where are our principles? What happened to them? Sex sells I suppose and maybe that's the problem.

Two people sharing Intimacy

Sex is not a marketing tool. At it's most basic roots it is nothing more than a means to an ends; a function of survival to propagate the species. More expanded from this root is the emotional and psychological side of  sex. Sex began as instinct because that's how primitive humans survived: instinct. We are no longer that primitive people; we have grown, we have evolved, we have gained in knowledge and thus our perceptions have changed. Sex is no longer a means of survival, it has become something much more. It has become an intimate act of the physical manifestation of attraction and emotion felt between two human beings. It's purpose is for pleasure, love and expression. It is the unity of two people in a single moment that melts away all reality around you. It is a sacred and holy bond shared between two human beings that unifies them together in euphoric bliss, culminating in an orgasmic explosion shared between the physical and the mental. Sex is not for sale; it is for sharing (that's metaphorical; see what you will).

More people sharing Intimacy

Selling sex for profit? Good. Sexualizing women for profit? Good. Breast Feeding? Bad. Seriously, I think that it is time that we as a species take a huge step back from our own egos and think about where we are going. When war, death and fraud are commonly accepted practices; when the exploitation of women for profit is considered commonplace; when sex becomes a platform for advertising instead of an expression of true emotion (I believe EVERY sexual experience is meant to be a shared physical and emotional experience); and finally, when the natural process of our nature is considered wrong, shunned and in some cases (just ranting here; not based on fact) I am sure it is probably outlawed I think we may have misread our moral compass. 

So what do we do? Well, for starters we can start showing some respect to women; some equity and equality would probably go a long way to making things a little bit better but the best thing that can be done is to consider how you may inadvertently promote gender inequality in your own life. I use language that is predominantly male-oriented and I make a conscious effort to change it. A small step, but it's a step. I also do not buy products or services that use women and sex to sell to me. Don't get me wrong, I love intimacy as much as any man and women are the ultimate beings of sexuality, but it should be their choice to express it.

And women, if you want to breast feed in public, do it. Don't let the ignorant and narrow-minded people try to pressure, force or shame you into feeling guilty for doing what nature intended of you. You are all beautiful and amazing creatures of life and love; without you, none of us would be here. Thanks for putting up with our shit for all this time; I love you.

Did I Really Just Hear That?

Greetings and salutations my friends! I apologize for the sudden and abrupt end to my regular postings. As I mentioned in my last post I have made the decision to run for city council in the Halifax Regional Municipality municipal elections this fall. However, while sitting at today's Regional Council session, one of the current councilors made a statement which furthered my resolve to pursue this course.

"Councilor's can override the will of the people. They have that power."

"Sometimes a councilor must make a decision that is contrary to the will of the people because it is best for the people even if they don't know it."

I'll let those words sink in for a minute. Now, I am working from memory and those may not be exact quotations but they are pretty damned close. There is so much wrong with these two statements that it frightens me to consider their true, deeper meaning. Before I get to that, let's just examine them one at a time and I'll explain my concerns; concerns that you should have as well.

"Councilor's can override the will of the people. They have that power."

This sentence is extremely alarming. Elected representatives, also known as public servants, can at their whim, ignore the will of the people. I was not aware and received no memo alerting me to the fact that elected officials had supreme authority. The very meaning of representative means to stand in place of. Public officials do not have power over the people but rather, power of the people. They have been authorized by the citizens who elected them to speak on their behalf. It was my understanding from the source of this statement that city councilor's in Halifax have the right and the authority to make decisions contrary to the demand of their constituents. Frightening.

"Sometimes a councilor must make a decision that is contrary to the will of the people because it is best for the people even if they don't know it."

Firstly, no elected representative, at any time should be making any decisions that are contrary to the will of the people. The very position is defined by the fact that you are the people. Contradictions do not exist and for any representative to act contrary to the demand of their constituents is to act contrary to themselves. This cannot possibly be. Your public servants are not servants at all by this creed, they are masters. Let's move on to the second portion of this statement shall we?

Even if they don't know it? What do you take the public for? If you or all those who did not oppose this statement spent some time with your constituents you would have thought twice about saying something like this. What a terrible, terrible insult to the intelligence of the people. During my work with the Occupy Nova Scotia movement I bore witness to a number of very cunning ploys that some people attempted to throw over the heads of the General Assembly. Each time, my fears were embarrassingly relieved as that same public saw the ruse and promptly discarded it. Embarrassing because I too once underestimated the people but let me reassure you good councilors, they are not to be. They are quite intelligent and as it stands, they are quite annoyed. And with statements like this, who wouldn't be?

I made a promise to myself that if I ever entered any political arena that I would do things my way; my right way. And my right way involved some old, very old, traditions that have been forgotten. The most important of which is Honesty. Another is trust. But one that was as equally important was my integrity. I am running to be elected to represent the people because it is one of the greatest honor's I think a person can be given. It is a sacred duty and privilege to serve in the name of the people. That is why I have made it my mission to not talk negatively about my opponents or any specific candidates. This isn't a race; it's an application. The last time I checked, employers wanted to know about me and not about other people being interviewed. With that in mind, I will not however refrain from expressing my concerns or opinions regarding comments, statements and actions by the current governments at any level (excepting perhaps Stephen Harper, I'll call him out for his insanity any day).

I'm sharing this today because I think it's important to understand the psychology at play here. The deeper, scarier meaning to these statements is that it came at the Municipal level. This is the bottom tier of authority when it comes to governance here in Canada. It is grassroots and though it is important due to its impact on day to day life, it is definitely nothing as glorified as provincial or federal politics. That at this level of governance, our elected representatives know what is best regardless of the public will and can exercise that knowing with supreme authority is just frightening. I dare not imagine how provincial or federal politicians see themselves...inconceivable to consider how his Holiness Supreme Chancellor & King of Canada, Stephen Harper views himself...

It was nice to be able to write for you. I wish it had been something a little cheerier however this was weighing deeply on my mind. I want to thank those who've been checking in every so often to see if I've posted. I promise I will try to do a little better but a political campaign is no picnic but definitely worth it for the opportunity to be the change.

John Thibeau For City Council

Good morning friends, followers and family! I guess it is pretty apparent from today's blog title that I have come to a decision on running in the Municipal election here in Halifax. For those who didn't know I was considering it, please feel free to go back and read my original post on the idea, Seeking Council. 

Over the last few weeks I have been seeking feedback from all those close to me and sought out specific individuals who I felt would have a positive impact on a campaign. After much deliberation and discussion, I finally reached the decision that I would indeed run for City Council in District 10.

There is much work to be done between now and then. For starters, there is much to learn about the processes of council, regulations, policies and procedures I must understand. Then there are the various committees and community council meetings that take place which I will be investing much of my time in over the next few months. I realize that I do have some inexperience working against me however what I may lack there I more than make up for in my passion, desire and strong ability to learn and understand.

On top of all of those administrative type meetings to attend, there are also a plethora of community organized events or community group events that are happening. I aim to attend as many of these as possible; and not just the ones isolated to District 10 (though I will give those precedence). I am asking for the trust of the people from District 10 and the city of Halifax as a whole to represent their voice at City Council. I've already taken part in a number of really great events and assisted in many different social causes. Some of these include the MS Society of Canada (Atlantic Division), the Human Library at Mount St Vincent, the Diabetes Association of Canada, Clean Across Nova Scotia, LGBTO communities of Halifax and several others. I'm looking forward to participating in many more.

So, I am really excited this morning despite my press release not really being picked up by the media. That's perfectly fine. I have a really excited and dedicated team, a growing wave of support from friends, family and followers and there is still so much time between now and the election. I am really looking forward to getting out and meeting more of the people from District 10. I've met a small group of them already; some are classmates, some are friends and some are professional connections. If you want to know more about how my campaign is going, what I'm doing or want to offer advice or opinion, please check out the links below.

And most importantly, be prepared to get out and vote! Your vote is your voice and I will make it count.

Official Site - John Thibeau for District 10

Facebook Page - John Thibeau For HRM City Council 

Twitter - John_Thibeau