Sheena and I (May Day, 2019) Two years after retirement she finds this five-year-old journal entry —Sept 5, 2015: the serendipity of today Such a beautiful first class day. Two courses began - and I returned home to pass out in a deeply pleasurable nap of sheer exhaustion at how intense these initial encounters can… Continue reading Pandemic Journal 11/1/21: a retiree remembers classrooms students hallways colleagues gardens mentors
Category: politics
Pandemic Journal 22/5/20-17/6/20 —“Gone Bananas” Notes From My Solitudinous Solitude
By day, I count the inequities now underscored and bathed in broad daylight by pandemic effects. The youth with no future. The aged warehoused in dead zones. The mothers whose workday suddenly expands with childcare, teaching, and at-home paid labour. For instance, in my old haunt - the university, academic women’s publications have fallen off precipitously since COVID-19 appeared. The pandemic operates like a magnifying glass of injustices. ...Once I went for walks in the ravine. Now I listen to the rain from underneath the covers. The monsoon that is late May and sometimes June promises to go on through the summer. My psychic drama.
Mill Creek War Room Communique #4 — An Edmontonian Anticipates Disaster
The city of Edmonton is already contracting. Friends are talking about losing their jobs. Strangers plot their escape from Alberta’s borders. The young are the first to leave. What future does dystopia hold for them?
Mill Creek War Room Communique #3 — “We Have To Keep Our Eyes Open” (an interview with Ece Temelkuran)
“ “During the 1970s there was a war on politics in our education system – a zeitgeist was imposed such that politics was seen as dirty, boring, unnecessary. It became the norm for people to say ‘I hate politics!’ without realising that is actually one of the most political statements that can be made. If you say ‘I hate politics!’ you are removing yourself from the public sphere, and are rejecting the ability to be a political subject. You are submitting yourself to a higher order, a powerful ruler…” — Ece Temelkura
Mill Creek War Room Communique #2— ‘AxeIt’, the new ‘Wexit’
AxeIt (After Kafka) Franz Kafka on the prairies But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone.... A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. Franz Kafka, Letter to… Continue reading Mill Creek War Room Communique #2— ‘AxeIt’, the new ‘Wexit’
The Origins of the Mill Creek War Room — Or, How We Stole Our Logo
At a Mill Creek Winter Solstice gathering in an undisclosed location, several shifty-looking neighbours wasted no time to plot resistance against Alberta’ United Conservative Party (UCP) lies and corruption. Thus, the Mill Creek War Room was born. Inspired by the intrepid Jason Kenney UCP Stupid Campaign to propagandize about the fossil fuel industry, we stole our own logo for free.
No Gate No Lock 