Jul 26th, 10
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Here’s my column from this morning’s Calgary Herald:
If I want to walk or bike downtown from my place, the shortest route cuts by the Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre. That’s always bugged me, and a while back I said as much to a friend.
People down there are unpredictable, I told him. Social justice is important and homeless people deserve to be treated with dignity and all that — sure. But the honest truth is I don’t like walking through that area.
His response? “That’s probably good.” As in, it’s probably good that a guy who has the security of a home, bed and steady income feels discomfort when walking past someone who doesn’t. It’s not meant to be a sunshine-and-rainbows experience — and if you feel fine as you walk by, there’s probably something wrong with you.
My friend’s words recently came to mind when the provincial government revealed plans to launch an anti-panhandling campaign in the fall, encouraging people in Alberta’s cities to donate to homeless-related charities instead of giving directly to people who ask for change…
Jul 12th, 10
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My column in this morning’s Calgary Herald:
Here’s a simple request for Calgary’s municipal election candidates. Please read George Orwell’s 1946 essay Politics and the English Language before writing another word.
If you’re like me, you’ll cringe when you read it. The gist of Orwell’s essay is that English is in decline and that political writing, in particular, is characterized by “sheer cloudy vagueness.” Orwell lists the easy shortcuts we English speakers use when we want to avoid “the work of prose construction” — stale imagery, lack of precision, pretentious diction, meaningless words and so on. Anyone who writes anything is guilty of at least one, and probably more, of these infractions.
With the civic election three months away, there are plenty of examples of bad writing on mayoral candidates’ websites. Here’s one from Wayne Stewart’s: “Calgary is a great city, but we cannot rest on our laurels, we must move forward or we’ll fall behind.”
It’s a string of empty cliches…
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/op-ed/campaign+gobbledygook/3264737/story.html#ixzz0tWmiGUzR
Jul 3rd, 10
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“Hey Jeremy.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you love your woman?” My 11-year-old cousin Q. asks the question as we hunt for lizards on the side of a hill. Dragonflies everywhere, and above and to the southwest, the purple of a summer storm on its way.
“Yeah, I do.” No lizards yet but we’re still looking, walking down grown-over tire tracks and scanning the grass.
“Why?” And again: “Why?”
“Well, because she’s kind and generous and wise and beautiful.”
From Q., uncontrollable laughter at my answer, and then pleas of: “Come out, lizards!”
We keep looking. Nothing.
Then something moves in the grass near Q.’s feet — a lizard, he tells me.
Q. is grinning and I step closer to take a look.
“Just kidding!”
