President Biden’s declaration of June 19th as a new federal holiday – Juneteenth – is an incredible moment for a nation in recovery from a global pandemic. At least half of America is rejoicing at this leap forward in race relations in the nation.
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Happy Mother’s Day to all those who play that role in their family, no matter their gender.
“Being a mother actually has very little to do with birthing a child from your body. That might be the most obvious scenario, but motherhood is so much more than a physical happening. I have known some expert ‘mothers’ who never birthed or raised any children of their own, and I have known some mothers with a brood of children who shouldn’t be allowed to come anywhere near them. I don’t think motherhood can be simply defined by having or not having little people under your care.
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Eleven days post the Biden Inauguration, and I’m still on a high. It’s not about Joe Biden per se, nor even the wonder of the first black, South Asian-American female vice-president in history in the form of Kamala Harris. It’s not even about the days starting to get a little longer, with the sun coming up a little earlier every day.
No, it’s so much more than that.
What are you thankful for….today and every day? Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness…..? I know, rather American (which, by the way, we all are since almost 400 million of us reside on the continent of North America). This past weekend thousands of Canadians, surrounded by friends and family, gathered around tables heaped with food to give thanks for the bounty placed before them. Thousands of others gathered in shelters, outreach centres, missions, food kitchens, church basements or not at all, having nowhere to go or maybe no way to get there. Thousands more supped on dinner for one or no dinner at all. We are so caught up in the preparations we tend to forget anyone outside our normal sphere of day-to-day relationships. So stop and think, for just one moment…..who could you have included in your Thanksgiving celebration? Next year….right?
I was hoping to go a full week without reporting another celebrity death. But we’ve had half-a-dozen since the passing of The Eagles’ Glenn Frey including actor Abe Vigoda (‘Barney Miller’, ‘The Godfather’) whose website has finally been changed to no longer read the whimsical “still alive” message.
Fifty years on, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy still sparks painful memories in the hearts and minds of North American Baby Boomers. Where were you on November 22, 1963, when the American “Camelot” ended?
Kennedy was an impossibly exotic vision to the families of the 60’s. He was the first Irish Catholic to be elected President, something that at that time seemed as impossible as there ever being an African American in the White House. (Or a woman, for that matter, but that will happen too.) He was young, a war hero, from a large and seemingly happy family, and he seemed so very much what we all wanted our families to look like.
Bullseye Records of Canada
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 