To be honest until about a year ago I didn't know a great deal about hip hop. I knew it was a dance style, of course, but I had no understanding of the art, culture, history and community of the hip hop genre. Thanks to local group Northern Elements Crew my eyes have been opened to the beauty of hip hop, and the value of our local hip hop group.
Northern Elements Crew is a group of adults and students who meet on a regular basis to practice, teach and learn. If you go to their Facebook page this is what they say they are about:
We are a group of like minded individuals with years of experience in dance and other forms of artistic expression. We hope to be able to share our passion for Hip Hop with others to create a community in which we all can learn from each other.
And this is their mission:
• To create a self-sustainable Hip Hop community within Fort McMurray by promoting the foundations of Hip Hop culture to youth and young adults.
• To provide young adults an outlet for expressing themselves through the elements of Hip Hop.
Having had the opportunity to spend some time with NEC and witness their success I believe their impact is going far beyond their mission, because I truly believe NEC is creating future leaders of our community by engaging youth through hip hop. Through a philosophy of "each one teach one" and developing an atmosphere where every individual is both student and teacher, they are helping youth to learn new skills while teaching others ones they know, and building leadership skills. The ability to engage youth through a common interest and one that appeals to many youth, the athletes, mathletes and those who are neither, has meant that NEC has not only built a hip hop community but a youth community.
A year ago I knew nothing about hip hop - and now, thanks to NEC, I am a convert and a complete believer that this group has the potential to powerfully impact young lives, and create a community where each youth can achieve their potential and shine, on and off the dance floor.
This week you have an opportunity to see NEC in action when their Second Annual Community Jam comes to MacDonald Island on Thursday evening. I can guarantee it will be an evening of enthusiasm and energy as the hip hop community comes together to celebrate and "battle" out their dance skills. I can also guarantee that if you attend you will quickly realize you are seeing something special, almost magical. I can guarantee you will see local youth who have found a community, a support system and a place where they are encouraged and where their development as dancers, leaders and citizens is fostered.
Northern Elements Crew might look like a hip hop dance group - but the reality is they are so much more, which is why I am a committed fan of what they do. They aren't just dancing, you see. They are quietly helping local youth lead us into our future, one community jam at a time.
When I wrote a post yesterday about the ubiquitous signs peppering businesses in our region I knew it would elicit a response - but even I didn't expect the strength of the response. The sign in question, of course, is this one:
For the record not one person came out in favour of this sign, one that appears in so many of our institutions, businesses and organizations. Not one person felt the signs were a good idea, imparted the right message, or were even effective. Most people expressed their own concerns with these signs and the real message they give, especially to visitors to our community who must look at these signs and think this place is full of abusive jerks who are willing to harass people at the drop of a hat. These signs, the general consensus seems to be, must go. And the time, my friends, is now, because I am making it a goal to rid our community of these signs by January 1, 2015.
Why such an arbitrary date? It isn't arbitrary at all, actually. A couple of days I ago I had the honour of attending the Regional Sport Tourism Awareness Breakfast, an event where community stakeholders discussed the sport events coming to our region in 2015. In 2015 we will welcome five major sport events, all occurring between March and August. During that time we will see athletes, coaches, fans and supporters of the Canadian Ringette Championships, Crescent Point Energy Western Canada Cup, Northern Kickoff, FC Edmonton and 2015 Western Canada Summer Games come to our community. These events will host approximately 3,800 athletes, and they are expected to attract about 100,000 attendees. That is not a typo, incidentally. 100,000 people, many of which will be local, but some of which will be coming to our community for the first time and forming their opinions of who we are, what we do and what we value. And you know what I don't want them to see?
These signs represent a tremendous liability for us when we have people visiting our community. If their first impression of us is this sign then we will have a very difficult time creating the image we want them to leave us with - of a warm, welcoming community. If we want to create new ambassadors for our region we must ensure they see the right message. These signs imply we have a much darker side, one far closer to the reports external media spews about us, and so they must go, and they need to go by 2015.
Those sporting events don't even include other visitors to our region who come here for art and culture events, touring performers or family members who drop in for a visit. If we think about the potential for impact these signs pack a powerful punch, as each one can lead to visitors forming a negative opinion about our community, and an opinion that does not reflect who we really are. Far from protecting us these signs are hurting us, and the hurt will get worse if we do not address the issue before we begin hosting guests from all over the nation - and so the time to start is now.
But what to do? Well, this is where we need to take action, and get vocal. The next time I am in a business with one of these signs I am going to ask to speak to the manager, or get an email address or phone number where I can contact them. And then I am going to explain to them why we need to remove these posters, and what the real message that they are sending is. I will gently suggest they remove the posters and find others ways to address these issues (which existed and were addressed long before anyone decided this poster was necessary). And then I will explain why if the poster is not removed I will be compelled to take my business elsewhere, because I cannot support businesses that engage in actions that will harm my community in this manner.
With some this may be trickier than others, of course. At the doctor's office it might mean an email asking them to think about why they have this poster, if it is truly necessary, and if instead they could change the message to a more positive one, like "Thank you for your patience and understanding" or "Thank you for treating our staff with respect", and coming from a place of positivity instead of negativity. Hopefully it will begin a dialogue within those organizations and business about these signs, and if they are truly doing anything to address the issue or if they have just become part of the wallpaper, unnecessary and outdated.
This is my campaign to rid our community of these posters. Maybe you have other ideas to do so, which I hope you will share and implement yourselves. I think we need to change the message, and I am planning to hashtag it for Twitter purposes as #wbwelcome2015 - because by 2015 I want us to be the most welcoming, warmest community in the nation as we welcome guests from all over the country to our region.
It might be a challenge - but then again, challenges are when you really have an opportunity to shine. Our time to shine lies just ahead of us - so welcome to Wood Buffalo, 2015!
The signs are everywhere it seems. I noticed them first a few years ago, but in the years since they seem to have proliferated, moving from places like the Emergency Room waiting room and medical offices to retailers large and small. Sometimes they are quite elaborate, and sometimes they are obviously something whipped up in Word and printed hastily. The message, though, is always the same:
Now, I have never gone into a business thinking abusing their staff WOULD be tolerated, and I doubt many people do. Having worked with the public in a front line capacity for many years at veterinary clinics and in the aviation industry I have dealt with difficult customers, patrons and individuals who just landed inside our doors for whatever reason. Not once, though, did it ever occur to us to put up this sort of sign, because the message is faulty on many levels. And now, in 2014, I am beginning to avoid stores and businesses where it is displayed, because to me it says something about the nature of the business.
To start, I believe these signs are "preaching to the choir". After having worked with the public I know that those most likely to be truly abusive often have mental health issues or anger management issues, or may be intoxicated. The behaviour of those individuals is unlikely to be changed by a sign, and those who do read the sign and nod their heads are not the ones likely to exhibit signs of abusing staff. The effectiveness of the signs is very suspect to me, which leads me to question a few things.
Who determines what is "abusive"? Is the customer who is angry about their faulty toaster abusive if they express their anger and disappointment? Is it when someone uses profanity? Is it threats? Who and where is the line drawn? And doesn't it make more sense to evaluate every situation on a case by case basis and not with a universal sign that poorly-defined "abuse" will not be tolerated? And how often do these abusive incidents REALLY occur? Is it often enough to truly need a sign?
What is this message REALLY saying? Remember the good old days when the customer was always right (even when they were wrong) and you as a business or front line person bent over backwards to make them happy? Now we put up signs so if we choose we can take difficult customers and boot them onto the street, never resolving or addressing their problems. We can simply say they are "abusive" and it's become the "olly-olly-oxen-free" of customer service, because then we can stop listening to their concerns, which might be real and genuine and if we can cut through the anger we can find resolution.
One of my greatest achievements when dealing with the public was the ability to turn angry people into good customers. When I worked in aviation we had one passenger who flew with us often, and when his name appeared on a flight manifest I knew the flight was doomed to experience major delays or cancellation due to weather or mechanics, because it was just the kind of luck this guy had. Added to that was the fact that he was by nature an angry person, and when he walked to the airline counter he was ready for battle every time. Could he be considered abusive? Probably, and we could have banned him from our airline, I suppose. But I took a different tactic. I started a campaign to win him over.
The next time he arrived at the airport his flight was delayed by five hours. I knew he would be seething with rage, and I was ready. We were a small rural airport, half an hour from town, and I knew he always took a taxi out, meaning going back into town to wait would cost another taxi ride which added to his fury. That fateful day he approached the counter, and I held up one hand and said "Your flight has been delayed until 5 pm", and I could see the rage building in his eyes. Then I held up my other hand, from which was dangling my car keys, and I said "These are the keys to my car. It's the green van out front. Take it into town, get some lunch, relax, and be back in four hours," and smiled.
The look on his face was pure and utter shock. His rage faltered, and I could see confusion in his eyes. He held out his hand and I dropped the keys into it. He looked at me and said "thank you" and quietly exited the airport, still trying to sort out what had just happened. He returned four hours later, took me aside, and told me that no one had ever tried so hard to make him happy, and no one had ever made him feel like he mattered.
After that day he was one of our calmest passengers. I had changed the message and the dialogue. He still ran into many delayed and cancelled flights, but he knew that he mattered to us and to me, and that he was not just a number or a cog in the machine. It was a customer service triumph, and perhaps the one for which I feel the most pride over the course of many years of dealing with the public.
In my years in customer service I have been sworn at, had things thrown at me, and had coffee poured in my lap. I have dealt with nice people, timid people, angry people, aggressive people and yes, abusive people. Every single situation needed to be handled differently, and some resulted in people being asked to leave, shown the door and, in one memorable incident, tossed out by my boss who overheard a threat made to me shortly after the shootings at Ecole Polytechnique in Quebec. Not once though did I think a sign would have changed these incidents or prevented them. A sign would provide only false security, and the real trouble was what the sign was really saying.
Now my customer service days are, to some extent anyhow, behind me. I still deal with the public and I love doing so, but I do so in my capacity as a communicator. I am a communicator by profession and by nature, and the messages we send are something I carefully observe because the messages have impact. When I see a sign saying:
Abuse of our staff will not be tolerated
what I am really seeing is a business or organization that has lost the ability and understanding to communicate with people. I am seeing a business or organization that expects people to behave badly, that anticipates it enough to put up warning signs. I see troubling signs of a business or organization that thinks it is easier to put up signs than to deal with difficult people. I see a distancing of the staff and the customer or patient, a line being drawn between them. And I see something else. I see these signs as a black eye for our community, because you see them only rarely in other communities and yet here they are so prevalent that they have become ubiquitous, going up at the same time a new business installs a cash register and before the first customer has been served. These signs say we are not customer-friendly or oriented, that we expect our customers to behave badly, and that we are intolerant. How easy it would be to change the messaging, with signs that say things like:
We appreciate your patience and understanding.
Thank you for treating our staff with respect.
Welcome.
I would say that last sign is the most important. One single word, welcoming everyone. No need to explain that abuse will not be tolerated, as we all know it isn't and won't be, but instead welcoming everyone to our establishment and assuming they will behave well. We need to remove the negative words. We need to change the dialogue. We need to start from a place where everyone is equal and welcomed and if they misbehave then we deal with it on an individual basis. We need to take down the signs, Fort McMurray.
I sit in a darkened school atrium. It isn't the first time I have been here and will not likely be the last. I sit in awe and admiration as a group of junior high students bring to life a musical in all its glorious complexity. I watch as the opening night of Seussical Jr. unfolds at Ecole McTavish, and once again I am amazed.
This is the Intrepid Junior Blogger`s final year in Junior High. I have now watched her on that stage a few times, and every time I am reminded not only of how proud I am of her but of all the students who spend hours on these performances. As a parent I know it is a huge commitment of time and effort, all while the students must maintain their academic performance, attend to other activities and maybe even have time for a video game or two.
Last night the cast and crew of Seussical Jr. took us on a romp through the jungle and a circus. We met some amazing characters along the way, and I was blown away by the talent coming out of a junior high. From The Cat in the Hat to Jojo to Horton to Mayzie to Gertude, the performances were of excellent calibre, and these young people can only get better. The supporting cast, the Whos and the inhabitants of the Jungle of Nool and The Grinch and the Kangaroos and the Bird Girls and all the rest completed an ensemble that made magic happen in a school atrium. It was, without a shadow of a doubt, a resounding success.
And I have not forgotten the Wickersham Brothers, a trio of monkeys of which my own monkey was the smallest, often the monkey in the middle between the other two mischievous monkeys. The three of them did a stellar job of monkeying around, and the littlest one often had a sly expression on it`s face that I know very, very well.
To say I enjoyed last night is an understatement. The world of Seuss has always been one of fantasy and pure joy, but there are lessons hidden in the stories, too, ones of which we can always use reminding. I was reminded about the value of following your own heart, the importance of staying resolute in the face of adversity and the ability of a bunch of junior high students to create another universe, if only for a couple of hours. It wasn`t my role or duty as a parent to be there. It was my honour and privilege.
To the cast, crew and staff at Ecole McTavish who created this performance I want to say congratulations. You earned the standing ovation you received, and I believe many of you will see many more of those ovations in your careers on the stage there and in future adventures. I want to thank you for all your hard work, because I know you worked so hard, and I want to tell you that it is appreciated.
There is a lot of talk about the future of the arts in our community, and of events like interPLAY. If you want to see our future, our potential and the reason we need to ensure the arts scene here is vibrant and strong then I suggest you head to see one of the three remaining shows of Seussical Jr. Our future will parade in front of you on the stage, dancing and singing and acting and showing us the value and importance of the arts. This is the future of our arts, and our community. What a privilege it is to sit in front of them in a darkened atrium and cheer them on as they lead us into that future, one dance step and song at a time.
I have written a great deal about Highway 63, that road that connects us to the rest of the world. I have expressed sorrow over the deaths it has seen, and I have advocated for the twinning of it to prevent some of those tragedies. Today, however, is the first time I write about an unsung hero of that highway, the guardian angel of it perhaps. His name is Nathan.
I don't know Nathan's last name. I know a few bits and pieces about him, gleaned from the Facebook page that he built from nothing into over 22,000 followers. I know that he drives Highway 63 often in his work, and that keeping people from harm matters to him. I know he has invested countless hours in his Facebook page, a page that has likely saved lives with current road reports from someone on the highway and reporting from a point of knowledge and experience. I know that he ends every update with "remember, someone is expecting you home tonight", a gentle reminder of what we have to lose if we drive with inattention or recklessness.
I don't use the word hero lightly, and guardian angel is a term I have rarely used. I am not sure how else to describe Nathan, though, because I think he is both those things. He also has my respect and sincere appreciation, because as someone who uses social media both personally and professionally I know how time-consuming and occasionally difficult it can be. And yet on he goes, doing what he does, and very likely saving lives as he does it.
Nathan also writes a blog. While not a professional writer I think he does an excellent job expressing himself, and his most recent blog post blew me away so completely that I contacted him and asked if I could share it here. You see, I believe true strength lies not in bluster and swagger but in the ability to be vulnerable. I believe true heroes - true angels - are the ones who can share the dark sides of themselves and the dark corners they have seen. They are the ones who can rise above, inspire others and make us all want to soar.
Nathan is one of those individuals, perhaps one of the rarest of the rare. He went through a very dark period, one that began on a highway very similar to the highway over which he now stands guardian. I share his story with you today because Nathan is one of the unsung heroes. Today I would like to introduce you to Nathan, who has a last name I do not know, and who is the guardian angel of Highway 63.
It is with a heavy heart I share the news of the demise of Events Wood Buffalo. I wish I could say I was surprised, but of course I wasn't as I had known for some time that this sad end was likely in the cards for an organization that I cared about deeply. Fellow blogger Russell Thomas, who was much more intimately involved with EWB than I, wrote a stellar blog post on it when the news was announced. I was not on the board, and not an employee of EWB. I was just someone who went to the events they created, and who had the great pleasure of volunteering with them on many occasions.
I have so very many fond memories of my times with EWB, you see. They trusted me enough to let me work with the artists they brought to the community, people like Reba McEntire and George Canyon and K'Naan and so very many more. I worked for them at CanadaROCKS, SummersEND and interPLAY, running the artist hospitality venues and savouring every single moment. Some of my very best memories of this adventure of the last few years are of the days I spent as George Canyon's driver, driving him and his band wherever they wanted to go. I well recall realizing his soundman was someone I had dated when I was 14 and had not seen in decades, and telling the band that they didn't need to thank me every single time they saw me but to wait for me to actually do something. I'll never forget the post-show trip back to the hotel when I picked George up at the back of the stage and he asked me to roll down the windows so he could thank the fans leaving the show. Even now the memories of the time I spent working with EWB make me smile, and give me goosebumps, because it was so very special. I will miss EWB in a very deep and personal way, because it mattered to me, and to many others.
I want to make something crystal clear here. Not one single person wanted EWB to fail. There is no one person to blame, and I have mad respect for all those who I spent time with at EWB, because I know they poured their heart and soul into everything they did, giving their all for the events and the people of this community. This sad ending, more of an ending with a whimper than a bang, is heartwrenching for anyone who was touched by the people at the heart of EWB, many of whom I am honoured to count as friends.
It is not the time for blame - but I think it is the time to reflect on some of the lessons learned through this experience, because those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
I was close enough to EWB to realize they had a capacity issue, attempting to pull off huge events while relying heavily on a very small number of people. Those people, amazing in every regard, worked so damn hard at every event I participated in. I think at times, though, the scale of the events compared to the number of people creating them was just too enormous a ratio. I think understanding the capacity of an organization is crucial to success, and an understanding that must be achieved early in the game.
Volunteers played a huge part in the events created by EWB, and we as volunteers must also recognize that some of the failure of this organization may rest with us. It is so easy to sign up to volunteer and equally easy to just not show up - and I saw first hand how this affected their capacity to deliver the events they promised. When volunteers make a commitment they must be willing to carry it through to the end, because the failure to do so has profound effects.
As a community who goes to events we also must acknowledge our role. We want more and more events, but do we support them? Do we not only buy tickets but do we get involved as volunteers? Do we talk a lot about how great having these events is but then not attend them? Are we TRULY committed to supporting and fostering these events? We need to have some honest dialogue with ourselves, I think, about how important these events are to us, and if we are truly willing to support them in the way they need to survive.
Collaboration matters. A small organization on its own may not be capable of pulling off massive events - but cooperation and collaboration with organizations with more or different resources can achieve success. We need to be willing to explore and embrace those partnerships, putting aside reservations and egos in order to create amazing events worthy of this community.
And in the end I think we have learned that numbers matter. Things like numbers of tickets sold, numbers of attendees (how many bums in seats), numbers of how much cash generated vs. how much spent - these things ALL matter. Art and culture events must be just as sustainable as any business, because if they are not eventually the debts pile up, until we see the sort of sad demise we have just witnessed. The bottom line matters, because without a solid bottom line sustainability is an elusive goal, and failure will eventually follow.
There were other factors too, of course, like perhaps some forward-thinking events that our community just wasn't ready for yet, and perhaps some internal issues about which I will not speculate. Regardless, though, I think we are at a crossroads with the demise of EWB. Events like interPLAY, one of the first events I ever attended when I moved to this community and one I have not missed in twelve years, are now in jeopardy. With the end of EWB we must decide if we value these events, and if we want them to continue - and if we do then we must come together as individuals and organizations to create them, to breath life back into them, and to have them carry on the torch that has now been laid down. We face a challenge - and an opportunity. I know I am up to the challenge - are you? This, my friends, is the time to think carefully, and answer that question, because the future is now up to us.
This is a story that deserves to be front page news across the country - and not because it is a good news story, either. It is one of those dark things lurking in the closet that need to be dragged out into the sun and forced to stand there, with light beating down it, until it relents and disappears in a puff of smoke. When I read it I was not only stunned but horrified, disgusted and deeply, deeply worried.
If you read the story you realize that the "creatures" being hunted are not animals or wildlife. They are, in fact, homeless residents of Calgary becoming targets of the cell phone cameras of some individuals who have chosen to make a "sport" of photographing homeless people and sharing the resulting photographs online. What this says about us as humans is shocking - and what it could lead to is even worse.
This behaviour is dehumanization at the very worst. It is horrifying to see people of any age treating homeless citizens as "less than human" and using them for entertainment purposes that can only be viewed as callous, cruel, abusive and borderline harassment. Homeless individuals have every right to expect respect and dignity just as we all do, and those who would target them for their own entertainment and "sport" are perhaps the ones who do not deserve to be treated with respect or dignity. What worries me is the tendency of these things to progress from photographs to far, far worse, leading to homeless citizens being the targets not only of abusive photographs but abusive words and physical treatment. Some of the "creature hunters" claim they do this to help the "creatures", offering food, money and gift cards to them, and are using this to "raise awareness" of homelessness in their community - but I think any person with a brain can see through that spin and straight into the heart of the matter, which is the exploitation of others for entertainment - and, regardless of the reasons given for engaging in it, it is not okay or acceptable.
Here's the deal, people. This is a free and open Facebook group, so you can see who belongs to it and who is contributing to the dehumanizing of our fellow citizens. I would suggest checking it out and seeing who exactly is doing this. Maybe you'll see a family member or an employee. Maybe you'll see someone you know, and maybe, just maybe, some of these people who think it is okay to dehumanize and abuse others using social media as a vehicle will learn that their actions have consequences when they lose their jobs, their friends and their families. One can only wonder if they will become the targets of the very cameras they now wield on others.
Drag this into the light, people. It is the only way to combat the darkness that lurks in the corners of our world.
