A Little Girl Goes To The Park

Injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I want to tell you a serious story today. I want to tell you about a little girl. A little girl whose favourite color was purple. She loved barbies, but was just starting to reluctantly grow out of them. Like many little girls she loved bunnies and cat and dogs. One day while the little is visiting her uncle he tells her and a little boy, the son of a lady he was seeing, too go play outside. Lucky for the little girl there was a park just behind her uncle's house so the two kids get to go to the park. The little girl and the little boy start playing in the park with another little boy who must have lived near by. He's maybe 10 with light blond hair and innocent blue eyes, any mothers dream. We will call this little boy James and the other little boy Andy. So Andy, James and the little girl are playing and James asks if they want to see a cool toy his dad got him, his mom hates it, it's a BB gun. The little girl gets nervous, but its also kind of exciting, kind of cool. 

I also was to tell you another kid, a little boy. This little boy we will call him Tim, he enjoyed going to after school programs to play games with his friends and making crafts and swimming. He enjoyed hanging out with his sister and going to the park. One day he went to the park with a toy BB gun.

The little girl and and Andy and James were standing on the edge of the park facing the forest and Andy shot at a tree, but it did not hit a tree. The 3 children ran into the forest and much to their horror Andy had shot a poor rabbit! We ran to the rabbit, wouldn't you? We hadn't meant to shoot her and we were sad and scared, what had we done? That innocent little rabbit had just been hopping around and we were playing with a dangerous toy, and we shouldn't have been, Andy's mom had told him not too!

We started to cry. We 3 children, tall brave James, the big brother she had always wanted, he was scared, scared not just of getting in trouble but because on some level he knew we had taken a life and that was wrong, but there was nothing that could have been done for that poor rabbit. Little Andy smaller than us but just barely, he had felt so cool! Like a TV hero but now he was a villain, he had killed and it did not feel good. The little girl, who thought she didn't need to get an adult but now wished she had ran home. The three stood in tears, in shock for a second, we tearfully agreed not to speak of this, no telling; surely you did something similar, something bad and upsetting and dumb as a kid? We all ran home. What ever you did, you ran home, these 3 ran home, and I ran home.

Did I deserve to be in that poor rabbits place? I hope not. Did you when you did something bad as child? I think not. Like wise that rabbit did not deserve what she got.

Tim meanwhile was still had his BB gun he was in a totally different park, on a different day. He was playing all alone on his way home from a friends house. In the slight distance two young men stood smoking. The men heard a loud bang and a thud and they turned. What they saw was shocking. Tim falling too the ground and two grown men shooting real guns at him.The men did not run to Tim like the 3 children ran to that rabbit, the two men did not seem too care what they had done. His toy fell with him to the cold ground and the men just stood there.

Tim's sister came running but one of the men stopping her! He grabbed her and roughly restrained her. No one ran to poor TIm bleeding like the rabbit on the ground, no one checked his pulse or applied pressure and only his sister in chains cried. 

4 kids in 2 different parks playing almost the same game. 1 child is killed.

No one was arrested for killing Tim.

Andy and James and the little girl went on to live normal and full lived and no one ever tried to kill them, no one cared that they had gone to the park and no one cared that they plays with a dangerous toy, even though Andy's mom said not too. No one ever suggested that Andy, James or the little girl could have been killed, and no one would have been ok with it if they had been. 

So why was it ok to kill Tim? Where are the good police men to arrest the men who killed Tim? Where is the judge and jurors? 

If you haven't heard about Tim, oh it's probably because if you didn't notice I misspelled his name, his name was Tamir, Tamir Rice and he was probably really scared when he was laying there bleeding in the park listening to his sister cry for him. He died in a fear that Andy and James and the little girl will never truly understand he died scared and choking on injustice embodied.

He still deserves justice. Demand it. The way you would for Andy or James, the little girl, your little girl.

Winter Kindness: Cause Baby It's Cold Outside

Goodness is about character- integrity,honesty,kindness,generosity,moral courage, and the like.

more than anything it is about how we treat other people

-Denis Prager

 I would add and animals! or change people to beings but you get the idea.  I don't usually post twice in a week but I was saving this topic 1. until after my trip reports but more so 2. for closer to Christmas when people are in that extra kind mood. I mentioned in my intro blog how I chose the name for this blog , a loving vegan and what those words encompass for me which basically boils done to my motto of harm less, but also my other motto being from Disney (because of course it is) have courage and be kind. So that's what I want to talk about today, kindness. 

Nobody is perfect and we all have bad days but I do believe that each and everyone of us should always strive to be a little better,kinder and do more so lets talk about doing more. What we can do can be limited by many things financial capabilities, physical capabilities , mental capabilities etc. So I want to give some ideas, suggestions and bring light to some great groups.

Financial giving. This is something not everyone can do, for a long time I couldn't as I live mostly pay check to pay check like many of you I am sure can relate. If you can though one tip to keep in mind is that all charities have to make their financial statements public they will be on their site, if they aren't don't donate to that group its a scam.  Also do a quick google search you might be surprised that some popular "charities" are not the shinning examples they claim to be. I try to donate to a different cause every pay cheque the amount varies based on what I can do at any time. One site for various human causes I recommend are  rescuesite.org, amnesty.org. For animals I recommend mercyforanimals.org or animalequality.net .

Not everyone can give financially though so lets talk about little day to day type things. Homelessness is on the raise and even in warm climates it gets cold at night. I've also noticed a growing contempt and distrust of homeless people with less and less people willing to give thanks in no small part to sensational "news" stories of people scamming the system and faking homeless. Does this happen? sure probably, but that's not the majority, the majority are people who have for whatever reason fallen to the bottom of the poverty cycle, and statically they wont be able to get out even if they make all the right choices. Choices is another thing I hear a lot, a lot of judgement about the assumed bad choices these people made,so lets talk about that. Even if we remove every external factor that affects the way people make choices and assumed they should just make better choices does making a bad choice mean your no longer worthy of compassion? When does a mistake become so awful that your stripped of your humanity and left a piece of dirt?

 As a Disney fan I love Once Upon A Time on ABC and one of the things I love most about it is the psychology. I love how it will show you a villain and you will hate them and then you see their back story, from their point of view and you start feeling bad for them and suddenly their bad choices make sense , they still did bad things, the queen still shouldn't kill Snow White but suddenly you get why she felt that way and your rooting for her to turn it around. Everyone deserved the forgiveness we grant these fictional characters, everyone deserves kindness and second chances, third chances, all the chances! If Regina can teach us anything let it be that it's never to late to change.   

So what can we do? Great question!

and the answer is lots! Did you know that most popular coffee chains like Tim Horton's or Dunkin Donuts will give a cup of hot water for free (some charge 5 cents for the cup cause they're greedy but still next to free) so idea number one go to a dollar store pick up some scarves, gloves and a box tea, and/or snacks; wrap a tea bag, snack,gloves and 5 cents in the scarf , keep the rolled up scarves in your purse and give them to homeless people you see.

Idea 2, ladies special, use and old purse or buy a couple cheap purses and fill them with various things a woman may need, snacks,tea,gloves,pads, etc same idea as the scarves but with a feminine twist. 

Idea 3 with it being Christmas go to the dollar store and buy some give bags, fill them with various items and hand them out (same idea holiday twist.)

Got a gift card for somewhere you don't like? Give it to someone on the street!

Another way to give is to give time. Volunteer at a shelter once a month, or a grassroots group like Food Not Bombs, if you haven't heard of them they are a group functioning all over north america that does community food serves, serving local plant based foods encouraging solidarity,community and peace try doing a facebook search to find one near you. Or help build Tiny Houses , tiny houses are popping up all over the world to provide homes to the homeless they cost less than 2000CAD to produce and only take a couple days to build.

There are so many ways to give back get creative, no one can do everything but everyone can do something.

Have courage and be kind , Happy Holidays!