July 1st 2022 - Half-Way

I've had a number of July 1st ideas.  For example,   those whose birthdays are  between Dec 25th and Jan 1st  should celebrate their birthdays on July 1st so that they get a real birthday celebration.  And that given July 1st is half-way through the year, there should be fund-raising festivals on the theme "Christmas in July".   These are based on the days of the year, and not the ceremonial importance of this day as a celebration of nationhood. Canada's "Day" has been contentious throughout our history.    Last year things halted as the many graves at the residential school sites made clear what the colonialists did, and how long colonialist behaviours with residential schools lasted.  Last year there was a call to scale back Canada Day and to cancel Canada Day.   So here we are a year later, with a bit of progress towards resetting our views of history. In April  2022 Ryerson University  was renamed Toronto Metropolitan University.   After reading Egerton Ryerson's biography, my view is that there could be no other course of action.  His role as "father of public education" was so lauded that his other actions were ignored.  They were very significant.  He was a primary architect of the residential school system.  He was persuasive in his writings - supporting converting Indigenous people to Christianity in order to assimilate them.  He wrote that it was "a fact that they could not be civilized".   And much more.  He was prolific in his writings.  We weren't prolific in our readings, being tone deaf to what doesn't match up with a colonialist view.    So I am back to my Christmas in July idea.  Hallmark is already on it.  It starts July 16th with three new movies.  It will feature 24/7 Christmas movies throughout the Fourth of July weekend.  Here are a few of the titles: Sense, Sensibility and Snowmen Dickens of a Holiday Christmas Comes Twice The Santa Stakeout So this isn't a flag picture day.  We've soured a bit on the Canadian Flag when it got conscripted to the Convoy protest.  That is supposed to be underway again today.   So instead, we look at the Christmas scene below - it is an amazing contrast to our colourful summer scenes.

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Sep 23 2021 - A School Named?

 

School names face examination.  That's a headline in the Toronto Star yesterday that public schools in Manitoba are examining their names.  My high school was named Laura Secord Secondary School, and speaks for itself as having a good provenance. The names of other schools have come under a lot of scrutiny. A headline for quite a few years has been the name of Ryerson University.  Professors there have been signing the University name as "X" in protest for quite a while.  Both Gerry and I taught at Ryerson - a great institution for continuing education on timely and current topics.  The protest is all about one of the main architects of the education system - Egerton Ryerson.  He was a Canadian educator and Methodist minister who was a prominent contributor to the design of the Canadian Public school system.  It turns out that he was a great influencer of the segregation of education of people of non-white status.    He created reforms in the mid-1800s that included creating school boards, making textbooks more uniform, and education free.  But Ryerson's views on the education of non-white males was extremely troublesome.  For example, he opposed the participation of girls at grammar schools in the province, and ended co-educational instruction at the Upper Canada Academy.  Women were to be wives and mothers. He recommended in 1847 that indigenous peoples should be educated in separate boarding schools that were denominational, English-only and agriculturally/industrially oriented. Ryerson had ideas for segregating everyone who wasn't a colonial white male.  In 1847, he made recommendations to control Indigenous children's future to become agricultural and industrial workers.  In 1850, under the same act that established separate schools for Catholics and Protestants, he forced Black children into segregated schools. In 1862, he defined vagrant and neglected children of the poor as candidates for industrials schools so to avoid their inevitable future of becoming criminals. In 1868, he took aim at the deaf and blind needing to be segregated. The Toronto Star article details the above HERE.  Ryerson University will be changing its name - it took a few years - a strong campaign and violently toppling the Ryerson statue.  It is going to take a lot of activity to dismantle a systemic naming bias, and this is a great first step. And our picture?  a beautiful lighting project on the Image Arts Building at Ryerson about 5 years ago.  This was created by some of Gerry's graduates in the lighting program there.

Seven Times Seven

I hadn't realized that there are many versions of Bible verses.  I was looking for things about seven times seven.  It seems a poetic and lyrical expression.  Of course there is a movie and there are a number of songs with the title.  My search quickly retrieved 'forgiving seventy-seven times'.  This is a verse from Matthew on forgiveness: Matthew 18:21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!" But it doesn't seem to quite be that clear:  here is a sampling of the interpretations from well over 20 versions of the Bible:   New International Version Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. New Living Translation "No, not seven times," Jesus replied, "but seventy times seven! English Standard Version Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. Berean Literal Bible Jesus says to him, "I say to you not up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven! King James Bible Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Holman Christian Standard Bible "I tell you, not as many as seven," Jesus said to him, "but 70 times seven.    It makes me wonder what that Emoji Dick novel reads like. Fred Benenson briefly considered translating the Bible first.  The famous opening line is "Call me Ishmael"  - you can see the Emoji "here"  in the Guardian article.  The stunning piece in the article is his all-emoticon version of the New Yorker's famous Eustace Tilly cover.  I came across these pictures of Ryerson's new imaging arts (photography) building in November 2012 - Gerry was there with the Toronto IES members to get a tour of the design.  The bottom picture shows the building's light panels which reflect in the puddles of the pond, giving rise to abstract images.

Where's Sam Now?

Sam The Record Man...my generation remembers this name and this store on the corner of Yonge and Gould Street.  This became a large chain of over 200 stores, but it is this store with its famous spinning record sign out front that we think of.  Sam Spiderman's collections were large and prices were low, so it was a very successful record store for a few decades. The famous spinning records sign came down after the store closed in 2008, and Ryerson University eventually built a student centre on the site. There's been controversy over the spinning record sign, the cost of restoring it and where it should be located.  City Council finally decided on Yonge Dundas Square - a perfect place for it.