Thinking of my mother on a jaunt to the Brokenhead Wetland Ecological Reserve

Orchids of Manitoba, Wild flowers of Manitoba

In June this summer, I went to the Brokenhead Wetland Ecological  trail (one of my favourite places) in search of Spotted Coral Root (Corallorhiza maculata) and met with great success. At a place where I had never seen these little gems before, right near the beginning of the trail I found a great plant. Not only that but the flowers were right beside the trail, before the boardwalk even began, so I did not have to succumb to temptation and go off the trail, which we are urged never to do. As my mother taught me, it is always best not to expose myself to temptation.  She knew me. Today there was no issue as  they were right where I needed them to photograph them.

Today there was no issue they were right where I needed them to photograph them. These are very unusual flowers since they belong to the Genus Corallorhiza or Coral-roots.  These flowers are mycoheterotrophs which means they are not able to produce chlorophyll and hence must obtain their nutrition from other plants by way of specific mycorrhizal fungi in the soil.  Orchids often have a mutualist relationship with fungi and this is one  orchid genus that has that. These orchids spend most of their time underground and appear above ground only briefly, since in the absence of chlorophyll they don’t require sunlight which they are not able to use to produce food . The only “leaves” they have are actually scales. That means they have no green on their bodies at all. So instead of producing sugar as food, as most plants do from sunlight, they have a special relationship with these fungi who supply food to them. Sort of like the relationship we have with our mothers.

These are very small orchids and I can only photograph the tiny but beautiful flowers with a macro (close-up) lens. Even then, it is impossible to get more than one flower in focus at one time.  Yet, I think it is worth the effort to catch these gems and this was probably the best opportunity to capture them on camera I have ever had. The word “maculata” is Latin for spotted. It is not immaculate in other words. Which is fine with me. I prefer spots and have no longing for the immaculate.

Since I am a wild flower guy and not just an orchid guy, I also paid attention to other beauties namely, Smooth Fleabane (Erigeron glabellus). Though common these flowers certainly merit some attention too.  

These flowers have a lovely flower head of ray flowers (the bigger outer flowers) that range in colour from near white, to blue, and purple. The much smaller inner disk flowers are yellow.  I find the combination of the two stunning.

The name Erigeron come from the Greek word “eri”  which means early  and “geron” which means ‘old man.’ These flowers appear fairly early in the year and then produce fluffy grey seed clusters, hence its name. I find it appropriate that I like this flower as I was prematurely grey and now am sadly bald. Life is hard.

 

 

With two lovely flowers like these and a few others I have not included in this post, I must say it was a great day.  My mother would have quoted her favourite Bible verse, “This is the day the lord has made.” And I would have agreed with her.

 

Co-parenting with the Government

Epidemics/Pandemics, Evangelical Christianity, The Sleep of Reason

 

Jordan Klepper was sent by the The Daily Show with Trevor Noah show to Johnston County North Carolina to visit with people protesting masks and vaccines. Kleeper has a knack for getting people to say strange things on camera.

Parents there were desperate to get their children back into schools. Nothing wrong with that agenda, but it was interesting how they went about accomplishing that. North Carolina, of course, is part of the American bible belt. Sort of like North Carolina’s version of Manitoba’sSouthern Health district .

Just like Manitoba hospitals there have Intensive Care Units that are filled and they faced mandates to wear masks. The parents that protested did not like those restrictions. And some of their arguments in favor of their positions were deeply fascinating. The protest rally reminded me a lot of the one I saw in Steinbach at about the same time. As Jordan Klepper said, “putting on a piece of cloth was just too much,” for the protesters. It was a terrible encroachment on their freedom.

The most common T-shirt or sign the protesters displayed was telling: “I don’t co-parent with the government.” Others included: “Stop muzzling our children.”   “My rights don’t end where your feelings begin!!!” “Say No to critical race theory.” “Educate not indoctrinate.”  Or “Unmasked, unmuzzled, unvaccinated, unafraid.” One  sign painted on an image of the American flag said, “that mask is as useless as our governor.”

The protesters, like those in Steinbach, were against it all. They didn’t like compulsory vaccines or masks or social distancing rules.  All the things the scientists said were needed to keep schools open were opposed by the protesters. One protester said, “Masks will never protect Americans.” Another said masks don’t work. Her child was suffering after wearing a mask for so long. She told Kleeper the problems he had as a result were acne on his face. But he didn’t have covid.  She admitted that. But he had acne. Klepper asked her if she had to choose between acne or Covid-19 fro her son what would she choose? She made it clear she would consider Acne as being worse.

Another mother protester said the problem with wearing masks was that children were forced to breath in air that the body was trying to get rid of. Klepper asked her how surgeons did it? They had been wearing masks for years. Her answer was this: “That’s a good question.” Yeah that is a good question.

Klepper pointed out that a recent study from the CDC and Duke University, one of North Carolina’s world class colleges, said  that wearing masks would be helpful for school children. She challenged people to smell the toxins going into the body as a result of masks. According to Klepper “There’s science and there’s the smell test so you’re going with the smell test?”  She nodded assent.

Klepper asked another woman what were the problems with masks.  She answered, “I think breathing. I’ve done a little bit of research about carbon dioxide that people are saying is an issue now with the masks.” When Klepper pointed out that scientific research had established that wearing masks in settings like schools was an advisable thing she just said, “Nah. Oh no. I mean I don’t think so.” She just threw up her hands and said  “oh I just don’t know.”  She had not even a hint of an answer to a very simple question from Klepper. She preferred “a little bit of research” and “what some people are saying” to the world’s best scientific and health evidence.

A male protester when asked where was the harm in having kids wear masks replied that “For kids the harm is they can’t gauge emotional awareness. They don’t see the facial expressions.” Klepper asked, “You think not being able to see the lower half of a facial expression outweighs the dangers of Covid might pose to kids in the community?” The man replied, “Well the dangers are what you think they are.”  In other words, (I think) something is dangerous only if I think they are dangerous. The man also suggested that most of the people in the hospitals were not really sick. Even those in ICUs.

Another man asked if the diagnoses were true. He had walked through the hospitals and he said they are not filled with covid patients. I know from personal experience that this is a common claim. I have heard it too. This man said he had walked through a hospital taking videos and guess what, “they’re not covid patients.” He did not explain how he could tell by looking at them whether or not they were covid patients. He did not explain how hospital security had let him in ( a frightening possibility).

 

Klepper asked one of the women wearing a sign that said she did not co-parent with the government, if her kids went to private or public school. She said public school and Klepper asked, “isn’t that sort of co-parenting with the government?” She said no because “we get to vote our school board so we have a voice.”  Klepper, “So you work with the government?” Mother, “Yeah.” She detected no incongruity.

 

Klepper asked another parent similar questions because he too sent his child to public schools. “So you are kind of co-parenting with the government?” “Well in that regard if you say my taxes pay for that then yeah.”  Klepper asked him if he gave back his child tax credit?” The man looked dumbfounded and said, “No.”

Klepper said “ they saw this as a fight against something much more disturbing than face coverings.” One replied, “Terrible. Wearing a mask is slavery. Also, I discovered in my research that Satanists wear a mask during the rituals.  6 feet apart and wear a mask during their rituals.” She also said “we are in a war with Satan…I have no fears.”  Klepper replied, “You have no fears just a healthy belief in Satan and his affect on Covid?” Her reply:” Absolutely.”

Words Matter

Epidemics/Pandemics, politics

 

When I was a lad in High School we had a course called “Words are important.” A lot of heat has been generated without a lot of light, by people on both sides of the dispute about vaccines. I have been as guilty of using improper language as anyone else. It is time for me to do better. It is important to choose the right words if we want to communicate effectively with others.

First of all, I must learn not to refer to people by one of their characteristics. People are complex. None of us are defined by one issue and none of us like to be defined by one issue. For example, we should not refer to a person as “a diabetic.”  Rather such a person should be referred to as “a person who has diabetes.”  That might seem like a minor change. It is not minor. It is significant. There have been recent studies that show by using the proper expression, which recognizes the other as a person who happens to have an illness like diabetes, that will be appreciated by the person being referred to. Such communication is much more effective because it is more respectful. In fact, according to Dr. Garfinkel, a frequent CBC radio commentator on the pandemic,  the difference can be striking. The data suggests that reducing a person to one issue can have a powerful impact on that person. It can reinforce bias or stereotypes that ought to be avoided because it amplifies resistance. If we want to help, we should do it right. No one likes to be reduced.  We should be smart if we want to make a difference.

Similarly, one should not refer to someone as a schizophrenic, or criminal, or anti-vaxxer.  A person should be referred to as a person who has schizophrenia, or a person who has committed a crime, or a person who is reluctant to take a vaccine.

Calling a person an anti-vaxxer or schizophrenic or criminal reduces a person to that one issue. It does not respect that the person is complex and cannot be reduced to one issue. If you want to communicate successfully with such a person you respect them first and foremost as a person. Labels can be damaging and are rarely helpful.

My bad. I have been guilty of this mistake. Words are important because respect is important. Words matter. I will try to do better Starting now.

 

Targeting the Unvaccinated

Indigenous--Indian Residential Schools

 

Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s Chief Medical Health official announced on Friday  that Manitoba was re-imposing significant instructions on the unvaccinated that would take effect today.   Was that fair?  Some people have suggested they have been surprised by the amount of hatred shown by people who are vaccinated to the small number of people  people who are not unvaccinated.

I am not in favor of hate.  That never helps. I renounce hatred and do not want be in the camp of the haters.

But I do want to explain that I think people who have been resistant to vaccines are unwise and causing significant risk of harm to themselves and others.  It’s all right if they expose themselves to risks of harm; it is not all right to expose others to such risks without their express consent.

Dr. Roussin commented that the new restrictions are only onerous on the unvaccinated. The people who are vaccinated are enjoying the benefits of taking the vaccines. In particular these new restrictions are designed to protect our health care system.  Currently 30,000 medical procedures and surgeries have been postponed and are getting urgent, so that Manitoba could protect its Intensive Care Units in case they are needed.

 

With Chris finally having had surgery after waiting for more than 6 months, we were overjoyed that surgeries were available again. That might have saved her life. It certainly, eased her mind tremendously.   Every day she thought her brain  aneurysm might burst. That is a lot of psychological baggage to carry around. It was a great relief to get it done.

 

The province released an astounding statistic.  They reported that, “As of Friday, all Covid-19 patients in ICU were not fully vaccinated, and half of those were from southern health.” That one sentence tells a big story.  No on currently in an Intensive Care Unit in Manitoba for Covid-19 has been vaccinated!  Not one. How can people say the vaccines are not effective?  Secondly, half of the people in ICU for Covid-19 have come from southern Manitoba, where we live. Southern Health district has the lowest percentage of people who have been fully vaccinated, and has only about 15% of the population of Manitoba, but has half of the people who are in those ICUs with Covid-19. Who can deny that regions with a high vaccine rate are not getting a huge benefit from the vaccines?

 Dr. Roussin also had a comment on Manitoba’s strategy. He said, “We also believe there’s a need to ensure that we minimize the impact to non-Covid care for the majority of Manitobans by reducing the surges and Covid demands on our system.”

In other words, people who resist taking Covid-19 vaccines are causing significant harm not just to themselves but others who have a right to be protected from the actions of the people who are refusing to get vaccinated. Getting vaccinated matters, for people who have been vaccinated and those who have not.  As a result, as Dr. Roussin said, “We are quite intent on our need to preserve surgical capacity at this time and ensure that Manitobans have timely access to care, and especially those who cannot postpone their surgeries any longer.” Until Friday, that included my wife Chris. That’s why for me this issue was personal.

As a result, Dr. Roussin when he says actions against people who are not vaccinated are not matters of “blaming and shaming. They are matters of public health. The actions are taken to protect the public. No matter what people who are opposed to restrictions say, such restrictions are justified to protect people, not just from Covid-19, but many other conditions.

Absolute or Conditional Freedoms

Epidemics/Pandemics, Freedom, Human rights

 

When I attended the recent Steinbach rally against health restrictions and vaccine mandates, there was a lot of talk about freedom. Many of the protesters made it obvious that they think that in a free society they should be allowed to choose whether or not to wear mask or get vaccinated and risk the lives or freedoms of others as they see fit.

I am a freedom loving person. I would hate living in a country like Afghanistan where freedom is now largely absent. I cherish freedom.

I also cherish the right to dissent from authority. We should have the right to choose for ourselves and oppose decisions of the authorities or majorities in a peaceful manner. We should not be slaves to authority. We are free and have the right to be free.

However, dissent to be worthy of the name must be rational. We need to weigh the alternatives, and the evidence in favour of any proposition, and base our conclusions on our own powerful instruments of critical thinking. Irrational dissent (not based on valid reasoning or evidence) amounts to paranoia which can cripple us as much as tyranny can.

The people at the rally in Steinbach claimed to cherish freedom absolutely. Here I disagree. No rights are absolute. Freedom does not mean we have the right to do anything we want to do. Freedoms are always conditional.

Here are a few examples of what I mean.  All of us must abide by speed limits on public roads whether we like them or not. If we don’t, we can justifiably be punished, even in a free and democratic society.  We are not allowed to build a factory or hog barn in a residential district of a small city like Steinbach. We must abide by zoning laws. We are not free to enter into someone else’s home without their consent, except in unusual circumstances. We are not free to do that because they are free to keep us out.  We are not free to dump our garbage into the street, because that violates the right of others to enjoy community life free from garbage of others. We have to pay taxes whether we like it or not, even if the government spends some of our money on goals with which we don’t agree. We are not (at least in Canada) allowed to promulgate hate speech against other groups even if we hate them. We can hate them, but we are not allowed to encourage hatred or violence against them by others. We are not free to shout fire in a crowded dark theatre when there is no fire present, because that might lead to a stampede of panicking patrons that could cause serious injury to others. A person with a communicable illness like HIV/AIDs is not free to have sex with other individuals without warning them of the danger and if we do we can be charged with an assault. We are not free to hit other people just because we don’t like them. We are not allowed to build dangerous structures on which the public have access, because that would endanger their lives. We must always remember and take into consideration the rights of others. Their rights are not absolute either. Sometimes our rights must bend to allow rights of others to work out.

These are all reasonable restrictions on freedoms which we all must accept if we want to live in a free and democratic society with others.

Similarly, and for similar reasons, when Health authorities demand that we wear a mask to protect others, or get vaccinated if we perform certain functions or want to attend certain public events, we must abide by those requirements, because we are not allowed to endanger the lives of others even though such restrictions do in fact restrict our rights to some extent. In a free and democratic society restrictions can be placed on our freedoms for the protection of others. The restrictions must be effective, tailored to the remedy the harm to be avoided, and as limited as possible in the circumstances so that the freedom of others is curtailed as little as necessary to avoid the harm and no more.

Freedom is great, but it is not absolute. We should be happy that it is not absolute. That would be anarchy. None of us would like it.

Vaccine Creators are Heroes

Epidemics/Pandemics, Science

 

Thanks to people who are resistant to taking vaccines, the Vaccine creators have not been given the credit they deserve. Maurice Hilleman created more than 40 vaccines  and saved millions of lives in the process. He was the Chief vaccine scientist at Merck & Co.  Big Pharma in other words. We should celebrate him.  David Von Drehle, of the Washington Post,  put vaccines into perspective for us:

“Vaccination is not a choice. It’s a responsibility. Just as we pay gasoline taxes to use the roads, we suffer an occasional pinprick to live healthier lives than our pre-vaccine forebears.  It is the very small price for very large gains. Are you hideously scarred by smallpox? Born deaf and blind from rubella? Paralyzed by polio?  Did you die in your 20s coughing your lungs out from tuberculosis?  Probably not, because you live in the age of vaccines.”

 

Just today I heard a scientist say on CBC radio, that when this is over we will realize that the science that brought us the vaccines so quickly and efficiently is equivalent to the scientific achievement that put a man on the moon.

We have a lot to be grateful for. We should show it. Don’t thank Dr. Google. He has not helped. Thank the people who brought us the vaccines.

 

Hooray–We’re No. 1

Epidemics/Pandemics, The Sleep of Reason

 

Esquire Magazine used to have the annual dubious achievements awards celebrating outstanding failures. If such awards would happen in Manitoba today, Southern Manitoba would no doubt walk away with some prizes.

We finally made it. We had to work hard but we did it. Steinbach beat out Winkler and reached No.1  status in the Covid-19 wars.

Winkler and Steinbach are highly competitive communities. Each thinks it is the fastest growing community in Manitoba. Each brags about its religiosity. Each thinks it is more successful financially than the other. Each likes nothing better than to beat the other. Now Steinbach has come out on top.  And it was a most dubious distinction.

As the Winnipeg Free Press recently reported,

“People in the Southern Health region are being infected with Covid-19 at a rate five-fold Manitoba’s capital city, as small communities continue to grapple with low vaccine uptake and ongoing  spread of the novel coronavirus. The latest numbers show from the province show Southern Health–home to more than 207,000 residents across the 27,000 square kilometres–notched 10 cases per 100,000 people a day in the last seven days, compared to 2 per 100,000 reported in Winnipeg.

Perhaps even more disturbing were the remarks by a University of Manitoba assistant professor of Community Health, Souradet Shaw who said things could get worse for Southern Health! This is because people tend to cluster by vaccine status. In other words, people tend hang around people with the same vaccine status. Like seeks like. That could mean that in our area the vaccine might spread even more vigorously.  As Shaw said, “Once the virus gets into vulnerable pockets, we will see very rapid spread within these pockets.”

For quite some time now we have seen the daily reports of cases with Southern Health having more cases than Winnipeg, even though Winnipeg has a population of about 5 times that of Southern Health. That is having a profound effect.

The figures don’t lie.  As Danielle Da Silva reported,

“As of Thursday, Steinbach had the second-highest per capita infection rate in Southern Health after the surrounding health district of Hanover. [which means they have the highest and second highest rates in the province!] The two communities also have the highest number of active cases in the region , with nearly two dozen cases reported at area schools  in the past two weeks.”

 

In other words, Steinbach and its surrounding area have the highest rates of Covid-19 infection in Manitoba while having a very low rate of vaccine uptake. Who is surprised?

The Southern Health Region has many Mennonites, Conservative political leaders that keep getting re-elected no matter how dismal their performance, low vaccine uptake rates, and the highest rates of infection with Covid-19. That is a bounty of achievements. Too bad they are so dubious.

 

The Colour of Reconciliation

Indigenous--Indian Residential Schools, Indigenous--Reconciliation

 

I don’t know what reconciliation will look like. I know it’s important and Canadians must figure it out. What colour is reconciliation?  Is it white? Do white people have to figure it out? Yes, but not alone and not in such a way as we try to impose on others what it means. We tried that approach to relations with Indigenous people and it did not work very well. In fact, that is what got us into trouble.

Is the colour of reconciliation red? Yes, in part. We need indigenous people to actively engage in this process. I think they are prepared to  engage, provided  the white people are serious in their discussions and respectful in their intentions.

Is the colour of reconciliation red and white. Yes, in part again. It is more than that. It involves all Canadians and that means an array of colours.  It involves an abundance of colours. We have people of all colours in Canada. That is great. It is what makes Canada great. We don’t need a great white hope to “make Canada great again.”  Canada is not a great power. We have no goal to be that (I hope). Canada  has made many mistakes, but it also has learned a lot. It has learned enough that others can learn something from us. We just need to understand and respect what we have and what we can do.

Is the Colour of reconciliation orange? Yes, in part. We must learn from that colour. That colour was chosen because of the experience of a 6-year-old Indigenous girl going to Residential School for the first time with her grandmother. Her name was Phyliss Webstad. She had chosen an orange shirt for her first exciting day in school because her shirt was bright and shiny and  smooth and she was very proud of that shirt. But the shirt was taken away from her on her first day in residential school because the school administrators, for some reason did not like it. She never got to wear it again.

When she got older and remembered the incident and how unjust it was, she helped to start Orange Shirt day, on September 30 so that she could demonstrate that she could wear an orange shirt if she wanted to. As she said, “When I see people wearing an orange shirt or an ‘Every child matters pin,’ for us survivors, it’s like a little bit of justice in our life time.’

I don’t really know what reconciliation looks like. I hope to learn.  But I hope it is the colour of justice. A little bit of justice.