NH's No-Kill Status

 From WMUR:

“New Hampshire achieves 'no-kill' status in its pet shelters”

New Hampshire has become the second state in the country to achieve "no-kill" status at its animal shelters. The organization Best Friends Animal Society, which advocates for no-kill shelters, said Delaware was the first state to reach that goal. According to the organization, New Hampshire's pet save rate is more than 92%. Any animals that were put down in the state's shelters were suffering from medical problems or had serious behavioral issues.

^ This is great news. 2 States down (48 more and 6 Territories to go.) ^

https://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-achieves-no-kill-status-in-its-pet-shelters/36826294

650 To Remain

From News Nation:

“US to keep about 650 troops in Afghanistan after withdrawal”

Roughly 650 U.S. troops are expected to remain in Afghanistan to provide security for diplomats after the main American military force completes its withdrawal, which is set to be largely done in the next two weeks, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.

In addition, several hundred additional American forces will remain at the Kabul airport, potentially until September, to assist Turkish troops providing security, as a temporary move until a more formal Turkey-led security operation is in place, the officials said. Overall, officials said the U.S. expects to have American and coalition military command, its leadership and most troops out by July Fourth, or shortly after that, meeting an aspirational deadline that commanders developed months ago. The officials were not authorized to discuss details of the withdrawal and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The departure of the bulk of the more than 4,000 troops that have been in the country in recent months is unfolding well before President Joe Biden’s Sept. 11 deadline for withdrawal. And it comes amid accelerating Taliban battlefield gains, fueling fears that the Afghan government and its military could collapse in a matter of months. Officials have repeatedly stressed that security at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul is a critical requirement to keeping any U.S. diplomatic staff in Afghanistan. Still, the decision to keep additional troops there for several more months makes it more complicated for the Biden administration to declare a true end to America’s longest war until later this fall. And it keeps the embattled country near the forefront of U.S. national security challenges, even as the White House tries to put the 20-year-old war behind it and focus more on threats from China and Russia.

On Friday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, chair of the High Council for National Reconciliation, are meeting with Biden at the White House. The two Afghan leaders also are to meet at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and possibly other administration officials, the Pentagon announced. Getting most troops out by early July had been in doubt because of complications including an outbreak of COVID-19 at the U.S. Embassy and the push to get Afghan interpreters and others who helped the U.S. out of the country. Officials said U.S. commanders and NATO allies in Afghanistan have been able to overcome logistical hurdles that might have prolonged the withdrawal process. But they also warned that plans in place for the final stages of the U.S. military withdrawal could change if airport security agreements fall through or there are other major, unforeseen developments.

^ I understand the need for keeping some American Troops in Afghanistan to protect the Embassy and the International Airport. I hope the US continues to give these 650 Troops the support and means they need to protect themselves and other Americans. ^

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/us-to-keep-about-650-troops-in-afghanistan-after-withdrawal/

US' Indian Schools

From Reuters:

“U.S. to investigate former Indian boarding schools, find any remains”

(U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland speaks during a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on her nomination to be Interior Secretary on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S. February 23, 2021.)

The U.S. government will investigate the dark history of Indian boarding schools, and work to find the remains of children who died in them, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said on Tuesday. Haaland, a former congresswoman from New Mexico and the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, last year introduced legislation calling for a Truth and Healing Commission into conditions at former Indian boarding schools. Haaland did not provide details on exactly how the Interior Department would carry out the investigation but she said that given that it oversaw the schools, it was uniquely positioned to do so. "We must shed light on the traumas of the past," Haaland said in remarks delivered via video to the National Congress of American Indians. "We must uncover the truth about the loss of human life, and the lasting consequences of these schools."

The department would work on discovering who attended the schools, where the schools were located and to find the remains of children who died there. Conditions at former Indian boarding schools gained global attention last month when tribal leaders in Canada announced the discovery of the unmarked graves of 215 children at the site of the former Kamloops residential school for indigenous children, as such institutions are known in Canada. Unlike the United States, Canada carried out a full investigation into its schools via a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The U.S. government has yet to provide any true accounting of the legacy of such schools, including never acknowledging how many children attended them, how many children died or went missing from them or even how many schools existed. For over 150 years, Native American children in the United States were forcibly removed from their tribes and sent to such schools beginning in 1819. Many children were abused at the schools, and tens of thousands were never heard from again, activists and researchers say. read more The Interior Department oversaw the Indian boarding schools and carried out the policies of removing children from tribes in an attempt to forcibly assimilate Native Americans.

^ This is long over-due in the United States and needs to only be done, but also the findings of the report need to be made widely known among the American People since it wasn’t too long ago that the schools were in operation. ^

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-investigate-former-indian-boarding-schools-find-any-remains-2021-06-22/

New Remembrance Culture

From the DW:

“Antony Blinken, Heiko Maas vow new 'culture of remembrance' at Holocaust Memorial”

(U.S. Secretary of State Blinken speaks next to German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas during a visit at Holocaust Memorial)

The German foreign minister said a new era for the culture of remembrance beckoned, as fewer living witnesses of the Holocaust remain. He said preparing for this "turning point in time" was a debt owed to the victims. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe on Thursday, pledging stronger cooperation between their two countries on Holocaust remembrance. Blinken, the son of American Jewish parents, thanked the survivors present, including 99-year-old Margot Friedländer, for their efforts in passing on their knowledge and experiences. The agreement reached between Berlin and Washington on Thursday will help "remind us of all that we can lose — but also to see what we can save — if we choose to stand up instead of just standing by," Blinken said. Standing in front of Berlin's 2,711 concrete slabs serving as a remembrance and warning, Maas said he was "very pleased" about the launch of "German-American dialogue on Holocaust issues at this special place."  "Our strength lies in shouldering the burden of historical responsibility — no if's, and's or but's. Our strength lies in joining forces in search of the best way forward," Maas said, referring to German-US relations.

Germany: The Fight Against Forgetting The German foreign minister said it was important to "prepare" for a "culture of remembrance for a turning point in time." In view of the fact that the last eyewitnesses will soon no longer be able to pass on their experiences, new forms of remembrance must be found, Maas stressed. "We owe this to those who were murdered and to the survivors," he added. "I know how much your family's personal experience of the Holocaust shapes your daily actions," Maas said, referring to Blinken's family history. Blinken's stepfather Samuel Pisar survived the Holocaust. Pisar, who was from Bialystok, Poland, survived the Nazi death camps of Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz and Dachau. "When he was liberated by US soldiers in 1945, he was the only survivor of his family," Blinken said.

Germany has an 'everlasting responsibility'  In January this year, to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was "deeply ashamed" of the atrocities committed by the Nazis. She added that it is the "everlasting responsibility of Germany" to remember the victims of the Holocaust. "We must resolutely oppose both open and covert anti-Semitism, the denial as well as the relativization of the Holocaust," Merkel said.

Witnesses of the Shoah: Faces and memories Maas and Blinken on Thursday also warned out about the resurgence of antisemitism and racism in recent years, in both the United States and Germany. "Let's think of the yellow stars at coronavirus demonstrations, the flood of anti-semitic conspiracy theories on the net, the attacks on synagogues and Jews, the rioters in front of the Bundestag or the uninhibited mob in the US Capitol," Maas said.

^ With more and more People (Americans, Germans, Canadians, Poles, French, Spaniards, Russians, Japanese, Ukrainian, Latvians, Brits, Italians, etc.) not knowing what the Holocaust was after 76 years it is important for Governments (like the US and German) to work hard to continue to teach what happened and why we can never let it happen again. ^

https://www.dw.com/en/antony-blinken-heiko-maas-vow-new-culture-of-remembrance-at-holocaust-memorial/a-58027586

US Will Evacuate

From Military.com:

“White House Will Evacuate Afghans Who Helped US to Third Country for Visa Processing”

The Biden administration has finalized a plan to evacuate tens of thousands of Afghan interpreters, drivers and other allies and their families to a third country while their visas are processed. An official confirmed that the administration has told lawmakers it has a plan for helping Afghans who have assisted the United States over the last two decades. And a senior administration official told Military.com that the government is planning to relocate Afghans who served as interpreters and translators and are already in the Special Immigrant Visa process out of Afghanistan before the military's drawdown is complete in September. "We've long said we are committed to supporting those who have helped U.S. military and other government personnel perform their duties, often at great personal risk to themselves and their families," the senior administration official said. "We are actively working on every possible contingency to make sure that we can help those who have helped us."

These Afghan allies and their families now may be at risk of death or other reprisal from the Taliban once the U.S. finishes its withdrawal, and advocates are concerned that time may be running out. Further information on how the evacuation might work is scarce. The New York Times, which first reported the news, said that the Afghans would be evacuated, but it was not immediately clear what their third-country destination will be.

Advocates have grown increasingly vocal in recent weeks about the danger faced by Afghan allies and ratcheted up pressure on the administration as the military's withdrawal gathered steam. The White House set a Sept. 11 deadline by which the military must be out of Afghanistan, but it is likely to be finished much earlier. In a conference call with reporters last week, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, pitched the idea of temporarily housing Afghans and their families in a territory held by a NATO nation. This, he said, would give them a safe place to stay while their visa applications are worked through. King and other supporters of Afghan allies argue that allowing them to be killed by the Taliban would be a historic national shame -- one that would haunt the United States for generations. The senator said that if the U.S. does not support those who put themselves at risk to help Americans, no one will be willing to help the nation in future conflicts. "I want the White House's hair on fire" over the need to safeguard Afghans, King told reporters June 15. "The time is short and getting shorter all the time."  Other advocates have called for temporarily housing Afghans on Guam, a U.S. territory that is also the home of Andersen Air Force Base.

There is a backlog of roughly 18,000 Afghan allies still waiting for Special Immigrant Visas, which would allow them to come to the United States. The visa process is notoriously slow, bureaucratic and short-staffed, with applicants often waiting nearly three years to be cleared. In a budget hearing Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the House Armed Services Committee that the military is ready if called upon to support an evacuation effort by the State Department. "I am confident that we'll begin to evacuate some of those people soon," he said. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley said the military has the capability to assist the Afghans. "I consider it a moral imperative to assist those who have served along our side," he said. In a briefing with reporters Thursday afternoon, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby suggested that non-military charter aircraft might play a role in the evacuation. "Not all such evacuation operations require military aircraft to conduct," he said. "It's not like we haven't done this before using ... commercially leased aircraft or chartered aircraft. ... There are lots of ways to facilitate transportation out of Afghanistan." The State Department is in charge of the interagency planning, Kirby said, and the Defense Department has been taking part. It remains unclear whether all SIV participants will come to the U.S., Kirby said, or whether some will end up in other countries. He said those decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis. But he stressed how important the Pentagon views the need to save these Afghans' lives. "We know we have a sacred obligation -- and we don't use those phrases lightly here -- to help those who have helped us," Kirby said. "We're taking this extremely seriously."

^ While this sounds good now we have to wait and see if the United States actually evacuates them outside of Afghanistan before the Taliban takes control of the country again. ^

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/06/24/white-house-will-evacuate-afghans-who-helped-us-third-country-visa-processing.html

751 Unmarked Graves

From the BBC:

“Canada: 751 unmarked graves found at residential school”

An indigenous nation in Canada says it has found 751 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in Saskatchewan. The Cowessess First Nation said the discovery was "the most significantly substantial to date in Canada". It comes weeks after the remains of 215 children were found at a similar residential school in British Columbia. "This is not a mass grave site. These are unmarked graves," said Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme.

The Marieval Indian Residential School was operated by the Roman Catholic Church from 1899 to 1997 in the area where Cowessess is now located in southeastern Saskatchewan. It is not yet clear if all of the remains are linked to the school. It was one of more than 130 compulsory boarding schools funded by the Canadian government and run by religious authorities during the 19th and 20th Centuries with the aim of assimilating indigenous youth. An estimated 6,000 children died while attending these schools, due in large part to the squalid health conditions inside. Students were often housed in poorly built, poorly heated, and unsanitary facilities. Physical and sexual abuse at the hands of school authorities led others to run away. Last month, the Cowessess began to use ground-penetrating radar to locate unmarked graves at the cemetery of the Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan. Thursday's announcement marked the first phase of the search efforts. Chief Delorme said there may have been markers for the graves at one point but that the Roman Catholic church, which oversaw the cemetery, may have removed them. Cowessess First Nation is "optimistic" that the church will work with them in investigating further, he said. It has not yet been determined if all the unmarked graves belong to children, Chief Delorme said. Technical teams will now work to provide a verified number and identify the remains, he said. In a statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was "terribly saddened" by the discovery in Saskatchewan. He said it was "a shameful reminder of the systemic racism, discrimination, and injustice that Indigenous peoples have faced".

What are residential schools? Between 1863 and 1998, more than 150,000 indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in these schools throughout Canada. The children were often not allowed to speak their language or to practice their culture, and many were mistreated and abused. "They made us believe we didn't have souls," said former residential school student Florence Sparvier at a press conference on Thursday. "They were putting us down as people, so we learned to not like who we were." A commission launched in 2008 to document the impacts of this system found that large numbers of indigenous children never returned to their home communities. The commission's landmark report said the practice amounted to cultural genocide. In 2008, the Canadian government formally apologised for the system.

The Roman Catholic church - which was responsible for the operations of up to 70% of residential schools - has not yet issued a formal apology. The May discovery of 215 children's remains at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops has thrown a spotlight Canada's past policies of forced assimilation. Indigenous leaders expect similar findings as the search for grave sites continues, aided by new funding from federal and provincial governments. Cities in the provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have cancelled upcoming celebrations for Canada Day on 1 July in protest, and statues of figures involved with residential schools, including Canada's first Prime Minister John A Macdonald, have been vandalised or removed throughout the country.

^ This is beyond words. You hear about the Residential Schools and know they were wrong and then you hear about the unmarked graves of the children who died there (215 and 751 found so far) and can not understand how anyone (a Teacher, a Priest, a Minister or a Government Official) could ever have allowed this to happen. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57592243

Excluding Pride

From Yahoo:

“LGBTQ cops want Pride organizers to 'stop seeing us as the enemy'”

(Out and proud LGBTQ cops include, clockwise from top left: Jaime Deer, Ana Arboleda, Jason Samuel, Greg Abbink, couple Taylor Mack and Nicole Wallace and Nicholas Tees.)

Ana Arboleda, a 12-year vet of the New York Police Department and a proud lesbian, will never forget the mix of fear and joy she felt the first time she joined the New York City Pride March, in uniform, as part of the Gay Officers Action League New York (GOAL-NY), a volunteer-led organization that addresses the issues of LGBTQ cops and the community at large. “It was a very, very proud moment,” Arboleda, 35, tells Yahoo Life. Though she’s since marched many more times, that first one in 2001, she recalls, “was nerve-racking. I felt like I was preparing to go on a first date! But then there was this uproar from the crowd the moment we started marching, and people were saying ‘thank you!’ and ‘you’re so beautiful in uniform!’ and it was the most amazing feeling, to see your coworkers run up and hug you and say ‘I’m so proud of you.’ Even talking about it now gives me chills.”

But this year’s march, slated, as always, for the last Sunday in June — timed with the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall rebellion, a major flashpoint in the LGBTQ-rights movement — will be different. And not only because it will be virtual. A long-brewing tension between the NYPD and LGBTQ activists has come to a head this year, resulting in NYC Pride organizers announcing that GOAL’s members are no longer welcome to march in uniform (and it’s unclear whether they’re welcome to march at all, according to GOAL-NY). An official NYC Pride statement notes, "Effective immediately, NYC Pride will ban corrections and law enforcement exhibitors at NYC Pride events until 2025." The decision was a result of a year-long internal process by Heritage of Pride (HOP), the nonprofit that runs NYC Pride’s annual activities, which are back in person only to varying degrees this year. Part of those discussions included creating a task force to help the organization better “serve the entire community,” Sue Doster, co-chair of NYC Pride, tells Yahoo Life. “The events of this past year have really shined a spotlight on some of the aspects of racial inequity, especially as they relate to policing. In some ways, it requires a response from all of us,” Doster explains. “A move like this talks about not so much where we've been [in the queer rights movement], but where we want to go in creating a future where everyone can celebrate at Pride and feel safe to express their Pride in whatever way they want to.” The line in the sand followed, or came in tandem with, that of other Pride organizers around the country — including in cities like Charlotte, Denver and San Diego, where police have either been banned from marching in Pride events or from policing them, with organizers opting to hire private security instead.

Decisions like these are responses to underlying tensions between the LGBTQ community and police that have a long and complicated past, with queer people historically harassed and persecuted by law enforcement — most famously, though not only, through the 1969 raid at the Stonewall Inn, at which a routine police shakedown at the gay bar led fed-up patrons to stand up for their rights to exist, prompting the days-long uprising.  The tensions persist, according to a May 2021 study from the Williams Institute, which found that “LGBQ people are six times more likely than the general public to be stopped by police” and that “nearly one in four LGBQ people say they are unlikely to call police in the future.” Still, organizations like GOAL (founded in NYC but with chapters around the country), Protect and Defend and others have led staunch efforts through policy changes, training courses and resource groups with city leaders to create a better environment not only for LGBTQ cops but for the community as a whole, including victims of police brutality. But while the NYPD publicly apologized in 2019 — 50 years later — for its part at Stonewall, acrimony, since then, for many, has escalated, tied in large part to the Black Lives Matter movement and frequently-violent responses from police. Reclaim Pride, a splinter group from the main NYC Pride, was formed in 2019 to host a separate, sponsor- and police-free counter event called the Queer Liberation March, slated to happen again this Sunday. “One reason Reclaim Pride was founded was that the NYPD had been allowed to take control over the HOP parade — from determining the route to determining where they could start and finish, and also because the NYPD has continued not to be a friend or an ally to poor and working-class Black and brown queer and trans people,” Reclaim Pride cofounder Jay W. Walker tells Yahoo Life. Still, despite his belief that policing is systemically “white supremacist and sexist and misogynist and homophobic,” adds Walker, “I do think these queer cops perhaps come into policing possibly for the noblest reasons, and perhaps they honestly want to keep the public safe. I don’t doubt that many, if not all, are thinking of representation mattering and that just by their very presence that that is doing the work.” But, he believes, “that’s not enough.” There are two schools of thought within the community: one that “believes cops should be allowed to march,” Julian Sanjivan, co-president of InterPride, a global collective of Pride organizations, tells Yahoo Life, “and those who don’t think Pride is a place for cops — especially in uniform, because of the way minority communities…have historically faced oppression and violence and police brutality.” But as Sgt. Michael Crumrim of Austin, Texas., founder of the Lesbian and Gay Peace Officers Association, tells Yahoo Life, there is particular significance to marching in uniform. “The whole purpose of Pride, I know, is a protest… but it’s also to show your authentic self, to let everybody see you for who you are,” he says. “It almost puts us back in the closet, to say ’you can march in Pride, but not in uniform.’” In the midst of the controversy — as well as the celebration and fierce, continuing fight for equality in this Pride month — Yahoo Life spoke with some of the people at the center of the debate: LGBTQ law enforcement.

Below, hear from the many who shared their personal stories, giving their own take on what Arboleda so succinctly explained: “I’m proud to be a member of NYPD — but equally proud to be gay.”

 

(Police Officers Taylor Mack, left, and Nicole Preston, Philadelphia Police Department)

Nicole Preston, 35, knew she wanted to help people her entire life. When her cousin was murdered due to gun violence in January 2004, the Philadelphia native’s drive to make a difference in her community only grew. Now, 15 years after joining her city’s police department, she hasn’t looked back. She’s even engaged to a fellow police officer, Taylor Mack, and both are new members of Greater Philadelphia GOAL. “For me, I live freely every day,” Preston tells Yahoo Life. “I don’t need a month to [celebrate] anything because when you live freely every day, it doesn’t change.” Preston says she gets both sides of the current debate. “I understand where certain people come from when it comes to distrust in the community and the police,” she says. “But at the same time, people need to realize we're just as human as they are. We’re just as out and happy and proud to be what we identify as — just like them.” Mack, whose father and grandfather were also Philadelphia police officers, disagrees with the idea of banning uniformed officers from Pride (which just this week imploded in Philly). “I wanted to continue the good tradition of my family’s name and keep up those high standards,” she says. That includes leading by example. “My role is important,” she explains. “I'm myself. I can identify as what I want to but I can also do the job. I can help and connect with the community. I am me, but I stand with you no matter what.…I'm trying to bring people together and not create a divide.” But that, she believes, is what decisions to keep cops out of Pride are doing. “It’s kind of disheartening because I feel like with LGBTQ-plus people, it’s about including everybody no matter who you are or what you identify as. But then to say, ‘Oh, because you're a police officer and you wear a badge, you're not allowed to be associated with us.’ I feel like we fought so hard to get rid of that divide and to unify us that it's a bit disheartening.”

 

(Sgt. Jaime Deer, King County Sheriff's Office)

Sgt. Jaime Deer of Seattle, in law enforcement for almost 25 years, doesn’t mince words when it comes to how he feels about Seattle disallowing LGBTQ officers to march in uniform. “I’m really pissed, basically. It’s disappointing, it’s ridiculous,” Deer, the first transgender officer in the Seattle police department, tells Yahoo Life, noting that if he can’t march in uniform, he won’t march at all. “Obviously, we can keep getting better. But to have the representation we have now…is pretty amazing, and to then push you out? How do you continue to have those allies?” adds Deer. “I’ve had a lot of straight, cisgender police officers say, ‘Having you here has helped open my eyes to see from another perspective.’” Deer, 48, grew up in a small town, as did a lot of fellow cops. “All they know is what they see on TV and in Hollywood… But when they are serving alongside you, they start to understand the bias… and they think, this is no big deal. They’ll ask me questions, especially if they come across someone who’s trans, like a suicidal teen — they’re going to call me no matter where I’m at.” One of those many calls included a trans male youth with an unsupportive father. “I took him aside and said, ‘Just so you know, it does get better…when you graduate, you can start to live your life more than you can now,’” remembers Deer. “His face shifted from being sad to smiling.”  Deer, who’s been marching since about 2010 with his wife, before his transition as well as since, says that in past parades he’s been “pulled to the crowd to be given hugs, to be told ‘thank you’ by people who are crying, to be told, ‘we never thought we’d see this day… It was overwhelming.”

 

(Sgt. Nicholas Tees, Philadelphia Police Department)

For Sgt. Nicholas Tees, the decision to go into law enforcement was simple. “It sounds cliché, but I actually enjoy helping people… I either wanted to be a cop or a firefighter,” he tells Yahoo Life. But doing so meant that coming out was put on the back burner — for decades. “I knew I was gay since I was 10 or 11. A lot of kids always called me names… but life took me in a different direction,” Tees recalls, sharing that he was molested by a sibling at a young age, which, though it led him to therapy, compounded the delay. “It was a domino effect… I would blame that on why I was who I was, and I chose to hide it for a very long time,” he says. “I got married to a woman, had two beautiful kids, until, at the age of 35, I was going downhill, and I knew I needed to move on and really accept who I was.” Acceptance on the force came quickly, and now, 20 years in, Tees, of Greater Philadelphia GOAL, believes the open presence of LGBTQ police helps make change both within the force and in the community at large. It was something particularly salient, he says, in 2016, just after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando that killed 49 people and injured 53. “Prior to that, there had been people vocal on social media about how they didn’t want us to march. But that day, when we marched, there was an overwhelming response and people were so happy to see us, because they recognized that we have to work together,” Tees remembers. He adds that while he understands both sides of the current cops/no cops Pride discussion, “we have to come to the table and talk, and until we do that, nothing will ever change.”

 

(Sgt. Ana Arboleda, New York City Police Department)

Ana Arboleda found her way into policing through both her Columbian heritage and her gay identity as a kid growing up in the Queens neighborhood of Jackson Heights — home to sizable Latino and LGBTQ populations, which she says saw both good and bad treatment by cops. She didn’t come out right away — not while in the police academy, at least. “We have to acknowledge the police enforcement is still a very white, heterosexual, male-dominated job… so I wanted to see how they were with the gay thing first,” Arboleda, vice president of GOAL-NY, says. Today she’s passionate about bringing change within the NYPD. “That’s why I wish [Pride] would stop seeing us as the enemy, but as an ally. We are here to be visible, to remind everybody we are gay and we’re here, and we’re not going anywhere,” she says, noting that she’s one of the instructors for a 4.5-hour LGBTQ sensitivity training, through GOAL, for all new recruits, and that GOAL works with LGBTQ community organizations including the Ali Forney Center, for homeless LGBTQ youth. “Whenever they need something, we try to do something for them,” she says. “It kind of hurts for [others] to not see how visible we are to the community, and not see that work.”

 

(Police Officer Jason Samuel, New York City Police Department)

Jason Samuel, also of GOAL-NY, entered law enforcement quite unexpectedly. While he did have family members in the field, he didn’t “intend to continue any sort of legacy.” Now, he says, “I know it may sound saccharine, but I find helping people and solving problems awesomely satisfying. My current assignment as a crime scene investigator has only reinvigorated that drive — investigating crime scenes, searching for the truth, giving voice to victims, speaking for those unable to do so for themselves.” At the same time, Samuel says, “There’s no doubt we’re experiencing a racial reckoning,” and that it’s affecting how he perceives his role in the community. “As a person of color, as a first-generation American, and as a gay man, equality, justice and equity aren’t mere abstractions, but concrete intentions,” he adds. “They’ve been forever at the forefront of my mind.” Through LGBTQ-supportive work both in and out of the department — sensitivity training, policies about how to relate to transgender or nonconforming arrestees and more — Samuel believes he’s in a good position to make change. “Our queer siblings need to know that the Gay Officers Action League, a fraternal organization of gays in law enforcement, will continue serving as an advocate for our community and a conscience for the Department,” he says.

 

(Senior Police Officer Greg Abbink, Austin Police Department)

Greg Abbink of Austin, Texas, struggled for most of his life with his gender identity and says that he’s finally found his place in law enforcement, where he transitioned publicly in 2015, after a decade on the job. “It was amazing,” he says of how he was received. “I know that’s not always the case, but I felt very safe.” Abbink, who says his wife has been incredible through his transition, says he found his way to policing through the advice of a high school guidance counselor during a painful adolescence. “I grew up in a very conservative family, and so little was known or ever spoken about, so my family assumed I was a tomboy,” he recalls. “I didn’t have any role models… So, I just struggled internally with it for 39 years. Finally, my nephew came out as trans, at 17, and that just gave me the courage… That was my push.” After coming out to his colleagues, his department sent him to San Francisco to train with a transgender officer there. He returned armed with information to share with incoming cadets about how to interact “with more empathy” with trans and gender nonconforming folks. He’s practiced what he’s preached many times — most notably by connecting with a transgender youth during a volunteer gig at a local foster home, and continuing to mentor him. “I’ve been like a father figure, because he has no family,” he says. “Hopefully, I’ve been a role model who is transgender and who is successful and positive and living the American dream.” This August he’ll march, as in past years, with the Lesbian and Gay Peace Officers Association. “We in the LGBTQ [policing] community are asking that people be authentic, in all settings,” he says, “allowing members of the community to see us beyond our uniforms and badge — and to see us as human beings.”

^ It's sad to see people who claim to be for inclusion of all exclude Police (even Gay and Lesbian Police Officers.) I guess they (those who are excluding the Cops) would rather believe in generalizations than seeing the actual Person. I wonder if they (those who are excluding the Cops) would want Cops or just Heterosexuals in General to believe in generalizations about Homosexuals rather than seeing the actual Person. You can't have it both ways. You are either for inclusion for all or you are a bigot (whether you are Homosexual or Heterosexual.) Any Pride Event that excludes a group is not one that any person should be proud of. ^

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/lbgtq-cops-pride-organizers-stop-seeing-us-as-the-enemy-141055197.html

Rudy Suspended

From Yahoo/Reuters:

“Rudy Giuliani is suspended from law practice over Trump, election comments”

Rudy Giuliani was suspended from law practice in New York state on Thursday, after a state appeals court found he had lied in arguing that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from his client, former U.S. President Donald Trump. The Appellate Division in Manhattan said there was "uncontroverted" evidence that Giuliani "communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public" in connection with Trump's effort to overturn the election's result. "These false statements were made to improperly bolster (Giuliani's) narrative that due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from his client," the court said. "We conclude that respondent's conduct immediately threatens the public interest and warrants interim suspension from the practice of law." The interim suspension takes effect immediately, pending further proceedings before an attorney grievance committee. Neither Giuliani nor his lawyer Bob Costello immediately responded to requests for comment.

^ This just continues Giuliani’s fall from grace. 20 years ago (in 2001) I saw him as a powerful Mayor who brought New York City and the United States together at a horrible time. Today he is just a punchline of many jokes that I don’t take seriously anymore. ^

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rudolph-giuliani-suspended-law-practice-152949938.html

Evacuate Afghans

From Military.com:

“Calls Grow to Evacuate Afghans to Guam as US Troops Leave”

(In this Friday, April 30, 2021, file photo former Afghan interpreters hold banners during a protest against the U.S. government and NATO in Kabul, Afghanistan.)

In the chaotic, final hours of the Vietnam War, the U.S. evacuated thousands of South Vietnamese who supported the American mission and were at risk under the communist government. As U.S. and NATO forces prepare to depart Afghanistan by Sept. 11, many are recalling that desperate, hasty exodus as they urge the Biden administration to evacuate thousands of Afghans who worked as interpreters or otherwise helped U.S. military operations there in the past two decades.

Despite unusual bipartisan support in Congress, the administration hasn't agreed to such a move, declining to publicly support something that could undermine security in the country as it unwinds a war that started after the 9/11 attacks. “We have a moral obligation to protect our brave allies who put their lives on the line for us, and we’ve been working for months to engage the administration and make sure there’s a plan, with few concrete results,” Republican Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan said during a House hearing last week. Lawmakers have urged the administration to consider temporarily relocating Afghans who worked for American or NATO forces to a safe overseas location while their U.S. visas are processed. Some have suggested Guam, a U.S. territory that served a similar purpose after the Vietnam War. Kurdish refugees also were flown to the Pacific island in 1996 after the Gulf War.

Guam's governor recently wrote to President Joe Biden to say the territory was ready to help if needed. The Biden administration for now is focusing on accelerating a special visa program for Afghans who helped U.S. operations and pouring resources into relieving the backlog. “We are processing and getting people out at a record pace,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. “We are working with Congress right now to streamline some of the requirements that slow this process down and we’re doing the kind of extensive planning for potential evacuation, should that become necessary.” Zalmay Khalilzad, the State Department’s special representative for Afghanistan reconstruction, warned lawmakers in May that “the departure of all educated Afghans" would "signal panic" and hurt the morale of the country's security forces. “This is a delicate, complicated balance that we have to keep," Khalilzad said. Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado recently introduced legislation that would nearly double the number of visas available this year, to 8,000, and ease eligibility requirements. But he said congressional action will not be quick enough or sufficient.

Even if the legislation passed immediately, the number of visas would fall far short of the estimated 18,000 Afghans waiting to be processed. That figure does not include their spouses and children, who would bring the total to about 70,000 people. And the average wait is more than three years. The process has been also hampered by the coronavirus pandemic, which led the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan to suspend visa interviews. Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan, said he prefers the government “evacuate our Afghan partners to a temporary evacuation site where we can safely conduct robust visa processing without threat to applicants’ safety by the Taliban.” In a statement this month, the Taliban vowed not to attack those who worked for Western interests, urging Afghans to remain at home and warning their ranks against revenge killings. Still, many Afghans are desperate for a visa, fearing violence not only from the Taliban but heavily armed warlords allied with the U.S. and seeing now as their last chance to leave Afghanistan.

The American withdrawal began May 1, when the number of U.S. troops was between 2,500 and 3,500, and could be completed by July 4. Some 7,000 NATO forces are set to leave by Sept. 11. Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine said the government needs to find a “creative” approach to helping Afghans who worked with the U.S. military. That could include sending more people from the State Department or the military to process visas in Afghanistan or evacuating people to a safe place to be vetted. “It’s not only a moral issue, it’s a national security issue,” said King, who sits on both the Intelligence and Armed Services committees, adding that “we also have a practical responsibility, in terms of do we want people to help us in the future?”

More than 300 interpreters have been killed in Afghanistan since 2016, according to No One Left Behind, an organization that advocates on their behalf. Former Army Maj. Matt Zeller said a military evacuation is the only viable option for thousands of Afghans facing threats who have been protected by the presence of U.S. troops. “I’m only alive because my Afghan, Muslim translator saved my life by killing two Taliban fighters who were about to kill me in a battle," said Zeller, whose interpreter waited three years for a visa.

The U.S. government should have learned from what happened in Vietnam, said Jim Jones, a Vietnam veteran and former Idaho Supreme Court chief justice. Initially fearing a mass evacuation would undermine the South Vietnamese military, the U.S. watched for weeks as the North Vietnamese Army overtook South Vietnam before starting to fly out Americans and allies. The effort ended with the largest helicopter evacuation in history in the final hours of the war. In less than 24 hours, Marine helicopters airlifted about 7,000 U.S. military personnel, South Vietnamese who supported the American mission and their dependents. Many South Vietnamese soldiers and government officials left behind were killed or held in “reeducation" camps. They included troops who had helped Jones stay alive as an Army artillery officer. “We had a moral obligation to extract as many as possible but, instead, we abandoned them to a horrific fate,” Jones wrote in the Military Times. “We simply cannot allow that kind of tragedy to happen again with the Afghans. I pray that this great nation does not again turn its back on beleaguered people who placed their trust in us.”

Pentagon leaders say they are ready to help in any way they can and downplayed concerns that history will repeat itself. “I don’t see Saigon 1975 in Afghanistan," Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently told lawmakers.

^ Those who say they don't see 1975 Saigon in 2021 Kabul are right. The last American Combat Troops left South Vietnam in April 1973 and the North Vietnamese Communists didn't take over Saigon or the rest of South Vietnam until April 1975. The Taliban already control most of Afghanistan outside of Kabul (and are constantly murdering people and bombing places even before the Americans leave) so once the Americans leave Afghanistan by September 11, 2021 it won't take 2 years for the Taliban to re-take Kabul or re-take all of Afghanistan and deny Women's and Minority's Rights there - not to mention murdering anyone who helped the Americans (the North Vietnamese Communists sent anyone who helped the French or the Americans to re-education camps well into the 1990s where many died or simply disappeared.) The US has promised to relocate anyone who helped them, but they have done very little to do so and there’s only 2 months left. ^

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/06/23/calls-grow-evacuate-afghans-guam-us-troops-leave.html

Split On Stalin

From the MT:

“Russians, Ukrainians Split on Views of Stalin – Poll”

Russians and Ukrainians hold starkly different opinions of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin as a leader, according to surveys conducted in the two ex-Soviet countries that were published Wednesday. Russia’s independent polling agency Levada Center said 56% of Russian respondents agreed with the statement that “Stalin was a great leader.” The share of Russians who view Stalin as a great leader has grown twofold in the five years since this question was last asked in 2016.  But only 16% of Ukrainians polled by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) shared the same view when asked whether Stalin was a great leader. The share of those who disagree that Stalin was a great leader was inversely proportional at 14% of Russians and 40% of Ukrainians. “Respect, indifference and sympathy toward Stalin prevail in Russia, while among Ukrainians it’s indifference and negative feelings,” Levada said.

When asked to share their feelings, 45% of Russian respondents said they respect Stalin (up from 29% in 2018), followed by 28% who said they felt indifferent and 10% sympathetic (up from 6% in 2019). The most popular answers among Ukrainian respondents were indifference (34%) and disgust and hatred (17%), as well as dislike and irritation. Levada conducted the survey among 1,620 Russians between May 20-26 and KIIS among 2,007 Ukrainians between June 8-9.

^ The way Stalin is being taught across Russia (as a great leader who did no wrong) means the majority of Russians will think of him favorably – they are only being taught one side of what he did. The majority of Ukrainians (except those in Russian-occupied Crimea and the Donbas) have access to the truth and so hold a different view of Stalin.  ^

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/06/23/russians-ukrainians-split-on-views-of-stalin-poll-a74306

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day

 Fête nationale du Québec (Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day)

Held annually on 24 June, the Fête nationale du Québec (formerly known as Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day) has been a statutory holiday in Québec since 1925. Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day has been celebrated in North America since the early days of New France. Originally a religious celebration, it took a more patriotic turn in 1834 with Ludger Duvernay. The first Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day parade took place in Montréal in 1843. Since 1984, the Mouvement national des Québécoises et Québécois (MNQ) has organized the festivities of the Fête nationale du Québec. Various francophone communities across Canada also celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day.

Origins of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day:   Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day originated from celebrations of the summer solstice, an ancient pagan tradition in which fires were lit to celebrate light on the longest day of the year. In France, the Roman Catholic Church adapted this holiday and associated it with John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus.  The tradition of lighting the Saint-Jean fire to mark the beginning of summer was brought to New France in 1646. In 1694, Mgr de Saint-Vallierdeclared it a public holiday dedicated to devotion. Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day continued to be celebrated after the Conquest, but it was not until 1834 that it took on the political tone it still has today.  On 8 March 1834, Ludger Duvernay, editor of the newspaper La Minerve (an important publication in Lower Canada and voice of the Patriotes), founded the organization Aide-toi et le ciel t’aidera (help yourself and Heaven will help you) together with George-Étienne Cartier, then a law student, and Louis-Victor Sicotte. This organization, the name of which was a reference to a revolutionary secret society founded in France in 1827, foreshadowed the Fils de la Liberté and was a sort of ancestor of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste. The organization aimed to create a national holiday for French Canadians and organize celebrations to go along with it, similar to how the Irish in Montréal had celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a parade since 1824.  On 24 June 1834, Duvernay invited a number of prominent Montrealers to the first Saint-Jean-Baptiste banquet at the home of lawyer John MacDonnell. The event was above all a political affair, attended by roughly sixty francophones and anglophones (including member of the assembly Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, future lawyer and premier of the Province of Canada George-Étienne Cartier, mayor of Montréal Jacques Viger and Dr. Edmund O’Callaghan). Guests toasted to the Ninety-Two Resolutions, the United States, and the reformists of Lower and Upper Canada and of Ireland. In reports following the banquet, several journalists encouraged people to publicly celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste the following year; such celebrations likely took place in many villages.  However, the events of the 1837–1838 rebellions forced Duvernay and several other Patriotes into exile. Upon returning to Canada in 1842, Duvernay quickly revived the Saint-Jean-Baptiste celebrations, emphasizing that French Canadians needed to stay united more than ever. Thus, on 9 June 1843, the Association Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal was created as a result of Ludger Duvernay’s efforts, and on 24 June, Montréal held its first Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day parade, a tradition that continues to this day.

A Celebration of Religion and Identity:   In the beginning, Saint-Jean festivities consisted of a banquet, a Mass, the distribution of consecrated bread and a parade. Members of Saint-Jean-Baptiste societies marched in the procession; over time, it expanded to include a variety of other cultural organizations (such as the Institut canadien), professional orders (members of the Québec Bar, physicians, etc.) and trade associations, and students. For the occasion, shops and homes displayed the symbols of Saint-Jean-Baptiste societies: the maple leaf and the beaver. The patriotic song “Ô Canada! mon pays! mes amours!” (written by George-Étienne Cartier and performed for the first time during the second Saint-Jean-Baptiste banquet in 1835), as well as the popular “Vive la Canadienne” served as national anthems for a long time. Additionally, “O Canada,” which would officially become the national anthem of the country in 1980, was heard for the first time during Saint-Jean celebrations in Québec City in 1880. 

 Given the pervasiveness of the Roman Catholic Church in French Canadian society, the holiday had a marked association with St. John the Baptist from the beginning. St. John the Baptist was personified by a curly-haired child holding a sheep in the last float of the parade. However, it was not until 1908 that St. John the Baptist officially became the patron saint of French Canadians. The figures of Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, and an Aboriginal person, also portrayed by children, also featured in many parades in the 19th century. Over time, characters representing New France and famous Canadians were also added.

Each year, Saint-Jean-Baptiste celebrations were organized throughout the province. The largest ones, however, were held in Québec City and Montréal. Officially recognized by the Legislative Assembly of Québec in 1925, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day became a statutory holiday that year. In 1947, the Saint-Jean-Baptiste societies of Québec formed a federation, which hastened to campaign in favour of adopting the fleur-de-lys as the province’s flag. Consequently, on 21 January 1948, Québec adopted an official flag (see Fleur-de-lys) that soon became a rallying symbol in Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day celebrations.

During the 1960s and 1970s, which were turbulent years for Québec, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day became less about religion and more focused on culture, art and unity. In June 1972, the Fédération des Sociétés Saint-Jean-Baptiste du Québec became the Mouvement national des Québécois (MNQ). The holiday, seen as a time for national unity, also served as a platform for artists and politicians. Political leaders joined the parade, occasionally causing stirs in the crowd, and sovereigntists used it as an opportunity to champion their cause. In 1975, Gilles Vigneault first performed his song “Gens du pays,” an anthem to the people of Québec that has played a key role in the holiday and in Québécois culture ever since.

Fête nationale du Québec:   On 24 June 1977, the government of René Lévesque renamed Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day the Fête nationale du Québec, definitively distancing it from religion. In the 1980s and 1990s, celebrations became highly politicized in the wake of the first and second referendums on Québec sovereignty (see: Québec Referendum (1980); Québec Referendum (1995)). Over time, the Fête nationale has welcomed the various communities that make up Québec society and embraced their cultural and artistic contributions.  To commemorate the religious holiday of long ago, Masses are still held the morning of 24 June and during the Solstice des Nations, a traditional ceremony held as part of National Aboriginal Day on 21 June. The embers from the Friendship Fire held during the event are then used to light a large bonfire on the Plains of Abraham, in Québec City, on the night of 23 June.  It is with renewed enthusiasm, year after year, that the people of Québec celebrate their national holiday with more than 750 celebrations held across the province on 23 and 24 June. Organized by nearly 20,000 volunteers, the festivities of the Fête nationale include more than 1,050 events and 360 bonfires, in addition to some of the largest public gatherings in Québec.

Outside Québec:    A number of francophone communities outside Québec also celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. It plays a large part in the annual Franco-Ontarian Festival in Ottawa and is also celebrated in Eastern Ontario, in many towns in Northern Ontario (such as Hearst and Kapuskasing), in Acadia and in several Franco-Manitoban communities. A number of British Columbian francophone associations (including those of Kamloops, Vancouver, Maillardville, Nelson and Victoria) also organize Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day festivities. Outside of Canada, Québec’s delegations in Paris, New York, London, Brussels, Mexico City and Tokyo hold celebrations as well.

 

Fête nationale du Québec (Fête de la Saint-Jean)

Célébrée le 24 juin de chaque année, la Fête nationale du Québec (anciennement appelée la Saint-Jean-Baptiste) est un jour férié au Québec depuis 1925. En Amérique du Nord, la Saint-Jean-Baptiste est célébrée depuis les débuts de la Nouvelle-France. À l’origine une fête de dévotion, elle prend une tangente patriotique à partir de 1834 avec Ludger Duvernay. Le premier défilé de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste a lieu à Montréal en 1843. Depuis 1984, les célébrations de la Fête nationale du Québec sont organisées par le Mouvement national des Québécois et des Québécoises (MNQ). On célèbre aussi la Saint-Jean-Baptiste dans les différentes communautés francophones du Canada.

Origines de la Saint-Jean:    La fête de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste tire ses origines des célébrations du solstice d’été, une très ancienne coutume païenne voulant que des feux soient allumés pour célébrer la lumière à l’occasion de la plus longue journée de l’année. En France, l’Église catholique récupère cette fête et y associe la figure de Jean le Baptiste, cousin de Jésus.  La tradition d’allumer le feu de la Saint-Jean pour marquer le début de l’été est transposée en Nouvelle-France dès 1646. En 1694, Mgr de Saint-Vallier en fait une fête chômée vouée à la dévotion. La Saint-Jean continue d’être célébrée après la Conquête, mais ce n’est qu’en 1834 qu’elle prend une couleur politique qu’elle conservera jusqu’à nos jours.  Le 8 mars 1834, Ludger Duvernay, l’éditeur du journal La Minerve (importante publication au Bas-Canada et voix du Parti patriote) fonde la société Aide-toi et le ciel t’aidera en compagnie de George-Étienne Cartier, alors étudiant en droit, et de Louis-Victor Sicotte. Cette société, dont le nom rappelle une organisation secrète et révolutionnaire fondée en France en 1827, annonce celle des Fils de la liberté et est en quelque sorte l’ancêtre de la Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste. L’organisation se donne pour objectif de doter les Canadiens français d’une fête nationale et d’en organiser les célébrations, comme le font les Irlandais de Montréal depuis 1824 avec le défilé de la Saint-Patrick.  Le 24 juin 1834, Duvernay convie certains notables de Montréal à un premier banquet de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste chez l’avocat John MacDonnell. Lors de cette soirée, qui est avant tout une fête politique réunissant une soixantaine de francophones et d’anglophones (dont le député Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, le futur avocat et premier ministre du Canada-Uni George-Étienne Cartier, le maire de Montréal Jacques Viger et le Dr Edmund O’Callaghan), les convives lèvent leur verre aux 92 résolutions, aux États-Unis, aux réformistes du Bas et du Haut-Canada et à ceux d’Irlande. Dans le compte rendu de ce banquet, plusieurs journalistes incitent la population à fêter publiquement la Saint-Jean-Baptiste l’année suivante, ce qui fut vraisemblablement le cas dans nombre de villages.  Toutefois, les événements des rébellions de 1837-1838 forcent Duvernay et plusieurs Patriotes à l’exil. De retour au Canada en 1842, Duvernay s’empresse de faire revivre les célébrations de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste, soulignant que les Canadiens français doivent plus que jamais rester unis. C’est ainsi que le 9 juin 1843, l’Association Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal est créée à l’initiative de Ludger Duvernay et que le 24 juin suivant, Montréal tient son premier défilé de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste, une tradition qui se perpétue.

Une fête religieuse et identitaire:     À leurs débuts, les célébrations de la Saint-Jean comprennent un banquet, une messe, la distribution de pain bénit et un défilé. La procession rassemble les membres des sociétés Saint-Jean-Baptiste, auxquels s’ajoutent avec le temps ceux de divers organismes culturels (comme l’Institut canadien), d’ordres professionnels (membres du Barreau du Québec, médecins, etc.) et de corps de métier, de même que des étudiants. Pour l’occasion, les magasins et les maisons arborent les symboles des sociétés Saint-Jean-Baptiste, la feuille d’érable et le castor. La chanson patriotique « Ô Canada, mon pays, mes amours! » (composée par George-Étienne Cartier et interprétée pour la première fois lors du deuxième banquet de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste en 1835), de même que la populaire « Vive la Canadienne», font pendant longtemps office d’hymnes nationaux. Par ailleurs, c’est lors des célébrations de la Saint-Jean à Québec en 1880 qu’est entonné pour la première fois le « Ô Canada », qui deviendra officiellement l’hymne national du pays en 1980.

Étant donné l’omniprésence de l’Église catholique dans la société canadienne-française, l’association de la fête avec saint Jean le Baptiste est marquée dès ses premières éditions. Celui-ci est personnifié par un enfant à la chevelure frisée, tenant un mouton et prenant place dans le dernier char allégorique du défilé. Toutefois, ce n’est qu’en 1908 que saint Jean le Baptiste devient officiellement le patron des Canadiens-français. Les figures de Jacques Cartier, d’un Français et d’un Autochtone, également incarnées par des enfants, sont aussi mises de l’avant lors de nombreux défilés au XIXᵉ siècle. Au fil du temps, des personnages de la Nouvelle-France et des Canadiens illustres s’ajoutent au tableau.

Chaque année, des célébrations de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste sont organisées un peu partout dans la province. Toutefois, c’est à Québec et à Montréal qu’ont lieu les plus importantes. Officiellement reconnue par l’Assemblée législative du Québec en 1925, cette fête devient dès lors un jour férié. En 1947, les sociétés Saint-Jean-Baptiste du Québec forment une fédération, qui s’empresse de mener une campagne en faveur de l’adoption du fleurdelisé comme drapeau pour la province. Ainsi, le 21 janvier 1948, le Québec se dote d’un drapeau officiel (voir Fleur de lys) qui devient vite un symbole de ralliement lors des fêtes de la Saint-Jean.

Durant les années 1960-1970, années turbulentes pour le Québec, la fête de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste s’éloigne de son caractère religieux et adopte une mission plus culturelle, artistique et rassembleuse. En juin 1972, la Fédération des Sociétés Saint-Jean-Baptiste du Québec devient le Mouvement national des Québécois (MNQ). La fête, vue comme un grand moment de ralliement national, sert alors de plateforme aux artistes et aux politiciens. Les chefs politiques se mêlent à la parade, causant parfois des remous dans la foule, et les souverainistes en profitent pour faire valoir leur cause. En 1975, Gilles Vigneault y interprète pour la première fois sa chanson « Gens du pays », un hymne aux Québécois qui prend dès lors une place centrale dans la fête et dans la culture québécoise.

La Fête nationale du Québec:     Le 24 juin 1977, le gouvernement de René Lévesque fait de la Saint-Jean la Fête nationale du Québec, l’éloignant pour de bon de son aspect religieux. Dans les années 1980 et 1990, les célébrations prennent d’ailleurs une tangente très politisée, dans la foulée du premier et du deuxième référendum sur la souveraineté du Québec (voir Référendum du Québec de 1980 et Référendum du Québec de 1995). Au fil du temps, la Fête nationale accueille les diverses communautés qui composent la société québécoise et s’ouvre à leur apport culturel et artistique.

Pour commémorer la fête religieuse d’antan, des messes sont encore célébrées le matin du 24 juin et durant le Solstice des Nations, une cérémonie traditionnelle tenue dans le cadre de la Journée nationale des Autochtones le 21 juin. Les braises du Feu de l’amitié organisé à cette occasion servent à allumer un grand feu de joie sur les Plaines d’Abraham, à Québec, le soir du 23 juin.  C’est avec un enthousiasme renouvelé, d’année en année, que les Québécois et Québécoises célèbrent leur journée nationale dans le cadre de plus de 750 fêtes tenues un peu partout dans la province les 23 et 24 juin. Mises sur pied par près de 20 000 bénévoles, les célébrations de la Fête nationale offrent plus de 1050 spectacles et 360 feux de joie et certains des plus grands rassemblements populaires au Québec.

Rayonnement hors Québec:    Plusieurs communautés francophones hors Québec célèbrent aussi la Saint-Jean-Baptiste. Notamment au cœur du Festival franco-ontarien qui se déroule chaque année à Ottawa, elle est aussi fêtée dans l’Est ontarien, dans de nombreuses villes du nord de l’Ontario (comme Hearst et Kapuskasing) ainsi qu’en Acadie et dans plusieurs communautés franco-manitobaines. Plusieurs associations francophones de la Colombie-Britannique (dont Kamloops, Vancouver, Maillardville, Nelson et Victoria) organisent également des festivités autour de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste. Même à l’étranger, les différentes délégations du Québec à Paris, New York, Londres, Bruxelles, Mexico et Tokyo la célèbrent.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/la-fete-nationale-du-quebec-saint-jean-baptiste-day

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/fr/article/la-fete-nationale-du-quebec-fete-de-la-saint-jean

Fête de la Saint-Jean

 

Recall Official

From News Nation:

“California Gov. Gavin Newsom will officially face recall election”

After weeks of validating signatures, the California secretary of state has confirmed there were enough valid responses to go forward with a gubernatorial recall election. Only 43 of the 1.7 million signatures were deemed invalid, according to a news release from the secretary of state’s office. The recall election will likely be in the fall. If Newsom survives the race he will be up for re-election in 2022. Among the most prominent Republicans running to replace Newsom are former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner, who has never run for elected office. Businessman John Cox, who lost badly to Newsom in 2018, and former Congressman Doug Ose, also are running.

Newsom is also facing criticism for overstating wildfire prevention work completed by his administration, according to a Capital Public Radio investigation released Wednesday. State fire officials have treated less than 18 of the 140 square miles that the Democratic governor has touted, the radio station reported. The land is part of 35 priority projects Newsom designated in 2019 on the heels of the deadliest wildfire season in state history. In 2020, California’s fuel reduction efforts also dropped from the year before, and Newsom cut the fire prevention budget by $150 million, CapRadio reported.

The governor’s office declined to comment on the investigation, and state fire officials took responsibility for Newsom sharing inaccurate information. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection had not “done our job in educating the public, nor the governor’s office” on how to communicate about the efforts, Chief Tom Porter said. Republican lawmakers and those challenging Newsom in an expected recall election later this year quickly jumped on the story as evidence of mismanagement and deceptive governing. “It’s clear that Gov. Gavin Newsom has our state woefully unprepared for fire season,” former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said in a video posted on Twitter. “It’s time to have a governor that’s going to take it seriously, not stand up and say one thing and do another.” State Assemblyman Vince Fong, the top Republican on the Assembly’s budget committee, called for an oversight hearing into the radio station’s findings.

In 2003, voters recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s the only other recall of a California governor to qualify for the ballot. Newsom won election in 2018 with support from more than 60% of voters. Recalling him will be a tough sell in the heavily Democratic state where just a quarter of the state’s registered voters are Republicans, about the same number as those who identify as “no party preference.” But organizers see an opening by energizing voters who were angered by Newsom’s handling of the pandemic and those frustrated by one-party rule in Sacramento. Republicans have not won statewide office since 2006, when voters gave Schwarzenegger a second term.

^ Here’s hoping Newsom gets kicked out of office this Fall. ^

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/west/california-gov-gavin-newsom-will-officially-face-recall-election/

Queen's Money

 From the BBC:

“Royal finances: Where does the Queen get her money?”

The Royal Family has opened its books to show how the Queen spent her money last year.

What does the Queen receive from the government? The Queen is given a single payment by the government every year called the Sovereign Grant. Last year this was set at £85.9m - the equivalent of £1.29 per person in the UK.

What is the Sovereign Grant spent on? It is used by the Queen and other members of the Royal Family to pay for official royal duties. It also covers the upkeep of occupied royal palaces: Buckingham Palace, St James's Palace, Kensington Palace, the Royal Mews and Royal Paddocks at Hampton Court and Windsor Castle. Last year, £51.5m was spent on official duties - including staff wages and travel - and property maintenance. The remaining £34.4m went on the on-going refurbishment of Buckingham Palace.

Where does money for the Sovereign Grant come from? The payment is based on the profits of the Crown Estate, a property business owned by the monarch but run independently. Among its holdings are Regent Street in London and the Ascot racecourse in Berkshire. The Crown Estate is controlled by a management board whose main duty is to maintain and enhance the value of the property "for the benefit of the nation's finances". It is not the private property of the Queen - it merely belongs to the monarch for the duration of their reign. This means the Queen can't sell the Crown Estate or keep the revenue for herself.

What's the history of the Crown Estate? Crown Estate was originally the name for lands owned by the   - it dates from the time of the Norman Conquest. In 1760, King George III reached an agreement with the government to surrender his income from the Crown Estate. In return, it was agreed that the King (and his successors) would receive a fixed annual payment - originally known as the Civil List. The Civil List was replaced in 2010 by the Sovereign Grant.

How is the Sovereign Grant calculated? Normally, the Queen receives 15% of the Crown Estate profits from the previous two years. However, it was agreed that from 2017 she would receive 25% for the next 10 years. This is to help pay for a £369m refurbishment of Buckingham Palace. If any Sovereign Grant money is unspent in a given year, the left-over amount goes into a reserve fund. Last year, £2.3m was used from the reserve for the work on the Buckingham Palace refurbishments.

What happens if the Crown Estate's profits fall? If the Crown Estate's profits fall, the Queen still receives the same grant as the previous year. This means the Queen would be allowed to receive more than 25% of the Crown Estate's profits. This rule was created in a law called the Sovereign Grant Act 2011.

How else does the Royal Family receive money? As well as the Sovereign Grant, the Queen also receives private income from the Queen's Privy Purse, which is passed down from monarch to monarch. This is the money from another private estate - known as the Duchy of Lancaster - which covers over 18,000 hectares of land. It includes areas like Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as property in central London. In the year ending March 2020, the Duchy of Lancaster made a profit of just over £23m. The Queen also has an income through properties such as Sandringham and Balmoral, which she owns personally. According to the government, the Queen voluntarily pays tax on her private income and the income from the Duchy of Lancaster.

What about security? Some argue that the true cost of the Royal Family is far higher. That's because the Sovereign Grant isn't used to pay for security, which is usually picked up by the Metropolitan Police. Republic - an organisation which campaigns for an elected head of state - estimates that the total yearly cost of the monarchy, once security is factored in, is several times higher than the Sovereign Grant. However, other organisations - such as the consultancy Brand Finance - say that security and other costs are outweighed by what the monarchy contributes to the economy each year, such as boosting tourism.

^ It’s important for British Citizens and other Commonwealth Citizens (like myself) to know and understand how the Monarchy works and that includes the financial aspect. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-57559653

Residential Questions

From the CBC:

“Your questions answered about Canada's residential school system”

The discovery of what is believed to be the remains of 215 children at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., has stunned Canadians and renewed focus on what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a "dark and shameful chapter of our country's history." It is also another reminder for Indigenous peoples living in Canada of a painful history they've known about all along. The Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation said last week that preliminary findings from a ground-penetrating radar survey at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School detected the remains, a confirmation of what the community already understood from oral history.  Since the news broke, CBC readers have reached out with questions about Canada's residential school system and its aftermath. Below are answers to some of your questions.

How many children were forced to attend these schools? More than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend church-run, government-funded schools between the 1870s and 1997. An amendment to the Indian Act in 1894 made attendance at residential schools compulsory. Children were removed from their families and culture and forced to learn English, embrace Christianity and adopt the customs of the country's white majority. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation examining residential schools has identified the names of, or information about, more than 4,100 children who died while attending these schools, most due to malnourishment or disease. Former senator Murray Sinclair, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) examining residential schools, has said he believes the death count could be much higher because of the schools' poor burial records.

How many schools were there? Where are they? The Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) has recognized 139 residential schools across Canada. However, this number excludes schools that operated without federal support, such as those run solely by religious orders or provincial governments. The 139 schools operated in all Canadian provinces and territories except Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. (There were residential schools in N.L., but they weren't included in the IRSSA.) In 1931, at the peak of the residential school system, there were about 80 schools operating in the country.  The last one to close, in 1997, was Kivalliq Hall in Rankin Inlet, in what's now Nunavut. (It only became a IRSSA-recognized school in 2019, which is why earlier accounts describe the last school closing in 1996.)

Who is being held accountable? Many of the children at residential schools were physically, sexually or psychologically abused in a system described by the TRC in its landmark 2015 report as cultural genocide. In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a formal apology in the House of Commons on behalf of the government of Canada over residential schools and the damage they did to Indigenous people. The apology came nine months after the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement took effect. The comprehensive class-action settlement — which involved survivors, the federal government and churches that ran the schools — included the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It also included financial compensation, which took two forms: a common experience payment for all students who attended the schools, and an independent assessment process to adjudicate claims from students who had suffered abuse at the schools. More than $3 billion has been paid to 28,000 victims of residential school abuse, according to a report released this past March.

What has the Vatican said or done about this? The Catholic Church operated roughly 70 per cent of Canada's residential schools, including the Kamloops residential school from 1890 to 1969 before it was taken over by the federal government to serve as a local day school until 1978. While other churches, like the Anglican and United churches, have formally apologized for their roles in the residential school system, the Catholic Church has so far refused to do the same. The closest it came was in 2009, when Pope Benedict XVI expressed "sorrow" for some of the "deplorable" conduct of church members. In 2018, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said Pope Francis "felt that he could not personally respond" to the request for an apology for residential schools. However, many individual Catholic church leaders in Canada have made apologies, both before and after the discovery in Kamloops. The Catholic Church has also refused to release many of its residential school documents, which could shed light on unmarked burial sites, citing privacy laws. Meanwhile, NDP MP Charlie Angus, the party's critic for Indigenous youth, says the church has dodged paying survivors compensation. As part of the IRSSA, Catholic groups were required to pay tens of millions of dollars — $29 million in cash to the now-defunct Aboriginal Healing Foundation, $25 million in "in-kind" services, and to use their "best efforts" to fundraise $25 million for healing programs. However, a controversial court ruling in 2015 let the groups off the hook after they raised only about $4 million of the $25-million goal.

Is there an inquiry? The TRC released 94 calls to action in its landmark 2015 report, including a section on missing children and burial grounds. It called on the federal government to work with churches, Indigenous communities and former students "to establish and maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries, including, where possible, plot maps showing the location of deceased residential school children." Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said Wednesday the government already earmarked some $33 million in its 2019 budget to implement the TRC's burial-related recommendations. However, little of that money has been spent so far, with $27 million still available. Bennett said the money "will be distributed on an urgent basis" in partnership with the Winnipeg-based National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and Indigenous communities that have site searches planned or underway.

Are other schools being investigated now? The TRC concluded in its 2015 report that the bodies of the majority of students who died at the schools were not returned to their home communities. The commission has records of 51 children dying at Kamloops Indian Residential School. In light of the recent discovery, Trudeau has pledged federal support in preserving grave sites and uncovering potentially more unmarked burial grounds at other former residential schools. However, he and his ministers have stressed the need for Indigenous communities to decide for themselves how they want to proceed. Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said Wednesday that Ottawa is "walking at the pace of communities" and is intent on developing culturally appropriate protocols to honour the lost children.

Where are the leaders of these schools now? The University of British Columbia said this week it is reviewing an honorary degree given to the now-deceased Catholic bishop, John Fergus O'Grady, who served as principal of the former Kamloops residential school. The discovery in Kamloops has also increased calls across Canada for cities and institutions to rescind honours given to those who were involved in setting up the residential school system. In P.E.I., a statue of John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, was removed following a vote by Charlottetown city council. Toronto's Ryerson University is being urged to change its name and remove a statue of Egerton Ryerson from its campus. The university's school of journalism has already stated it will rename two of its publications. Meanwhile, Calgary's board of education has passed a motion to rename Langevin School, which is named after Hector-Louis Langevin, one of the Fathers of Confederation who is considered an architect of the residential school system. Support is available for anyone affected by their experience at residential schools, and those who are triggered by the latest reports.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.

^ The more I learn about these Residential Schools the more I see the pure evil that many non-Indigenous Canadians (not just Government Officials, but Educators, Priests and Ordinary People) had. They abused their faith and abused these children (at least mentally if not physically.) These schools were in operation until 1996 so there is no excuse of “it’s well in the past” since it has only been 25 years in some cases. Anyone who participated in the running of these schools from the top-down needs to be held accountable for the maltreatment and discrimination. The students who survived or the families of those who did not survive need to be compensated for their years of forced torture (I do believe in Reparations when there are direct survivors or immediate family of the victims still alive.) ^

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-residential-schools-kamloops-faq-1.6051632