Alberta, a notoriously conservative province (often more graciously referred to as 'entrepreneurial') in Western Canada has just slipped a new law through the provincial legislature known as Bill 44. In essence, what Bill 44 stipulates is that a child's parent has the right to remove their child from the classroom when subjects such as sexuality, sexual orientation, or religion are being addressed by the teacher. Bill 44 passed with almost unanimous support through the Alberta legislature accompanied by an offensively cavalier attitude assumed by those politicians championing its cause. It was widely and openly acknowledged by politicians that the bill did not receive its fair share of debate in the house, and that, in many ways, it was intended as a smoke-and-mirrors distraction from larger economic issues plaguing the province as oil prices remain volatile. I suppose this is what one would call the "Rural Alberta Advantage." Effectively, this bill gives the parent of any child the right to bar that child from an education on some of the issues most central to daily, lived experiences. We're not just talking sex education or religious history. Sex and religion are indelibly tied up with some of the greatest works of art, literature and music that mankind has ever produced. Shakespeare had one of history's greatest potty mouths, and yet his work remains the centre piece of many childrens' introduction to Early Modern culture, the Protestant Reformation and dramatic literature. According to Bill 44, a parent has the right to withdraw a student from a Shakespeare class based on offensive content. I think what galls me the most about the passage of the legislation (outside of its stunningly antiquated approach to changing social climates- this is something I've come to expect from Canada's heartland) is that it gives all power of withdrawal to the parent, and yet it isn't the parent who suffers. The Child is deprived of information that he or she needs to know. It's easy to say "Oh well, their loss if they withdraw their kid." This isn't the case. The child loses out on an education that they deserve and require due to the blind irresponsibility of an ignorant parent. This isn't just irresponsibility on an individual scale, this is short-sighted reactionary politics at its best (or worst?). By depriving a whole generation of kids access to the information they need about things like safe sex, birth control, the need for social equity between genders and sexualities, the histories and agendas of different religious sects, the Alberta government has irreparably damaged the very future of the province. Ignorance is never the answer, and it's only bliss for those savvy to the truth. The shame I feel for even being near a place that would allow such a law to be passed so simply is overwhelming, and it's not often I can say that I'm embarrassed to be Canadian. This is one of those rare occasions.
I would like to say that this is an isolated case; a once-off misfire in the march toward progress. Yet as I look south into the United States, I see the same kind of spiral backward taking shape amid the Proposition 8 debates raging south of the 49th. The fact that there remains a "debate" over the legality or "rightness" of gay marriage is an unsolvable mystery to me. It seems so simple. Marriage is a union of love. If two people feel love for one another, then they should be allowed to sanctify and make official that love through the institution of marriage, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Love is love. People are people. This is precisely why talking about Proposition 8 is a logical impossibility for me. I just can't understand why the fuck people can't simply be married because they are in love. And, call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure that California is the last place on earth with any right to deem any marriage more valid than any other. Overnight celebrity marriages are legit? The thousands of quickie weddings and divorces based not on love, but booze and double-dog-daring are legit? Of course they- they have the complimentary parts to make babies. Who gives a damn if they care for each other in a lasting and committed way? But wait- what if a straight couple chooses not to have a child? Or what if the husband or wife is infertile or sterile, or for some other medical reason, is incapable of conceiving a child? That marriage is no longer valid, according to the procreative destiny argument. But they're straight...so they have the right to marry...right? The lobby against gay marriage, for this precise reason, is incredibly ignorant, locked up in its own semantics, and indebted to an imagined past of a "righteous" nation. The United States was founded on separation of church and state and the equality of all the fundamental civil and social liberties guaranteed and protected by the state. That has not changed. Yet today we see a kind of quasi theocracy forming, gelling around the hateful and moronic rhetoric of a few reprehensible people, and denying the very goals that they claim to champion.
Even further abroad, more signs of a dangerous cultural decline. Iran, for the last several years under the rule of the, for all intents and purposes, crazy Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has just proclaimed the results of this week's federal elections. Against a number of very suspect circumstances and conditions that raise serious questions about the validity of the electoral process, Ahmadinejad was once again proclaimed Iran's president by the Ayatollah Khameni- the nation's highest spiritual leader and ultimate authority on all domestic and foreign concerns. Ahmadinejad has, since being confirmed as the winner of a curious ~60% majority of the popular vote, refused to guarantee the safety of his main rival, Mir Hossein Moussavi, explained the arrest of several dissenting voters and opposition-party members via the thin veil of a "soccer riot," and done absolutely nothing to address the criticisms leveled against him regarding the integrity of the voting process, outside of a few rather arrogant quips in the vein of "Every Iranian is able to cast a vote in our elections." If only every vote counted. Just as in the Prop 8 furor, however, there are glimmers of hope. As Ahmadinejad cracks down on protests throughout the country with tear gas and riot police, shuts down official websites and expels foreign journalists from Iran, those with a hope for a progressive future continue to subvert his extremism and theocratic rule through a number of new media resources, chief among them, Twitter. As one Iranian citizen tweeted earlier today, "If Iran sleeps tonight, Iran will sleep forever."
I try my best to remain positive and put my faith in people. I believe that we can do better for ourselves and each other by working hard and never giving up on something with any shred of hope left. And while I'm spectacularly disheartened by the weakness that this world has shown today, by the stifling arrogance, ignorance and hatred perpetuated by an elite few on a mass demanding equality, I hold out hope. I hope tonight for those fighting in Tehran and throughout Iran, for those rallying across the United States and Canada against legislated hatred, and for those in Alberta who are demanding better, more equitable and open education for their children and a stronger future for their province and country.
Number's aren't my strong suit, and a lot of people can't crunch a data set through a regression formula to save their lives. Talking and marching and demanding better in the name of progress, though, might just do the trick.
