So I'm sure many people are aware of how much I fawn over Calgary. I'm pretty sure that I've already sickened a large group of people during my time in Red Deer and Edmonton with my Calgary-centric philosophy. But I will also be the first person to admit that the city I know and love has it's own set of individuals that make George W. Bush look like Sir Isaac Newton.
As part of my work, I was out leading a group of youth volunteering at a community event in the city. Boy, was I happy as a duck when this event was occurring at the neighbourhood next door! The sun was out, and I enjoyed my half-hour stroll in the morning to spend some time with a great group of youngn's.
After my arrival, I took attendance and made sure every volunteer was there, as usual. I was missing a few, who I figured were just running late. A few others showed up, but I was still missing one. I learn from my other volunteers that he had been there earlier. A lady in her sixties had been asking my underage volunteers some creepy questions before I got there and was last seen talking to him.
This lady was Helen Mowat - a candidate for Public School Board Trustee in my dear old city (Wards 12 & 14, to be exact for my poli-friends).
After piecing everything together and finding the event's coordinator...
[Due to certain legal and/or contractual obligations, I will not be mentioning the details of the foreshadowed event.]
...and the staff and I were in crisis mode when the issue resolved itself! After discussing the issue at length with the lady and getting both sides, I was shocked to hear that she kept pinning fault on the young man. Of course, my head is spinning from this exhibition of maturity from a woman who clearly had more life-experience than many others at the event. I was already a seething sausage at this point, which I made evident to her with my emotive face. She then changed the subject and the following conversation took place:
Lady: "I have a question for you: do you know Nenshi?"
Moi: (thinking she meant that I know of Nenshi) "Yes, I do."
Lady: (with an air of condescension that would make Ann Coulter proud) "Oh, yeah. I figured as much."
Moi: (peeved) "And what makes you say that?"
Lady: "Well, you clearly are an Ismaili. You look like him. You people would obviously vote for him."
Moi: "You couldn't be more wrong. I'm not Ismaili. I'm Filipino."
[Awkward pause as I'm about to go back to my volunteers.]
Lady: "Well, I don't think you know much about this, but what do you think of Nenshi wasting our $52 million?" (Sidenote: Our city recently came into a $52 million bonus from taxes and we were given various options on what to use it for. Since the floods, the money has been pledged towards helping off-set the costs of damages and to help those who need it.)
Moi: (too long to type up, but I ramble on about the past and current status of the $52 million and how it's dumb to pay it back to the consumer because we'd only expect a return of $50-$100, nothing like Ralph-bucks. I continue to say that "I am a fan of putting our funds and work towards helping those who need it. I'm biased because I'm involved with a few charities (I list a few of them) and am a believer in their work. I've seen it first-hand.")
Lady: (looking at me in disgust) "Well, you should be careful of these 'charities' you talk about. You never know what they really mean."
Modern day Sophocles right here. After being chastised by myself earlier, the head staff members of the event also gave her quite an earful for her incredulous behaviour, especially for a political hopeful. A quick conference with those same staff members show me that Ms. Mowat was not apologetic for her behaviour in any way, shape or form, and had officially set-off the creep level of the association members to a "MJ" level. A complete ignoramus if you ask me.
Of course, this was not the end of our modern-day hero! She decided to have a go with members of the community at the same event. One actually wrote quite a detailed article about the event, with a mention of my situation as well (which you can view by clicking HERE!).
For the rest of the day, Ms. Mowat continued to accost members of the public and my own volunteers and quickly made herself an unwanted guest. I was really only thankful that she was handing out some pamphlets and business cards, as I had some food stuck in between my teeth that I needed to floss out (with no floss). Ghetto solutions with paper floss is always great. The rest I threw into the bin because I felt that there as no point in recycling crap.
Anyways, I'm not shocked that people are that ignorant. I am shocked, though, that this woman (according to an old site she used in a previous failed attempt at public office) who had worked as a teacher in the past had been so ignorant of the basic respect for any person - for the youth I was with, the authority figures at the event, and even the members of the public.
She was pretty much the witch from Hansel and Gretel. Except running for office.
I'm also disappointed that she was willing to target the idea of "charity" as a whole, and try to pick a fight with the organizations I was involved in. I'm no saint, I'll be the first to admit that, but to be so vain about an opinion like that makes me want to strangle seahorses and punch passing motorcyclists.
AND TO THINK THAT I SUPPORT NENSHI BECAUSE WE HAVE THE SAME SKIN COLOUR IS ALSO REALLY REALLY REALLY DUMB. LIKE REALLY DUMB. I WAS BORN IN A COUNTRY HALFWAY ACROSS THE WORLD FROM HIS.
I facepalmed so hard and mentally imploded from the sheer ignorance seen today that I'm sure I look like JFK's autopsy by now.
Note: Do a quick search of Helen Mowat. Her current site is under construction (ha) but she has a site from a previous campaign. You'd be surprised about what she is into. I've haven't seen such a conspiracy-theory nut since Jesse Ventura ran for office in Minnesota. The difference being that Ventura actually won. Let's hope that stays the same come October.
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