Making a Difference

Overwhelmed with issues such as depletion of our natural resounces, global warming, a failing economy, and an overall sense of hopelessness, it's easy to succumb to negativity and the feeling that there is nothing one can do to make a difference.

Yet...

In the forest there lived a hummingbird, a rabbit, a deer and a bear. The forest was their home until the day the fire broke out. It swallowed up their nests and their homes. The creatures scurried away; the bear ran, the deer leapt, and the rabbit hopped. And the hummingbird flew out of danger's way.
The animals stopped to rest at the edge of the woods by a pond. Without hesitation the little hummingbird filled its beak with water and raced right back towards the fire. Back and forth, and back and forth it went, that little hummingbird, until it was so exhausted it fell to the ground.

"What are you doing?" asked the other animals. The little hummingbird looked up and said:

"I'm doing what I can
With what I have
Where I am."
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Monday, February 8, 2010

The 19th Annual Feb 14th 2010 Womens Memorial March

In January 1991 a woman was murdered on Powell Street in Vancouver. This was the catalyst that moved women into creating an annual Memorial March on Valentine’s Day to express compassion, community, and caring for all women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Coast Salish Territories.

Nineteen years later, the March continues to honour the lives of missing and murdered women. Over 3000 women are known to have gone missing or been murdered in Canada since the 1970s. Last year, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women issued this statement: “Hundreds of cases involving aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in the past two decades have neither been fully investigated nor attracted priority attention.”

This year the Memorial March is scheduled to take place in Vancouver, B.C. during the 2010 Winter Olympics. This is an important annual event which shows that those missing and murdered women are not forgotten

In a show of shameful intimidation tactics, The City of Vancouver and the Olympic Committee insisted that the march be postponed, or cancelled altogether, as it was deemed unsavory during the "Olympics Festivities."

The women of the Memorial March stood their ground in solidarity. They remained true to themselves and to those remembered. The March is taking place as planned!

It will be made more sacred by the stance the women have taken. Attending the March either in Vancouver, or in Victoria would be a heartfelt gesture towards to courage of the organizers and helpers. Please give all these women the gift of your respect, encouragement and support.

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