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April 29, 2009
Stage Two
Identify everything that divides us
Make a list of everything you believe divides your community. While you are at it, include anything that divides your provinces or states, nations or continents. And here is the difficult part — share your list with the other guys.
No arguments please!
Arguments only occur because no one wants to admit that they are a part of the problem.
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This is my second installment of four that address the racism and prejudice problem. If you haven’t gone through Stage One already, I know that you won’t do a very good job with Stage Two. Its impossible.
We need to find out what seeds of racism contaminate our neighbourhoods. The most beautiful flower garden may be devoid of dandelions but it may also be generating its own seeds of racism and prejudice.
You may not think that flowers in your garden are one of these sources. Include them anyway. Others will.
That field of dandelions, or your seed producing flower garden, may be the club or organization you attend, your church, your former school, your heritage, your colour, your politics, your neighbourhood, your military history, your sports interest, your education, your employment, your mode of transportation, your music, your entertainment, your appearance, your practices and your future. You may think of more.
I should point out that I am not necessarily condeming any of these flowers in your life. Determining which are bad seeds and which are good seeds comes later. It will require an entire society to make that kind of judgement.
We cannot start to effectively deal with bad seeds in our midst if we are not able to identify all the seeds.
I do, however, think you should realize if your flowers produce seeds of prejudice or racism — or have that potential. Also, while your flower garden may not be releasing any bad seeds into the atmosphere, you may know of others who are growing the same flowers and using the seeds to spread prejudice and racism.
Thunder Bay Statistics
These statistics may help you in identify some of the divisive factors in our community. If you have never been to Thunder Bay, these stats should give you some hints where racism and prejudice gets its fuel. It also may be a factor to consider that Thunder Bay’s population has shrunk to levels experienced in the mid 1970s.
125,000 Trading Area Population
105 Churches and
synagogues
29 Cultural facilities
Thunder Bay Demographics
English 34,360 Finnish 14,250
Scottish 26,400 German 13,090
Canadian 24,650 Aboriginal 11,870
Irish 22,260 Polish 8,595
French 21,165 Swedish 5,800
Ukrainian 17,620 Others 3,175
Italian 17,290
Note:
Multiple responses included. e.g. a person of English and Scottish parentage counts in both categories. A person with both parents from a single nationality would count two in the appropriate category.
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I can guarantee that the next two stages are more fun while they are also more challenging if not controversial.
Here is what I have in store for you in the next postings of Without Gods!
Stage Three – Eliminate what divides us, or at least make it very expensive for divisive factions to exist.
Stage Four – Bring our society together with healthy replacements for those divisive and/or inequitable conditons.
I hope you are beginning to open your eyes to the racism problem in your town. Perhaps you can also see why I have chosen to live . . . without gods!
Anton Kozlik
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To view list of all posting that deal with prejudice, hate and racism,
click here |
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Atheist
Quotes
 My point is that the survival mechanism that makes children's brains believe what they're told — is automatically vulnerable to parasitic codes such as “You must believe in the great juju in the sky,” or “You must kneel down and face east and pray five times a day.” These codes (memes) are then passed down through generations. And there’s no obvious reason why it should stop. 
Richard Dawkins,
1941 -
World's most famous atheist
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My definition of morality . . .
“No one should expose another living entity to unwarranted pain, loss, or deprivation!”
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*Terms and Definitions
My articles may contain words or phrases that may infer different meanings to different readers, or the reader may be unfamiliar with the term or its definition. I feel it is important to know what the writer meant when he used a word or term.
racism and prejudice — Most definitions focus on racial superiority and miss the point that prejudice is really the root of racism. For example, one group may dwell in a swanky section of town. They are undesirable to the other townspeople who apply various forms of prejudice against them.
Another more obvious example deals with religion. One religion exercises prejudice against members of another religion even when both religious groups are of identical racial, economic and national backgrounds — and worship the same God. They may never come into open conflict with each other but they are, in effect, practicing a form of prejudice — just a more civilized version so they believe it is acceptable. Families, however, will exert pressure to make sure that its members do not associate with the other guys, especially when it comes to finding a mate. Modern social practices have almost eliminated this one.
Some forms of prejudice are difficult to isolate, as in this example. Most Italians will rally together as they defend Italy. But, among themselves, a serious prejudice becomes apparent when northern and southern Italians are forced together. Prisoner of war camps attest to this situation as Italians split into two encampments. Ask an Italian from the camps if this situation ever happened and they will deny it. You will get a different story from their prison guards.
cognitive dissonance —
Filtering out information that conflicts with what one already believes, in an effort to ignore that information and reinforce one’s beliefs.
Editors note: I will be repeating the “cognitive dissonance” definition for quite a while since it is practiced by so many — known by so few!
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Grandpa said . . .
“Unless they return for a visit, most ethnics can only remember how things were in the “old” days. The worst are the old timers who never become real Canadians because they are clinging to their pasts!”
He was particularly critical of the Finn Hall or the Hoito as most people in Thunder Bay refer to it. He felt that if they were, as they claim, the cultural centre for Finnish people in North America then Finland's history stopped around 1910 when most of its people were peasants. If he was still alive he would be disappointed that the Finn Hall fails to recognise that Finland now has more millionaires per capita than any other country in the world. It primarily has to do with Nokia which came along after he died. Also, you can't find a Finnish newspaper or magazine on the premises.
There is a lot that our world does not know about Finland and going to the Finn Hall isn't going to change that one bit.
As a young boy, I remembered these words of wisdom from my Grandfather.
I share them with you.
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April 27, 2007
Racism is like a field of dandelions . . .
Stage One
Click here to read my last posting,
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