OUR Voices....
For Survey Responses, please go to Blog and you can find posts with the specific survey responses.
Names will not be included, due to privacy requests as we all know it feels so unsafe lately to speak your truths whatever they may be.
My note: I am Beyond GRATEFUL for the engagement so far. Thank you for feeding connection, communication, empowerment, compassion, health and growth in our community.... I believe every conscious act to think a bit more critically and to be open to discussion is truly helpful at this time...energetically (on a level that we may not even know is happening) and intentionally feeding openness, connection, greater understanding and hopefully some positive outcomes...evolution baby :)... that serve the well-being of ALL.
Nov 10, 2021, Letter to Editor:
I want to share some notes from my education assistant training this past year.
Preventing bullying is done by building a community. Community involves a sense of belonging.
“To become a community, students must learn to live in someone else’s skin, understand the parallels of hurt, struggle and joy across class and culture lines and work for change. For that to happen, students need more than an upbeat, supportive teacher; they need a curriculum that encourages them to have empathy for others.”
Just as the education system is striving to evolve, our systems for politics, health and other areas of management need to evolve. I think our current governing system is modelling and promoting bullying with its on-going desperate mandates that promote fear and separation among the people on all sides.
It is dividing us rather than uniting us.
I would love it if our leaders would allow and insist on open discussions with different views among the experts. This would allow the concerns of others to be heard, so that we all can at least witness the other sides and therefore live with more compassion and understanding rather than judgments, desperations to be heard and seen, and harshness in either direction.
As you know our experiences shape us. I want to ask you this: If following the mandate to get a vaccination passport was/is an easy decision for you, why is that? What experiences and/or conditions did you have that made this decision logical for you? What do you think has shaped others who are struggling with this decision?
What conditions and/or experiences do you think that the non-passport holders have had throughout their lives to be willing to be judged as inconsiderate, uncaring people and willing to lose their jobs and livelihood?
Could there be a more conscious motivation for their actions? It would be amazing if we could, as a community, start prioritizing the time to hear and live with greater curiosity and compassion around any minority and/or underprivileged groups concerns and questions.
I hope we can all start connecting more and reaching out to those you may rather not and try to find areas of connection rather than separation.
I do have some calls to action for my own contribution toward promoting more connection, communication, empowerment and healing in our community.
If any are keen to connect on some ideas for this please contact me at empowerbcnorth@gmail.com.
“I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary people like us that keep darkness at bay. Small acts that we can do in love and kindness that will make a big difference.”
With love, gratitude and smiles,
Lisa Perry
Smithers
"I’m encouraged by your recent letter to the Interior News. We need to stick together as a community and support and love each other, no matter what our opinions are. Thanks for sharing this and supporting compassion and unity!"
"I just wanted to reach out and thank you for your very thoughtful letter to the editor in the November 11th, 2021 edition.
I love that you referenced the topic of bullying that is often taught in schools and in the workplace. An excellent analogy to how I am feeling with the vaccine mandate… bullied by someone who is bigger and louder than I am. I have been saying all along to those I hold dear, that I don’t have an opinion on whether they are vaccinated or unvaccinated, but that we should all be concerned when the ‘choice’ is taken away from us by bullying and coercion. Often I find what I say falls on deaf ears for the very reason that you give in your letter… we are only hearing one side on main stream media. Why is there such resistance to having open discussions that offer concerns by experts on both side of the equation? When we only hear one side, fear and mistrust run rampant and we find ourselves at odds with family, friends and neighbours."
"The vax stuff is troubling and seems to be very divisive, even between family members and good friends. Seems as though people are on one extreme or the other and often unwilling to have any kind of reasonable discussion about it. It would be great if people could be willing to consider other people’s views and have a rational conversation."
What some have sent me after viewing this website:
“ we have two temptations: on the one hand, to wrap ourselves in the banner of one side or the other, exacerbating the conflict: on the other hand, to avoid engaging in the conflict altogether, denying the tension involved and washing our hands of it.”
“The task of the reconciler is instead to “endure” the conflict, facing it head-on, and by discerning, and seeing beyond the surface reasons for disagreement, opening those involved to the possibility of a new synthesis, one that does not destroy either pole, but preserves what Is good and valid the in a new perspective. “
The title of the book is “Let us Dream” and it is written by the current Pope at the beginning of Covid. It is set in 3 parts. Let us Listen: let us discern; let us move into action
Shared concerns with me:
"Dear College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC, I have been told the BC government will be demanding that health care Colleges will require vaccine confirmation as a condition of licensure. I sincerely hope you will not impose this mandate. This is continually going in the direction of political pressure rather than truly for the benefit of everyone’s health and personal autonomy. How can there be one decision made for all by the government, in terms of a vaccine for the pandemic, when family doctors know prescriptions for patient’s health needs to be decided on an individual basis. If you are dedicated to ensuring a safe and respectful workplace for your employees, then please respect the individual choices and diversity of treatment plans and research done on Covid19 by many physicians. Let’s keep an open discussion on all the options and discoveries coming out, rather than joining the fear and oppression by forcing or coercing people to comply with something that doesn’t work for them. Giving people all their options and letting them choose from an educated standpoint, knowing all the benefits and risks is true empowerment and therefore health of a community. Thank you for your time and consideration."
Check out some of the responses to surveys from people in our community....
