Let me begin this chapter with an encounter that happened after the eviction from Confederation Park between Taylor and a friend with another friend. Here are Taylor words:
“Last night, an ex-camper and I took a stroll through Confederation Park for the first time since the eviction and clean-up, and boy, was it spooky. We slowed our pace upon entry, feeling the lingering energy left behind by the multitude of humans that for five weeks inhabited this patch of earth. The good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly was palpable beneath our feet and in the air, having been infused into the earth and atmosphere. We stood reminiscing about the Park’s evolution, remembering the original lay out when we first arrived, looking at the foot paths that we had traversed countless times, standing in the spot where my head had lain all comfy and cozy in my tent, and seeing the spots on the grass left by the tents that have formed a leopard print pattern.”
“As we headed toward Totem Valley, our little Shang-ri-la in the park, reminiscing a little further, I heard a familiar voice and turned to see if it was who I thought it was. My companion confirmed that it was indeed him, recognizing his unique gait. I rushed over to meet his eyes and say hello to my former fellow Camp Mate. He was happy to see me as I threw my arms around him, but he gazed upon me with sadness in his eyes, a sadness I tried desperately to understand. This self-identified homeless dope junkie that I had befriended over the past five weeks, who during his stay at Occupy was able to keep his drug habit in check, had reverted back to his old ways. The support system he had been fighting for all his life and had found in Confederation Park had been pulled out from underneath him.”
“He revealed his sad story to me in bits and pieces of conversation over the course of the Park Occupation, and he had no reservations describing the profound affect the community was having on him. It provided him a warm and dry shelter, camaraderie, activity, hot food and drink, and a place where he could survive and proper by employing skills he had learned from outreach and safer injection sites. He told me last night that he had not slept or eaten in three days because he was so high on drugs. As he now back to sleeping on park benches, the drugs provide an artificial warmth for him and something as hard as heroin may be the only the thing that can get you through a cold winter night here in the Nation’s Capital. He will be especially cold since the police confiscated his sleeping bag after the Park raid Wednesday morning, not allowing him to retrieve his only material possessions from the park after his arrest. Having no where to live he is back to bouncing between shelters, when they have room, and when they don’t he scours the streets for means of survival, whether that be eating out of trash cans or pan-handling to support this drug habit that keeps him warm as he braves the cold nights. It is a vicious cycle.”
He told me that he has no voice in this world. He told me that he is sick and tired of fighting for assistance with the many causes of the harsh effects in his day to day life, causes that I struggle to identify as a white girl born in suburban South Eastern Ontario from a stable middle-class family. But I try my damndest to understand and to empathize.”
“As I stood with tears streaming down my face, feeling completely helpless, my heart just broke. I tried over and over to reinforce that he was one of the most amazing individuals I had ever met, and that is no lie. The shine in his eyes, the lightness I saw in his soul when he was fed and housed at Occupy was inspiring, knowing where he had come from. One of the first times we spoke he was eager to read me some poetry and we stood under the illumination of the streetlight as he recited his latest works. I asked him last night what happened to those poems that had made me smile, he told me that he had burned them.”
“And as we looked into each other’s eyes, full of tears, he gave me the most moving compliment anyone has ever given me. He said that no one in his life has ever showed such love, kindness and generosity as I have and probably never will again, and he just couldn’t figure out why a girl like me would give a shit about a homeless junkie. I cried harder. Many words, tears and hugs later, my companion and some friends who had stopped on their way through the park and I accompanied him to the Mission. He said he would be honoured if we walked with him, although he was very skeptical about his chances of sleeping in a bed, but we did not give up hope. He ended up walking into a peaceful environment with an entourage of three young ladies and the warm smile of a comforting male presence.”
“We left on a good note, and I certainly felt better knowing that we steered him in a much safer direction than he otherwise would have gone last night, but I still could not shake this deep, dark feeling inside, this feeling that we failed people like my new found friend. And it is for people like him, the voiceless, the undercut, those who are born into situations beyond their control that set the tone for the rest of their days, it is for these people, the outcasts, the under appreciated, the misunderstood and the ignored, that I will not stop Occupying the hearts and minds of as many people as I can reach. Learning about the experience of the “other” in this world is too important to be ignored.”
Speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have A Dream accompanied by electro-pop music.
I continue this chapter with the video of Martin Luther King’s speech because he speaks of inclusion of the Black Americans into society in general having no separation between them and the Whites. One thing surprised me is that he mentioned “I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an OASIS of freedom and justice!” That word OASIS! He want an OASIS of Inclusion with no exception. My wish is exactly that Earth transformed into an OASIS without prejudices, discrimination, racism, hate, oppression, injustices, enslavement, wars, poverty, extreme materialistic and monetary ‘richness’ without sharing with others, etc. It’s my dream and that of many others. We human beings have the right to live in peace, security and in inclusion with each other. We shouldn’t be afraid to express our feelings as Sweetheart reminds me.
January 5th 2012: The day started off as ordinary as it could with Sweetheart and I going to buy our groceries and returning home relaxing by watching videos on YouTube. After we decided to take a walk on this sunny not-so-cold day. We stopped at a place on Eddy Street for few minutes and continued on towards du Portage Street when a man says hi and asks us if we needed help and we said no it was okay. He walked with us and started talking to us and we listened. Then, he takes hold of my wheelchair handles and Sweetheart asks me if it was okay, I replied yes. We walked to our next destination that happened to be closed until the 10th; all the while the guy talked to us about where he came from and suddenly he emptied his heart, which he normally didn’t do with strangers who he didn’t know. However, there he was standing with us talking about his father who did unspeakable things to his sister when they were young! He told us he was a veteran of the Kosovo conflict when Yugoslavia split into smaller countries. He didn’t have a job and he hated his father who was in Mexico and his problems with his ex-girlfriends. Tears were coming from his eyes and mine too. Then, he asked us if we would buy few cigarettes so he could buy some beer. Sweetheart was not too keen of giving him some money for beer just like that so she suggested, with my accord, that we will do flip the coin and if he gets it right he wins. She flipped and he won. She gave him a two-dollar coin. He won two more times along the way.
Then, we continue our walk back home and he follows us. He said he wanted to go to Ottawa but continues walking with us and we all end up home. Before going up to the apartment he goes to the tuck shop to buy his beer but comes out because he didn’t have enough money. Again, he asked for more money and one last time Sweetheart flipped the coin and again he won and buys his can of beer. We go up to my apartment. We offer him a meal but he refused. Once again he talked about his ex-girlfriends who could send him money and about places for the homeless that didn’t really help him and refused to go. He was surprised to know that Sweetheart was only 21 and could listen and talk as a more “mature” person lets say and that we saved his life. That struck a chord and that of Sweetheart. We were present for him. He let us into his life even though we were strangers, at least for the day. At one point he went on the balcony to smoke and Sweetheart and I just embraced each other and shared our feelings. The day began ordinarily enough but ended up special. We didn’t even know this man and he let us into his life. At evening’s end he asks us if he could spend the night at my place but Sweetheart offers to let him stay at her and her friend’s place but after a while he decides to stay with me. Sweetheart asks me if I feel comfortable with that and I reassured her yes and that I would call her if I needed her. Then, he tells us he’s going to see his girlfriend and asks for more money this time for coffee. Again, Sweetheart flips a coin and again he wins. We gave him few dollars and he leaves. Sweetheart stays for few minutes and asks me if I’m all right. I told her yes and that I would call her if anything happens. She then leaves and the man comes back to sleep and left the next morning. All this to say if you don’t have confidence in yourself you are not alive and don’t evolve! When we met the man we didn’t know in what we were heading into. We could have been in danger but weren’t. Sweetheart and I felt safe if not we wouldn’t have let him walk with us.
I would like to share this with you: When I met Sweetheart I instantly and totally trusted her with no conditions or second thoughts! You will say you can’t totally trust a person especially a young person that you don’t even know. Perhaps. What we experienced and still do to this day. I felt strong vibrations from her so much that I had no choice but to trust, accept, love her unconditionally as who she is! I did have a choice to ignore her, but no she was in front of me at a table at a place called Dépanneur Sylvestre in Hull, and on Christmas Eve 2010 of all days. I sincerely believe that the encounter was foreseen for both of us: an encounter of two souls as she wrote me. We are in 2012 and we are richer in friendship and love we have for each other! She truly is my daughter of the heart! I share this because what Martin Luther King wished was that Humanity has trust in itself without distinction of colour, creed, ethnicity, physical or mental ability; social and economical status, and so on. He wanted a united Humanity and not fragmented and fights against each other. With all humility I promised Sweetheart (and others) to be inclusive and accept her as she is and others. With all my weakness I try. Everyone with no exception needs to be accepted and loved as they are. We need an OASIS of Inclusion, Love and Acceptance. There is no other way that Humanity can survive in the long term! Humanity needs to know that it needs to accept oneself to accept the other and vice versa! We have to open our heart’s eyes, ears and soul to see, hear and live in harmony with others and oneself! It’s not easy but certainly not impossible. All we need to do is open our heart’s eyes, ears and soul. Humanity’s heart needs to be tender to accept itself! Humanity has to admit that it needs to help mutually for it to advance and progress, and not to go back and regress to a point of no return! Humanity needs to create an OASIS of Peace to be able to survive, an OASIS where everyone is able to live with one and the other, and with nature. Besides, Humanity’s heart, her true heart, is where rests her soul, eyes and ears! Writing this document, I don’t have the true solutions to resolve every problem. It would be pretentious on my part. After all I’m certainly not the Creator who knows all. I am, I wish to be inclusive as much as possible in my life. What I write or wrote in this document I know. All we need and must do is open our hearts to others and at that moment we can live peacefully with ourselves!
Island of Life – Kitaro and Jon Anderson.
