A Strong Voice

Western has another President of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA). On Wednesday the USC’s VP UA Alysha Li was elected to be the President of OUSA for the 2012/13 year. Alysha’s Presidency will provide OUSA with a passionate leader with a vision for stable, consistent and effective advocacy efforts. Alysha’s belief in the importance of post-secondary education and her belief in the student population of Ontario will serve her well as OUSA President. Western and the USC will also greatly benefit from Alysha’s term as President. The USC will have a strong voice at the table to discuss the priorities of Western students. Myself and the entire USC Executive are incredibly proud of Alysha for showing such a strong commitment to representing Western and Ontario students. I can’t wait for the rest of the province to see the Alysha that all of us believe in. We have every confidence in her and know that her role at OUSA will give us an even stronger presence in the post-secondary community. Congratulations Alysha, you make us proud!

A Few Thoughts on Jack

I don’t profess to be an expert on the topic of Jack Layton and would never attempt to provide definitive commentary on his passing. However, I do want to share a few things that Mr. Layton (Jack) made me think about. It strikes me that Jack Layton would have appreciated knowing that he made us all think a little bit today.

Jack’s letter to Canadians offered a number of beautifully written passages that seem to accurately portray the passion Mr. Layton had for our country and its people. However, the line that stood out to me the most was not the eloquent final paragraph that has already become a household quotation. What resonated with me was Jack’s reminder to “cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey.” He wrote this in reference to the many brave individuals who continue to fight cancer, but I think the phrase has universal application.

In our lives we are constantly racing towards the next goal or the next moment.We often wish fervently for the future and miss the beautiful things that happen in the present. It sounds a whole lot like ‘stopping to smell the roses’, but I think that there is a much deeper sentiment to consider. It’s not just enough to stop and appreciate the moment. You have to find a way to become it. To feel your heartbeat, appreciate beauty and accept love for yourself and others. You can’t just smell the roses or the moments. You have to let them fit into your world and begin to open yourself enough to understand how they have changed you.

I’ll never forget an exchange I overheard on a Tuesday morning in a coffee shop earlier this year. Out of the corner of my consciousness I heard someone say “Friday couldn’t come soon enough for me.” It’s an innocent enough phrase, something that I hear everyday and something that I have been guilty of saying from time to time. I didn’t think anything of it until I heard a second voice say, “I love Tuesdays because Tuesdays mean that I still have the rest of the week to live. Life is too precious to wish it away.” Under normal circumstances I might have thought the comment to be just a little bit pretentious, but at that moment I couldn’t help but think about how right this second voice was. I haven’t stopped thinking about that moment and I realized that we should take advantage of, or as Jack reminded us today, cherish every moment with the people and things that we love. Don’t forget about the future, because the future can be great, but don’t forget to live in the ‘now’ because it can be pretty special too.

Jack’s passing also presents us with an opportunity to remember an individual who used his voice as a citizen to the best of his ability. Jack Layton did not grumble in a corner or hide his desire to make change at any point in his life. He put his thoughts, ideas and opinions into action and helped to move our society forward. He didn’t always do this from a position of significant public profile. He recognized that his voice was worth something, whether he had a title or not, and that he had a responsibility as a citizen of Canada to encourage change where he identified a need for it. Hopefully Jack’s passing will stir people to speak up about the things that bother them and help them to move towards solutions. It seems to me that we all seem to be waiting for the right time, when we have less at stake, to make our voices heard. Why wait? Stand up for something now, because you never know how many more chances you will have to do it.

In closing, I look at Jack Layton as someone that we should all respect. His courage, determination and strength should be admired. I like to think that he would not want to be deified or remembered as a man of perfection, but I think that he would want us all to believe that a world with a few more ‘Jack Layton’s’ would be a place where we’d all want to live.

Engagement: More Than a Buzz Word

Okay, so last issue I got the formal welcome thing out of the way. From now on I’m not going to give you some sort of generic Students’ Council missive. In fact, what I want to do is give you a window into some of the things that I’m passionate about. Ultimately, you probably don’t really want to hear about every one of the issues that I stand for, but I think that I can communicate many of them within a Huron context.

One thing that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is the idea of political engagement. WAIT! Don’t just turn the page because of that horrendously boring catch phrase. The word ‘engagement’ is, without a doubt, one of the most overused words in today’s political discourse. Unfortunately, it has been tossed around so much that it doesn’t really mean anything anymore. I myself have been guilty of using the word as a crutch to explain the concerning level of apathy towards all levels of politics.

But seriously, what does it even mean to be engaged? I mean, aren’t we all to some extent engaged in politics, just by virtue of living our lives? Does engagement really mean that we have to religiously follow the news or subscribe to the latest updates from CPAC (that random channel that broadcasts the House of Commons debates)? Is it possible that being politically engaged is actually just observing the problems that face our friends, our families and us? Instead of putting politics on a pedestal I think that it might be valuable for us to realize that at a basic level, politics are merely the representation of the natural challenges of our lives.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that we should absolve ourselves of our civic responsibility just because we experience politics everyday. In fact, what I’m saying is the opposite. Shouldn’t political engagement, or whatever you want to call it, be intuitive and the easiest thing that you’ve ever done?

Think of it this way. When you were in kindergarten, to whom did you go when your friends were being mean to you? Well, unless you were one of those kids who took justice into your own hands, you probably ran to your teacher. You knew that she or he was going to be your best support and best help for solving the problem at hand. In a rudimentary sense, this expression of concern was your first foray into the political process. You had a problem, you recognized it, and then you asked someone to fix it. Shouldn’t this be the way that we look at politics in the broader sense?

Follow me for about three more paragraphs…

The way I see it, our role, as the Huron University College Students’ Council, is to somehow make you believe in us enough to trust that we are your best support; or at least one of many good supports that can help you when you need to solve a problem in your life. Obviously, it would be ridiculous for me to suggest that we can solve every problem that you encounter during your time at Huron, but I will say with absolute confidence that we care too much to let any problem go unaddressed. Just the other day, someone mentioned to me that there really needed to be a Canadian flag flown outside of the College. In this case, an individual stepped up and spoke to me because they knew that I might have a decent chance of solving their problem. I have since contacted the College administration, which has begun to explore the possibility of having a Canadian flag flown.

This one little example isn’t meant to act as a self-inflicted pat on the back, it’s designed to illustrate just how easy political engagement can be. All it takes to be engaged is an expression of concern to the right person about something that bothers you. Somehow we have to get people to start doing this at Huron. If you have a problem, don’t just sit on it. Come and talk to us. Knock on my door until I can’t ignore you any longer or get in touch with me in anyway you can, because we do have the ability to help you reach your goals and solve your problems.

Okay, well, there you have it. I don’t know whether I’ve been interesting or thought provoking, but at least I’ve given you something other than the generic babble that comes out of most Students’ Council messages. I don’t deny I’ve babbled, but to be honest, I don’t think that it has been generic. Anyway, if you’ve read this far in the article, thank you. I’m very grateful for your dedication to reading, however, I am only going to be truly proud of you if I see you in my office or read an email about something that you are passionate about.

Talk to you soon!

 

Adam