Mackenzie’s Birthday

Today was a heavy day. It’s the second birthday of my daughter Mackenzie who was fullgrown stillborn. I won’t go into the details of what happened but it happened. It’s had a tremendous effect on life for me… both through work and domestic life.

Loss is a part of life… and I have put it aside whilst I carry on living and caring for my other two but every now and then it kinda gets me down.

I went to her grave yesterday and cleaned it up… cut the grass and pulled out the weeds. I had to be very careful because the whole graveyard on Dalles is covered in wild sage – for those of you who don’t know sage is a traditional medicine for Native people.

I put a new unlit candle on top of her grave. If it’s not lit, it can never go out… symbolising the everlasting memory of Mackenzie. Every now and then I’ll have her name on the tip of my tongue about to refer to my second daughter Alex but I’ve caught myself every time.

We had a feast at the community center… I went and put a little bit of food in a bowl out in the bush with some tobacco. For those of you who don’t know… tobacco is traditionally put down when offering something to spirits. Mackenzie was half Ojibway, one quarter white and one quarter black… but had she lived, she would have grown up as an Aboriginal person… so I keep the traditions that are not my own for her sake.

The food was actually pretty good. Leanne cooked some awesome mashed potato… I was very surprised by Linda’s bannock (frybread)… and Pat’s ham and beef was smooooooooooooooking!

On a brighter note… I got Alex to half-laugh… she tried and made two-syllable sound. I think I’m going to start feeding her tiny amounts of baby food starting next week.

More and more as I study the more and more ashamed I become of Britain’s military past. The horrors the U.K has committed in the past 500 years are shocking – war crimes in many places and criminal in others. But I have been rooting out some military news stories which are awesome and again make me proud to be British. One of our boys in Afghanistan, Corporal Bryan Budd was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery. Another load of our military were awarded by the Queen for different actions.

Ahhh the joys of being British are great sometimes!

Britain’s Political Future

I’m feeling very wary of what’s about to happen in England. Tony Blair’s just announced that he will not be Prime Minister for only a matter of weeks. The problem is that Gordon Brown is probably going to be the next Prime Minister of Great Britain.

I truly believe that Britain’s base for it’s economic and military power is the union. If Scotland, Wales and England no longer stay as the United Kingdom, it won’t be long before the entire house falls down. The union is the foundation. Gordon Brown is a Scot. I believe that in their hearts the majority of Scots are nationalists and want independence. That’s why I doubt Gordon Brown’s loyalty to the United Kingdom. I think he’s using a similar tactic to what Hitler did (with very different aims though).

It seems or feels like to me that Gordon Brown has weathered and taken the bashings that come from being number two… bided his time whilst gaining popular support, and quietly maneuvering into position to take the top job once the leader is gone. I believe that once he’s in power he’ll slowly but surely pass, put forward, and veto legislation in favour of Scotland’s gradual independence.

If it were up to me, I’d bring in legislation before Blair leaves enshrining the union into British law, backed up by military force if independence were ever declared by Scotland or Wales.

One thing that will make me very angry indeed is if Gordon Brown makes moves to pull the British military out of Afghanistan and Iraq before stability is achieved. I’m not feeling very happy about the fact that Gordon Brown might be the next top dog.

Maybe the Conservatives should be put back in power. Can you imagine how the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan would be handled of Iron Maggie were back in power? Apart from the fact that the bitch stole my milk whilst I was in primary school, I do applaud her decision to fight the Falklands War.