Cause for embarrassment Calgary?

Calgary::photo by ?? Please reach out to insert name~or remove if requested)

I went a strolling on social media and ended up on reddit.com as I do more and more these days.  Before, it was "Mashable" whom I sponged from to feed my mental energy.  Needing to gain information and reshare it if it stays on my worthiness meter via +optioneerJM @optioneerJM as would be the most common spots I would stay for longer than a visual eye scan.

Never have I ever felt so ignited by a story that seem to pop out like a sore thumb among optimism over Fort McMurry's recovery and unified neighborly goodwill as @thecanadianredcross has been able to triumph over devastation.

Then tonight truth reared its ugly head.  We're not perfect.  We have a lot more to learn from humanity.  If this post on reddit.com were any indication:

Help with harassment from neighbor (self.Calgary)

submitted 7 hours ago by Thor-away90

Hi r/calgary,

For the past few years my mom, sis, and I have been dealing with our next door neighbour. He made it very clear to us that he believed that we did not belong in his neighborhood.

One time, My sister had a friend come and pick her up at the house and he came out and called her a bitch and slammed on her windows because he had an issue with the music. I came out to mediate and he said to me "there is no way someone who looks like that lives around here."

He continued to verbally assault me so I told him that I would be calling the police. His response was that he was a retired firefighter who worked with the calgary police and that he had no problem with me doing so.

I did not call the police. (I should have, i know.)

During the next 6 months he was unwilling to open his door and communicate with us. He chose a different route instead. Numerous 311 bylaw complaints. Grass complaints in the spring/summer and snow complaints in the winter. He has even made complaints that arent real ( idling in my own car in my own parking space (a friend of mine is an avid smoker and my mom wont let him smoke in the house. )

Once when we were sitting there smoking, he came out and took a photo of my friend's license plate. I asked him what his problem was, and he hurried into his house and wouldnt tell me what his poblem with us THIS TIME, was. So I finally called the police.

When the police came they went to speak with him first. When the officer came to speak to me his advice to me was to bake him a cake. Try to mediate the issue. I told him that I had tried to, but he wasnt open to communication. The officer then said to me, "I own my home too, so I understand his concerns with renters bringing down his property value."

Honestly, I've never felt more hopeless in my life. I feel like Im being bullied in my own home. Ive been advised that I could file a harassement complaint but since most of the harassement is in the form of 311 complaints, and not actual verbal harassment, that not much would be done.

We just got another one today and it was hard to see my mom cry while she was telling the bylaw officer how attacked she felt. What my mom didn't tell me until today, was the fact that even our landlord feels like we are being attacked because of racial prejudice.

Is there anything we could do to get this arrogant asshole off our backs? I dont want to retaliate and I dont want to move away.

Edit:

Could we take legal action?

Do instances like these help our case?

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Judge+orders+neighbourhood+fight+Fort+McMurray/10086182/story.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/04/16/red-deer-neighbour-bullying_n_9709212.html

Where more empathy than I can say I have ever experienced before, forced me to use my god given gift of empathy and being able to write.  A blogger, slowly emerging.  I have the ability to write and share what is usually right in our world, but every once and a while there lies a story that convinces me that there is a lot more work to be done to make ours a better world.  

These were my comments ::

I'm sorry to hear, to my dismay, all the harassment you and your family have had to endure. This doesn't sound like a "Calgarian" ... REF: Calgarians are nice people, mostly from other places, joined in community for the betterment of society, our kids, our homes. For some, Calgary is a short stop or a visit, to others it is our home. How dare someone within our city be allowed to keep doing this. Why haven't any of the news media caught on to this story? Like @CBC whom we have tended to rely on for credible stories catching the heart of our citizens. (Someone is asleep at the news roundup workstation ~ is that from apathy?) 

Words like anti-neighbour, racial intolerance, hostility, harassment, bullying are not common here. Well, for the optimistic many. Who made a little City on the prairies grow up, deal with hardship, economic downturn, yet be more optimistic, positive with pulsing vibe. A beat of a nation, the core of its wealth, and friendship to the world as Olympic representatives, ambassadors to the world during 10 days each summer (called: The Calgary Stampede).

The first time I ever came to reddit.com was because I wanted to learn more about an upstart politician who appeared to have become our mayor. An unlikely cast member thrown among the mainly white oil tycoons - Nenshi, or Naheed most of his new friends and supporters say.

How can Naheed Nenshi not take heed from this plea? Oh, probably because his purple dinosaurs are flaked out, zoned out, without a drum to beat. They should know that there is more going on in Calgary except Nenshi and still support and give others a break.

I realize there are links to this story from The Edmonton Journal and ever-reliable Huffington Post. (Which I dislike the name because it is synonymous with a name, not a vibe, not a beat like "Mashable").

I apologize for my rant, except that this should have a lot more attention! It really shouldn't even have to happen, it should be so objectionable behaviour that its existence would be shunned.

I then realized that the only thing we've heard about from Nenshi is going to have to start fund raising to pay back our City over a legal battle, not whatsoever related to Calgary business.

We must really be asleep at the wheel as citizens to let this one slide in and slide out.  Are we beaten down by oil prices slashing jobs, tired out by the energy required to restore Fort McMurry to the workhorse it has always been?  

Or we're all so caught up in the atmosphere of good neighborly spirit that the ugliest of events slip outside our sphere?

Are the media so enamored of Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton theatrics that they have been distracted to what is happening at home?

Or, it most likely is from Canadian corporations centralizing operations, which in turn churns out most of the news stories?  The CBC, The CTV, The Global (plural) in our world are only equipped, manned, technologically able to cope with central Canada and Prime Ministerial stories?  Are the attennaes only set for only a few goings on by a very few?

I always look surprised because I am ~Naheed Nenshi 

courtesy of CBC.ca News 

How dumb does he think we are?  Trying to recover from this averted political disaster, he acts like its back to Mr. Feel Good Mayorship again on his Facebook Page:  

Naheed Nenshi shared City of Calgary – Your Local Government's post.

May 11 at 9:09am · 

Neighbour Day is coming! Once again, The City is waiving fees if you want to book a public green space or block a street for a block party. Deadline to apply for a permit is May 27. See you on Neighbour Day!

No, I didn't sit idly by:

Jeannette Marshall Are you wagging the dog at us?http://calgarymayor.ca/.../city-pays-legal-fees-in-wenzel... ... quit looking so damn surprised that you scammed us

SOURCE:  Our city mayor's home page front story:  http://calgarymayor.ca/stories/city-pays-legal-fees-in-wenzel-v-nenshi-case-fundraising-to-begin-to-reimburse

Sadly, according to Google, his comedic dumbness over-shadowed even that story:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/nenshi-uber-responds-1.3550585

If you say, you do:  "Uber CEO is a dick" ~Naheed Nenshi (Courtesy of CBC.ca) 

I agree this story is alarming for our peace popping eye opener like this:

Border Officers seize guns at Alberta borders:

Courtesy of The Calgary Herald  <click here for link 

Your get away with anything day: for Moms

Mothers Day Fun

Moms, it's your day:  you officially get to look however you want (facials beware) say, share or post whatever you feel like without recourse from kids who get all bent out of shape because they absolutely forbid you to post or say anything that could draw attention to them or embarrass them.

A free pass
You have a forgiveness card that expires by midnight today.  For starters, I am going to begin with a rant.  Logging on I see Google's image for the day and I stare in horror :: how can a Mother's Day image have dad's tassled shoes? Horror.

Google gasp
How could they?  I mean seriously.  Any respectful, fashionista mother is a clothes horse and shoe-a-holic.  What a big booboo that is beyond kissing better. Yes, we've come a long way from being Betty Crockers in the kitchen.  We're a force to be reckoned with if you dare threaten her family and be beneath respectful to her and her kin.  

Google could have at the very least posted a pair of flip flops.  If they had gone out of their way, they would have found a pair of tasteful sandals that would make any lovely lady of motherhood drool over.  

Official "guilt free shopping day"
Ohhhh, one in every color day!  I hope mothers uniting at least finish reading this commentary before rushing out to do embrace their guilt-free shopping day.

Mom's Brag Book
Ok, Moms, grab that brag book and start posting those photos of your kids, brag about their accomplishments and let er rip!  Today is your day to get away with anything day.  What the world calls "Mothers Day" is your day to be who you want to be, do what you wanna do and say what you wanna say!

Have your say ::
I'm darn proud of my kids, just like each and every one of us.  Some days they challenge me while others they give me bursting pride that I could be responsible for creating such wonderful human beings.  Amazing how some of that nagging and guidance pays off.

My son inspires me every day
I was robbed of a normal celebration when he was born.  The nurses and doctors scattered and fussed over the minute he was born.  Imagine having your newborn with needle marks in his head because they wanted to figure out what was going on.  He was born with a rare genetic diagnosis that even specialists couldn't quite predict what life he would have unfold.
A hole in his heart, physically unique footprint, along with a number of other concerns.

Imagine bursting onto the motherhood front and you had to ramp up your protectiveness ten fold, when he was starting sniffles meant you were heading for the emergency department, having heart surgery at 13 months old.

Paul Brandt
Kyle taught me that the cup is always half full.  You should never dwell on what ifs and feel joy at all the what as.   During one of those emergency trips to the Children's Hospital in Calgary, he was treated to the rare care of a male nurse of all things.

What was even more miraculous was this nurse had just won a singing talent contest in Nashville, Tennessee.  Paul has gone on to be the greatest Canadian country artist of all time and  to this day (think Juno, think megastar).   Paul gave a gift to a scared young mother, his spirit and humor.  I remember him sharing things about himself that I share with fondness.  One revelation being that he was actually born named:   Paul Rennée Belobersycky on July 21, 1972 (age 43).

Paul is lending his celebrity to help victims of the Fort McMurray wild fires, retweeting stories, offering other support.  Have a listen to this song that epitomizing the evacuation of this northern oil city:

Today, Kyle is known for his eternal optimism.  People, peers, teachers all exclaim: "I love Kyle" whenever his name comes up.  

Genetics aside reKNOWN 
One would think that a kid with those kinds of challenges, experienced bullying, had life saving surgery, and limitations physically galore, disrespected by employer with only $12.25 an hour after 8 years of service.  

Genius reSOUNDing
Kyle has found the voice for the #Mellennial generation.  He has the knack for seeing something and sharing it because it hit his coolness radar.  

Queer
Mostly oddly are unique and queer:  in a way that only the 80s gurus know that queer meant cool at that time in our lives.  So strange to discover that a word my generation resonated by would be exhumed to mean something so discriminatory and offensive a word :: eh?

I digressed again ::
I get sidetracked by an insight that is so profound I digress.  Let the mind sing and churn out only the "bestofeverything" :: #bestofeverything ::

Appreciation ::
It so easy to fall in love with Kyle :: the love that is universally channeled by motherhood :: sisterhood :: friendship :: cousin :: brother :: when Kyle gets something or anything, he has the magnetic gift of appreciation.  

Appreciation is something you can mimic enough that you start to feeling it from deep inside.  Emerging a guru who's spell you fell under :: Kyle, @flamesboy4eva get sidetracked by an insight that is so profound I digress.  Let the mind sing and churn out only the "bestofeverything" :: #bestofeverything ::

A strong conscience 
If there is anything that shows the story behind the story is one person who will emerge:: +Kyle S who has this seemingly giant perception radar on what is horribly unfortunate yet all too apparent in our society:  #corruption :: if there is any drum to bang on, Kyle has the uncanny knack for exposing it.  He took the guidance of a mother's continued nagging, repeating and repeating:  do not complain about your government if you're not prepared to do your civic and democratic right to vote.  Fond memory I recall is a discussion amongst my children on a warm summer's day ::

I would always begin with a celebratory atmosphere based merely on a whim :: hardly a birthday or annual event to create such excitement :: where I would set up the table on the patio, put up the Umbrella, in anticipation of the mere pleasure of having company.

Keeping them curious
Politics was something I started talking with my kids early about.  It is funny looking back at how each of them have convictions or causes that resonate within each of them :: feminism, corruption, mental health :: began at those early spirited gatherings.  I wouldn't have known of any secret motherhood ingredient I was giving my children :: keeping them curious.

Regardless of whether they could vote being that it was a good decade away, they were encouraged to have a voice on what is wrong with this world?  The earliest memory of Chantal was the detail I went through with gut-wrenching honesty, the list of items retrieved and inventoried on a list that was to go back to school the next day :: my very first, and maybe the first environmentalists of the #Millennial generation. 

Charitable causes the norm
Imagine my pure pleasure and surprise that should give her a pass for having a home that cared about its planet.  That is because coffee grounds, vegetables, fruit rinds, peelings, soup, meat, gravy, moldy bread, sour milk, burt something, failed recipe, were always put garburator  to work.   The cans were rinsed in a Rubbermade bucket (long before the engenius inventor of a blue recycle bin, talk about explosive idea for this generation to the next).  I am definitely sure that it was before plastics were recycled except milk 2 litres recycling at bottle depots.  That was before grade schools asked for donations of buckets for crafts and pop caps for charitable causes were even considered BTW (twitter-ese for 140 characters or less).


A louder voice
These open ended hearty discussions were encouraged and embraced.  Looking back now, I see how it could boost Kyle's confidence that his opinion mattered and was his purest gift ::  if there is a cause that is because of corruption, you will not hear a louder voice.

Good stock
Kyle is at the front of the line recognizing the attributes he inherited from his parents :: from me he says my outgoing friendliness and optimism :: times at least a dozen.  From his father, a work ethic, financial responsibility, and commitment.  And just this Mother's Day Kyle is confidently sharing the gifts he received from his stepfather named "Rob".  He said it was his sarcastic, dry humor.  That, and the fact that they both seem to like the same games and are gamers together. 

Talk about wisdom
If you are having trouble communicating with your Millennial sons, and the admitted desire to want to reach out and connect, you should try the ingredient that Rob and Kyle have discovered :: you can't go merely through the motions however.  You have to dedicate yourself like you have never before to find a way you will enjoy gaming with a world to uncover. 

It is a secret world
Where escapism meets participation via gaming.  A social (perhaps hidden) personality who had more to give and share by unmasking imagination and team work.  Where the testosterone is checked at the door.  Where men could safely become men and male examples rise to the top.  


To be continued ...... (daughters beware)