There is something I would like to share with you, - it was shared with me by a very proud Poppa who daily inhabits the director's office of the EC. It is a simple concept that bears refreshing in the minds of adults and children alike. I share it with his permission and the permission of the granddaughter who blessed him with the artwork below.

Poppa's email to the artist: 'When you were in Grade 1 you made a "sign" about respect. I love what you did, and Grandma Read and I have it posted on our fridge as a reminder of you and as a reminder of the importance of respect. I love it so much that I would like to be able to put a scanned copy of it on the Ethics Centre website. Would you be willing to let me do that?'

In sweet child-like fashion, the reply came back simply and enthusiastically 'Sure!'.

Here, then, the blessing for all of us.

Folks are not just getting restless, we're getting mad. Somewhere deep in our bones we feel it's just not RIGHT.

We had a cold winter. That, we're used to. That, we expect. The universe is not doing anything it shouldn't do when January is frigid in Winnipeg. The fact that we Prairie people can put up with -40C is a point of pride. When others [read: Torontonians, Vancouverites, etc.] may make fun of us, we just remind ourselves of this fact: we who live in Winnipeg are a superior strain of humanity!

But, come on; it's now June! We DESERVE better than this. We've EARNED our warm, sunny days.

This is all just silliness, of course. Jesus had maybe been hearing indignant grumps like me when he said, "God makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust."

To suggest that Kansans are better people than Kenyans because they get better weather or that Glaswegians are morally inferior to Grecians because they have worse weather is bunk. And yet, who doesn't think that way some of the time?

Which has had me wondering....if we so get it wrong by linking the quality of the weather with the moral character of the people living in a certain place, where else do we unthinkingly get it wrong in connecting conditions of life with people's character? Poverty with Sloth; Wealth with Integrity? Cleanliness with Godliness; HIV with Lust; Birth defects with Sin?

Gerald participated in both solo and group exhibitions in North America and was an award-winner in IMAGO's 30th Anniversary National Juried Competition and Exhibition as well as being the recipient of the First Award in several Manitoba Society of Artists Annual Juried Exhibitions. He served as juror for various exhibitions, led workshops, and was a featured presenter at art conferences and schools in Canada and the USA. Gerald was a past-president of the Manitoba Society of Artists and worked out of his renovated attic studio in his Winnipeg home.

In September 2008 Gerald Folkerts was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. On February 1, 2009, some 150 people gathered at Winnipeg's Outworks Gallery to mark the formal closing of an exhibit of the work of artist Gerald Folkerts entitled 'Unfinished Business'. While exhibit openings are more or less the norm in the art world, a formal closing is a bit unusual. In the case of Unfinished Business, it was all the more unusual, in that the closing was marked by prayer, music, and a meditative address built around readings from the Book of Psalms. Later in the fall a group of friends and supporters came together to begin work on mounting an exhibit of his work. Defying all expectation, Gerald was sufficiently strong not only to attend the exhibit but also to speak at both the official opening and this closing recorded by friends at St. Benedict's Table.

To view Gerald's own website click here.
Much of this text was borrowed from the invisible dignity website.

Rest In Peace, dear friend.

During April 1969, John and Yoko sent acorns to the heads of state in various countries around the world in hopes that they would plant them as a symbol of peace. For eight months, the couple was not granted a single visit with any world leader. Their marriage ("You can get married in Gibraltar near Spain"), the first Bed-In ("Talking in our beds for a week"), the Vienna press conference ("Made a lightning trip to Vienna...The newspapers said..."), and the acorns ("Fifty acorns tied in a sack") were all mentioned in the song The Ballad of John and Yoko.

"Drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton
Talking in our beds for a week
The newspapers said
say what're you doing in bed
I said we're only trying to get us some peace."

Their second Bed-In was planned to take place in New York, but John was not allowed into the country because of his 1968 cannabis conviction. Instead they held the event in the Bahamas at the Sheraton Oceanus Hotel, flying there on May 24, 1969, but after spending one night in the heat, they decided to move to Montreal.

Eventually, they flew to Montreal on May 26 where they stayed in Room 1738 and 1742 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. During their seven day stay, they invited Timothy Leary, Tommy Smothers, Dick Gregory, and Al Capp and all but Capp sang on the peace anthem Give Peace a Chance, recorded in the hotel room on June 1. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation conducted interviews from the hotel room.

In December 1969, John and Yoko spread their messages of peace with billboards reading "WAR IS OVER! If You Want It - Happy Christmas From John and Yoko". These Billboards went up in eleven major world cities.

On December 23 1969, the Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was the first world leader to grant the couple a visit. They spoke for 50 minutes about world peace. Afterwards Lennon said that Trudeau was "a beautiful person".

Their peace campaign was met mostly with derision, and most journalists simply dismissed it as a publicity stunt. Lennon, who was accused of doing this for money or attention, countered by saying that he could write a song in an hour and make more money than he could spending seven days in bed talking about peace.

Related Trivia:

The Bed-in performance has since been re-interpreted and re-used in protests by a number of artists since 1969, most notably Marijke van Warmerdam with her gallerist Kees van Gelder at the same Amsterdam Hilton in 1992 and the Centre of Attention in 2005 in Miami. A fictional Bed-In protest was also featured in a 2006 Viva Voce music video.

The event was referenced in the Oasis song "Don't Look Back in Anger", in which leader singer Noel Gallagher sings "I'm gonna start a revolution from my bed / 'Cause you said the brains I had went to my head ". The latter lyric was supposedly said by Lennon during a taped conversation he had at his room at the Dakota Hotel.

In the music video for the Marcy Playground song, "It's Saturday", the group finds their way to the bed of John Lennon and Yoko during their bed in.

In late 2006, Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Californian rock band Green Day, and his wife, Adrienne Armstrong, did a similar bed-in, featuring Billie Joe and Adrienne lying on the bed, with a poster above their heads saying "Make Love Not War" in Spanish.

On Lewis Black's Root of All Evil, comedian Andy Daly exhibits a video clip showing that he has also attempted a bed in to protest the War in Iraq. Trying to mimick Lennon and Yoko's original bed in, he climbs into the bed of an Asian woman, who sprays Daly with pepper spray.

walks or bikes to school - the other one still takes a school bus. It's amazing how little driving we have to do to deal with our day-to-day life needs. We can even walk to church.

Organizationally, The Salvation Army is starting to look a lot harder at issues of environmental impact. We're seriously looking at how our choices reflect on the call to be good stewards. There's a lot of hard questions floating around out there, and straightforward easy answers don't always surface. What is our obligation as an organization? As employees? As church-members? Or simply as Christians? Is it wrong to live on a cul de sac? What if you can't afford a dishwasher but you can afford Styrofoam cups? Is driving to shop at Walmart necessarily wrong? Everywhere you turn there's an article that can either riddle you with guilt or fuel the conviction of your choices.

Do we have the answers? No, unfortunately it's just not that easy. I do believe, though, that the fact we're beginning to ask the questions is a great start. As people of integrity, we need to look at all aspects of what we do and say, and make sure it fits with the deepest convictions of our faith. We need to be challenged; and movements like 'The New Urbanism' call us to think hard, to think through our choices and, with grace, be stewards of this amazing planet we're fortunate to call home.

Here's a URL for a short YouTube clip on the new urbanism 1/2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGJt_YXIoJI&feature=player_embedded