On Motion 312

There’s no chance that motion 312 will be passed when it comes to vote in late Spring or early Fall. Gordon O’Connor smacked it down pretty hard on Thursday, and Harper has announced that he will vote against it. I don’t think there is any real and present danger that personhood laws are going to be passed in Canada, or that women’s reproductive rights will be curtailed anytime soon.

At least, not yet. But here’s why it might be worth making some noise. By presenting his motion on the floor Woodworth has already accomplished what he desired: he’s opened a debate on abortion in Canada. Despite Harper’s “read my lips” election promise not to legislate on abortion, the topic is now back on the table. It’s worth showing the Conservative party that they will lose far more votes than they will gain on this issue.

Stephen Woodworth’s framing of the motion in the discourse of civil rights is entirely disingenuous and is clumsily done. His is an “everything you say bounces off me and sticks to you” kind of argument. But it’s also symptomatic: the pro-life movement is increasingly  co-opting the language of rights that first won these battles.  The argument for the rights of the unborn is meant to distract you from the fact that the real agenda is to restrict the rights of women. Let’s not forget that Woodworth’s motion comes under the penal code heading “homicide.”

I’m not saying you have to dress up as an Atwood character and march on Parliament. Although, you know, that would be cool.

LA Hipster Discovers Ethnic Child!

Caine’s Arcade

You’ve seen this already. That’s what viral means. If not, you should watch it. I saw it a few weeks ago, showed it to my boys. I’m not ashamed to say that they teared up. It’s a good story, beautifully shot, lots of lovely shallow depth of field. Golden light.

But it bothers me too, just a little bit. Something about when he steps out of the car, into the field of waving hipsters who have descended on this neighborhood (not their own). Cardboard signs! Muttonchops! Ironic sincerity! Redemption! Why don’t we all have hipster fairy godfathers?

My nine year old son came home and said that some of the kids at school were talking about Caine’s Arcade. His friend Adam says Caine isn’t much of a businessman. Adam’s going to build a cardboard arcade, too, but his funpass is going to cost fifty bucks.

Meanwhile, the college fund the filmmaker started has exceeded 140,000 dollars. And I’m glad for that, I truly am. I’m going to try not to think about the fact that this doesn’t really change the weird unevenness of LA, the way it shifts from palace to slum block by block. I’m going to try not to think about the fact that most kids like Caine can’t afford a college education in America, and that this story repeats the old false promise that ingenuity and hard work will be enough to save you. I’m going to try not to worry that the sudden descent of money and fame in Los Angeles is not always a good thing for children, because we’ve seen that story too.

Caine, I hope your funpass lasts for years.

Mark Grist on A Girl Who Reads

When I was living in New York, I used to go to Tompkins Square park to read. I was reading Freud on a bench, and two men were sitting across from me. They looked a little rough; they might have been sleeping in the park. One of them said, “Look at that girl read! I like a girl who reads!” And then he said something that nobody has ever said about me, before or since, “I would get a job for a girl like that.”