Sobering Realities

Fabulous did an amazing job with his presentation at the University. All of the speakers were good, but his part was especially informative and compassionate.

Now that I think of it, our whole family is pretty comfortable in front of a microphone. Pillar and Awesome have always been at ease in front of a crowd and very skilled at public speaking, and in the past few years, Fabulous has gained even more experience with presentations like today's. Interesting...we're probably a bit unique in that respect.

We're sort of like the Von Trapp family of social issues.... without the leider-hosen made of curtains, of course.

The candle-lighting ceremony was moving and the speakers all reminded us of the sobering statistics around women and violence.

The speaker from the local Women's Center talked about how the Federal and Provinicial governments have dropped the ball in terms of advocating for women and children. Last year the Feds stopped funding all Status of Women Canada programs. It was in the news for a few days, but the effects have been devasating for women every day since the programs were cancelled. Violence against women connects to so many other social issues, particularly poverty.

It seems like such a huge mountain of an issue, mostly because it IS a huge mountain of a problem. Where is our outrage? Where is our government? Why Why Why do women and children have to be the first to suffer government funding cuts? What can we do as a church when money is the solution to so many needs? We may not have money in abundance but we do have compassion. Is that enough? Or is it the church's task to lobby governments to do more to defend women in the first place?

Pondering....