Loving, Hopeful & Optimistic

RC1_9263, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

Jack Layton [July 18, 1950 – August 22, 2011], his last letter to Canada in 2011

In Memory of Jack Layton [July 18, 1950 – August 22, 2011]

RC1_9250, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

“We deeply regret to inform you that the Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, passed away at 4:45 am today, Monday August 22. He passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by family and loved ones.”

Olivia Chow, wife and a fellow NDP MP

May you continue to inspire us:

To enter each day with a generous heart.

To serve the call of courage and love

Until we see your beautiful face again

In that land where there is no more separation,

Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,

And where we will never lose you again.

John O'Donohue, On the Death of the Beloved

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Hope

RC1_9265, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

If I have tried to bring anything to federal politics,
it is the idea that hope and optimism should be at their heart.

We CAN look after each other better than we do today.
We CAN have a fiscally responsible government.
We CAN have a strong economy; greater equality; a clean environment.
We CAN be a force for peace in the world.

I am as hopeful and optimistic about all of this as I was the day I began my political work, many years ago.
I am hopeful and optimistic about the personal battle that lies before me in the weeks to come.

And I am very hopeful and optimistic that our party will continue to move forward.  ...

And we WILL work with Canadians to build the country of our hopes

Of our dreams
Of our optimism
Of our determination
Of our values...
Of our love.

Thank you.

Jack Layton, Letter to his constituency on July 25, 2011 indicating he will be taking a temporary leave of absence as Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada to focus on fighting cancer.


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Children & War

DSC_3938
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

The time has come to make the protection of children – all our children – a common cause that can unite us across the boundaries of our political orientation, religious affiliation and cultural traditions. We must reclaim our lost taboos, and make the abuse and brutalization of children simply unacceptable.

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But today, to paraphrase the poet W.B. Yeats, things have fallen apart, the moral centre is no longer holding. In so many conflicts today, anything goes. Children, women, the elderly, granary stores, crops, livestock – all have become fair game in the single-minded struggle for power, in an attempt not just to prevail but to humiliate, not simply to subdue but to annihilate the “enemy community” altogether. This is the phenomenon of total war.

Olara Otunnu, Ugandan 2011 Presidential Candidate

Your Daily Life

RC1_9264
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Your daily life is nothing else but an expression of your spiritual condition.

Thaddeus Golas, The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment


Like my Dad, I am a fighter and I am going to beat this.  ...  I am feeling good.

Jack Layton's remark at a press conference in Toronto on Friday, February 5, 2010, about his prostate cancer