A Teacher Poems

Samples of poetry that I'm working on.

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#IDAHOTB 2015 Toronto draws attention to youth

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Today is The International Day Against Homphobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia. The occasion was honoured this past Friday, above Nathan Phillips Square at Toronto City Hall. If you've never heard of IDAHOTB, don't feel too bad. The observance has only been around since 2005, after 24,000 individuals and several LGBT organizations had signed an appeal to support the " IDAHO Initiative " the year before. In 2009 IDAHO became IDAHOT, and just this year, it became IDAHOTB. So, the "B" is new, and the "O" is optional, so you can imagine the confusion some of us had hash-tagging our Tweets.  Celebrated annually on May 17th, this year's IDAHOTB marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the removal of homosexuality as a mental health disorder by the World Health Organization. According to the IDAHOTB central website, "May 17 is now celebrated in more than 130 countries, including 37 where same-sex acts are illegal, with 1600 events reported f
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The Sin of Omission

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A particular Catholic blog that has caught my eye over the last couple of years is Everyday for Life Canada , written by veteran educator  Lou Iacobelli . There are two reasons I read it: Unlike many blogs in this arena, which simply link out other materials with a bit pithy commentary, Mr Iacobelli's entries are original essays. These range from personal reflections on faith to thoughtful explanations of the inner workings of the vast complex that is the Roman Catholic Church. The other reason I read it is that Mr Iacobelli was my eleventh-grade English teacher in 1976, just shy of forty years ago, at De La Salle College in Toronto. Mr Iacobelli was among a handful of teachers who provided me with an arena in which I could thrive. Having little interest in hockey or football in a school that excelled in both; being among the very few non-Catholics in the all-boys collegiate; and showing absolutely no talent for maths or sciences, to which the school's curricular scales were
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When Everyone's A Bully, Nobody Is

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On the eve of the 2015 celebration of the International Day of Pink , many -- myself included -- were startled to find that Laureen Harper had been named an ambassador of the event. Ms Harper's letter of support appeared on the front page of the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity (CCGSD) , formerly known as Jer's Vision for its founder Jeremy Dias . Sparks flew briefly, and we went on about our business. CBC reported on both the controversy and the successes of the day: LGBT activists boycott #DayOfPink over Laureen Harper's involvement . Well, sort of. But not really. There were no disruptions of the event, per se. Ariel Troster posted an essay on Storify which elucidated the concerns of many: Why I won't be wearing pink tomorrow: How the #DayofPink just sold out trans youth . While the Harper Conservatives have been trying to paint themselves as gay-friendly, the party is stacked with vicious homophobes who said absolutely atrocious things during
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