Eau de Skunk, Anyone?
I always like learning about people who devote time and effort to changing the world, even if it does mess with their winning the popularity polls. Since I am a women myself, I like it even better when those who dare to challenge the status quo are female. Yesterday, I learned of two such delightful individuals; Rebecca Lee Crumpler, and Shiri Pasternak.
Rebecca Lee Crumpler is no longer with us, having spent her years in this world from 1831 to 1895. While she was here, however, she dared to break down barriers and challenge stereotypes, leaving the world a better place for her sojourn in it. Born in Delaware, she was raised in Pennsylvania by an aunt who gave much of her time to caring for sick neighbours. Because the first formal school for nursing did not open until 1873, Rebecca was able to practise nursing from 1852 to 1860 without formal training. When she did seek this training, she enrolled in the New England Female Medical College, graduating in 1864 as the first African American woman in the U.S. to earn an M.D. degree. The act of practising as a female M.D. would have been enough of a challenge to society at that time, even without the complicating factor of her skin colour, but the good Doctor was not one to seek the easy way.
After the end of the Civil War, in 1865, Rebecca made her way to Richmond, Virginia, where black physicians experienced extremes of racism. While there, she worked with other black physicians to care for the newly freed slaves, who you know very well would have had no other access to medical care. You also know they would have had little to no ability to pay for her services, on average, and so it is clear that Rebecca was indeed a good woman; a gentle soul.
When she was done in Richmond, she moved to Boston to practise her calling, continuing to exercise her social conscience by providing care for children, "regardless, in a measure, of remuneration". In 1883, she joined the ranks of the very few African Americans who had been published, with her volume "Book of Medical Discourses", medical advice for women and children.
You also understand, from reading what little is known about Rebecca Lee Crumpler that this could not have been a woman smiled upon by the powers-that-be of her day. In fact, I'm guessing that with many of them, she was about as popular as a skunk at a garden party. Far too feisty an independent thinker for the upper echelons of her day, they were content to allow her to slip from the collective consciousness upon her death.
Likely being judged by the same odoriferous standards of popularity as Crumpler is Shiri Pasternak. Shiri is an urban planning graduate student at the U. of T. who is fighting to implement a bylaw that seeks to set a precedent in affordable housing develpment. This bylaw, if implemented, would give the City of Toronto a framework for expropriating vacant and neglected properties, and turning them into affordable housing.
Pasternak says it was her work on private property rights that got her interested in championing the cause. She gathered data from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and presented her idea to map these properties at a Toronto School for Creativity and Inquiry event. Her proposal has been gathering support from various individuals, but she needs above all to gain the support of the city's councillors for the "Use It or Lose It" bylaw to be adopted.
Pasternak summarizes her idea by saying "You either use property responsibly or lose that privilege to own private property. And the city can expropriate that building." She and her group have been documenting what they view as available sites, having collected info on "about 25 to 30" in the city and inner suburbs. A spokesman for the city's affordable housing office, Sean Gadon, says that the city does not like to have vacant buildings because they "run down the neighbourhood" but he also says the proposed bylaw could be expensive, and that's when Ms Pasternak begins to take on a certain odour, at least for those who dislike the idea of anyone rocking the status quo boat.
Given that almost 48,000 households are currently on Toronto's waiting list for affordable housing, the "Use It or Lose It" bylaw makes a hell of a lot of sense. The only people who won't see it that way are those for whom the lining of their own pockets is far more important than the fate of anyone else on the whole planet. They are the people against whom Shiri will be pitting herself in her efforts to help those struggling to afford decent housing in Toronto.
Shiri is much like Rebecca. Both women obviously possess(ed) the ability to see beyond their own little spheres of existence; the penchant for caring about the welfare of others, whether or not they win popularity contests by doing so. We need more just like them.
Rebecca Lee Crumpler is no longer with us, having spent her years in this world from 1831 to 1895. While she was here, however, she dared to break down barriers and challenge stereotypes, leaving the world a better place for her sojourn in it. Born in Delaware, she was raised in Pennsylvania by an aunt who gave much of her time to caring for sick neighbours. Because the first formal school for nursing did not open until 1873, Rebecca was able to practise nursing from 1852 to 1860 without formal training. When she did seek this training, she enrolled in the New England Female Medical College, graduating in 1864 as the first African American woman in the U.S. to earn an M.D. degree. The act of practising as a female M.D. would have been enough of a challenge to society at that time, even without the complicating factor of her skin colour, but the good Doctor was not one to seek the easy way.
After the end of the Civil War, in 1865, Rebecca made her way to Richmond, Virginia, where black physicians experienced extremes of racism. While there, she worked with other black physicians to care for the newly freed slaves, who you know very well would have had no other access to medical care. You also know they would have had little to no ability to pay for her services, on average, and so it is clear that Rebecca was indeed a good woman; a gentle soul.
When she was done in Richmond, she moved to Boston to practise her calling, continuing to exercise her social conscience by providing care for children, "regardless, in a measure, of remuneration". In 1883, she joined the ranks of the very few African Americans who had been published, with her volume "Book of Medical Discourses", medical advice for women and children.
You also understand, from reading what little is known about Rebecca Lee Crumpler that this could not have been a woman smiled upon by the powers-that-be of her day. In fact, I'm guessing that with many of them, she was about as popular as a skunk at a garden party. Far too feisty an independent thinker for the upper echelons of her day, they were content to allow her to slip from the collective consciousness upon her death.
Likely being judged by the same odoriferous standards of popularity as Crumpler is Shiri Pasternak. Shiri is an urban planning graduate student at the U. of T. who is fighting to implement a bylaw that seeks to set a precedent in affordable housing develpment. This bylaw, if implemented, would give the City of Toronto a framework for expropriating vacant and neglected properties, and turning them into affordable housing.
Pasternak says it was her work on private property rights that got her interested in championing the cause. She gathered data from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and presented her idea to map these properties at a Toronto School for Creativity and Inquiry event. Her proposal has been gathering support from various individuals, but she needs above all to gain the support of the city's councillors for the "Use It or Lose It" bylaw to be adopted.
Pasternak summarizes her idea by saying "You either use property responsibly or lose that privilege to own private property. And the city can expropriate that building." She and her group have been documenting what they view as available sites, having collected info on "about 25 to 30" in the city and inner suburbs. A spokesman for the city's affordable housing office, Sean Gadon, says that the city does not like to have vacant buildings because they "run down the neighbourhood" but he also says the proposed bylaw could be expensive, and that's when Ms Pasternak begins to take on a certain odour, at least for those who dislike the idea of anyone rocking the status quo boat.
Given that almost 48,000 households are currently on Toronto's waiting list for affordable housing, the "Use It or Lose It" bylaw makes a hell of a lot of sense. The only people who won't see it that way are those for whom the lining of their own pockets is far more important than the fate of anyone else on the whole planet. They are the people against whom Shiri will be pitting herself in her efforts to help those struggling to afford decent housing in Toronto.
Shiri is much like Rebecca. Both women obviously possess(ed) the ability to see beyond their own little spheres of existence; the penchant for caring about the welfare of others, whether or not they win popularity contests by doing so. We need more just like them.
posted by aka.alias @ 1:34 PM 1 Comments 
1 Comments:
Pasternak has an excellent idea. It would not only bring the benefit of getting affordable housing to those that need it, but would also contribute economically to the city, revitalize neighbourhoods, and more. It's worth the damn investment, if the city would get off its ass.
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