The Future Is In Our Past -
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has booted MP Helena Guergis from Caucus, after she resigned as Minister of State for the Status of Women following a phone call from the Prime Minister. Ms. Guergis hasn't been able to keep herself or her husband out of trouble recently but, until now, the Prime Minister has stood behind her, albeit uncomfortably.
It seems the latest (undisclosed) allegations against the Cabinet Minister are too much, and Mr. Harper has called in the RCMP to investigate. Are we to assume that the Prime Minister lost his cool?
Ms. Guergis had been under pressure since her husband, former MP Rahim Jaffer, was charged last September with drunk driving, cocaine possession and speeding. He later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of careless driving in a decision that rocked public confidence in the justice system.
The latest charge against Ms. Guergis' husband is that he's going around claiming that he has access to the Prime Minster. Ms. Guergis, herself, is under suspicion of instructing her staff to write the media praising her as Minister and a person.
Earlier Ms. Guergis kicked up a fuss at the Charlottetown Airport when she arrived late for a flight. When called on her actions, Ms. Guergis cited going through difficult times as the reason for losing her cool and calling Prince Edward Island a hellhole.
Booting someone out of Caucus is unprecedented. Even disgraced ex-Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, who left secret documents at his girlfriend's apartment, was merely sent to the backbenches.
Would Ms. Guergis have been banished had she been a man? It reminds me of a saying, ""It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with an angry woman."" Men have been taught well to see angry woman as vile but angry men as leaders.
Did anger get the Polish President killed in a plane crash? On April 10, Polish President Lech Kaczy _ski and 97 people died when their plane crashed on its fourth attempt to land in Smolensk, Russia. The Polish elite were travelling to the commemoration of the mass murder of 20,000 Poles who were killed by order of Stalin 70 years ago in the nearby forests of Katyn.
Why did the pilot make four attempts at landing when he had been advised to land in Minsk, Belarus, 400 kilometres away? The black boxes are expected to reveal if pressure was put on the pilot to land in Smolensk.
Reports state that, on a previous occasion, when President Kaczy _ski was traveling to Georgia in 2008, he threatened to have the pilot dismissed from his job, when the pilot refused to land in Tbilisi because the airport was not fitted with a modern navigation system.
Anger, it seems, is endemic in our society! On the April 9, the night before the Polish plane crashed, CBC Fifth Estate aired a story about Peter Nygaard and his alleged anger. Mr. Nygaard, one of the riches men in Canada, is the head of a Canadian fashion empire.
The program described a man obsessed with power and control, trying to achieve his desires through anger. We can't be certain where the truth lies but we do know many people are obsessed with power and control, and the rich and powerful can use their wealth and anger to achieve it.
Anger is as old as time itself. More historical angry leaders spring to mind than do loving leaders. Gengis Khan, Atilla the Hun, Pol Pot, Caligula, Nero, and Stalin come readily to mind and the list goes on. It has even been reported that the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, shows extraordinary flashes of anger, shouting at staff and kicking the furniture, when he doesn't get his way.
Loving leaders can uncover easily Jesus Christ, Buddha and Confucius, and then one has to think hard. The old saying you can get further with honey than vinegar has never been tested in 6,000 years of recorded history.
Our ancestors would be mortified to know that we are actually having a conversation about anger. Looking back on history, people have always been intimidated by anger and most would rather not tackle issues such as justice for all. Angry people have no trouble getting their way because peaceful people will not fight.
Recent research has shown that people who have happiness make conscious decisions to be happy or, in other words, not to be angry. Happiness is something that we choose knowingly. It is a mental skill set that we can acquire.
Mindfulness is a word used in Buddhism to separate the self from emotions. It is also found in the words of Jesus who said we could never emulate Him unless we forget self. (Matthew 16:24) Mindfulness creates a mental distance between the self and the behavior, allowing us to make a choice. Forget self and its desires and we can choose not to be angry.
Angry individuals seem to get some perverse comfort from controlling others. They fail to understand that power over self, not power over others, is what produces happiness. When we understand this important fact, we can choose to follow Jesus' example and turn the other cheek.
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