I have this jean jacket. It's super old and fraying at the wrists. There's a hole in the right shoulder. It will never be truly clean again. I love this jacket. It came as a very nice gift from a company that I worked for a long time ago and it came at a time when I was hankering for a new jean jacket. I have worn it for something like fifteen years. Maybe more.
But you know, it was never that flattering, though I felt good when I wore it. And it doesn't really suit who I have become. Even the company I got it from is gone. Things change. We change. I've changed. Maybe it's time to stop wearing that jacket.
Funny. I think that the conservatives of this world might need a change of jacket, too. Their jacket requires a particular stance about the environment, a particular opinion about criminality, a particular belief about values, a particular assumption about reproductive rights.
But what if things have changed?
What if the world could be a better place if it were cleaner, moving away from fossil fuels as a primary energy source? What if the world is, inexplicably, safer? What if values have changed intrinsically? What if the world has more than enough people? We don't need to pollute more than we already do. We don't need more prisons at a time in which crime rates have dropped consistently for decades. We don't need to be told what to think. We don't need to count every sperm as sacred.
We do need to vouchsafe this planet for our children's children. We do need to vouchsafe our way of life for them, too.
The brand spanking new jacket with the maple leaf on the back is hanging in your closet, Mr. Harper. It's there. You've shoved it aside for what I can only assume is your understanding of current values, trends, and needs.
I would never want to accuse you of wearing your jacket just because it makes you feel more popular to wear it. I would never want to accuse you of wearing your current jacket out of sentiment. I would certainly never want to accuse you of wearing your current, frayed, hole-ridden jacket to further your political ends. Even you have to say: it's really not that flattering.
Jacqui Burke is
a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada. She is currently directing Kidsplay 2012: The Mayan Prediction
opening June 20. 2012 at the Palmerston Library Theatre for one night only, and The Last Five Years
for TOKL Productions running July 20-21st, 2012 at the Alum Studio. Next year, she is looking forward to producing/directing her own show in the fall, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild. She is, also,
serializing The
Pretender, her first novel,
online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.
She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp
sessions for 2012.
Want to contact me?
Jacqui
Burke
Artistic
Director
Jaybird
Productions
talk/text: 647-292-0210
twitter: @jaybird01
skype: Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/
Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo!
Premium Summer Camps for Kids. Two installments in
2012: The Homeschoolers` Version: 11:00 am
– 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $155.
Premium Full Day Summer Camp: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm,
July 16-20, 2012 for only $200. Both prices hold until May
15th, 2012. Spots are going fast. Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
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