Transcript

Labelization | Milton Orris | TEDxPenticton

thank you Brian and good morning everyone you notice I've immediately abandoned a traditional approach to greeting an audience by ladies and gentlemen because I want us all just to be one to listen to learn to talk and to laugh together through the day what about laeliz in the past 50 or 60 years it's become far more prevalent in our society and you know it puts all our ducts in a row doesn't it we don't really have to think about anything if we already know the label and what the label is supposed to mean to us does it help well yes sometimes labels do does it hinder often yes and does it harm definitely often what it often does is it prevents us from thinking about from understanding and from looking differently at things in our society in our life in our world and so labilization has become so prevalent but also I think in many ways so detrimental to us the uh for instance some things do it's good to have a label it's good to have a label on Highway 97 that says this is a section of the highway that's 100 kilometers per hour now not many people pay attention to that label unless they see a little white car in the distance however it's there the label I do like is the one that says school zone 30 kilm an hour when we are paying attention and not um endangering our children or their teachers or others and then there's the health bar the nutrition bar you know they're just uh they so good to eat they're so good for us are they really you always read the small print the small print that says this little small package has 33% sugar in it you know you could go home take two spoonfuls out of your sugar bowl wash it down with a glass of water and save $3 for the same effect almost and it's not just the sugar it's the other things in there like things like palm oil which the health authorities now tell us is a probably the worst thing you could drink except for newand Screech except I do like Newland Screech why do we have a endangered uh problem of obesity in our society increasing with our children and adults what about diabetes and they're brought about by the fact that we don't read the small labels on food which are to a high degree very sugar oriented these days and what about another one now this is an improvement remember these in the old days um these were cigarette advertisements this beautiful woman with the Wisp of smoke coming out of her mouth holding a cigarette to say you know you want to be on the In Crowd you want to be one of them Etc really join in get together have a cigarette well the laeliz has improved here's Barb tbox dying at 42 of lung cancer brought about by her early onset of smoking and her heavy smoking through her life she asked that this picture be taken as she Lay Dying and that it' be put on cigarette packages so that it would warn the young people don't go that route it's not good for you and of course we are all familiar with the labelizer where something that may cost $50 to manufacture can be sold for much much more because it has the boss label or the AR M label or one of those labels on it but I won't get into that because what I want to talk about today more is about the labels that we put on people for instance the labels that we have given the Aboriginal community in this country since the first White settlers came they were heathens they were Savages their culture was inferior to ours and that was the persistent message that you got and led to people being put into the schools the residential schools and all of that but I'm not going to say much about that except my great grand great great-grandfather was brought to this country as an indentured orphan from England worked on a farm in Ontario and when his farming days were finished was allowed to go and became a Trader with the Hudson Bay Company within a year or two he got married and I saw the picture their their wedding picture he's sitting there in the full bowler outfit and everything and standing beside him is the most beautiful beautiful cre woman in falia I am so proud to have had that as part of my heritage and he wrote back to his family to his brother in Ontario and said I've married up I've married up I've Just Married the most beautiful wise woman I've ever met she is helping us endure the harsh conditions of living on the Prairies in those days both winter and summer and she's having our children I am so happy we still have all of these negative negative labels that we attach to the Aboriginal community and I won't go into that because you're going to hear from Chief Louie later today and he will be more expressive and informative about that but we must look at abandoning those labels that categorize people unfairly and welcome them as Citizens their culture is in many ways richer than ours it's a caring Community they they respect their elders and they care for one another but let's go on to I'm sorry I'm going to give you a word Muslim if I say that word what does that bring into your mind what does that label say to you oh yes those people that blew down the Twin Tower that um resulted in Twin Towers falling because they ran airplanes into the people who are suicide bombers wrapped in bombs and walk into restaurants and bazaars and kill many innocent people everywhere there's Muslims in the world there's conflict many of my colleagues at the University of Toronto and at Ryerson were Muslim Pro professors many many of my students were and I had many friends there and I tell you these are solid Canadian citizens who chose to come here because of the Better Health Care the opportunities for their children an opportunity to contribute to a a safe caring Society they are wonderful citizens of this country and that's how we need to think of them if we think of them at all the label Muslim is a religious designation not something that you use to denigrate them you know some laws in Quebec want to take away the khabib a traditional dress that many of them choose to wear you know we used to have uniforms almost like that in the old days but we adored our nuns they were contributors to our Healthcare our educational system we did not criticize and we didn't pass a law saying you got to get out of those outfits no so it's interesting how our society sometimes overlap well let me move on to crippled I was so fortunate when I was younger to be the executive director of Camp Easter seal in Saskatchewan where over a thousand children teenagers and adults gathered every summer at the camp and when they came they were designated as crippled as as now we have more pleasant names today disabled developmentally delayed and down syndrome those children came with labels Jimmy came Jimmy was crippled and wheelchair bound he was and partially second day of the camp he went to the ark class and at the end of the art class the art teacher came and got me and said I have something I want to show you so she took me out to where Jimmy was she told me on the way that Jimmy had never painted or drawn anything in his life before there in front of him was the most beautiful painting I could imagine of the trees that were in front of him from where he sat and into the trees you could see one of the camper cabins it was beautiful the next day his counselor came and said I got Jimmy up on the parallel bars they say he's crippled his legs look fine to me when I get him a bath or get him ready for bed at the first day I was there I watched he moved his leg like this and a couple days later he's shuffling by the end of the two weeks he was walking the length of the parall bars two or three times each day sometimes twice a day and he went on his paintings in three years were selling for1 to $150 he was walking everywhere he was moving through school very fast and somebody later told me that he got married and had a normal quote normal child if my counselor and my or at least the camp counselor and the artist hadn't said get rid of that label it doesn't mean anything I want to see what Jimmy's potential is he might still be in a wheelchair still crippled still not making the contribution he now makes to the society we got rid of the label and we need to and here's another example more local Josh debut he broke his back skiing and was a paraplegic here he is every day in his real wheelchair cuz that's how he has to move around but here he is one day skiing at a rate much faster than I or probably anybody else in this room could do because he won a gold medal at the par Olympics the Courage the determination everything he wasn't going to spend his life with a label crippled he was going to be a gold medal winning par Olympian and that's the potential that so many people who are labeled in our society of disabled and and all those things we still use those names sometimes no they're individuals with enormous potential we have to remove the labels and help them achieve that the same thing of true of course of elderly people like we still we denigrate them too I heard heard someone say not long ago those older people in our society there's such a drain on our economy such a drain on everything I well wait a minute how do you think we got this wonderful societ that we live in they created it and we owe them the best possible endof life experience they can have and they have the capacity to enjoy it my Aunt Ruby had Alzheimer's oh yeah Alzheimer people have wrak them off they don't know even what they're doing then every day I went to visit her and it used to take me four or five times hi Auntie Ruby it's Milton your nephew who Milton Milton who Milton your nephew Milton orus Milton you've come to see me she'd say and reach up and give me a hug I said to her how do you like it here Annie Ruby she said I love it I said oh really it was quite a nice home I said why do you like it so much he said I get up every morning and I meet all these new people the right attitude she was enjoying life she sang and played the piano every day and loved it now who is this well this is Olga Olga's 94 and you could tell you know she's at the age where she'd be in a nursing home right well let me show you another picture of Olga wait for me Olga she's you may have heard of her the book is why does Olga run she is the world title holder the world's champion in the Master's games believe it or not the long jump of the javelin and of the races 100 meters 400 meters she can't find other women to race a game so she's racing against the guys now and beating some of them but what a wonderful life she has every adult I worked in long-term care I directed a 250 bed home at one point and what I found was given the opportunity older people could just Thrive get a school band to come and play some of the oldtime songs and watch them sing along and get up and dance they have a lot of Life to Live and our labeling of them and our putting them in places where aren't fully receptive to them doesn't work very well we need to remove those labels I love the the the organization in Peru that says we don't have those words in our language up in The Valleys we say you're adding years to your life what a beautiful phrase so what about just to finish quickly how do we decide which labels to believe awareness are you making an assumption and that assumption may be wrong don't make assumptions is it useful is it true yes we'll keep it is it misleading is it damaging abandon it it limits us it limits our thinking our understanding our perception of the world around us when we attach a label to something and it can hurt others and restrict others and prevent others from being the full people that we want them to be so question every label that you have come into your mind or that you use and finally our own labels quite often what we're doing is we're labeling ourselves how could you be so stupid that was a really dumb thing to do you don't deserve all this you're a terrible father you're not a very good spouse get rid of those labels because pretty soon you might start believing them go and look in the mirror in the morning and say good morning it's another wonderful day I've got so much I can do I can contribute I'm going to go out there and help the world be a better place and I love you and I'm going to love all the people I meet today and help all of us change this world we're going to abandon the labels and live each of Our Lives uniquely fully and productively thank you