ThatGrrl

The website I found this on is gone years ago. But, the idea is not. I have wondered why Canada doesn't have its own hocky league, not including teams in the US. Why is the NHL, not really the National Hockey League, for Canada instead of North America (not including Mexico, so far).

Here is what had been posted as the 'About' page on the old site:

The Campaign for Canadian Hockey Independence

WE - THE HOCKEY PEOPLE OF CANADA - are tired of waiting, paying and being ignored.... and, after much debate and discussion, on July 4th, 2009, the People came together to form a Revolutionary organization.

This organization - The Canadian Revolution - is a Campaign for Canadian Hockey Independence ... and we have a goal in mind. A cross-Canada, world-class professional hockey league that serves the interests of all involved: Owners/Cities, Players and Fans.

Our organization – at once both grassroots as well as connected – is comprised of a broad spectrum of Canadian hockey patriots. By agitating for our common purpose – and planning to deliver upon that promise – we are laying the foundation for Canadian hockey success stories written across this great land and for many years to come.

WE know that no task is easy. But once we have unveiled the plan – and we have all had a chance to debate and discuss the open and honest facts (for a change), the Revolutionary committee is confident that we will ‘fill the rink' with ease in terms of attracting interested cities (more than 25 cities in Canada have populations in excess of 100,000.... or almost 1,000,000 by American standards based upon a new statistical model, the Hockey Avidity Quotient/HAQ).

WE have heard the Players' Association lament the League's refusal to ‘pass the puck to Canada ' and we also know that the players, specifically the Canadian players, have been seeking a more equitable model of operation. The Plan will unveil a true partnership for all involved.

WE have heard the protests, the anguished pleas of the fine citizens of Winnipeg and Quebec City and we, the Canadian Revolution, avow to protect the rights of all Canadian hockey fans against the impartial removal of franchises (and, amazingly, the refusal to allow for their re-absorption back into the Canadian hockey hotbed).

WE are you – and YOU are WE. WE are all Canadian Hockey Patriots.

And, on August 1st, 2009, the Revolution will intensify as the Plan is revealed and, for the first time in our collective sporting history, Canadians will have the opportunity of controlling their own hockey destiny, clear of any undue or unwanted foreign influence.

WE THE HOCKEY PEOPLE OF CANADA STAND READY TO FIGHT THE CANADIAN REVOLUTION AND INVITE ONE AND ALL TO JOIN US IN THE CAMPAIGN FOR CANADIAN HOCKEY INDEPENDENCE !

The Communications Committee The Canadian Revolution July 8, 2009

I strongly disagree with cancel culture, book burning, etc. History doesn't go away just because people don't like it. Young people won't know Nancy Green because she was removed from the syrup bottles. So they won't see her and think to find out who she was. She becomes lost to history, because she was black, not because she wasn't worth remembering.

Posted by Terry Quinn on Facebook:

The branding of the syrup was a tribute to this woman’s gifts and talents. The world knew her as “Aunt Jemima”, but her given name was Nancy Green and she was a true American success story. She was born a slave in 1834 Montgomery County, Kentucky. and became a wealthy superstar in the advertising world, as its first living trademark. Green was 56-yrs old when she was selected as spokesperson for a new ready-mixed, self-rising pancake flour and made her debut in 1893 at a fair and exposition in Chicago. She demonstrated the pancake mix and served thousands of pancakes, and became an immediate star.

She was a good storyteller, her personality was warm and appealing, and her showmanship was exceptional. Her exhibition booth drew so many people that special security personnel were assigned to keep the crowds moving. Nancy Green was signed to a lifetime contract, traveled on promotional tours all over the country, and was extremely well paid. Her financial freedom and stature as a national spokesperson enabled her to become a leading advocate against poverty and in favor of equal rights for all Americans. She maintained her job until her death in 1923, at age 89. This was a remarkable woman, and sadly she has been ERASED by politics. I wanted you to know and remind you in this cancel culture time period.

I have written in a book. A book I owned not one borrowed from someone else or a library. Also, not a book I was going to trade in at my local secondhand bookstore for more secondhand books. So, I didn't feel it was defacing the book, but it still felt as if I were breaking some kind of cultural barrier.

Quoted from the Amazon book description of "The Reader in the Book: A Study of Spaces and Traces" by Stephen Orgel.

"One of the most commonplace aspects of old books is the fact that people wrote in them, something that, until very recently, has infuriated modern collectors and librarians. ... The underlying question is at what point marginalia, the legible incorporation of the work of reading into the text of the book, became a way of defacing it rather than of increasing its value-why did we want books to lose their history?"

I made notes about what I was thinking as I read the book. I made wonderful notes I wish I could read again now and be inspired by what I thought years ago when I first read the book. But, I gave the book to someone else to read and they didn't value it the way I did. It's gone. I don't even know if they read it cover to cover as I did, or just humoured me when I said how wonderful I thought it was.

Beyond that sad little story, I think people who write in a book are those who did find more inspiration, more to explore, in the book than the people who read it (maybe even loved it too) but did not leave any notes. Leaving a note, making that decision and acting upon it to crack into the pristine pages of a book... it takes guts, for lack of a better word. Writing in a book, leaving a mark is one thing, quite a thing for some. But, that's just the start. Your personal thoughts are there, exposed, for as long as that book is still around.

A book has to be burned to be destroyed. Throwing it into the garbage is not a final end. Someone could still pick it out, clean it up a bit and read it. Composting, is closer to an end, but that takes time. Quite a lot of time and you're not going to be there to guard the spot where its composting for as long as it would take for that book to break down. So, your thoughts will be there beyond the time it takes to jot them down.

Knowing and thinking about all of this, would you write in a book? I still do.