Box 4572, Station C, Calgary, Alberta T2T 5N3
Grey Eagle Hotel, 3777 Grey Eagle Drive (Corner of 37 St SW and Glenmore Drive)
Mondays 12.00 pm - 1.00 pm
President: Bill Fitzsimmons President-Elect: Marlene Doherty Past President: Gerry Meek
Secretary: Gail Williams Treasurer: Don Edie
Directors: Judy Cochran, Gord Cox, Darren Grierson, Barb Hames,
Ken Montgomery, Drew Turnbull
Together We Are People of Action - Building Community
May 17, 2021 Edition: 54.50 Reporter: Marie Rickard Editor: David Williams
RCCW Zoom Meeting
President Bill Fitzsimmons welcomed all the guests to this fabulous meeting where there will be an opportunity to listen to and ask questions of our featured speaker, Ali Velshi.
President Bill was pleased to make a presentation of his Golden Stetson, his presidential recognition for special contributions. It may be virtual, but Tim Anderson is the recipient in his capacity as the Speaker Committee Chair. Thanks for your contributions to the club and your help with President Bill’s program changes. Wear your Golden Stetson proudly!
Inspirational Moment: Rod McMahon for Mary Jane Assaly. This moment was provided for all the many guests who attended online today - a quick overview of Rotary and our club.
Special thanks for Robyn Braley who reached out to the speaker today, and to many guests who are attending online. Since there were more guests than we could acknowledge, Duncan Stanners gave the guests a Calgary West Rotary welcome and thank you for attending. Gail Williams acknowledged her friend and fellow-Rotarian, District Governor from 5050, Carol Tichelman.
Robyn Braley said it best in his introduction for Ali Velshi and here it is.
"It is my pleasure to introduce Ali Velshi as our speaker today. Ali Velshi is the host of “Velshi,” which airs on MSNBC, Saturdays and Sundays, from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. He is also a business correspondent for NBC News. Ali is a Canadian who was born in East Africa and raised in Canada. He graduated from Queens University which bestowed an honorary Doctor of Laws on him in 2016. He began his career at CITY-TV, Toronto, and then moved to CTV National News. Ali went on to serve as CNN’s chief business correspondent and host of 'Your Money.' Velshi also co-hosted CNN’s, 'American Morning'. You will often hear him commenting about US politics on CBC and CTV news. Ali has won numerous journalism awards and been nominated for 3 Emmys. He has been on Oprah, The View, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart talking about economic issues. Velshi splits his time between New York City and Philadelphia, where he teaches a course at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania."
Rotary is about service, and so is Ali. He serves on the boards of trustees of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University in New York, the Chicago History Museum; Seeds of Peace; the XPrize Foundation, and the Philadelphia Citizen. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
"Ali, I need to clear something. My wife Meg and I are news junkies and were fans of yours in your CTV and CNN Days. That was BEFORE we knew you were related to our very own Rotarian Sa'adat Keshavjee. Of course, that only increased our esteem. He is talking to us from San Francisco. Rotarians and guests, let's give a zoom clap welcome to Ali Velshi."
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Ali commented on the last year being like 30 years because a lot happened! America needs to rebuild. There seemed to be so much to report on, including the social justice movement, the management of the pandemic, and the polarizing US election where lies and conspiracy theory abound, including the pronouncement of former President Donald Trump that Biden did not win the election. Ali says we need to fix this.
In the US, there are built-in structural inequities regarding policing that have been in place for a long time against black people, and people of colour. Video has changed things for policing where the world can see shootings on video. Petty crimes committed can end up in death for the perpetrator. Excessive force by police becomes real and accurately reported, and the tension between police and communities has grown. Donald Trump encouraged this.
Ali said he now carries a separate bag with a gas mask, helmet that contains a mouthpiece for his reporting and bullet-proof vest. On Saturday, May 20, 2020, Ali was reporting on MSNBC from Minneapolis, where there was a protest because a curfew was imposed by the government. There had been some serious events the night prior where a police station was burned down. Ali reported from the event that it was a seemingly peaceful demonstration, and he was located about 2/3 down the crowd of people walking the street. The curfew time came, and everyone sat down and then the crowd again started to move. Suddenly, the police arrived with sirens blaring, split the crowd and threw out tear gas. Somehow, Ali found himself at the front of the crowd and was hit in the knee with a rubber bullet. 200 journalists were injured that weekend.
That moment crystallized an idea that journalists are the enemy of the people and was used by Donald Trump in his election campaign to tell a story supporting threats and causing dangerous dynamics. Ali states the journalists are there for two reasons: first, to tell people what is happening and bear witness and second, to hold power to account. With the use of video, police are held to account and police like having the video to show the reality of what is happening during these incidents. If we find ourselves in a dangerous or confrontational situation, Ali encouraged us to turn on a camera.
Ali Velshi travels the country and talks to people. One of his colleagues, Nikole Hanna Jones is an investigative journalist. The year 1619 is when the first enslaved black people came to Virginia, USA. Nikole Hanna Jones produced “The 1619 Project”, a series of articles circulated by a special issue of The New York Times Magazine which began in 2019 and in a quote from Wikipedia “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”
Through reporting, journalists are trying to expose the intersectionality of blacks and other groups. The first Asian people came to New Orleans mid 1700s. Ali interviewed a panel of Asian Americans recently, consisting of 6th, 5th, 4th and one new generation, Asian Americans. He cited that in the world there is lots of money, food, water, but it is not well distributed. Oxfam reports that the top five richest people have the same wealth as 50% of the world. The world that fears Asians does not have this perspective. How do we make sure that everyone shares the wealth including blacks, women, Asians, refugees, Mexicans, and transgender kids?
The left wing politicians are pushing their liberal way of life thus instilling fear in the more right wing. Social justice collides with political polarization. These more right wing voters fear for their lives. A fear is that immigrants will take away jobs, change the culture in the community and mess the culture up. As a counter to this, Ali points out that Turkish immigrants in German society, as well as immigrants in Canada, have integrated successfully. Americans need good government policy to deal with this.
Politicians instill this fear. The descendants of a very shrewd type of politician who manipulates one side into fearing the other. The Republicans list is getting weird: election fraud, Donald Trump as a leader continued extreme and untruthful messaging. This will split American society.
The management of the pandemic could have happened differently. Donald Trump announced opening America up by Easter of 2020. Experts knew what was going on in 2019 and early 2020. Donald Trump had to know what was going on, too! The federal administration was not working on the problem.
America needs to be more prominent on the world stage and needs to play a role in leadership, presently in the Middle East. The US government needs to work on global affairs. The world needs the pandemic solved. 600,000 Americans have died because of COVID. Energy and pipelines need conversations. Different perspectives on methods of transportation for fossil fuels have left a bad taste and environmental concerns. Folks need leadership and hope for normalcy to return.
The good news is that the economy is on the upswing in the United States and government seems to be stepping up in some areas.
Questions
What do Canadian journalists bring to the news? A different viewpoint. Canadians know how to do more with less.
What is significant for the future? The escalation of civil violence from the right to the point of civil war. The FBI and the Department of Justice are giving notice. Terrorism will be domestic and born out of grievance based right wing violence. Polarization and violence, fear of police, the armed Proud Boys, grievances fuelled by right wing violence and the ready availability of weapons in the US are all factors.
How do you find meaning in a troubled world? Listen!! Dialogue with people with whom you disagree!
How do you work to better public information and questioning of media especially on cable channels? Look for reliable sources for your information from whatever perspective. They are out there. Teach kids how to consume information. Do not rely on the CNN (left) and Fox (right). This kind of commentary ferments division in society. Fix it for the kids! Ali agrees that the commentary on cable channels is part of the problem.
Why Ali went to US? He says he loves Canada, and he had no desire to leave. His mother and father are still in Toronto. He was offered a good job. Canada is his escape hatch.
When do facts and opinion get confusing? How do we know what is reporting and what is commentating? Possibly we need signposts to recognize this. A good question and Ali could see how it can be confusing. Ali likes to do both. Perhaps he should give up one.
Dan Pigeon on behalf of Calgary West Rotary Club thanked Ali for his insightfulness and his style of delivery and giving to us the gift of his time, thoughts, and background.
Announcements
Tim Anderson took the helm and thanked President Bill Fitzsimmons for the Golden Stetson. Tim accepted, but only in partnership with Robyn Braley who has been a generous contributor to the program content and speaker roster this year.
Tim then called for announcements.
Garfield Ganong reported on the Rotary Foundation tailgate party and gala on May 12 ,which was a celebration attended virtually by Zones 28 and 32 which are comprised of 43 Districts. In Zone 28 (which has 21 Districts), District 5360 came in 2nd in total giving to the Rotary Foundation and in the combined Zone 28 and 32, District 5360 was third in contributions to the Rotary Foundation. 50% of participants at the virtual event were from our Zone.
Birthday Barb Time with Barbie Hames, who was appearing by Zoom from BC. Barbie announced the following birthday and anniversary wishes!
Birthdays:
Evelyn Buckley - May 13
Paul Graham - May 18th
Wedding Anniversaries:
Don Vokey and Linda Legg - 2 years- May 1
Bill and Maxine Lawless - BIG 50 years - May 15
Marie and Steve Rickard - 46 years - May 24
Anniversary of Joining Rotary:
Gordon Rodrigues (honorary member) - 42 years - May 1
Maggie Julian - 22 years - May 4
Denise Penner-Collins -20 years - May 11
Gord Cox - 2 years - May 13
Vivian Jones - 2 years - May 13
Congratulations to all!
Gord Cox thanked those who exercised patience when a glitch appeared at the start of the meeting on Zoom and folks were split into 2 different Zoom meetings. New information was conveyed by Gord to the outside group, and we all met up in the right place. He also thanked Rod McMahon for taking the helm at the meeting while he corrected the problem. Tim Anderson says thanks to Gord and we are lucky to have you working with the technology!
Bill and Maxine Lawless celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with an anniversary Zoom party with 37 Zoom connections including 75 of their friends and family. In celebration, Bill had 50 happy bucks to donate to Calgary West Rotary projects.
Bill Quinney thanked everyone for their donations to the Alex – Fill the Bus campaign. All cash donations, et al, were gratefully received.
Duncan Stanners announced that the cherry fundraiser is gearing up for another great year and he is looking for volunteers to help. Please contact Duncan.
Tim also shared that there is no meeting on Monday, May 24, due to the holiday; but on Thursday evening, May 27, there will be the last presentation in a series of previous presidents of Calgary West Rotary Club. Dan Doherty, Steve Rickard, and Tony Knight will be telling the story of their president’s year and various projects and initiatives that have evolved because of their passion for Rotary service.
Our meeting was cut short because another meeting was intersecting with our meeting on the District Zoom account, so President Bill offered us all an apology by email for the abrupt stop to our meeting.