Bike in the Brambles

Another incredibly beautiful autumn day!  Cool enough to wear gloves for the first part of my walk, but it didn't take me long to warm up.  This bike has shown up in a few different places, and today it was in the brambles down by the Rock Salt.  An option for "Bikes" this week.
I've packed up a few more things to take to recycling and to the thrift shop. A little bit at a time!  It feels good to get the decluttering started.  
A follow-up to yesterday's remembrance blip.  One of my former students posted a very strong message on Facebook yesterday.  She's an Indigenous woman, and we taught her when she was in junior high school then again when she enrolled in the teacher training program we worked with.  She's now the principal of a small private school on Vancouver Island, a new position for her this year.  She wrote about how she wakes up every day hoping that she doesn't get a "seething hate stare or disrespect from someone" because of her skin colour.  The parents of one of the students refused to shake her hand and the student told her that his dad was proud that his ancestors sent "injuns" to residential schools.  The boy said that he is ashamed of his parents because they're racist.  Maybe that's where the change starts, with children recognizing racism in adults and refusing to be racist themselves.  My father was racist and made derogatory comments about "Indians", "Japs" and "Wops" and many others.  He wasn't pleased when I married a "wop" and didn't like the idea of me working so closely with "Indians".  Thankfully I refused to agree with his racist outlook and disagreed with him constantly.  No changing his mind, though.  It dismays me that people treat others so terribly because of skin colour, sexual orientation, gender, religious beliefs or the situations they find themselves in.  We need to speak out whenever we witness discrimination of any kind.  The world desperately needs more love, tolerance and kindness.