November 15th, 1976 (haibun) MicroPoetry Month – Daily moments

If you talk to a man in a language he understand, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.  –Nelson Mandela

How can I not write something on this date November 15th.   Je m’en souviens all too well.  Sure I have mixed feelings being of two cultures and embracing both. My mother, being French Québecois has always said she was a bilingual Canadian. She has never shared the vengeance and yet she has surely experienced the unfairness and the disrespect  all too often.

My father,  being of Irish and Welsh background, his maternal grandfather settled here due to his Irish Catholic background but his father being of the mindset of English is best allowed me to feel the humiliation for my mother.

French speaking persons in the 50’s and 60’s could not get decent work if they did not speak fluent English and even then, it was difficult to rise in a company carrying a French name.  How this has changed dramatically today!

I understand the need for change. One must be mindful, when the pendulum swings too much and stays there, it turns justice into resentment and vengeance. And being of these two cultures, I have too often been on the fence carrying the sins of my ancestors.

history
in the making
November 15th

a new government is born
1976

citizens hail
Vivre le Québec Libre
français shall rule

laws to preserve their language
change well past due

years of oppression
fuels their passion
the pendulum swings

 ©Tournesol’17/11/15

Written for MicroPoetry Month November 15th 2017

Quebec 1976 Parti Québecois Victory