The Quilts of the Underground Railroad: The Secret Communication to Freedom

I wrote this for a class in the spring. It is a final paper after learning about slavery and indentured labour. The resistance of slaves was focussed on because the slaves were not sympathetic figures; they fought back. Hidden in Plain View: The Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad is a great resource to learn more about the story of the quilts. 

The Underground Railroad was seen as a route to freedom; a dangerous journey to Canada that was undertaken by brave slaves and their allies who were determined to help them reach freedom. Do to the illegal nature of this work those who ran the Underground Railroad used hard to identify symbols to help the slaves find their way from station to station. On the other hand the slaves themselves found a way to pass the legend of the Underground Railroad without getting caught; through song. These two different forms of communication helped the Underground Railroad remain underground and away from slave owners and drivers. The safety of everyone involved in the Underground Railroad was paramount and to achieve success at moving slaves out of slavery and into Canada so they could be free. By focusing on two components of the communication methods used by the slaves and the station managers. The coded messages shared through both song and quilt were key to the safe escapes of those who decided to run. What did the codes in the quilts and in “Follow the Drinking Gourd” represent? How did the codes and the community surrounding the enslaved Africans help them preserve the heritage that the slave owners were trying to steal from them?

The Underground Railroad is the most famous way that slaves escaped to freedom in Canada. Through a series of safe houses or stations, slaves moved through the United States of America by foot until they reached Cleveland, Ohio where they were transported across Lake Erie into Canada where they would be free at last. The journey usually occurred at nighttime, with the dark allowing for some security for the slaves[1]. The journey was treacherous. If a slave was caught they were punished severely. The Underground Railroad became a way to escape the harsh conditions and to experience freedom, even if that freedom was achieved in another country.

Both former slaves and white folk who were sympathetic to the plight of the enslaved slaves facilitated the Underground Railroad. Many of the former slaves who helped facilitate the Underground Railroad were granted manumissions because of the War of Independence and their willingness to fight along side Americans to gain freedom from Great Britain[2]. These former slaves gained knowledge once they became free, but they never lost touch with the community of slaves that they knew through the plantation grapevine, a system of communication devised by the slaves to share information from plantation to plantation. This form of communication became vital to the spreading of the Underground Railroad as a means to achieve freedom. The Underground Railroad was one example of slave resistance and silent protest. Slaves did not hold power, but they were able to control their lives to a certain extent by fighting back through marooning and creating an entire system to help slaves escape to Canada.

The Underground Railroad was the silent way that slaves fought back. It was silent in the sense that it was hard to trace. The slaves and those who ran the Underground Railroad formed a system of communication that was intricate and based on both African culture and basic ideas of remaining hidden. The slaves and those who helped run the Underground Railroad used everyday items and songs to communicate the instructions for travelling on the Underground Railroad. The everyday item that was used was the quilts. Quilts were the everyday item that was used by slaves to learn the way to Canada and to communicate how to prepare. Song was used to pass the directions along. One of the most famous Underground Railroad song is the African American folk song “Follow the Drinking Gourd”. By combining the use of the quilts with the lyrics from “Follow the Drinking Gourd” it becomes apparent that communication about the Underground Railroad was coded in a way that was easy to understand, yet easy to hid from the slave masters and overseers[3].

There are two key components to the discussion of how the Underground Railroad used hidden culture to enable communication is the quilts of the Underground Railroad and the popular African American folk song “Follow the Drinking Gourd”. The oral tradition of “Follow the Drinking Gourd” has led some historians to believe that there were changes to the song from the original Creole language to the Anglicized version that is known today. By interpreting “Follow the Drinking Gourd”, valuable information about the Underground Railroad can be discovered. The route and how to travel safely are hidden within the song, which was sung by the slaves. “Follow the Drinking Gourd” traveled from plantation to plantation with slaves who were traded. Although the song has been Anglicized, the lyrics still tell the route to Canada and how to reach each key destination safely. It can be argued that the Anglicizing of “Follow the Drinking Gourd” makes it a less valuable source because of the changes made through the years as the song became a popular piece of African American music[4].

“Follow the Drinking Gourd” is a concrete example of how music influenced the use to the Underground Railroad. Due to the lack of education of slaves, there is no written documentation of their songs. The songs traveled from plantation to plantation via slaves who had be traded or sold. The song contained key instructions for the journey to Canada including how to cross the Ohio River without drowning and clues on how to find the point of crossing. Crossing the Ohio River was one of the main problems faced by the Underground Railroad because the river was dangerous, but crossing it was a key part of the journey to Canada. By using a song that was full of instructions, the slaves were given a safe way to remember how to get to Canada. “Follow the Drinking Gourd” is a verbal representation of the clues that are presented in the quilts.

The use of quilts on the Underground Railroad involved different patterns with each pattern acting as a different instruction. The quilts were used to help instruct slaves on how they were go forth in their journey to Canada. Much like “Follow the Drinking Gourd”, the quilts were used as a tool to communicate through the plantation grapevine that was hidden from the slave owners. The plantation grapevine was a tool that not only allowed slaves at different plantations to communicate, but it also allowed them to communicate with the freed slaves of the North[5]. It was this communication that allowed for the creation of the Underground Railroad because the freed slaves, many of whom had received manumission for fighting in the War of Independence, were now educated and literate. Those two factors helped the freed slaves create a simple system of communication that was difficult to break because system was based around everyday tasks that did not look out place and yet those tasks were sending valuable instructions to the slaves.

Quilts were a key form of communication because they were a household item that needed to be aired out. The quilts acted as a step-by-step guide for how to escape and what move should be next[6]. From gathering tools to when to leave; the quilts were a silent message to the slaves planning to maroon. The quilts were the safest way to communicate about escaping the oppressive system. The quilts were put out at different times to help remind of tasks that needed to be completed or routes that needed to be taken. The quilts came out in a certain order to ensure the code was followed. The last quilt shown was the quilt that had the tumbling blocks pattern, meaning it was time to move.

The names of the quilts were also used to safely talk about escaping while in earshot of their overseers. Terms like “around the world” took on new meaning thanks to the quilt code[7]. The slaves code allowed them to share the knowledge that they gained through the grapevine. Coded directions like “around the world”, which means to walk around the Appalachian Mountains, were key to the success of the Underground Railroad because the directions were able to be kept hidden from the overseers.

Besides the patterns, the stitches themselves held valuable information for the slaves including distances to safe houses and other key landmarks on the slaves journey to Canada. Once again, this information was only known to slaves and was easily hidden from the slave owners. The use of stitching is another tie to African tradition as quilts in Africa featured stitching to hold the filling. Another key part of the journey that was influenced by African is the zigzag pattern that the safe houses were set up in. Many African cultures believed that nothing good traveled in straight lines and this is shown in the pattern of safe houses along the Underground Railroad[8]. These little details allowed the slaves to remain true to the homeland that they were torn from unwillingly, forced to move to a strange land to work under horrible conditions for nothing in return.

The power of the quilts and of the Underground Railroad was is was a concentrated act of resistance that was aided by those who had been freed before. There were coded messages that harkened back to different cultures in Africa and different African American societies in the United States. The power of the quilts was that they took components of their homeland and allowed them to use those components to help guide the marooned slaves to freedom.

 The use of songs like “Follow the Drinking Gourd” added another layer to the coded messages of the Underground Railroad. The quilts did not travel with the marooned slaves; they stayed on plantations and were used as a way to train the mind to remember the journey before hand. They were used a mnemonic devices to help the marooning slaves remember their route[9]. Song was used in the same way. “Follow the Drinking Gourd” provides explicit instructions on what path to take to Ohio and even how to cross the Ohio River without drowning. Much like the quilts, music allowed for the memory of these instructions through mnemonic device. “Follow the Drinking Gourd” has become a well-known African American folk song, helping to create the unique culture that the community harbours today.

 The two different forms of mnemonic devices share a lot of similarities. Both “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and the quilts place an emphasis on the North Star. The North Star represented the direction that they had to walk to reach freedom. The quilts and “Follow the Drinking Gourd” reference the North Star repeatedly. In fact, the drinking gourd is a reference to the Big Dipper, a constellation that is apart of Ursa Major, which is found by finding the North Star. The importance of the North Star as a navigational tool is one that goes back centuries before it became a key part of the navigational methods employed by marooned slaves to reach their destination. The North Star is a key symbol unto itself when it comes to the Underground Railroad.

Although the end game of all slaves on the Underground Railroad was to reach Canada, their key destination in the United States of America was Cleveland, Ohio. The quilt code was used to communicate the importance of Cleveland through the cross road pattern[10]. The quilt signified the crossroads that the marooned slaves had reached. All of a sudden they were a boat ride away from freedom and the most dangerous part of the journey was over. No longer were they traveling through the southern states where being caught meant going back to the plantation that they ran away from and being punished for their actions. The journey was all but over for the marooned slaves once they made it to Ohio because Ohio was a free state. Cleveland was the city that was chosen for the final crossing into Canada because Cleveland is a port city that borders on Lake Erie; one of the four Great Lakes that is shared between Canada and the United States of America. The passage over Lake Erie was the final passage before reaching freedom. That final passage, a boat ride across Lake Erie, was taken at night when it was harder to see other boats to ensure that the marooned slaves would remain safe from capture for the last part of their journey to freedom[11].

The use of coded messages in quilts and in songs as a means of communication for the Underground Railroad is one of the silent ways that slaves protested their enslavement. Their quiet act of resistance, building a community to aid in the marooning of slaves to a free land, was a powerful message much like the infanticides and suicides that took place on the passage over. The use of silent protests as an act of resistance is a pattern seen time and time again in the slave movement. The silent protest that the coded messages of the Underground Railroad represents goes beyond the resistance of slavery and into holding onto a culture that the slave trade was actively trying to destroy.  By using the art of coded messages in quilts to allow the traditions of the slaves’ African homeland to stay with them in the United States, even when it seemed like it was not allowed. The small ways in which the slave community tried to preserve their heritage was an act of resistance. By not giving up their traditions entirely, the slaves were not allowing their traditions from home to be stolen from them entirely. In their own silent way, the slaves were protesting their enslavement in every way possible.

The Underground Railroad was a way that slaves were able to fight for themselves and for each other. They would work together to help slaves escape. The quilt code was used on the plantations as a way to help prepare the slaves for escape. Different quilts gave them different sets of instructions on how to prepare for their escape. The Underground Railroad became a community for the slaves, allowing them to work together to get members to Canada where they were free. Former slaves who had received manumission were apart of this community, helping the marooned slaves moves safely through dangerous territory to help them reach the free state of Ohio. The coded communication system that the slaves created was part of the community.  The code traveled through the slave grapevine, allowing the slaves to be connected, even when on different plantations. There were even people who visited the plantations that helped the slaves by giving them information on the surrounding geography. The Underground Railroad, with its coded messages and symbols, became a powerful community of marooning slaves, freed slaves, and white sympathizers who worked together to help slaves reach freedom. Together, they achieved just that.

The Quilt Code and “Follow the Drinking Gourd” represent far more than just the route of the Underground Railroad to Canada. Both coded messages carried in them ingenuity in extenuating circumstances that would have left many helpless to the atrocities that the slaves were facing. Under these conditions the slaves, along with freed slaves and white sympathizers, a way of slaves reaching Canada and freedom was developed. The slaves were able to turn everyday objects into a system of communication that helped the slaves move towards freedom in Canada. By building the system in a way that the plantation owners and the overseers could see the codes without knowing that they were looking at anything beyond a quilt being aired out speaks to the daring nature of the slaves. The slaves had to be brave to escape. They had to be willing to risk everything to have a chance at freedom. The story of the slaves quest for freedom does not end with the open use of the coded messages and what they meant, it continues on through the connections to different beliefs in Africa and how those beliefs influenced the making of the quilts. The story of the quilts on the Underground Railroad and the lyrics of “Follow the Drinking Gourd” point to a connection to the culture that the slaves had been taken away from when they were captured to journey to the United States was found throughout the coded messages and even in the set up of the safe houses on the Underground Railroad harkens back to old beliefs held by some African cultures. The connection, no matter the outside influences that were projected onto them by groups and traditions formed in the United States, were still a form of preservation of a culture that was being ripped away from the slaves. The knots that help hold the stuffing in place were an African influence. The use of the number five and zigzag patterns when tying the knots. All of these symbolize influences from Africa; influences that helped preserve the culture that the plantation owners were trying to eliminate. The slaves never allowed everything to be taken from them and they fought back. Slowly. Meticulously. Purposefully. They fought back until they were able to gain freedom. First by escaping silently after weeks of preparation: slipping away and running through the night until they reached Canada. The journey was treacherous. It was risky. It helped build a community where there was not one because of the dangers. The Underground Railroad, built to help slaves escape their misery and journey to Canada became part of a greater community built around innovation and secret codes that allowed the slaves to communicate within earshot of their overseers; to plan how to best escape. With the help of the quilt code and songs like “Follow the Drinking Gourd”, enslaved Africans were to preserve the culture that they were stolen from and form a community that spanned across plantations.

  

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[1] George and Willen Hendrick, ed., Fleeing to Freedom. (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004) 3

[2] Raymond G. Dobard and Jacqueline L. Tobin. Hidden in Plain View: The Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad.  (New York: Random House, 1999) 55

[3] NASA Quest. "Explanation of "Follow the Drinking Gourd"."

[4] James B. Kelley, “Song, Story, or History: Resisting Claims of a Coded Message in the African American Spiritual “Follow the Drinking Gourd” Journal of Popular Culture 41 (2008): 264

[5] Dobard and Tobin Hidden 39

[6] Dobard and Tobin Hidden 68

[7] Dobard and Tobin Hidden 90

[8] Dobard and Tobin Hidden 78

[9] Dobard and Tobin Hidden 73

[10] Dobard and Tobin Hidden 98

[11] Fergus M. Bordewich Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America. (New York: HarperCollins, 2005) 190

Holding on, never letting go.

"Gotta hold on easy as I let you go/Wanna tell you how much I love you, though you say you already know."- Tim McGraw, My Little Girl

I was 12 and I heard my parents talking down the hall. I stumbled out of bed because it was Christmas Eve morning. My mom got my sister as well and told up that out Baba had died. I cried. I cried because I never really knew the lady. She had a massive stroke when I was young and the personality that everyone remembered her having was gone. My mom went over to help my grandpa. When she got there, his friends had come over to drink coffee with him. We went over with our dad later and the air hurt. There were no words to share; instead we sat in the heavy silence and tried to eat the meal we all knew so well.

I was probably no older than 5 and at my grandparents. I was wearing an orange sundress. My baba was cooking something and I was sitting on the counter top. I don't know what we were doing, but I remember it was during the day. Maybe we were making supper. Maybe we were making lunch. The memory is blurred, yet clear. It is the only memory that I have of my baba before her stroke.

My memories of my grandparents surround my grandpa caring for my baba. Making sure she had food and was comfortable. He helped her. I remember my mom going over to help him make the first Christmas dinner he ever had to make. He had changed a lot that year. From New Year's Eve in 1997 or 1998, my grandpa became the main cook and caretaker for everything in the house. He became in charge of everything from food to paying bill. He did well.

Ever since that time, I have fought to hold onto basic traditions that seem minimal. My grandpa still buys pyjamas for his grown up grandchildren on Christmas Eve. At first I think it was so the traditions would stay the same, now I think it is a coping mechanism for my grandpa as Christmas is a really hard time of year for him. New Year's Eve was when my baba had a stroke and Christmas Eve was when she died. Christmas is never easy. Christmas is hard. Christmas is harder for my grandpa than anyone else. The pain remains to various degrees for everyone in the family. It is harder for my grandpa now that he has moved into an apartment and my cousin and her family live in his old house. We still go there on Christmas Eve for food and laughs. My grandpa sits quietly because it still hurts. It is the house where he raised his kids; the house he lost his wife in. It's hard.
In my room I have to delicate grip balls. They were for my baba's therapy after her strokes. I don't know how much she used them, but they were hers and I did not know her that well. My mom saved them for me when my grandpa went to move. They are something though. Something tangible that I need. It is something that I can hold onto because it is a reminder of what I remember; a lady who could not remember who I was, but loved me dearly.

Why We Need to Listen

I started a new class today called Critical Literacy, which is really hard to define people. Like really hard. But one thing I remember from the class is that we need to learn how to listen. Not just hear, but listen and allow other peoples thoughts a stage to be debated on. By listening, we allow ourselves to try to see from the other persons view and understand how their story is equally important and needs to be examined so we can fully understand an issue. If one enters a conversation thinking they are right, they will learn nothing.

Listening to each other forces everyone to think at a higher level; activating their brain and engaging in critical thinking. The thing about Critical Literacy is it is about giving power to the powerless, a voice to the voiceless, and giving the marginalized a way to speak up...but there is space for uncomfortable debate. My instructor said that the class was a time to try one different things and learn what fits you. If you listen to other peoples side, your ideas may change. BUT YOU HAVE TO LISTEN.

My views on something may be entirely wrong, but if a respectful conversation/debate is had, views can change because no one is feeling attacked. Instead, everyone is feeling respected and like they can look at everything from everyone's perspective to grow as a person. Listen, grow, learn.

An All Female, Weekly Broadcast Crew

Today, Rogers Sportsnet announced all their hockey broadcast people for next season and only three women were on the crew. What would an all female broadcast crew for hockey look like? The idea that a broadcast could feature an all female crew and do one game a week does not seem crazy once actually looking at who has worked with broadcast crews separately.

Host: This is the easiest position to fill as CBC had Andi Petrillo hosting during the day for the Sochi Olympics and World Cup 2014 to great success. She knows how to handle a conversation and can set up a game quite well. She understands hockey and deserves a hosting role (hopefully she will get this with CBC in other sports).

Panel: Again, a fairly easy position to fill. It would feature two of Tessa Bonhomme, Jennifer Botterill, and Cassie Campbell-Pascall. Bonhomme was cut from Canada's female hockey team before Sochi and filled this role with TSN. She has a deep understanding of the game and analyzed the play well. The other position would rotate between Jennifer Botterill and Cassie Campbell-Pascall. Botterill was the rink-side reporter/colour commentator for CBC in Sochi and was able to provide tactical insight and analysis. Campbell-Pascall has filled this role as well as colour commentator/rink-side reporter for CBC in the past and showed great improvement from when she started. Both would do well in either role. Both Botterill and Campbell-Pascall have family in NHL front offices, so insider information may be there for the reporting.

Rink-Side Reporter: Jessica Rusnak of TSN690/TSNHabs. She can interview players and get cliches with the best of them, but she has also shown the ability to ask tougher questions of coaches when the time comes. This would make her a fan favourite.

Colour Commentator: One of Jennifer Botterill or Cassie Campbell-Pascall. They can rotate positions every once and a while. Tessa Bonhomme could also jump in here.

Play by Play: Beth Mowins of ESPN who has no hockey experience but is a highly experienced play by play caller in multiple sports and with a little bit of studying, I am sure she could become a fine hockey play by play person. Linda Cohn of ESPN is another experienced play by play voice, who is also a New York Rangers fan.

Lost and Found

I once was broken, but now that I have carefully rebuilt my shattered confidence I am only frail. I was destroyed methodically in grade school. The world was unkind to me; taunting me about being...average. I left a classroom crying in grade 7. You know how bad it is to cry in school in grade 7? It's the worst. I was broken.

I changed schools after grade 8. I never told anyone what happened to me. How no one told my mom even off handily is shocking. I didn't make eye contact with anyone. Speaking up was hard. I was broken and I had to rebuild myself. I had lost the little girl who wanted to play football when she grew up and wore dresses all the time.

It was a hard, slow process that began with small steps. I joined the social justice group at school. I was in drama (a strategic move to make me talk to people). I stayed for lunch. I was still broken at first. I started making friends. Friendly kids would talk to me, welcome me into their world. Their world was one of friendships since kindergarten and memories. My world with them began in grade 9.

Slowly I re-found myself; still frail, but no longer broken. Carefully I made sure to not break myself and to build myself up. I learned I can give a speech with little planning. I talked to politicians and community leaders. I wore dresses again. I became healed, but my confidence remained frail.

I remember when I was confronted with a simple problem and I solved it without help (or tears) for the first time. That was this year. I am 21. It took me 7 years and much patience and tough love from my mom to get here. I did this though and because I know how delicate the balance is for me, I protect myself a lot. I don't expose myself to situations that could even dent my newfound, delicate sense of confidence I have developed. I have limited myself about what I will comment about on social media because I am afraid of taking a step back in my rebuilding.

When you make it this far after the bullies have won, you protect yourself, you make sure you will not be exposed as something that the bullies would have jumped on. Sometimes I want to say things about something but cannot because I am afraid about people jumping down my throat, telling me I'm wrong and making me feel like I did when I was bullied. I cannot deal with that. I cannot rebuild myself again with how far I've come. I stick to some social justice stuff that I have some knowledge of (Winnipeg's homeless and FNMI issues), sports, and history as a whole. I am safe with these. I can learn about these. I do not feel like anyone will make me feel bullied if I talk about these.

I like helping others, but I have to continue to help myself first.

Head Down, No Eye Contact

It wasn't always this way. Actually, I used to talk so much you couldn't shut me up. And then grade 2 happened and I had to learn how to deal with a bully. I was easy to pick on because I wasn't from the area and I was smart. I almost refuse to see the bad in people. This is an issue you see, because you can be preyed on in school when you befriend the kids that no one else wants to befriend and try to be kind to everyone. You because a target for bullying. You become a victim trying to help other kids that needed friends. And you lose confidence.

I figured out how to cope. Keep your head down, don't respond and never make eye contact. Ever. Try to become invisible. Try to disappear. You never will, but you can try. You can tell the teachers, but they are powerless unless administration backs them. So you stay quiet in the halls and outside and hope that no one comes near you and does anything to you.

The name calling and the antics that everyone else laughs at and says are no big deal never stop and it starts to break you down. You leave that school for a new high school where you know no one. You make friends. They have friends already and you feel like a bit of an outsider, but you are safer and you can find people that have the same ideals as you. You are safe.

Then you leave. You have to leave and you choose to go downtown. The school is smaller; safer. You are in the program you want to be in, you are learning lots. And then you walk. You walk to the library downtown. It's big and it's quiet and there is free WiFi. You walk 5 or 6 blocks and people ask you for money. You don't have small change, so you walk. You pull your toque down lower you bow your head. You become invisible again. You use your talent to protect yourself and this time it works.

So you walk more and whenever you walk you see the same man. You sometimes buy him water or coffee. He sits there everyday, asking for anything. You remember what you were taught; people just want a drink and some food. They are people. You give him that sometimes. He never asks you, he never expects anything of you. But he's there everyday and it can be hot sometimes and he must be dehydrated, so you give him some cold water.

There are questions you want to ask. You want to ask them on different forums; ask different people. There seems to be no room for discussion though. No room for learning, for collaboration. So you don't ask, you don't learn because you're afraid. You're afraid that people will not hear you again; that you will be invisible. You just don't understand everything and you want to learn, but having a discussion seems impossible because the world is coloured in shades of grey and yet sometimes it seems to only be seen in black and white.

And once again you put your head down, your earbuds in, pull your toque lower and walk faster because there is no way to understand something with no discussion, no way for a young person to understand, so you instead try to hid, try to turn invisible. It has done you well in life so far.

Volunteers Needed

I got this email today.

Hello everyone,

For those of you interested in volunteering this summer we are running a 3 week science camp for inner city youth at the University of Winnipeg. This year, 15 different schools involved in a community wide program called CSI will each come to the U of W for one day to participate in fun hands-on science based activities. The camp runs from July 14th to August 1st, 2014 between the hours of 9:30am and 2:30pm. We will have about 60 to 80 kids a day between the ages of 4 and 12 so we are looking for LOTS of volunteers. As the largest program of LTS U of W, this is a major volunteer commitment but we appreciate anyone who can help out for 1 or 2 days or the full 3 weeks.

A CSI Camp information session will be held in the basement of Wesley Hall (0W01) on Monday, June 16th, 2014 at 12:00pm. If you or anyone you know would be interested in helping out please come to this meeting (feel free to spread the word, pass along this email and/or bring a friend or two with you).

Try to make it to this important information session!!!
However if you can not attend this meeting but are still interested in volunteering, email us back at ltsuofw.csicamp@gmail.com to let us know.

We hope to see you soon,
Hannah Eisenstat, CSI Camp Coordinator
Amarpreet Rehal and Kyle Strong, CSI Camp Assistant Coordinators


Ps. We would love to hear any ideas you might have about science activities, quick demonstrations or you-tube clips for the camp with respect to our 3 themed rooms: Biology, Chemistry and Physics. For bonus points, try to think of a science name for yourself to put on your name tag such as Hyperspace Hannah, Adiabatic Barb or Atomic Amarpreet.

The UWSA and "Doing Right" by Kids

Compensatory Education:
Compensatory education a system employed by some districts when there is a group of students falling below the baseline standard set for all students. This can happen in many different forms including, but not exclusive to after school and summer programming developed to help lift students up to the prescribed standard. There is a greater need for compensatory education for families who are of lower socio-economic status. Compensatory programs can include trips to the zoo or museum, activities that students may not otherwise get to experience.

What's the Problem?
The University of Winnipeg used to run one such program called Eco-Kids on campus, a school year program. Eco-Kids was a science based program that was funded in part by Enbridge Inc, an oil and gas company. Then the student decided that it wasn't good enough to be providing students with an opportunity to expand their learning and benefit from compensatory education and that the funding had to be from an ethical business. I will concede that ethical funding is ideal, it should not be the end game. There is less funding available in general and when you have some for a program, it should not be let go of because of questionable ethics.

Furthermore, there are U of W students (some who are associated with the UWSA, other independent of them), who felt as though they should a) be responsible for upholding the university to high standards for funding of a program that they simply house. And b) felt like they were right to rob students of help in their education because they were attending a program that was funded by Enbridge.

End Game
Let's face it, Enbridge is a company with a terrible track record, but their small donation to Eco-Kids on Campus may have opened up doors to kids that those students never knew existed. Those doors may know be closed forever. It is easy to go to your university and demand that they choose to accept funding from ethical companies only, but that isn't fair to the students who benefit from those programs.  These are student who may be living in poverty or not have much help at home because of the hand that they have been dealt in life. I am lucky as I have always had ample opportunity provided by my parents and continue to be supported by them to this day. There are many people without these benefits and that can lead to a life that is based in the cycle of poverty. The U of W found a way to help give students the opportunity of leave that life and because some of their own students decided that the goal of helping others succeed in school wasn't a great enough goal, these students may be lost forever.

Life is hard on these kids. Some have parents who are illiterate, some live in run down housing and don't have enough to eat. There is hope in programs like Eco-Kids on Campus and a few other ones across Winnipeg, but there aren't enough spots to accommodate all the kids who would benefit from the programming, leaving some out of luck. The loss of this programming is tough for many reasons. It is terrible for the schools and students who rely on the programming to help them achieve success; it is terrible for the workers who rely on the jobs to make ends meet, and it is terrible for the teachers who have to fill in the gaps that students have every year.

I am privileged and to be honest, there are many people who are privileged to attend university. There are some who choose to use this privilege to advocate for free post-secondary education, which is fair. But there is something disingenuous about advocating free post-secondary education and not realizing that even if the education is free it will not be accessible to those who are entering school with learning gaps and then having the programs that help bridge those gaps yanked out from under them because the funding isn't ethical.

Conclusion
The University of Winnipeg has tried to make school more accessible to people who otherwise would not be able to afford to attended university. They have attempted to help fill the gaps that exist in education in the inner city and the suburbs. They have tried and they have turned to other sources of funding to make some of this happen. The end should justify the means as I am not one who should speak on behalf of an oppressed group who is accepting these means in the name of hope.

Some students disagree and wrote about it because they felt like unethical funding was an unacceptable way to help fill a gap in the education system. I was good with one of the writers of the letter. She, like me, grew up in a nice neighbourhood where there is plenty of wealth. Like me, she never experienced hunger or a lack of support from school or home. She was provided with access to education and educational opportunities at a much higher rate than some of these students. What right do we have as citizens of this world to take away opportunities because the funding isn't ethical. Finding a different company to fund the program is a noble idea, but to ask that the program end because of where the money is coming from makes you seem like an over-priviliged person who doesn't understand that the end sometimes does justify the means.

The Silence is Deafening

Last night the Montreal Canadiens played the Boston Bruins. PK Subban scored the overtime winner. Following his goal Twitter exploded with racist tweets about him. Today Cam Neely stated that those people do not represent the feelings of the Boston Bruins organization. He is right, they don't. The Boston Bruins were the first team to break the colour barrier in hockey with Willie O'Ree, and has had many black players in their organization throughout the years, including Subban's younger brother Malcolm who plays for their AHL team. And yet there is one massive voice missing, one voice that means more than one organization and addresses more than one incident; the NHL.

The NHL has a program called "Hockey is for Everyone". They say that the game is diverse and growing in diversity and maybe it is, but their inaction as racial comments fly about on the internet speaks louder than any program they run. "It isn't our problem" the NHL seems to say. "Nothing to see here". But it is their problem and there is something to see here.

Black athletes are a minority in the NHL. Unlike the NBA they have a very small voice even if they band together with their voices because there are not many black NHL players. They need the majority to stand up for them because they do not have enough power to stand up to everything themselves. They need their teammates and opponents to speak up (and they have when asked about it), but they also need their league to stand up for them. Racism is not a Boston problem, a Montreal problem, a London Ont. problem, or a Pittsburgh problem; it is a human problem and it needs to be addressed on a larger scale. The NHL should be responsible for eradicating racism from the NHL, not any one team.

The burden of responsibility here should fall on the NHL. The NHL has done nothing. They have sat by idly as player after player has been criticized racially for doing their job. The responsibility falls onto them now to show that they care about a player who is being berated for being born a certain way. Thanks to their partnership with You Can Play the NHL has a way to deal with homophobia and they deal with it swiftly. Yet they have no way to respond to racism. The NHL responded to Sean Avery making unsavoury remarks about an ex-girlfriend and yet they do nothing as a player is attacked over social media for the colour of his skin. When Krys Barch was suspended for asking Subban if he "slipped on a banana peel", there was no sensitivity training and no counselling, there was a two game suspension and that was it. Sean Avery had to go to counselling and enter the NHL's behaviour program for his comments. He also got suspended for 8 games. Barch got one game.

They say actions speak louder than words. The NHL's lack of action in regards to the repeated racist behaviour of their fans and their players should speak loudest of all.

The Greatest Lesson

Outdoor ed. class was a great class. For once knowledge about different activities was invaluable; it was also the class where mountain biking was taught as well as First Aid and CPR. We snowshoed and  cross country skied. But most of all we learned to work as a group. All 25 of us became responsible for one and other and became closer as a groups because of it.

I was always a bit of an outsider in high school. Although I had lived in the area since I was little, I had gone to an out of area school and entered high school with little social footing. My shyness made me have a very small social group and my seriousness led me to prefer the quiet solitude of being alone. But outdoor ed. forced me to talk more, to share more.

The last "big" activity we did was a backpacking trip. We practiced hiking with our bags, learned how to hang them from trees, and set up groups for sleeping and food. Throughout the three day trip, we kept journals. The journals were little $1 notebooks from the dollar store that are small enough that it took up no space in our bags. The daily journalling was nice, keeping the memories from that cold, wet, and fun trip alive, but it was the the lesson after that may have been the best lesson in high school.
_________________________________________________________________________________

We were in the library going over the trip, talking about memories and whatnot when our teacher, Mr. Froemel, instructed us put our name on the board, sit at our own table and fill out every name in our book on one page. He did the same with his notebook. We then went from table to table, filling out what we learned about each classmate, what qualities we admired and why we enjoyed being in class with them. 26 pages in those notebooks became dedicated to what made you great, fantastic, and wonderful.

The words on those pages can never change and never be misconstructed because they were not said face to face, they were not said in a way that body language could be read and someone could be embarrassed having to speak in front of the class. It was personal and sincere; the connection that was formed by that group in our last semester of high school was there, the memories were sustaining.

I will never see many of those kids again. I have moved on into university where I study history (major), Engligh (minor), and education (special program). I quietly go about my business their, working within my comfortable solitude. There is comfort there, but there is the lack of connection too. Lack of people building you up, allowing you to learn how to take a compliment.

Maybe the greatest lesson I learned in grade 12 was that we can all say nice things to each other, but the struggle is being away from our comfort zones to compliment people. The longer lasting, greater impact can come from having people write down what makes you great, so when are feeling down or overly stressed by that one assignment you can read about what is great about you.
_________________________________________________________________________________

By some small miracle I made it through school in one piece. I was bullied badly in elementary school; emotionally scarred in high school, but yet I made it through in one piece thanks in large part to my family. I struggled through the burden of making friends, desperately trying to balance my love of being an individual with the expectations of being "normal". I still haven't mastered that one yet, but I stopped caring. I learned that people truly did enjoy being around me because of who I was.

It took until the end of grade 12. It took a 7 foot tall teacher who loved everything, including the freezing cold. It took a group of kids who went to school together since kindergarten. It took three days in the woods. It took a lot, but I learned that when you take away the fear of being laughed at or judged, people can be genuinely nice to you if they know you, it just takes a lot more bravery to say it to someone face to face than it does to write it on paper…and that can't be read when you need to read it the most.

Perception, Confirmation Bias, and the Montreal Canadiens

How something is perceived can come from confirmation bias. When Ron MacLean said that Tampa Bay would not like having a local referee calling game four in Montreal because of a young referee, Francois Charron, from Gatineau (by the Quebec/Ontario border) made the difficult, but correct call on a goaltender interference call that cost Tampa Bay a goal in game three. Charron made the correct call. Many thought that he made the incorrect call because they are not familiar with the proper application of goaltender interference, but that is another problem. The bigger issue is confirmation bias and how it colours everything we see and hear.

If you go into something thinking that *blank* is against you, it will be obvious to you that *blank* is against you. This is simply not true. The world is not out to get you. To imply that referees are not making calls because of where a game is being played is wrong. There are deeper issues when a team is not getting calls; either the officiating is terrible for both teams or a team does not have the puck.

CBC made note in their broadcast that the Habs had something like 8 more minutes on the power play throughout the series. You know why that was? Because they had the puck about 55% of the time, making it easier for the Habs to be fouled. There is no bias in that; the better team usually gets more power play time as they have the puck more, plain and simple.

Do referees make mistakes? Yes. Is it based on being from the area and should the NHL guard against that? No. Instead the NHL should make sure that their referees know the rulebook like the back of their hand and discipline and retrain them when they do not call it correctly.

Did Charron or Francois St-Laurent make any calls that were not in the rulebook to screw over the Lightning? No. Did the Lightning lose a game because a French referee made the difficult, but correct call in Montreal? Maybe. Did having two French referees calling games at the Bell Centre on two separate nights adversely affect the series? No. Did many people not think that the Montreal Canadiens were capable of playing like they did and therefore look for other factors in their success? Possibly.

As professionals referees are expected to call the game by the rulebook and not be affected by their childhood allegiances. Just because a referee grew up in a certain area does not mean that they were fans of their local team because that is not how one becomes a fan. Professionals will kick their childhood heroes out of games if they do something illegal. Just because someone is from a certain area or speaks a certain language does not mean that they are a fan of that team or that they will not make difficult calls, it means that they are from that area or cheered for that team growing up.

To imply that referees should not call games because of that is allowing yourself to look for biases in their calls before they even make the call. If that was what Ron MacLean was implying when he said that the NHL should have not assigned a ref from the region for games 3 and 4 than he is wrong. If Tampa felt as though they were not getting calls because one of the referees was from the area, than they are coming into the game with a perception of the referee and if a bad call had happened in game four, than that perception would have fulfilled and the perceived bias would have been confirmed.

The Montreal Canadiens as a team played well enough to earn the sweep. The Tampa Bay Lightning did not play well enough to win. The referees did not change that. The referees did not affect the outcome of the series. For once the NHL can say that the players on the ice did and that in itself is a good thing. Instead of looking for anything that can be perceived as a bias and finding then finding anything to confirm this bias is cherry-picking.

The NHL does not pull for Toronto because their video is based out of there. The New York Rangers are not treated differently because head offices are in New York. The NHL tries to run a fair outfit, and they manage to do that most of the time.

TL;DR there is this thing called confirmation bias and when you perceive that there is a bias you will find it, even if there is nothing to see.

Chicago Asset Management 2011-2014

Out From Chicago:

Dave Bolland

Daniel Carcillo

Ray Emery

Michael Frolik

Jimmy Hayes

Jamal Mayers*^

Brandon Pirri

Viktor Stalberg

Andrew Burnette*^

Sami Lepisto*

Steve Montador*^

Brendan Morrison*^

Sean O'Donnell*^

Rostislav Olesz*

Dylan Olsen

John Scott

Mike Kostka

Red=Trade

Blue=Let go

Purple=Waived

*indicates not in the NHL anymore

^indicates retired (Morrison isn't playing but has not filed his papers yet)

Brought In:

David Rundbland--> Second round pick

Peter Regin/Pierre-Marc Bouchard--> Fourth round pick

Kris Versteeg--> Olsen/Hayes

Michal Handzus--> Fourth round pick

Johnny Oduya-->Second and third

Brendan Morrison--> Mike Connelly

Most of the additions to the Blackhawks roster have come from their drafting. Brandon Saad, Marcus Krueger, et al are all Blackhawks draft picks that play for their team. Smart trades brought them Frolik who they later moved because of the salary cap. They smartly let Stalberg walk and he has been a healthy scratch in Nashville. Versteeg for Olsen and Hayes is the only trade where the players are in the NHL. Pirri could not establish himself in Chicago, asked for a trade and was moved to Florida. Pirri has found a home and Chicago can start bringing Teuvo Teravainen along.

Asset Management Around the League: Detroit 2011-2014

I thought that if I was going to write about the Jets asset management, I should compare the Jets to other teams around the league. I decided on the media darling Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks. Here is Detroit in the same timespan as the Jets 2011-2014.

Players Lost:
Damien Brunner
Fabian Brunnstrom*
Carlo Colaiacovo
Mike Commodore*
Ty Conklin (retired)
Chris Conner*
Valtteri Filpula
Patrick Eaves
Kent Huskins
Tomas Holmstrom (retired)
Jiri Hudler
Doug Janik*
Nicklas Lidstrom (retired)
Joey MacDonald*
Jan Mursak*
Ian White*
Brad Stuart

Red=flipped for an asset
Blue=lost for nothing
*indicates no longer in the NHL

Some of the players Detroit has lost are bad at hockey, but Brunner, Filppula, and Hudler would still be valuable to them, especially since they have 11 players who are 30 or older.

Players Brought In:
Kyle Quincy--> First round pick
David Legwand--> Calle Jankork, Patrick Eaves, third round pick
Daniel Alfredsson
Damien Brunner*
Mikael Samuelsson
Jordin Tootoo
Stephen Weiss
Kent Huskins*

*indicates not with team anymore

Free agency means Ken Holland can find old players and let young players go like Brunner.

Detroit In:
Kyle Quincy
David Legwand
Daniel Alfredsson
Mikael Samuelsson
Jordin Tootoo
Stephen Weiss
Danny DeKeyser

Detroit Out:
Damien Brunner
Fabian Brunnstrom
Carlo Colaiacovo
Mike Commodore
Chris Conner
Valtteri Filpula
Patrick Eaves
Kent Huskins
Jiri Hudler
Doug Janik
Joey MacDonald
Jan Mursak
Ian White
Brad Stuart

Purple=NHL still
Blue=out of NHL
Detroit has lost all these players and only has David Legwand to show for it. Brunner, Filppula, and Hudler are all younger versions of players like Todd Bertuzzi, Dan Cleary, and Mikael Samuelsson.

Jets Player Moves: In Summary

NHLers Brought In:                                      NHLers Let Go:
Devin Setoguchi                                           Nik Antropov
Michael Frolik                                              Alex Burmistrov
Al Montoya                                                  Eric Fehr
Eric Tangradi                                                Ron Hainsey
Grant Clitsome                                             Johnny Oduya
Olli Jokinen                                                  Alexei Ponikarovsky
                                                                     Mike Santorelli


To summarize, the Winnipeg Jets let go seven NHLers, all except two for nothing, bringing in six NHLers, all but two at a cost. In the process the Jets let go of some fine possession players and brought in some not so fine players. I have not included the likes of Matt Halischuk in this list as he is not NHL quality. That is some fine asset management by Kevin Chevaldayoff. This also does not include the addition of rookies Mark Scheifele and Jacob Trouba.

Jets Player Movement 2011-2014: Players Brought In

Cost of bringing in said players on the right.

Eric Fehr--> Danick Paquette + fourth round pick
Kenndal McArdle-->Angelo Esposito
Keaton Ellerby- Waivers
Mark Flood- FA signing
Aaron Gagnon- FA signing
Tanner Glass- FA signing
Matt Halischuk- FA signing
Olli Jokinen- FA signing
Randy Jones- FA signing
Grant Clitsome- Waivers
Antti Miettinen- Waivers
Derek Meech- FA signing
Alexei Ponikarovsky- FA signing
Anthony Peluso- Waivers
Al Montoya- FA signing
Adam Pardy
Eric Tangradi--> Seventh round pick
Mike Santorelli- Waivers
Michael Frolik--> Third and fifth round pick
Devin Setoguchi--> Second round pick
James Wright- Waivers

Red=Trade
Purple=Free agent siging
Blue=Waiver pick up

The Jets have made some good trades as Tangradi is a good possession player, and some bad trades (Devin Setoguchi anyone). The trades have been more bad to pointless than good. Their FA signings leave a lot to be desired with only Montoya and Ponikarovsky being decent NHLers. Their waiver pickups have been numerous and middling, especially with the re-signing of both Wright and Clitsome, who are a dime a dozen players. Also this is three years worth of movement.

All roster information curtesy of www.hockey-reference.com
All trade information curtesy of www.nhltradetracker.com