Questions & Curiosities Rusty Rushfeldt

This is a brief discussion regarding the Wet'suwet'en (British Columbia First Nations) Hereditary Chiefs' issues with Coastal GasLink Pipeline.

Sadly, I read yet another news article about a young individual taking their own life.
So, what is considered to be the Happiest time of the year, this young woman decided that Christmas Eve was going to be her last day on earth.
I’m not going to talk about how successful this 26-year-old Inuk woman was, or the traumas she’s experienced, or the messages she tried to share in her music and songs, or all the good things she did for her Inuk family, friends and community.
Her accomplishments and to-do-list are inspiring, so please take the time, do some research, and read up on Kelly Fraser.
What I’m going to talk about is how we deal with individuals with mental health issues.
Mental health is a huge topic, so I will narrow this discussion down to two types of mental health awareness and acknowledgement that is often brought to our attention.
The first one that I will talk about I’ll use the story of Kelly Fraser, who confirmed acknowledgement and acceptance, in that she knew she had mental health challenges and bravely shared that with her family, friends, community and fans.
I’m going to accentuate the words “bravely shared”, because to share, exposes vulnerabilities and weaknesses, which goes against everything we’re taught, while growing up.
These vulnerabilities and weaknesses can be quickly and dangerously exploited, through the use of social media and the internet, which dramatically escalates the individual’s mental health challenges, to the point of a potential, impossible salvation.
I’m not sure what her mental health care and support consisted of, so it is difficult to assess what could have been done better.
All I know is that we failed her, and we will never know why she did what she did.
That’s sad, because we will never learn from our mistakes or failings.
 
The second mental health acknowledgement and acceptance I would like to talk about is the one where the struggling individual keeps everything to themselves.
They don’t share or ask for help, because they may be afraid of being embarrassed, being teased, being bullied, being accused of vying for attention, or feeling that family and friends will view them as being weak.
There may be some subtle hints and clues that the individual is suffering, especially with depression, but generally the acknowledgement and acceptance only happens after that individual takes their own life, then all you hear in the news is that the family and friends are shocked because they had no idea, that individual, had mental health issues.
Then you would hear, “If only he would have come forwarded and shared his challenges, and asked for help, then all would have been better”.
Well, we all know how well that process of support and treatment worked out for Kelly Fraser.
I want to go back for a moment and continue discussing the individual that hides their challenges.
Even though the world is working towards creating more awareness and acceptance of mental health issues and challenges, there still seems to be a gap in training, of all of us, to recognize and acknowledge who needs immediate help.
We tend to dismiss some signs, especially depression, because in today’s world it’s starting to become more commonplace, so the one’s with chronic and deeper depression may be over-looked and dismissed.
Treatment and support can be very individual case-to-case, but if the help is given soon enough, then maybe we could reduce the number of suicides.
I’m all for the world-wide Mental Health acknowledgement and the plans to get better with support and treatments.
Mental Health is a very complex issue which requires the talents of many highly trained professionals, to inform and teach to the masses, continually over the years.
But, at the same time we need to reduce or ultimately eliminate some major influences and possible causes of depression...

The other day I watched an interesting biographical drama film about American psychologist William Moulton Marston and the two important women in his life.
William Marston invented the lie-detector, and he also created the fictional character Wonder Woman.
Throughout the film there were under-lying hints around feminism, equal rights for women, equal power for both sexes, and an openness regarding personal choices for relationships.
As Marston was developing Wonder Woman for comics, he was pushing the boundaries as to what was morally acceptable in that era of late 1930’s and early 1940’s.
He pushed hard to create a persona of what a woman could do, which was based on his DISC theory, which meant: Dominance…Inducement…Submission…Compliance.
The book got banned by an ethics group.
Wonder Woman comics, as well as other comics, were now being burned in the streets.
Wonder Woman comic survived, but the sexual and bondage imagery disappeared after William Marston’s death in 1947, along with Wonder Woman's superpowers.
Wonder Woman was finally reclaimed by famous activist Gloria Steinem in 1972, when she put the character on the cover of the first issue of Ms. Magazine as the quintessential symbol of female empowerment.
So, imagine what current history would look like if Wonder Woman’s creation and comic book existence was totally eradicated, in the 1940’s, because of the views and morals of a few elite and narrow-minded individuals.
While watching this film I had no idea of the background behind Wonder Woman’s creation.
I have learned that there is always a back-story to every story and that is usually where the truth is buried.
That back-story history is what needs to be preserved, not ignored our eliminated, but, to be there for reference, knowledge, and understanding.
As a child, I was only exposed to the re-formulated, transformed, milder version, of Wonder Woman.
Even later in life, watching Wonder Women on TV, I never thought anything about this being a movement for woman’s rights.
I just saw it as men and women superheroes doing what they could to protect mankind from evil.
This movie made me think about our current state of acceptance, censorship, and compliance regarding history that may have been racist, inappropriate, discriminatory, or sexist in nature.
We need to be very cautious as to how we think about our history.
Without our history we would not be where we are today.
Removing or eradicating history, so we only know the current history, will only lead to someday removing our current history, to make room for the new current history.
That cycle would create a culture of young individuals, never learning from past beliefs, intolerances, and mistakes, because that history would have been all eradicated.
So, when is History, No Longer History?
Never

Today’s topic is “Phantom Vehicles”.
So, what does that mean?
Some of you may already know what a Phantom Vehicle is, but for others it needs an explanation.
A Phantom Vehicle is a car, or an SUV, or a truck, or any vehicle that has no visible taillights, while driving at night, or in darkened conditions.
Vehicles that drive in the dark with no visible taillights pose a huge safety risk since they are difficult to be seen by following vehicles in low-light or darkened conditions.
When I’m out very early morning or late at night walking the dog, I see several vehicles that have no taillights and when they pass me, they seem to just disappear, just like the Phantom of the Opera.
So, how is it that these drivers aren’t aware that they’re driving with no illuminated taillights?
Well, in Canada, the problem started in 1989 when Canada became the first country to mandate daytime running lights on all vehicles, on all roads, all year round because there was a perception that vehicles would be more visible to on-coming traffic.  
Since then, studies have shown that daytime running lights have reduced two-vehicle crashes by between 5 & 15 percent, according to three Canadian studies from the 1990’s, which two of them were done by Transport Canada.
But the studies didn’t address the new problem that the mandated daytime running lights have created, which is, rear-end collisions, in darkened conditions, with no visible taillights.
In fact, there has NOT been any committed effort, across Canada, to record the number of incidents or accidents caused by having no visible taillights.
Transport Canada says they continuously receive many letters from the driving public raising concerns about the increasing number of phantom vehicles on the roads, warning about the dangers of vehicles that travel in the dark without their taillights illuminated, making them hard to spot.
So, getting back to the question, “How is it that these drivers aren’t aware that they are driving with no illuminated taillights?”
The answer is fairly simple.
The auto manufacturers complied with Canada’s laws making daytime running lights mandatory when the car’s ignition is turn on.
However, since then, many auto manufacturers have added dashboard lights that are always on where the ignition is turned on.
Not sure of the manufacturers reason for this.
So, the combination of always-on daytime running headlights, which are at a dimmer level than full headlights, and illuminated dashboard lights, has introduced a new danger:  in that vehicles are now invisible, in the rear, in darkened conditions, because the drivers forgot to manually switch on their lights to full headlight and taillight visibility.
To summarize the problem:
A driver hops in their vehicle early morning, or at night, when it is dark outside.
The driver turns on the ignition to start the vehicle.
The vehicle’s daytime running lights turn on, as well as, the dashboard becomes illuminated.
The driver can now easily see his dashboard and some illumination from the headlights.
So off they go, driving to work or wherever.
What they forget is that they have not fully turned on the headlights, which will also turn on the taillights, which creates more front-end visibility and rear-end visibility for other motorists.
Having the dashboards light up in all lighting conditions gives the driver a false sense of the true operating conditions of the front and rear lights.
All the driver sees is that they have some headlight and dashboard illumination, so off they go.
In 2016 Transport Canada issued proposed regulations that would require manufacturers to install systems to ensure rear lights are also on if automatic dashboard lights are on, or automatic activation of all lights when it gets dark.
There seemed to be some push-back from the

Hi, my name is Rusty Rushfeldt.
I've always been curious and question everything, but in today's world, I feel that I need to ramp up my curiosity and ask serious questions regarding topics which will have a huge impact on all of us.
There are so many variations of the truth that it can be difficult to establish a consensus, so the focus of this podcast to is reveal as many sides as possible.
Welcome to my podcast, “Questions & Curiosities”.
This is where we will explore curious topics like: Going Green, Climate Change, Unity, Social Media, Healthcare, Education, Recycling, Politics, the Economy ... well, you get the idea, a little of everything.
My goal is to help others to "Explore and Grow Knowledge and Understanding", so you can make your own conclusions and develop your own beliefs.
I'm based in Canada so most of my curiosity and questions relate to Canada, but we all know there are world-wide issues, that affect us all, regardless of our home-base country.
We will also open our minds to a wide variety of curiosities and issues from around the world, and to ask the questions that could make a difference.
I hope you enjoy the conversations and hopefully you will get some value from them.
*Please note, this podcast will be non-confrontational, respectful, non-partisan, open-minded, and all-inclusive. 
Yes, we will probably have some disagreements, but they will never escalate into threats or anger because we will be civil, understanding and respectful to each other.
I need your help to broaden our knowledge and understanding.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Always keep an open mind.
 
You can connect with me at “rustyrushfeldt.com”
… Thanks to All …