CN Tower Climb - UPDATE!

Well, I did it!  I climbed the 1,776 stairs of the CN Tower: 144 flights of stairs plus another 6 flights after the finish line – they don’t mention those 6 extra flights of stairs in the publicity materials… J

Thank you to everyone who so generously donated to The United Way for this event.  Thanks to you, I raised $710 for The United Way!  Your giving spirits are amazing! 

This event was a unique experience.  I have never climbed much more than a handful of actual flights of stairs before (not counting stair climber machines), so to complete this task was something I never thought I would do.

It took me 32 minutes and 8 seconds to climb all 1,776 stairs.  It was different than running for that length of time, or even longer, because climbing up stairs is not the same as running on a level surface.  Also, there was no scenery to look at.  Just stair after stair after stair…

The CN Tower stairwell has steel steps, concrete walls, and concrete landings at the top of each flight of stairs.  The lighting is stark and utilitarian.  There are no windows, just a heavy metal grate along one side of the stairwell, to protect people from the open airshaft that runs the entire height of the tower.  Some might feel that it is claustrophobic (the narrow space with concrete walls) or even acrophobic (looking down the open airshaft), but it was okay for me. 

The first 40 flights (about 500 stairs) went quite well and I remember thinking that I should pace myself, there was still a long way to go.  At the 47^th flight, I took a 1 minute break, with the plan that I would stop at about 1/3 of the way, then at 2/3, then finish the climb.  At Flight 77, I decided to take another 1 minute break, because I realized that only two breaks for the entire climb was not going to work for me.  I ended up stopping 4 times in total, to give my muscles a chance to re-oxygenate.

During the course of the climb, I ended up passing people who were also taking sporadic breaks, then they would leapfrog past me when I stopped.  Okay, “leapfrog” might be too energetic, they plodded past me – we were all tired at this point!

I remember passing Flight 89 (about 1,100 steps) and thinking “This is officially not fun anymore.  I am tired but I still have almost 50 flights left to go.”  A little while later, I saw a sign on the wall – a literal sign, not a figurative one.  I might have been tired but I was not having visions! The sign said “Only 500 steps to go!”.  Believe it or not, that was not a motivational message to me at that time!  500 is not a small number…

However, I seemed to get into the zone shortly after that and before I knew it, there was another sign that said “Only 100 steps to go!”.  Now we’re talking!  I can do this!  I am doing this!

There were people cheering on a landing at the top of the stairwell, encouraging the climbers to “finish strong”, so I quickened my pace for the last couple flights.  I clocked out with my timechip wristband and then… I turned and saw the rest of the stairs that I would need to climb to reach to the observation level of the CN Tower and the elevator to go back down to ground level.  Those last 50 stairs were tough to climb!

Once I reached the observation level, there were more people cheering and that felt really good to see and hear.  I walked around the perimeter of the tower, taking advantage of the beautiful view and reflecting upon my achievement.  I actually climbed all the way up here!  I looked down through the glass floor and it helped give me perspective on how high I had just climbed. 

The elevator ride back down was only 58 seconds long, just a bit less than the time it took to go up the tower.  I collected my T-shirt that had my completion time written on it, drank some water and ate a couple granola bars, then I headed home to shower and take a load off my feet for a rest.  I earned it!

By the way, my 11-year old son David climbed the CN Tower the day before I did, with his Scout Troop.  We found out the Troop was doing the climb after I had committed to doing it for my work’s charitable campaign, so I only attended Saturday’s climb as a chaperone/Scout Leader.  David had asked me if I would do the climb with him, but I didn’t think I could do it on Saturday with the Scouts and then do it again the following morning with my work colleagues.  As it turned out, David and I would have only started the climb together.  With his exuberance of youth and the energy that comes from facing a challenge with your peers, David raced up the stairs in a fantastic time of 20 minutes flat!  He really enjoyed himself and he was none the worse for wear, since he played goal in the hockey game that he had that same afternoon.  Ah!  To be young again! J

Between the two of us, David and I raised $810 dollars!  We are proud of our achievement and also proud of our family members and friends who supported the cause by donating, as well as those who wished us good luck before the event.

If you happen to want to donate now, it is still possible until Friday, November 11.  Any amount is appreciated, and tax receipts are available for donations of $25 or more.  My webpage link is right here:

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1163606&supId=439912082

Please don’t feel obligated, I just wanted to give people the opportunity to donate if they meant to, but it slipped their mind. 

Thanks again for your support!

1,776 steps for a good cause

Tomorrow, I will climb 1,776 steps to the top of the CN Tower in support of the United Way.  My family and friends have overwhelmed me with their generosity in donating much more than I had planned on raising. 

After I told my son David that I had committed to doing the climb, he wanted to do it too.  He did the climb this morning with his Scout Troop - 85th Old Mill Scouts.  I was thinking of doing the climb this morning with him but I attended as a Scout Leader chaperone and waited for him and his fellow Scouts at the bottom.  He finished the climb in 20:00!  I am not sure I will be nearly that fast, so I am glad he did it at his own pace.  I am very proud of him!

I will update this blog tomorrow, after my climb.

Donald Trump is Campaigning Like It's 1856

Despite the US Civil War and 160 years of social and technological progress, people's beliefs in some parts of America have not changed since 1856. Donald Trump’s current Presidential campaign platform: anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-“elite” nativism – appears to have support in many of the same areas of the US as the “American Party” of 160 years ago.

The “American Party”, who were also known as the “Know-Nothings”, started out as a semi-secret society and were called the “Know-Nothings” because if outsiders asked members about the party, they were supposed to say, “I know nothing.”  The group was made up of white Protestant men who were disturbed by the influx of immigrants during the 1840's and 1850's, especially Catholics, which changed the social landscape of America to something that was new to these nativist Americans - and they didn't like it.  They wanted to Make America Great Again, that is "back to the way it used to be".

Look at these comparative maps showing Trump support in 2016 (areas of strong support in red) and the Know Nothing Presidential Results in 1856 (areas of strong support in yellow):



Of course, in 1856 much of the western part of the US was sparsely inhabited, and the red areas of Oklahoma, South Dakota, eastern Colorado and northern New Mexico were still territories at that time, so they were not included in Presidential elections.

However, there are a number of regions that are surprisingly similar: much of the Old South still supports the ideas the Trump has revived from the Know-Nothings, such as Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama along the Gulf of Mexico.  The Appalachia states of Tennessee and North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky are still strong in their support of those ideas, even Missouri and upstate rural New York follow the same pattern in 2016 as they did in 1856.

Interestingly, South Carolina did not support the Know-Nothings in 1856 and that seems to hold true for Trump 160 years later; it is one of the few areas in the US southeast that is not dark red in the Trump support map.

California in 1856 voted for the Know-Nothings as a backlash against Chinese immigration at that time, there still seems to be support for those ideas in the southwest, although it is more spread out through Arizona, western Oregon, and northern Nevada, perhaps because of Mexican immigration in those areas of the US.

As much as Trump has tried to refer back to the Republican Party as the “party of Lincoln”, it is quite clear that his ideas are actually those of the Know-Nothings. In fact, Abraham Lincoln despised the beliefs of the American Party. In a letter, he wrote:

“I am not a Know-Nothing – that is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equals, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.' When it comes to that I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.” Browne, Francis Fisher (1914). The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln: A Narrative and Descriptive Biography with Pen-pictures and Personal Recollections by Those who Knew Him. Browne & Howell. p. 153.

Possibly the only difference between Trump and the Know-Nothings would be to subsitute Muslims for Catholics. Trump and his supporters seem to fear Muslims for the same reason the Know-Nothings feared Catholics (especially those who had recently emigrated to America): their religious beliefs and loyalties would be opposed to what the American Party saw as national beliefs and loyalties.

There are other similarities between Trump and the Know-Nothings: their popularity increased dramatically, from 50,000 to over 1,000,000 members in only one year as the Whig Party collapsed in 1854. With only the Democratic Party remaining, many people joined the American Party rather than the newly-formed Republican Party. This is similar to Trump’s astonishing rise in popularity since he started his campaign last year, with the post-Tea Party vacuum of leadership of the current Republican Party.

Despite its sudden rise, the American Party also declined quickly.  Millard Fillmore (a former President with the Whig Party) only garnered 23% of the vote in 1856, behind the Democrat and Republican candidates. 

Hopefully, Trump's campaign and ideas will go the way of the American Party: with the election of Abraham Lincoln and rise of the new second party (Republican), as well as internal dissent among the Know-Nothings, their influence and existence were short-lived.  By the 1860 Presidential election, the American Party was all but gone for good.

While racism and intolerance are unfortunately still alive, let's all work toward making sure those beliefs don't win on November 8 by showing the facts of Donald Trump's campaign, his past actions, and his temperament make him unfit for the US Presidency and that all good, thinking, compassionate people will not accept those ideas as representing our society.