But mainly because I like to get along. What Canadian wants to directly confront someone when they say something objectionable.
On the drive to work Wednesday I heard on 770 radio that they were complaining of churches being burned down. "This is not constructive of the indigenous". Another point was "An old folks home was near by to one church, they put some old people at risk". The last one bothered me the most and got me to call in to the show. "Burning these churches, might be making the catholic church the victim".
A: I called in, I told them that 915 children at this point are dead from questionable circumstances, I think we are shifting the conversation in the wrong direction. Some old folks were at risk of death? 915 babies, 915 grandparents are dead!!!
He hung up and responded to my points with, "well, this isn't the way, this is the wrong way to begin to talk about the problems with the residential schools". Of course any of us could have responded that there's been a hundred years and nobody has found "the right way to start the conversation". But at least everyone on the radio for three minutes heard me.
I work in the oil patch, and so I am surrounded by the right or hard right or extreme conspiracy right. I will try not to (or I won't) agree to things that I don't believe in as of June.
A good friend said
Q: "Did you see another church is burned down?". I said,
A: "do you remember being a teenager? Old unused churches are being burned down on reserves. When you are in such despair from learning that your ancestors were abused, raped, murdered, and disposed of in unhuman ways.... I can imagine a teenager burning down a old stupid building on the reserve." He continued with
Q: Well, what do they want
A: "Well, how about we find all the bodies first. I think that they just want to know what happened."
Q: Seems like someone is going to make lots of money, we're just going to waste a bunch of money.
A: Well, in the pandemic, these bio companies made billions. They made products, we needed them, the bio companies made money... and all of that is fine by me. We need to find some radar companies to look for all of these bodies, and at least record and acknowledge that people are dead. You did'nt kill anyone. I didn't kill anyone. But it's part of our history, and lets at least agree on what happened.
This is my first post since June. I will reach further than I already am. Maybe I'll also go read about the TRC. I'll admit that I haven't read about it yet. It might not be as fun as arguing with people but I'm sure that it's probably more important work for me to do.
Thanks for sharing this Richard. As Arta asked us all to do, we need to reach further in our active working on contributing toward truth and reconciliation. I am wondering what phrase or question I can have in my back pocket to pull out in instances such as these -- to shift the conversation. Maybe something like: "If kids from your community kept disappearing, and you knew who did it, and the government and police knew who did it, and they did nothing, and years later there was a chance to find these children, what would you want? What would you do?"
ReplyDeleteI wonder if asking them to think about what they want would stop them from saying "what do indigenous people want?"
Just thinking out loud.
Love you Richard.
you made me have sweaty eyes. and want to step up my game.
ReplyDeleteGrandma Joan got soup in my eyes yesterday.... and your game is strong my powerful feminist sister. I continue to learn from you.
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