Hi!
So, in Canada, during this past week, we had Orange Shirt Day.
For those who don't know, Orange Shirt Day is a day set aside to acknowledge, and honour our indigenous people, all of whom are affected by the residential schools they or their loved ones were forced to go attend.
Horrible abuse, mental, emotional, physical and sexual took place within the walls of these schools, the last of which, shamefully, only closed in 1996.
First Nations children were kidnapped from their homes and families, all but destroying an entire culture.
Generational abuse generates generations of broken souls.
It's not something to 'forget about' or 'get over.'
You can't continually run over someone with a car and then tell them to walk it off and forget about it.
We can't go back and change the past. I so wish we could. We can, however, do everything we can to learn everything we can about what happened and how it happened so nothing even remotely like this ever happens again.
Even now, a First Nations patient recorded racial abuse she suffered at the hands of staff as a patient in a hospital in Quebec. Even now.
Even now, indigenous people, women and children especially, go missing exponentially more than anyone else in the country. They vanish. Even now.
Even now, there are many who hold racist attitudes toward indigenous people. Even now.
I don't claim to have all of the answers. Massive damage, such as what we have done to the First Nations culture since we landed on these shores all those years ago, isn't repaired quickly, if it ever can be. But, we have to try.
Systemic racism runs deep in our legislature, in our institutions, in our culture, in our streets. We don't, as a country, do enough to help heal the wounds we caused.
We don't get to dictate to those we've hurt what is needed to heal. That's not how it works.
It's beyond time to listen. To really listen. It's beyond time to take real steps toward healing.
*******************************************************
Now, south of the border.
Holy crap!
The "debate" between Biden and the guy that is supposed to be a President.
Okay, I ran a dayhome for YEARS, caring for over a hundred toddlers over the course of that time.
Needless to say, I know a tantrum/meltdown when I see one.
I recognize a lack of self-control. I know precisely who needs a timeout and when.
I think Biden showed incredible amounts of restraint in the face of someone who couldn't, not once, keep quiet for a two-minute stretch of time, and respectfully let someone else finish a thought.
Then to top the evening off with a refusal to denounce white supremacy, and a call to arms of his conspiracy theory loving, gun-toting lunatics, well, to say it was unsettling would be putting it mildly.
At the event, he, his family, and his cronies refused to wear masks at the venue, where it is required to do so.
Now, he's sick, his wife is sick, he went to an event even after he found out Hope Hicks was sick. They themselves weren't the ones to notify the public about Hope, It was leaked. Leaked. This seems to be the only way the citizens get to find out truth.
How many people have they put in jeopardy because of their lack of... I don't even know at this point what the word is for what they lack.
Even now, it's being reported that people working within the White House aren't wearing masks. Even now.
Even now, they are trying to downplay this. Even now.
*********************************************************************
Until next time...
May we all acknowledge and accept the part we play in the pain we cause, even now.
May we do all we can to help heal the wounds, listen, really listen, doing that, we may learn how.
May we, someday, create a time in history wherein true equality thrives.
May we get to that place, lifting culture, lifting families, lifting lives.
May we allow ourselves to feel the responsibility of what happened, and how.
May we accept it. No excuses. Do better. Especially and even now.
****************************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment