Can you feel it Canadians? The vibration in the air? The smell of it on the wind? The taste of it in the water that you take for granted? A battle is coming. A battle over the future of this country.
Two paths we can take. One in the direction of consumerism, commercialization and the worship of money. That direction ensures we are not long for this planet, as she cannot sustain us at the pace at which we are raping her.
Or the other direction that takes us into an age of understanding. A new era in which we put more physical and mental energy into finding ways to restore the planet, and bring about the human race to a place where we can see each other as all different, yet still equals; that what works for one population, doesn't necessarily work for another; that your beliefs are just as valid and worthy of protection as mine; and, that your rights are just as worthy of protection as mine.
This may sound like some hippy type shit, but those who know me know that I am far from a tree-hugging, wheatgrass chugging, hemp-wearing hippy. Those of you who may not know me so well, I assure you that I am just as guilty of transgressions against Mother Earth as your average, middle class Canadian.
But it isn't average middle class Canadians who make the decisions in how we move forward as a country? And that is the problem. We are the people who make up the vast majority of this country, from all ethnic and social race backgrounds -- yet we have the smallest voice, because we are divided.
Why are we divided? Because we are spoon fed from an early age that that is the way it should be. That white Canadians should fear losing their culture to the influx of hard working immigrants, who are not only taking their jobs, but replacing Canadian culture with their own. That 'visible minority' immigrants should keep to their own kind, in their own section of town, because while a Canadian may be friendly to their face, they are secretly calling you vile names behind your back and that you will never be Canadian enough, no matter how many generations your family lives here. That all Canadians subsidize Aboriginal Canadians with their hard earned tax dollars. That all Aboriginal Canadians are lazy drunks, who live in squalor because they spend their welfare cheques on booze and tax-free smokes.
We allow the government and media to feed us these dividing lines, as they keep us feeling safe. Safe in our bubbles and small social circles, the people we choose to surround ourselves with being others just like us.
I am an Aboriginal Canadian. I am a Status First Nations Anishinaabe Ojibwe Native Indian woman. I've lived Reservation life, city life and small town life, all over Ontario. I am a mother, a sister, a daughter, a friend, but most of all I am a fighter. I won't allow the country I have been a contributing citizen of to wipe out the rights that I've not only paid for myself, but was paid for in the blood of my relatives still alive, and many previous generations. I won't stand for a government that dictates to its peoples, rather than working for its peoples.
Now replace my first line in the last paragraph I wrote. Replace it with who you are to Canada. Doesn't all the rest apply to you too?
When the time comes, which side will you stand on. Will you stand on guard for Canada? For all its peoples, regardless of whether they look like you or not? If you think it is fine for the government to annex the rights of one group because you don't understand them, or because they don't apply to you, what does that make you? Does it make you a totalitarian? Or any of the other several choice terms that one generally only hears during American political debates? Or does it make you apathetic to the plight of others? Apathetic or pathetic -- when you don't take the time to understand those plights, and accept every stereotype, worst case scenario, random number and figure thrown at you by the media and government, as fact, and than apply it to millions of people across the board?
Canadians get riled up over the stereotypes assigned us by our Southern neighbors. Remarks about living in igloos, riding polar bears, saying 'aboot' and 'eh,' living on a diet of maple syrup, poutine, bacon and beer -- and those are stereotypes derived from a sort of brotherly relationship and ignorance due to an insular media. Yet we have no problem applying across the board stereotypes right here at home.
Do Canadians want to be known, from here on out, as a nation of racists who feign tolerance and acceptance on the world stage, but do not practice what they preach? Or do Canadians wish to live up to the reputation that has been bestowed on them? The ignorant and uniformed speak the loudest.
Don't let them speak for you. Use your own voice, it's the only true weapon you own.
Original Article
Source: rabble.ca
Author: Rhiannon McRae
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