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Today's Honoured Guestmy peeps The Boys
RaJ
Tayster
factory_peasant
Surfer Mitch
Scared Bunny
Jake
Hof
my peeps The Girls
Sass
Pajiba
Tristan Roy
Radiohead blue eyes,
crooked teeth,
intellectual,
goofball,
slacker,
socialist.
Stuff and Nonsense
You LOVE Me THIS much
Steff
Crystal
Lyvvie
Cate
OEN
--spared--
Rachel
bitchy
Dlisted
Janet Charlton
MPH
Go Fug Yourself
the pretty pictures
Owen Billcliffe
No Traces
Sam Javanrouh
the professionals blog
Matthew Good
Margaret Cho
Rick Mercer
Tony Pierce
Whil Wheaton
Waiter
shameless self promotion
About Me
My influence
[1338.4]
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What Came Before
2005.05
2005.06
2005.07
2005.08
2005.09
2005.10
2005.11
2005.12
2006.01
2006.02
2006.03
2006.04
2006.05
2006.06
2006.07
2006.08
2006.09
2006.10
2006.11
2006.12
2007.01
2007.02
2007.03
2007.04
2007.05
2007.06
2007.07
2007.08
2007.09
2007.10
2007.11
2007.12
2008.01
2008.02
2008.03
2008.04
2008.05
2008.07
2008.09
2008.10
2009.01
2010.01
2010.03
2010.05
c'mon baby you better play with me i'm your live wire
:
I haven’t written anything deep or interesting here in a while. I was asked at length the other day about being a socialist. Honestly talking about it doesn’t interest me and the guy asking lost points for being so uninformed. I really am an information snob, because it’s so easy to get. I can’t fathom why you wouldn’t just go read some books, or do some web searches to find out what you want to know. Maybe because I’ve spent my whole life learning, just getting hyped about something and getting all the information I could about it from every prospective (I like to be well rounded). I’m that way with fiction and music too, if I’m really into it I get it all. John Mayer is feeling my boon now, I’m all over his work.
Thing is I find it hard to be interesting with out somehow commenting on society and tying myself into that. In my opinion society is pretty lacking so I have rather nothing good to say about it. I wasn’t surprised at all when the frigging Conservatives got in over the Liberals, because people are stupid and tend to do what’s easiest. They also have no respect for history. I didn’t vote for those who have the power, yet again. I’m so not impressed with politics. I know it has it’s place but I disdain it to the point of it actually harming my upward mobility. Yes I have a PROBLEM with authority. I LIKE to think for MYSELF.
I also was not surprised when the scandal du jour appeared. Unlike many Canadians not only have I been on reserves, I’ve had friends who lived there and I know a fair bit about the workings of government and their ideas of deal with our indigenous people. When I heard of the bad water quality on the reserves I thought => what they are just figuring this out? When I was a teen my best friend’s house didn’t even have running water. Everyone who lived on the reserve had to go and pump their water from taps that were placed around the area. It was that way in most of the centre of town. Not where I lived though, we had plumbing and showers and washing machines. I always knew that these things made people think I was rich, but I wasn’t. Not by any stretch of the imagination. It garnered me some instant enemies. But when they got to know me that changed. I had some very good friends.
Thing is life for Native Canadians is almost never talked about or thought of by most people. The amnesty guy – Seamus – was trying to sell me on the point that Amnesty was involved in the fight to stop the abuse of Native women in Canada. It’s something I’m very aware of. I, like most of my friends in the past, are well acquainted with the facts of growing up poor, rural and native. I’m not able to claim I’m native, but a majority of the people I was closest to and friends with in my childhood are. We shared the same schools and the same experiences. Except theirs was slightly different. I noticed that teachers treated native students differently. Not all, but most would not give the native students the chance to answer questions in class. If a native student asked questions they were usually answered in a demeaning way. When groups were made for projects, native students were usually all put together.
Many people I knew were forced into remedial classes because the teachers would not spend time with them at all. They didn’t want to talk to them or help them. These were the realities I saw my friends face day in and out. It was so sad to me to know that of the 26 people in my high school class the last year I was in Manitoba, only four of us were going to the next grade or graduating. Most dropped out and would come back reluctantly or stay away for good. School was a preview for the way these kids were and still are treated in life. I have seen racism and it’s ugly face was on the persons of my family, my friends and I have felt the shame of it too as well as have been beaten down by it. I feel strongly that people should not be allowed to teach that kind of hatred of anyone for any reason. If you are going to dislike someone do it on a case by case basis.
The worst times I’ve ever had in my life have been because I refuse to judge a culture. I’ve been treated with scorn and suspicion by people who thought I had motives for being friendly. Knowing what I do, I can’t always blame them. But insular groups and communities while wonderful, hardly promote understanding and real tolerance. At one point in my life I was one of 2 white kids in my school. I was the minority. I was harassed and bullied and treated like gold by the teachers. That made things worse. I had to learn to stand up for myself, and I did – a lesson my dad didn’t like me learning. Yet there were so many people I knew then who never learned how to do that. Who have sunken to the lowest expectations that have been placed upon them. You don’t have to be a visible minority to do this, you just have to be a human being with no hope.
There is so little hope in the world these days and I’m not sure why. I think the press and it’s focus on what’s wrong has a hand in that. I think the fact that unbridled greed being proven again and again as the way to win best at business is problematic too. But mostly I think it has to do with consequences. A lot of things get done today without any concern for the consequences. Not many are using their moral compass. Not many are caring for their fellow man. It saddens me, because I am a socialist. I believe that people need to be good to and good with each other. That’s socialism to me.
Keep blogging.
ghost writer Ambrrrr at 11:36 AM
