Why is it that we Canadians can spend so much time and money abroad helping other countries, but we fail so miserably trying to give aid to our brothers and sisters to the north. Who I consider to be my fellow Canadians.   If I had the chance tomorrow I would be on the first plane to any one of these remote communities to sit down and find out the truth about what life is like on a reserve, find out why they still live in squalor, and why they will not forgive, or forget, the past injustices of my ancestors....Whomever they may be.  Our societies across this country, remote or not, are facing the same neverending issues of domestic violence, drugs, alcoholism, child neglect, poverty.....and the list goes on.

  Yes.... You can quantify all of this by saying, "Well, it's not as bad over there, as it is here", or you could lay blame by  saying, "It's their fault that we live like this".  But when you spend so much time pointing the finger at the other person your hands really aren't doing the actual work to solve the problem.  Neither will talking about doing something about the problem, and then not doing anything at all.  Remember, in order to have mocassins to walk in someone...and a very special someone at that....had to painstakingly take the time and love to make them in the first place.  It is that person, and the strong embodiment of their culture that I would so like to meet, and if my ancestors took that away from them then let me say that I would like to be one of the first to give it back.

Not to sound too mawkish, but Canadian or not, we must find a way to move forward as humans to make our lives better. If we spend too much time looking back we won't be able to see where we should be going..Together.

TM.