More about changing the world

You may be wondering whatever happened to my own "one little thing to change the world." It seems that I've been blogging about everything but the topic that was my original intention for this space.

Let me begin by sharing my idea for making the world a better place. The thing that I have chosen to do is to help change mainstream society's view of aboriginal peoples. It seems to me that we in the Western world who decry the atrocities taking place in other parts of the globe have managed to turn a blind eye to the third-world we have created in in our own backyard. I believe that we can do better and that we want to do better, but don't know what to do.

Part of my attempt to succeed at my goal, will be to highlight bits of history, share information about treaties and -- when I am lucky enough to get these -- stories about Native peoples in modern times. I will also share ways that we can all help, as I find opportunities for this.

There are two books that I highly recommend you read.

The first is the classic, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. Written more than 30 years ago, the book presents a compelling tale of the settlement of the U.S. and the failure of the conquering society to live up to its own promises. Wounded Knee is exceptionally well-written and includes accounts from official government records and first-hand accounts as evidence.

The second book is I Have Lived Here Since the World Began, by Arthur J. Ray. Ray is a professor of history at the University of British Columbia and works as a consultant on Native claims cases. His book looks at the impact of European settlement on Native peoples from first contact to modern times.

Reading both books gave me a better appreciation of native cultures, treaties and how poverty on reserves has been created and perpetuated. It is on this last point that I think many white North Americans are ignorant. How would we know? It's something that has been left out of most of our history books. Instead, we drive by reservations, see decrepit housing, hear about welfare levels and think poorly of the people who live there.

The truth is that the realities of Natives would have provided endless fodder for Kafka.

Did you know, for example, that native peoples were not allowed to participate in emerging economies following the fur trade? That, at certain points in history, it has been illegal for Native peoples to hire lawyers to argue on their behalf in Court? Or that the education offered in the residential school system was geared toward creating labourers and domestics rather than providing the same educational opportunities that white children were given?

But for those of us who haven't been impacted by this bit of history, how can we know about it? It is part of our past and present that isn't taught in school.

When my son was studying ancient history last year, I was delighted that, in the section on Sparta, the author pointed out that Sparta got the short-end of the stick historically speaking. As we know, Athens -- Sparta's enemy -- was the eventual winner of the battles and -- again as we know, the winner gets to write the history books.

It's a lesson that has been repeated continuously since early times and should teach us all to view history books with an analytical eye.

I hope you check out the above-noted books or visit a few web pages to develop your own understanding of what's going on in our neighbourhoods. I'll provide links to sites as I find them.

Hope you continue to tune in.

Colleen

Race and Sexuality: A Rant

I feel a rant coming on.

I've just read an Associated Press piece by Melissa Rayworth in our local newsflyer, Out and About. (Or if you live here in Nova Scotia that's Oot and Aboot.) The heading was So you're coming out! Who cares? The answer, according to Ms. Rayworth, is Hollywood.

It seems that casting agents are still pretty nervous about casting gay people in straight roles.

For the love of god!

Has anyone heard of acting? It's that thing that some people do for a living that involves pretending to be a character in a story. It isn't hiring say, Julia Roberts to be Julia Roberts (oops, excuse me, in her case, well, that is the case.) Let's say we're referring to an actual ACTor. Say Judi Dench or William H. Macy. Would you let Mr. Macy act as though he were disabled? Because he isn't you know. But he can act that way... and earn critical acclaim in the process. And Judi Dench, well she isn't really a queen although pretending to be one earned her an Oscar.

And now we have colour-blind casting -- considered to be a major breakthrough. Imagine that. Not specifying that a certain a role must be played by an actor of a specific race.

Actors should be able get roles based on skill not on the basis of skin tone or sexual orientation.

And on the issue of sexuality... Did anyone, way back when,know that Rock Hudson was gay? No. He was an actor and women swooned over him. Does anyone care that T.R. Knight is gay and acting as a straight man. No.

And we shouldn't.

We have absolutely no business in other people's bedrooms any more than we would want someone in ours. (Granted some of us do, but exhibitionism is another issue.)

We have got to get over the whole I'm better than you because my ancestors beat yours, or enslaved yours or burned yours at the stake. Or whatever other dreadful things we did to become the dominant society in the West.

We are all one species (yes, there is some discussion on this point regarding our males, but, again, that's another issue.) One human race on one planet. Not a new idea. As a matter of fact, it's rather old. So, why can't we just get it together?

You know, we all came from Africa.

Colleen

An open letter to young people -- to all people

I just composed a letter to my niece, a lovely 24-year old woman, who is following an untraditional path (at least for the fast-paced 21st century) and it strikes me that we humans have gotten it all wrong. Or much of it anyway.

Historically, we may have gone off the rails about the time of the industrial revolution. I'm certainly no socio-whatever-expert, but that hasn't stopped me from developing more than a few opinions on the topic of humanity, rationalism and consumerism.

(Not that I would turn my nose up at a great pair of pumps or a richly-coloured hangbag.)

That said, and the shot at my own limitations notwithstanding, it seems to me that we just need to SLOW DOWN. Take a breath. Smell the roses or whatever else it is that turns our individual cranks and that we might want to smell. Could it be that after years of eschewing clichés, that the clichés had it right all along?

Some of you may have tuned into Oprah last week when she unveiled The Secret. The Secret is the 2,500 year old belief in karma. Yes, a little tip of the hat to Hinduism and Buddhism would be in order. Basically, what goes around, comes around or, if you send out negative messages, negative things will befall you.

Apparently, if the show's advertising is to be believed, people have gone crazy over the information from that segment.

It appears that we can't help our consumerist-selves. If we decide to evaluate our reliance on things to make us happy, and to place more emphasis on inner growth, we begin to gobble up philosophies in much the same manner that we shopped. Our appetite for the silver-bullet of happiness is frighteningly voracious. But we want our beliefs packaged for us. It has to come in a dust-jacket or on a DVD, and it better have no more than 10 steps (give or take.)Even in our quest for meaning, we go about it superficially.

Calm down, everyone.

The Secret isn't much of a secret, at least it doesn't seem so to me.

We just need to get back to a more humane existance. Some would say to faith. Our faith needn't be explained by science, but it should be something that sustains us. Each of us, individually. Whatever works for each of us.

It is the timeworn story of following your own path and learning to accept ourselves and each other for who we are.

Be kind. Be gentle. Leave the world a better place than it was when you entered it in one way. Just one way.

How about it?