skier

Alright. So the "white man" gave the natives a real hard time a while ago. How long? over 50 years. In general, we've cleaned up our act since then. Why am I responsible for the government policies of 2 generations+ ago? Are you responsible for the actions of your father? If your father was a rapist/pedophile, and you grew up as a normal citizen, should you be put away in jail for what your father had done? Natives in hobbema are currently living in trailer homes with no jobs, drinking their lives away. (of course not all the natives are; but the majority is.) They recieve royalties not only from the government, but from oil companies as well. This is a rich reserve- but the money is spent frivolously, with no concern for the future.

I would much rather see these people doing well. Operating and managing businesses, working for a living. I think it would be great to walk into a store and be greeted by a native shopowner, or have one as my boss. In truth there are people such as these, and I repect them deeply. Every individual can shape their lives for better or for worse. I respect and admire the ones that take an active role in their lives, rather than letting it pass them by.

I have thought a lot about how I should feel about native americans. I've seen people that believe all native americans are drunk losers, lacking the ability to succeed. I've talked to people that believe that native americans just haven't had the opportunities to succeed. I've talked to natives that see what their people are doing and spit in disgust, because they do nothing to change their future. I've talked to natives that tell me getting drunk is more fun in the truck, because when they get back to the reservation they'll be blasted. I've worked at shopper's drug mart where we had to limit sales of listerine to 1 bottle/person because natives would buy 10 at a time because it was cheaper than liquor. I've talked to a police sargent that admitted to me that natives are the biggest problem in town, and that we have the highest crime rate in the central region because of it. I've seen native americans at their best, established citizens of the community, and i've seen them at their worst, drunk, fighting each other in the back of a pickup truck headed to hobbema.

I've had plenty of experience from which to draw my opinion from. This is not just a stupid white guy's sweeping generalization of a people based on one or two incidents meeting a drunk native in the alley. As a whole, native americans are in trouble. And I have no repect for that because of the opportunities they have been given but have squandered instead.

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"Asking a bomb squad if an old bomb is still "real" is not the best thing to do if you want to save it." - denim