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“Weeks, months – the point is that it’s the past. We need to look forward now!”
You have no idea how much this ‘argument’ resonates with Indigenous people in Canada
I often talk to people about what happened to my parents in residential school in the 1950s … most people are apologetic and believe that there is work to be done to heal but a few of them are of the mind of ‘it happened, let it go, its in the past, we can’t do anything about it, it’s not my problem, let’s move on’
I grew up hearing that in my home state of Hawai’i, where you have large swaths of poor folks - mostly of indigenous Hawaiian descent - born into and dying in poverty. Generation after generation, in small towns surrounded by literal wilderness (state forest preserves) with no jobs, a shite public school budget, and connected to civilization by a single road. And the islands are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, so there’s no escape. You can’t just drive off to Mexico or anything like that to start a new life, if you are born poor then you are trapped.
This “leaving it in the past” bullshit has only made the inequity worse… but everyone’s been conditioned to think with a toxic boomer mentality, so reparations for indigenous Hawaiians has never been a serious topic of discussion. It’s like, there’s no sense of compassion whatsoever. Nobody gives a shit, and that’s the most infuriating part.
I feel bad, I glossed over what you said and just vented away. I hear you about the disappointing responses, it’s not so nice a feeling when you realize some people would rather change the subject than confront reality. Yeah, sometimes the mental gymnastics reach Olympic-like levels.
Never feel the need to apologize with me. I’ve met you here before and I know who you are now and generally where you come from politically and socially so I never worry about how you think or what you say or even how you say it.
I just feel good that I can share these thoughts and feelings and allow fellow allies like yourself to share theirs as well.
Stay well my friend, I’m always happy to see you in the comments.
Likewise! I have a good idea of the kind of person you are, and I am also glad we can share dialogue here. It’s good to talk about these things. Have a great day, I’ll see you online out there!
