Canada Day Fail?

Yesterday was Canada Day and I had a great day. I felt so much pride for my country. We were at a celebration in Downtown Vancouver. Yes, the same Vancouver that only two weeks ago experienced the trauma of riots for absolutely no reason. This isn’t about the riots though. It’s not about Vancouver specifically. It’s about the fact that on multiple occasions yesterday as I was sitting and enjoying the music and the weather conversations were going on all around me and many of them weren’t in English and it was so amazingly beautiful.  I heard laughter everywhere and THAT was all the same language.

This post is about another thing that happened on Canada Day in another city not so far away. In Edmonton, Alberta, my Uncle Bert decided that he would celebrate the day by going to his “local” and shooting some games of pool.

This is his story in his words...

Bert Crowfoot 

I thought I’d put on my red shirt and go out and celebrate Canada Day by going to the Gallery Bar in the Mayfield Inn and playing pool with friends. 

I’m proud to be a Canadian and always open to people from other races and culture. I really didn’t understand why some Native people still have a real hatred to white people.

Unfortunately I do now. There were three skin heads playing pool and I put my $$$$ down to play the next game. I didn’t realize they were skin heads and they did everything they could to delay the games.

When my turn came, he broke and took the 8 ball and put it in the corner pocket and said you win..AND LAUGHED IN MY FACE. He turned and he and his buddies were giving each other high fives, laughing at how they made a fool out of a person who wasn’t as pure as they were.

Man was I pissed. My first reaction was to tune him up with my cue… but I kept my cool. The worst thing was they kept laughing and pointing at me all night. I kept getting pissed off and was tempted to follow them home and show them a little Indian justice.

My friend kept reminding me that it wasn’t worth it. I now really understand how our people feel when this happens to them and the anger and hatred it creates. Coming home, I was reminded of a saying my great great grandfather Chief Crowfoot had He said, “ I have friends and I have enemies…. I have white friends and I have Indian friends…. I have white enemies and I have Indian enemies…. I have friends and I have enemies….

I just wanted to add…. “There are assholes…. There are white assholes and there are Indian assholes.… Yes there are assholes....” The world is full of them…. And I happened to meet three of them tonight.

I also remembered that I have many white friends who have treated me with respect and honor and I’m not going to let three racists ruin my day..

I hope every one had a happy Canada Day….

That happened yesterday and last night Uncle Bert posted his Story.

Then today, he posted on Facebook a comment by his friend Lyndon Oochoo

I am leaving the Facebook formatting in so you can see what Bert said and what Lyndon said.

Bert Crowfoot: After last night I thought I'd share this beautiful post by Lyndon Oochoo
once again the creator blessed us with the oppurtunity to awaken and share this world with each other, maybe we should just stop and give thanx for the way the creator has made us, it doesnt matter what size or shape we are , we are all made the way the creator wanted us to be, when someone teases or just makes remarks about ppl

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Lyndon Oochoo: they arent makin fun of the person they are talking about , they are makin fun of the work the Creator has done, and they will have to answer for it..some ppl just like going around saying mean stuff to other ppl because,of their own imperfections or because they think they are funny..they dont stop to think of the ppl they hurt with the things they say..i feel really sorry for the ppl who go around doing this, because when its their turn to leave this world they will have alot of apologizing to do and begging for forgiveness, not to us but to the spirit that made us who we are...

Lyndon Oochoo
this makes me think of the animals i work with (horses)..i have come to see and work with alot of beautiful horses in my days, horses that everybody admired and wanted..but then i also worked with horses that didnt look so perfect that ppl laffed at..the ones that were admired were usually the ones that gave me the most problems, it was the other ones that turned out to be the the easiest to work with always willing to learn and accept what they must endure in life, those are the ones that ppl will enjoy the most...those are the ones that make the BEST FREINDS...

Bert’s and Lyndon’s  thoughts are provoking and I needed to share them with you. Share this blog and/or Facebook Note (because I am putting it up on both). Let the world know what you think. Let’s stop bullying and hatred. There is no point.

It’s all about the LOVE.