We're all out of Africa. We're all immigrants whether we arrived 15,000yrs ago, or 150yrs ago, or
15yrs ago...or last Tuesday. We're all here now. We all have to adapt to the hand we're dealt. Nobody
is leaving. We all have to get along for this to work. That's it.
Here I am quoting myself as nobody else took this and ran with it. OK...I'll try again...
Everyone's ancestors came from somewhere, and where both at times conquerors and conquered. Invaders
and displaced. It's ugly but it's true. In North America, in the last 300 years, the idea of treaties was used instead
of outright assimilation or genocide. Was that better than what the globe had done from time immemorial until
that time. I don't know. I didn't exist at that time and neither did anyone else currently alive. My ancestors arrived
in Canada (from England via Australia and then South Africa...long story for a different thread) after the treaties
where signed. My son is the fifth generation of my family paying our share for a deal struck before we arrived in
this country. It's just part of the cost of living here. I don't have a problem with it.
We can all breed with each other and produce viable offspring. We're all the same species. Whether your
ancestors arrived via the Bering Strait land bridge, or on reed boats from Morocco, or 10,000 years ago
onto the west coast of North America from Polynesia, or the west coast of South America from China, or
on a ship from Europe, or a jet from anywhere...to arrive in Canada...we're all immigrants. Nobody grew
out of the ground of the North American continent so lets drop the term immigrant out of this topic, as we're
all immigrants with a common ancestry. Going forward.
Due to a former occupation, I've been on over sixty different reservations. I've seen abject squalor and the extreme
opposite of that....many times on the same reservation. I've seen many things many of you on these forums might
not even fathom. For many years, I was the minority much of the time. On most reservations, there really isn't
anything for most people to do, and employment for only a small portion of the population. The reservation idea
is a horrible idea. Perhaps it 'might' have worked at one time but from what I've seen and in my opinion, it sure
doesn't work now. I don't know what the answers are, but I can tell you that reservations aren't it. If someone is
given a home and a paycheque to just stay out of the way, how can they ever expect to feel equal? If all you have
to do is to sit and watch the calendar, waiting for the next cheque day, how are you suppose to feel like you are a
part of society? Integration is a big part of the answer, but I don't have a clue how to get the ball rolling. Ideas???