Editor:
Re: Good start, what's next?
Just to clarify a couple of things in the editorial Jan. 16, 2013. Regarding the perceived dysfunctional nature of aspects of our First Nations communities, a cursory glance at history will reveal that any society which suffers a fundamental disruption to its way of life results in a marked increase in violence, family dislocations, drunkenness, and drug abuse. I can think of two examples off the top of my head.
1) The Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s resulted in the starvation of a million folks, and emigration to what we call North America. The Irish for the longest time were refried to as low life drunken scumbags, which doesn't sit well with me, being five generation Irish, my forefathers and mothers having scraped enough together for passage to Turtle Island, (North American) in the 1830s.
2) In Britain itself resulting from the Enclosure Acts beginning in the 13 century and continuing until the 19 century, when common lands, where everyone could range their cattle, geese, and sheep, were fenced off for the benefit of the landed gentry. Huge dislocations occurred resulting in migration to the emerging, industrial employment of young children in coal mines for pennies a day.
The other issue mentioned in the editorial suggests that Idle No More is against resource extraction altogether. Not so. The focus is on the continued development of fossil fuels, which as anyone cognizant of details of climate warming and the acidification of oceans due to absorption of carbon dioxide, is well aware if their heads are not buried in those toxic tar sands. This is likely why INM is resonating around the world as we all see this good green Earth going up in smoke.
Don Magwood
Burns Lake.