Dear Editor
I heard recently a snippet on the radio about a group calling themselves the Coalition Against Gun Violence. How about a coalition against knife violence? Against using a car as a weapon violence? Or against road rage violence? And how about a coalition against robbery and vandalism on farms violence?
Of course I come at everything from the angle of a farm person. I get tired of people saying this is because of an economic downturn. Have we not had that before? And we did not experience much outright in-your-face robbery. Farmers didn't lock their doors and carry shotguns on their farm machinery. Mind you, a man would have thought twice before blasting off a shotgun if he were driving an eight-horse outfit on a piece of farm machinery back in the days.
And I get irked when someone is accused of racism when he or she simply states the truth.
My mother came from a large family raised next to another large family, with whom they remained life-long friends. I attended school with descendants of their other family. No one ever mentioned they were Metis, it simply didn't matter.
About 1909 one of my uncles went to earn much needed cash in Saskatoon. I believe he worked as a brick layer. When he received his first wages he saw that the men who did not yet speak good English nor understand Canadian money, were short-changed. He immediately went to the Canadian boss, or foreman, and said he had to pay the men the same or he would take the case to the law. After that, all the men received equal pay for equal work, and also understood what they should have.
Even after their country of origin was embroiled in war against the same other nation in their lifetime my parents wouldn't let us speak rashly about people from that country. We had neighbours from there.
After the first war, when my parents had several of their children, a certain young man came striding through the gate. My father had the axe, splitting stove wood. The arrogant, ignorant young man thought he had the means to evict the family and take over the farm and he said so. The next thing he knew he was running out the gate with my father on his heels. Father was still carrying the axe. (Oops! Here comes the coalition against axe violence.)
It wasn't long before he was back, but he wasn't alone and he wasn't striding. He was trailing behind his angry and embarrassed father, who announced that his son had come to apologize.
That family had come from the country I hinted at before. Did the incident turn our family into racism against that family? No, the older children in both families were friends all their lives. Yes, no-one had any use for that young man ever again, nor did we or anyone else appreciate what the leaders or evil people did in their country of origin, but that family were still our neighbours.
I just recalled an incident I was told about the time my father hired a young Cree couple to help him stook at harvest time. Every so often they would stop work and chase one another around the stooks. It didn't happen that often, but my father thought it was hilarious. He'd found out they were newly married.
One of my older sisters, however, told me there were people from a certain country for whom my parents had little respect. After hearing one or two anecdotes, I think I know why. They were racists.
I admit that I have developed an attitude against certain races because of the way they have behaved. I cannot help but view them with suspicion, which they themselves have created. It seems we are dealing with what is now so often called an attitude of entitlement. I remember a high-school graduation class choosing as it's motto "You can do anything you want.”
No, you can't! I don't care what anyone’s background is, race or colour. You cannot do what you want all the time if it results in injury. Nor can you, or I, or anyone, blame anyone’s actions on racism and use it as a shield for ourselves or anyone else.
There has always been racism . Will we ever eradicate it? Not while there are young men liable to stride through someone’s gates, thinking they are from a superior race, thinking they are entitled. We can't create a coalition against stupidity, violence or otherwise.
And I never forget that while I think there are a lot of people who I consider to be a blot on the landscape. there are people out there who think the same about me.
You see what I mean?
Christine Pike, Waseca
