I read this today and thought it was well written:
Here is the truth about how I feel about the Pope visit.
Let the church pay his way to come and visit everyone.
But don't pretend he is an honorary Chief.
In fact, The problem with honorary Chiefs is that they think they are some kind of Chief for the rest of their lives.
Anyone with an honorary title should have to be elected year after year like any other chief.
I bet the majority of them would be tossed out after one term.
And all this blame is not doing any of us any good.
There are still a few of us left who actually went to Indian Day School and Residential Schools.
Some of us blame everyone for what happened to us, and some of us have already dealt with it.
And some non indigenous people say they are sorry for what happened to us, and others try to deny that it ever happened.
To those who keep apologizing, please stop.
You were not there.
It is not your fault.
And to those who say it never happened, please stop.
You were not there. Stop being disrespectful.
I find it ironic that all of this happens just a week after the final deadline for all of us who went to Day and residential schools to fill in the ten pages of documents, have them notorized, and sent away.
Like a cheque is going to erase history.
So if you want to know how I feel about all this, I don't like it at all.
I think the Pope is fine.
I think the Church is fine.
What I don't like is how this part of our history causes us to disagree.
It's divisive.
And that is not what this country needs right now.
More than ever we should be able to recognize that we have all been through some pretty bad things in our lives, and cut each other some slack.
I have said some things on people pages, and I should erase my comments.
The ones that hurt the most are the ones who pretend that none of us kids were abused, and none of our relatives died while they were in Residential Schools.
It happened.
Stop denying it.
And I promise that I will never blame anyone who was not there.
Have we got a deal?
