After reading this article and being left confused about what to write, I read every other article provided by Professor Fleming, just to return to this one. Here we go.
I believe this article sums up my entire experience during my Master's program. I have never been a fan of History, mostly because I live by sayings such as "Forgive and Forget" and "I only regret what I haven't done", which both imply a certain degree of forgetting the past and looking forward. However, I have come to realise that in order to move forward as a society, we must take a cold look at our past. Now that I have, I see we have skeletons in the closet. Much work (and cleaning) is needed.
As some comments in the article have mentioned, it's not as easy as "throwing money and services" in that general direction in the hopes to fix the problem. Actually, unlike many court orders and trials in today's justice system, money is not the solution. In fact, the problem is the word "them". We need to move past the distinction of "us" and "them", dismiss the notion of "bad life choices", "broken families" and "community breakdown". Although this may be true for certain families (just as it is true for many, many non-indigenous families), the actions of a few cannot, and should not, tarnish an entire community.
In his article, Mr. Saunders demonstrates clearly where the problem lies: Our inability to take the blame. Just as Stephen Harper's half-hearted apology (which was already a slap to the face), the Truth and Reconciliation Act has removed "racial inferiority" for the points made above. The burning question now is "Does the government truly recognize the problem, or are they blatantly arrogant and think the problem will simply go away?"
If there is one thing I have learned this semester and in recent news, this will not simply vanish into thin air. No, The issue is at our doorstep. It is knocking, and if left waiting, it will burst through our walls.
It is time for our government, and society, to take action. We need to set aside our differences and stop "dismissing" (to stay polite) the problem.
References
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/decoding-the-new-language-of-racial-hierarchy/article27851863/
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