“It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.” — Thomas Jefferson
(I think this is something T.J. came up with to tell Martha, so he could actually spend a bunch of time with Sally! Ol’ Tom was definitely a dog. But he didn’t deserve to have his statues desecrated. NO statues should be desecrated! Hopefully, that nonsense is over. Be well and do good, friends.) — YUR
Image courtesy of Google
Happy birthday to Ronnie Wood, of The Faces, and later The Rolling Stones!
Unclerave's Wordy Weblog 
They may continue destroying statues. The decayed bodies of 215 Amerindian children were found in a mass grave in Kamloops, British Columbia. These children attended a residential school run by Catholics. It could be John A Macdonald’s Indian Act led to a genocide. Moreover, he would not allow the children of French-speaking Canadians outside Quebec to attend schools where the language of instruction was French. Canada has one bilingual province: Quebec, and nine unilingual provinces and territories. We cannot look back, we must create the future.
I know that Canada’s history is just as sordid as the U.S.’s, in regard to the treatment of their native peoples. The stories of these schools, where, at the time, they thought that they were actually *helping them to integrate into Canadian culture*, are not new. They are always tragic though. The world was full of “manifest destiny”, and “the white man’s burden”, and all sorts of nonsense that really just sought to keep empowering white men. The evangelical mindset has resulted in the deaths of millions and millions of native peoples around the world over the years. But absolutely nothing warrants the defacing, and/or destruction, of the statues to the men who did bad – by today’s standards – by unruly mobs. The statued men DID have significant historical accomplishments to their credit, which warranted the statues, at the time of their creation. They created their places in history. Most great men have – again, by today’s standards – a dark side to them. Those dark sides CAN be acknowledge without defacing/destroying their visages. People need to resist the giving in to the mob mentality, even if they believe themselves to be virtuous. — YUR
I agree Unclerave. There are very sad moments in Canadian history, but Canadians had to enter into Confederation. Manifest Destiny was a threat to what is now Canada, the former Rupert’s land. The French were quite happy to enter into Confederation and they liked having a parlement. They still do. They wanted to keep their language, their religion, there Seigneuries and their Code Civil. They were able to do so, because Guy Carleton engineered the Quebec Act. There was more to the Quebec Act than making sure the French and Amerindians remained faithful to the Crown, which, they knew, was in their best interest. They also felt it was in their best interest to join Confederation. They knew they had a better chance of keeping their Quebec if they joined Confederation. They did not know that French would not be an acceptable language of instruction outside Quebec. But nothing justifies disorder. I agree with you unreservedly. John A Macdonald had a vision: from sea to sea. No one can take that away from him. 🙂
Micheline wrote:
“… There are very sad moments in Canadian history…”
and
“…making sure the French and Amerindians remained faithful to the Crown…”
We don’t hear much about Canadian history, but it sounds as if their treatment of the indigenous Americans was just as arbitrary as ours.
I think that almost every country has periods, and events, that they would prefer to forget. And, many countries DO attempt to sweep those things under the proverbial rug. For as long as they can get away with it, at least! But, as William Shakespeare famously said: “The truth will out!”
All of our history has value, the good and the bad. The bad serves as a cautionary tale. Unfortunately, that does not mean we won’t repeat some of those more heinous mistakes. It still boggles my mind that – in the mid 20th Century – the United States, and the rest of the so-called “civilized” nations, thought it was a fine idea to take a majority of the land, from a majority people, who had lived there for nearly 2000 years, and gave it to the minority people, who had largely moved in only within the last 50 years! Of course the better, more arable, land was allocated to the minority. And, of course, the people who had lived there for the past 2000 years were not given ANY say in the matter. The colonial mindset was still all too comfortable with the taking from people of color, and giving to predominantly white people.
And, then they proceeded to put a positive spin on that *valiant* minority, while demonizing those who were the cheated in the “deal”. Ah! The White man’s burden! LOL! No wonder so many still refer to us as the “white devils”!
— YUR
It became very humiliating. Our Amerindians had led voyageurs in their canoes. They had also led Scottish explorers reach the Pacfic Ocean. But, after Confederation, the Indian Act in particular, they were subjected to “gradual civilization.” Children were taken away from their parents and parents were sent to reservations. There was no mingling anymore. I have Amerindian ancestry, but I did not know. The French in Canada could not have survived without the help of Amerindians. A short time ago, the bodies of 215 children were found in Kamloops, British Columbia. It is very sad. All human beings are human beings and deserve respect.
Exactly! Are you listening, Israel??? — YUR
michellewalker wrote:
“Children were taken away from their parents and parents were sent to reservations.”
The European newcomers in two countries said they wanted to “civilized” the indigenous people, but there was nothing civilized in the way they went about. They shattered thriving cultures and replaced them with alcoholism and bigotry.
No offense intended to Uncle Rave’s regular subscribers. If Uncle Rave had come along a couple hundred years earlier, maybe things could have been done differently.
I’d sure like to think so, lwc! — YUR (Thanks)
I would call it the colonial error. It was terrible, but their mindset could accommodate what we see as wrongful and was wrongful. But the future belongs to us. 🙂