{"id":2290,"date":"2018-06-21T17:58:50","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T21:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/?p=2290"},"modified":"2018-06-21T17:58:50","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T21:58:50","slug":"lets-stop-fighting-over-the-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/?p=2290","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s stop fighting over the children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<strong>IMMIGRATION DEBATE<\/strong>\u00a0<em>By Jim Uttley<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Let\u2019s stop fighting over the children<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>W<\/strong>e are living in very chaotic\u00a0times\u2014across North America\u00a0and around the globe. The\u00a0Immigration debate that started\u00a0almost 20 years ago has now\u00a0turned into an open war.<\/p>\n<p>On the one hand, the Democrats who are pushing either for\u00a0total \u201copen borders\u201d to a more\u00a0conservative position of \u201clet\u2019s\u00a0find a way to shut the doors on\u00a0current immigrants and later figure out how we\u2019re going to deal\u00a0with the millions who have been\u00a0here illegally since the last \u201camnesty\u201d law was passed.<\/p>\n<p>In opposition to that position\u00a0are the Republicans but the conservative ones with a capital \u201cC\u201d seem to be dominating the\u00a0debates and those are the ones\u00a0who President Donald Trump is\u00a0listening to.<\/p>\n<p>In all honesty, this administration is acting like it woke up one\u00a0morning recently and discovered\u00a0that there\u2019s a massive problem on\u00a0our borders and we need to \u201cen\u00a0masse\u201d arrest people and take\u00a0away their children and place\u00a0them in Homeland Security\u2019s\u00a0Foster Care System. Well, quite\u00a0frankly, they are doing a horrible\u00a0job and about as bad as what the\u00a0Democrats accused President\u00a0George W. Bush of doing \u2014or\u00a0not doing \u2014 dealing with the\u00a0aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.<\/p>\n<p>In 1997, I wrote an article\u00a0which describes the experience I\u00a0went through as a child, comparing my experience to what hundreds\u00a0of thousands of Indigenous\u00a0children went through when they\u00a0were sent away to Residential\u00a0(Boarding) Schools far from\u00a0home. I\u2019d like to share that\u00a0award-winning article with you\u00a0here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>They disappeared\u00a0around the bend<\/strong>\u00a0<em>By Jim Uttley<\/em><br \/>\nIf there was any sadness or sense\u00a0of loss at his departure, he didn\u2019t\u00a0catch it. But then again, he was<br \/>\ntoo wrapped up in his feelings of\u00a0fear, apprehension, and general\u00a0discomfort with this whole idea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy did it all have to be likethis?\u201d the ten-year-old asked himself. \u201cCould there not be a better\u00a0way \u2014 at least another way\u00a0around this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These thoughts were sparked\u00a0as he waited for the ride that\u00a0would take him to a strange and\u00a0different world. Boarding school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, if I can\u2019t avoid it,\u201d he\u00a0thought to himself, \u201clet\u2019s get\u00a0going!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His family said their good-byes. It was a tearless farewell, although he knew that any felt\u00a0emotions his parents and siblings\u00a0had were shoved way down\u00a0inside.<br \/>\nAs they drove off, he turned to\u00a0see his mama and papa. They\u00a0were waving, pressed close\u00a0together, Papa\u2019s arm wrapped\u00a0around mama\u2019s waist. The boy\u00a0watched as they shrunk smaller\u00a0and smaller, soon disappearing\u00a0altogether as the car rounded the\u00a0bend.<br \/>\nLittle did he know that this\u00a0would be the first of many such\u00a0scenes overthe next ten years. All\u00a0would take on many different\u00a0views, but always with the same\u00a0feelings \u2014 never knowing when\u00a0or if they would see each other\u00a0again. Like the feeling of parents\u00a0who send their sons and daughters off to war.<\/p>\n<p>For over one hundred and\u00a0fifty years, North American\u00a0Indigenous children and their parents went through experiences\u00a0similar to the one above. Heart-wrenching events in the lives of\u00a0families. thousands of children, some as young as three, were\u00a0forcibly taken from their homes\u00a0to schools thousands of miles\u00a0away to attend institutions with\u00a0students they didn\u2019t know, taught\u00a0by teachers who were foreign to\u00a0them. They were required to\u00a0speak a language they did not\u00a0understand and punished when\u00a0they spoke their mother tongue.<\/p>\n<p>This wasthe experience offar\u00a0too many First Nations children. This is to say nothing of the hun- dreds who were beaten, abused\u00a0verbally and sexually; forbidden\u00a0to be the boys and girls they were\u00a0created by Creator to be.<\/p>\n<p>There are those who would\u00a0like to brush these events aside, push them under the rug and pre- tend they didn\u2019t happen.That certainly would be the easiest and\u00a0least painful thing to do.<\/p>\n<p>But repentance and restitution are painful. Not only for the\u00a0victim but also for the victimizer.<\/p>\n<p>If the Native North American situation is ever going to\u00a0change for the better, and if we\u00a0are ever going to see the dominant society look upon Aboriginal\u00a0people in ways that are not stereotypical we are going to have to\u00a0have some soul-searching and\u00a0heart-changing actions.<\/p>\n<p>The Government of Canada\u2019s\u00a0apology to First Nations Peoples came belatedly in response to\u00a0the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Years later, the\u00a0Truth and Reconciliation Commission, all important, they are\u00a0smalls steps down the road that\u00a0leads to repentance, reconciliation, and restitution.<\/p>\n<p>These three Rs are not sterile political or religious terms. They are Creator\u2019s words.<\/p>\n<p>It is impossible to put these\u00a0three words into action without a\u00a0heart change. That change can\u00a0only come by amove oft he Spirit\u00a0of Holy Creator God, our Father. It is impossible for sinful men and\u00a0women of position and power to\u00a0change hundreds of years of\u00a0crimes against their fellow human\u00a0beings with just the stroke of a\u00a0pen or a public declaration. There\u00a0must be much heart-searching\u00a0prayer, confession of sins, and a\u00a0commitment to change. Not only\u00a0saying we\u2019re sorry, but also\u00a0admitting guilt and seeking to\u00a0right the wrongs committed by\u00a0our forefathers.<\/p>\n<p>One of the best films of\u00a01998, despite the critics, was\u00a0Steven Spielberg\u2019s Amistad. This\u00a0movie dealt with the tragic holocaust committed against black\u00a0slaves of West Africa. There is a\u00a0parallel to the Native American\u00a0genocide during the first four\u00a0hundred years since Columbus\u00a0set foot in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n<p>When the leader ofthe band\u00a0of slaves that escaped and was\u00a0later imprisoned had a chance to\u00a0speak in his halting English, he\u00a0spoke justsix words. \u201cFreedom !\u00a0I want to be free!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In spite of what declarations\u00a0are made and laws passed, true\u00a0freedom and reconciliation come\u00a0only from Creator. Our Indigenous People will only be truly set\u00a0free when we as nations seek\u00a0Creator\u2019s face and repent of our\u00a0evil ways. \u201cThen Creator will\u00a0hear from heaven and heal our\u00a0land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I know all too well the pain\u00a0of separation and abandonment by my parents, through no fault of\u00a0their own. They were not given a\u00a0choice.<\/p>\n<p>Since 1988, I have been listening to North America\u2019s Native\u00a0elderstell their stories. As I listen, a pain so real rises up in me. A\u00a0pain of recognition and under-standing.<\/p>\n<p>I know the agony of enduring abuse in foster care and\u00a0Residential School.<\/p>\n<p>I was that ten-year-old boy\u00a0who watched his parents disap- pear around the bend that Sunday<br \/>\nafternoon so many years ago.<\/p>\n<p>It seems it just keeps going\u00a0on and on.<\/p>\n<p>-\u201cThey Disappeared\u00a0Around the Bend\u201d wasfirst published in 1997. \u00a9 1997 Intertribal<br \/>\nChristian Communications. Used\u00a0with permission.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>to reach this article on <strong>P 12<\/strong>, click here :\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/H-O-20-juin-2018.pdf\">http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/H-O-20-juin-2018.pdf<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IMMIGRATION DEBATE\u00a0By Jim Uttley Let\u2019s stop fighting over the children We are living in very chaotic\u00a0times\u2014across North America\u00a0and around the globe. The\u00a0Immigration debate that started\u00a0almost 20 years ago has now\u00a0turned into an open war. On the one hand, the Democrats who are pushing either for\u00a0total \u201copen borders\u201d to a more\u00a0conservative position of \u201clet\u2019s\u00a0find a way to shut the doors on\u00a0current immigrants and later figure out how we\u2019re going to deal\u00a0with the millions who have been\u00a0here illegally since the last \u201camnesty\u201d law was passed. In opposition to that position\u00a0are the Republicans&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,48,33,45],"tags":[379,591,604,649,699,886,898,1314],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2290"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}