Believe What You Like But Know What You Must

People are free to be consumed with contemplating their existence, their origins, the origins of the universe, supreme beings, controllers of destiny or anything else. But solving "the Great Mystery" is neither a requirement of being Ohnkwe Ohnwe nor does it provide a path to righteousness. I maintain that spirituality does not require faith or the leaps that faith requires but rather awareness. If it helps to believe that "God has a plan" and we just must have faith that "He" knows what "He" is doing, then walk that path. My interest is in taking the mystery out of life by pointing to the obvious that is ignored everyday in the midst of fanatical ideology and the sometimes not too subtle influences of promoting beliefs over knowledge. I have said it before: “beliefs are what you are told, knowledge is what you experience”. I support a culture that prepares us to receive knowledge and to live a life with purpose. I am certainly not suggesting there is only one way to do that.

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Friday, January 8, 2010

British Columbia Olympics to Face Civil Disruptions by Survivors of Canadian Indian Residential schools

International Media Advisory

Government Given Deadline for Return of Bodies

Vancouver - The group representing survivors of Indian residential schools on Canada's west coast announced today that it will hold civil disobedience actions and disruptions during the February 2010 Olympics near Vancouver if the Canadian government and mainline churches have not announced a timetable for the repatriation of the remains of the thousands of children who died in these schools.
The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD), which held high-profile protests and occupations of churches in Vancouver and Toronto during 2007 and 2008 and compelled the Canadian government to issue an apology for the residential schools in July, 2008, has given Canada and the Roman Catholic, Anglican and United Church of Canada until February 15, 2010 to announce when and how they will return for a proper burial the remains of Indian children who died under their care.
As part of this deadline, the FRD has also demanded that the government and churches make public the names of those responsible for the deaths of these children, and indicate by what judicial mechanism the guilty or the responsible institutions will face trial.
Nearly half of the 150,000 children who attended Canadian Indian residential schools died as a result of conditions in the schools. (Globe and Mail, April 24, 2007) In April, 2008, the FRD released to the media and police a list of twenty eight mass graves near former Indian residential schools where many of the children are alleged to be buried.
"We will halt church and government operations during the Olympics if that's what it takes to get the bodies of our relatives back" said Carol Martin, a Nishga native woman and FRD spokesperson.
"The world has to know that our people are still dying from the genocide Canada and the churches inflicted on us. We've waited long enough for justice."
For more information contact the FRD at:
hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.ca or 250-753-3345 (Canada)
And see the website: http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/
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