What's new?

"Aboriginals feel neglected amid the devastation", reads a headline in the Herald today.  Well, what's new?  These are people who take, take, take.  They never seem to give back.  It's always, "where's the money?!" 

The flood situation finds them yelling more of the same.  "The media only started showing up yesterday," complained a spokesman for the Siksika.  What the h-ll do they want with the media?  Well, more publicity for their unceasing demands.  It's not enough that Premier Redford promised all necessary financial assistance for natives.  "Let's just hope she follows through," complained one.

As I have blogged before, natives do not feel or act like Canadians.  But they sure want the money. Incidentally, I hate using the word "native" to describe these people because let's not forget, they are not "native" to this country.  They didn't just poof into existence from outer space.  No, they came from Asia when there was a land bridge between the two continents.  So, we're all immigrants here.  Canada is not "their" land, it belongs to all of us.

"I am a status Indian," a friend I have known for many years said one day, out of the blue.  "Really?  I had no idea, but now I see it in your features," I replied, startled.  See, that's how it should be.  Why should I have known this woman was a status Indian?  What's the point?  She worked at a very good job, paid her taxes and lived like any other regular Canadian citizen.  She did not go around beating a sensational drum about who she was, any more than I go around beating a drum about being of Irish extraction -- with a little Mohawk thrown in for good (or bad) measure.  I repeat, what's the point?

It's all getting very old.