Hate is handed down

 "You've got to be taught to hate and fear, it's got to be drummed in your dear little ear.  To hate all the people your parents fear, you've got to be carefully taught."

My late Aunt Betty used to love playing musical soundtracks on her huge stereo in the living room, while she danced around cooking and doing housework and singing every tune.  These ancient stereos were housed in beautiful cabinets, which opened up to reveal a turntable and a place to stack LPs.  She'd play 'My Fair Lady' and a host of others, but the quote above is from a song in 'South Pacific" and it's sung by a local Polynesian character.  After hearing it many times as a child, I still remember it well.

 Looking at the hate in the world, as well as here in Canada, it still resonates.  Children are taught to hate.  Look at the Irish, Catholic versus Protestant; look at the Arabs versus the Jews; look at the Chinese versus the Uighurs; look at the Muslims, versus everyone else.  Wars and conflict in all these cases are cultural and faith based.  But all we need do is look here at the natives versus the rest of Canada.  This standoff continues because natives still regard Canadians and government as the "they" in any dealings.  But no one is ever inclined to shine a light on where these hatreds come from:  Parents -- especially mothers.  That's who's teaching their children to hate and fear; they aren't born with these attitudes.  Children learn and absorb these over centuries.  

Jesus' message of love and forgiveness has yet to penetrate.  How, for example, can an Irish mother take her child to mass or church, pray fervently and then go home, watch that kid grow up to be a terrorist and yet say nothing except it's the other religion that is the problem.    

It's the same with native leaders.  Whenever they sit down with federal, municipal or provincial officials, it is always amid an atmosphere of animosity and distrust on the part of the natives.  I am sure there are those who think this unfair, that animosity lives in both camps, but this is how I observe and analyze the coverage of these events.  Why is it that the natives still feel short-changed, in spite of the billions given to them over many years?  Why is every federal/native meeting only about money?  

These attitudes are taught and handed down over generations.  In fact, I read a quite from one father who actually said, "Don't worry, I am teaching my daughters all about what they need to know and do."  This is the problem. 

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In wrapping up this blog, I wonder if anyone will know what this means?

  

If you do, you have worked as a journalist and are as ancient as I.  This is what we typed at the end of every column or article we wrote.  It meant the end of the piece but I have no idea its origin, or meaning?  Saw it the other day and it brought back many, happy Mad Men memories of my days at Maclean Hunter.  What fun we had back in the day.