With respect to the patronizing incident that took place yesterday during our federal election campaign, whereby a Conservative Ministerial aide said to a man from Barriere Lake:  “If you behave, and you’re sober, and there’s no problems, and if you don’t do a sit-down and whatever, I don’t care. One of them showed up the other day and was drinking,”

The woman who uttered these remarks, Darlene Lannigan, I think will sit down later this week with some local First Nation folks to sort it out, but I thought it was notable that other members of the Minister’s staff apologized on her behalf, rather than her doing it.   And anyway, the apology was couched in a condition:  “We also understand these comments were made in a difficult context. That is regrettable. The good news is that the parties have committed to meet later this week, in a spirit of collaboration.”

So hooray that they are getting together.  It will help them understand how to behave in “difficult contexts,” like when you are talking to someone who’s skin colour is different from yours.

But this isn’t at all unusual.  There is a broad swath of Canadian society, much of it upper crust, that has never met anyone of First Nations ancestry let alone thought about their unconsciously held stereotypes about Aboriginal people.  Regardless of the level of alcoholism in Aboriginal communities (and it varies, don’t you know), their opinions are not formed by statistics, they are formed by prejudice.  And prejudice has no place in the public service, whether you are a political aide or a public servant.

And while alcoholism IS an issue, it is a rare occasion to see anyone show up at a meeting, rally or protest drunk.  In the 20 years I have been working in the Aboriginal community in this country, I have, only once, been to a meeting where alcohol was served, and that was an economic development conference where NKMIP winery from the Osoyoos Indian Band provided one bottle of wine per table of six people. I have been to plenty of gatherings with non-Aboriginal Canadians of all political stripes in which an open bar, or a cash bar even, is the highlight of the night. So what is the truth here?  What are we really supposed to think when someone of Darlene Lannigan’s stature makes rules about behaviour and drinking for an Algonquin man that I bet she has never made for non-Aboriginal people?

My guess is that it’s not really an apology that Darlene Lannigan needs, but a thorough re-education about alcohol and it could probably begin snd end with her own abstinence, and those of her cronies and friends. And then at Church on Sunday, she can remember the teaching about casting the first stone and all that.

It’s complicated times in the Western world (he says with some irony).  If you are wondering what is happening to the economy and why, it’s very difficult to discover unless you are right in it.  And this is why I love the blogosphere.

My friend Rob Paterson has not only lived in the high levels of the world of high finance, but has alos been through a stock market crash before, in 1987.  As such the story he is telling on his blog is deep and informed, and it’s also accessible.  This is because Rob cares about storytelling, and he has spent a number of years now working with public radio and television in the United States helping stations in their effort to create news that is useful.  Nowhere has this been more important than now, when the meltdown in the mortgage and now the financing sectors of the American economy has devastated families and communities.  

In times like this, it’s important to know where you are.  Rob’s writing at the moment is a big piece of theeconomic news I’m getting because it is reasoned, inquisitive and asks the right questions.  That doesn’t mean he is preaching good news, but the alarms he are ringing are useful for me, pointing at what I can do personally to set myself well to ride this storm out.  

Thanks Rob!

(In Canada, there is a sweet irony to me turning to Rob for this…The Globe and Mail‘s business section is called “Report on Business” and is often contracted to ROB.  I like my Rob better.)

This morning, driving up to the clubhouse at the Seven Hills Golf and Country Club near Port McNeill, there was a mother black bear and her cub roaming around the parking lot.  They took off before I could get a photo.

The journey continues…I’m in Vancouver tonight enroute on a red eye to Toronto and then Ottawa.

Nice find from Kevin Harris who blogged the Republican’s digs at Barack Obama’s community organizing experience:

George Pataki: ‘He was a community organizer. What in God’s name is a community organizer? I don’t even know if that’s a job.’

Then former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani delivered his own snickering hit job. ‘He worked as a community organizer. What? Maybe this is the first problem on the resumé,’ mocked Giuliani.

A few minutes later, in her acceptance speech for the GOP vice presidential nomination, Sarah Palin declared, ‘I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.’

One of the responses from the Obama camp was:

‘Let’s clarify something for them right now. Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.’

Exactly…that is exactly what community organizing is.  Republicans do it too.  

It’s beyond me why so many Republican politicians find it so hard to be actually funny.  Every time I hear “jokes” like this, I just want to draw a little square in the air in front of me whilst rolling my eyes.  It’s as if years of country club roasts had conditioned them to slightly off-colour jokes being met with nervous titters.

Recently Karen Sella posted a request to the OSLIST among other places for books that are about being human  Today she posted the list.

Here is your new life reading program!