The State of Our Elders

I don’t know if this is a common thing that people say…but I believe that you can tell a lot about a people by the way they treat their elders. I am so concerned that our Winnipeg community is screwed. I shouldn’t say that, but I am quite discouraged at the moment. I just read a Winnipeg Police Service E-mail update and am so upset and hurt for the Elders in our city thinking of the abuse that they shoulder. A 54 year old male was assaulted and it has been determined his death was a homicide; the suspect is a 15 year old youth. A 61 year old woman was assaulted by a 35 year old female that was known to her that resulted in her death. Finally, at Garden City, a 73 year old man was struck by a vehicle being driven by an 82 year old man, with a 77 year old woman in shotgun. Holy shit. All of this came in one single update from the WPS District 3 Updates moments ago. (you can subscribe by signing up with your e-ail addy, here)

Ouch

The thing that kills me is that this is only a snap-shot of a couple recent incidents…the real abuse is so much more widespread and common and its probably happening to someone we love. That hurts eh? It hurts to think that the people we love…the Elders that we love…those old folks that bring us such joy in our lives…its hard to think about them hurting and being hurt. Its hard to think that someone would deliberately do harm to them. But if we want to be REAL we gotta look at the things that hurt us…maybe it will help us heal (?). Maybe it will help us learn better how we can fight these issues, and make sure that they don’t happen to the Elders we love.

I feel like one of the main challenges of young people today is the absence of a strong Elder presence in their life. I know that for me, my own exposure to Elders was small and I didn’t understand the value and importance of sitting and listening growing up. I think that if that simple skill of listening, and of respecting/taking care of Elders was to arise as a dominant, admirable and common trait amongst Aboriginal youth, we would be able to better achieve our goal of bringing unity back to our Turtle Island community. Our youth are leaders, and once they start standing en masse and leading by example in such a powerful way, real change and transformation can take place within our nations.

We can do this. YOUth can help.

Word.