Indian basketball in Pt. Alberni- what happened?

There was a great Indian basketball tournament at the Alberni Athletic Hall last weekend. It was an open tournament with both ladies and men’s teams and was sponsored by the Hesquiaht Lady Braves.

I've watched Indian basketball tournaments for the last ten years since moving home. They always happen at this time of year. There was something different about this one though as I watched the games and I couldn't quite put my finger on why.

The game changed a bit over the years. The shoes got more expensive and were supposedly better. It's funny though but I remember players from way back who wore Chuck Taylor’s who scored more points than guys who wore those shock-type shoes today. The shorts are longer and baggier than in the past. We've gone from short shorts and long socks to short socks and long shorts. Maybe it was the tattoos some guys had, actually a lot girls had. Guys and girls from yester-year had them too. Usually they were each others initials. The artwork looked pretty sketchy back then, but I guess so considering it was painted on with indian-ink and a pin. No it wasn't the tattoos. No, there was something different about the players who were playing.

The players looked bigger and faster today but it wasn't enough of a difference to stand out. One young kid I watched playing was a tall skilled centre, but so too was Darrel Charelson from back in the day. A quick, skilled guard was darting around the floor, but Rick Thomas was every bit as good.

Watching the games I couldn't help but think teams from 20 and 30- years a ago could hold their own against today's teams. The game scores weren't any higher today than they were back then. Players from then could match up pretty evenly with any of today's players. And that's when it hit me. All I had for a frame of reference was players from 20-30 years ago.

I looked at the teams playing on the floor, the teams waiting to get on the floor, and players from other teams and I was struck by the fact that there were very few players in this Port Alberni tournament who were actually from Port Alberni.

There was one team from Port Alberni playing- the Hawks captained by Ivan Thomas of Tseshaht. There were players from Port on his team like Josh Fred and Bobby Rupert. Other than the Hawks there was no one else and that blew me away because I remember a time when there were nothing but teams from Port Alberni playing basketball.

I could think of 8 teams off the top of my head that used to play out of Port Alberni. I could also think of 4 junior teams which played out of Port Alberni back then too. The Hawks were the only team around today and I could not think of one junior team of note which was currently playing out of Port. In fact, I don't think there has been one indian team playing out of Port in the last 10 to 15 years.

Of the teams which used to play out of Port Alberni none of the players still played basketball. In fact, none of the former players ever got into coaching. I couldn't think of any of their kids who took after them and played ball. Tseshaht for instance no longer has men’s, women’s, or junior teams. Gone too are the Arrows, Warriors, Braves, or Hoyas from town. And the Friendship center no longer has junior girls or boys teams either .

Out of all those teams and all those players how could basketbball have died here the way it did?

In fact, I sat thinking about the answers to this subject more than I watched that last game, which no one from Port Alberni played in incidentally.

What happened, and why?

BC Teachers Strike: its not over until its over

The B.C. Teachers strike has come and gone and while the dust has settled for now it has the same feeling of the time between rounds of a boxing match.

This should not have gone on as long as it did. It could have ended earlier. The time for a diplomatic end the teachers strike showed itself during the labor rally in Victoria. The window of opportunity opened a crack but both parties slammed it shut. Neither side wanted to back down for fear of losing face or perceived power position. Whatever currency those were worth cost the possibility of a tactful end to the morass the province was mired in.

Diplomacy was needed by both sides at Monday’s labour rally. All who have been affected by this deserved at least that. When Premier Campbell finally responded to the teachers strike he said government will give a wage increase, work with teachers to overhaul the school act, and discuss remedying both class size and composition before the next school year and all as a part of the next negotiated agreement.

The makings of an end to this now lengthy dispute were there and it would have been fine enough for Premier Campbell to leave it at that, but no he couldn't. While he held out a plum with one hand he at the same time held a hammer over teacher’s collective heads with the other with the appointment of a special prosecutor to consider not civil contempt of court charges but criminal contempt of court ones which carry a heavier penalty.

Raising the legal hammer when he did wouldn’t have brought an end to this dispute, which both sides seemed to have forgotten was the goal; he didn’t have to raise it. Instead, it would have been there later if he needed it, but by prematurely doing so he succeeded only in inflaming, entrenching, and emboldening teachers into maybe dragging this out and at the worst possible time.

If Premier Campbell dispensed with the petulance and left it at the plum offer then the government and teachers could have maybe spent Monday morning in a room, probably have settled this for now at least pending substantive talks, and made a joint announcement on the steps of the legislature that afternoon to the 20,000 or so teachers and supporters who would have cheered instead of jeered.

The union isn’t exempt from criticism. They could have ignored the bait and taken the plum while holding Premier Campbell to the terms of his announcement at every turn. They also should have seen that their position wasn’t going to get any stronger and that public support for them wouldn't get any better than it is.

Of those respondents to a recent Ipsos Reid poll 57% still supported teachers, and 47% supported continued strike action. Those are the conditions in which they could have shown themselves to be the shrewder political brinksman. Premier Campbell’s offer isn’t everything they wanted but it’s the next best thing. His offer is also not at all what the government wanted either.

After Monday’s events I'm convinced that the reason both sides never seized the opportunity to end it was that they simply hate each other, and hate clouds reasoning like nothing else can. Relations and trust between them are soured and poisoned. If this were a marriage then it's not unreasonable to conclude both parties have irreconcilable differences and as with any marriage breakdown it’s children who end up impacted on the most.

The unseen end this may have served is the bludgeoning of one side in this dispute into submission, no matter what the cost. The government could well have sat on this, took whatever flak they had to for however long; exact maximum penalty on the teachers union via the courts, and for what was left of this dispute watch the teacher’s morale and unity implode. The courts never froze Liberal bank accounts so their MLA’s weren’t going to worry about food, bills, and rent or mortgage payments the way striking teachers had to and that's why they could afford to wait it out. Simultaneously those bloomy poll numbers would have started to wither and the combination of body blows could have set up a weakened teachers union for maybe one final knock out blow.

There was a lesson taught on Monday but it had nothing to do with school. It also had nothing to do with getting kids back into classes. Instead, this was about government setting an example to the labor movement by using this opportunity not to tactfully settle a dispute with one of their unions but instead to gut it, starve it, and bludgeon it into submission.

It never reached this point though. Vince Ready, the patron saint of labor-management relations brought and end to the matter by pulling a proposal that ended this out of his wizard’s hat. The teachers never got what they wanted and although the provincial government came out ahead they were punched up pretty good.

If good sense prevails then when the bell rings they'll get down to do their homework together instead of meeting at center ring for a rematch nobody wants to see.

Life's Final Curtain Call

There was a time when I thought a lot about deaths inevitability. Regardless of our station in life, while we all walk different paths they all converge on the one leading the final curtain call on lifes stage.

I had a friend, I'll call him Owen. Owen was obsessed with money, staying young, and women. "I never want to live to see age 40" I'd often hear him say with bravado "Nope, none of that old stuff for me."

I was quite a bit younger than Owen and although I couldn't quite grasp what he was saying I knew that it was screwed up somehow. The closer he got to age 40 the more bravado he exhibited at home, work, and socially. You know the kind of bravado, the kind a kid exhibits and you just know it's going to get him hurt?

At age 39 he started exercising like a fiend and went on this herbs, vitamins, tonics and potions craze all in a vain, doomed effort to somehow stave-off turning 40 years old. Young guys didn't even do that kind of stuff I thought to myself, so why does think it will work?

Well, when Owen turned 40 years old his whole life fell apart.

Through his own doings Owen lost his family, business, friends, and worse his own self-respect. He bought flashy clothes, slick cars, played basketball with the young bucks and went to nightclubs with them. He went through one girfriend after another, all 1/2 to 3/4 his age. His behaviour was beyond mid-life crisis. His self-destructive streak permiated every corner of his life. It's like he didn't care about life or dying after age 40.

Owen used to say "I'm only going to live once" and "I'm going to die anyway" and he'd use this to justify doing some really sketchy, shady, and questionable things. The sad part of this, other than having estranged himself from his now adult kids and grandkids who he doesn't know, is that he's still alive today but he is so lost he can't find himself. At age 60 he goes through what is left of his life now alone, unwanted, and unloved. He wishes he were dead but isn't; wishes he could live a better life but doesn't know what life is.

I learned something from watching Owen's life melt down. I learned a lot actually. I learned not to think or obsess about death, regardless of what age I'm at. Yes, it's going to happen eventually. I don't know the time, place, or how my end will come and I don't want to. I don't use this as some lame-oh excuse though to disregard other people’s feelings and do sketchy things as though I were above reproach.

Instead, I obsess and think about life. Who am I, how ought I to live, what will I do, what's important in my life, what angers me, what excites me and what will I do about them? I also obsess about learning, absorbing, and knowing. "Man is destined to learn and know" I always say to myself.

I may not be able to choose how I'll die, but I can choose how I'll live.

And there it is.

I don't know when exactly I'm going to die. What I do know is I have a lifetime in-between now and then. What I do with it...is all up to me.