Deal me in

I'm back in the game and raring to play. Since my last post I've gone to journalism school and now work at a weekly newspaper. I've developed a bit more cynical crust on the outside, but with the usual piss and vinegar filling on the inside.

Our tribe's election is coming up, so we have officially entered the "silly season." Yes indeed, when everyone turns retarded for two months, retreat into their Hatfield and McCoy enclaves and lob rock at each other for every feigned imaginable reason possible. You don't have to say or do anything to invite invective. Heck, all you have to do is have a different last name.

Just like Mohammed Ali - I'm back. And like him I'm going to dish out some whuppin too.

Here's one for free speech - especially in Indian Country!

The Easter Bunny in Whoville?

So another Easter is here.

I've grown cynical about these holidays especially their commercialization. Even if they weren't commercial I'm not a religious sort so it still would't mean anything.

Our tribe had their Easter get together yesterday. I went with my wife and kids. I didn't want to go initially but did so because "it's for the kids." What exactly is it about it that is for the kids anyway I thought? Easter Bunny, Easter egg hunt, chocolate eggs, candy, bought stuff.

The fallacy of the holiday became apparent with our second oldest who accompanied us. He's thirteen and has grown out of the Easter Bunny stage. He was asked if he wanted to join the Easter Egg hunt and he didn't want to. While he never said why I could tell he just doesn't believe in it anymore. He's understands that the Easter Bunny is as phoney a figure as Santa Clause, Halloween and the like.

Society trots kids along with holidays only to see the bubble burst. In the meantime we've been suckered into spending who knows how much money (that we barely have to begin with) on stuff all while having them believe that a rabbit left it for them, or Santa Clause, or whatever. There’s something demeaning and infuriating about that all at once.

I choose to take the same view of this that I do about Christmas: it may not be a First Nations holiday but I salvage some value out of it by treating it as an opportunity to spend with friends and family.

There's an important distinction to be made here: just because I disagree with the commercialization of holidays doesn’t mean I ride the same boat as the religious zealots who argue the same. Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny aren’t the only figures I don’t believe in anymore, and my disbelief isn’t a call to be saved. Instead, I choose to treat this holiday as an opportunity to share a visit, enjoy a good meal that isn’t otherwise cooked, and enjoy each others company.

We're having Easter dinner together tonight as a family along with my mother, sister, brother maybe, and some family from out of town. That has infinitely more intrinsic value to me than some rabbit leaving chocolate eggs around, or painting your own eggs that end up looking suspiciously like the ones the Easter Bunny supposedly leaves around.

Rememeber the scene at the end of the movie The Grinch Who Stole Christmas? How even though the Grinch stole all the Whoville's residents presents they still celebrated Christmas upon awakening? The absence of presents didn't have anything to do with how the holiday was valued and celebrated. I may not believe in Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny but I understand this parable.

It seems the only holiday that isn't commercialized is Rememberance Day and we should thank our personal Gods for that.

That "Indian" Basketball

Funny where predjudice and discrimination pops up.

I helped coach a kids basketball team and had even coached my daughter’s team. During try-outs some kids were cut, this is basketball and it happens, nothing personal or so you would think. Most of the kids were upset with it but were on to other things, life goes on. But it was one parent that went way overboard with her kid being cut.

You'd of thought she was from the Middle East and we just made a disparaging comment about the prophet Mohammed. This mother pulled out the proverbial knives and started slashing with them ignoring the fact that daughter never had the skills or attitude to make the team.

It's funny but she acted more immature than even the girls who were cut- and she's almost three times their age. Up to then I used to see her volunteering at the high school- a lot. I thought she was just civic minded but after awhile she struck me as being part of the schools scene, both in and out of the school, and more another one of the kids at school.

"Grow thick skin," was the advice I got about this situation. It's simple but good advice actually and it would have been relevant if mommy-dearest's comments were restricted to basketball but they weren't; she crossed the line by getting racial. She's non First Nation's while the head coach and I are First Nation's. Why should that matter? It's doesn't play a factor in anything. We were the only two guys who cared enough to coach this team.

She didn't just say things about the other coach and I being First Nations , she also had disparraging remarks to make about First Nations kids on the team. Worse still, her daughters also made disparraging remarks about the First Nations players. "They only want Indians on that team," was one comment. There were only two First Nations players on the team so this doesn't exactly constitute a blockade. I had to wonder how many First Nations kids were discouraged of trying out for a team in the past because of something like this.

"They're teaching them to play that Indian basketball," was another remark. Indian basketball. This is Indian basketball: it's played on a wooden floor with a rubber orb called a basketaball; two team play against each other; when one team has possession of the ball they try to put it in the other teams net, the other team trys to stop them and vice-versa; the game is played in quarters or halves with a half time; at the end of the game the team with the highest score wins. Who'd want their kid to learn the game this way?

This was a classic example of an over-zealous sports parent, every coach's worst nightmare. But this was a racist over-zealous sports parent-- a pathological nightmare. Eventually she ran out of steam (causes with no substance or basis tend to do this) but the damage was done. We'll never hear an "I'm sorry" from her and if we did it would be stilted and void of sincerity.

I doubt she'd have been as hard on a non First Nations coach. She would have still caused grief but the kind of grief a coach is used to dealing with. It was the racial stuff that was outside of what a coach, or anyone else for that matter, should be subjected to and expected to deal with. In short, she was out of line.

I learned a few things as a result of this experience. One, we've got a long way to go where racial tolerance is concerned. I have to be fair here, the vast majority of non First Nation's people I have had dealings with in the kids basketball world are good folks who don't have a racist bone in their bodies. Also, I learned that it's hard for non First Nation's peoples to see and interpret the world through our eyes and experiences. They don't know and can't understand racial intolerance. Had this been the case we would have had more recourse than being told to grow thick skin. Had I and the other coach been women for instance and were verbally abused by this parent, there would have been swift recourse. But we weren't. Should it have mattered?

Most importantly I learned I love this game. I'm not involved in coaching anymore but I'm still around the game and will always support it. I have a better appreciation for what coaches go through too. I understand why some coaches won't have anything to do with parents other than with matters of discipline or injury. I imagine this kind of distance stems from incidents similar to mine.

The overzealous mother? I don't know. Maybe a life-altering event will change her but I doubt it. It shouldn't take that to begin with.

Port Alberni First Nations youth basketball- just do it.

I wrote a previous post on the decline in indian basketball in Port Alberni, particularly at the junior level. This spawned some discussion, some negative (standard rez response), and some positive (desired outcome). Regardless, it spawned discussion and that’s the important thing.

I hoped the ensuing discussion would promt some folks who left the game to return and give some kids the same chance they had. A couple of months after I wrote the article I contacted two former players to coach some eager kids and left the matter in their hands. They waited around for a response from this person and that and in the mean time the season started. There was plenty of time before to get something going. You can stand by and watch and wait or you can do something about it. I decided to do something about it.

I hunted down a club tourney happening that week in Duncan. I knew our boys hadn't practiced but it was something for the boys to do. I didn't think there was an excuse why some eager kids shouldn't have been in the gym months ago. How hard is it for instance to donate three hours a week for practice? Some people watch movies, soaps, or sports longer than that. It's not a lot of time to donate, especially for a good cause.

The team did as well as could be expected. The club teams they faced were pretty dam good and had been together since October at least. They played good, solid fundamental ball both individually and as a team. Two of our boys played highschool basketball and it showed. The rest of the boys either hadn't been in a gym or they played "ghetto" basketball and that's not a compliment. "Ghetto" basketball and the kind of basketball played in this tournament are two different games. It's like our team as a whole are going to have to learn to play again and lose some bad habits they'd developed.

The team managed to hold their opponents to under 40 points per game and really pulled it together during the last game. Although they lost that last game they played well together as a team and didn't grumble afterward over losing. If only I'd had them since October they'd have done better I thought. Having said this, those teams we faced had played together since grade four so when I say better I mean team play.

I see limitless possibilities for this group of boys. Next year I hope to have them still playing in tournaments like the Duncan one for development purposes but they'll also be old enough to begin to venture to the BC Junior All Native. Most of the teams that go are made up of 16 and 17 year olds so they'll still be a little young yet but time is going to fly by. They’ll only be this young once.

What makes this worthwhile is the kids are eager and keen to learn. I'm both surprised and disappointed too that no one else noticed or tried to do something about it. I feel sorriest for the kids who are 18 years and older. They must have been just as eager and keen to play basketball when they were younger too but had no one to coach or coordinate games and tournaments for them.

Watching how the kids came alive during games and had fun while playing was icing on the cake. Players who left the game don't don't know what kind of an experience they're missing out on. Some may say "I'm not into it anymore;" well it's not about you this time around.

The team has another tournament to play in next week and the teams entered are even tougher than the ones they just played. It all has to start somewhere though and it's going to be as tough as it is fun. Tough teams or not or not though the kids wouldn't want to miss playing in it for the world.

Guns

This poor kid from Vancouver was shot and killed for seemingly no reason on Saturday night. He wasn't involved in gangs, was a pacifist, against guns, and an artist. At 22 he has a life full of promise ahead of him, now it’s over because of some idiot with a gun.

In the media reports after people were at a loss as to why he may have been shot. It seemed there was no reason for it. He was standing outside of a nightclub, some fool started brandishing a gun around and he tried to intervene between the guy brandishing a gun and someone he was trying to intimidate and for his efforts he was shot in the head at point blank range. Senseless, random, lunacy, idiocy, and waste.

I have my own theory about this. Rappers like 50 cent glorify guns, movies are a fest of gore and violence, and kids can kill as many people as they want on video games every night of the week if they want yet we wonder aloud what could have led to the cause of a seemingly senseless and random shooting?

I can hear the catcalls now. Not everybody who listens to 50 cent buys guns and kills people. True. But how many buy the gangster cd's, clothes, and adopt the slang? Maybe not everyone but lots do. How many buy guns as a result? Not many, but a few do. How many kill, not many, but one did. That stuff has an influence whether we know it or not and I don't think we're really aware of how much an influence it has. You get the gangster set that buys guns, their rivals buy guns, and then there are those who are caught in between, some of whom fear these types and buy guns.

You never seen this stuff in the 70's or 80's. But after films like Boys in the Hood, Menace to Society, Jasons Lyric, Clockers, New Jersey Drive, New Jack City, Colors, and others like it you started seeing it in Vancouver after.

That whole American gang sub-culture is here in a big way. The last missing piece was the killing at random of innocent bystanders. Sadly, I think it too is here now as evidenced by the random shooting last Saturday of young Lee Matasse. It's not just here we let it here and watched it happen under our very noses.

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.