Thursday, January 24, 2013

My Thank You Letter to Chief Spence




Dear Chief Spence

I was so happy to hear that you will be ending your long hunger strike.

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence has decided to end her six-week-long hunger strike after members of the Assembly of First Nations and the Liberal and New Democrat caucuses agreed to back a list of commitments supporting aboriginal issues.

For you have endured enough, your people need you, and you don't need to die for your great struggle to go forward, stronger than ever.

Your enemies will say you failed because you didn't get a meeting with Stephen Harper and the Governor General. But Harper is a small man, the Governor General takes his orders from a foreign monarch. They are the ones who failed, they are the real losers. And you were bigger than both of them.

In your own humble way...










For I couldn't have imagined a more powerful symbol of the aboriginal demand for simple justice, than you with your feather, and your teepee, in the shadow of the Parliament buildings. 

Going to bed hungry like so many of your people. Forcing the politicians and the media to ignore you no longer.

You may be a simple, soft spoken person, from a remote and impoverished community. But you are a proud Chief, and a strong woman. Like the ones who birthed this great movement. Standing up to the bullies and the bigots.

And inspiring so many...


















You can't do better than that. And I can't thank you enough for taking on the bully Harper, his foul Con regime, and their shameless stooges in the media.

And thank you too for opening my eyes to the large number of filthy racists who pollute this land. For even in my worst nightmares I never could have imagined there were so many.

And the way they smeared you and tried to humiliate you was so disgusting and so cowardly, it will only motivate me to fight them even harder than I ever have. And hopefully make me a better person and a better Canadian. 

As for those who would accuse you of helping to expose divisions in the aboriginal movement, to them I would just say this: what movement or what people are always united? And if you don't expose the differences, how can you reconcile them?

And build a movement as powerful as this one...
















So when you leave your teepee for the last time later today, you can rightfully hold your head high. And know that thousands and thousands of people all over the country, will be watching and cheering you on. 

Or in my case, standing under the TV in the cafeteria at work, whooping it up, and causing a minor disturbance eh?

For this is just the BEGINNING. 

And as for the nasty bigots of Canada.

This one's for YOU...



So humble, so PROUD.

Thank you Chief Spence. The struggle continues.

Idle No More...

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19 comments:

Unknown said...

Well done, Simon, thank you.

Unknown said...

Thank you! :)

the salamander said...

Amen ... Simon ..

You walked in beauty ..
that's what exemplars do
Thank you Chief Theresa Spence

Anonymous said...

My fervent wish now is for Chief Spence to pass on some of her courageousness to Tommy Mulcair, the very same guy who allegedly took the place of Jack Layton to head up the NDP after all of Layton's work to make them an actual opposition force to be reckoned with. Too bad he's only a paper tiger who rides the crest of someone else's hard work so far. With his NDP leadership, harper and his cons will be controlling Canada for the next 50 years. ( can you say ignatiev; I knew you could ) When was Tommy going to meet with Chief Spence? Was that today with the other leaders or what?
And for your right-wing, christofascist, jack-booted asshole readers I say "fuck you, you fucking fucks!" before you start in with your mindless racist bullshit. Half you fucking morons can't even speak Canadian let alone read it or spell your own names without errors. The term "witless mutants" comes to mind, n'est pas?

Doug Simpson said...

Thank you for this wonderful letter and excellent video. And thank you to Chief Spence and Idle No More for waking Canadians up.

Unknown said...

Simon,
You so thoughtfully put together the things all of us want to say. Keep up this good work, you inspire us all to be better Canadians.

Anonymous said...

Chief Spence spoke for her people, Chief Spence spoke for all of us. I admire her strength, courage and her convictions.

In this province, many of us have supported the F.N. people for quite some time. Many of us have signed F.N. petitions. Many of us attend their protests and rallies. We knew very well, what Chief Spence was up against, in the Harper government. We all have been victimized by Harper. Most all of our rights, have been taken from us too. What Chief Spence did, she did for us too. She is one good lady and I thank her too.

Oemissions said...

And thanks too to Raymond Robinson

Anonymous said...

Thank you Chief Spence, thank you Raymond Robinson, thank you Montreal Simon, thank you wonderful commenters, thank you Idle No More leaders!
All my relations ~

Simon said...

hi Mauidie...thank you, but I really couldn't help myself. If I didn't get it off my chest I think I would have exploded... ;)

Simon said...

hi Clifford...thanks and thank YOU for your contribution to the cause. We're all in this together and we will beat those bigots...

Simon said...

hi salamander...thanks and yes, thank you Chief Spence for being such an example to others in this far too complacent country...

Simon said...

hi anonymous...I'm not sure what Mulcair is up to, but I can't say I'm impressed. I realize that standing up for aboriginal rights can cost you votes in this country gone so wrong. But in the end what counts is doing the right thing...

Simon said...

hi Doug...thanks, I'm glad you liked the post. As I told Maudie my anger at the way Chief Spence has been treated has been building, and I had to say what I felt about those bigots, or punch another hole in the wall... ;)

Simon said...

hi Sue...thank you for this kind comment. I know we are going through a horrible time in our country's history, but for those of us who love it, it's so important to speak up and say we want something better...

Simon said...

hi anonymous...I thought Chief Spence handled herself magnificently, with amazing dignity, and great restraint considering the way she has been treated. And yes, this is what happens when Cons form governments and little men rule the country...

Simon said...

hi Oemissions...yes that's true, Raymond has been very strong, and his words have moved me deeply, for he is very very eloquent, and a fine representative of his people...

Simon said...

hi anonymous...well on behalf of all of us may I say thank you too... ;) But yes, isn't it great in the darkness of Harperland, to have the light of such a great movement?

Anonymous said...

I watched carefully Mulcair with this important issue and am not impressed. He wants power, nothing more or less, he's lost my vote.