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First, a little background. I am half American Indian. To be more precise, my father is Passamaquoddy(try saying that one three times fast!). From all I have been able to learn Passamaquoddy is a family of the larger Algonquin Indian tribe.
I can understand having pride in heritage. I have great pride in being part Indian. I have never felt the need to prove my heritage etc. My pride is my own and I should not force it on anyone.
If my view causes some feathers to be ruffled then so be it. This is what I believe and I am not forcing it on you. I am merely stating my views on this matter.
I think much of the problems in this country can be put down to 'political correctness', as it is called. Take me for instance, I am American Indian, a wee bit Irish and something else that I can never remember.
I have friends that are black, hispanic, spanish, portuguese, jewish, vietnamese, chinese, Indian as in from India, and many that are a mix of so much it really doesn't matter anymore.
It seems with all this 'political correctness' we have been dividing the people of this country further than they ever were before.
If you were to break me down into all my divisions I am:
an Irish American Indian, female, 28, Generation X, whose parents were the Baby Boomers, I am from an upper middle class family who is currently considered to be lower class because of our household income, whose American Indian father was a millionaire and whose Irish mother was a housewife.
Boy that is complicated. Why bother? You know what? I am me. My name is Heidi. It has always been Heidi and it will always be. Even that in itself is a label but not as bad as all of the above.
I think this country and this world would have a lot less problems if we stopped trying to divide people into neat little cubicles by defining to the last little morsel we can, who and what they are. We are people.
At the risk of sounding like a clichè, if you cut us we all bleed, we all feel pain, rejection, cold, warm, love, lust, happiness and we all die in the end.
I want to add something in here that is not something I wrote but something I received in an email from a very dear friend of mine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
According to UNICEF stats in 1993 it would cost 65 billion dollars to stop hunger and illiteracy in the entire world for one year.
In 1993 the United States spent near twice that amount on defense.
If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100
people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would
look something like the following:
There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north & south
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer
When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective,
the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes
glaringly apparent.
The following is also something to ponder...
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...
you are more blessed than the one million who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of
imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation you are
ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest,
torture, or death...you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the
world.
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof
overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace ...you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If your parents are still alive and still married ...you are very rare, even in the UK, United States and Canada.
If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that
someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than
over 2 billion people in the world that cannot read at all.
~~~~~~~~~~
So why all the division? We are all people. Some are good and some are bad and that is the only division I think there should be. Want to label me with something? Very well. I am happy to be alive. There is a label for you.
So I am me and you are you. I don't care what your ethnic background is, how much money you or your family makes, what your sex or your age is or your sexual orientation.
If you are a good person then I am happy to meet you...
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