I am awake, I am alive and … I have to be honest with you about something or actually, a few somethings.
For one, I did not write this particular post this morning as I usually do. This post was actually written at 2 pm yesterday, in the middle of a moment. I will explain what I mean by that in a second but first …
To the men and women who read my blog post each morning, the beautiful souls that send me best wishes and prayers …. trust me when I say you have NO IDEA how much you help me. Because you see, as you may or may not know, I post many different things on my page. My first each day is my blog post but during the day, I share informational articles as well. ALWAYS they are things I either support or adamantly oppose and how I feel is always clearly articulated. I share those posts because so many on this page have expressed an interest in learning more about Indigenous peoples, about the challenges we face daily in this country and/or about reconciliation. I share to support that learning.
But now my pain … when I post informational posts, so many comment. That I love but more than a few comment to disagree. They may not have experience in the field relating to my post. They may have personal experience and now mistakenly think that what applies to them applies to all. I do not need to know why they post what they do, but you need to know that more often than not, those comments hurt and I am talking physically hurt.
This page is my BRAND (for those who may forget that I am in business), my opportunity to show who I am to those who wish to learn, which is why comments may need to be removed. Such is the right and responsibility of any page administrator, owner or both, especially when they are trying to present who they are to an audience.
But there is another even more important reason I remove comments and that is my commitment to offering a safe place to those Indigenous people who come here, those people who so rarely have a safe place to go, online or otherwise. I have always pictured some poor unsuspecting Indigenous individual coming to my page and being traumatized by the comment of an uninformed or biased individual. That image feeds my dedication to remove posts that in my opinion could cause harm, whether the harm was intentional or not.
But I know see that when I read those comments, I become the Indigenous individual of my vision, the one harmed.
So in future, to those who read my informational posts, as I have taught you please choose to sit with it. Ponder it. Consider it as the words of someone who walks another path, someone who may have a very different view of the world. If nothing else, accept it as my truth, if not your own.
And, if after a time you still disagree, please DO NOT COMMENT ON MY PAGE. Instead (because I do not ever want your voice to fall silent), share my post to your page, with your opinion added in. There your comment will remain visible for as long as you see fit. I ENCOURAGE you to do this because I always encourage people to use their voice, to jump into the arena with me, but don’t do it on my page. Please.
Because of late, Facebook is becoming a place of pain for me (and I have always insisted that Facebook didn’t have to be!). Those comments – those disagreeing, often biased, often uninformed comments are exhausting. They drain my soul. They hurt because they remind me just how much more work has to be done. They remind me that stereotypes and biases cloud the judgement of so many. They remind me how some just want to fight without any interest in listening or learning. They remind me that I can work with “I don’t know” but that “I don’t care” is a wall impenetrable to progress.
So please, all who read these words, help me to keep this page safe for those who so need a safe place and that includes … me.
Because yesterday, when I penned this post, I was actually fighting back tears. My spirit begged me to shut the comments on this page down, to effectively stop the pain inflicted by the words of those who have no idea what Indigenous in this country is like. But I didn’t and I won’t ever do that for one reason and one reason alone …
The men and women who read my blog post each morning, the beautiful souls that send me best wishes and prayers. This sharing is my thank you to each and every one of you for you are indeed my lifeline, my hope, my inspiration, my fuel. Without you, there could simply not be a me so please know when I say “I love you” at the end of each of these morning blog posts, I mean it with all my heart.
I love you. HUGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS Sandi
