A message of healing

Page 7

Dear Editior:

As a Cree Native who has been an "unwilling resident" of the Canadian

federal prison system for almost 20 years, I am writing this as a

reminder to the many troubled young people on the streets, struggling to

survive, who are taking a false direction from the deceptive comfort

offered by alcohol and drugs. The answer to their confusion and

misdirection is discovered internally.

When I see a young brother come apprehensively through the gates of

this house of broken dreams, I see myself as that young man and I

understand his hesitant expression. When you realize that many First

Nation peoples are imprisoned due to alcohol or drugs, you look beneath

the addition and discover the why of it all.

It is very easy to blame and to point at the contributing injustices

that our ancestors lived and that we continue to live. We can forever

proclaim historical astrocities as the cause of our situation today, or

we can accept the injustice of it all, and use our justified anger as a

positive energy to build with our children a promising tomorrow.

We can either be a part of the problem or part of the solution. Only

we know what we want for our children, our people and ourselves.

Kevin Leslie Stonechild

Drumheller