Over The Edge Page 5 February 9, 1998 . Continued From Page 4 Lane” tickets that can be avoided!! | don’t know if it is just my friends, but they must be fair-weathered, because they just don’t want to make the jaunt from general park- ing to residence. Unless, of course, visitor parking is just for those visitors from other planets or galaxies afar that actually have the technology to hover their vehicles ABOVE visitor parking. We have 574 students in resi- dence, and I’m sure that between all of them their friend count exceeds 10. Yes, count them, twelve parking spots. Remember what you. learnt in kinder- garten-share. I’m convinced UNBC didn’t photocopy all those signs stating “Two hour parking limit-vehicle will be towed at owner’s expense” for the sheer joy of it. Heed the warnings; a tow bill looks REALLY EXPENSIVE com- pared to:, a) A semester of parking in residence (Something you may have already bought), or b) One measly loonie to park in our general public parking lot. Don’t think it won't happen to you. NO ONE is above the almighty tow truck. Remember how you felt when your folks said, “No, you can’t have the car!” when your date is literally waiting for you to come and get them??? Helpless, power- less, small, unproductive-we want to prevent you from experiencing that black-hole emotion. You CAN be a sta- tistic. Just park in your des- ignated spot, or spend the lousy dollar on apass. _ General parking is sooo big. I’m sure we have enough spots for everyone in need. It’s obvious that you will have to exert some physical activi- ty to get to the residence if that is your end destination, but nothing comes easy in life that’s worth anything. Redirecting your attention to the paragraph on our visitor parking dilemmas, I’m sure you can now appreciate its pleas and consequences. Hopefully a pang of compas- sion will grip your heart the next time you think of parking where you really should or shouldn't. You never know. this may even encourage you to leave the “Parking Lot War Zone”, and buy a bus ass. To The Editor tam writing this to give people an insight into how to see both sides of a subject very sensitive to students © here at UNBC, and people through- out British Columbia. lam ahalf-breed. This means that one of my parents is native, my mother, and my other is white. Allowing me the best of both worlds, as well as the worst of those very same worlds. | look white, | ‘act’ white, but my blood is that of a native’s. | grew up off reserve land, | went to a white man’s school, and | speak the white-mans language. In all outward appearances | am white, the only contradiction is my deep chocolate eyes, and the brown hair hidden by bleached streaks to lighten the color. | grew up though in two worlds. During the day | lived in a world of society ideals, but during the night | would live in legends and dream in such vivid colors. | went to the big houses to see the dances, to learn who | was. | learned of my culture; | learned the stories of how Raven opened the shell and out crawled man. | was native. | had elders that spoke in tongues of ancestors. | learned our dances; | learned who | was. | also learned of colonization, | learned of the white people that came and raped my grandmothers, my elders, and | learned of our houses being burnt to ashes, our masks being destroyed and taken. | learned of residential schools, where horrors of all abuses were as regular as the bell that called stu- dents. | am more at home on the island across the water from my home, down on the beach watching eagles fish for dinner, with no people around, no loud cars or city noises. | fit, nowhere. | moved to a place of open learning, a place that.is to cater to both sides. Here though it is just as the town | grew up in. All | hear is how stupid and drunk all natives are. How all natives are poor, dirty.and feed of the govern- ment. How they should stay on their land, but in the same breath how land claims are waste of time and money and how they don’t deserve to have their land. These people that say these things would not say them to the face of a native, they same them in their homes, at work, many think the same things but pretend to be so open. These people do not see the blood, my native blood that runs through me, if they did they would put on their ‘open’ attitudes. They see my white skin, not my red heart, only my white skin. ‘Chugs’ stupid, greedy ‘chugs’, that's what they say natives-are, when only white skins are around. When | speak up they ask me why, look at me as if | had two heads, or some horrible. disease. | tell them | am native, | am proud of who | am, | try” to show them through my eyes, eyes that have seen both sides. The only thing they now see, these people that used to think of me as an equal, is a pitiful, inferior native girl. “Oh, we didn’t mean it. about you!” that is almost always the next phrase, well of course they didn't, I'm as white-skinned as they are. But moments ago it was all natives, that is me, that is my family, that is who | am. Here, natives reject me because | look white and their defenses go up to quickly to let me in, after genera- tions of hurt | understand, but | hurt too, | hurt with them. Here, whites reject me because of my blood. Because of a card | carry around that marks me as outsider, as infe- rior, as a half-breed. Don’t see things through your eyes; don’t see them through your books. Look here, look to the ones that see both sides. We are proof in ourselves that both sides can get along, or else we wouldn’t stand as both native and white. Look to us; see how both sides act. The hatred, pity and pain, the life blood and culture. | am a half-white, | am half-native; | will not fit anywhere until both sides are at peace. | am white, | have equal education, and | have the language. | am native too, | have my culture, | have my beliefs both native and white. | live with both sides. 1 am native, | would gladly give up these ‘special’ things the white people despise and yet don’t understand. | will gladly give up being called a chug; | would gladly burn the card that labels me different. | am a half-breed, | want both of my languages, | deserve both, | want both cultures, everyone deserves that. Julie Robertson The Alumni Association FREE ADMISsSION!! Presents Movie Night Contact Jerry McGuire Thursday, February 19, 1998 at 6:00pm in the Canfor theatre (6-213) Lioydminster 2 Regina Party On, Garth! . ~ N ~ ; ‘Sonl ee Winnipeg ‘ == , Save 25% on your “Reading Week’ travel. It pays to get an education and we’re out to prove it. 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