You Don't "Do" Politics? RANT WARNING!

I've been doing that a lot lately in videos. I gotta admit, I'm more than a little frustrated, disappointed, sad, depressed over something I keep running into. I'm wondering if it's happening to you, too. So let's talk about it. Foreign. Hi, everybody. My name is Sandy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And today, where my frustration, my disappointment, my discouragement lies is in the realm of politics. And no, I am not talking about my concerns with the Conservative Party. That's not what I'm talking about at all. It's about the idea of politics or discussing politics. Seriously, if I run into one more person that says, oh, I don't do politics, what's his name? Phil defranco. I've mentioned him before. I follow him him here on YouTube. He talks really fast. I know people comment on that, but he's really good at making sense of the insanity, whether it's whatever is going on in US Politics or internationally. And he, he has a shop, he sells products. And one of his sweatshirts is something along the. I'm going to screw this up. But something along the lines of, you may not do politics, but politics does you. Right? Like I. The level of complacency makes my mind explode and makes my head explode, my entire body explode. And I guess like, okay, let's. Let's look at things here. I'm going to walk through this with you. Can you tell I am Indigenous. I am Anishinaabe Quay. I am an Indigenous female. And oh, wow, I've mentioned this before. I was like 4 or 5, 6 years old the first time I realized the world and the people in it treated my French Canadian father different than they did my Indigenous mother. That storekeepers or strangers in a store reacted differently, that they could actually recoil from my mom. So remember, my mom was a phenomenal woman. Just putting it out there. I just couldn't remember. I was born in 1964. So we're talking about 1969, 1970. It was a different time. I'd like to believe it was a different time. Sometimes I'm not sure. So I learned really easy to be Indigenous in Canada. You don't have a choice whether or not you want to engage in politics, because our very existence is political. The fact that we exist peeves some people off the fact. I had someone comment on one of my YouTube videos this week. I deleted it so fast because it was ludicrous. But it Was and blocked them from my channel because. Get real. Something along the lines of the extra benefits that first nations people get makes us an oligarchy. What like people? Okay, I'm just going to put this out here so if it ever comes up in conversation, you have a response. If someone starts talking about all the extra benef supposed extra benefits that indigenous people get, ask them to consider the things we don't get. Like you take for granted you could go to high school in your community. You take for granted there's going to be a hospital relatively nearby that you don't have to be flown out to. You've never had anyone in your community die because the community ran out of medication. They couldn't fly you out in time as much as you may not like it. You have police services, you don't share them with another community. Your kid can go to school and not be tormented because they're indigenous or God forbid because they happen to be male and have long hair. My son comes to mind. Get them to think about all the things we don't have. The fact that our kids in federally run school get less funding per child than provincial schools do. So right off the bat our education is less and people love to comment that our post secondary education is paid for. And I always say be careful what you wish for because your post secondary could be paid too if they cut your elementary and high school to the levels we get. Be careful what you wish for. So as I said, we don't have a choice of being political. But now also putting this out there, I happen to be a 60 year old indigenous woman who is single. So every now and then I meet single men and predominantly they are non indigenous. Variety of backgrounds but non indigenous. And this is a small sampling group, take that for granted like I, I acknowledge that. But none of them one do politics to all assume that politicians are only in it for the money. As if anyone would endure that level of BS that comes with the day to day job of being a politician for the money. The money might keep them there because their family is now dependent on it. But there's easier ways to make money. And the proof of that is if that's true, then why don't you become a politician? You want to make that kind of money, you complain that they do, you do it. No one's signing up for that because they know as much as they love to complain how hard that job is, it is the same as becoming a chief or a counselor in a first nation community. I have said it for years Paint a target on your back paper. Because the hate is about to start no matter what you do, whether it's a good decision or a bad decision. Because every decision, someone's going to think it's good and someone's going to think it's bad. But you know why I respect these people? They're doing something. They got off their couch. They dared to put their name on their line. They dared to stand in front of the Canadian firing squad. That. That is every single person with a keyboard or a mouth and they're trying to make a difference. This is Brene Brown's talking about the man in the arena. Who was it? Roosevelt's man in the arena speech. The cheap seats, everybody. Not everybody. Not everybody. Sandy, don't get overwhelmed. Not everybody. Way too many people in Canada are sitting in the cheap seats. They've decided and they say they don't want to do politics. Ask them a couple questions and they start spitting out the stupidest opinions. They. They lumped all the politicians together. They're all not doing anything for me, blah, blah, blah. And then they complain. And by the way, most of them don't vote. And I am the first to say, okay, guess what? If you don't vote, you don't get to complain. That's what I meant. You don't get to complain about what they do because you let them do it. You hold open the front door. You don't get to complain that people come in and steal your tv. Yeah, held open the front door. It blows me. How lazy do you have to be? And you know what? It's not even laziness. I had the last comment just made my head explode. Because what the individual said was, nothing really changes depending on who's in power. And I had to keep it together because I don't like biting people's heads off. But I was like, your privilege is showing. Because I can tell you right now, as an indigenous person living within Canadian borders, our restrictions, our lives and just how much hate is directed at us totally depends on the party in power now. Liberals. Far from perfection, but they have always been the party that supports indigenous people the most. There are so many broken promises, don't get me wrong, but dollars wise, they have always supported the first nations the most and the Conservatives have been the worst. And ND loves to talk a good game. I'm sorry, I'm just yeg meat. I lost all respect and belief in that person. He flip flops more than a dying fish. I'm. There's a northern reference for You. Yeah, so do I. Am I happy with any of the parties? No. Trying to minimize the damage for the people I care about because First Nation communities are suffering enough. And for people to say they don't care. I hope you realize that what you're saying is you don't care what happens to me or my children or my grandchildren or my cousins or my brothers or anyone in my First Nation community or any of my cousins in other First Nation communities. You don't care. And there's privilege. Again, people are so self centered. Like the sweatshirt says, you may not do politics, but politics is doing you. I don't know about you. I have always been the type. I don't control the world. What is my cat trying to trying to get into my bedroom. Wants to take a nap on my bed. Hang in there, Stormy. I'll get right to you. Look at the eyes. I'm. I don't control the world, but I control my world. And I am going to do. I'm an entrepreneur. If I sat on my butt and said I just don't want to do it, I would have starved to death a long time ago. And again, that's why I guess like in my naive, younger, early in my business days, I used to say I wished everyone was an entrepreneur because then you're solely in charge of how well off you are. The problem is you're solely in charge of well off how well off you are. And I now understand 99% of people couldn't be an entrepreneur because they're too complacent and they actually convince themselves complaining is doing something. No, not unless you're complaining as part of a rally that you're going to vote at and you're going to bring in the party that supports what you believe in. Complacency kills. I haven't said that in a long time, but it's true. You don't care about your health. It'll kill you. You don't care about your weight or what you're putting in your body. It'll kill you. You don't care about moving and sit on the couch forever. It'll kill you. You don't care what's going on in the world and you're just going to sit around in your own little bubble. It'll kill you. Whether it's through taxes, whether it's through high prices and the cost of groceries. Say something. And not just on social media or at your local bar. You got to get off your butt and do something. Bare minimum vote. I don't do politics. Politics does you. So maybe stop just sitting in the cheap seats. Upgrade. Be part of your life. Quit playing the. You know what? Indigenous people get accused of playing the victim all the time. I see a lot of hardworking first nations people trying to make a difference for their families or in their communities. What's the Canadian excuse? Excuse? Because I see a lot of victim mentality. A lot of whining and complaining and no action. So be careful who you're pointing the finger at. I just can't. I just can't. I'm. I'm gonna. I was gonna say I'm gonna become a nun. I don't. I. Yes. I was baptized Roman Catholic. Don't practice that. Haven't in 40 flipping years. So I'm not becoming a nun. Hermit is starting to seem better. I can still reach you via video. I don't know. I need. I need. It's January. I need. I was going to say I need to go sit in the bush by a campfire. That would be flipping cold right now. I just can't do. That's why entrepreneurs stick together. We don't do complacency. We don't understand these people that just whine. Yeah. Sorry for the rant. We got to do better because. What's that quote? Don't even know who it's by. I got to look that up. I'll put it in the. In the video. But all it takes for evil to, you know, run rampant is for good people to do nothing, to say nothing. That's Canada. Yeah. And they're going to blame the government instead of all the people who didn't vote for what they did want. How convenient. Is it the weekend yet? Okay. I'm good. I'm good. I think I will see you on Monday. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.