Connecting the Dots

Been a journalist almost all of my life. 

It started when I was nine. I had this affinity for writing down cool quotes on scraps of paper. Things people said. In person. On the TV.

I’d bundle them up into a pile and there they would sit.

Sometime later I’d write something. Picking and choosing the relevance as I went along.

My time in newspapers and magazines has come and gone. Same with television.

I’m here now. In the blogosphere. Still tuning in though.

Last year I caught a re-run of an in-person interview with The Right Honourable Paul Martin. The topic was Aboriginals.

It wasn’t long after I had returned from a volunteer experience in Uganda. Documenting the hope. Helping out in an HIV/AIDS clinic.

It struck me hard. Here we are, so many of us – travelling overseas to help out when we have some serious issues, very similar to what’s going on in Africa for example, in our own backyard.

What are we doing about them?
Are we helping to restore clean drinking water? Building schools? Teaching English?
Nope.

Which had me asking the question.
How can we?
So I contacted the Right Honourable Paul Martin’s office.

Education initiatives, funding, establishing that kind of assistance to help the growing population is all in the works.

But what can I do? 

Like, you and me.

It took a while (six months actually). Last week, I heard back.

The answer.

Inspire.

I do media. I write. Take pictures. Currently I’m studying Electronic Media Design.

The Right Honourable Paul Martin’s assistant suggested I contact the Regional Chief and then some nearby Aboriginal schools and go in and speak with the students.

Educate and inspire them in what I’ve done with my life, so hopefully they’ll want to finish school and carry on. Find hope for their future.

That’s easy I thought to myself after I hung up the phone.

It’s not making clean water or getting rid of mouldy housing. But maybe in a small way it will help.

Give them hope for living.

For life.