On Common Courtesy and Good Sportsmanship

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I attended minor lacrosse last night as I do several times a week. The visiting teams were all from Six Nations and there were several altercations during the games, which, unfortunately, is not unusual when they come to town. At the conclusion of the one Peewee game (that would be kids aged 11 and 12, for those not familiar) two fans from the Six Nations side came over to confront some of the Welland parents. It appeared to me that Six Nations were the aggressors for most of what transpired and yet these two parents came over to agrue about who was at fault for the on-floor brawl. During the melee, and before the police arrived on scene, one of the Six Nation fans referred to us collectively as racists. Thankfully, the Welland parents didn’t respond to this or any of the other comments, and after a few minutes of saying what was on their minds, the left before any punches were thrown.

After the game I wrote my game reports as I normally do, and I addressed the issue of poor sportsmanship within the context of having respect for your opponents and not trying to injure them intentionally. There was a reply this morning from someone who was not at the game who took issue with what I had said saying that it was one-sided. I held my ground and provided further evidence of what I was saying and mentioned that in the past Six Nations fans and players have refused to stand and remove their headwear to honour our national anthem when it has been played at our Jr. B games. I then received a response from another poster asking if I know why Natives do not stand for our anthem. For the record, I do have a general idea, but I don’t happen to agree with the arguments I have been presented with to date. I believe that it’s only common courtesy to respect other cultures, as much as possible, whether you agree with them or not. Given our history with Americans, although by-and-large we have shared a fairly peaceful co-existence, we would certainly be able to take issue with them over several issues and yet we stand for their national anthem as a sign of respect to them and usually celebrate their holidays with them (i.e. The Friendship Festival is a wonderful and timely example of this).

For the record, I may not agree with too many other cultures or beliefs, but I still respect them and their right to believe the way they do. I only ask that they do the same and respect my customs and beliefs. One of those is respect for my national anthem. Please, rise, remove your hats and be quiet during its playing. It’s only a small thing to ask. I would do the same for the playing of your anthem. If that is too much to ask from you, feel free to arrive after the anthem has been played. I guess what bothered me about the anthem incident previously was that some (albeit a minority) did stand and show proper respect, so it would not appear to be that important of an issue to the Native community at large if they did not all take a stand against it.

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