PALE-FACE GIVER

PALE-FACE GIVER***

I gave three gum drop bags

To the troops of which we brag…

But I wanted a snack,

Took the wintergreen back

Giving stuff that just sits there is a drag.

–

The box has been empty so long,

Do folks even care the program goes on…

Depresses me to know

The stuff will go

To the rear— the front needs some song!

—Jonathan Caswell

***Note:  The traditional white version of this phrase was “Indian giver,” the implication being that Native Americans were at one time seen as selling something and then taking it back.  This was initially explained in history books by saying Native Americans had a different concept of ownership than the European colonials.

In this more enlightened age, it becomes apparent that the folks who gave things (land, treaties, etc.) in …the Native Americans thought…in  “good faith” were the ones taking things back—frequently.  The whites were the ones often not keeping faith or enforcing sufficiently their side of treaties.

So in an about-face of tradition…I’ve termed anyone (including myself) who gives something and then takes some or all of it back….PALE-FACE GIVER.