The'rrrre off!
Quote from the Toronto Star editorial page, "That, and a little heart, will go a long way in the campaign ahead, which starts, for all intents and purposes, today." So there we have a countdown to the election after Mr Harper fails to get support for his money bill which will introduced as soon after the opening of parliament, on Sept 14th, as soon as he can get it on the order paper. So with the local libs only nominating their candidate four days earlier the Cons and Norlock have a sitting advantage. The NDP haven't nominated their person yet but a new person will only be a name on the ballot.
Hat's off to Harper, which of the two slogans will grab you: "Vote for Harper and you will keep the Home Renovation Tax that you have counted on" or "Vote for Iggy and you will lose the Home Renovation Tax, but get it back if you really do vote for Iggy" Sounds confusing doesn't it. But the confusing thing is how Harper allowed millions of Canadians to pile up reno bills while pushing a tax credit that isn't even legal becuase they failed to introduce laws allowing it!
Tough criticism and strong words about our weekend visitors. A Mr. W Thompson, who might live at 184 Church St (opposite the East end of the Vic Park and part of the 'war-zone') wrote in Tuesday's NToday a strong letter which criticised a suggestion, by another letter writer, that people ought to try to welcome the weekenders as visitors. He invited the letter writer to try it as obviously he hasn't been successful. Penning his strong letter, probably from his front porch whilst overseeing the events, he described the weekend scenes as he sees them. But was his language too strong? The final quote may offend some and be taken out of context by others but sits like pee on a plate - "You mention about segregation in your article. Yes, it exists. The beach is white and the park is completely brown. I don't think that was the plan of the "feel good town"." Now what kind of code is that?
Hat's off to Harper, which of the two slogans will grab you: "Vote for Harper and you will keep the Home Renovation Tax that you have counted on" or "Vote for Iggy and you will lose the Home Renovation Tax, but get it back if you really do vote for Iggy" Sounds confusing doesn't it. But the confusing thing is how Harper allowed millions of Canadians to pile up reno bills while pushing a tax credit that isn't even legal becuase they failed to introduce laws allowing it!
Tough criticism and strong words about our weekend visitors. A Mr. W Thompson, who might live at 184 Church St (opposite the East end of the Vic Park and part of the 'war-zone') wrote in Tuesday's NToday a strong letter which criticised a suggestion, by another letter writer, that people ought to try to welcome the weekenders as visitors. He invited the letter writer to try it as obviously he hasn't been successful. Penning his strong letter, probably from his front porch whilst overseeing the events, he described the weekend scenes as he sees them. But was his language too strong? The final quote may offend some and be taken out of context by others but sits like pee on a plate - "You mention about segregation in your article. Yes, it exists. The beach is white and the park is completely brown. I don't think that was the plan of the "feel good town"." Now what kind of code is that?
16 comments:
It was a disgraceful letter. For the past month the local msm has been full of photos and stories and letters demonizing The Visitors. Not once has the local msm gone down and interviewed a brown person; what do they have to say in defence of their garbag-behaviour. Of course, the local msm is lily-white-skinned, and the delicate (read shallow) sensivities of those living in the park area are white-skinned.
And NToday's Pete Fisher's agenda excluded photographing the extended families of those Visitors, or interviewing any of them, to ask how well they are enjoying their time in the park, how well they are enjoying the Feel Good town of Cobourg. Nope, the brownies are totally ignored, their opinion, perception, feelings are outright of no value, unless, of course, they got cash to pass it on to Councillor Spooner's greedy constituency.
Cobourg, the Feel Good town for white folks -- not so much for them there brownies.
Coming soon to a park near you -- The Visitors. Keep your kids indoors indoors.
I was told by one savvy fellow to claim all the credit, even if I have no bills. What if everyone does the same ?
So white visitors are OK?
How do you take it any other way than blatant racism?
The good folks of Sleepy Hollow awoke one day to find it was the 21st century with brown folk frolicking on the white sands of Cobourg beach. Lions and tigers and bears too . OMIGOSH !
Wally. Don't lump all MSM into one package. Northumberland News has covered this non-story, just like we didn't cover it last year with our competition riled up the locals the same way.
Reading that letter has made me sick, and about as angry as I have ever been.
While I agree that there are problems at Victoria Park, I feel that those problems have everything to do with the town failing to provide adequate staff to enforce the park by-laws, and nothing to do with the colour of anyone's skin.
It further sickens me that the local paper (I will never call them by name again) even published the letter.
After all my time in this town, I have finally reached the point of saying to all the haters of anything different:
You want this town, you can have it. I want nothing to do with anyone who would write, or publish such hate.
It really is time to move on.
I meant to say Northumberland News hasn't covered this non-story ...
Sorry.
Noted Dwight. And note that I made my specific reference to NT
Let's take a quick peek in the mirror everyone. From what I am reading and have read, we think of ourselves as enlightened and "tolerant". Unfortunately that is not as true as we think it is or want it to be. It seems our tolerance has its limits, and they're different for everyone. By definition, that no longer qualifies it as "tolerance" which can not and does not involve itself with the principles involved or the ethics surrounding the issue.
So for those that want to uphold true tolerance and call for it from others, they had better demonstrate it themselves by exercising it in their own conduct and attitudes, regardless of the distaste, based on the principles and ethics they claim to embrace, that they themselves have for the extreme or otherwise views of others.
To me, anything else just seems like an attitude of superiority and smug hypocrisy, and keeps me from taking them too seriously.
Perhaps "Born and raised here" will eventually find 'Nice-ville' where there are no "haters" of anything at all (and it never rains either).
Manfred, I'm not looking for Nice-ville, or Perfect-ville or anything else-ville.
I'm looking for someone from the local paper (either one) to stand up and call these bastards on what they are saying.
No Manfred, I am far from perfect, but I can say with certainty that I have never judged anyone by the colour of their skin. The very thought makes me ill.
At least I have the balls to call this particular letter what it is - racism.
As I have already stated, I am sickened that anyone would put such thoughts to paper, but even more sickened that a newspaper would stoop so low as to publish it.
It is at times like this that I am not proud to be born and raised here.
It's noted Wally, but your entire first paragraph doesn't mention which local MSM you're referring to, just local MSM in general.
You'll understand why the association is a bit bothersome, especially in this case.
Born and Raised ... My paper can't call out the competition for something it chooses to publish. That's the choice of its editors/publisher, whether I personally agree with it or not.
Plus, they make their own bed ...
Ben,
I'm not completely certain that you can accomodate a suggestion such as this but would you consider changing the standard approach that you've been using for your daily blog post? When you have 2 topics, why not post one and then have at it a second, separate time? That way, the thread of comments will not be quite so intertwined. They will appear less garbled. As an example, you post about Iggy and a federal election and not so veiled racism surrounding views of the use of Victoria Park. Then the comments go: election, election, racism, election, racism, racism, etc. For anyone trying to follow, it gets messy and hard to follow. If you posted each topic separately, the threads of comments would tend to be kept more separate, too.
If the blog host limits you to one post per day or something like that, you can ignore my suggestion.
I, for one, am glad the newspaper published the letter. It exposes the letter writer, not the newspaper. The newspaper is not proselytizing the letter, however, their photo-journalist went on an agenda to trash The Visitors and provided the trigger for all the vituperation against outsiders.
Northumberland News is Northumberland -- it includes some Cobourg news, but it serves a region. Northumberland Today devolved from the Cobourg Daily Star. It still has some residuals of being local.
Cobourgers largely think of themselves as Cobourgers, not as Northumberlanders. Most migrants from Toronto are more likely to think in terms of Northumberland.
Cobourg roots in either of the Northumberland papers is shallow. That's unfortunate.
I would like to second the recommendation from anonymous to provide separate headings for each topic.
I have thought the same for quite awhile now. This move, while it may be a bit more work for Ben, would simplify the blog, make it more user friendly, and avoid confusion for the posters.
What could be wrong with that? Over to you, Ben.
Is this the same Bill Thompson from Ready Print?
I want to avoid casting aspersions so let me qualify my question by clearly saying I don't know the answer to this myself. So I am asking if anyone knows.
to 'Born and Raised' ... How do you deal with demons if you can't or won't face them? In my view it is much better to have things out where I can see them and then evaluate rather than drive them under the radar and have no idea of what challenges they pose or threaten.
Perhaps you could explain what, in your opinion, the function of a newspaper, and its editorial section, should serve. For me, it should present reality ( and not someone else's version of it) and it should let me decide what I value or dismiss. It seems you advocate that the paper should make that decision for all of us. Correct me if I misinterpret your stance.
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