I Attended a Conference.

Years ago, I attended a conference in St. John's Newfoundland. Joey Smallwood was still Premier.

Cod had disappeared from the North Sea and the community was in worse economic shape than normal.

A presentation was made to the conference by St. John's Memorial University staff. They had gone out to communities all over the island with video cameras and asked people to say what they thought was the root of their troubles.

The tapes were brought back and made into a feature. They went back to the communities
with the finished film, invited participants to listen to their own comments and consider their merits,

I thought it was like taking thoughts out of your mind and putting them on the table to poke them and prod them and decide if they made any sense.

At the time, there was no indication the experiment contributed anything to a solution of the problem but I was impressed by the method.

After I went to the party last week ,there were a flurry of accusatory comments. One person said he was disappointed in me. Another referred to the Code of Conduct.

I do not support the Code of Conduct. Nor the Code of Ethics either for that matter. I think, if a person needs to carry a manual to guide his own behaviour, he really isn't someone you want to be making judgement decisions on substantive issues your behalf.

But just so 's you know; Section 5 of the Code states;

A councillor may accept food and beverages at banquets, receptions.ceremonies and similar events.

I printed the critical comments to show how easy it is and how ready some people are to accuse
another of wrong doing.

There was a harsh comment on the Citizen Blog about Banner reporter, Sean Pierce. It was uninformed and unfair.

Sean Pierce is a conscientious, hard working young journeyman. He does not own the newspaper. He does not decide its content. He is neither publisher nor editor. The writing in his stories may be his but by the tme they get into the paper, they are not necessarily his complete story.

Blogs are a marvelous way for people to communicate. It's so easy. So immediate. People put thoughts into the written word who may never have done it before.

The first time I did it, I was being critical of the President of a Ratepayer's Association. It was a week or so before I saw it in print.

I was horrified and ashamed by the power and harshness of my words in writing.

In office, one develops a way of dealing with criticism. It's not a thick skin as everybody imagines.

It's confidence.

One may not always be right. We don't have the option of abstaining. We must just do the best we can with the information on hand and trust to judgement.

You must also explain your position to whoever is willing to listen.When you've done that your work is complete.

Blogs allow that to happen in a direct fashion such as we have never experienced before.

It's a valuable tool If we seek to influence, we should learn to do it well. We should inform ourselves first.