Thursday, 16 May 2013

Agenda Item 6

It was a memorandum requiring direction from Council.. Attached were two letters soliciting funds. One from  Georgina's Mayor and a second from an outfit claiming to be operating something called a military museum in Georgina.  After the meeting  I learned it occupies the burger and french fries stand  at the corner of the road turning into the Village of Sutton.. 

The request was for Aurora to purchase 100 tickets at $5. a shot and distribute them between Legion members and cadets.

I hadn't read the letters until  now.

It's a good thing. 

Councillor Ballard who seems to be a one man cult of all things  military was first up with a motion to 
buy tickets as requested by "The Craigs" 

Several  argued in support.  I didn't. The debate went around the table twice before it was settled with the motion defeated.

Today we received an e-mail from Mr.Craig. He is a Councillor in Georgina. He said the vote would  likely have been the same in Georgina Council. He was responding to an e-mail from an Aurora Councillor willing to buy ten tickets out of his own pocket and hoped others would do the same. 

I will not .

The Craig's letter promoting ticket sales was accompanied by  a letter from Georgina's Mayor Rob Grossi.  He said;

     "The chance  to visit our museum and take this memorable journey should not be missed by anyone. I invite you to seize the opportunity to view these extraordinary exhibits and celebrate with us onMay 5t for "Georgina Salutes".I would ask that you support the request of the museum's Curator and purchase the amount of tickets suggested, to distribute to associates and members of your community, so that they,too, can honour  the memory of our fallen soldiers."

That's what he  said. 

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of every year for close to a hundred years  people the world over have  remembered those who  paid the  ultimate  sacrifice in war.

Few homes  were unaffected. 

We do not  use artifacts of war to remember our dead or honour their memory

Thousaands of stories have never been told.  Veterans who saw active combat spent the rest of their lives  trying to escape the memories. 

Despite the sacrifice, its clear  no lessons were learned .

Nichola Goddard is a name that quickly comes to mind 

4 comments:

  1. Gosh. Does that ever remind me of those wretched house parties at which you were guilted by friends & neighbours into purchasing stuff you could not afford & would never use.
    Councillor Ballard tried that at least once before when he pledged his Xmas money to pay for the Bullfrog services & wanted residents to follow suit. Wonder if anyone was gullible enough?

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  2. Georgina does have a place worth a visit. Their pioneer village is very good. And, no, I am not selling tickets and don't know anyone who works there.

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  3. I do enjoy how you phrase things ever so carefully in order to achieve sympathy for your argument. "... an outfit claiming to be operating something called a military museum ...".


    We are not an 'outfit', we are a registered charity, run entirely by dedicated volunteers, where we honour the courage of veterans past and present for defending liberty and justice while at the same time teaching kids about the horrors of war and the need to avoid conflict at all costs.


    And oh yes, we are worth visiting. Everyone who comes, learns something.



    John Cannon, President

    Georgina Military Museum.

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  4. And I should perhaps add a small extra note ... we are not a municipal operation. We called ourselves the 'Georgina' Military Museum in order to help identify where we are located (but that name will likely change in the future to more properly reflect our catchment area of York Region and the GTA).
    In the meantime our name does sometimes cause some confusion and can lead one to think that we are a town-operated museum. We do receive wonderful support from the Town of Georgina, but we are a separate, independent charitable corporation.
    I should also add that our Curator, now a Ward 2 Councillor in Georgina, Phil Craig, is one of the co-founders of the museum which he started over ten years ago with the late Sam Doggart, WWII veteran. Phil, like the rest of our great team, is a volunteer, and has wonderful passion for teaching the kids.
    We hope more people in Aurora will make the drive north and discover what we have to offer - most especially on Saturday May 25, our biggest day of the year. We have some great stories to tell, including from the Aurora area.

    John Cannon.

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