"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Conviction is good

I  generally don't read the news stories aabout council discussion. They are not debates.

I was there. I do;t need to read who said what.

But last week, I was a shut-in. I read the story about the 'workshop" held to discuss the  joint works and parks facility.

I read there was a walk-out.

That's funny. I thoughtI.  I don't remember anybody walking out.

Then Iremembered; it was me.

And that brought back the feeling I had  at the time of total futility.

It was clear a majority  had previously discussed the issue and  made a decision.

I've seen it all before.

Each one ,rises from his seat, so-to-speak, to speak his/het designated lines in support of the project.

There  was  no pretext of Council deliberation.

The only thing left iwas to convince the media and the public of the rightness of  their decision.

"It's so badly needed"   was the cry.

"There is no option " was the plea..

"We must move forward. "

'The people expect us to make the decision."

"Anyone who doesn't have the courage to make a decision should not  be at this table."

The last shot came from Councillor Abel.

The Councillor is aware this Council was elected to correct many decisions made by the past Council.

He's just not sure which and he doesn't want to  take any chances.

 So he carries it  further back to safer ground.

"This Council  has had to clean up the mess created by  past Councils." he frequently proclaims

Councillor Abel has come to view himself as the  Saviour/ Gladiator  of all that is righteous.

While I myself , with my service in past councils, am the obvious culprit.

              Wid that God the gift wid  gie us
               To see oorselves as ithers see us.

Councillor Abel is a person of Supreme Confidence.




8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well one of the property.owners in this scheme will be minus one family book.

Anonymous said...

Ah, but Evelyn, he is just the most obvious one. The others are just more adept with the posturing. There was a plethora of confidence last night.

Anonymous said...


I won't say what Councillor Abel is for the time being, as I want to give the matter a good bit of thought.

But I do have a question and it relates to broadcasts of Council meetings. It is my understanding the Rogers broadcasts Council meetings on both its local TV channel and through streaming to our computers - except when they don't.

My other question is similar and relates to General Committee meetings, which the town live streams, except when it doesn't.

My two questions are identical: Why are we unable to get live streaming archived meetings of both Council and General Committee?

The present archived meetings are a helter-skelter list of GC, Public Planning, Special Council and Special GC.

It should be incumbent on our elected representatives to ensure that archived coverage of ALL MEETINGS are available within 24 hours of the conclusion of the event.

The written Minutes of Meetings are completely misleading in terms of who said what. At best they are a bare bones summary without the spoken emotion.

Michael Suddard said...

Anonymous 14:08

General Committee meetings can be found on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPvLKfW-qECNHaRAX0tbEtQ

For Council meetings where Rogers goes...dig through Rogerstv.com

Anonymous said...

We have seen too many times how this council can turn completely around in very short order. With Cllr Abel, I feel I can almost see his thought process - a scary idea at times. It is the harder reads that get the bunch into trouble - I'm never sure how the Mayor will vote. Not sure if he knows either all the time.

Anonymous said...

Thanx Michael

Anonymous said...

Thanks to the Auroran, I now know who voted against giving that older park the accessibility equipment. Councillors Gallo, Ballard and Gaertner. It is striking that the three of them spoke to demand buying the Minto property for a park that is not even in the Master Plan.

Anonymous said...

I thought you run a nice tight meeting last night. It was over so quickly. Shows that it can be done.