"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

Monday 14 March 2011

I Knew That

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Campaign Is Underway":

Councillor Buck, not everything is a MorMac plot. But, after what you were subjected to during the last term, I can understand your feelings of paranoia and battle fatigue.

Mr Griffith is a life-long Auroran. As a boy, he attended Church Street School. As he states, he served many years on council.

I think you do him a disservice in questioning his support for the building's present use. I don't think you should presume that his letter is a put-up job. I don't recall him being a member of Phyllis' posse.

I think his expressed sentiments are genuine, and made "off his own bat."

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You may be right. My  reaction to those who enjoin the battle over the use of the Church Street School
may be  trigger happy. At the same time, Mr. Griffith's letter to  the Mayor and Council is more opposition  to the museum  than it is supportive of Culture .

It may be his own bias in that direction that allows him to put a different slant on the facts that led up to $3.35 million being spent on a building for the purpose of  museum which had been supported in the community for forty years as opposed to a switch to culture which even the consultant study indicated had to be sold because it was not known.

What I  do  here ,as well as fighting for the museum's rightful place, is keep people  who elected me informed of   facts and details  I have certain  knowledge of  as  they relate to particular issue.

If they are challenged by someone who asserts equal authority because of his involvement, people must choose between the two.

A difference of opinion or judgment is always legitimate. A difference in facts means someone is in error or they are not telling the truth.

When people have to choose  in a battle of words , it may come down simply to who had the last word.

I believe in the cause.

The Mormac regime has  been defeated.

It's time to move on and  repair  the collateral damage always left after any war.

The  fight is not against music and dance and  art  and poetry.

This fight  favours  history. The need to understand how things were, in relation to how they are.  What it took to get us here in a relatively short space of time.To appreciate the courage and simple fortitude
of our forbears.To value what was built and protect it where we must. 

To use the space and investment we intended for that purpose.

Mr. Griffith's background gives him every reason to be on side with the town's history. And I;m sure he is. Bur if he has other priorities that's alright too. Because plenty of others are on side.

Notwithstanding the Philistines.

By the way; John McIntyre and Jackie Stuart can give talks about the town's heritage anywhere. I think the Town Hall would be as good a place as any.

The Town Library has regular heritage material displays.

Neither take the place of a museum.

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