Christopher Watts has left a new comment on your post "Life
Is What We Make It":
The last time I laughed was earlier today, as I
drove through the now calmed, previous traffic havoc stricken, area of the North
East of town.
I laughed yesterday at Elizabeth Bishenden's inexplicable
support for the recent insulting letters Mr. Falk has had run in both the Banner
and the Auroran.
How could one not?
Saturday I laughed when I
witnessed the pumpkin carving contest at the Farmers Market. The vendor pumpkins
were all great, but the one eating the burger put a smile on everyone's face.
Last Friday I laughed at Mr. Smith's childish rant that he found this
blog offensive. Given this was the same Mr. Smith that falsely accused me on
this blog of intimidation his latest claim is equally without merit and
downright hilarious. Especially when it was complete with some sort of pissing
contest that he's been here for 27 years, thus making him so much better than
those who haven't.
Before that there were the Clowns who watch council
and then tweet their little anonymous bird brains to an audience of less than
10.
There is much to laugh about in Aurora; from those that rallied for
traffic calming because their neighbourhoods were better than others, those that
chose illegal SLAPP action against citizens for being critical because their
feelings were better than others, those that rally for an exclusive Jazz
festival because their culture is better than others, those that champion a
$500,000/year "Cultural" Centre that have no KPI's or accountability because why
would you need to justify an organization to be sustainable or innovative, its
not like that is the town's strategic plan or anything.
Aurora has its
share of fuddy-duddies, no doubt uptight because they lack the ability to laugh
at themselves, at least without the cover of anonymous.
Life is too short
to live it being hypersensitive, self-important and without
humility.
Community is about sharing, connecting and laughing.
At
others and yourself.
It feels great.
It's too bad that some have
not only lost that ability, but want to deny others.
Cllr. Buck may be
correct in saying that my principle comes with a high price, but it pays
dividends.
Anonymous comments don't carry the same weight, never
will.
You can't get the same level of engagement with where you live if
you do it hiding behind some clown paint, antlers, vulcan mask or dead diseased
Scottish deadbeat.
But it sure is fun to watch the anonymous dung beetles
here continually try to roll their crap uphill.
**************
Christopher is right, anonymous comments are not as powerful as attribution.
But the price he pays is a discount on his contribution in some quarters.As I do. .
All kinds of reasons can be offered for not wanting to be up front.
Not the least being a total lack of hubris.
Do we want to hear from them anyway? Yes. we do.
I would rather hear from the reserved ones than not hear from them at all.
There's room for a medley of voices on a blog. It doesn't have to be a cacaphony.
Just don't expect I will accept shrill or sly abuse of my character.
Piss on that.
Saturday 3 November 2012
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8 comments:
You are both great! Keep on trucking !
Evelyn:
If you look up 'dung beetle' in Wikipedia you will be astounded at the value these insects impart to the soil. They are said to save the US cattle industry $380 million annually.
How they do this - you will have to look.
Amen to that my Dear Evelyn
Mr Watts, what "high price" do you pay? I think a lot of the blog followers would like to hear.
Interesting that on this blog "anonymous " can comment -- on the Watts blog, no one comments -- perhaps no one reads it -- if a fool yells in the forest and no one hears it , well you know the rest!
So tell all -- what high price does Mr Watts pay
I agree that anonymous comments don’t carry the same weight, but that did not stop Morris and her friends on council from going after anonymous commenters and people who dared to use their own names in commenting on local political matters. At one point in her defamation case Morris said that a lot of time and money could be saved if the named people in her defamation lawsuit would just tell her who the anonymous person or people were so that her lawsuit could proceed.
What really boggles the mind is that she and her supporters on council actually seem to have thought that anonymous comments posted shortly before an election impacted her reputation. This begs the question, did any of these people read the paper for the previous four years ? To think that one or two anonymous posts swayed public opinion at the end of a four year council term is ridiculous as far as I am concerned. If Morris and council had the facts on their side, why didn't they use them ? There were many different ways to get their side of the story across and they had far great resources at their disposal than any resident, but instead they sued residents without warning, using the full weight of our local government’s resources, with Morris acting as the front person for “a Council initiative”.
I also think that people who were sued precisely because they did not post anonymously, which supports the need to post anonymously.
When you have elected officials who feel that it is appropriate to use town funds in order to sue residents, despite what the Code of Conduct and the Charter of Rights say, because members of the electorate dared to try and hold their government accountable, you really do have to wonder what gold standard of democracy they adhere to. It’s downright scary to think what might happen if the wrong people ever form a majority on council again. A number of elected officials seem to think that nothing wrong has been done, therefore you can bet they are fully capable of making the same mistakes again.
Councillor Wendy was as clear as she is capable of being about someone going ' to set the record straight'. That simply has never happened. It is past time for people to just ignore Councillor Wendy because they feel she is not too bright. She was an active participant in all of the Morris plots and plans. And still defends what they did to this day. Her vote is just as dangerous as that of Ballard & Gallo who have also drunk the Kool-aid. The chicanes were a ' noble experiment' and Morris was an ' innocent '. Please include her when you are calculating where responsibility lies.
I wait for the ' record to be set straight '.
I chortled at the little, black, vampire bat jack-o'-lantern.
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