"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

Friday 1 March 2013

Holy Wullie's Prayer

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What you hear is not necessarily real.": Didn't John West want to get his hands on Library Square and build condos?
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 Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What you hear is not necessarily real.":

Actually, they wanted to put in a bunch of up-scale condos. It might still be in the starting blocks since the requested report on ' disposition ' of the lands around the Old Library appears to have vanished into the Town Hall maw. 
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I came back on Council in 2003. Three  elections,nine years and three  months since.

 I have seen neither hide nor hair nor the slightest hint of a plan to put condos on the old Library site.John West was still on Council in the 2003- 2006 term.


Nothing whatsoever  suggests John West ever  planned  to "get his hands on library square and build condos" 
The town owned the property. Certainly there must have been ideas tossed about as to future use. Including the fervent request to allow it to be used as a new Senior's Centre'

I heard there was talk of a Senior's Centre on the ground floor, residential units on floors above  and  potential for  a Senior Centre  being created paid  at no cost to the town.
  
No  practical means existed to  allow  any of it without formal process  and without public debate.
Ideas cost nothing. A  healthy civilized society encourages ideas .  Hopefully,  they are  abundant and imaginative.
  

But at that time,  they got twisted to a level of  political chicanery that brought me back to active service.

 I  had watched what was happening for several years.  No-one on the scene seemed capable of  putting  the lie to it
. New  productive Councillors ,having no stomach for it, unfortunately believing it was  the way of politics.simply quit after a single term

Councillors' employment was threatened. Employees were coerced to take actions against their own interest.  Letters from lawyers  for imagined slights were a common occurrence. Reputations were ruthlessly  smeared. 
 
I decided it could not be allowed to continue unabated.

John's status in the community made him first target for destruction by the dreadful duo. Nigel Kean joined them in their effort.

Tim Jones  was also in their sights.


John never understood . The  pattern is normally  practiced alone.  By personalities who  trust no-one but gather followers to them  under  a cloak of righteousness.  

Eager for shortcuts but  without  status  , the fastest route  is to attack someone  with a profile  Take it from them . By hook or by crook. Then  claim the high ground.

Politics is not a tidy enterprise. But every astute individual knows there are limits. 

The two assertions at the lead-in to this  post are typical .

Conscience is absent  No principle is involved.
 
No effort taken  to support the allegations with a  particle  of evidence.

We all  learn   this  aspect ofhuman behaviour early. 

A pathetically inadequate student, desperate for  approval, telling  tales of wrongdoing  to raise up their own image.Nether integrity nor righteousness  enters the picture.
  
 Only a desperate craving for attention..
 .
What happens is further self-abasement;  degrading  to  witness and  always  the  quotient for envy and revenge.

Some believe all is fair in love and war and politics.

It's not true. Voters have intuition and standards

Harm to others can never be  perceived to be fair. . 

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The suggestion that condos be built there seems to have originated in some weird scheme to provide more supporters for the Centre. I never heard it connected to John West & suspect its genesis from Mormac.

Anonymous said...

I heard the John West/condo rumour about the 1963 Public Library site years ago (pre-Cultural Centre). I'm not connected to any politician or political faction in town, it was just some scuttlebutt that was making the rounds.

Not everything has a nefarious purpose or conspiratorial origin. What was someone saying about trying to be positive?...

Anonymous said...

At one stage, Councillor Timpson was on the Traffic Advisory Board. How did he fit into that mess? All I can recall is that he actually chaired our 2 meetings quite well and later indicated by his vote that he had listened. Ms. Morris began to attend those meetings once our little group had grown to need a larger room. She would shift-shape around the edges. The Chairperson did not appear too pleased but made no protest.

Anonymous said...

I recall a former councillor saying that he had told staff members with whom he had worked that they should have their resumes ready with the Morris slate was/were? elected. They thought he was joking but he had seen what was happening & was very concerned about them. First, as people he liked & respected. Second, because they were the backbone of the town & far more necessary than the ordinary resident could know.
He was right on both counts..And they needed their resumes.

Anonymous said...

4:21 PM
Perhaps you are confusing sites?
The New Library was done properly, land quietly acquired without fanfare. The land around the OLD Library has been a subject of discussion, many plans and not a single bit of action. The town owns it and hasn't the gumption or wisdom to use it instead of buying up more ' old real estate. '.

Anonymous said...

Thank you. Obviously no one has given up. We can do it again.

Anonymous said...

If you can get past The NYTimes pay wall, Charles M. Blow had a good article, " Poison Pill Politics " about what is happening to our American neighbours.