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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2018-08-02, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2018. PAGE 5. Other Views What makes us so different? As I read J. D. Vance's bestseller Hillbilly Elegy recently, I couldn't help but wonder how people with similar backgrounds can turn out to remarkably different. Now anyone with the slightest interest in psychology is aware of the never-ending "nature versus nurture" debate about whether we are a product of the genes we inherit or the experiences of our upbringing. But in the case of Hillbilly Elegy, what struck me was how people originally from a similar culture who settle in different surroundings can diverge so distinctively over a period of time. Throughout his book, Vance often mentions that his people descended from Scots -Irish ancestors, which is very similar to the majority of people I've been surrounded by during most of my life in southern Bruce and northern Huron Counties. Yet as the author describes his people who settled in the Appalachian Mountains (in his family's case in eastern Kentucky), I could see few similarities between their habits and beliefs and those of my neighbours, either when I was growing up or today. Perhaps the radically different lives our common Scots -Irish ancestors experienced when they came to the New World shaped how differently we thought and behaved. Here in southwestern Ontario, most of the immigrants nearly 200 years ago came seeking land of their own. They suffered terrible hardships as they carved livelihoods from the bush, but created a culture based on self-sufficient landownership. Vance describes the Scots -Irish of the Appalachians as starting out, a century earlier than western Ontario's settlement, as day labourers in the southern slave economy, transitioning into share -croppers and then into Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk coal miners. For these people, poverty was a family tradition, Vance explains. Like millions of their neighbours from the hill country, Vance's grandparents moved north to take jobs in the newly opening factories of the midwest. There were so many people from Kentucky in their new hometown of Middletown, Ohio that it was often nicknamed "Middletucky". The southerners brought their hillbilly culture with them — both the good and the bad. They were used to hard work, so they were valued by their new employers. But other less - admirable traits had become ingrained too. The one that struck me as so different from the Scots -Irish people I grew up around was the tendency toward vengeful violence in what they termed their "honour culture". Vance's grandmother, who became the heroine of his life, told him how back in Kentucky an older man accused of raping a young girl was found floating face down in a local lake with 16 bullet holes in his back before his trial could occur. One of the grandmother's brothers claimed he was defending his mother's honour after being called a son of a bitch. He beat the man unconscious, then cut him with an electric saw. In Ohio, when Vance's grandparents were shopping in a mall their son went into a store alone. A clerk who saw him playing with an expensive toy, told him to leave. When the boy's parents heard what had happened, they marched into the store, smashed the toy he'd been playing with and flung items around before threatening the clerk. There was another example of the variations of human psychology in succeeding generations of the hillbillies in Ohio. While the first generation was admired for their ability to work hard, their children somehow lost the work ethic. Vance describes people he worked with at summer jobs who would take unannounced days off and several lengthy bathroom breaks a day, yet who were outraged at the injustice of it all when they were finally fired. Vance's own mother was trained as a nurse but destroyed her life and eventually lost her job because she became addicted to drugs. She also had a lengthy string of men in her life and the young J.D. was constantly getting used to new "fathers". He spent many of his formative years living with his grandmother, who had separated from his grandfather. Despite often doubting himself, Vance went on to become the first person from his family to graduate from university. What's more, he went on to Yale law school, where he also met his wife. Then he wrote Hillbilly Elegy which spent months on the New York Times bestseller list and made him rich by the age of 31. In the long run, Vance believes that it is human connections that determine our futures. He credits the help and strength of his grandmother, the inspiration of a professor and the love and belief of his wife for his being able to leave the chaos of his origins behind. Maybe it's similar human influences that made the Scots -Irish of our region so different from the hillbillies described in Vance's book. It's not often you get a win -win-win Last week Shawn and I pushed to get a story about the Emergency Services Training Centre (ESTC) published online several days before the newspaper went out. The story relayed the fact that the ESTC, now the second -most prominent building on the edge of the Village of Blyth, was being marked as surplus and able to be sold by the Township of North Huron. We pushed to get this story out early because of the importance of the second-largest municipal building in Blyth being put up for sale, however some people may have misunderstood why it was important. The ESTC has become, due to a plethora of reasons outlined in a report by consulting firm KPMG, an albatross around North Huron's neck. If you talk to folks in the know, they will tell you the facility was purpose-built, but built too large for its purpose. Following that, a revolving door of staff at North Huron at the highest levels led to decisions being put on the back burner about the structure and its functioning as an educational centre and, as a result, it has never reached its potential. I could spend my entire column this week citing those sources and pointing out the public forums the centre was discussed in, but I'm going to ask you all to trust me: the site didn't end up being what it could or should be. Part of the reason for that is the fact that it is a Boeing jumbo jet in a sky full of helicopters. See, other training facilities that aren't municipally -run can react quickly when opportunities arise. As the ESTC is a municipal building however, and as no council has ever saw fit to operate it at arms' length, any decision that was going to be made about the ESTC had to go through the municipal Denny Scott Denny's Den decision-making process. This isn't a critique: that decision-making process is an important part of having sober second looks at issues. However, in a competitive world, those extra weeks to months that are required for council to research and come to a decision is a liability. How do I know that? Well you hear enough presentations about what the ESTC can do, see what actually happens and then read the reports and you start to see some of the picture. That's why North Huron decided to sell the centre, if it's done as Reeve Neil Vincent told The Citizen it would be, it could be a great thing for the ESTC, the municipality and yes, the ratepayers. It's not often you can get a win -win-win situation, but when everyone is going to come out ahead, it's worth making a big deal about it. The municipality and taxpayers are divesting themselves of a large property in another municipality. A lot of people forget that south of County Road 25 is actually Central Huron. That means that the ESTC and the Fire Department of North Huron's Blyth hall are both in Central Huron and thus taxed. If the structure was in Blyth, that wouldn't be the case, and that is how Vincent explained the situation. He said the site was going to be sold for a price that would cover the existing debt on the ESTC and leave the municipality with enough funds to pursue building a new fire hall and new public works shed, one structure, both within the village of Blyth. As far as the ESTC is concerned, as long as it remains (which I can't see not happening after so much fundraising went into its original operation), it will be successful. The ESTC thrived, once upon a time, when it was a small classroom and props. It was big enough to train the people it needed. Then came the near -$2 million expansion that brought us the facility we know today. Like I said, many knowledgeable people will tell you it's too big for its intended use. Beyond that, however, in a similar fashion to the North Huron Museum, the needed staff has never been put behind the ESTC to make it a success. Unlike the museum, that fault doesn't lay solely at council's feet. There has been a significant amount of turnover in North Huron's emergency services department, making it difficult for the site to find a foothold. Hopefully (and I can't see this logically going any other way) the ESTC's props and programming will be kept operational in some form, possibly elsewhere in the community. That means that Fire Department of North Huron personnel (as well as others) will still be able to train here. For those keeping track, that means that North Huron wins, its taxpayers win and, hopefully, the firefighters get a win too. I know I wag a finger at North Huron Council a lot, which is part of why I've decided to tackle this. I'm not some kind of zealot who thinks council can do nothing right. That's why it's important when a decision like this is made, the right story is told: the sale of the ESTC, provided it follows North Huron's narrative, is a good thing for all. For the people You have to wonder what drove the creators of the Municipal Act to pen a provision allowing candidates to run in wards other than their own. Perhaps this is a non -factor in big cities, but in rural Ontario, it's a concerning part of the process. Four years ago it was almost as if someone was skulking through some forgotten basement library in Queen's Park, found this long -forgotten volume, blew a coat of dust off of it and circulated it as soon as possible. As reporters who have covered municipal politics and elections for years, neither Denny nor I knew this was an option before 2014. But, as many of you may remember, the 2014 election marked an explosion of cross - ward candidates, at least in this area. In Blyth, two of our four candidates were from outside of the community. The same thing occurred in Central Huron, where two East Ward candidates orchestrated last-minute shifts to the West Ward in hopes of being acclaimed only to have to campaign against one another. In a world where many municipalities are starved for qualified candidates (or, in some cases, candidates, period) this little-known provision has led to some nervous moments for many residents who believe in the dream of democracy as it was originally laid out. Now, waiting to see who strategically swaps wards is second in theatrical value only to waiting to see who will decide to run. Not to get too dramatic, but it was Abraham Lincoln who first verbalized his dream that "government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth" in the Gettysburg Address. Surely Lincoln didn't envision political opportunists reaching their grubby little hands across borders to govern people they don't know. I may have told this story in this space before, but as I organized an all -candidates meeting for the Blyth and East Wawanosh, I became very disillusioned with the intentions of some running across wards. I've never heard Denny laugh as hard as when he overheard me on the phone to a Wingham resident running in Blyth. We were hosting an all -candidates meeting and he needed directions to Memorial Hall. If unchallenged, that man could have been a legal political representative for Blyth. Like the concept of being judged by a "jury of your peers" in a court case, the very concept of democracy is to be governed by someone with whom you share real estate. These people must live where you live and understand the challenges and opportunities of your community as you understand them. Though legal, it's a disingenuous way to manipulate the election process unless there is some sort of legitimate reason that the person would make an appropriate representative for that ward (think a George Townsend — synonymous with Londesborough, but lives elsewhere). However, for many who employ this loophole, representing the people of a ward isn't what it's about. And, for those trying to game the system, it would be the residents of those wards who have to languish as pawns in whatever game they're playing. For those with an axe to grind or a nefarious agenda, there is no consideration to the fundamental belief of democracy, that you're becoming a representative of people. Many good people have let their names stand and there are very few acclamations. This fall, let your voice be heard and vote for candidates who will best represent you, not those who see you as a rung on a ladder leading to something they want to accomplish.