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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-09-15, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016. PAGE 5. Other Views So you want to play the bagpipes? Let's get one thing straight about the bagpipes: you can't blame the Scots. Humans were huffing into bags of animal gut and squeezing out, well, noise — long before William Wallace (supposedly) mooned the British at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Hittites played the pipes a thousand years before Christ appeared. Ancient Greeks and Persians noodled on prehistoric chanters. So did venerable Turks, Bulgarians, Cretans, Armenians, Portuguese and Spaniards. The Roman emperor Nero, during interludes from his Trumpian norm, played the tibia utricularis -- an early variation of the instrument billions know and millions loathe. The bagpipes — arguably the original weapon of mass distraction -- tortured sensibilities long before the Scots got their hands on them. That said, once the Scots did encounter the bagpipes — somewhere around the 1500s, experts reckon — they embraced them with a fervour previously reserved for Highland single malt. Today, Scotland and the bagpipes are virtually synonymous. Like Scotland and argyle; Scotland and kilts; Scotland and haggis. Only more painful. And before my mail box fills up with tweets of wrath from readers whose last names begin with Mc and Mac, allow me to present my ethnic credentials: The `Black' that constitutes my surname is utterly and irredeemably Caledonian. My lineage trickles down from an obscure sect of the Clan Gregor. Put another way — get off my back. I hail from a long line of sheep molesters myself. Oh, I know that bagpipes have their champions. People who insist that the... sound... they produce is heart -stirring and spiritually momentous. And in no way evocative of a tomcat being fricasseed on high- tension power lines. Tell it to the German troops of World War One who are reputed to have dropped their Mausers and stampeded at the sight (and more horribly, the sound) of what they called "the ladies from Hell" — Scottish pipers leading Allied soldiers onto the battlefield. Indeed, it is telling that the bagpipes is the only musical instrument to be recognized as a weapon of war, thanks to its ability to simultaneously inflame it's followers and terrify the enemy. Recently we've learned that bagpipes can be equally lethal for the people who play them. A 61 -year-old resident of Liverpool, England with congestive lung issues had stymied his doctors for years. Nothing they prescribed had any effect. Was their something in his daily routine that might be responsible? Well, he played the bagpipes every day. What's more, when he went to Australia for a few months without his pipes, the symptoms improved, only to recur when he came home and resumed practice. The doctors examined his instrument and discovered it was full of mould and fungi which thrived thanks to the dark, dank interior of the bagpipes. Unfortunately it was too late for the piper. He died of `hypersensitivity pneumonitis'. AKA Piper's Lung. Lesson to be learned? Something our ears have been trying to tell us for centuries. Bagpipes are deadly. Background information necessary For the second time this month, I wrote a story about Huron County Council's decision to scrap the advanced care paramedic (ACP) program and I can't help but feel that something is askew in the political landscape of Huron County. For those who haven't been following the saga, for approximately a decade, the county has been fielding advance care paramedics, who have access to more advanced medications and techniques when called to a scene. However, as of late, the cost of the ACP program has been brought into question. Originally, according to some council members, the ACP program was meant to have faster, more advanced response times to outlying areas in the county that were the furthest from a hospital. That mandate, however, wasn't able to be followed as ACPs are not spread out through the county and are instead scheduled wherever and whenever they are stationed. Instead, Huron County Council felt it better to scrap the ACP program and redirect funds towards having an additional ambulance on the road. The decision certainly wasn't the last word on the debate, however. Municipal councils are being called on by ratepayers, unions and their own council members to ask Huron County Council to revisit the issue. Fortunately, in my opinion, some councils seem to realize that the decision wasn't one made on a whim. I say fortunately because of the debate involved, not because I believe the decision was right or wrong. To be honest, I don't know how I feel about the entire situation — I've heard politicians and paramedics fall on both sides of the issue and that leads me to believe that it's a decision best left to those who have all the information — our representatives at Huron County Council. Shawn and I do our best to cover several municipalities, however, with meetings occurring on the same nights normally and holiday Mondays causing even more conflicts, it can get difficult. However, this issue has come before each of the Denny Scott Denny's Den four councils we regularly cover. North Huron and Morris-Turnberry councils, or my `beats', both decided to back Huron County's play, while Shawn's councils, Central Huron and Huron East, are suggesting the issue be re -opened. That sentiment, that the lower tiers can request or, if they succeed, force an issue to be re -opened, is one that concerns me greatly. One of the first things you learn when you start covering municipal councils is that some of the biggest decisions are made with information that isn't presented to the press or the public. Using "closed" or "in -camera" sessions, councils will have private discussions or presentations that contain information that, for one reason or another, can't be widely known. Sometimes this is frustrating, especially for a reporter. Some issues seem to come out of nowhere, but council has been dealing with them for months. Other times, what seems to be a foregone conclusion becomes anything but because of information to which the press and public aren't privy. According to local politicians, the decision to scrap the ACP program was made after months of discussion and because of information presented both in public forums and in one of the above in -camera sessions. While it is frustrating that I don't know what led to that decision, I, like many members of the councils I cover, feel that we have to trust the people we have put in the positions of power at Huron County Council. These aren't hired people, these are people that you and I put into power when we voted for them (or failed to get enough people to vote against them, if you want to go with the classic, "Well I didn't vote for them," argument). The people who process the reports and summarize them for council are staff members hired under the cautious eye of Huron County Council or their department heads. Everyone that is a part of this decision is there because they have either been voted there or hired by people that were voted there. Ratepayers may not agree with their elected official's stance on every single issue, but we all live in the same county so I have to believe they wouldn't make a decision like this unless it was in everyone's best interest. After all, we're talking about medical professionals here. Every one of us could end up being cared for by one of these people. It's because of the universality of this particular situation and decision that I believe the council is making the best decision for everyone involved. I hate to sound like a broken record here, because I know I've said this before, but if you disagree with this decision and think it should have been made differently, you need to start becoming more active in the politics of the area. If you didn't run in the last municipal election, run, and make this your platform. If you did run and you weren't successful, then you need to run again and do a better job of convincing people to vote for you. If you are a councillor and feel the issue needs to be brought back up again, then run for mayor or reeve so you can make that argument. In the end, if you disagree with this decision, you have nowhere to look but the mirror to figure out how to change it. The current session of Huron County Council looked at the information they had and made the best decision they could. Final Thought Good leaders have vision and inspire others to help them turn vision into reality. Great leaders have vision, share vision, and inspire others to create their own. — Roy Bennett The power of one n this issue of The Citizen there is coverage of three events that wouldn't have been possible without the dogged determination of small groups or individuals. At one time or another these events were small nuggets of an idea that have since flourished and become so important to so many people. The first and most individual achievement is the hockey game between the London Knights and Erie Otters in Clinton last Thursday. One person — Brent Scrimgeour — made it his mission, at least for the last few months, to bring an Ontario Hockey League (OHL) game to Huron County. And through persistence and hard work he made it happen. Due to Scrimgeour's tenacity and the hard work of a network of dedicated volunteers, two of the Ontario Hockey League's best teams played one another in Clinton while over 1,400 people gathered together to watch. It's a fantastic achievement for someone to pull off, essentially, in their spare time. And it may prove to be one that means a lot to the community going forward. Then, of course, there was the annual reunion of the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association, which has grown from a meeting around a kitchen table in East Wawanosh Township to perhaps the busiest weekend on Blyth's calendar. The Hallahans, Searsons and a handful of others chased one of their hobbies in hopes of finding others with similar interests and before they knew it, hundreds of people were making their way to Blyth every year with their antique farm equipment for a weekend of friends, music and fun. That tradition persists today in an example of the spin-off that can result from a few friends exploring similar interests and volunteering to make their community a better place. Now, many service clubs and businesses look towards that weekend as one of their major dates on the calendar. All thanks to a few people sitting around a kitchen table and thinking there might be others like them out there. Then there's the redevelopment of the Memorial Hall courtyard. In today's issue of The Citizen, the images aren't quite as happy as they could be, as they document one of the village's central trees coming down. This, however, is a "if you want to make an omelette, you've got to break a couple of eggs" situation. In fact, it reminds me of the construction that gave Brussels residents and business owners fits for two straight summers. Those were long, hard years, but now the village is blessed with a smooth, well-designed main street that would be the envy of any Ontario small town. So while the Memorial Hall courtyard looks a little disastrous right now, there are, no doubt, better days ahead. The work at Memorial Hall and, indeed, the Blyth 14/19 project itself, is thanks to the hard work of a handful of individuals who are immensely dedicated to the betterment of Blyth and Huron County, not the least of which are the Sparling family. It's remarkable to look at all that happened in the community over the last week and think that all of these events can be traced back to one or a handful of people, only to grow and grow to become what we know them as today. What's going on around us now is proof that one person can make a difference and that the vision of one person or a group of people can, indeed, change the world under the right circumstances.