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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-10-20, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2016. PAGE 5. Other Views Political correctness trumped Win, lose or laughed off the six o'clock news, Trump has already carpet bombed the concept of public behaviour and left it for dead. Civil discourse, for starters. Mutual respect and simple modesty have been replaced by bluster, braggadocio and bald- faced lying. Trump is a truly repugnant manchild. The American Id unleashed. And not the least of his depredations is what he has done to the idea of `Political Correctness'. That phrase used to mean something — which was often silly. Blind people became `differently sighted'; a short person was now `height -challenged'. Old guys with beer guts like me became `full -figured Golden Agers'. Then came Trump. He seized Political Correctness in his stubby little fingers and Bonsaied the phrase into a grotesque configuration beyond recognition. When the words "It may not be politically correct, but..." slither out of Trump's mouth, you know he's about to say something vile about immigrants, women, Mexicans, the handicapped or pretty much anybody to the port side of Ivan the Terrible. Trump is not politically incorrect. He is a malevolent slandering bigot who has rendered Arthur Black the idea of `political correctness' meaningless. And that's a pity, because we still need some expression to explain a few of the loopier aspects of modern life. Such as the strange silence emanating from celebrations at Elanora Heights Public School in Sydney, Australia. Pupils there are oddly quiet at school assemblies and sports events because...clapping has been banned. The move has been adopted, according to a school newsletter "to respect members of our school community who are sensitive to noise. Instead of applauding, students are encouraged to "punch the air, pull excited faces and wriggle about on the spot". Right. That should have a calming effect. Then there's the case of Jacqui Kendrick, a stay-at-home Winnipeg mom accused of letting her children run wild. Turns out the kids, aged two, five and ten, were playing in their own, fenced -in back yard. Just hanging out, playing tag, goofing around. But unsupervised. Looked mighty dangerous to a neighbour. She called CFS. The CFS worker asked Mrs. Kendricks "what my childhood was like, how I punish my children...she had to see where my kids slept, if we had enough food in the house" Meanwhile at Yale a group of students is petitioning the English Department to "decolonize the curriculum" by dumping poets like Chaucer, Milton and that guy Shakespeare. The petitioners claim that studying the works of such dead white men is another example of academic microaggression which "harms all students". Which brings us to the campus of California State University in Los Angeles where authorities are offering a revolutionary solution for African-American students suffering from "racially insensitive remarks" and other "microaggressions" . Like a growing number of colleges and universities in the U.S. (including that bastion of freedom, Berkeley) Cal State now features housing exclusively reserved for students of colour. Pardon me for asking, but isn't that segregated housing? Like, you know...ghettos? I feel certain Cal State can count on Donald Trump's support. Canada: on the outside lookin From the time the election started south of the border, I wanted to write about it, but I didn't want to tallc about how ridiculous the idea of Donald Trump leading the United States of America is. I wanted to add something useful to the narrative and I wanted to talk about something interesting, not just rehash his foibles during his seemingly self-destructive political campaign. I wanted to say something that wasn't just, "Oh, the Donald has done it again," and, I think, by taking a longer view of events, I can finally do that. Canadians have the best seats to see what's going on with our southerly neighbours (until a wall blocks the view anyway) and, it's from that position, that I have to ask our southern neighbours, what the heck are you guys doing? Millions upon millions of people to choose from, and the best candidates you can come up with is the wife of a former president with a penchant for underhanded dealings, an orange - haired buffoon with as much business in politics as I have in real estate development, a man who doesn't believe a minimum wage is a reasonable thing to have and a woman who wants to erase billions of educational debt with no real plan how to do it. (That's Hillary Clinton, Trump, Gary Johnson of the Libertarian party and Jill Stein of the Green Party.) I'd love to say this entire thing shocked me but it really doesn't. Since I left high school, things south of the border have continuously puzzled and infuriated me. First it was the mass shootings. This isn't a light topic, nor one I look to make light of, however the reaction to dozens of people, sometimes children, being killed in acts of gun violence leaves me feeling devastated. I could point to the gun culture in the United States of America as being a big problem, with nearly 90 guns for every 100 citizens according to the Small Arms Survey (next is Yemen with 54.8 guns per 100 residents, Switzerland with 45.7 and Finland with 45.3, Canada is 13th with 30.8), but it has to be more than that. We have people being gunned down and government officials saying that this is the time that gun control is needed and some people are arguing with that. If this were anything else in the world — cell phone batteries exploding, vehicles causing disastrous collisions or anything resulting in the number of casualties that gun - wielders are responsible for, there would be a cry to have the items removed from everywhere. U.S. citizens are more than happy to give up anything with a sharp edge when getting on a plane because it could be part of a terrorist plot, but guns, which kill an average of 91 citizens per day in the country according to the .U.S Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, are something they value more than their very lives it seems. Next we have the anti -vaccine movement. I've tried to approach this subject with a feather touch in the past but enough is enough. Andrew Wakefield, the man responsible for one of the most quoted papers by the movement, has admitted it was based on spurious information. Vaccines do not cause autism. Despite that fact. Despite the irrefutable proof provided by the scientific medical community that vaccines like the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) are, without a doubt, beneficial, there are still people arguing it. Doctors, scientists and those speaking on their behalf, people who have spent years working to become experts in their fields and have no link to any financial benefit from vaccines, have said that every child who can be vaccinated needs to be. Why? Well, herd immunity. Maybe you're like me and you know someone who can't be vaccinated. By choosing not to vaccinate your healthy child, you're further increasing the in chance that person with a compromised immune system will come into contact with a disease that should not exist in the world. I wish I had more room here because I'd love to talk about everything going -on south of the border from the big issues like Guantanamo Bay detention camp to the fact that people seem to believe they need to buy every new iPhone released, but the point here is that, being a stone's throw from the border, we are very close to the crazy that has become so popular in the United States of America. Why does that matter? Well it's like all the claims that violent television, books and video games desensitize people to violence. I don't doubt that. I won't go so far as to saying that violent entertainment encourages violence, but it certainly does make violence a less shocking thing to behold. Just like that violence, the crazy that comes at us every day from the United States and from around the world makes every shocking thing that much more benign and that is mirrored in this election two -fold. First, there is the fact that it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that the four candidates I listed (and no, I can't consider Joe Exotic a legitimate candidate, as much as I would love to based solely on the fact that he uses Real American, an old World Wrestling Federation theme song, as his presidential theme) are the only choices for the United States. Second is the fact that Trump is benefitting from humanity's ability to be desensitized to things. In previous elections, any one of the claims being levelled against Trump would be enough to have him knocked off the ballot but, because so much comes at us so fast, the reaction isn't what it should be, "I can't believe he did that" and is instead more "what did he do now?" Canadians will definitely be affected by the outcome of the election, but I can't help but feel that a Trump presidency would have dire repercussions for both the United States and every other nation in the world. One way or another, I'll be watching and waiting and hoping that the election's results are not just another thing that should be shocking but really isn't. Shawn Loughlin Shawn's Sense Moving forward Jts probably viewed as pretty easy for me to support the demolition of the former Blyth Public School. Although I attended many events there over my years with The Citizen, I never went there as a student or had children serve as students there. However, with this week's news that the school will in fact be coming down in favour of a new, purpose-built structure, I can't help but think this is a positive move for the village and its trajectory into the future as the Grant and Mildred Sparling Centre. Certainly there are sad undertones to the story. A historic building in a town that loves its history is coming down. A school where most residents either attended or had children who attended will no longer be there. However, that process happened several years ago when the Avon Maitland District School Board voted to close the school. Since that day — or, to be more specific, the final day of classes at the school — the building has ceased to be a school. Just like my old family home in Pickering will always be my childhood home in my memory, the house has, for a number of years, belonged to another family. It's no longer the Loughlin family home, even if it used to be. The same goes for the former school in Blyth. We may call it 'the school' and it may look just like it did back when it housed elementary school students, but it's no longer the school and it hasn't been for years. The building has enjoyed a positive second act as a home for small businesses starting up, including Blyth Cowbell Brewing Company, which will be moving to its own building next year sometime. Retaining local ownership of the building has been a plus for Blyth and for the businesses that spent time there. However, if the Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity is going to truly follow through with its vision of creating an arts hub in Blyth, it needs to do so with a new building that's constructed with the centre and its goals in mind. Brussels has also been lucky with the second act of the former Brussels Public School building. The Municipality of Huron East had the foresight to buy the school and it has resulted in a number of positives for the community, including a large Mennonite community using the school, bringing dozens of children back to Brussels every day for classes, recess and everything you'd associate with life at Brussels Public School prior to its closure. Not all former school buildings have been so lucky. Like Huron East, Morris-Turnberry purchased the former Turnberry Central Public School building, only to take it down and market the land for sale. In other communities, schools have been sold to private buyers who have less -than -ideal plans for the property and the former school buildings have become more of an eyesore than a bright spot. With a proposed budget of $5 million, according to Blyth Arts and Cultural Initiative 14/19 Administrator Karen Stewart, the building promises to be a gem in the community in a year where a new home for Cowbell Brewing Company at the intersection of London and Blyth Roads promises to become a premier tourist attraction. Yes, history is crucial to what Blyth is and it's unfortunate that the community's school was taken away. Those factors are not going to change. However, with a future that looks bright, I can't help but think this is a step in the right direction, as much as it may hurt to see the building come down.