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The Citizen, 2017-09-28, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017. PAGE 5. Other Views Symbols can become too important Symbols can be important in bringing people together. If they become too important, however, they can become weapons that divide people, as demonstrated by U.S. President Donald Trump on the weekend. Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Alabama, Friday night, Trump roused the crowd by denouncing a handful of (usually black) football players who, over the last year, have from time to time chosen to kneel or raise fists during the playing of the U.S. national anthem as a silent protest for greater social justice and against police treatment of black Americans. "That's a total disrespect of everything we stand for," Trump thundered. "Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, you'd say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He's fired" Before Sunday afternoon's NFL games, Trump called on fans to boycott games if NFL owners did not punish players who disrespected their country and flag by protesting. He may have been surprised to see that players protested in greater numbers than ever before, in some cases joined by the owners of their teams and supported by the league itself. Earlier on Friday I had been walking down a sun -baked street of the International Plowing Match's tented city at Walton. Looking down I saw one of those small Canadian flags lying on the ground. It may have been dropped by someone waving it during the visit of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the match, earlier in the day. I stepped over the flag and kept walking. As I walked on, I began to feel a touch of guilt that I hadn't stopped and picked up the flag to prevent someone else from Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk trampling it, but I didn't go back. That night as I watched the news and heard Trump's rant, I was glad that I hadn't given greater significance to that tiny bit of cloth on the ground that had a red maple leaf on it. Don't get me wrong. I'm proud of our flag and our country. I'm old enough to remember the immense emotions when all students at Lucknow District High School shivered around the outdoor flag pole on Feb. 15, 1965 as the new red and white flag was raised for the first time. Months earlier, in one of my few acts of '60s rebellion, I had taken part in a sitdown protest one day when our class refused to stand for God Save The Queen because we felt that 0' Canada was our true national anthem. But there's a delicate tipping point for symbols and the nationalism they signify. Thankfully, as a small, unpowerful country with a relatively short history, Canada has seldom tipped that delicate balance to turn symbols into weapons, but the danger is always there. We have seen plenty of that south of the border, where for many people the symbolism of the flag or the national anthem becomes greater than the values the country claims to stand for. A silent action of kneeling during the singing of the national anthem causes a huge fuss while the injustice the athletes are protesting is ignored. The U.S. President does not acknowledge that the country he vows to make great again isn't living up to its pledge of "liberty and justice for all". Instead he demands the protesters be punished, ignoring another great American right: the right to free speech. Giving too much power to symbols can go both ways. When white supremacists carry swastika flags, or wear white hoods and carry torches, moderate people's outrage can give the bigots more power than they actually possess. When people want to prevent them from saying hateful things, they become dictatorial themselves. As Voltaire said: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Also in the category of making symbols too important are the recent remarks by Bloc Quebecois Leader Martine Ouellet who criticized NDP leadership candidate Jagmeet Singh for wearing a turban and a kirpan as a practising Sikh, saying it's a testament to the "rise of the religious left" and it doesn't respect separation of church and state. One suspects that she was using something seemingly progressive — the separation of church and state — to actually attract those Quebeckers who resent immigrants who don't look like them, such as Muslims who wear niqabs or Sikhs who wear turbans. Yes the turban and the kirpan are themselves symbols but what matters more, symbols we may not appreciate or the right of religious freedom? Symbols like a national anthem or a flag can be positive when they inspire the best in people. When they are used by manipulative leaders like Donald Trump to divide their nation and mobilize their supporters against those perceived as denigrating those symbols, then they become destructive. We must always be aware how quickly nationalistic symbols can be turned from good to bad. Mud, Victory, Dust: what's in a name? As the dust settles and the infrastructure begins to disappear from the fields just east of Walton, the International Plowing Match and Rural Expo (IPM) has come to an end for the fifth time in Huron County's history. As people look back on the event, they will doubtlessly remember that, unlike the matches that came before it, the event covered every weather -condition imaginable, save that of snow. The opening ceremonies on Tuesday were preceded by the start of an intense rain storm that carried on for several hours. This was after a lighter storm passed through the area on Monday evening. As Shawn and I travelled the grounds on Friday, preparing for the visit of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family, we ran into IPM Committee Secretary Lynne Godkin who said she would think it would be called the Everything Match for facing most kinds of weather. Undoubtedly, there will be people, in the short term, who will remember the flood - like conditions that saw the ground muddied for years to come. Others still will remember the higher -than -seasonable temperatures that followed the rain, drying out the grounds after the rain and providing some beautiful sunshine for the final three days of the match. Still others will refer to it as the 100th match (unfortunately, I can't find a simple term to convey 100 iterations, since it technically happened over 100 years ago, starting in 1913). When Shawn, Lynne and I first had the conversation, I couldn't think of an alternative to Lynne's suggestion, but, given the weekend to think, I eventually did discover the moniker for Huron's fifth IPM. Denny Scott Denny's Den The previous matches were named for the situations around the events. The Victory Match, which took place in 1946 near Port Albert, was called such as it happened immediately after the end of World War II. The 1966 International Plowing Match will forever be known as the Mud Match thanks to the incredible rain that soaked the fields near the village. The Money Match, the 1978 International Plowing Match held just east of Wingham, earned its name by setting records including attendance. There seems to be some debate in our office as to the name of the 1999 match, which was hosted near Dashwood. I've always heard to it (and thanks to my own experience, I can attest to it) as the Dust Match while other people call it the Sunshine Match. The match, and the surrounding weeks, included dry, warm weather that resulted in the roads of the site being wetted. I suppose we could call this the Prime Minister's match as Justin's visit was an added bonus not often seen at the IPM, or, as stated before, fall back on the fact that it was the 100th match, but both of those don't seem to do it justice. Turning to the weather, I just think the Everything Match is a little vague. No offence Lynne. My idea for the match name relies on the weather, but it focuses more on the people. While the idea came in its entirety over the weekend, I think the seed for my suggestion was planted just a few short minutes after that discussion with Lynne and Shawn. While Shawn and I stood in a circle with other media personnel awaiting our chance to be inspected by Trudeau's security forces to make sure we weren't trying to assault him with a pie, a reporter asked if anyone was on the grounds on Wednesday. As I'm sure you may have already discovered or will soon discover, I was on the grounds on Wednesday when the site was closed. Shawn and I agreed that getting photos of just how muddy the site was and what was being done to remedy it was a great idea. So, when this reporter asked about it, I said those photos are just as important as the photos we were about to get of Trudeau. They weren't important because people needed to see the mud, but because people needed to see how the community and the volunteers came together to make what was left of the IPM the best it could be. While the reporter in question didn't necessarily agree with me, the moment, looking back, was the start of my idea for the match: The Persistence Match. Huron County's best weren't about to let rain ruin years of planning and thousands of hours of work so they made sure the event persisted. They cleared mud, put down wood shavings and made the best of the situation. That should be what Huron County, Ontario, Canada and the world remembers about the 100th IPM held in Walton: The fact that we wouldn't sit back and let a little rain ruin something extraordinary. There you have it: for me, the match will always be known as The Persistence Match. Wear it proudly Huron. A% Shawn Loughlin ALliali Shawn's Sense An example to us all Jacquie Bishop, chair of last week's IPM in Walton, should truly be an inspiration to us all. She took all that Mother Nature could throw at her — not to mention over four years of what just about everyone else could throw at her — and she handled it with patience, grace and an intelligence we should all be so lucky to possess. I, like many others, felt drained on Saturday evening as the IPM's closing ceremonies crept to a close. I was sunburned, my legs ached from days of walking around and I felt doomed to dehydration in perpetuity. But then, as Jacquie addressed those still in attendance as the IPM wound to a close, I saw something I had yet to see: Jacquie's voice cracked and she teared up as she spoke to those seated in front of her. And along with her, many did the same (myself included). Those who have been close to the committee over the years know just how much work has gone into what tens of thousands enjoyed last week. It was a massive team effort, no one will tell you any different, but there couldn't have been a better leader of that team. Every time I've spoken to Jacquie over the past few years, she has diverted conversation to the work of her committees. Whether it's been Secretary Lynne Godkin or specific committee chairs like Matt Townsend, Barb Terpstra, Melissa Veldman, Deb Falconer, Allan Carter or Brian and Jeff McGavin, Jacquie has heaped praise on them all. If you listened to Jacquie, she made it sound like she did nothing at all. But we know that's not true. Seeing Jacquie tear up on Saturday evening served as an emotional release for everyone under her. It was finally over. Mud had been scraped up and skids of bottles of water had been handed out. All of the work and the politics and the worrying was over. Now, only the clean-up remained. I have been speaking with Jacquie for years about the IPM and I have cherished those chats around her kitchen table near Bluevale. I consider Jacquie a friend. She admires the work we do here at The Citizen and we're certainly fans of what she's done for the community over the years — not just with the IPM, but through 4-H and everything else she's had a hand in over the course of her life, not the least of which has been raising three strong, intelligent and impressive young women in her image. But just as Jacquie would point to her committee chairs when asked about workload or the potential for success ahead of the IPM, they all pointed to her. She has been the fearless leader who continued to steer the ship towards its destination. Jacquie is the first woman to ever chair an IPM and since it was the 100th IPM, she showed all of us what we've been missing. Really though, when it comes down to it, I was just really proud as I stood to the right of the stage on Saturday evening. I was proud to know Jacquie and call her a friend, I was proud to have played a small part in the IPM through our coverage and Salute to the IPM issue and I was proud to be a Huron County resident. When Jess came to the match for the first time on Saturday evening, I bounded around the grounds, urging her to keep up, showing her this or that and telling her all about the attractions and things I'd seen over the week. Jacquie's legacy will be that she made us all feel like this was our IPM — to show off, to share and to be proud of — all thanks to her years of hard work. Jacquie, you're an amazing woman. Thank you for everything you've done for us.