More babble...and more head-shaking

This morning I had coffee with a nascent community organizer. We'd met last year, after the inaugural Town Halls Hamilton event. He's in the process of getting something started that ties in enormously with my beliefs about the importance of neighbourhood associations. 

We began our conversation talking about education. Mostly because that's his calling; he's a teacher. And in wanting to find out his take on school closings in Hamilton, I broached the subject. Especially as public discussion is concerned. 

Very quickly, I was compelled to reinforce the importance I place on agreeing on facts before getting creative about how to deal with those facts...and this was prompted by something I saw online yesterday. 

It was a post/comment. Not dealing with education, but rather with LRT. 

"Just been thinking lately alot about the LRT for Hamilton. Well,it has been about 25 yrs in proposals and YET STILL I see only posters on the buses in Hamilton about it. What gives City Council????Hunh??? Really, it should be budgeted for, way past the proposal and prototype stage and up and running . A City that has amalgamated many different cities to save money and reduce infrastructure and overlapping should DEFINITELY have this already . What gives City Council???Hey..Poor planning I think ,yes."

Awaiting coffee at Tim's, I said to my friend 'It pains me to hear people going off on something that they clearly aren't grasping the basics of.' Additionally, I reiterated the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's words: "You're entitled to your own opinion. You're not entitled to your own facts."

In a way, I was aghast when I read the Facebook post. 

Yes, I know that many of us are -ahem- 'disappointed' in what generally passes for leadership at 71 Main Street West these days. But I'm more disappointed in what passes for comprehension of the realities of some pretty basic Hamilton situations. I shudder to think that someone who feels the need to comment on an issue (most don't) and in an ostensibly 'politically dissident' group is so far out in left-field. And to me it indicates how far away we are as a city from rightfully being able to take our place at the governance table. (That's not to say our elected officials are supremely competent. But they're not required to be. Clearly.)

I won't belabour the point about the person's rant, save to say a) We're properly engaged in the preliminary processes required to get LRT, and b) The funding is beyond both our abilities and remit; look to Queen's Park if you have any complaints about why we're still taking buses, the financials are not a City of Hamilton responsibility.

My friend and I discussed the education issue thoroughly. We produced no answers, save for the notion that we need to come up with better means of providing those who are interested, ie the 'aware -and-energized' what they have clearly been denied...even though there's no dearth of access: information. And that from there, better discourse will result, undoubtedly with a higher level of debate. 

The issue-at-play isn't what's important to me. (In fact, in most cases, we're either behind the 8-ball or the curve to such an extent that it's almost a masochistic exercise to try to turn things around.) What's important is having better engagement unfold. 

So I guess I have to thank the poster for reminding me that 'You don't play sports to get in shape, you get in shape to play sports.' Or the analogous equivalent for civic participation. 

M Adrian Brassington