"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Monday 3 October 2011

A Declared Mission

Anonymous said...
Thanks to 28 September 3:46.Gave me food for thought.

I'm in a group of women in their 50s, sixth decade of life
.
We are turned off government because of the "politics" some, like you champion.

You've set the bar too low for us. We don't care about the lowest common denominator.

We want to build from the bottom up, with a foundation of principles.

You want "all is fair in love, war and politics".

Check out the history to see have ideas are changing in all three areas.

I think you are beating a dead horse.

We have a declared difference of mission.

****************

The above  comment was one of sixteen made  to the post  "Making Sausage" that I published. To be precise ,it was a comment made to a comment made to the post Making Sausage  There were other comments not worth the space.

I thought this one was a train of thought worth revealing. Fraught with anticipation.

It appeared  to be a declaration of  something. A spokesperson for  a Group of Women in their fifties with a mission to change the world.

This is  interesting, I thought. A novel way to start out. Make a brave declaration but don't tell anybody who you are.

At the week-end I picked up Thursday's edition of The Banner/The Era, looking for clues. I usually check  headlines, addresses of letter writers, the editorial. Seldom find anything I want to read. But this  headline  was right across the top of Page 2.  Couldn't miss it.

"Women's Leadership Council kick-starts campaign"

Ha-Ha ,I thought, this could be it.

Seems fifty women were at a luncheon hosted by Allstate to celebrate female leaders across the region.

Joan Walker is the chairperson of the newly minted United Way Women's Leadership Council. They hope to" kick start a movement tapping into the compassion, energy and cameraderie of women who want to make a difference"

The lunch was in Markham. The paper came out the same day as the comment to my post "Making Sausage" The guest speaker was Deborah Kelly, editor-in-chief of the paper I was reading.

Ms  Kelly was introduced as a busy mother of two teen-agers , a volunteer, a person who juggled job and career and home, who had been on the Board of the United Way for six years.The group heard how she is "thrilled to be making a living  pursuing her passion for community news"

The editor  had this profound statement to contribute to the kick start of the movement.

"I have come to believe that without citizens who are willing to give freely of their time, energy,passion and compassion to worthy causes, communities....simply do not exist.A  community without citizens who care is simply a sterile place with roads,houses,schools and business."

More stuff like that. I wondered how many sterile communities  the fiftiesh Ms.Kelly has become familiar with in   twenty-eight years doing  the same job in Aurora.This morning, reading the story again to ensure I had the quotes right, I realised something else.

The editor  sounds remarkably like someone  we all know, who served  lashings of Kool-ade  and  the same doctrine of self -promotion and  even threw in a Prayer Breakfast and couldn't  get re-elected last time around.

I wondered how many other women I know, "giving of themselves " in political office,  had been invited to the United Way luncheon "to celebrate women leaders across the Region"

I know some of them  read this blog. Maybe you  could let me know if you or any of the other heavy hitters in the Region were considered worthy of this exclusive group.

If I was the only one left out, I will know I'm on the right track.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps you were left out because your style is rooted in the '60's. You pine for the good ol' days unable to come to grips with the reality that is today.

Women that you find opposed to your way of thinking are somehow MorMac wanna-bes.

Anonymous said...

Do you suppose they have already selected the
former Church Street School as a perfect base for all
of their activities ?

Anonymous said...

Who is the old fashioned one here ? These groups
harken back to the Canadian Women's Clubs
sprinkled throughout the former 'colonies'. An
excuse to meddle and entertain. But the bottom line
will always be ' So what does your husband do, dear?'

Anonymous said...

What crap does sit by yonder window?

All of us, women, men, of whatever age, having the right to vote and to express ourselves in the press or on blogs or whatever means of communication that now exist that didn't in the past, let's get at it.

You don't have to be brilliant to become an elected representative, you just have to lie better than your opponent, and if you have the funds to promote yourself that will do you no harm.

We have become a mediocre society, partially because we have disengaged from the process.

So who do we blame, those we elect, or are hired, or ourselves?

If we do not set and maintain a standard of excellence, we should not be disappointed if it is not achieved.

Stop the whining!

Anonymous said...

Did they ask Alison C.M ?