{"id":6680,"date":"2014-05-14T15:00:34","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T19:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=6680"},"modified":"2014-05-30T15:43:32","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T19:43:32","slug":"brocks-banter-perspectives-on-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-perspectives-on-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: Perspectives on Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, the National Day of Honour has come and gone. What did you do to celebrate veterans who have returned from Afghanistan?
\nIf you\u2019re like many Canadians, the answer is probably \u201cnot much.\u201d But again, like many Canadians, if given the opportunity to do so, you probably would have liked to do much more.
\nTaking the storm-in-a-teacup controversies, such as corporate sponsorship of commemorations in Ottawa, out of the equation, one of the primary criticisms surrounding the National Day of Honour was not whether it was right or justified to do anything which could be construed as \u201cglorifying\u201d war, but whether there was enough lead time to do something truly special.
\nWhen the Prime Minister announced plans this March for a unique way to pay tribute to Canada\u2019s Afghan veterans, it was a very welcome move.
\nA regular visitor to the United States at the end of May, often coinciding with their Memorial Day commemorations, I have often thought the way they set aside two separate days at opposite sides of the calendar was a wonderfully practical solution to give everyone their due.
\nWhile Canadians mark Remembrance Day on the anniversary of the Armistice on November 11, our neighbours earmark that day as Veterans Day, paying tribute to all the men and women who served in the theatre of war. Their May holiday is, in turn, a time to honour those who sacrificed their own lives for their country.
\nThese differences are a good way to ensure no group overshadows another. Those who went off to war often did so with a common sense of duty and patriotism. Their experiences over there, however, were highly individual.
\nThe National Day of Honour could have been so much more, if only organizers had the time to make it so. Speaking to some of the people working on a fitting tribute at Aurora\u2019s Cenotaph on Friday, it seemed clear these were people looking for time and direction from the Federal Government.
\nWithout getting that clarity, they did their very best to bring people together, from local members of government such as Mayor Geoffrey Dawe and members of the Queen\u2019s York Rangers to put their best foot forward.
\nWhat they were able to pull together at the last minute was remarkable, but if they had more time to get the word out, there might have been more than four or five people there to see it.
\nCommemorations fared slightly better up in Sutton as the York Regional Police welcomed people to #3 Division to pay tribute to the Queen\u2019s York Rangers, battalions serving the York Region area, and members of the York Regional Police who served in the latest theatre of war and providing opportunities for MPs Lois Brown and Peter Van Loan, as well as YRP Chief Eric Joliffe, and Mayors Virginia Hackson (East Gwillimbury) and Rob Grossi (Georgina) to pay their respects.
\nIt was a wonderful ceremony and, as you can see in these pages, Sergeant Jason Kloos paid moving tribute to the people he served with, several of whom were in the audience with their families, as well as those they served with who did not fare so well.
\nAgain, however, participation from other members of the public beyond the friends and loved ones of those who were participating in the ceremony were limited and that was a particular shame. Nevertheless, it was an emotional experience for those who were able to take part in the commemorations.
\n \u201cI began training for Afghanistan in the summer of 2009 at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa,\u201d Sgt. Kloos explained, addressing the audience. \u201cAfter making the grade, it was time to say goodbye to my family and my hometown of Keswick and board a plane to Kandahar Airfield. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. I was filled with excitement, worry and a little bit of fear of my own future.\u201d
\nHearing these words spoken so openly and honestly by someone who had the courage to embark on that mission was heartening.
\nIt also provided much needed perspective, in my view, on what \u201cfear\u201d actually is, and not in the way it has been used so flippantly by so many people in Aurora over the past several months.
\nThere have been claims (well, one) that Scott Johnston\u2019s cartoon lampooning some of the arguments politicians were ostensibly champing at the bit to use against a ward system were \u201cfear mongering\u201d the issue.
\nBack in March, when debates surrounding the proposed Heritage Conservation District (HCD) for the neighbourhood in the southeast corner of Yonge and Wellington really started to take shape, arguments made against the plan, particularly that an would somehow make the municipality co-owners of your property were branded \u201cfear mongering\u201d by those in favour of the plan.
\nThe \u201cfear factor\u201d has also crept into unfolding Provincial race as well with representatives of the Liberal party \u2013 but not the actual Liberal candidate \u2013 arguing the PCs and Tim Hudak will \u201cfind increasingly creative ways to try and divide Ontario, Ontarians, and to fear monger and scare people\u201d, particularly when it came to care for seniors.
\nArguments trying to underscore fear, invoke fear, and accusing others of doing the same with the intention of underscoring and provoking fear have become increasingly stale arguments which completely detract from the true issues at the table and discount what might be, to some, genuine concerns.
\nBefore invoking the word \u201cfear\u201d in an argument, take a moment to gain some perspective. It does not always apply to people with opposite or seemingly opposing viewpoints.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Well, the National Day of Honour has come and gone. What did you do to celebrate veterans who have returned from Afghanistan? If you\u2019re like many Canadians, the answer is probably \u201cnot much.\u201d But again, like many Canadians, if given the opportunity to do so, you probably would have liked to do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1JK","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 18:19:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}