Before I get rolling on this week’s column, I just wanted to extend my thanks to everyone who hit the ‘Like’ button and allowed two of my photos to take first and second place in the Town of Outlook’s recent photo contest on Facebook. That meant a lot to me, and I was happy to see so many other great photos among the collection, particularly those by my fellow winners, John McPhail and Henry Buys. Well done! This town and surrounding area never fail to be worthy of capturing!
Speaking of this town, there’s a word that seems to describe what so many people who call this place home have inside them at the moment, and that’s passion. They have a passion for their community, a passion for their neighborhoods and homes, a passion for what’s happening at their children’s schools, and without a doubt, a passion for the happenings and goings-on behind the scenes of all of it.
In recent weeks, this newspaper has published a good handful of letters to the editor pertaining to local politics and the decisions that have been made in the past. Specifically, these are letters coming from citizens of this community who are asking questions of their elected officials, and in another case, letters from two key officials in Outlook (the mayor and one councillor) who also wanted to have their say. All of them have the right to such a platform, and all are deserving of having their views, opinions and comments read by all.
They were passionate (there’s that word again) and depending on what side of the fence you’re on, they garnered all manner of reaction.
I love seeing that kind of community feedback. It shows that people are invested and that they’re not afraid of giving voice to their beliefs.
This is certainly nothing new though when it comes to the people of Outlook. To put it bluntly, they sure as hell give a damn what happens in their own backyard. We’ve seen this level of emotional investment in public before, whether it was the candidate forum and Q&A event that The Outlook hosted in 2016 prior to the last municipal election or the few public meetings hosted by the Town of Outlook at the Civic Centre.
At such meetings, passion may be an understatement. People came armed and ready to tackle *insert topic here* and presented valid concerns to their elected officials. Heck, Larry Pederson took to the mic a handful of times at the last meeting held in October 2019 to get a number of different things off his chest, and there was audible applause at a few things he had to say from some who were still seated. If that’s not passion, I don’t know what is.
When the citizens of Outlook and area don’t make their feelings known in the pages of their trusted newspaper (and why wouldn’t they, seeing how there’s never been a time in history where The Outlook’s content has been read by more people with the advent of our website a few years ago?), one place they love to go and share a view or two is social media.
Specifically, the ‘Hot Topics’ version of the Outlook & District Bulletin Board page on Facebook.
Oy, this page at times has been a real pain in my neck. I was made a co-administrator of the page a while back, and it seems I’m spending all my time on the page either dodging membership requests from fake ‘bot’ profiles or trying to force grown adults to stop sniping at each other like junior high kids.
It’s not without its perks, though. A hefty amount of the discussion on this page deals with what’s happening in the community, with a dose of the aforementioned ‘Hot’ sprinkled throughout. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not some viper pit filled to the brim with four-letter words, just a space for people to vent and present a hard opinion or two.
In recent weeks, the page has featured discussion on what’s happening at the local political level, namely the town council. I have no horse in this race and I’m merely the local reporter so I stay out of any conversation that gets personal, but I will toss in a fact or two when I’m asked or when I feel it’s relevant.
But here’s where social media discussion seems to bottom out on itself – it has a bit of a glass ceiling. See, all that passion on Facebook is great, but it needs to go a step further. Several members of Outlook’s town council are on record as saying that they don’t take Facebook seriously and that all of that kind of talk is “hearsay” from people who don’t want to come forward in more of a public manner.
Social media’s a good platform, but personally, I think if you want real change in your community, you need to go further.
And what do you know, we have a municipal election right around the corner…
For this week, that’s been the Ruttle Report.
