Poetry Textravastanza at The Meet

The Poetry Performances sponsored and organized by the Cobourg Poetry Workshop, delivered a diversity of eloquence last night at 66 The Meet that was roundly appreciated by Cobourg’s better poems and garden set. It was a textceptional evening.

Catherine Owen, dressed in darkly demure metal-petal ambiance, bearing whispers of Goth around her throat, sang and throated and brought the assembled poetariet into a love poem, into a dark poem, back to love and life again, heavily accented in medieval and modern (modieval?)

Daniel Tysdal, whom I met for the first time, face2face, and I looked up to him, a bit; 6’1.5” to his 6’2.5”. A man with a natural alpha male body bearing bon mot textosterone poetry, interactive, distributing his voice through several other voices, and ending with a call for poets to deliver a line … Now that’s texterity.

Grahame Woods, a well-awarded wordie amongst The Local Lot, launched his first book of poetry; Path Imperfect. Grahame gives good mic with soft-spoken ease.

Diversity on Display; three genres of eloquence spread over 90 minutes is more than one could normally expect out here in Cobourg. A lot of books were sold. I will review them in the coming days, beginning first with Grahame Wood’s book. Cuz he’s local, just like me.

Books bond.

Name Sensory Garden After Local Cultural Achiever

Northumberland Today columnist and poet, Grahame Woods, has written an excellent piece concerning Victoria Park in Northumberland Today. I am troubled only by his suggestion that the Sensory Garden be named after some obscure duke from the 1700’s who had never known of Cobourg in any manner.

We have Victoria Hall, Victoria Street, Queen Street, Victoria Park, and other royal references. Enough already. Let’s turn our heads to celebrate and honour our own.

Aside from royalty, other municipal buildings, streets, parks in Cobourg have been named after administrators, bureaucrats and politicos. Not a hero, nor colourful character amongst them. Dull role models.

Not a musician, nor acrobat, nor artist, nor poet, nor composer, nor novelist, nor actor, nor anyone of a cultural character that has touched Cobourg in one way or another has a street, park, building, garden, or roundabout named after them. Pity.

I had brought up an idea back in January 1988, to namestreets after poets. Interestingly, I suggested that recipients of the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry be applied – we lo and behold, Cobourg has such a recipient since that proposal was made. First, Second and Third Street should be renamed after an individual of cultural achievement.

Honor poets with festival, street names, Jan 18, 1988

OPEN LETTER TO MP RICK NORLOCK

Member of Parliament for Northumberland – Quinte West

Mr Rick Norlock

House of Commons

Ottawa, Ontario

September 26, 2012

AN OPEN LETTER

Dear Mr Norlock

I write this letter with deep concern for the safety of my fellow Canadians.

The Prosecutor-General of Egypt announced that warrants were issued, charging two Canadians, Coptic Christians, with blasphemy crimes for their alleged involvement in the making of a satirical video. By naming and outing these two Canadians, the Prosecutor-General of Egypt has ostensibly targeted these two men for the benefit of murderous assailants. The two men advised CBC that they are in fear of their lives and the lives of their families.

If the Prosecutor-General of Egypt fails to provide any evidence supporting the charges, then it would appear that the two men are nothing more than political scapegoats for the Muslim Brotherhood regime to play into the hands and demands of the militant Islamists. It is well known to Canadian authorities that Coptic Christians endure lethal discrimination in Egypt.

January 7, 2011, Foreign Affairs declared that "Canada condemns the attack on Coptic Christians in Nag Hammadi. We extend our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those killed and wish a speedy recovery to the injured. That the victims were innocent civilians congregating for a religious celebration makes this attack especially tragic.”

Recently a young Coptic Christian dissident blogger in Egypt, Alber Saber, was arrested on charges of blasphemy relating to the satirical video, Innocence of Muslims. He has been beaten, tortured and imprisoned. He will be standing trial this coming October 3.

(1) I request that Canadian authorities consider laying slander charges against the Prosecutor-General of Egypt.

Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, a cabinet minister for railways in the Pakistan govt, explicitly offered $100,00 to anyone who kills those involved in the making of the satirical video. This is “head money.” It is counselling murder. It is incitement to murder the two Canadians who have been unjustly listed by the Muslim Brotherhood regime of Egypt.

(2) I request that Canadian authorities should consider laying charges against that Pakistani cabinet minister for counselling murder against two innocent Canadians. Canada should request his extradition, or demand that he brought to trial in Pakistan on charges of counselling murder. He still remains a cabinet minister.

Furthermore, Mufti Mohammad Yousuf Kasuri, chief of Jamiat Ahle Hadith Party for Sindh Province, added his own reward of approximately $105,000 "for the one who will hand exemplary punishment to the blasphemer."

(3) I request that Canadian authorities should consider his extradition or demand he brought to trial on charges of counselling murder.

Producing and distributing a lowbrow satirical video is free speech, as protected by our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Counselling murder is NOT free speech; it is a crime.

Free speech is under attack by the forces of theological tyranny. It is time that all Western nations refuse to apologize for our constitutionally protected free speech.

(4) Lastly, I request that the law of blasphemous libel be removed from Canada’s criminal code. It is hypocritical and weakens Canada’s position vis a vis blasphemy and free speech when we oppose the second stage effort by the 56-nation OIC to impose shariah planet-wide. In this contest there will be only one winner: FREE SPEECH, and more of it.

Sincerely

Wally Keeler

Unit D4 – 135 Chapel Street

Cobourg, Ontario, K9A 1J5

905-372-8379

poetician1@gmail.com

Blogger Ben Burd Footsies With Fascists

On April 4, 2011, Ben Burd wrote: “When UN workers are slaughtered by Muslems offended by a video that shows a redneck preacher in the USA burning a Koran who do we blame? The preacher – Terry Jones – has said the deaths are not his fault, blithely skimming over the fact that if he hadn't burnt the book nobody would have died, has not even faced the suggestion that he committed a crime – inciting murder. Why is that? Are the authorities in the USA afraid to talk about it. Where is the International Criminal Court, which has a cross-border jurisdiction on this?” 

It must be heartening for Mr Burd to learn that the Prosecutor General of the Muslim Brotherhood regime of Egypt has issued an arrest warrant for the “redneck preacher” Terry Jones, charging him with “harming national unity, insulting and publicly attacking Islam and spreading false information. The office said they could face the death penalty, if convicted.” The credo of the Muslim Brotherhood is "Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations."

Also charged with the “redneck preacher”, are seven Coptic Christians, two of whom, are Canadians. Coptic Christians in Egypt face lethal discrimination: sacked churches, burned villages, forced conversions of Christian girls, countless assaults and rapes and the everyday fear of being accused of blasphemy. No wonder they fled Egypt to safer lands where free speech is protected.

Two Canadians have been outed by the Muslim Brotherhood as perps in the making of the satirical Mohammed video. To use Ben Burd’s reasoning, “…if he hadn't [made] the [video] nobody would have died, has not even faced the suggestion that he committed a crime – inciting murder.” So if the two Canadians were perps in the making of this Mohammed video, then it would be consistent that Ben would be onside with laying incitement to murder charges against them as well as the “redneck preacher”. The Muslim Brotherhood charged the Canadians with offences that carry the death penalty.

(There is no chance that Canada will hand these two Canadians over to Egypt, even if it were proven that they were deeply involved in the making of the sophomoronic satirical video. Canada deports no one who faces a death penalty in another country.)

Canada must demand from Egypt that they put up or shut up. Egypt must present the evidence linking the two Canadians to the satirical video. Failure to do so is tantamount to a lethal slander against the two Canadians. They have been outed. A target has been painted on their backs, and on the backs of those near and dear to them.

A cabinet minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan held a press conference to announce that he was placing a $100,000 bounty on the heads of the video producers. The Minister declared that it was an Islamic “sacred duty”. This is counselling murder. It appears that that is acceptable free speech in that part of the world; note no street demonstrations against a ruling class politician counselling murder. Indeed contracts for murder seem to be all the rage. Mufti Mohammad Yousuf Kasuri, chief of Jamiat Ahle Hadith Party for Sindh Province, added his own reward of approximately $105,000 "for the one who will hand exemplary punishment to the blasphemer."

The Holy Head Honcho of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the SUPREME LEADER OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, announced, “If they had refused to support the previous links in this evil chain - namely, Salman Rushdie, the Danish cartoonist and Quran-burning American priests - and if they had not ordered tens of anti-Islam films from the companies affiliated with Zionist capitalists, today this great and unforgivable sin would not have been committed.”

And Ben Burd wrote about the “Quran-burning American priest” with these immortal words: “… if he hadn't burnt the book nobody would have died…” How sickenly similar this local progressive blogger is with the voice of theological totalitarianism.

Below is a montage of catch phrases from the Holy Head Honcho’s theological epistle: “wicked enemies of Islam … deep malice … insulting the Holy Prophet … idiotic and disgusting movie …increasing brilliance of Islam and the Holy Quran in the world today... the holiest person in all of creation … disgusting nonsense … disgrace … great crime and sin…wicked movie … hostile policies … America and other leaders of the arrogant powers, who are vainly trying to make young generations in the Islamic world lose respect for what is held sacred and to extinguish their religious sentiments … American politicians … should duly punish the perpetrators and the financial backers of this hideous crime, who have filled the hearts of Muslim people with pain…”

How touching! Within hours of the Holy Honcho delivering his religious rant, an Iranian religious foundation headed by Ayatollah Hassan Saneii, raised the bounty on novelist, Salman Rushdie’s head. Ruling class theocrats counselling murder is acceptable free speech in the 56 nations of the Organization of Islamic Co-operation, but satirical cartoons lampooning an imaginary god, well, that cannot be countenanced.

Georgeous George Galloway, is someone Ben Burd gushes over in the same manner that Burd Report co-moderator, DebO, gushed over the family dictatorshit of the Castro brothers. George Galloway shares the same feelings about the satirical video as the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

This is the montage of similar catch phrases from George Galloway’s tirade on PressTV, owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran: “… obscene videos … obscene atrocious attack on the prophet Mohammed, on Muslims and the religion of Islam … remember those vicious hateful cartoons, the hate drawings, that first emanated in Denmark, well, they’re back. They are in a French magazine called Charlie Hebdo. Now what could have possessed such a magazine to disinter those particular cartoons? Well, it’s obvious. They want to capitalize on the number of hateful sectarians that are out there, and the number of islamophobes that are out there, as we have seen in the relish of which some sectors of Western society have gloried, glorified to use the term in British law… hate cartoons against Muslims, and against the prophet of Islam … obscene hateful caricatures of the prophet Mohammed … insulting in the most obscene and pornographic terms the prophet Mohammed, the Muslims, Islam.”

Wow, George seems clearly upset about any negativity about (1) Muslims, (2) Mohammed, (3) Islam. Again, George reflects a sickening similarity to the Supreme Leader's religious rant. Hmmm.

Charlie Hebdo is a “French satirical weekly newspaper, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics and jokes. Irreverent and stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has a strongly antireligious, left-wing and anarchist slant.” The images are as outrageous as the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers cartoons of hippie dippie days. Recall the infamous November 2011 issue of Charlie Hebdo which was ‘guest edited’ by Mohammed. The cover illustrated Mohammed saying, “A 100 lashes of the whip if you don’t die laughing.” Charlie Hebdo was firebombed for its satirical humour.

(Galloway is slovenly with his logic. Charlie Hebdo published original cartoons – it did not reprint the Danish cartoons as Galloway accuses it of having done.)  

It appears that Ben Burd and his progressive ilk, have allied themselves with the right-wing facists of theological totalitarianism who oppose homosexuality, sexual liberation, oppress women, etc. George Galloway is a closet Muslim who does not support gay marriage, does not support women’s rights, but does support theological totalitarians.The progressive left and their ilk are dupes, plain and simple.

After all is said and done, Ben can stand with bimbo George Galloway, but I will stand with comedian George Carlin who wrote, “I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is and cross it deliberately” and “Religion is just mind control¨ and finally, “When it comes to BULLSHIT...BIG-TIME, MAJOR LEAGUE BULLSHIT... you have to stand IN AWE, IN AWE of the all time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion.¨

Poet James Clarke Reads @ 66 The Meet Tonight

The Kid from Simcoe Street

A Memoir and Poems

Author: James Clarke

Publisher: EXILE Editions, 259 pages

ISBN 978-1-55096-260-4

Before James Clarke arrived in Cobourg to become a poetry-recitingTown Councillor, he began his life in Peterborough where his wartime experience of childhood becomes the subject of this rich and compelling memoir.

Our culture is chock-a-block with books about dysfunctional families written by victims, railing on about their celebrated parents dereliction of parental duty. This unrelenting glut of grief fuels tv ‘reality’ shows and book sales via the Ms O.

James Clarke’s memoir avoids all of the pitfalls of such a book. There is no trace of maudlin sentimentality, nor embedded bitterness in this book. There is no milking for sympathy. There is no wisdom being proselytized. It is neither cold nor clinical, but warmly human.

Canadian poet, (and Cobourg resident) Ross Stuart, in his recent book of stories, Buying Cigarettes For the Dog, wrote, ““you never know where life’s journey is going to take you, like you never know how the years are going to shove you around.”

James Clarke narrates his childhood turbulence from parental alcoholism. He describes incidents that shoved him this way and that with clarity and compassion. All too often, life’s most memorable lessons derive from arbitrary injustices.

Mr Clarke went on to practice law in Cobourg and became the first Town Councillor to make a motion in rhyme. He was letting his inner poet out bit by bit.  Even more impressive, is that Mr Clarke is now a retired Judge of the Superior Court of Ontario.

Mr Clarke’s childhood experiences informed him rather than deformed him. This, in turn, provided for the honest clarity of his book, as well, I am sure, for his judicial decisions when another life that had been shoved around by the years and ended up in the prisoner’s box bound by testimony.

It is the realm of tragedy.

After a lifetime of service to truth and justice, James Clarke looks back over the horizon to his childhood and to his father, and how the years dealt with him. The Hon R Roy McMurtry, former Ontario Chief Justice, Attorney-General and High Commissioner to Great Britain, wrote the Introduction for this enlightened book. Mr McMurtry highlighted the power of Mr Clarke’s prose-poetry by citing:

“Dad and I had lost each other in the shadow of each other’s silences. Dad, another child in the house, never did learn the language of touch. He spurned embraces and other displays of affection. It was as if after his experiences of war he had built a box and, gathering all his hurts and silences, had curled up inside it like a shivering dog, leaving us to pear in through the slats to glimpse his face in blades of light, to listen to the slow shrivelling of his heart.”

Mr Clarke took a different route. He emerged from the cocoon of his childhood and took flight into law and poetry. His memoir ends as he leaves Peterborough to go to university. Fortunately, the book does not end.

The book ends with a flourish of selected poetry that addresses his relationship with language as a judge and then as a poet. Mr Clarke is adroit with language, and he dazzles with simplicity.

READ THIS BOOK!

PS: James Clarke is reading at The Meet, 66 King St E, 7pm, Thursday, Sept 20

Cobourg Poet Laureate Reviews Textual Artivity

TEXTUAL ARTIVITY by TED AMSDEN

Artist and poet-vocateur, Wally Keeler is having an art/poetry show at the Human Bean during the month of September.

        Talking to Wally Keeler, well, you need patience. The man is his own entertainment centre. He remakes the basic nuts and bolt words of daily usage into ammunition for his Imagine Nation of the Peoples Republic of Poetry. 

        You have to be careful how you throw words around in his presence because they will be re-born, - on the spot - as poetential building blocks for use in the uni-verse according to Wally. All is fodder in his galaxy. You need to give yourself a little time to catch up to his way of thinking. The patience isn't for him, it's for you as you get up to his speed.

        Spoiler alert for Keeler's upcoming show at the Human Bean during the month of September. Keeler's uni-verse is humorous. Keeler definitely doesn't think the way the rest of us do and that is part of his charm. Keeler is a senior who enjoys playing at the child's level while ensuring that the resulting images and words are very much for adults.

        "I utilize poetic licence to achieve poetic justice. The enemy of the Imagine Nation is mediocrity. This bloated bland gland debris culverts out of the mouths of politicos and bureaucrats and gets distributed by the plainstream media."

        Clearly, Keeler has a bit of edge leftover from the seventies when he accomplished some impressive feats of street and political performance that prefigure today's flash mobs. Keeler's, "1st Interm Report of the Commission of the Causes and Manifestations of Divergent Think Procedure Concerning the 1st 10 years of the History of the Peopls Rpublic of Poetry" book document's those days. Written, or rather assembled in Cobourg, it is an amazing record of Keeler's ability to manifest his poetic universe.

        Keeler is a free speech advocate, no doubt due to experiences like these, "During the 1970’s I experienced interference in my freedom by the Security Service of the RCMP intercepting and withholding my mail, wiretapping my residence, interfering with my employment and tenancy…Interestingly this led to connections being developed with the creative, dissident class in Eastern Europe during the cold war. It was an exhilarating pleasure to contribute to the subversion of totalitarianism by smuggling the manifestations of creativity in and out."

        Now Totalitarianism hasn't been seen on this side of the Atlantic, officially, for as long as anybody can remember but there is still an enemy out there according to Keeler. He says language and poetry in particular is "under attack by mediocrity". Society's obsessive concern with correctness has "commissions watching everyone’s words and enforcing nicespeak. Nicespeak is the new Newspeak, which is Nospeak at all." Engage Keeler deeper on this topic and it's plain he has much to say.   

        Older, wiser, but still playful, these days Keeler's stage is smaller. There are images in this show from his series: Child's Play. They "consist of configurations of children's wooden alphabet blocks on mirrors and other surfaces." that spell out the words liberty and freedom in English and other languages. In large prints, toy trucks, soldiers and lettered building blocks have been Photoshopped into Cobourg images. There are also Freedom of Speech posters.

        In other images, Keeler uses material objects like Scrabble letter tiles and again children's building blocks and arranges them according to the rhyming scheme of Shakespearean Sonnets which makes for some interesting non-literary understanding of the Bard's craft.

         Other images consist of ‘news’ stories from the series: All the Muse That’s Fit to Print. These stories represent some of the news coming from the Image Nation of the Peoples Republic of Poetry. Satirical and poetic, the stories are a careful blend of literary fact and fiction and are probably the most accessible productions of Keeler's show for those who find Keeler's universe and bit unusual.

        This show will be a bit of a home coming and a premiere event for the poet. "I have exhibited or performed in Poland, Hungary, England, Germany, New York, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, but never in my poemtown. Only a handful of close friends and acquaintances from Cobourg knew the kind of poetic work I manifested in Toronto since the early 70s." He has been active in the poetry scene in Cobourg since returning to Cobourg and regularly incorporates it into activities at Cobourg's Ecology Garden where he is the Chair.

================

The image below was sold. I miss it already. It was one of my favourites and graced my wall for the past three years. It now has a wonderful home with a hot-sauced poet. 

 

Open letter to Cobourg Town Council

August 26, 2012

Dear Mayor and Town Councillors

Last week I left a memory stick at the Town Hall containing photos and a five minute video clip pertaining to Ribfest in Victoria Park. I requested that it be given to Councillor Larry Sherwin and that he, in turn, forward it to the town arborist.

The photos and video display how heavy vehicles run over the roots of the park’s cottonwood trees, and park their weight on top of these same roots, for five days, from set up to take down.. The roots are shallow, that is to say, they run along just inches below the surface, and in some instances, the roots are visible on the surface.

The photos will also show that a number of these roots, visible on the surface, had been spray painted with florescent orange paint. Only the roots had been painted. That did not diminish the traffic of heavy vehicles running over them.

Victoria Park lost six mature trees so far this year -- and a sapling recently died. Two were brought down by wind damage, two by Dutch Elm disease, two were brought down by other unhealthy factors.

Those cottonwoods have been providing canopy services for generations. Their height and maturity lend an ambience of grandeur to Victoria Park. I would appreciate Town Council considering the notion of a protective perimeter around those trees.

Victoria Park is not just any Cobourg park. It is smack in the middle of the heritage district. Those cottonwoods are living heritage. 

Extending the life span of those cottonwoods is the goal. Any activity that jeopardizes that life expectancy should be prohibited. Please obtain expert advice about this concern.

Secondly

The bylaws concerning Victoria Park includes the following under the heading Organized Gathering and Picnics, "5.3(b) While in a park, no person shall: (b) Have a picnic within a twenty (20) metre radius of a Cenotaph of Remembrance."

I measured the distance from the main pillar of the Cenotaph of Remembrance to the fence. It was 6.5 metres. The grease pit cookers are parked within that 20 meter radius. That bylaw does not concern itself with any health or safety issue, which is the normal motivation that creates bylaws. The above bylaw was created to respect and honour the Cenotaph of Remembrance.

Question: When issuing a permit to an organization to hold an organized gathering where food is cooked and eaten, is bylaw 5.3(b) suspended? If it is not suspended, will it be enforced in the future?

All good things

Wally Keeler

TEXTUAL ARTIVITY @ The Human Bean

The state of mind popularly known as the Imagine Nation of the Peoples Republic of Poetry invites you to the opening of “TEXTUAL ARTIVITY’.

This is Wally Keeler’s debut exhibition of his graphic wordwork in his poemtown: Cobourg.

Reception is September 5, Wednesday, 6pm – 8pm, Human Bean, 80 King Street West, Cobourg.

Wally plans to perform one poem: THE RANT.

This exhibit is sponsored by FREE SPEECH, a division of the FREEDOM FORCES. FREE SPEECH; a sustainable decongestant against Suppression, Oppression, Repression.

The gathering will be invited to participate in the making of a propaganda video selling the brand: FREE SPEECH.
“What do we want?”
“Free Speech!”
“When do we want it?”
“Always”
“LOUDER! 
What do we want?”
“FREE SPEECH!!”
“When do we want it?”
“ALWAYS”

And, of course, the chanting of the ubiquitous POETRY IS POETENCY.

Northumberland Ribfest & Victoria Park cottonwoods

Northumberland Ribfest building communities

Victoria Park Trees; Running Over Roots

Cottenwood roots run over by Pig Rig in Victoria Park Aug 16

POETRY TAKES TO THE STREETS, THOUSANDS CHEER

                                  muse@11

POETRY boldly took to the streets in Cobourg Ontario this past Canadada Day. The Imagine Nation of the Peoples Republic of Poetry, in accordance with the “primary policy of poetry proliferation”, sponsored the event, POETRIOTS ON PARADE.

Cobourg’s third Poet Laureate, Ted Amsden, led the way in a sleek Porsche convertible; beauty and power of a well-engineered poem. This was in high contrast to the local political dignitaries perched on more, how shall we say it, prosaic convertibles at the front of the parade.

Poet Amsden, our poetical dignitary, was caboosed by the end of the parade, imbedded into the Santa Claus position, far away from the farces of mediocrity. This led one local wit to comment that Poet Amsden should portray himself as Sonnet Claus.

Poet Amsden was provided with a bag of poetry, neatly folded into stealthy paper airplane poems, armed with surface to sentence similes. They were launched towards the poetariet lined along the route. Back to the poem age.

Now is the rhyme for all good poets to come to the aid of poetry

A spontaneous act of dipoematic poetnership between the Peoples Republic of Poetry and the folkistas of the Shelter Valley Folk Festival allowed more placards of wit and poetry to be displayed along the streets of Cobourg. An accompanied sedan blasted out that ole 60’s one hit wonder by Johnny Tillitson, Poetry In Motion.

For once poetry was the litter de jour on the streets. Stanzas drifting down the street on random breezes, airy somethings in our local habitation.

Poet Laureates of Canada: ARISE. Our brand is POETRY. Sell it! OUT LOUD!!!

Earth Day Graffiti by CDCI-West students

DebO Runs Interference for Ben the Boss Burd

Burd Report co-moderator, DebO wrote; “…we’ve had an egregious attack made on the Boss by a former commentor who’s still mad that he got banned a few months ago and turned a careless mistake and turned it into a crusade on his own blog, crudely labeling Ben a racist when he was just being thoughtless.”

Reflective of Ben Burd’s thoughtlessness, the same phenom seems to guide DebO when she asserts that I had crudely labeled Ben as a racist. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Publishing a racial slur does not denote the publisher or anyone as a racist. My article referred only to the posting of a racial slur by Ben. No one denies it was a racial slur, but that is all it was. I made no reference to Mr Burd’s character whatsoever, and DebO’s misplaced charge that I had labeled Mr Burd a racist, or that I had even “crudely” done so, is a personal slur. It’s not the first time that DebO has made egregious personal slurs against me or others for that matter.

It would be accurate to say that I pointed out that Mr Burd had published a racial slur, but highly inaccurate to assert that I had crudely labeled Mr Burd as a racist. There is an appreciable difference that DebO seems to ignore. She also described my article as an ``egregious attack`` on Mr Burd.

My article focused on the racial slur Ben had made, not on Ben himself. I made no characterization of him, although DebO characterized Ben as being thoughtless, as an old white guy who sometimes doesn`t stop to think first before publishing. It was just a column pointing out a racial slur that Mr Burd had unwittingly made, but really he should have known better. That is not an attack. It was a tsk tsk.

DebO also asserted that I initiated a “crusade” on my blog. Really? A crusade? I made a single one-off posting that had pointed out that the publisher of The Burd Report had posted a racial slur. I do one posting on this subject and DebO scurrilously asserts that it constitutes a crusade.

DebO wrote, “He’s just an old white guy who sometimes doesn’t stop to think first.”

I have no idea what Mr Burd’s skin colour has to do with any of this, but DebO seems to think skin colour is significant; she often makes reference to white skin in her postings. Totally unnecessary.

I agree with DebO that Mr Burd was thoughtless and didn’t stop to think first and had made a careless mistake. I believe he will never again utter that racial slur, which is a good result of my pointing it out. My blog article about the racial slur included the following notion that “Every now and then, something seems evident to me, and I am reminded that it is not evident to everyone around me.” My article was educational insofar as it brought to the attention of our multicultural Northumberland community that the term “gypped” is regarded as a racial slur.

That is all. Mr Burd published a racial slur. The racial slur was in the front window of the Burd Report for 24hours, and not a single progressive, socialist, compassionate, sensitive individual who hangs out on The Burd Report posted a thing about the racial slur. This confirms the contention that such a racial slur “is not evident to everyone” That’s all.

Should they (the Burdies crowd) have noticed the racial slur? Absolutely. After all, DebO was one of those scolding Gordon Gilchrist for his immigrant slurs. She did not cut any slack for Mr Gilchrist. Mr Burd has been involved in local politics and should know better than to make such a racial slur in the public domain.

No where was I “crudely labeling Ben a racist.” That is DebO’s crude presumption, or as they say in streetspeak, ‘bullshit’. But then again, she has used the Burd Report to broadcast her personal slurs against me, proclaiming that I hate women and that I am prone to violence against women in back alleys.

The only comment I received on my blog in response to the Ben Burd’s Racial Slur article, was a message received only minutes before the racial slur was deleted from the Burd Report: “fuck off wally”. It was posted by “anonymous”, a well-known progressive coward in the community, also a disbeliever in transparency.

“fuck off wally”

That is the kind of comment that anyone in Northumberland can expect if they step up and point out that a racial slur is being bandied about in the public domain. Such a comment addresses nothing other than expressing hatred and contempt from its author. It is a typical redneck response.

“fuck off wally”

So what do we have here? We have a local blogger who had posted a racial slur and does not acknowledge that he made such a racial slur:

“I just prefer to think that somebody wrote a sloppy proposal and someone at City hall jailed to pick up on it. But if I am the poor slob that got gypped on my stat holiday pay and decide to complain my lawyer will be writing the prime contractor up for it. Surely councillors should at least ask the bloody question”

Instead, he covers up his egregious racial slur by removing it from his blog and replacing it with this message:

“This comment has been removed as a result of an alleged legal problem”

Really? An alleged legal problem? Oh I get it. It wasn’t removed because of the racial slur, but because of an alleged legal problem. Hmmm.

The Canadian and/or Ontario Human Rights Commissions might find some interest in the issue. They are, after all, the Big Brother enforcers of hate speech regulations. However, this Orwellian Ministry of Truth cannot act until they receive a complaint. Ironically, the co-moderator of the Burd Report, DebO, has called for the strengthening of Human Rights Commissions, to stamp out once and for all, the use of racist hate speech in our multicultural society.

Doubleplus-ironically, Mr Burd, DebO, and several progressive readers were all strongly supportive of the hate speech laws that are enforced by these draconian Human Rights tribunals. Racist speech and racial slurs are serious social taboos in our multicultural community.

It would have been honorable of Mr Burd if he had just acknowledged, oops, I made a social gaff, sorry for the blunder, and everyone moves on a little bit more educated.

Instead, we have a local publisher posting a racial slur, and me pointing it out. What happens? (1) the local publisher removes the racial slur & replaces it with a message about alleged legal problems; (2) anonymous posts “fuck off wally”; (3) DebO runs interference, rides shotgun, charges me with making an egregious attack and conducting a crusade.

What an interesting phenom! A progressive publisher posts a racial slur and all of a sudden that publisher is portrayed as the victim, and the whistleblower of the racial slur is the villain. So much denial and coverup for an innocuous racial slur – it is entertaining to see local progressives behaving like tories; reject transparency, cover up, ignore issues, etc.

No doubt they will take all this personally. Pity.

Suggestions for a Poetry Float in the Canada Day Parade for Cobourg

Raise the Stanza of Living

On Labour Day weekend in 1969, some young people took to downtown Cobourg with brushes in hand to paint the downtown, literally. It was called a Paint-In. Retail stores offered up their windows for a week to be painted by local artists. Only water-colours could be used. The Sept 3 issue of Cobourg Sentinel Star did a big front-page-above-the-fold spread on the Paint-In.

There are too many empty retail outlets downtown with store windows looking more like sore windows. Here’s the pitch.

Cobourg is chock-a-block with poets. They could fill the emptiness of windows with literary substance. One poem per window. The Cobourg Poetry Workshop is a gathering pot of poets, emerging poets, and poetry lovers who could easily fill the windows with their inspiration.

Surely the town could provide the paper and print one poem from each of Cobourg’s three Poet Laureates. The current Poet Laureate could vet the submitted poems from others.

There must be some aspiring poets in our three high schools who would like to display their highly refined literacy.

Don’t take my word for it, take theirs and celebrate it. Fill empty windows with eloquent intelligence. Spread the word. Bring poetry out of the better poems and gardens salons and take it to the streets.

Poetry all too often lies like a cadaver collecting dust on library shelves. Take it to the streets. Poetry for pedestrians.

Raise Cobourg’s stanza of living, post poetry on the ephemeral emptiness of store windows. Make Cobourg our poem and native land.

MESSAGE FROM PAINT-IN 1969

Click on image to enlarge

THERE’S A MESSAGE FROM PAINT-IN

Cobourg Sentinel-Star, September 3, 1969

The many phases of man’s world seemed evident in downtown Cobourg in the youthful effervescence of the paint-in.
From the very young to the fully grown, they were there in long hair, beards, jeans, minis, with legs twined around step-ladders, long arms with free-moving brushes and imagination flowing into design.
What artist does not relish a window?
While vandals see nothing more creative than smashing a window, the majority of young minds are fired up inside with the incontrollable desire to use any window as a ready-made canvas.
They have that Alec Guinness mood, the Guinness who attacked a whole wall with garish colours in the headlong frenzy of a creator.
Behold the windows of downtown Cobourg!
The poet, the animal lover, the romanticist, the slogan writer, the commercial artist, the dreamy abstract one, the realist, the schizo, the funster; the characters of life were there leaping from inside youth to the window caricature of self and society everywhere.
Never was there such an exposition in downtown Cobourg.
There was that Royalist colour and design on the Thomas Electric window, the magnificent horses at Bradley’s. the comics page at Evan’s, Rosemary’s Baby at Stedman’s, a love-in at Cortesis’, the strong man at Woody’s; poetry at Woolworth’s … the prize-winning intricacy at Tom’s. the past, the present, the future, up and down the street.
There was no generation gap. The adult world enjoyed the paint-in and some saw what was not seen before … the tremendous potential of youthful talent in this town, out town, any town in Canada.
It was early morning, Friday, when the Sentinel-Star [Foster Meharry Russell] returning from a Boards of Education meeting, was hailed by Wally Keeler, Kathryn McGlynn and John Allan to see their artistry.
Here was a vignette of the past, for since the early days of printing the Gutenberg Bible, the flow of words in essay and musical line, design has been a part of books, poetry and life.

I CALL YOU WOMAN
REALIZING IT IS NOT ENOUGH
AND TURN AWAY
I THINK OF SISTER OF THE SUN
DAUGHTER OF THE DAY

Comes the indelible realization from the paint-in that there is not generation gap, except for the odd character on the street who doesn’t even understand a modicum of his own era.
The Sentinel Star was looking down Division Street late Friday afternoon.
Some young people were still busy on creative work on and off ladders.
A man and woman passed.
“This is a hippie town. They are all hippies.”
The man turned around and looked backward where a lad, paint brush in hand, was busy creating his thing. Said the man to the woman;
“Je ___ ___, they are painting the windows!”

There are a few in every crowd who do not understand, be they young or old.
Youth will never grow old, so long as they enjoy Archie and the comic page, age will ever remain young in the reflection of the creative light on the young face … for it is for youth to be up and doing and the adult to understand what the activity is all about.
And that for us at The Cobourg Sentinel-Star is the message of the paint-in.

Jack Vollering & Pre-Trial Hearing Jan 16

Retired Catholic elementary school teacher, Jack Vollering, charged with sexual interference with a minor and sexual assault, was not in court for the scheduled pre-trial hearing on January 16. His lawyer, Taylor Smith, appeared in his stead, saying to the judge, "I would like to submit a designation why Jack Vollering is not in court today." Paper documents were handed to the Judge who moved the pre-trial forward to February 10, 2012.

Jack Vollering was a Catholic elementary school teacher in Grafton, Port Hope and Cobourg. Jack Vollering was well-respected in the local Catholic Community, especially the Knights of Columbus, where he rose to 'Faithful Navigator' in the Port Hope Council #6490 from 2008-2010, and last year was designated as Grand Knight. A 'Faithful Navigator' is the highest standing in the Fourth Degree Assemblies.

The local Knights of Columbus website asserts. "The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal order dedicated to the ideals of Columbianism: Charity, Unity, Fraternity, and Patriotism. We serve our fellow Knights, families, Parish, Church, Schools, and the community"

Previously acquired information about Jack Vollering can be found here:
Dec 14, Jack Vollering Charged With Sex Crimes
Dec 21, Are Children Safe at Local Catholic Elementary Schools?
Jan 16, Jack Vollering's son gets married in Mexico