I found this open letter printed in the Georgia Straight, a local left wing free paper here in Vancouver, a couple of weeks ago. Now, don’t get me wrong, even though politically, I’m pretty conservative, I love the Straight for the voice it gives to those who aren’t usually heard.
That said, sometimes there’s a reason those voices aren’t heard. From the article:
We would also recommend that you ask staff to consider if potential penalties involved with Vancouver withdrawing from hosting the 2010 Games outweigh the looming costs to the City for security and other Olympic costs.
This is marginal thinking at best. Pull out of the games? Are you nuts? Imagine the lawsuits from every business owner who decided to move to Vancouver, from every condo owner who bought here, from all the investors in the various Olympic venues, not to mention the costs of all the infrastructure projects begun here in the last four years.
Publishing an open letter by nut cases like this damages the reputation of the Georgia Straight and marginalizes voices that might have genuine, well-thought out issues about the Games (whatever they might be). Most frighteningly, there appears to be some people with medium-sized reputations who signed that letter. Come on, people, try reading what you signed!
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There are reasons to not want the games (said the advocate hired by the devil). Traffic, chaos, terrorism targeting, general dislike of sports…but a city that bothered to go through the rigorous application process would not pull out. It’s no different than the Americans who wanted to pull out of Iraq a week after we got there. Even if it was a bad idea, there comes a point when it’s just too late.
Why not publish this? Every other paper publishes horseshit opinions from the right and middle and centre-left, why not have The Straight publish the horseshit opinions of the further left?
You seem capable enough of poking holes in the letter writer’s reasoning, so why are you upset that it wasn’t pre-censored for you?
Also, I can’t imagine this will damage the reputation of The Straight… especially considering the letter was published a couple of months ago, and nothing much seems to have come of it.
@Scott I can’t believe there were people like that. They didn’t learn their lesson from the first Gulf War?
@Andy. But usually it’s informed horseshit. A mere TWO SECONDS of thought exposes how crazy this letter is. Though I love the Straight, it doesn’t have the best of reputations… and this is part of the reason why.
It was an Open Letter, signed by, as you put it, some people with medium sized reputations. That’s enough to warrant printing it. If crazy trashcan man writes an open letter about why we need to pull out of the Olympics, and it doesn’t provide any compelling reasoning, sure, don’t print it. But I think, considering that this was endorsed by a number of people, and The Straight really is the primary forum for their side, it would have been inappropriate not to publish it.
What it comes down to in this case, is that you believe these people have the incorrect opinion. Because their position is incorrect, they deserve no platform… I’m not sure that’s how I’d like communication to work in our little democracy. I’d prefer everyone to be able to get their position out there… and then, you know, eviscerated, if their position makes no goddamn sense.
It’s not as though the Open Letter is libelous. It’s not slandering anyone. On any day, you should be able to find at least one Op Ed piece in one of the major papers that’s more hateful than this, and just as wrong-headed. And an Op Ed piece clearly represents a greater responsibility for a paper — the Open Letter is clearly not from the paper’s own employee.
Basically, some people got together, and said, in their worldview, pulling out of the Olympics is more attractive than staying in it. They asked for others to weigh the pros and cons. And, oddly, when most sensible people think about the pros and cons… hell, I have absolutely no interest in the Olympics, and find myself just a hair shy of saying that I hate them outright, not just in Vancouver, but anywhere, and even I couldn’t imagine a way in which pulling out of the Olympics with anything short of a Time Machine would be anything less than a complete effing nightmare for this City.
Also: Why does social housing require the destruction of the Olympics? I get that, you know, the Village is already halfway there… but… why not launch a campaign for correcting this city’s housing problem that doesn’t also fuck something up for everyone else?
“The Straight really is the primary forum for their side, it would have been inappropriate not to publish it.” Yeah, but that’s what I’m saying… does the Straight have to be the primary forum for the crazies? I mean there are perfect intelligent and cogent left wingers out there, aren’t there?
I guess what I object to most is that the stereotype is correct. It offends me when people reinforce stereotypes. I love the WWF because they’re awesome. They’re crazy environmentalists who regulary outfox large corporations and kick government ass. They totally buck the stereotype of the guys who believes that if they chain themselves to a tree the environment will magically fix itself.
These guys, however, slot nicely into the stereotype of the rabid protestors who doesn’t really understand the issues that they’re so against.
I’ve read similar letters (or comments) in The Province, The Sun and the Globe and Mail about the 2010 stuff. I don’t see why the Straight shouldn’t be publishing it.
If anything, it reveals the deep anger that has bubbled through the city regarding the 2010 stuff. Specially after the big bailout blow-up. Oh, boy.
I suppose, but foaming-at-the-mouth nuttery isn’t going to help the situation.
We just needed to toss out the elected officials who though the city could develop property on its own. And we did just that. After that, what more can we do?