Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
It feels a little disproportionate to quote Dr King in writing about the recent referendum on a proposed performing arts centre in Kamloops. On the evening of Saturday Nov 7th, however, I was desperately searching for ways to describe how I felt about some of the reactions I was reading on the Internet about the failure of the proposal to pass in the referendum.
There was a lot of finger pointing and offence taking at those who voted no in the referendum. There was a lot of minimizing any rationale for voting no. There was talk of misinformation being spread.
I understand the time, energy, and money that those who supported the performing arts centre proposal put into the project. I personally strongly supported the project although as some local pundits have opined, I perhaps should have done more to campaign for it. I understand the strong emotions that come with a loss of something many dearly wanted. Thank you to everyone who stood strongly in support.
Sweepingly dehumanizing the reasons of those who did not support the proposal, though, gets us exactly nowhere moving forward. My fervent hope is that many were captured by the heat of the moment. If we are ever to get to a plan b, those who of us who supported the failed proposal need to value and better understand the reasons why many of our fellow citizens did not support it. And we have to work to earn more of their support. I don’t see any other way.
So, I also want to extend my thanks and my hand of friendship to those who voted no. I’ve appreciated the opportunity to respectfully ask some of you how a performing arts centre might gain your support in the future. I feel that might have been a question asked too soon in some cases. Simply put, I am keenly interested in being part of continued efforts to build what I feel would be an incredible community amenity.
Another word for love, in some cases, might be respect. The performing arts centre issue is not the only one where I would encourage everyone to respect others. The Ajax mine proposal is likely coming to a head in 2016. And we will be tested as a community. My strong view is that we are better together, living with respect for each other, even / especially when we have a great diversity of views.
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