Voices like Pickering Councillor Lisa Robinson must be heard and listening does not presume agreement.
Councillor Robinson is an elected official, a mature thinking adult and an opinionated politician. She takes positions that some may find objectionable, others not so. However, like the proverbial broken clock is correct twice each day, the more one says, the great are the chance that some of the material may have validity.
Robinson hits the mark often but in her vast statements, she also deviates from accuracy or validity. For instance, she has a point in saying that developers are very entangled in municipal affairs when it comes to Pickering development but asserting that it is bribery and corruption is stretching too far. Another, Ashe may have used labels such as wacko, Nazis and the like, but labelling him a racist is another example of overstretch. From the very start, Robinson has some valid poses, such as saying isolating one group in public flag-raising ignores other groups, but calling it segregation or polarization is a stretch.
Voices like Robinson or any voice publishing in the public arena need to be taken with a grain of salt, not digested holus bolus. The statements need to be analysed, evaluated and weighed before they are accepted or rejected. But such consideration takes time, patience, energy and effort, characteristics that are becoming increasingly eroded in the general public using social media. And there’s the problem!!!
Social media is used today with less and less regard as to its validity or authenticity. Too many people jump on its band wagon as quickly as the message or posting is published. The most recent example is the rioting taking place in the UK over the stabbing deaths of the three children. The social media claim was that the perpetrator was a refugee, colored, and a terrorist fundamentalist. False! Authorities identified the perpetrator as a native born British citizen with no ties with any terrorist organization. However, the rioting crowds missed the message. The mob acted just as a mob acts, emotionally, gut reaction without thinking and consideration.
Voices from the far right or any part of the political spectrum should be heard but given serious and broad consideration and evaluation before they are accepted or rejected. This is as true for local politics as it is in the wider world.
