Comment 43056

By lawrence (registered) - website | Posted July 09, 2010 at 17:47:32

Great slideshow Lawrence, I am disappointed that you didn't get more uppity votes. Ryan got more votes for simply fixing your ill-formatted links and that really stinks! Must be the groupies me thinks.

Thanks for sharing Lawrence, I appreciate the all the effort you put into your slideshow, even if others do not, bro. We'll keep you in mind as Hamilton's new media is beginning to grow.

I'll focus on the positive first, even though I don't think what Windfall said was negative in the grand scheme of things, other than the way it was perhaps ‘said’. I expected more of this kind of commentary by this very animated board. And I mean that in a good way.

Okay. The positive.

Thanks sincerely for your support, WRCU2. I expected worse as I touched on above. That is not a knock at RTH at all because I have great respect for the articles and well informed commenter’s on this platform. Like I said, there are many more important things in this city than football, and that is how I took the lack of response or votes. All you need is one person who shares your vision and who appreciates your efforts, to make it worth while. And you my friend, are one of the ones who have made this a worth while effort for me.

I am relatively new to the writing scene or the arts scene here in Hamilton in general. I have been writing on and off since a child, but it's only been in the past 7 or 8 years that this has become more of a passion that I wanted to pursue further. Same thing with music. I have been playing the harmonica in my living rooms and in my garage for probably 10 years now, with only some Bruce Springsteen and an ‘F’ harp to go with for much of the early days. Now I have 10 harps, moved to Lee Oskers, and joined a band and have done a few gigs as I explore this side of my artist self, but finding my ‘voice’ none the less. Comments such as yours and other’s above, certainly help one gain confidence in their abilities and fuel the desire to keep working at it. There is a lot of negative out there, so you have to learn from it, but focus on the positive.

There were enough shared my vision and fears, to make this a positive for me. I know little about politics although spending quality time on sites like this do help one gain a better understanding of it, and reading magazines like Mayday. As for the history side, I wouldn’t even know where to begin to find what Windfall has talked of above, and what was said I believe is important to this discussion.

I love constructive criticism and embrace being called out when I am wrong. It’s the only way we can be better at want we want to do and be stronger, more informed individuals. What I feel though, is that you can call someone out because they eat meat or drive an SUV and alienate yourself from them, or somehow constructively, lead them in the right direction without being a bully about it, or talk about why you don’t eat meat or that you ride a bike and how you have made these changes work for you and how they have improved your life.

The formal Mr. Thomas thing, well, I felt like I was on trial or something. Perhaps I should be? Some of the facts you stated Windfall, were new to me and I appreciate you pointing these things out and sharing this with me (us). I think what is evident from what I have said/shown, is that I too would like to see the current site continue to be a place for community football, but even more of a community place in general; not just one used by the Cats. As I said, the community that exists amongst the neighbourhood and the fans is what I truly love most about the IWS experience as whey they stunk up the joint, it became more about hanging out there than watching poor football on the field.

As for the noise thing, you could go back to the whole you moved by a stadium debate. How many people have lived there before the north stands put your house in shade or the cannon made your flowers fall off the dining room table? They have taken away the Cannon, they could probably do away with the fly-bys that even startle me those rare occasions I can’t make a game and I can feel them burst by over my shoulder as sit in my yard. They don’t need concerts there to make money either. They just need to, as you touched on, bring it back to more of a community gathering place and utilize it much more.

And the only way civic minded folks ... who can relate and testify to the pre Ivor Wynne days when Civic Stadium was in use, is for those of you who know this history, to share it with us as you have done. Not knock us for not knowing Hamilton’s history.

There are few things that I enjoy more, than listening to my 95 year old Grandfather (who learned more about life through living it having had to drop out of school to raise his family after grade 8), talk about the history of this town. The images of Hamilton he paints of life at home during the war, fighting in WWII, the depression, how the city has evolved, picking berries on lands that now are occupied by 17 story apartments, where the waterfront used to be, taking the train all over southern Ontario trying to make a buck.

As for that fight, I jumped on the Red Hill protest very late in the game, but I have never been a part of anything more beautiful in my entire life. I was able to take part in a Sweat in the Valley before the highway opened up, and I am here to tell you I have not known the peace that fighting to save a place that I once enjoyed as a child, than I did the few months I spent with the natives and the people in this city who Truly care about it’s future and those that reside in it. The music, drums, discussions, prayers, and things like Thanksgiving dinner in the Valley. Fire keepers and enjoying the last of the peaceful calm that existed before progression took that from us.

Yeah, I don't know everything there is to know about this cities history, but I love learning about it. To be honest, I didn't even know we had such an amazing History Room at our library until I went there the other day for a quiet place to write this article. Seemed like a very fitting place to discover, before I sat down to talk a little about it.

I truly appreciate your wisdom Windfall. I just think Further to Mr. Thomas' thoughts, would have worked better than continuing to point a waving finger at my lack of knowledge with a formal Mr. Thomas before each ‘paragraph’. I owned up to the knowledge I lack right in my piece.

Lastly to you once again WRCU2, thanks for keeping me in mind re: new media. Art in general is on fire in this community which is great to see, and being a part of it is something I would be honoured to be a part of. Speaking of which, I am hoping to make it to my third straight ‘Crawl’ tonight.

At the end of the day, IWS is very important to me. Sometimes it’s just a matter of having the peace of mind that ‘I had my say’. ‘I said my peace’. That’s all that I can do and now, I know that I am not alone in my thoughts and fears and my love for Ivor Wynne. This was more ‘This is my Red Hill Valley. Who is with me?

As Slodrive said, there have been many discussions about this topic on the Ti-Cats forums. I just don’t think there has been enough pertaining to the existing site.

As Slodrive also stated, see some of you on Saturday. Looking forward to a fun family day at IWS.

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