cktimes.ca Archives for Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent
Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent
Capitol Theatre denial signals possible despair and death within Chatham-Kent
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
The faint sound of bells tolling the ultimate demise of Chatham-Kent as a viable place to live and as a progressive community got a little louder last week. They began to sound their mournful, sad lament when it was announced that Navistar was closing its doors and the sound has continued in an incessant, steady rhythm ever since. The vote on Monday night by Chatham-Kent council to not guarantee a loan for $5 million dollars towards the building costs of the Chatham Capitol Theatre cast a pall over many citizens in Chatham-Kent and many more of us could hear that funeral bell loud and clear.The reason given, by the councillors who voted against the loan guarantee, was that they had received "many" negative phone calls urging them not to support this appeal. Now I do not harbor ill feelings towards these councillors. They were caught in the middle and had an extremely difficult task. They were damned if they voted for it and damned if they voted against it. As a result, I have a great deal of sympathy for them. After all how many of us would put up with the abuse they regularly encounter for their pittance of a pay?
My "beef" is with the "many" who took the time to phone council and urge a negative vote. Many of these misinformed citizens honestly thought that council was going to hand over $5 million dollars to the Chatham Capitol Theatre Association that night and each person would somehow have to pay for that elaborate "gift" through their taxes! Once again proving that "a little learning is, indeed, a dangerous thing"! Most people failed to comprehend that it was only a "loan guarantee" and that it would, in all probability, never be acted upon and would not increase one person's taxes?
This probably explains why the majority of people urged a negative vote on the request; however, what about the others who fully understood the situation and still demanded that their councillor to vote against it? Well....that is where we get into some thorny issues that nobody likes to talk about but are at the very heart of this issue.
One is the fact that some people, a very tiny but very vocal minority, regard anything to do with arts, heritage and culture as somewhat suspect and elitist. They see these things as extraneous and designed to benefit only those who cannot see the many aesthetic values of "beer, broads and baseball".
However, the majority of that overall minority who urged a "NO" vote on the Capitol issue are those people who have felt alienated and marginalized by amalgamation and I do have a great deal of sympathy for those individuals. Unfortunately, they are taking their frustrations out on the wrong object. Rightly or wrongly many people outside of Chatham feel that, while amalgamation has had a positive impact upon the former City of Chatham, it has NOT had the same neutral or positive impact upon the rest of the former County of Kent.
As evidenced by the growing numbers in R.O.C. K. within Chatham-Kent, these feelings of frustration are growing and festering and will not be appeased by mere words or symbolic superficial responses. This grass roots group is gaining a great deal of support and I, personally, feel that the R.O.C. K. proposal to de-amalgamate (is that a word?) should be put on the November ballot to democratically decide the issue once and for all.
In fact, I think the issue of the loan guarantee should have been put forth as a public plebiscite as well. Currently the Chatham Daily News is doing this, after the fact, and as I write this article on Sunday afternoon, the vote is 80% in favour of supporting the Capitol Theatre loan guarantee request and only 20% against it. These figures seem much more in line with the general feeling that I have sensed around Chatham-Kent.
And let's face it, once the general public clearly understands the issues and they put aside their anti-intellectual feelings and their anti-amalgamation feelings, why in the world would you not support this loan guarantee proposal??
The opening of the Capitol Theatre, which needs to be achieved sooner rather than later, will make Chatham-Kent a better and more attractive place to live, serve as another incentive for much-needed doctors, provide jobs for people throughout Chatham-Kent, give another reason for a company like Brose Automotive to locate here, enhance our tourist trade, and expand our tourist-related businesses. In turn, these things would lower everyone's taxes and prop up falling property values within Chatham-Kent.
From my point of view, the Chatham-Kent Council on Monday night not only voted against the Chatham Capitol Theatre Association but voted FOR increased taxes due to a decreasing tax base that will only increase without alternative forms of employment. They also voted FOR decreased property values due to the recent loss of jobs, our fast-exiting population, and our inability to keep our home-grown, well-educated youth.
If the philosophy that permeated Chatham-Kent's last council meeting continues and we, as a municipality, continue to cling to the belief that we do not have to do anything to advance our future but sit and wait for a large automotive-related industry to settle into our area, and magically solve all of our economic woes, then the funeral bells tolling the ultimate demise of Chatham-Kent will become louder and louder until it reaches a deafening cacophony of clanging. At that time, possibly council will call a meeting to decide who will be the last person to leave the municipality and how that person should handle his/her responsibility to.....turn out the lights!
Jim and Lisa Gilbert are local, national and international award winning educators and historians.
