cktimes.ca Archives for Notes from a Garage


Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Remembering the Age of Camelot

Tuesday, November 19, 2002

You know, Jim Gilbert's column on John F. Kennedy in this week's cktimes brought a tear to my eye. I thought Jim did a brilliant job describing the man who so much symbolized the decade of love – the vibrant and very alive 1960's. Even though Kennedy died so early in the decade, perhaps the great cultural revolution that covered North America during the '60's really died with him. After all, within a couple of years of his death, the Americans were fully into the Viet Nam War and young soldiers were indeed returning home in body bags. It just seemed that the whole world started to fall apart when John Kennedy died. From Viet Nam, we ended up in Watergate and cynicism about the system grew with each passing year, until we've ended up in a world where it seems you can't trust anyone. The Kennedy brothers, because Bobby was also part of the mix, were like something pure and innocent, shining like bright beacons of civilization. As Jim Gilbert pointed out in Cultural Musings, Kennedy had his warts, but they seem pretty insignificant in comparison to what has come later. In any case, I will also stop for a moment this Friday and remember where I was on the fateful day that changed the world forever. How different might it have been?

I must tell you that I was at a couple of great events this past week while out and about covering things for cktimes. Chatham Jaycees held their annual Senators Night at the WISH Centre last Friday evening and it looked like a real fun night. About 45 Jaycee Senators were expected to be in attendance and congrats to Jaycee President John VanVeen and the rest of the current club members for remembering their past and saluting the Senators. Also was in Thamesville on Sunday evening for a truly great community event. Janice Evoy is director and producer for the Thamesville United Church Drama Club's production that's going in that community last weekend and next weekend. The show will play for seven sold out shows before it finishes its run, and I told Janice that there are a lot of community theatre groups in the area who'd like to have that type of success rate – and all in the name of raising some money for a new church sanctuary. I made the comment that it seems the smaller the community, the more community spirit there is. Congrats to both those groups for their hard work and excellent community effort.

So, Osama bin Laden has named Canada in his latest pronouncement – the first sign he survived the American attack on Afghanistan. I wrote back after September 11 that dropping bombs and sending soldiers was the wrong approach in the war on terror. I felt we should be dropping food and goodwill instead. It seems that no matter how long we inhabit the planet, we will not learn that violence begets violence – it's as simple as that. They drop a bomb on us and we drop two bombs on them and they drop three bombs on us. That's the way it works. Somewhere, somehow, somebody has to realize this and call a stop to the stupidity. We have to realize that as the world gets increasingly smaller, we can't move without disturbing our neighbours. We need to start to get along and treat each other with respect. While we're busy fighting over oil or religion or whatever, 39,000 children die each day from starvation and 200 million Africans are battling AIDS. It's pretty silly when you think about it. We need a system that actually values human life above all else, particularly money. Think about it and remember you read it here first.

I'm still looking for people to help with the writing of cktimes and from different areas of the community. I can't afford to pay you yet, but that may come with time. I'm looking for people who love to write and would like to write about some of the things that are happening in their communities. If you're that person, e-mail me at: editor@cktimes.ca. I realize that I'm not getting to everything right now, but I'm still trying to do this all by myself and I'm doing the best I can. If you want to help, send me an e-mail.

Hope everything is going well for you. The more people I have the chance to explain cktimes to, the more people seem to approve of what I'm trying to do – which is create a newspaper that concentrates on the good things that are happening in our community. We get far too much negative, sensational news dished out to us. The good news is out there, you just have to find it. And I'm doing just that.

Out of room for another week. If you've enjoyed your visit to cktimes, tell your friends and neighbours – it's the only way we're going to grow. And remember..."Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may."



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.