Thank goodness for people such as Eddie Hawken.
The actions of the Grade 4 student who asked for donations for Dresden’s Terry Fox Run rather than gifts for his birthday are a welcome respite in an increasingly toxic world.
Hawken, who turned 9 on Sunday, is a refreshing antidote to the anger and division exhibited by Canada’s political parties in the run-up to the election nobody wanted.
The election is over. Results are on our website, but can/will we all move on?
Locally and federally, there was a great deal of mudslinging and divisiveness.
Candidates campaigned on one issue, while others declined to share much information with the media, and as a result, the general public. These are attempts to control the message, which is unfortunate.
On top of that, social media has become a cesspool, be it for political reasons or for COVID-19.
It has become an area with the mentality of “if you’re not with us, you’re against us.”
As a result, there is too often no dialogue, only vitriol thrown back and forth.
The Chatham Voice turned off our Facebook commenting on our COVID-19-related articles as a result.
Not surprisingly, we received polarized comments from the public.
“The fact that you turned off commenting on Facebook is a slap in the face to our rights and freedoms,” one social media critic stated.
Well, we encourage anyone to share our stories on their own Facebook feeds and comment on them there. There is no stifling of freedom of speech.
But for every one of those types of comments, we receive a flood of messages of appreciation.
“Kudos to The Voice for limiting the trash in the comments…back you 100 per cent for the call. Thanks.”
Unfortunately, for some, if you don’t agree with their opinion, there is no dialogue, only shouting. We’ve seen it in the political spectrum too long now, and it’s getting really bad in terms of COVID-19 vaccination commenting.
The back-and-forth has spilled out into the streets of major cities at times, with anti-vaxxers protesting at places such as hospitals. We don’t understand that.
Through it all, we thankfully have Eddie Hawken. A young man determined to help others.
We can all learn from him, it seems.
