16 Nov An Ingonish reader defends the colossal monument
In a post last week, I argued that the 24-metre* war memorial statue of “Mother Canada” proposed for Green Cove in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park flew in the face of sound public policy. Many readers weighed in, mostly against the project. Today, a passionate supporter of the monument takes the floor.
Jason writes from Ingonish:
Upon reading your view on the monument, it is hard to believe the joy newspapers and news broadcasts get out of, once again, stirring up controversy on a subject you really don’t know about.
While you make points about the project itself, and its artistry, you leave out the fact something incredible has been proposed by, not just someone with money, but by a group of people with a passion for our war dead.
[A] very small number of naysayers are trying to say this shouldn’t happen in a park—with most wanting it in an area closer to them.
Of course, everyone wants a memorial to honour our fallen. For you to say we as a community want it because we are economically depressed is extremely ignorant and without fact. Did you come interview me to ask me those questions? No you didn’t. I get tired of hearing papers from away make comments based on our “little economically deprived” town, as you have said without asking any of us. It’s sad to see so-called educated reporters report without fact.
I happened to be at the community meetings at which hundreds of people from all over showed up to express their opinion, and where the sentiment was 95% positive—but I’m sure you won’t print that. You won’t print the fact that Banff has built a whole town and huge ski hills in a national park without consulting us. So I guess building a resort town in Banff was OK, but building a memorial in dedication to the many men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice is just too much to do here in Cape Breton.
You won’t print the fact that the majority are excited at the opportunity to have something with so much meaning brought to one of the most beautiful islands in the world. In fact you won’t print anything positive as it does not sell papers or create controversy.
It’s a sad world we live in when some thing proposed by people that truly have a passion for our fallen Heroes is only met in the media with negativity in hopes that you sell a few more issues in coming months.
Why don’t you come speak with me about the support of the community and how we feel about the monument before printing an article using us as your base and saying we only want this because we are so down and out here. It’s too bad as a society most of us thrive on the negative things instead of seeing something so positive in all of this.
Reading comments on your site, I see people say the money would be better spent on veterans affairs. This has to be to rest finally. It was said at the second meeting that this is private money. People are under the misunderstanding due to the faulty reporting of media that the money is tax dollars. The building of the monument and upkeep will all be privately funded. People believe everything they hear in media instead of actually researching the project itself. It’s time people stop listening and start educating themselves on the facts.
And someone has mentioned how ugly it is. Wow! So all other monuments that happen to be big, and that commemorate our fallen be it canada or elsewhere, are ugly? That is one of the most ignorant things I have ever heard, and I’m embarrassed for you. Whether one is for or against I believe being negative to something that honours our soldiers to be very offensive.
There are lots more comments from readers in the queue—mainly opponents of the proposed monument. I’ll publish more this week.
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* An update to the post that started this thread corrects the hight of the proposed Mother Canada stature, along with that of the Canada Bereft statue in Vimy upon which it is based. The mistake is mostly mine, but also partly a reflection of the fact the size of the proposed monument has been a moving target.