I live in a very very strange town. Because of a City Hall led boycott many agencies refuse to send press releases or invites to CFN even though their works require the most amount of exposure to be successful.
I watched from our public art gallery, which is in the process of wrapping up after 36 years of existence, of which many people feel has happened because of my role on the board and the city cutting funding to zero, Ms Bingley holding a PR event in the parking lot of Pommier Jewellers Thursday.
Even though CFN has the most traffic by far locally (over 1 million human page views per month of which about 35% are directly from Cornwall) we were not extended an invite.
Last year not only were we not extended an invite for her event, but the art gallery was excluded from participating in the event even though there was an art element and a large food truck was plunked in front of our door way.
This is how things roll in Cornwall Ontario. After all this is a town where when I got sponsorship for 450 people to have free beer for the St. Andrews Ball I ended up not being invited and then after voicing about it was told that I could attend the “media” portion of the event. IE I was offered to come and work the event which is kinda funny even for Cornwall. 🙂
Likewise I still have two dvd’s autographed by Drew Barrymore in my desk that I managed to get for our Women’s Roller Derby team for a fund raiser because some of their members pulled similar antics. I tend to just walk away from silly clique antics. Life is far too short to be bothered by idiots.
Why Beyond 21 or any other group would want to impede the success of its event only they can answer.
And people wonder why Pitt Street is a so vacant, why tourism is near non existent, and why we have so many young people leaving, many of whom read CFN daily.
Isn’t it time for people that behave like Ms Bingley and those at City Hall have a wake up call? How low do we want to drop the bar? How much does Cornwall want to be known for thuggish politics, and failure, being a laughing stock and butt of jokes instead of a progressive community that attracts people and business?
Did Thursday surprise me? Nope, but I live in a town where the United Way can’t hit its fund raising targets, where animal abuse seems to be prevalent, where public art galleries are cut off to be closed because of some thin skinned councilors, and of course, where there is only a World of Possibilities if you are a Kinsman or fall under the Aegis of someone like Bob Peters.
No, it really is time for the people of Cornwall to take a long look in the their mirror and decide what they want for their city.
To watch events fail and disappear is tragic and frankly self inflicted. To have the same organizers or shakers behind them just switch the names of events and roll out the same recipe for failure really is something that most people should be upset about, especially when it involves community funding.
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Jamie it was Drew Barrymore who named Cornwall CORNHOLE and she was with a comedian whose surname is Green and he has a grandmother who lives in Cornhole. Jamie you see I will never ever live in Cornwall as long as I live and even in death God help the one who buries me down there because they would be haunted for the rest of their lives by me and not a moment’s peace.
Jamie can you picture Tammy Hart riding on her broom and my ghost tagging along on that broom of hers. How I can haunt the hell out of those I wish to. LOL LOL. ROLF!