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I have said so, many times, that every individual is more than welcome to what ever
opinions they might hold. For indeed, the very nature of our culture is based on
the principle of freedom of expression, so I was not that disturbed about the unsigned
letter to the editor that was printed in this week's Recorder. (right, click
on the thumbnail to see the material full size)
I am sure there are many who feel that they should be able to exist, live their lives
in some sort of anonymity, but what has happened in this world and was predicted
at least forty years ago by Marshall MacLuhan, is that the time in which you and
I live is very much like the place I grew up in, a village. Alas the "Global Village"
is a reality. Every action in life has real and tangible consequences and to think
that we should be able to creep around in obscurity is simply not part of life, it
never was and I would strongly disagree with the complainer that our lives, each
of our lives should not be an exhibit. We can show by example, not expect some authority
to decree how we should live our lives. We should celebrate our lives and be proud
of who and what we are.
I am a bit puzzled by the complainers story as she claims that she found my web site
by looking up Tisdale and discovered it, or that I once referred her to the
site so she might see an image taken of her in public. The question is, which was
it? If it was indeed while looking up info on Tisdale then that is reasonable,
but if it was actually from my suggestion she check it out, why has it taken her
almost a full year to become upset?
Though one could easily become emotional and upset about such a nasty attack by the
complainer, I respect her right to her opinion. I have been working on this project
for seven full years, thousands of stories about Tisdale, thousands of pictures
of the place and its people, all done with the best intentions, with no compensation
and occasionally, people who don't understand the idea, demanding I change this,
or that, or omit something. But I can live with that criticism because of the countless
messages I have received from Tisdale people who live all over the place,
from London to Australia and everywhere in between. People who ask
me to include those incidental pictures of local people, because it gives them a
sense of still being connected to the place they grew up in and cherish.
You will notice that some months I have pretty much stuck to political issues and
sunsets, but when I do that, I get complaints from loyal visitors who are among the
1,400 or so people every day to visit the site, wanting to know what life is like
here.
People have moved to Saskatchewan from England, South Africa
and perhaps other places because of what they have seen and read on Ensign.
For those of you who have not been regular readers of this web site, it would be
useful to review why it exists. I am a former school administrator and educational
psychologist and I was concerned that with so many people, students in particular,
turning to the Internet as their first source of information, there should be something
on the Internet that is free and informative with pictures that tells stories and
is always available. So I launched Ensign seven years ago with daily posting
since. Along the way, with contributors, we discovered that there was a need for
good research skills to be demonstrated and a form of referencing included so that
readers could authenticate what they read and saw.
Though that was the lofty intent, I soon discovered that a large number of the people
who were coming to the site were folks from here, who call this their home and depend
on the site to keep them in tune with their place. So I have tried to keep the kinds
of things on the site that they want to see and hands down, they want to see people,
people they know, or might have known and they want to see faces. So you're in the
picture.
But what really hurts me about that Recorder letter to the editor, it really
is poison, it is pure meanness and fortunately I have no idea who the author was,
but she is a cruel and vicious person.
"How could this stranger be walking around
with a camera around his neck. . ."
Now that really hurts. What must one do to be included.
My middle son is 31 years old and he was born here, my youngest son played hockey
here and graduated from TUCs. My wife and I have lived and spent our income here
for ten years straight. I have been in business here, was a member of the Chamber
of Commerce in 1995 and paid my dues to this town in supporting its projects, its
fund raisers, its community projects and promoted its businesses "free"
for seven full years (Ensign does not accept advertising). Yet I am a "stranger".
For twenty-seven years I was a principal, teacher and counsellor in Saskatchewan,
I was born in this province and my family has roots in this province so far back
we have mineral rights in our family. Yet after sixty years a member of the Saskatchewan
society I am a "stranger."
I believe so strongly that life is not a gift to be frittered away as one feels like,
in secret, but life is a responsibility. We were each put on this earth for a purpose
and it is up to us to make use of the talent and capabilities we have. You have all
heard the saying that for evil to triumph all that needs to happen is for the good
people to do nothing. I chose not be to be guilty of doing nothing with my life.
I know there are people who have had better lives because of what I have done and
most assuredly, for I am totally aware of the fact that I am far from perfect, so
there are times I have wronged people. But, at no time have I let other people look
after doing the right thing when it is my responsibility.
Isn't it nice how the complainer points out how our house might be burglarized. The
point is, that camera has been on for years and visitors to the site all around the
world can check on what its like in our front yard every day of the week. This is
a civilised place and the Internet for all its size and complexity, is filled with
the same sort of people you meet and deal with every single day. Some good and some
not so good, but there is nothing to fear, a burglar in Waco Texas
is not going to dash up to Tisdale to rob our house.
Now we need to talk about the language that the complainer is most concerned about
- pictures. Look closely at the image at the top of this page. It was sent
to me today to remove some damage to it and none of those folks in that picture need
worry about being exposed on the Internet, for indeed none of them are still alive.
But without knowing them, having any idea who they were, or in what village they
grew up, spent their lives and passed on, are you not better informed by having looked
at those earnest faces. With a century and a half of images being a part of life,
we have all learned to glean considerable information from pictures. They are a language
of their own and they are witness to some form of reality.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about pictures is that so many people, perhaps the
complainer is one of them, that think a picture is something of them, that is their
essence. Nothing can be further than the truth. A portrait of a person is not that
person, but is instead a mere moment in time where that person and their expression
was rendered timeless. Even motion picture images are not of somebody, they are simply
a picture, a thing on its own. One of those truly remarkable and foolish premises
is that "photographs don't lie." That statement is a complete and
total lie, for an image is only a shallow trivial representation of reality and the
photographer chooses the moment, calculates the light, the setting and creates the
image. I can not think of a single picture posted on my web site taken by me or by
others that has not been altered while it was being made or afterward.
 Look at the picture at the bottom of the Ensign front page today and you
will see a wonderful red vintage car. Some of what you see in that picture is what
was captured by the camera, but the car was sitting still, it had a large shadow
or reflection of a street light on the windshield and I added some luster to the
paint and even a reflection on the driver's side. Is it real? Well yes, the picture
itself is as real as anything can be, but it is not that car, or that scene, it is
instead, a picture of that car and that scene, enhanced to tell a story in the viewers
mind.
Monday there was a picture at the bottom of the page of a lady mowing a lawn. So
what was the picture about? Was it that lady? Gosh, I don't think so, at least that
isn't what I was photographing, I was taking a picture of the advancing of spring,
the brown grass of winter is starting to turn green and someone had decided that
the time had come to begin the process of the season, mowing grass.
The complaining lady with her crippled awareness of the world thinks that it is creepy
or inappropriate to show people being people. Teenagers skating down the street,
a kid on the way to school, a yawning man, are any of those pictures hurting anyone,
causing them pain or even embarrassment? We all yawn, its what happens and waiting
at a four way stop and yawning is part of life.
Take a trip somewhere, anywhere and what you will discover are the things that only
being there will let you know.
I remember so vividly riding in a bus with a bunch of hockey player kids from the
Yukon and a boy spotted a boxcar on a siding and asked one of the parents
on the trip, "What is that?" the boy was in his teens and an intelligent
kid. The parent said it was a car from a train and that they hooked them up one after
another up to a mile long to haul them across the prairies. The boy looked at the
man, shock his head and said "no way."
In the Yukon forest and mountain country, a mile long train is inconceivable,
especially if you see a picture of it because without experiencing such a common
mundane thing, it is just a strange scene. With this in mind I have made a deliberate
effort to include the "mundane" and the ordinary in the pictures
presented on the site and received a comment from an Illinois lady a few years
ago commenting on this very fact, as she said the simple the ordinary are the kinds
of things that make a place come alive and give her a strong connection to this place
she has never been. A fellow from Hamilton asked me to include as many perspective
prairie highway scenes as possible on the sitet because he had never seen anything
like that where he has lived all his life. A man from Vancouver who loves
trains and railway tracks writes me to compliment each picture of a railway crossing,
while a Tisdale fellow in Korea wanted to see historical pictures of
Tisdale so he can show his friends what Tisdale was like and what it
is like now. No one ever complains about sunset pictures because many places in the
world simply do not have clean enough air to produce a sunset.
The issue for me is that it is a big deal to create Ensign each day. My health
has not been great this past year and I just do not have the same energy level to
dash off the long hours needed to do this project. I get encouraging messages every
week like this one yesterday:
To the Langbank Kid: Great collage of topics and pics... keep
it up
What I need to determine is should I continue. If
the work is so badly misunderstood and inflames some people, should I be using up
the time I have to do this, or might I be better to turn my attention to other things?
Am I still some interloping stranger who is exposing the innocent of Tisdale
to the world? This lady's complaint makes me feel like Farley Mowatt after
he wrote his book "A Whale for killing" and was hounded by
the Newfoundlanders because he told the story of their gross behaviour.
If you see objectionable stuff on the site have the guts and common decency to contact
me. I mean no harm but mistakes can happen. One lady dressed me down for having a
picture on the site of her daughter walking down the street, but would not tell me
how to find the picture so I could remove it and every time I go into Pearson's
store she glares at me. I can't fix something if I don't know what to fix. No story
or picture has remained on the site to which someone has objected or complained about.
If on the other hand, you do not share the lady's opinion about Ensign or
Saskatchewan News please let the Recorder know. Send them an e-mail message but be sure to include your real name and daytime phone number.
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