WHY NOT CHANGE THE NAME OF GRAVENHURST?

I must really love Gravenhurst. Because I’ve never been more irked than lately, at the way it is being portrayed......as the Muskoka community in dire straits. What it comes down to, is the determined handiwork of the complainers, etching out a new town motto. “The sky is falling.....the sky is falling.” (Apparently only on Gravenhurst) Get over yourselves. Broaden your horizons. Get a global perspective. This is 2011 you know.

Over my cold, dead, with outstretched arms, body! And those of my family, and every historian and longstanding citizen’s cold, dead, body will anyone succeed in changing the name of our town because it doesn’t sound customer-appealing.

Just heard a little feedback about the recent public meeting about mainstreet woes, and the suggestion our town’s name may be a tad unappealing to visitors. Was this a joke? An anecdote to get the juice flowing? I hope so!

That’s why I get the big bucks to debunk stuff like this. For those who think historians are a cuddly, fuzzy, amicable bunch, just try to change the name. Then find out just how Ninja we can get. It would become the full degrees of democracy.....the right to make such a suggestion, and our right to pound the mole back into the hole.

It’s what can be expected from a public meeting, about a strictly business matter, and while the intent was probably well meaning, if there were no investors in that audience, interested in locating a new business onto our main street, it was nothing more than “busy work,” antagonizing to some, entertainment to others, and a forum for the nonsensical, offering limited, narrow solutions to a situation the media calls “dire.” The only thing dire is the increasingly narrow perspective by some, who believe a street mall, for example, is the cat’s arse of success. And by the way, in this case, limiting democracy to an hour and a half, or so, makes perfect sense......just not in Canada. I’m in Canada right? Just wondered. It was a pretty clear example, just like the all-candidates meeting in October, that control is the name of the game. It was an event for appearances more than substance......on a strict budget of time. Why is this again? A meeting that started at dinner-time, ended when most meetings in the real world commence.

One day, when a council representative is wandering about the downtown, and would like to talk, free of business community mantra, please drop into our music shop for a chat. Just don’t mention that you agree with changing our town’s name, or suggest that we are part of the dire situation of the downtown.....unless of course you wish to engage in some hearty, honest debate about what is truly oppressing the main street. It’s not because of a name, that’s for sure.

If you truly love Gravenhurst as our family does, you’ll realize that nothing is better than heartfelt respect, and dedication to hometown heritage, to inspire revitalization......in spirit first, as appears most necessary at this time. It’s not in the name