TAXPAYER CONSENSUS? SHOULD WE BE CLOSING UNDER-ENROLLED SCHOOL?
WILL GRAVENHURST HAVE A HIGH SCHOOL IN THE FUTURE
WHEN I READ THE TORONTO STAR EDITORIAL TODAY (APRIL 2, 2012), I HAD AN AUDIBLE GULP THAT EVEN UNSETTLED THE FAMILY PETS. IT WAS WHAT WE DON'T WANT TO READ HERE IN GRAVENHURST. THE STAR EDITORIAL IS HEADED, "DECLINING ENROLMENT - TIME TO CLOSE SCHOOLS." NOW WHILE IT IS A PERFECTLY SENSIBLE EDITORIAL OVERVIEW, WHICH IS LARGELY ABOUT TORONTO SCHOOLS, I'M SURE A FEW FOLKS IN GRAVENHURST HAD A THOUGHT OR TWO ABOUT OUR OWN HIGH SCHOOL, WHICH IS KNOWN TO BE QUITE CLOSE TO BEING UNDER-ENROLLED THESE DAYS…….OR AT THE VERY LEAST, CLOSE TO THE BOTTOM LINE, WHEN A SCHOOL, AS RELATED TO CAPACITY, IS CONSIDERED UNDER-ENROLLED. IN TORONTO, WE'RE TALKING ABOUT NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS BEING CLOSED. IN GRAVENHURST IT'S A COMMUNITY SCHOOL……AND THERE'S COMMUNITY HISTORY AND FUTURE RIDING ON THIS ISSUE.
I'M NOT SAYING THE TRILLIUM LAKELANDS BOARD OF EDUCATION LIKES THE TORONTO STAR, AS A NEWSPAPER, BUT BY GOLLY, IF THEY'RE INTERESTED IN CLOSING A SINGLE SCHOOL, IT DOESN'T HURT TO HAVE HEAVYWEIGHT EDITORIALS LIKE THIS, TO BOLSTER THE ALWAYS CONTROVERSIAL AND EMOTIONAL SCHOOL-CLOSING PROCESS. IT HELPS WHEN THE PUBLIC IS ONSIDE, AND WHILE I AGREE WITH THE EDITORIAL, WHEN YOU'RE A COMMUNITY SUFFERING FROM DECLINING ENROLLMENT IN PUBLIC AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS, IT'S A LITTLE MORE PRECARIOUS THAN CLOSING A NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL IN TORONTO. CLOSING THE HIGH SCHOOL MAY NOT BE IMMINENT BUT WHAT SHOULD BE, IS THE CREATION OF A TASK FORCE, OR ACTION COMMITTEE, AT THE TOWN LEVEL, TO START TALKING WITH THE SCHOOL BOARD…….THAT GOT A LOT OF SUPPORT FOR SCHOOL CLOSINGS FROM THE PROVINCE IN LAST WEEK'S BUDGET. A LOT OF PEOPLE MISSED THIS LITTLE BUT DAMNING INCLUSION, THAT FUNDING TO ASSIST UNDER ENROLLED SCHOOLS WOULD BE SUSPENDED IN A YEAR.
THE PROBLEM ISN'T THE BOARD'S FAULT. IT'S NOT THE PROVINCE'S FAULT EITHER. THE ISSUE HERE IS THAT DECLINING ENROLLMENT IS A REALITY FACING MANY SCHOOL BOARDS. SOME AREAS AND NEIGHBORHOODS HAVE TOO MANY STUDENTS FOR THEIR FACILITIES. OTHER SCHOOLS ARE DIMINISHING YEAR AFTER YEAR. WHAT IS A PROBLEM, IS THAT A TOWN'S FUTURE HANGS IN THE BALANCE. IF IT IS EVEN ON THE RADAR, THAT GRAVENHURST HIGH SCHOOL, OR ANY OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE FACING POTENTIAL CLOSURE IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS, THE RESPECTIVE TOWN COUNCILS NEED TO BE MADE AWARE OF THE RISK FACTORS…….AND IT WOULD BE NICE IF THE BOARD ITSELF CONTACTED THE TOWN, BUT NONE THE LESS, I'D EXPECT THE TOWN WILL HAVE TO REQUEST A MEETING TO FIND THE RELEVANT STATISTICS.
HERE'S WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. AS ENROLLMENT CONTINUES TO DECLINE, HERE AND THERE, AND OTHER SCHOOLS, IN BRACEBRIDGE ARE ALLOWED TO ACCEPT GRAVENHURST STUDENTS, AND THERE ARE MORE OPTIONS FOR COURSES OF STUDY EVERYWHERE ELSE, THERE IS A CLEAR STRANGULATION OCCURRING, THAT I'M SURE STUDENTS ARE DISCOVERING AS WELL AS PARENTS, ESPECIALLY WITH GRADE NINE STUDENTS COMPARING OPTIONS……AND WHETHER TO STAY HERE OR GO TO THE LARGER, BETTER EQUIPPED BRACEBRIDGE AND MUSKOKA LAKES SECONDARY SCHOOL. IF IT'S NOT ENROLLMENT KILLING THE SCHOOL, IT'S THE FACT OTHER SCHOOLS, ALSO IN NEED OF MORE STUDENTS, ARE WILLINGLY (BECAUSE THEY CAN) ACCEPTING REGISTRATIONS FROM OUR CITIZENS…..WHICH, WHILE I CAN'T CALL IT POACHING, IS STILL ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL. EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE NOT ACTUALLY RECRUITING AS SUCH, THE CASUALTY FEW WANT TO TALK ABOUT, IS THAT A REALLY NICE SCHOOL, IN A TOWN THAT DOESN'T NEED ANOTHER CRUSHING DEFEAT, IS BEING BEATEN INTO SUBMISSION.
THE BALL IS IN THE HANDS OF GRAVENHURST COUNCIL. UNLESS THEY JUMP ON THIS FAST, AND STICK WITH IT, GRADUALLY THE SCHOOL WILL HIT THE MAGIC NUMBER AND BE CONSIDERED EXPENDABLE. I'M NOT CONFIDENT WHATSOEVER, THAT EVEN THEY HAVE MUCH OF A CHANCE OF STOPPING THE BLEED. I THINK WE NEED TO FIND OUT THE TRUTH OF THIS ISSUE.
HOLLYWOOD GHOSTS AND GOBLINS ALIGN WITH FRIGHT AND HORROR - BUT NOT REALLY THE CASE
FEARING THE UNKNOWN - BECAUSE OF WHAT IS KNOWN - FICTION
YOU KNOW, IT'S A PRETTY FAR STRETCH TO GO FROM COUNCIL CRITIC, GOVERNMENT PAIN IN THE ARSE, HISTORIAN, BIOGRAPHER, TO THE GHOST WHISPERER. MY MOTHER ALWAYS TOLD MY GIRLFRIENDS "TED'S A COMPLICATE GUY." SHE WAS A WOMAN OF FEW WORDS. I DON'T KNOW IF I'M ALL THAT COMPLICATED, BUT I'VE LIVED AN ADVENTUROUS, WIDE-OPEN, GRAB-IT-WHILE IT'S HOT LIFE. AND HERE I AM IN GRAVENHURST, NEARING MY GOLDEN YEARS, WRITING GHOST STORIES. MERLE WOULD HAVE TOLD ME NOT TO RILE THE AFTER-LIFE BY BEING CRITICAL. SO I WON'T BE. HERE GOES……
WHEN I TELL PEOPLE I WAS TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, THEY'LL SAY, "YEA, I WATCHED THAT TELEVISION SHOW TOO." WHEN I REMARK THAT, "YES, I SAW A GHOST," THE PREDICTABLE ANSWER IS, "WERE YOU SCARED?" AND WHEN I SUGGEST IT'S POSSIBLE TO TALK WITH DEAD PEOPLE, THE TYPICAL RESPONSE I'VE COME TO RESPECT, IS "DO THEY TALK BACK." OR "HOW DO YOU OPEN YOUR CONVERSATION?" THEY DON'T NECESSARILY DISBELIEVE THAT I CAN, BUT THEIR MORE CONCERNED ABOUT THE PROTOCOLS OF SUCH A CONVERSATION. GOOD POINT THOUGH. I DO REMIND THEM THAT IT ISN'T NECESSARY TO BE VOCAL ABOUT IT, AND THAT JUST THINKING ABOUT THE DEARLY DEPARTED IS ENOUGH TO START THE PROCESS.
FIRST OF ALL, I AM NOT A MEDIUM OR EVEN MILDLY CLAIRVOYANT. I DON'T DO READINGS, AND IF I WAS GETTING A MESSAGE FROM THE "OTHER SIDE," DIRECTED TO YOU, I'D SCREW IT UP LIKE I DO NORMAL PHONE MESSAGES HERE AT BIRCH HOLLOW. SUZANNE GETS FURIOUS WITH ME JOTTING DOWN THE MESSAGE IMPROPERLY, AND SENDING HER TO THE WRONG PLACE FOR AN APPOINTMENT, USUALLY A DAY EARLY. HECK IF SHE CAN'T TAKE A JOKE!
I DO SUBSCRIBE TO THE WORK OF JOHN EDWARD, OF THE FORMER TELEVISION SHOW, "CROSSING OVER," PRIMARILY BECAUSE HIS VALIDATION OF THOSE WHO HAVE PASSED, IS WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING SINCE CHILDHOOD….BUT I DIDN'T LEARN IT FROM ANYONE IN PARTICULAR. SOME MIGHT SAY, "IT'S BECAUSE YOU'VE NEVER ACCEPTED DEATH AS THE END OF ALL EXISTENCE." THIS IS TRUE. WHEN JOHN EDWARD TELLS HIS AUDIENCES TO "VALIDATE" THOSE WHO HAVE CROSSED OVER, IT MAKES IT ABUNDANTLY MORE ACCEPTABLE PRACTICE, IN MY OPINION, TO CARRY-ON CONVERSATIONS WITH THOSE WHO HAVE DEPARTED THIS MORTAL COIL. I LIKE TO KNOW OTHER PEOPLE FEEL THE SAME AS I DO. BELIEVING THERE IS AN AFTER-LIFE IS IMPORTANT, OF COURSE. THERE ARE OFTEN SIGNIFICANT SIGNS, IF YOU'RE PAYING ATTENTION, THAT COME FROM THOSE COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE SPIRIT-KIND. NOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF, OR UNSETTLED BY, IF YOU BELIEVE IT IS POSSIBLE TO INCLUDE THOSE WHO HAVE PASSED IN EVERY DAY LIFE. IN MANY CASES, THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN THE AFTER-LIFE, DON'T BLOCK THEMSELVES FROM OTHER-WORLDLY EXPERIENCE, AND ARE RECEPTIVE TO EVENTS AND CURIOUS DEVELOPMENTS AROUND THEM. THOSE WHO REFUSE TO BELIEVE IN THESE SPIRITUAL POSSIBILITIES, ARE, I THINK, THE BIGGEST PROJECTS FOR THE DECEASED…..TRYING TO OPEN THEIR MINDS TO POSSIBILITY. YOU CAN CHECK OUT JOHN EDWARD'S SITES AND RECORDED READINGS ONLINE. HE'S A FASCINATING CHAP WITH SOME LIBERATING ADVICE FOR THOSE FOLKS WHO REALLY DO WANT TO EXPAND THEIR HORIZONS…..AND YES, TALK TO DEAD PEOPLE.
As I've written about previously, I had a sick-bed visitation from a "dream angel", when I was very young. I was dreadfully ill, and I on the verge of being hospitalized with what was close to whooping cough…..in violent wrenching, but not labelled as such by old Doc. Proctor. On the night my fever broke, I had an angel-vision (or hallucination) that was so real I could feel it, see it in all its amazing whiteness, smell it, and touch it, and I would say, that with what we know about the final moments after clinical death, I was well on my way to the after-life. I remember my parents hovering about, with ice-packs, and talking, but it was like I was hearing the conversation while under water. I couldn't wake up. I could see their fuzzy images but I couldn't even blink. Rather than repeat the story, you can archive it on this blog site, or through my Muskoka and Algonquin ghost site. The point is, sometime after this, I drifted into this incredible dreamscape, where I had a personal audience with an angel. I have retained the details of this dreamland meeting for fifty years. I can't remember what I did yesterday. But I can remember the details and experiences of this dream. I could feel the cold vapor of her presence, smell a strange sweet perfume, see the brilliant white light of her gown and aura, and sense that I was levitating in her presence. I remember having no ability to speak even though I wanted to do so. It was the ethereal sensation that overcame me, I will never forget, as if I was the newly deceased, being guided through the tunnel. Yet I knew, at that moment, it was not my time…… but never once did the angel do anything more than look upon me with kind eyes. It was the fact she was there, and she was not planning to lead me anywhere, that I knew, even as a child, God needed me to cause some havoc on earth, before giving him problems in heaven.
The strangest aspect of the dream, is that I woke up shortly after this, completely soaked with sweat. I'd come through the fever. I was pretty weak, I do remember that feeling, and I wasn't able to get myself out of the chair. As I had to sit in a recliner chair because of my coughing and vomiting, I was upright and feeling as if some great wave, had spit me out onto a beach. I turned immediately to see my mother sound asleep in the chair beside. As soon as I started to move, she awoke and began talking to me, as if I'd just been returned from death's door. The way she reacted, I wondered if somehow, she'd seen the same angel. I never talked to her about this specifically, but she often remarked through my youth, that I was lucky to be alive. I think that night of fever was the one that would have sent me to the hospital, if it hadn't broken by the morning. I've long believed she had been visited on the same night, by some compassionate messenger, who said, "your son will live…..the little bugger that he is!" Merle was funny this way. She wouldn't talk about certain things, because she was superstitious enough, to believe too much information could jinx a positive outcome. Maybe you had a superstitious parent, or grandparent who believed similarly, that good luck depended on an unspecified amount of loyalty to sources unknown. My mother once awoke, to find her mother sitting on the end of her bed. Her mother had just, hours earlier, passed away. She knew her father had died before she got the phone call, to confirm her fears. She saw the image of Stanley Jackson, her father, some time after his death, also in her bedroom. She didn't like talking about it, but sometimes it slipped out. She had confessed to having a similar encounter as a young woman, still at home with her parents, when her sister Marjory died, a short time after the birth of her second child. Merle didn't describe a visitation as such, but she alluded to as much, while never using the words "ghost," or "spirit." Although she was not a regular church goer, during my life, she had often gone to church three times a day as a child, with a very religious, conservative family. I would say she was "God fearing light." She was always very respectful of God but was bothered by the hypocrisy she saw of the church in modern times.
So here's a family story for you. My grandfather Stan was a builder of some acclaim in the City of Toronto, and has a street named after him, in the Jane and Bloor area. Jackson Avenue if memory serves. He was hired to build a church in that vicinity, in the 1930's I believe, and when it was completed to the church board's satisfaction, they stiffed him on the payment. He vowed to never set foot in church again, because of this misadventure. My grandfather died on the steps of a church in Florida, after a Sunday Service, and left the same church the balance of his substantial estate. My other was speechless for a long time about this strange parental contradiction.
I have often pondered, whether it was this early meeting with the angel-kind, that made me fear less unworldly contacts, such that even with the frights of Hollywood depictions, of ghosts and hobgoblins, I have always been very hard to scare…..unless it was a ghost with a chainsaw that might hurt me. I've had dozens and dozens of paranormal experiences that I wasn't the least bit frightened of, or by, and nothing at all that had anything to do with "haunted houses." I could have a paranormal experience anywhere, at anytime, and has never been restricted to ancient places I've visited, or old houses where I've resided. Friends will inquire if I've been scared by the ghosts I've seen. I won't suggest to you, that they haven't at times, been unsettling, because of the new experiences attached. It's always when my mind is focused on something intense, that I will get a surprise interruption, and come starkly back to reality…..sort of like waking from a deep sleep, and wondering where you are. Just not frightening encounters, and it's why I've always been willing to talk and write about my experiences, which thousands, if not millions of people, have had, with or without knowing it. If my father ever saw a ghost, it wasn't until the last moments of his life, when I watched him raise his arms to the ceiling of the hospital room, while delirious, after I had vocally asked my mother to help him pass, by showing herself to him. That's when he put his arms up. At that point he didn't know me, his grandson Rob, or his lot in life. I never remember my father ever admitting to a paranormal experience. Yet he knew death well. During the war, on his ship the Coaticook, he helped pull hundreds of sailors from the water, after their ships had been hit by U-Boats, and a majority of them died shortly after being brought aboard. He had held some of these oil-soaked men, while they died. But then he was a practical guy, and the only way he would have told me something like this, is if there had been a particularly factual aspect to a visitation…….like an advisory to fix the brakes on the car or die. He kept stuff to himself, and I understood this.
The reason I've taken a wide turn on this story, is that ghosts and paranormal encounters are almost always looked upon as terrible, and frightening experiences, based on Hollywood's traditional depictions. It's our fear and loathing of death, and all that it represents. The ghosts that are depicted in fictional accounts, are almost entirely for malevolent purposes. It's how movie makers earn a living. While seeing a female ghost wearing a Victorian gown, trying to escape a graveyard enclosure, is a pretty typical example of a Hollywood-style ghost sighting, (witnessed once in a Muskoka cemetery), one might also imagine, that a lot of potential ghost encounters don't involve other century fashion. If you ran into a ghost golfer, for example, who played through, and then disappeared, you might say, as a group, "he must have given up on his game and gone back to the clubhouse." So who checks to see if the phantom ghost came back to the clubhouse for a beer and a sandwich. The apparition of a curler who walks through the house, and right through the building, but the games carry on. When encountering such a vision, in the modern backdrop of everyday life and recreation, we may find ourselves simply caught off guard, unable to appreciate the true measure of what may have just happened in our presence. If we met a ghost on a crowed sidewalk, on a city jaunt, how do we know it was an apparition? Looking behind, the person may be missing, but there are 101 reasons that could explain the sudden disappearance. Give us an ominously appointed Victorian house, a dark and stormy night, and some basic recall of great horror flicks we've seen before, and all of a sudden our skin is crawling, and we're peaking for an experience……that most often never occurs.
While I'm lumping ghosts together with the idea of being able to communicate with those who have passed, this is not something I've heard John Edward discuss, but a question I would love to ask him. For me they are in the same spiritual region, and they're sending a little message to an otherwise pre-occupied mind. But in a nutshell, one of the reasons I don't run into malevolent spirits, is that I don't know any…….and that all those I've kept up a running commentary with, for all these years, are all rather amicable folks who send me friendly reminders about this and that……but not chills in the night. I can't even imagine the idea of being closed-minded about this, or that there would ever be anything in my life now, that would take away my sensory appreciation…….. that I have as much access to those who have passed, as I am mortally possible. I have what you have. The capability of wonder? If there has been one thing different in my life, possibly since an angel paid a visit, is my insatiable appetite for discovery, and a sincere desire to know more. I'm not a mountain climber, or skydiver, and I would never set foot in a casino. Not because I'm closed minded about how much fun these activities would be, but because I have made a conscious decision to be adventurous in mind versus body. I have just put my hand on the post of a Victorian spindle bed that was used in a church manse for decades, to accommodate the newly departed. I can't tell you how many bodies were laid out on this bed, for viewings, in the early 1900's, but it's aura is friendly and positive, and if there was any lingering spiritual residue, it certainly isn't upset residing here with us Curries.
Our fear of ghosts and spirits, and possibly communicating with the deceased, is that we have pre-conceived notions keeping us spiritually constipated. I've known many religious folks who refuse to talk about ghosts and the idea that those who have crossed over, can communicate with the living. Yet by their own religious convictions, they are dealing, through unshakable faith, with the Holy Ghost, and many, many references to spirits and angels and pretty much the full range of paranormal infusion. They look at me as if I'm a nutter, because I might have a wee one-sided chat with my old friend Dave Brown, who still helps me find books I need, in my giant collection of texts scattered all over the house. If I'm blasphemous for being honest, or a nutter because I'm contented, then I can say with conviction, I'm an honest-nutter.
There have been reported sightings of a mysterious swinging light, along a section of railway line, near the former village of Falkenburg, north of the urban center of Bracebridge. It is said to be the ghost of a railway worker, carrying the lamp he was swinging the night he was hit by the train he was trying to signal. There are reports from a few uptown strollers, in Bracebridge, that they have met a man in early 1900's attire, who hangs around the top of Chancery Lake in Bracebridge, beside the former Herald-Gazette building, and the former fire hall and town office. The figure is said to be the ghost of George Cyr, who was hung in that courtyard, and buried in a grave nearby, infilled with fast-acting lime, to more quickly dissolve evidence Mr. Cyr had ever been born. Maybe he's looking for his bones. Cyr was defended by Redmond Thomas, who knew he was guilty, and where the gun had been hidden, that had been used in a robbery against members of the Solave family. His ghost isn't looking for a new trial, just for his sorry bones.
I've had many ghost experiences but nothing to write a movie script about. All very plain and somewhat explainable. You can read all about them on my ghost blog-site that you can connect with through this blog, if you'd like to know more.
There are times when I talk with interested folks about ghosts and paranormal experiences, that I can tell, they so badly want to acknowledge they've had encounters as well…..but they simply don't know if they should drop their guard and validate them. You know they are on the outside edge of doubt, and would really like to think it's possible to connect with loved ones who have departed, yet have enough lingering fear about crossing the line, they continue to hold it in…..like the champagne being shaken in a corked bottle. I have been known to ask them simply, what the worst case scenario would be…..if they did actually get a tangible, impossible to deny message, from the other side? The look in their eyes suggests they would be over-joyed but the have to much social conscience to drop their guard. I don't think I ever had a guard to start with, or it was removed early in life, because I've been fascinated and liberated by possibility forever.
When I engage research and writing projects, I always warn whomever I'm working with, that before the work is done, we will be able to add up quite a number of strange occurrences and coincidences that may or may not be the work of intrusive spirit-kind, horning-in on the action. I will never, ever deny an interested spirit, a say in a relevant piece of work. These are the resources we artists can afford, and if they shift us in the right direction, we are, without having to say so, forever grateful. If on the other hand, a spirit was to tell me, I should quit writing and antiquing, to become a golf pro, well then, I'd think them mad. I'm a good golfer mind you….just not that good.
Don't be afraid of any ghosts you happen to meet. Just say hello.
Thanks for joining today's blog. Please visit again soon.
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