Raise the Hammer

Jason: I appreciate your thoughtful response, though obviously I don't agree with much of it.

I will say that I disagree strongly that depicting someone as a racist, which your own adherents at RTH seem to agree hapend here, is not a "minor" thing.

As for having the kind of city we all want, I hope and pray that it's the kind of city where depicting someone as a racist with no cause or proof is unacceptable.

Thanks, and all the best Howard

Howard, let's say that we all agree that Mahesh's 'race' comment crossed the line. It seems that pretty much everyone is in agreement on that point. I wonder if you would care to elaborate on some of my other points regarding the usual dismissal of non-wealthy candidates and the common practice of belittling great people doing great work in our city (i.e. - salmon eaters etc....)

Clearly nobody is defending Mahesh's comment. Some of us have a problem with how it was handled and a bigger problem of what 'appears' to be a sense of entitlement that comes across in the paper. I realize nobody is perfect, and I don't expect the paper to suddenly become a bastion of great urban thinking, but I know first hand that I'm not the only one who cancelled my subscription simply due to not being able to take it anymore. I love newspapers (more than online stuff believe it or not) and I'd love to re-subscribe someday, but I won't until I sense a change in the attitude from the paper. And by the way I've been starting to see a bit of this recently with pieces by Terry Cooke and many of your editors weighing on things like the PanAm stadium and LRT - I hope it will become a trend and not just a fluke. You guys have tremendous influence in public thinking and policy. I'd love to see that influence used to promote things like vibrant neighbourhoods, two-way streets, LRT, curbing sprawl, sustainable development, urban-centric development instead of suburban-centric etc......

I guess what I'm saying is, you don't agree with my previous post, which is expected. But why? Am I completely misreading Andrew's columns? I like to think of myself as really only having one agenda - the betterment of Hamilton. Terry Cooke used to annoy me; now I wish he'd run for mayor.

Again, thanks for the reply. Jason

Comment edited by jason on 2010-06-04 22:47:51