Editorially speaking...
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I apologize for my slip in last week’s tip to listen to CBC Radio’s annual Frederick Forsyth Christmas saga, The Shepherd, by ‘Fireside” Al Maitland. I incorrectly identified the lost flyer’s aircraft as a Meteor; it was, as shown here, a Vampire, the RAF’s first operational jet fighter, which was already becoming obsolete by 1957, the time-frame of Forsyth’s original short story.
PS: I had to work Christmas Eve Day but got home just in time to listen to it as I’ve done now for more years than I can remember—and as I shall continue to do so as long as I am able.
If you missed it you can hear it anytime on CBC’s As It Happens website.—. But it has far more impact on Christmas Eve...
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In other unfinished business, I recently editorialized on the subject of old family photos that find their ways to garage sales and flea markets, something that seldom fails to bother me.
I also wrote a post on found treasures. Apropos to that, in mid-December, the Times Colonist reported that Emma Weatherley was desperately trying to reunite with two cuckoo clocks that had been in her family for at least three generations.
The heirlooms, her grandmother’s favourite possessions, have no great intrinsic value but are priceless heirlooms to Ms. Weatherley who now lives in Virginia.
However, following her grandmother’s death in November, the clocks were inadvertently donated to the Salvation Army. She contacted every SA outlet in the capital region and learned that the clocks likely ended up in Saanich. But there, as of mid-December, the trail ended despite the efforts of the SA to help her. In short, the clocks appear to have been sold and unless the purchaser saw the news item in the TC and comes forward, Mrs, Weatherley is probably out of luck.
At last report she was considering offering a reward for their return.
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On a more promising note, former News Leader reporter Peter W. Rusland has come up with what I think is a brilliant idea: name the new Cowichan Senior Secondary School, for which the ground was turned last week, for the renowned local painter. E.J. Hughes.
I said “on a more promising note,” but I don’t think it’ll fly. A few years ago it would have had a good chance, I should think, of being adopted. But now all the emphasis—I’m not necessarily carping, just saying—is on “de-colonialism” and reconciliation. So whichever name is chosen, should Cowichan Senior Secondary be decommissioned, you can bet it’ll be of Hul’qumi’num origin.
I have no problem with that; let’s turn our minds to coming up with a satisfactory alternative to honour E.J. Hughes who has, in recent years, become second in stature as a B.C. painter only to Emily Carr.
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I do take strong exception, however, to the proposed ‘de-colonization’ of the Royal B.C. Museum.
As anyone who follows the news will know, the RBC has resolved to destroy—and that’s the word unless you want to get semantical and use some other term although you won’t change the devastating result—the destination and highly acclaimed Gold Rush exhibit on the third floor.
It’s the old story of the swinging pendulum. In our rush to atone for our sins, real and perceived, of our colonial past, we’ve swung to the other extreme. To mix my metaphors, we’re throwing out the baby with the bath water.
I urge the management of the RBC: Yes, come up with a revised and improved interpretation of our Indigenous history. Take as long as necessary to do it right.
But don’t remove so much as a nail from the current Gold Rush exhibit until you’ve completed the promised public dialogue with both white and Indigenous cultures and have come to an agreeable solution, even if it’s a compromise.
As it stands, the wreckers go to work in January and the deconstructed third floor will be closed to the public for possibly three-five years!
This is NOT preserving our history or presenting as it should be presented to and for future generations, it’s vandalism in the name of New Age ideology. Just put it on hold while you—and the B.C. taxpayers who pay for all this—have had more opportunity to contribute to the discussion.
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Another tragic loss to history that’s already underway is the deconstruction of the province’s oldest surviving tugboat, Sea Lion.