There is a little cliché that reminds us that if we don’t stand for something, we’ll fall for anything.
I’d like to express my thanks to the people form the Hart community for standing strong amid attempts to rename their school, thereby opening the conversation to feedback from the public. I was even more disheartened upon setting foot into the school board office to see that the School District 57 sign was encased in First Nations arts, giving an impression of something other than neutrality. It left me wondering why the Pride rainbow did not adorn the walkway and just what our tax dollars are doing.
Being a person who sees no paint in making a big deal of the problem, I would rather express my concerns through helping to create a solution. The rapidly changing social fabric of our time is creating a vital need for task committees to be focused on just what equity, diversity and inclusion really mean. It is much too important to be doing it off the side of someone’s desk, especially someone who is not familiar with how re-branding takes place.
There are many interest groups trying to infer subtle brights (and branding) to our public property. We need neutral, informed citizen groups (and experts) to evaluate what our public brand really is. We need to consider everything from environmental, race, politics, war heroes, gender, age, immigrants, marginalized groups, etc., while keeping in mind our rural and urban nature. We need to think about just what our northern spirit represents to us, the citizens.
Rita Wiebe
Prince George
