Full disclosure: I am the president of Pickleball Fernie, which is a participatory member of the Elk Valley Fieldhouse Society and, as such, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the recent debate over the outdoor skating rink.
I will, however, comment on a side issue stemming from the debate – online garbage, keyboard warriors slay imaginary dragons. Most of the people who commented online on this issue were genuinely concerned citizens who simply wanted to help. However, there are always those who view any local issue as a vehicle to be malicious and mean.
Mayor Nic Milligan spoke very eloquently on the matter at the recent city budget meeting and his words bear repeating:
“I would ask, and maybe this is foolhardy of me, (but) tone down the rhetoric on social media. The emails I’ve received this week are amongst the most vitriolic that I’ve ever received in this job … people I’ve never met, people I know now. It’s actually been shocking. It is degrading the sense of community, particularly around the rink. We don’t want to do that. We never intended to do that.
“Clearly there has been some miscommunication along the way. I don’t know what the cause of that is. But my preference is let’s hit the re-set button. Let’s sit down. Let’s have an adult conversation. Let’s talk about what can be done. Let’s talk about who’s going to do it. Let’s talk about where the responsibilities lie, and we can create a clear path forward for this community.
“ … This is has been difficult for a lot of people in this room, for people around the council table, for staff. There has been a lot vitriol at us directly and online. I just find that incredibly unhelpful. I’m not squirming under it. I’m happy to hear from people. But it’s hard to have a conversation in that environment.”
Well said.
Back in the good(?) old days when the media could share news stories on Facebook (blame Zuckerberg, not Trudeau for the change), several outlets, mine included, turned the messaging off on our Facebook pages. Why? Because it just got stupid.
At first, getting comments on news stories was a good thing. It meant people were reading and they were engaged, we thought. However, it soon became apparent most of the users were neither reading the stories, nor were they engaged. They simply wanted to be abusive, or racist, or misogynistic, or all three or, spread stupid, dangerous lies that, for some crazy reason, others take as gospel. From Trudeau haters to anti-vaxxers, I would barely hit ‘send’ on a story before their fingers started flying.
Over time, I found that an inordinate amount of my day was taken up monitoring and deleting Facebook comments and banning users, who Facebook always seemed to let back on a couple days later.
Readers would often say “you should be investigating this or that,” and I’d love to but I spent most of my time being a hall monitor to bullies and idiots. And just for the record, it’s not a free speech issue (I’ll save that debate for another day).
Mayor Milligan is right. Tone down the rhetoric and let’s have an adult conversation.
Born and raised in Fernie, Bill Phillips is an award-winning journalist and columnist. He was the winner of the 2009 Best Editorial award at the British Columbia/Yukon Community Newspaper Association’s Ma Murray awards, in 2007 he won the association’s Best Columnist award. In 2004, he placed third in the Canadian Community Newspaper best columnist category and, in 2003, placed second.
