Hey, Richard Mostyn, another noggin burst?
It is uncanny how you manage, in your editorials, to find sore spots, and how you gently probe the wound: a true testament to the press being the fourth estate even if many people would not know what to do with this assessment any longer.
Your “Bound and Gagged” piece cries out for responses and debates. You make a good point. If one cannot identify friend or foe any longer it becomes difficult to know which side one is on.
A good discussion is needed. Alas, I am afraid, nothing will be forthcoming.
In a close-knit entity, such as the Yukon, with one party holding most of the cards, it can be very hard to stay on your side of the divide when straying over could make things more pleasant, and not tarnish any future prospects. Keeping all options open, particularly on a personal level, has been our societal mantra for the past 30 years, and “confrontation” is not a word to be trifled with here in our territory: long-lasting memories and such, you know.
Standing up, becoming an identifiable individual, is not what you want to aspire to. Particularly, if it puts you at odds with the powers to be. I believe that union executives are in a difficult position; between the allure of dining with the big cats and supported by a cowed membership, it must be hard to sing from your own hymnal. One of these days, there will be an issue that will lead to definition, maybe. “Feisty,” my friend, is soooo yesterday. Conducting business in a “sycophantic toady kind of way,” however.É
Bernd Schmidt Whitehorse