Matt Todd's Pursuit of Idyll Minds

[Referring to Roosevelt pulling the country "up by the bootstraps" out of the Great Depression] It takes one great man who’s humanistic and understands people and lifts everybody up and gives everybody jobs.

[Abraham Lincoln is] the greatest president that America ever had. And funny enough, just before he was assassinated, he said, what we have to do is feed the poverty in America, and then go to Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan and Africa and feed them and there won’t be any wars. And everybody did the opposite. They gave them guns.

 â€“ Tony Bennett answering a question about his memories of the Great Depression

Quoted from The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos Video Podcast December 10 2008

I have two or three posts in my head that I haven’t written down yet. I’ve been distracted. Most of my time this past week and a half has been absorbed by a complete rebuild of the White Rock Youth Ambassador’s website.

The current site is difficult for the group to update. Consequently, they almost never do. The idea behind the new one is to make it as simple as possible to post pictures, updates and information about the community events and initiatives in which they are involved. Hopefully it will make it easier for the members to keep themselves organized and also be informative for the community about their activities.

If you’re curious, the trial site can be viewed at wrya.matttodd.ca. The current site (that is being replaced) is at wrya.ca. When the new site is thoroughly tested and polished, it will be moved to the wrya.ca location.

Now that I have a month of hindsight, hopefully I’ll have to some time soon to write about my thoughts on why I lost the election and what that says about our community, and what to expect from the new council and what impact to expect it will have on White Rock.

While walking to the grocery store today, I was asked for change by 2 people. I’m normally only approached by no more than one panhandler… That’s 200% of the usual number!

I was warned by the citizens of White Rock that, if tall buildings are built, they would act as a beacon to all the homeless people in the region. Clearly the trend shows that the new buildings are already attracting more and more homeless people to White Rock.

This got me thinking… Have any of their other dire prophecies come true? Read on »

When considering my previous post, think about the most recent federal and civic elections in White Rock:

• Both had very low voter turnout;
• Both resulted in a mandate to resist change;
• Both were laden with empty-calorie rhetoric;
• Both had undercurrent debates about the meaning of democracy;
• Both illustrated a high degree of ignorance among citizens on how government functions.

Read on »

Perfect democracy is as idealistic as communism. The problem is that the realities of human nature get in the way.

One impediment is that it seems people like to think they are separate from government — that it’s an ‘us and them’ — they don’t see (or don’t want to see) themselves as being part of the system. But mere existence has an influence on other people, therefore existence is an inadvertent act of community participation. Read on »

There was an almost-great letter to the editor of the Peace Arch News last week. It was great until the last line.

It was a fabulous statement on community spirit… then included praise for the election results. But absolutely nothing he spoke of was an issue of debate during the election. If anything, it was a clear point of consensus. I have no doubt that each and every candidate would emphatically and enthusiastically agree with the vision he described.

Some candidates volunteer and contribute more to the community than others, but there was no evidentiary pattern in the election results.

The irony of his letter is that, by diminishing other people’s perspectives, he actually undermined his own vision of a community of positive, engaged citizens.

 
From the November 26 edition of the Peace Arch News: Read on »

I hate, absolutely hate, the blind, righteous sense of entitlement that some people use to justify bullying and bludgeoning others to get want they want. The selfishness is disgusting. The hypocrisy is mind-numbing.

Unfortunately, maddeningly, how I react isn’t any better. I tend to reflect their behaviour, to mirror it back to them. I become obtuse, stubborn and pedantic.

Friday, I attended an event to honour citizens who have contributed greatly to our community for many years. The idea of the Living Legacy Book is to recognize people who have made significant, positive impacts on our community while they’re still alive rather than wait for their eulogy.

After the ceremony I made an attempt to be helpful for an initiative that a local environmental activist created and has operated for a number of years. Given past discussions, I should have known better. But I thought that, since I am leaving my responsibilities as a councillor, perhaps she would see no need to continue lecturing me on how ungrateful, ungracious, and ignorant the City is with regards to her efforts. No such luck. Read on »

The following is an excerpt of a grammatically tidied transcript from a TED talk about social media (blogs) by James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds:

“The premise of The Wisdom of Crowds is that, under the right conditions, groups can be remarkably intelligent. And they often can actually be smarter than the smartest person within them.

“Dan Gilmore, author of We the Media, has talked about it as saying, as a writer, he’s recognized that his readers know more than he does.
[...]

“The more tightly linked we become to each other, the harder it is for each of us to remain independent. One of the fundamental characteristics of a network is that once you are linked in the network, the network starts to shape your views and starts to shape your interactions with everybody else. That’s one of the things that defines what a network is.

“But the problem is that groups are only smart when the people in them are as independent as possible. Read on »

They chose faith over fear. They chose grace over greed. And they chose vision over violence.

 â€“ Andrew Young on the results of the US election.

Quoted from The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos, November 18 2008.

This description from The Hour: Young has dedicated his life to fighting the good fight. It started with Dr. King in the 60′s and it’s still going strong.

The key is to be believed. The problem with our ministers in Ottawa is that, even when they admit they’ve lied, nobody believes them.

 â€“ Peter C. Newman answering the question, what are the keys to being a good leader?

Quoted from The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos, November 12 2008.

This description of Newman from The Hour: An icon of Canadian journalism; he’s dished more dirt than most of us could ever imagine.