Propaganda

ANOTHER GORGEOUS MORNING in K-Town, with mere gossamer wisps sullying blue pastel, and the promise of another run of summer days in the week before autumn begins. You gotta love it, and wonder, with Huw Davies, why we did not have this weather in July.

LATE SUMMER is often hot, hot, hot in K-Town, we sometimes forget, with some classrooms at Queen’s like your neigbourhood sauna, a possible petri dish, we are warned by Peggy Watkin at the U, that swine flu may be lurking around here somewhere. The experts say it won’t hit until November, about the time students get sick anyway from burning their candles at both ends, but given evidence from U.S. colleges and universities, that time frame may be a bit off.

Indeed, for those scratching their collective noggins on what to do about the BIG street party planned for the 26th, come hell or high water, Homecoming or none, swine flu might be an ally. Who knows?

ONE THING FOR SURE, yes, the students are back, those RMC, St. Lawrence, and Queen’s men and women who keep the cash flowing into K-Town coffers and often keep the neighbours up all night. This year, we hear, local police will issue “tickets” for drinking violations, such as underage imbibing, etc., and the etc. covers a lot of ground. Speaking of students, one wonders why they cannot keep the grounds in front and around their apartments free of detritus. Three minutes a day would do the trick. Too much trouble, one hears, and this scribe sees the problem as an offshoot of teenage refusal or inability to clean rooms at home. So be it, but perhaps each house could have a rotating responsibility to get the gradoux off the ground….

THAT detritus attracts all sorts of vermin, ranging from the little rats with tails that we all love (had one in the house the other day), to chipmunks, and larger rats without tails. Saw one of the latter the other day and said, hmmm, we are getting to be a big city…..

AND VERY MUCH LIKE STUDENTS milling about on TH FR and SAT nights, while the weather remains good, the wasps are also back, those little dart machines that love anything sweet, from the products at market square offered by Wolfe Island Bakery, to your favourite underarm deoderizer or hair gel. The little buggers are dangerous, when aroused, which is the main reason to try to leave them alone.

I AM TOLD THAT WASPS have lost their bite over the last few decades, what with Canada and the U.S. becoming increasingly examples of ethnic and racial pluralism. (The mythic U.S.
melting pot seems now a pressure cooker what with all the hoodoo over immigration). But the garden variety remain dangerous, especially in a can of coke or a beer, when one is not aware. A sting can be lethal, similar in allergy-producing outcome as peanuts, for the wrong person. So, best not to go over them, lest they go after you. They are quicker than we are, and often have friends. The best way to deal with WASPS beside ignoring them? Carry a couple of fabric softeners –the kind you put in your dryer — in your shirt pocket or nosegay.

NICE TO SEE THE DEFENCE come to the fore Saturday for the Golden Gael football team, which vaquished Mac 8-7. Quite a turnaround from the 52-49 win (lucky) over Guelph the previous week. The Gryphons are good this year, as are the Marauders, how good we do not know. Nor do we know how good the Gaels are. Next week’s game with Ottawa in Ottawa will tell some of the story, and one has to like Thomas Howes, the 3rd string qb who came off the bench in the 4th quarter to do some very polished things. But, again, the D was the thing for those of us in the know.

ONE BOTHERSOME ITEM about Queen’s athletics is its choice to “honour Kingston military families” at a football game each year. Given the history of Queen’s and RMC as interlocking academic and athletic entities, no problem. But given the historic role of the Canadian military as a peacekeeping establishment, not a warmaking organization, the Afghanistan War gets in the way of good feeling. This conflict, folks, is a bad war, an undertaking that has little chance to succeed on Western terms (what can “victory” in Afghanistan possibly mean?), a war that is far more an American than a Canadian battle. So, yes, we can honour the local military men and women, and their families, but we must question their civilian superiors — both Liberal and Conservative — who have us there. What might Queen’s athletics do to support these families? Certainly a tank rolling into Richardson Stadium seems absurd, although at least it left immediately this year after the national anthem.

Tanks, war, and Queen’s athletics are not coeval, and Queen’s should not honour militarism in this way. Athletics at the University are touted, hugely, as an extension of the academic experience. So, again, is war a Queen’s value? Should it be? Or, put a bit differently, the university might add a “DAY FOR PEACE” at one of its upcoming contests. Perhaps have Bruce Cockburn and Neil Young on hand. A couple of songs at the outset, a short comment on the futility of war and the sadness at the loss of so many fine soldiers and Afghan civilians, and a call to consider the terrible impact of our presence in the area….There, I’ve gotten that off my chest, I had to do so. Go Gaels!

People reacted to the interview in the Whig-Standard on Saturday morning on this question in several ways. Anger at the old, retired prof; criticism of government policy; name-calling on-line after Mike Norris’s story. A few people thanked me at the game for making the point that I did. Others yelled at me when I held up my “No War” Sign. But at least people around the u and around town are thinking about the issues.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 10:34 am and is filed under Whimsy & Misc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.