Enough blame that we'll never starve

Councillor Tim Rhodes' continues his tradition of "correcting"the stories about the exploits of previous Councils.  He does it today by taking on Murray Skeels' latest recap of the history of the Cape.  Ian Henley and Bruce Russel gleefully weigh in with support.  

Meanwhile massive docks are being built at the Cape, and all this moving around of the verbal deck chairs is doing nothing to re-float the Cape Roger Curtis shipwreck.  Lots of blame is being thrown about, and it seems nourishing for people.  But dining on poison is ultimately fatal.

At any rate, I commented on Tim's blog responding to Bruce Russell's comments that the previous Council must accept responsibility for their failed negotiations with the Cape Roger Curtis owners.  Now Bruce is a guy who does indeed put his money (and his elbow grease) where his mouth is, having led the charge to build a golf course, get rid of derelict vessels in Mannion Bay and generally help out around the place when there is something to do.  Which is why I'm surprised that he joined in the blame game too.

So did the previous Council push too hard for amenities at the Cape?  I guess so, as the owners walked away from the table.  That is what happens in negotiations.  But somehow Bruce and Tim want the previous Council to do something about it.  And that is what prompted this comment from me:

Didn't the previous council already accept responsibility for their decisions when they ran and lost to our current Council?  What more do you expect them to do?  If you want to fix the situation at the Cape, you need to have power and the only people with power in this situation right now are the current Council.  So at this point, and by this logic, clearly every dock that is going in, every lot that is being built out, is currently what the current Council wants.  1200+ people may not want it, but I watched a piling being pounded into the seabed on Wednesday.  So it's obvious to me that 1200 people can't make a difference to what happens down there.  What do you want four people to do?   

"Owning up and taking responsibility."  You guys hammer away on the previous Council like there is something they can do.  What can they do?  What is going to fix the future? If you were them, what would you do to rectify the situation?  If it's too late for all that, then why keep hammering away on them?  That just seems mean spirited at best. 

The owners of the Cape are amongst the richest people in the world.  They have all kinds of options and are making all kinds of choices with their property.  I would be very intrigued if you could show me anything that would "force" them to do something they didn't want to do.   

Now, speaking of taking responsibility for our actions, how about we do some tests on Mannion Bay septic fields and get this Bay cleaned up for good.  You can come and test mine first and see if it's to code.   

It's fun to feast on blame.  But taking one's own medicine is sometimes a rather harder proposition.  Real leaders do that.  At least that is what MY parents taught me.