It depends on whose ox is being gored
I’ll say that on my way to Rotary this morning I wasn’t sure what to expect. I feared that our speaker Trevor Parry, M.A, LL.B, LL.M (Tax), TEP, whose topic was billed as Liberal Tax Reforms, was going to deliver a polemical rant - but held out the hope instead that we might be educated with a sort of Layman’s Guide to What the Fuss is all About. But first a bit of housekeeping…
Somehow our meetings seem to start out on a whisper and only gain tempo about the time someone either butchers the anthem lead-off or flunks the four-way test. Both of those went quite well today and we were still in an attentive mood as Bryce Leggatt reminded us that the Burlington Rotary Music Festival (coming up next month) needs financial help, either (or both of) donations towards scholarships awarded to the winning musicians and sponsors of the event. You can go on-line to find out more about these opportunities.
Glen Warnica urged us to buy tickets for the Harbourtown Sound Concert on November 26th. It’s a Rotary fundraiser and is selling quickly.
And that Abraham!!! He’s barely been here a month and I don’t think I recall any newly arrived in-bound student embrace the experiences and challenges of Rotary and a radically strange new environment quite so enthusiastically. He’s blown our socks off already and with his full embrace of the exchange experience, well I wonder what to expect by next summer.
And on the topic of Youth Exchange, Bruce Outridge recently visited our club, he is doing a Cogeco series called Inspiring Youth. He interviewed our rebounds Tristen and Camila and also our own Sheila Welham for a segment that apparently airs this week at several different days/times. Wait a day or two then check out
Now, back to our speaker.
First off, it has always been my understanding that Rotary is non-political. There’s no avoiding it, today’s speaker was very political. He was eloquent, needed no notes, and no props. He was scathing in his descriptions of political leaders and his case was that the proposed tax reform is class warfare and that the apparent drift of the country is towards Marxism. I hesitate to write more of what he delivered because I’d rather Rotary stay non-political and in any case a lot of it was over my head. That’s all.
The current rhetoric and spin about tax reforms hasn’t educated me, I remain politically confused (PC). I do believe though it depends, as always, on whose ox is being gored; although this time I don’t think mine is.
P. Scribe
