COLUMN: Too lazy to be informed?

It was 1980, and I was sitting in my Grade 6 class daydreaming about Andy Travis from WKRP in Cincinnati. 

(He was, like, so totally cute.)

I was snapped back to the reality of the class when the teacher pinned the black-and-white stock market pages from the newspaper to the wall. Students then picked a company of their choice to “invest in.”  

I chose Hallmark because, well, greeting cards would always be needed, like milk and daily newspapers... 

Students were responsible for watching their stock and deciding when to imaginary sell or buy. There wasn’t Internet to check or an app to alert us to how our stock was doing. 

We had to take personal responsibility. 

At home each day I spread the newspaper pages out on the floor to check my stock and noted the rise and fall in my scribbler. 

Fast-forward to 2017 and there are smartphones and an app for pretty much everything. As a result, it seems we have become a wee bit lazy. 

At public hearings last week about proposed re-zonings downtown several angry attendees berated council and District staff for not better informing the public of the proposed changes. It was a bit baffling. 

Never in the history of humankind has information been more available at the municipal level. 

Unlike in decades of old, council and committee meetings are live-streamed, and then archived, available for view online 24/7. 

The proposed changes were noted on the District’s website, on Facebook, Twitter and in stories in this paper. 

The District sends out 52 e-newsletters a year, made 59 Facebook posts in February  alone and Tweeted 57 times in the past 28 days. 

It is as if we are at an all-you-can-eat buffet, but we sit at the table waiting to be spoon-fed. 

We need to take personal responsibility. 

Watch the meetings live or archived if you have time, check out the District’s website or social media to see what is being proposed, click on The Chief stories about council. 

All this isn’t to say the proposed changes weren’t a bit confusing or that this town isn’t changing too fast for many of us to keep up, both may be rational complaints. Council and the District aren’t perfect and they should be accountable to us – full stop. 

But it is also up to us to at least get up from the table and check out the buffet.