Downtown belongs to the people L


ast month, hundreds of thousands of wom- en and their supporters took to the streets in Washington, D.C. and in cities across the Unit- ed States and Canada and around the world in anti- Trump marches. These marches – powerful, his- toric and inclusive – took place in the downtown neighbourhoods of their respective cities.


Stefano Grande Downtown


In Washington, site of the largest gathering, a crowd of half a million people met in solidar- ity to denounce their new president and assert their basic human rights. The gathering took place downtown.


In Toronto, 60,000 people of all ages and


representing all faiths, cultures, ethnicities and back- grounds gathered at Queen’s Park in the city’s down- town.


And in Winnipeg, more than a thousand people from all corners of our city packed into the atrium at Portage Place Shopping Centre before proceeding to march up and down iconic Portage Avenue, singing, cheering and chanting together in the heart of down- town.


Every march needs a gathering place. Every march needs a meeting place – a place that is familiar to and central to the lives of the people coming together in common cause.


That meeting place needs to be accessible. It needs to be familiar and prominent, safe and tolerant, and able to accommodate big and impassioned crowds. It needs to be a place that respects diversity, a place


where everyone feels welcome. It needs to be histori- cal, meaningful and inspirational, a place that bears witness, embraces participants and encourages specta- tors to look and listen and learn.


Last month, in hundreds of cities around the world Love trumps hate.


that meeting place was the downtown, proving once again that in spite of the challenges presented by urban sprawl, downtowns remain vital to their cities and to their citizens.


Downtowns offer a unique sense of place that de-


rives from their role as the starting point of their re- spective cities. They are where their cities’ govern- ment, culture, commerce and civic society first began. They are, historically, where city residents have always come together as one.


Here in Winnipeg our downtown has always been


a central and inclusive meeting place – a place where people have gathered, raised their voices, held their signs aloft, marched the streets, and been heard and respected and kept safe.


With this march, and many before it and more to come, Winnipeg’s downtown demonstrated that it


e need some civility in what has become a socially accept- able, rude behaviour driven society. I have noticed a general decline in the last decade of polite- ness and treating others with respect. Road rage, air rage, tearing down the success of others, less re- spect for the elderly, co- workers and people in gen- eral. Never has it been so blatantly front and centre in the news as it has with the election of a new presi- dent in the United States. It is not just happening in the States. I have observed it becoming the norm in Canada as well. Incivil- ity is having an impact on the health of society both mentally and physically.


We have children committing suicide, bullying in schools and workplaces, and it is making us sick and ends up costing us our health and escalating costs for healthcare. The issues are prevalent and there are shelves of books written about rudeness, bullying and socially bad be- haviour. There is an increase of people suffering from anxiety disorders, heart disease/strokes and cancer.


Of course, diet and exercise help in preventing disease but perhaps we should take more note of stress and its impact on health. It has been proven that incivility causes stress both to the one dishing it out and the one receiving


March 2017


Civility – is it alive and well? W


it. With social media, people say things that they would never say to a person’s face. It is hurtful and mean, and it is un- necessary.


We should be able to


Myrna Driedger Broadway Journal


have a difference of opin- ion and healthy debates, but instead one is attacked repeatedly and the media feeds on it. How many times have you turned on the news or opened a newspaper and it is so full of negative news? A con- stant feed of negativity af- fects the psyche of people and they either turn in- ward with depression or they turn outward with aggression.


continues to be such a place – a place where Winnipeg- gers can loudly and proudly talk about what matters to them, a place where Winnipeggers can come together for any number of causes and concerns. Downtown is where they can protest presidents or prime ministers, demand action on behalf of missing and murdered women, or celebrate historic anniversa- ries or unprecedented sports team victories. As it has done so many times before, downtown Winnipeg once again proved that it is the ideal meet- ing and marching place, a warm and welcoming pub- lic venue eager to give all Winnipeggers the chance to stand up and be heard.


Every march needs a gathering place. In Winnipeg, that gathering place will always be downtown. Stefano Grande is executive director of Downtown Win- nipeg BIZ.


In our Winnipeg, it has always been a central and inclusive meeting place – where people have gathered, raised their voices, been heard and respected and kept safe.


The issues are prominent. We have children committing suicide and bullying in schools and workplaces. It is making us sick and ends up costing us our health and escalating costs for healthcare.


fensive comment or photo on social me- dia. Let us try to be more empathetic. Perhaps the person that cut you off in traffic just found out they have lost their job, or were diagnosed with a terminal disease. Try being empathetic. Practice civility for your children’s sake by giving them a positive example. Let’s promote good deeds and wellness. Con- duct yourself with kindness, empathy and compassion. Do not act rudely and do not accept rude behaviour from oth- ers. Canadians have a reputation of be- ing polite. That is not a weakness; it is a strength, and we need to police ourselves to practice civility and respect for others.


When we hear good news, let’s spread the news.


Media also has a responsibility to be a positive influencer. Do they realize when they continue to put a negative spin on everything, they kill the optimism of a nation? The world has changed and there is bad stuff happening, but in a topsy-turvey world we can individually make a positive change and do the best we can to rise above. As Anne Murray sang in one of her songs “We sure could use a little good news today”. Myrna Driedger is MLA for Charles- wood and Speaker of the legislative assem- bly.


READERS TELL US


Johns Hopkins University has written books about civility. He is quoted as say- ing that success at work can come from treating others well because it builds al- liances and wins friends. Ninety per cent of workers experience incivility on the job, and half of those workers lose time on the job worrying about it…stress. Forni also quotes studies that show vol- unteering can induce a feeling some have termed “helper’s high”, similar to “run- ner’s high”. Being kind and helping oth- ers creates a feeling of elation and tran- quility.


For the sake of our health let us strive


to be kind and thoughtful, and influ- ence others to act the same. Think twice about posting a rude, ill-mannered/of-


Professor P.M Forni at Tory blunder


unacknowledged Hi, I picked up a paper copy of your February publication, Lifestyles 55, at the public library. Although many articles are interesting, I found the diatribe by Dorothy Dobbie particu- larly alarming. Her right wing Trump conservative propaganda that is obvi- ously popular with you clearly shows the political association of your paper. Her simplistic solution, for example [to reduce to one the number of re- gional health authorities or eliminate them], is laughable, especially since they were created by the Conserva- tives with Mr. Pallister in the cabinet


of Mr. Filmon. Was that mentioned in the article? Of course not. Where was the balance?


future.


I will avoid your publications in the Lindsay Butt


A cross-country let-down


I do know that the regional health authorities were brought in by the To- ries. At the time, though, all the prov- inces were setting up these bodies. Now all the provinces are seeing that it didn’t work and are backing away from these structures.


Dorothy Dobbie www.lifestyles55.net 5


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