​Readers take issue with Kincardine council’s decision/indecision on Secord Monument

To the Editor:

I have been reading about how the Municipality of Kincardine is having to decide what to do about the Dr. Solomon Secord Memorial and I don’t understand why it is such a big decision to make!

Why does someone have to be hired to make that decision when it is local history and simply being replaced?

I know there was not a big decision made to pave Queen Street or install new sidewalks after the “Big Dig.” It was all part of the contract to replace them as it should be to replace the Secord Monument.

History cannot be changed no matter how many monuments, statues or street names are changed.

Where did Common Sense go?

Oh, I forgot, there is no university course for that!

Wayne Hartwick
Kincardine
 

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To the Editor:
RE: “Kincardine okays $15,000 for facilitator to assist with process leading to decision on Secord Monument”

There seems to be an issue with the Secord Monument and Kincardine council is unable, or not willing, to make a decision.

Instead, council voted to spend $15,000 of our tax money for a facilitator and what will that outcome be?

I suggest we cancel getting this facilitator. Leave the monument where it is - and I hope it is in a safe place - until after the next election and then maybe we will have a new council that will be brave enough to make a decision.

Problem solved … at least for now. And use that $15,000 for something useful that will benefit this municipality.

Judi Brown
Kincardine taxpayer
 

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To the Editor:

I take exception to hearing the Dr. Solomon Secord Monument referred to as a nod toward the Confederate States war effort.

It deflects from today’s problems and paints what is now an historical, local legend of a beloved local doctor who curiously served as a doctor for the Confederate States of America.

And I, too, read that Secord was an abolitionist, so could it have been that he sought to work against slave-owning by caring for wounded soldiers? No doubt the answer is somewhere, but it has no relevance to his legacy today, outside of removing an eye-pleasing feature from the downtown.

Being a doctor during the Civil War, no doubt he treated brutal wounds of soldiers on both side of the war, he serving on the losers' side especially. What should be looked upon as more offensive than a sundial monument to a local doctor, is our ability to see Confederate flags in the back windows of trucks and flying at homes of pick-ups owned by Canadians in 2024.

Casual racism exists locally, today, and far outside of this historical man's legacy monument erected by local people who loved him.

Being that it was the townspeople who honoured him with the sundial, it makes sense that it be given more credit than being pegged as a 'Confederate monument' as per a local councillor.

On the other hand, it really isn't 'Woke' as some readers put it, to acknowledge past wrong-doings to people of colour. Far too recently ‘Woke’ is used in a negative context and in this case, it is being misused and co-opted to paint Secord, and by proxy some townspeople, as slave-owning Confederate supporters. I don’t think it's fair to paint past locals in that shade.

But maybe they were? How would we know?

We have enough Americans, who are proud supporters of former United States president Donald Trump, visiting us today, so it's not far-fetched to think locals of the time were like-minded to the losing side of the Civil War against slavery.

The real problem is knee-jerk reactions to blank out historically-significant features, such as the sundial, when it could be used as a place to teach and educate the community.

What better place to have this than outside of the public library?

The mud-slinging and unkind words aside, councillors and residents should speak kinder to one another after reading those letters. It's embarrassing.

Troy Patterson
Kincardine-born Ripley resident