BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled 'Proposed lakeside sports field will be hot topic at council tonight,' published May 15.
Be careful, field naysayers, your privilege may be showing.
I have been reading the multiple Letters to the Editor in the news and outrageous posts on social-media groups and cannot believe how some are feeling. The misrepresentation being printed in letters and online by the people who say they’re just looking out for the city and its residents are plentiful.
I went back and watched last week's general committee meeting where the mayor laid out some facts to counter the mistruths, but some residents seem to still be misleading others to push an agenda, or maybe are very worked up and not listening to the other side. I feel they should stop and try to.
While I am not a sports fan, nor do I care if there is a field or not, I am content that the truth is this is not a complex or sportsplex. That definition describes what is in Midhurst. This is a field, people. A field!
Also, I have lived near my whole life in Barrie and not once have I walked through the poison ivy and brush the naysayers say they want protected.
I read an article where one of the members of this anti-kids-having-fun group said that the old Allandale Station should be turned into a museum or an ice-cream shop. Why is it OK to have something they can 'posh' over to, but the kids and families of our city have no say. Many families don't have a vehicle to go to Midhurst; this field would be accessible.
One man made a comment on Facebook about the many youth that were in attendance last week who wanted to have a usable field at the waterfront. His dire concern was that there were too many kids at the general committee and they should get there early on Wednesday to keep them out.
Really? We should be celebrating young people getting involved.
I first read about this Sea Cadets field last June. I then read about the addition of a sports component to it in September 2023.
This was certainly not “covered up,” as some have said.
I am always mindful of this saying: “I do like and approve of this … but I cannot support that!”
They say they support the Sea Cadets, but don’t want a sports field? The cadets' field would go up and the kids would just use it to play. It's using a field to its full advantage.
I’ve read all the arguments and it's so all over the board, it seems some are grasping at straws. I ask them to stop, take a long look at themselves and their cause, and see the good in this and the community that likes things different than they do.
The irony is some of those complaining live in condos along the waterfront, which would have tore up nature to build.
This is not about kids playing on a field in somebody else's backyard. This about utilizing the field that the wonderful Sea Cadets would use.
I hope this goes through tonight and I will make sure to come out to the new beautiful area and watch some Sea Cadets finally getting the space they deserve and maybe even get to watch some youth sports.
I fully believe once it is up, it will be a beautiful addition to our city.
Some may be too used to what they have, and that's understandable. But that is privilege, which is completely normal. Let's get rid of that and see it from other people's perspective.
Thomas Reynolds
Barrie
