Ever get the feeling...? - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

Last week, as we were going through our approval process for the editorials, Scott made an observation. (For those of you who are uninitiated, editorials are written by individual members of an editorial board to convey the opinions of that board. As such, you should never see the word “I” in an editorial, though the royal we may make sense. So, we have a meeting, choose three editorials and go off and write them, but before they make their way to you, dear readers, we have to make sure we all agree. Deb must write something with which I agree and vice versa or we have yet to accomplish our goal.) Anyway, last week Scott noted that our three opinions - to be kind during Pride Month, that Premier Doug Ford is making bad decisions and that we’re in major trouble with climate change - are all places we’ve been before. Many, many times before. So, to that end, do you ever get the feeling that you’re repeating yourself?

Citizen founder Keith Roulston - that’s him over there on the left - has often lamented to me and in his columns - that he’s writing columns that he’s sure he’s written before... at least in one form or another. I’m not so sure that’s true, but who am I to argue with Keith? Having said that, I can’t lie and say that I haven’t had the same feeling about my own columns. Surely I’ve retreaded some ground.

The thing to consider, I suppose, is whether we’re repeating ourselves or if the issues of the day keep resurfacing over and over again.

Scott, in particular, has marvelled at Keith’s editorials and columns in newspapers from 20, 40, 50 years ago and how prescient the issues he discussed continue to be. Furthermore, he has often expressed amazement at how forward-thinking Keith has been in his columns; how he would forecast something for future generations and how eerily close he was. This has been a particularly relevant conversation as his 2005 play, Powers and Gloria, will return to the Memorial Hall stage this season and as both Scott and I have been interviewing actors and other theatre professionals involved in the production for next week’s Blyth Festival special issue.

The themes of globalization, the value of community and local production, class within the community and the dynamics of succession planning were all important then and they are just as important now, as we’ll see soon when the show hits the stage again. And his isn’t the only one, a show about immigration in the 1800s to Canada from Ireland (immigration hasn’t been in the news as of late, has it?), a story about being a pacifist in a world at war, a play about the messy bits of national identity and an examination on media and how we communicate with one another make up the season. It’s hard not to see those issues echoing throughout the corridors of time over again.

So, please accept our apologies if we, as a group or individually, repeat ourselves. Some of it is within our control, while other aspects are not. So much changes, while so much does not and that results in returning to arguments we’ve had before or points that we’re sure we’ve already hit home.

To wrap up, I can’t think of a better place to end than with the great Keith Roulston.