A Commentary by Doug Draper
“No one gets out of here alive”
– Jim Morrison of The Doors
I’ve just turned 60 and have found myself wondering whether all the things I’ve felt so passionately about when I was a younger guy – from environmental issues to a just society – are worth taking up whatever time I may have left fighting for.
After all, I’ve got books piling up on the floor that I haven’t read yet, and one or two I would like to write myself. I’ve got my great aunt’s beautiful old stand-up piano in my home, just waiting for me to spend a few hours saddling up to, and I’ve got a couple of guitars I would like to spend a bit more time learning how to play.
If sometime in the meantime, someone comes along in one of those white overcoat and says; ‘We found a cancer, Doug, and you’ll be lucky to last the year,’ I’ll be sorry I never finished reading all of ‘Moby Dick’ or learning to play the piano lines properly to ‘Let It Be’.
This brings me to one of the more recent issues we’ve tried to talk about on Niagara At Large – the issue of climate change – and how frustrating it is to try to have a rational conversation without having those who think climate change is some kind of a conspiracy, just as the ‘birthers’ in the United States who are convinced President Barack Obama was not born in America, think and is therefore a result of a conspiracy to put someone of coloured skin, with an exotic name, in the White House.
I wrote an Earth Day column this passing April for Niagara At Large and a version of it for Niagara This Week, and I mentioned climate change. And what I get at the end of the day from a number of email writers are lines like; David Suzuki is on the take for money for pushing climate change, I’m poorly informed and am not doing my research if I talk about climate change as if it is something real and, at the end of it all, I’m just some unprincipled and drunken old has been that probably never should have been a journalist in the first place.
Then there are those who used the Earth Day piece I posted on this site in the wake of this April 22, not so much to share comments on Earth Day but to use the piece as one more opportunity to take a shot at Fort Erie, Ontario Mayor Doug Martin, as if there aren’t enough opportunities to take a shot at him.
This site received more than 170,000 direct hits last year, not counting possibly five to 10 times more readers who received the stories posted on Niagara At Large in other venues. That is apparently pretty damn good for a site that has no financial backing to date and is, for the most part, being held together by a few willing hands on lap tops. But I don’t know how much more of this I can take quite frankly.
Is it worth keeping this thing going or should I just get back with my guitar and we can all sit back and enjoy or bitch about whatever we get in the local dailies and the rest of the mainstream press?
From my aging perspective, after 32 years of trying to do some decent journalistic work in the region, it would almost be kind of nice not to hear all the complaining about the media in Niagara anymore. My time might be better spent with Moby Dick and all the books by Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal I want to read. Maybe it is time to say goodbye.
(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater Niagara region and beyond.)
Niagara At Large 
Keep up the good work Doug. You’re doing good stuff and hopefully making a difference.
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Well Doug, I, for one, was at a loss when you left the Standard. I always relied on your articles to be some of the few in the paper that I really gave a hoot about. I was really pleased to find your work in other venues. I must admit, I didn’t read the less-than-complimentary responses you have received lately. I would really miss your writing, but I also understand how one can get very tired trying to talk about something that is very meaningful and sensible to oneself, only to be pissed upon from great heights. If you retire, or only take some time off, I will wish you well, but do know that you will be missed.
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Don’t do it Doug.
You are one of the few INDEPENDENT voices of reason left who can voice a true heartfelt opinion on our State of the Union{sad though it may be}
Should you decide to finally put your needs before ours, we will truly understand. It will be a sad day for all with one small exception,,,the cheers will resound at the NHS .You have had the ability to hold their feet to the fire and slow down the path of Health Care destruction. You have made them accountable for their actions and Doug,,,that is one fight that you have not finished yet.
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“Then there are those who used the Earth Day piece I posted on this site in the wake of this April 22, not so much to share comments on Earth Day but to use the piece as one more opportunity to take a shot at Fort Erie, Ontario Mayor Doug Martin, as if there aren’t enough opportunities to take a shot at him.”
-This was me. The intended small town connection to “Earth Day”: single incidences -no matter how small and relatively insignificant- to privatize [via chamber-of-commerce-driven government] our natural capital and the people’s commons always amount to *aggregated* ecocide and community impoverishment. I, too, share your feelings of dejection and resignation in the face of such overwhelming ignorance, incompetent leadership, and anthropocentric destruction of the natural world. I feel perpetually angry -and- at times, completely powerless to stop it, ..and I’ll admit to transferring some of my hostility to you through email and that was wrong of me to do. I should have directed that day’s contempt toward the Canadian man who upon purchasing the property next door to me immediately felled five 150 year old pine trees (home to several living baby woodpeckers) while cutting down half of my tree the very day your article was published, *not you*. Therefore, Doug, I sincerely apologize for the few hostile comments I’ve sent your way in the past. I salute you for the intelligent, insightful, well-researched, and articulate articles you have given us over the years and consider you an indispensable and powerful contributor to civil society and to our freedom of speech and information. ..So, futile ingrates, be damned! -Eric Morgan, Venice Island-Florida [a grateful admirer]
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Please stay the course Doug, the truth needs you.
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Doug I’ve posted some pieces that do not necessarily support the theory of AGW. I’m a skeptic based on my research but I do not rule out the possibility. There has been some shoddy work done in this field and requires more study not polarization. As for the analogy of “Birthers” being akin to climate skeptics, well….. suffice to say, that’s not fair (in my case the farthest from the truth)
You are offering a forum that is not conventional in the sense that it doesn’t follow the usual dictums of conventional media or MSM if you like. The one benefit to this publication is it offers a varying point of view. That issues are provocative and contentious is healthy. We can all learn from the experience. I have.
Survival of this publication is predicated on it generating some lucre, not only to cover your costs but in my estimation provide you with some income. Doing this as a labour of love is noble but not practical when bills have to be paid. Your experience and abilities merit financial reward.
Have you considered changing the model for Niagara At Large to a ad-based and/or subscriber based publication?
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Fighting the good fight sure is frustrating and discouraging and it doesn’t help pay the bills, eh Doug? It’s even more upsetting when the ones you are fighting against have high salaries and positions of authority and appear to lack a conscience as long as they can pull in the big bucks and/or get political concessions for their area of power.
Keep in mind, when we all reach the pearly gates, I doubt a six figure salary is going to gain them entrance.
It would be nice if someone with deep pockets would finance you to enable the truth to get out.
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I, too, would be sad to see you go, especially when you are on the cusp of success. Paid ads should make the difference.
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Oh, you’d probably get stuck on singing songs like “times they are a changing” and then get frustrated with everyone else telling you that you shouldn’t have given up your day job in the first place.
No Doug. Please don’t give up or in. You know for yourself time will soon prove you right, or in some cases, at least not all that wrong. People just don’t like to read, or try to comprehend what’s so clearly written on the wall. (To wit … Harperian lies 😉
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Perhaps you can have it both ways Doug!
Make Niagara At Large a part-time thing – a hobby. Just as playing guitar or piano should be a hobby.
As you know, I don’t always agree with you. But you are are one of the best writers around these parts (southern Ontario). You always manage to put forward your vision in a clear, well-thought out manner. At the same time, you challenge your reader to think for themselves. That takes a real talent, and I applaud you for it.
As someone who has recently retired after a journalism and public relations career spanning more than 45 years (I started young!), I can tell you that there are many joys to retirement. I encourage you to consider a partial retirement, but keep Niagara At Large going, at least as site where independent thought can find a voice!
Will MacKenzie
Flamborough
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Doug, 60 isn’t that old. British Prime Minister William Gladstone formed his fourth ministry when he was in his 80s. Louis St. Laurent didn’t become Prime Minister of Canada until he was 66. The list could really go on.
As for comments: at lease people are commenting. You have achieved something most ‘bloggers’ only dream about. Just be happy no-one is suing you.
Stop feeling old and write some articles.
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Doug, use the music to keep yourself sane, and remember these lines from Bruce Cockburn:
Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight
Got to kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight
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Doug, as someone who has been going through the same thing – the same questions, the same frustrations – all I can say is: you must do what you feel is right for you. I’ve enjoyed reading your columns, your rants, and I’ve enjoyed contributing to NAL as well. I would miss it if it went away, but I also want you to be happy. You have my support whatever you decide.
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Doug as I approach the ripe old age of Eighty I want you to know I have always totally respected, and forever will respect, you as a journalist, as a friend, as a family man and as a gentleman who not only speaks the truth, but lives the truth. “May the ink never dry in your quill”
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