Discussions

I've lived in a number of communities in Southern Ontario, I've lived in a west coast first nations community, I've lived in the Lower Mainland of BC, I've lived in rural West Man and I now live in Brandon ...  
 
I like this city.  
I like what it has to offer its citizens and neighbours.  
I also like brandon.ca (and offer kudos to Adam for his work here)  
 
But lately I can't help but wonder is there any Brandon Boosterism left out there???? Is there any civic pride left??? Is there anything redeeming about the community we call home???  
 
Around here we have belly ached and moaned about the garbage problem and the refrain - "who will do something about it?" has been heard over and over, but no one talks about being proud enough of our city, our neighbourhood, or even our backalley to clean up the mess - just because ...  
 
We hear about lousy customer service, but we seldom hear about the dozens and dozens of hard working, under-appreciated men and women who service in everything from a grocery store through to a coffee shop ...  
 
We hear about the short-comings of our elected officials and seldom acknowledge the many things they DO on a regular basis for us ...  
 
We hear about the potholes in the road and the lack of services on OUR STREET, but we seldom hear any acknowledgement that this is a city of 42 000 citizens in about to 15 000 individual residences the vast majority of which have running water, working sewer systems, access to library, police, fire and other services, and a standard of living that is nothing short of impressive ...  
 
We complain about the lack of shopping because we don't have the big block retailers that have killed small businesses across North American (we have even advocated for Costco !!!???) While our many fabulous small businesses across the city are constantly struggling just to survive ....  
We hear about what we've personally lacked but we don't pause to say - this is what I appreciate about Brandon and being a resident here ... I wonder if that's even possible, or have those who lurk around ebrandon become SO CONDITIONED to bitching and belly-aching that they (we) can't say anything positive about Life in Brandon any more ...  
 
I can't help but hear my Grandmother who always said - "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all ..."  
 
Could make for a quiet ebrandon couldn't it???  
 
Or are there some positives worth sharing ????