​Residents angry and saddened by destruction of Secord Monument

To the Editor:

Like Jon Farrell, I am proud of Kincardine.

However, I respectfully disagree with his praise of council's work regarding the Secord Monument.

To recap council’s actions:
 

• Created this issue.
• Disregarded decisions made by previous councils and broke governing policy to push the issue.
• Couldn’t make a decision and spent $15,000 of taxpayers’ money to hire a consulting firm.
• Gathered its own information, only to ignore it.
• Promised to listen to different viewpoints, then decided it would not allow individuals to speak in support of the monument.
• Voted 7-1 to not only decommission it, but to also destroy it.

Along the way, the mayor publicly accused Kincardine citizens of being racist, just for good measure.

If the decision was as difficult as the council members claim, the vote wouldn’t have been 7-1. Council got what it wanted, and it (clearly) wasn't what the people wanted.

This issue didn't divide the people of Kincardine, as some have said. I think it has actually brought an overwhelming majority of local citizens together. It divided the people from council.

Anyone who chooses to read about Dr. Solomon Secord can quickly deduce he wasn't a racist.

Plus the monument was hardly a Confederate flag-waving soldier ready for battle - it was a sundial with a plaque honouring a physician.

So, all of this was over a sundial - which was a pretty cool thing to have in your downtown.

Can a sundial even be racist? Maybe council can only read digital clocks.

Josh Howald
Kincardine
 

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To the Editor:

"All that lived he loved, and without regard for fee or reward, he did his work for love of his fellows” is the true message here.

Unfortunately, woke politicians are blind to common sense.

I’m very surprised they didn't take the opportunity to deface the monument with "additional historical context" ... in order to teach us all their version of history.

What a disgrace.

Regards,
Shawn Brenner
New Hamburg
 

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To the Editor:

We have just read Kincardine councillor Bill Stewart’s letter stating that the Secord Monument has been quickly destroyed after last Wednesday’s council meeting.

The monument stood for more than 100 years and its fate has been battered around for the past five or six years. But the physical destruction of it took less than five working days after approval was given. There aren’t many other things that happen that quickly in our municipality.

Since we heard about council’s decision last week, we were working on a suggestion that could have seen the monument saved and re-purposed. We sent it to the mayor Tuesday but got no reply.

We also believe that implementation of this suggestion would have helped heal the wounds the town has suffered over this issue.

But, sadly, we were too late. Our suggestion was as follows:

Re-purpose the Secord Monument

We were very disappointed to read that Kincardine council has decided to “respectfully decommission” the Secord Monument.

There has been much speculation as to why Dr. Solomon Secord went to Georgia and as to why he decided to stay there and serve as a surgeon in the Southern Army after the American Civil War broke out. We may never know the answers to those questions.

However, we do know, for sure, that Dr. Secord served as a devoted doctor in Kincardine and area for 50 years. We also know that the townspeople regarded him highly enough to erect a monument in his honour after his death.

While Dr. Secord was a long-term and highly-regarded doctor for Kincardine, he was, by no means, the only doctor to have contributed to the well-being of the town and area for extended lengths of time.

We would like to suggest that instead of destroying the monument, that it be re-purposed to honour more than Dr. Secord.

The offending wording would be covered with a new plaque expressing appreciation to the many health-care professionals who have served Kincardine and area since settlement. Elsewhere on the monument, name and date bars could be added for the doctors of distinction who have served for long periods of time, including Dr. Secord. Some names that come to mind are Dr. Helliwell, Dr. Couch, Dr. Tindall, Dr. Milne, Dr. Gurbin and Dr. Knox, but there are probably others to add to the list.

Criteria would have to be set for the meaning of long-term (i.e. 25 years or more) and research would have to be done to obtain and verify dates.

A suitable site should be found for the monument, either at the hospital, the clinic or another site where it can be easily read and appreciated.

We feel that instead of continuing divisive arguments and harbouring hard feelings, there could be a more positive outcome that could serve to celebrate the medical history of Kincardine.

Lois Bradley
Mary Campbell
Kincardine