Criticism should be listend to
Published: June 19, 2008 4:00 PMUpdated: June 19, 2008 5:50 PM
I found it somewhat ironic in reading David Hocking’s letter in last week’s Undercurrent that he was just as disrespectful to Ian Henley (who dared to criticize the current thinking regarding the Community Facilities) as he claimed Ian Henley was to the myriad of people who have worked on the project. And that’s the basic problem. Even though we’ve now been asked to provide input to the plans for these facilities, no one is willing to listen to criticism. Every time I’ve seen such criticism in various forums over the last little while, some defender usually will jump down the critic’s throat, usually with attacks on their character and, as hinted in Hocking’s letter, insinuations that they must not have all the information that is available (for if they did, then they would certainly fall into line). One can be critical of a result, as Ian Henley was, and not be critical of the people responsible - they’ve certainly worked very hard. Perhaps we’d get a better result if those same people were willing to listen (and not just automatically rise to the defense of their work).
David Chamberlain
