I read in a recent edition of the Wellington Advertiser how one Belwood resident was so driven to distraction by the wise presence of the wind power generators he actually appeared to compare his existence to that of living in a Ghetto.
I nearly fell off my chair when I read that. I grew up in what could be described a Ghetto, in the Rexdale area of North Western Toronto just outside of Jamestown.
Let me describe it as it was and still is today. Gangs. Drugs for sale, drug use and poverty. Not safe to go out after dark due to said gangs and violent fights. Shootings. Car thefts. B&E, physical assaults, prostitution, broken families, youth with serious police records before they hit age 20, teenage pregnancies and school dropouts. That was what I saw for about 15 years until my parents could get good stable jobs, work hard, save up and move out.
I and my siblings were lucky ones. Our European immigrant parents came here with nothing, not even the English language. They loved us, they taught us right from wrong. They worked hard at whatever jobs they could get. They were grateful (and that’s the key word) even for the struggle they faced here in Canada to raise their family.
And they saw to it that their children should all receive at least a college education (I made it to University with a degree in Electronics Engineering).
But these negative, harmful characteristics which I’ve described help define what a Ghetto is like even in modern times such as over the last 30 years. Any perusal of Youtube videos about Detroit will show Ghettoes and how people have not been grateful for what they had, so they lost it all.
As hard as I try, I fail to see how anything in the Belwood region exists in any state resembling a Ghetto.
I strongly suggest such views (and they seem to be very popular since I’ve read similar complaints in the Wellington Advertiser) must come from a very ungrateful point of view.
The possessors of such points of view really would do well to update themselves on what a true Ghetto is and realize how well they have life where they are in Wellington county and surrounding areas.
George Rutkay