Aftermath of Rum Runner Days: What did we learn?

I think most people will agree on one thing for sure, and that is Rum Runner Days is nothing without Thunder in the Valley. Just another quiet local 'family event' with a parade. Not much different from what any other community puts on at this time of the year.

But before we go any further, let me remind people that this coming Heritage Day long weekend the Crowsnest Pass welcomes everyone to its seventh annual Doors Open and Heritage Festival from August 2 to August 6. This is a great 'family event' that gets bigger and better with each passing year. Kudos must go out to the likes of Fred Bradley and Community Futures, to name just one person and organization among many who have made major contributions to the ongoing success of this 'family event'.

Now back to the subject at hand. If you noticed above I stressed 'Heritage' and 'family event' on purpose to highlight the fact we already have times, places and events in which we celebrate our past and our history in family event ways. I personally believe this is a good thing. However, like anything it can get over done at the expense of everything else. Case in point, this year's cancellation of Thunder in the Valley, primarily because council behaving like a bunch of ol' folkies decided for all of us that they wanted to change what we had i.e. a 'celebration of life' into yet another one of their boring (for most) 'heritage', 'family events'.

Too much emphasis on being mediocre and doing what everybody else is doing and not enough on being unique, original, and progressive. Such as what we have enjoyed and succeeded in with Sinister 7 and Thunder in the Valley.

These last two events are what puts us on the map, and brings much needed economic relief to both our local businesses and to our community as a whole. It promotes us as a vibrant, healthy, community on the rise with untold future possibilities and potential. It speaks to life, not death. To me that's a welcome change. And one I believe we need more of.

Look at Community Futures Development Projects for example, primarily concerned with death and destruction (Heritage) with little to nothing in the way of building strong communities, industries, and markets for the living.

The above trend of living in the past is what this and past council's follows. If anything is to be learned from this year's Rum Runner Days fiasco, it is we need to bury the past by concentrating less on it, and more on the future, where opportunity lies... and is patiently waiting for us.




The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not to be worshiped. It is our future in which we will find greatness.