A Letter to the Editor of the Sooke News Mirror


Subject: Taliban take CBC
April the 2nd, 2008     

Now that the CBC “Taliban” executives have been ordered to blow up all our
“statues”, it behooves us to ask what a statue is?   CBC Radio II has been
a central “statue” in my life for as long as I can remember.   When I was
a young composer at university, Robert Chesterman’s seminal series “The
Art of the Conductor,” on the stereo network, introduced me to the finest
musical minds on the planet.   I lived in my car in the SFU student
parking lot, radio was all I had, and in fact Radio II comprises most of
what I listen to today.  I was enthralled and inspired. Every night my
thoughts were shaped by the extraordinary ideas that came whirling out of
the ethers from the minds of beautifully intelligent creators.   There was
an immediate response in me, and  I “gave back.”  I poured all I had into
the orchestral work I was creating.  When it was finished, the CBC was
there for me too.   The work was broadcast with the Toronto Symphony and
the Festival Singers on CBC television, and on the full stereo radio
network, as well as representing Ontario at the opening of the Montréal
Olympics.   The CBC TV ratings department claimed that one half million
people watched this première of a new Canadian orchestral work on prime
time.   It wouldn’t be possible today.

Perhaps there is yet a value in gazing up at statues, if only to see how
small we are?   Blowing the statue to smithereens simply brings it to our
level and chokes us in dust.

After taking in the Royal Ballet’s performance of “Sylvia” in High Def at
a Victoria theatre today  (no hope of even an afternoon’s  Norman Campbell
“Giselle” these days on CBC TV)  I journeyed to the local “Timmy’s” to see
if I could determine what Mr. Stursberg’s proposed new CBC audience might
look like?  I was welcomed at the door by a three year old who swiftly
threw his high chair table under my feet!  Not enough Mozart in his mush?
Too much Amy Winehouse?  I  bought a hot chocolate and sat down to absorb
the ambience of Mr. Stursberg’s “proposed” new CBC radio audience.  Quelle
horreur!  There must be some mistake!   Mr. Stursberg’s audience was not
listening to music at all, and seemed quite content to merely talk to one
another!   The closest thing to music was the rhythmic rolling up of rims!
  The heart of Canada, the cheerful goodwill of Canadians, the compassion
of Canadians may be on view at Tim Hortons, but the profoundly nurturing
streams of the country’s intelligent life lie elsewhere.

The last public beheading of a major Canadian industry I can recall was
that of the Avro Arrow and the Avro Jetliner.   To survive, our friends in
the aircraft industry moved to Boeing in Seattle and to the Kennedy Space
Centre to head up new departments there.  Where do you expect Eric Friesen
to go, Mr. Stursberg, back to Minnesota?

Before CBC blows up the surviving statues in order to “pave paradise” and
put up the Joni Mitchell “parking lot, consider this: to destroy a man, it
is only necessary to destroy the value of what he does.   To destroy a
nation, it is only necessary to eliminate its "unique voice".  This, Mr.
Stursberg,  is precisely the “statue” that you smash at your feet.

Brent Straughan
Sooke BC

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/sookenewsmirror/

Richard Stursberg

was appointed Executive Vice-President of English Services on November 22, 2007.
He was first appointed Executive Vice-President of CBC Television on October 1, 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stursberg

Brent, I recommend an ipod.