The Parksville Qualicum Beach News Tuesday, March 19, 2013
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The Bard a spin doctor No evidence of the murders Shakespeare put on Richard
The evil that men do lives after them. brooding hunchback. Shakespeare has King Richard killing The good is oft interred with their bones. the Duke of Somerset at the Battle of St. Albans. No mean Shakespeare feat. Richard would have been two years old at the time. h yes. The enduring fame of infamy. Names of Indeed, there is no evidence that Richard was guilty of monsters like Karla Homolka and Clifford Olson any of the killings Shakespeare attributes to him. As for the are etched on our minds for life, murder of the princes in the tower, experts agree but...that woman who pulled three that no modern court would convict Richard of kids from a burning house – what the crime. Any number of royal court intriguers was her name again? Which brings us to Rich- By Arthur Black could have benefited from the disappearance of ard. the princes – most especially Richard’s succesA time bomb of a handle to lumber a kid with, sor, Henry VII. and not just because of its unfortunate diminuIf Richard had a better PR department he tive, Dick. ‘Richard’ conjures up the spectre of might be regarded today not as a blot on the royRichard III, one of Shakespeare’s earlier plays. In al escutcheon but as a champion of the people The Bard’s estimation, Richard III was emphati– he abolished press censorship, established the cally Not A Nice Guy. right to bail for people awaiting trial, cleaned In Shakespeare’s telling King Richard has up England’s finances and even performed heHenry VI murdered along with his son. Richard roically in battle, despite his physical frailty. A also offs his wife Anne Neville, his own brother George, sun- historian of the time records that “to his last breath he held dry other royals and, most infamously, the ‘two little princ- himself nobly in a defending manner.” es’ — 12-year-old Edward and nine-year-old Richard. Unfortunately, Richard not only lost his life at Bosworth, What a beast, n’est-ce pas? he lost the battle too. And it’s the victors who get to write the But what if it never happened? What if Richard III, in- history books. stead of being England’s most vilified monarch, was merely Reminds me of a certain U.S. President who tried to a victim of Tudor spin-doctors? remake America. He created a vast network of federal grants Could be. The dynasty that replaced Richard III made a to state and local governments that cost billions. He set up a habit of blaming everything they could on ‘the previous ad- national agency to regulate pollution; another to guard workministration’ (sound familiar?) — and when it came to po- ers’ health and safety. He even tried to bring in a guaranteed litical slander, a certain young playwright from Statford-Up- minimum wage and a national health plan for low-income on-Avon who came along a century or so later turned out families. Like Richard III, his time in office was cut short. to be the Karl Rove of his time. Richard suffered from a Odd thing: his name was Richard too — Richard Milslight curvature of the spine; Shakespeare turned him into a house Nixon.
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AccessiBility
More accessible new name
Parksville’s Measuring Up Committee goes with regional name AUREN RUVINSKY
writer@pqbnews.com
JILL TUGGLE
In a move to address wider issues, the Measuring Up Committee of Parksville recently changed it’s name to the Oceanside Accessibility Committee (OAC). “There’s a renewed momentum given what’s happening now with the whole sector of healthy aging and aging in place,” Parksville councillor and OAC member Marc Lefebvre told council at their March 4 regular meeting. He explained that the committee, established by Parksville council in January 2008, has expanded naturally over time to include Qualicum Beach and regional district members and is looking at the issues of mobility and accessibility in the wider context.
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It’s not just about getting around the city, but includes things like tourism and regional mobility, he said, pointing out that accessible tourism is already a huge industry that will increase as the population ages. “There are now 630,000 in B.C. with some sort of ambulatory, auditory or vision or mental issue that requires some special attention,” he said. The committee is reviewing its relationships with other groups in the area like chambers of commerce to see how they can work together to improve opportunities for individuals and businesses. He said people are “looking for places that are accessible and the folk that are here that want to enjoy life to the full, want to stay here.”
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“Glorious” Mozart Requiem Haydn Te Deum & More Directed by Ann Barber Piano: Margaret Nelson Organ: John Nelson
Sunday, March 24, 2:30pm Knox United Church, 345 Pym St., Parksville
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Parksville councillor and Oceanside Accessibility Committee member Marc Lefebvre.
For more information visit www. accessparksville.ca. Aaike Biglow
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