Walking around Nocturne last night, I witnessed a similarly disturbing phenomenon from both sides of the coin—intolerance. From uninitiated students and members of the general public, there were comments ranging from “Oh, i guess this is art?” to homophobic statements about performers, to actively ignoring the art in the vicinity. Then there were the members of the elite art-speak crowd who sat in small groups and actively sneered at the work that wasn't “good enough” and avoided the “common people.” Can't we all just try a little harder? General public: art is very, very good for you. You might just learn something about yourself or the world if you stop dismissing it. Intellectual elite: the only way to change this town is to try and share the art with not only your peers but the general public too. Let's all try and get along. —Keeping the Peace

To the two privileged, middle-aged white, missionary men who decided it was appropriate to furiously honk and motion at an early-twenty-year-old on her way home in a creepy (yet expensive) van, while shortly afterwards chasing her on foot up the street: Congratulations, you managed to give someone with social anxiety more reason to be wary of pseudo-Christian, hetero-male-dominated public spaces. My only regret is letting my fear get in the way of expressing my utmost detest for your bigotry, shameful recruitment tactics and overall human shittiness. Next time, I'll be ready. —Queer Non-Believer

I was crossing at Agricola and Robie, stoked on the sunshine. I saw you rapidly approaching with a tool in hand. Thinking you were in a hurry to cross the street, I moved out of your way. You turned and screamed at me, “It's a f**cking saw, girly, not a gun.” Your verbal assault ruined my perfect day, and f**k you, too, the many onlookers who said nothing. —Sad North Ender

I have a confession to make: I have never voted at the ‘municipal’ level, since the province dissolved that level of government in 1996. It's a kangaroo court of a top-down, city-county amalgamation that I can't will myself to participate in, since doing so would represent an acceptance by me of what occurred, and its legitimacy. Perhaps ironically, more than 350,000 citizens in Halifax County had their cherished local government—traditionally the level of government most accessible, most accountable and closest to the people, most democratic—dissolved without so much as a non-binding plebiscite to indicate support or consent, and replaced it with a county wide ‘municipal government’ that devotes none of its time to my community, except in some dictatorial sense. To cap it all of, the districts are gerrymandered to cut through traditional urban neighborhoods and communities in an effort to ‘guide’ our transition to serfdom. We're down to 16 councillors now, for a landmass the size of Lebanon. Twice as many households in my district in my community than in many others in the ‘municipality.’ Thirty-five percent turnout in the last election? Only 16 percent bothered turning out to elect the last councillor? That's a crisis of legitimacy, not engagement. I know and have gotten in touch with councillors, prospective or active. I'm concerned with issues and I have love for my community. But my city no longer exists and so, I no longer have any vote to give. The province needs a wakeup call when it comes to best practices in democracy, regional governance and regional resource sharing. HRM is, and always will be, a failure. —Nova Scotia, the New Uzbekistan

...Quite Contrary- Feel better about yourself after today? Good, I am sure you do but that doesn't mean that people still don't know that you are the WORST to work for with your rude behaviour and childish ways. To be fair I waited to form my own conclusions but YOU do have many problems, including poor management. I feel sad for you. I just made the best decision for me and that feels great! But who am I? Right, just another worker not doing enough to help out. —Didn't even pay minimum wage..isn't that illegal?

Internet voting? What internet voting? The pin doesn't work. OK, I'll try the phone number. Invalid credentials. So what's the point of mailing me this? I work nights so voting during the day at the polling station is inconvenient. But I guess it's my only option since this shit doesn't work. I'm not even surprised. I hope they didn't waste too many tax dollars on this pointless voting system. —annoyed

So how does it feel now that you have stretched your earlobes to shit because you were young & stupid enough to put a three inch disks in them? Now you expect a 'normal' job & no one's touching you with a ten foot Q-Tip so what's the game plan now? Maybe you could use a twist tie to secure the loops behind your head. Same goes for stupidly thought out tattoos, like getting Fuck You! tattooed on your knuckles. Nice one! —There's A Fortune To Be Made in Earlobe Reconstructive Surgery

I think the only way the long term care system in the Halifax area is going to change is if people who work in the facilities speak up, people who aren't afraid to lose their jobs, who can step outside the Unions which are often corrupt, to rise up and truly do what you are meant to do, and that is help people. The question is will you? Do you have the courage? We all no that there are people in higher up positions with in these care facilities that have no right being in a care environment. Rise up, take action, save lives. —One batch

To the woman in cover-alls at the Sloan show: you suck. People like you at concerts are the worst. You try and get up front well after the band has started and expect to get the spot you want just because... why exactly? Because it's closer to someone you know? Because you deserve it? I don't think so. You expected me to give up my spot for you despite me being there long before the band even started. You pushed me, banged into me repeatedly, and then purposefully got in my face just to spite me. Then you even had the gall to shit-talk me to your friends right behind my back. Amazing. I even explained to you that I wouldn't be able to see if I had moved to where you "wanted me to move" but that's just not good enough for Queen Cover-Alls. And, hey, FYI - everyone else around us also thought you were an idiot. —Underwhelmed by obnoxiousness

This is not the kind of civil unrest we need at the moment. There are more important issues we need to be dealing with. What we need is to take back our communities. Take back our safety. Citizen groups on patrol. Almost everyone has a cell phone. Call the police. Using fear as a tactic against the public is as wrong as you can get. If they had an agenda to torment political establishment or corporate greed, I could understand a bit, but terrorizing women and children is criminal. I imagine vigilante groups will start up soon and it will get even worse by Halloween if it's not dealt with. The cops suck. Their training is ancient and the whole police construct needs to be rearranged, but for now, we the people should be able to call them and use them to chase the buggers off at the least. If we the people let them know we're not gonna stand for that shit, they will change their tune or face obvious establishment punishments. We as a collective people have tremendous power, and sometimes when you don't use something for a while, you forget how it works. The crazy things going on in our side of the globe right now, we've got to do something quick. —Maybe not