A little bit of gold ...

I enjoyed myself this week when the folks at Lake Shore Gold (Tahoe Timmins) poured their millionth ounce of gold. I am always amazed at the idea of gold. Here in Timmins, the entire city revolves around it. If you’re not mining it, you’re selling things to keep the mines in operation whether its fuel, shovels, trucks, timbers or tires. There was a time that the mines spent millions of dollars propping up the local economy. Then it became tens of millions of dollars. Now it’s hundreds of millions of dollars … all for a metal that doesn’t rust, doesn’t tarnish and is non-toxic.

Here’s the best part. People always talk about the Klondike Gold Rush. Well, that was indeed a rush, but it is tiny compared to Timmins. Lake Shore Gold  opened its mining operation in Timmins less than 10 years ago, finding gold on the west side of town,  nearly 100 years after the other big mines opened. The geologists keep saying there is lots of gold in Timmins that hasn’t been discovered yet. All they have to do is find it. By the way, the gold bar weighed in at 55 pounds ... $1.2-million.

Protest is okay ...

So I have been thinking about the NFL players protest of going down on one knee during the playing the U.S. national anthem. I am okay with it.  It is really quite a peaceful, and respectful, form of protest. They’re not setting buildings on fire. They’re not blocking streets. They’re not out looting department stores. They’re taking a knee.

A lot of people seem to forget that people have the right to protest in the U.S. and in our own country They people who are protesting seem to be legitimately upset with the way blacks are being treated in the U.S.   So let’s face it, some of the police services in that country are totally out of hand and out of touch with reality.  Kinda wish Martin Luther King was still around. And if other people are upset with a few football players having a protest, hey get used to it. The land of free. The home of the brave. Get used to it.