Collin Brewer: Re-elected but not welcome.

Dear Collin Brewer

Around 2 months ago a huge mistake you made came to light.

In your role as local councillor you made a hot-headed comment that 'children with disabilities should be put down'. Apparently you were angry. Apparently you were stressed.

Now anyone in public office; teachers, ministers, police officers, councillors and so on should never entertain such notions, let alone say them aloud. My brain wouldn't know how to begin to form such an insult, whatever the circumstances in which it was used.

The world got wind of this leak of your outdated and bigoted thinking and was outraged. Not just the disability community, but any person with an ounce of decency felt emotions ranging from anger to fury to sadness and disappointment.  They rallied on radio shows and internet sites to tell stories of love and positivity about family members with disabilities.

When I say the world, I don't simply mean your world of Wadebridge East. As a local disability writer and campaigner I watched as groups as far away as Australia and America demanded your resignation. Many wanted you formally charged, others wanted to confront you personally.

I personally rolled my eyes in your direction, and thought you a buffoon, a dinosaur and a sad individual who has yet to understand the value of those with disabilities within our lives and communities. I wrote you a carefully considered and balanced letter which I doubt you read, explaining the wonder our daughter Natty, who has Down's Syndrome brings to the entire family and everyone she meets. I pointed out your naiivety at turning a blind eye to public opinion.

I admitted that you were not a Geoffery Clark in my eyes, a man with a manifesto of hatred, but a man wholly unsuited to the office you were clinging stubbornly onto despite a glowing past.

Then you resigned after a hard-hitting interview live on the Laurence Reed show.

The world sighed a sigh of relief.

What you don't realise Collin Brewer is that at that time I and many of those in the media were concerned for your mental wellbeing. We worried how you would cope with your long and fruitful career ending in such a hateful way. We worried about your self-esteem, your mental health and, to be frank, your personal safety. And here is the thing, we actually did much to protect you from the wrath you had created for yourself. We smoothed things over, telling people to forget you if they could not forgive you, to move on and pour their energies into more positive work to improve the lives of those with disabilities.

We held back on interviews and publishing more information about you. We assumed you had slipped quietly away to lick your wounded pride and perhaps redress the hurt you had caused so many by doing some voluntary work or fundraising for Disability Cornwall (to an employee of whom you had made your fateful comment).

But no.

We were all shocked into silence that you decided to stand again for election this May.

The audacity, the arrogance, and again, the ignorance that the world  was watching and waiting.

The results have just been counted and you have won by a whisker, 4 votes if I'm not mistaken. Who these people who voted for you are do not matter. They may have been oblivious to your comments in the first place.

The worlds disability groups will now be joining force.

Open Letter to Collin Brewer

Dear Mr Collin Brewer

Sadly, since I wrote this letter Cllr Brewer has decided to stand again in the May Local Elections. Misguided and naiive to the public feeling against him that spans the world.

AN OPEN LETTER TO WADEBRIDGE COUNCILLOR MR COLLIN BREWER

Dear Mr Brewer

I appreciate that you are probably rather snowed under at the moment, a little shell shocked perhaps, reeling from the worldwide reaction to your foolish and hurtful error. But feel that a few minutes spent reading my letter might change your life as it now stands.

I have just returned from a gathering of beautiful child models, meeting together in an historic building for a photoshoot, all of them bursting with life. There were giggles and hugs and sulks, play fighting and tickling, far too many crisps were consumed, and it took a lot of persuasion to get some to play ball in front of the cameras. Each one had a personality that filled the room and each was quite the little diva.

But you see one of the smallest and arguably the most cheeky was our daughter Natty. And Natty has Down's Syndrome. As in fact do all the other children we met that day.

My motivation to change the way the world views this extra chromosome is personal, and that day we had gathered to celebrate the doors that our children are opening, the perceptions they are gently changing and the inspiration they are providing to new families and children with disabilities everywhere simply by being included in mainstream advertising.

 Natty is 6, an ambassador, a teacher and melts hearts wherever she goes. She puts back far more into society than she takes from it, as she entertains, laughs, sings, dances, jokes, brings people together, teaches tolerance and an understanding of difference. For EQ cannot be measured financially. She intuitively watches out for the emotional needs of her classmates, always there for the needy, the upset, the ones with the bumped knees. You see Colin, a person's worth can never be equated to pounds coins.

I'm sure she would make a beeline for you if she ever met you, for your buffoonery and lack of understanding of the world is as great a disability as any, even more tragic in one who should be old and wise enough to know better by now. She would feel sorry for what you are missing out on, as indeed I do, my hurt and anger aside. I too was ignorant about disability before Natty was born. I have since made up for that, and it is not too late for you to learn that inclusion is a two-way street. The only burden I'd rather not have on my shoulders is tackling the misinformed and comforting those upset by thoughtlessness such as yours.

I have oft come across those who are purposely hurtful and hateful, the Geoffery Clarks of the world, the trolls of life. But my motto is to ignore them, not put air in their lungs by fuelling their hatred, to simply shine light on their darkness.

But I do not for one second believe that you are one such individual Colin. Do you really want to euthanise the disabled? Of course not.

Did you let your Councillor’s hat slip and your true colours show? Yes, even if those true colours were just hot-headedness and a desire to provoke and hurt, and that will simply not do. As a former teacher I understand the importance of always acting responsibly in public and you did not.

Are you out of touch with social media? Yes. You never dreamed the stone would roll so far and pick up such hateful moss along the way, much of it exaggerated, out of context and frankly more worrying than your initial comments. The 'army' of people you have upset is far greater than the small collection of voters you represented. “Scores” doesn’t come close to covering it.

Did you do a lot of good in your career and were you well respected by the people of Wadebridge? Yes, and I have spoken to many of them personally, being a very local lady. I actually felt a little bit sorry for you as I watched the proceedings unfold, because you seemed a little naiive.

It’s time to remove your blinkers now and enjoy the jigsaw of life around you. To see what we can all learn from each other. I hope that other disability groups and parents will offer you an olive branch such as I am doing now.

I wish you a happy retirement, although my mind's eye envisages an embarrassed brood of grown up children and a wife who wishes you had kept your mouth shut. An inbox full of hatred and your name smeared across every paper. Bitterness fills the air.

It’s not too late to meet with us, or other disability groups, share a coffee and make amends properly.

I for one, thank you for doing the right thing and for stepping down.

We now need to channel our energies in proper disability training for all council staff, starting now.

Yours sincerely

Hayley Goleniowska

Author of Downs Side Up

Cornwall