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OPINION Next fall young hockey players in Georgetown and Acton will play under one umbrella-- the Halton Hills Minor Hockey Association. Frankly, we think this move is long overdue. After all, the two communities have offi cially been known as Halton Hills for close to 40 years so it's about time the local minor hockey groups fell under one roof. However, in rebranding itself, the HHMHA has opted to adopt the team nickname "Hit- men". Bad choice, folks. According to Georgetown Minor Hockey Asso- ciation president Carson Mininch, the Hitmen, Raiders and roughly half a dozen other names (among them Heat, Ice Hogs and Hazard) were put on a ballot and left to a players-only vote. Surely someone (i.e. a clear-thinking adult) in local minor hockey circles could have foreseen the name "Hitmen" as being problematic. Yes, it trips off the tongue nicely but a "hit- man" is defi ned by Merriam-Webster's dici- tonary as "a professional assassin who works for a crime syndicate." Nice name for a little kids' hockey team, right? And in a month when three teens in the GTA have been killed by guns! Mininch himself says he's "not so sure I like the name for a minor hockey association but I don't think there's a lot I can do about it." Hogwash! He can convene an executive meet- ing, bring the matter forward and urge the HH- MHA executive to withdraw the name on the basis it has a negative connotation, is offensive, infl ammatory and inappropriate. Mininch even points out that only 150 of the 2,000 kids in local minor hockey play at a level that even allows bodychecking. So the Hitmen moniker is not entirely indicative of the associa- tion as whole. Times have changed and there are still some offensive team names out there (Washington Redskins, Atlanta Braves, etc.) while others (Ac- ton High Bearcats formerly Redmen and Wash- ington Wizards nee Bullets), saw the error of their ways. We suggest the Halton Hills Hitmen get "whacked" before they become a reality. The Independent & Free Press is published Tuesday and Thursday and is one of several Metroland Media Group Ltd. community newspapers. Edi- torial and advertising content of The Independent & Free Press is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. The Independent & Free Press What's in a name? Steve Nease Letters to the editor (This letter was originally sent to Georgetown Minor Hockey Asso- ciation president Carson Mininich and a copy was made available for publication). Dear Carson, I read your comments in The Independent today with growing disbelief. I cannot believe that you so completely misunderstood people's concerns with the name, and that you appear to be tone- deaf to the effect that this will have on the reputation of our organization. For you to say that you were bound by the choice made by the players, when the option should never have been put in front of them in the fi rst place, is quite frankly a cop-out, and does not adequately address the concerns of the parents who you answer to. I can only hope that the choice of this name was made without consideration for what it might mean, and that you as president of the organization will take re- sponsibility for your mistake and act to correct it. "Hitmen" has nothing to do with body contact, and everything to do with someone who kills other people for money. As the parent of a young child who plays for one of the current Georgetown Raiders rep teams I am appalled that the GMHA would choose a name for the new organization with that meaning. At a time when gun violence and other crimes against our children are receiving more and more attention, this name, glori- fying casual murder, has no place in their lives. I, along with every parent I have spoken to, fi nd this name offensive, sexist and entirely inap- propriate for a children's sports organization. I strongly urge that you reconsider this decision, and quickly choose one of the many acceptable names available to you. Your parents, players and sponsors will thank you. Should you not do so, I urge the OMHA to reject their ap- proval of the amalgamation until another, more appropriate, name is chosen. I cannot imagine that they wish to be associated with this name any more than I do. Colin Montgomery, Georgetown , Letters policy 905-873-0301 Publisher: Dana Robbins General manager: Steve Foreman (sforeman@theifp.ca) Retail advertising manager: Cindi Campbell (ccampbell@theifp.ca) Managing editor: John McGhie (jmcghie@theifp.ca) Distribution manager: Nancy Geissler (ngeissler@theifp.ca) Classifi eds Kristie Pells (classifi ed@theifp.ca) Accounting Rose Marie Gauthier Editorial Cynthia Gamble: News editor (cgamble@theifp.ca) Ted Brown: Photography (tbrown@theifp.ca) Lisa Tallyn: Staff writer (ltallyn@theifp.ca) Eamonn Maher: Staff writer/sports (emaher@theifp.ca) Beginning next fall Halton Hills rep hockey teams will be known as the Hitmen instead of the Raiders or Tanners. Do you think this name is appropriate? • No (92%) • Yes (8%) WEB POLL RESULTS (Go to www.theifp.ca) Hitmen moniker is inappropriate A showplace for work Letters must include an address and daytime phone number. Anonymous letters will not be published. Letters should not exceed 150 words and may be edited for content and/or length. Publication is not guaranteed. Email: jmcghie@theifp.ca Mail or drop off: Independent & Free Press, 280 Guelph St., Unit 29, Georgetown, ON., L7G 4B1. (This letter was originally sent to Terry Alyman, Director of Recreation and Parks and artist Carolyn Martin. A copy was made available for publica- tion). Dear Carolyn, I wanted to thank you and Jamie Smith for hanging my painting at the Cultural Centre. Because of this simple act, several wonderful things have been set in motion. I was at the Cultural Roundtable Symposium where I met Laura Rees, who is the executive director of Wil- liams Mill. I dragged her over to show her my painting, and she was very impressed. She invited me to do a show with a handful of other artists at the Mill since a slot had come up in March. I pulled some of my artist friends together (Monica Burnside, Antonina Gladkova and Amanda Gon- salves) and we are, in fact, doing the show. This will be a fi rst for me. This for me is a life-altering event. And it all started with the opportunity to show my work so prominently in such a beautiful setting at our new Cultural Centre. I, for one, feel tre- mendous gratitude and appreciation for that. Thank you again! Shelley Newman, Georgetown •T he I FP • H al to n H ill s •T ue sd ay , F eb ru ar y 19 , 2 01 3 6 << /ASCII85EncodePages false /AllowTransparency false /AutoPositionEPSFiles true /AutoRotatePages /None /Binding /Left /CalGrayProfile (Dot Gain 20%) /CalRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CalCMYKProfile (U.S. Web Coated \050SWOP\051 v2) /sRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CannotEmbedFontPolicy /Error /CompatibilityLevel 1.3 /CompressObjects /Tags /CompressPages true /ConvertImagesToIndexed true /PassThroughJPEGImages true /CreateJobTicket false /DefaultRenderingIntent /Default /DetectBlends true /DetectCurves 0.1000 /ColorConversionStrategy /LeaveColorUnchanged /DoThumbnails false /EmbedAllFonts true /EmbedOpenType false /ParseICCProfilesInComments true /EmbedJobOptions true /DSCReportingLevel 0 /EmitDSCWarnings false /EndPage -1 /ImageMemory 1048576 /LockDistillerParams false /MaxSubsetPct 100 /Optimize true /OPM 1 /ParseDSCComments true /ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo true /PreserveCopyPage 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