In Rod we trust..........until we don't

  Throughout the rich and interesting history of Newfoundland its people have always thought of it as the little engine that could. Our history of hard times, brutal weather, and love of salt meat have given gave us a thick skin that could weather all the abuse we took from other provinces, and the rest of the world. Then something happened, up through the ground came a bubblin crude and all of a sudden we had money, we could buy things, and our thick skin went away. Now if you anyone across the world bad mouths our traditions the pitchforks come out, we have gone from a province with a strong sense of community to not being afraid to yell and and deride the elderly.
  It was a beautiful fall day in July when Rod Stewart took the stage at Confederation Hill to a throng of adoring fans. Everyone was happy and singing all the songs they grew up with, decked out in their summer parkas and tuques, and everyone was in awe of Rod, here he was, 200 years old and still moving like a 100 year old, busting a hip across the stage. Earlier in the day after experiencing good ol fashioned Newfoundland weather first hand Rod Stewart went into a local store that sells fur coats and asked for some clothes to make sure his back up dancers wouldn't freeze, the owner of the store saw an opportunity and he took it, in most cases that is what heroes do, in this case it is what people looking for publicity do. After putting Rod into a sealskin coat he asked for a picture, hey you can't fault him for it, you do what you got to do to make a buck, and if it gets you noticed then it worked, and boy did it get him noticed.
  Now for anyone who doesn't know, Newfoundlanders are sensitive when it comes to the seal hunt and it's history. Opponents of the seal hunt are all like "DON'T YOU HURT THAT SEAL" and Newfoundlanders are like "GET BENT" so it was not a surprise that when the picture of Rod in the sealskin coat went viral provincial pride was at an all time high. I haven't seen the province come together like this since the first episode of Republic of Doyle. Reactions were mixed between pumped and SUPER pumped, Rod was the man, and Paul McCartney could suck it, and other celebrities who dared speak ill of the seal hunt could suck it, we didn't need you anyway, we had Rod on our side. It is like we finally had the support of the coolest kid in class, we were accepted, we were somebody.
  We were also jumping the gun, for you see eventually the fog lifts and people get to go home, which is what Rod did, and he saw the picture, and no doubt saw the heat he was taking the the anti-seal hunt people. Rod came out, said he was upset that the picture of him went online, he doesn't actually support our seal hunting ways and suddenly became the most hated man on Confederation Hill since Cathy Dunderdale. People jumped down his velvety throat when he said he didn't know anything about the industry but didn't support it, and made fun of him for it. Hey, I barely know anything about sex trafficking but I don't support it, who has sex in traffic anyway? All those cars honking at you. People lit the torches they should have used for warmth on the hill and were ready to burn Rod at the stake, of course they won't get their chance, he's gone now, likely never to come back if he's seen the reactions at all, and this ladies and gentlemen is why we can't have nice things.
  It is hard enough to get big acts to come here as it is, most of them don't even know where we are, hell the Eagles thought they were in Ontario, though that's probably because they had dehydration due to lack of water at Salmon Fest. If we, as a province, can't learn to let things go and let everything bother us we deserve to have Shannyganock as headliners at every big show, which is not a knock on them, they are a great local band. So what if Rod Stewart says he didn't know what the coat was made of, I don't know what any of my coats are made of, and everyone has pictures of themselves on the Internet they don't want there, and probably didn't know were there. I'm not on anyone's side here, there are always going to be groups that support killingof things and not killing of things, even Jesus was in the middle of one of those battles. It's like our province is on is one one of those dating sites and thought we had  finally found someone who understood us, till they left us in the cold, but don't worry everybody there's plenty of seals in the sea.