What I Should Have Said October 11th 2024

 The 2024 Highland Games.  Opening

I want to thank the Highland Games Committee for the honour of being Chieftain of the day.   I am in the foot steps of many great citizens of this area.  And Area where new Scottish immigrants selected to make home in a new world.  

Our Highland Games are New world highland games.   And while they are about recognizing and perpetuating our forefathers Celtic Culture,  they are also about sharing that Culture with those whose land we were to settle on,  and those who joined us from other countries.  

John Knox, was founder of the Presbyterian Church.  He was also a man who seemed to believe that joy and celebration were some how cynical behaviours.  Quashing the Scottish need to dance and celebrate was a little harder than he figured,  thank heavens.  But this same man also insisted on education.  The importance of teaching people to read and to write.   I suppose you could say combining strict existence standards with the ability to read and the famous Scottish growl that we prefer to call an accent has given us for lack of a better word, a Cranky reputation.   

But that education of the common man,  has lead to the Scott being a critical thinker, and the inventor of so much, for so many, so often.  It has also given the Scott the ability to adapt.  And to learn from the earth.  From the first nations people who literally kept so many new Scotts alive in these harsh surroundings.  It helped them work with their new neighbours from the Ukraine, and Germany, and France and so many countries where the working class person was dislodged  and displaced.  

We are the new world highland games,  where we as Scotts not only celebrate, but share our culture and a thank you to those who shared their land with us.  And to other new comers who have given us so much from their own cultures brought here on boats, and wagons and trains.  

So it is with great pride, and respect for all that today I declare the  77th Red Deer and District Highland Games officially Open!  Here's ta us, what's like us? Damn few, And there all dead.