‘My heart is shattered’
Dear Editor:
RE: CWDHS student charged in assault that sent fellow student to hospital, Oct. 14.
It’s Thanksgiving weekend. A time for families to come together to join in fellowship and joy. To celebrate all that they are thankful for and with any luck remember for a moment the history behind this national holiday.
For me, this year, there is a particular irony, I am both relieved and at the same time horrified that one of the things I am thankful for is the notion that is was not my child that was brutally attacked last week at Centre Wellington District High School in Fergus.
At the same time my heart is shattered that this has happened to somebody’s child. I can’t imagine the heartache of trying to provide comfort as a parent to a battered and broken child who you love and want to protect. Looking into the eyes of the same child you nurtured in your womb, held in your arms, celebrated their first words and steps and relished in every stage of their development.
Sharing in their joy, supporting them through all their trials and tribulations incumbent with the human condition. Imagine for one moment that this was your child.
I was appalled to discover that for every parent who expressed their horror at these events there were as many parents who voiced their support of this brutality. You should be ashamed of yourself. If we ever needed evidence that the student body in our school systems are a microcosm of the societal values represented in the community at large we need look no further.
We cannot and will not move forward as a society if we fail, at the very least, to have a dialogue about intolerance and prejudice. This is not just about the LGBTQ+ community, it’s about any marginalized community or group, whether is be race, religion, gender, sexuality, nationality, disability or any affiliation that the mainstream views as “different”.
One of the most disturbing elements of this story is the fact that many bystanders stood by and watched this viciousness. Really? Are we to understand that there weren’t enough onlookers who could have come together as a group and restrained these attackers, two people? In the time it took for them to take out their phones to memorialize the event, surely somebody could have intervened. We really need to examine our shared responsibility as a society, as a community and as a member of a civilized humanity when we reflect on this.
I always say, the hand that rocks the cradle shapes the world. Children come to us as blank slates with plastic brains that are moulded and influenced by those parenting them. We need to do better.
As long as we continue to proselytize this type of hatred, bigotry and intolerance we are failing future generations. Do better!
Janet Sirianni,
Brighton
‘Positive term’
Dear Editor:
RE: Doesn’t like label, Oct. 7.
As no one likes to be labelled “anti”, how about we use a more positive term: pro-pandemic.
Ken Lancaster,
Rockwood
‘Profound disconnect’
Dear Editor:
RE: Extreme persecution, Oct. 7.
I was in the midst of practicing my flippancy, in the west wing of my ivory tower, when I came upon Wayne Baker’s response to my letter asking for an example of persecution suffered by the People’s Party of Canada.
I will be brief with most of Baker’s concerns, the first of which is that the public sector seems to be unaffected by the pandemic while the private sector has suffered some severe hits. I don’t think I’m being incredibly original in saying that such an outcome is simply politics—governments tend to protect their own, if for no other reason than possible support at the polls. Have the Liberals been overly generous in their support of civil servants? Probably, but that is a question to be resolved by democratic voting.
Baker rushes to defend small businesses, which he reduces simplistically to this dichotomy: comply with COVID mandates or go out of business. Admittedly I don’t venture out of my ivory tower to too many small businesses in the area, but those I do go to seem to be taking the mandates in stride – masks, social distancing, hand sanitizer, etc., appear almost as part of the scenery. Perhaps I simply suffer from a major blind spot.
But then Baker hits the nail on the head: without a passport (proof of immunization, that is), “one is unable to participate in normal social activities.” This is a rare moment when Baker and I agree, but for very different reasons. Right now, in the midst of a still-raging pandemic, there cannot be normal social activities. Why is there such a profound disconnect in people who cannot wrap their minds around exactly what a pandemic, epidemic, catastrophe, disaster, etc., means in terms of everyday routines? During such times, everyday routines must be suspended, for the benefit of all parties concerned, those who are directly affected, and those who aren’t.
I have a friend who works at CBC and who will lose his job if he doesn’t get vaccinated. He has sought advice and prayed for guidance—he is very reluctant to take the shots—but his decision is, in one way, a simple one: CBC has an obligation to protect all of its workers; vaccine will protect (however guardedly) not only those vaccinated but those in the area; and CBC could not possibly arrange to segregate the unvaccinated safely. So, my friend can take the jab or lose his job. It’s not a pleasant choice, but it is a legitimate choice.
As other writers of letters to the editor have often and eloquently expressed: the decision may be personal but it carries significant political ramifications. So I guess my friend at CBC will be pleased to know that he is, in a way, akin to first-century Christians—and to contemporary supporters of PPC.
Richard Giles,
Alma
Thankful
Dear Editor:
In the early hours of Oct. 4 I was admitted to Groves Memorial Community Hospital with a medical concern. From the time I was in the emergency room until I was discharged three days later I had my eyes opened to the care and compassion shown by the hospital staff.
The emergency room doctor who was treating all in the department, the nurse who cared for me whom it was only on her first day of being a qualified nurse. The radiologist who came in from her home to do my CAT scan, the ward staff the surgeon and doctors the porters the cleaners, I am truly grateful to them all.
We are fortunate to have such a great facility in our county but a hospital is only as good as the people who work in it.
As I left my room on the day of discharge I turned and looked at the nurses at the nurses’ station who were all wishing good luck and good bye. I stopped and said to them, “We are truly blessed to have you all care for us, thank you.”
People complain about long waits and only one doctor; with what our health professionals have been through this past year, we have to be thankful for the care they provide each and every day.
A.Wilkinson,
Elora
Vital training
Dear Editor:
RE: Canadian Army Reserve personnel reflect on benefits of local training opportunity, Sept. 30.
I wish to commend the Advertiser for the article on local military training on private property, an issue rarely canvassed by Canadian media, but of exceptional value to your soldiers.
At a time when the nation is understandably focused on the defeat of COVID-19 and training dollars are at a premium, to be granted the privilege of using private property to utilise or traverse in training stretches those dollars substantially.
I have had the opportunity to have the public’s assistance in providing everything from parachute and helicopter landing zones to patrol bases and orienteering instruction on private property. Personalities such as hockey commentator Don Cherry have been happy to allow the military the use of their property. As always the soldiers work very hard to ensure their presence leaves little or no trace of their passing.
I strongly encourage the public to consider granting such a privilege to your soldiers if asked. I have never had a complaint, save one land owner who was disappointed that we had chosen not to use her property.
When I told her that in fact that more than a hundred soldiers had been across her land during the previous 48 hours she was shocked not to have noticed, though she understood when I told her the very nature of the training was to improve stealth, camouflage and concealment.
Major (ret’d) James R. Diaz,
Burlington
Everyone needs help
Dear Editor:
Veterinarians and other animal-service workers are feeling the strain of the pandemic, like other frontline workers. Longer hours, increased pet appointments, modified service delivery, worried pet owners, and staff safety are straining their mental-health resilience.
In Guelph-Wellington, there is help. Whether it’s through a call to our distress line, attending a walk-in clinic, or making an appointment, veterinarians and their staff have options for seeking support that work with their schedules.
For pressing issues, walk-in clinics operate from three locations in Mount Forest, Guelph, and Fergus. Appointments are same day and can be in-person or virtual. The distress line operates 14 hours a day, and calls are free and confidential.
Scheduled appointments through the Guelph office can be arrange within days, and also have the option of being in-person or virtual. Booking is available over the phone or by email on our website www.compasscs.org.
Making time for mental health support doesn’t have to be intrusive and inconvenient. There is a menu of options that can help those in need before a mental-health issue becomes a mental-health crisis.
We’re committed to #NotOneMore and want area veterinarians and staff to know that we’re here, and we care. Because everyone needs a little help now and then.
Joanne Young Evans,
Executive director,
Compass Community Services
‘Before it is too late’
Dear Editor:
On Youtube, you can search for and find a million peaceful music videos for relaxation, and by the viewer count, you will see just how many thousands of others have found the same music, mostly set to beautiful and repetitive bars of melody that, except for the most intrepid insomniacs, will put you and your pets into a deep sleep. It is accompanied by the most exquisite scenes of nature, which, when I watch them, gently lure me into a grey fog of sadness.
I grieve the eventual loss of this beautiful planet to me, my children and grandkids. I wonder if their future includes huge snow peaks in the “Rockies”, hearing the breath-catching calls of finches, warblers, robins, canaries. Will they be able to run through fields of wildflowers or forests of oak, maple, ash? Will they pick up chestnuts in the fall and marvel over their red-brown, slick and shiny surfaces? Will they even know that surface was made by nature and not in a plastics factory?
Some of those videos show you the most beautiful natural places on Earth. These places will be lost to us by the greedy and callous billionaires who destroy them by strip mining mountaintops, creating deserts from fertile land saturated with pesticides, single crop industrial farming and the indefensible use of chemicals.
We will be left longing for a place to rest because these videos will be showing us what we will never see again. Right now, looking at them, we can be thankful, and, hopefully, look for ways to express a respectful relationship to this wondrous planet.
So, if I have ruined your enjoyment of these beautiful videos, I am sorry. But I am not sorry for telling you about my experience because it is only by feeling what is being done, that we can become more conscious and act on our awareness before it is too late!
Gerry Walsh,
Erin
‘Keep up the good work’
Dear Editor:
RE: A matter of integrity, Sept. 30.
Bravo to Aaron Ciancone. You explained yourself very well. How sad that you had to.
I worked at the Elora Mill from 1981 to 1992. It was in its heyday back then. Elora was second only to Niagara Falls. People came to Elora and a side trip to St. Jacobs. Then it became the other way round.
Elora is back and the community owes you a huge thank-you. After several owners that either bled what was left of the mill, or ran out of funds to continue, you came with the deep pockets and insight to capture what was lost and then some.
I have had the pleasure of enjoying your offering several times. Small towns that don’t progress die. Times change. Yes, there are naysayers, but trust the majority are on your side. Keep up the good work. Thank you.
Ellen Roche,
Fergus