Dear Editor:
RE: ‘Easy way out of life,’ May 9.
I find many of the views expressed in this letter from Elisha Holwerda as unfair and unfounded and my goal is to offer a more positive and reasoned approach.
The so-called neglect of the elderly can be countered by the reality that in numbers relative to the overall population, they comprise a significant glut. More seniors and fewer younger people to tend to them poses a major problem.
Also, many are roaming farther afield in search of employment, making physical distance another barrier. It doesn’t mean lack of concern, they are simply responding to changing societal demands.’
Not everything can be couched in moral terms; this is more emblematic of the, “If all one has is a hammer, then everything resembles a nail,” bias than it is rational thinking. Since morality and judgment reverberate here, allow me to add my observations.
When I was much younger and the church pews full, many people struggled mightily and their lives were circumscribed. Now, as attendance and overall attendance is undeniably dwindling, they are unshackled and have more of a voice.
The greater participation of women has enhanced and enriched our lives and they no longer have to remain in marriages where their physical safety, emotional growth and self-fulfillment is compromised.
Racial minorities, gay, lesbian and trans people, First Nations, sufferers of mental and emotional illness – and many more I could name – are better off now than before. And, in terms of the disabled, how many of the churches back then or any public building, had ramps and automatic doors to allow those in wheelchairs easier access?
Most disturbing was the author’s attack on euthanasia (I would place the word “compassionate” before it). How hurtful for someone whose deceased family member or friend has accessed this legal option, in heart wrenching fashion and in the face of unrelenting agony, to see in print that they are “quitters” or that they have taken the “easy way out of life.” How unkind!
I would suggest that Holwerda climb carefully down from the scaffold of sanctimony; it is very shaky and unstable up there.
Allan Berry,
Fergus