Multiple approaches required downtown

Re: Frustration, not fear, swells in Exchange after drug crackdown (July 9)

The recent coverage of Winnipeg’s drug crisis makes it sound as though compassion and public safety are somehow opposites. They are not.

One business owner said she was “absolutely enraged” by the police response and insisted, “This is not an unsafe situation” because she was not personally seeing violence.

This is the new abnormalI’m sure we all have read with concern articles about “new” events we are having to deal with. Very specifically: more in number, and intensity, wildfires and the smoke that comes with them; flooding, as we have seen this summer; the hottest days on record and potential for heat domes; more tornadoes; drought conditions affecting forests, crops, even lowering the water table.

We are also informed to expect these events to happen on a regular basis — every summer!

What I take issue with is the phrase “new normal.” These events are not normal, period. They are abnormal. The word “normal” somehow implies that what is happening is all right; it is OK. That we just have to get used to them.

The use of fossil fuels has directly caused our climate (Earth’s balance) to change, full stop.