Letters, Nov. 9

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This article was published 09/11/2023 (1037 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Questions of faith

Re: Broader meaning of faith (Letters, Nov. 7)

In response to a recent article by John Longhurst, Karen Zoppa argues for a broader understanding of “faith.” This letter recognizes the role of faith for all persons, and not simply “people of faith.”

It goes on to say that, “Faith is the act of trusting the other… and is the necessary element in all of our human relations.” While agreeing with this, I find that it also raises other questions: Why should I trust and hope in the other? What am I to do when that trust is betrayed? What does it mean to say that faith requires something of us?

These questions, it seems to me, are precisely the concerns to which various faith traditions seek to respond. Yes, trust and hope are essential to the building of society, especially in this most difficult moment of our world. Let’s also consider the reasons that can ground such trust and hope.

Ray Harris

Winnipeg

Protect minority in Israel

Re: Yes to Palestine, no to Hamas (Letters, Nov. 7)

Referring to the current crisis in the Middle East, letter-writer Avrom Charach claims that “they (presumably Jewish Israelis) allow Arabs to vote in their elections and to use their bomb shelters.”

Something seems unrealistic in this claim.

For one thing, only 8.4 per cent of Israeli Arabs live in mixed-ethnicity communities, and that fact alone makes it unlikely that many Jewish Israelis would have the opportunity to share a bomb shelter with non-Jews.

As for Arab-Israeli towns, many lack adequate provision of bomb shelters along with other social services. Israeli newspaper Haaretz points out that “half of the Arab communities within four kilometres of the border with Syria or Lebanon (are) said to have inadequate protection, compared to 7.5 per cent of the Jewish communities in the same zone.”

Bedouin communities in the south of the country are even worse off. Many of them live in small communities barely tolerated by the state. A recent NBC news report revealed that more than 100,000 Bedouin in the south of Israel had neither bomb shelters, a warning system, nor the protection of the Iron Dome defence system.

The current crisis has encouraged many pundits to offer reassuring forecasts of how the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian situation could be resolved after the fighting is over. As a modest first step I would like to see a future Israeli government offer the Israeli Arab minority equal protection against external threats.

Christopher Petty

Winnipeg

Free run nearing its end

Re: The changing face of food banks (Nov. 6)

Thank you, Malak Abas, for your moving story of four of our citizens, our neighbours, who through no fault of their own, are facing winter without a safe place to live and enough food to eat.

We must do something different.

The centre is not holding.

Our competitive and consumptive economy depends upon the existence of poverty to maintain itself.

We are at the end of a free run — where humans have blindly exploited the earth and all living things. The Earth is suffocating. Global extinction is underway.

We are desperately looking for a new way.

The people in the truckers convoy (our neighbours and friends) were afraid and angry, and they chose to do something about it. We need to engage with each other and develop solutions.

We are all afraid. We are all angry.

What to do?

1. Stop the madness of ever-increasing production and consumption.

2. Stop the madness and destruction of life on the planet

3. Change our system. We must realize that the economy as it now operates is the problem, not the solution. The economy, as we know it, has had as its vision the ever escalating, uneven accumulation of wealth. It has not solved poverty or crime. In fact, it depends on poverty to keep people working in the further exploitation and destruction of the Earth.

4. Bring in a guaranteed adequate annual income so that everyone has what they need to purchase essentials of life.

5. Change our electoral system, which as it now operates, works against collaboration, co-operation, and kindness — it is killing our democracy. It provides powerful lobbyists with huge advantages to influence what our governments do and don’t do.

In a few months, our members of Parliament will be voting on a motion for a National Citizens Assembly on electoral reform. Other democracies have changed their electoral systems to encourage and enable collaboration.

It is important that our members of Parliament know that we want our electoral system fixed.

Now is the time for everyone to contact our members of Parliament and ask them to support this motion — engage with them to help create a better way.

Bill Martin

Gimli

Saving forest a no-brainer

Re: St. Norbert residents work to save forest (Nov. 7)

There should be no question about saving Lemay Forest. It aligns with the stated civic priority of increasing the number of trees. It would be nice to see them actually put their money where their mouth is.

If the development is approved, it will increase urban sprawl. The city has plenty of that; it doesn’t need more.

But if councillors need further proof of the advantage of saving green space, they should go and visit Henteleff Park. It was saved. It is now a much-loved part of St. Vital, filled with families, school kids, people walking their dogs and even people sitting on a bench contemplating the sheer beauty of the place.

It would be a travesty to lose something as beautiful and irreplaceable as the Lemay Forest.

Ingrid Ostick

Winnipeg

Ticket not sign of wealth

I am commenting on several letters regarding supporting the Winnipeg Jets and the Blue Bombers, and how it seems if you go to games that somehow you are perceived as being born with a “silver spoon” in your mouth and that these people can’t appreciate those who don’t have the extra funds to go in person.

First it should be noted that fans are not just those who go to the games. Whether you go in person, watch with friends on the couch or listen on the radio driving a big rig across the country, if you enjoy sports and watch games, then you are a fan regardless of how you do it. No one fan is more important than the other.

Some people do have the money to buy tickets and that is their right to do so, but that doesn’t mean they are better people than those that can’t and whose money is needed elsewhere whether it be for food, clothing, transportation or just regular day-to-day living expenses.

Things are tight for everyone and many people save up money to buy tickets for some games or use money that is intended for holidays or going to Grand Forks for a night away. Some people get tickets as gifts and some get tickets as a perk at their job. Many of those who have tickets were not born with “silver spoons” in their mouths and have money problems like many others, but it is unfair to label anyone who goes to games as somehow being better than those who don’t.

We are all in the same boat in this economy. How we spend our hard-earned money is really nobody’s business but let’s try and be kind to each other as we all have our own lives and priorities — but being kind and understanding costs nothing and feels good.

Simon Klassen

Winnipeg