Letters, July 25

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/07/2024 (460 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On the worship of nations

Re: The last stand of American Christians (Think Tank, July 23)

It has been instructive to read Gwynne Dyer’s piece on some American Christians in light of recent conversations in Winnipeg about the Ten Commandments.

The first of the Ten Commandments forbids the making of idols, of bowing down to them or worshipping them. In his book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, Tim Alberta argues that some evangelicals have in fact been doing just this. By placing their allegiance to the nation above everything else they have been committing idolatry. From a Christian perspective, I do believe that religious faith belongs in the public sphere. But the images Jesus uses to speak of this relationship have little to do with celebrity and political power. They are invisible images of influence, like salt and yeast.

It is important to be embedded in the nation, but not bow down to it.

Ray Harris

Winnipeg

 

Lack of humanity

Re: Evicted tenants return – to find little left in suites (July 23)

Is this how the system treats the vulnerable in our fair city?

A new apartment block owner can suddenly evict all the tenants without warning and throw all their belongings in the street, or wherever. All of this occurring under the watchful eyes of various government agencies specifically designed to stop the spread of homelessness. Meanwhile, those that actually take a stand to help the underprivileged such as Marion Willis of Street Links, are instead fined for their efforts. Where is the humanity?

Chasing people into the bush serves only to compound problems of crime and despair.

It solves nothing.

Al Yakimchuk

Winnipeg

 

City needs inclusive decision-making

Regarding active transportation, I understand the move, but many people cannot walk distances, hop on a bike, or afford hired rides. When there are problems, it seems that drivers are blamed, cyclists are always innocent.

In all my years of driving I have never seen a car zip out to the left of a car in front and cut around it to make a right turn. I have seen many cyclists do this, very frightening and dangerous, but no one has suggested this is an issue. When I was a child, old enough to ride a street bike, we had to pass a test and receive a licence from the city. It seems that few cyclists know or pay attention to the rules of the road these days.

Others, on electric boards, completely ignore vehicular traffic also, zipping around cars, in and out of lanes. Shockingly, I have even seen young children as bike passengers, sitting on the handlebars of the bike. Cyclists do however demand their own lanes, with curbs.

This may be safer for everyone else on the street, but it creates blocks to accessibility for others. People with walking aids, wheelchairs and so on, cannot get across a street with these curb blocks. Public street parking is eliminated, and, especially for those with handicap tags, are at a loss to find accessible parking. Some streets have blocked private vehicles.

Once again, this denies access and inclusion to many people, either unable to leave their homes because of this ruling, or unable to access whatever assistance they might need to live decent lives.

Winnipeg needs to include everyone in making citywide decisions, not just lobbyists.

Judy Herscovitch

Winnipeg

 

Feeding issue not so simple

Re: ‘I cannot watch my daughter die’ (July 23)

Did Dr. Louis Ludwig actually write in a letter that “it doesn’t matter whether the patient agrees or not with being tube fed” because the public trustee now owns that decision making responsibility? Yet in the article the young woman who suffers with a eating disorder is interviewed and seems to be able answer questions posed by the reporter stating that she doesn’t want solid food — just liquids.

I am not a health professional but I do know that some people will refuse tube feeding and that tube feeding carries its own risks which can result in death for the patient. In the same article Dr. Anita Federici, a fellow with the Academy for Eating Disorders and the clinical director of the Ontario-based Centre for Psychology and Emotion Regulation states that “feeding could be traumatizing on her. I’m not saying don’t tube feed her, but it is complicated on how to proceed … I don’t think she is trying to sabotage treatment. She is behaving the best she can and it could end her life.”

I would suggest that Dr. Ludwig needs to take a more nuanced approach to this situation rather than making a cut-and-dried statement that the patient has no rights to make decisions for herself.

Irwin Corobow

Winnipeg

 

Rodeos cruel

Re: Bulls, broncos and barrel racing: it’s stampede time (July 20)

In your glowing article on the Manitoba Stampede, there was zero acknowledgment of the terrible suffering endured by animals in rodeos, including the horses pictured in the chuckwagon race who were pushed to their limits in Friday afternoon’s sweltering heat.

That’s on top of other brutal rodeo events such as calf-roping and the aptly named “mutton busting.”

It’s 2024.

There is no excuse for a reputable newspaper delivering such uncritical coverage of blatant animal abuse.

John Youngman

Winnipeg

 

Jeers to Musk

Re: Tesla Q2 profit falls 45% as sales drop amid price cuts, low-interest loans (July 24)

It is not often that I relish someone else’s discomfort. Schadenfreude is seldom an appropriate emotion. However, when I read Tesla Q2 profit falls 45% as sales drop amid price cuts, low-interest loans, that’s what I felt.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s behaviour and his recent support of Donald Trump have caused me to vow that I will never buy a Tesla, or own Tesla stock.

Tom Pearson

Winnipeg

 

Spectre of COVID

The COVID waste water viral activity level is currently “high nationally” in Canada and the U.S. Airline travel has resumed its pre-pandemic activity level. Members of our small family in June at home in four different cities each simultaneously had COVID.

Few in Winnipeg are masking indoors, save check out clerks and floor assistants. Those now troubled (hospitalized) by COVID-19 are mainly seniors, many vaccinated.

Should public health intervene and recommend social distancing, mask use and another round of vaccinations?

Chris Jensen

Winnipeg

 

Free ride coming to an end

Ever since 1945, Canada has had a change of government (between Liberal and Conservative) about every eight to 12 years. As the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre is not going to change things and neither is the NDP.

I believe the matter of will… has to be from the people. And from what I am seeing, that’s not going to happen either! So that leaves us with the wishy-washy, misguided attempts of the Liberal government.

Our defence representatives of today are from the generations of the late 1970s, and later. They have no personal recollection of the wars as those generations of the 1940s and ’50s.

Defence on the cheap is a reminder that there is an old lesson to be relearned in Canada from the sorry epilogue of the Avro Arrow. National security cannot be procured on the cheap​. Political leaders in democratic countries have always tended to shy away from that unpalatable truth.

And yet, how many times in recent history have those same politicians, who shrank from asking the electorate to spend money on national security, asked the country’s youth to restore it?

Our country, Canada, seldom recognizes the very people who have provided us the rights and freedoms that so many now take for granted.

We must never give up what those brave men and women fought and died for.

John Fefchak

Virden