Letters, Feb. 7

Cherishing the luxury of water

Re: Bracing for a future global water shortage (Editorial, Feb. 5)

After reading the editorial concerning the water shortage crises in our world, I had a hollow feeling in my stomach, perhaps others can relate.

I read the piece in the warmth and comfort of our condo, fresh water readily available, lights and electric heat all round. Perhaps the hollow feeling was in part related to the stark reality of my material comforts contrasted with the material and water challenges faced by more than six billion fellow humans.

It reminded me to be grateful for what we have and not abuse or waste the luxuries that we enjoy here in the middle of Turtle Island. The hollow feeling also reminded me that “water is life” — drinking, cleansing, generating electricity — and that we need to seek wisdom in how we live and use our land and water in a responsible way given the immediate and looming challenges to the earth and the majority of humans on it.

How do we spend our privilege? From whom do we seek wisdom and guidance? How do we balance gratitude with action that will improve life for those living with much less?

Peter Krahn

Winnipeg

Abandoning the Post

I hope that with the recent changes at the Washington Post, the Free Press will consider looking elsewhere for its foreign coverage.

Over the years, I have known many of the foreign correspondents at the Post working in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Afghanistan; they are reporters with integrity, courage, and great commitment to their work. To watch a narcissistic billionaire ruthlessly destroy those careers because he cares so little about the world outside of the United States is disappointing at best, and at worst a real travesty against the many poorly covered conflicts and stories taking place throughout the difficult corners of the world.

The Free Press has always been excellent at selecting the foreign news it publishes, and I hope you can find another wire service that appreciates the work of its foreign desk to publish instead going forward.

To the Post foreign correspondents I have known and read for so long: thank you for your service. Democracy dies in darkness.

Devin Morrow

Winnipeg

Great cost for poor system

Re: Without key data, transit plan lacked direction (Feb. 4)

The disaster of this entirely untested transit system which has cost taxpayers $20.4 million (and likely more in efforts at remediation), instituted without a built-in assessment feature in this 21st century, is likely causing much more at taxpayers’ expense.

Its failures and dangers are becoming increasingly apparent and are impacting on our economy as well as the health and safety of Winnipeggers. This is yet another fiasco like the police headquarters from the terrible Katz/Shleegl regime which is presently being addressed through an inquiry.

Unfortunately, the only way it appears we shall get down to the bottom of this transit catastrophe is a complete public airing through a public inquiry here as well, while bus ridership diminishes and much suffering is inflicted upon riders who have no alternative to get to work, school, medical appointments and shopping. They are now also being impacted by less mobility, especially in these severe winter months.

The previous transit system had been developed and improved over many decades, only to be completely trashed in favour of this system developed by designers who very evidently did not have sufficient if any experience with severe winter climates.

The removal of the bus stops which avoided long slogs for blocks through ice and snow, as well as shelters that evidently are being salvaged as their usefulness is now apparent. This has created tremendous hardship, and made bus riding even impossible for many former riders, particularly those with physical mobility issues like walkers and medical conditions. The fact that bus stops were removed from locations which had provided easy access to medical clinics, seniors residences and hospitals is inexcusable, as well as the new necessity of many transfers between buses where there were formerly direct routes.

Accountability and a way forward must be found. If this was in aid of the “15-minute city,” this is a complete disaster for the taxpayers who are forced to ride the bus in this city.

It is terrible that we must expend more taxpayer funds to dig our way out of this mess, but the alternative will be far worse for the city if the old system is not immediately reinstated, and we continue to slide downhill economically, and in terms of our health, by loss of ridership.

Victoria Lehman

Winnipeg

Thank you to the Narwal/Free Press for the analysis on Winnipeg Transit’s utterly unbelievable incompetence.

Transit truly did not know what they were doing and yet kept on doing it as if everything was unfolding swimmingly. They clearly don’t read the Free Press.

Philippe Le Dorze

Winnipeg

Exercising the brain

Re: Grade 12 grad: Is it still a rite of passage? (Think Tank, Feb. 3)

John Wiens has written a thoughtful analysis of the importance of each Manitoba student being capable of securing at least a Grade 12 graduation. He concludes with “I believe that Grade 12, as a critical rite of passage, calls for a sensitive, public, commitment to human empathy and social justice.”

I have become familiar with Wiens’ social ideology by reading his many opinions published over the last 10 years here in Brandon. Wiens has some interesting ideas. I wonder if my own education in Ontario (Grade 13 in 1953) enabled me to see the benefits of my years of schooling. In 1953, Ontario’s Grade 13 grads were welcomed into most university programs, and in 1967 Grade 12 grads were welcomed into any of the 23 new (1967) colleges of applied arts and technology.

Sometime in the 1950s/1960s, Ontario’s government changed the way for prospective teachers to become licensed to teach in Ontario elementary and high schools. The licensing required that future teachers take two social science programs before beginning to teach. The undergraduate program subjects included psychology, sociology anthropology and economics — all based on social science opinions — no real science involved. It is a noble effort to try to socially help your neighbours — but that is not the meaning of the word education.

The social sciences seem, to me, to be a reaction to some religions who profess to know all about “God,” who they believe is the creator of our universe. Since we know little about our own universe it seems unlikely that some people claim to know all about its Creator.

The definition of “educate” (Webster) 1 (a): to provide schooling for; (b) to train by formal instruction and supervised practice.

Since socialism became the flavour of the day, we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in our schools teaching social norms rather than teaching students how to learn, how to problem-solve and information that is needed to allow the student to become aware of things like geography, history, mathematics, natural sciences. The teaching and learning of closed systems such as mathematics and natural sciences is necessary for students to learn how to effectively use their brains to solve problems.

If students are denied the opportunity to exercise their brainpower, the brain remains ineffective.

Every day we read in the newspapers how ineffective our government employees have become and how poorly government employees treat our taxpayers.

Barry Kavanagh

Brandon