Letters, July 9

Rethinking mental illness and MAID

Re: Canadians with mental illness who saw MAID as an option feel abandoned (July 6)

Following the death of his daughter Katherine, who took her own life earlier this year, Martin Short said the following:

“The understanding (is) that mental health and cancer, like my wife’s, are both diseases, and sometimes with diseases they are terminal. And my daughter fought for a long time with extreme mental health, borderline personality disorder, other things, and did the best she could, until she couldn’t.

“So, Nan’s (Nancy Short, his wife) last words to me were, ‘Martin, let me go.’ And what (Katherine) was just saying (was), ‘Dad, let me go.’”

It was heartbreaking in its honesty to hear a father speak with such clarity in the face of the ultimate tragedy for any parent.

I hope the powers that be will hear these words, though, and come to the realization that mental health is no less of an attack on a person than diseases such as cancer and ALS. They all have the ability to rob you of your dignity and sense of control over how you live. MAID was supposed to give people back that control.

Checks and balances such as those already in place would need to be expanded. The concerns raised are valid when it comes to a system that creates a sense of hopelessness because the care required isn’t being provided.

But doesn’t that still apply to anyone with any type of illness? Options available for other diseases may include some experimental treatment halfway around the world but I don’t see our government denying access to MAID because of it. Certain medications aren’t covered because of the cost, but just because you can’t afford them you are told you have to suffer simply because an option you can’t access exists.

MAID was supposed to allow people to decide when the pain was too much or the impact on quality of life too great. We can’t continue to have this push and pull debate on mental health issues that we don’t have with other diseases.

No one can pull themselves up by their boot straps and beat cancer. No one can tough out ALS. But these myths that people can do either of those things with mental health issues need to stop.

And if you aren’t able to put thoughts like those aside you probably shouldn’t be part of this debate about when others want us to let them go.

Brian Spencler

Winnipeg

Perspective on pay

Re: Payroll reveal: 18 school staff cleared $200K (July 3); One month nets CEO nearly $1M (July 4); “Salaries well-earned” (Letters, July 6)

Frankly the amount of money that some of these “officials” make is disgusting.

Roswitha Dudar states that some of these salaries are a bargain because of the work they put in.

I am the mother of a man (who supports a wife and two teens) who gets up before 6 a.m. and could possibly put in 12 to 16 hours a day. He has to work in 30 degrees above zero and sometimes in 30 degrees below zero. He also has to put up with verbal abuse (because the customer is always right!). He receives two weeks of holidays (not allowed in the summer). I can assure you that it would probably take him anywhere from three to 10 years to make what these people make in one or less years.

He stays with the company he has worked for for 21 years because he enjoys the work and also out of loyalty to the company. This is what it is like to work for private companies.

Why does our government not make contracts that cannot be paid out if the person does not complete the term?

Maybe we would have more money for front-line health care workers.

I understand that some of these high earners have a lot of responsibility but if the carpenter makes a mistake in framing, the whole building might come down.

Janice Jackson

Winnipeg

More trees, please

Re: What can you do with $200 million? (Think Tank, July 8)

In 1971 Alan Dundes, a folklorist at the University of California, Berkeley, identified the certainty that “technology can eventually solve any problem” as an American folk idea. It was an offshoot of another American folk idea, that “man can control his environment — rather than the environment controlling man.”

By “folk idea” Dundes meant a concept that seems naturally true to those whose culture encourages them to think so. But folk ideas are not natural truths. Yet we can see the same folk ideas Dundes identified at work today, not least in the plans and proposals of every level of government. Blind trust that technology will fix climate change makes it possible to minimize the real dangers scientists have repeatedly proven threaten life on this planet.

It allows our politicians to pursue short-term economic goals or vote-seeking popular initiatives that make the problems worse. As Ed Lohrenz’s excellent op-ed suggests, certainty that technology will always offer the solution encourages us to ignore even the basic math that points to much more effective and efficient nature-focused solutions.

Enough.

When it comes to climate change, we all, including the representatives we have elected to work for the common good of us all, must respond to the real truths demonstrated by science and by math, not to folk ideas.

Pauline Ripat

Winnipeg

I just read the excellent article by Ed Lohrenz about carbon capture by trees Stunning info for our planet’s troubles.

Then I read Winnipeg may cut the tree-planting budget by a million dollars.

Trees instead of a carbon capture facility? Yes, please!

Sharon Peichl

Winnipeg

Bugs out

Kudos to the City of Winnipeg’s insect control branch. I just spent two hours doing yard work in Fort Garry and not a single mosquito to be found. No spray required. In comparison, the mosquito situation at our cottage at Winnipeg Beach is unbearable … fogging actually works. Keep up the great work.

Mark Gendron

Winnipeg

Wellington Crescent safer now

Congratulations to Winnipeg City Council for recently passing the bylaw reducing speed limit on Wellington Crescent from 50 km/h 40 km/h between Academy Road and River Avenue. The speed reduction is a good first step to increase safety along this winding strip.

The speed reduction will make it safer for pedestrians to cross Wellington Crescent, for cars to turn on and off Wellington and for cyclists to navigate more safely on a busy street.

Marty Donkervoort

Winnipeg