Let鈥檚 stay focused in fighting this
I think it鈥檚 time we start banging our pots again. It feels like we鈥檙e losing our grip and not quite getting the message.
People are dying.
Right now, our behaviours 鈥� everything we touch and every move we make 鈥� are key to prevention and curbing the pandemic. Why anyone would think of air travel or flying anywhere right now 鈥� unless for work, emergency, 颅business or 颅government matters 鈥� is 颅perplexing.
We have the means with new routines to be functional and stable while we work collectively to get past tomorrow. Yet, it seems there鈥檚 still an undercurrent of resistance to the measures we all need to follow, consistently.
This New Year鈥檚 Eve, I鈥檒l bang a pot in sympathy for patients, with gratitude for our health leaders and workers and the hope that we stay focused in 2021.
Peter J. Smith
Mayne Island
Restrict travel to stop the spread
After spending the holidays without getting together with any of our extended family members and being in absolute compliance with all of the COVID-19 orders and rules, I find myself rapidly losing respect for our elected officials as they 颅continue to allow people to travel within our health regions, between provinces and internationally.
Government needs to define just what 鈥渆ssential travel鈥� is and is not, and then come up with a workable method of stopping those who choose to break the rules. Simply asking people to drive safely is not enough.
That is why we have posted speed limits and ticket drivers who choose not to comply with the law.
There seems little point in 颅asking people to stay home and avoid all unnecessary travel when at the same time we encourage other 颅Canadians living in provinces with very high COVID-19 infection rates to come and vacation in sa国际传媒
Hardly a day goes by without some kind of alert going out regarding airline passengers who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 after landing in Victoria.
If our government is truly 颅interested in preventing the spread of this pandemic, their current 颅practises leave a lot to be desired.
Bruce Cline
Victoria
Dumb it down so we can understand
There is a lot of talk about the 颅government spending or borrowing billions of dollars these days.
The experts probably do not even know if this is a good or bad thing to be doing. The vast majority of 颅people cannot get a handle on what a billion dollars represents.
However, the concept of what a million dollars represents is in most people鈥檚 minds. It could represent a million-dollar home or a million-dollar lottery win
This is the kind of thing people dream about.
I think when a government speaks or an article is published on this subject, the number should be dumbed down for all of us to 颅millions of dollars. That way when we talk about 5 billion dollars it is written as 5,000 million dollars.
It is the same amount of money, but at least we might get the point of how much money this represents, or is the government trying to 颅bamboozle us!
Bill Ritchie
Oak Bay
Pay the price for endangering others
If I get caught distracted driving, an activity that could endanger myself, cause physical damage to others and even death, I can expect a healthy fine.
If I leave my community for non-essential travel and bring back a COVID-19 virus or variant of same, an activity that could endanger myself, cause physical damage to others and even death to many others, why am I not due a healthy fine for my selfishness?
There must be some restitution for the greater population who pay attention to the rules laid out by Dr. Bonnie Henry against those who flout the rules to our greater risk.
David M. Caul
Central Saanich
Blind pedestrians need a safer way
If Victoria鈥檚 goal is to find a least-cost way of addressing the Canadian Federation of the Blind鈥檚 human-rights complaint about bike lanes, then installing flashing lights before the floating bus stops on Pandora Avenue will likely be successful.
However, if the goal is to make it safe for blind and visually impaired citizens to take public transportation, then the city needs to continue looking for a better solution. I believe that the flashing warning lights could make a bad situation even more dangerous by giving the blind a false sense of security.
I am a friend of Oriano Belusic, the blind individual who initiated the human-rights complaint against the city. In August, during the tribunal process, Oriano asked me to film him as he tested the lights installed for the floating bus stops on Wharf Street.
The design-crossing requires that the blind locate the pole with a beeping button at the crosswalk to the floating bus stop. They push the button, which triggers flashing yellow lights, advising cyclists coming in both directions that someone wishes to cross the bike lane to get to the bus stop.
The first obvious problem was that most cyclists using the bike lane weren鈥檛 familiar with the lights or their purpose. Once, if Oriano had walked out shortly after pushing the button, he would have been hit. However, if Oriano showed any hesitation in crossing, the cyclists continued though the crosswalk regardless of the flashing lights or his white cane.
We filmed for about 20 minutes, but stopped because I was terrified that Oriano would be hurt. In the 20 years I have known him, he has always been a very capable pedestrian, but this new bus lane configuration is dangerous. We need a 颅better solution.
I have heard from members of the blind community that this is a problem in other countries as well. Surely the professional planners somewhere in the world must be working with blind pedestrians to develop a safe and solid 颅arrangement?
Thelma Fayle
Victoria
Greatest disaster is yet to come
Re: 鈥淣ew Year鈥檚 resolutions, and how we choose the right recovery,鈥� comment, Dec. 27.
According to Trevor Hancock, pursuing a Lawrie McFarlane styled rapid recovery is the wrong way of dealing with 鈥渢he worst natural 颅disaster of our time鈥�.
However, even if one agrees with the retired professor, he fails in identifying the steps we must take in choosing 鈥渢he right recovery鈥� plan.
Tackling symptoms (wealth inequality, poverty, racism and social isolation) doesn鈥檛 contain the causes (neo-liberalism鈥檚 political and corporate propaganda designed to create disunity, fragmentation and incoherence) keeping the public in the dark; where we remain convinced the current corrupt authoritarian system we call representative democracy is better than the 颅totalitarianism of the past.
So where do we focus our efforts? Rebuilding economies and communities using political and economic systems that make global pandemics a certainty fits Einstein鈥檚 definition of insanity.
However, even if we start valuing undervalued workers and reconnecting with our community, once this pandemic wanes, we will have done nothing to prevent an even greater disaster.
Will COVID-19 change the way we think?
Will it force us to question the structure of the systems responsible for our indoctrination and the 颅dystopian world we live in?
Given the trillions of dollars in government handouts to support businesses and appease voters on the way back to business-as-usual, we can rest assured the greatest natural disaster of our time is yet to come.
Ken Dwernychuk
Esquimalt
Keep an open mind to combat Big Lies
Re: 鈥淪tudents should learn about the consequences of Big Lies in history,鈥� comment, Dec. 20.
Ironically it is Big Lies (or 鈥渇ictions鈥� in the words of Yuval Noah Harari) that make us human. Only man in his capacity to imagine things not rooted in reality is capable of creating and believing in Big Lies.
It allowed us to develop culture and organize into large groups based on shared mythology and religion. It happened some 70,000 years ago, with emergence of the Sapiens brain.
Geoff Johnson points out the affinity of Big Lies with politics and religion. Both lend themselves to strong beliefs, often based on 颅fictions, Big Lies and 鈥渟pin.鈥�
How to combat Big Lies? We need to keep an open mind to views contrary to our own. Given the wealth of information online, keeping informed should be easy.
Yet there is a tendency to favour sites supporting our own prejudices, while dismissing alternate views as 鈥渇ake news.鈥�
Recently, a more alarming development is the censoring of 鈥渇ake news鈥� altogether.
When the decision about what we can and cannot see has already been made, even an open mind won鈥檛 help.
K.R. Lynch
Victoria
Pandemic inspires a new dance step
With the pandemic upon us, I鈥檝e been forced to change my daily exercise habits. With the nearby swimming pool difficult to access, I am forced to walk the streets to try to keep fit.
The other day, I was walking along Esquimalt Road. There was plenty of traffic but no pedestrians, until a woman appeared on the corner ahead of me, on my side.
Being a gentleman, I immediately knew it was my duty to step off the sidewalk to let her safely pass me away from my 鈥渆pidemic zone.鈥� Just before we began to pass, she burst out laughing 鈥� and so did I 鈥� and waved to each other while doing our 颅pandemic duty. Made my day.
A new song perhaps? The 鈥淧andemic Two-step.鈥� Pandemics can be fun!
John C. Smith
Victoria
SEND US YOUR LETTERS
鈥� Email letters to: [email protected]
鈥� Mail: Letters to the editor, sa国际传媒, 201-655 Tyee Rd.,
Victoria, sa国际传媒 V9A 6X5
鈥� Submissions should be no more than 250 words; subject to editing for length and clarity. Provide your contact information; it will not be published.
