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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2017-02-23, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2017. PAGE 5. Other Views Hey charities: enough already! Memo to Canadian charity organizations: Hey guys, please stop giving me things. Nearly every day our mail at home has several fat envelopes from different charitable organizations requesting donations, yes, but also including things I can only take it you folks see as incentives. Calendars — more than enough to tell the date instantly in every room in the house. Tote bags. Christmas cards. Birthday cards. Cards for all occasions. Note pads. And address labels — lots and lots and lots of address labels. Obviously you folks at the charities haven't heard that people aren't using the mail system as much these days. If we were to write enough letters to use up all the address labels we receive in a year, Canada Post would have to hire more mail carriers. Maybe it's some joint venture with the post office, is it? They give you discounted delivery costs if you encourage us to send more letters? I suppose this must work with some recipients or you wouldn't keep using this approach. I guess some people must feel so guilty for the 5,000th address label they've received for free this year that they feel they must give a donation. It's not working for me anymore. You see, when we have given in and written a cheque to some new charity that's told us how essential our donation is to their work, it Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk only seems to increase the flow of calendars, notepads greeting cards and address labels. What? Do you instantly send out a bulletin to all the other charities we haven't yet given to saying, "Hey, here's a new sucker?" Maybe it's a bit like the guys who rode the rails in the Great Depression who would mark the gates of the homeowners who were good-hearted enough to offer a free meal so that the next guy who climbed off a train knew where to go. I've read newspaper stories that charities are having to work harder and harder to bring in the money they need to do their work but your generosity is having a reverse effect around our house. As I fill the blue box with these gifts, I start to wonder how much money from the donations I've already given in the past has been used to send these trinkets to thank me for my support or to try to guilt some new recipient into sending money. How many people are you employing to stuff the envelopes? And hey, though I have friends in the printing business, how many people are employed printing the calendars, notepads greeting cards and address labels? (Or do you save money, like a lot of book publishers these days by having your printing done in China?) I've heard tales from idealistic young people who quit their jobs at the headquarters of some charities in disgust after seeing what they felt was terrible waste. I'm not naive. I know sometimes you have to spend money to raise money. I know that the rental rate for a foot of office space downtown in a city, where you insist you must have your office, is many times what space would cost out here in the backwoods where you couldn't possibly see yourself having an office, even if it cut your overhead by 90 per cent. I know I could only dream of receiving the sort of salaries paid to the geniuses who come up with the ideas for all these gimmicks that are supposed to make me want to empty my bank account to support your good causes. But folks, around our place your strategy is backfiring. Whenever possible we've been telling the charities we actually support that we'd much prefer not to be rewarded with gifts they can't afford. When some new charity sends us rewards we haven't even asked for, the envelope goes immediately to the blue box. Sorry to be ungrateful but when we give money to fund research for some terrible disease, we'd like to see every penny possible go to research, not more mailing labels. Welcome to the real world UNB students The University of New Brunswick's (UNB) Fredericton campus' social media team has made my weekly list of awesome people doing awesome things in light of a snowstorm that hit the New Brunswick city last week. In response to a student complaining that a nearby school had closed its doors as a result of snowstorm and UNB had stayed open, whoever is in charge of the campus' social media presence posted a short video of a young girl crying from the Dreamworks motion picture Monsters Inc. While the social media account has since said they weren't mocking the person complaining about being expected to be at school and were, in fact, saying they were sad about the snow as well. I don't buy it. I think whoever did this called someone out on their entitlement. Why do I watch for news about the University of New Brunswick's Fredericton campus? Well, in all honesty, I don't. I do, however, watch for news about Saint Thomas University (STU), which is right beside the UNB campus. My youngest sister is currently attending school there, so I keep an eye out for anything happening there and it was tagged in the story. The original tweet bemoaned the fact that New Brunswick Community College was closed, but UNB and STU, which are all located in very close proximity to one another, were still open. To me, it denoted a problem that seems to permeate those who are around a decade younger than me: expecting people to make decisions for them or make their lives easier. I haven't chatted with my sister about whether or not she was able to get to school, but asking someone else to decide whether it's safe for you to venture out to school is not something that people who are considered adults should need done for them. I don't want to get into one of those, "Well when I was young," situations, but, unfortunately, it's unavoidable. When I was young I attended Robertson Memorial Public School (RMPS) in Goderich Denny Scott Denny's Den and no, I will not refer to it as Goderich Public School. When I went there, it was one of two public elementary schools in the community and there were no buses that went to the school. Everyone who attended RMPS either walked or got a ride and I can't remember a single snow day the entire time I was at the school. I'll let that sink in for a second — in the seven years I was at the school, Kindergarten to Grade 6, I don't remember a single snow day. Nowadays it's easier to count the amount of school time missed for snow, ice, fog or bad juju in weeks instead of days but, for seven years, I don't think there was a single day of school cancelled due to weather. I know, when you don't have buses and everyone walks, it's a lot easier to expect people to be able to get to school and not have to close it. I'm not going to claim I was a model student and made it to every single class that I was able. I'll admit, now that I'm a decade removed from school, that I probably missed more than a few 8 a.m. classes. If there were consequences for that action, as an adult, I would have to weather them. If I felt I was doing the only safe thing and a professor disagreed, I would, as an adult, have no problem discussing it with him and, if necessary, the administration. I'm not just spouting here, I had that happen once or twice. Sure, it was strep throat, not a blizzard, but if you're willing to be an adult and talk to the right people and not whine on social media, you can find a solution. There seems to be a disconnect for some students and post -secondary education where they forget they are paying to be there. Professors may institute attendance rules, but the biggest inspiration to attend class for me was when I was trusted enough take the money I received from the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) and use it to pay for school and my bills. In that single moment, when I went from having thousands in my account to less than $100, I learned the value of getting to class. Heck, I broke out a little -used calculator (communications student here, I didn't have a lot of need for math) and figured out what I was giving up every single time I missed a class. When you realize that you're paying for every single minute you're in a classroom, the question isn't should I skip that class, the question becomes can I afford to throw that kind of money down the tubes? So to all the students out there used to missing weeks, if not a month of class in public or high school, be ready for a rude awakening when you get to college or university. Snow days are not something to hope for, they are missed opportunities for which you are still paying. Learning to appreciate being able to get to work or school is an important lesson to take away from post -secondary education experiences. Every other week, once the snow begins to fly, both Shawn and I have to decide if the weather should keep us away from events or council meetings and it's never something we can look to someone else to decide. If I don't go and I miss a photo or a meeting I have to make up that time and effort later on and it's always easier to be at an event than to try and follow up on it. That said, there are some occasions when I just can't make the meeting I want to be at or I don't know if we will be able to make it home afterwards. Those kinds of decisions are difficult, but they are part of being an adult and that is something these students need to learn. So, to those UNB students and everyone like them who want someone to tell them not to come to class instead of making their decision for themselves, I have three things to say: Grow up, welcome to the real world and don't trust anyone who claims to be a wallet inspector. Shawn Loughlin Shawn's Sense An unfortunate cycle The whole name -shame game isn't usually my style (although apparently rhyme time is). I'll usually provide comments on councils or organizations, but I tend not to single out someone and speak on him or her. Well, this week is different. At Huron County Council's Feb. 15 meeting, Howick Reeve Art Versteeg continued to be one of the few councillors swimming against the current of change. After numerous presentations and even an official cycling strategy document, Versteeg is still reluctant to offer real solutions to increase the safety of cyclists on Huron County's roads, despite personally taking part in some of the workshops that gave us the cycling strategy. One of the safety initiatives identified by the strategy, and indeed by Huron County Council before the strategy was even created, was the full paving of road shoulders. This issue arose on Feb. 15 as council is considering some resurfacing and has to decide whether or not to pave the shoulders for an additional $500,000. Many councillors saw this as an opportunity to improve the county's cycling infrastructure with an added bonus of economic development. Encouraging cycling in the community, council has said, will help retain youth and increase recreational tourism. I understand it's an expensive proposal, but council has identified this as a priority. And you spend money on your priorities. You can't have it both ways. Versteeg said he finds paving shoulders to be the last initiative that should be implemented, not to mention the most expensive, saying paving shoulders would have the "least impact" on cyclists. He cited other, cheaper measures like increased signage and education as being more important. Not to speculate on what Versteeg does in his personal time, but this comment smacks of someone who has never taken a bike out on a Huron County highway. Surely no cyclist who has travelled Huron County's roads on a bike will tell you that being able to cycle entirely to the right of the fog line, precious metres away from fast-moving traffic, would have no impact on their experience out on the road. While educational programs and signage are important, that information is not news to people. Drivers should know by now that they have to watch for cyclists and give them space, especially here where other slow-moving vehicles like farm machinery and horse-drawn carriages are common on our roads. I have been on both sides of the wheel for this. I have been, for the last few years, a cyclist in Huron County and there is no way to communicate the feeling of a tractor -trailer moving at over 90 kilometres an hour just metres a feather -light bike to someone who hasn't been in that seat. Having said that, I spend most of my travelling hours in Huron County behind the wheel of a car. And for all I know about "Share the Road" and how to safely drive when in the vicinity of cyclists, I too have had my close calls. There are numerous factors, including weather like blinding sunshine or heavy rainfall, hills that blind drivers until they crest them, and unforgiving oncoming traffic, to name few. In addition, I imagine that driving an 18 -wheeler provides a whole new host of challenges, swerving or braking are not options for a vehicle weighing up to 80,000 pounds. Those are non -factors when a cyclist is safely on the shoulder and out of traffic. To say that will have the least impact on cyclists is uninformed, irresponsible and reckless.