HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2017-02-23, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2017. PAGE 5.
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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.