HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 2009-03-18, Page 7Goderich Signal -Star, Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - Page 7
Healthcare funding below national average
Dear Editor
The Local Health Integration
Networks (LHINs) are finally starting
to show thier stripes. I find it very
disturbing to learn the hospital budgets
have been cut to the point where 50 per
cent of Ontario's hospitals were in
deficit for the year 2008 and planned
cuts for 2009 will see ' 70 per cent of
Ontario's hospitals in deficit. It is ille-
gal to run a hospital with a deficit so
what we are going to see is massive
cuts to services, privatization, increased
travel for services and a lot more pay
as you go.
Ontario's hospitals have been under
restructuring for at least fifteen years
and we are not there yet. Mike Harris
might have moved on to bigger and
better things but it is not as if Minister
of Health Smitherman and Premier
McGuinty didn't learn something from
him. If you want to make change you
have to create a crisis! In this case
once you cripple the public health care
system with chronic under -funding the
public looses faith in the institution
and voila, privatization picks up the
pieces. Then McGuinty and his ilk can
spend the_ rest of their lives sipping
umbrella drinks by the pool while the
hogs battle at the trough for the last of
-optnton
our tax dollars.
The provincial budget comes down
on March 26th and no real help is on
the way for public hospitals. The
Ontario government already under -
funds our hospitals by $100 per person
less than the other provinces. The plan
for 2009 is to cut funding further for
all hospitals in Ontario. I'm quite sure
the engineers of this abomination will
be able to buy themselves and their
family's high quality healthcare once
the LHINs are fully integrated. For the
rest of us, maybe it's time to call or
email our MPP or the Minister or the
Premier and let them know that you
don't want them to destroy public
healthcare.
Jim Vance
President Huron District
Labour Council
Writer fears 'Goderich is a goner'
To the Editor;
My congratulations to Richard P.
Robarts and his article about Snug
Harbour.
What sort of town will Goderich
be without a pleasure craft marina?
Little Port Albert has Point Clark,
Bayfield has Harbour Lights Marina,
and Kincardine has Kincardine
Marina managed by the K.Y.C.
Goderich has Al Hamilton the
manager for the Goderich Port
Management Corporation. Snug
Harbour was allowed to deteriorate.
Its demise has been in the plans for a
few years. Where is Mayor Deb
Shewfelt, is he out -to -lunch with
Sifto? Or just "out -to -lunch."
I think the (fearless leaders) of
Goderich should take a trip outside
of Huron County and learn how
other communities plan around their
natural resources. Learn what hap-
pens to towns that usher in Wal-Mart
for their tax base and watch the com-
munity die. Take a look at company
towns and cities like Detroit and
then watch them wither away to a
ghost town. The next thing the fear-
less leaders will usher in will be a
Gambling Casino. Goderich has
some fabulous sites for the location
of such a enterprise.
Oh well, I think Goderich is a
goner. When the people who give
character to a community have gone,
what else can a person expect, but
utter decadence and shambles.
George Hebert
Formerly of
Ashfield Township
It's
'free hug, smiles for no particular reason' season
a city where eye -contact is in to perform their random acts of
almost illegal. kindness at my authors' series in Port
Many hugged her, others at Colborne. I paid them, fed them and
least smiled and waved. "It's put them up in a hotel. But 1 did not
a nice thing," said one woman attend their performance. Because
who accepted Tanya is hug. when the guy on stage says "take the
"You smile and it makes your hand of the person beside you" or
heart happy." "look into the face of the person to
"It's great to forget about your . left," I'm outta there so fast I
what's going on," said Tanya's sometimes set off the smoke detector.
friend, "and realize all you And of course, when I caught up with
really need is love." Oh sure, four "Cool To Be Kind" kids at a recep-
tion we held for them 'after the show,
they all wanted to ... wait for it ... hug
the host. After I was penalized two
minutes for elbowing, we settled on
firm handshakes all around. Thereafter
they referred to me as "The Exception"
in their "Extreme Kindness Tour." I
was flattered.
I like to see all the'hugging and smil-
ing going on ... from my car window as
I drive by slowly and wave.
Don't get me wrong. I'm pleased
that there are such group -hug gather-
ings like an Up With People concert.
But I'd much rather stay home and read
the rantings of Malcolm Muggeridge,
one of the truly great curmudgeons of
our time whose advice was: "Down
with everything that's up."
"Show me a man that smiles all the
time, though the rest of the world's in a
rut. Show me a man that laughs all the
time and I'll show you a nut."
Cheers.
A smile costs nothing and hugs are count all the sniggers, giggles
for free. So goes the logic in trying to and snorgles in between.
lift the human spirit in this recent bom- "Those first couple hours
bardment of negative news. However, were hysterical. I think peo-
you have to be very careful with that ple felt kind of dorky," said
word `free.' Even with the economy in Lenore. Now there's a word
free fall, there's no such thing as a free to bring a smile to your face.
lunch, free wrapping, free parking — Dorky — a slang term mean -
somewhere, somehow you 'pay. Free ing out of place or quirky,
range chickens cost more than the silly and socially inept — as in
cooped kind, free trade can cost you Premier Dorky McGinty.
your job and free speech in an auto- Dorky, Goofy, Loony,
cratic country can land you in jail.
George Bush's quest for world freedom
created a global free-for-all and that
free -loading out -of -work free-lancer
sleeping on your couch is also known
as your brother-in-law. Don't get me
started about the high price of free
love. Suffice to say `free' can be the
costliest word in the entire English dic-
tionary.
But they're out there in these days of
doom, offering free him; on street cot -
tiers and eliciting comp it -entary smiles
in the workplace. Two i c: cent cases of
spreading free affection seem to have
produced the desired, positive results.
In Oregon, Jack Lenore got tired of
looking into the long faces of his
employees , so he designated one day,
the last Monday in January, as
"Company Smile Day." Each of his
150 workers was urged to smile 100
times in the course of the eight-hour
day. That's 12 smiles per hour or one
smile every five minutes if you don't
Lipshitts would likely be the
names of the four dwarfs if
Paula Abdul was Snow
White.
After lots of nervous laughs and
funny faces `smile day' worked.
"There was a buzz about the office,
an interaction that wasn't there before,"
said the boss.
However as the day wore on and the
daily workload increased along with
stress levels, the smiles and laughter
quickly diminished. A pep talk by the
boss produced a mid-day correction
and by closing, time all employees
agreed it was one of their most enjoy-
able days at the office. Lenore is con-
sidering having a smile day once a
month.
On Monday, February 9th, Tanya
Neumeyer set up shop at Yonge and
Dundas Streets in Toronto with a sign
that read: "Free Hugs." It's the third
year in a row the 26 -year-old has
offered to embrace strangers in Toronto,
Ail the Worlds
A Circus...
drag the Beatles into this pub-
lic groping contest.
I do see the benefits of all
this corporate smiling and
curbside hugging but personally I'm
more of a wave and a nod kind of guy.
I am not a hugger. Even with all the
respect and sympathy I have for mother
nature, I won't hug a tree.
Except for a certain dog who happens
to smile an awful lot, I don't hug.
The last time I was offered a hug in
public it came from a street walker in
the city of Cork, Ireland. It was just
after the pubs closed and she surprised
me as she stepped out of the shadows.
"Would you be doin' business
tonight?" she asked.
And with a classically stupidest
answer, I replied: "Oh no, I'm over
here just for pleasure."
No, I'm all for, free hugs and smile
days. I really am. A couple years ago
when the "Cool To Be Kind" kids were
touring across Canada, I brought them