To the Expositor:
Dear old grandma used to say…“never get involved in religious or political battles of wit with unarmed opponents.”
As true Haweaters, we of course will ignore grandma’s sage advice, and speak our self assumed “enlightened minds” solely for the purpose of entertainment, and perhaps by some stroke of serendipity, prompt others to ask some serious questions.
We have never (in any place between Toronto and the West Coast of B.C.), seen such a prominent police presence, as that which we have witnessed since our recent move to Manitowaning. And not just cruising around in cruisers either… (Although a couple have patiently waited to pass us on the highway because, well, we are semi-old farts, and worry about our not so perfect vision interfering with the travel plans of the local deer population hence our reprehensible behavior of driving at the speed limit, and yes, sorry, sometimes below it.)
We have seen officers walking the streets of our small downtown district, engaging folks in polite conversation. Not “Hey, what are you up to?” but instead, “Hi, how’s your day going?” or “Your little girl is so cute,” etc.
We in Manitowaning are very fortunate as we get to see the Wiky Tribal Police presence here, as well as the OPP. (At least until and unless the red-taper’s in charge succeed at closing down our police station, but that’s a letter for another day.)
Last fall, Thanksgiving Weekend in fact, we were stopped in several RIDE checks within a matter of days and can’t describe how comforting it was to know that there is so much effort going toward keeping us safe.
These officers are not strangers in fancy suits out to harass us, they are our neighbors, and we can’t begin to imagine trying to do their job (for any amount of money). (P.S. thanks to all of you who risk life and limb to try make life bearable for the rest of us.)
If anyone wants to nitpick salaries or wasted tax dollars, please show up at the polls (both provincial, i.e. Scrapped gas plants, Ornge, taxing of the little guy yet again—traffic tolls by an un-elected premier who has only avoided public humiliation via election by promising an insurance cut of 15 percent (anyone see a decrease in your premiums yet by the way?) etc..
And federally, senate expense scandals, military search and rescue fishing trips, selling the oil patch to China, etc. Makes us laugh out loud to see all the recent hullabaloo surrounding Rob Ford.
He seems to be the only semi-high ranking politician in memorable history to execute exactly what he promised during campaign and then get raked over the coals endlessly for any number of unproven allegations.
We don’t use, or condone, the use of illegal drugs.
Just for clarity for the rest of the old farts…Yes, that’s the bad stuff, like being on the pot…That’s not like when we were young and in no way related to a cold wind through the cracks and the crispy pages of a Simpson’s catalogue. No, this is them ragweeds that smell like a skunk just did its business outside the window, that makes the stoned-agers eat all your food, and fall asleep before they can get into cars and drive, or cut the grass, or take out the garbage, or anything else that involves mobility (except apparently, things called X-Boxes).
As opposed to the “not” bad stuff like alcohol, tobacco, legal and exorbitantly expensive prescription drugs…which give you the runs, risk of heart attack and/or stroke, make you pee all the time, or never, make your get up and go, got up and went, blurry vision, loss or gain of appetite, stomach and/or head and /or joint pain and/or finding yourself running around naked in a field of daisies, you know the story.
But it tends to make one wonder…
Would a crackhead even be able to drive a car in order to get into a crash? And if we only had high rolling politician crackheads, they wouldn’t need to drive anyways, because they’d have their own taxpayer funded cars and drivers. (You know, like the ones Mike Duffy tried to get in his emails?)
So I wonder…if a pot smoking crackhead can get Toronto’s books into the black after so many years of so called “high caliber” administrative officials failing miserably at the same task, then perhaps it’s time for old farts like us (who according to the “numbers” are still the majority of folks who actually show up on election day) to reconsider the criteria for provincial and federal candidates, lol. (Lol, that’s inter-web jargon that means “laughing out loud” for you other old farts out there.)
Hope this at least makes someone smile, and/or more importantly, raises more questions in all of us.
Terri MacDonald Manitowaning
