Who's a builder?
Many thanks to Sandra Martin and The Globe and Mail for making the effort to recognize those individuals who truly did make a difference (Ten Who Made A Difference - obituaries, Dec. 30 and Dec. 31).
It's refreshing, amidst the much-hyped but pure entertainment merit of performers such as Michael Jackson and his ilk, to acknowledge such contributions. I'm sure there are sufficient unsung individuals whose lives and accomplishments get overlooked and lost in the constant tabloid chatter, to make such extended obituaries a more regular and important feature well worth reading.
Bill Williams, Richmond, Ont.
............
Listing Rick Hillier as a builder of the nation is like recommending a bulldozer for fine carpentry ( Nation Builders Of The Decade - cover page, Jan. 2). By his relentless promotion of the indefensible entanglement in Afghanistan, he has done more harm to Canada's reputation than virtually anyone else in living memory.
Douglass L. Grant, Sydney, N.S.
Prorogation vacation
Stephen Harper has conveniently prorogued Parliament for another 40 days. That's an extension of his six-week vacation. Where would we be if all the school teachers took an extra six-week vacation? Suppose a heart surgeon decided to cancel his operations for another six weeks because his patients were complaining too much.
Mr. Harper is an employee of the Canadian taxpayer, and is playing hooky from his job at our collective expense.
Susan Flemming, Montreal
............
Congratulations on the strong pieces on Mr. Harper's prorogation - both the front-page editorial ( Democracy Diminished, Accountability Avoided) and John Ibbitson's piece ( Proroguing Parliament - A Travesty, Yet Clever) - in the Dec. 31 issue of The Globe and Mail.
With Parliament undermined and diminished, the role of the fourth estate in buttressing democracy in Canada is even more critical. Keep shining a light on this travesty.
Gordon Harrison, Lanark Highlands, Ont.
............
Your front page editorial says that the proroguing of Parliament will prevent a continuation thereof the Afghan detainees debate.
High-minded as your concerns may be, they ring hollow because I suspect that few opposition MPs care a whit about the welfare of the detainees, their only goal in the debate being to discredit the Harper government.
Michael J. Ashby, North Vancouver
............
If Junius argues rightly that the truly loyal subject will neither advise nor consent to arbitrary measures, then one can only assume that there is not a single loyal Canadian among the members of Stephen Harper's Conservative caucus.
Stephen Moore, Regina
............
Here is my New Year's prediction. When an election is called, The Globe and Mail will run an editorial in which it will tut-tut about Mr. Harper's government: his attempt to control the media, his centralization of all power in his hands, the shut-downs of Parliament, the attacks on Richard Colvin.
Then it will get to the "however" part: However, Michael Ignatieff is still learning, he needs more seasoning, he's too hungry for power. Then it will have an insulting reference to Jack Layton and the NDP. And then - voilà - it will support Mr. Harper again. In other words, business as usual.
Sheila Kieran, Toronto
A bigger Afghan presence
The article Canada's Kandahar Legacy Rests On A Shift In Strategy, But Is There Enough Time? (front page, Jan. 2) considers how the security situation might develop in Kandahar province. It is important to mention the presence, since the summer of 2009, of the U.S. Army's 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, and the fact that a second U.S. Army brigade combat team will be coming to Kandahar this spring.
By this spring some 10,000 soldiers from these two teams will be on the ground. By comparison the total force under Canadian command numbers around 5,000, including more American combat troops than Canadian. In addition a U.S. Army combat aviation brigade, with over 100 helicopters, has been at Kandahar since spring 2009 (our Air Force has 14 helicopters there).
Mark Collins, Ottawa
Always on standby
Lawrence Scanlan's praise of the beauty and utility of old tools touched a sympathetic nerve ( Reuse For Recessionary Times - Jan. 2). I too feel a familial attachment to machines like my Black and Decker drill (plug-in, of course), which I bought in 1968 when I was living in Jamaica. It still runs, emitting at startup, a screech, perhaps suffering a bit of arthritis and pining for the tropics. Who can blame it? No, these faithful servants deserve better than the dust bin.
Beware the cordless! Once those batteries can no longer crank, slide, shift, rotate or reciprocate, they need to be replaced, often costing as much, or nearly as much, as a new drill.
Geoffrey Farmer, Woodlawn, Ont.
The razor of paranoia
Re Paranoid Style Is In Again (Globe Essay, Jan. 2). Konrad Yakabuski is making too fine a distinction when he separates politicians who exploit the passions and prejudices of the voter into two categories: those who exploit the style for political gain, and those, such as Sarah Palin, who seem to actually believe their own malicious rhetoric.
No matter the motivation, their demagoguery makes them unworthy of, and unfit for, public office.
Lorne Warwick, Dundas, Ont.
............
Mr. Yakabuski's insightful essay misses two key points. First, where is Richard Nixon, the greatest exhibitor of the paranoid style of all? Second, historian Richard Hofstadter spoke from within the liberal consensus and found the paranoid style on the fringes. Here was a subtle way to use history and psychology to delegitimize the farther right and left. Ultimately, given the fate of the liberal consensus and the Democratic Party after 1972, as Mr. Yakabuski, notes, the joke was on the Democrats, and the paranoid style today stands revealed not only as the chief Republican weapon, but as much a feature of mainstream politics as of the so-called "lunatic fringe." What liberal Democrats used against Joe McCarthy and the Republicans in the 1950s, the Republicans used against the Democrats in the 1970s and beyond.
Geoff Smith, Kingston, Ont.
A bomb's injustice
We seem to have learned to accept regular reports of atrocities committed by suicide bombers, and are unmoved to learn that 75 people died in this way while watching a volleyball tournament in northern Pakistan (Retaliation Suspected In Pakistan Suicide Bombing That Killed 75 At Volleyball Match - Jan. 2). Perhaps we sense that suicide bombings result from forces so obscure that this entire spectre falls beyond our comprehension and control. This is not a helpful response in the face of large-scale atrocities against civilians who are, in fact, just like us.
Citizens and governments throughout the world should begin to frame these actions as crimes against humanity, and to mobilize the resources of the International Criminal Court to identify and bring to justice the architects, funders and organizers of this inhuman practice.
Anton R. Miller, Vancouver
Better handling = better eating
I sympathize with Leah McLaren's distress at making her in-laws sick by serving them lamb that she did not overcook ( My Mantra for 2010 And Beyond: 'Don't Have A Cow, Man' - Lifestyle, Jan. 2). However, her decision to never serve red meat again does not address the problem: food safety.
Her mistake was to not inform herself of proper food handling techniques as recommended by the Toronto Public Health Department, which can be downloaded from the City of Toronto's website.
Depending on "common sense" and the advice of vendors to prevent food-borne illness is not enough. After reading information from public health anyone can, for a nominal fee, write the test to become a certified food handler, thus ensuring a mastery of the material.
Moses Shuldiner, Toronto
Responsibilities of the living
David Schatzky asks questions that most of us ask as we near that final moment when we "disappear" ( Forget Me When I'm Gone - Facts and Arguments Essay, Jan. 1). But my conclusions differ: Yes, it does matter what our offspring and others do when we depart, not because it affects the deceased, but the living who can feel joy and sadness in remembering, in shedding a tear or in leaving a stone or a flower or a candle on the gravesite.
Does a mother really cease to exist after she dies? Surely, dependent on the nature of one's relationship with a parent, there is a chance that one's mother or father will continue to live within the adult child who will know that parental love forever. My partner died five years ago and I live a fulfilling, active life, with him ever-present in my thoughts and inner conversations. I foster his presence in our son through visits to the gravesite and planting of a tree or flowers, because the richness of relationship does not die with the demise of the body. Why would I want to forget those who have gone when they continue to inspire me and give me the confidence to embrace life?
Mary Valentich, Calgary