Re: 'Softly, softly!' (letter, May 16)
I'm so happy the letter writer from Ancaster is "delighted" with the negotiations regarding Caledonia. But I live here, and I'm just about ready to pop a blood vessel.
The letter writer speaks as if he has a front row seat in these "critical, sensitive" negotiations. Does he? I highly doubt it.
Perhaps the letter writer is not aware of how tense this situation truly is on the ground here in Caledonia. This tension has been created because nobody -- at any level of government -- is talking to the hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying, level-headed people who call this town home. It's that same silence he "implores stakeholders to keep."
Perhaps he is not aware that the weight of the cost to repair the physical damage to the infrastructure of this town (I'm not even speaking to the economic loss of the businesses, but to the policing costs, roads, bridges, rail lines and the brand spanking new hydro line) will likely be borne by the hard-earned paycheques of people across this province and country. Ergo, I "implore" him to put his money where his mouth is and bust out his chequebook. I will gladly allow him to pay my share of the costs.
Since when is anyone allowed to threaten the safety of another person?
Since when is anyone allowed to blockade a road, burn a bridge, block a rail line, set fires in the middle of the streets, toss objects from overpasses endangering the lives of innocent people and then demand absolute immunity from prosecution for their illegal actions, demand that the police not arrest them, demand that the Canadian Armed Forces "stand down," blame someone else for their lot in life and then demand respect?
I cannot believe this is allowed to happen in Canada. I am ashamed of my governments. I am heartbroken for the people who live here. I am concerned for our town and county, its businesses, its people, because they are the ones who will ultimately be saddled with the burden of mending this gigantic tear in the fabric of our community when this is over.
Silence will not improve anything. That is the only thing that I am certain of.