LETTERS
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Surrey/North Delta Leader 7
One way or another, garbage must go Focus on
Re: “MetRO VancOuVeR should end garbage
incineration: Study.” So, a left-leaning think-tank thinks we should not build waste-to-energy incinerators, and should phase out the one we have. How surprising. If Metro Vancouver was leaning towards a new big dump site by Harrison Lake or some old-growth forest, they would be screaming
about that instead. They will always come out against whatever logical solution emerges from reasonable public debate. Of course we should recycle, although it’s always interesting how their suggested ways of encouraging more recycling always involve more taxes and/or fees. These incinerators were chosen, and need to be built, because they reduce garbage heading
to landfills and supply the energy our society needs. Until that magical distant future when everything is recycled, we need some ways to dispose of the trash we create, and these incinerators are the best option we currently have.
Paul Allinger, Surrey
‘There is hope for a good life’
On MaRch 28, Cyndie Richards
wrote in The Leader about her son’s mental illness and addiction to drugs and alcohol (“Mark my words: This will end badly”). As a survivor of severe bipolar illness and alcoholism, it pains me to hear about parents who have children suffering from mental illness. Thirty years ago, at age 23, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. At the same time, I was a full-blown alcoholic. For the next 15 years, I built a business in Toronto and Montreal. When I was not working I was committed to a psychiatric ward of a hospital due to a severe manic episode. On 12 different occasions I spent six to eight weeks in hospital recovering from psychotic episodes in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver. I was committed to the psychiatric ward of hospitals over and over again simply because I would not stop drinking. There is a genetic component that runs in my family making us predisposed to mental illness. I lost one of my brothers, who at age 40 took his own life due to untreated bipolar illness and alcoholism. I’ve also lost four other family members to this disease. On August 15, 1993, I was discharged from St. Paul’s Hospital and sent to a men’s recovery home. The accommodations didn’t meet with my approval – it wasn’t a fourstar hotel – it offered a room with four men and a mattress on the floor. The next day I called my parents and told them that I was moving
southern tracks
i wOuld suggest a new SkyTrain link between the Expo/Millennium and Canada Line on Marine Drive and carrying it on to UBC. This will be much cheaper than running a train to UBC along the Broadway corridor. The population in the Fraser Valley is growing very fast and why make people who live south go all the way north to downtown then back south to Richmond? Same for UBC. Going south along Marine Drive to UBC will save 45 minutes each way. They should survey how many students are from Burnaby, Coquitlam, Surrey and Richmond. They rely on transit. It also makes sense to build transit for the future. The population will grow very fast along Marine Drive as there is land available to accommodate people.
Cindy Kwong
FILE PHOTO / THE LEADER
a letter writer shares the story of his own bipolar disorder after reading about what cyndie Richards is going through in seeking help for her own mentally ill son. back to my apartment. They asked me to come to the house before going home. When I arrived my father gave me a letter to read. It said, “If you are hospitalized in the future and alcohol is involved we will not support you in any way – we will abandon you.” After 25 years if denying my serious mental illness and alcoholism I finally woke up. The word “abandon”
shook me to the core. I quit drinking and went into recovery. That was almost 20 years ago. Many factors played a role in my recovery, including my parent’s tough love and a psychiatrist who specialized in the treatment of mood disorders. Also, I had become completely willing to surrender my will and lead a life based upon a few simple
spiritual principles. I asked the universe for help and it came. Today I spend my time trying to reach out to others and let them know that there is hope for a good life beyond mental illness. Mental illness is an obstacle in life, not a road block. Mark Fernandes Surrey
Ban predator We should all pay our share from Surrey i cuRRently dO nOt have to pay tolls and, con-
Re: “Online pRedatOR now living in Surrey.”
I think that people like Jeffrey Goddard should be prevented from going to cities with a large number of children, in this case, Surrey. I fear it will make the city more unsafe. It will increase the crime rate in Surrey. At least he should be watched and prevented from going to public places (like a park or a library) or on the Internet. I think the best that can be done is also to educate students to ignore anyone that they meet on the Internet. Kids will be the future generation, and we want a strong generation, not a group of unhappy, timid kids living in fear of an assault. Jon Li
sidering the billions already collected in various “road taxes,” resent their implementation. However, since they do exist then we all should have to pay our share. I think that since tolls, vehicle levies, and gas taxes can be dodged, the only method reasonably certain to ensure that everyone contributes
is some form of property or income tax. Owners, renters, drivers, cyclists, transit riders, even ardent pedestrians – all receive benefits from our transportation systems and all should contribute, not just the easily targeted. Nick Mayar
Pot use isn’t a border crime
Re: “adMitting pot use
at U.S. border may get you banned,” The Leader, April 2. I think being banned from the U.S. for smoking marijuana isn’t right. It’s just a plant. It won’t even harm anyone besides the user. Think of it this way: You go to
the U.S. border, you’re carrying a six-pack of beer in your car, you get permanently banned from the U.S. It’s no worse. Alcohol does more damage than pot. You shouldn’t get banned from an entire country because of carrying marijuana.
I think this rule is unnecessary and it should be removed. It’s just going to cause more border crimes. I hope Washington will think twice about it. It really is a silly and unnecessary law. Ethan Schroeder
How liberal are Liberals? i peRsOnally don’t care whether
or not Christy Clark heads the B.C. Liberal party and thus the provincial government; what does frustrate me are all of the blatant misnomers that so many political parties adopt. B.C.’s Liberal party was once fairly close to being truly “liberal,” albeit while under the most progressive of the three Gordons, when the party finally made it onto the scene as official Opposition in 1991, on top of smoldering Socred ruins. But the current B.C. Liberal party does not get any closer to being “liberal” than whatever’s “liberal” about their true libertarian ideology (look it up – it can get kind of scary in its more fervent mode). I guess it’s all something quite like that paradox Progressive Conservative party thing.
Frank Sterle Jr., White Rock
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