Yes, it does include me!
In my previous letter to the editor I suggested that perhaps the Gazette needs a policy requiring some standards of civility for those who disagree with the writer, and one Jack Holliston has responded with an ungracious diatribe that proves my point. Thank you, sir!
As for your assertion that I do not understand the situation of “taxpayers (pensioners)” I feel compelled to respond that I am both a taxpayer and a pensioner. If Mr. Holliston had bothered to ask he would have discovered that I am a senior with exactly the same financial constraints as any other. Apparently, however, my manners have not vanished with my youth.
Mr. Holliston also questions whether I actually know what I am talking about. Ironically, I have been politically aware and active for 53 of my 68 years. I have worked as a constituency assistant to an MLA, organized election campaigns, held elected office in a provincial union and bargained $12 billion worth of collective agreements. I have volunteered in many community organizations at the floor level and on various boards of directors, as well as on regional committees. I also donate my hard earned retirement funds to those whose needs are greater than mine. Ironically, I once became notorious for saying that elected people have a tendency to forget where the money comes from and “belly up to the trough and snort it back with both nostrils.” I was an elected person at that time, speaking against a proposed increase in remuneration I obviously considered uncalled for. My resume speaks for itself.
My defence of those supporting the proposed increase is based on a lifetime of hands on experience, but was inspired by the personal nature of the attacks on named individuals for daring to ask for more. This brings us back to my original point that when we write letters to the editor we should mind our manners and at least pretend we are ladies and/or gentlemen. “Does that include you?”
David Lowther
Mesachie Lake