Editor:
I have just finished reading the Peace Arch News of July 21. Sadly, I find it full of angst.
People are complaining about everything pertaining to what they believe to be normal living conditions. That is their right.
However, had they placed their objections in relation to what is happening around the world, they just might think and act differently. One clear example is the lost freedoms of all the people of Ukraine.
Travellers have complained about having to have a COVID-19 rapid test on returning to Canada from the United States. We do know for certain that the COVID-19 virus and its many variants are passed through air particles. So, wherever you are, the air you breathe could recently have had someone with COVID-19 sneeze or cough, and you inadvertently breathe in those virus particles.
In the last six months or so, we have seen demonstrations about our lack of “freedoms.” Freedoms from what: COVID-19 rapid tests, border restrictions, freedom of association in large indoor crowds, or wearing a mask to prevent the transmission of the virus? These restrictions have been put in place to keep us and everyone around us from contracting this horrible disease. How can it be horrible when so many people who have had the disease, say it bothered them for a few days and that was all? Ask those hundreds of people with “long-COVID” how they feel months after their infection, who still can’t return to their “normal lives.”
Canada, one of the freest countries on Earth, has restrictions to keep us safe. Just think of the thousands of lives saved by seat belts. Vaccinations are a way to keep us from getting highly communicable diseases like measles, mumps or polio, among others.
So, complain if you must about all the recommendations or temporary COVID rules that inhibit actions in our daily lives in some capacity. Try living in some war-torn, or undemocratic country ruled by a despot, or one where famine and floods are a yearly occurrence, where there is no Unemployment Insurance, Old Age Security or assistance for the needy.
Some people will disagree with me, but I still have the right to believe that the restrictions placed upon us are there for a very good reason: to keep us as safe as possible from the adversity around us.
To all the unbelievers, the anti-everything, “Give your head a shake!”
Lois Avison, White Rock