Pesky folks

Re: “Death toll,” Letter, July 16.

I am not sure what I find more irritating this summer — the abundant presence of mosquitoes, or the predictable drone of letter writers complaining about the Stampede. At least the former have a legitimate reason to be in Calgary. Most of the letter writers make their homes elsewhere.

Rob Found is from Edmonton, a city that seems to have a penchant for killing human beings. (Edmonton was the murder capital of Canada in 2011.) He takes the Stampede to task for one dead steer and one dead horse. It appears the horse actually had a heart attack, something which could have occurred in a barn or out in the field.

I am fairly certain that meat packing plants in Edmonton have accounted for many more dead cattle, but no one wrote letters about that.

To respond to Found with a paraphrase of his own words: It would seem that not even a natural disaster could keep the Calgary Stampede from raising over $2 million for flood relief through the sale of shirts, could stop chuckwagon drivers from raising additional funds for flood relief, or could stop the Stampede from its annual lotteries, which also raise funds to help people. Moreover, the national exposure generated by the Stampede made the entire country aware of the resilient spirits of Calgarians.

Perhaps Found is jealous.