LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Comic strip insulted seniors
Re: Comics (Montreal Gazette, Sept. 19)
Lynn Johnston’s comic strip For Better or for Worse was anything but comical. It suggests that seniors in their 80s are incapable of having relationships with the opposite sex.
“What? She’s 83 and she has a boyfriend. I think that’s funny,” exclaims the character. How more ageist can one get?
Canada’s population is aging. With projected-growth scenarios suggesting life expectancy could increase to 88 by 2035 and into the 90s by 2060, this segment of the population should be taken more seriously. Brian Ostrovsky, Montreal
Young people are not heartless
Re: “Millennials targeted in Alzheimer’s fundraiser” (Montreal Gazette, Sept. 20) I found your article’s opening premise — that millennials might be more concerned with their Instagram accounts than with the health and well-being of those living with old-age illnesses — hurtful and unnecessary.
As someone who fits within that poorly defined and overused label, I shouldn’t have to point out that in many cases the people living with Alzheimer’s or dementia are our own grandparents or, in some cases, parents. Has the social construct of generational divides grown so great that we really seem so heartless?
The face of fundraising is changing dramatically. Donor fatigue sets in early and often when there’s another worthy cause on every street corner and you’re also trying to save for a house, contribute to kids’ college funds, pay off student loans, save for a potentially imaginary retirement and just live life day to day. It’s disappointing that such a valuable awareness and fundraising campaign as the Montreal Alzheimer Research for a Cure should be framed within the assumption that anyone not old enough to remember the last time a Trudeau was prime minister is swaddled in veils of narcissism. Gordon Lambie, Sherbrooke
Census doesn’t tell my story
I carefully filled in the longform census. Schooling: Neither high-school graduation nor university available during the Second World War in my native Germany.
I’ve been a Canadian citizen for 50 years. I have taken classes and seminars, studied and worked in countries with other languages, did simultaneous translation in two languages, neither of them my mother tongue, and ended up as the trilingual assistant director of the legal department of a city with a population of 50,000.
Yet the census takes note that I am an allophone not of Canadian origin who has not finished high school. What is the practical value of this kind of census? Ursula Chautems, Pierrefonds
Not only money enriches our lives
Re: “Ex-Dragon minces no words on Quebec business climate” (Montreal Gazette, Sept. 20) Entrepreneur Mitch Garber says he liked Quebec’s quality of life and values enough to move back here. And yet, the same traits he finds so appealing may also be the flip side of what’s (rightly) bugging him: the widespread indifference and/or wariness toward the province’s business success stories — in his words, the “lingering religious belief people should not talk about money and success.”
True, there is a mindset that discussing money and success is a breach of etiquette. But perhaps many Quebecers are less concerned with consumption and job status, and instead place a higher premium on enjoying walking, biking or just meeting up with friends.
That’s not to suggest we shouldn’t encourage greater interest in financial acumen and entrepreneurship, starting, as Garber recommends, in elementary and secondary schools. Still, what it takes to become financially successful can be brought into greater alignment with the values and quality of life that enrich in ways other than what money can buy. Dorothy Lipovenko, Westmount
Little has changed in long-term care
Re: “Speak to families, not administrators (Letters, Sept. 21) My father, who died more than 20 years ago, spent seven years in a long-term hospital that boasted an Aplus accreditation. He, too, had one bath per week and a menu lacking fresh fruits and vegetables, even in summer. He, too, lacked attention and cognitive stimulation. As a result, he, too, had a paid companion to feed and occupy him. Sadly, it seems nothing has changed. Lorna Carley, Dollard-desOrmeaux