Professional Day

Dear Waterloo Public Library,

It has come to my attention that your downtown branch is closed today for a professional day. Professional days are great. May I suggest adding some basic communication skills your next professional day. 1) update your webpage hours and location to include the closure. 2) update the google of your closure. 3) put your “we are closed today” sign on the entrance door, not buried amongst 7 other identically shaped public announcements.

It was a lovely day so I decided to sit on a bench and try and get some work done on the intertubes. As I came to realize that your wireless access point was not operational today (even wifi router’s need professional days) about a dozen peeps came, tried the doors and left. Some of these folks were not that mobile. For them the simple act of switching from inside to outside drop off was a challenge. So don’t worry about grumpy old men like me. Consider improving your communications skills for the mobility challenged.

 

Yours

Me.

 

 

Of Walkerton and Lac-Mégantic

Lac-Mégantic is Harper’s Walkerton. The horror of the tragedy in that small town is beyond description. I remember the similar anger and helplessness felt 13 years ago as people were dying in Walkerton Ontario. The parallels are staggering. Same collection of bullies in power. Same “deregulatory common sense foo foo.” Same fluff about how humans somehow run a private company better than humans run a government organization.

Eventually these lies catch up with them. The spin of their media trolls at CFRB, CHML, and SUN could not hide the deaths in Walkerton. Nor can they hide the deaths in Lac-Mégantic. Mr. Harper referred to the devastation as “unbelievable.” It is not unbelievable. It is predictable when no one is watching the decay of the tracks. It is predictable when leaving one man to watch an 50 car train has become common sense. It is predictable when dinosaur owners like Edward Burkhardt are considered captains of industry. Regardless of all the approaching committees, punditry, blamestorming, and crocodile tears Canadians will remember Lac-Mégantic like Ontarians remember Walkerton.

There are no proper words of consolation for people that have lost a dozen loved ones at the same time. But there is action. The burning train sits firmly at the feet of Mr. Harper and the choices that put safety in the caboose behind profit. Shame.

Walkerton http://tinyw.in/Q5uT
State of Railway http://tinyw.in/Jpu1
Burkhardt http://tinyw.in/TiDS