Memorial Day USA

I realize that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Words and Music broadcast is inspirational in tone, not specifically religious but little could match the jingoism on display in their Memorial Day presentation today. Among other things they sang the fight songs of every branch of the armed service from the West Point Cemetery. One could wish they were as zealous in promoting the equal rights of:

the female half of their choir

gay and lesbians

migrant farm workers

construction trades

Blacks and other ethnic minorities

minimum wage earners

the homeless

the unemployed

the hungry

the illiterate

War and Its Costs

As a pacifist I have little use for war, the military, and the jingoism that promotes it. I realize that military service is for many a family tradition and provides the discipline they seem to need to buff up their bodies and give them a sense of purpose and belonging. I could wish there was a more constructive way to provide young men and women with the same benefits. If the trillions spent on defense were used for more constructive purposes just think what a better world we would have. Many at the time reviled the Civilian Conservation Corps which formed part of Roosevelt's New Deal but I'd rather have the legacy of National Parks it created than a fleet of air craft carriers and fighter jets.

Those who have fought need to feel their sacrifice counted for something and the relatives of those who never returned need to sense their loss had meaning. Each November 11 we celebrate our glorious war dead. I had a great uncle who fought in the Great War who was never the same after his return. He never talked of his experience though he once showed me a tattered box of dusty medals.

An inveterate reader I have read books about World Wars I&II and the growing literature relating to the Vietnam Conflict not to mention Korea. Added to this is a growing literature surrounding the Gulf Wars and latterly the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. As time passes documents become declassified and those who experienced the event seem to find catharsis in writing about it.

I am continually struck by the waste of human potential in lives cut short in the prime of life. In a very real sense the family goes to war with the soldier. Children are raised without a father and family, relatives, friends, and community have to deal with the veteran who returns. Among the costs of war is that of caring for the wounded and as we are rapidly discovering not all wounds are physical and anyone exposed to that arena returns scarred for life. The cost of supporting the veterans of war is triple the cost of waging that war in the first place. As testimony to a growing malaise within the military today suicides account for more deaths than the enemy. Given today's life expectancy we can count on having to support that 25-year-old veteran for another 60 years. I may question the ethics of sending men to war in the first place but having done so we owe them the best possible care upon their return. Just look at the bulge in university education the followed upon the GI Bill.

Politicians and Generals wage wars and find in conflict a means of unifying public opinion and diverting attention from more contentious issues. Military production is good business and provides employment and economic opportunities. On the other hand would we rather commit trillions to the effort to send men to Mars or to the development of a more efficient mechanized robotic killing machine?

Canadian Post Office Review

The Post Office has come up for discussion again and as a retired letter carrier I feel compelled to share some thoughts.

Levity first:

If they increase the price of stamps any further they'll have to put tranquilizer in the glue. (Of course stamps are self-adhesive today.)

Mail delivery would improve if employees all received their pay cheques in the mail. (We've been compelled to accept auto-deposit.)

When I retired in 08 Special Unaddressed Bulk (Junk) Mail was Canada Post's most profitable line accounting for 20% of her profits. With good reason the fact that you may opt out of receiving it has never been promoted.

Breaking the Post Office's former monopoly on parcel delivery has seen private couriers syphon off the most profitable sectors leaving the post office to handle unprofitable communities which private enterprise chooses not to service routinely dropping parcels they've accepted for such areas in the mail stream.

Because I chose to travel upon retirement I pay all my bills electronically.

We have now raised several generations that seem to be functionally illiterate. I have 100 Facebook “Friends” I maintain simply because I would not hear from them otherwise. They seem incapable of composing E-mail, they certainly don't write letters.

Were it not for mailers who want addressed admail and the unaddressed variety delivered to the door Canada Post would be out of business.

And then there are the politically correct services mandated by parliament. Free mail for the blind, Discounts for Second Class Periodical Mail, (Magazines), Military Mail, and Library mail. A library can mail a book anywhere for under a dollar even if it's a 50 lb encyclopedia.

A slight diversion. Last I heard the Canadian Army had two divisions and 40 generals. Those generals may have been uncertain in defining their exact duties but they were certainly aware of all the perks of their position and used them to the hilt. (Does this sound like certain Senators and Cabinet Ministers?)

Take a look at the number of Vice-Presidents at Canada Post. We don't promote from within so they're more sure of their perks than they are about how mail moves. Why does Canada Post have a skybox at the Roger's Centre or a former box at the Corel Centre in Ottawa. This may be sour grapes, I was never invited.

Canada Post is top heavy with management. All important decisions are made at the National Level but there are Regional Offices, Area Managers, and local Postal Managers (Postmasters no longer exist as we traditionally knew them). All these functionaries spend most of their time exchanging E-mail. A first level supervisor gets the same E-mail from all four levels of management who then complain if he/she deletes it without reading it.

Local level supervisors are not allowed to make important decisions such as suspending mail delivery in bad weather. Even when buses, taxis, and even police are pulled off the road a supervisor in a remote location with an Air Conditioned Office and climate controlled parking will decide that mail should go out. Canada Post is not concerned with the safety of their delivery employees until the temperature hits 117º F. I joke that the people who work in plants can be thankful that computers require A/C. And then we have statements from our president such as Eighty-year-olds enjoying the walk to a superbox in the winter.

Well and good that one is not required to deliver to a house with unshovelled or icy drive, walkway, or steps; but what if the entire street is unploughed. Increasingly the case now that communities such as Oakville no longer provide their own snow removal service.

Employers get the unions they deserve. Before unions and collective bargaining the most common letter carrier injury was a shoulder separation because there was no limit to the weight of a mail bag. Customers may complain when delivery to a ground level mail slot is refused but you bend over day in and day out with a 35-lb mail bag on your back.

Canada Post complained they had too many unions so they engineered the demise of the LCUC. The CUPW is a top down hierarchical union whose first priority is the protection of the rights of the union. Any employee who accepts a temporary supervisory position faces expulsion. Their motto printed on all communications is The Struggle Continues. In principal their objective is to obstruct management not to work toward practical solutions.

Unions are a necessary evil. Until Canada Post farmed out payroll to CIBC at any given time 1/3 of all employees had a problem with their pay generated for 20,000 employees from one office in Ottawa.

On the other hand there is good reason why employees go postal. With arrogant upper management who have no concept of how mail is moved many boneheaded decisions get made. Those who know better won't speak up for fear of jeopardizing their chances of promotion. Canada Post got a superior court ruling that states that mail can be delivered in the dark in modern cities. They aren't the ones who have to face dogs homeowners figure it's safe to allow run lose.

The golden age for mail delivery was in the early 70ies. Having a uniformed employee present on foot who knew a neighbourhood provided a certain level of security. Community Mailbox Serviced customers let their mail collect for weeks at a time. If someone with fake ID puts their mail on hold with a view to stealing their credit cards or Identity the letter carrier will not suspect because he will not be at their door and see them come and go.

Christmas mail has now decreased to the point that we no longer have specific Christmas operations. Grandmas still send birthday cards mind you and receive greetings on the special occasions promoted by the greeting card industry.

Computerized mail sorting is a mixed blessing. It's no coincidence that the ideal letter size is the dimensions of a former key-punch card. Workers complained for years about paper cuts from open-window envelopes and punctures from staples and paper clips. These were all outlawed within a week of computer sorted mail. On the other hand how do you explain to a customer that the reason her sister's letter from East End Montreal takes 3 weeks to get to her is because dyslexia runs in the family or their handwriting is so illegible the Optical Character Reader misinterprets it. Some customers provide relatives printed mailing labels.

The cost of Workman's Compensation for Letter Carriers was second only to National Defence. This does not make Letter Carriers accident prone but betokens the fact that the Canadian Public provide their working conditions. Dog bites alone cost $1,000,000 the last year I heard statistics.

I apologize if I seem to be rehashing many old long-standing grievances. However the hand-writing has been on the wall for door-to-door mail delivery for decades. Extending door to door delivery to all Canadians is simply not practicable. Before the move to superbox delivery, Oakville being among the first areas so affected, 80% of Canadians already got their mail through an alternate delivery mode. Rural route delivery is no longer safe for the delivery personnel on curbed roads with 80 km/hr speed limits—drivers have been killed. Postal Codes for Community Mailbox holders give the same code to everyone in a particular installation irrespective of the street on which they live; therefore door to door delivery, or the establishment of routes in those areas would be impossible without recoding which will not be happening.

Proclammation Day [of the Crown Corporation] was celebrated more by upper management than by lowly ground level employees. Successive regimes have each felt obliged to place their marks upon our letterhead, remaining public buildings and the uniforms of letter carriers. I have shirts with at least ten different epaulets not to mention the infamous “Burger King Shirts”. No word on who came up with the bright idea of putting people who handle newsprint daily in a white shirt. And oh yes, to the delight of our ladies they became see-through if they got wet. Each bright new idea came with the dictum that wearing old uniform was verboten. Polyester shirts and pants in ninety degree weather?

During the crown corp's first years a healthy profit was reported thanks to the sale of surplus properties inherited from DPW on behalf of the old Canada Post. No one seemed to query such questionable accounting practice and since it would take a $5 million forensic audit to untangle finances based on $8 billion gross sales no one has ever called for one. Questioning minds tend to see a correlation between reported losses and years when collective bargaining is imminent.

Management types couldn't wait to get their hands on the billions in the civil service pension fund attributable to Canada Post Employees. Mind you there are probably better places to invest those funds than the Government of Canada's consolidated debt.

We may be nostalgic for what once was but I predict that when the true cost of providing door to door delivery to every Canadian is faced the political will to do so will not be there.

The most important issues facing postal service is the lack of knowledgeable leaders promoted from within the ranks and political interference from without. A crown corporation was created so that postal rate increases would not become a matter for debate in parliament. For better or for worse we are stuck with a for-profit crown corporation. Having made provision for collective bargaining management face little reason to bargain in good faith if they know they can turn to the government any time they have labour problems and get the employees legislated back to work.

Postal strikes do no one any good and we are presently in danger of facing one. That the present CUPW Contract extends to over 800 pages bespeaks an undue level of distrust.

Upper Post Office Management have become too dedicated to technological change as a solution to its challenges. Too often the needs of mail processing by computer have taken priority over delivering mail. We transport mail ridiculous distances to get it to mail processing plants. In the process too often the corporation has forgotten that its most important resource is its people. In that regard 1/3 of all employees have retired in the last decade—that's a lot of lost experience. Many have not been replaced.

If I follow my own logic here I'd have to say that the present Review of Postal Operations smacks of more political interference. Beginning with R. Micheal Warren any Post Office President who remains in the job long enough to gain even a remote understanding of the task at hand ends up getting fired or replaced because his/her handlers didn't like the message they were hearing. [Killing the messenger because the message wasn't liked.] One even ended up moving to Britain you may remember. Insanity is repeating the same process over and over and hoping for a different outcome.

Human Rights

Trayvon Martin and his like may be punk-ass kids who disrespect authority but that doesn't make them deserving of a shot in the back.

Pedestrian deaths are on the rise and in the Jefferson City suburb of Saint Louis an officer encounters two black youth walking down the middle of a city street ignoring the sidewalks provided at 2 AM in the morning. When the officer confronts the teens he is flipped the bird and told to fuck off. A teen was shot in the back walking away. There are several social issues at play here. Gun-happy America and a segment of society that sees police as the enemy, a disrespect for authority in general. Youth faced with poverty and malnutrition, lack of educational opportunities, and unemployment are increasingly disaffected and filled with a sense of futility. In Northern Canada suicide rates among young people on reserves are reaching shocking proportions.

ALL LIVES MATTER

We have entered a world where online chat and texting are rapidly replacing human contact and social media sites offer devotees apps to boost their friends list lest they lose face. The cartoon showing a couple texting one another across a cafe table is no longer a joke.

Today seems to be one for human rights. This week young Trudeau apologized in Parliament for the refusal in the 30ies to allow an Indian Refugee Ship to dock in Vancouver, an event that escaped my historical study. Similar apologies have attended Residential Schools and the internment of Japanese and German Citizens during the two world wars. The CBC is airing a current events commentary on the issuance of such public apologies and their value. The principals are long since dead and the words are only symbolic. Past wrongs such as the sterilization of mentally defectives, the Butterbox Babies, the treatment of our First Nations, the failure to protect aboriginal women and prostitutes and a long list of others form a long list of abuse and neglect. If nothing else such public apologies remind us of the need to protect the vulnerable against further abuses in the future. I can think of the scandal that existed in Cornwall Ontario, the use of LSD on mental patients in Montreal, the WW#2 British Home Children just to name a few.

We need less political correctness and more caring about our fellow human beings. Too often the inhumane treatment of dogs or horses garners more attention than the torture and imprisonment of people.

Aftermath of Fort Mac

The news media are full of the ongoing Fort McMurray Story. The lives of nearly 90,000 have been disrupted when an entire city was evacuated due to a wildfire that is still growing. Remarkable that to date only two young people died as a result of a collision escaping the fire.

Today the long-term effects of these fires hit me when I was moved to examine the possibility of a travel to Alaska. The majority of the highways heading North are closed due to fire dangers.

The fallout due to insurance pay-outs will affect everyone as companies recoup their losses. As flames reach the oil patch itself an industry already under stress will face further shut-downs effecting the overall Canadian economy and therefore the value of the Canadian Dollar making travel abroad more expensive.

Highway closures will make vacation travel difficult to plan and effect a growing industry on both sides of the border for this travel season and possibly those to come.

The lives of thousands have been disrupted and there will be economic as well as mental and physical health issues for years to come. Many have lost their homes and livelihoods and will need to start over whether or not they return to Fort Mac.

Fame

Fame is a fickle slave-master. It holds its victims in thrall as surely as any addiction. Having millions of teenage girls lusting after your body and wanting to share your bed loses its lustre as soon as you realize you can't go out in public without causing a riot, your home needs security 24/7 and even your backyard isn't safe from paparazzi with telephoto lens. Fans may think they own your public persona fed by ever pervasive media coverage but all this adulation leaves its object wondering if he/she still has any true friends who love him/her for who he/she really is, whoever that may be. After buying into the hype wears off the victim is left feeling hollow and used. Just ask Justin Bieber.

Spring? Lament

Restless night after too much caffeine yesterday.

Cold grey sky today with wind-blown rain and the temperature dropping.

Going back to bed seemed like such a sensible thing to do.

Too many four-letter words in tomorrow's forecast but it's the one beginning with “S” that gives one pause. This is May 15 we're talking about? Should I bother to get out of bed at all? That Marmot must still be hibernating and would that we could as well.

The standard wisdom was don't plant anything delicate before Victoria Day. That's next week if you missed it.

The birds had all but abandoned my bird-feeding station but with weather like this expect they'll be back.

Tried some hot salsa and it seems my digestive system has reset and rushed it right through me. Too much information?

The CUPW, AKA Canadian Union of Postal Workers are advising members to get a 3-month supply of maintenance drugs as of June to see them through a possible strike or lock-out. In the same newsletter they are promoting Postal Banking. Does anyone else see a problem here?

Vancouver Housing

Canada's West Coast has long been a point of refuge for South-East Asians. In recent years the housing market in Vancouver has become seen as a safe place to park Korean and Hong Kong Wealth. In recent years a weak Dollar has made the real estate market a bargain for these investors driving up housing prices until even modest homes sell for millions. This has served to make accommodation out of reach for ordinary Canadians and created a housing crisis for those on low incomes. Service workers for example cannot afford to live anywhere near the jobs they hold. Resentments grow.

Decades ago a fellow worker referred to the Niagara Region of Ontario as Vancouver East. A single female Korean investor bought up the three major Inns in Niagara on the Lake and suddenly the town sprouted three camera shops and souvenir guide books in Japanese picture writing plus Mandarin and Szechuan suddenly appeared in curio shoppes.

Red-haired Anne of Green Gables has long been popular with Japanese Tourists but in recent years a buying spree has ensued for ocean-front property engaged in by off-shore interests including Americans looking for summer properties that has threatened to make beaches inaccessible due to territorial foreign owners who believe they own the foreshore.

Some form of regulation is required to ensure that affordable housing remains available and that our beaches remain in the public domain. Locals can be forgiven for feeling nervous about the loss of their cultural heritage and way of life. Should we be so quick to point the finger at ordinary Europeans who fear the influx of millions of economic and other refugees. Immigrants desperate to find jobs will drive down wages for already poorly paid low-income workers. I don't justify xenophobia, I just recognize some of its causes.

In Texas labourers look at Hispanic immigrants with the same jaundiced view. It's the same type of sentiment that made po' white trash resent Black Slaves whose free labour made their own worthless.

Rant for the End of April

Where did the month go? Only two days remain as I start this.

The farce that is the American Primary process continues. “None of the Above” is not normally a ballot offering. Trump would seem to be the Joker Wild Card in the process.

I continue to experiment with my new food processor. In honour of making it idiot-proof it will not operate without the plunger in place meaning that when slicing a cucumber one must cut it up in chunks that allow the plunger to engage the failsafe. Smaller items will fit whole in the smaller insert. Since cleanup is such a chore one must have a major job to make using the device worth it.

The birds on my balcony continue to be picky eaters creating a major mess under my feeder; or put it another way they don't like my HEB Hill Country Wild Bird Feed.

Walked down this morning to visit my urologist who agreed to a divorce. My appointment was for 8:30. He walked in the door of his office at 8:45. Was he originally from Texas? Moved downstairs to visit the vampires for Blood Work. Fortunately I had my tablet along as I needed it to beguile endless waits including that for an EKG—the pump still works it seems. Why do these people expect one to pee on command. Not happening.

Walked across to Town Hall and learned the flag at half mast in honour of workers killed on the job in Ontario—a sentiment I can endorse. Traffic on Trafalgar Rd was backed up from the QEW past Marlborough Ct., about half a mile. Got a map of Oakville and visited the Building Department to submit my views on the slum landlord across the way from me and their latest commercial proposal. They want to turn the tenant's rec centre which they, the landlord, failed to maintain into a commercial sports facility that will charge for its use.

Canadian Railways

Railways in the 19^th Century served to unify Canada. The Mulroney Era all but destroyed our rail system.

How many grain elevators on the Prairies now sit mouldering beside a defunct set of rail lines?

In Eastern Canada the effect is most strongly felt. The Newfie Bullet's narrow gauge line is relegated to a museum in St. John's, the bed itself a rails to trails addition to the Trans Canada Trail. Similarly you will find no tracks remaining or in use in Cape Breton and PEI. In Nova Scotia the South Shore Line and the Acadian Line to Yarmouth are history. Only the Intercolonial Line from Halifax to Montreal still exists, the Ocean Limited the only remaining service. Oil tankers still pour into Canada's largest refinery the Irving Complex in Saint John.

It took over a century for the CPR and VIA to figure out that tourists weren't interested in viewing the Rockies by moonlight. Trains used to leave Vancouver at 7 PM and those heading west were perennially late. Only the rich can afford the present luxury service.

The Transcontinental from Toronto West heads north from Sudbury on the Capriol Line a continuous weld line that requires trains slow to a crawl in hot weather.

Everywhere it seems poorly maintained road beds, ballasts, and rail lines lead to go slow orders or worse derailments.

Recently in the news was a list of Canada's 100 most dangerous railway crossings.

The possibility of high speed rail service which could easily rival air service from downtown Toronto to downtown Montreal is hampered by poorly maintained lines and the vast number of level crossings. Incredibly there are still level crossings traversing Canada's busiest highway the 401. The Turbo was a failed high speed rail experiment that on its maiden trip chopped a transport truck in half at a level crossing.

In the late sixties I travelled from Halifax to Kitchener, Ontario Fall, Christmas and Spring to and from WLU. (There is no longer passenger service from Stratford to Toronto.) The trip took 2 days with inconvenient layovers of up to 6 hours in Montreal and Toronto. On my first trip in 1967 I was still able to ship my trunk from Bridgewater, Lunenburg County to Kitchener but it arrived a day after I did. My fellow passengers in those days in Pullman Class were mainly free riding retired CN Employees.

My first trip to Montreal in 1967 was by coach class. Smoking was still permitted in those days. Leaving the former Nova Scotian Hotel Complex in Halifax the line soon enters a slate and granite cut that takes on much of the route to Truro. Thereafter it passes through some of the grottiest neighbourhoods in every small town until it reaches the long narrow Habitant holdings of the Eastern Townships. Inevitably a stop in Lévis opposite Quebec. It was there I encountered my first Quebeçois who disobeyed every rule of French Grammar drilled into me in High School while they drunkenly played cards all night. The Rapido from Montreal to Toronto was a noisy rough ride that saw one already fatigued waiting for it. The ride to Kitchener was on a self-propelled jitney that lacked baggage service.

One Christmas upon my return trip the engines froze up in Moncton, NB waiting for the late arriving cut in from PEI. On another occasion the engine going 70 mph around a bend 50 miles East of Montreal hit a car driven by young drunken Frenchies stalled across the tracks. I was asleep at the time and my head bumped the metal bulkhead of my upper berth. Needless to say I didn't meet the people planning to pick me up that Fall in Kitchener.

At the time CN was attempting to discourage passenger rail traffic for them a losing proposition. They did this by not so subtle means such as routing passenger trains on to sidings to wait for profitable freight trains, reducing meal service and the number of dining cars, removing the observation car.

After the train wreck that saw us sit for 4 hours waiting to be pulled in reverse from the wrecked engine and a mile of track where a derailed engine truck had cut rail spikes holding the tracks in place I decided to fly Air Canada Standby instead.