Re: "Fines won't stop spread of COVID-19," letter, Jan. 28.
Dear editor,
The Thursday, Jan 28 issue of the the Airdrie City View clearly demonstrated the divisions within even our corner of the world. On the front page was a story about the plight of local small businesses needing a plan to re-open amid the continuing pandemic. Turn the page, and you'll find an article regarding City council trying to weigh financial relief for local businesses against their own financial stress due to the pandemic. The next page features an article about how Rocky View Schools is supporting its students' mental health. Turn the page again and you'll find pages 4 and 5 full of ads encouraging citizens to support local restaurants.
Then, we come to the letter to the editor from F. Merkowsky, of Airdrie. The letter surmises that we are living in a form of government dictatorship and the police forces in Canada are being used as enforcers, targeting innocent Canadians.
But these Canadians, cited by Merkowsky, were examples of reckless defiance of public safety orders. Do some research into the stories he alluded to and you'll find they were not so innocent, and consciously chose to defy the rules around public health and safety during a pandemic.
F. Merkowsky clearly supports this behaviour in his or her letter, ignoring the proven fact that our recent ballooning COVID case numbers were the direct result of individuals deciding that their needs were greater than that of an entire society.
The longer individuals remain selfish, the longer the pandemic will continue and our economy withers. The longer individuals such as F. Merkowsy remain vitriolic, the more divisive our society and our lovely community of Airdrie will become.
As I write this, there are 15 countries that have returned to fully-open status, as they have had no COVID cases for more than a month. How did they achieve this? By strict adherence to their health and safety measures by all citizens – not selfish defiance by individuals who think they know better than any scientist, medical doctor or government trying to govern.
As for the police, leave them out of it all together. They are doing their jobs and thank God for that.
Donna White
Prairie Springs Close SW
