The world according to Saint Donald
Dear Editor:
In Christian teachings and biblical references, we learn about such individuals as: St. John the Baptist, St. Peter, St. Paul, et al. Lately there have been rumblings that a would-be self-appointed individual wants to be included in the rank of Saints.
That individual is none other than the self-anointed, hypocritical, irreverent would-be Bible believer, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.
A short time ago, he pontificated while holding a bible above his hand (the Bible was upside down) and he made reference to the Bible as being his favourite book. If it was, in fact his favourite book, why did he make it commercial and derive income from selling bibles?
The Bible really was never meant to be a salable, money-making venture. Yet the 鈥渨ould-be true Christian鈥 felt that it was salable and sold bibles for profit. Could this action be considered blasphemy from a Christian perspective?
Morality and spirituality seem to complement each other. This, most of us hold true. However, not so for Donald Trump. He has been convicted of several felonies as we all know and through his three marriages, there have been several reported and recorded improprieties. Hardly befitting a would-be saint!
Spirituality is also maligned with the touting of the Bible and the selling of same by Trump. It is hard to tell if greed meets need or need meets greed.
Trumpsa国际传媒 niece, Mary, a psychologist, has written a book on her uncle alluding to Trumpsa国际传媒 idea of reality or lack of understanding reality. She makes reference to the fact that Trumpsa国际传媒 psyche is in a state of flux and that rationality appears to elude him.
Evidence of this was shown recently when Trump spoke at a rally. He made a direct reference to what he called Kamala Harris鈥 ignorance in controlling immigration flow into the U.S.
Trump made the statement that all of these incoming immigrants had taken 107% of the jobs held by black Afro-Americans.
Even if this were true, which it isn鈥檛, according to reliable statistics, how do you lose more jobs than you could possibly have. How do you lose 7% of jobs that don鈥檛 exist?
I shudder to think that Trump might go into the graphic tee-shirt business. His first shirt might say, 鈥淚鈥檓 right 97% of the time鈥..who cares about the other 4%?鈥
Ron Barillaro,聽Penticton
Disaster waiting to happen
Dear Editor:
Re: 鈥渟a国际传媒 moves to loosen safety standards,鈥 (Page A9, Aug. 31).
I am concerned about the Provincesa国际传媒 change to the building code, allowing one stairwell for buildings up to six storeys, in order to facilitate more affordable housing. I believe this is a change which could see more people die in apartment house fires.
Imagine a fire with everyone crowding into one stairwell and trampling the slower ones.聽 Imagine the fire -- or even heavy smoke -- getting into the only stairwell.
Karen Krout,聽sa国际传媒
Go with those who they have
Dear Editor:
Kevin Falcon lost and has no mandate to negotiate anything on behalf of anybody. He should pack his bags and disappear.
He failed miserably as leader of the Opposition and the partysa国际传媒 candidates who were nominated will sink with him.
You cannot arbitrarily just 鈥渃herry-pick鈥 the two parties to make up a super-team from the two parties鈥 list of candidates.
Party members are the only people who have the right to make that decision.
The BC United Partysa国际传媒 members are free agents to enter as independents, or join the Conservative party, on the same terms as all other party members.
Conservative party candidates that have been nominated should be considered safe and sacred.
If any of them are willing to compete for the nomination, a conventional run-off ballot would be an obvious choice.
Andy Thomsen,聽sa国际传媒
Priorities should be the basics
Dear Editor:
It happened in Montreal, then Calgary, could it happen here in Penticton?
Water, sewer, roads, parks are what our city should be focused on. No more pet projects please.
There should be a short- and long-term schedule to replace basics like water, sewer and roads and this plan needs to be a primary expense each year at budget time.
We do not want a problem with water like what happened in Montreal and Calgary this past year. This schedule needs to take precedent over any pet and vanity projects out there and should never be a reason to raise taxes. If taxes go up because of these basics, then someone overspent somewhere else.
Have I mentioned before that our budgeting process is backwards? Oh yes, I have 鈥 many times. Council needs to tell the management that there is a fixed amount of money and the city needs to work within that. Any tax increases should only come from inflation and even then there should be a maximum threshold.
Priorities should be the basics.
Another thought is that population growth in Penticton does not correlate to all the housing that has been happening in the past 10 years. It means that there are too many empty dwellings for most of the year, or too many unlicensed short-term rentals, or unreliable stats.
This needs to be checked because decisions are being made here based on these key numbers. According to the numbers I have researched, we have built double the housing we need to house our population growth (which is quite low).
We all need to remember that what is good for our bigger centres like Vancouver, Victoria, sa国际传媒 are usually not the best decisions for cities like Penticton.
Doug Maxwell,聽Penticton
