Futuristic view of blue bridge

Some wish to see a heritage designation for the blue bridge.

With that concept in mind, imagine the year 3000.

Humans will grow to an average of two metres, live to the age of 120 and all have brown skin.

Racial differences will have become less pronounced, thanks to trends in nutrition, medicine and migration.

The Tories will still not have a majority government, and we will decline physically and lose key social and interactive skills because of an over-dependence on technology and medical interventions.

What do you think the blue bridge will say about us?

Likely, that our priorities were backwards, because rather than maintaining the arts and providing housing for the homeless, we fought wars over fossil fuels, funneled copious amounts of money into bailouts of auto makers, maintaining infrastructures such as roads, and built shrines known as garages to keep the elements off our precious motor vehicles.

So absolutely, let’s maintain that rusting relic of a bridge. We certainly wouldn’t want to give the humans of the future the wrong impression of us.

William Perry

Victoria

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Larry Zilinsky’s suggestion (Letters, July 3) that the train should stop at the historic roundhouse and not continue over the replacement for the Johnson Street bridge has considerable esthetic merit, but it relegates rail transportation to an artifact from the past.

I believe a forward thinking community would be planning for the future that includes easily accessible public transport that has a small carbon footprint.

My suggestion would be to push the tracks over the bridge and past the present station. Carve out a tunnel and put a station beneath the Bay Centre near our present concentration of bus services.

This would create a viable public transport connection that would also revitalize the downtown core.

Jarek Gwiazda, Victoria

To do nothing is act of wilful blindness

Re: Going green a complex act (Opinion, July 3)

Leaving aside the fact that a study commissioned by the plastics industry can hardly be considered unbiased, the conclusion that a substantial fraction of reusable shopping bags contain mold or bacteria says less about reusable shopping bags than it does about their owners. 

And as for the wisdom of buying garbage bags to replace shopping bags, at least when we are buying our own bags we might be more careful about the number we use, and we will have the option of paying a little more for biodegradable bags. 

To do nothing citing the lack of a clear way forward is simply wilful blindness.

Robert Smith, Victoria

There’s no place for gratuitous fighting in hockey

After watching the video at the www.vicnews.com website, I was shocked that hockey player Robin Gomez was acquitted of assault.

Obviously, Judge Mike Hubbard did not watch the video.

The most upsetting thing was Ferraro appeared unconscious on the ground while the rest of the players continued the brawl over top of him.

 I find this type of violence disgusting and for a judge to actually approve it, extremely disturbing.

I endured two years of BCHL games while working at an arena. During that time I witnessed more blood, game misconducts and broken bones each weekend than I could count.

I also witnessed a 16 year old boy become a quadriplegic from a check to the head.

This type of gratuitous violence in hockey needs to be banned. It is banned in every other sport. Even football and boxing don’t contain the same type of uncontrolled violence that hockey does.

Lara Allsopp, Saanich

Negligent smokers need to smarten up

We are living in a world that only thinks of “me.”

Every year thousands of hectares of timber are lost because of careless smokers.

The powers that be ask nicely: “Please be careful” and butt out your cigarettes because you might start a fire.

But everyday we all observe smokers throwing the remains of a lit cigarette out their car window.

Or it’s a careless camper who seems to have no idea how a camp fire should be put out.

When the North Shore residents a few years ago were concerned about their homes catching fire because of smokers going onto a timber, dry trail, they took pictures, and a $10,000 fine was levied.

Smoking addicts got the message.

Those who continue year after year of being so careless about where their butts go, obviously need to be reminded by getting a hefty fine! Maybe even impound their vehicle.

Smarten up!

Eileen Nattrass, Victoria

Canadians can stand proud anywhere

I am proud to be a Canadian.

Yes, there is lots to be proud of being a Canadian such as freedom of speech, thought and religion, as your July 1 editorial indicated.

I am grateful for all the above privileges but most for having excellent health care that Tommy Douglas fought so hard for all of us to receive equally, even though it is not perfect.

I am most proud to be a Canadian because of the humbleness we stand for. We have lots to boast and feel superior over but we choose to remain humble.

The Americans are not always respectful of that view. We have had misunderstandings from Americans expressed about us. But that is precisely what makes me most proud and pleased to be a Canadian.

Claire-Laura Durocher, Victoria

User-pay health plan full of risk

This suggestion of a “single-payer” health-care system does nothing more than increasing the cost of the public system by leaps and bounds.

We can see the effects in the present system with profit-making doctors and pharmaceutical companies leading to increasing efforts by a minority of doctors to provide care in private clinics.

This leads to increased private pay for the procedures used on top of the portion of the profits provided by the patients funded by MSP.

 This effort at dual service continues to weaken the public sector and allows the government to continue to decrease the public funding for medical treatments and increasing wait-lists.

This allows those with some money to jump the queue and provide themselves with medical care that they are sure will improve their personal health. This is not something that we should encourage in a universal system.

Phil Lyons, South Island Health Coalition

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