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Some unfinished columns

Bill Fox

Bill Fox

By Bill Fox/Columnist

Getting near the end of the year and I realize that some column ideas I will not complete so felt maybe condensed versions might be appropriate here.

  1. November is Cancer Awareness Month.  I recently got an email from a friend who has a young male relative who has been recently diagnosed with cancer in a spot men are sensitive about.  She wrote, “I have a special request for you to write a column about men’s cancers. This month is dedicated for them but my reason is far more personal…let men know how important it is to see their doctor regularly and at the first sign of anything wrong.”  I know doctors are saying that with our pandemic people are hesitant to go to their doctors or to hospitals, but they insist they are seeing more patients who could have been helped more, if they had sought medical help earlier.  Please take action if you have any concerns about your health.
  2. Loneliness.  So many people I know are suffering from loneliness.  When Mother Teresa first came to Toronto in 1975, she spoke at Massey Hall.  She was so inspirational that a priest friend went to see her at the intermission because he wanted to go back to India to help her work with their dying and destitute.  In the second half of her talk, she said she was not there to recruit people to join her in India as we had a more serious problem in the GTA.  She said in India you could clearly see that people were homeless, hungry or needing clothing.  In Toronto our problem was just as serious but not so evident.  The problem?  Loneliness even within our large populations, many before COVID, have experienced long periods of loneliness.  I hope those who are lonely reach out to friends and acquaintances and that the rest of us become more sensitive about those suffering from loneliness.
  3. Teaching During COVID.  Having taught for 40 years, I know that teachers today are working under terrible conditions and with such great stress.  My advice to them is not to be too concerned about covering the entire curriculum!  The most important thing is that students are happy to learn.  Further, many young people today are suffering from low self-esteem!  Please give praise and affirmation whenever you can and help to build up that self-esteem in your students.
  4. Premier Ford.  I was never a fan, but as COVID hit us, I felt he was doing a credible job while praising front line workers and even Prime Minister Trudeau in his efforts to battle the common enemyThe Ontario Legislature just voted on Bill 218, the law that indemnifies for-profit long-term care homes for liability for their negligence in the pandemic. The Ford government MPPs voted for Bill 218 and the NDP and Liberals voted against it. The Bill passed. The message to the long-term care industry is that they will not be held legally liable for negligence and that they are not required even to act with the normal requirement, which, prior to this law, would have required a reasonable and competent effort to protect residents from harm from COVID-19. Why would the Ford government pass this legislation?  I am worried with news that private nursing homes have contributed great amounts of money to the Progressive Conservatives in recent years.  Conflict of Interest?
  5. Trump-Not surprisingly I guess, I received a few emails from people who objected to my column on Trump-“From the White House to the Big House”.  I wonder if they have the motivation to write letters to the editor of The Oshawa Express with their opinions?
  6. Nurses-In my mind we cannot pay nurses enough to do the job they do.  I often think of my wife’s aunts who were nurses. I wonder how many hands they held as people passed over?  I wonder how many of us could say they could do the job our nurses do?  Thank you to them and all health care workers!

I’m at Bdfox@rogers.com working on a humourous column for next week, as we all need more laughs.

 

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