Letters: ‘When I say my name is Karen, will others think I’m a b—h?’ – National Post

Stop dissing Karens and Windsor, Ont. Distroscale

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This article left me with a sick feeling in my stomach and, for lack of a better word, feeling dissed.

Im a middle-aged woman with a blond bob haircut, to quote the article, named Karen. Im also a mother, wife, grief counsellor, educator and community volunteer.

This idea of a Karen or Karenisms has evolved into a negative ideology of middle-aged women perpetuated by the media. It seems discriminatory and I wonder how news agencies can run articles like this without giving any thought to the repercussions on readers especially on readers named Karen.

I wonder: When I introduce myself now and say my name is Karen, will others automatically think Im a bitch or that I feel entitled? Will these assumptions affect perceptions about me in my daily encounters? It isnt just Karens being angry at cashiers or demanding service. Why is Windsor, Ont., perceived like that; what are the underlying factors that created it?

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I am fortunate to have until now not experienced discrimination in my daily life as many others have. After reading this article however, I can only imagine what others in our society experience, on a much deeper level, when dealing with prejudice.

A concerned Karen in Trent Lakes, Ont.

I am the 90-year-old naval son of Rear Admiral Victor Brodeur who, during World War II, was Naval Member of the Canadian Joint Staff in Washington (September 1940 to September 1943) and then commanded Canadas Pacific Coast from September 1943 until the end of the war.

I wistfully recall an honest, hard-hitting WW II CBC Radio whose broadcasts informed, unified and strengthened Canadian resolve to the point that public support for the Canadian war effort was truly phenomenal, helping to create a Royal Canadian Navy that in only four years became the third largest of the Allied navies.

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That CBC richly deserved (and received) respect and accolades, both nationally and internationally, for its wartime and post-World War reporting. It was indeed providing an essential service; its journalism was second to none; and it fully deserved the commensurate government financial support.

That exalted status is no longer warranted!

Commencing in the late 1980s the very nature of reporting changed mightily. The distinguished Canadian journalist George Bain concluded in his 1994 book Gotcha!: How the Media Distort the News, Interpretative reporting has become more designed to affect peoples feelings about issues than their understanding. The purpose of investigative reporting has become less to find out than to denounce. The well-known pack instinct has gone from being expressed in mass attacks and feeding frenzies when scandal occurs to being a sort of systemic groupthink.

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Vice-Admiral (retd) Nigel Brodeur, Victoria, B.C.

I have had enough. Enough of scientists of politics sitting in their professorial armchairs, puffing their proverbial pipes, with their perfect 20/20 hindsight, criticizing scientists of actual science who were tasked with saving hundreds of millions of lives from the most deadly plague of our lifetime, which hit the world with hurricane ferocity. Real scientists who were looking in real time out their windows at a confounding illness that spread across the world in record time, at refrigerated trucks full of corpses and at hospitals turning away patients whose lungs were turning to glass.

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And the complaint about these scientists, who were literally risking their lives, is that they got the messaging wrong. About what? Well not about imprisoning people in quarantine facilities, not about welding doors to apartments shut but worse than all that, about telling people to wear masks. Horror of horrors! Imagine the temerity of asking people to take a precaution that every dental assistant and manicurist uses daily to stop the spread of germs.

So I ask the scientist of politics: have you already cured all of the illnesses infecting political life that you felt the need to add your 3,000 words to condemn this?

Morris Sosnovitch, Toronto

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If indeed there is a desire by the province to return schools to their basic function, education, then parents must show their support. One might argue that we got to where we are today by the concerted actions of a minority within society, and parents went along with it.

Part of the reason parents went along was that they just werent up to dealing with the tyranny of the minority if you didnt submit to what was happening you became an outlier. Parents went along to get along, and now find themselves in a situation where they regret it, and are looking for solutions.

The province appears to be signalling that it is ready to provide solutions and do battle with those would object to any changes. Lets hope parents get behind the province in an effort to return some sanity to an educational system that has clearly lost its way.

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Jeff Spooner, Kinburn, Ont.

Striking public service workers are sitting on a powder keg by demanding to be able to continue working remotely from their homes. Whats to prevent the federal government from sending their work overseas? They could probably get it done much cheaper. And better?

Patrick Delaney, Niagara Falls, Ont.

Public Service Alliance of Canada President Chris Aylward, right, and Alex Silas, centre, picket on Parliament Hill on April 26, 2023, as the strike by federal public servants continues. Photo by Jean Levac / Postmedia News

When a report commissioned by the chief public health officer of Canada reaches the controversial, if not utterly bizarre, conclusion that white supremacy, capitalism, colonialism, and racism are purportedly systemic drivers of negative health outcomes and climate change, scrutiny of the source of the data driving such findings is certainly in order. Not surprisingly, an examination of the study reveals a plethora of flaws and fallacies.

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Overall, the methodology that was used to generate the data set has recognizable limitations. Notably, the selected experts who participated in the exercise represent a veritable whos who of progressive groupthink which, from the get go, set the study up for irredeemable bias rather than objectivity. Incredibly, the reports authors unabashedly proclaim that participation in their project required only some understanding of the broad facets of public health and some understanding of climate change as a health issue as if some understanding confers expertise in matters this important.

The report fails to meet even minimal standards of scientific merit. It qualifies much more as an ideologically driven diatribe rather than a serious attempt to guide government policy.

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Lawrence Hart, Ancaster, Ont.

In 2006, then prime minister Stephen Harper diverted a plane he had flown on to Europe to evacuate Canadians from Lebanon.

Were not sure how many Canadians are still waiting to be evacuated from Sudan but as soon as we can find a parking spot Im sure Foreign Minister Mlanie Joly will convene a meeting of friendshores to do what every other country seems to be capable of doing.

Canada still has friendlies in Afghanistan waiting to be evacuated. Weve learned nothing. I hope everyone remembers these international debacles when the next election comes around and there is a much-needed evacuation of the Prime Ministers Office. Shameful and embarrassing.

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Larry Baswick, Stratford, Ont.

While successive governments deserve criticism for their abysmal leadership on defence, they are sadly responding to the will of voters who do not consider defence spending a priority, or believe it to be inherently un-Canadian.

The reasons for this are multi-faceted, with geography key, but a critical factor is the successful efforts by our intelligentsia and institutions since the 1960s to brand Canada as an internationalist, inherently non-military power, and global leader in peace, in order to distinguish us from the Americans and British.

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Like all nationalist myths, this contains both truth and fiction, but it nonetheless has convinced many Canadians that defence spending is akin to funding the Pentagons wars. While a well-funded Canadian military is an indispensable asset in preserving our sovereignty against our enemies and allies, convincing Canadians of this requires undoing years of well-intentioned, but misguided, nationalist propaganda. Good luck.

Rob Salegio, Calgary

The Canadian Armed Forces are undermanned, underfunded and under-appreciated, retired Lt.-Gen. Michel Maisonneuve wrote in an op-ed this week. Photo by Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press

So the Liberal government is giving Volkswagen $13 billion of taxpayers money. Didnt VW plead guilty to three criminal felony counts and pay a US$2.8-billion fine in 2017 because it cheated on emissions tests, then lied to consumers and government agencies about it?

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At least the Liberal government and Volkswagen are on the same page when it comes to ethical behaviour.

Bob Dawson, Sherwood Park, Alta.

Finally, a journalist who exposes the UNs despicable bias and irrational condemnations of the only democratic country in the Middle East Israel. In Terry Glavins excellent article though, he didnt go far enough with regards to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Not only has it weaponized the Arab refugees in its battle with Israel, keeping them in abominable conditions and refusing to resettle them, it is, in part, responsible for the surge of terrorism in Israel.

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UNRWAs influence in the Middle East is gigantic. It has a budget of US$1.6 billion, a staff of 29,000 and operates in six countries, overseeing hundreds of schools. Its teaching materials glorify terrorism, demonize Israel and incite genocidal antisemitism. Children as young as three are trained to be soldiers, to hate Israelis and Jews and hero worship terrorists.

Canada, the U.S. and the EU have given over $6 billion to the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA since 2008, with no prior conditions. UNRWA acts with impunity and has declared it has no intention of changing any of its policies.

The Canadian government condemns antisemitism, while funding the purveyors of the worst antisemitism in the world. Our government must suspend founding until UNRWA creates an educational system and social environment that promotes statesmanship rather than terrorism, peace rather than war.

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Doris Epstein, Board member, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research

There is a recent myth, based on the progressive idea that citizens can invent their own truth, that in a modern democracy people are always truthful.

To suggest otherwise is to be politically incorrect, or even hateful.

But from my reading of history, democracy would seem to work as it allows people to make mistakes: That people are fallible rather than infallible. Indeed, more usually, opinions are aligned to theories of one sort or another rather than definite knowledge. That said, politicians are fond of their theories, and with modern communication, political theories that suppress truth give power and influence to the idiotic, as well as the false.

Gordon Watson, Rocky Mountain House, Alta.

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Letters: 'When I say my name is Karen, will others think I'm a b---h?' - National Post