Editor:
Ian Jacques questions in his editorial of March 27: where will the money come from? I answer it will come from us, citizens.
How can we complain that our children don’t benefit from a quality education when we decide to direct a great portion of the society’s resources towards highly paid professional entertainers such as hockey players, singers, actors, TV program hosts and the like?
The problem is not only with our education system; it reaches every aspect of our lives. Last week, I learned that my family doctor is booked for a month. A year ago, it took me eight months to see a medical specialist. A few years ago I waited more than one year for a judge to finally hear why I was challenging an unjustified violation ticket. And we all know what is going on with BC Ferries’ fares.
How many more teachers, doctors, nurses and judges could we afford to pay for each of these highly paid entertainers?
The problem is not with entertainment per se, but rather with our addiction to entertainment, which entices many entertainers to demand a retribution that has become more and more indecent over the years. Haven’t you noticed that the higher the cost of entertainment is, and the bigger our TVs are, the more we wait in medical and judicial institutions and the bigger the classrooms are?
It’s easy to blame the governments, but what choice do they have? They don’t have the resources to hire more teachers, doctors, nurses and judges, and if they try to get more money from our pockets (where else would they find this money?), there is a huge outcry in the population (as is the case with BC Ferries’ fares).
The responsibility is ours first, then we can blame the governments.
Marc Theriault, Sechelt
