ALASKA HIGHWAY NEWS
THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2022 | OP-ED | A11
Celebration of Seniors Week By Ruby McBeth he executive of the Fort St. John Seniors’ Club has been creative in the way they work. Recently learning that the second week of June was Seniors Week, president Wendy Clayson ordered an ice cream cake to celebrate. She also created a questionnaire. When the answers were read out, we learned that six of our members were born in Fort St. John, five had immigrated to Canada, five came from Saskatchewan, and two had worked as cooks for a guide and outfitter. Bernice Marshall, who got the most correct answers, was awarded a Subway gift certificate donated by Sabrina Trobak.
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YOUR HEALTHCARE: ATTITUDE MATTERS An important aspect of your visit to the doctor is attitude. You can help your doctor a lot if you meet him or her with a positive attitude. If you are like me and feel uneasy in medical settings, you might want to have a friend or family member go in with you. They could take notes. This could be helpful for you when you discuss the visit with them later. I think it is best to avoid any reference to the doctor being late or to having had to wait a long time for the appointment. These things are most likely out of the doctor’s control.
Similarly, lab tests sometimes have a long wait time. While you may want to check to see if you have missed their phone call, it is a good idea to be polite when you phone to check. If you can be friendly, cheerful, prepared, and alert you are more likely to be listened to. If you don’t understand what the doctor says, ask for clarification. There is one final thing: ask if there are tests being scheduled and write down what the doctor says about them. Also write down information about specialists if you are being referred. You need to know if you are required to book the visits with specialists or lab, or whether that will be done for you. LEARNING THE LINGO This week’s term is ‘desktop background’. This is the picture that appears on the screen when you open your computer. To choose a new background for a Window computer, go to pictures, click on a picture of your choice, right click on the image, and then click “set as” and then “background” in the drop-down menu that pops up.
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Wilma Hanson and Sharon Douglas cutting the cake.
JOKE OF THE WEEK I just had my intelligence tested; thank goodness it came back negative. Ruby McBeth lives and writes in Fort St. John.
What is our society teaching our children? By John Grady s the world mourns the tragic, senseless murder of 19 elementary children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, the one thing we can count on is the Blame Game. It didn’t and won’t take long for the blame to be focused on everybody and everything except ourselves. Our society has and is going through such a sad and dramatic change over the last half century, and we wonder why it is that young teenagers can enter a school with firearms and open fire on innocent children and teachers. This is not just a Uvalde issue nor is it just a United States matter; it is a North America society tragedy. We have gone so far politically correct, so demanding, so disrespectful of anybody who doesn’t agree, so anti-authority, so right about anything and everything, is it any wonder that our society is in a freefall and our value systems are deteriorating just as quickly? In Canada we used to acknowledge God, our country, and the Queen. Today like many other Commonwealth countries we are quietly getting ready to remove the monarchy as soon as the Queen passes on. We have removed God from our schools, our society, our belief system, our culture, our most precious commodity “our children,” and we wonder why innocent children are being slaughtered while attending school to obtain an education and grow into caring responsible adults. We have pushed our political governments to be politically correct, which is a joke as we no longer know what politically correct is. All we know is we know best, we want what we want when we want it and if government doesn’t do what we say, when we say it look out. We want our governments to learn to compromise to our wishes and demands or we will
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get personal and in their faces. As a result, we have made sure many quality people have decided they don’t need the hassle of running for office. The thought of us running for office with all our brilliance is absurd because then we can’t throw barbs and insults at the elected officials. With the killing of the children in Texas, you can see the finger pointing at law enforcement and yet over the years we told law enforcement agencies who to hire, how many to hire, and what to teach them, and now they are so politically correct we have handcuffed them, and they are the target of our scorn. We have made sure the justice system is politically correct as well, so now we have ensured there are little consequences for breaking the law. Within a week of the killings in Texas, a man in the Toronto area suspected of being an active shooter was shot by police. A 10-year-old boy was arrested in Florida for texting his desire to go on a killing rampage at school. Can you believe it? In Oakville, Ontario there were several schools locked down as a 16-year-old was arrested with a replica handgun. How embarrassing and sad that we are teaching our youth to disregard any and all authority. The youth that can stand above our present standards are to be honored and congratulated. The youth that are troubled and lost desperately need our attitude change and prayers. If there is one thing we can learn, it is that in spite of our war against Him, in the end He will use the good, the bad ,and the ugly to bring about all His purposes. We are to be encouraged that when things appear out of control, as they are now, that every purpose of our Lord will be fulfilled. John Grady lives and writes in Fort St John.
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Bernice Marshall receiving a gift certificate from Wendy Clayson.