This bus strike has been terrible here.
Posted on 01/24/2009 10:10:35 AM PST by EveningStar
..."My job is in Barrhaven. I work nights. I must walk 18 kilometres to work. It takes six hours. And then I must walk six hours home after I work all night. I am nearly 60.
"This strike shouldn't happen," she says. "I come home, I rest for a few hours. Can you imagine to work all night and after to walk 18 kilometres home and then, sit down for two or three hours and then walk back and work all night again?"...
(Excerpt) Read more at ottawacitizen.com ...
ping
Normally, you post or say stupid stuff.
This is the first time I’ve noticed you have posted something of value.
It was a good read. Thanks.
That’s one tough lady. I would suggest that she might be able to use a three wheeled bicycle, but it’s probably snowing. I hope things work out for her.
Heartwarming story in many ways. But it illustrates a good point: we all should be helping when we can so that when we need help, we have friends who would be willing to help. I see so many people who rely only on themselves, keep to themselves, and seldom help others. When they run into trouble, they have a great deal of difficulty asking for help. Yet everyone reaches that point sooner or later. Get involved. Serve in whatever ways you can. Make friends. Care for others. Then that bread cast upon the waters comes back to you. This woman probably had access to a lot more help than she knew but her European pride perhaps held her back. I am glad she was associated in a church because churches offer valuable networks for assistance at need.
Of course, the most difficult people I run into are those who are solely into taking. They constantly need help due to their choices in life and seem to have no difficulty asking/demanding it, and yet they never even attempt to help others. Those are the true sad cases.
You get dark hints of what her life back in Czechoslovakia may have been like in the bad old days. She would have been twenty in ‘68. She must have received some going-over in the Gulag for her to be so reclusive and close-mouthed about her past.
Might could be
or
She learned to clam up when some of her friends got disappered by the Stazi/Vopos
or more likely
Ask Czechs what is unique about their behaviour, many will admit a lack of directness. For reasons why, you do not have to look far. Forty years of Communist rule and the fear of being watched whenever and wherever taught many Czechs to guard their behaviour and rarely trust their neighbours - for good reason. An unofficial list compiled by former dissident Petr Cibulka in the early 1990’s revealed 200,000 names of people believed to have spied on their friends, neighbours, and even family. After years of speculation over the list’s reliability the Interior Ministry has finally released an official list, erasing any question of doubt. Dita Asiedu reports.
You don’t have friends when everyone is an informer.....
Another note - it sucks to be poor in the USofA and it looks like it sucks to be poor in Canada.
Unions look alike in both places as well, eh?
I’m not buying it. It is complete BS.
Well then, in a few more years, she’ll feel right at home...
Thankyou. This story sounds as true as when I tell my child that I walked barefoot to school in 3 feet of snow.
Telling someone they “post or say stupid stuff” is rude. You may not find value in the silly or humorous postings by ES, but many of us do.
The big difference out there was that the management of the transit agency was under a lot of public pressure to bust the union -- and that's pretty much what they did. A few weeks after the light rail and bus system shut down, Calgary Transit had enough management personnel trained to drive a group of shuttle buses. So they took a big piece of open space near the Calgary Stampede grounds and used it as a park & ride lot, and shuttled commuters between there and downtown Calgary every day.
The atmosphere was almost festive on the first day that operation was in place. There was a high-rise apartment building across the street from the park & ride lot, and a few neighbors on one floor had created a giant banner that they hung from their balconies . . . it said: "BUST THE UNION" in huge letters for all of the motorists below to see. LOL.
Hey, Evening Star started this off some time ago by calling those of us who wanted the Obama birth certificate situation vetted as “crazy.”
What goes around, comes around. After being insulted by Evening Star, I was able to find something he posted to be of value and complimented him on it.
Get over yourself.
I admire this woman’s spirit, but I’m afraid I’m not impressed with her resourcefulness.
Every day I saw a bus drive through our subdivision in Chester County, PA, "Chester County Paratransit". I called this agency and found out that it only serves people on medicaid or seniors 60 or older. So if you are a walking, driving, 60 year old millionaire, you can get a free ride, but if you are just a middle class working stiff paying the bill for this freebie, forget about it.
What amazes me is that people like you expect others (just where do you think the government gets their money?) to take care of them. So you had to drive him for six weeks. Or you could have tried to get a ride from a co-worker or a neighbor going the same direction. Big deal. It was temporary and solvable. Not something the government should have been involved in or paid for.
This bus strike has been terrible here.
There is lots of snow, and it's very cold, but you'd be surprised how many bicyclists I pass every day because of this strike. One was killed in early December, just after the strike started.
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