This is an anatomically correct, hand-knitted heart.I knit it 2-sizes too small.
I knit it for you, Mr. Mayor.
The following is an open letter to Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto.
Dear Mr. Mayor,
Now, please don't you or any of your loyal supporters overreact to this with any knee-jerk hostility.
This doesn't merit a 9-1-1 call.
I'm not a bleeding heart liberal.
I'm not a bike riding pinko.
I'm not Marg Princess Warrior.
Now, please don't you or any of your loyal supporters overreact to this with any knee-jerk hostility.
This doesn't merit a 9-1-1 call.
I'm not a bleeding heart liberal.
I'm not a bike riding pinko.
I'm not Marg Princess Warrior.
I'm just an average Torontonian.
I have lived in this city for almost 25 years.
I work. I volunteer. I pay taxes. I vote in every election. I have a family.
My family borrows books from the libraries. My children enjoy Toronto's Parks&Rec camps, delight in the playgrounds, swim in the public pools & refresh in the splash-pads on oppressively hot summer days. Oh, yes, and my mum is a senior who enrolls in the city's 'active older adults' exercise programmes.
Sometimes I drive and curse the ridiculously bad cyclists.
Sometimes I bike and curse the ridiculously horrible drivers.
Sometimes I walk and curse the cars and the bikes.
Sometimes I take public transportation and curse the crowded subways, streetcars, buses, or long wait times due to inadequate service or availability.
But, I live in Toronto and I love this city.
Right now you and your committees are about to slash all sorts of services: Libraries, Community Centres, Day Care, the TTC, and much, much more. We have all heard about the proposed cuts. We have debated back and forth about them. Mr. Mayor, have you actually experienced any of these services? Have you ever enrolled your children in a Parks and Rec Summer Camp? Taken them to Riverdale Farm? Surely you would see how important and necessary these areas of service are. Have you taken the TTC, not as a novelty experience, or as an occasional alternative but rather: as transportation to and from your place of employment? Try it for a week... during peak hours -- a.m. & p.m. I think you'll learn a lot.
When you start cutting vital services from a city as large as ours, its akin to cutting vital organs out of a living organism. The results: disastrous.
Don't flat-line my city, Mr. Mayor.
Have a Heart!
I have lived in this city for almost 25 years.
I work. I volunteer. I pay taxes. I vote in every election. I have a family.
My family borrows books from the libraries. My children enjoy Toronto's Parks&Rec camps, delight in the playgrounds, swim in the public pools & refresh in the splash-pads on oppressively hot summer days. Oh, yes, and my mum is a senior who enrolls in the city's 'active older adults' exercise programmes.
Sometimes I drive and curse the ridiculously bad cyclists.
Sometimes I bike and curse the ridiculously horrible drivers.
Sometimes I walk and curse the cars and the bikes.
Sometimes I take public transportation and curse the crowded subways, streetcars, buses, or long wait times due to inadequate service or availability.
But, I live in Toronto and I love this city.
Right now you and your committees are about to slash all sorts of services: Libraries, Community Centres, Day Care, the TTC, and much, much more. We have all heard about the proposed cuts. We have debated back and forth about them. Mr. Mayor, have you actually experienced any of these services? Have you ever enrolled your children in a Parks and Rec Summer Camp? Taken them to Riverdale Farm? Surely you would see how important and necessary these areas of service are. Have you taken the TTC, not as a novelty experience, or as an occasional alternative but rather: as transportation to and from your place of employment? Try it for a week... during peak hours -- a.m. & p.m. I think you'll learn a lot.
When you start cutting vital services from a city as large as ours, its akin to cutting vital organs out of a living organism. The results: disastrous.
Don't flat-line my city, Mr. Mayor.
Have a Heart!
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