ECA Review 2020-12-17

4 December 17'20 HANNA/CORONATION/STETTLer, AB. ECA REVIEW
OPINION
The opinions expressed are not necessarily
the opinions of this newspaper.
EDITORIAL
It’s just one year
Brenda Schimke
ECA Review
This year will be a unique
Christmas and New Years for those of
us following Alberta’s new COVID
restrictions, and it could be a great
Christmas.
We won’t have to do any special
cleaning nor re-shuffle the house to
accommodate a myriad of guests. I, for
one, put up my biggest and favourite
Christmas tree which dominates the
living room, making it impossible
to host any normal Christmas
entourage.
Our annual get-together
when 40 to 60 relatives descend
to feast on lutefisk and lefse
will go ‘zoom’ this year.
I sometimes wonder if
for in-laws and younger
generations this seems
like a thankful reprieve from
the annual ritual of enduring the
smells and visuals of white, wiggly
lutefisk swimming in butter—perhaps
wondering silently, ‘who in their right
mind would eat this stuff’!
Yes, we come together because we
want to catch up with our families
sharing successes and commiserating
over hardships from the year just
ended.
We want to see our grandchildren
and great nieces and nephews as they
grow and mature in their march
towards adulthood.
It could even be the last time we see
a grandparent or a great aunt or uncle
or even a younger cousin. We want to
reconnect with friends and those from
afar.
Christmas for most is extremely
important and special.
However, COVID-19 has forced us
this ‘one’ year, to not only consider our
family and friend’s needs and wants,
but to consider the stranger as well.
In the Bible, the parable of the Good
Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) tells of a
Jew robbed and beaten and in need of
help. He is aided not by one of his own
but a member of a foreign and hostile
tribe, a Samaritan.
Jesus told this parable when
teaching a critical Bible passage, ‘Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’,
the second greatest commandment
after ‘to love God with
heart, soul and mind’.
The ‘neighbour’ in
the Bible isn’t our
favourite people or
those we most identify
with, the neighbour in
this parable was the
stranger, the unknown or
even an enemy.
Christmas is the time for
Christians to celebrate the birth of
Jesus Christ. As such, it seems a
most appropriate time to regard
Christ’s stranger over our own wants
and wishes in 2020. Keeping Christmas
to only those who live in our household
is what governments have asked us to
do so that others (strangers) may live.
I most likely will spend Christmas
alone, as I did for Thanksgiving, but I
do this with a grateful heart ever
reminding myself of the Samaritan
woman and Jesus’ two greatest
commandments.
Merry Christmas to all . . . and
remember, it’s just one year.
Appears as a double planet
by Gary Boyle -
The Backyard Astronomer
As we approach the end the year one
celestial event will entice people to
look up a great conjunction of two
planets.
Over months and years, the planets
revolve around the sun at different
speeds. On occasion, two planets will
optically come close to each other in
the sky called a conjunction.
Brilliant Jupiter (887 million km.
away) and Saturn (1.6 billion km away
to the upper left) are now visible low in
the southwestern sky, will appear
extremely close on the night of
December 21 which also happens to be
the winter solstice.
A typical Jupiter-Saturn conjunction
occurs every 20 years or so but
this year, they will appear as a double
planet with a separation equal to 1/5
the width of the full moon.
This will give telescope owners a
rare treat of seeing these gas giants
and their moons in the same field of
view. This extreme close approach
plays out every 397 years.
Many are associating this to the Star
of the Magi which was the close conjunction
of the two brightest planets
namely Venus and Jupiter.
On the night of June 17, 2 BC, they
appeared to touch each which was
deemed a sign.
This is the closest astronomical
event at the time as Halley’s Comet
was seen 10 years prior in 12 BC as
recorded by the Chinese.
Till next time, clear skies.
PRAIRIEVIEW
NOT time to let our guard down, time to redouble efforts
R
R
R
R
R
Published by
Coronation
Review
Limited
Subscriptions:
$50.00 in Canada; $94.00 in US;
$175.00 Overseas. (All prices plus GST)
by Herman Schwenk
I wrote a column on the COVID-19
situation three weeks ago. Since then
the situation has become much worse
especially here in Alberta.
At the present time we have about
the same number of cases as Ontario,
but they have 3 1/2 times the population
that Alberta has which means that
our per capita rate is by far the worst of
any province in Canada.
There are more people getting sick
from this virus than at any time since
the beginning of the pandemic, as well
are getting sick and tired of this whole
issue.
However, this is NOT the time to let
our guard down, this is the time to
redouble our efforts to cooperate with
the new restrictions that have been
imposed by the authorities.
Due to the increased number of
people becoming infected, Alberta
imposed more new restrictions
December 09th to try and reduce the
infection rate.
I thought that Jason Kenney struck a
good balance when increased restrictions
were announced some time ago. fundamental problem of attitude.
Many people in Alberta did not. People seem to think that these restrictions
are infringing on their rights,
There were large demonstrations in
Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer freedoms, charter rights, you name it.
objecting that the new rules
Alberta has a significant
were too restrictive.
number of people with no
On the other hand you had
respect for the ‘rights of
Rachel Notley from the NDP
others’ and especially the
yelling that they were not
safety of the elderly in the
restrictive enough. She wanted
senior’s institutions.
the government to shut everything
down.
you would think these
The way some people act
With her you have to
restrictions have been
remember that her major
implemented permanently. I
interest is with the public service
unions. Their pay cheques Schwenk can’t put up with the incon-
just don’t see why people
are not affected by business
venience for a few months.
shutdowns.
This virus will not be with us forever.
What is so difficult about
Of course, she has never demonstrated
any respect for taxpayer money frequently washing your hands and
anyhow, so her answer would be for the using hand sanitizer, keeping your distance
from people, wearing a mask and
government to just borrow more
money to pay the private sector. only interact with no more than three
So, you can see that the government or four people in a group when you are
is caught between a rock and a hard outside your home?
place. It wouldn’t matter what the government
did here in Alberta.
that they say are effective 95 per cent of
Scientists have developed vaccines
As I see it, what we have here is a the time
72 pt
East Central Alberta
EVIEW
60 pt
48 pt
36 pt
Website ECAreview.com
Office Hours Mon. - Fri. 9 am - 5 pm
R
30 pt
4921 - Victoria Avenue
Tel. (403) 578-4111
R
24 pt
Mail: Box 70, Coronation, AB Canada, T0C 1C0
LETTERS POLICY • Letters to the Editor are
welcomed • Must be signed and a phone number
included so the writer’s identity can be verified.
• ECA Review reserves the right to edit letters for
legal considerations, taste and brevity. Letters
and columns submitted are not necessarily the
opinion of this newspaper.
MEMBER OF:
JOYCE WEBSTER
Publisher/Editor
publisher@ECAreview.com
YVONNE THULIEN
Marketing/Digital 403-575-9474
digital@ECAreview.com
We were informed on Mon. Dec. 7
that some of the Pfizer vaccine will be
available in December.
The problem with that vaccine is
that it has to be kept at -75 degrees
Celsius which complicates the vaccination
process.
There are other vaccines that will be
available before too long that will be
much easier to administer.
When vaccines are available the first
people to receive them will be the residents
and the frontline workers in the
senior’s institutions and hospitals.
It will be some time before enough
people are vaccinated to bring this
pandemic to an end. Until that happens
we will just have to put up with the
safety restrictions to control the virus
as best we can.
Had everyone in Alberta continued
to follow the rules in place last summer
I don’t think we would be in the mess
we have now.
It is a sad refection on our society
when people can’t discipline themselves
and have to be forced to do the
right thing.
BRENDA SCHIMKE
Editorial Writer
JUDY WALGENBACH
Marketing 403-740-2492
marketing@ECAreview.com
TERRI HUXLEY
Reporter 587-321-0030
news1@ECAreview.com
NIAOMI DYCK
Circulation
STU SALKELD
LJI Reporter 403-741-2615
reporter@ECAreview.com
LISA MYERS-SORTLAND
Graphic Artist
R
18 pt