Dear editor:

I read with interest The Lake Report story on April 9 about the racial profiling of some farm workers that has been occurring in Niagara. How sad is this?

As serious as this pandemic is, and I am not discounting that, I feel it is being jet-fuelled by negativity and fear. There is no need to fear as long as we follow the well-defined rules that all of us have heard innumerable times.

Self-isolation is such a blessed relief from the harried, busy lives we were all living prior to this virus. One needs to take this precious time to count our blessings. I have been doing this and here are some of my findings:

* If you take a walk down by the lake and look out on the horizon, you will find, for the first time in many years, the absence of a yellow haze that ringed the water, reflecting the exhaust fumes of people traveling along the QEW to and from Toronto and beyond.

* The Salmon Derby has been cancelled, so our lakes will fill up with salmon and they will have an opportunity to regroup. (Sorry, salmon fishing people).

* No boats on the lake spewing their exhaust into the air and water.

* The birds are singing their little hearts out, not drowned out by airplanes flying overhead, although the odd Ornge air ambulance chopper drones over.

* My spring flowers are starting to poke their heads out of the ground and they are beautiful!

* I have a tree that is budding in my backyard and every morning as I sit to drink my coffee and read my Lake Report, I see the buds slowly forming. (In the past, I would look at the tree buds one day and the next day (it seemed) they would be in full leaf!) Now I can watch them develop in real time.

* Our little dog is thrilled to have us home every day!

* Fill in your own blessings ___________ _____________ .

Now I know, we all have issues with this pandemic, but it is a world event, so we are all in it together. This is the way of life for many people in Third World countries or those refugees fleeing conflict, so I hope we will have more tolerance for these people in the future.

After this is over, I hope we will NOT go back to normal, but back to a new normal wherein we will have more compassion for our lower-paid front-line workers such as our migrant farm workers, our nursing nome staff (who in non-pandemic times have to work a day shift in one facility then go do an evening shift in another in order to make a decent living), all those who don’t have the luxury to work from home and still get paid.

Many of our lower-paid workers are the ones who are getting us through this historical event and we must not forget what they did for us when it is over.

In conclusion, to quote Winston Churchill in his 1933 inaugural address: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

He got us through the Second World War, which was a fight for the very freedoms we all enjoy, but have temporarily lost. Count your blessings no matter how big or small.

Betty Ann Chandler

NOTL