570News Blog: Kate Stockmann

Greed. I believe it is greed.

Spending every day reading stories of various problems in the world, a running trend seems to be that ultimately most are cause by someone getting greedy.

Oil speculators inflating the price of crude and in turn, increasing the cost of gasoline.

CEOs increasing the cost of their companies products because last year’s profit just wasn’t high enough.

Third world governments keeping international aide for themselves while children starve.

Why can’t these people be content with enough. Enough. An interesting word. Dictionary.com describes enough as adequate for the want or need.

Yet is seems adequate is well, not enough for most people. A nice safe home just doesn’t cut it when you can take out a 40 year mortgage for your dream home. One of the factors behind the mortgage crisis in the US.

Much Music runs a show call The Fabulous Life Of…. It gives viewers and inside look of how the other one per cent of the population lives. This weekend was The Fabulous Life Of…the Hamptons.

One CEO vacations in a 27 million dollar mega mansion. That’s his weekend home.  Does he ever think that perhaps a 500 thousand dollar cottage is…enough? Would he ever give that extra profit to improve the life of people living in the most extreme poverty? Not likely when he can have a home so ridiculously large that municipal leaders in the Hamptons banned further construction of homes that big.

Children are starving. For that reason alone he should share the wealth.

Sure he may argue he is not greedy and his company chooses to pay him such a large salary. I am not a religious person but one phrase has stuck with me and I would use it to counter that argument: “The hottest pits of Hell are reserved for those who sit idly by.”

 Kate

Why do people still use them?

 They waste paper; cost money when you have to send a fax farther than across the street; no one can figure out how to operate them; and are no match for the efficiency of email.

 This week I was asked for our fax number, and I was tempted to ask, why? I don’t get it.

Email is cheap, if not free if you set up a yahoo, hotmail, gmail or any other web-based account; it’s fast; it’s paperless; and replying to it is easy.

Did you ever see the movie Office Space? When the guys took the fax machine out to that field and trashed it with a baseball bat? I want to do that. I wonder if anyone around here would notice ours missing….

Kate

Tricia Walsh-Smith, the soon to be ex-wife of  Organization President Phillip Smith, pioneered the concept of divorce-by-Youtube.

 She went on a rant about her husband, their marital woes and even some problems with their intimate relationship. She aired it all.

What is wrong with people? What happened to dealing with life’s lemons in private?

Sure, tell a few close friends that you suspect your spouse may  be cheating, scream and yell in the privacy of your own home, but don’t make a spectacle of yourself.

There have been times when I would have loved to scream and humiliate someone who upset me, but then yelling never solved anything.

When things go wrong in the newsroom and we think about either “speaking” to someone or sending an emotionally charged email we remind each other to wait 24 hours. It keeps unwanted drama out of our lives.

Cooler heads always prevail.

 Kate

Today, Estelle Getty died in Los Angeles. She was 84.

She will always be remembered as the sarcastic Sophia on the 80’s sitcom, the Golden Girls.

 While I was just a wee lass when the show aired, I’ll never forget how mom would laugh at the shenanigans of Rose, Blanche, Dorothy and Sophia. She’d have tears in her eyes.

Years later, when the show was in re-runs, I finally got the jokes. There was a lot of innuendo in that show that goes right over a kid’s head.

It wasn’t until today though that I realized it was make up that made Sophia look so old. She was actually only in her 60’s when she starred in the show. Mom loves it when I use lines like: “only 60.”

Kate

We’ve had an unusually wet June. It’s rained, at least briefly, every single day.

 So I was confused this morning when I was out for a jog and I saw someone watering his lawn. It didn’t look particularly parched and I wondered why he would waste water like that.

As someone who tries to do her part for the environment, it often puzzles me when others won’t do the same. It’s our world, we all have a responsibility to take care of it.

We are slowly changing our attitudes towards environmentalism but this morning I saw proof we still have a ways to go.

A slightly brown lawn is nothing to be ashamed of. Soon it will be a badge of honour as proof you’re doing your part to make the world a little bit better.

Kate

The price at the pumps has been a hot topic around the newsroom, not only in our line-up but also in general conversation.

 My co-host Mike, came into work on Monday, appalled that it cost him 65 dollars to fill up his car. Like mine, his is a little 4 cylinder and, until now, it has not cost much to run.

We began talking about what that cost is doing to the rest of our budgets. Sure enough, like our fellow Canadians, we’re eating out less, cutting back on little luxuries and considering alternate modes of transportation.

It’s a small glimpse into what is fueling a much larger problem. The country is headed towards recession. It seems that people like Mike and me who are trying to ride out this storm by cutting costs are actually making it worse.

Companies are going to continue to cut staff or increase costs to keep profits up because people are not buying their products. In turn this is going to have a trickle down effect to the consumer who will also make cuts, thus adding to the snowball.

I’m no great economic mind, although I recall doing well in the class. I don’t know what the answer is to this problem. But I do know it’s likely going to get worse before it gets better.

As Mike said yesterday, in years to come we’ll be looking back at this time and calling it the recession of ‘08.

Good luck,

Kate

It was a long haul, but Winston finally got his staples out yesterday.

It had to be delayed a week because he’d licked at them and it hadn’t healed properly.

The last week was pretty tough on the little guy. He had to wear a cone around his neck to keep him from licking himself.

It had to be the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Cats truly are dumber than dogs. Despite the fact the cone was attached to him, Winston seemed to think he could back out of it. He’d wake up from a nap, see that he was still in the cone and then walk backwards until he nearly fell off the bed.

I figured he’d eventually get used to the thing, but no. Even at the end of the week he would get stuck walking through doors because he’d neglect to give the cone enough room to fit through the door with him.

It also threw off his equilibrium. Cats use their whiskers to help orient themselves. With his whiskers brushing against the cone, Winston walked like he was drunk.

I did feel bad for the little guy and had to fight the urge to take it off him. He’s all better now though and back to his old self!

Kate

From time to time, we all find ourselves in a hospital waiting room. Ironically, they have to be the worst place to be if you’re sick or hurt.

The last waiting room I was in, had very uncomfortable chairs, one bathroom, no drinking fountain, and a broken vending machine. People were stuck waiting for hours using the same bathroom as the girl with the stomach flu, having nothing to drink and nowhere to lie down.

I wouldn’t take my cat to place where it had to spend 5 hours sitting in the same position, with a filthy litter box and nothing to drink. If I did, I bet the Humane Society would take him back.

I think hospitals should model their waiting rooms after airports. New airports have restaurants, shops and modular hotels. Little rooms to go to take a nap if you need one.

Now, health care is in desperate need of more money but if they involved the private sector in this, it could happen.

Not everyone sitting in the waiting room is sick, most sick people come with a healthy person who drove them there. 

As they wait with their loved one, I’m sure they’d love a coffee. Food can be a comfort when you’re stressed. Why not open a Tim Horton’s Kiosk? I’ve seen them at some hospitals but I really wish they were more common.

But what I’d really like to see are beds. Now I can see there being problems with giving people their own rooms, but would it hurt to have a bed or two for people to lie down on since they are not feeling well? How about a little crib so babies can rest?

Can we try to make health care a little more human?

Kate

I have a little secret few people until now knew about me.

My former roommate found out when she asked if I was feeling okay when we were out on balcony and I was reluctant to join the group of friends conversing near the edge.

She thought I didn’t like her guests. They were nice people, but my brain was convinced the balcony railing would give way if I got too close.

I have a crippling fear of heights.

My boyfriend discovered it when we started climbing the look-out tower at the visitor information centre in Tobermory. I tried to be brave, but by the third flight of stairs (that you could see right through!) I was paralyzed.

Mark was completely caught off guard. I’d gone from totally normal to completely insane in a matter of 20 steps. I climbed back down holding the railing with both hands. He couldn’t understand why a tower, designed to handle hurricane force winds, would seem so unstable to my acrophobic mind.

I knew it was crazy to be that afraid, but once the fear takes hold, reason takes off.

So the other night, as we were watching TV, we came across a program where a woman overcame her fear of heights by climbing a rock wall. Mark looks at me and says I should do that.

Ya. Right. I’m gonna climb a rock wall. Sure, overcoming my fear would give me a sense of accomplishment but why? It’s not interfering with my life on a regular basis.

This fear is so deep it could take months to overcome. Why would I put myself through all that when I can just avoid ladders? How often do I need to climb something?

Am I really missing out?

Kate

I am a big fan of the green bin program in Waterloo Region and I’ve been trying my best to reduce my “carbon foot print.” However there is one thing I do that I know makes me a hypocrite.

 I drive to work, every day, by myself.

While complaining about the cost of parking and the rising price of gas a friend ask me how high the cost of commuting would have to go before I would permanently put my car in park.

According to Mapquest, my commute is approximately 22km one way. It’s too far for me to walk and I’ve been informed by my coworkers that I can’t bike unless the station installs a shower for me. When you spend four hours in an eight by twelve room with someone, it’s only courteous to smell fresh.

That leaves the bus. Having studied the Grand River Transit route map, I would say the GRT has done the best with what they have.

They are dealing with a municipality that is not “on the grid” as they say. Toronto is a grid, it’s much easier to run a transit system when streets run either north-south or east-west. In Waterloo Region, any given street could go in all directions.

To take the bus, would take me over an hour to get to work, and even longer to get home. Driving, my commute is 20 minutes.

So what would it take to get me to hang up my car keys? A light rail transit system. I know the region is working on one, but it’s long over due.

When I worked in Toronto I loved the subway. I would much rather sit back with a book than drive. But I don’t want to spend two hours a day commuting when there is a much faster alternative.

 The LRT is going to cost the Region a lot of money, but if it’s done right, it’s going to be worth every penny.

 Kate