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6- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday October 18, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate.The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Commentary Letters to the Editor NEIL OLIVER Vice President and Group Publisher DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager Metroland Media Group Ltd. includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Caledon Enterprise, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News, City Parent, Collingwood/Wasaga Connection, East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Review, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver is a division of Taxis deliver insults My name is Jordan and I am an Oakville resident. On Oct. 12, 2008 at 2:20 p.m. on Thanksgiving weekend, I was at the GO Train station in Oakville to pick up my sister and nephew, who are legally blind. I moved my truck to the front of the line on the far right next to taxi cabs at the pickup area. I was insulted by the one of the cab drivers when I told them I was "waiting for two blind people to come off the train." When my sister and nephew arrived, I quickly drove up to pick them up. I was there maybe 10 minutes. When I was leaving, a female taxi driver came up to my truck and called me a name and said they didn't look blind to her, right in front of them. We all felt very insulted. Luckily I kept driving because it may have become ugly. No, they do not have white canes. They are legally blind and very short-sighted. I have been supporting their disability all their lives and I have a total of four legally-blind people in my family and have never been treated like this for more than 40 years. I didn't know taxi drivers were an authority on who is blind or not. I think this demonstrates a very narrow mindset as well as discrimination, all because of a 10-minute interruption of someone's life. Is this what this world has come to? Happy Thanksgiving! JORDAN GRENIER IAN OLIVER President Media Group Ltd. Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora EraBanner, Northumberland News, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News, Oldtimers Hockey News, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune, Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week, Picton County Guide, Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror, Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Young, City of York Guardian RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION Reader keeping score Well, we've ended up with a Conservative minority government. Stephen Harper has come out with a six-point plan -- isn't that interesting -- Dion had a five-point plan. Re: Lisa Raitt -- she is so naïve -- "she is going to work with Gary Carr" to highlight the need for infrastructure in Halton. It was Jim Flaherty and John Baird of the Mike Harris government that caused the issue with downloading and has caused the infrastructure deficit. I would hope that The Oakville Beaver with its endorsement of Lisa Raitt will hold her to account for lack of movement on this when the next election occurs in two years time. I am not sure where she thinks the money is going to come form for this infrastructure as we head into a recession and Harper has said that he won't go into a deficit. The other thing, why haven't you spoken about the amounts of money that the Conservatives pored into this riding to defeat Garth Turner? I was a scrutineer at a poll at Post Corners (on election night) and there were three Conservatives ­ one of whom was from Toronto and I had to give him directions to him to get to the Conservative party at the Best Western in Milton (on election) night. I will continue to send you e-mails as I think your endorsement of Lisa Raitt was totally ill founded. BETH HIGGINSON When technology takes you tripping down a dead end street C omedian Stephen Wright once said that he lived on a one-way street that was also a dead-end, and he had no idea how he got there. Similarly, I recently found myself on a dead-end street, only I knew exactly how I got there. Betty. Betty got me there. It's been a wild week, a veritable roller-coaster, and I'm not referring to the fabulous fluctuations of the stock markets, but, rather, the idiotic undulations of the technological fortunes (and misfortunes) of our family. The week began with the programming, connection and maiden voyage of a GPS system I'd recently received. It was a thoughtful, practical gift -- give a guy who has no nose for navigation a device that potentially prevents him from getting lost; that is, if he can figure out how to operate the device (in my case, a technologically proficient son was enlisted as a tutor). Anyway, I took my nifty new navigational system out for a spin, letting the GPS' instructive voice ­ a woman named Betty ­ guide me. Several times I tried to fool Betty by purposely taking wrong turns, but each time she outwitted me, immediately recalculating and advising on how to get back on track. Betty was a gem. Betty was a genius: just for fun, I had her determine how to get from my house to the revolving doors of the Marriott in Hilton Head, S.C., and she made the full route calculation in under three minutes All was swell until I made the mistake of detouring off Betty's course and into Starbucks. Maybe Betty resented me taking time away from her. Maybe Betty just plain doesn't like Starbucks. Whatever. When I got back in the Jeep, Betty had me circling around the parking lot for Andy Juniper five minutes ­ Turn Left! Turn Left! Turn Left! ­ and then, when she finally extracted me from the lot, she took me down a dead-end street. And told me to keep going straight even when the road ended. Needless to say, our relationship is on thin ice. But, at least we're still talking. As if the addition into my life of a GSP system was not enough for my feeble brain to embrace, this week also saw our home invaded by technicians who came bearing technology and the lofty promise of high speed Internet. I knew that such a creature existed, but for the past five years -- half a decade spent living in the country -- we've meagerly existed on the thin gruel of dial-up. That is, Internet so slow that during the course of a simple download, the downloader could go out for a jog, come back for a shower and return to the computer before the download was done. We'd heard rumblings that fast Internet was coming, but we thought they were just rumors. There was talk of towers being raised to bring this Internet to country folk, but that was all just oasis-in-the-desert to us (you can raise all the towers you want, but until that tower somehow snags a signal that can make RollingStone.com download in less than 24 hours, well, it's all just pie in the sky). Anyway, the techies came and left. And RS.com downloaded in 22 seconds. Not quite cable, but we'll take it. So, all is good, right? I can navigate to anywhere, or nowhere if Betty chooses. I can surf the Internet at speeds previously unknown out here in the hinterlands. My technology is finally coming of age. Except, yesterday my laptop imploded. And my e-mail program seems to have vanished in a puff of foul smoke. Technologically speaking, I fear I'm living on a one-way street that's also a dead-end, and I have no idea how I got here. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajuniper@strangledeggs.com.