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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, M ar ch 19 ,2 02 0 | 6 ABOUT US This newspaper, published every Thursday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. The Metroland family of newspapers is comprised of more than 80 community publications across Ontario. This newspaper is a member of the National NewsMedia Council. Complainants are urged to bring their concerns to the attention of the news- paper and, if not satisfied, write The National NewsMedia Council, Suite 200, 890 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4W 2H2. Phone: 416-340-1981 Web: www.mediacouncil.ca editorial@waterloochronicle.ca facebook.com/waterloochronicle @wlchronicle WHO WE ARE VP, Regional Publisher Kelly Montague Regional General Manager Nelson Parreira nparreira@metroland.com Regional Director of Media Heather Dunbar hdunbar@starmetrolandmedia.com Advertising Representatives Cassandra Dellow, Jan Bodanka, Matt Miller, Lisa Humphreys, Sheri-Lyn Blair, Chris Rego Managing Editor Doug Coxson Online Editor Adam Jackson Reporters Bill Jackson Namish Modi CONTACT US Waterloo Chronicle 475 Thompson Dr. Cambridge, ON N1T 2K8 Phone: 519-886-2830 Fax: 519-623-9155 Web: www.waterloochronicle.ca Letters to the editor All letters must be fewer than 320 words and include your name and telephone number for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject letters. Published letters will appear in print and/or online at waterloochronicle.ca Delivery For all delivery inquiries, e-mail customerservice@metroland.com or call 519-894-3000 OPINION TO LEARN HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR OWN CONTENT VISIT WATERLOOCHRONICLE.CA EDITORIAL LETTERS & COMMENTARY NOT ALL STUDENTS ARE EZRA AVENUE PARTIERS Re: Take away student bus passes until the Ezra Avenue party stops, and Students should pay for Ez- ra Avenue party, therecord- .com, March 9). It seems the only reme- dies proposed for the Ezra Avenue fiasco are aimed at all local students, e.g. add- ed fee to tuition bill, subsi- dized bus pass removal. This is not fair. Many at- tendees come from out of town and many local stu- dents do not attend. The idea of being cheek by jowl with a bunch of drunk row- dies is, for me, one defini- tion of hell. My suggestion: Erect temporary fences with gates at the entrance points. Let some in to get the "party" rolling so that others want to join them. Then start charging every- one else $20, $25 or more, whatever the market will bear as an admission fee. Cars found parked illegally should be towed and the towing fee (perhaps higher than usual) split with the community to offset the ex- orbitant clean-up fees. Put this out on social media as a warning. It is unconscionable our police and paramedics are tied up responding to fights, injuries, and over- imbibing. How would we feel if even one person dies of a heart attack because the first responders were busy at this "party?" ISOBEL TAYLOR, WATERLOO IT WOULD BE FALSE ECONOMY TO MERGE SCHOOL SYSTEMS Re: It's time for Ontario to create a single public school system (there- cord.com, March 5). The school board amal- gamations initiated when Mike Harris was premier were noted for the confu- sion and legal costs they created, rather than for any budget savings. George Jones's letter di- rects us down a similar road. He suggests that $3 bil- lion could be saved by amalgamating public and Catholic school boards. That's a lot of money. It could represent the sala- ries of 40,000 fewer teach- ers (assuming an average salary of $75,000). They would teach around 800,000 students (at a student/teacher ratio of 20:1). Students and teachers are the most expensive part of the education sys- tems (as they should be). But all these people wouldn't disappear through amalgamation and generate some money savings. Also, public and Catho- lic school boards currently do a lot of economizing through shared or co-ordi- nated services and suppli- ers - not a lot of additional savings to be achieved here. There's a lot of issues in the school systems that do need to be solved. We don't need to speculate on false savings and experiment with the chaos that goes with amalgamation. PAUL MCNAMARA, GUELPH A news outlet in Alberta, put it succinctly. Cochrane Today said: 'It's not rocket science: Mass hand washing, not hysteria, will prevent spread of CO- VID-19." Too many people, however, aren't getting the mes- sage. Grocery stores across Canada have been overrun by panicked shoppers. For some reason, toilet paper has become a precious commodity. Have people not read that COVID-19 is a respiratory sickness, not a diarrheal dis- ease? What are we doing to ourselves? Are we collectively losing it? We're only beginning to feel the full effects of this pandemic, and we're already devolving into mass hysterics? Anyone who insists they're not feeling a degree of fear, worry, anxiety and a touch of panic about the coro- navirus probably isn't being entirely honest. Even if we're not worried about ourselves, we're worried about our kids, our relatives, especially if they're older, and our friends. It's less healthy to bottle it up. And it's even less healthy, and potentially harmful, to let fear take over our lives and common sense. If we allow our civility (which isn't up to snuff these days at the best of times) to start slipping, we're playing with fire. We are really dealing with two pandemics. One has arrived, that's the coronavirus. One is threatening, that's societal panic. It's no overstatement to say the second could do more harm. None of this is to minimize COVID-19. The news just keeps getting worse. We are in uncharted territory. But our public health system is intact and doing its job. We're getting regular, credible communication from experts. It's true, the politicians are not helping. After mini- mizing the crisis, U.S. President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency. How can he go from downplaying it one day and acknowledging it's an emer- gency the next? Premier Doug Ford earlier advised Ontarians not to worry, take March Break trips and have fun. Within 48 hours, his government was closing schools, banning large gatherings and advising against international travel, including to the U.S. Inconsistent messaging like this can only make mat- ters worse. When people see political leaders saying something that runs dead against what credible medical and health experts are saying, it creates confusion and uncertainty. This is bad. Downright scary. But let's not lose our- selves. Let's not be selfish. Buy extra, but don't pig out. Think about other people as well as yourself. Listen to credible experts. Get your information from credible sources. We'll get through this, provided we don't allow animal instincts to rule the day. WE MUST NOT ALLOW COVID-19 FEAR TO RULE SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AT WATERLOOCHRONICLE.CA