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The Sun-THbune welcomes your let- ters. All submissions must be less than 400 words and must include I daytime telephone number. mme and address The Sun-Tribune reserves the t to publish or not publis and to edit for clar- lty and space. Letter: to the Edltm. The Sun-Tan 6290 Main St. StoufMlle, ON I.“ IG7 York Region Media Group community WW“ me Sun-Tribune. published every Thursday and Saturday, is a division of the Metroiand Media Group Ltd. a mollymned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. Metroiand is comprised of 100 community publications across Ontario. The York Region Newspaper Group also includes The Liberal. serving Richmond Hill and mm", Vaughan Citizen,The Era-Banner (Mamet/Aurora), Markham Economist Sun. Georgina ' Admcathork Region Business Times, North of the City, yovktegbonmm and Yovk Region Printing. {Hi-Tribune )mason.yrmg.com daMmeg. com Mike Banm'lle mbanuflbOynngcom ()1me Norman cnormanévyrmgrom Dawna Andrews 905-640-2612 In: N5640-8778 DISTRIBUTION Circulation LETTERS POLICY Anvmmsmc Retail Manager Enrmm Editor Iim Mason jmason?ynng.com Pnooucnon MEDIA Adveruslng DISTRIBUTION 905-640-2612 ADVERTISING WSW-2612 Ml: 1-800-743-3353 us: 905-640-8778 sdayOyrmgrom EDITORIAL The cunent rate of growth is planned to continue through the life of the next council. The election and town’s 40th anni- versary invite us to dream and discuss the type of community we can and should become. A piece of the vision, which is becoming increasingly obvi- ous in its absence, is post-sec- ondary education. Orillia and Stratford, both comparable in population to Whitchurch- Stouffville, have convinced uni- The combined population was 11,487 - about _the same number of people as have arrived since our last munici- pal election in 2006. On Ian. 1, 2011, the Town of Whitchurch-Stouflirille will be 40 years old. The date is more like an anniversary of an arranged marriage than a birth- day: i111971,ahandful ofham- lets and an incorporated village (Stoufl'ville) were amalgamated. Yes, for us. Every reader seeing these words joins me in an uncertain, some- times unfriendly future. We are all on the same path toward old age and none of use can predict the future. Will you be one of those healthy, fit seniors who can live in your own home until you're in your 903? Will you live with your grown kids or will they help care for you? My family witnessed firsthand the huge differences between a semi-pri- vate nursing home bed in a North York facility where my mother sub- sisted and the lovely, nurturing retire- ment home in Richmond Hill my dad enjoyed. Yes, you've noticed the difierence already â€" my mother just subsisted. receiving enough food, the regulated Only by getting involved and engaged will our over-burdened, mish- mash of programs and housing for seniors be improved for our parents and ourselves. Or will you be a senior in need of a govemmentâ€"run nursing home or private retirement home? Post-secondary school missing piece of vision t's sad, sometimes tragic, reading material. Our Situa- tion Critical series on care for society’s growing number of seniors is provoking response among readers and that’s a good thing. NION PUBLISHER Ian Proudfoot Treatment ofsent'ers our tragic national shame lETTERS TO THE EDITOR' A post-secondary education facility can contributeto growth that is balanced. Articulating a vision that builds on the past 40 years, and then identifying, and gathering the next set of building blocks for it to become reality, will define the legacy of the next council. The York board must ofier it to other educational institutions prior to selling it to a developer. However, this would first require a holistic municipal vision of what we want to become and a willingness to invest signifiâ€" cantly in that vision Stouffville’s old high school property could be the location forsuchaventumltiscloseto the GO station and downtown. versities to establish campuses in their towns through ofl’ers of sizable support. Most of our neighbouring municipalities have satellite college campuses, which are an excellent economic devel- opment lever. ARNOLD NEUFELDT~FAST _ STOUFFVILLE The reason for their vastly difierent experiences? Not money. Health. My mother had multiple sclerosis and needed the complex 24-hour care only a nursing home could provide, while my father was in good health until his early 808 and could enjoy per- sonal independence. My father enjoyed a sizeable pri- vate room, four-star dining room with wine and desserts at lunch and ner, barber shop, activities room, plus nurses to dispense medication or tend to small health matters. one bath a week, checked every few hours for an adult diaper change or repositioned to prevent bedsores. Marney Beck Imagine how guilty, how angry. my brother and I felt. Our dear mother was hungry and the guvemment land When she could no longer properly feed herself, we realized to our shock that overworked nurses and personal support workers didn’t have enough time to help feed her -â€" she was liter- ally starving. We were forced to hire a woman to come to feed her two meals a day for many sad months before her death. Even then, halls were crowded with people sleeping in wheelchairs, more mobile residents sufiering from memory problems entered mom’s room by mis- take or entered on purpose to take per- sonal items right from desk drawers My mother never complained, although she hated some of the places she was in until she finally got to the seniors’ home of her choice. Concerning my mother, our family found out about the snap decisions involved in finding a nursing home bed. (“Your mother’s top three choices of facilities have waiting lists of several hundred, but ’ ,a7bed'in a Scar: borough facility yd: hm one day to decide if you’ take it...") There’s Something so wrong and shameful about our system. It truly felt like warehousing. family were payihg thousands a Mamey Beck is a York Region Media Gmup editor. Let’s get mad as hell and do some- thing. Let’s investigate how other countries treat and care for their seniors, even other provinces. Tell your MPP and MP we just can't take it anymore. Our parents and grandpar- ents deserve better. Our Situation Critical series, which concludes today. doesn't have all the answers, but it certainly raises all the questions. If we leave things as they are, if we accept the warehousing and myriad of regulations and patchwork- quilt system of care, it will be worse by the time we enter the system. This is Canada. This is not what our seniors deserve. We should be ashamed. {But will I have $4,000 a month to enjoy a lovely, hotel-like seniors resi- denCe as my father did? It may cost $6,000 or $8,000 a month by the time I need care, will I have that kind of money? W111 my kids? month for her care, yet she was not even being properly fed. And sitting in soiled diapers for hours â€" I’ll spare you the details. Is this what you want in your “gold- engears"? It’s sure not what I want. Dumcmll. REGIONAL Plenum, Cussmm, Ton/ATS HOMES Debra Weller Wanna, DISTRIBUTION Nicole Fletcher