Dear Editor:
Mike Stackhouse's last column was totally unprofessional and undignified. His logic was that because I said I'm a self-employed workaholic and because he believes that workaholics seldom recognize the fact that they work too much, then I must not work or have a residence. This is the most ridiculous and disgraceful statement that I've ever seen in print. The editor should have discarded this trash from being published.
I develop new branches of math, define new interdisciplinary fields, develop new engineering principles and methods, develop new engineering products and applications, write research papers, edit research books and journals, and teach engineering short courses. I have a few businesses and work for myself, not for anyone else as an employee or consultant. My research and development is done for publication and for products and applications that I market. I also engage in progressive activism and write political commentaries. I have over 425 publications. I own a condominium. On the side, I do a lot of combat sports, extreme sports, and physical conditioning. I work every day because my work is extremely interesting and entertaining to me.
Stackhouse wonders if I would turn away a bonus cheque and holidays. I would rather that people be able to take their holidays according to their own religions or convenience instead of being forced to take them at Christmas. I would rather that bonus cheques be awarded based on merit and the end of the year instead of Christmas. Stackhouse thinks the majority rules, but a constitutional democracy protects the rights of the minority from the misdirected will of the majority.
Stackhouse says that he thinks the world was a better place 50 years ago without caring that aboriginals were forcibly placed in residential schools in Canada and that there was segregation in the U.S.
Ashu M. G. Solo
Saskatoon
