The Inverness Oran

Columns and Letters

Letter: This is based on facts!

Details: Last Updated: Wednesday, 17 July 2019 10:01

Dear Editor:

    The idea of a new airport for western Cape Breton has stirred up a lot of conversation. Not all of that conversation has been based on facts. This one is.
   While there are pockets of economic growth, Cape Breton continues to struggle in many respects – between 2011 and 2016, the island’s population decreased by over three per cent. Employment growth is sluggish, the population is aging, and far too many people are struggling.
   Tourism, on the other hand, has been booming, offering a beacon of hope and opportunity. It’s not hard to see why – the island’s natural beauty, irresistible culture, and incredible tourism opportunities are drawing people from around the world. In Inverness County, average room nights sold from 2016-18 are up 33 per cent compared to 2012-14 – that’s massive growth.

A visit to my Heaven Day

Details: Last Updated: Wednesday, 17 July 2019 10:07

-by Frank Macdonald

    I have an opportunity once a year to visit the afterlife, as I would have it unfold for me.
    It’s a place where there aren’t many cherubs loafing around on fluffs of cloud. Harps are absent, probably because the Irish are lounging in a pub elsewhere. My heaven is not even within the pearly-gated city where immigration officer, St. Peter, weighs the pros and cons of lives lived on Planet Earth.
    I am not a theologian interested in how many angels can square dance on the head of a pin, or to whose fiddle they step. Nor do I dwell deeply on the existential aspects of Being, or the Nothingness of Buddhism, or the non-Being of atheism. I’m not even covering my bases with Pascal’s wager.
    I am merely negotiating the terms of how I will spend my time in eternity.