This is where cold hard facts give way to the hottest of takes, mostly mine I suppose. I’m the editor, Marshall Jones.

Want to include yours? Listen, this isn’t the comment section, this isn’t social media. Discussion and debate requires context and a wee bit of bravery — we need your name and where you’re writing from. Include it in your account or email me anytime.

About last night’s Amber alert

Wednesday, July 22

So? How’d you sleep last night?

I don’t sleep well at the best of times (go ahead make your jokes) but I was wide awake at 12:02 a.m. after my phone screamed at me about an amber alert.

It was for a child allegedly abducted by his mother in a custody dispute sometime yesterday, July 21.

This one was in West Kelowna, so it’s closer to home for some folks. But reactions from other have been visceral, questioning why we alert an entire province for a custody dispute, which of course can be just as dangerous.

We’re going to ask why it had to wait until after midnight, but I have stopped expecting the RCMP to volunteer for accountability.

I worry amber alerts will lose their effectiveness in general, like a check-engine light for a hundred symptoms — masking the really important ones. Credibility is crucial for these things.

I’m thinking of turning amber alerts off on my phone. Am I making too much of this? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Diving deeper into the Okanagan arts scene

Monday, July 20

We’ve got a couple of different perspectives today on local arts scenes you might be interested in.

First, Ben Bulmer takes a look at the business behind music festivals, what makes some successful and others not.

“For independent guys like me, you really have to have a community involved in it to be successful,” one promoter told him.

Then Jesse Tomas explores some audience capture in the visual arts scene, particularly in conservative Kelowna. Buyers and viewers want landscape art — and pretty much only landscape art.

So what’s a more risky artist to do? Find somewhere else, of course.

I’d love to get your takes. Do you like these kinds of stories? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca and let me know.

iN RESPONSE

To Wednesday’s newsletter editorial on Amber alerts.

“911 — My child is missing! Please help me!”

“People are sleeping, we’ll get on that right after breakfast. Have a nice day.”

A new low has been plumbed.

— Ron Watt, via email

Am I missing something or have there only been a few amber alerts? I don’t see how I could miss them.

It takes time for the police to make sure the child is genuinely missing, especially in a custody situation. It’s possible the parent with the child is just late or been delayed and unable to phone. Or conversely it could be that something nefarious has happened. Once they sort it out and feel it necessary…. out goes the alert. You are not the only one alerted. The offending parent or perpetrator is also alerted. I am one hundred percent in agreement with this. Boo hoo to us who get awakened in the night. It’s the least we can do to help protect children. I think they should do one for older dementia seniors…silver alert. Both those parts of our population are vulnerable and need all the help they can get. Now I would back down on this opinion if stats show that the alarm is totally ineffective and if the police agree with that. Otherwise losing a little sleep isn’t a huge price to pay.

— Helen Price, via email

Tell us if you find out how to turn off amber or ANY alerts on your phone please, so far i’m finding it can’t be done. My issue, to expand on that, is that the noise is the same for “Fire! Evacuate Now!” which is something I can do something about right now, unlike the amber alerts.

Also, I kind of wonder when my heart is going to get one too many of these and I’ll be needing to alert
911 with a heart attack.

— Jane Duber, via email

I haven’t found a way to turn them off, Jane — Mj

I am on the same page as you! As a 72 year old woman, cosy and asleep at 10 every night, I am really annoyed with a loud, screaming alert that is meaningless to me. It is so disruptive and unnecessary! What can I do? I am sorry and sad that a child may have been abducted, but there is nothing I can do! It scares the **** out of me, my husband, my dog! It’s just wrong! There must be a more reasonable way.

— Marcia Stacy, Summerland, via email

Hi Marshall,
Hell NO!!! You aren’t making to much of this.
Both my husband and I have our phones on but on silent mode between 10 p.m. – 6 a.m. in case of an emergency with our kids or grandkids. Having two phones start screaming at you when you’re asleep is a horrible feeling. Not only does it scare the living right out of you, once you realize it’s an Amber Alert it pisses you off! I’m also a horrible sleeper, I use my phone to listen to audiobooks to help me sleep so I wouldn’t turn it off even if I could.

I think you should be able to shut an Amber Alert off, between the hours you want to sleep. Who’s going to be looking for someone when they’re in bed!

This is my feeling on this subject!
Let people choose if they want the alert in the middle of the night or not!

— Tracy Higgins, via email

City of Kelowna to pay Hotel Eldorado for the boardwalk it illegally blocked

I’m surprised any locals would go to the hotel or restaurant. We should instead boycott the Eldorado. What the Eldorado is doing is not in any way supportive of our local community. Very disappointing to see a business loxated in our community act this way.
You won’t see me spending any of my dollars there going forward based on their selfish and illegal actions.

—Peter Boyd, via iNFOnews.ca

Rewarding the Eldorado for their repeated breaches of a court order??? File an application for a finding of contempt and seek special and punitive costs. They are not free to simply do as they like. There are consequences for breaching a court order but not if the City doesn’t seek those consequences.

— William Mastop, via iNFOnews.ca

No jail for 76-year-old Vernon man who sexually assaulted friend’s widow

No jail time because he was blacked out drunk and it wasn’t normally “in his nature”? Give me a break.

The 70 year old victim’s testimony: “I feel like I was stripped of my dignity, power, and autonomy over my own life,” she said. “I have a hard time being alone. I have an even harder time being out in public.”

Since the sexual assault, the victim had been diagnosed with PTSD.

“I have never been a fearful person by nature. Now, fear is ever-present and influences my everyday decisions,” her statement read. “I am tired of the tears, the pain and the fatigue.”

Men have the freedom to chronically abuse, rape and kill women on the regular, and our male-dominated governments simply don’t care.

— Karen Klein, via email

Disclaimer: Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed on this page are solely those of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of the editor, iNFOnews.ca, iNFOTEL MULTIMEDIA, its partners, principals or advertisers.