Protest!

So it's near Christmas, a warm glow surrounds us, so what do we need to do?? I know, write a letter of protest! That always gets the blood boiling and is the perfect antidote to the cold, cold weather. So here is a cause worthy of sending off an email to express annoyance, upset or outrage - depending on your temperament and the degree of your reaction to the issue I am about to set before you.

I occasionally buy coins from the Royal Canadian Mint. Some of their coins are quite beautiful and are wonderful 'things' to have and admire. I am by no means a collector or even a knowledgeable amateur. I just know what I like and know what I want. I was thinking of a gift for someone so I went to the Mint to see what they had in the way of Olympic coins. I wanted a gift that was both Canadian and disability proud - a perfect combo.

I was a bit surprised to find that the mint has several 'numismatic' coins of the 'regular' Olympics but none of the Paralympics. Most of the numismatic coins have a 25 dollar face value. There must be Paralympic coins, I thought. So did a search and found that they have one out and another coming, both circulation coins and both worth 25 cents.

This cannot be. I wrote the customer service people and a guy wrote back informing me that the mint has no intention of doing any Paralympic coins of equivalent value to those of the regular Olympics. Oh, my.

Given that the Mint, itself, established the value of the coins, we can to an extremely accurate degree, calculate discrimination. Let's see, it takes one hundred quarters to make 1 25 dollar coin. 100 gimps to 1 AB athlete. So what does that work out to? Hmmmm, the mint values the regular Olympics exactly 100 times more than the Paralympics.

This is not OK in my book.

Here's what you can do, simply write the Royal Canadian Mint. I'm writing my letter today, I'm selecting Corporate Social Responsibility as the 're' for the letter. I invite you to do the same. Please leave me a message to let me know if you've written them. Feel free to let them know that this blog was the source of your information. I stand beside what I've learned and have kept all email correspondence with the customer service guy.

It's long past time that people with disabilities and those that love and support them should be so obviously slighted by a government body that is supposed to serve all Canadians equally. 100 times less valued! Not OK.