Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-09-13, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012. PAGE 5. Here’s a headline to catch an old-timer’s eye: TEEN DRIVERS NOT DRIVEN TO GET LICENCES. “The world has changed,” says Mary Baracco, director of Young Drivers of Canada. “When baby boomers were growing up in the ’60s and ’70s, 16-year-olds were more apt to get their licence right away. Today it’s not as high a priority for young people.” Well, I certainly didn’t get my first driving licence when I turned 16 – but only because my birthday fell on a Sunday. Come 9 a.m. Monday morning you could find me with my nose pressed flat against the glass door of the Driver Licensing Office, waiting to get my hands on that precious document. When I was in high school, getting your driver’s licence was as sacred a teenage rite of passage as sneaking a smoke under the bleachers or buying your first tube of Clearasil. Getting your licence meant freedom! No more plodding like a foot soldier from home to burger joint – or worse, riding your dorky CCM three-speed. Nobody hoping to appear cool rode a bicycle after they were old enough to get a driver’s licence. That little piece of paper was like sprouting your own set of wings. It wasn’t really. Most of us still didn’t have a car and getting permission to take out the family clunker involved Kissingeresque negotiations with the Keeper of the Keys, but we imagined we were free as birds. So what’s different between the kids of today and kids back then? Well, the driver’s test, for one thing. When I got my licence back in the Stone Age, all I had to do was wheel once around my one-horse town with a municipal clerk in the passenger seat and try not to hit anything. Nowadays new drivers have to thread their way through Learners and Novice levels. each with a host of restrictions and provisos that would daunt all but the most determined contestants. Then there’s insurance. If you’re under 25, insurance companies treat you with all the compassion and understanding they would extend to any alcoholic serial-killing speed freak. They’re more than happy to extend a policy to you. Don’t forget to bring your wallet. Speaking of wallets, best enrol in a qualified Driver’s-Ed program before you take the test. That’ll set you back another few hundred bucks. There is one other major modern development that’s put driving a car on the back burner for many young people, and it’s so small you could fit a couple of dozen of them in the glove compartment. The cellphone. Think about it. The cellphone does for kids of today what a car did for kids of my generation. It puts them in touch with their peers (and more). It’s available around the clock and it doesn’t get flat tires or speeding tickets. Sheryl Connelly, a manager with Ford Motor Company has seen the writing on the windshield: “The car has been displaced by the cellphone,” she says. “Digital devices transcend time and space. You can feel you’re with your friends even when you’re not with your friends.” Well, maybe. But when my 16-year-old hormones were looking for a ‘friend’ on Saturday night, text messaging was not what was on my mind. And there’s something about the ambience of sitting in a big old Dodge with its hood ornament pointed at a Drive-In movie screen, a big box of popcorn on the dashboard and your sweetie beside you that all the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in the world haven’t figured out how to replicate. Yet. Arthur Black Other Views The driving honeymoon is over There are times when you see something that perfectly encapsulates the being of someone, or something; what their whole life is about displays itself in one image or event in a remarkable feat of storytelling. This happened to the hapless Toronto Blue Jays on Sept. 4 when they were spanked by the Baltimore Orioles by a score of 12-0, but that was far from all that happened that night. The Blue Jays have been crippled by injuries this year, with over a dozen of the team’s upper echelon players on the disabled list at any given time. They have been the victims of bad luck, poor planning and front office moves that just haven’t worked out. In short, the season, for a young team that showed so much promise early, just hasn’t gone the Blue Jays’ way. However, during the Sept. 4 contest with the Orioles, the season sunk to a new low and it brought new meaning to the suggestion that the season was a wash-out. Despite a full day of rain, high-ups at the Rogers Centre decided it would be a good move to open up the arena’s retractable roof. And like so many decisions made in the team’s camp this year, not only did it not pan out, but it suffered a catastrophic failure. Less than two innings after the roof was opened, it began to rain quite hard and the crew began the process of closing the roof back up. It was at this point, however, that an announcement was made saying that the roof was still closing, but at a slower rate than normal. This announcement reminds me of several Blue Jays’ injuries this year. Pitcher Brandon Morrow was taken out of a game in May with what was said to be a minor injury to his ribs. The Blue Jays said he would be well enough to make his next start. He returned in late August. Slugger José Bautista was said to have tweaked his wrist on a swing months ago. He has now had season-ending surgery. The roof eventually jammed as rain poured into the middle of the field and fans were forced to either open their umbrellas or retreat to covered portions of the building. Certainly that was an embarrassing low point in the season. Surely it couldn’t have gotten any worse, could it? It did. While rain poured into the building, the Rogers Centre’s fire alarm began to sound throughout the entire building. There was no fire, however, as an announcement rang through the arena telling people that there was no problem. Innings later the roof was finally closed with what team representatives called “little disruption”. Maybe for the players, but for the 13,556 people in attendance, the incident didn’t look to cause “little disruption” as thousands of fans were displaced and scurrying around the Rogers Centre in search of dry land during the gaffe. To me, the evening was the team’s season in a nutshell. The roof, that should have never been opened in the first place, jams while closing, rain pours into the arena, the fire alarm sounds and all the while, the Blue Jays are falling to a division rival by a dozen runs. If someone from out of town asks you how the Blue Jays did this year, tell them to watch the Sept. 4 game and they’ll understand. For the players involved, however, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them as they toiled on the soggy field while in the midst of giving up 12 runs to the Orioles, whose last winning season was 15 years ago. The team’s only hope is that when one roof closes, another opens. Season at a glance Shawn Loughlin Shawn’s Sense There’s a lot of time to kill on the road between Goderich and Brampton and I swear every second commercial break, regardless of the radio station I was listening to featured some politically-charged ad about teachers and how they weren’t being treated fairly. Now, I like teachers. I went to school with teachers, one of my roommates is a great music teacher and a hilarious guy to hang around with. Without teachers, my job would be really, really tough. Without teachers things would be difficult but, to be honest, I’m really angry at them. Here are some of the problems that have led to the provincial government standing where it is (and if I’m wrong, feel free to correct me, but a search of primary, secondary and even tertiary documents seems to prove the statements correct): • Teachers can bank up to 200 sick days and be paid for them after they retire at 50 per cent pay to a maximum of $46,000 (An amount I’d love to make in a year, for reference sake). • Teachers salaries have increased, in Ontario, an average of 34 per cent over the past eight years under the Liberal government. • Teachers have gained 50 per cent more preparation time over the past eight years for a total of 240 minutes per week (that’s four hours). Now I’d love for someone to come up and prove me wrong on any of those statements but, I’m sorry to say this, you’re going to find very little sympathy from me even if you do for one major reason (if you’re a teacher): You’re making enough money that your union can literally throw money at a union problem through a province-wide advertising program across at least half a dozen different radio stations from different media companies. Now I have my fair share of experience with unions (not that I’ve ever been in one, but I’ve got experience with them) and I can honestly say that I don’t see them as a bad thing as some people do. Unions are necessary for large groups of people and not just because it helps them negotiate together. They also provide a system to benchmark earnings and make sure teachers in Toronto aren’t making drastically more than teachers in other parts of the province (or it provides the evidence that shows the opposite is true). That said, I think that things have gone a bit too far here. Teachers can strike like anyone else; they did it while I was in school. Professors can strike like anyone else, again, it happened to me in school, and if your employer is the province, then I guess you can claim that they’re mistreating you, but if you’re going to start claiming the McGuinty government has been bad for you, I’d look at the gains in the past eight years. I’d also think about removing the political swing from the ads. I’m sure that teachers are going to think twice about voting for the Liberals in the next election, but I’m fairly certain that there are far more people in this province who work 12 months out of the year and make far less than teachers who think the provincial government is making the right move by freezing those (in my opinion) high salaries paid for through their taxes. If you want to encourage people to write to the government to give you a fair swing at the table; go for it, if you want to tell people you’re being treated unfairly, again, go right ahead, but don’t talk about Dalton McGuinty and his promises. Politicians lie. Politicians philander. Politicians are viewed as lecherous individuals. You’re not going to win anything by trying to malign an individual that most people already have. If you’re going to insist on trying trying to prove the proven, why not prove that water is wet? Now, before I burn any more bridges, I’ll switch topics. Last Thursday I sat through another meeting about fire protection services. I heard North Huron make the argument that their price is the lowest it can be. I heard Morris-Turnberry claim they’re paying too much. I saw people squabble over the issues back and forth and back and forth because, well, to give the politicians a little credit, the information presented by the Ontario Fire Marshal at the meeting really had only the most tenuous link between the situation in Morris-Turnberry and North Huron. It almost seemed that the representatives were more interested in trying to say “It’s possible,” than providing any information on how North Huron and Morris-Turnberry could get past the negotiating problems that put them in this situation in the first place. Wait... strike that, it was definite. I felt like I was watching the Watergate scandal, but instead of having no recollection, the representative kept saying “I can’t comment on that” or “I’m not here to comment on that”. As a ratepayer (and yes, I am still one of those), I have to say it was pretty disappointing knowing that every person there was getting paid to basically be told what they already knew. (Well, what North Huron already knew, I’m not privy to the same level of information about Morris-Turnberry). Deputy Fire Chief David Sparling questioned the presence of Central Huron Council for a similar reason and I’m with him. Regardless of whether they were invited to sit in the gallery or not, all of Central Huron’s Council was there as well as their Chief Administrative Officer. If I was a Central Huron ratepayer, I would be as frustrated as Sparling was when he asked them if they were getting paid. The meeting literally had nothing to do with Central Huron since no decision was set to be made that night. If Central Huron councillors or staff get paid, it’s a waste of tax payer dollars. If they all went of their own accord, kudos to them. As for North Huron and Morris-Turnberry, they can’t be blamed for the Fire Marshal’s representatives presenting old information, but it doesn’t change the fact that the time, and therefore the money, was wasted the same as it is with useless attack ads. Tax dollars being wasted all over Denny Scott Denny’s Den