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Times-Advocate, 1979-03-21, Page 4Page 4 Times-Advocate, March 21, 1979 Tlie ‘me’ generation This can be called the “me generation” which demands that we “Do it my way or no way”. It is like nothing seen before in history. It is fueled by unruly spirits and thrives on self-satisfaction and self-glorification. Self-realization, self-fulfillment, self­ understanding, and self-expression add up to self-indulgence. The question is “What is in it for me?”; the motto is “I’m right, you’re wrong.” The foundation of democratic prin­ ciple is “the greatest good for the greatest number.” This has changed to “I want it now, and I want it my way.” There is less willingness to share, more willingness to take. Society is inundated with factions claiming to represent every known cause. These groups push only their own cause and show an aversion to co­ operation, conciliation and com­ promise. Legislators face an almost impossible snow storm of faction politics. They are tempted to bow to the strongest pressure. Yet the opinions of such pressure groups is not necessarily that of the public. Business has been accused of representing certain interest groups. There are groups interested only in persuading us that our system of democracy is not working. We need to encourage a better un­ derstanding of political and economic issues in Canada. We need to reason together and revive the spirit at the heart of Canadian democracy. Not all Not all the news is doom and gloom these days. The Canadian dollar has made a slight recovery on the world’s money markets and even the February unemployment figures showed a decline. Closer to home, the Ausable- Bayfield Conservation Authority ap­ proved a budget showing almost no in­ crease over last year’s and then last doom week the Huron-Perth Separate School supporters learned their tax rate would increase less than three percent. While there’s still some obvious room for improvement in all segments of the national and local economy, there is every indication that things are looking much brighter and hopefully the area municipal councils now deliberating their current budgets won’t go against the encouraging trend. Mainstream Canada Novel Approach Works Acclaim for Carter Need clarification U.S. President Jimmy Carter has won wide acclaim for his successful and determined bid to get peace in the Middle East through negotiating an agreement between Israel and Egypt. The commendation is obviously justified because it represents one step towards a more peaceful world and should indicate to leaders in other countries that peace does not have to be won on the battlefield and that differences of opinion can be settled through the use of verbs and not guns. Hopefully, President Carter will not rest on his laurels. There are many other areas of the world requiring similar peace negotiations. Rules for living There are ten requisites for living: Health enough to make work a pleasure; wealth enough to support your needs; strength to battle with dif­ ficulties, and overcome them; grace enough to confess your sins, and‘for­ sake them; patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished; charity enough to see some good in your neighbor; faith enough to make real the things of God; hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future; desire enough to do your best to accomplish the thing worthwhile; thought enough for those we can help along the way. -4th Estate Perspectives SYD FLETCHER I never make mistakes. Well, not often. Would you believe one or two a day? One of the biggest errors that I made as a beginning teacher was in sending a child home to get her mathematics notebook. Now that may sound like a minor thing but it added quite a few gray hairs to an otherwise brightly-coloured head. The school was in a little village and the girl’s house was not more than a block away. As a matter of fact you could see its roof from the classroom window. The young lady and I had had several discussions about unfinished work and when she said this particular morning that she had left it at home, I decided to call her bluff. “You go home and get it,” I said, “And by iWMIKEaEE George it had better be done!” She left. Shortly after that I made my first error. I didn’t call home to let her mother know her daughter was coming. Now, as it turn­ ed out mother was not home but that was beside the point. I still should have called. The girl’s brother was in the classroom also. When she didn’t return in about fi- teen minutes he volunteered that maybe his mother had kept the girl home to do some work. I accepted that as reasonable. My second mistake. At noon the brother returned but without his sister. Again I assumed momentarily that the girl was staying home to do work for mother. That assump­ tion was immediately proven wrong when the mother ‘phoned inquiring about the whereabouts of her daughter. At that point I became very much aware of my errors and became a little worried. Frantic, you might say. I deputized about ten of my Grade 7 class and we began a search of the im­ mediate neighbourhood, all sorts of unpleasant visions running through my head. Mother appeared in a car, quite upset, and after a brief consultation with m$ was about to drive off. Just then the brother came walking up and quite nonchalantly said that he had found his sister. Quite disgustedly he remarked, “Oh she was just hiding un­ der the bed. She does that all the time when she gets mad or something.” The mother, now that the whole thing was over, and her child appeared to be at fault, was quite as em­ barrassed as I was relieved. It would seem to me now, that ‘ten years’ hindsight is always better than foresight, that I was probably putting a lot of pressure on the girl and that there were probably many better ways to get her to succeed in her school work than the ones I had been us­ ing. Hopefully we both learned something out of it. I guess that’s the name of the game. While some of the confusion over responsibilities for recreation was cleared at last week’s special meeting, it’s a topic that still warrants more dis­ cussion and some clarification of guidelines for all those involved. One of the basic problems that exists is that recreation in Exeter is con­ trolled by an area board, and while local citizens have the numerical con­ trol of that board, it is still not equal to the financial share they assume. The operation of recreational programs and facilities in Exeter this year is expected to cost taxpayers something in the area of $52,000, which represents about $10,000 for each of the five votes it carries on the South Huron Rec Centre board of management. On the other hand, Usborne is ex­ pected to contribute $4,000, which represents only $2,000 for each of its two votes and Stephen will contribute $1,200 for its single vote on the board. While that is somewhat inequitable, it becomes even more so when con­ sideration is given to the fact that the townships decree exactly what max­ imum they will pay towards the recreation deficit, while Exeter is forc­ ed to pick up the balance whatever it may be. Even though that entire system may appear to be inequitable, it must be remembered that before the establish­ ment of the SHRC board, neither township contributed directly to any of the program or facility costs in Exeter on a direct basis, so even the present system is an improvement over that situation. And to paint the picture more clear­ ly, it must also be explained that both townships contribute funds to recrea­ tion programs and facilities in their own municipalities beyond that which they contribute to Exeter’s bills. ★*★ While it therefore must be agreed that Exeter taxpayers never had it so good as far as the financial arrangements are concerned, the point Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 imes - Advocate 6m* HW«a, Nm* MMMmv K * M** LmMHm M7> SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by J. W. Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager -- Harry DeVries , .'/to - Amalgamated 1924 Business Manager — Dick Jongkind Published Each Wednesday Morning Phone 235-1331 af Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386(*CNA SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $11.00 Per Year; USA $22.00 that keeps cropping up is that those arrangements were intended primarily to reflect the townships’ interest in the South Huron Rec Centre, and they have now expanded to cover all recreation facilities and programs in Exeter. The point is, of course, that the three township representatives who in fact end up helping to formulate policies regarding recreation programs in Ex­ eter, have little interest in some of those programs as far as their own municipalities are concerned. For ex­ ample, it is of little consequence to Usborne whether the wading pool in Victoria Park operates or if there is a softball diamond available for Exeter youngsters at the community park. Exeter residents have been fortunate in the type of representatives who have been named from the townships to the SHRC board to date. They have been extremely conscientious in their-ap­ proach to recreation programs design­ ed primarily for Exeter residents and have gone beyond the call of duty in the operation of the rec centre itself. However, there is no guarantee that problems will not arise in the future through township representatives not giving, local needs the consideration they warrant, and in fact it would appear to be unfair to even ask township residents to help formulate recreation programs in Exeter. While it may be argued that Exeter can control the voting on the SHRC board, there is the possibility through lack of attendance where the township representatives could have the edge, thereby vetoing or instituting a program against the wishes of Ex­ eter’s representatives or approving the expenditure of Exeter tax dollars when their own municipality would not be contributing anything more than the pre-arranged maximum. *** In short, it’s a rather questionable arrangement from the standpoint of everyone concerned and it appears sen­ sible that some new guidelines be con- J). sidered in view of the confusion that is evident in the responsibilities between Exeter council, the SHRC board and the advisory sub-committee. Nothing was straightened out in par­ ticular when it was decided that the SHRC board, and not council, should be making the appointments to the ad­ visory sub-committee. In fact, it com­ pounded the problem in that people who are mainly interested in recrea­ tion in Exeter were made solely answerable to the board which is of course made up of representatives of three municipalities. It would appear to be a rather simple solution to have the SHRC board responsible only for the rec centre facility and leave other facilities and programs in the hands of Exeter residents, but that too has several draw-backs. In the first place, staff members are involved in two pursuits and therefore would end up with two sets of bosses, and in recreation, even one group of bosses is almost -too much to handle. That solution also fails to recognize the fact that township residents are in­ volved in some of the other activities and facilities, such as swimming and gymnastics. The more plausible-solution appears to be the establishment of a full area recreation board similar to the setup in the St. Marys area. It is evident that the ministry of recreation and culture is pushing in this direction and future grants may well hinge on the three municipalities at least getting together to-pool their resources for the benefit of all, similar to the area fire board. Exeter council should take some leadership in exploring those possibilities with their township counterparts, who may now be more receptive than in the past in view of the fact each has extended its own lineup of facilities since an area board was considered a few years ago. Zfy IF. Roger Worth Two'years ago, Sydney, N.S.businessman Harry Web­ ber developed a program called Atlantic Plus, an at­ tempt to convince consum­ ers and retailers to purchase locally produced goods, cre­ ating jobs in the region. A year later, both the On­ tario and federal govern­ ments enthusiastically back­ ed schemes to promote Cana­ dian products, pointing out that consumer spending on Canadian made goods could help reduce the nagging un­ employment problem. Other provinces backed various schemes to a greater or lesser degree. , The result: Ottawa’s “Buy Canadian” program, after a slow start and a helpful as­ sist from a devalued Cana­ dian dollar, finally seems to be having a positive impact in the marketplace. “The momentum is still building but we’re already a minor success,” says Jeff Smith of the federal Depart­ ment of Industry, Trade & Roger Worth is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Commerce. “A recent study indicates awareness for Ca­ nadian made products has in­ creased dramatically during the last year.” Smith’s department acts as an umbrella organization, co-ordinating the efforts of government and private sec­ tor organizations pressing Canadians to buy goods pro­ duced in this country. For years, through a vari­ ety of incentives, Canadians have been pushed to buy made-in-Canada goods. But this is the first time, it seems, that a concerted effort has been made to tackle the prob­ lem head-on, at the emotion­ al level. Canadians are now being told through advertising, la­ beling systems and other low- key promotions that buying Canadian made products is worthwhile, and why. The devalued Canadian dollar, of course, has helped spur interest, making Cana­ dian goods dramatically more price competitive. Smaller Japanese made cars, for ex­ ample, that sold for less than S4,000 two years ago, are now worth S5,200 or more, mainly because of devalua­ tion. Meanwhile, Ottawa and many of the provinces are re­ assessing purchasing policies with a view to increasing Ca­ nadian content without ruf­ fling the feathers of the coun­ try’s major trading partners. At the federal level, for example, it appears the De­ partment of Supply & Ser­ vices, which already buys about 80% of its needs from Canadian based firms, is mov­ ing a step down, attempting to expand access for smaller firms seeking sub-contracts from the big suppliers. For people like Ottawa’s Jeff Smith and Sydney’s Harry Webber, the total num­ ber of jobs created because consumers turn to Canadian made goods is almost unim­ portant. What’s fundamental to them is not overall statis­ tics, but the fact that some­ thing is being done about the problem. “We have to have confi­ dence in ourselves, that’s what matters,” says Webber, a graduate lawyer who runs the family’s retail clothing business in Sydney. His view differs little from that of Smith who says: “What we’re concern­ ed about is improving the consumer attitude toward local products, be they made regionally or nationally. Just as long as the goods are Ca­ nadian made.” oown memory lane Sugar and Spice Dispensed by Smiley Small beefs I can muddle around with a metaphor, search for a simile, fool with a phrase, or wait for the very right word to come, by the hour, without expressing any emotion other than benignancy. But the small, inanimate things that besiege our daily life drive me into a fury that knows no bounds. It’s not the big things. I’ve mastered them. I can stand behind a mechanic or a plumber and nod knowledgeably with the best of them. Any damfool knows that the driveshaft is connected to>the main brake cylinder or the hot pipe is now connected to the coal pipe, or whatever they’re trying to tell you. It’s the little things, the things you are too ashamed to get an expert for, but haven’t a clue how to do yourself, that make me break things, take the name of the Lord in vain, accuse my wife and children of dreadful things, and generally act like an idiot. Who’s going to call up a typewriter repairman, for example, to change the ribbon on his typewriter? Or a carpenter to come and screw a couple of tiny nuts into a doorknob that keeps falling off? My wife has just been through one of my experiences with the little things, and after ten minutes of it, she ran into another room, white and trembling, and locked the door. She bought me a typewriter ribbon at Christmas. We don’t usually buy presents for each other, the last few years. The children and grandboys take us for such a ride that we’ve declared a moratorium. But her love for me was too deep. She bought me a typewriter ribbon. Mainly because you could only read the type of the old ribbon with a magnifying glass. It made an impres­ sion on the paper but you couldn’t see it. It was more like Braille than typing. But I was hanged if I was going to spend a weekend changing the ribbon, so I just went on. Finally, she typed out some ad­ dresses, broke the ribbon, and prac­ tically ruined the whole blasted machine, as I pointed out in a few ill- chosen words. Well, I had to get this column written (and it’ll be late, you can depend on it.’ So I tore into the bloody thing. Half an hour later, the air was blue, I was black to the waist with ink, and the fool thing was typing in red. “Couldn’t you just sort of switch the spools around and turn it upside down, or something?” she queried in a very small voice. “SHUT UP, YOU DUMMY!” or words to that effect. “AaaTgh! ” Anyway, there you are. It’s not one of my few admirable qualities. I admit it. But I’m stuck with it. And the people who are stuck with me are also stuck with it. I can start screwing a Couple of one- eighth-inch screws into a doorknob, and wind up with somebody locked in the bathroom for a week. I can put an average, standard stapler on the blink in 45 seconds, with staples all over the room, and wire irreparably bound around the thing you punch. It’s all rather hard to understand. I am not particularly inept or stupid. Nor am I particularly clumsy. I was a pretty fair athlete with bags of coor­ dination. I drive a car reasonably well, I learned to fly aircraft with thousands of parts and thousands of horsepower. Yet I go berserk when confronted by a typewriter ribbon. On second thought, maybe I can un­ derstand it. I get it from my Dad. He was a gentle man, and yet I’ve seen him fly into a fury over nothing. First car he ever had, back in the twenties. I didn’t see it, but I’ve heard the story. The dealer showed him how to operate it, drove around the block a couple of times, picked up his down payment and turned my Dad loose. He in turn, picked up my mother, drove her aroynd the block a couple of times, headed for home, and drove right through the back of the barn that was to serve as a garage. And he blam­ ed my mother! Another time, I saw him cut his finger, when the knife slipped as he was carving a roast. He didn’t say a word. Just flung some blood on the tablecloth, turned purple, sawed the edge of the carving knife on the side of the plate, and ruihed both. Another time, I saw him break his 55 Years Ago Messrs. Thomas and Harry Coates and Verne Pincombe returned home Saturday, after spending some time in Detroit. Mr. Wes. Simmons, who left a few weeks ago for Fillmore, Saskatchewan, to settle his business affairs there, returned to Exeter on Monday and will resume his business, which he recently purchased from Mr. D. Russell. Mr. William Northcott has installed a radio. Mayor W.J. Heaman was in Clinton on Friday night. Mr. Benson Tuckey has secured a position with the Raleigh Drug Company of London, and has left for that city. 30 Years Ago Ed Hunter-Duvar has completed the erection of a motel, comprising of four cabins on the property purchased just south of Ex­ eter on the highway. W/C W.C. Van Camp and the personnel of the Cen­ tralia Airport are this week celebrating the 25th anniver­ sary of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Mr. and Mrs. L.J. Penhale returned home Saturday after an extended visit with their son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Keith Colby, Victoria, Australia and their two grandchildren which they saw for the first time. 20 Years Ago Damage tolled $16,000 in two early morning fires which destroyed farm buildings in Usborne twp. this week. A large barn own­ ed by Fred Knip was lost, along with contents in­ cluding a new combine and Over 125 pigs. At about the same time a driveshed and colony house owned by Gilbert Johns, Elmville, went up in flames, causing the loss of equipment and 500 chicks. Miss Sheila Fahner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Fahner, RR 1, Ex­ eter, won a $50 music scholarship in the clarinet class at Stratford Kiwanis festival last week. Richard Stade, Zurich goalie, and Craig Chapman, Hensail defenseman, were judged the best individual players in the third annual shamrock tournament in Lucan. E.D. Bell, Q.C., outlined father and son arrangements for family farms at a South Huron Junior Farmers meeting. The Exeter lawyer describ­ ed the services available -to farmers for establishing agreements for the transfer of property. 15 Years Ago Acknowledging all con­ tributions and pledges to date, the district swimming pool committee announced over $14,500 had been raised. Co-chairman Mel Gaiser said construction could start within a few weeks. Chief of police E.R. Davis was guest speaker at the St. Patrick’s meeting of the 1st Hensail Brownie Pack held in the United Church. He spoke on “Safety”. Described by government officials as one of the most modern processing line for turnips, the installation at Exeter Produce and Storage Limited washes, dries and waxes turnips in a con­ tinuous process. The line ac­ complishes in seven minutes what formerly required 12 to 18 hours to complete by the conventional rack drying method. big toe. By design, not by accident. He had had five “blowouts” in ten miles. That was in the days when your tube blew out, you had to jack up the car, take off the wheel, extract tube from the tire, patch the tube, and go through the whole process in reverse. After the fourth time, the air pump, hand operated, refused to function. He calmly stood back, looked the whole operation over, and tried to kick the entire ap­ paratus, wheel rim, tire, tube and air pump, over the nearest fence. He collapsed with a groan, and my mother, who was an excellent engineer and repairwoman, as is my wife, had to wait for the next motorist to help out, while my Pad lay in the back seat, muttering through his teeth words that I have since learned are palliative to such a situation. So it ain’t my fault. H’s the genes.