HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1978-07-06, Page 4Pflige 4 Timas-Advocate, July 1978
Avoid real issues
Despite the fact the proposed
Quebec referendum or Prime Minister
Trudeau’s constitutional package con
tinue to draw comment from a few
Canadians, neither issue is of as much
concern to Canadians as the continuing
high rate of inflation and high un
employment.
Figures released last week showed
that food prices jumped an alarming
four and a half percent in the past
month, and whether they realize it or
not, that is the type of problem
Canadians in every province wish their
political leaders would direct their
energies to find solutions.
While the senior levels of govern
ment can’t be expected to solve all the
problems induced by people who con
tinue to demand an unrealistic stan
dard of living, most of the current
political unrest would be resolved if the
bread and butter issues of inflation and
unemployment were seriously tackled.
Don’t be a statistic “But Mavis, can we AFFORD all this happiness?”
—.........—.
memory lane J '0
Within the next two months, area
residents will be heading for cooling
waters, whether they be in a backyard,
local river or lakeshore.
Those trips will be enjoyable in the
majority of cases, but a few will be
marred by tragedies. Last year, there
were 396 drownings across Ontario,
and the number of tragedies reported
so far this year indicates that the
number could increase. Many of the
victims will be children.
There’s nothing as refreshing as a
dip to beat the summer heat, but ob
viously it can only be enjoyed with,
common sense and a high regard for
safety rules and supervision.
Don’t mar your summer by becom
ing one of the tragic statistics!
BATT’N AROUND ............ with the editor
Deficit isn't so great perhaps
Last thing we need
The decision of a study committee
in Huron and Perth Counties against
the establishment of a district health
council is justified by the outcome of a
recent gathering in Toronto. Municipal
representatives, meeting with
members of the provincial government
said that tax money is being wasted
through the province by the councils.
The meeting was told that it is
costing the region of Peel $45,000 a year
for a health council executive director.
Mississauga Aiderman Hazel
McCallion said the next high-salaried
executive will be a researcher and, of
course, additional clerical staff.
Municipalities can handle their own
health services without creating expen
sive bureaucracies, she said.
William Thake, of Leeds County,
said boards of health are moving
beyond the control of municipalities.
‘‘Don’t make them like the school
boards, where they’re kingdoms unto
themselves,” he said.
A spokesman for the government
insisted that local councils have too
small a base to handle health care
properly and that overlapping of ser
vices by neighboring hospitals is a cost
ly waste of money. He also said that
government will continue to insist that
20 percent of the representation on the
board of a heal th council or a board of
health must be from the municipality.
Obviously 20 percent representation
leaves the province well in command of
all decisions which the health council
faces.
The argument that provincial ap
pointees can do a better job of
operating health services than can
local board members is one with which
we cannot agree. There are many ex
cellent smaller hospitals across the
province, and every one of them was
built and operated for years by locally
appointed or elected boards. The local
board has a better understanding of the
community’s needs and can provide for
a much more understanding attitude by
hospital personnel than is possible in
the city hospitals.
The last thing we need in this part
of the world is more centralization.
Listowel Banner
Brownie points
Ontario Premier Bill Davis chalk
ed up lots of Brownie points last week
with educators as he asserted that
much more responsibility must be
taken by parents for the discipline of
their children.
Premier Davis admitted that as a
parent, he often does not fulfill the
parenting role as well as he could. Ap
parently Mr. and Mrs. Davis hate to
punish their children for acts of in
subordination and those misdemeanors
all children are guilty of from time to
time. “But we should” Davis told the
reporters following his speech.
Three cheers for Bill Davis . . . and
three cheers for the moms and dads in
this province who teach their children
respect for education, for teachers for
authority, for routine.
Discipline begins at home. If the
home hasn’t instilled the proper at
titudes toward behaviour, the job of the
schools and its teachers is incredibly
difficult. Some might even say it is im
possible. No one in seven hours a day,
five days a week for ten months out of a
year, can hope to effectively alter the
patterns learned by children who since
their birth have lived in an overly per
missive home.
The sooner modern parents resume
the role of disciplinarians as well as
loving, giving mothers and fathers, the
sooner the school can achieve better,
more consistent results from proven
teaching methods.
And in a similar vein, the sooner
parents begin speaking with a civil
tongue to their young children, the
sooner children will learn to converse
properly. There is no intention here to
revive the argument about the filthy
language in a few of the books used in
some of the high schools for study by
senior students in this county. But
there is acknowledgement of the fact
that some of today’s parents are
teaching by example in their own
homes, the same vulgar language used
in the books . , . with perhaps a few
phrases thrown in.
As Premier Davis has suggested,
the habits learned at home are hard to
forget. By the same token, the prin
ciples demonstrated from day to day in
the home are with children a lifetime.
It is something for all parents to think
about.
Goderich Signal Star
One of the concerns often expressed
in this area is the fact that job oppor
tunities for young people are very
limited and, as a result, most have to
head for nearby urban centres or com
munities scattered across the province
to seek locations in which they can em
bark on their chosen vocations.
This was extremely evident for those
attending last week’s retirement party
for SHDHS teacher Glen Mickle.
Former students of the local high
school were on hand for the event, and
those who were still living in this area
were in the minority.
The situation would appear to add
credence to the suggestion that South
Huron does in fact export its young
people.
However, a couple of nights later,
the writer attended the graduation for
the grade eight class at Exeter Public
School and noted a statistic that was in
sharp contrast to. that of the retirement
party.
That was the fact that of the 125 or so
parents represented by the graduating
class, there were only 20 who had been
graduates of the same school
themselves.
The balance were people who had
come to this community from other
parts of the province (a couple even
from other nations) to seek their
livelihood.
There were policemen, doctors,
ministers, teachers, businessmen,
nurses, lawyers, salesmen, farmers,
company executives and numerous
other trades and professions
represented by those parents who were
in fact “imports” to the community.
The retirement party crowd
represented most of the same trades,
professions and assorted occupations
who were “exports” from the com
munity.
So, while we possibly have a slight
trade deficit when the imports are
balanced against the exports, the
deficit is perhaps not as great as many
would expect.
* A- ★
Graduation exercises have been the
order of the day in the area for the past
week or so. Parents have been
watching proudly as their offspring
walk across platforms to receive cer
tificates for the various levels of
education which they have completed.
The kids have foresaken their jeans
and imprinted t-shirts for frilly, long-
flowing dresses and high-fashion suits
to display a sophistication that leaves
most of their parents breathless in sur
prise.
However, beneath the pride, there is
also a sense of concern, While gradua
tion program speakers in the past have
been able to stand before their young
audiences and relate the vast oppor
tunities open to them in this country,
that is just not the case today.
Job opportunities are, unfortunately,
at a premium and speakers who
suggest that young people need only
further their education and display
determination and enthusiasm to at
tain their ambitions are not being en
tirely realistic.
There are many “dead ends” and it
suggests that young people will need a
certain degree of luck to go with their
determination and enthusiasm to find
an opening to pursue whatever voca
tion they may choose.
It also requires a great deal of
guidance, both at the parental and
school level, to indicate to young peo
ple what opportunities may be
available to them when they reach the
end of their education,
* A *
In responding to an expression of ap
preciation given the parents at the EPS
graduation last week, Jack Underwood
alluded to the rather uncertain future
T -/x
facing the young people when he noted
that the hope of their parents was that
they would be able to do the things they
want to upon completing their educa
tion,
It is in fact a hope, unlike the situa
tion which faced most of those parents
on their graduation when the oppor
tunities to fulfill their goals were much
greater.
However, Principal Jim Chapman
was probably correct in his assertion
that many of life’s problems would be
non-existent for the graduates if they
followed two key suggestions: to be a
person of quality, and to make the most
of their lives.
“You will need the courage, dis
cipline and self energy each of you
has,” he told the young people, noting
that they would also have to make use
of their imagination and to reach as
high as they can.
While young people facing a bleak
job market may tend to think society
has let them down, they should temper
their thoughts by realizing that their
grandparents had to contend with a
depression, while many of their
parents went through the agony of a
world war.
Neither of those events provided a
bed of roses either, yet by using their
courage, discipline and self energy
they came through those trying days to
build an affluent society.
No generation has succeeded without
using imagination and reaching as high
as possible, and if the young people
follow the sage words of advice given
them by their graduation speakers,
they too should be able to attain the
“good life”.
Sugar and Spice
Dispensed by Smiley
Demon urges teasing
imes
FuMithad Each Thursday Morning
df Exator, Ontario
Second Clast Moil
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Uss#!
Advocate Eifabiished 1881
I don’t receive many letters from
young people, with comments on my
ideas in this column. That’s to be ex
pected. Young people, quite naturally,
are extremely self-centered. I know I
was.
They are becoming extremely aware
of their own “self”, their in
dividualism. They are extremely in
terested in sex, love, some kind of
belief they can hang onto, some guru
with all the answers. And good luck to
them, even though there is no such
thing.
They are not interested in the
maudlin meanderings of a middle-aged
(sic!) man who doesn’t seem to know
from one week to the next what he real
ly believes in.
It’s not that I don’t get along with
young people. From the age of about
one to twenty-one, they and I are on the
best of terms. There’s only one fly in
the fun. I can’t help teasing them. It’s a
rotten quality and I’m always sorry
when I do, but some demon urges me
on.
For example, my older grandson hit
back when I’d needle him by saying,
“Jolly good! ”, when he’d try to make a
Tarzan leap and land on his ear. He
responded with, “Jolly bum-bum”, to
let me know he didn’t like it. By saying
a bad word, he put me in my place.
He underlined his individuality by
such remarks as, “No way”, when I’d
try to tease him into something he
didn’t want to, or couldn’t do, “Bugger
off” when I’d pretend to mock anger
and threaten dire punishment. He
didn’t learn these terms, you’ll be hap
py to know, from his gran, grandad,
mother or father. He learned them
from the other little punks at day-care.
Teenagers are just as easily teased,
and pretty vulnerable. After spending
nine months goofing off, they come up
to you as exam-time looms, with a tor
tured expression, as though they had to
go to the bathroom, and could hardly
wait, and whimper, “Sir. could you tell
me if I have to write the final exam?”
I reply to a freckled redhead, “Not
unless you have freckles and red hair.”
There are all kinds of variations on
this. If it’s a boy, I might say, “Not if
you can take me to a trout stream and
guarantee I catch my limit.” You can
see the wheels spinning wildly in his
motorcycle-haunted mind, this boy
who’s never caught a trout in his life.
They HATE me.
From about twenty-one for the next
ten years, I can scarcely stand young
people, They become pompous. They
think their mildly socialist ideas, so
hackneyed you can’t believe it, are
fresh-minted. They want to change the
world and you: your religion, your
ideas, your life-style.
After that they’re not so bad, and
they have acquired that rueful resigna
tion that most civilized people get after
pounding their heads against life long
enough to soften them irredeemably.
From about forty on, readers and I
are on the same set of rails, and though
they can and do attack me furiously, at
least they know, most of them, that
there is more gray in the world then
there is black and white.
Their letters are much more in
teresting than those of young people:
witty, astringent, pejorative,
sometimes brutal, often kindly,
perceptive, sympathetic, haggifig.
They have lived, and they know that
the world has them by the tail, not vice
versa.
In response to a recent column, half
joking, asking if anyone had a job for
my daughter, I received a great letter
from A. R, Kirk of Renfrew.
“Yes, I have a job . ., New job re
quirements include a new baby ih 1979,
and another new baby every two years
uhtil 1989, when she and her husband
will be the parents of eight healthy
children, That was an average family
in the early and best development
years of Canada.”
He goes on to explain that my
daughter would never be out of work,
“She will remodel and make clothing
for her children and herself from the
abundant supply of slightly used
clothing you can get at a rummage sale
for a song.”
She will with the help of her husband
and you her father, and your wife her
mother, have a large fruit and
vegetable garden: the children will
help.”
Mr. Kirk goes on, seriously, and I’m
half inclined to agree with him. But he
doesn’t know a few things about our
Kim and her kids. In the first place,
they already look as though they’d been
dressed from a rummage sale, without
any re-modelling.
In the second, where.do they get the
land for this big garden? Young people
today have very little chance of ever
owning a home of their own, let alone
one with garden space.
What really hurts, though, is when he
suggests that such a life would in
terfere with my vacation trips to exotic
places. “Think of the pleasure you will
have, using vacation money saved, to
help out the finances of your
grandchildren in small sums where
most needed.”
Dear Mr. Kirk: Those small sums
have prevented me from having a de
cent vacation for years, A penny saved
is a penny earned, but a dollar to my
daughter is a dollar I’ll never see
again. Thanks anyway,
Mr, Kirk and his wife are 78 and 74
respectively, with seven of a family
and twenty-one grandchildren. He
would like to live to be 100 years old,
“life is so interesting.”
Bless you, sir. May you do so. May
you be pinching your wife lovingly at
98, and she responding.
But don’t ask me to take on six more
grandboys, I said to my wife the other
night, “I have a feeling in my bones,
just a premonition, that some disaster
is about to befall me.”
She answered, “Oh, didn’t I tell you?
The boys are coming for the weekend,”
55 Years Aga
The local Orangemen
together with a number of
citizens attended the 12th of
July .celebrations at Strat
ford.
Workmen are making
progress in transforming the
vacant post office site into a
playground. The excavation
has been filled in and the
ground is being worked up
and levelled,
Mr. Mervin Cann has
resigned his position at
Cole’s drug store and has
accepted a similar position
in London.
Bett’s Bakery has install
ed a bread mixer and will
now be able to supply the
public with more and better
bread.
On Monday Mr. Norman
Hockey, barber, had the
misfortune to cut one of his
fingers with a razor and it
required several stitches to
Close the wound.
30 Years Ago
Miss Jean Hennessey has
been successful in passing
her exams at the Grey Beau
ty School, London.
District Orange Lodges to
the number of 3,500
celebrated the anniversary
of the Battle of the Boyne df
at Clinton.
Mrs. Ken McCrae,
Dashwood attended the
International Baby Chick
Association held in St.
Louis, Missouri this week.
Mr. Harry Hoffman
attended a post graduate
course in embalming held at
Banting Institute, Toronto.
Induction service was held
for Rev. H, Currie in Credi
tion United church on Fri
day evening.
20 Years Ago
Bob Fletcher was
successful in passing his ex
aminations at the Ontario
School of Embalming,
Toronto in June.
Thursday is Joan Fairfax
day at Grand Bend. She will
be the feature attraction at
Grand Bend Lions Club’s
Holiday Ball at Oakwood Inn
and will tour the summer
resort during the day. She
formerly lived in Exeter
when her husband, Tom
Higgins, was a member of
the RCAF at Centralia.
A.J. Sweitzer, former
president of Exeter Lions
and now an international
councellor of the organiza
tion attended the Lions Club
convention in Chicago last
week.
15 Years Ago
Rapid completion of the
sewerage project here
means the system will
probably be ready for opera
tion by next weekend.
About 300 children
registered for this year’s an
nual vacation Bible School.
Canadian Canners Ltd.
has rnuved into a double
shift to process the enlarged
acreage of sweet peas.
About 380 people are being
employed in the two shifts.
About 85 carloads attend
ed the first drive-in gospel
service at the Starlite
theatre, Shipka Sunday
night.
Marilyn Hearn, 12-year-
old daughter of Reeve and
Mrs. Ivan Hearn, Lucan
gave the valedictory address
at the banquet for Lucan PS
graduates and received the
$10 bursary for the most out
standing pupil of the year.
JL hmk small
by Jim Smith
Happy Birthday
111 years ago, a number of
regions lying above the north
ern border of the United States
discovered that they shared
two serious problems: a fear
of being absorbed by their
neighbour to the south and se
vere inequalities in the wealth
of these regions. In order to
prevent the weaker regions
from becoming states of the
Union, the stronger regions
agreed to share their wealth
with their weaker counterparts.
Ill years. As nations go,
Canada is still a pup. But there
are serious signs of decay and
indications that Canada, while
she may live to be 112 or 113,
may not last much longer.
In the beginning - and this
may be hard to believe - it was
not necessary to use July 1st
as a propaganda tool, a time
for slick advertising agencies
to sell us Confederation like
another brand of tooth paste
or bubbly soft drink. Domin
ion Day was just a welcome
opportunity to enjoy a sum
mer’s day off work and feel
peaceful.
Unfortunately, although
Canadians have, until recently,
taken Confederation for grant
ed, forces were building up
which would threaten the unity.
In particular, we failed to deal
with the two issues that creat
ed Confederation in the first
place. Today, there is more re
gional disparity than ever and
Canada has never been more
dependent on the United
States.
After 111 years, the poorest
Canadian region - Atlantic
Canada - is farther behind the
wealthiest region - Alberta -
than our forefathers dreamed
possible. Meanwhile, our poli
ticians are leading the country
towards a free trade agree
ment with the United States -
a move that would doom Ca
nada to a future based on the
sale of non-renewable re
sources.
Ill years ago, Sir John A.
Macdonald designed what he
believed to be (he logical Na
tional Policy. Today, we still
follow Macdonald’s grand de
sign of tariff barriers, cheap
resources and a centralized
producing region supported
by subsidized transportation
of goods to the outlying re
gions. But the National Policy
has not worked; not even the
industrialized core of the coun
try is strong today as a result
of fierce competitive pressures
from the Third World.
Simply stated, Confedera
tion has been a sorry failure.
Which is not to say that Con
federation is a bad idea - only
that the implementation of the
concept has not been up to
scratch. We now face only two
possibilities: either Confedera
tion is restructured to live up
to its original goals (which
means that all regions must be
allowed to develop their own
innovative industries) or else
the union will dissolve.
Ail the puerile good-cheer
advertising jingles in the world
won’t overcome the fact that
Confederation has not been
good for a great many Cana
dians. Ottawa owes us all a re
structured Confederation rath
er than hoping that a satura
tion advertising campaign will
obscure the flaws.
Oh yes. Happy birthday,
Canada.
e
e
“Think small” is an editorial
message from the Canadian
Federation Of Independent
Business c