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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 lt«gi»trafion Number 0386 Raid Id Advance Circulation September 30,1975 5,40^ SUBSCRIPTION RAt«$: Canada $1 LOO Per Year; USA $22.60 SERVING CANADA’S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS ’A’ and ABC Published by J. W. Eedy Publitdfidni limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Row Haugh Advert king Manager — Jim Beckett Compajitibh Manager —- Harry DeVriet Business Manager — Dick Jongkihtf Phone 235-1331 Time* ctfobliihed 1873 Learn about cold water survival. Yell to us for help. Amalgamated 1924 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