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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1979-10-24, Page 2IINUSIE LS ON TAN 10 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1979 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario By McLean Bros. Publishers Limited Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Pat Langlois - Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $10.00 a Y'ear. Others $20.00 a Year. Single Copies 25 cents each. 1GNA BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1979 t i31' ti i4e CONTINUATION SCHOOL, 1921 Mrs.. T. Merner Wood of Chatham sent this old photo to the Post thinking a few subscribers might like to "look it over and think of former days." Mrs. Wood can identify only her late husband and Archie Ballantyne, on the grass in front. Post readers who can identify more of the students are asked to send the information to our office and we'll run the photo again complete with names. Thank you. Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston The games we play aSTABLIONIO 11173 Brussels Post Give life for Hallowe'en Thousands of Canadian children will be out on "Trick or Treat" visits on Hallowe'en. They will not only be calling on us for treats for themselves. They will carry, to receive our contributions, UNICEF boxes, not to provide goodies, but the essentials of life for needy children. Children not as fortunate as they, starving children children who are dying for lack of medical care; from polluted drinking water and unsanitary conditions. This is the Year of the Child. Is it not then appropriate that we give thought, this Hallowe'en, not only to our own, who have so much, but also to those children who have not even the bare necessities to keep them alive? When we hand Hallowe'en treats to the children who visit us, let us remember the many who have little chance to survive without aid. Drop donation in the UNICEF box. Give the gift of safe water; supplies; sanitation; vaccine; maternal and child care; health services; people trained in hygiene and prevention of infection; education, and food. Give life itself to these children who are hungry, sick and dying. Short Shots (Continued from Page 1) to it that their correspondent knows about it. than there is Brussels and area news. them at the Morning. Star Rebekah Lodge Variety Fair, Saturday of this week. This annual event is looked forward to each year. Folks in this community are aware that at the Variety Fair they will find useful used clothing and lovely new things for gift giving. The fair also includes a bake sale and tea room for you to take advantage of. provide a desirable recreational facility for our community. You will be dancing to the music of "Jam." Come and join in the fun. appreciate and support their efforts to young people are working hard to achieve attend the dance-a-thon. Show the Leos you funds for their tennis courts project. These their objective. Put on your dancing shoes, Looking for good bargains? You can find Brussels folks other communities in The Post sips*** * * frolicked in the gathered heaps of fragrant color. Oh to be young again! industriouspeople busily raked. Children writing), beautiful fall days of sunshine and rustled under our feet and the air was hazy and pungent from burning leaves that weekend, smiled and gave us (at time of almost summer warmth Sunday and Mon, day. The fallen autumn glory once again miserable weather she showered on us last know about it. If there is no answer when you call the office 887-6641, call 887-9373. co-operate with us. If you have any item of We would appreciated it. asked repeatedly - we ask again. Please news, drop in, telephone or write and let us the same thing there would be more Brussels news in this paper. The Post has If the people of Brussels and area would do Mother Nature, perhaps repenting of the * 1 * * * * kit 4. * This week I am not saying a word about Unfortunately that is too often true. The football. Teams I were rooting fot were a reason is that'the people of those conirnurii- total disappointment. They lost and they de, ties co-operate with our correspondents served to. Only the Toronto Maple Leafs there. If they have visitors, go visiting or gave me anything to be pleased about. know of any other item of interest, they see Remember how games used to start when we were kids? Remember how someone would shout "Let's choose up sides"? Sometimes it seems we've contin- ued that habit as we grew. People still like to choose up sides but unlike the games of children, the games they play now aren't just for fun. Our side is always right. The other guys are always wrong. People like to see things in simple terms of black and white, us against them and Lord help the guy who tries to find common sense in a middle point. We saw this again last week when the Canadian Union of Public Employees called for the scalp of Dennis McDermott, head of the Canadian Labour Congress because he had the temerity not to support the Canadian Postal Workers in their strike last fall. Earlier we had' the spectacle of activist actress Jane Fonda refusing to criticize Vietnam for the expulsion of thouSands of boat people even though it's the kind of thing that would have sent her on long tirades if the U.S. had done it or even if the U.S. had supported a country elsewhere that had done such a deed. - On the other side of the coin we have those who want to tar and feather Ms. Fonda because of her actions. They prevented her from being appointed to a board dealing with the arts in California because of her "unAmerican activities." There have been rallies across the country to protest against her. It brings up unhappy memories of the McCarthy period in the U.S. when just the hint of some connection with Communism or even socialism might mean you were hauled up in front of a government investigating committee and you might find yourself unable to find work for years to come. It brings to the memory the bumper stickers of the Vietnam protest period when super-patriots proclaimed "Amer- ica, love it or leave it." The same kind of polarization has been part of our history for a long time now in politics. Right now there are people all across the country hoping that Joe Clark and his new government will fall flat on their collective faces, leaving the populace dissatisfied and ready to turn them out at the next election. If they did we would then see a large number Of people who now support the government hoping the new government would fail. If the government fails of course, the country is in trouble but to some people that's preferable to having the "other guys" in power. This paranoid "them against us" psych- ology has long been evident in Canada's biggest continuing headache, the language issue. There are those who see the extension of French language services as a plot by the French Canadians to take over the country. There are those on the other side who see it as a trick to keep Quebec in confederation so that the rest of the country can continue to "exploit" the Quebecois. Probably the saddest evidence of the paranoia left over from the cold war period was the reaction to the Boat People tragedy when some people actually had nerve to suggest that the expulsions were a plot on the part of China and Vietnam to extend Communist and oriental influence. Those people being sent out on the boats to capture the sympathy of North Americans and be rescued and brought over here were the advance agents of a takeover of the world by the Red menace from the East. It's the same kind of sick racism, the kind of unwarranted fear of anything different that led to the interning of thousands of Canadians of Japanese ancestry during the Second World War, one of the saddest acts in Canadian history. On the other side of the racist question. though.,we have some Blacks in the U.S. and some immigrants in Canada who see any personal slight, any unfriendly act by a policeman, any idiotic action by young punks as a sure sign that Canada is racist and anyone with a black, brown, red or yellow skin is discriminated against. We've got our white-skinned idiots but they're not representative of the Canadian people as a whole and those who try to make that out are racist in their own way. These people who choose sides, who see everything as left against right, race against rac e, class against class, who see everything in terms of gigantic plots, what they do is throw out any hope we have of building a peaceful country, a peaceful world. Very seldom is one side all right and the other all wrong. The tendency to choose up sides and remain fanatically loyal to your side no matter what the consequences only makes problems worse. We don't need more team captains in this world; we need more people who refuse to take sides, who refuse to yield up their common sense in favour of loyalty to one side or another. We need people smart enough to stand back and take a look at the arguments Of both sides and try to make the best decision. We need wise men, not fools,