HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1980-04-30, Page 2WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 1980
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 Year.
Others S20.00 a Year. Single Copies 25 cents each.
No discipline, no order
We live in a disciplined world. That is ,not to say we live a
disciplined society. The two are entirely different concepts. Our world
is so disciplined we scarcely think about it. VVe'don't have to. Our
neighboring planets stay in their own orbits and a new day daWns as
surely as evening falls. The seasonscome and go and with, them the
migrations of birds and animals. All about us we see that
self-discipline leads to order.
Now and again something goes akilter and we notice it straight
away. Too much rain leads to raging rivers and mud slides. Prolonged
dry spells lead to drough. Wind out of control packs a destructive
punch beyond belief. An over abundance of army worms can wipe out
an entire year's production of cereal grains. At such times order breaks
down and a kind of chaos rules.
It is odd that we readily recognize the value of discipline in our
world, but attach a kind of secondary importance to discipline in our ,
society. To trained eyes however the disorder arising out of a lack of
discipline in our society is every bit as evident as it is in the world at
large. Once again a kind of chaos results.
The people in a position to see such disorder, tell us it is happening
now, here, with segments of the population — not on a large scale, but
large enough to cause problems.
What is happening is a classic example of the lack of discipline.
Parents refusing to discipline their offspring and the offspring refusing
to discipline themselves. In some cases, parents refusing to discipline
themselves.
As a result we have juveniles flying off on tangents, committing acts
of vandalism, disrupting the socie ty of their peers. We have parents
flaunting law and order by tearing up court summonses in front of
police who have delivered them to juveniles. In short we have a kind of
chaos.
The reasons for such. undisciplined behaviour are as numerous as
the undisciplined themselves. But it all boils down to one thing: certain
individuals lack enough of a sense of responsibility to discipline either
themselves or their children. There's a lot of babble these days about
instilling a sense of self-esteem, self-worth, self-confidence or what
have you in young people. Sometimes we think it would be much
more beneficial to instill a sense of the worth of others -- in other
words, respect for your fellow inhabitants of the earth. We talk a lot
about rights these days, but not much about responsibility.
The problem in what to do about the pockets of chaos. It is a problem
presently plaguing our police forces and social workers. Suggestions
run the gamut from building the young people a drop-in-centre to
throwing the book at them. One elderly gentleman whose opinion we
respect told us he figures much of the trouble stems from all of the
recreational activities now being held on Sunday. Instead of attending
church on Sundays the way they used to, he notes that young people
today are bused to hockeyd games here, there and all over. He might
have something. We recall when we came to town about 15 years ago,
a survey had just been taken of children attending Sunday school in
Listowel. We were astounded to learn that at that time over 90 per cent
of all school children in town also attended Sunday school regularly.
Whatever the reason,lt is obvious a growing number of young people
not only find self-discipline tough to manage; but self-entertainment as
well.
If you think you've got an answer, get, in touch with your police
department, recreational director, or anyone else you think is in a
position to do something.
(The Listowet Banner)
'Listen to a good capitalist and you might
think every good thing :in> the world flows
from private initiative, Listen to a socialist
and, you might think government is the
prime mover of all good things. But in real
life there's another source of -many of the
best things in our lifestyle. -
Take a look 'around your Community -at
many of the things that °add a little fun, a
little colour to,Your life and the chances are
they come not:from: Privite enterprise or
from the government but: rom the, hard work
Of volunteers. Volunteers are: the, hidden
gold mine in every community. The differ,
• ence between a ,coomunity. that , is ; an
• exciting, vibrant place:and one that is dull
and on the' verge of death is often the health
of volunteer organizations.
The , role of 'the volunteer in the small
community is even more visible 'than in the
city. If you go to, the 'hospital around these
parts the chances are that hospital Was'
originally Willi through the' hard work of
'volunteers. Although the government may
today, provide the bulk of the funds needed
to run the hospitahvolutiteers are likely still
very much involved. Hospital auxiliaries run
by energetic local women often provide
funds for new equipment for the hOspitals.
The board of the hospital is staffed with
volunteers. Volunteers often help out doing '
non-medical jobs on the wards.
HOCKEY •
Take your y9ungster to the hockey
arena and the chances are the volunteer will
be very much in evidence again. Most often
the coach of the hockey team will ,be, a
volunteer as will the manager and the
members of the organization that runs the
whole hockey program. So will the pet;ple
behind a figure skating program.
Most likely there wouldn't be an arena to
go to at all if not for the hard, tireless work of
volunteers.
Your .church depends heavily on
votnnteers. There may be"organizations
help the elderly that are run, by volunteers. f,
You may' have a park, a bowling green, a'
tennis court or a swimming pool that
wouldn't be there if not for the work of
volunteers. Arts organizations, whether in
small towns or big cities, whether amatuer or,
professional, are dependent on the hard
work of,individuals to keep going. .
The volunteers may be members of
service cl.:ubs that combine social functions
with fund raising to gain money needed for
various local projects. Nearly every
community, no matter how small$has a Lions, a Lioness group, a Kinsmen, a
Kinettes, a Legion, a Legion Auxiliary, a_
Rotary Or a Women's Institute filled with
men and women whose' work ends up,
making life better for all the people in the
community. There are others in each
community who join organizations that have
specific goals such as keeping a hospital
..,:Witholltv0-10.014$:
running or running a theatre or Orchestra
Yet role,
',OVERLOOKED
the the ro se of
volunteers across the country is dreadfully
overlooked. They are`the tie with our past, to
the days when people got' together to do
things for, themselves,: In. too many
communities they are threatened ,with
becoming a thing •of the past as we rush to
having everything that can't be provided by
private enterprise being done by . govern-
went instead.
In some communities it is becoming
increasingly hard to volunteer organizations.
to fundraise because people say "Ah, they'll
just add it to my tax bill anyway if the
volunteers don't raise the money so why
shopld I give twice?"- That happened in.
many towns, particUlarly the larger ones, a
couple of years back when arenas were being
built.
lu sickness that has infested larger
Centres particularly but threatens smaller •
ones as well.. People complain abOut the
big Aess of government. but when some
thing comes up that they want, they expeet
the government to provide itonot themselves.
ME—ISM
People too, in their retreat into
"me-ism" aren't, so willing, to give up their
time to help in volunteer organizations.
People are filled so much with their, own
desires that the needs of the community 'are
very much secondary. Why go to a service
club meeting to help build a new park when
the crab grass in my own back yard needs
fertilizing.
The work of volunteer organizations is
also going to suffer because of the move:.
meet of women into the ', labour force.
Whether in small towns or; big. cities the
housewife has been the backbone of so
many volunteer organizations froth hospital
auxiliaries to symphonies committees. Many
women found the fulfillment they needed not
in jobs .but in work for the community. The
nunter .of 'women who do so in these days_of
women' s 'liberatiohis dwindling. •
All of which means we're unlikely to,
'Continue to live in- the matter to which we
have become accustomed. We are faced on
one hand with government cutbacks because
we have told our governments we are tired of
them getting involved in every aspect of
society and yet we are killing off The local
organizations that can provide the services
that government no longer can.
If we're not going to find ourselves doing
without many of the local services we've
become used to then everybody in the
community is going to have to pull, his -
weight. Too often the volunteer work is left
to a •small handful of energetic people who
soon betome so overworked they can't go
on. If we want our parks and Our hospitals
and our arenas and theatres then everyone—
will have to contribute a little.
A success for Brussels
the processes involved.
The Post was glad to have the opportunity to explain what we're all
about. We had a good response to our booth as, did many other
businesses at the Tradefest. The Tradefest offered a chance to get
Brussels back on its feet again and here's hoping it succeeded. We did
show the people of this community and other communities that
Brussels has a lot to offer.
Let's continue to keep that ball rolling.
The Brussels Lions Tradefest this past week attracted a lot of
attention and seemed to serve its purpose in showing people what
Brussels and surrounding areas have to offer.
A lot of people took an interest in the Brussels Post booth and many
were surprised at-the amount of work and at-the many hands copy , has
torpass through before readers get the final product. We hope they
may understand a bit better how mistakes can happen, considering all
b E
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Short. Shots
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(Continued from Page 1) Sugar and spice street One day last Week, She did not put it in
lad a sum of Money On the main
her pocket and say nothing about it. She did By Bill Smiley not wait- until this week to see if someone
advertised their loss. Indeed not!' She came
immediately to the office of the Brussels
Post and had a "Found" ad put in last week§
paper. The owner of the lost money saw the
ad as soon as her Post Was received, proved
to the finder it belonged to her and it was
returned, The finder could, so easily have
kept that Money. She did' 'not! She was
honest and the lady who had lost it was
grateful.
a itiit Rik
Here it comes again. The threatened
postal' strike May well become a, reality if
(continued on Page 16)
will appear next week