HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1980-07-09, Page 2limommin ,0*00""""iimolw
WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 1980
Serving Brussels, and the surrounding.com`rnunity.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario'
By McLean Bros. Publishers Limited
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Pat„Langlois - Advertising
Member Canadian CommunitY NewsPaPer Associatio.n and.
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association,
Subscriptions (in advance) eanada$10.00 a Year.'•
Others $20.00 a Year,' Single Copies 25 cents each. •
Taking chances
It;looks like somebody is. taking chances with other people's lives
and automobiles. in Brussels.
The problem is with construction involved in laying, new telephone
cables in Brussels. Big trenches lay in the driver's path withoUt a
• barricade or lights of any kind to serve .as a warning.
Such a trench was the downfall of one driver on Thursday when the
front end wheels on his car went down in the opening, thus requiring a
tow truck to pull him out.
It's bad enough to have such a lack of warning in the day time, but at
night it could be disastrous for the unwary driver; Worse yet, a-curious
child could quite easily fall into one of those unbarricaded holes and do
a serious injury to him or herself. ••
Safety first should be the r'esponsibility when there is any
construction, not only for the protection of employees but for others as
well. Let's keep' it safe •for everyone involved.
Collecting their own
Local councili have been complaining for a long time that the higher
mill rates they must pass on to ratepayers is due '`mostly to the
increased education costs.
Now the Huron County Board of Education (HCBE) is trying to tell
councils that they could save money for the ratepayers if they would
collect the taxes quarterly instead of semi-annually..
Morris council members didn't agree, stating that any savings
would be as much as the cost of collecting the taxes' that many times a
year. While we can't say for sure whether there would be savings or
not, we do not agree with Morris on one thing.
That is, that the HCBE should collect its own taxes so that. it would
be more aware of the costs and the 'problems of the clerk's office in
trying to collect.
How can a Board claim to be responsible to the people if it doesn't
know what problems are involved in its system of taxation?
If the Board did its own collecting, it might be able to sympathize a.
little more with local communities and people and see what effect'their
methods of taxation will have on these areas.
Clerk-treasurers are already overworked. Preiently ,they have to
take on the added burden of collecting the education taxes and
people's complaints about the hike in their education costs when, that's
a respbnsibility that should lie directly with the Board of Education..
We are a nation of cynics, and so when tne
government.Of Prime Minister Lester Pear-
son announced in the early 1960's that the
government was going to encourage cele-
brationof the nation's centennial in 1967 the
critics•were out quickly.
• Many, of course, still hadn't forgiven
Pearson for the flag debate, (Quite a few still
haven't.) Political opponents hinted that
there were , political motives behind the
planned, celebrations; that the government
was, going to buy people's votes with their
own money, Media critics said that the
Canadian people,. the stodgy, conservative
Canadian People couldn't be made. .to
celebrate just,because the government said
they should.
. But celebrate, they did. Pearson planted
the seed but it was the peoPle of Canada,
those stodgy, conservative Canadians) .who
made it grow. It was an exciting time to be.
alive, particularly for those , f us who had
fretted because we didn't think Canadians
cared very much about their country. Little
communities from one coast to, another threw
partiet. They. set up projects to mark the
year of celebrations and many still serve the
communities, There were centennial parks
and ball diamonds and concert halls:
For those who lived , through them,
however, I think the parades and.parties will.
live longer than the bricks and mortar
centennial symbols. Led by the biggest party
of theM all,Expo '67, Canadians learned for
the fitst time to take joy in who they were:
Being Canadian , suddenly was no longer
being secondhest. The world was coming to
our party in Montreal and we suddenly knew
that we could be right up there with the rest
of the world. Those feelings, those sur-
prising, bewildering, delightful feelings, will
live with us as long as the parks are used and
the centennial halls stand.
Even the, cynics began to believe that
year. Canadians who hadn't seemed to care
about whether they had a country or not,
suddenly got emotional. They travelled and
saw other parts of their land and marvelled
at its wonder. They met and loved their
fellows from other parts of the country.
It didn't last. It couldn't last. The euphoria
spilled' over into 1968 and - found new
expression in the fanclub for an exciting new
political leader. Pierre Trudeau teemed like
th&exciting messiah come to lead the'nation
to the promised land of wealth and power.
But he didn't do. the impossible and many
peopleflisappointed that the ptornise of 1967
was note fulfilled, turned against him in '
bitterness.
Today it's hard to remember 'those
exciting days. We have retreated inbicker-
ing and bitterness. Our days of unity have
disintegrated into the near dissolution of the
country with Quebec voting on whether or
not to separate on one side and a party being
formed to take ther west out of Confederation
and into union 'with the U.S. on the other.
We have begun squabbling over oil and
over whether the provincial governments -or
the tederal should have jurisdiction. in -many .
areas. We've comp, to distrust and, dislike
our fellow Canadians from other.parts of the
Country. We've gone past the. prosperous
days • of the 1960's and into a world wide
slowdown of the 1970's and perhaps into '.a
world-wide recession in the 1980's. We have
turned in on ourselves, bemoaning what we
I, have lost. -
But the worth of that giant party 13 years
ago,is still with us. Even in our darkest days
it gives us something to remember. For one
exciting year, things were as they should be.
Perhaps, if we work hard they can be that
...way again. It's a glorious goal to aim at.
And if the centennial flame didn't light'the
way to the promised land of unity and
prosperity, it did change the country forever,
Take a look at the Canada of pre-centennial
and the decade afterward and you can see
the changes.. People "used. to talk' about a
`.Canadian identity, a Canadian culture before
Centennial and wonder if we had one: Few
ask the question-any more.
Today . we ,have a . flourishing. Canadian
culture. When times are tough it may
struggle &bit, but still we've never in historY
had so many theatre& producing 'Canadian
playa, so many people publishing Canadian
booics, so many people painting, so manY
people making movies, (even if they haven't
yet learned how to mike good ones).
-We may have problems but we also have a
deep down confidence in ourselves for a
change. We've given the world Expo. We've'
hosted the Olympics. We've gone out and
claimed our share of the world's great
attractions. We have built stadiums 'and
started baseball teams that compete with ihe
best and are among the most successful
/franchises . in baseball in terms` of attend-
ance._ We've gone out and reclaimed, our
national sport: hockey. In centennial year
there were only two major league teams in
Canada. Today there are 'seven. We've lost
some of our prettige to the Russians, but
we've had, the desire to fight back and take a .
look at what's wrong in our country.
Centennial~ year was good medicine for
Canada. It proved we had a soul in our
country. It couldn't stay that way and in a
way Em glad. Nationalism in small doses is
important,Nationalism in large quantities is
dangerous as poison.
• We've shown we care about our country
and so our quiet, slightly cynical personality
is welcome again. We don't need to wave the
flag "every day. We,don't', need to threaten;
war everysix months to protect our honour.
We cancontinue to realize that we have
problems and not be ,smug about out
successes. And yet we have that deep down
love for our country that can pull us through
the ;tough times. Centennial, year proved it.
A. •
Sugar and spice Now I get letters By Bill Smiley
Well, it looks as though I have my
summer's work cut out for me. Instead of
loafing around the backyard with the birds
and a beer, be up to my ears in joining
things or refusing to, putting together a
book, judging a humot competition, and
answering a few hundred letters from
rZmplete strangers. Some prospect.
I'd much prefer to be left alone to rot, in
my own way, into the senility that my wife
suggests is creeping upon .me apace.
I'm in only my second week of
celebritydom, or whatever they call it, and
it's a- fair strain.
My mouth is stiff from smiling while
people congratulate me on that fine article
in Today magazine. I don't know why the
congratulations. I didn't write it. My smile
is much less stiff when someone says, "I
liked that there colyum about how tough
the farmers have it. That was_ the real
cat'sats." ,
My heart are ringing from long-distance
calls from people I've never heard from or
,
of before, and who had never heard of Me
until they read a minor article in the
Saturday supplement of a magazine that it
second-rate compared to its predecessors.
I'm certainly -glad 1 turned down that
- offer from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer forty
years ago, to play Tarzan, after Johnny
Weissmuller got too fat to do it. The
adulation would have turned my head so
badly I'd have been able to see Death
catching up with me, but not to observe
that I was about to step into a fresh
cow-flap.
It's just a good thing that it wash' t a
centre-fold in Playgirl. Instead of lovely old
ladies writing to tell me they have arthritis
too, the mail would be crammed with mash
letters containing naked photographs and
lewd suggestions.
As it is, my wife, whose head is
completely unturned by the article, is
getting powerfully peeved at answering the
phone to half-stoned old fighter pilots, coy
ladies who won't give their name, and total
strangers who want six autographed.
copies, prepaid.
To her, I am just the guy who puts out
the garbage sometimes after the truck has
gone by, wears light blue socks with a
- green tie, makes an ass of himself with
"jokes" nobody gets at parties, has ho
interest in her decotatitig schemes, can't
find, Middle C on the piano, will never talk
• to mechanics and tradesmen, has taken
four months to sweep the basement, in
ten-minute stints every second Saturday:
and, generally, doesn't know his arm from'
a hole in the ground. To' skim the surface.
To the guys on our staff, the article was a
godsend. Now, when I'm lining up' a
difficult shot on the shuffleboard, instead
of the tired old, "Don't Miss it," they've
found new ammunition.. "Here's" the old
fighter pilot, nerves of steel," corus the
heckling watchers. And when I miss, about
thrice Out of three, the chant is, "No
Wonder we nearly lost the. war,." - - •
To those of my students who had to write
their final exams, it was also a bonanza.
"Sure like the article, sir. Would you
autograph mycopy, flopeyon write a book;
and buy the first copy. Sure hope you•
haVe a wonderful summer," note , who
didn't have to write looked at the With
amused disdain.
To those who never thought I'd amount
to anything all my friends, all my
colleagues, most of my fatrlily - it was a
chance to say, "Weil, never thought you'd
amount to,..imiCh. Ain't it a corker the trash .
- the media will Mint, these days?" ,
Along with all the garbage that's been
coming in, of course, are some warm and
welcome letters fiemi old friends,- fotmet
students, and regular readers of .the
column, those intelligentsia as in The
People's Smiley, Or whatever that inane.
heading was. .
But; on the other hand, I'm dismayed at
the number of letters from people who
want something.. The .Fighter
AsSociatiOn wants Me to pay up my fees;
five years in arrears. The Prisciners-of-War
Association wants me to pay up my fees,
eighteen yeats behind.
Something called Author't Awards (sic)
wants me to judge a Magazinet-Humot
coinpetition. This it a very rewarding
pastime. I was a judge, for some nine -
years, in the teacock Award for Humor: I
was a "judge, for one year , of the
Outstanding Canadian Columnist A ward
for community newspapers. As a resulth
every humorist, and all but one columnist
in Canada, think I am an titter cretin.
My syndicate manager wants me to put a
book together this suminet, when I have
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