HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1980-10-29, Page 2WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 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 Atsociation
LOOKING FOR A GOOD HOME—The Brussels Post has acquired a
newshound in the most literal sense. of the word.. This dog, astray, was
apparently let out on -the street in Brussels to fend on its own. Dog or
Pooch, As he is called, is very friendly and a quiet dog but he can't make
his permanent home at the newspaper. If anybody, out there is looking for
a good dog, please let us know. (Photo by Ranney) Be kind to animals
The reporter at the Brussels Post recently found a stray dog on the
main street of Brussels. Apparently someone brought it into town and
dropped it off.
It's a real shame that anyone could choose to treat an'aninial in this
way. This particular dog was obviously somebody's pet at one time as
it does the traditional dog tricks of sitting, shaking a paw, and loves,to
go for car rides.
If people have to move to a new area and find it impossible to take
along their favourite family pet, they can try to get a home for it at the
Humane Society. Even destroying it would be kinder than dropping it
off just anywhere, where. death could be a slower and more painful
process.
Dogs in particular are more dependent upon people so it is especially
cruel to leave them in the middle of nowhere to try and find food and
shelter for themselves.
If you have a family pet that you 'have to get rid of, find a more
humane way of disposing of it.
Childish pranks
Hallowe'en pranks. Somebody has been having fun playing
pre-Hallowe'en jokes in newspapers recently, advertising events that
aren't happening and articles that aren't for sale.
Pranksters may think these are great jokes to play but in reality they
are quite cruel as the unsuspecting victim gets phone calls about an ,
advertisement he has never placed. It's hard for a newspaper to control
such things especially if they're done by phone or paid in cash over the
counter. Little do we know, if that person is who he or she claims to be.
But we will be more cautious about accepting an advertisement that
looks questionable.
Playing a joke on a friend you know will see the funny side is one
thing, but playing cruel jokes.on somebody you might hold a grudge
against is hardly a fair way of dealing.
It would be more courageous to go to same and air your difference
with them than to do something cruel and childish.
Behind the scenes
by Keith Roulston
This is a time of year when my heart
goes out to city-dwellers. It's a time when
rural or small town. living is immensely
superior to .that in the concrete canyons,
the abominable apartments, the sad
suburbs of metropolia.
In the city, day ends drearily in the fall.
There's the long, . wearying battle home
through traffic, 'or the draughty, crushed,
degrading scramble on_ public ttanspoita-
tion.
The city man arrives, home fit for nothing
but slumping for the evening before the
television set. And ,what greets him? The
old lady, wound up like a steel spring
because she hasn't seen a soul she knows
all day; there's nothing to look at but that
stupid house next door, exactly like their
own, and the kids have been giving her
hell.
He's stuck with it. For the whole
evening. That's why so many city chaps
have workshops in the basement. It's much
simpler .to go down cellar and whack off a
couple of fingers in the power saw than
listen to Mabel.
Life is quite different for the small town
male. He is home from work in minutes. He
surveys the ranch, says, "Must get those
storm windows on one of these days,"' and
goes in, to the good fall smells of cold
drinks and hot food.
His wife saw him at breakfast, again at
lunch, has had a good natter with the dame
next door, and has been out for two hours,
raking leaves with the kids. She doesn't
need him.
Instead of drifting off to the basement,
the small town male announces that this is
his bowling night, or he has to go to a
meeting of the Conservation and Slaughter
Club, and where's a clean shirt. And that's
all there is to it.
While her city -counterpart squats in
front of TV, gnawing her nails and
wondering why she didn't marry good old.
George, who has a big diary farm now, the
small town gal collects the kids and, goes
out to burn. leaves.
By Bill. Smiley
There is nothing more romantic than the
back streets of a small town in the dark of a
fall evening. Piles of leaves spurt orange
flame: White smoke eddies.
Neighbours call out, lean on rakes.
Women, kerchiefed like gypsies, heap the
dry leaves high on the fire. Kids avoid the
subject of bedtitite, dash about the fire lit&
nimble gnonrtes.
Or perhaps the whole family goes to a'
fowl supper. What, in city living, can
compare with this finest of rural functions?.
A' crisp fall evening, a drive to the church
hall through a Hallowe'en landscape, an
appetite like an alligator, and that first wild
whiff of turkey and dressing that makes
your knees buckle and the juices flow- free
in your cheeks. ,)
But it's on weekends that my pity for the
city-dweller runneth over. Not for him the
shooting-match on a clear fall Saturday,
with its good-humOred competition, its
easy friendliness. Not for him the .quiet
stroll down a sunny wood road,—shotgun
over arm, partridge and woodcock rising
like clouds of mosquitoes.
It's not that he doesn't live right, or
doesn't deserve these pleasures. It's just
that it's physically impossible to get to
them easily. If he wants to crouch in a
duck-blind, at dawn, he has to drive half
the night to get there.
Maybe on a Sunday or Holiday, in the
fall, the city family decides to head out and
see some of that beautiful autumn foliage.
They see it, after driving two hours. And
with 50,000 other cars, they crawl home in
late afternoon, bumper to bumper, the old
man cursing, the kids getting hungrier, the
mother growing owlier.
Small town people can drive for 15
minutes and hit scenery, at least around
here, that leaves them breathless. Or
they'll wheel out a few miles to see their
relatives on the farm, eat a magnificent
dinner, and sit around watching TV in a
state of delicious torpor.
,Yup. It's tough to live in the city, in the
fall.
Sugar and spice
The writer of the letter to the editor
seemed to sum up the confusion about the
whole constitutional debate.
She was disappointed, as were thousand
of others in the province she said, that
premier Davis chose to support Prime
Minister Trudeau on constitutional reform.
Her confusion showed when she said that
the constitution shouldn't "be dominited
by any one political party". Yet she was
just complaining because a ,Conservative
Premier had supported a Liberal Prime
Minister. She then said a Trudeau was a
dictator for his actions .in bringing home
the constitution and said the constitution
shou- id only b e ammended by a free vote
. in the house and by a referendurn. Yet it's
the referendum possibility that is the
biggest sticking point in the opposition to
the proposed constitutional changes.
I think we're all pretty confused these
days about our whole political system. It
seems not only the constitution but the . .
whole political jargon about democracy
needs reworking..
How about the issue of citizen's rights.
For years people in the media and
politicians have been complaining that we
need more guarantees of civil rights. The'
American system of rights has ofter been
held Up as an example we should emulate.
Thelmain target of peole seeking guaran-
tees of rights has often been the man who
is now Prime Minister. He has been
portrayed as a Machiavellian dictator
scheming to take away everyone's indivi-
dual rights. , So now when this same man
wants to write individual rights into the
constitution as the Americans haVe sud-
denly many are saying it is a dangerous
action. It's turning us into , a republic,, they
say. It's taking our protection away from
the legislators who we elect and putting it
in the hands of judges over whom we have
no control.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
So where were these people in the last
decade when Others were arguing the
needs to guarantee.' rights? And where are
the civil rights people who argued the need
for these changes now that the changes are
being proposed?
All the fuss about polls can be a bit
bewildering too. Both the federal and
provincial governments have been under
lire over taking polls to see hoilipeeple feel
about situations. Now one thing I can agree
with the critics on is that governments
should not be able to take public 'money to
have polls taken then keep the results
secret. That seems to be using our money
to give the party in power an advantage
over the opposition parties.
But when people, the press in particular,
complain about the growing dependence
on polls by politicians I can't get worked up
too much. It seems tome that the pollsters
are just doing what good politicians have
always done. Your local politician out
kissing babies and shaking hands has
always been conducting unofficial polls as
hp strolls through crowds. It used to be
called keeping his ear to the ground, or
keeping in touch with the grass roots as a
politician chatted to people and listened to
their problems at the local fall fair or grand
opening of this or that public building.
Now what does the politician do with
this information once he's got it from either
his own research or some official poll? Well
if he go es with public opinion and changes
his policies he is often called wishy-washy
and with out principles ready to do
anything to get elected. If he ignores public
opinion and sticks to his principles he is
Often labelled arrogant for not listening to
the wishes of the people. .
DISCIPLINE
And how about the matter of party
discipline? I listened to a cabinet minister
from another province the'other night talk
about how in order to get a controversial
bill through the legislature the party had to
apply "the whip" to bring backbenchers
into line. I asked myself, is this democra-
cy? Just because you happen to belong to a
political party do you have to throw away
you own principles? Parties that have good
discipline, like the Liberals in Ottawa (and
the Tories in Ontario) are often ridiculed in
the press as being machines, being not •
quite hutnan. Yet' the parties that tend to
have revolts in the ranks, where the back
benchers refuse to bend their principles for
the sake of the party (such as the federal
Tories and the Provincial Liberals) are
ridiculed the other way by the press for
bring fractious and ineffective. This is
democracy?
And then there is the whole matter of
referendums and the controversy that
surrounds them. Now I'm the first to admit
that pure democracy is not always best.
When 'the majority can do whatever it
,wants we can often get bad government, in
effect mob rule.
But this paranoia politicians have about
referendums seems a little strange to me.
Referendums, to listen to many politicians
are a danger to democracy. How horrible to
actually let people make decisions. People,
after all, don't really know enough to
govern themselves. •
So pardon the confusion about just What
democracy is in Canada in 1980.