HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1981-08-05, Page 2Published at BRUSSELS, ONTARIO
every Wednesday morning
by McLean Bros. Publishers Limited
Andrew Y. McLean, Publisher
Evelyn Kennedy, Editor
Box 50,
Brussels, Ontario
NOG 11-10
519-887-6641
Behind the scenes
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario
Weekly Newspaper Association and The Audit Bureau of
Circulation.
It was a great weekend and to say everybody had a good time would be
an understatement.
This of course is in reference to the Morris Township's great big 125th
birthday party held over the holiday weekend. It was obvious that
everyone who had had a hand in the celebrations worked hard to make it a
success and it certainly paid off.
Even the weather co-operated making all the outdoor events possible.
Thank you to all the people who made this event possible. It certainly
livened up the village of Brussels and made an exciting weekend of
entertainment for all.
The wedding of the year has finally taken place. Prince Charles and
Lady Diana tied the knot last week.
It's one event that has provided a great boost to Britain not only
economically, but for that country's morale as well. With every type of
souvenir imaginable to sell, the fairytale story of the Prince and Princess
has done wonderful things for this nation where other newsworthy events
lately seem to be the riots in the streets and the hunger strikers.
One wonders, however, if Lady Diana had had more choice in the
matter, whether she would not have preferred a quieter and more private
engagement and wedding ceremony rather than having the whole world
watch her every move.
However, there are a lot of people out there grateful for the fact that
Prince Charles and Lady Diana have provided a happy note in an
otherwise pretty bleak year. For that we should be thankful.
EST;
1872
Brussel.s PostBRUssE
Established 1872
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1981
Authorized as second class mail by Canada
Post Office. Registration Number 0562.
A great show
A happy note
by Keith Roulston
Anne Chislett's hit play Quiet in the Land
poses an interesting question: how far do you
go in upholding what you believe in despite
the costs?
The play, about an Amish community torn
by the stresses of World War I and
modernization, deals with an Amish leader
who refuses to budge from the religion of his
fathers even though it costs him a rebellious
son who goes off to join the army. Even when
the son comes back to his father after the war
and confesses (through a closed door since
the father will not face him) that he was
wrong, the father takes it as a sign that he was
right all along. He refuses to take his son
back since having killed men during the war
the sou is nowtainted by the ou tside world.
He uses his son's confession as the proof to
himself that he was right and that he should
hold that hard line on his followers., even if it
means that some will go their own way to new
church.
To the majority of threatregoers who have
packed into the BIth Summer Festival to see
this play, the old man undoubtedbly is seen
as fanatical old fool. Destruction has been
spread around him because he refuses to
budge an inch from his convictions. There's
another question that comes to mind by this
example, however: what is the line between
standing by your beliefs and fanaticism?
Canadians,' more thin most, are a people of
compromise. Our nation has been since the
beginning built on our ability to find an
acceptable middle path between two ex-
tremes. Anyone who holds to one extreme or
the other is likely to be regarded as an
extremist. But what if the extreme is right?
What if justice calls for the extreme view, not
the compromise? Probably in Germany
during the Second World War there were
people who felt strongly about what their
government was doing to the Jewish
population. Equally probable was it that
someone who heard their protests thought
they were being extreme. After all, Hitler
wasn't persecuting everyone, only the Jews.
In the play, the angry son accuses the
father of profiting by the War, which indeed
the farmers of the Amish community were
doing. They were of German descent and
refused to take part in the war because of
their passifist beliefs which made their
their pacifist beliefs which made their'
angry. With the boom in farm prices the war
brought, however, the Amish had more
money than ever, money to expand their farm
operations, to buy farms for their sons while
others' sons were off in France.
In the face of this the Amish elders held
that war was wrong and that they must not
take part in killing. How futile it seemed.
Here they were, one tiny group of men,
claiming that war was wrong while the
greatest war in history was going on. And
they were benefiting financially from it.
Yet were they really wrong? Because you
are in minority does that mean you should
give up and join the majority even if you'don't
believe what they say you should? Those
people in Germany who held their beliefs
against Hitler during the war are heros today
because Hitler is now seen as an evil man. If
Hitler had won the war they would have been
traitorous fools. The dissidents in the Soviet
Union are regarded as brave, heroic figures
in our part of the world but miserable traitors
intheir own land.
The line between fanaticism and sticking to
principals is a fine one. Lord save the world
from the righteous fanatic. Some of the worst
crimes against humanity have been perpet-
rated people who felt that they had the
word from their god. Look at the Ayotollahs of
Iran. Look at the Christian Crusades. Look at
the righteous right wing dictators ready to kill
thousands to save them from the horror of
communism, or the communist dictatorships
ready to'sacrifice thousands of workers so the
workers can, rule.
In the long run, of course, each of us can
only make the decision ourselves as to what
we believe. The Amish passivity was a futile
gesture at a time when half the world was at
war but it does not make it wrong. If everyone
who says they don't believe in war (and who
doesn't) showed the same determination not
to get involved in wars that the Amish do
there would be no wars. We cannot make
decisions for hundred, thousands or millions.
We can only decide for ourselves what is right
and hope others will decide rightly too.
The cost of believing