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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1976-01-07, Page 2Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb - Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association 1 Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $6.00 a year. Others $8.00 a year, Single Copies 15 cents each. A Amen by Karl Schuessler Florida -blah!' When my brother-in-law Harr), phoned and said you all come down South for Christmas, we all packed our bags and came. We knew he had the room--in his summer cottage some sixty miles north of Tampa. On the map that puts us down at 29° latitude and 82° longitude--not exactly a tropic sort of •setting, but then certainly not a Canadian winter scencrio either. Harry's place in the sun is any Northern man's dream. It sits on' a peninsula that overlooks, the lake. There's a dock. A boat at the shore. Fish in the lake. Tackle in the garage. Who could ask for anything more? I could. The sun. And while I'm asking--I know Christmas is over, but I can dream can't 1?--how 'about a central 'heating system? You know Florida people just won't admit it's ever cold. down here. Maybe that's why they never trouble themselves with 'a furnace. Instead they settle for a midget sized heater stuck in the corner of the livingroom: "If there's ever a cold snap, this heater '11 do the trick," they say, If 'there's ever a cold snap? Now a cold snap sounds like something that's fast -- over in a day or two. But believe me, this cold has been snapping for ten days now. And I'm warming my feet in the corner of the living room. I sleep under four blankets. Last night I wore my Canadian long johns. And I'm learning some new Arctic survival techniques from my son:. Wear woollen socks to bed. Scrap all those icy muslin sheets. And to keep thp temperature off my ears, I • ::;...,.."'S",,A2.;,,aerS,..« wear a night cap -- my wooly one 1 use when I'm shovelling snow off my doorstep, I warmed up a bit when one Florida newspaper dared to print the truth, On the' front page it conceded, the alligators were getting goosebumps and the bull frogs were turning blue. But I'm trying to be, cheery about all this. Look at the sunny side of things. We don't have to put our food in the frig at night. It stays good and cold on the kitchen counter. Not one single fly has buzzed around my ears. I'm not getting sunburned. I'm not wearing out my swimming trunks, either. They'll be like new for this summer. So will my bottle of sun tan lotion. I tell myself a change of scenery is as good as a rest. And aren't the holidays great with relatives? I do love to read by a fireplace -- I mean, an electric heater. I really do prefer hot chocolate, hot oatmeal and hot soup instead of lemonaide and lime rickey. It's fun to blow smoke rings -- those frosty rings in the air. in the living room -- ten feet away from the heater in the corner. And it's great not to get stuck in the snow. But best of all, I've landed on a new theory. I think I know how to stop all this divorcing going on nowadays. Shut off the furnace! No wonder people didn't get divorced in the wood stove days. They had to stick together -- for body heat. To the editor Sewerston o.ne side of road? The Editor: I Would like to know why they stop the sewers at a cent aiti spot. . The people in Morris and Grey Township don't have to connect up to the sewers. The people living across the street have to. I cannot see that this is going to prevent pollution. 1 think these people using the water rights of the town and fire protection should have to connect up' to the sewers also. I think there ShOuld be inspection to see who' is polluting the river, I think the majority of household places have. sufficient weeping systems for their own use and the water front these systems never gets to ,the rivet. . The most pollution Is 'corning front the main street .a:S there is not sufficient weeping aroundi there. If the Health Inspectors would check out the/Offenders and have thou bring their optic' tanks and weepers tip' to standard we: Would not need to have the expense of putting in the sewers, • MelVille•idekli E. Sum Wid held Duf T. Jacl Ron Her Mc( Mc( on Jes ,,m Ros Ton the met tim inst cer Mr. Mr. Pre 2nc bel Mr Set Co: All Ke ser Cli shi Ba. Mc tut Stc Frl fat sio Ne He MI M. coy r wt Hi tic on ce icl Ji Snowed in 11811/101.18/1110 1877 Brussels Post !MUSSELS ONTARIO WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1976 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited. Equality There has been a great hue and cry against •the Ontario government's announcement that they plan to close the Goderich Psychiatric Hospital. But most of the criticism has focused on the about 300 jobs that will be lost. The Psychiatric Hospital does employ a large .number of county people and they should not lose their jobs but stressing this gives the wrong emphasis to the province's decision. ' It encourages us to look at a psychiatric hospital as just another patronage plum ... an institution that gives jobs to a riding that votes the right way. Now that may have been part of the reason Huron got the psychiatric hospital in the first place. (They have rated right up there with prisons as job creating institutions to be located in loyal ridings. The prisons come from the fegs; the hospitals from their provincial brothers.) But political plum or not the Goderich Hospital provides many desperately needed services to a rural population. Its most important job is that it gives psychiatric care to the people of Huron, Perth and Bruce counties. We get help for alcoholisth, for family problems and for menial* illness at the Goderich Psychiatric Hospital. There are counsellors there who have helped many local people. Before the hospital opened those with emotional problems had to go to the .city for treatment or sit and suffer. It's hard to believe Health' Minister Frank Miller's . contention that the overall, quality of health care won't be hurt, when those who get help from Goderich will now be expected to go to Owen Sound or London for treatment. Emotional illness is often related to environment. Doctors, counsellors and other staff in Goderich are familiar*with our mostly rural community and how it works. They understand that what is abnormal behavior in Huron County is not necessarily considered strange in Toronto, and vice versa. They know that the pressures in a fast changing but still bed rock conservative rural area are not the same pressures that drive people around the bend in our cities. As a teacher put it, "say some poor kid from Hullett township is getting help in Goderich. After perhaps five years of living here, his doctors are just beginning to understand this area. Now if he has io travel to London for help, he'll have to start all over again, perhaps with a counsellor who is city oriented and about as familiar with Hullett township as with the far side of the moon." This is what the closing of the Goderich Psychiatric Hospital will mean in. human 'terms, to its many out-patients as well as the 230 people being treated in the hospital, and to their families. If the Goderich Psychiatric Hospital is closed, people here Will be left Without any kind of close at hand help for emotional illness. At the very least, psychiatric clinic and counselling services should stay in Goderich. Without local treatment available for local people, any claim to equality of health care is mythical. Letters 'Welcome the Brussels Post WelcOMes letters to the editor on ahy subCt of general interest. Opinions expressed se are th le Of the Writer, nOtthose of thiS newspaper. Letters Should be Signed but a pseudonym may be used if the writer's identity IS krioWn to the editor Of the POSt.