HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1976-01-14, Page 2BRUSSEILS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1976
ONTAIliO
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited,
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb - Advertising
,Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association
*CNA
Subscriptions. (in advance) Canada $6.00 a year. Others
$8.00 a year, Single Copies 15 cents each.
uTANA:rstoN 1102
Brussels Post
The crunch comes
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We saw an interesting thing on. TV the othernight
The Shah of Iran said to Adrienne Clarkson on CTV,
just in passing really, that he'has to hurry up and get
his country industrialized before the oil. in Iran runs
out. Hie, gave himself 15 years.
15. years. The man who sells the oil, who h as
everything to gain from giving the impression that
Iran will have oil forever, says baldly on national TV
that his biggest selling line will run out in 15 years.
Well, Iran may be quite resigned to the fact. They
are planning for it, and pushing the development of
secondary industry and a modern economy, to
cushion the blow when oil dries up, But Iran's
customers haven't, seen the situation nearly so
clearly. •
Of course- Iran doesn't have all the oil in the
world. The Shah gives the rest of the world's oil
supply 25 years. before it is_exhausted. ,
Many of us know where we'd like to be living and
what we'd like to be working at 15 or even 25 years
from now. Governments and industries are run on
the basis of long range forecasts.
But it's a very safe bet that none of us,are planning
a future without oil. The oil producers know it's
fading fast and are planning accordingly. -But we in
Canada g'o blythly on assuming our fuel consumption
can. continue forever at the present. rate.
The Shah says oil has 70,000 by-products. "And
how many derivatives can you get froM atomic
electricity? Not many So why should you use (oil)
for heating houses or making electricity when you
can do those things so much more easily by burning
coal, using atomic energy, or even solar energy?"
The Shah asks a sensible question.
We could launch an all out drive to tap solar
energy, to take the risks out of nuclear energy.
We could also cut our consumption' of oil, and of
every type of non-renewable resource.
Trouble is, it hasn't really - hit us, or our
governments, that non-renewable means running
out. And that the cut off date is as close as 15 years.
How else do we explain Ontario Hydro planning
based on the wasteful energy use of the 1960's and
continued discountg for big, rather than small, power
users? .
Even that classic over-consumer, electric gadget in
every room, neighbour of ours, the USA is trying
mu z!- harder to cut back, to conserve, to use oil and
energy sensibly, than we are.
US industries have reduced energy consumption
7.6 per Cent in the last year. Los Angeles has cut..
back its electricity use considerably, The US is also
the land of the' gas saving 55 mph limit and of tax
laws which favour small car owners.
Where are the equivalent energy saving measures
in our country? They aren't.
The Shah's little comment May Wake us up. The
age . of heedless luxuries 'perched precariously On
cheap arid squandered .energy products is mit%
The crunch and the age of scarcity is here.
Oo We dare doge our eyes and continue our binge?
Letters wekome
The Brussels Post welcomes letters to the oditor On
any SUbjeCt. of :general interest. Opinions eXt5rOtted
are thbge of the writer, not those of this newspaper.
Lettert :shoutd ba ,agnod but a ,p y , ,m-ay 166.
used. it the writer's 10-entity known to- the'oditor of
the Post,
Amen
by Karl Schuessler
Only in Florida
My friend and I were walking on the wrong
side of a St. Petersburg's Florida 'Street.
Seedy. Weedy. Needy., A perfect place for
rescue mission work. Of the 'fundamentalist
variety.
So I didn't think too mildloabOut it, when I
saw the words "Soup, soap and hope"
painted in red on a mission store front wall.
The words "John 3: 16" hung all over the
place.
Now I • wasn't brought 'up in the Bible
quoting tradition '-- exact chapter number arid
verse kind of thing.But every Lutheran worth
his Martin Luther's catechism, knows John 3:
16. "For God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son, that whosoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life."
I impressed my friend when I spieled off the
verse, but then it was my friend's turn to
impress me. He said John 3:16 may be a Bible
verse alright, but here in St. Petersburg, it's a
man's name. He's the man who runs this
mission. He changed his name seven years
ago when he got saved in a revival meeting in
the South. And the name's legal too.
I couldn't believe it. What's wrong.with the
judge's head to let a man do a thing like that?
And what's wrong with John 3:16's head?
But when I met John 3:16, his head looked
okay. In fact it looked pretty swell. Wavy hair.
Sideburns. Dark purpl e glasses. A good set
of teeth. A stone studded cross hung around
his neck.
"I never wear ties," he said; "One time
when I vyas dragging a drunk* out of a bar
another guy came over and tried to wring my
neck with my tie. I only wear a cross now."
But not just one cross. He keeps two and
three other medals dangling down his neck.
And further on down, his little finger sports
another dangle,- A sweeping, swooping ring
that covers the whole finger. And next to that
finger, another ring. Four rings in all—on ten
well manicured and nail polished fingers.
complement this jewelry flash, he wears
an even flashier suit. All cuffed and, beige.
With john 3:16 embroidered hi brown oti
lapels, pant legs and sleeves,
"I have John 3..16 printed on every piece of
my clothes," he says, 'even my underwear."
John 3:16 insists he has to be a than of the'
cloth. "Underneath thee clotheS,!' lie says,
"is a briiised body. I got three broken
ribs,-right now--from a bar fight"; Then there
are tatOo Marks. Bullet wounds. Knife marks.
Slashed wrists and needle marks.
"But When I dress Up like this,' he says,
"I don't have to go and hand Oat tract.','
For John 3:16 is a walking and talking tract:
People come up to him and ask him what he's
aill about. And john 3:16 turns on.
He knows he's an attention grabber. "But
so was Jesus", he .says. "Jesus wowed the
crowds first with his miracles. He made the
people sit up and take notice."
"I'm all shining on the 'outside," he says,
"so the folk can look deeper and find Jesus
shining on the inside."
"The Bible is my script . God is my director.
The Holy Spirit is my producer and JesuS
Christ is my personal manager."
That John 3:16 is a r ea.1 showman. And he
comes,by it honestly too. He used to- be a
Hollywood stunt man. He worked the horses
in "Misfits" with Clark Gable and Marilyn
Munroe. And he was a child actor. But now he
moans his old friends are either in the
cemetery or the penitentiary.
John 3:16 leaves a long trail behind' him.
Nine marriages. A hundred dollars worth of
heroin a day. Street brawling and jail terming
for fightirig and drinking. '
But, his past washes clean in the blood of
Jesus. And any of his flock, mostly men, "my
men" he calls them; can aspire to be like him.
The apostle of the week gets a ride in his
Cadillac. After 75' days of staying sober, the
man gets a cross. After 100' days, a Bible with
his name printed in gold on the cover. After
125 days, a new suit--a flashy suit like his.
Only last week, John 3 q6's'iight hand man,
got the prized gift of all. He stayed sober for
two years and got a used Cadillac, Of course
it's not a new one like John 3:16 rides, but
who can argue with a five year old one? °
Everyone gets a chance to stay at one of his
twelve mission houses. And work in his thrift
stores around town. Each house gets better as
he moves up. The last and best one has tugs
and Coloured T.Y. and air Conditioning.
"I bring people from the guttermost td the
uttermost. From junk to' Jesus."
, "What's the upper crust? A -bunch of
crumbs held together by a little dough."'
"I'm a C.O.P. Christian on patrol."
"I rule with the Bible and my fist."
Most of US used to be a mess, butt now we
have 'a message.'.' •
• The well turned phrases pour out of his
mouth, He keeps turning around in his chair
to find his cigar for a puff or his glass for a
drink of gingetale.
This is John i:16-,a ininiSter of Jesus Christ
in, the slums Of Florida. A Mari with two
daughters named Genesis-EVe arid. Tritilty,
' Love.
He could' happen only in Arneried thank
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