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The Brussels Post, 1978-02-08, Page 241"4111.0110 1•71 0Brussels Post 0014PE LrS • OAST AR 10 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1978 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario by McLean Bros.Publishers. Limited. ' Evelyn Kennedy - Editor • Dave Robb Advertising In focus Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9,00 a Year, Others $17.00 a Year. Single Copies 20 cents each. We're thinking Canadians get a lot of flack for not being interested in national affairs. Rural Canadians especially are often portrayed as being a lot more concerned about what's going on at the house or the 'farm next door than about what's going on in the country as a whole: We know and you know that it's not true. But we've come across some evidence recently that indicates that local people have given a great deal of thought to where this country is going. , It's in the form of results of a questionnaire that Perth MP Bill Jarvis conducted among constituents last fall. We don't know the total number who answered Mr. Jarvis' questions but those who did seem to be a thoughtf61, mature bunch . Very few of those who replied had no opinion on some pressing issues. Here's a bit of an idea how your fellow rural Canadians and close neighbours, are thinking. The cost of living, most of them say, is Canada's number one problem, followed closely by government spending. The Anti Inflation Board,. a majority says, is doing a poor job' controlling prides, but a good job controlling wages. Controls should be kept permanentlje 35 percent say, more than want them abolished now or at the end of the year. Our fellow Canadians aren't against all, government spending. The largest percentage for any one question, a whopping 78% would like to see "substantial sums" of government money used to investigate alternate energy sources like solar and tidal power. 72 percent seem to feel that televising the House of Commons proceedings is a waste of money. But that was before the "Parliament Hill Gong Show" started: We'd wager more people approve of the televising, now that they've seen our honourable members at work. The Federal government's bilingual program got thumbs down overwhelmingly, as "unsuccessful" (41 percent) and very unsuccessful (40 percent) in uniting Canada. The respondents aren't against bilingualism though; They just think it should start ea-rlier, in public school (69 percent). If Mr. Jarvis' findings are typical, and we think. they are, those of us in rural Canada don't have, to take back seat to anyone when it comes to awareness of our country's biggest issues, Our heads are out of the sand and being put to good .use, looking for answers. Now it's up to our elected representatives to act on our views. To the editor: Call weather office The winter winds and snows arc upon us, creating, as in the past, very difficult • decisions for many people. "Should I go to work'?" is perhaps the most frequently asked qUestidn for commuting workers. ''Can you tell me how: the roads are to Toronto, I'm going, anyway beeause I have, to, but I was wondering ..," this weather supposed to continue or' will I be able to go home or to work' tomorrow? , " - Telephone calls such as these are Very common to us at the Ontario Provincial Pollee Detachments on stormy days. In fact these calls during bad Weather are go numerous that people who have legitiMate emergencies at times cannot get our telephone line and advise, us of the' help they require, There is an axiom that old veterans tell young recruits in the army: never volunteer for anything. The same thing might apply to newcomers in any community. As anyone who has lived in a small town knows, the grapevine is the: fastest way of transmitting any piece of news and the grapevine will quickly make it known when a new resident in a town volunteers for even one thing. The word might as well be branded on his or her forehead: "volunteer", or more likely "sucker". There are those who like to claim that a small clique in any town hogs the spotlight that they want to run anything that's going. I think that can be disproven by the rapidity with which they're willing to pass on some of those duties wheneVer. a new sucker, I mean volunteer,• comes along. I speak from experience in this. When I moved to my new hometown some six years ago, I seemed to be quickly spotted as a sticker, I mean volunteer. My job as a newspaper reporter took me to a good many of the community events where a new face was looked on as a chance to put off some of the heavy workload already burdening the shoulders of the group running that particular organization. The first group to grab' was the local fair board. They were the most desperate for helping hands so I guess they were the most • likely to take a chance on a new boy in town. They asked 'my opinion on some subject at a meeting one night, I gave it and the next thing- knew they'd made me a director of the fair. My success can perhaps be measured by the fact that was the last fall fair ever held by the group. - That didn't seem to scare off the other groups however. I had become a member of the local business organization and with my propensity for shooting off my big mouth on various subjects, had come to the attention of the other members. Toward the end of my first year in town there was an election of officers for the group. Within minutes I jumped from being the new kid in town to. being the president of the gi,oup. It was obvious -that . the old "clique" really were working hard to hold onto their power. And so it went: After a, year of that, there was another organization that was ready to promote me to the top job, the job nobody else was silly enough to want. A year, later, before . the term was even finished for that group, found myself in the top job of yet another group, a new one juSt starting Up. It was about then that I learned-the single, most important word for anyone getting involved in community activities; volt I mean this cli qUe that ran the; town was scl hungry for power that they were ready to promote any As well informed as we like to! think we are as a police agency, •we do not have the information you require as to weather reports and road conditions. I,ti fact only prayer could answer some of the questions asked, We do have a pretty fair solution to your problem and nossibly ; if yodethe travelling type person, you should cut, these telephone numbers out of youf newspaper acid put them hear" your sucker that came along to the top of their organization unless he said no. The problem was that it was a small town and there were only so many new suckers, I mean faces, in town that I kept getting ,all the jobs that nobody else wanted. My fault was that I hadn't learned the rules. People in small towns, you see, always like to see things done as long as they don't have to do the work. Thus you'd go to a Meeting of this ,or that organization and hear plenty of people expressing marvellous ideas for things that should be done but when it came time for someone to actually do the work therewas a chorus of "no, I'm too busy" :minr everyone. asked to help out. Naive as I was, I got so tired of hearing good ideas go down the drain that when. I was aksed if I'd itelp_out I'd say something utterly silly like "Well I'll sta what I can do" upon which everyone breathed a sigh of relief knowing that they themselves weren't going to get backed in s a corner and forced to ta,. 'the job. The other th I learned over the years was that once you volunteer to do something or - at least you hadn't said no when you were volunteered, you immediately got a mumbled chorus of "Oh I'll be glad to help you out if you need a hand, " from most of those in the room. When it came to draw on that help,. however, it was not .unusual to call on 10 . different people before being able to find two who remembered they made sUch.'a promise in the first place or who couldn't think up an excuse why they couldn't help out. now. I learned what many another volunteer has learned before: it's easier to do the, job yourself than to try to round up 'volunteers to, help out. After a couple of years of this, the sucker is obviously going to get worn to a frazzle and it comes necessary, to find a new sucker to keep the group alive. The problem is that suckers don't come along everyday, the majority of the population being ever ready with their "I just have the time to be pre sent " excuses. That is why there is so much trouble keeping community groups alive and active because for so long a mere handful of people are left with all the work while the majority of people say they're too busy, then sit around and -complain : about how a few peOple run everything. Mostly that few people just run. themselves into the ground. Yet it's 'amazing how resilient these suckers; 1, mean volunteers are. I know a few people well into retirement age who still apparently haven't learned their lesson on how to say no and sound convincing. They are still community leaders, whO work'hard, long hours making things happeh in their community. •I don't know whether they should be reconimended for a medal, or for priority.. admission to a psychiatric hospital. phone. Weather Station - Goderieh 524.g331 Ministry of Transportation & Communi- cations, Stratford for road conditions in Ontario...,. 271-550 it...W,Wilson 0619. Provincial Constable Coninitthity service ()Meet Behind the scenes By Keith Rpuiston Voltniteeis or suckers?