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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1978-04-26, Page 2'BRASIL 011/4110 11172 Brussels P s BRUSSE LS ONTARIO WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 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 Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly NeWspaper Association eNA Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9.00 a Year. Others $17.00 a Year, Single Copics.20 cents each. A motherhood issue? MOVING — Machan House Mover% Mount Forest, have a heavy load to carry as they move one of Brussel's oldest homes, the original Vanstone house, built 117 years ago by an area mill owner. (Staff Photo) Behind the scenes We have to remember The press has traditionally labelled some social concerns as "motherhood issues". Nobody, for example, wants to be against honesty, health or cleanliness. Yet the memory of some events lingers on from 1977, and suggests that as motherhood issues, these are not sacred after all. Last September, Ontario's premier William Davis led a trade mission to Japan. He got a rough reception. Japanese industrialists criticized Canada for high labor costs, strikes, foreign investment policies -- and for having overly strict environmental controls. Later, in December, newspapers reported that a breast-fed baby was being poisoned by its own mother's milk. A variety of industrially produced chemicals which are not found in nature, such as PCB's and DDT, but which are now loose in our environment, had been accumulating in the mother's body and were being passed on to the baby. Other mothers were cautioned about risks of breast- feeding. An yet, what choice is there? Cow's milk matches the needs of newborn calves, not of newborn humans. Baby formula can supply an infant's nutritional requirements, but it must be mixed with water from our lakes and rivers. That water contains the same industrial contaminants. In fact, one study discovered that the chemicals in the Great. Lakes . were collecting in fish, killing off seagulls that ate those fish. Gulls that lived on garbage dumps instead of fish were healthier. Besides, in comparison with breast-feeding, no formula has yet been manufactured that offers immunity against common illneSses and allergies, that helps assure emotional well-being, or that contributes to higher IQ's. If this most pure and perfect food is now hazardous because of our environment, could anyone argue for more pollution? Yes. And not just the Japanese industrialists -- "the wonderful people who brought us Minimata," as Norman Webster described them in the Globe and Mail. Canadians did too. When Inc°, Falconbridge, and Noranda all announced massive layoffs, a surprising number of. Canadian voices called for a relaxation of environmental controls, to allow the corporations a return to profitable operations. Fortunately, sanity prevailed. But the incidents revealed that for some people, the only real motherhood issue is short-term economic gain. (Undhurched Editorials) by Keith Roulston I didn't see the television scrid Holocaust but I've read a good deal about the uproar it has caused. Incase you didn't see the articles that took up a good deal of space in the newspapers last week, the series was one of those, specials on U.S. television that ran over several cv-enhigs. It told of the Nazi atrocities against Jews in the Second World War. There was a good deal of protest against it, especially by people of German ancestry. They apparently felt that the subject had been hauled out once too often, that the whole incident was better forgotten. Young Germans especially growing up since the Second World War, who have had nothing whatsoever to do with Nazi Germany must weary of the tales of the war years. They no doubt wonder why they must continue to live through the guilt of the era. I can understand that. I was born in the generation after the War too. I have the same feelings every time people talk about the horrors of the explosion of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. Why should .1 feel guilty about something that happened before I was born? In . Canada - we've spent a good deal of time recently regretting the actions of our government when it interned all the Japanese on the west coast during the War. Why should that subject be hauled out time and again? The answer is, of course, that it must be hauled out again and again, not as a way of punishing those who lived in a country for the misdeeds of the past, but as a way of reminding us not to do such things again. History repeats itself: that's one of the most accurate statements of all time. If you look at history you can see the cyclical pattern time and again„ People seldom learn from their mistakes, at least over the long :haul of history. Instead we try to forget our mistakes of the past, to bury them so we can feel more comfortable. • What we have to do is to stop feeling guilty for things done in the past in our own country, or by people of ourracc. We must learn from them, but not feel guilty. Some of coarse want to feel guilty and some people want us to feel guilty. I get tired of those who want me to .feel guilty for having white skin just because of the atrocities of Ian Smith in Rhodesia or the government in South Africa. Those of other skin colours who think I should feel guilty for something a white is doing 10,000 miles away are just as racist as Smith and his gang. Why . should I feel guilty just because the colour of my skin is the same? Do blacks all over the world feel guilty because of the atrocities committed by Idi Amin? We are all just human beings and shouldn't feel guilty for misdeeds over which we have no control. Yet at the same time, we can't forget. I remember watching the stunning series Roots which told the story of the progress of one American black family from the time a young boy was captured as a slave in Africa, until about the time of the Civil War in the U.S. It was pretty appalling to watch history come to life on television; to see the way the whites had treated the blacks in the U.S. It was tru ly inhuman and helped me understand the situation of the American black much better. Oh sure I had heard the story before.but actually seeing it recreated on television was far more effective. It was indeed, impossible to forget. I've heard varying reports on the Holocaust series, that it is bad television or that it is stunning television but if it brings even a little of the horrors of the Nazi . treatment of minorities to life then it is worth it. Surely the series may seem to some to have been slanted becaue it was made by Jews but frankly, the horrors of the Nazi actions were so bad I doubt they could be made seem worse than they were, at least on family television. And lets remember that though the Jews were the main victims, they weren't the only ones. Many other innocent people died in the concentration camps too. If there is a hope for the world it is that our modern communications technology can keep memories of the past inhumanities of man alive to remind us,of how low we can sink. In the past history quickly faded. Now we have films of the death camps. We have proof of the horror of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. We have films of the terrible mistakes that the Americans got involved iii Vietnam. Our one hope is to keep these memories alive, not as a way of punishing the sons and daughters or grandsons and granddaughters of those who committed the crimes, but as a constant reminder that we can easily be led by petty hatreds, by criminally monstrous leaders to do things that we would never have thought possible, No,we don't need the guilt feelings, but yes we do need the memories. One of Brussels oldest houses being moved Machan House Movers from Mount Forest have been Moving What could be One of the Brussels' oldest houses at . 117 years. • The house, which. &lice McCall sold. to Machan House Movers was probably built in 1859 by Vhilliani Vanstone WhO, according to the 1879 Huron County Atlas -seethed to be a well-respected than in the community. According to the Atlas; William 1faitstdrid Wag "One of the most geutlemen in corn inertial and social.circles to be met with in that section of the country". (Brussels). He was born in Devonshire England in 1833 and ten years later moved with his paternal grandfather to Canada. At the age of twenty-six he moved to Brussels and built mills in place of some that had previously been erected by a Mr*. Fishley. Later he replaced those mills by combined Stream and water flour- ing, grist and sawmills on the banks of the Maitland River. According to the Atlas, "These mills are the most complete and extensive within long distances on either sided and the water- power by which they are run is second to none on the Maitland." Apparently Mr. Vanstone was at one time also a member of the village council but as the atlas says., "Mr. Vanstone has received an expression of the confidence with which the peOple regard him, by his (1.ectiOn to the village OD ti:: te has sincedeclined further honors in that direction, as: the extent of his private business not only neccessitates his own personal attention but also that of his son whom he has admitted to a partnership." Mother person who owned the house wasW.H. Kerr who also at one time owned the Brussels Post. Other families who lived there included H. A. Loffrey, Albert Woods and William C. King who presently lives at 11,11.2, Bluevale. The house was ought by Mr. and Mrs. Toth Miller gr, in 1937 and sold by auction in 1972 to Bruce McCall who didn't live in it. The house is just being moved a little further over on its present lot now until the drier weather comes and it can be moved to its new position on the arena road. Machans bought the house from Mr. McCall about three weeks ago and started to MOve the house about a week ago, according to Jim Machan, part owner of the firm. Machans are planning V) resell the house. Mr, McCall is planning on building a new house on the lot.