HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1978-05-10, Page 2MIME LS
(*TAR 10
WEDNE$DAY, MAY 10, 1978
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros..Publishers Limited,
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and .
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association
•CNA
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9.00 a Year.
Others $17.00 a Year. Single Copies 20 cents each.
Comm° cs,
*CNA
ei Ppe4, oOati
P EN S
—"VSPAPIV SCO0C A 10
The world we want
In the Idnguage of logic, there is a phrase reducth
ad absurdum. It means to/carry any argument to a
ridiculous extreme as' a way to demonstrate truth or
falsity. •
Now that 1977 is behind us, and Canada enters the
last years of the decade of the '70s, it might be wortt
while to look at a few of the trends of the last few
years and see where they're taking us -- reductio ad
absurdum, over the next 50 years.
For example, if the costs of the Post Office
continually rise while the service provided decli nes,
by the time another half century has passed (give or
take '40 years) we might expect the Canada Post
Off iceoto be handling next to no mail, while charging
anyone brave enough to slip a letter into a mail box,
several hundred dollars.
Similarly, if the main way for Canadians to get rich
continues to be by selling out to foreign investors, we
could end up with no Canadian owning anything.
In '50 years, 'everyone would work for the
government -- a proSpect as depressing as the
opposite extreme, of everypne depending on private
enterprises for employment.
Those who work, that is. They'll earn the highest
wages in history, while supporting the largest
number of unemployed in history. Or if you're really
pessimistic, you could argue that in 50 years, no one
will be working; we'll all be on unemployment
insurance:
Everyone will carry a gun, for defence only, of
course. No urban dweller will venture out at night or
answer the door.
Our per capita energy consumption, already the
highest in the world, will climb. We'll continue to
disregard warnings of physical and economic
limitations to the energy supply. Until in a final
splendidly selfish fling, we'll squander the last
barrel of oil in a gas guzzling car, .or chop the last
tree for an oversized Saturday newspaper, and then
settle with a wheeze back into the Dark Ages.
Is that the way we want it?
The British anti-nuclear phyt: cist Amory Lovins
frequently uses his- own redi.,ztio ad absyrdum
proposition. He says that we should imagine the kind
of world we want to have 50 year s from . now, and
then insure thal our present decisions make that
world more possible, not less likely. •
His idea has not proved popular. It requires
personal and national self-discipline. It' demands
conscious planning. It may mean sacrificing some
ambitions or expectations, even sacrificing some of
our present standard of living. Who 'knows where it
could lead in the battle to save 1 he environment of
this small planet!
To the editor:
'muskrats?
Every day as I look from my window and witness the
slaughterinR of muskrats at the dam I ask myself th'8'e
questiorisl Why doesn't somebody do ..friiething about this
mercilcs killing?' Is it not the same as the baby seal hunt
cvetvone is so interested in? Will there be any of these small
animals about in a few years?
After the ninskratS are killed they are skinned and left to
attract flies and -.Make our park, littered with these carcasses,
unattrative and Unpleasant to walk in.
Anonymous
(The United Church)
-TA/"*7.4m Behind the scenes
Brussels Post
By Keith Roulston
My red neck is showing
I guess my red neck is sticking out again,
but the latest proposal for law reform has me
a little upset.
There's a good deal of concern today about
child beating and I'm the first to admit that it
is a terrible problem. I've known some parents
with vicious tempers who take out their own
frustrations on their kids.
However there are those who feel the
answer is to change the law so that any parent
who so much as slapped a child across the
bottom could be charged with assault and
that, in my humble opinion, is going a little,
too far.
I couldn't believe the proposal when I first
heard it a few months ago. Apparently there
are already some countries in the world that
have such a laW. Sweden, I think is one.
Recently a coroner in Toronto' has been*
pushing for such a law to be brought in in
Canada. Frankly, I wonder if the man jigs
children.
Now spankings are something that are fairly
rare around our family. There tends to be a lot
more yelling, screaming and pleading than
there are spankings. We seem to have
youngsters with particularly tender feelings
who can break into tears at a mere cross look
(frankly I think they'll all someday get into
acting and win Academy Awards). Still, I
reserve the right to give a kid a swat across
the seat of the pants when all else fails.
Now Pknow that makes me anything but an
enlightened parent . And enlightened parent
is supposed to be above physical punishment
in the 1970's. We're supposed to reason with
our children, explain to them why they
shouldn't do this or that. If all else fails we
should administer a 'mild punishment such as
sending the kid to his room.
But what does the enlightened parent do if
the child refuses, to see the logic in the
argument but simply stands there stamping
his feet and screaming that he'll do whatever
he wants and nobody can stop him. So you
ever so enlightenedly ask the child to go. to his
mom and he tells you where to go. You make
the command a little stiffer, without, of
course, raising your voice too high because an
enlightened parent doesn't do that. The kid
graphically tells you what you can do with
your order.
S o where does the enlightened parent go
from here? Well, he Can either give up, or he
ran throw away his Dr. Spock, and fetch the
surprised kid a Slap on the bottom. Redneck
that I am, I'll take the latter course.
B.ut what happens when you reach such a'
To the editor:
A tragic
May 6 never comes without.one of the most
tragic nights flashing into my mind. It was 55
years ago on a Saturday night May 5, 1923,
that the stores closed at about midnight and
everyone went home to have a good night's
sleep. As for myself I had been in bed for 12
days with my right foot brbken, in an accident
in Haysville, which is another story. We, or I
should say, my father and _mother owned a
block of 5 stores with apartments above as
well as a wonderful Dance and Meeting Hall
above store No. 1 at the Corner in. Ethel.
Above Store No. 2 Gibson's had their
apartment and our,was above Store No. 3 and
4. •
At about 2 o'clock a.m. May 6, Bed Gibson
woke up coughing and choking, his wife
Louise turned on the light and low and behold
the apartment was full of smoke. Immediately
panic struck. She came over to our apartment
which was still quite clear because the fire was
in the basement of Store ,No. 1. Bert quickly
ran doWn and over to the neigil loours to
awaken them. Seen there were some men
but they were quite helpless as in
those days there were no fire hydrants nor
electric street lights.
Brussels Fire Department was called but
didn't come because there was no water
available. Listf3wel was called and they sent
five Men with the ladder trtick,
Meanwhile some neighbours were brave
enough to upstairs to save sonic belongings
tut no one thought of me lying in bed With a
showdown of wills with a seven year old if the
• new law comes in? If rwo adults come to such
an impasse they can call in the cops to charge
the other one with breaking some law; or they
can call in the lawyers and sue each other, or
they can move out of the same neighbourhood
and never have to deal with the other person
again. If it happens to be a husband and
wife , the lawyers get rich again fighting the
divorce case.
But what, pray tell, do you do in the case of
a seven-year °lel mean there is no law on the
statute books that says a kid has to remove the
frog he just put in the kitchen sink while his
sister Was doing the dishes. The cops can't
come to your assistance and besides they're
too busy chasing murderers, rapists and
people without their seat belts done up to have
time for such little things. I don't think there's
a case for a law suit unless it was the frog who
wanted-to sue for being stuck' in soap suds
thus ruining his environment and perhaps
effecting his health (might be a settlement for
$150,000 the way things are going these
days). The law says you have to care for your
children so you can't move out and leave him
and there's no case on record' of divorce from
father to son.
So what do you do? Well I guess the kid just
walks All over you. Unless, unless,..maybe if
you yell and scream/and stamp your feet the
kid might get mad enough and haul off an
smack you one, at which time you could
charge him with assault and the cops could
come to your rescue afterall.
No I hate to make light of a problem as
serious as child beating. I know that many
people do go too far in physical punishment. I
remember friends ,of mine when I was growing
up who lived in terror of their father's leather
belt with metal studs on it which would come
in sharp contact with ,their bare skin when
they displeased him. They had nightmares
about it, but I think they grew up pretty
normal for all:that .
People talk so much about the trauma of
physical punishment but what about the
trauma of psychological punishment. Didn'
we learn during the Korean War and since that
psycological warfare such as brainwashing
was every bit as bad as physical torture? Why
then do 'we now feel that a good slap on the
rear which the child will recover from in two
minutes, is more traumatic than spending a
couple of hours in his room shut off from
friends and family? I just can't see the logic in
it, but then I guess that shows I'm just a
Huron county redneck who doesn't know any
better.
fire in 1923
broken foot. Sol got out of bed and with a
chair for a crutch I got to the back door and got
down the 28 steps with the help of the railing
on the sides. I was completely exhausted and
sat on the second bottom step for about 15
minutes, in the pitch dark, back yard, with
only a shirt on, until Bert Gibson found me
and carried me over to the Hotel. He told me
all the things that were going on out in the
street and also informed me that the whole
"Block" would be burned as it was impossible
to stop the fire with what help and fire fighting
equipment there was available. I wanted to
see the fire, so they arranged to have a couch
put in the East Room of the Hotel and
propped me up with cushions so I could look
out the window. I doubt that I even blinked an
eyelash for the 'next hour seeing ,a wonderful
building fall piece by piece. Luckily no one
was injured and no other building took fire as
it was a -said brick building and there was
completed calm. The smoke as I saw it went
straight up into the atinosphere.
My parents lost everything they had, just in
a few hours and I myself didn't have even a
shoe lace except the shirt I had on. In a few
days with help from the Ethel community and
Brodhagen where we had lived before, people
brought chairs, bedding, dishes and clothes
and life went on, but it never was the same for
thy patents. The Block was rebuilt by Thos.
Vodden but it was never. the good solid
Wilding that had burned,
Geo W esenberg-