HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1978-08-23, Page 2BRUSSIELS
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1978
ONTARIO'
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
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Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9.00 a Year.
Others $1 7.00 a Year. Single Copies 20 cents each.
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0.Brussels Post
What we can do
for each other
A butterfly.
Behind the scenes
"There's that Tom Jones' picture in the paper again. I don't know
why his club rates all the time."
How many times have you said or thought that after reading your
newspaper?
But did you ever stop to consider that maybe we didn't know about
your club's special event, your new. slate of officers or your family's
own personal news event, be it mom and dad's fiftieth wedding
anniversary or grandpa's ninetieth birthday?
We like to think•we're pretty well in touch with what'goes on around
here but we're not mind readers. Our news and photography staff tries
hard to be in the know about what's happening in and around town.
People do call us to help and believe it or not, we find out a lot of
what's aiming up by faithfully reading this paper.
But we can't know about everything that deserves news coverage.
That's where you come in. If someone in your family will be 90 or has
been married 50 years, call us . . . we'd like to take a picture and do a
story. If someone hasotten an honour or done something noteworthy,
call us . . . with a& item for the People column or an idea for a
full-fledged feature story.
take photos.
That's what we can do for you; here's what you can do for us.
Please try to request a photographer and/or reporter two or three
weeks before your event.
A photographer will go out and take pictures on a Saturday night of
other people enjoying themselves, when it's.been arranged in advance
that's part of the job.
But photographers have families and a social life too and it's not fair
to insist that they drop everything to go and take pictues of an event
that's been planned for months on a last minute request. '
We'll do our darnedest to have a photographer at your event at your
specified time if you'll do your darnedest to be ready when the
photographer arrives.
• Sometimes things run a little late and we can put up with a wait of 15
minutes -or so.
But you wouldn't arrange with your caterer to have dinner at 7 and
then delay its serving until 9. Don't treat the newspaper photographer
that way either.
And, as' much as devoted club members find it hard, to believe,
someone from the paper who's there to take photos would much" rather
get on with the job and back home or back to work thanAisten to your
group's entertainers or "in" jokes.
To sum up, 'we're glad to give your groUp coverage and we'd
specially like to here from you if you feel what Your group does hasn't
received adequate recognition in the paper.
Next time you're irked because it looks like old Mr. Jones' is gettimg
.too much news or photo space, call us With sortie of yaur news we
can Use.
If you're secretary, or an involved member of a group that rarely
gets press coverage call us when you're doing something special and
by Keith Roulston
We in Canada have lived in peace for so
long that we tend to take' it very much for
granted. While we complain about our
economy, our own national problems. of
misunderstanding.1 people of Czecho-
slovakian heritag( this week are remem-
bering the terror of a mere 10 years ago. It
was then "that the brief freedoms of the
"Prague Spring" came to a crashing halt
when the Russian tanks rolled in.
Fin us on this side of the Atlantic it was
one more sad example of the long number of
unhappy events in the history of Europe. For
those who lived through it, it was an event
that would change their lives and the history
of their country.
I have a friend who was among those who
was shocked that morning in August to hear
that the Russians had invaded. Through him
I think I've come to understand a little more
about the event and the tragedy that the ,
people of Czechoslavakia have gone
through.
My friend was a theatre director in one of
the smaller cities of Czechoslovakia early in
1968 when he received a telephone call from
a friend who was working with Radio
Prague, the state radio station. The friend
told him of the exciting changes that were
taking place in'the capital. The tight controls
that had existed for 20 years of Communist
rule were loosening, he said. Come to work
at Radio Prague, the friend urged, and be
part of the excitement.
My friend Jan knew all about the control's.
Even in live theatre they were evident.
Before-a play could be shown to the public it
had to be seen and passed by the state
censor to make sure there wasn't anything in
it to undermine the government. In radio
and television, there was no such thing as a
live program because live broadcasts
couldn't be controlled. Everything was
Fe-recorded so it could be checked by the
censor.
Jan knew something was going on
differently from the norm of the last 20 years
but people outside the capital didn't know
for sure what was happening. In February
1968, 20 years to they month after the
Communists had taken over' the country,
about the time Jan went to work at Radio
Prague, things began to change. Before
everything that went on air had to be
approved from an annonymous secretive
room upstairs in the ;building. Suddenly this
mom was being ignored. More and more the
station Was switching to live broadcasts. The
radio, like the rest of the country was feeling
new freedoms under the relaxed government
of Alexander Dubcek. It went that way
through •the spring and summer as the
freedom grew and the unease of the Soviet
Union grew.
The Warsaw Pact countries were partic-
ipating in military manoeuvres in Czecho-
slovakia that summer but when they ended,
instead of going home as planned, the troops
didn't leave. They kept making excuses for
not going back to their respective countries.
Then on. August 21, they moved in. All
night, Jan recalls, you could hear the drone,-
of huge aircraft landing troops and tanks in
the city. In the morning the tanks were in the
streets.
The Russians, despite their opportunity to
plan the invasion, were ill prepared. One of
their, first objectives was to, silence Radio
Prague so it couldn't rally the people to fight
the invasion. But they mistook a nearby
museum for the Radio Prague building and
opened fire on it instead. When they did find
the right building and' capture it there was
no one present who knew anything about a
radio station so instead of simply shutting
the' station down, the soldiers. put it out of
commission by shooting up the control
panels with machine guns.
They, didn't succeed so easily in putting
the station off the air however, because Jan
and his friends went on transmitting with
portable- equipment, moving whenever the
soldiers were able to locate their station.
They were helped by Czech soldiers. He
slept at night with his back window open to
be ready to escape if the soldiers or police
knocked on the door. Finally he decided the
time to escape had 'come and he crossed the
border to Austria and came eventually to
Canada to a new life as a shop owner.
His was just one of thousands of stories
that came out of that exciting and perilous
time in Czechoslovakia. Many like Jan
escaped to Canada and other western
countries,. -Soine' of the leaders of the era
stayed behind to try to Work for improve-
ment within the country. Many could expect
to suffer. All now must live knowing they
must always be Wary of what they say, what
they do, even what they might tell their
friends.
Yes, we in Canada have our troubles, but _
at least we have the freedom to be able to
complain about them. The evils that we
attribute to our politicians can at least be
Said in public without fear that we'll end up
in prison for what we say, Even with
unemployment, even with national disunity,
would any ads change places with people in
0.echostovakia?
What we take
for granted