HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2007-08-02, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2007. PAGE 5.
Bonnie
Gropp
TThhee sshhoorrtt ooff iitt
Pride in community
Y ou know what bugs me? People who
smoke in restaurants. That’s why I
always carry a water pistol filled with
gasoline.
– Paul Provenza
Poor, old, long-suffering nicotine addicts.
On the run again.
In my section of The Great White North,
puffers have just been informed that under a
new law, they can have a smoke break or a
coffee break, but they can’t have both.
Not at the same time in the same place
anyway. They can sit down and light up a
cigarette or they can sit down and suck back a
Tim Horton’s double-double.
But their smoking oasis and their coffee
klatching centre must be at least 25 (twenty-
five) metres apart. Which could lead to the
absurd sight of some schlub lighting up an
Export A, taking a drag, then sprinting across
the patio to sit at another table and sip some
coffee, then galloping back to the table with
the ashtray to…well, you get the picture.
So Kafkaesque. And such a far cry from the
world I grew up in. Back in the Fuming Fifties
and Smoky Sixties we smoked EVERYwhere,
ALL the time. We lit up in cars, in offices, in
living rooms and in airplanes.
I remember once being in a conference room
with 20 other people for a day-long gab about
some corporate thing or other. At the end of
the morning session, one woman stood up and
nervously asked if, for the afternoon, it would
be possible for the smokers to abstain, or at
least step outside to indulge their habit, out of
consideration for the non-smokers in the
group.
We tar-stained wretches looked at her like
she’d just descended from Mars.
Smokers ruled. But that was then, and this
is now. A recent survey reveals that three out
of four American households now forbid
anyone to smoke in their home.
I haven’t seen comparable statistics for
Canada, but I have to think that in the ever-
polite, politically-correct envirobubble that
envelops our country, the percentage is at least
as high and probably higher. What I know for
sure is, it’s getting increasing difficult in
Canada to find a public place where you can
eat your dinner and fire up a gasper at the same
time.
And frankly, I’m all for that. Number one:
I’m an ex-smoker. That makes me
automatically sanctimonious and socially
insufferable on the topic of my former habit.
Number two: I want my restaurants back. In
the last anti-smoking offensive, addicts were
banished to outside patios and covered
terraces to indulge their craving. It was a
Pyrrhic victory for non-smokers.
We won the battle but lost the war. What
happened was that we, the pink-of-lung and
obedient, were consigned to the dank and
dismal restaurant interior while smokers got
the primo turf outside under the trees. We
could join them out there if we chose, of
course, but it meant we would be inhaling
second-hand carcinogens and would smell like
a poolroom when we got home.
Well, no more. Non-smokers can once more
sit in the open air (weather permitting) and
inhale only car, bus and industrial fumes, as is
our God-given inalienable right.
Smokers are – quelle surprise – ticked off,
but they just don’t get it. They see being
banished from the company of non-smokers as
an infringement on their rights.
Listen, folks. We don’t care if you smoke.
We don’t care if you inhale whole burning hay
bales. We just don’t want you to smoke around
us.
The comedian Steve Martin said it best.
When someone asked him, “Do you mind if I
smoke?” he smiled genially and said, “Not at
all. Do you mind if I fart?”
That said, it may be time to rein in the anti-
smoking zealots just a hair. I see that the
Motion Picture Association of America is now
considering a new restriction for movies. Not
only will films be classified according to their
depictions of sex, violence, and adult
language, they will also be judged for
“glamorizing smoking”.
So let me see now…how would that work?
Children would still see people smoking every
day – at the bus stop, down by the corner store,
in front of the high school – but they’d be
protected from seeing Humphrey Bogart in
Casablanca???
Bad idea. Listen. Everybody in the world
now knows that smoking isn’t glamorous – it’s
stupid. I’ve yet to meet a smoker who doesn’t
– in his or her heart of hearts – want to dump
the habit.
What people who have never smoked don’t
know is – giving it up is damn hard. Everett
Koop, the former U.S. Surgeon General, said
that nicotine addiction is as strong as heroin
addiction – just a little cheaper.
And is there anybody left on the planet who
still believes smoking is harmless? If there is,
that person is in serious denial.
As comedian Dennis Miller says, if you’re
saying you didn’t know cigarettes were bad for
you, you’re lying through that hole in your
trachea.
Arthur
Black
Liberals not only promise-breakers
Early morning dawns with a quiet
stillness. Even the birds are silent, too
exhausted too perhaps to begin the day
in their typically cheerful way.
As I let the calm settle around me, it’s almost
hard to believe that just hours before these
same streets were bustling with people. Voices
were heard from every corner and the air was
charged with activity and excitement.
Brussels Homecoming 2007 was an
incredible weekend. Even the weather co-
operated with sunny skies and comfortable
temperatures throughout the event.
Community played a huge part in the
festivities. The display set up at the
Homecoming headquarters was an entertaining
glimpse of the past that shaped the village.
People chatted at venues, participated actively
or as spectators at events, hosted gatherings
and stopped to enjoy a quick pint with new
acquaintances.
But also, as is the idea of an anniversary
everyone was there to celebrate, both the old
and the new. Special occasions were held to
honour the work of the community done at the
conservation park. The past received its
recognition with ball fans out to cheer on the
old Ritchie’s Rockets/Jamestown rivalry at the
park, with a nostalgic return to the times of
drive-ins, sock hops and lover’s lane at the
classic car show.
From the high-octane activities like beach
volleyball and fastball, people could next find
themselves sitting, relaxed and mellow, along
the edge of the picturesque dam waiting to see
a bunch of plastic ducks wend their way
downstream.
Watching youngsters in the driver’s seat of a
soap box car or oldsters cruising down the dam
in a bath tub, had folks smiling — for a number
of reasons.
There were dances, refreshments and food,
food, food to be enjoyed.
The celebration was also a time for family as
loved ones returned home for at least part of
the weekend. Houses were full again for
empty nesters and busy with the comings and
goings of everyone trying not to miss one
minute of the party.
Friends too paid visits to take in some of the
fun. At the Gropp household many of these
were people who live in urban areas. City folk
tend to think of our little ‘burb’ as, if not
exactly a backwater, then certainly a place
where not much goes on. What a delight it was
to see them having such a great time, in such a
great place.
When I thought about the hard work that
went into this success, done by a small
dedicated group of volunteers I was reminded
yet again of what makes places like Brussels,
Blyth and all the rest of our small Huron
County villages and hamlets, so special.
And reminded of that same thing when I
thought of the friendly smiles that greeted my
guests, of the warm reception they received.
There was even a point when one of our out-of-
towners got inadvertently left on her own. She
was, of course, well taken care of and made to
feel at home until we found her once again.
And we looked good too. The park is
incredible with its new makeover, its dam a
perfect backdrop for all those classic cars.
Our behaviour, too was exemplary. Fun was
everywhere, from time to time a little more
boisterous than normal, but not leading to one
moment of trouble that would spoil it for the
rest.
I have never been so proud of my home and
the people who live there.
Other Views There’s no butts about it
The most common claim in Ontario’s
Oct. 10 election campaign is only
Liberals break promises and it is as
much a myth as the earth being flat.
Almost every commentary by the public,
media and opponents starts with the assertion
Premier Dalton McGuinty fails to keep his
word and it is based particularly on his
promising in the 2003 election he would not
increase taxes and dramatically raising them
by $2.6 billion a year.
The premier can counter that the preceding
Progressive Conservative government assured
it had balanced its books, which would have
put him in a better position to pay for new
initiatives, but instead left a $5.5 billion
deficit. But there are good arguments he
should have suspected this and voters will
have to apportion blame.
McGuinty has broken other promises,
including those to close polluting, coal-fuelled
power plants by 2007, since postponed to
2014, assure adequate treatment for autistic
children, limit primary school class size to 20
students, roll back highway tolls and prevent
housing on a sensitive moraine.
He also might have had enough cash to keep
some of these if the Conservatives had
balanced their books.
The Conservatives under leader John Tory
keep saying their party in contrast keeps its
promises. They are apt to make it their first
point in any debate and keep repeating it.
But it was a huge violation of a promise
when the Conservative premier before
McGuinty, Ernie Eves, in trying to be seen as
a prudent manager, claimed he had balanced
the books when he had what public servants
later certified as a $5.5 billion deficit.
The Conservatives boast repeatedly their
earlier, tough-minded premier, Mike Harris,
was someone who did not break promises and
even opponents grudgingly accept this,
because he kept his highest profile promises to
cut taxes and government and reduce the
power of unions, despite some spirited
opposition.
But Harris broke other promises, sometimes
with trickery to disguise this. He said he had
no plan to close hospitals, but set up a
commission to distance himself from such
surgery and it closed more than 30.
Harris said he would not impose new user
fees in healthcare, but did the equivalent by
eliminating some services from coverage and
forcing seniors to pay more for prescription
drugs.
Harris said he was against opening more
casinos because of his general principle
government already grabbed too much of
residents’ hard-earned money through taxes,
but he expanded casinos and other ways of
taking money from gambling.
Harris said he and his party would never
support feared market value assessment for
taxing homes, but brought in what he called
current value assessment, which was exactly
the same system under a different name.
Harris said, as one last example, because he
broke too many promises to mention in one
column, he would sell off assets such as the
Liquor Control Board of Ontario, but it
remains in government hands.
Before Harris, New Democrat premier Bob
Rae scrapped his party’s most cherished
policy, government auto insurance, which it
had advocated proudly for generations, saying
it would be too costly.
The NDP government among other broken
promises backed off requiring soft drinks sold
in refillable containers to help the
environment, because its union members who
made the cans objected they would lose their
jobs.
Liberal premier David Peterson won an
election largely on a promise to allow grocery
stores to sell beer and wines, but failed to do
so.
Conservative premier William Davis
promised to balance his budget by 1981, but
instead his deficits grew successively bigger
until he retired in 1985.
McGuinty is identified more than his
predecessors as breaking promises because he
did it recently and news media have seized on
it with imagination and flair, particularly by
labeling his party “Fiberals,” which the public
finds easy to remember.
The Liberal premier cannot justify his
breaking of promises by saying others did it,
but in fairness it should be recognized he did
not invent the practice.
Eric
Dowd
FFrroomm
QQuueeeenn’’ss PPaarrkk
“We make a living by what we get. We
make a life by what we give.”
– Winston Churchill
Final Thought