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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2007-12-06, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2007.Editorials Opinions Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie GroppAdvertising, Ken Warwick & Lori Patterson The CitizenP.O. Box 429,BLYTH, Ont.N0M 1H0Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152,BRUSSELS, Ont.N0G 1H0 Phone 887-9114 FAX 887-9021 E-mail norhuron@scsinternet.com Website www.northhuron.on.ca Looking Back Through the Years Member of the Ontario Press Council The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels,Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc.Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $32.00/year ($30.19 + $1.81 G.S.T.) in Canada;$95.00/year in U.S.A.and $175.00/year in other foreign countries.Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error,only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 PAP REGISTRATION NO. 09244 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: norhuron@scsinternet.com Dec. 6, 1950 Subscribers to The Brussels Post were going to face an increase in fees. The rates were to be $2 per year for Canada and the United Kingdom, and $2.50 per year for the United States and other foreign locations. These increases were made because of steadily rising costs of newspaper production. Several other newspapers across the area were also doing the same, increasing their subscription rates, to keep up with the rising costs. Mr. G.N. Underwood was re- elected as the reeve of Turnberry Twp. in the municipal elections. Only 5 votes separated Mr. Underwood and opponent John V. Fischer. Also elected as councillors were: Herbert Foxton, Robert A. Powell, W.J. Willets, and T.H. Abraham. Radio character Edgar Bergen and his ventriloquist act co-host Charlie McCarthy helped one little girl pull through a painful experience. Through writing several letters to a five-year-old girl with polio, her mother said that Charlie helped to give her daughter the strength and joy to carry on, even when she was near death. Famous actresses Esther Williams and Ava Gardner were named two of the 10 most beautiful women in America. This list was compiled by the Artists’ Group of America. Dec. 6, 1972 Barbara Dunbar polled 337 votes in the Grey council municipal elections, making her the first woman councillor in the township’s history. Hog and white bean farmer Gordon Hill of Varna was re-elected as president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture at OFA’s annual convention held in Hamilton. Hill was the first president to serve four consecutive presidential terms in the position. Dec. 7, 1988 Losses were estimated at a staggering $250,000 in a destructive blaze in Auburn. The fire destroyed a recently renovated dairy barn on the Auburn area farm of Siebolt and Anne Siertsema. Witnesses said that they could see the orange glow from the Auburn area fire from Blyth. Blyth Fire Department arrived promptly but much delay had been experienced in calling help because phone lines attached to the barn had been quickly destroyed in the flames. Neighbours had managed to lead several of the dairy herd out of the barn. A total of 41 cows were saved, but five cows were lost in the flames, as well as all veal calves in the barn and a number of heifers. Also lost to the fire was a newly-constructed addition to the barn, the milk house, and a number of tools which had remained in the barn from the recent construction. The cause of the fire was unknown, but investigation continued. Firefighters were able to salvage an additional attached barn, and the surviving herd were being safe kept in a neighbour’s dairy barn until other plans could be made. Thankfully there was insurance coverage on the building, and neighbours and friends were showing a lot of support with the family’s efforts to recover. Dec. 5, 1990 Slippery road conditions on Hwy. 4 resulted in another of a number of accidents. A man from Clinton was southbound just south of Conc. 2-3 in Morris Twp. when his tractor trailer slid on a slushy spot, entering the east ditch. There were no injuries in the incident, and only moderate damage was done to the tractor trailer. Another accident occurred in East Wawanosh Twp. on Sideroad 30-31 near Hwy. 86, A 17-year-old Belgrave teen was travelling southbound in a 1976 GMC pickup when he met a tractor driven by a Belgrave man after cresting a hill. Due to the narrow road width, the vehicles were unable to pass each other and the truck caught the back wheel of a plough being pulled by the tractor. There were no injuries. The plow sustained light damage, while the truck had only moderate damage. Blyth Public School students council was holding their Mr. Personality Day. Each girl from Grades 4 to 8 was given a piece of string, and if a boy got them to talk, then they would give that boy their string. Blyth Public School’s own Mr. Personality was Grade 8 student Brian McNichol, who collected eight strings. The possibility of Blyth having an extra $400,000 to spend on the village had community groups quick to fill a wishlist of possible ways the money could be spent. Blyth was preparing to submit an application for a Pride grant from the federal government. The grant would start in 1992 and continue for three years. Groups around the village such as the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association, the Women’s Fastball team, and the various groups using the Community Centre and the Public Utilities Commission were all eager to have their say into what the money could be put into. Playing at the Park Theatre in Goderich was Clint Eastwood and Charlie Sheen in The Rookie. Also playing was Jetsons: The Movie. THE EDITOR, On Saturday, Nov. 25, the Blyth Inn hosted a show by hypnotist Paul Anthony of Hamilton. The show began with the reassurance that the hypnotist did nothing that the participants’mind did not facilitate. Participants were chosen by Anthony asking for volunteers who wished to quit smoking. When that only elicited a few volunteers, Anthony chose several others to participate and went through a variety of relaxation/hypnotizing exercises. Eventually, all the men and most of the women were elminated leaving three women to participate in the hypnosis show. Once the participants were fully hypnotized, Anthony led them through a variety of sexualized exercises which revolved around the participants’amorous intentions towards Anthony. This created significant guffaws from the audience. In retrospect, one wonders about the impacts on the participants. Hypnosis is a tool which has been used effectively to change deep- seated behaviours. What is the impact of creating a sense of wanting to be impregnated by the hypnotist in a young woman? How will it impact on her current relationship and on her sense of self? What are the ethics of someone with professional training using it to demean women on stage? Learning about the impacts of hypnosis is interesting. But the learning need not be presented in a way that sexualizes women. Carol Burns We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Economics versus nature In recent years the laws of economics have ruled, reshaping our soc- iety but times like this week, we get reacquainted with the laws of nature. The efficiency of size has changed the face of our region, even our country. Larger stores, concentrated in regional centres, have killed many stores in our towns that once provided services to us. Even in manu- facturing, just-in-time deliveries have changed the way business is done. But these changes require one thing — travel. Nature’s reality in the snowbelt is that travel is sometimes, as it was this week, impossible. For those of us who live at a distance of the large stores that people increasingly depend on for the necessities of life, we can be left in the serious position of having to do without. So we have economics tugging us in one direction, nature tugging us in another. Since we are killing off, or have already killed off, the local stores we once could depend on in the midst of our harsh winters, perhaps global warming is devoutly to be hoped for, modifying our snowbelt climate to make it easier to travel to far-off big box stores. If nature has the last laugh, however, people who must travel to get supplies, could be in trouble. Economics and nature even battle it out on the global warming front. Thousands of people across rural Ontario who once could walk uptown to shop are now travelling many miles each week to shop in big regional stores. Country residents who once drove a couple of miles to shop in town, are more and more, travelling many times that distance. We’re saving money (sometimes) shopping in these large stores, but spewing tons more carbon into the air to do it, endangering the very future of our grandchildren. In the short term, economics will always win. In the long term, nature fights back. The repercussions we’ve already seen from climate change may mean we may pay a stiff price for saving a few bucks. — KR What about responsibility Cynics in the climate change debate — led by the federal government — are constantly pointing out that whether Canada cleans up its act or not will have little effect on the future of the earth. These critics argue it would be foolish for Canada to take harsh remedies that might harm our economy in order to meet the Kyoto Accord which large polluters like the United States, China and India have not signed. Recently Prime Minister Stephen Harper played a key role in scuttling a deal among Commonwealth countries that would have placed binding targets on greenhouse gas reductions because major polluters would not be involved. Interestingly the prime minister’s party, and many of the conservative columnists and commentators who support his view on climate change, also represent the position that there must be more personal responsibility. Would they support the plea of a person caught stealing, for instance, that all their friends were doing it so it should be okay for them to do it? Would they argue that people who could find jobs, even in communities of chronic unemployment, should just stay home because their neighbours were? Personal responsibility is about doing what is right even if it’s inconvenient or comes at a personal cost. Prime Minister Harper showed that kind of courage in standing up to China over its human rights abuses. If he really believes personal responsibility, shouldn’t we do the right thing even if others aren’t?— KR & Letter to the editor