HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-12-12, Page 5Arthur Black
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1990. PAGE 5.
A small step
for mankind
I think it’s the styrofoam pop cooler that
depresses me most. It’s there every
morning when I take my dog for a walk,
poking the shards of its grey white bulk out
of the ditch that runs beside the road I
take. ,,
If it weren’t for the pop cooler, the scene
would be worthy of a Robert Bateman
landscape - a grove of gnarled cedars
fanning out left and right, the black and
ancient Grand River snaking through the
background, a squadron of Canada Geese
in a low-level flypast looking for a likely
corn field. I don’t know how long the
busted-up styrofoam cooler has been
lodged in the ditch - maybe years. Long
enough to endure more than a few rains
and snows without budging. Long enough
to snag dozens of wrappers and plastic
bags and other toss-offs of 20th century
flotsam and jetsam that people throw over
their shoulders or out their car windows
without a second thought.
Every time I walk past the remains of
that cooler I think to myself, what manner
of brain-dead bozo would drive down this
The International
Scene
The origin
of Santa Claus
BY RAYMOND CANON
It goes without saying that the spirit of
giving has always been a part of Christ
mas. So it was that the very first people to
hear of the birth of Christ were the
shepherds and the three Wise Men and
both of them responded to the news by
bringing tokens of their love and their joy
to the baby Jesus as he lay in the manger in
Bethlehem.
Each country seems to have its own
version of the spirit of giving; a spirit which
manifests itself in the concept of Father
Christmas. In parts of Switzerland, you
may be interested to know, there is even a
Mother Christmas who travels with him as
well. But what of Santa Claus, the version
with which most children on this continent
are familiar?
The story is told of a little boy named
Nicholas who was born about 300 years
after Jesus. As a child he was always going
about demonstrating his love for God and
when he grew up it is not surprising that he
became a bishop in the church. Every
chance he got he used the wealth and
talents that God had given him to help
others but, modesty being one of his
characteristics, he did not want anyone to
know of his good deeds and for this reason
he tried to do as many of them as possible
in a unobtrusive way.
He was discovered in the midst of doing
one of these deeds and it was not long
before his fame spread all over Europe.
Bishop Nicholas became St. Nicholas and
there are still many legends in various
countries about his activities. In some
countries the children await his coming on
Dec. 6 which has become St. Nicholas day
in the Christmas tradition.
The people of Holland were among those
who adopted St. Nicholas as their spirit of
giving and. after the Dutch had settled in
parts of America, it is not surprising that
they brought St. Ncholas with them so that
he would help in making the young Dutch
immigrant children less lonely in their new
land.
back road, see these trees, that river, those
Canadas-and say to hirrrdr herself “Wow!
What a perfect place to get rid of that old
styrofoam pop cooler!’’
Somebody did. And not just a pop cooler
either. I don’t have to squint to see the
other crap we passersby have consigned to
the ditch -- beer bottles, pop cans,
cigarette wrappers, Big Mac containers,
Dunkin’ Donuts bags.
As a species, we really are a pack of
slobs.
Well, not all of us. There are people like
Gordon Carle.
Mister Carle is a commercial fisherman
living on the outskirts of La Ronge in
northern Saskatchewan. Driving in to town
one day, looking out his side window at
several years of accumulated trash in the
ditch. Mister Carle cursed to himself and
muttered something along the lines of
“What a sight! Somebody should do
something about that mess.’’
Which is when it dawned on Mister
Carle that he was driving alone, hence he
was talking to himself.
If “somebody” was going to do some
thing about that mess, it might as well be
he.
But even in a relatively unspoiled spot
like La Ronge. the ditches are too much for
one man to handle. Carle decided to go for
help. He didn’t bug the Rotarians or
Kiwanis or the Lions. He just approached
all the people he knew in the community
and said “Whaddyasay we adopt a ditch?”
In New Amsterdam, which some of you
may recognize as the former name of New
York, the Dutch hung pictures of the saint
in his high hat and long red robe. The
children’s pet name for him in these
pictures was Sinter Klaus.
Many of the English families who settled
in the same area were of the Puritan
religion and this prevented them from
celebrating Christmas. To find the reason
for this, go back in British history and you
will find that during Oliver Cromwell’s
Puritan rule in England, all celebrating of
Christmas had been banned and this
included any reference to Britain’s lively
old Father Christmas.
At any rate, the English children in New
Amsterdam noticed that Sinter Klaus
always brought presents to the Dutch
children.
The former asked their parents if Sinter
Klaus would bring presents to the English
children as well and since, as everybody
knows, he loves all children, so it was that
Letter to the Editor
Govt, against violence but pro abortion
THE EDITOR,
Because of their plan of full access and
funding, the NDP is being hailed as a
saviour by those who favour abortion on
demand. At the same time, this govern
ment purports to be against violence.
Inter-uterus violence, motivator and pro
moter of violence that follows, is not taken
in consideration.
If you tolerate and even sanction the
termination of human life before it has a
chance to prove its worth, you can expect
the deterioration of the dignity and respect
for human life. We see this increasingly
every day.
Our natural compassion is apparently
still within us but it manifests itself in the
protection of animals, often to ridiculous
heights.
Occasionally we demonstrate human
love in highlighted cases and send 500
presents to an abused child. But we mostly
neglect those around us because it is not
glamorous to help if there is no recogni
tion.
Nothing is worse than the abuse of
power exercised over those who depend on
and often put their trust in those who are in
charge.
I still bear the scars of abuse encounter
The La Ronge Adopt-A-Ditch program
was born. “We asked local people to
volunteer to clean up just one kilometre of
ditch, both sides,” says Carle, “and we
asked them to make a commitment to do it
four times over the summer.”
The idea took off. A La Ronge radio
station supported the plan. Nearby com
munities jumped on the bandwagon.
Mayors, downtown merchants, whole fami
lies and members of a nearby native
reserve jumped on the bandwagon. By
summer’s end 300 community volunteers
had plucked the junk from more than 90
kilometres of ditches around La Ronge.
Next spring, Carle and company plan to
tackle the junk that has collected for most
of this century around the area’s lakes and
canoe routes -- in addition to keeping the
ditches clean.
We don’t have a lot of lakes and canoe
routes where I live, but we have a ton of
dirty ditches. Bet you do too.
Think about it the next time you go for a
drive. Check out the number of old
mattresses, beer cartons, pop bottles and
Pampers you pass in one kilometre. Not too
daunting, eh? Nothing a half dozen
volunteers with a pickup couldn’t handle
in, say one Saturday afternoon in spring?
Why not start your own Adopt-A-Ditch
program? It’s not patented. You willing? I
am.
But not this afternoon. This afternoon I
have to go out and pick up a styrofoam pop
cooler.
the kindly old person got around to looking
after all children in New Amsterdam, not
just the ones of Dutch origin. Since the
other kids had trouble pronouncing the
Dutch words as well as did the Dutch
children, the word soon got changed to
Santa Claus which, as you know, it is
today.
Since there was Father Christmas on one
side of the ocean and Santa Claus on the
other as far as the English speaking world
was concerned, there soon became a
grafting of the two personalities. Nobody is
quite sure just when the reindeer-drawn
sleigh made its way across the Atlantic but
it did and so in New Amsterdam Sinter
Klaus was delivering his presents in a
vehicle of English origin. The changes in
dress followed shortly afterwards until it
was difficult to tell the difference between
Mr. Claus of England and his namesake in
New Amsterdam.
Santa Claus as we know it had arrived.
What will he be like 100 years from now?
ed in Hitler’s Germany. My fear of the
return to such a world has become verv
real, where power over others was the
motivating factor and those least able to
defend themselves lost out. Yet, all the
money or power we amass means nothing
in the end. Only the legacy we leave behind
will be of value.
We all can and must contribute in
promoting morals, ethics, dignity of human
life and love for one another. Especially our
clergy, educators, politicians and the
powerful media who carry an awesome
responsibility. We must muster the cour
age to resist going the way of least
resistance and selfish reasoning if we want
to create a better world. What nobler cause
could we have than to work on the building
of our nation and not the destruction of our
own offspring.
There are many waiting and empty arms
to receive a new bom baby. We would help
our dying nation that has to rely on
immigration to shore up our declining
population.
Let us build a responsible society and
start now, for the day is short and the
season right.
ADRIAN KEET
BLUEVALE.
Letter
from the
editor
A glimpse at a
self-confident Canada
BY KEITH ROULSTON
I was listening to Peter Gzowski on CBC
Radio’s Morningside as I travelled in the
car the other day and it struck me that he
was portraying the kind of Canada I’d like
to see.
I introduced myself to CBC radio’s
Morningside a dozen years or so ago. The
radio in our house was always tuned to the
local station and when I got older I listened
to stations playing the latest top 40 music.
So it wasn’t until I met Don Harron when
he came to do a fundraiser for the Blyth
Festival that I started listening to CBC
again. I’d long been an admirer of Don, not
so much for his Charlie Farquharson
character but as a writer and as a person
who gave back as much as he took by doing
things like fundraising for worthy causes.
When I learned he had just been named to
take over the Morningside program I
started to listen in when I could.
Since then Don ran the show for several
years then turned it back over to Peter
Gzowski who had originated it. Now I listen
to the show when I’m travelling and envy
those stay-at-home moms and dads who
can listen for a whole three hours each
morning.
The country reflected on the show is a
fascinating, self-aware, comfortable-with
itself country and if the country was really
like that from coast to coast, we’d have a
much healthier nation.
The show reflects a country, not just
from a Toronto viewpoint, but from across
the land. Gzowski may be talking to a
correspondent in an isolated Inuit village
one moment, a panel of top business
experts the next, then off to Ottawa to a
panel of political experts, then off to BC or
Newfoundland for a panel on local issues.
He’ll be discussing Canadian writers or
movie makers without apologizing about
how they aren’t as good or as well known
as Americans. Among Gzowski’s audience,
these people probably are well known
because the people listening do more than
read National Enquirer and watch Enter
tainment Tonight. Yet it’s not an audience
of the elite. Listeners include fishermen,
trappers, farmers and millions of other
people working at home.
Over the years, even with my sporadic
listening, I’ve met dozens of fascinating
Canadians I’d never have learned about
anywhere else, people like Murray Thomp
son who was interviewed Monday morning
just before he received the Lester B.
Pearson Peace Prize. The former World
War Two fighter pilot has dedicated his life
to peace in the world, helping start groups
like Operation Ploughshare.
Yet though the program is proudly
Canadian there isn’t even a hint of
anti-Americanism or isolationism. Ameri
cans are looked at as a very interesting,
often-outstanding foreign country. Gzow
ski dips into American and other world
cultures without ever getting into a
them-versus-us attitude.
It’s the kind of confident Canada-build-
ing that CBC was set up to do: the kind
CBC television has never quite managed
and with the cuts to CBC operations
announced last week, perhaps never will.
As much as I like the idea of home-made
Canadian dramas (many of my friends earn
their living from them), it is in explaining
one part of Canada to other parts that it
has its most important function. If 1 had
power over CBC I’d assign a quota of so
many hours each week to be produced in
each of the provinces and broadcast to the
rest of the country. It would not only help
us understand other parts of the country
but would reduce the sense of frustration
so many areas feel when they think only
the view from Toronto gets airtime
nationally.
The greatest function of television, radio
and newspapers and magazines is to not
just inform, but let us know enough about
ourselves to be self confident. I don’t think
many people in the current government
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