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The Citizen, 1990-12-18, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1990. Editorials Does anyone shop here ? Sit around wherever there is a group of people gathered these days and you’ll quickly get an idea of what is wrong with the economics of local towns and villages. “ I went shopping in London ’ ’ one will say or “I went shopping in Kitchener” or Stratford or Port Huron. One begins to wonder if any of the Christmas presents come from their own community. There are many arguments people have for going out of town, all the way from more selection to cheaper prices to the need for a day out. There’s no doubt that as the retail sections of our communities shrink, the selection is reduced. As the volume of sales a business does decline, it has to try to get more money from each item it does get to cover the costs of running the business. But sometimes money saved shopping outside the community is a false economy. We all want to have a main street full of stores but the merchants can’t run their businesses on air. Those businesses also pay taxes that help provide for the arenas and the paved streets and the parks that we’d all want even if we didn’t have a main street business left. And without our merchants services like this newspaper wouldn’t be here. Somebody has to pay the bills. If people take their Christmas shopping money out of town they may also end up having to go out of town for these other services too. The problem is people keep thinking they can have it both ways, that they can have the good life of their small community and save their money to be spent in the big city. Few would like the taxes, the crowding, the high cost of daily life in the city but they want the advantages. They are as short-sighted as the people of border areas who like Canadian medicare, old age pensions and higher Canadian minimum wages but want to have the cheaper prices available across the U.S. border that are available because of lower wages and taxes that support medicare, etc. You may be able to have it both ways for a little while but eventually the gravy train can’t continue. If you like what you’ve got in your community, you’ve got to support it. Sometimes nagging works? Nobody likes to be nagged but sometimes it has a positive effect. The recent support from Blyth-area groups for the Blyth and District Community Centre is a case in point. A couple of years back, when a major equipment breakdown took place at the arena and local municipalities were called on to find extra money to pay for the repairs and many, especially some of the rural municipalities, weren’t happy about it. Morris township councillors pointed to the example of Belgrave where volunteers operated an arena that cost the taxpayer virtually nothing to maintain. They pointed to Brussels where the Brussels, Morris and Grey catering group has turned over thousands of dollars each year to offset arena costs. Why weren’t volunteers more involved in Blyth arena, they asked. Perhaps stung by the criticism supporters of the Blyth arena turned to local service clubs. There have been gifts for this or that project in the past but the last few weeks there has been a flood of donations from hard-working volunteer groups to help pay for new flooring for the dressing rooms, a new tractor to power the flooder and a new handicapped washroom. Groups are looking at future projects like repainting of the arena’s rusted steel beams. The results will be an improved community facility without extra tax burden to any of the five supporting municipalities. The taxpayers should be grateful to these volunteers and to the nagging politicians who prompted the Community Centre Board to look at a different approach - doing it ourselves ... Farmers attending the Agriculture Finance Committee hearing in Listowel recently looked ahead to the future by looking back at the things that worked in the past. Farmers told the NDP committee members rural Ontario’s reserves must be used to find the solution to rural Ontario’s problems. They suggested finding some way for rural people to invest their money that will go to help finance agriculture’s needs, not go off to the cities to help build apartment buildings. The speakers, whether they thought of it or not, were looking to the history of rural communities where people turned to community action to solve the problems they couldn’t solve as individuals and problems that weren’t being solved by urban-based business. They uilt mutual fire insurance companies, co-ops to process milk into butter and cheese, farm supply co-ops and credit unions. They changed the rural society with their community solutions. Somewhere along the way we fell into the pattern that if we ouldn’t solve the problem as individuals, they turned to government todo it. If we want to keep rural Ontario alive we’ve got to get back to eking community solutions. The goose is getting fat? Mabel’s Grill There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel s Grill where the greatest minds in the town [if not in the country] gather for morning coffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Filibustering So­ ciety. Since not just everyone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: Julia Flint was telling how her sister, who is about to have her first child, isn’t at all sure she wants her kids to go along with the regular mythology of Christmas. “She keeps worrying about the kid being disillusioned when the real story about Santa comes out,” Julia says. “Ah let the kids have some fun”, Hank Sokes said. “They’ll soon enough learn what a hard world this is so let them think it’s a better place than it is for as long as possible.” “Ha!” Ward Black snorted over in the corner. “The problem with this world is that people get so used to Santa that they may finally admit the truth but they still want to think there’s somebody that gives you whatever you want just for the asking. Only they call it govern­ ment.” TUESDAY: Julia says she’s not too sure she likes the reputation Canada is going to get over in Poland after this Polish-Canadian ran for the presidency over there. Now they’re charging him with slander over the things he said about the country’s prime minister while he was running for the election. “The problem is the Poles just haven’t had any experience with elections,’’ Tim O’Grady said. “In a way this guy Tyminski could be regarded as foreign aid from Canada, teaching them that in a democracy you call your opponent anything you can think of so you can get elected and somebody else then calls you anything he can think of so he can get you out of office.” “But wouldn’t it have been nice,” said Billie Bean, “if the Poles could have kept a little optimism about democracy a little longer than their first election. After this, Communism might look Continued on page 5 Citizen. P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $19.00/yr. ($40.00 Foreign]. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisment will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright. Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. cn ^CNA BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1990 (j»QNA Phone 523-4792 Phone 887-9114 Editor & Publisher, Keith Roulston Advertising Manager, Dave Williams Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968