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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-08-17, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1988. An honourable duty It may not be as glamorous to be a policeman as a warrior but the Canadian troops who went overseas this week to be part of the United Nations Peacekeeping force to police the Iran-Iraq cease-fire, couldn’t be serving the world any better way. The World is asking a lot of these men. While the majority of the 500 Canadian troops will be involved in setting up the communications system for the UN force, 15 will be observers of the cease-fire, getting between the enemies and going unarmed. Others will be armed but ordered not to fire unless fired on. There have been some experts who have said we are crazy to ask these men to take the risk. Iran and Iraq have fought one of the modern time’s most vicious wars. Chemical warfare has been used for the first time in decades. These critics say the two countries have shown little evidence they really want peace. But somebody has to try and these young men are ready, even eager, to make their contribution. They won’t come back with such glories of victory as the Americans have with invasions of Grenada or the bombing of Libya. If they do their job well, the rest of the world will stop paying attention to Iran and Iraq all together. And yet they still take the kind of risks of being in a “hot” war. Since Canada first enlisted as a peacekeeper 41 years ago, 78 Canadians have died while serving on peacekeeping forces. Peacekeeping has been a proud Canadian contribution to world peace. Canada is the only country that has participated in every one of the United Nations’ peacekeeping operations. It is the one thing that all our political parties support without question or quibble. It was a Liberal foreign minister, Lester Pearson, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating a Peacekeeping force in the Suez war in 1956, but both Liberal and Conservative prime ministers since have sent other Canadians off to keep the peace. In many ways, our peacekeeping tradition marks our nation’s personality. While the U.S., as a superpower has a gut reaction to unilaterally try to enforce the peace in Libya, Lebanon or the Persian Gulf by sending in the planes, ships or troops, Canada co-operates with other smaller countries to bring peace in a negotiated manner. But that peace can only be backed up by the willingness of young soldiers and leave their families behind to risk their lives for the dangerous, unglamorous job of peacekeeping in some far corner of the world. We all owe them our gratitude. A pillar of the community BY KEITH ROULSTON They coined the term “pillar of the community’’ for people like A. Y. (Andy) McLean, the former publisher of The Brussels Post, The Blyth Standard and the Huron Expositor who died Sunday in Victoria Hospital, London. I worked briefly for A. Y. at the Expositor as a summer student in the memorable summer of 1967. A nervous youngster anyway, just out of first year journalism school, I found it unnerving trying to ask the boss for information because his office always seemed to be filled wtih people from the community asking advice on what to do at the Lions Swimming Pool or the Seaforth Hospital. I often got the impression no one in the town wanted to make a move without getting A. Y.’s advice. Going into that office was intimidating too. There were pictures on the wall of Mr. McLean at the United Nations with Lester Pearson during the famous peace deliberations leading up to the UN peacekeeping troops being sent into the Suez. By the time I met him, A. Y. McLean had already lived a life few of us could ever even imagine living. He had been a squadron leader in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, and was later awarded the Order of the British Empire. Hehadbeenamemberofparliamentfrom 1949 to 1953 and had been an observer at the UN after that. He had been a driving force behind the fundraising campaign in the 1960’s to build the Seaforth Community Hospital and he sat on the hospital’s board for years. He was proud of the family business that had been going for 112 years before it was sold in 1982. I’ve often wondered what his thoughts were when that parting had to be made. He took up a project in his “retirement’’ that might have frightened off many younger people, overseeing the publication of the huge, 350-page Huron County Historical Atlas. History was always a love of his and he was a long-time member of the Huron County Historical Society and had published, through the Expositor, several community history books by local authors. He was once quoted as sayi-ng “If you are living in a community you should be active (in it)’’. None could ever say he didn’t live up to his own counsel. The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 A summer sky Letter from the editor Give me boring people BY KEITH ROULSTON After years of watching movies, and reading the comments of film reviewers, I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t want any of the “interesting” characters in the movies to marry my daughter. I don’t want them to move next door either. In fact, I’m not sure I’d even want one living in the same country. There’s a perversity in the film world, at least viewed through the eyes of the film reviewers, that makes all the nice people in movies boring, and all the nasty people “interesting”. Now being a writer for the theatre myself sometimes, I know that there has to be conflict in a play or movie to keep the audience from falling asleep. If everybody is nice and everybody gets along then it will be sheer boredom. Still I can’t quite get over the fact that the nasty people in the movies are the ones to be admired. Actresses, for instance, long to play prostitutes and gun molls because they’re “more interest­ ing”. Actors wou Id rather play the villain than the hero. When the movie LaBamba came out, I read a number of reviews in which the hero, the late rock singer Richie Valens, was portrayed as something of a wimp while the exciting figure was his half-broth­ er. When I finally got to see the movie the exciting brother turned out to be a guy who came home from prison, seduced his brother’s girlfriend, married her then pro­ ceeded to treat her like garbage and virtually raped her to get his rights as husband. Tom Cruise has made a fortune at his young age playing charming, but often spoiled, brats. Bonnie and Clyde were greatly admired because they made them­ selves interesting by shooting up a few towns and a good number of people (but then they were only dull country towns and country dullards anyway and what the heck you’ve got to break the bordeom somehow). Now Hollywood has come out with a more “interesting” version of the Bible in “The Last Tempta­ tion of Christ” the controversial film that some church leaders want tobanishif notburn. I’ll defend director Martin Scorese’s right to makefilms aboutwhat he wants butldon’tthinklwanttogosee it. I read the review in Maclean’s magazine last week and I think that’s enough. According to the review, in the early scenes Jesus starts out as “a mumbling wimp who admits to being a liar, a hypocrite and a coward”. Hmm, that should make him more “interesting” by Holly­ wood standards than the ultimate good guy we’ve come to expect from the Bible. Later, after Jesus has spent his time in the desert, he “emerges as a wild-eyed dema­ gogue -- a revolutionary leader armed with the wrath of God ”. O h oh, he’s slipping into boring. But he’s saved from complete boredom by a dream he has in his last moments on the cross where he Continued on Page 12 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario, by North Huron Publishing Company Inc Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $17 OO/yr ($38 00 Foreign) 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, 4pm - Bl\th We are not responsible for unsolicited newscriptsor photographs Contents of (he Citizen are © Copyright Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Editor& Publisher, Keith Roulston Advertising Manager, Dave Williams Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6966