The Citizen, 1987-04-01, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1987.
Opinion
Triumph and tragedy
In the last few weeks the triumph and the tragedy of
gambling have been played out in the pages of The Citizen. For
reportsonthepaper, andforreaders, itisalotoffunand
excitement to report on people who have won an expensive new
car or a half-million dollars in lotteries. It isn’t nearly as much
fun to see someone who had been one of the most important and
popular citizens of a community (and a friend) sentenced to
prison because of a crime committed trying to feed an addictive
gambling habit.
Evidence presented at the trial of former Blyth village
clerk-treasurer Larry Walsh last week showed that he had
probably been hooked on gambling since he was a child. Expert
testimony showed that gambling can be a sickness just like
alcoholism.
There has never been a time when gambling was so much a
part of Canadian life as it is today. More money is spent on
advertising various provincially-backed lotteries than on any
other item except beer. Surrounded by this promotion, how
many more young people are being hooked on gambling out
there these days?
There is no better way to make money than to get people
addicted to something. Western traders learned that a century
agowhen they introducedopiumtoChinese peasants, got them
addicted, then were able to get unfair trade advantages
because the Chinese needed their opium so badly. In the
American West, unscrupulous whiskey traders introduced
alcohol to natives, then took advantage of their need to get
unfair deals. Today there are low-lifes who introduce children
to drugs, get them hooked and make them turn to prostitution or
theft to feed the habit.
Few would disagree that this is unethical and disgusting
behaviour which takes advantage of people’s weaknesses to
make money. How, then, do we reconcile that government,
which represents us all, makes huge money off two addictions
like gambling and alcohol?
Most of us are quite happy to sit back and not see the
consequences ofthis form of government fund-raising. It’s nice
to see local sports facilities or theatres get fat cheques to help
their work from Wintario. It’s nice to know all this is happening
without government having raised our taxes again. If we think
at all of where the money came from, we’re likely to remember
the time we thought “oh, what the hell,’ ’ and plunked down a
spare dollar or two for a lottery ticket. We don’t think about the
minority ofpeoplewhohave become so hooked on lotteries that
they spend every cent they can lay their hands on.
Seeing people win lotteries is fun. We can be happy for these
people and imagine for ourselves what it would be like. Sadly,
those winnings, however, will make it even more tempting for
people with a gambling problem to spend more, sure that their
turn is just around the corner. Not everybody will turn to crime
to feed their habit, but how many desperate people are there
who spend money on gambling that they should be spending on
food for their children? How many families are there out there
that are suffering because one of the parents has an addiction?
It ’ s easier to see the winners of lotteries: the lottery company
trumpets their success to excite more ticket buying. Finding the
losers is less easy. They can hide out as our neighbours and
friends for years, undetected unless they get so desperate they
go beyond the law. It’s only when we see someone we know
caught. that we realize how series the problem can be. Maybe if
we all knew someone like Larry Walsh, maybe if our politicians
saw a good man brought down by a government-promoted
addiction, we would all look at lotteries in a new light.
Let's look at ourselves
As the summit meeting between Prime Minister Mulroney
and President Ronald Reagan of the United States approaches
on April 5-6 we can expect a further barrage of editorials,
commentaries and political speeches on how little the U.S. is
doing to stop the pollution that creates acid rain and ruins
thousands of lakes in Canada and the northeastern U.S.
Indeed, every time some American politician says acid rain is
only a Canadian plot to sell more Canadian electricity to
Americans by increasing the cost of their coal-fired power
plants, Canadians are apt to get a little testy.
While the lack of U. S. action is deplorable, all the attention it
gets in Canada tends to obscure the fact that the source of a lot of
the acid rain damaging eastern Canada is our own industry. Our
own provincial government-owned power plants continue to
spew out pollution. The 700-foot smoke stack in Sudbury only
spreads the pollution further across the eastern half of the
continent (and, some Americans claim, into the U.S.).
Sure, unlike the U.S., our government has planned to take
action, cutting acid rain-producing emissions in half by 1994
but how well are we doing in getting toward that goal? Is the
government, ever cost-conscious, really putting money into the
program? Is industry getting serious about cleaning up its act?
Ifit comes down to a choice betweenjobs and clean air will
governments knuckle under as the Ontario government did
recently when it relaxed clean-up rules for a northern pulp mill
so it would stay open?
Instead of concentrating so much attention on the faults of
our neighbour, maybe we should look a little harder at our own
back yard.
Spring runoff
Letter from the editor
Give them their proper due
BY KEITH ROULSTON
There was something sad about
that proposal a few weeks ago to
pay housewives (persons?) a salary
of something over $20,000 a year
for their contribution in staying
home and minding the house and
kids.
What was sad wasn’t so much
that it seems a ridiculously imposs
ible program to fund and admini
ster. It wasn’t the fact that it was
one more call from people to make
government bigger in an answer to
making perfect justice in the
country. What was sad, for me, is
that it shows again there is only one
way to measure worth and success
in the 1980’s: money.
The thinking seems to be that
there is little value given to women
who stay home these days and
therefore, if earning a salary
makes women feel good about
Letter to the editor
THE EDITOR,
Stan Connelly, President, and
Barney Goldsmith, Campaign
Chairman, of the Huron County
Chapter of the Heart and Stroke
Foundation of Ontario, thank all
area chairs and canvassers for their
efforts during the annual cam
paign for funds in February.
Although all money is not yet in,
the goal of $55,500 should certainly
be reached, an increase of $6,000
over 1986.
$2,500ofthis money is Huron
County’s commitment to the Ro-
barts Research Institute in Lon
don. The Robarts Research Insti
tute will be a major research centre
in the Province whose purpose is to
search out cures, not only for heart
and circulatory disease, but also to
imporve immunology techniques
(critical in organ transplants) and
to address Juvenile Diabetes and
Altzheimers Disease.
The Chapter also appreciates
the excellent coverage given by
your newspaper during the cam
paign and thanks you for it and the
residents of Huron County for their
generous donations.
Margaret MacLeod
Public Relations Chair
themselves, then let’s pay them a
salary for staying home.
There’s little doubt there is a lot
of discrimination against house
wives these days. Everything has
become so politicized in women’s
world these days that staying home
to mind house and kids seems like
an act of treachery to the women’s
movement, at least to listen to the
speeches of the leaders of the
women’s movement.
Yetifl look at the remarkable
women I have known in Huron
county over the years, I would
suspect the ones I most admire are
people who worked for years and
never get a penny for their efforts:
people who never punched a time
clock, nevergottwo-weekspaid
vacation.
These women have been among
the most “professional” people
around even though when it came
to a census form they’d have to put
down “housewife” or “home
maker’ ’. These women literally
have kept our communities going
through their volunteer work. They
are people who make churches
work, serve on hospital boards, fair
boards, provide theatre program
ming for children, organize day
care facilities.
During my years with the Blyth
Festival we knew that if you wanted
to get things done you most likely
turned not to men, or to women
with jobs, but to those demeaned
“housewives” who had time and
energy and ideas to devote to the
cause. Some of these women, and
there are so many in these
communities to name, are really
professional volunteers, going
from serving one non-profit group
to another, keeping hectic sche
dules any 9-5 business person
would find gruelling.
Yet somehow these people who
contribute so much, are regarded
as second class, as unimportant
because they don’t make a $30,000
or more salary.
This same measurement of
success in terms of dollars can be
seenelsewhere too. Volunteers
have kept many important parts of
communities alive. If the men who
volunteer their time for fire
brigades started measuring their
value in the dollars they were
given, how much would it cost us
for fire protection. If fair board
directors. Scout masters or service
club leaders, measure their time in
dollars, how could our communi
ties exist?
It’s time we started measuring
success in something other than
dollars. There is no more important
job in the world than raising the
next generation of human beings.
We may not be able to afford to pay
stay-at-home parents what they’re
worth but at least we can given
them proper credit.
[Published by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. ]
Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel,
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