HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-09-30, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1987.
Opinion
l/l/e cant keep losing
our idea makers
It’s the time of year when commencement ceremonies at the
many area high schools brings home the reality of just how
greatthelossisinthebraindrainthatseesgenerationof
generation of the best Huron County minds sent off to make
their living in the city.
Don Hearn, valedictorian at the Central Huron Secondary
School commencement Friday night, underscored the finality
of the ceremony when he urged graduates to take a look up and
down their row and may be give fellow graduates a hug or
handshake because insomecases, itwouldbethe last time they
would see them.
The frightening aspect of these ceremonies is that too often it
is the best and brightest who will never return to their own
community again except for the occasional visit. We educate
them then send their minds off to help continue the dominance
of city economics and city ways of thought.
We need the best and brightest minds here, helping to solve
the problems our small rural communities have. We need as
many intelligent inquiring minds on our farms and in our small
towns as possible because we need to develop a body of thought
about life from a rural perspective.
We need to fight hard to keep a voice for our rural lifestyle
that will be lost if we keep losing population, and bright minds,
to urban areas. Already we are too often forgotten when it
comes to policy making on a federal or provincial scale. The
current free trade negotiations, for instance, were the brain
child of a former Bay Street lawyer for the Liberals and
supported bv a lot more big-business oriented Members of
Parliament from the Conservative party. Who in this whole
process, was really giving much thought to the impact on small
towns and farms.
If our communities are to compete against the ever stronger
competition from big cities, we need people trained in
marketing and business administration and all those other
skills needed to make our businesses and farms competitive.
We need the best minds we can produce coming back to teach in
our own schools. In short, we need the best and brightest here
working for us, not helping big institutions in the cities get even
bigger.
Until we find ways to get a reasonable number of our best
young minds back into our own communities we can expect to
see the power of smaller communities continue to diminish.
We 're sending more than our sons and daughters off to the city;
we’re sending our future.
Let's not overlook
the obvious: food
Nextweek(Oct. 4-12) is Agri-Food Week in Ontario, an
annual event which attempts to focus the attention of the public
on the agriculture and food industries in Ontario. In a week that
culminate sin Thanksgiving, we should all take time to be
grateful for what we have.
Food, even here in the breadbasket of Ontario is often taken
for granted by Canadians. We’re used to being able to go into
any store and take our pick of thousands of packages, cans,
bottles and bags of different food types. We are used to going
out to our back yard and bringing in fruits and vegetables that
would make a gourmet drool. We’re used to driving down roads
and seeing so much food in the fields it’s hard to imagine there
being want anywhere.
And because food is so plentiful and so inexpensive, we take
itfor granted only a small portion of our money should be spent
on food so that we can spend more on electronic gadgets from
microwaves to compact disc players to satellite dishes, or spent
on clothes or vacations or other necessities of our 1980's
lifestyle.
Too seldom are the people who put that food on our table at
such remarkably low prices considered. Too often our society is
willing to see the farmer get so little for his product that he can’t
pay his bills, as long as it means we consumers have money left
over from the food bill io buy our toys.
In Agri-Food Week, at least we should take time out to look at
the contributions of our friends and neighbours on the farm, if
only once in a year.
Muldoon Country
IY/TH APOLOGIES To W MED
III ' 1 ?
liil
ill
1 J III1 L111
WELL..NT'S FINALLY HERE,..
THE ELEVENTH POUR HAS ARRIVED
FORTHEFREETRADE TALKS!
SIMON AND PETER WILL TRY TO
WORK OUT A DE AL... IF TH EV FAIL
THEY'LL HAVE TO SUMMON ME
I'LL HAVE TO REACH DOWN AND
PULL OUT ALL MY GREAT POWERS
OF CONCILIATION AND THE WHOLE
WORLD WILL CALL IT....
Mabel’s Grill
There are people who will tel! you
that the important decisions in town
are made down al the town hall.
People in the know, however know
that the real debates, the real
wisdom reside down at Mabel s
Cirill 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
Society. Since not just everyone can
partake of these deliberations we
will report theactivities from time to
time.
MONDAY: Tim O’Grady said this
morning that his kids were asking if
they couldn’t move to Toronto,
quick. Seems the kids heard about
the teacher strike down there and
figured if they moved they could
get out of going to school. Tim said
he told them to count their
blessings and not get greedy. At
least Larry Grossman didn’tget
elected so they still get to stay
home on professional development
days.
WEDNESDAY: Julia Flint said she
didn’t think anybody could make
her feel sorry for Rev. Jimmy Baker
but Jessica Hahn just might do it.
“For a poor little innocent girl she
sure knows how to milk the
situation for every penny she can
get,’’ Julia said. Taking $265,000
to keep quiet about Jimmy’s fling
with her was bad enough, Julia
said, but now she’s posing for
Playboy as well. Then there’s the
talk about the movie offer she’s
got.
Yeh, said Billie Bean, he thought
it was all pretty disgusting. Then
he wondered when the November
issue of Playboy would be on sale.
After all, he said, Jimmy payed a
pretty highpriceforwhathe got
and he just wanted to peak to see if
it was worth it.
THURSDAY: Naturally talk got
around to the collapse of the Free
Trade talks this morning. Julia said
at least it will protect the reporters
in Washington from being attack
ed by Simon Reisman anymore.
Hank Stokes said he’d like to
have given up one more conces
sion: give the U.S. both Simon
Reisman and Brian Mulroney.
After all, he said, they gave us acid
rain so we owe them something.
Ward Black said that at least the
Americans might take those peo
ple, ifwe offered them JohnTurner
and David Peterson they’d send
them back as undesirable aliens.
Tim said he happened to be
across the border in Detroit when
he heard the talks had broken off.
He mentioned to the taxi driver
that it was scary that the talks had
broken off and the guy agreed : said
it was terrible they’d have to go
without football this weekend. Tim
had to explain he meant the free
trade talks with Canada not the
negotiations between the NFL and
the football players. Then he had to
explain to him what Canada was.
FRIDAY: Billie Bean said from
what he could see in the Toronto
papers this morning, capital pun
ishment would be voted in unani
mously if it applied to Bill Madlock
after he knocked Tony Fernandez,
the Blue Jays shortstop, outfor the
season.
Julia said she’s never heard
Continued on page 16
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