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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1981-11-11, Page 6editorial Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, November 11, 1981—Page 6 The LUCK OW SENTINEL "The Sepoy Town" • Established 1873 SHARON J. DIETZ - Editor ANTHONY N. JOHNSTONE • Advertising and General Manager ,PAT LIVINGSTON. • Office Manager MERLE ELLIOT('• typesetter JOAN HELM • Composition Business and Editorial Office Telephone 528.2822 Mailing Address f :6, Bos 400. Lucknow, NOG 2H0 Second Class Mail Registration Number .0847 Subscription rate, 514.30 per year In advance . . Senior Citizen nate, 512.00 per year In advance U.S.A. and Fordo, 523.00 per year In advance Sr. at. U.S.A. and Foreign, 521.00 per year In advance r • emember... Orle foot in the furrow by bob -trotter REMEMBRANCE FOR ALL TIME It's disappointing when you hear Some people saying, "So waht? What did it have to do with me?" They were willing; to give uptheir lives In order that ours .could be bettered, , They fought to save their country And for what they believed in. Their bloodshed and tears fell to the ground Only God 'really knows what they went through The should be remembered, They shall be remembered, For their courageous deeds. More and more people are being enlightened By these- overwhelming acts and can feet sorrow. These men should have respect and honour Shown to theca throughout. the land For a veterandeserves our thanks and praise For a veteran deserves to be remembered for all time, Richard Bouzane Springdale, Newfoundland Grant Collegiate Grade 11 Age 19 "Burn down your cities and leave our farms and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the coun- try," William Jennings Bryan once said. It is just another way of saying that when agriculture prospers, so does everybody. else. I followed an American car for a few miles the other day with an Ohio licence plate. A bumper sticker pro- claimed that Farming Is Everybody's Bread and Butter. It surely is. At a time when the world I is ex- periencing xperiencing its greatest population growth, when the supply of food in the world should be doubled,farmers are facing the toughest time since the Great Depression. Bankruptcieshave increased phenomenally. Farmers are being forced to sell off stock to pay interest on bank loans. This makes for less production next time around. The ramifications of these things haven't hit home on this continent yet. But theywi l. It couldn't be happening at a worse time. It has been mentioned before in this column, almost to the point of P boredom: A hungry man, when he sees his children starving with bloated bellies and bald heads, is a desperate man. A desperate man will kill for his family. Much more grain is available in Canada this year and there are fewer hogs to eat it. In the five major grain producing and exporting areas of the world, production is up 12 percent but demand has inched up only one per- cent. In the rest of the world, recent data released dwy the Canadian Wheat Board indicates production is dropp- ing. The world wheat harvest . is estimated at 447.5 milliontonnes, down three million tonnes from forecasts in July. Them as has, gets. The nations which are not starving- have more than enough. In addition, the price paid to the producers is dropping because the supply is greater than the Itis, says the Wheat Board, an il- lustration tlustration ofhow powerful the in- fluence of the United States is in the rest of the world. They have a surplus. Down goes the price of grain, just when producers need more for their products to circumvent mortgage foreclosures and bankruptcies. It is a vicious, endless circle. And don't start placing the blame at the feet of marketing boards, especially quota -setting boards. Their prices are monitored so closely that the ripoffs, if there are any, . are not being' engineered by farmers. If you want a good example, look at chickens. You would think with a surplus of feed grains, prices for those. grains would be lower. They aren't. Feed mills are charging about three percent more this year for chick feeds than last year. The markup between what super- markets paid processors and charged consumers was about 23 cents in May of last year. The markup by September had jumped to 42 cents a pound. That's an increase for super- markets of 19 cents a pound in 16 mon- ths. Not bad even when you consider that their costs have not increased any more than that of farmers, yet they are getting the biggest . hunk of the consumer buck at least on chickens. , b While many farmers struggle to make ends meet and are producing more than ever, half the world starves and farmers are going broke. • There's got to be something; wrong with the system. redtrees . by don campbell REMEMBRANCE Jesus said, "A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his fellow man." . How much the soldiers who fought in the war must have loved their countries. Our men must have believed with all their hearts that the family and friends at home were worth dying for. They helped to preserve our past and enrich our future. As a part of their future, as a symbol of the many lives that were taken and denied any kind of future, I wear mY PoPPy with pride - When I think of the young men whose hopes and dreams were extinguished so that I may have a bright future, I feel sad, yet grateful. We all live in Canada in freedom and unity because of their strength and courage. The poppy symbolizes these qualities and should be an inspiration to us all to live as those.who fought would have us live. We have the veterans who survived the war to be an example, Since they've been there,they know all too well what a disappointment it would be for the world to go to war again. In order for us to fulfill the dreams of our soldiers, we must try to take on the qualities symbolized by our poppies, strength and courage. Combining these at- tributes -with a love for every man of every nation, we may be a world of peace. Isn't this the quality of life that man strives for? And so, as we, on Remembrance Day, place our wreaths around monumentsof our brave soldiers, we can be proud that our country is a free one. As we stand in silence we thank God for this freedom and pray that the whole world may be free and peaceful. This day of . remembrance should be carried out in our every day life as we try to build a world for our dead soldiers to be proud of. Through faith in God, I know all our men who died for us. have been given the peace that can only come from above. Jesus's words were like a promise, I believe, and 1 know all the surviving soldiers know that there's a special place in heaven for them- Jacinta Gallant Charlottetown, P.E.I, Charlottetoiwn. Rural High Grade XII Neil .MacCrimmon was delayed at the market in Lansing. His six old ewes did not arouse much enthusiasm amongst the farmers. When he at last sold them to a local butcher, he lost no time in making his way home. Although he had , eaten nothing since before dawn, he did not pause to eat or drink, but made all haste back to Blake's Folly. The predorninent thoughts on his mind were those of his wife, Flora: Within reason, he drove the team as fast as he could up the long seemingly endless highway of Yonge Street. It was already dark when he turned into the driveway of Blake's Folly. There were no lights in the big house, because William Blake was away. He had however, felt great concern when he had seen no glimmer of light from the clearing where' Hamish Murdoch lived with his family, and he was filled with intenser when he saw that his own little house was in darkness. Without waiting to tend to the needs of his horses, he tethered the team to the rail fence by the cabin, and ran .. inside, fearing the worst. He heard a main in the darkness. It came from the bed which Neil had placed down- stairs, so that his wife "would not have to climb the ladder to the upstairs loft. The sound of his wife's voice, although painful arid overcome with fear, brought an overwhelming relief to the anxious questions in his mind. "Oh! Thank Gad ye're here. 1 canna stand the pain any mare. The babe is coming..-.", lshe said between gasps of breath, and her voice trailed off into a suppressed cry of pain, Groping in the,darkness, Neil found the lamp and touched a match 'to the wick. The yellow glow revealed Flora MacCrinimon writhing in pain on the bed. "The team is outside," Neil told her. "Hold on the best ye can. I'll awa' to Richmond Hill to get Maria." Flora stretched out ' a feeble hand towards him, "There's nae time, the baby will be. here before ye get back." In terror she screamed, "For God's sake Neil, dinna leave me noo." Neil MacCrimmon was not a squeam- ish man, Because .of his closeness to nature and his great experience of delivering lambs, he knew he would be more adept than a stranger in dealing with this reoccuring phenom- enon of life. There is a great differ- ence, however, between the birth of a lamb and the birth of a.human being - In • those days a Haan rarely witnessed the birth of his own child, and acting as a midwife would have seemed almost unitilinkable, There was no hesitancy in Neil's action. He gathered what candles were available, and sticking them by their own wax on whatever bits of pottery he could land, he surrounded his wife in anarc of light. There was no fire in the cabin and he quickly arranged wood upon the stone hearth of the fireplace. Whilst the fire began to burn, he filled a large cauldron with water, and hung it upon the hook which protruded from the bottom of the chimney. Heeding the instructions of Doctor Cameron, he began to scrub his hands and arms. He told himself that if he remained calm, and obeyed the Doct- or's instructions implicitly, all would be well; Doctor Cameron had told him, that Mora would have no difficulty with bairns, and that was a "strong young woman with broad childbearing hips'!". Flora MacCrimmon was a brave woman and the presence of her hus- band allayed her fears and renewed her confidence: She could not of course, entirely suppress the cries of pain. The head of the child was already emerging into the world, Whatever else might have been rough about Neil MacCrimmon, his hands were delicate. The fingers of a MacCrimmon had for centuries span- ned the holes of the bagpipe chanter, and his close association with sheep had made his skin soft and supple,: through touching the lanoline&. fleec- es. It.was, therefore, not difficult tor him to clean himself in. the way the Doctor had directed. He fond the bottle containing the cord which was to be used for the tying, and he placed a pair of scissors in boiling water by the fire, By the time he was able to turn his attention to Flora, nature had taken its course and there was little left to do except secure and cot the umbilical cord. The cry of the child was most welcome sound they ever heard. "It's a laddie,"' Neil told his wife, as he laycd the babe against her tired amid sweated body.. "We hae a lata"