The Citizen, 2004-06-24, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2004. PAGE 5.
Other Views
Wheelbarrows and chickens
There's a famous poem called. The Red
Wheelbarrow, by William Carlos
Williams. It goes:
So much -depends upon
a red wheel barrow
glazed with rain water
beside the white chickens.
The poem is famous. I think, because in just
16 words. it sums up the ineffable magic of the
Here and Now.
1 like to think of Williams he was a country
doctor in New Jersey as well as a poet -1
walking across a farmyard one morning, black
hag in hand, perhaps after assisting at a
childbirth or sewing up some hired hand's cut
leg, coming around the corner of a chicken
coop. seeing the wheelbarrow. the chickens
and being transfixed by the...perfection of it
all.
It is a poet's gift - and task - to discover the
magnificent in the mundane. For most of us it
takes a bigger jolt than the sight of a
wheelbarrow and a clutch of chickens to be
reminded of the preciousness of each moment.
But the world is still brimming with strange
and miraculous happenings that.ought to take
our breath away if we're paying attention.
Consider the story of an unusual six-year-old
boy named James Leininger of Louisiana.
James loves airplanes -- particularly Second
World War airplanes. .
Always has. Once when he was out shOpping
with his mother, he pointed at a toy airplane.
His mother remembers: "I said to him, 'Look.
it has a bomb on the bottom' and he told me,
'That's not a bomb, it's a drop tank.' I had no
idea what a drop tank was."
James Leininger did.,He was two and a half
Ontario's Liberal government has severe
wounds from breaking a promise not
to increase taxes, but they may not be
fatal.
Premier Dalton McGuinty has lost
populantv faster than any predecessor since
polls have been taken.
His party has plunged to 34 per cent, a drop
of 12 per cent. since October when he won a
landslide election. Elizabeth Taylor had longer
honeymoons.
One poll reported only nine per cent of
residents think McGuinty is doing a good job,
a record low no earlier premier came even
close to.
The Progressive Conservatives, up to 41 per
cent, are scoffing that more residents have
reported Seeing Elvis Presley. They are
rubbing their hands demanding an election, so
they can prove whom people really trust.
Critics have been unusually imaginative and
damaging. A newspaper coined the word
Fiberals and it caught on. Demonstrators carry
signs denouncing McGuinty as -'The Lying
King.' a spin on the hit musical.
McGuinty's predicament is creating such a
wide stir it forced Liberal Prime Minister Paul
Martin, struggling in an election and clearly
referring to McGuinty. to say . he wanted to
make it clear he does not regard promises
lightly
Martin said politicians should make
promises only when they are certain they can
keep them and he would quit if he could not
deliver on his promises. a strong rebuke to his
provincial ally.
As far away.:as Canada's west coast a
newspaper anxious tO impress the enormity of
a local tailing described if as "of McGuinty-
esque proportions." -
McGuinty's early fall breaks a tradition of
new governments having long honeymoons.
years old at the time.
James's fascination with airplanes
continued. He played with nothing but toy
airplanes and even dreamed about them. Then
the dreams became nightmares. "I'd wake him
up and he'd be screaming." his mother
recalled. "I'd ask him what he was dreaming
about and he'd say "Airplane crash on fire,
little man can't get out.'
Gradually, the little boy's memories became
more specific. He 'remembered' that he flew a
plane called a Corsair.
"They used to get flat tires all the time." he
said. He 'remembered' that his pilot name was
also James. Once his mother asked him what
happened to him in the Corsair. "Got shot." he
said.
Where?
"Engine."
Where did it crash?
"Water" -
Who did it"
"Japanese."
How did he know?
"The reel sun on the plane."
One day his mother made meatloaf for
dinner - something- she hadn't made since
before James was born. Little James look at his
plate and said "Meatloaf! haven't had this
Recent predecessors Tory Mike Harris,- New
Democrat. Bob Rae and Liberal David
Peterson all were elected with less than half
the total vote and Rae had only 37 per cent.
But all moved up to approval ratings near or
higher than 60 per cent in their first months in
office.
The Liberals now face the danger a
reputation once earned often sticks, which is
why new governments try to achieve a lot in
their early days on which news media
particularly rate them.
McMcGuinty has to blame himself, because
he had almost no alternative but to increase
taxes after he continued to promise expensive
new programs in the election, despite
indications the province would not wind up the
year with the balanced budget the then Tory
government predicted, but a massive deficit.
He must wish he had made his promises
conditional on being left a balanced budget,
which he, shied from fearing this would be
seen as equivocation and lose him the election,
although the Tories seemed so close to defeat
nothing could have saved them.
The rays of hope for the Liberals include the
likelihood some of the outrage will wear off -
when you have said Fiberals a few dozen times
it loses its novelty.
The Liberals also will pour a lot of extra
money into health through higher taxes called
premiums and this should provide benefits
since I was on the Natoma."
Natoma? Neither parent had. ever been
involved in the military or aviation. The only
aviation-related items in their house were
James's toy planes. Where was the kid picking
up this stuff?
His father Bruce began to investigate. He
searched the internet, combed through military
records and discovered that during the Second
World War there was a U.S. aircraft carrier
called The Natoma Bay, stationed in the South
Pacific. Twenty-one of its crew died during the
Battle of Iwo Jima. including a Corsair pilot
named James Huston. On the afternoon of
May 3. 1945, witnesses -saw Huston's plane
take a Japanese hit to the engine. It crashed
into the sea and sank.
Young James doesn't have the nightmares
anymore and his memories are fading as he
grows older..
But the story isn't fading. it's growing.
Bruce Leininger contacted the families of the
21 crew members who died in the Battle of
Iwo Jima. All of them spoke of 'a spirit'
visiting them in the years since the war.
And they all want to meet young James
Leininger. This year, his parents plan to take
him to the Natoma Bay veterans reunion.
So is it a crock? 1 suppose it could be.
Professor Paul Kurtz, a paranormal
investigator at State University in New York
thinks so. He says the parents are "self-
deceived".
"They're fascinated by the mysterious and
they've built up this fairy tale," he says.
Could be. And perhaps a red wheelbarrow is
just a red wheelbarrow.
but not out
such as shorter waiting lists for hospital beds
that will help justify their tax increase.
The Liberals may make the premiuins,
which already rise according to income, more
palatable by shifting still more of the cost to
those with higher incomes.
It is difficult to believe voters will re-elect
the Tories soon because of their recent record
of weakening services through tax cuts and
posing as protectors of the public purse while
wasting many millions of dollars on handouts
to friends and ministers' lavish wining and
dining.
McGuinty's unpopularity also is due- not
only to his own failings but his kinship to a
Liberal federal government, seeking re-
election and in the public eye, which similarly
lacked respect for taxpayers and has helped
make Liberal a dirty word.
This Liberal federal government will either
have mended some of its ways by 2007, when
McGuinty seeks re-election, or no longer be
around and either will suit McGuinty just fine.
His honeymoon with voters has ended, but he
has some prospects of reconciliation.
Letters Policy
The Citizen welcomes letters to the
editor.
Letters must be signed and should
include a daytime telephone number for
the purpose of verification only. Letters that
are not signed will not be printed.
Submissions may be edited for length,
clarity and content, using fair comment as
our guideline The Citizen reserves the
right to refuse any letter on the basis of
unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate
information. As well, letters can only be
printed as space allows. Please keep your
letters brief and concise.
Bonnie
Gropp
The short of it
Places you don't go
There's one thing I have to say about my
kids living so far away from home —
it's taking me to places I've never been
before.
Our daughter invited her dad (I get to tag
along as.part of the package) for Father's Day
supper at her new home. Only our second trip
'there, there were still plenty of new things for
us to see.
The, adventure began after leaving the
familiar behind at Kitchener. Now at the onset
of summer we noted the lush verdancy of the
countryside. It's not so much a rural landscape
as a pastoral one, waving grasses rather than
patchwork crops, rolling hills, broken more by
small settlements of houses than by barns or
cattle.
A turn onto a windy road, then another put us
in a residential area of big trees and equally
impressive yards. Around the corner and a peek
between properties, one gets a bird's eye view
of the escarpment.
My first visit to this area -was my first visit as
well to Dundas, and because of a wrong turn
on the return trip, also my first visit through
Cambridge. Places so familiar it seems
impossible I've never really seen them.
Similarly I always thought a trip to Toronto
meant a trip down the mighty (mighty
intimidating that is) 401. However, since my
daughter, then my son, moved into an area of
Etobicoke while at college, I have come to
know a much more relaxing back way, through
picturesque Palgrave, some miles outside
Bolton. A lovely little spot not all that far from
home that I previously didn't know existed.
Such is the fun of travelling to new places or
discovering new routes to old places.
Generally, when visiting familiar haunts, we
follow the same routes, take the same turns.
After all, finding the quickest or most obvious
route to a destination is the preferred option •.o
we're unlikely to ,stray from that course
without a reason. .
The Blyth Idea Group (BIG) recognized that
and .felt that many hidden treasures in the
community may be being missed by visitors to
the village. The idea of a signage project that
would not only give street names but highlight
some of the attractions not on the major routes,
has become phase one of an image
development project for Blyth. Communities
in Bloom and the business group came on
board and the momentum just kept going.
Some of the new signs were in place this past
weekend in time for the opening of the 30th
season Of the Blyth Festival. And the
.committee of volunteers who possess the
vision and passion for their small community
deserve credit for their innovation and drive,
The signage project is costly, or at least
costlier than originally expected. This did not
deter them, however, but rather set them on one
more task, that of fundraising.
And this Friday they are going to have a
well-deserved celebration 'of the idea, the
community and the organizations. clubs and
people who are working to bring it to fruition.
The plan is for an unveiling of the 'new' Blyth
followed by a community barbecue.
People in a community know its attractions
and what it has to offer. As such they may take
for granted that other people do as well. The
Blyth group, however, realized that people
passing through were probably going to do just
that unless they were given a reason to do
otherwise.
You don't need to be travelling a new route
to discover hidden secrets. Ahd now, Blyth has
made it easy.
McGuinty may be down,