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The Citizen, 2005-11-10, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2005. PAGE 5. Other Views School boards: thick as planks In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards. Mark Twain fired off that observation more than a century and a half ago. Since then, mankind has learned to fly, broken the sound barrier and even lobbed a few astronauts up to the moon and back. And some school boards have just become stupider. Case in point: the Annapolis Valley regional school board. A hundred and six drama students from Avon View High School in Windsor, Nova Scotia were looking forward to a live stage production at the Neptune Theatre in Halifax. Their teacher had arranged for buses and overnight accommodation. The school board vetoed the plan and cancelled the trip. Why? Officially, because the play in question “wasn’t on the province’s official reading list”. But I have to think it was really because the school board members knew full well that the play in question was dangerous propaganda calculated to warp young minds and foment toxic, anti-social attitudes. So what was this play - a bunch of Bolsheviks acting out Das Kapital? A stage adaptation of Mein Kampf! No, it was a production of To Kill A Mockingbird, based on the classic novel written by Harper Lee. It’s a story set in a small town in Alabama during the Depression. The story is told from the point of view of a six-year-old tomboy, whose lawyer father defends a black man falsely accused of attacking a white woman. Government’s health kick slows Ontario’s Liberal government has leaped out of the starting blocks like an Olympic sprinter with promises to make residents healthier, but quickly appears to be burning itself out. The Liberals have embarked on worthwhile policies, designed to put a healthy glow on cheeks, including banning smoking in workplaces and enclosed public spaces and prohibiting junk food in vending machines in elementary schools. They also will give students more time for physical activity and limit the sprawl of the suburbs, where services are distant from homes so residents feel they need to use cars, air pollution is increased and many do not get enough exercise. But there are other quick ways they could improve residents’ health. One would be to stop those $54 million lotteries that go an extra mile to attract money some residents need for food. Big prizes have long been known to lure some who would not normally buy tickets and the Liberals in opposition were against them and wanted them capped at $5 million. But as beneficiaries in government they have shown no concern. The Liberal government also would make residents fitter if it stopped promoting booze through stores that distribute literature suggesting it provides a more enjoyable lifestyle and reduces stress. But it will not impose such a restraint, because it would lake some of the ruddy glow off its own bank account. There also are things government can do without hurting its finances. Doctors have led demands people live healthier, but many hospitals ironically still have fast-food restaurants selling less nutritious foods including hamburgers, fries, candies and pop. The hospitals say they should give customers a choice, but offering junk food in a hospital carries some implication it is healthy It is, in short, a story about racial prejudice seen through the eyes of a young child. Something you’d think school boards might see some value in sharing with the students under their care. Wrong. The Annapolis Valley regional school board issued a statement saying that To Kill A Mockingbird “would not pass an education department bias evaluation”. Strange. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The film adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird got an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for “best film for promoting international understanding”. What does the Annapolis Valley regional school board know that the rest of the world doesn’t? Well, as Mister Twain implies, the people in charge of what our kids learn can be passing weird. I had my own run-in with the Alberta education system recently. They wanted to use one of my commentaries in a provincial textbook. The commentary was about cars and the pollution they cause. I speculated in the piece that some day, automobiles might be as obsolete as dinosaurs. The Alberta editors wanted to remove the and the province has responsibility for health, gives hospitals money and should be able to prevail on them to switch to healthier menus. There are residents who would buy more nutritious food if they had the money, but Ontario has minimum wage and social assistance rates that are miserably low and the Liberals have barely raised them since they took over from the Progressive Conservatives. The huge trend to drinking bottled water sounds healthy, but dentists are finding more cavities among patients and one reason is bottled water normally does not contain fluoride, which has been added to most municipalities’ water for half-a-century, after tests showed it protects teeth. The Liberals are not likely to ban bottled water, now a huge and influential industry, but they could point out it lacks the same protection for consumers’ teeth. Residents would be fitter if they cycled and the Liberals could encourage this by giving municipalities money to create bike paths, where they can feel safer. MPPs have tossed around the idea of banning motorists from talking into cell phones while driving and not got further down that road. But experts at a recent conference in Toronto rated it as dangerous as drunk driving and Liberals would strike a blow for safety and health if they ordered the phones turned off. Drivers commonly leave their vehicles standing with their engines running, adding to ‘dinosaur’ reference. “Why?” I asked. The official response: “To respect the tolerance and understanding of other religious groups. We need to factor in the religious groups who do not believe in dinosaurs.” Do not believe in dinosaurs? I wrote back suggesting that the text book go ahead without my story as I was not interested in promoting bone-headed ignorance. If it’s any consolation, educational idiocy is not restricted to this side of the Atlantic. Recently, the city council of Birmingham, England decided that perhaps it was alright after all for Birmingham kiddies to recite the nursery rhyme Baa Baa Black Sheep. There had been some anguish that the rhyme was...you know...racist. The black sheep and all? Actually, it wasn’t the city council that came to its senses. It was a black mother of three who stood up in the middle of the city council debate and pointed out that “the rhyme is about black sheep, not people”. By the way, those kids at Avon View High in Nova Scotia finally did get to see To Kill A Mockingbird - the film version, not the stage play. Their Grade 11 English teacher, John Hudson arranged a screening for them in Windsor. One of the students, Kathlyn Smith, said “I liked the movie. For me, it’s not really even about race issues. It’s the story of one person’s childhood.” Think you could explain that to your school board, Kathlyn? the carbon monoxide that is a major cause of deaths. Some vigilant municipalities have bylaws prohibiting keeping a vehicle standing with its engine running longer than specified, usually three minutes, and Liberals concerned about health would make this the law everywhere. Leaf blowers, infernal machines invented in recent years to plague us, create noise and debris and one blower creates as much pollution as a car. Most are used by commercial companies to make money - the average house-owner is well able to rake his lawn - and the province should pass a law turning them off forever. There also is a case closer to home in which a company newly awarded the licence to provide food services al the legislature has announced proudly it will open an outlet featuring ‘Tim Hortons’ great coffee, donuts and Timbits,’ which suggests the government’s campaign to eat healthier has not spread far. 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 So little to ask Are any of us really lhat busy lhat we can’t, on one day of the /ear, lake two little minutes out of our life to just stop? Work, play, music, shopping, walking, talking. Just stop everything. The tradition of observing two minutes of silence on the 11 th hour of 11 th day of the 11 th month to remember the Canadians who sacrificed their lives for peace was reintroduced in 1999. That same year, Terry Kelly, a Canadian songwriter was shopping on Nov. 11 when he heard an announcement over the PA telling customers that should they still be on the premises the two minutes of silence would be observed. The announcement was made one more time just prior to 11 a.m to inform patrons that the silence would begin. Everyone, with the exception of one man, who was accompanied by his young child, paused in tribute to those who had sacrificed so much. Worse yet, the man proceeded to try to engage the clerk in conversation and Kelly was so angered not just by the man’s insensitivity but by the bad example he was setting for his child that he later penned a song called “A Pittance of Time”. I happened to hear this for the first time on a radio station out of Toronto last week. And 1 thought of the number of times I have fell much as Kelly did. Each year, I attend the Remembrance Day service to photograph it for the paper. While others are ‘experiencing’ the service, however, it is my job to record it. So, while wreaths are laid, words are spoken, music is played I move around the cenotaph taking pictures. That is until it’s time to observe the two minutes of silence. Then I stop, because there is nothing at that moment mere important. Yet. as anyone who is there can tell you the world around us, full of people who certainly should know better, is far from silent. Drivers scoot down side streets and some are even nervy enough to pass directly by the cenotaph if they can get through. 1 can only assume that oxygen must have been cut off at birth for someone to be so completely clueless. And sorry, but ignorance as an excuse, just doesn’t cut it in this case. Even if you weren’t aware that the 11 th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month had arrived, you should be when you see a crowd of people gathered, heads bowed, at the cenotaph. I have heard stories from an alarming number of people from various workplaces, upset because of colleagues who continue to go on about their business, apparently oblivious to the fact that something rather significant is taking place around them. With the exception of surgery, I can’t think of a job so important that two minutes away from it would be detrimental. And if you feel otherwise, then you might at least consider during that 120 seconds in which you continue on with your important life, those men who left wives and young children, the mothers who watched sons set out and remember that for far too many that goodbye was their last — the last to hold their baby or kiss a soulmate. Then ask yourself please, what kind of person can’t give two minutes to show respect to those who sacrificed what none should be expected to give — th6ir child, their spouse, their parent or their life?