Huron Expositor, 2000-03-08, Page 44 -THE HURON EXPOSITOR, March 8, 2000
I 41.
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Wednesday, March 8, 2000
Editorial and sasiwau OMIe.s - 100 Mala Str..f.,foaf.rli
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Editorial
Job fair succeeds
in showing students
future possibilities
The first ever job fair of its kind in this
region and the largest held in
Southwestern Ontario was a resounding
success last week.
Held at the Agriplex on Wednesday, more
than 2,000 young people toured the
various booths made up of potential:
employers and government agencies
designed to help people find work.
Industries from across the region, both
local and outside of Seaforth, were
represented and provided a chance for
young people to explore career
opportunities and seek possible
employment, whether it be permanent or
summer positions.
While many were bused to the fair from
schools across the area, many young
people attended from as far away as the
London and Kitchener areas to explore
work possibilities.
Employers collected literally hundreds of
resumes and most who brought literature
to give awdy had nothing left to load back
into the cars at the end of the fair.
By 3 p.m. most of the literature and
application forms employers.brought had
been distributed.
While the .number of young people
looking for work was high at this fair, the
number of employers at the fair who were
actively looking for work was encouraging.
And those potential employers were
encouraged by the number of inquiries
from serious students and youth who were
interested in keeping their skills and
experience in this rural area of Ontario.
Traditionally, rural youth leave smaller
centres for further schooling and career
opportunities and Huron County industry.
has recently begun dealing with the issue
of a lack of skilled workers as '0 collective
group in the past year.
While organizers were pleased with the
results of the fair, there is no word yet
whether or not it will return to Seaforth next
year.
It should be given a chance to grow
further.
Despite the success in drawing crowds,
more industry and businesses, particularly
those in a position to be hiring and training
our youth need to be encouraged to take
part and the fair needs a chance to grow.
Scott Hilgendorff
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Opinion
Letters
Shame for playing puppet politics
To the Editor:
I thought that the kind of
democracy I witnessed Feb.
22 in the Seaforth District
High School was only
available on the six o'clock
news from far away places
with names too difficult to
pronounce.
Ah, but no. Now we have
the same local home grown
democracy compliments of
the Avon Maitland District
School Board.
To you all, "Shame," for
playing puppet politics.
To you all, "Shame," for
consistently dangling the
carrot of hope.
To you all, "Shame," for
disrupting the lives of nearly
30 per cent of the children
and staff who are the
responsibility of the board
of education.
To those hundreds of
volunteers who worked so
tirelessly for so long to
maintain what was right in
our education system,
"congratulations."
To those in attendance at
Seaforth District High
School who presented so
well and who maintained
tolerance in the face of such
abrasive arrogance,
"congratulations."
To those who will
continue to make the system
work for the' betterment of
our children by daily contact
with the students,
"congratulations."
It is most unfortunate that
those who have been elected
by the people, for the
people, may not be
accountable to the people
after nine more' months
when many of the lives they
have so dramatically
affected are just beginning
to realize the impact of their
decisions.
Drew Robertson
Crediton
Feb. 22 was a sad night for Seaforth
To the Editor:
Seaforth District High School
students take a bow! Remember your
motto: Spem Alit Successus - Hope
Nourishes Success.
Feb. 22 was a very sad night for
students and parents of our Seaforth
and other area schools. The Avon
Maitland School Board sat here
knowing full well what they were
doing.
Not once did I hear the words, "We
are or I am sorry." I guess what's
important to them is the $150 for each
meeting they show up for, plus the
yearly salaries. -
They say money is the problem.
Then let's cut the boards either out or
down.
If they slept when they went home
that night, then they have no hearts,
for I know that many of the parents
and grandparents didn't sleep. We
were angry and under these
circumstances I say, "kids take a
bow!" You all behaved very well,
showing the board once again that
Seaforth District High School is a
good school with few problems. while
other schools were showing their
anger by rushing their board.
I do know how they felt.
The boards blame the government.
and Premier Mike Harris blames the
boards. Someone lies. Who?
A concerned granny,
Mary Doig
Cans
stolen
from
home
To the editor:
To the person or persons that removed four
bags of pop cans from my property, Sunday,
February 27th at 9:00 p.m. without my
permission.
I would just like to inform you that they
were to raise money for my daughter's
Guiding club.
And while I realize that they will not be
returned, this affirms my belief that some
people will steal almost anything.
By the way, your truck needs'a new muffler.
Ivy Broadfoot
Clinton
OFA doesn't think government
has lived up to commitments
For decades, farmers from all areas of Ontario have
gone to their local "Ag Office" for everything from fact
sheets to soil sample kits --things they needed to
improve the efficiencies of their farming operations.
We didn't get to be the leading province for
technology transfer without such services.
In many areas of the province the local Ag Office was
also the central meeting place for a wide variety of
agricultural and community groups.
Following a December, 1999 announcement by
Minister Ernie Hardeman, just about all of those offices
will be closing. The Minister of Agriculture, Food and
Rural Affairs shows no intention of backing off on the
closing of the 32 offices in. southern Ontario --right from
Windsor to the Quebec border.
For a number of reasons, that decision is hard to
understand, and impossible to accept, especially from a
province where agriculture is credited with more than
6.8 billion dollars in sales yearly, and with the creation
of almost 700,000 jobs.
When Lieut. Gov. Hillary Weston delivered the
Ontario Government's speech from the throne last year,
she outlined some of the accomplishments of Ontario
agriculture. Surely this government realizes those
accomplishments didn't "just happen."
Ontario agriculture has moved forward using the latest
technologies available, and for many farmers those
technologies were introduced either directly or
indirectly with the assistance of staff from OMAFRA's
field offices.
Are similar advancements as likely to come in the
future as they have in the past, given OMAFRA's
reorganization? We at the Ontario Federation of
Agriculture certainly hope so, but right now it it's not
clear how that can happen.
OMAFRA has promised 13 resource centres to replace
the 32 Ag Offices, but the details are sketchy on just
how the majority of farmers will get the information
they need from those centres. What is clear, however, is
that face-to-face contact under the new plan is gone.
Minister Hardeman's Dec. 2 announcement pointed to
the use of a toll-free telephone line to the resource
centres, or the use of the ministry's Internet site as ways
of getting the information into the hands of farmers.
For some, that may work, but, my experiences with
toll-free telephone lines and my neighbor's inability to
access the Internet tell me there will be a lotof
frustrated farmers left to make important decisions on
their own.
OFA's executive met recently with Minister Hardeman
to outline the farming industry's key concerns with his
plan to save the government money by closing Ag
Offices and laying -off staff. He wasn't interested in
reversing any of the announced decisions. and showed
little flexibility. Maybe that's to be expected from
government.
Minister Hardeman did offer some hope to OFA's
executive when he talked about working with OFA to
identify gaps in services to farmers across the province
under the new scheme. He also said the ministry would
be willing to conduct a review to determine if
OMAFRA's new shape is meeting the needs of farmers
in Ontario.
OFA will insist that Ontario farmers can get the
information and service they need from OMAFRA. in an
efficient and timely manner.
The OFA understands the need to control spending
because it too lives within a budget. but our concern is
that a once -great industry could eventually be reduced
to a shadow of itself, all because the Government of
Ontario decided to move its services to farmers one or
two steps further away.
If the farmers can't access OMAFRA's services as
offered, has the government lived up to its commitment
of economic growth for all sectors? The OFA doesnt
think so!
Jack Wilkinson,
OFA President
Season of Lent and spring coincide
as a time for rebirth and renewal
How interesting it is that the
season of Lent and the season of
spring coincide, at least in part,
each year. As the world of nature
sheds the winter doldrums, believers are
also invited to engage in similar
activities.
Just as spring is a time of rebirth and
renewal, so the six weeks of Lent afford
an opportunity for rediscovering God,
not because the sense of God has been
lost or forgotten but because each
season of Lent offers yet another new
way for finding God and for deepening
the evolving relationship that each of us
shares with God.
In the book, "How Can I Find God?",
James Martin has compiled a collection
of responses to that question, having
posed it to people from as many faith
traditions as possible. Martin's hope is
that those reading one or more of these
essays ' be drawn closer to God.
In her res , Sister Helen Prejean,
s Roman Catholic nun and author of
"Dead Man Walking," a chronicle of
her experience in prison ministry, said
she found God in the faces of the poor
and struggling people.
Minister's study
Rabbi Michael Lerner recommended
that those who would find God should
become partners with God in healing,
repairing and transforming the world.
"Don't look for God," said Lerner, but
become an ally and God will find you.
Paul Goulet, a consultant and a
volunteer who works with HIV/AIDS
and who, himself, contracted the HIV
virus, finds God even amid tragedy,
pain and disappointment because God is
in,the human heart, loving,
copassionate and forgiving. Joseph
Lumbard, an American who embraced
Islam in his early twenties, finds God in
that prayerful dialogue where he admits
his complete and utter dependence on
God and trusts in the divine mercy,
forgiveness and guidance.
As individuals and together as people
of God, we need to continue in our
efforts to find Him. We remind
ourselves as believers and aid others to
find Him in our daily experiences and in
the living word of God that comes to us
in the scriptures as a real help.
If we look at the reading from
Deuteronomy. it features Moses
counselling the community to find
God in the telling and retelling of the
story of salvation. Whenever this story
is retold in our midst, God is present.
mighty in power, tender in mercy.
constant in love.
By Jesus' example in the passage
from Luke's gospel, the Lord teaches
that even in the midst of temptation and
trial, God is ready and waiting to be
found; there is no place and no suffering
which is devoid of the divine presence.
Strengthened by that presence, Jesus
was able to resist all attempts to thwart
his saving mission.
As we are renewed by our annual
experiences of spring and Lent, it may
prove helpful to remember the words of
Jeremiah who proclaimed the following
message from God to his
contemporaries, "When you search for
me, you will find me; if you seek me
with all your heart, I will let you find
me, says the Lord, your God."
(Jeremiah 29:12-14).
Rev. Fr. Dino Salvador