HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2009-08-19, Page 4live 4 August 19, 2009' • The Huron Expositor
Opinion
Proprietor and Publisher, Bowes Publishers Limited, 11 Main St., Seaforth, ON, NOK 1.WO
Hospital plannin
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the uron- `B'er`th eaithcare Alliance begins to
engage the public with a series of community work-
shops with those who registered for the privilege of
providing their input, it seems that some old ideas
are being revisited while creating a vision fpr the
tare.
For as long as the Alliance has existed, there has
been talk of consolidating services and establishing
centres of specialty in each of the four member -hos-
pitals in Seaforth, Clinton, Stratford and St. Marys.
Seaforth is usually identified as the hospital where
seniors and their needs will be attended to with :
Clinton targetted as the Huron County hospital for
various types of surgery and obstetrics. Stratford is
usually seen as the acute care centre that offers the
whole gamut of healthcare serve. =r < > <rf,
'On the whole, it's been a plan t s been resisted
ommunity members in each of the four centres.
eOmmunities with smaller hospitals, like Sea
are usually concerned that specialized °
means a decreasing role =overall in health'
questionable future.
:mit even the community in Stratford has not been
` • in the past about the idea of having to leave
the city and travel into the country to visit grand-
parents who have been hospitalized in Seaf .
But, with hospital administration warning that;
the status quo cannot continue to meet the evolving
realities in the healthcare system, these ideas will
be put on the table once more as registered Clinton
and Seaforth residents meet in Clinton tonight for
the first of several community workshops thro
out Huron and Perth Counties.
No one can dispute that aging a Boomers will
create a greater number of seniors with health con-
cerns for an already struggling and short-staffed
hospital system. These are trends that have been
public knowledge for more than a decade.
But, it's curiouthat public input for future plan-
ning is being sought by the Alliance in a way that re-
quires closed meetings so that anonymous responses
from alimited number of pre -registered participants
can be gathered and molded into reports from which
the Alliance board will make its decisions.
When healthcare remains the top concern of Cana-
dians and the most highly publicly -funded service in
Ontario, planning for the future should engage the
largest number of taxpayers possible in a completely
open forum.
Susan Hundertrnark
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Your Community Nswspopor Site 1860
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PROGRAM (PAP), TOWARD OUR MAILING odors."
I'm calling on all my writing expertise
as I prepare a wedding speech
While I enjoy my job as a
writer, any skills I've acquired
in this profession don't really
carry over well into other areas
of my life in any practical way.
It's not like beings mechanic
or a nurse.
It's unlikely to be in the mid-
dle of an emergency or even a
minor jam and have somebody blurt out des-
perately, `Geez, if only a writer were here.'
Outside of crafting a better than average
greeting card message, my writing is pretty
much confined to the newspaper.
That is, until now.
In a couple months, someone very close to me
is getting married and asked me' if I wanted to
make a speech on the occasion, to which I en-
thusiastically agreed.
I've been a wedding emcee before, but I've
never written or given a reception speech.
Like news stories, I'm assuming that wed-
ding speeches have a formula of their own.
Start off with a joke: "I'm not saying- the
bride could do better, but..."
Follow it up with a nice sentiment: "Wow, I
never thought I'd see the day. I guess miracles
really do happen."
Finish it off with a toast: "I'd like to thank
everyone for coming. If anyone needs me, I'll
be at the bar."
But all cheap jokes aside, a wedding is one
of the most opportune times to tap into yok
feelings and say somethingreally som thin ` heartfelt.7t
I find it really impressive when a friend or
family member of the bride or groom can stand
Ron & Dave
What ore
those guys
doing at
our school?
They're building 1
new fences to get
thestchool ready for
opening next week.
up in front of hundreds of peo-
ple at the reception and simply
speak from the heart, with no
cue cards or prearranged idea
about what they're going to say
in their speech.
But that can also be
dangerous.
Those of you who've
been to weddings where a speech drags on and
on and on will know that it's better to leave
the audience wanting more than to make them
doze off into their wine glasses. .
And because I am not the "best man" for this.
wedding, I won't be expected to ramble on for
more than a minute or so.
But that can seem like an eternity in front of
a staring, silent crowd of hundreds of guests.
I suspect the "picture them in their under-
wear and you'll feel more comfortable" tech-
nique won't work either, since many of them
will be members of my family and I'd rather
not go there.
So, I'll need a plan.
I'm pretty rusty when it comes to giving
speeches. I think the last one I gave was in
elementary school on the subject of the Ber-
muda Triangle.
I looked over my notes from that speech
but unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able
to use any of that material for this upcoming
speech.
It's not that it wasn't good. I think it would
just confuse people, who'd expect me to focus
more on the bride and groom, instead of the
See WRITING, Page 6
by David Lacey
The guard
: , towers
are a nice
touch.
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