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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1975-02-13, Page 4 (2)OUR POINT OF VIEW Strictly urban decision The lengthy report prepared on the policing of Huron County by the Ontario Police Commission will take considerable time for municipal leaders to digest and consider. However, it is apparent that nothing concrete will transpire. at the county level as long as current practices exist whereby rural communities pay little for policing. Townships and village council members are not going to move out of that enviable position until they are forced to do so, particularly when the report suggests that the majority of people in Huron are satisfied with the present policing. The task force on policing recommends that the direct cost of polic- jng should be spread over all municipalities rather than the present system which bears only upon the towns, but until the Ontario government makes a decision on this recommendation, rural areas are not going to volunteer any assistance towards the cost of a county force as some of the police officials in Huron favor. That leaves the decision primarily in the hands of the five towns in the county. While there are suggestions that better communications are needed between the five police forces, it must be pointed out again that few people think wide scale. changes or improvements are needed in the policing of those five towns in general. That suggests that economics may be one of the determining factors in any con- sideration for changes. The OPP estimate that only Goderich and Wingham would save money by having their policing turned over to the OPP, while the costs in Exeter, Clinton and Seaforth would be relatively unchanged. In fact, Exeter's would increase somewhat. However the matter of facilities does become a point of discussion for Exeter council. By having the OPP assume duties in Exeter no further requirement for police offices would be needed by the town itself. •If there isn't room for the municipal police in the post office, that may become a major consideration. Another major consideration is whether council members consider the time spent on police negotiations and related matters worth the autonomy the present setup gives them. Under the efficient leadership provid- ed by Chief Ted Day, the problems associated with involvement of providing policing have been few and far between, which is a• welcome relief from ex- periences in the community prior to his arrival. In some communities. council members would quickly opt for the OPP, but in Exeter the consideration appears to hinge not so much on the type of policing. but more on the accommodation aspect and local autonomy. There are, however, some who think policing should be taken out of the hands of local administration, and while the OPP is one alternative. an in- dependent police commission is another that must be considered. Chief Day's questions about the costs cited in the Commission report are also worthy of. furtherstudy, because we note that while Wingham's estimate for policing by the OPP was set at $75,498. the report explains that in March of last year when the council asked for a , quote from the OPP, they were advised it would be $120.- 484.10. That spread suggests that the pric- ing is open to question as Chief Day has stated. Won't work without you Toward the end of this year, the Post Office will switch over to new super - modern mail -handling equipment in its key Toronto facilities. But, for all the millions of dollars involved, Canadians may find that the mail millennium has yet to dawn, reports ,The Financial Post's Ottawa Editor Clive Baxter. "If things go on the way they are right now," one federal Postal official says,"the fi day wp w h�ye,probably, the third be tal 11de 4tOrltl 'with only Ja d rielgiuch perhaps a little better. But by'the end of the first week we could be no better than, say, Italy, where tourists are being asked to carry mail across the border into France or Switzerland to get it moving. " This is a shocking prediction by any standards. But the hard fact is that Canadians aren't taking the postal coding business seriously enough. And if they don't, the vastly expensive new service won't work. What's more, neither will the old manual service. either. So far. this failure in smaller. points like Ottawa. Winnipeg, Calgary and Van- couver has been frustrating and disappoin- ting - but not a disaster. The mail service struggles through by hand -sorting. But Toronto is the heart of the whole national service. Every day. 25 percent of total Sugar and spice Canadian post is mailed in Toronto and 25 percent is delivered to points inside its area. With this volume. either the modern system must work - or the collapse will be fast and severe. "We know that 23 percent of the post handled won't be coded," Jerry Fultz, director of the coding and mechanization. explains. "A lot of that is mail going abroad or it is of a size and shape that won't work hrough the new system. So we have made plans to handle physically some 23 percent of the total. "But the use of the new codes is spreading far too slowly. At the present rate. by the end of this year it should cover 60 percent of our mail. But this means 40 percent won't be coded. We have built-in a capability for handling 23 percent. What of the rest? It will be chaos within a few days. We could have the biggest white elephant in the world." Fultz knows what he is talking ab ut - and why. As the man who has had reson- sibility for the overall new postal service. he hopes to shock the public into changing its postal habits to fit the system - by lear- ning and using the codes. So far, this has only been desirable. With the beginning of the Toronto opera- tion. it becomes vital. MAFIA to fight women's lib This, apparently is Women's Liberation Year, or something of the sort. So be it. Aren't you getting a little sick of it all? 1 mean you, and I don't care whether you're a man or a woman or a hermaphrodite. Don't worry chaps; I am not afraid. I have a northern hideout, an old atom bomb shelter, with three women laid on; one to bathe me, one to dress me, and one to cook for me. So I'm going to say exactly what I want to, and let the chippies fall where they may. First, I take a look at my own family, to see which women need liberating. Answer? Zero. My wife needs liberating like I need a kick in the groin. Ever since I met her, she has been, not removing her chains, but ap- plying mine. I clank when I walk. • She doesn't need to be liberated. She needs to be tied up. She has made it quite clear that she is: smarter than I about everything from making out the income tax return to screwing in alight bulb;better looking than I (and all we have to do is look in a mirror); more artistic than I (she's always frigging with the color thing on the television while I bellow ' I don't care if it's all purple, shut up and watch the program'); and in better shape than I. I always concede the last- named without a fight. I in- variably say. "Boy, I could never scrub the kitchen in half an hour. like you. Dear. It would probably take me half the afternoon." And I'm right. So there's no conflict of interest there. She also has a joint account. the house is in her name. the car is in her name. and if I dropped dead tomorrow, she'd have so much Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 Oa2ferZimes-Abvoarte SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. and ABC Publisher - Robert Southcott Editor - Bill Batten -- Advertising Manager Assistant Editor -- Ross Haugh Plant Manager -- Les Webb Composition Manager David Worby Phone 235-1331 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 Paid in Advance Circulation March 31, 1974, 5,309 SUBSCRIPTION RATES. Canada 59.00 Per Year USA $11 00 CCNA 5101 e155AN eweeo pori " ...MIND YOU, TAMS SUST AN ESTIMATE" Spring breaks not uniform In case you haven't noticed, school districts- throughout Ontario are not uniform in their choice of spring break this year. Huron. for instance has chosen the week starting March 17, while many others have picked the s=eek following. There are some merits in having different dates throughout the province. In /he first place, people hiking....out for winter vacations will find that the normal rush is not quite as bad as it usually is when all schools are closed the same week. Accommodations should be easier to find, and if there is a lighter demand, prices won't be pushed up quite as high. However hockey teams who normally compete in the vast insurance she could give Jackie Onassis a run for her money. Liberation my armpit! My daughter is in the same boat, or category. She alternately bullies and wheedles her fgthiesr, and her husband. ..She,, nothin' offa nobody. especc male cops. She is in a career course. and she is using+,' J`or' kicking out of the way, every male who stands in her path. t With one exceptiorpShe is being, used and pushed around by their only male who could to it,her year-old, walking son, Pokey. And there is the only hope I see for the future of the male. Looking further afield. I remember two dames who were so liberated you wondered who . was wearing the pants in the family. in both cases. One was my mother. She called the shots in our family from the time she put on her wedding ring. She decided which of the kids would be licked. and she did the licking. She decided what speed my dad should drive at. She pulled us through the Depression" -"- My dad was a sweet. gentle chap like myself and always sat in the rumble seat on each new family enterprise. My mother-in-law was the same. With a combination of tempers, tirades and tears. she made my father-in-law walk on eggs until he didn't feel com- s. fortable unless he had an egg underfoot. Ditto with my sisters and sisters-in-law. They bully and needle and haggle their men unmercifully. They continually make them feel that they 1 the women) had poor luck in the draw. and make veiled and usually imaginary references to the great chances they had to marry someone worthwhile who turned out to be somebody And this phenomenon is not something new. something of the 20th century. Queen Boadicea. if anyone remembers her. had a great time smashing up Roman legions until she died of an overdose of. woad. Lady Macbeth was no shrinking. unliberated violet. She was more of a shrieking.liberated violent. Queen Elizabeth 1 diddled her would-be lovers for years and ran a growing empire with a velvet glove in an iron fist. Madame de Pompadour literally ran the French empire in the days of the 15th Louis. and she wasn't even married Nobody is weeping over Jackie what -ever. who bounced from a U.S. president to a Greek billionaire. Nor are many tears shed over the way poor little. helpless Liz Taylor has been mistreated by five or six or seven husbands. Of course. all these women had charm, and drive. or both. and weren't too much concerned about the cost of hamburg. That's k • — Pleace turn to Page 8 number of tournaments around the province as a wind-up to the season are finding some problems. Many of the local teams can't get their usual tournaments because the dates don't coincide with the holiday period in Huron. Other tournaments have been cancelled because not enough teams are available in the same week. The areas where the final week in March will be spring break' appear to have chosen wisely this year. The week happens to in- clude Good Friday. So they've decided to take the Friday prior to the holiday to make up for that situation and have ended up with an 11 -day holiday period. In Huron the kids will be get- ting only one full week, will return to school for four days, and then get the Good Friday break. People who normally schedule one of the holiday weeks tomatch the one given their youngsters at spring p{egk, wilt agree that the }tuna settp, this year" is .not,: as good as the one being chosen in many other school districts. + + + Isn' it--awiazing to consider the types of w_arminds displayed by some i)eo' As an exxer�ti , consider the guy who placcdpli.ne calls to two area industries last week and advised that a bomb had been placed in their plants. It turned out to be a hoax, as most people would expect. However, it is the type of situation that can not be dismissed and appropriate action is required to safeguard those who work in the plants. After all, there was a slight chance that some other mind was warped enough to place a bomb there. As a result of the bomb scare, about 600 people had to be evacuated from the industries. They couldn't return to work and about 2.400 man hours were lost as a result. •At an average wage of $4.00 per hour, that works out to a cost of almost $10,000 for someone's hoax. Add to that the lost profits and the other expenses involved in such a situation and it becomes almost inconceivable that anyone could consider such a stunt. It's unfortunate that more young people weren't able to attend last week's sportsmen's banquet to hear the stirrring address on the power of positive thinking given by Wilfrid Laurier University football coach, Tuffy Knight. He explained that if a person wanted something badly enough, was prepared to work for it, and had the conviction it could be done ... then the chances were excellent that he would succeed. That's the attitude Tuffy at- tempts to build up in his players and his success rate on the field indicates it turns out positively. Sure, his teams get beaten on occasions. But they're not referred to as losses. Tuffy refers to them only as "temporary setbacks." Jack Donohue. coach of Canada's male and female basketball teams had a similar message. "If you think you can, or if you think you can't ... you probltbly will," he explained. • -By thew/1y; dack'Uold us that he expects our teams to earn medals in the 1976 Olympics. Don't be too surprised if that happens. Jack --has already brought the basketball teams from "nowhere" to a ranking of eighth in the world and most people predicted he would never do that when he set that as his first goal on being named coach of the squads. Is there power in positive thinking? You have to believe it when you listen to fellows such as Knight and Donohue and look at their records. Try it some time! You may be more than pleased with the results. + + + One of the other interesting aspects of the dinner was the fact that several of the celebrities were"local" residents who have done well in their particular sporting endeavour. There was Ken Doig from Seaforth, Earl Ross from Ailsa Craig and Al Rimmer from Exeter. What is it they say about prophets in their own land? Well, it was encouraging to see that the Exeter Lions recognize these area residents for what they are - leaders in their own fields. OLD 'TIMES' SO Years Ago The annual meeting of the Loyal Orange Lodge was held in Exeter on Tuesday. The election of officers resulted as follows: Master - Rev. A. A. Trumper, D.M.-A. Hodgins. Chap. Rev. Gowan. Recording Sec. H. H. Hanley , Financial sec. H. Powe, Treasurer G. Davis. Director of Cer. Mr. Castle, lecturers Mr. Brenner and Mr. Rathwell. Mr. and Mrs. Alex Hackney of Farquhar celebrated their 65th anniversary. Doctors Jas. and ban Bell, well known in the Hensall district recently left New York for a cruise through the Panama Canal from where they will go to South America and the West Indies. 2S Years Ago Exeter Kinsmen's first president signed the application ;,for a charter at a supper meeting Thursday night when the election of officers took place. A carnival to officially open Woddham's Community Rink Was held Friday evening. The -Canadian Legion has started to excavate for the basement of its new building to be erected at the rear of the Lyric • Theatre. 15 Years Ago Twelve -year-old Shirley Sauder, Exeter won the Times - Advocate spelling bee Tuesday night. Her classmate. Elsie Gosar, was runner-up. SHDHS graduate Bill Pollen took part in debates in defence last week between Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Western Ontario. The proposed $60,000 storm drain on Pryde Boulevard won't be tackled for several years at least, town council indicated Friday night. Mrs. R. S. Hennessey has returned home from Nova Scotia after visiting her daughter. 18 Years Ago - Mrs. Kate Meidinger,a resident of Queensway Nursing Home, Hensall marked her 94th birthday on Valentine day. Mrs. Robert Fletcher was named Beta Sigma Phi Sorority Sweetheart at the annual dance. Mrs. Fletcher is president of the sorority. • Baked goods were scattered over a wide area near the Huron. Street CNR crossing Thursday when a snowplow train smashed into a bread truck owned and driven by George Joseph Pratt, Exeter. Pratt escaped uninjured. Sig9419 Vateird 94,9K 706 4ocer Herbie's story This is the story of Herbie, a smiling happy Bermudian who worked at the hotel where we holidayed recently. He's the kind of guy who makes you feel good just to look at him, his eyes lit up, a lopsided grin and a quick quip for any situation. But after listening to him we found that Herbie hadn't always been this lovable. In fact, it had been quite the opposite. He says he had always been a loner, hated and mistrusted everyone from his earliest memory. When he.wentfto school he was in constant hot water so he attended as rarely as possible. As he puts it, "I passed through school, in the front door and out the back." At the age of 13 he walked out of the classroom forever; the same day he left home turning his back on his mother and older brother. It wasn't difficult for him to pick up work and he says, "I felt like a big man. I was free to do whatever I wanted." _He- found out soon that one of the things he wanted to do was drink. By the time he was 16 he had set himself up in a classy apartment and was drinking heavily. "Two things I liked to do in those days," he recalls, "work hard and drink harder." ' Shortly, he ,was drinking harder than he was working and taking his hostility out on everybody. "I'd fight anybody, didn't matter how big they were." Booze blackouts became frequent and more and more often he ended up either in jail or in the hospital. He awoke from one blackout to find he was married (She had the papers to prove it ... Whooppee!) "It, didn't last long," he says with a wry grin, "I drank up all her perfume ... and anything else I could get my hands on." Occasionally he would meet his mother on the street. "Her- bie," she pleaded with him. "your problem is too big for you. Why don't you ask and trust God to help you." "I had never trusted anybody in my whole life," says Herbie, "and I wasn't about to trust somebody I didn't know or believe in." Eventually his mother moved to New York, and Herbie kept going lower and lower until, unable to keep a job, he was forced to scrounge in the streets. One day, with no money to buy liquor, he took a container of anti- freeze from a service station and began to drink it. Of course he ended up critically sick in the hospital where he had been treated many times before. After two weeks the doctor told him bluntly. "Herbie, you're hopeless, there's nothing more I can do for you. Please don't waste my time anymore." However, a little later he came back to tell Herbie he could be released if he would go and stay with a couple who ran a home for alcoholics who were trying to make it back. To get out of the hospital, Herbie agreed and stayed at the home for awhile because there was no place else logo. But his thirst for liquor was becoming greater and more desperate with each passing day. One day, another man who worked with alcoholics came to see him and asked him if he would go with him to a Faith at Work conference in Penn- sylvania. He offered to buy Herbie's plane ticket and whatever clothing he needed. Seeing a chance to get out of the home and perhaps an opportunity to see his mother in New York, Herbie agreed. "I'd no sooner got my seat belt fastened," says Herbie, "when the pretty stewardess bent over me and asked sweetly, 'Would you care for anything from the bar, Sir?' " With his inners almost bleeding for the stuff, but remembering that the gentleman who was paying his way was sitting next to him, Herbie somehow managed to grit his teeth and decline the enticing •1 offer. jj He snw his mother briefly in New York and once again she advised him to trust God with his problems. "I had another good laugh about that!" On the bus to Pennsylvania from New York all he saw were the giant billboards declaring the merits of this or that brand of alcohol. "I've never been more miserable," he remembers, "I ' was sure I'd die if I didn't get a drink." As they drew up to a resort hotel where the Faith at Work con- ference was being held, he noticed a liquor store about halfway down the block. Somehow he managed to get through the first day, but that night, unable to sleep, and with nothing on his mind but the unquenchable need for a drink, he decided he could take it no longer and would head for the liquor store as soon as it opened the next day. As dawn broke. he got up, dressed and went out for a walk until the store opened. Going down to the lonely beach he kicked his way along, angrily impatient. Something bright turned up in the sand. He bent down and picked up an American Penny. The words printed on the coin leapt out at him, "In God We Trust." His mother's words carne •) rushing back to him. "Suddenly, I was down on my knees writhing in pain, crying, "Oh God, please help ME. "I can't explain what hap- pened. all I know is that something beautiful washed over me and took with it all the pain and the thirst whicb has never returned to this day." (That was in 1969.) His eyes mist over when he tells you. "I believe it was the answer to my mother's prayers." Well, whatever it was, Herbie's a new man.Now,instead of hating people, he loves them. Wherever he goes he spreads fun and laughter and faith. "Every day is exciting," he says, "I never know what God has in store for me!" Our response to now By ELMORE BOOMER Counsellor for Information South Huron For appointment phone: 235-2715 or 228-6291 Soap operas! What do soapoperas do to and for their viewers? If they can be used in therapy with their wat- chers, as was reported last week in this column, they must have some effect. In 1971 it was estimated that 35 to 40 million women between the ages of eighteen and forty made up the international audience for such offerings in North Atherica. Some have suggested that the soap operas as an example of human myth reflects the "collective unconscious." Here is an open vision of the hidden dynamics of humankind. Others add the thought that these dramas bring hidden im- pulses in to the open so that they can be examined at arms length. Individuals are perged of some of dark tendencies as they watch them being played out before them. Jan Ehrenwald a psychoanalyst from New York "has emphasized the importance of myths for man. "Myths have been described as the collecfive daydreams of mankind. We know today that if a subject is prevented from daydreaming for any length of time he may. develop certain psychotic manifestations." In many ways the soap operas act as myths in our society. As we continue to polish our own images throughout our lives, myths and dramas and soap operas etc. prompt much necessary working and reworking of conflicts and in- terests, in such a shaping of ourselves. Art and drama are catalysts in our constant search for self-identity. One of the themes of the soap operas is the dependent position of women versus men. Women are lonely, victimized and fearful. If they are fortunate some man will save them from their predicaments. This has even been the case in folk tales and stories. The soap operas are carrying on the tradition of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. One study of radio soap operas in 1948 concluded that they were instrumental in keeping the woman in her subordinate role, in economic dependence on her husband. The salvation of the family as we have known it, depends on such a limitation on women, according to the authors, and thus they were glad for the soap operas. Good and bad are not mixed in characters in soap operas. A person is very good or very bad. The subtlties of inner conflicts are made into external dangers. The inner conflicts are replaced by anxieties regarding these dangers. Thus the general air of depression and lack of joy is — Please turn to Page 8 .)