Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1985-11-06, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, November 6, 1985 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 tiLitak 4,4 Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 150 • Second Class Mail Registration Nurnber 0386. Phone 519-235-1331 LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKE T Advertising Manager eNA CCN.a BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGIUND Business Manages SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $23.00 Per year; U.S.A. $60.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' A time to remember By Jennifer Preston, Port Elgin Junior winner Annual Legion essay contest I shuffled my boots impatiently in the slush on the street as I waited for out town's Remembrance Day service to begin. My toes were numb and my fingers frozen. I scrunched my toes up inside my boots and blew warm breath on my fingers. What was the - significance of all this anyway? All Remembrance Day meant to me was going to a boring Remembrance Day service and freezing to death while there. Away in the distance I could hear the faint echo of bag pipes. In front of our town's War Memorial the small group of on -lookers started to turn their heads. - The veterans appeared. Every face wore the expression, grim and proud. As I watched not really paying at- tention I made designs in the snow with the toe of my boot. The master of cermonies gave a small address to the crowd. I yawned loudly. A few people turned around and gave me sharp and angry glances. 'then an old man limped up to the podium. On his face were a few vicious and noticable scars. He spoke in a voice tired but filled with determination. He spoke of the tragedies and the triumphs of the war. I listened intently as he told in detail about the suffering and the heartaches that war had brought upon thousands of men, women and their families. At the end of his speech a warm feeling rose up inside me. I reached up to my jacket and stroked my red poppy with a new attitude. Finally I understood. A time to vote • Most area residents have a date at the polls next Tuesday, and despite the apparent lack of any major issue in a Majority of the municipalities, it is still a responsibility and duty that should be fulfilled. While it is only coincidence that voting day follows Remembrance Day this year, it should help to remind voters of the price that was paid by so many to enable them to exercise their basic democratic freedom. Those who fail to accept that responsibility break faith with those who paid the supreme sacrifice. That may appear ultraistic for such a sim- ple exercise, but it is nevertheless one of the principles on which Remem- brance Day is observed. Some see municipal elections as merely a popularity contest, while others excuse themselves on the grounds it doesn't matter which can- didates get elected. That attitude, of course, is .a disservice to those who have presented themselves as candidates in good conscience. But more than that, it reduces the stature of the important offices for which the election is being held. Voting should not be on the basis of one's petty like or dislike for a par- ticular candidate, or even that can- didate's sex. It should be solely on the basis of choosing the candidates who will give the job the dedication and thought that is required. Those elected will serve for the next three years. That's a long time in the life of any municipality, and it represents a long duration before an error can be corrected. It's virtually impossible to think of anything that should be given more priority on November 12 than marking a ballot. Disgraceful, disheartening it's difficult to think of any word other than disgraceful to describe the low ebb to which Ex eter ratepayers have fallen in regards to pre-election meeting attendance. ➢tot one member of the general public attended last Tuesday's candidates' meeting at the rec centre, leaving those aspiring to public office outlining their cam- paigns and pleas for support at the polls to the other candidates and their spouses. Turnouts at previous ratepayers' meetings has always been greeted with an abundance of apathy, but it has now reach- ed its pinnacle. There may be some reasonable explanations for the total lack of interest but most fall short of be ing exusable. The return by ac- clamation to the three senior positions on council diminishes the interest as does the fact that only seven people are vying for the six council seats. However, those seven can- didates still deserve the full con- sideration of the electorate, and the meeting afforded ratepayers the lone opportunity to hear and meet those whom they will choose to run the affairs of the municipality fbr the next three years. It was evident that each of the candidates had come to the meeting well prepared with thoughtful and concise messages pertaining to their hopes and dreams for theme -town and their willingness to devote the time and effort the positions require. Other than the press coverage the session offorded, each could have given the speech at home in front of the bathroom mirror and elicited more response than they were given by the electors. The sad fact is, for both the Batt'n Around ...with 11111kThe Iditor electors and the candidates. one or more of )he latter will be dismissed out -of -hand when the former mark their ballots. In many ways it will be an insult because those voters have not even had the basic consideration to hear the candidates. The degree of apathy displayed is also an insult to the elected of- ficials who have served this com- munity over the past three-year term. They too had taken the time and effort to prepare reports on the highlights of those years and to outline their visions for the future. All of them have worked long and arduous hours over the past term. They've given up their own business, leisure and family hours to devote their energies to the affairs of the community. Was it really too much for them to expect that ratepayers could have given up a couple of hours on a single night to give them an audience? Can the appreciation for the ef- forts expended by others on our behalf be so callously dismissed? * * Our society, unfortunately, is now so preoccupied with rights, that the balance has almost ex- cluded the other weighting factor represented by responsibility. The right to vote should be balanced with a responsibility to be informed for what or whom we are voting. The right to complain should be balanced with the responsibility to acknowledge ef- fort to negate sources of com- plaint either before or after the fact. The right to enjoy the amenities of citizenship should be balanced with the responsibility to show an interest in preserving and enhancing those amenities by direct participation or by acknowledging the efforts of those who do participate. Fortunately for Exeter citizens, they do not suffer from the adage that people get the type of government they deserve. in fact, the opposite can be said as the quality of leadership appears to grow in direct opposition to the apathy displayed by the citizenry. But then, similar to sand- castles, most things reach such peaks before they suddenly crumble and all that has been gained is lost. Ah, so what!? Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by 1.W. Eedy Publications Limited 0010111 1:44 •TotriVIPL 4 "Our relationship with the U.S. is based on supply and demand — they demand, we supply." AIRIER SERVICES More junk mail Because I write a syndicated column, I've been put on the hit list of some public relations out- fit in New -York. As a result, I receive a stream of garbage mail containing fascinating material about some product or other that is being pushed by the PR firm. Usually, 1 spot it right away and toss it in the round filing cabinet without even opening it. Today came one of these missives and, distracted by something else, I had opened the thing and read a paragraph or two before I realized it was just another piece of puffery. It was headed News From: The Hamburg Group. For Release: Itnmediatelv.All press releases say the latter. Anyway, I thought it would be a pitch for Mac- Donalds' or a string quartet. 1 wasn't. It was a series of little ar- ticles about Hamburg and Ger- many, touting that city's great variety of attractions. Such junk has about as much place in this column as an ac- count of the origins of bee- keeping in Basutoland. And I'm supposed to print it free. What dummies these PR people are. However, I'd already read enough to hook me on the first ar- ticle, entitled: Brewery's Waste Energy To Heat Hospital. It didn't make sense at first. Why should breweries waste energy to heat a hospital. unless they're trying to stake amends to all the people who wind up in hospital with cirrhosis of the liver 1ron1 chinking their poison? i took another look at the heading. spotted the apostrophe. and now it made Sens('. A brewery will deliver heat and hot water to a hospital. As part of its brewing process, the brewery us- ed tq end up with a lot of excess heat that must be cooled before it is released into the air. Now, in- stead of being wasted. that heat will be channeled into the hospital where it will be put to good use. Cost of the Ileal, equipment and stuff, is about 400,000 marks, to be assumed by the city. The debt will be liquidated through the savings on energy that would otherwise have to be purchased. Are, you listening, Labalts. Molsons et al? Instead of pouring money into sports and all these phoney ads, about as subtle as a kick in the ribs, indicating that beer -drinking will make your lite macho. full of fun and beautiful Sugar &Spice Dispensed by Smiley girls in skimpy swim suits, why don't you channel your heat into hospitals? Think of the free publicity! Ain't them Germans something, though? If they didn't start a war every so often and get clobbered, they'd own half the world, with their resourcefulness and hard work. Last time i saw Hamburg %vas in 1944. and it was literally ham- burg. The RAF had firebombed it by night and the USAAF had pounded it by day until it was a heap of rubble. 1 was a prisoner of war and saw it from a tram window on my way to an inter- rogation centre in Frankfurt. Forty -odd years later, it has risen from the ruins like a phoenix, and is a booming city. visited by over a million travellers in 1981. But 'fa mburg-Schmarnbur g. I'm not going to urge my readers to go there. it was the article on heating that caught my eye. Aside from the breweries in Canada. this country has another industry that could produce enough Ileal so that. if it were New ideas in When i first started teaching twenty years ago it was just about the end of a cycle during which teachers were in very short supply. in order to meet the deficit the Department of Educa- tion (now referred to as the Ministry of Education) had res ted to some very unusual tact s. They had introduced the 'six- k wonders', teachers who went for two six week summer courses, taught for two years and then went back to Teacher's Col- lege for a year to make their cer- tificates permanent. At that tirne also teachers could go to 'Normal School' from grade 12 to 13 instead of having a university degree. Teachers knew that they were in high de- mand. 1 can remember moving from one city to another and tak- ing out a lease on an apartment for a year without having even signed a teaching contract, so properly channeled, we could thumb our collective noses at the Arabs. I'm talking about politics. Town and city councils produce enough hot air to heat at least one hospital within their limits. Provincial legislatives produce enough hot air to replace half the oil used in their provinces. And from that vast deposit of natural gas known as Ottawa issues daily enough hot air to heat Montreal's Olympic Stadium, even though it has no roof. And that's only touching the bases, without going to the out- field or, the infield. Think of all the hot air product ed' by teachers and preachers,. union leaders, abortionists and anti -abortionists, public relations people. medical associations, school hoards. And there's lots more where that comes from. The squeals of those caught with a mortgage to be renewed, the moans of farmers who are losing their shirts, the bellows of angry small - businessmen: all these are wasting energy by blowing hot air into our rather frigid climate, there to ix' dispersed into nothing. Add to this all the hot air that is poured into our telephone lines, that is batted hack and forth over business luncheons and al parties and over the breakfast (able. it's perfectly simple. All we treed is a means of bottling the stufl somehow, and distributing it to the right places. 11 our scien- tists can send a missile to Mars, sural they can find a method of storing and channeling the in- credible quantities ul hot air that rise in clouds over our country. 1'eler I,ougheed might have to crap some of his oil wells. but if sonmlmdy came up with the solu- tion. we could not only tell the Arabs what to do with their oil. Sc1'could probably buy Saudi Arabia. Maybe III drop a line to the Mayor of Hamburg. see what he suggests • wings sure was I of getting a job somewhere in that area. 1t would take a very courageous teacher to do that now since one would totally lose any seniority which you had built up. Secondary school principals By the Way by Svd Fletcher would go down to the Park Plaza hotel in Toronto where the hiring was done, ask a teacher what their specialty field was and hire him/her on the spot. That's how scarce teachers were. Then with declining enrolments the bottom suddenly fell out of the teaching job market. Educa- tional demands were raised tremendously for new teachers. Some of the Teachers' Colleges ( including the one i went to) were closed right down and for the last ten years it has been almost im- possible to get a job no matter how well qualified you are. Now it seems as if things are gradually changing. This year my school board hired quite a number of new people and i am sure the same thing is happening across the province. Also the teacher population is aging. in some high schools, for example, the median age of teaching staff is around 47 years of age. Within a few years many of those people will be retired and younger people will be coming in with new ideas and techniques. Ilopefully that will benefit the whole system.