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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
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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.