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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1986-02-05, Page 4P'a9e 4 Timis -Advocate, FPbrua 5, 1986 7.17 mes dvocat Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, -N0M 1S0 Second Clas Mail Registration Number 0386. ' Phone 519-235-1331 LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $25.00 Per year; U.S.A. $65.00 C.W.N.A.,,O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' Principle at stake It's becoming clearer every day that democracy and socialism are a difficult mix. The cold war that has existed for over 40 years between the governments which espouse those opposing doctrines is well known, but now the wars that ex- ist in this country where the governments follow a bit of each doctrine are starting to heat up. Canadians had their first major taste of socialism when the government impos- ed wage and price controls in an effort to bring the nation's inflation rate under control. Despite the howls of outrage, few can argue with the success of that program as it brought some stability back into our economy. Since then, governments have tackl- ed certain segments of the population in "a hit and miss fashion. Landlords are still controlled in the matter of apartment rent increases in Ontario and now the government is tackling several profes- sional organizations such as doctors, pharmacists and some dentists and optometrists. To a considerable degree, the issue is state control of some of those profes- sions, at least to the extent of how much they can charge their clientele forser- vices or goods rendered. In the case' of landlords and members of the professions, the govern- ment has considerable leverage in that the individuals controlled by government legislation are far out -numbered by those who use their services. It is therefore natural that the clientele appear to en- dorse the government action because they are the benefactors. More impor- tantly, as voters, they can hardly be ex- pected to find disfavor with a govern- ment that is seen acting in their best interests. However, there should be due cause for alarm when any group, or number of groups, in a democratic society have some of their basic freedoms removed. It leaves all other segments of the population -open to similar infringements and begs the question of which group will be next on the government hit list. Things have changed Prime Minister Mulroney. responded • in time -worn fashion to questions about the most recent poll which showed the PCs trailing the Liberals by two percen- tage points in popularity. It was, he said, because the press had been unfair or in- accurate about the performance of his government over the past several months. Apparently the Liberal opposition's strident claims of government inefficien- cy as demonstrated in the tuna affair, sale of DeHaviland, falling dollar values and unemployment have nothiag to do with the PCs failing popularity - it's simp- ly bad press. As we recall, Mr. Mulroney was pret- ty happy about press coverage when he won the last election by a solid majori- ty. He was happy to be quoted by reporters in their stories about the bright new future which he and his party would provide for the nation. Now it seems thingsrhave changed. When the news isn't good Mr. Mulroney would prefer the press print something else. Wingham Advance -Times It was bound to happen Among the expressions of grief, shock and condolences that flow- ed from last week's catastrophic explosion of the U.S. space shut- tle Challenger, was the general- ly held view that sooner or later, such a tragedy was bound to happen. Former astronauts, their families, space experts and even President Reagan acknowledged that such an eventuality was always in the back of their minds. part, that explanation may temper some of the grief and shock for all but those directly af- fected by the explosion, but more to the point it emphasis the fact that all too often people are prepared to accept such situa- tions as inevitable and it is one of the basic reasons why life on this planet is made more precarious. Put in its proper context, the explosion of Challenger and the death of seven people is not catastrophic in comparison to other tragedies which receive far less attention and action. It must be noted that the atten- tion given to the death of the crew was heightened by the fact it in- cluded a school teacher who was feted as being the first ordinary citizen in space. Much of the media attention was focused on her family as they stood in hor- ror and watched the frightening circumstances unfold before their eyes. Cameras had been assigned to her school to follow the celebrations of her students and cohorts as they watched the shuttle blast off into oblivion. The families and friends of the other six passengers were not central to the scene or the coverage and in all but their own communities those six were relegated to the "back pages" along with the names of those vic- tims of other tragedies of the day. * * * * * By the time this column gets in- to print, the space shuttle tragedy will no longer be a major topic Of conversation, although the ........................... .. .. Batt'n Around ...with VikThe Editor review of the cause and the plans for future flights will he a part of the news reports for some time to come. The numbing scene most of us watched on TV will be basically forgotten and the event will be even more considered as having been inevitable. Life, after all, is very cheap. Its terminaton is bound to happen. The king is dead... long live the queen. The inescapable truth is that more and more, it appears, peo- ple are prepared to accept things around them as being inevitable and the will to change those which are either tragic, destruc- tive or unpleasant is difficult to find in many situations. Too many are content to pass off those situations as being something "the 'government" should tackle or deflect their own responsibility in the hope that their neighbors may take up the cause and not interfere with their social pursuits or the afternoon and evening soap operas. * , * * * * * If the explosion of Challenger was something that was bound to happen, surely it begs the ques- tion of whether the billions of dollars being spent in space ex- ploration are justified, in relation to that human cost. Secondly is whether the monetary expenditure could be better appropriated for the ex- ploration that is not yet finished on earth in finding and envoking ways to reduce the disease, star- vation, strife and economic suf- fering of the planet's dwellers as well as the deadly wastes that place the not -too -distant genera- tion in total peril. While Ontario daily papers featured the Challenger catastrophe in glaring headlines, some found room on their front pages for the news that the water supply to thousands of south- western Ontario residents con- tained deadly dioxins. ' Is that,toosomething that is in- evitable and merely bound to happen along with the multitude of other predicaments and cir- cumstances which make life as much a gamble on this earth as heading into space? Tithe is quickly running out for a society that too easily accepts • the ramifications of its own short- comings as being inevitable. Why yas it bound to happen? Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by l.W. Eedy Publications Unshed IF THIS KEEPS UP au BE II -TROJAN HORSE! . it's I vsualfy commute to the city y car. I guess I'm an in- $ividualist. My personal freedom !is worth more to me than the few dollars I might save by taking the ibus. But last week I had to take the t bus. And I haven't recovered from the experienceyet. I still sit down at the typewriter, my whole body shaking like a pogo stick. I had expected the bus to look like a Voyageur. Big, trustwor- thy. When I saw the 1'ttle of school bus coming aro nd the ;korner, I didn't even pa atten- - tion to it. Until everybody waiting at the bus stop got on it. What's this? Grown people riding a school bus? • Because of my hesitation, I had missed all the good seats. The good seat, as I am now told, are in the front of the bus. I.got what was left over. The seat right on top of the rear axle. If you can call it a seat. As I kept sliding for- ward on it, I wondered if it had been put on backwards. As I wore holes into my trousers, scraping my knees against the steel bar- rier in front of me, I began to doubt the wisdom of my decision to take this trip. But everybody around me seemed happy. People were chat- ting, Some had already dozed off, before we even got out of town. Perhaps I'd settle down if I got in- volved in the book I had brought along. Now there was an advan- tage. I have yet to learn how to not a joyride, enjoy reading while driving a car. Perhaps I could finish this chapter that I had made so little progress with over the past few weeks. Three quarters of an hour , of uninterrupted reading time would almost be worth the discomfort. - But when I got to the second sentence, the driver turned the lights off on the bus. We had The Peter Hesse) Column reached the open highway. No more reading, and it wouldn't get light outside for half an hour or so. I put my book away and tried to sleep. Have you ever tried to sleep on a midway ride? For six bucks I was getting the thrill of a lifetime: 45 minutes of vertical shakeup that left my brain irf a complete muddle. My intestines bounced against my spleen. My kidneys sent out emergency signals. And I lost at least an inch in height because my vertabrae kept knocking together, crushing what was left of my disks. My teeth chattered, and it was not from the cold'. I tried to get up to ask the Battle lost up It's been quite a number of years; since the federal govern- ment of Canada introduced the metric system and maybe it's time the degree of success of the plan should be measured. The theory was that by forcing the changes in a wholesale man- ner, something akin to jumping right into a cold swimming pool, that Canadians would complain at first but would soon become Europeanized. Metric would become second nature to everybody and all would be happy. Like any theory though, the proof comes ill 'the pudding' so to speak. After all these years of metric speeding tickets I would be will- ing to bet that most driving adults still ask the cop "How fast is that in miles per hour?" and I know that most of the grocery shopping public still converts kilograms to ounces and pounds and still feels outraged by seeing a package of I By the Way by Syd Fletcher hamburer quoted as $3.85 per Kilogram instead of $1.75 per pound. Somehow it seems as if one is getting gypped. Being a teacher of math for many years 1 learned all the lit- tle tricks of working with the metric system and probably understand it as well as the next person. Rationally 1 can argue driver if there was a first aid post where he could stop and let ml' out. But I never did get my legs extracted from the vice in which they were held. The amazing thing is that I ac- tually dozed off during this tor- ture. I was probably hallucinating. In my dream - or whatever it was - I found myself confronted by- some - Iroquois braves who kept talking to me in a strange tongue. I said: "I'm not a missionary, and I don't want to become a martyr!" Finally one of the warriors said something in English. "Wake up, Sir." It was the driver. We had arrived in the city. Downtown, not where I wanted to get off. The driver helped me to get to my feet, and I crawled to the ex- it. I found a city bus that took me to my destination. It was a pleasure standing in the aisle, stretching my wounded limbs. How do you folks do it? Every weekeday you get into that vehi- cle twice. My laundry gets treated more gently in my washer and dryer. Have they managed to break your spirit as well as your bones? Why do you take it? Why don't you ask for comfortable seats? Or new springs? Or reading lights? I won't be complaining about the high cost of gasoline for a while. Or the ridiculous cost of parking. I'll take all that, and I'll enjoy the decadence and comfort of my cozy little car. You can have the commuter bus. here that it's a better way to meaure things. Mutliplying everything by 10 makes sense to my brain, but in my heart I can't switch over that easily. It made me feel a little better though the other day when I heard my daugther, who sup- posedly has been thoroughly metricated, remark about the size of her puppy, in inches. The problem, of course, is that the Americans have not switched to the metric system officially. I understand that the major car companies are gradully swit- ching all their machinery and that you can even buy gas in Florida in litres, hut the bulk of the population south of us has never heard of a centimetre. Until the U.S. makes that move I am afraid the battle has been lost up here.