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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1987-03-11, Page 4Page 4 Tunes-Advocote, March 1 1 , 1987 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgama ed 1924 BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1985 imes - dvocate Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 150 Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. cn LORNE EEDY Publisher Phone 519-235.1331 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' Will hikers eat? While a meeting in Exeter tonight may result in the unexpected, it appears that area farmers and their Foodland Hydro Committee have resolved to ac- cept the fate of a new transmission line crossing the fertile fields of Huron and Middlesex to carry power from the Bruce Nuclear Power Development to London. An appeal against the recent joint board decision to allow the line to be erected could be 'considered, but spokesmen indicate that is not very like- ly. Part of the reason for their reluctance to continue the battle is based to an ex- tent on the "bashing your head against a brick wall" syndrome and in part on the fact that the committee .at least managed to get the board to provide some concessions to farmers in the bat- tle to preserve the area's prime agricultural land. The board has instructed Ontario Hydro to use narrow base towers instead of conventional four -legged towers along fence lines and in fields with specialty crops. Ironically, the preservation of agricultural land took a back seat to the preservation of environmentally sen- sitive land, as the board ruled against a proposal to take the line across the Niagara Escarpment and wetlands in the Bruce -to -Barrie area. Obviously, that is a difficult decision, but it does call into question the guidelines for protecting agricultural land. That has again been given a lower. priority than some would expect and has prompted questions as -to what the hikers - and nature lovers will eat as they con- tinue to enjoy their favorite haunts while productive food land continues to disap- pear at an alarming rate. It does appear all too evident that talk about protecting agricultural land is similar to that of the weather, in -that everyone would -like to do something about it, but no one ever does. It should be noted, however, that the joint board faced the task of attempting to make the best of a bad situation that was created by Ontario Hydro when the. Bruce plant was built with no approved plan on how -the -power generatedthere was to get to those who need it. It will now become more apparent to many residents of this area that the plant pro- bably shouldn't have been built there in the first place but should have been plac- ed in the general area where the power was required. Now it's going to cost Ontario Hydro customers $452 million to erect a transmission line that no one wants to get the power to where it is needed. You'll see the significance of that in future hydro bills! Spending the fortune It's not known how much faith On- fortune cookie. tario Agriculture Minister Jack Riddell That goody contained the usual slip places in soothsayers but there may be of paper which carried the message, some indication it is slightly higher than "Person who watches mail box in the some of the faith he places in some Year of Rabbit receives many • good members of his own staff inview of a re- things from Foodland Ontario". cent_ embarrassing situation in which In short, the whole project con - they placed him. � •tituted a colossal waste of -public: funds.._ It all started innocently, perhaps, However, the real rub came in the and no doubt was construed as an im- discovery that the fortune cookie was not aginative promotional exercise by among the good things that are produc- Foodland Ontario, but it has certainly ed in Ontario. backfired into considerable adverse The civil servants had to send their publicity in many._newspapers..inOntarior------.-eheque-southof thebordertortheCreat1Ve Those newspapers, including this Cookie Co. Inc. of Washington, D.C. one, recently received by Priority Post Hopefully Mr. Riddell will be gazing (hang the expense) a littie box in which into his crystal ball to determine the was another dinky ai dboard bucket, future occupation of those responsible for which in turn contained a lone Chinese this example of stupidity and waste. Anger is justified Two of the responses heard to last week's vandalism at South Huron District High School are interesting because they differ so greatly. - Extet• Councillor Dorothy Chapman wa-s rather pointed in her thoughts, noting that she was upset and angry over the situa- tion "and the fact we have children like that in our community". On the other hand, a senior staff member with whom i talk- ed as we made our way into the building on Friday took a far dif- ferent approach after i suggested that such acts were difficult to comprehend. Not really, he responded, poin- ting out that someone obviously had a "mad on" 'towards some aspect of the system and had chosen that method of venting whatever feelings had erupted. He also suggested that allowing one's feelings to be vented in such a manner was far better than tak- ing a gun or performing some other dangerous deed that is often perpetrated by those who have had enough. That's not to suggest that the teacher was condoning the cost- ly damage created at the school. 'As a local taxpayer, it could he expected he was as upset as others who have to foot the hill for such stupidity and thoughtlessness. Perhaps no one will ever real ly know what triggered the ac- tion of those who attacked the. Batt'n Around ...with The Editor school, although viewing the damage and the sign writing would lead me to think that it was done mare as "a lark" than be- ing the action of some person or person who was seeking to settle a score with education officials, students, or anyone else who suf- fered from the incident. It was obviously pre -planned, unlessI young people just automatically go around in the wee, small hours of the morning with a few cans of spray paiAt in their possession. 'However, there is little doubt that considerably more damage could have been inflicted in the length of time the perpetrators were in the building, a fact at- tested to by hearing of schools suffering damage into the hun- dreds of thousands of dollars in such attacks. s • * • • The attack on the local school is certainly not the first nor perhaps even the most costly and it is not the only target; although schools -do appear to be at higher risk than any other public or private facility in any community. That may. perhaps add some weight to the theory of the staff member, although schools are comparatively easy targets and provide some familiarity for those who have been or are students in that they know their way around and have some planned escape routes should that need suddenly arise. What makes this incident a lit- tle unusual is the suggestion by -principal Bruce Shaw that it ap- peared aimed at the student body to an extent because a juke box owned by the students was among the items badly damaged, along with some other equipment in the cafeteria that is there Please turn to page 5 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited Afflicted with curse • Losing things is one of my specialties. And other members of my family seem to be afflicted with the same curse. 'fake -Elizabeth for example. She -owned a- pair of sterling silver earrings that was given to her as a high school graduation present (not that long ago). , 1 don't think anybody gave me graduation presents, but if anybody had given me, let's say, sterling silver cuff links, I'm sure I would have have wrapped them up in colt<m wool and kept them in one of my secret hideouts where they would be discovered in pristine condition years after my departure from this world. Elizabeth has a different at- titude toward heirlooms: if you can't use them,what's the point in having them? So she often serves food in irreplaceable dishes, puts flowers into ir- replaceable vases and wears ir- replaceable earrings. One Saturday morning we all came out of the Civic Centre after swimming lessons, and after wading through i.;:rkle-deep snow and slush, got to the car ready to drive home. "Just wait here for a second," Elizabeth said quiet- ly, "I've lost one of my earrings. I'll be right back. Fifteen minutes later, as our feet were getting cold, we all join- ed in what turned out to he a thorough- search-. "We --took -the Civic Centre apart. We drained the pool, melted down the ice in both arenas, sorted through seventeen bags of garbage, strip- ped and searched everybody in the building and within a 1oCiloometer radius. We placed ads in newspapers from coast to coast and in seven- teen stales south of the border. People phoned us from Texas, of- fering us single earrings with pearls, rubies, and precious plastic baubles. 13ul "the" ear- ring did not materialize. Stephanie is having barrette trouble. Keeping barrettes in the hair of an active five-year-old is not easy. Barrettes are now a major budget item for us. You'd think they would show up somewhere. She must have lost dozens of them. Please, come to our next garage sale. Steph is go- ing to sell 67 single barrettes, from Carebear Cute -to Fashion Fabulous. Alexander is mostly losing cash. His specialty is ac- cumulating his weekly allowance until it bulges his wallet out of shape, then he takes the wallet to school and loses it either on the bus, in the school yard or in the cafeteria. Or the cash drops out of his wallet. 1 suppose the quarters and dimes roll into gut- ters, heat registers and glacier crevasses, while the bills are. picked up by the violent gales that regularly blow through the school: Somewhere somebody must be picking up a lot of crumpled dollar bills. Duncan only loses what he con- siders non-essential items of After lunch I would print it out clothing, like mitts and gloves, and send it on its way. Lunch was hats, scarves, neck warmers -and a cold roast -beef s nrdwich-and-a-- -- `-t sweaters. And they usually turn glass of skim milk. Back to the up again in unexpected places: in computer. Go to "File", press the cars of total strangers or "Print". The printer's asthmatic dangling from elm trees or in the wheezing noise soon assured me lost and found box of the liquor that everything was on course. store. }suspect that -when all'the---Butwatttvhydattheprinter stop - snow is gone, a layer of Duncan's so soon? winter garments will emerge i had forgotten to press "Save". Do you know what that means? My perfect column is But when I lose things, I don't gone, lost forever. Not in a bother with trifles like heirlooms, lifetime will I be able to write money or clothing. I go for broke. such a masterpiece again. Sorry, i frequently lose my car in park- you'll never know what the story ing lots, although - with one was about. i won't even try to notable exception - i have always reconstruct it. The same brilliant. found it again. I have lost two thoughts never come to me twice. bicycles, one typewriter. Lost in the bowels of my numerous suitcases, a pingpong 512K/8o0. table, a dining room table, a lawn mower, a boat, and a dock. All of these items I have long written off. I can live with material losses because I am us- ed to them: But when I lose parts of myself, it still hurls. For the past three months, Peter's Point has been written and produced on a Macintosh 512K/800 computer, using the desktop publishing program call- ed Microsoft Word. A wonderful system, one that fifteen years ago would have required a room full of equipment costing perhaps a quarter million dollars. Today, it fits on an area of less than four square feet and costs about as lit- tle as two electric typewriters. So this morning i finally managed to write my best col- umn ever. One that would have won the coveted CCNA prize or even the Pulitzer. It was a dan- dy. I finished it in no time flat, the words just rolled off the keyboard. Perfection! I keyed in the punch line. Finished. Not a comma was out of place. When Elizabeth called me for lunch, I told her how pro- ud i was of my handiwork. My readers, i said, would be pleased. The editors would voluntarily double_ my fee because they, too, would instantly recognize the outstanding quality of this piece. together with the first tulip leaves. Back to steel mill Back a couple of years ago I wrote a column just before the last federal election criticizing the Liberftl government for what I considered abuse of power. Trudeau had just appointed all kinds of people to cushy patronage positions. After a very lengthy period of time in office it .seemed that the Liberals had us- ed their time to bury the country in a monumental debt which would cost more and more in tax money just to pay the interest. The Conservatives •raised the patronage thing as a big issue. it seemed as if we needed a change in leadership. The rest of the country seemed to think so too and Mulroney won a landslide victory. The happy ending would be that with such a huge majority in the House of Commons that Mulroney would have been able to assign all those bodies to specific tasks to solve some of the Problems of the country. By the end of his four years in power they would have worked so diligently on those little and big jobs that .many would have in - By the Way by Syd Fletcher deed been finished with and the country would be eternally grateful. For example Mr.• Wilson has su ceeded in not increasing the deficit since he has been in office, something the Liberals did not seem to have been at all worried about. interestingly enough though the Conservatives are now at an all-time low in the opinion polls. if an election were to happen right now i doubt that they would do very well. Mulroney seems to have a knack for shooting himself in the foot as the saying goes. His cohorts have great difficulty in staying out of trouble. First one, then the other is accused of dipp- ing his finger into the pie and although some of the allegations are disproved, enough of them stick to make the whole crew look very bad. It would appear that Mr. Mulroney is going to have to do some very hard work over the next two years to redeem himself with the public if he is going to survive politically. Somehow he is going to have to keep his fellow workers off the front pages, at least off them in the negative fashion which has been so characteristic in the last few months. if he doesn't do an Phrupt change around it'll be hack ne steel mill for him. •r