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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1987-09-02, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, September 2, 1987 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgama ed 1924 -� imes Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S0 `Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519-235-1331 rtanD LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager *CNA 1:4_ BILE 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' Feeling helpless We're sure Exeter policeandfire fighters are experiencing a feeling of helplessness following the senseless ravaging of Exeter Public School and Usborne Central School Wednesday evening. Many of our readers have stated they would have liked to be present when . those responsible were setting the buildings on fire. However, this type of cowardly action is difficult to prevent because the perpetrators have the advan- tage of choosing their target and the time they will strike: Other than keeping vigilant, there is not much any of us can do to prevent additional incidents. Vandalism has many forms and a variety of descriptions. Some say it is a cry for attention from those who are lack- ing all the ingredients necessary for a stable, normal personality. We can talk of many adjectives in describing anyone who wilfully.destroys property but we feel it might be wiser in witholding comments lest we play into their hands by giving them even more of the attention they seem to be seeking. It wasn't that long ago our high school was broken into and thousands of dollars of damage done in just a few short minutes. An adult and a young -offender will be appearing in court in November in connection with -that incident. Let's hope in this latest case in- vestigators get a break that will lead them to whoever is responsible for- this outbreak of destruction before the loss is measured in lives instead of dollars. Debatable debates Given they have so much to gain and so little to lose, isit any Wonder the two opposition. party leaders'continue to de- mand more televised debates -with Premier David Peterson. Is it any won- der that Mr. Peterson continues to refuse. For the guy out front in popular sup- port in an election campaign, televised debates are a no-win situation. If you agree to debate, you're in a situation where everybody gangs up on you as the guy they most want to diminish. The sheer numbers of two against one mean you're unlikely to look good ( just as the sheer numbers of those federal provin- cial conferences where it's. 10 against one means a federal prime minister can never look good) . Yet if the . leader refuses to debate, he's painted with the brush. of not wanting to play fair, of try- ing to hide from the public. Even if he does agree to a debate, as Peterson did, he is hounded to hold more debates so more topics can be discussed (and the op- position can have more opportunity to chip away at his image). . The problem isn't just with the debates but the impression that one par- ty leaders "won" the debate. Although hard to judge in real tersm unless one leader totally falls flat on his face, the preception that one leader won a debate can change an entire campaign. People who didn't even watch the debate accept the common knowledge that one leader won the debate and two others lost it. If the campaign front-runner "lost" the debate then the other two won it. The recent Ontario debate for in- stance, is generally accepted to have been a victory for Bob Rae of the New Democrats who won the debate. A Toron- to Star poll flashed that news before the party leaders had barely left the studio. The poll however didn't show that Rae "won" the debate, ( the actual numbers were 36.6 percent for Peterson, 35.6 per- cent for Rae), just that the percentage of people who said they thought he had won the debate was higher than those who had supported him earlier. Peterson had fewer people who thought he did well in the debate than had been prepared to vote for him even though he and Rae were virtually even in numbers of those who thought they'd done well. Thus, Rae was declared the winner and will even be known as the winner. Whether,that percentage will change this election campaign or not but it.cer- tainly underlines the kind of crap game election debates have become. It also makes it clear why the underdog4 want the debates to go on forever while Mr. Peterson wants to leave well enough alone and run as -fast as he can to new campaign strategies. Blyth Citizen About terriers All the recent publicity about pit bull terrier attacks brings back to my mind a similar inci- dent which happened to the mother of one of my students. These folks live on a farm in Euphemia Township ion • the south side of Larnbton County 1. One day this lath carne out to the front door of the house and s'iw these two pit bulls near the end of the lane. "Goon. get on home." she said. and headed off toward the garden. The male dog of the pair must have taken offense at her com- ment tlecause he charged her and hit her right in the small of the back, knocking her to the ground. He then grabbed her by the back of lthier neck. as on the opposite side of the house on the tractor. which'had its engine running at . the time. Somehow he heard something, probably his mother screaming and came running around the house. Ile grabbed a thin iron bar and actually hent it By the Way S%rl lief( lto r • over the. male .•dog.s back whereupon both dogs attacked him. Eventually he was able to drive them off. A couple of months later the mother showed me the scars on the back of her neck and scalp. it had taken over one hundred stit- ches to close up the wounds. if her son hadn't come to help her she would have been killed. Even with that type of horror story which is spectacular, to say the least, it is important to realize that pit bulls are not a common animal. The chances of being bit- ten by or mauled by one of them is far less than of being attacked by a German Shepherd. which is considered to be the most protec- tive of its territory and family of any dog. It interests me as to why anyone would want to keep as a family pet a dog which is vicious in nature. i say this in a general sense, since many dogs can have that tendency regardless of breed. • i might note that we had, at one time, a beautiful German Shepherd dog, and she wouldn't hurt anyone. if she.had done so, without provocation. l am afraid that she would not have lasted long on the premises. • Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited "1 PARKED MY VOTE WITH THE NDP AND -THEY Great We would hope that not too many people took the time to. read - about this year's Zurich Bean Festival in the August 24 issue of the London Free Press. The article was a complete in- sult to the festival organizers and anyone connected with the white bean industry which is one of the main cash crops of many Huron farmers... The way the process of cooking the beans was described -would turn off -anyone's craving for the appetizing small fruit. - .We have missed only two or three bean festivals over the last 22 years they have been in opera- tion and can vouch for the cleanliness and effective way in which beans bre handled. The late Gerry Gingerich was - one of the original chefs back in 1966 and since that time literally hundreds of Zurich and area volunteers have worked hard to gain and maintain a good reputa- tion of suppyling tasty food. It would be a shame if the bean festival 0ould lose some of its ap- peal ppeal due to an incompetent and tasteless display of reporting. If the reporter thought she was being funny, .that was far from the truth. Many in the Zurich area are angry about the story and have a right to be. In addition some of the facts were totally wrong. In addition to the article which tried to make Zurich and the festival look like a community out on the back 40, we wonder where the editors were when the copy went through. The story said 3,600 visitors were in attendance. That was more than a slight error in calculation. The 3,600 represents the number of meal tickets sold. At most similar events where full course meals are sold it's estimated only one person out of four or five actually sits down to eat. All in all the overall atten- dance was in excess of 15,000. by 72 percent to a record $563 million. festival HAD IT TOWED AWAY ! " During the two years plus, Rid- dell has introduced 75 initiatives to assist the farming industry. It seems the two major opposi- tion parties are not severely criticizing what the Liberals have done, but what they may do in the future as far as bilingualism and free trade is concerned. . One strong criticism made by Huron PC candidate Nico Peters is the poor and narrow condition of Highway 4, north of Blyth. Having travelled that road a number of the times over the years on the way to Collingwood, we agree it certainly needs widening and reconstruction. by Ross Haugh What is anelection all about and why is it called? That question will get a varie- ty of answers probably depending on one's political belief. We can think of only two issues that will persuade voters when it comes to mark their ballot, Thursday, September 10. They are the record of the government in office and the election pro- mises made by the other parties. The way the present Liberal government operated after being thrown into unexpected power in June of 1985 must be weighed against the record of the Conser- vatives who held power in our fair province for 42 consecutive years. We would be almost sure that more new legislation and in- itiatives were passed in the past 25 months since the Peterson regime took over than in any time in our Legislative history. On issues which are closer to home and affecting the agricultural industry, since Jack Riddell took over as Agriculture despite Minister, the provincial agricultural budget has gone 'up The one question we have is "Islas it narrowed any in the two -years'the Liberals have been in power`" We think it has been the same certainly for at least the last 10 years of the Conservative domination. - - One extremely good piece of .legislation put through recently - was the reduction of the number of students in grades one and two to 20. '-We have a number of teachers in the family. The one particular- ly affected is a sister who teaches grade one in Brampton. She tells us with 30 or more youngsters in a grade one class it's almost impossible to give the individual attention which is necessary. The first year of school is very important when students should get the basics to learn to read properly. • The situation is worsened in the Toronto area where for many beginning students English is not their first language. Sister Joyce gave one.exatnp- ly where a grade oner arrived from China in Vancouver on a Friday and was in school in Brampton Monday morning. If a teacher has too many of these, the child simply gets lost. In this column a few weeks ago we assumed out loud that the John Goman from Waterloo par- ticipating in an international seniors tennis tournament in Toronto was the same fellow who was a public school inspector in this area more than 20 years ago. A letter arrived on our desk this week from John confirming that we assumed correctly and he did celebrate his 70th birthday a short time ago to qualify for the over 70 category in the tennis tourney. The letter along with his pre- sent address in Waterloo appears elsewhere'in this issue. Different guests There are two kinds of house guests: those you urge to stay longer and those who have to be told when it's time for them to move on. We've had both kinds this year. In fact, this has been quite a sum- mer for visitors. It's also been a hot summer. Maybe we should have decided to spend a couple of months away from home. In An- tarctica, for example. There are two other ways in which visitors can be classified: those who break,the monotony of everyday living, and those who break windows and doors; those who are Elizabeth's friends and relatives, and those who are mine. We've had every kind this year. if you detect a slight element of frustration in these remarks, you are most perceptive. 1 am frustrated, tired, exhausted, ready for a holiday. i like all our friends and relatives. They're O.K. to corres- pond with, for example. There • were just too many of them stay- ing at our house this summer, and for too long. Some were easier to take than others. Ac- tually, some of them were really PET'ER'S POINT • and truly a joy to have, to enter- tain in our home and to show around the country. With others we were glad when we finally saw the tail lights of their cars. My favourite visitors were those who adopted our house as a base from which to travel in- dependently in all directions. My least favourite were those who thought we were running a bed - and -breakfast place with lunch, supper, several snacks a day, and free drinks thrown into the bargain. Without time limit. Another thing that hugged me was that those people could never agree on when to get up in the morning or when to go to bed, whether to have coffee or tea, skim milk or 2 percent ("sorry we don't have homo" - "yes, we could buy some tomorrow"). Those same people didn't know how to or didn't wish to control their children. When their offspr- ing broke one of our windows with a baseball bat, when they broke the hinges of Alexander's bedroom door by using it as a Climbing and exercising ap- paratus, when one of their kids slapped one of ours in the face, these parents mildly admonished their children and looked at each other as if to say: "Aren't they adorable?" When this set of relatives i I'm ashamed to admit some of them were blood -related to me) final - Please turn to page 9