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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1987-11-11, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, November 1 1 , 1987 Times Established 1871 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 Imes dvocate Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM ISO Second Class Mail Registration. Number 0386. BILL BATTEN Editor DON SMITH Business Manager Phone 519-235-1331 mats eNA JIM BECKETT ROSS HAUGH Publisher & Adsertising Manager Assistant Editor HARRY DEVRIES DICK JONGKIND Composition Manager Vice•President SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $25.00 Per year; U.S.A. $65.00 ',Y Let us remember LEST WE FORGET Those words are common at many gatherings throughout this country of ours each Remembrance Day, but not very often during the other 364 days' of the year. As they do each year, members of the R.E. Pooley branch of the Royal Canadian Legion will be gathering at the Legion Hall tonight, Wednesday for the annual Remembrance Day banquet. Earlier in the day they will be visiting four elementary schools in the area to bring attention to this special day which should not be forgotten. On this day, all Canadians should stand in silent tribute to the men and women who gave their lives for our sake. Three times in this century Cana- dians have gone to fight on distant con- tinents. These men and women did not go in search of territorial conquest. Instead they risked their futures so that those at home could enjoy peace and freedom. Remembrance Day is our chance to count our blessings that Canada has such repesentatives, especially the 110,000 who did not return from the two World Wars and Korea. So on this Remembrance Day 1987, let's all of us take time from our normal schedules for at least one minute of silence and recall the many sacrifices which were made on our behalf. Such observance is not a duty, but a very special privilege. AT THE GOING DOWN - OF THE STJN . AND IN THE MORNING WE WILL REMEMBER THEM. Where were the parents? Parents are role models - for good or ill - for their children. Curbing drug and alcohol abuse among teenagers in our community must be a family and community effort. The students at SHDHS have shown they are aware of the problem, and will- ing to do something to counter the dead- ly mix of alcohol and driving that is the major killer of our young people. More than 30 students on the intra- mural committee headed by grade 13 students Leigh Soldan and Marilyn Hamilton worked very hard to organize and present an excellent two-week pro- gram at SHDHS to heighten awareness of this menace and to offer solutions. The agenda included a mother whose son had been killed in an alcohol-related car accident, a Hamilton surgeon who 'became sickened by the waste of young lives through road trauma, a speaker from the Addiction Research Founda- tion, a re-enactment of an actual trial of a student caught with LSD, dramas por- traying an alternative lifestyle, and the staging of a serious car accident in front of the school. Student participation during school hours was excellent. The general public was invited to drop in to the school any time during the two weeks. Parents of the 1,100 students at- tending SHDHS were specifically invited to two evenings where the programs had been designed specifically for them. Four showed up at one, and fewer than two dozen at the other. One solution ,offered at one of the ses- sions was a Contract for Life, to be sign- ed by both teen and parents. The teen promises to call the parents at any time from any place if he or she or a driver companion is too impaired to drive. The parents promise to come and get their child at any time, or arrange alternate transportation to get their offspring home safely, and save the argument un- til later. However, this takes the cooperation of both parent and teen. Where were the parents? What kept them away? Indifference? Apathy? Do they think this is not their problem? Better an educational evening in a school auditorium than a visit to an in- tensive care unit. Or a funeral home. Strokes for all Most of us tend to think that people who have a 'stroke' are usually old. Not so. A person can be af- flicted with a stroke at any time' of life and it can be just as devastating at any age. 1 per- sonally know of a teenager who almost died as the result of a stroke. Another lady who has done some supply teaching for me suffered one within the last year. She has come back almost completely from its effects through excellent therapy and a determination to regain all of her faculties. One of the most ' frustrating things which she en- countered was the way a stroke wipes out large portions of your memory or of your thinking skills not to mention loss of speech or of the use of a limb. r As a teacher she became angry with herself when she could not even spell the words 'cat' or 'of'. Even worse was the time she By the Way by Fletcher tried to go through the alphabet and found out she could not remember the letter which started her own name. These things have come back though and she is able to resume teaching and to do it well. ages Even yet though small strange things can happen. Yesterday she ing to her "You know, the number between eight and ten," to get her point across. Apparently the cells in the brain which had a certain job to do may be damaged so the cells next to the damaged one have to take over. However they have to relearn the job of the old one and that may take quite a few repeti- tions to accomplish the job properly. Perhaps though, if one remembers the job you had in learning the times table, you won't get quite so frustrated at learning things over. One en- couraging thing though is that this relearning process seems to go very quickly compared to the original effort taken as 'a child. Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by l.W. Eedy Publications limited `I UNDERSTAND YOU LOST A FEW HUNDRED ON THE STOCK MARKET, JONE5?" Let's clean desks 'Phis week a series of Time Tips .arrived on our desk and a number are interesting and ce- tainly can be related to this writer's work habits and we sup- pose those of many others. 11 starts out to say recent studies indicate the average per- son has 36 hours of work on his or her desk at any given time. That doesn't include time for meetings. appointments. inter ruptions and unplanned phone calls. The most revealing fact is most of us spend an average of three hours a week just trying to find things on drat desk. That stack of files and unfinish- ed work is a constant reminder of what you caimot accomplish. It creates undue stress and pressures and prompts one to tackle projects randomly rather than in- order of priority and makes you feel the job is never done. The advice is start your day from a clear desk. You will ac- complish much more with greater satisfaction. The part about a clear desk is easier said than done in the newspaper business. With the reams of mail which arrive each morning a clear desk is almost an impossibility. More, than half of what we get could be considered junk mail and many of the missiles are repeats, especially from governmental agencies. The first word of advice is pro- bably the most important to by Ross Haugh remember. Wake up to a pur- pose. not to an alarm. Our sports editor says he can relate to that suggestion as has yet to be awakened by a purpose. Tuesday morning he does get up early worrying about what he didn't get completed the night before. Most of us fall into that category. too. There doesn't seem to be enough time after covering meetings Monday nights to hit the Tuesday deadlines in a sane fashion. The Council on the Status of Women has issued results of a study this week concerning women in agriculture. . Farm women in -Canada are becoming increasingly visible in all aspects of society. They now constitute 2.1 percent of the agricultural labour force, up from less than two percent in 1921. No other occupational group in Canada has changed as much as women in agriculture and they play a major role in this vital component of the Canadian economy according to CACSW president Sylvia Gold. The Advisory Council is recom- mending to the federal govern- ment that the Unetnployment In- surance Act be amended to allow women who work for pay with their spouse on family farms or family businesses to contribute to the plan and to receive the benefits it provides, such as maternity leave and access to oc- cupational training programs. Throughout the 225 page report, the four authors stress the need for the well being of families of farm women and the need for adequate health services for han- dicapped children and the elder- ly and decentralized medical care with transportation both within rural communities and to urban centres. Must visit tower I lived in Toronto once for two years. If you ever go there, you must take in the view from the CN Tower, visit Chinatown and take the ferry to the Toronto Islands. Great stuff, Toronto. Great food, too. But for heaven's sake, don't drink the water. It'll stain your insides blue. The same goes for city water everywhere. It tastes like a public swimming pool, and it'll shorten your life ex- pectancy by at least 10 percent (statistical information in Peter's Point, as in most government publications, is seasonally ad- justed for emphasis ). Living in the country, we are fortunate to have a dug well, twenty meters deep. It supplies us with pure, fresh water straight from the rocks of the Canadian Shield. Better water isn't found anywhere on this globe. It comes to us via a simple electrical pump that feeds it directly into our system which we had upgraded by means of plastic, corrosion - free pipes. Our water has a temperature of about 6 degrees C all year round, even on the hottest summer day. It tastes delicious -- of healthy, wholesome minerals and nothing else. In fact, we could probably bottle it and sell it to the pale folks in the city whose innards are slowly turning into chlorine and who knows what else. I'm not bragging about our water. I'm just singing its praises because I realize how lucky we are. Water is one of the very few commodities that are still free -- along with air and sunlight-. O.K. -- it costs a little bit of electricity to pump it up to where we want it, but that's a tiny fraction of our hydro bill. We don't have to pay a water tax. In many parts of this planet, water is in extremely short supp- ly and an expensive item indeed. There is nothing more pitiful than a dry well or a dry watercourse. A few years ago I travelled all over the south of Spain, and I on - PETER'S POINT • ly saw two rivers with water in them. Ad the others were com- pletely empty and bone-dry. In other areas the water is so badly polluted that it has to be boiled before it can be used for drinking, and even then it has a foul taste. We are incredibly spoiled when it comes to water. We waste far more than we use, of course. At least, in the country we return the clarified water to our own en- vironment. But do you ever think how fortunate you are when you fill a glass with ice-cold water. take a small sip, and pour the rest down the sink? When you wash dishes in :kinking water? When you take a bath or a shower in drinking water? Most of the peo- ple on this earth would regard this as incredible, sacrilegious waste. Yes, there is something sacred about fresh, clean water, just as there is something sacred about bread. To me, at any rate. That's the way I was brought up. And I'm having a hard time get- ting this point across to my children who know nothing hut super -abundance as far as water and bread is concerned -- and with a lot of other things as well. But far Worse tha'h wasting water by over -using it is the wholesale poisoning that takes place every day of the year. In- dustrial chimneys and car ex- hausts are belching out toxic fumes all over this continent. Our lakes and streams as well as our ground water supply must absorb unprecedented amounts of harm- ful substances. 10 addition, pest is ides and herbicides, fungicides and other chemical agents are applied in agriculture, horticulture and forestry. Power companies and municipal work crews kill un- wanted vegetation with toxic substances. Accidental spills and deliberate "unloading" of toxic materials add to the problem. Garbage -dumps (sorry: sanita- tional land -fill sites) are becom- ing a bigger and bigger hazard. Clean water? 1 don't know how long it'll last. Will our children and grandchildren -- and yours -- when they grow up still be able to enjoy the water in our wells? I hope so, but I'm not at all sure. Let's hope they won't have tobuy purified 1120 in bottles to keep alive. And I wish I knew what I eould do right now to safeguard this precious life-giving liquid from being poisoned. I get all choked up when 1 think about it, and I need a drink. Not a Scotch or a beer. A glass of priceless. refreshing, wonderful Canadian water. Before they take it away from me.