Times Advocate, 1991-11-27, Page 4Page 4
Times -Advocate, November 27, 1991
Publisher: Jim Beckett
News Editor: Adrian Harte
Business Manager: Don Smith
Composition Manager: Deb Lord
Publications Mail Registration Number 0386
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"Men are never so likely
to settle a question rightly
as when they discuss it
freely."
... Thomas Macauley
Published Each Wednesday Morning at 424 Main St.,
Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S8 by J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd.
Telephone 1-519-235-1331
ei.S.T. 18105210835
I,:1)1'1O1Z1.1LS
A shared shame
There are those who still be-
lieve this planet's oceans,
lakes and forests are large
enough to withstand any abuse man-
kind can hurl at them.
This view is fading fast, although not
quite as fast as the rainforests are being
stripped from South America.
However, the discovery last week that
some individual or individuals saw fit
to dispose of unwanted animal carcass
pieces by dumping them into a small
creek, is almost beyond belief.
The fact that someone has no respect
for the environment in general, or even
for the rights of a local property owner
is a sobering thought.
Obviously, we have a long way to go
before we can ever call our society "en-
vironmentally friendly".
A.D.H.
Euthanasia
ory MP Robert Wenman has
proposed a private member's
bill that would allow terminal-
ly ill patients to refuse medical treat-
ment, and at the same time protect doc-
tors from prosecution who help them
die.
This practice is commonly called eu-
thanasia, or sometimes mercy -killing.
We already do it to horses who break
legs in races, dogs who can't control
their bladders and deer who are in dan-
ger of freezing or starving to death.
And there have been reports over the
years of comatose patients being "un-
plugged" and lately, of at least one doc-
tor in the United States inventing a pa-
tient -operated lethal injection device.
This debate is going to rang 1i -
fight between good and evil itself.
But here are some facts reported by
the Netherlands government which has
allowed euthanasia to be practised for
about the last 10 years.
About 14,175 patients who died be-
cause of life support withdrawal did not
consent to the process.
Of those, 12 percent were mentally
competent, but were still not consulted.
Strictly speaking, it could be viewed
that these individuals were murdered.
There is no question that the comfort
of the patient is paramount in this issue,
but in such a world as this, how does
one safeguard the individual against co-
ercion?
It is clear that no country that has pub-
licly supported euthanasia has been able
to keep it a clean process.
State -sanctioned killing is sometimes
necessary; but blanket approval cannot
be controlled with the institutions and
imperatives at work in this society.
This bill must be defeated until it can
be shown that only those who truly wish
to die will surrender the protection of
the state.
This is not a perfect solution and it will
doubtless leave as many people discon-
tented as relieved.
And in, objebting to this bill there may
be some uneay and distasteful political
unions; but defeated it must be.
For to surrender the right to protection
from the state is to surrender the state.
It becomes, rather than a progressive
humanistic act, regression to rule of ca-
pricious politics, economics and philoso-
phy.
Stand firm in defense of responsible
government; don't allow the power of
life and death to become a matter of
fashion.
St. Marys Journal Argus
Alex and the Sax
If you live at least three kilome-
ters away from us, you're probably
alright, although you may have no-
ticed a sudden increase in the dog,
cat and squirrel population in your
neighbourhood.
If you're among our immediate
neighbours, you will know that your
own dogs, cats, squirrels and other
acoustically sensitive mammals
have already disappeared or are bus-
ily preparing their outward migra-
tion - away from us.
Of course, if you live right next
door to us or across the . street,
you're not speaking to me any more
and the federal government is now
processing your applications to
have us deported.
It's all because of Alex and his
Sax. Yes, these two x-wotds are
causing us a lot of grief these days.
Alex, you see, has just joined the
McNab Public School Band as an
alto sax player.
I shMtsay,`tie Wipes
to become
a saxophone player somallay,_.Ws
all hope he will, for-the—Sale of eve-
rybody's sanity.
Right now, he is only a saxo-
phone trainee, and that's why the
four legged creatures are fleeing in
terror from our village and its sur-
roundings. Like us, they cannot
stand the noise. Like us, they have
had enough and have been driven to
the brink of a nervous breakdown.
Unlike us, they don't have to put up
with it. We put up with it because
we don't want to deprive Alexander
of yet another opportunity to devel-
op his abilities.
I'm not saying that Alexander has
any musical ability. He's a wonder-
ful kid, and he has many talents.
But music is not one of them. So
why is he playing in the band?
Good qucstibn. The answer is that
most kids who play in the band
have no musical talent. They play in
the band, because Mount Everest, I
mean the band, is there. And be-
cause all their friends play in the
band. And Alex specifically plays
in the band because there was
other way- of getting to -take Ninei
this beautiful, shiny, prestigious n-
strument.
This tool of torture. This destroy-
er of eardrums. This wrecker of
nerves This loud producer of sounds
m lower?" I interrupted, but Alex paid
no attention to me.
"You put your top teeth on the
mouthpiece and take a deep breath
as fast as possible. You keep your
forgers round like this, put your left
thumb on the thumb -rest, press your
left index finger in the B -key and
Peter's
Point
•
Peter Hessel
so piercing that the other evening,
while Alex was practicing in his
room, a cow moose was prancing
up and down the front lawn.
It is because of that resplendent
piece of brass that our neighbours
are putting their homes up for sale.
of Alexander's saxophone,
roan and Stephanie want to live
with their aunts and uncles and cou-
sins. Because of Alexander's enthu-
siasm, our marriage may end in di-
vorce. One day I support him in his
gallant efforts, another day I tell
him to put that stupid thing away
once and for all. One day Elizabeth
tells him how pleased she is with
his progress, and another day she
tells me the noise is making her hair
stand on end.
So far, Alex has learned to play
five notes. They are both flat and
sharp at the same time, if you know
what I mean.
Its seems that to play the saxo-
phone, you need a certain amount of
hand and finger, lip and mouth, co-
ordination. To produce a sound,
Alex told us, you have to wet a thin
little wedge called a reed and set it
even with the end of the mouth-
piece.
"'Then; he said, "you put your
lower lip over your teeth."
"Which teeth, the upper or the
la "
PAlex claimed that the note which
came out was a B, but you could
have fooled me. Next, he pressed
down the first two fingers of his left
hand to produce what he called an
A. It sounded just like the B.
though. Loud. Then he pressed the
third finger of his left hand to make
a G sound. Loud again. Just as loud
was the C, which he managed by
pressing down the second forger of
the left hand.
"Now I'll make the most difficult
sound - the D," Alex explained. "ill
have to press down the left -ha _
thumb key andklf s is Engem at -
the same time."
1 think you only have five fingers
on each hand," I said.
"That's why I have to take three
from the left and throe from the
right hand," Alex said. And he
played a resounding D.
I have to admire the boy. I can't
even get one toot out of it, and he
can make five fairly different nois-
es.
I can't wait till Alex learns to play
a tune. He showed me the music in
his brand-new instruction book.
Maybe by Christmas hell play "Ode
to Joy" or even a simplified version
of "When the saints Go Marching
In'. But first well have to suffer
through exercises called "Ton-
guing", "Half Note Shuffle", "Lip
Builder", "Speed Builder," and
"Slurring".
Who knows? Eventually the cow
moose may go back to the bush, and
the dogs and cats may decide to re-
turn. And our neighbours may
speak to us again.
Too far to dream
There sits, in the Palais de la
Decouverte in Paris, sealed un-
der a sheet of glass or plastic, a
piece of the moon.
There must be many other
moon rocks on display in other
parts of the world, but this was
the only one I have ever seen. I
I stood staring at this lump of
rock on a June day in 1986, try-
ing to come to terms with what I
was seeing. A souvenir to end
all Souvenirs, . something from
outside'our planet that we had to
g� out and bring back. It looked
like just a piece of stone. •
This rock was bought at great
expense. Billions of dollars to
send men to the moon, and yet
this rock has no more purpose
than to sit in a quiet gallery of a
Paris science museum.
Because this was 1986, I was
also thinking about how the im-
mense pride in the American
space program had been crushed
only months before with the
Challenger shuttle explosion.
The moon was obviously not
that exciting after all. It has
been nearly 20 years and no one
has bothered to go back since.
Hold that
thought...
By
Adrian Harte
-
entirely self-sufficient environ-
ment called Biosphere II, I
doubt any of us will live to see a
colony on the moon or Mars.
I confess to enjoying Star Trek
and other science fiction fanta-
sies, but only as a form of enter-
tainment. I do not see a future
for mankind out in space. It is
too big, too inhospitable, and
likely offers nothing of any val-
ue. We probably will never
"come out to play". This planet
7 i home, our only home and we
had better get used to it.
NASA keeps suggesting a
manned mission to Mars might
be worthwhile in the next centu-
ry. Why? So we can place red
rocks beside the grey ones in the
museums and pat ourselves on
the back about how clever we
are, while outside our trees grow
grey and our skies go red.
The Soviets never did try.
The biggest benefit of the
Apollo missions was not the
moon at all, but all the micropro-
cessor technology spinoffs we
have been enjoying ever since.
Unfortunately, the military en-
joyed similar technical benefits.
And while even today in the
United States there is a group of '
scientists attempting to live in an
Letter to Editor
Cross-border shopping
Dear Editor.
In recent months, I've heard a lot
of people making plans for shop-
ping excursions to The States to
get some bargains". I'd like to
open some eyes.
I lived in Detroit until May of
1990. When I first moved to the
Exeter area, I admit that the prices
were a bit of a shock. however, in
the last year and a half I have
watched the prices come down
everywhere. From experience, the
prices on all but a few items are
priced very competitively in Cana-
da.
Case in point In October, when
I was home visiting my parents in
Detroit, I bought Hallowe'en can-
dy thinking it would surely save
me money, as long as I was already
in the Sates. When I returned to Ex-
eter, Big V had the same candy on
sale for 40 cents less per bag!
Where's the bargain? I no longer
shop for anything in the States, un-
less I just can't
find it here.
To those of
you who aren't111)
convinced, may I
ask how much gas
money you spend
getting to the
States? How much, duty did you
pay? (Or did you sneak it through -
that won't work much longer). Add
at least 10 percent to your purchas-
es for exchange, and the prices are
starting to get closer, aren't they?
Letter to Editor
Oh yes, the taxes are obscene
here. But so are the benefits Cana-
dian people enjoy. If you added up
all the taxes you pay in a year, they
still wouldn't equal the amount the
average American pays for health
care. And by the way, I pay less in-
come tax here than I did in Michi-
gan.
One more *point: Will it still be
cheaper to shop in the States, (or
London for that matter) if you lose
your job here? Because that is the
inevitable result if people don't
start supporting local business.
Use your heads, Canadi-
ans...shop locally!
Patty Hippem
Exeter merchantsgenerous
o Ih dIior: and the top spo
On November 3, Exeter Minor-- eeive a special
nsor-getters will re- All children that participated re -
prize. ___� ceived something and if you could
Hockey held its annual skateathon. This year it was my pleasure -
Because of rising costs of ice ren- and I mean pleasure - to approach
tal and equipment, and in order to the merchants of Exeter. Given the
keep the cost of registration down, economic situa-
E.M.H.A. must hold , fundraising tion and the hard
events such as the skateathon, times experi-
tournaments, bake sales and base- enced by all, I
fully expected to
have a difficult
time. But the mer-
chants of Exeter
came through with shining colours
once again!
ball tournaments.
In order to provide incentive to
the children involved, we ap-
proach die merchants of Exeter to
donate a prize so that each child
that participates will receive one
see their expressions when their
name is called, you would know
what a difference your contribution
made.
Thank you from all of us at
E.M.H.A. and we hope that our
mention of your generosity will
bring many shoppers to your doors
in the coming months.
Sincerely,
Wendi Schwindt
Secretary
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