HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1992-03-11, Page 4TeemeAdualelle, nilerah 1,1; ON.
�0811111111iin *n ssesmt
'N♦MS' ar:40Mn'Haute
11UuIt1108.e tspotr. bon smith
CempoolWss M..o/K: Deb t-ord
1,1)1 tllil �i.�,
Take a bow
t takes a big council to admit
when it was wrong.
Stephen Township council
has done just that by agreeing to roll
back a pay increase they approved ear-
lier -in the year.
• -When all is said and done, the -drop-
ping of raises in council per diem and
stipends probably won't add up to all
that much on the township mill rate.
But the symbolic value of dropping to a
two -percent increase won't be lost on
the taxpayer in Stephen Township,
many of whom will face similar pay in-
creases, or even decreases this year.
We understand that the original in-
creases were largely due to a desire to
"round up" remuneration wages to the
next convenient figure. The assumption
was that round numbers would save time
in bookkeeping. In reality, however,
calculators and computers can handle
the tiniest -decimals as easily as any oth-
er number.
But make no mistake about it, Stephen
Township council has done the right
thing. Bowing to public pressure is nev-
er a• prideful act. Most councils would
likely attempt to justify the numbers
somehow and stonewall it through until
the 1994 election. To review and recon-
sider a bylaw with the benefit of hind-
sight deserves credit.
A.D.H.
Anti -porn law should target evil,
not examination of evil
The Supreme Court has ruled
unanimously that there really
is such a thing as pornography
and it does not have to be tolerated.
The court has even made some effort
to define pornography as depictions of
sex that are dehumanizing or coupled
with violence or involving children.
This decision no doubt comes, in part,
:as a result of the increased publicity
surrounding child abuse, wife beating
and sexual exploitation present in the
media in the last few years.
The big change seems to be in the
way pornography will be viewed.
It is no longer a matter of offending
people, but is now an issue of conse-
quence.
It is now a matter of law, rather than
opinion, that pornography of the type
previously described, causes harm to its
participants.
There has always been a spurious no-
tion .that there are those who willingly
participate in what are now being called
exploitive or dehumanizing acts.
In fact, when these individuals are in-
vestigated, coercion and extreme emo-
tional illness are almost always re-
vealed to be at the core of the decision
to participate.
It is not reasonable to assume that a
"normal" or well -adjusted or happy,
functional person would willingly sub-
mit to violent abuse at the hands of an-
other person.
This new law at last recognizes that
there are priorities in a free society and
that the protection of children and the
disposstrssed from those who would ex-
ploit them without regard for the conse-
quences is of primary importance.
The problem with this law is that it
will surely be applied, sooner or later,
against an artist somewhere who will
claim that is is merely censorship mas-
querading as social science.
We may even expect some individuals
to deliberately challenge the law by pro-
ducing offensive material aimed at pro-
voking the system.
So the application of this new law is
going to be of paramount importance.
Prosecutors will be have to remind
themselves that the object of this exer-
cise is to reduce the threat of sexually -
motivated violence against innocent
people; not to purify the symbolic world
of art.
In the end, society will not be, harmed
if the child pornographers are put out of
business, nor will women suffer if vio-
lent acts in the name of pleasure lose the
cloak of respectability they receive by
society's failure to disapprove of them.
The problems of censorship are more
complicated.
Perhaps the best solution will be for
police departments and crown prosecu-
tors to remember that this law is meant
to address a social evil, and not to inhib-
it the natural - and sometimes unpleasant
- examinations of human behavior and
sexuality that _ must _take place in a free
society.
From the St. Marys Journal Argus
I'dg!ve anything to be Irish
I've never told this to anyone. ' sight was the number one street- in Ireland? If you didn't, don't
But the time has come to be car.
frank. All my life I've wanted to "How very unlike Ireland this
be Irish. I've cursed my awes- whole place is!" I exclaimed
tors for being un -Irish. It was
most inconsiderate of them.
Now I'm ready to come out with
it.
I am a Hibemophile. You see,
I was really meant to be Irish.
Long before there were troubles
on the Emerald Isle, it had been Peter Hessel
determined that I would be con-
ceived, born and bought up in a MIEBBIBIEniiiiiiMai
lovely hamlet about fifteen when I became old enough to
miles south of Limerick, in speak, not realizing that I was
deepest, greenest Minister. They quoting Yeats. I was utterly sur -
had a Deltic name picked out for prised and
w and everytbiog. To this : daay� 1y at -
But due to very sevaie eoainic Voted to the .tsW4hr. Snort. The
interference there was. a miaiip, bast .hoof Is Abet .my wife,
And I was ooncieved and .mttbee- 'though of A9% Scottish atuces-
qt only bosn.-inan ngly:imdttlld- dry, btu great eyes .(the same
al city nowhere near ,lzelaal, colour as mine). You knew, of
-where -the .only green thing _.4n .o urse,,that-the.Scoss:origivatcd
Peter's
Point
•
take my word for it.'Look it up.
I love green, especially in
trees, on lawns, and on $20
bills. In fact, I love everything
about the Irish. That's why to
me St. Patrick's Day is such a
wonderful, stirring event. The
most important day of the year.
And I prepare for it. I hate to
miss a St. Patrick's Day parade.
Did you ever see the one in New
York? I used to drive down
there every March, just to stand
on the sidewalk of Sth Avenue
watching the marching band i
and dawn majorettes and
McGuiness floats and drum
majorettes and American Le -
glen veterans and drltm miger-
Imes passby. .
1 keep -brae large cartons of
St. -Patrick's Pay paraphernelja
in the basement. I .can do with -
Plewa mr-,ops
"Men are never so likely
to settle a question tightly
as when they discuss It
freely."
... Thomas Macauley
PatilNhed Snob A :: y at 424 Mb St.
WNW., Ostarlo, NOM =A0 by 1.W. Pabllrteses LN.
TNoplieee 141.2411
2111621S$$
I'M YOUR DOOR -
TO -000R BUDGET
SALESMAN
ALLOW ME TO
GIVE YOU A FREE
DEMONSTRATION
Taxed out of existence
There is a really dreadful trend
afoot in this province that I
heartily hope will not spread to
this area. With any luck it will
disappear altogether.
Perhaps you, too have noticed
gas stations here and there with
signs up proclaiming for sale
"CARTON SMOKES" followed
by some incredible price that
seems altogether too much to
pay for a box of dried leaves.
Since when did cigarettes be-
come "smokes"? That vulgar
term doesn't say much for the
people who buy them. Or per-
haps it says too much.
It could be. worse, I guess, re-
calling what the slang term for a
cigarette is in England.
But I won't, simply won't be
buying gasoline from a station
that sells "smokes". Ontarians
have to retain some semblance
of dignity.
But what of the ungodly prices
people are paying for tobacco
these days? I know I've never
supported the unhealthy habit,
and I've always encouraged
friends and family members in
their efforts to quit, but I really
do hate to see all those addicts
being ripped` off with so much
tax.
If the govenunent isn't going
to come out and declare tobacco
Hold that
thought ...
By
Adrian Harte
an illegal drug, then why a level
of taxation that almost amounts
to harassment of an industry?
The argument, of course, is
that the governments have to re-
coup some of the increased
health costs that smokers will
burden the system with as they
fall prey to tobacco's curse.
I don't think I'd be quite ready
to declare tobacco illegal. Just
my luck they'd do away with
coffee at the same time. Where
would I, and all other news peo-
Lcttcr'. to Editor
ple in the nation, be then?
But still, aren't there limits to
taxation? Witness the current
problem: Canadians, upset with
high cigarette prices, are smug-
gling them across the border, so
the government slaps an $8 a
carton tax on them to help equal-
ize the price. So the tobacco in-
dustry predicts reduced demand
for Canadian cigarettes all
round, and cancels orders from
Ontario's tobacco farmers. The
poor guys get hit again. I'm sum
they realize opium farmers in
Thailand get less harassment.
Not that I entirely sympathize
with the farmers either. They
should have seen right from the
1970s that the writing was on
the wall,. cigarettes will eventu-
ally go the way of snuff. All
should have rethought their
farming operations as if tobacco
had never existed.
But then we may have a little
room for sympathy for them.
Their way of life, as the rest of
we Ontarians, is under attack.
They will know first what it is
like to be taxed out of existence.
Fundraising campaigns
Dear Editor:
Last week I was asked to buy a
chocolate Easter Bunny to support
a fund raising campaign. The or-
ganization is one that I would like
to support, but felt that I couldn't
this time. Chocolate Easter Bun-
nies are sold by several of our lo-
cal merchants. To buy dirmigh this
fund raising campaign would have
a detrimental effect on these same
merchants. ing to help an organization in their
I realize that fund raising is a dif- fund raising efforts. In a lot of cas-
ficult job, but es the results have promoted both
there are still a the business and the organization. .
lot of good ideas If you arc on a fund raising cotn-
out there that mince, please stop and think what
will not hurt our ` effect your campaign will. have on
local businesses. Inour local businesses and
my expeneaCe, 1 inanity.
have found that Katherine
Ens
most merchants are more than will -
PCB torage in Exeter
Dear Esditor:
PCBs Stows in Fuer
I cannot understand lawn nouns
cil not admitting the factor in
having PCBs stored inratrr.
Some ,questiwos ,fpr ooiwcit to
Imo. If PCBs vers API
why can PCBs
side the provM e
2. Why do same
prohibit the 'hippis9sge i!
a
within their jurisdiction? confident the Exeter Fire Depart -
3. If PCBs are safe, why do most meat wiU respond quickly. In rot-
m ties as did rospec . it was certainly a good de- i
ihe Exeter PUC cisionbn council's part. to purchaee
spend thoussinds property frau Nabisco Brands for
of dollars to the site of Exeter's Fre Station.
have their Oven- Y Rv4 C1yrully,
tory of PCBs de-
suoyed?
No .maIW .what and SpeCiaky & r
Slalay,
ld (pare boa ,PCB fire, we we