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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1983-10-12, Page 4Paye 4 Times-AdvaTte, October 12, 1983 Ames Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 dvocate Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications limited LORNE EE[)Y Publisher JIM BE( -KE ET Advertising Manager Bill BATEEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composc'on Manager ROSS HIAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JON(;KIND Business Manager Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 235-1331 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $21.00 Per year; U.S.A. $56.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and 'ABC' Goes little too far Wellington St. resident J.M. Gibson shows con- siderable perseverance in his efforts to have Exeter council consider traffic lights at the busy intersection at Main and Wellington. He's written three letters on the subject, and despite council's lack of support for his suggestions, he should be encouraged to continue the fight if he sees the situation as being dangerous and in need of some remedial action. There comes a point at which any person probably has to admit defeat, but that point should certainly be determined by himself and no one else. It's a freedom inherent under a democracy. However, he goes too far in suggesting council dismissed his request out -of -hand and in adding that they will have to search their collective conscience when the corner gets its first serious accident. Council members held a discussion on the matter of lights at the intersection, and through the years, have taken steps to make it as safe as possible. It is unfair and bordering on a threat, therefore, to suggest that any serious accident at the intersection should weigh upon council members' conscience. Traffic lights do not prevent accidents; only drivers and pedestrians can do that. Lights are install- ed to control and direct traffic flow, and many intersec- tions which have traffic lights have as many accidents as those which do not. Mr. Gibson should keep up the fight if that is his wish, but he should be cautioned against any more low blows. Killer behind wheel • A menace to our community. That's what the latest Ontario report on drinking and driving calls the per- son who gets behind the wheel of a car after consum- ing alcohol. Every day in Ontario, two people are killed and 81 cars are involved in accidents where alcohol is involved. In 1981 there were almost 30,000 accidents involv- ing drinking drivers. We've been worried about this problem for the last 50 years but nothing has been done about it. The Task Force on Drinking and Driving has defin- ed the problem: We live in a society dependent upon the automobile, which accepts and promotes the use of alcohol as a recreational custom. Do we stop to consider what an impaired driver can do as he hurls a ton or more of mobile steel at a speed of about 100 feet per second along the highway? Driving after a few drinks is unfortunately regard- ed as acceptable behavior in our society and until this attitude change: the carnage will continue. The depressing thing about the report is that its basic finding is that nothing, so far, has worked to reduce or solve the problem. The task force discovered the public doesn't really regard impaired driving as a serious and socially unacceptable offence. If we are really serious about this problem of alcohol on the roads then we have to change the public attitude so that tougher laws and tighter controls will be readily accepted. One of the quickest ways to change public attitude is to increase the likelihood of being caught, and mak- ing it very unpleasant for offenders. Spot checks should be made every day - not just at Christmas and New Year. Blood samples should be compulsory. The drinking driver should forfeit his right to refuse a scientific test of \he alcohol in his system. And when the drinking driver is caught then throw the book at him/her. Impose the maximum sentence possible. Remove the d:iver'glicence for a period of years - not days. The sooner we realize that wt might end up behind bars as a result of drinking ant driving - when we realize that we will not be allowed behind the wheel of a car for a long time - we're li\ely to think twice about having that drink before we sit behind that wheel. Hur Church News The balancing act most diffic6ft Despite the furor raised over his remarks, U.S. interior secretary James Watt possibly struck closer to the truth than most would care to admit when he indicated recently he had reached the pro- per balance in choosing a special advisory committee. He suggested he had achieved every kind of' mixture in the committee's membership by having "one black, one woman, two Jews and a cripple". The reaction to that comment was quick and expected. He was characteriz- ed as being filled with bigotry and hate and there were immediate calls for his resignation. Clearly, it was a comment that war- ranted denunciation, even if spoken in jest. However, the point is that Watt was pro- bably echoing the frustration that is ex- perienced by those in positions of power who have to make appointments or deci- sions that must show some recognition of the current struggle for equality between the sexes, the colors and even the physical capabilities of people. Unfortunately, the battle for equality and the human rights issue has created a Catch 22 situation that has added as much bigotry and hate as it has sought to eliminate. Obviously, people should not be denied in any facet of life due to color,sex,creed or physical ability. But, no one should ex- pect to benefit either from attempts to "balance" any situation to avoid claims of discrimination or racism. It is really a sad commentary that our society has been fragmented into pressure groups whose intent is to protect the rights of its membership, or in many cases, to win rights which they feel are presently being denied. There's no doubt some of them have legitimate concerns, while in other in- BATT'N AROUND with the editor stances, it would appear that their intent is not to gain equal rights, but favored rights. In the latter instance, they do not eliminate discrimination, but rather foster it. While many legitimate battles are he- ing fought to reduce discrimination, it would appear that the work of many groups is offset by others which are be- ing formed to counteract them. Some of these, such as the Ku Klux Klan, have been rearing their ugly heads for decades, while others are springing up in alarming proportion to keep the kettle boiling. This week, a letter came from the Cana- dian Association for Free Enterprise inc. (CAFE) and one of its struggles is to eliminate the various Human Rights Commissions which have been established. The letter suggested that the Ontario Human Rights Commission "exists only to further the interests of minorities and should be abolished". "The nature of human ri is illogic is so pervasive that screaming cism' has become a common retal tion for minorities defeated in fair co tition," a vice-president of the orglnization stated, making reference to thetharges laid by a Chatham high school beauty con- testant that she should have wkt but didn't because she's black. The loser's "whining about cial discrimination is likely to heighten r ial tension in her high school and e Chatham community in the same that human rights commissions ha escalated racial problems througho Canada throughout their narrow-minde over -reactions to all conflicts involvin' whites and visible minorities," the letter cla ims. y The writer has to admit to being a pessimist when it comes to suggestions that some day society will, be devoid of discrimination. That's primarily because most at- tempts at eliminating it are through an adversary condition that suggests that for every winner there is a loser. There are many reasons for our pre- judices, the prime one being through in- heritance of the ideals and ideas of our circumstances. Any of the reasons could be overcome, except through our selfishness, insecuri- ty, and jealousy. Those human frailities are at the root of most of the strife in our lives. ironically, they are the ingredients which make people strive for greater things, while at the same time deny them the chance of reaching the ultimate goal. Slim chance of arriving Wnat would you like to find, most, when you go to heaven? Let's assume, for one wild, exhilarated mo- ment, that we're all going to get there. Some people would plump for a meeting with the loved ones. This I can never understand. It's like a fellow who has served 'a life sentence waiting to be greeted by the warden when he hits the pearly gates. Others, sad souls, would be overjoyed if they could "just be happy." Not me. Being happy all the time would be a real drag. I thoroughly enjoy being miserable on this orb, so that when something good happens, my pleasure is intensified. Quite a few, who suffer from physical ailments, would he satisfied with peace and comfort. The in- somniac imagines days and nights of solid slumber. The arthritic dreams of being able to scratch his opposite ear without feeling as though his arm was being severed at the shoulder by a red- hot iron. Flat -chested girls would settle for a mammoth bosom. They forget that the other permanently. Alcoholics would not on- ly be in heaven, but the seventh of the same name, place, Sugar and Spice none of the rest of us would be interested. Some chaps I know would be perfectly happy to leave anytime if they could count on a golf course with emerald fair- ways and velvet greens, 18 holes a day in which they sliced not, nor did the hook, and a good game of poker at the 19th with the hat' handy. Many sober citizens I know would be happy in heaven for ever after- wards, if they could be .guaranteed (and get it in writing) that their wives or husbands) would he in if their crock ranneth over, perpetually, and somebody else was look- ing after things. A few millionaires, once they had admitted they couldn't take it with them, would be serene in a place where there were no taxes, no labor movements, no wages to pay, and nobody asking them to donate to something every 12 minutes. My personal fantasy is a simple one. I'd like a shot if someone would promise me, unconditionally, a dark, swirling trout stream, impregnable to invasion by women, telephones and other nuisances. I can see it now. Swift, deep, crooked, ending in a vast silent, mysterious beaver pond, loaded with lunkers. I can hear it: the exciting mutter of a small dam just around the bend; the splosh of a startled frog; the sudden, heart - stopping take -off of a disturbed partridge, the whack of a beaver tail. However, since my chances of getting to heaven are just about as slim as my chances of a personal trout stream if I did get there, I guess I'll settle, on Opening Day, for my old haunt, the Secret Place Where The Big Ones Are. Not a soul knows about it except me. And the 900 noisy characters who have heard about it since last year. Heaven, thou are dis- tant, yet, I would work like heck to get There, if you could condone A stream for me - and me alone. Not so badly off It amazes me that we as ('anadians find ourselves complaining so bitterly of our lot in life. Taxes are too high, inflation is eating p our salaries, the roads re badly kept up. The list es on and on. The wspapers are full of the e problems of Cana - 's who seem to have perspective about a serious state the the world is in. hat I'm much bet- li di los wh: rest No terhave to have sometkg to fill these col- umns tt so i pick on the politician or whoever is rrritatin r pleasing me the most, i guess it's human nalre to feel that we are alwys hard done by. Let's takt a look at some of the stories in the MacLean's magazine for last week and try to put with homemade bombs and rocks being hurled, and fire being set to police Perspectives By Syd Fletcher some of them into a set- ting more familiar to our local scene. in thePhilippinespeople battled police in fierce government rioting. I don't recall Bill Davis ever having to call out the OPP to quell riots in the streets of Toronto yet, buses, fire hoses being brought out, shots being fired leaving (and I quote) "the roadway outside the palace strewn with bodies". in the Chouf area (Lebanon) over 25,000 pe- ple, (translate that into the total population of Ex- eter, Forest, Watford, and all the people in the sur- rouno.ag communities), have been left homeless and are refugees. There were 16 cases of typhoid in that refugee camp last week. These people (Christians by the way) relate all sorts of atrocities. Druze soldiers entered the home of an elderly couple and shot them and their grandson. Another man showed jour- nalists a huge steel fork which had been used to gouge out the eyes of prisoners. Couldn't happen here? Perhaps not, but as long as it isn't happening we should be thankful for the peace that we have been enjoying for so many years.