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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1984-02-29, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, February 29, 1984 imes - 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 EERY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN ROSS HAUGH Editor Assistant Editor HARRY DEyRIES Composition Manager DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $22.00 Per year; U.S.A. $60.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and 'ABC' Pride becomes reality The idea of Exeter council having an official card, to honor citizens, is a credible one. The provincial and federal governments have, for many years, sent cer- tificates to those celebrating notable birthdays and an- niversaries, and it's bound to add pleasure to the oc- casion by receiving a further acknowledgment from one's home town. It will only be successful, though, it residents remember to inform council of up -coming events. It's interesting to note that the front of the card -shows a very fine sketch of the old town hall, Exeter's most prestigious building. One cannot think of another local ediface that would be as suitable. *CNA Yet, less than 10 years ago, Exeter citizens were em- broiled in a pitched battle about whether to tear down the badly deteriorating hall, or restore it. Can anyone imagine the town's new congratulatory card having a picture of a parking lot on it, which was the alternative to allowing the almost 100 year old hall to remain standing? In October 1977, a reporter of this newspaper wrote an article predicting the day would come when all citizens would point, with unabashed pride, at the restored, historic town hall. That now seems to be reality._ For what purpose? A news report last week recounted the decision of the Allied powers to spend $50,000 to provide an elevator for the convenience of Rudolf Hess in Ger- many's Spandau prison. Hess, at 90 years of age, has become so feeble that he is no longer able to climb the iron stairway from his cell to the room where he is per- mitted to visit with members of his family for one hour a month. Incidentally, he is the only prisoner in the huge building. For a whole generation of people who have scarce- ly ever heard of Rudolf Hess, the explanation sounds little less than insane. He was Adolf Hilter's No. 2 man when World War II broke out. In the mistaken belief that he could talk the British into an alliance with Ger- many Hess flew to Scotland and landed on the estate of a man whom he had met in previous years. Instead of gaining a hearing with the British government he was promptly imprisoned. He was obviously misin- formed about British attitudes but of all the Hitler crowd he did less harm to the Allied cause than the lowliest corporal in the German forces. Yet 43 years later he is still behind bars. For what conceivable purpose? Wingham Advar>!ce Times The computer age We listened to an interesting conversation the other evening, which centered around the contention that the computer society of the future will totally change all our lives,whetherwe like it or not. One man said that a few years hence much of the world's business will be carried on from offices in private homes. The businessman of the future will conduct all his affairs by means of two-way computer without ever having to take his car out of the driveway. The second man did not agree. He contended that men and women are social creatures; although the technology may exist to make trips to the downtown office unnecessary, human beings will not be content to hole up in their private burrows. Most of us, he said, do not want to be isolated; we need the presence of other people to reinforce our decisions, possibly even to correct our errors. We want to look the other fellow in the eye when we make our deals or sign our contracts. There is considerable truth in the latter contention. Those of us who have had the responsibility of handl- ing staffs in our business know how much the interac- tion of human beings means to the success or failure of a successful company. True, the human element can, at times, be highly disruptive. Jealousies and pet- ty grievances can be costly and annoying barriers to efficiency. On the other hand, the spirit of good-natured com- petition which a good manager can foster is one of the most effective ways to achieve production goals. A good staff becomes, for most workers, a second fami- ly, a working climate which makes the tasks of the day pleasant rather than boring. The man who contended that society will fall apart when there is a computer in every home may be cor- rect - but, we hope he is wrong. Goderich Signal Star The strange world of the ham My husband is a ham. This has nothing to do with porcine posteriors or thespian excesses. Don is a radio amateur, one small link in a million -strong chain that encircles our global village. His interest in this engrossing past -time was first arousedwhen one of his sister's boyfriends showed kid brother his amateur radio station. The memory of all those mysterious black boxes equi with quivering needles, flashing lightss and intricately calibrated dials helped determine Don's choice of career as a Radio Officer in the RCAF. (The former boyfriend went on to study law, served as an MPP, is now a provincial judge and still an active ham.) Becoming a radio amateur is like con- tracting an incurable disease - one is marked for life, and seeks solace and comfort regularly with other similarily afflicted sufferers. The symptoms include heads tilted up at 45 -degree angles, eyes constantly scanning rooftops for inverted vees, dipoles, and cubical quads pinpoin- ting the abode of a fraternal brother, and fingers nervously drumming out messages in Morse code on any handy vertical or horizontal surface. Ten months after we moved to New- foundland, part of Don's "ham shack" was converted into a nursery. (At the time I blamed the prevailing winds from Conception Bay but am now wondering if I was the victim of gamma rays, solar flares, or errant radio emissions. ) Often as Don bent over his Morse key he became aware that he was being observed. He would turn around to see a little boy standing up in the corner of his crib, wide-awake brown eyes impishly reflecting the glow from the radio receiver. We waited anxiously for Colin's first words, firmly convinced that instead of "da da" they would be "dah-dit-di- dah". Hams recognize each other by signs as unmistakable as a lodge member's secret handshake. One of our most cherished friendships began when a newcomer to Ottawa walked past our house and spot - Reynolds' Rap by Yvonne Reynolds ted a big insulator on our clothesline. Frank knew he was hot on the trail of another radio amateur. Hams talk to each other in acronyms, abbreviations and Q codes. A wife is an XYL (ex young lady, get it! ), 73s and 88s are "best wishes" and "hugs and kisses". Hams refer to each other as OM (old man); Europeans and South Americans, being more emotional, preface this with "dear". The bulk of the conversation is technical and dull, dull, DULL. Don might discuss aerials with a Jesuit priest in the Amazon jungle, or exchange readabili- ty and signal strength with a Russian operator in Northern Siberia. Talking on a ham set is cheaper than on a phone, but has its drawbacks. With a bit of help from Ma Bell, I can converse with my Vancouver son for hours on such diverse topics as whether the Treaty of Versailles'sowedthe seeds of World War Two, or if Margaret Latlrence's The Diviners should be on the required reading list for Grade 13 English students. I After Don, with the help of fellow hams, establishes a phone patch with my son, and 1 realize that every radio enthusiast from Bonavista, Newfoundland to Bella Bella, B.C. and from the Argentine to the Arctic can listen in, I ask for my child's name, rank and serial number and hang up. And he's not even in the army! Now that we live in the country, Don is in his glory. He spends one-third of his time building antennas, another third erecting them on a high tower, and the re- maining third trying to figure out why they don't work. What should have been a guest bedroom is a ham room instead. Equipment fills tables and desks and overflows onto bookcases, boxes and the floor. All clocks are set to Greenwich mean time. I hardly dare leave our six acres. The minute my back is turned my husband is boring holes in floors, taking slices off doors, tunnelling into walls and putting wires through, under, over and around anything that can be bored, drilled, soldered or demolished. Last year Don was able to put our neighbour's brother-in-law, visiting from Germany, in touch with relatives back home. As Hans designs test gear for radio and radar equipment carried on Lufthan- sa aircraft, Don hoped for a convert. "Ever consider becoming a ham yourself?", he queried. Hans threw up his hands in horror. "Nein", he said emphatically. "I have friends who have become hams, and they have spent so much time with their hob- by their marriages lasted an average of five years." Well, I have passed the five-year mark six times, and being a ham's XYL does have its rewards. I always know what time it is in Greenwich, England. "I was turned in to Revenue Canada's computer for cheating on my taxes .. . by my own home computer!" To thine own self be true There's a great hoo-haw these days about confor- mity, which has become a dirty word. Educationists and editors, social workers and sob sisters warn us that one of the great threats to freedom in the modern world is conformity. These Cassandras claim that we're turning into a nation, a world, of confor- mists. They threaten that the golden,age of the real individual, the rebel, the non -conformist, is nearing an end, and that very soon we shall all be slaves, eating what everybody else is eating, wearing what everybody else is wearing, doing what everybody else is doing, and thinking what everybody else is thinking. I find myself remarkably calm in the face of these prophecies. In fact, I think they are pure poppycock. In the first place, I see nothing wrong with con- formity. It merely means, "compliance with established forms". In short the individual ac- cepts the responsibilities and the restraints which society imposes on him. The vast majority of people have always been conformists. If you hap. pened to be a cannibal, and the piece de resistance was roast mis- sionary, you sat down with the rest of the boys and en- joyed the preacher. You didn't say, "Gee, I don't know, fellas. Maybe we're making a mistake. Maybe we shoulda boiled him." Sugar and Spice Dispensed By Smiley No, sir. You conformed. You went along with the crowd. If you happened to be a Roman Legionary, happi- ly hacking up Gauls and ancient Britons, you didn't stop in the middle of the orgy andask yourself, "Is this the real me, or am I just doing this because everybody else is?" If you did, you were a dead non- conformist. Equally, if you happen to be a modern man, and your kids and wife are put- ting you over the jumps, you conform. You don't take a two-by-four and pound your kids into sub- mission. You threaten to cut off their allowance. In the second place, the deliberate, or conscious, non -conformist is a simple pain in the arm. He is the type who thinks he can't be a painter unless he has a beard, who thinks he can't be a poet unless he needs a hair -cut badly. Perhaps the greatest conformists in the world today are teenagers. In their desperate attempt to avoid conformity, they become the most rigid conformists in our society. They dress alike, do their hair alike, eat the same food, listen to the same music. All this, in an effort to revolt against society, to be non -conformists! Not that there haven't been great non- conformists. Beethoven, Tolstoy, Gauguin come to mind. But they were great, not because they were non -conformists, but in spite of it. They had talent, Mac. On the other hand, Bach was a church organist, music teacher and had children. Shakespeare worked atrocious hours, lived an exemplary life, and never missed getting his hair cut regularly. Alexander the Great, Napoleon, the Marquis de Sade, Hitler and Lee Oswald were non confor- mists. You know what they contributed to the world. Does this mean every non -conformist is a nut? Not necessarily, though probably. He is usually an unhappy chap who, for some deep -buried reason, must attract attention. Trouble is, the people who constantly warn us of the dangers of conformity have confused the non- conformist and the in- dividual. The former is to be pitied. He is seeking firm ground in a quagmire. The latter is to be envied. He has found a prune (himself), in the porridge of society, and he chews happily ever after. Perhaps old Polonius put it best in Hamlet. His son is going away to col- lege. The dad gives him a lot of advice about confor- ming. Then, in an unex- pected and untypical flash, he adds, "This above all. To thine ownself be true; thou can'st not then be false to any man." Injustice in job market One of the things that the feminist movement of this century has created is an awareness that there has been a great deal of in- justice done to women in the job market. Many oc- cupations which have been traditionally male are now being done by women. Medical doctors, truck drivers, welders, soldiers and school principals are areas ..WWfi are gradual- ly being broken into by women. It's going to take time, of course, but hopefully there will be a distribution of men and women in jobs ap- propriate to their ratio in that field. Teaching is a good ex- ample of a profession which has fallen behind the times in placing women in areas of respon- sibility, although efforts are being consciously blamed for this imbalance. School boards have Perspectives By Syd Fletcher made to change this. In my own county the ratio of elementary school teachers is about four women to one man. The ratio of elementary school principals is about 20 to one (and as you might guess, it's not 20 women principals to one man). And I don't think the women can be totally traditionally hired men for and more women have become qualified and have taken the first necessary steps of apply- ing for jobs which are available and of getting the necessaryqualifica- tions for the obs. I think it is within the elementary schools themselves that the.irst steps will have to be taken to make girls more confi- dent and sure of themselves in the job market -place of the future.' Simple things: sending girls instead of boys Sown to set up the chairs for an assembly; having co-ed sports (many girls are far more athletic then boys and can excel at sports if given the chance) ; having girls try technical subjects at an early level (home economics and industrial arts are already being in- terchanged at the grade seven level) ; encourage girls to be the president of a group instead of the secretary. If things like this are done then perhaps at- titudes will gradually become different.