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Times-Advocate, 1984-05-23, Page 4Times -Advocate, May 23, 1984 Imes - Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by I.W. Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN ROSS HAUGH Editor Assistant Editor HARRY DEVRIES 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' Encouraging message Restraint is the focal point of Ontario's new budget, brought down last week by Treasurer Larry Grossman. As expected, opposition parties have been quick to condemn the document and even Grossman admits that he is gambling on a revival in the economy to reduce the deficit while avoiding major tax increses. Hopefully, Grossman is correct in his assessment of the future of the province and it is encouraging to note that the Conference Board of Canada has predicted that Ontario will enjoy a higher degree of economic growth than any other province this year. The board's prediction appears to support Grossman's gamble. The key to be noted by politicians at all levels is that the prediciton of economic growth does not signal cause for additional spending. The success of the Ontario budget, and the economy as a whole, is based on restraint in the public sector so that gains made in the private sector will create jobs and not merely be eaten away with higher taxes. • The Treasurer has denied suggestions that his budget decisions were made on the basis of pre-election necessities. - Ontario would probably be facing an even brighter future if past budgets had been set on economic and not political reasoning. Time tobe counted What do farmers want? That's a question that ap- pears to be more difficult than ever to answer, and un- , fortunately for those in a position to help with their wants, it appears that farm groups themselves do not have the answers. The farm voice has often been divided to its detri- ment and incidents over the past couple of weeks in- dicate there has been no improvement in that regard. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) 'directors recently supported a motion calling for the, resignation of Ontario's agriculture minister and his assistant deputy if certain steps were not taken to satisfy red meat producers. The Ontario Cattlemen's Association denounced the OFA action and just last week Perth OFA presi- dent Ron Christie resigned over his opposition to the edict. He claims the OFA has come to represent the opinions of the vocal minority, 125 -to -four vote on the resolution regarding the agriculture minister is cer- tainly decisive, although weakened by the stand of the Cattlemen's group who represent a fair chunck of the red meat industry. • The question remains whether the OFA does speak for the majority of farmers. Farmers alone must answer that question and among those eagerly awaiting the outcome are those in positions to act on their wishes. It's time the silent majority stood up to be counted. Preying on the weak It stirs a little smouldering feeling in each of us when we see the weak treated wrongly - taken advan- tage of because of the very fact that they can't fight back. This can apply to children, seniors, handicap- ped, and sometimes women and other minorities. IC appears that there is- a group of people active in Mitchell and al ea who are doing just that, in this case taking advantage of senior citizens in their homes. Working in pairs, these unscrupulous people are ap- proaching elderly persons on their doorsteps, and while one talks and occupies the senior, the other ran - 411, sacks the place. Similar occurrences took place at the end of sum- mer last year, and at this time police are on the alert. All we can do is report anything suspicious, and for those senior citizens living alone, don't hesitate; do not let strangers into your homes, and immediately call the local police if you are approached. Our concern for our elderly neighbours should equate the concern we have for our own families. Be alert Mitchell Advocate Russian boycott is hardly surprising For the majority of people, probably, the fact the Russians and most of the na- . tions under their heel don't plan to attend the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles is not cause for a great loss of sleep. It is of no great surprise, and possibly of no great consequence. Expecting the Soviet bloc to attend was, after all, a bit of a pipe dream in the first place. After a majority of the western nations pulled out of the 1980 games in Moscow, the Kr9mlin probably made the decision right there and then that Russian athletes would not be in smoggy California. • Of course, they left the door open until the final hour to pick the appropriate spot to make the announcement. Organizers can at least thank them for that as many spectators no doubt had made plans to be in the stands and the Russian withdrawal will probably not spark them to change those plans. The indifference with which many will view the boycott stems primarily from the fact the Olympics have become a political tool, and while the Moscow deci- sion enforces that opinion, it should be remembered that it was a tool that was first, employed by the U.S. and those na- tions which supported its withdrawal in 1980. The list, in case you've forgotten, in- cluded Canada. • . • The Russians claim to have based their decision on the fact the organizers in Los Angeles were unable to guarantee the safety of all the athletes. The Americans have been quick to sug- gest that's so much baloney, but it is an inescapable truth that no nation can pro- vide such a guarantee, although I suspect 4 it is more attainable in the Communist countries than here in the so-called free world. Freedom of movement, and even the freedom to protest, is a right in a democracy and that makes it more dif- ficult to provide guarantees for safety • - BATT'N AROUND with the editor than in a county where people have their movements restricted ats a normal part of life. Punishment also differs substantially. Given the number of kooks now operating throughout the world, security at this year's Olympics will be very stringent, because it is very well understood that many people would like nothing better than to see the U.S. embar- rassed by some unfortunate incident on Amercian soil. Until the politics can be removed from the games, upsetting situations can almost be expected every four years. The athletes suffer the consequences, of course, but then the athletes haven't been the principal participants for several years anyway. . . . • • For over a year now, members of the South Huron rec center board of manage- ment have been setting aside an hour at the outset of their regular monthly meetings to formulate a policy manual, an obviously worthwhile task. Melanie McLaughlin, a resource person from the ministry of tourism and recrea- tion, has been on hand to guide the members and the staff through their deliberations. The most recent session has been regar- ding a policy for handling complaints and patrons will be pleased to know that the philosophy endorsed is that all complains regarding services and facilities "will be received, investigated and resolved as courteoulsy and expediently (that's a. good word, Brian) as possible by ap- propriate board or staff members to en- sure a positive public image." The manner in which complaints will be handled, whether from the public to the board or staff, or from the board to staff or vice versa, is outlined. What is difficult to understand is a sug- gestion that when complaints are receiv- ed from the public by staff members or the board, the policy says that the board should back up staff. Surely there must be some instances when complaints about the staff would be justified (no doubt in the future and not with present staff) and it would be rather difficult for the board to back up the staff. After all, there are times when com- plaints against any of us are justified and the complainant should be backed up. It is also rather difficult to agree with the policy that complaints should be handled "with in camera at a meeting or outside the meeting:' There are times when a public discus- sion of complaints is justified and surely discussion should seldom be undertaken outside a formal meeting. "Yawn! ... another day, another dollar!" "Phew — close call!" The insane Canadian escape Spring actually sprang this year, instead of Limp- ing in with a bad cold, its . customary wont, in these climes. Usually, in this country, we don't really have a spring. We leap from the lingering frigidity of a cold and wet April, rather similar to an English winter, into a hot spell in May that leaves us dizzy, stunned, stupefied. And before we know it, we're into a humid June, complete with mosquitoes and things, including young ladies, busting out all over. One hurls fine's clumsy rubber boots into one's closet. One disrobes from the massive, blanket -like contraption in which one has hidden one's frozen bones for the past five months. One skims one's hat into the top corner of the closet. And one comes down with one's annual spring cold, snuffling and sniffing toward sumrher, that apogee of the Cana- dian psyche. Deep in that Canadian psyche lurks the suspicion that possibly, just possibly, . this year the winter will never end, and that we shall go through a summer of frozen bran- ches etched against a gray sky, frozen ground under foot, no flowers, no foliage, no tpt summer sun to peel the skin. At least that's the way I feel, and I'm an average Canadian in every way. Perhaps that's the reason Canadians go winging off to hot places all winter, at phenomenal costs. When it comes to getting away to the sun, we have no equals on earth, except perhaps the Scandinavians. I know couples who, if they were having you for dinner, would argue about whether to give you the Boats are hauled out before the ice on the bay has begun to melt. Ardent curlers stash their brooms and dig out the golf clubs, though they would sink to the hocks on the fairways. Trout fishermen, who Sugar and Spice Dispensed By Smiley hamburg barbecue or the tuna casserole, the cheap plonk or the expensive wine with a body. Yet they'll blow a couple of thousand dollars for a week in the sun, living and 'etching and drinking and browning for seven days, and returning to thr' gray, grim landscape they left. It's insane. But then there's something insane about all Canadians, when they feel they are escaping, once again, the icy talons of winter. They go cuckoo. Just the other day, I saw an old lady, wrapped to the ears so that she could scarcely move, out raking leaves, simply because the sun was shining, and the calendar, though not the temperature, told her it was spring. She should - have been in by the fire. Before the snow has even begun to melt, our department stores have packed away their winter stuff and are flaunting bikinis that would make a stripper blush. have been chained to the arduous ice -fishing for perch during the past few Months, get a wild gleam in their eyes, go out and buy a small fortune's worth of new tackle, and rush like lemmings to the choice spots on Opening Day elbowing and struggl- ing with thousands of their like to get a line in the water. Kids go googy. They like winter, but spring drives them right around the bend. Puddles to splash in. Mud to tumble into. Ex- ploring to be done into all those secret corners that the snow had kept hidden. Housewives go hairy. Their well -kept homes, dusted and vacuumed and polished to within an inch of their lives all winter, are suddenly, as the suspicious spring sun peers in, "shabby, filthy, disgusting", and they launch into an orgy of cleaning and decorating that drives their men' simultaneously up the wall and into debt. J Old people behave odd- ly. With a sort of glint in their eye, they realize that they've licked the old graveyard one more time and go out and get terrible c ricks in their backs plan- ting flowers and gardens. And young people! Well, we all know what 'hap- pens to them when Canada occasionally en- joys a real, legitimate Spring. They stand on street corners, after school, bunting each other like young calves. They strip to beach- wear on days that would freeze the brains of a brass monkey. They fall wildly in love with so- meone they hadn't even seen all winter, except as a sniffling, snuffling stripl- ing across the aisle in Grade 10 English. They go wild with the sheer delirium of being young in springtime. The boys drive too fast and recklessly. The girls have strange fancies and dream of sex and summer secrets. What do aging school teachers do in the spring? They're just as nutty as the rest. They look with aching longing to their long summer, wishing their lives away. They try to retain their dignity, while they feel like kicking up their heels, running off with a Grade 11 girl, or boy, shodting golf in the seventies, cat- ching a whopping rain- bow trout. And dreading retirement. It's a grand madness that seizes this nation, come Spring. Long may it continue. Old time fun is lost If you ask most kids to- dgy where chicken or turkey comes from you'll probably get a reply such as "the colonel" or at best a condescending aatswer such as "the supermarket, of course." Not too many of them have even seen a live chicken or to take it one step further, a chicken just nicely beheaded • ready for plucking and cleaning. Not a pleasant topic I suppose but I sometimes wonder if we tend to try to insulate modern children from everything that is a little brutish and nasty hoping that maybe life just doesn't have to be that way. ly in the morning. During the execution she passed on a little Perspectives By Syd Fletcher APMNISi I guess I grew up during the last days of that era because I can remember my grandmother going out to chop off the head f the proud rooster who had crowed once too often ear- ittk- story. When she was a little girl they used to kill the chickens in the basement (just a dirt floor down there in those days). She and her sister were sent down to get some apples. Candles held high they proceet eti down the steps only to have something flop noisily around on the floor beside the, brushing up against their long skirts. Grandmother hollered and her sister climbed up on top of a chair. Grandma swore that headless chicken chased her and her candle round the basement three times her sister scream- ing blue murder all the time. You've got to admit that a little of the fun of those good old days has surely been lost.