HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1981-02-19, Page 4Page 4
Citizens News Pebruary 19, 1901
nUGGERS?
Ramblings •
By
MARK HOUGH
11n1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111a1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111H11111111=
Viewpoint.-,
Z.C.N...
..
�IgHluuuunuuHHmH1H1Hu1unuHlnmuu111111111111111111111i11111111111111111111111111111111111111111uuH11n1nunn1uulHHHHnuulnnululUHHHIHHumununulHlni?
Education for the educators
Is our school system working, or is it a farce?
The school system would seem to have something
wrong with it, when universities have courses that
deal with remedial courses to compensate for the lack
3f instruction in the lower levels.
Dr. Sturart Smith, leader of the provincial
Liberals, told a group of high school students in Toron-
to that Grade 13 was unnecessary. He said that all that
:t did was give teachers jobs and to keep ;young people
Jut of the work force. If a system does this, is there not
something wrong?
Many other provinces, like Quebec, do not have a
3rade 13 in their system and yet they seem to manage.
How many people go to Grade 13 so that they can go to
university just to find that there is no work for them
I nyway ?
High schools do not put enough emphasis on the
-ight things. They are too busy in English classes
Mout what is meant by a line in a poem or play to
spend time making sure that everyone knows how to
write properly. Then the student goes to university and
has to learn puncuation and different parts of the
sentence, something he should have known since
public school.
There should be a major overhaul of the
educational system in this province and maybe getting
back to the basics will help.
Not going back to the strap or rod-weilding school
master, but teaching students fundamentals of educa-
tion and then letting them decide what they want to do.
If they want to take a number of years to do that, then
fine. The .system as it stands now forces young people
into making decision at an early age.
Not too many people would want to put their future
in the hands of an 18 year-old, but that is what a high
school student is forced to do.
If the system is not changed soon, our future
generations could end up as educated illiterates.
Acid rain: clouds are forming
The Canadian Ministry of the Environment and
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
agree that acid rain will be the major environmen-
tal issue of the next decade, but their sponsors can't
agree on who should clean up the situation.
The Canadian government with 7.6 tons of acid -
causing pollutants billowing within its borders each
year, readily points an accusing finger at the U.S.
total of nearly 53 million tons per annum. However,
Canada's bark seems worse than its might.... and
lakes die.
During the Carter administration, the two
countries engaged in a childish "you go first"
game, but under Ronald Regan it's doubtful the U.S.
will want to play at all.
It's no secret that Mr. Reagan looks upon en-
vironmentalists as bugs in the efficient machinery
of American industry. His knowledge of the
earth's complex, and sensitive, ecosystem was
summed up when he asked a group of environmen-
tal lobbiests, "How many trees do you have to look
at?"
Mr. Reagan's policy has, always been: Full
speed ahead with coal-fired generating plants (sans
pollution controls) and damn the bleeding hearts in
EPA.
Mr. Reagan's point that controlling acid rain
would put a crimp in industry profits is well taken,
but to suggest that government can't afford to help
out is a sadly revealing excuse from a country gear-
ing up for a multi -billion dollar infusion of cash into
its military budget.
While fish life slowly passes away in thousands
of North American lakes -including many in
Northern Ontario -big business and big government
search only for a means of making acid rain control
profitable. If the money lost through a waning sport
and commercial fishing industry, becomes greater
than the cost of the cure, no doubt action will be
swift.
Even the environment ministry of Ontario -says
the cost of an abatement program must be weighed
against tie financial aloss likely to be incurred by
continued pollution.
To put such a monetary value on a lake and the
life it supports is the height of arrogance. Knowing
we've done right by the ledger books will bring
scant satisfaction while each silent lake remains as
a monurttent to our ignorance. What a price to pay
for greed...and what shame.
(Northern Times)
A large, cigar shaped object appears in the early
evening sky. Around it there are pulsating lights,
which are strange colors.. It hovers over your home for
about 30 seconds and then it streaks across the heavens
and disappears. You have just seen an UFO.
You're probably saying to yourself, that will never
happen to me, besides UFO's don't exist. How can we
be sure?
The sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects can
be explained by light reflecting off a j et at sundown or
swamp gas rising or. -a thousand other things, but in
some instances there are no reasonable explanations:
There were no planes in the area at the time of the
sighting, no swainps around and at times, hundreds of
people have seen these objects at the same time.
Even respectable members of the community,
such as policemen and even the mayor, have seen
these timid (or cautious)afiens. What can be the ex-
planation? Mass drug -overdose? Hardly. _
Another question that .I was once asked by my
Grade 12 -Lit. teacher was, why would they spend their
time watching us? At that time, I couldn't think of a
good reason. Looking back and thinking about it for a
while, I now have a suitable reply. The same reason
that we send satellites millions of miles into space, to
see it we can find other living beings, also to unders-
tand the universe and galaxy better.
The next logical question would be, why haven't
they shown themselves• before now? My logical reply
would be, because they want to know if we are friendly
or not, Possibly they are monitoring us until we have
either matured or destroyed ourselves before they do
anything. Man has a tendency of being afraid of what
he doesn't understand and in fear kills it. I wouldn't be
too exicted about going to' a planet where they shoot
first and really don't care about asking questions until
my body has been cut apart and put in pickling jars to
be studied later.
Granted, this' preoccupation with outer space
could be from man's illusion that he could find -a better
way of life if he wan't confined to this lone planet.
Man has always been an explorer and sees the
limitless expanse of space as the "final frontier", as
Captian Kirk would say.
There have been thousands of movies and books on
the subject, some true to fact and others on wishful
thinking. An example of this is Star Wars, which is a
combination of both those principles. The fact is, man
can travel in space but the fancy is that he can travel
to different parts of the galaxy in an instant. Someday
he will.
There are claims that the American government
has a space craft in a hangar in the Nevada desert,
There was even a movie based on this premise,
Hangar 18. Another movie that bases its plot on the
fact that the government has made contact isClose
Encounters of the -Third Kind. The government has
closed off an area under the pretense that there has
been a deadly gas leakage. They then go to work -on
trying to make contact with the aliens. Sure, they're
just movies, but s4 was The China Syndrome.
Yes, there has to be life out there, it would be
egotisitical of us to think that there isn't. The life oilt
there is probably more advanced than ours (obvious if
they send ships, that can easily out -run any jet -fighter
that we have) and possibly of a pacifist nature. I don't
believe the_stories of little green men running around
and landing in peoples' back yard any more than any
rational person would, but there may be some truth to
some of the stories that people tell of being taken
aboard alien crafts.
This is about all I have to say for this week, so un-
til we meet again, Live Long and Prosper. Beam me
up Mr. Scott.
Published Each Wednesday Sy J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd.
Member:
Canadian WNIIy Newspapers Association
Ontario Watliy Newspap.rs Association
News Editors - Mark Hough and Rob Chester
Second Clap Mail Registration Number 1385
Subscription Kota: SS.30 per year in advoncl in Canada
$19.30 per year outside Canada Single copies 25