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Clinton News-Record, 1983-02-09, Page 5PAGE 4 CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, RI BON, tho COtantan 98®.44®-21¢04ord lm rruabttottod ooch the derroodoly of P.O. 6mm 80. CtlOvat.mon. ®ntmaOo, Cort odo. 299R9 169. til 492 2448. Serbocatertton eoto. Crtetedo "42.99 sr. attmon '02_99 poo your U.S.A. 6 torot®vn "29-99 ®ter y¢rerr to lm r.pItovaamed m® se.sos.-9 ace. soon try tato pool ort0¢e on,or tato guorvante aturvebpr 92118 8104 Po©aoo-Wacaret torsorp orotad In 1224 98040 Korot. 95.440,211rNmord. toortdod in 0(;6t. atoll Po" CtOrntoan Mow Mrs, toondod do miss. tea& Fnn=6 run 4.269. Inc tI THE MMMTH STANDARD $ii LiEY McFNEE . Editor GARY ENLIST - Advertising Mote®ger JANICE ALLIN - Advertising moo V GI®B - mice Manager MARY A/4i1 ltOLLLENRECk - Subscriptions J. HOWARD AITKr N - Publisher A MEMBER MEMBER OBlmpdey odeortlmin® 'oleo aye 00o®04 on rotwoov Aa^_, for Rote Cord No, Oa ettoc edea ®aa 1. 0991 Th ' news er's r Ie The first obligation of the Clinton News -Record is to profitably serve the peo- ple. That means we must provide news for more than 3,000 subscribers from Hen- soll to Belgrave, Bayfield to Walton. Our coverage area takes in more than a dozen municipalities, 10 schools, more than 25 churches, clubs and organizations too numerous to mention. Every week an effort is made to provide each reader with interesting, current news items. At the same time we try to bring in a profit, for the News -Record is not only a community service, but also a business. And like other businesses, the newspaper is feeling the effects of poor economic conditions. Many local business supporters have been forced to cut back on their advertis- ing budgets. For the paper fewer ads mean lower profits. Lower profits mean smaller papers and less pages. In the editorial deportment we too are faced with o dilemma. While page numbers decline after the Christmas rush and before the spring and summer season, news events continue to happen at a rapid pace. Often we are left with more news than room to run it. The decision to edit is made. A great deal of thought and time goes into each news item and we try to edit feirly and objectively. A little comes out of Varna news, an item from Londesboro, a story from Brucefield, for instance. A minor hockey article is edited to accommodate a story on figure skating. A school photograph is dropped so a WI picture can be included. Council news is condensed so area farm reports may be printed. Notional news and special features are excluded, local news takes priority. It sometimes means running photographs from three different events instead of three pictures from the same happening. Editing copy and photographs, and pleasing the readers con be a tough job. The aim is not to unjustly chop important news items, but to offer news capsules and specific coverage that will interest the majority of readers. It means choosing the most important news items in each community and excluding, or limiting those with less impact and interest. The limitations mean additional consideration and co-operation between the editor, the writers and the public. This week we'll be meeting with correspondents to discuss new and better ways to report the news. In the near future we'll be holding a readership survey giving subscribers the opportunity to suggest further editing or additions, com- pliments and criticisms. The News -Record aim is to maintain the public respect and support, offer a wide variety of news each week and continue as a financially sound operation. Through changes, better editing and more conscientious news coverage we can become a stronger, healthier and more exciting community newspaper. -by S. McPhee. L__behind the scenes Woo women Judy Erola tloated her trial balloon about cancelling the married spouse deduction and quickly had it shot down by the Canadian public but there is a philosophy behind her thinking that will riot go away so easily. Despite the angry reaction across the country to the proposal that married women living at home should no longer be categorized as "dependents", there are many who agree with what she was trying to do. This wasn't, after all, an idea that bust sprung into Mrs. Erola's head. It had een proposed many years ago by a com- mission studying the role of women in society. The idea behind cancelling the deduc- tions was that it was unfair to many women who work and have to pay day-care fees while men who have wives who stay home not only don't have to pay day-care, but get a tax deduction as well. There was also a feeling that many upper income families, where the wife could afford to stay home, were getting more benefit from the deduction than poorer people. Mrs. Erola tried to talk her way out of trouble, of course. by saying she had never meant that lower income people should have their tax deduction taken away, only the rich. She got herself right back into trouble though when she asked what a married women who wasn't looking after children at home was contributing to socie- ty. She has been attacked from all sides on this one. One question is how do you judge what is a contribution to society? t's a question that has always interested me. It would seem to me, for instance, that farmers make the greatest contribution to society yet are rewarded the least, both in terms of monetary gain and in terms of the prestige of their profession. Doctors con- tribute much and are well rewarded, I even if not as much as they think they should t,e). But the inventor of a new video game can become a millionaire overnight and what has he contributed to society' There has been way of thinking, par- ticularly from the feminist movement in the last couple of decades, that a woman is worth more if she is outside the home than inside. There are, indeed, women who have become farmers and doctors and scientists searching for the cure for cancer and who cannot agree that they are mak- ing a great contribution to society. But is the woman who sits all day in front of a video display terminal for a company making hub caps of automobiles making a great contribution to the advancement of mankind' Is she even making a contribu- tion to the advancement of herself' On the other hand. what about t he woman who stays home and raises her children and while IheN are growing. or after they have left home, works as a volunteer keeping the local church going, working in hospitals, raising money for the heart fund or a symphony orchestra or to send doctors and teachers to the Third World? These people are contributing nothing? The dangerous thinking behind the pro- posal of Mrs. Erola and her supporters is that all things should flow from govern- ment and to government. It is the same thinking involved in the budgets of Allan MacEachen, that there should be no such thing as non-taxable benefits, that everybody should have to pay taxes, then have the government give back in terms of aid for this or that. Government must have money if it is to provide the services that we all, no matter how conservative, expect to receive. But Mrs. Erola would prefer to professionalize our world. Women would go out to work and pay taxes which the government would then give to set up day care centres which would hire other women to profes- sionally raise the children. Women would go out to work and pay taxes to hire people to do the work that women previously did as part-time volunteers. Not only does this breed bigger and big- ger bureaucracies, but it also breeds an in- ertia on the part of the public: a feeling that we must wait for government to do things, that we can't do them ourselves. During the arena crisis a few years ago when so many arenas were closed, the places that had their arenas rebuilt the fastest and paid for the fastest were the lit- tle villages that were used to doing things themselves. The large centres, where peo- ple left the work up to paid government of- ficials and expected the money to come from their taxes were left way behind. This kind of thinkingalso leads to more government power. or instance, Mrs. F,rloa talks about government -assisted day-care but the nearest day care centre is 10 miles from my home. The government is unlikely to sponsor such a centre for the people of my village. More likely, in order to maximize government efficiency, it is likely to try to encourage the death of smaller centres that can't be served as has happened with small western railway towns and as has happened in Ontario with the greater and greater centralization pushed by the Davis government. Finally, is this movement really benefit- ting women? if all women could go out of the house and find challenging, rewarding jobs the answer would be yes but after hun- dreds of years of a male dominated workplace, there are millions of men sl ucK in dead-end, boring jobs who envy women who can stay home but have to st ick to the jobs to make a living. is it real- ly progress to push many unskilled women into the same boat Valentine love sugarand spi ce The `_ -' epression Depressing, isn't it? And I'm not talking about the weather. Although I could. Came home from work yesterday, mid-January, in pouring rain. Didn't even bother to plug in the block heater. Got up this morning and it was below zero. Guess what didn't happen. And how about that rampant 'flu that is striking down huge, burly men as well as little old la 'es. I fall somewhere between the two, and it has certainly stricken me down — about four times. Twice in the last two weeks we have scheduled a party for friends. Everything set: fire laid; glasses polished; booze bought; rug vacuumed almost to death. And twice Ole Mistah Floo has knocked everything into a cocked hat, whatever that is. Do you have any conception of the effort required, when all you want to do is die and be incinerated, to have to call up about 15 people, two weekends in a row, and tell them the party is off? And 80 per cent of them are out on the first, and second, and third call? But what the heck. That's what this country is all about in winter, and it is only then that I curse me ancestors, not loud but deep, for setting forth from the peat and potatoes and deciding they'd go to Canada. Why not Australia, or South Africa, or Tahiti? The only smart person in my entire family collection (connection? That's The Floo) is a nephew who went to Costa Rica, started a small business, made a happy marriage, and has three little girls. We had a ha epy Christmas card from him. Every , ty else in the family is sick or by Shelley McPhee stupid or broke or old or having marital problems. And that includes yours truly. Why didn't I go to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, as Roman Woychuk and I plan- ned to do as soon as — and if — we got out of prison camp alive? And I wonder what has happened to Chuk. He was a brilliant cartoonist, but had an eccentric streak. Last time I saw him, we were out at a nightclub with our ladies. Toward the end of the evening, he picked up his glass, pretended it was a grenade, pulled the non- existent pin out with his teeth, and hurled it through a mirror that must have cost 20 grand. He probably couldn't even pick up his glasses now, let alone a glass. But I hope he has some of the old esprit left. He was a Canadian Ukrainian and coached us in a few words of Russian, because we knew The Russians Were Coming. All I remember is, "Nistrali," meaning, "Don't shoot." But what am I doing in the Yucatan Peninsula with a crazy Ukrainian? A col- umnist is supposed to have a theme, state it, defend it, and leave the reader in a state of serenity, a problem solved, a difficult dilemma made clear as crystal. And all I've done so far is muddy the waters, obfuscate the obvious, and leave the reader with raised eyebrows that in- dicate Smiley should be put out to pasture. What I really wanted to talk about was The Depression. And don't talk to me about a recession, a slowdown, a shake- down or any other of the cant phrases used by economists who are able to tell us, in double-talk, and at $50,000 a year, that things are tough all over. We're in a Depression, and note the capital D. How do I know? Well, gentle reader, i've been there before. I know the odds Before the Monster Contrary to popular belief among kids under the age of 10, their parents and their parents' friends did not grow up in the dark ages. We had electricity and indoor plumbing. We even had radio and TV. Television shows were in black and white, of course, but we had programs that were created just for us kids. Yes Virginia, there was life before the Cookie Monster! When it was Howdy Doody time, for ex- ample, we were glued to the television screen to watch Howdy, his sister, Heidi, and the clown, Clarabelle. There was also a Friendly Giant, who had a tiny puppet pal and a giraffe i named Jethro, I believe I, who stuck his head through a window now and again. Will any of us forget the cute kids with s territory. A few years ago, in my youth, I stated that we could never have another Great Depression, like that of the '30s. After all, we had unemployment insurance, a reasonable Old Age Pension, medicare: all sorts of buffers against poverty, hunger, humiliation, raggedy -asses, and the like. I was 'wrong, and though I hate to admit it, as everyone does who is wrong, I was. Oh, we're not quite back to the 30s, but we're on the way. In the town where I live, roughly 30 per cent of the people are without employment. In the town where I lived during the Great Depression, the figure grew to about 40 per cent. That's why my Dad lost his business. He was a softy, and gave credit. Pec ple couldn't pay their bills. He went broke. What's going to happen in this country when the unemployment insurance whatever runs out of money? When there isn't enough left in the government coffers to pay the doctors? When there isn't enough money to pay the interest on the massive deficit we've acquired by borrow- ing on the future? When there isn't enough money left to pay old age pensions, and child-care subsidies, and welfare, and look after all the prisoners and retarded people and insane? Well, it'll be interesting, at any rate. There's going to be a lot of bitterness in the land. Personally, I'm going to buy myself a double-barrelled shotgun. And when I go down to collect my old -age pension, and the twerp who still has a job tells me there's no money left, I'm going to throw down on him, and make him extract it from his own hip pocket. And then I'm going to go out and shoot up some metric signs, just for the helluvit. the big ears who sang and danced their way into our living rooms every week? With them, we sang our pledge of allegiance to our hero "M-i-('-K-E-Y M -O- U -S -E". We followed the progress of a few of the child stars through the years. Annette graduated to trach movies and more recently peanut butter commercials. Shelley became part of the family on the Donna Reed Show. Or was it Father Knows }lest? e Now she plays a less inno- cent character on One 1)ay At A Time The Little Rascals managed to get awaN with things that we could only dream about. Spanky, Alfalfa and the little white dog with one black eye are still causing chuckles by way of reruns Animals often upstaged the human ac- tors Who can forget i.assie and My Friend Flicka" Hin Tin Tin always came to the rescue, and Sergeant Preston could not ilabe Kt•p( Id 44, anlr unit'! NIUloUt 1115 t1Ubi�1 King. Some TV families grew up while we wait - Chef]. Ozzie and Harriet, for instance, practically raised their sons, David and Ru•ky • in front of the TV camera. i,ricy kept Ricky-. Ethel and Fred in a state of confusion and us in stitches. Still evcryb d loved Lucy Western adventures were big. Pa watch- ed oyer the Ponderosa and his three sons with a firth but understanding hand The (Anne Manger and his faithful Indian com- panion, 'Tonin. always caught the had gins 7,orro made his mark on television criminals and wowed audiences at the same time The children and family television pro- gramming that Ice watched as kids maN not have ix'en as sophist 'cat ed as the shows kids are watt htng toda , but then. neither NA ac the indoor plumbing Phe readers p to ed to present concerns Dear Editor, On January 18, 1983, a Toronto Butcher, Michael Desborough, filed suit in federal court charging that Canada's metric laws are in violation of the Charter of Rights. Mr. Desborough is represented by one of Canada's best-known lawyers, Clayton Ruby. What many of the news reports failed to mention is the fact that Mr. Ruby was re- tained by an Ontario -based organization fighting forced metric — Measure Cana- dian — and that th.s citizens' group is pay- ing all Mr. Desborough's costs. Measure Canadian was founded in February, 1982 by a group of small businessmen in Brockville, Ontario. Since that time, we have grown to have members in all provinces of Canada and from all walks of life, and all age groups. Measure Canadian was formed because of our frustration with the failure of political institutions, and a multitude of other organizations such as the Consumer and Civil Liberties Associations and the Canadian Labour Congress, to represent the concerns of Canadians over the way in which metric was being implemented in this country. It was obvious that Cana- dians needed a credible vehicle to carry the fight to the government and Measure Canadian grew out of that need. The directors of Measure Canadian are all responsible and respected members of their community. They include several ci- ty aldermen, a newspaper editor, a member of the Ontario Legislature, a former M.P., a police sergeant and an ac- countant. Measure Canadian is committed to pay- ing all costs for the first stage of Mr. Desborough's challenge out of funds raised primarily in eastern Ontario. The direc- tors of Measure Canadian have given free- ly of their time and money to carry the fight to this stage, but to continue, a much larger number of Canadians must get in- volved. We are fighting a Metric Commis- sion with a $26.5 -million dollar budget and the only effective way we can combat them is with our own money. Measure Canadian has provided Cana- dians with a credible, viable and respected vehicle of protest against forced metric. Our court case is providing Canadians with their first day in court, and I urge car- ing and concerned citizens to help in the fight; Get involved! Write: Measure Cana- dian, P.O. Box 415, Brockville, Ontario, K6V 5V6. Yours truly, Steve Yeldon, Chairman, MEASURE CANADIAN. If people sp : 4 out government act Dear Editor: I am just a new Canadian in this country and have no right to say what is wrong but the lady Mrs. : echtel last week in your paper who is complaining about the playboys in Eatons has she seen the pic- tures of ladies in Sears like on pages 172 to 202? It is true that all these ladies have the underwears still on but there was a poet in my country said that ladies in underwears is for all the more excitement. I would like to say that when the new man for Mr. Joe Clark is found then maybe they would like to study how we did it 't, ck in Iran. Back in Iran it was showed that the government can do something about filthy pictures if it is spoken to by the people and they don't let Eatons in or Sears either. Yours truly Darius Tomeni Amir You w you're old when - the gleam in your eyes is from the sun hitting your bifocals. - you sit in your rocking chair but can't make it rock. - you're still chasing women and you don't know why. - brushing your teeth plays you out. - your children all look middle-aged. - you're startled the first time you're called an old-timer. - dialing long-distance plays you out. - you know all the answers but no one asks a question. - your little black book only has names ending with M.D. - your pacemaker makes your garage go up and down when you see a pretty girl. - you're winded by blowing in your wife's ear. - your sex fantasy is Greta Garbo or Marilyn Monroe, Gabby Hayes or Walter Brennan. - you paint the town red once and take a long rest before applying the second coat. - you want your new calendar to have large numbers instead of pretty girls. - you want to procrastinate but you don't k, low how. - you're sorry that you resisted tempta- tion. - you remember today that your wedding anniversary was yesterday. - the little grey-haired lady you helped across the street is your wife. - the best part of your day is over when your alarm clock goes off. - you burn the midnight oil till 9 p.m. - you turn your lights off for economical reasons rather than romantic ones. - your back goes out more than you do. - the only pill you take is a vitamin. - you feel like the night after and you haven't been anyplace. - you're 17 around your neck. 42 around your waist and 96 around the golf course. - your knees buckle but your belt won't. - you walk with your head held high to get used to your bifocals. - the first time that von act your age your wife calls an ambulance - your mind feels like 18 but your body feels like 102 - you have too much room in your house but not enough in your medicine cupboard Now if you can't read or understand any of this you don't realize lust how old you are