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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1985-04-03, Page 4'PA' .Pit -410PPAI SI NA ,TAft, WE P1 SDAY, APRIL 3,1985 • AVE YKES • Initially, this paltry piece was intended to be inundated with much mirth and merri- ment in lightof the fact that Monday was April Fool's Day. My original intention was to dispense with an elaborate hoax that would have people believing that Goderich seceded from Canada or that the town had abandoned plans to secure a Junior hockey franchise and go after anNHL•team instead, But then Harold Ballard would bicker about territorial rights or something silly anyway. So what's the use. Rather than have my way with the readers, I was content to play practical fokes on my children. They're so easy. They all for all my lines, laugh and giggle a lot and generally consider the old boy to be a great time, You think kids don't know where their money comes from. But that does. not preclude the fact that I am given to practical jokes and other related pranks. I have given serious, albeit fleeting, consideration to regaling readers with an entire newspaper of fabricated, embellished and otherwise explicitly vague generalties. One day my 'secret desire mak become a reality, but until then, you will havetofeast sumptuously on the offerings presented. One of my personal favorites April Fools pranks involved an. aunt who,unsuspectingly became a participant in a radio joke. Let me set the scene. While performing household chores, my aunt is listening to a local radio station when her attention is -focused on a special public service announcement. The radio disk jockey explains that the local cable, televi- sion company has been having problems transmitting its signal through the lines. In a straight voice, he goes on to explain that the company, in the interest of offering a better signal to subscribers, will, be flushing out the cable television lines (luring the afternoon. Subscribers were asked to disconnect the cable from the back of the television and place it, in an empty pail. If there was any residue in the line, the radio personality reasoned, it would be flushed out into the pail. My aunt dutifully removed the cable from the set and placed it in a pail in the middle of the living room floor. The cable remained there until my uncle returned from work in the evening. r. „ It's been years since the prank;,transpired' but my aunt still gets kidded about the inci- dent and I continue to get a good laugh just thinking about it. One of the favorite pranks at your favorite weekly is to send a new employee -9n a itliFr sion "downstairs." It's an infamous ploy that has Worked on several unsuspecting employees who when looking for someone or sometYriing during the first days of their employ are told to check downstairs. Of course, there 'is no basement here but we suspect that some employees are still looking for it. Some may have found it, we're not really sure. The most recent prank that would ac leve lofty heights on an April Fools ra g system involved a brand new newsroom col- league who was advised that it's a sure sign of spring when the seals come into harbour. We almost pulled it off. And come to think of it, it's a damned good assignment that will 'surely be circulated to all new employees. For this year, I let April Fools Day slide by unobtrusively. But excuse me now, I think my cable line is flushing. THE NEWS PORT FOR GODERICH & DISTRICT . SINE 1848 Bounded in 18411 and published savary BMednoaday at Soderich, Ontario. Member of the CCNA and OGNA. Subscriptions payable in advance '20.95, (Senior Citizens '17.05 privilege cord number required) in Gsnede,'55. to U.B.A., '55. to all other countries, Single copies .500. Display, National and Classified advertising rates available on request. Please auk for Rate Card No. 15 effective October 1, 1994. Advertising is accepted an the condition that in the event of a typographical error, the advertising apace occupied by the erroneous item, together with reasonable allowance for signature; will not be charged for but that balance of the advartiasment will be paid for at the applicable rete. In the event of a typographical error advertising goods or services at e wrong price, geode or services may not be sold. Advertising is merely an offer to sell, and may be withdrawn at any time. The Signal -Star is not responsible tor the loss or damage of unsolicited manuscript., photos or other materials used for reproducing purposes. . e PUBLISHED BY: SIGNAL -STAR PUBLISHING LIMITED ROBERT G. SHRIER = President and Publisher DON HUBICK - Advertising Manager DAVE SYKES - Editor the P� P.O. BOX 220 d ` I-tUCKINS ST. GO ✓ INDUSTRIAL PARK S\GGODERICH, ONT. N7A 466 Q =NA Second class Member: *CNA cn mail registration number 0716 ' FOR BUSINESS OR EDITORIAL. OFFICES...please phone (519]624-2614 ! There will be sacTif ices Information meetings with respect to the pur suance' of Separate high schools in Huron -Perth counties has raised some interesting questions on the part of parents. General information meetings dealing with the provincial government's commitment to fund separate schools beyond Grade 10 beginning in September 1985 have been held in several locations -in the two:Counties the past week. Subsequent to- the meetings, the Huron -Perth Separate School Board will be asking parents of elementary school students to fill out a comprehensive questionnaire. The survey will be availablethis week. According to the planning group, which evolved'out of an ad hoc committee, the separate school board has tentative plans to begin offering Grade 9 in Central Huron Secondary School in September 1986. Subsequent grades will be offered each year. Under the provisions of the funding scheme, the board must locate within its own system or use vacant facilitiesin the public system. With space available in Clinton, it provides the most attractive alternative to the board initially. Ostensibly, as was adequately indicated at the meeting here Thursday, those students now in Grade 7 in the separate system will be the pioneers of the separate high school system. These students will be asked to be bused to Clinton for Grade 9 and operate as a -school within a sehooi-." The €olilowing year they wilLbe joined by other Grade 9s until. the separate high, school outgrows the shared facility and is able to either relocate or fund a new facility. As in any new venture, there will be considerable sacrifice required on the part of parents and students and as was pointed out at thepublic meeting, growing pains will be' much in evidence as the new school is launched. There may be a price for parents and students to pay in launching two new high schools in the neighbouring counties. Parents expressed concerns about religious education, the quality of education, the loss of extra -curricular activities, the pressures related to relocating and operating within another school and the viability of another small high school in the county. There is no doubt that sacrifice will be an integral component of the establishment of separate high schools. Students may. not have access to the competitive sporting programs now available in the public system. Other academic or dramatic pursuits may also be years off for the students of the separate high schools. It was pointed out that the idea behind the establishment of the high school was not to he competitive on the football field with its public shool counterpart, but rather to nur- 4uwe and maintain what Father_Carrigan of St. Patricks Church Dublin called the Three Rs of the separate system -the teaching of respect, responsibility and religion. It is all part of what panel members referred to as the Catholic philosophy. Ultimately, parents and their sons and daughters will have to decide if they wish to pursue their high sthooT education in separate schools. -Sacrifices-.will have to -be- made along the way and parents and their children will have to decide the price they are will- ing to pay for that education. After spending a few days in Toronto last week I returned by public transportation on E'riday. It registered vaguely in the oacitground of my mind that there were many uniformed attendants in the subway areas, but I did not give it a further thought. In Union Station I intended to leave my rather heavy suitcase in a locker, as I fre- quently do, in order to cross the street com- fortably to .the Royal York Hotel and have a coffee before boarding the train to Strat- ford. but much to my astonishment there was not one locker open among the hun- dreds on both levels. Several other people walked around with a similarly perplexed and annoyed look, finding themselves unex- pectedly stuck with their luggage in the same fashion. . The reason for alT this became apparent later in the evening when The National (and I presume, other networks) finally informed the public of the background drama that had been going on in Toronto since Tuesday when the police had received an Armenian terrorist threat. Friday morning hac. been the deadline for the demanded • release of the three Armenians held in connection with the recent Turkish embassy occupation in Ot- tawa in which a security guard had been' killed. The precautionary measu>aes taken in Toronto were extensive and included great- ly increased security forces and sealing all the lockers after inspection during the week. The threatened terrorist attack was to take place on Monday morning. I am writing this on Monday afternoon, after tur- ning to the news broadcast every hour, relieved now that so far nothing terrible has happened and ardently hoping that it never will. One always feels that international ter- rorism is -distant; it comes as a severe blow to find it on the doorstep. I take the Toronto threat very personally. The city was my home for many years, my first home in Canada before I moved to Goderich. Its theatres, galleries, concert halls and other interesting big city facilities continue to at- tract me as a visitor and friend. I am very fond of Toronto and it saddens my greatly that one of the results of being- a cosmopolitan centre is becoming a target for terrorism. At the same time I feel grief for Canada, the fragile giant of a territory inhabited not really by a nation, but a large collection of groups, many of them carrying the. burdens of their often grim past in distant con- tinents, unable or unwilling -to use Canada's considerable freedoms for a warmly positive forward look instead of;turning to shadowy backward glances. Instead of aiming for a more meaningful substance of common loyalty to the good things we share in peace, we seem to be possessed by a newly emphasized craze of fierce adherence to the differences which keep us divided and often glaring in i our lit- tle boxes. How could there be Canadian A Teal blast by Todd Mowatt POSTSCRIPT SUSAN HUNDERTMARK The nightly newscasts detailing the hor- rors of starvation in Africa have dwindled down into weekly reports. Shocked by the in- itial footage of our fellow human beings, their bodies near,skeletons, dying from.star- vation on international television, our first response was to give generously. But, after the first push for international aid, we're in danger of congratulating ourselves for our generosity too soon. We're tempted' to pat ourselves on the backs for responding to the pleas for help when the problem is far from solved. At this stage, the crisis in Ethiopia and other starving third world, countries is at risk of becoming another trend. We did our bit by contributing when asked and we bought the Tears Are Not Enough record when it came out but now we've reached the point of saturation. We've seen our fill of starving kids and are waiting for the next worthy cause the media will bring to our at- tention. I may sound cynical but I believe we've been trained to respond to such issues that way. After we're alerted to, a situation, we're bombarded with information -abaft it by the media and we all jump on the band wagon until we've had enough. We care but _our . attention spans are short. Without famine and widespread suffering in our backyards, we quickly lose our sense of urgency about it. Malnutrition and starvation is nothing new. "We knew what was going on years before it got international TV publicity," former federal agriculture minister Eugene Whelan recently told college students in London. And, unless we make a greater commitment to helping starving peoples,. many more millions will die. Instead, we spend more than ever on sophisticated weapons, he said. Canada, byincreasing aid to famine relief from $3 million to $26 million, has become the largest donor to Ethiopia. But, it can still do more by sharing its expertise in agriculture. Miraculous results could come about if the Canadian -developed dry -land farming was transferred to Africa, said Mr. Whelan. It seems that younger Canadians, high school and college age, are the people Mr. Whelan and other agencies are trying to reach the most. Organizations like Cansave give presentations about Ethiopia in schools with the belief that tomorrow's answers will come_from.young peo-pig.__• Recordings like Britain's Do They Know It's Christmas?, U.S.A.'s We Are The World and Canada's Tears Are Not Enough are aimedat collecting donations from our af- fluent youth. While young people have more disposable income that ever before, I question whether they are in a position to make the changes necessary to really solve the problem of world hunger. Has anyone heard how much. the people with money such as corporations and big businesses have contributed? Have seed companies and agricultural machinery companies shared their expertise? I haven't heard. Youth are the future leaders of our coun- try and aiming pleas for aid their way is a good idea. A generation committed to giving to their fellow human beings is only good news for mankind. But, youth also learn from example and those presently in power need to do their part as well. In order to keep our interest in helping needy nations, I think we have to continue to feel there is some hope. We have to know that our contributions are getting to the peo- ple who need them (and according to Mr. Whelan, 95 per cent of the contributions do go where they're supposed to. We have to forget about band-aid solutions and send away our aid as regularly as we fill out our -income tax forms. And, we have to keep our politicians sending away parfions "" - of our taxes to under -developed nations. Long after the radio stations stop playing We Are_ The World and Tears Are Not Enough, we have to continue to give aid where it's needed. culture, Canadian identity, Canadian patriotism, if there are no Canadians, only different groups who are seeking shelter for their own purposes? When are the members of the so-called ethnic groups going to be mature and confi- dent enough to throw away the hyphens of their separateness and become free and tolerant individuals- who are eager to par- ticipate cheerfully in a free and tolerant na- tion? The Armenian group is not the only one to whom this applies, but it is clearly visible for its more militant and grim determina- tion not to let go the past, but to drag into our everyday lives, often with tragic results, events that happened long ago iri distant lands. It almost looks as if some groups are taking a perverse and masochistic pride in displaying history's gory skeletons in to- day's living rooms, trying to perpetuate suf- fering through new forms of violence and revenge. There is equally determined and even growing division in many other areas of our daily lives, partly promoted by the different labels on our schools into vrhich we carry the prejudices we are anxious to pass on to' our childpen C, n we not bversrub out the labels and break out of our little boxes, in order to celebrate and cherish all the marvellous things we as people have in common? Then there would be no ground for terrorism and violence. If this sounds sentimental, tell me of a better way. ELSA HAYDON