The Goderich Signal-Star, 1984-11-14, Page 4.01
PAGE 4—GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1984
DAVE
SYKES
There is a certain ethereal quality about
this sun -drenched day, with its crisp, clear
air and snow crunching underfoot.
Just ,what that quality is, I have not yet
ascertained.
The first snowfall tends to seduce the
enthusiasm of youth into frantic outdoor
hysteria and frolic. Kids literally swarm the
snow -drenched outdoors on the day of the
first snowfall and snowmen are much in
evidence on the front lawns of many homes.
For most adults, I would submit that the
first snowfall only holds promise of more
snow. Much more snow.
I've never been a winter person and the
first snowfall only serves to reinforce a
growing sullenness this time of year. And
each year, in the wake of that initial,
ground -covering layer I wish that I were a
winter person.
In fact I make wretched and silly vows to
become more of a winter person each
winter. It never happens but I somehow feel
better making veiled and rather thin
promises to myself.
Ah, yes, another winter of self-
improvement. It never happens and I know
that it never will. But it is still an important
exercise.
Sometimes I admire winter people. They
are the types who carry on with a myriad of
activities despite the weather conditions. In
fact they ignore weather and rather delight
in mounds of snow that cut off this Lake
Huron outpost from the rest of the world.
They go so far as to engage gut -wrenching
and perspiration -producing activities such
as cross-country . sk,iiing, snow shovelling
and car pushing. And they pretend to enjoy
it besides.
The fact that people can have fun during
the winter is pure fallacy. The people who
enjoy the snow and biting cold are the ones
who haven't earned the bucks to spend the
winter months in Florida or some other
semi -temperate place.
Winter people, I would submit, suffer
from severe frostbite of the thinking
apparatus.
Regardless, I have given fleeting but
serious consideration to "hnplementing a
winter activity program for this sedate
scribe. Other than watching football and
indulging in the odd comforting beverage,
nothing immediately came to mind.
But the mother of our children was quick
to suggest that, if 'there happened to be an
ice rink in the back yard, of the natural
variety I assumed, it would be a great boon
in keeping the dynamic duo otherwise
occupied through the severe cold.
In a momentary mental lapse I
grudgingly agreed without thinking through
the ramifications. Now, I am told by other
dutiful dads that thisrrink-building business
is frigid and sometimes fruitless work. A
short but severe mild spell can destroy
weeks of work in the freezing cold.
Now maybe if I shut off the heat in the
basement and flooded the cement floor..,
nah, it wouldn't work.
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A helping hand
Sometimes it's difficult to understand why it takes people so long to react to certain
conditions and situations.
The horror that currently exists in Africa is a good case in point.
Because of severe and prolonged droughts, lack of food production and several wars,
people are strarving to death by the thousands in many countries.
Pictures of desparate starving people have flashed across television screens and been
chronicled in the pages of the daily press. Droughts, wars and starvation are nothing new
to many African nations, but the severity of the plight in Ethiopia has suddenly awaken-
ed the sleeping and dormant humanitarianism in Canadians.
Canada, which was the major aid donor to Ethiopia, has agreed to send $25 million in
food to the drought -ravaged nation. Canadians have responded to the challenge and the
Red Cross has collected almost $500,000 in private donations to be used to get food and
supplies to the most needed areas.
But the problem goes beyond getting aid in the form of food and money. Canada and
Canadians have responded in kind with both. But getting that food and those needed sup-
plies to the people who need it most, and even finding the people whoneed it most, is an
awesome task.
One Canadian doctor and former MPP says the sudden outpouring of emotion and
money is appalling adding that the situation has existed for at least four years and that
the same situation exists in many African countries. Ports and airports soon become
blocked with food which can't be delivered to the people who need it he said adding that
large influxes of supplies often bankrupts farmers and drives them off the land. We
should be teaching them to feed themselves and improve their distribution system.
It's not to say that we should ignore the desparate pleas of these poeple for food, but
he's right in that we should provide continued aid to help drought sticken countries im-
prove their food distribution system and farming methods.
One article said that the eyes of the world and its heart are opened to Ethiopia, relief is
better organized. Throwing money and wheat flower at the problem is no longer con-
sidered the sole answer. With them must come material to bring the aid to the people who
need it.
With the help of other nations who have offered aicraft, trucks, jeeps and landcruisers
and with countless releief agencies pouring help into the area, those who need food have
a better chance of getting it.
Relief agencies working in the area are quick to point out that problem is indeed not
unique to Ethiopia. Hundreds of thousands of people may starve across many nations in
Africa before aid can reach desolate areas.
The problem won't go away with one douse of aid to one country.
Canada and Canadians can be commended for the aid given and for the assistance that
will eventually make its way overseas, but that aid should be in the best form possible.
Like most people, I know without hesita-
tion that I am, with reason and passion, in
favour of peace. We regard another war as
some unthinkable insanity in which the
possibilities of nuclear destructions hold
particular horror. 2
However, I find it very difficult to relate to
some peace activists ( what interesting ex-
pressions we have hatched) and anti-
nuclear demonstrators. One of them is Mrs.
Young, the Exeter high school teacher who
has involved the Huron County Board of
Education in seemingly endless controversy
and recrimination.
I respect and admire Mrs. Young as a per-
son of strong convictions who "would not
compromise her principles". I am certainly
among those who would always defend her
right to follow her own philosophy and
lifestyle - in her private life.
At the same time one cannot see why the
Huron County taxpayer, via their school
board, ought to finance any teacher's per-
sonal and entirely extra -curricular interests
and principles, no matter how laudable they
are.
It comes across as lack of clear thinking
when Mrs. Young speaks of "financial in-
timidation", the more astonishing as it in -
valvas -teacher at mathematics._ There
Remembering
By Joanne Buchanan
POSTSCRIPT
JOANNE BUCHANAN
I didn't get off to a good start on Sunday. I
slept in until 10:30 a.m. and had to be at the
Cenotaph to take photos of the Remem-
brance Day service by 11. Already I was in a
panic.
Then I happened to glance outside and
discovered the SNOW! I had .to rummage
around looking for my winter boots, hat and
gloves from last year.
Then it was time to warm up my
tempermental car and scrape all the white
stuff off the windows. I was really grumbl-
ing by this time.
54z-is4t,that winter takes us by surprise
every yearTWe all know that, in this neck of
the woods, it's bound to arrive sometime
near the end of October or at least in
November. But have we had our anti -freeze
checked? Can we find the scraper for our
windshield? Have we hauled our warm
clothes out of storage? Have we got the
winter tires on the car? Not likely. It's
human nature to put these things off until
the last minute. Perhaps by doing so, we
think we can buy a little time and stall the
inevitable onslaught of cold and snow.
Personally, I feel the same way about
winter as bears do. It's best to sleep six
months until it's all over.
Anyway, getting back to Sunday. What
miserable weather for the Remembrance
Day service! I stood there wet and chilled to
the bone, trying to keep my camera lens dry
and my fingers from going numb. I was
really feeling sorry for myself.
Then it suddenly struck me that I was be-
ing a spoiled brat about the whole thing. It's
because I come from a spoiled brat genera-
seems to be equally fuzzy thinking on the
part of a number of trustees. With their
minds on the noble cause of peace they
appear to forget the purpose, definition and
limitation of their position. Nuclear threat
does not start or• diminish in the office of the
Huron County Board of Education.
There are other principles besides the
ones Mrs. Young follows when the calls
come from the organizers, amounting to a
signal to leave the classroom and the
students, in order to join the group of
demonstrators wherever it is assigned to ap-
pear.
One extremely good principle would be to
honour the working contract. However,
Mrs. Young has made it known that she will
drop her classroom obligations whenever
necessary in favour of the activist
demonstrations which usually take her out
of town. She has made no secret about cour-
ting extensive publicity for her cause and
thus prefers jail and trials with speeches
even if a more moderate line of action might
be possible. She has no hesitation in her
choice of methods which keep her from her
paid profession. That is her privilege.
On the other hand, as Mrs. Young seems
to be clear about her orderto opriorities
her own mind, she oughtbe
fair and
tion; one that has never experienced the
severe poverty of the Depression or the hor-
ror and sorrow of the two World Wars.
My generation doesn't have to work as
hard as our parents and grandparents once
did; we have more leisure time than ever
before; more money; more opportunity for
education and travel. And still, it seems we
are always complaining. We want more,
more, more.
Everybody wants to make more money
and work fewer hours. Our children want
$50 Cabbage Patch dolls for Christmas while
the children of Ethiopia are starving. We
worry about having a second car or he
latest fashions, while people in foreign co
tries worry about having their freedom
taken away.
While I was at the Cenotaph, I had visions
of soldiers, a lot younger than myself, holed
up in cold, muddy, stinking trenches. Many
of them were killed in the prime of their
lives. While the miserable weather was up-
permost in my mind Sunday, it was the least
of their worries back then.
Another thing I thought about at the
Cenotaph was nuclear war. The next World
War will, no doubt, be a nuclear one. That
means no Remembrance Day services
afterwards because there will be no one left
to remember.
Maybe it's the arrival of winter that fills
my head with such depressing thoughts.
When I pick up a daily newspaper these
days, I am struck by `man's inhumanity to
man'. In foreign countries, people are being
tortured and murdered by the thousands.
Right here, in our so-called civilized coun-
try, the papers are filled with stories of
murder, incest, rape, sexual abs of
children, wife beating, pornography and
just plain immorality.
After awhile, we become desensitized to it
all. As long as the bad things aren't happen-
ing to us, we tend to be ostriches -sticking
our heads in -the sand and pretending they
don't exist. Perhaps it is because we feel too
helpless to do anything.
1 wonder what the young soldiers who died,
for us would think of the world if they saw it
today. We certainly aren't following their
example. We've inherited a wonderful way
tlf life in a beautiful country thanks to them
and we're constantly messing up.
So, what can we do?
We can quit complaining and stop feeling
sorry for ourselves. We can start • ap-
preciating what we have and stop whining
for more. And we can share what we do have
with people not as fortunate as ourselves,
both at home and abroad. Good deeds all
add up, no matter how small.
Of course, it's all easier said than done but
I personally have to believe in the basic
goodness of people. I -have to believe that
there are more good people out there than
bad -despite what the newspapers tell us. I
have to believe that my generation will pull
through for the next generation. If we don't,
the consequences are just too horrible to
think about and all of those soldiers we
remembered in the cold on November 11
will have died in vain.
honest with the public who expects a teacher
in the classroom. If that role is not on top of
her list, it would be far better for everyone,
if she let someone else have that position so
that she can dedicate herself without con-
tradiction to her chosen crusades.
Mrs. Young is not the first, only or last
person who refuses to compromise .her
ideals and principles. Nobody asks for com-
promise. Principled and dedicated people
usually sense where a clear choice is in-
evitable and accept the consequences with
dignity.
There is something small and embarrass
ing in Mrs. Young's criticism of the trustees
who in reality have shown a great deal of
tolerance and sensitivity in dealing"with her
deliberate absences from the classrooms for
which the board is responsible to the tax-
payers. What 'if the board had dozens
of
cannot
teachers on public payrollwho
separate their private lives from their pro-
fessional responsibilities and who might
want to disappear periodically from
classrooms for the sake of equally worthy
and urgent causes?
I admire Mrs. Young's principles, but
with a touch of sadness I must admit that I
cannot condone or even understand her
methods. And the methods• -in► this rase do
concern the public.
ELSA HAYDON