HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-01-13, Page 17ri
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tenni tion, fr4dOlf EIcrrtan -Made` an
inter'esting, if gruesomiei observation:.
Het; said, that" if•,you kill' one man, it is
murder, ii you kill 100 or even 1,000 it is
mass `rnur"der,.but if you. kill 6,000,000 it
a statistic,,
That ; is not ., a particularly noble
statement, nor did it come from a
particularly noble man,but it ,does tend
to stickin one'smind.'
Perhaps the. incomprehensible vision
of 6,000,000 human beings,destroyed for
rather, abstract political, economic and
religious'' reasons has'' resulted in a
slightly deadened social conscience for.
post war generations,; Added to that 'are
statistics; of more dead as the result of
two world wars, a so called "police
action in " -Korea, American
"assistance". to South Vietnam and
nutnetous lesser conflicts in recent
years all totalling many hundreds of
thousand . ' a
'The:, -,advent. ofa 'highly . efficient
electronic media has°brought into our
homes scenes of weeping mothers sifting
through charred ruins of their nalpamed•
village looking:for the_remains of their
• dead burned babies. Like an opiate, all
this 'has tended to deaden our responses
toward death, even death on a massive
scale. Or, to put it another way, our
reverence for life is being steadily, and
perhaps not soo slowly, eroded.
A group calling itself Pro -Life is no
stranger to informed people of this area.
The'organization has maintained a high
profile through letter writing cam-
paigns, .submissions_ _,,.to government
committees,' displays at public fairs and
exhibitions, advertising campaigns -and
the dissemination of anti=abortion
literature and information. "But `just
what is Pro -Life?
Slmpl x,Nit is a group; ol:.personsy, who
say `that '-`life is '-a''coritinurng process,
and at no stage Is it expendable", Pro -
Life is a group dedicated to putting its
finger in the leaky dyke of what they
consider contemporarysociety's callous
c e
a. a Loth'"a o, � 'f
aro h e lw� f h .tri n li
pp Y. . u u �.e . .
The fact that society • . has - allowed
200,000;• abortions in.Canadian hospitals
since 1969 'they feel is 'another
•manifestation of our unfeeling attitudes
toward killing do even`massive scales.
Much to the dismay of ProLife, the
group is ,primarily associated with its
anti -abortion stance. Charity McDonald,
a member of the group's public relation
board, puts it this way. "We, as, a group,
are not antg,,anything. We"'look' at all this
from a positive point of View. ..we just
do not believe that any person has a right
to take a life."
Pro -Life president .Gerd- Crabb notes,
"At this._ stage we just feel it should be
abortion we should be bringing to the
attention of people- not that we avoii°tYe
other„issues -but we are just getting into
those."
The group does admit that it is con-
cerned most with the abortion issue
because "those are the defenceless
ones".
IS ABORTION MURDER?
To many, however, abortion is either
nett' killing, or is -borderline enough in
sone, philosop}cal sense, not to conflict
with_ a basic moral commitment that
'killing is wrong. Pro -Life simply does
not support that..
Medical science, they stress, has
amply documented the humanity of the
unborn child. Indeed there is little
scientific disagreement about when the
life of an individual human being begins,
they add. '
A beief,submitted to Parliament by
the Alliance for Life (a co-ordinating
body representing various smaller Pro -
Life type organizations), :notes, "The
authorities employed in Canadian
medical schools agree that life begins at
conception."
That brief quotes what it calls a
-" `a3tttit'dsiridi text *,The -form'd`i vn,"�
maturation and mating of a male and
female sex' cell are all preliminary 'to
their actual union into a combined cell or
t, W
zygote, which; definitely marks the
beginning`,.eloof a anpcnentew individual.ofthisrfew
"
-! hindividual
eixtremely rapid;'the brief goes on.
Before a woman ordinarily knows that
she is pregnant the new•human being has
developed thousands, of cells, a heart
which began beating, Within 2r days of
conception, blood ,'Vessels and -cir-
culating blood,
cir-culating'blood, a backbone and skeletal
system, a brain from which brainwaves
aretraceable by 43,'days, rudimentary
organs, liver, kidney digestive tract,
arms and legs, fingers and toes, eyes,
ears and a mouth. .. ,
Pro -Life members, point . out that, to
them, and too most people, this list of
devejopinents adequately describes a
child - a human being and one who has a
right to life.
"A" human being," Mrs. McDonald
emphasizes, "has ,rights, from con-
ception."
Following that stance further, abor-
tion becomes killing:. pro -Life therefore
oppose abortion at any stage with one
exception. Only if the mother's life is in
danger should- any pregnancy be ter-
minated.
No matter how the-Pro"Life members
feel about their public image as an "anti-
abortion"lobby they` have to admit that
it is upon that fasidation that their
complete policy is based.
Mrs. McDonald, 'quotes Dr. Albert
Sweifzer: "it you lose reverence for any
part of life, then soon 'you lose reverence •
for it all,"
Group co-ordinaton;Connie Osborne, a
driving force behind `Pro -Life since the
Goderich and District: chapter was first
formed in 1973, observes that abortion oir
demand was made -available in Ger-
many before the secoind world war. She
goes on to suggest the"resulting damage
that>move.caused.to,.value=placed on
a human life by, thatsociety led to
Dachau, Bergan-Belsen, and Auschwitz.
"People become hardened," she says.
VVIILIiCHANGE
IMAGE
Although the group say they want to
change theirimage from that of an anti-
abortion lobby to a truly Pro -Life front
they have only done so, • to date, in
principle.. On the issues of euthanasia,
death with dignity, and capital punish-
ment no firm policy positions have been
developed.
In` connection with the death with
dignity debate the group notes that one
of its, concerns for the moment is that a
real definition of death be made.
Gordon Crabb obersves that "the
definition of death has been changing
over the years".
Mrs. Osborne suggests it would be a
positive movein these fields for the
group to draw up a position paper on
death and make submissions to the
various medical associations and the
Attorney Gneeral.
. If and when such action is taken, Pro -
Life says it would be urging caution that
any decisions made in this ares not be
used for social reasons:'
""For example", Pro -Lifer Rev.
Marvin Barz says, "it would be most
important to assure that persons over
the age of 65; for example, are not
considered useless to society."
Mrs: Osborne points to a practice in
British hospitals where the charts on
beds of patients. 65 and over instruct
medical personal that in the event of
cardiac arrest, the oatient is "Not to be
Resuscitated".
Pro -Life has yet to draw up an,official
position on capital • punishment. ,
Pro -Life has also been criticized for its
"unbalanced" position • concerning
abortion and birth control. While it
adamantly opposes abortion it has not
actively promoted alternative forms of
' birth control and family planning. For
-.: the same reasons it has been -accused of
a Catholic bias,,
Charity McDonald admits, "Though 'I
am very anti -abortion, there..i's not.
enough knowledge being deciminated
about contraception."
Turning to the accusation that Pro -
Life is a Catholic front organization Miss
McDonald recalls, "Many people
thought I had become a Catholic when I.
joined Pro -Life: We are a non-
denominational, humanistic group
unaligned with any particular religion
Gordon. Crabb explains, "We are
hoping that other people, and groups,
will promote family planning through
birth control. We have never said we
were against anything except abortion."
Pro -Life's official_ position is that it
neither opposes nor promotes birth
control.
"Many people have different opinions
about it,", Mrs. Osborne says. "Other
groups have the money to provide
services in the field of birth control. But
as long as abortion exists it works
against responsible family planning."
Rev. Bari adds, "Apparently abortion
is being accepted as a family planning
method. Pro -Life does not accept that."
Gordon Crabb defends the group's
lack of total ,policy this way, "When we
win the struggle in defence of the unborn
we will. be able to turn to other
problems."
"At this stage," he adds," we feel it is
abortion, which we should be bringing to
the people's attention. . .not that we
avoid the other end of the scale...we are
just getting into that."
"If we it quietly," Mrs. McDonald
notes, "we are condemning to 'ex-
termination countless unborn children."%,•
ONE ALTERNATIVE
ALREADY
Though an .associated organization
known as Birth Right, the Pro -Life group
does p'iovide at least one alternative.
Birth Right will help pregnant,
distressed mothers, • married or un-
married make arrangements to have
their baby.
Since it was founded a little more than
(continued on page 8M
IDY
OZ
There , is only one thing standing
etween you and me and as takeover by
omputer corporates. That one thing, is,
red Looker of Goderich and others like
Fred is a: member of that fast growing -
eed known as the computer hobbyist. •
"Computer' hobbyists will stop. the
orld from being taken over by coin
uters, because -they, • (the ''average
eople), understand computers and will
now what the big computer corporates
re up to," he said.
But as long' as the majority of. people
main ignorant„ of this electronic
chnology, they remain vulnerable- to
e -poo, sibility of- becoming a co'mpiiter-
n society.
Most people, Fredsays, don't un-
rstand computers, because they are
fraid of
"It's ;.the fear of the unknown," he
Ys. ,
But there is: nothing to fear really but
ar itself.
"You,'! ,hear ; people complain about
mputers a and automation as being "a;
threat to their jobs, but their jobs really
aren't threatened, it's just that they
have been misinformed," Fred said.
"Their supervi§ors haven't bothered to
take the time to explain the situation to
them."
"One of , the first things you have to
realize. in ' coming to understand com-
puters, is that the computer is basically
very stupid."
The computer can take over the
drudgery end of a job,,and can do it more
efficiently than a` -person, but it knows
only as much as the man or woman who
programmed the information into it.
"A very large number of hobby
computers are being- taken -by people
who have very dull jobs, and'pass on the
drudgery of their jobs to the computer."
The efficiency of a computer allows a
businessn'ian to_ begin attacking things
(untried areas), that he never had time
to attack 15 years ago, Fred said:
You can buy an assembled hobby
computer for $500 or buy a kit and
assemble it yourself for about $460 Fred
said, but the interested' cormputer'•bo)-
byist looks to spend about $1,000 on his
computer..
"People always think that computets
are too expensive, because they see
themselves getting something that's so
small and paying $1;000," he said."
"When you think that people spend as
much or more on other hobbies like
-buying a sailboat or an airplane, the
price of a hobby computer doesn't seem
all that much."
Selling hobby computers is one
specialty of Tyzl Ltd., the mail order
business that Fred operates from the
basement of his Goderich home with the
help of his wife and son-in-law..
The company which was formed in
1973, began specializing in books and
other informational- material for
amateur radio operators.
Radios and electronics have been his
way of life for over 30 years, said Fred,
54, ever since he began to service radios
at the age of 13.
A 30 foot radio tower in his backyard
attests' to his interest in amateur radios.
"When I started into amateur radio, I
found there were very few books
available on the subject," Fred said, and
,promptly set in to rectify the situation.
He inherited a mailing list with 1500
names from a company that was in the,
business of selling to radio amateurs.
Today the mailing list holds a total of
5,000names andis constantly growing.
The Lookers; began their business by
offering Ham "Radio Magazine and about
10, technical books that met with unex-
pected success in 'sales. People from all
over the country were placing orders.
'"It's. hard for the radio amateur to get
books if he doesn't live in the urban
centre 'like Montreal or Toronto," Fred
said, explaining the large book sales.
"1! you're in a hurry to buy 'something
to,aestore to buy it, if they
•:h ve it; in stock. If you're :not you can
fir t' for tiie extra time it takes to order
tih oug+iriall.'<w,
ythe-book orders came°questions
' o sorts,arpromptiing Fred to
sea need 4 a supply tolyls and
tamate rr dtoparts,;; ;
ecame`'irnvolv,ed in hobby corn-
ers, about two years
l'btfay. zl. fid , `-catei i; iii a very
ect bfihteie '� the radios: aitdnteur and
At
ed-` 4r C77
4"fatect'ronic::.
vis1on: r`iies, but
gh, sto to.d s r
puters, however, has taken greater
prominence in his business. „
Although the company is operat&d on a
part time. business, Fred sees it quickly
growing to a full time endeavour. Right
now he devotes his. time between Tyzl
and Hearn Wholesale bf Clinton where
he is general manager.
He came to Goderich two and a half
years ago after 35 successful years in the
electronics business, first with Canadian
Marconi in Montreal and later taking
charge of several electronic firms in
Montreal and Toronto.,
His move to the harbour town has
taken him from the rat race.and he has
'no regrets, said the Belleville native.
Although Fred's mail order business is
still in the growing stages, the present
and future success of the hobby com-
puter could very well expand the
company to the point that he would find
himself right back in the rat race he has
chosen to reject. He plans to keep a tight
cobtrol on Tyzl's growth, limiting its
size.. But there seems to be no limiting
the growth of the hobby computer craze.
Within three years, Fred predicts the
ordinary man will be able to buy today's
$30-40,000 computer for about $5-6,000,
hetalding in the new generation of
inexpensive computers.
' More small business will' come to.
harness the computer to take on time
consuming tasks like the keeping of
mailing lists. ' -
"It takes my wife 3 - 4 minutes to make.
a change ona mailing, but when I get the
computer programmed to take over the
list, the changes will be made in about 10
seconds." Fred said.
The hobby computer is also making
inroads in the field of education.
"I got a letter from a man out in
California with a 9 or 10 -year-old son who
had trouble with his multiplication
tables. He wrote a programfor his son to
match wits with the computer, and it
became fun,,,a kind of a game for him,".
Fred said.
The boy can nowt/de his multiplication
tables all the _way up to 99.times.
Astheranks of the computer hobbyist
continue to swell, the computer will .be
adapted for other uses, while thwarting
the attempts of large computer moguls
to take over and control society. .
The democratic System may stand
between Communism and the Canadian
way of life licit its Fred Looker and tither
computer hobbyists, who stand between
the Canadian way of life and computer
d'omi'nation,
Wires and program panels are the guts of any hobby
computer and can be rearranged and reprogrammed by its
owner. Fred Looker makes an adjustment in his computer, -
which
which is worth upwards of $1,000. He predicts' a hobby
computer boom within three years when today's computer
of 440,000 will be available to the ordinary man for about
$6,000. (News -Record photo)
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