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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-05-05, Page 9one, me. gkes p� • Spring is undoubtedly, the finest of the seasons. Spring weather accommodates a wide scope of activity but for a sports en- thusiast it is an unlimited paradise. Not only for participator sports but also for the spectator sport. Now that's my weakness. Television programming at this time of year is just flooded with sports. The Stanley Cup playoffs, the world hockey championship in Vienna, golf tour- naments, tennis tournaments, baseball games, car racing, rugby and bowling for dollars provide a pallatable menu for armchair quarterbacks. But for just as many men who are appeasing appetites with delectable sports tidbits from the tube. there are undoubtedly just as many disgruntled wives who are foresaken on weekends for Howard Cosel and Danny Gallivan, They don't seem to forget either. Several promises made in the fall to postpone physical labors to accommodate 25 football games, 15 playoff games, championship games and a smattering ' of bowl games, creep up again in the spring. But now it's time for hockey playoffs. They will just have to wait. The wqrst possible fate ever inflicted upon a sports enthusiast happened just last week. White watching a semi-final l game between the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Islanders the power went out late in the third period.. I was furious. Take my car, golf clubs, anything; but don't deprive me of the lifeline that feeds sports into the livingroom. Watching sports on television is an affliction over which the afflicted have no control. I have even forsaken menial tasks such as lawn cutting to watch rugby, a sport I can't even comprehend. But it's sports and it's on television and LL ,. :(k GODE RICH SIGNAL -STA T, THURSD,M(e IleI0°ry 5,1101"; as one of the afflicted it is my duty to watch. I have wondered what powers hold a man's eyes glued to the television set for a whole weekend. 1 convinced myself that it. was actually enjoyable. 'Others cooly referred to it as laziness. "You will never amount to anything sitting around all day and watching football and hockey, my dear mother used to repeat. Looking back on it I have to give her credit for an infinite amount of wisdom and foresight. She was right. Television sports is entertaining and under the right circumstances cannot be rivalled by any other television programming. But it only leads to the conclusion that the majority of sports buffs, television oglers, are frustrated skinny, little, would-be jocks. But the beauty of the spring season is that it' draws out the children, the housewives and would-be jocks Into meaningful activity and exercise after a long dreary winter when the beer begins to settle in the mid-section. Spring is also a season that makes many, youthful of spirit, light, of heart and dhildren out of adults. I would enjoy nothing better than to join the hundreds of children who have returned to streets and schoolyards for road hockey and baseball. But for fear of being conspicuous and just a little bit childish I manage to suppress these athletic urges. But oh! to be young,sagain and enjoy the spring season with wild and youthful abandon and without the pressures of responsibility. I sure wouldn't mind getting in a little road hockey but it seems the grass and weeds are licking at the doorstep. 1 will have to settle for hockey television style. What a season! ti up toli 'e fini iucatfo go to f in ike to hours e me sappo got the hone ie. Ff nas for o the; ter is ose i4 fences but •. city OI stto let ook for on County Board of Education. om was overflowing last vening as a cross section of students, principals and tended a special meeting to it support to books used in ursesln area high schools. blic meeting was prompted d Barth, of Blyth made a on to the boardat its regular eeting in April and called for gation into the filth in 'books nglish courses. Mr. Barth, a cher, read some passages of and members and called for WEEK AFTER INFORMATION, BACKGROUND AND OPINION HERE -IN HURON action on the type of material that school students were exposed to. Approximately, 200 people jammed the board room and listened while teachers and English department heads asked for trust in their selection and subsequent discussion of reading material in school. Barth's main criticism and allegations were directed towards 'Of Mice and Men' and `Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck and "Catcher in the Rye' by J.D.S.• Linger. Spoklesman for the teaching group lauded not only the literary value of the works but also the valuable moral im- plications raised that acted as an ob- jective learning device, Audrey Tiffin, English department head at. F. E. Madill Secondary School in Wingham, ad- vocated use of such literature claiming the language was realistic and that literature was basically a mirror of life. Books selected for an English course are done from an approved list from the Ministry of Education and the final decision rests'With teachers, department heads and superintendents. If a teacher elects to use a book not .contained in the Ministry's approved list, then approval of the board of education is needed. Tiffin raised an important point at the. meeting claiming that one student ad- vised her that although students did use abusive language..at times, their school books were hardly the source. It's"im- possible to attempt to shelter students from abusive language in books, when that would not get to the root of the problem. Tiffin also explained that when such words were found in the text books they were not used in the classroom. Elizabeth Twiss, English department head at Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton, said that' literature offered ideas on humanity rather than reflecting model behavior and that students were capable of evaluating the situations on their own merit. Twiss explained that the evaluation of words in a book was futile but rather must be studied in.the context of the message they convey to the reader, John Stringer, Goderich District Collegiate Institute principal, said that the -groups objecting to the books in use should have their complaints aired and added that it would also,force teachers to re-examine material selected for a course. But he also upheld the educational systems responsibility to educate students to face life with an open mind and acquire the knowledge that problems can also be solved, Students supported teacher claims that theTbooks were more literary value and offered a human learning eic- perience..One student claimed that classes delved into themes, characters. and plots, comparing them to their own situations and philosophies. Board member Dorothy Wallace threw her support behind the books and their literary value.. Board chairman. Herb Turkheim expected the board to make a decision on the matter earlier this week. led onp est was was A and ny in re Borg ith the. re told it would were not: irtesy last per cla Attie e voliog fight! t vote nd the andoff iter cat ushed.1 to be Lambio imps of ima or offi fully ual a; naMer;t not all voting conflict was ued on tario Conservative Party's on of election plans backfired as the Liberal Party forced of an election three days Premier William Davis had al Party's determination to nereases in the province in with allowable wage in - w the defeat of the Con- overnment Thursday night, mpted the calling of the riday. The Conservatives t to be defeated on the bill PROVINCIAL and had hoped to call the election Monday on the premise that the party could not govern properly while having to depend on the support of weak. Liberal party against the strong opposition of the New Democratic Party. The Conservative cabinet was responsible for engineering the cir- cumstances which brought on the special debate Thursday night on the bili to extend rent controls to the end of 1978. The Liberals had introduced an amendment to the. bill and the Con- •servatives were sure that the Liberals would back down on the non -confidence ators of the federal anti- oard Continue to shuffle uickly as players on an ex - key team. onfhs Jean -Luc Pepin, head resigned from that post and wage and price controls will Canadians for some time. nister Trudeau confirmed a weekly press conference d said that Harold Renouf, rmer Atlantic Provinces ve on the seven man board, d as the replacement to was quick to point out that, vote as they" have done before to avoid defeating the government,. But the Liberals stuck to their amendment and joined by NDP sup- porters in the Legislature toppled the minority Conservative government : on the vote. Davis decided that an election would have to be called this year after the NDP party openly criticized the budget and that the government would have to fight for implementation of the bilis proposed in the budget to complete the budget program laid out by Darcy McKeough. The Liberals had promised support for POINTS the budget from the start but Davis knew that their support had become suspect. Evenetbefore the budget the government knew 'tlf opposition to the rent control law by Hugh Edighoffer, MPP from Perth. The Conservatives were anxipusly looking for an issue to call an election on, but Davis was content to call an election on the basis that the Liberal support in the legislature was unreliable. He claimed that while the Liberals 'technically supported the government they also voiced strong opposition. It ',was more an excuse than an issue. ' The government thought originally CANADA IN SEVEN although many would take his resignation as a sign that the anti- inflation program was about to end, it was not true. He claimed that wage and price controls would remain intact for, some time and that was his reason for deserting the pbst. Pepin's new duties have not hcen announced but the Prime Minister in- dicated that he has discussed several new duties with Pepin that touched on economics, national unity and foreign trade. Pepin appears to have his choice of duties and an announcement on his post is expected within another week. The Prime Minister was also quick to C teles ew Y rho 00, �` play tattoo!' in'► egh loo wlth i. e s' 16.5 Olt United States President, on, has regained the news the first of his four in - h British television's David fired. ew with Frost that was to nesday, was the first in a les, that marks the end of Imposed silence on the atter since he resigned 4 Time and Newsweek also featuring Nixon this °ries included generous °m the Watergate tran- New York Times and the a add .that the program was not faltering and that' Pepin's resignation was not" a result of failure. The program in- troduced ntroduced on October 14, 1975 was to run through October of 1978 but Trudeau said that the anti-inflation controls could be lifted sooner if business and labor can agree on „some forms of voluntary restraint, If the government can get assurance from the business sector on voluntary restraints it was hinted that the wage and price control guidelines -could begin disappearing as early as next .January. .lune Menzies. a Winnipeg consumer advocate, who replaced Beryl Plumtree as AIB vice-chairman last summer, said that although the final decisions on the hoard's fate rests with politicians the end of the controls would be phased out no later than January of,1978. She said that the anti-inflation board has recom ni ended that the controls progra m be phased out over a year and that Trudeau and the cabinet would likely support the recommendation, •Menzies claims that the controls should he lifted now while the program is still vital. The success of the program will be realized when the controls are lifted and she suggested that the controls W�RLDWEEK, Sunday Washington Post also featured front page stories based on the tapes. In the interview Nixon said his im- mediate actions after the Watergate burglary were engineered not to try and cover up the criminal action "'but to contain the scandal for political reasons. He claimed the action was to eliminate potential damage to innocent people. But it was determined that Nixon was in- volved in the scandal and secret money payments earlier than was previously known. The transcript of an unpublished White Rouse tape indicates that the former president was aware of the money paid for silence and in another tape he wondered if the American people would impeach g president on the testimony bf John Dean, The tapes shed little new Tight on what was already known of Nixon's in- volvement in the scandal that began June 7, 1972 with the break-in at the Democratic party headquarters in the Watergate office building but they reinforced the stand that he was preoccupied with Watergate from the beginning. Release of the transcripts also earned the entered of t'135 s be Minutes who devoted ;i segment of the show •to an interview with frost and also spoke to news division presidents of NBC and CBS about payments to Nixon. The former president is believed to be get - ling $600,000 as well as u share of the profits from the interviews. The Frost organization sold the interviews to 145 independent television stations, Charles Colson, who served more than four months in prison for a Watergate related charge said he is suspicious of the whole interview claiming the transcripts were inaccurate and that the rent control bill could wait unti,1 after the election. But since the rent. control laws expiffd July 31, and the law required tenants to receive 90 days notice of increases, then landlords could take advantage of the situation during the election and hike rents to their satisfaction, That situation would only mean bad news notonly for tenants in the province but also for the Con- servatives who could easily lose the tenant vote. The Conservatives were sure the Liberals would cave in on the rent bill. he waved on an individual basis. She supports a phasing out program related to the expiration of labor contracts so that' as individual contracts expire the controls would he lifted. The advantage of her recom- mendation is that all labor contracts would not he coming out of the controls at the same time .and perhaps would avoid an explosion of wage and price demands at the same time. At the same time companies would emerge from their price controls at the end of their fiscal year but would remain under price controls in cases of excess revenues. misleading. He added that the media has manipulated old tapes and used in- formation that has previously•proven to he inaccurate. • Nixon said that his motive in the whole affair was not to cover up the criminal action but that he didn't want people in the While House and people in the committee at the highest levels, who were not involved, to be smeared with the,wholc thing. He saidhe was simply trying to contain it. The New York Daily News suspected that the interviews were only the first step in an nmhitious proernm by the They are running third in the popularity polls in the, province and were the least likely party to seek an election. But. party leader Stuart Smith had to maintain party credibility and instead of giving in to the Conservative.,bill party members stood firm and voted against it. Davis claims that the government was defeated on a motion of non -confidence that forced the election. He would not admit that the party actually engineered the defeat in seeking the election. That shouldn't fool too many voters, Pepin was regarded as a smooth tongued charmer who acted mainly as a conciliator on the •board and said publicly that he would leave the post of chairman as soon as a replacement could •be found. Renouf, a Halifax chartered accountant and 'only one of two original members on the AIB, is a business -like scholarly contrast to Pepin. Renouf, who joined the anti-inflation hoard two days .after its inception in 1975 has been a strong enforcer of the program and under his direction wage and price controls will be enforced to the law, disgraced ex -president to rehabilitate; his image. Time maga-zine said that Frost consistently pumped Nixon with quote after quote from the tapes and that at the end of the interview, Nixon looked like a beaten man. The second interview in the series will be shown May 12 and it will be a discussion of Nixon's foreign policy. The third program of the series to be aired— May 19 will deal with war, home and abroad and Nixon's final days will be shown May 25 and will deal with his lite since leaving the office of the President of the United States.