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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1978-05-25, Page 5skesVe Since its suspicious debut in the early 1950's, television has become the major media and source of entertainment around the world. But its value as an educational media as opposed to the entertainment aspect have often conflicted. Last week West German Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, suggested that West Germans should have one television free day each week. He said that people, including married couples were not talking to each other and he laid the blame directly on television. He said if West Germans kept their television sets turned off one day a week it would give people a chance to discuss important problems relating to marriage, family problems and the education of children. The chancellor was concerned that television gave people a false picture of real life and tends- to portray violence as a normal occurrence. Good point chancellor. Much of today's television programming deals with violence and (gasp) sex. But the stuff sells commercial dollars, which is another sore point. If television is relating a distorted picture of life now, through violence as a relatively normal ever, alife prac- tice, life in television 20�re s ago was distorted to the opposite extreme. At nas come full circle. Shows like Donna Reed, Father Knows Best or perhaps My Theee Sons are a good example of the all, -American family we used to watch. A typical scenario from one of those shows could have gone like this. . The family is gathered in the living room after supper. The children are sprawled on the floor doing their homework. Mother knits quietly on the couch, looking refreshed despite a hectic day of house cleaning, shopping and meal preparation. Father is reclining in the old easy chair reading the'paper. Fathers never seemed to work in those shows or worry about mortgage payments. They just GODRICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1978—PAGE 5 read newspapers and were handy any time of the day to offer their sage fatherly advice in case one of the sib- lings developed a pimple before the big prom and needed consolation. "Guess what I heard at school today?" Susie says while reclining on the ex- pensive carpet on the living room floor. "Jake only got 98 on his biology test." "You promised you wouldn't tell," Jake stammers. "Gee mom, dad, do you think it will spoil my chances of becoming a neurosurgeon when I go to college?" "I don't know Jake," father replies leaning forward. "We all suffer these minor setbacks in life.You will just have to work harder." "Do you think maybe you could help me tonight dad so I can get perfect marks and become the best darn neurosurgeon in the world;"Jake asks. "Well, I don't know son. Your mother and 1 were going to attend the ballet tonight, then I was going to finish building my nuclear reactor in the basement and teacher your sister Susie about brain surgery before she went to bed. But I may find time to discuss the finer intricacies of neurosurgery before you go to bed." "You're a lifesaver dad," Jake says thankfully. "But dad I need some time for your wise counselling too," Susie demands. "Tom, captain of the debate, football, basketball and golf teams, who has a 100 average and his father is a physicist down at the plant asked me to go to the formal. Afterwards we want to go to the country club and then over to a friend's for lemonade and cookies. Could I stay out till 9:30. I. am 18 dad." "Well it only seems fair on prom night. No later than 9:30 though," dad ex- plained. "Now if our problems are solved mother and I will go to the ballet". "Just one thing dear," mother in- terrupts, "Should we have pot roast or prime rib for supper tomorrow?" THE WEEK AFTER Robert Jackson, the controversial head of Ontario's royal commission on declining school enrolment, last week survived a move to have him fired from the post for alleged racist remarks. Jackson emerged cheerful from hours of grilling by a Legislature committee at Queen's Park after Liberal committee members ignored Liberal Leader Stuart Smith's views and opposed Jackson's firing. Education Minister, Tom Wells, said the Committee session was a . healthy exercise and said he accepted Jackson's commitment not to repeat his remarks, INFORMATION, BACKGROUND AND OPINION PROVINCIAL POINTS Jackson told reporters he did not feel chastened by the experience although he felt he had made some errors in how he expresserhimself in his interim report and a speech in London. He said his commitment not to make further comments would not affect his work on the commission because the next stages of it did not require him to deal with the same issues. Wells had said earlier he would con- sider firing Jackson, a former director of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, if public uproar over his remarks continued. The Liberal government has been under great pressure this week from all sides of the opposition over its proposal to give Quebec federal taxpayers an $85 income-tax rebate as a settlement of the sales/tax dispute with Quebec. The attacks on the government and namely Finance Minister Jean Chretien, were highlighted by the suspension, for one day, of Quebec Conservative MP Roch Lasalle for calling Chretien a liar. It was the first time in nearly 14 years that an MP was suspended from the House of Commons. And in Quebec City, all parties of ,the :National ,Assembly, joined forces in . 4114:10" Italy virtually came 'to a standstill May 10 as that nation and people around the world mourned the murder of Aldo Moro, whose bullet -ridden body was found dumped in the back of a, car in central Rome, 54 days after his kid- napping by Red Brigade terrorists. Italian newspapers screamed with headlines such as Murderers and Barbarians and Monsters and papers in Germany and France also denounced the Red Brigade's deed. In Italy mij,lions of workers took part in a two-hour strike to protest the sen- seless killing. Schools and theatres closed for the day, stores shut their doors and people wept openly in the f" Jackson said in London that test-tube babies and paying women to stay home to have children could save Canada from racial suicide. Canada's declining birthrate means the country's European character faces extinction, he said, and the only immigrants it now gets are from nations of uncontrolled fertility. New Democratic Party members had objected strongly to sections of the in- terim report which included a full-page color picture of a pregnant white women labelled a beautiful member of that rare and endangered species. In an opening statement to the com- mr mittee after Wells made a point of ex- plaining Jackson's long experience in educational research and as an adviser to the provincial government - Jackson said he sincerely regretted the .in- terpretation given to his remarks. "They were never intended to be racist," he said. "My use of the term racial suicide when I meant national suicide was of course, most un- fortunate." His explanation only further infuriated New Democratic Party members of the committee - who later lost their hid to have the committee vote to replace CANADA IN SEVEN adopting a motion proposed by Premier Rene Levesque, calling on their mem- bers of Parliament in Ottawa to oppose the plan. Levesque said the notion of individual rebates announced by Chretien, is contrary to the position taken by a special Senate -Commons committee on the Canadian constitution, which decided in 1972 that when a province wants to opt out of a federal program, the federal government should channel the money to the provincial government. The committee decided that rebates to individuals are impractical. Liberal backbencher, Serge. Joyal said that a group of Quebec MPs will ask the government to suspend the proposal until the Quebec government takes steps to gain some of those funds through its own taxation. Joyal said several MPs will urge Chretien to amend his legislation when it comes up for second reading but other Quebec Liberal MPs were backing Chretien. Under the rebate plan proposed by .Chretien, most Quebec taxpayers would get an $85 rebate on their 1977 federal income tax. Those who paid more than $85 get $85 back, those who paid less get their full payment back and those who paid no income tax will get nothing. Chretien wants to restore to Quebec the $186 million owed to them from his April 10 budget. The money was left over when the Parti Quebecois government refused to go along with Chretien's plan to co -finance an across the hoard sales tax cut in the provinces. The matter has been a hotly contested issue in the question and answer period in the House of Commons and last week Chretien admitted that he may have made a fatal error in pushing ahead with the sales tax -reduction -plan. He said that he took a risk and that it WORLDWEEK streets. Thousands took part in silent vigils. World leaders paid homage to the 61 - year -old statesman who had served as Prime Minister five times and guided his country through much of the prosperous 1960s as well as the social unrest that has marked this decade. He was almost certain to be Italy's next president. In Ottawa, Prime Minister Trudeau- expressed his sadness and indignation at the assassination of a great statesman and true friend of Canada. U.S. President, Jimmy Carter called Moro's murder a contemptible and cowardly act. In the Vatican the Pope called it a barbarous killing. Italy's Justice Minister Francesco Bonifacio said the slaying had made the government more determined than ever to win the war against Italian democracy. The grief felt by Moro's family was tinged with bitterness by the govern- ment's outright refusal to free 13 terrorists from jail in return for MOr0's life as demanded by the Red Brigades. The family told authorities in a blunt statement that there would be no state funeral at Moro's request. While the family and Italians may have been bitter over Moro's death because the government refused to release the prisoners, their hard line position may indicate to terrorists they will not tolerate any future actions. The government asserted itself and would have to stick to that position in future. The statement from Moro's family said there would he no public manifestation or ceremonies or speeches, no national mourning, no state funerals or medals in his memory. The family withdraws in silence and asks for silence. The universal disgust over the slaying appears to have frustrated the Red Jackson - because he apologized for the reaction to his remarks rather than apologizing for the actual remarks.. An apology is not sufficient, NDP leader Michael Cassidy told Jackson because the twin themes of fertility and immigration run through the report. Liberal Leader Stuart Smith said in a later interview he did not agree with three Liberal MPPs who joined with the government to defeat the NDP motion to have Jackson removed from the post. But he stressed that the three - Ron Van Horne (London North), John Sweeney (Kitchener -Wilmot), and Paul may have been a fatal risk but he said he did it in good faith and because he believed in federalism. He added that the matter in no way influenced him to consider resigning from the finance post. Debate in the House last week centred on the second reading of legislation to grant formal approval to measures announced in his April 10 budget, the first since he became finance minister last fall. The budget offered $&00 million in federal -funds -to finance -across the board - sales tax cuts of two -percentage points Blundy (Sarnia) were free to vote as they wished, because the party had not taken a formal position and considered the issue a relatively minor matter. The three Liberals expressed distaste for Jackson's comments in his London speech but told the committee that they felt it was important to get on with the work of the commission rather than delay over the remarks. Deerning enrolment in Ontario has forced the closure of many schools in the province and subsequently man"y teachers are losing jobs that once seemed relatively secure. ° on the condition that provinces foot the bill for an additional one percentage point reduction. Alberta, which has no sales tax, was not affected. All provinces agreed to the proposal in advance except Quebec, where the government chose to eliminate all sales tax on specified items but leave most untouched. Ottawa has since offered to reimburse the Quebec government $40 million out of $226 million earmarked for the province to cover items affected and has announced that it will make dii-ect refunds of up to $85 to each Quebec • taxpayer to account for the rest. Brigades aim of driving a wedge bet- ween the ruling Christian Democrats and the Communist party, which has been supporting the government in parliament. The Red Brigades justified their terrorism by saying it seeks a fascist coup which would spark a Communist reaction and lead to a genuine revolution of the people. But millions of Com- munists and Roman Catholics were joined in their nation-wide protests of the killers. Moro's blood spattered body, riddled with 11 bullets in thechest, was found in the hatchback of a red Renault R4 car in the Via- Michelangelo Cretani, 100 yards from the Communist Party headquar- ters and just two blocks from the Christian Democrat party headquarters. Alongside the car was a battered wall of corrugated iron, sealing off a con- struction zone. It was covered with posters, one of them announcing Red Cross week. The body was lying on its back, face upward, the head tilted to one side, one hand lying across the front of a dark coat. Police said Moro had been killed and then dressed in the same clothes he wore the day of his kidnapping, March 16. Five of the bullets hit Moro within a six- inch radius of his heart. I was working around the house the other night enjoying the warmth of the late evening sun when all of a sudden I realized that I was sweating. The tun impact of that discovery took a few minutes to sink in. At first I put it down to hard work (a regular work horse) but then it hit me. I hadn't been able to sWeat outdoors in eight months. Summer weather must finally be here. Excited by that discovery I rushed into the house to tell my family but as I passed the television' I noticed the faces of the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast crew telling millions of Canadians to stick by their televisions for what should be a classic Stanley Cup struggle. Confused slightly I paused. Stanley Cup struggle? The Stanley Cup is professional hockey's high point of the season. Those men have spent an entire winter, well fall and winter, skating up and down patches of ice in buildings across North America for the right to play in a Stanley Cup final. Ice...win- ter...call the doctor dear I think I'm coming down with something. My concerns were relieved somewhat when the television cameras went out onto the streets in front of the arena to film loyal fans streaming into the rink. I immediately noticed them all in short sleeves and summer clothing but then before I could convince myself it was late in the year to be playing hockey the cameras returned to the ice. Winter again. I put my hand to my forehead. Not too warm considering the work I've been doing. It must be a replay of a winter sport played during the winter. They can't be playing hockey late in May when it's almost 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The broadcaster promised faithfully to return in a few moments after a few messages from the sponsors of this mighty battle on blades and I was going to slip outside to see if the temperature had fallen off sharply. I thought I may have to bring the tomatoes back inside to keep them from freezing during the night. Before I could get out of the living room I spotted three men sitting on a boat in an obvious summer setting. The only unusual thing was that they were wearing heavy sweaters but they were drinking cold beer and I assumed they also had worked up their first sweat of - the year. I paused to hear what they were doing and it turns out they were getting a boat ready for the summer and betting on when the ice would be out of the water so they could launch their craft. That's it - I'm going to the hospital. When I told my wife where I was going she said something about finishing off the flower garden but in my feverish state I couldn't have heard her right. Then I suggested she accompany me to the hospital as she may have the same thing I've got. She managed to calm me down and I returned to the living room to relax a few minutes. The game had started and immediately I began to think of cold, winter nights when the Toronto Maple Leafs entertained viewers in southern Ontario with their home games. I began to shiver slightly. At the first commercial I slipped into the dining room and turned the thermostat up and grabbed a blanket. I sat huddled in the living room watching the action wishing summer weather would come and scolded my daughter for going outside with no coat on. She gave me a rather dazed lobk and said she was going out to ride her bicycle. As the action picked up in the•game a few rather overzealous players dropped their gloves and squared off at centre ice. When my wife asked why they do that I explained that the sport is fast and loose and occasionally players may misjudge the height of their sticks and ' accidentally hit someone near or on the head causing them to loose their temper. "I think they're mad because they have to play hockey in the summer," she said. I thought about that and said, "It won't be summer until Saturday." jeff Seddon 1