The Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-04-10, Page 24At wit's en
by Erma Bombed,(
A anokslynaws
on. of alarm 's
outstanding news ties
Crossroads—Apr. 10, 1985—Page 9
Nancy Travers was severely burned
last winter. She needed plasma, a
blood component.
She gotthat plasma
BECAUSE PEOPLE
GAVE. BLOOD
ends for life
The Canadian Red Cross Society
I Was always intrigued by
the story about the 71 -year-
old woman wbo, a few years
ago had -her son -and- his—
family legally removed from
her home.
In the suit she stated that
her 34 -year-old son, his girl-
friend and her four children
said the stay would be
temporary until they could
find a suitable house, but it
had been over five months
and they were still there. In
her words, she felt "like a
prisoner in my own home."
Then there was the story of
the 71 -year-old man who had
lived with his mother all of
his life and she still cooked
him three meals a day. His
mother was 94.
There are a lot of stories
like that, giving new mean-
ing to the phrase, "Latch -
Key Children."
Many latch -key kids are
full-grown adults who cannot
bear to turn in a key that
brought them so much
security, so much love, an
open refrigerator door and a
washer and dryer without a
slot for quarters.
But something strange
happens to older latch -key
children from the moment
their keys turn in the lock.
They .bec-orae-half- adult -half_
child again.
They are old enough to re-
ceive mail. They are too
young to.toss it -in the waste-
basket when they don't want
it. They are tall enough to
reach the milk on the top
shelf of the refrigerator.
They are too short to put it
back so they leave it by the
sink. They are old enough to
turn off your VCR tape and
turn on MTV, but they are
too young to turn it back on
again. They are old enough
to entertain. They are too
young to write a check.
The child in them eats and
walks away from the table.
The adult in them comes in
after 3 in the morning. The
child in them still leaves wet
towels on the bed. The adult
in them says they had to
grab a flight to St. Louis and
were late.
Parents too get confused
over their roles. When they
wash your socks, drop off
your cleaning, loan you their
shampoo and take your tele-
phone messages, they figure
it gives them rights. It gives
them the right to tell you how
to lead yourlife, pick your
friends, how to dress and
what kind off a car to buy.
Like most parents, we've
made the "Mommy and
Daddy love you very much
and cannot imagine life
without you but when are you
checking out" speech. But
it never got to the point
off legal litigation. We just
started buying blue milk and
'seven grain natural bread
and they left of their own
free will.
Other parents still fight the
battle of the adult latch -key
child. This letter is from a 65 -
year -old widowed mother in
Portland, Ore.
"I have one heck of a time
finding a companion because
if I set up a romantic setting,
dinner, soft music, house
spotless, waiting anxiously
and with hopes, in pops one
of the boys with, 'Hi, Mom,
what smells good? Can I take
a shower?' Oh, hell!"
The Speaker of the House
off Commons, John Bosley,
has ruled that Sheila Copps,
the Liberal member for
Hamilton East, did not have
a case in the question of
privilege she raised recent-
ly. Ms. Copps had claimed
that remarks by the Secre-
tary of State, Walter Mc-
Lean, in a newspaper inter-
view, were intimidating and
were therefore a threat to
her, freedom of speech.
The interview concerned
Ms. Copps' mother, Ger-
aldine Copps, the wife of the
former Hamilton Mayor.
The Mulroney cabinet had
decided not to reappoint
Mrs. Copps as a citizenship
judge.
At some point in the inter-
view — and the exact context
has not been established —
,Mr. McLean remarked:
"You check the record, what
her daughter's had to say
about the gover1iment."
When the question of
privilege was raised, Mr.
McLean, did not dispute the
accuracy of the quotation,
but in somewhat garbled
statement to the House; in-
dicated that the newspaper
reporter had put the remark
in what he called a "new
context."
In ruling, the Speaker said
he understood Ms. Copps'
distress, but in any dispute
between a , newspaper re-
porter and a member of
Parliament — in this case,
Mr. McLean, — "the chair
must always take the word of
the member."
It's too bad that Ms. Copps
could not establish breach of
privilege, but what is worse
is that politicians should con-
tinue to use public money as
reward or ,punishment.
I know how Ms. Copps
feels about her transgres-
sions being charged to her
mother, because the same
thing happened to me. When
my father was Director of
the Canada Council, with
imputed rank in the civil
service, he discovered that
he was the lowest ,paid
deputy minister in Ottawa.
The Tory Chairman of the
Canada Council re-
monstrated with Prime
Minister Diefenbaker about
this, and he replied to this
effect: "Trueman is a Grit,
and his son is a Grit and
writes against us in the
Montreal Star. I'll never
raise his salary:"
We were not Liberals, and
if I was critical of the gov-
ernment, I was only doing a
job. And yet my father, then
in those final years which
determine pension pay-
ments, is still, in his 80s,
paying the price for Mr. Die-
fenbaker's rancid suspicion.
I thought we just fought an
election campaign on
patronage. I thought Mr.
Mulroney said he was
against it. I thought . he
promised reform. To say the
least, it's overdue.
Mainstream Canada
For as little as
•
tsif
•
Tokens won't
buy jobs
•• • 't w Oil
CHECK YOUR COST
•
(1000,000 LIFE
INSURANCE)
:,.
SAMPLE AGES
NON-SMOKER
(Male) MONTHLY
UP TO
AGE 30 14.42
AGE 35 18.33
AGE 40 25.90
AGE 45 37.38
AGE 50 44.06
AGE 55 68.44
AGE 60 112.67
,AGE 64 165.99
Larger Amounts
CIGARETTE SMOKER
(Male) MONTHLY
UP -TO_..
AGE 30 16.91
• AGE 35 23.14
AGE 40 34.35
AGE 45 50.29
AGE 50' 69.15
AGE 55 103.15
AGE 60 136.62
AGE 64 191.26
Availabre At Reduced Cost Per $1,000.
OUR RATES ARE
NOW LOWER
THAN EVER '
WHY PAY
MORE?
Ron recent
trip to the won a
Con e Mer, t Club
en tion (to be
held this ye
Qrle ar in New
w
outstanding
for his
achievements and
saes
Life f °r Transamerica
I for
COMPARE OUR FEATURES AND BENEFITS
• Guaranteed level premium for 10 years
• Convertible to age 65
• Other plans available for ages 65 to 80
• Smaller amounts available with other plans
• Female rates slightly less
• Guaranteed renewable to ,age 75 regardless of your health
• Issue ages 20 to 64
• Pipe and cigar smokers classed as non-smokers
• Covers death by natural or accidental causes
• Minimum issue is 50,000 with 125.00 annual premium
CHILDREN'S OPTION: For only 2.59 monthly, insure all 'your children under the
age of 19 for 5,000 each plies guaranteed insurability as an adult for $25,000.
LIFE INSURANCE PROTECTION FROM NORTH
AMERICA'S LEADING TERM INSURANCE
LIFE INSURANCE
SERVICES
COMPANY Transamerica
r-
Ron MacNeil
RON MacNEIL AGENCY OO A IOOX 8OG858 POMERSTON
YES. PLEASE PROVIDE FURTHER INFORMATION
ON YOUR LOW COST LIFE INSURANCE
Smoker i
Non Smoker L
1
Male f..: Age
Female El Age
Name Phone
Address
Occupation
Postal Code
For a FREE Quotation
with NO OBLIGATION
detach this portion of
the ad and send to the
address listed.
MID
By Tony Carlson
It's not hard to make a
toddler believe in magic.
Palm a coin in one hand
while seeming to put it in the
other and you've got one
wide-eyed believer on your
hands.
But this elementary
sleight of hand won't stand
repetition. The kid soon
catches on.
There is something of this
in the way governments of
the past have treated small
business.
Too often it's been a case
of making part of the tax
burden disappear with one
hand — in the form of tax in-
centivies, for example —
while restoring the load with
the other through more
regulations or higher payroll
taxes.
Now, that sector of the
economy which is producing
most of the new jobs is
echoing the experienced
child who cries "Enough!"
when Dad dusts off his hoary
bag of tricks.
In the case of governments
and small business, the word
is tokenism, a win -lose
formula is which all levels of
legislators have given with
one hand while taking away
with the other.
It just won't wash any
more, ' says John Bulloch,
president of the Canadian
Federation of Independent
Business, if the political
leaders wish to create a
fertile ecology for small
firms to emerge and grow.
He delivered the message
in person to Andre Bisson-
nette, the federal Minister of
State for SmallAusiness, at
the first of a series of public
hearings being held across
the country.
It is fast becoming the
accepted truth that new
small firms have been creat-
ing by far the majority of
jobs in this country and will
continue to do so for the fore-
-seeable future.
That's something the CFIB
has been saying for some
time, but now the govern-
ment has come on board as
Have others, including most
recently the retiring
president of Gulf Canada.
Even the major banks have
joined the chorus, judging
from the massive adver-
tising campaign recently
launched in the press and
over the airwaves.
If the government is
serious about sustaining this
vital sector, says Bulloch, it
must stop the tokenism and
move on a wide front to pro-
vide meaningful policies.
The business leader cites
10 areas in which policy
reform must be concen-
trated; entrepreneurship;
taxation; regulation, red
tape and paperburden;
equity financing; debt,
financing; management
development; manpower;
markets; succession; and
retirement.
And he backed that up with
35 concrete suggestions,
ranging from a new em-
phasis on teaching entrepre-
neurship in the schools to re-
designing legislation to free
up investment money for
chronically cash -short small
firms.
But the key, he said, is the
breadth of the approach.
"Governments cannot
create momentum within the
sector by moving solely in
one or two areas, then sitting
back to wait for new jobs to
appear. They must move in
all 10 areas simultaneously."
Like any "magic", it boils
I down to a lot of hard work.
On the tombs of many of
Britain's medieval noble-
men rest effigies of them in
their armor. Some are dep-
icted with crossed legs,
which is thought to denote
service in the Crusades.
HELP
THE KIDNEY
FOIJNI)AI'ION
IN THE
FIGHT
FOR
LIFE.
_j
lKitln,•y
F,nnt(Ltti,m