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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1971-07-29, Page 4•s PAGE 4 Treatment for alcoholics makes sense It looks as though the Province of Ontario is finally realizing that the habitual drunk is not a criminal to be arrested and carted off to jail, but a sick person needing care and assistance. Under an amendment to the Ontario Liquor Control Act, intro- duced to the Legislature last week, police will be encouraged to take drunks to centres or hospitals to sober up instead of charging them. Attorney -General Allan Lawrence says the centres, the first of which are to be set up this fall, are the first stage of a long range program which will eventually see a chain of half -way houses and rehabilitation farms. During the next three years, he said, the government plans to spend $4.5 million on the program. The sight of the chronic drunk turning up in court month after month has always been a pathetic one. We're not, talking about the drunken driver, or the fellow who goes out, ties one one and then proceeds to pick a fight with everybody on the block. These people are breaking more laws than one, are a hazard to other persons and fully deserve to be called before the court to answer for their actions. Chronic drunks whose only offence is to be found drunk in a public place are something else --mostly sick. Confront- ed with the problem and forced by law to deal with it, the courts have gone and done the best they could, trying to get assistance for these people wherever possible. But mostly it's been a matter of issuing a fine of so many dollars or so many days in jail. As a result neither the drunken individual nor the public was getting anything from the procedure. Not only that but valuable court time already pressed beyond limit, was and still.is being wasted. No one with his feet on the ground is expecting miracles from the program as outlined by Allan Lawrence, but it is a step in the right direction --the first right step that has been taken and it is long overdue. Another offence in this country which has never made sense to us, is that of vagrancy. This charge hasn't been levelled all that often since the depression years, but with the growing numbers of unemployed and increasing municipal dissatisfaction with wel- fare programs, it could be enforced frequently. Rather than justice, it seems to us that it is an injustice to put a person in jail because he or she has no home and no money, yet this is what our law tells us to do. Along with the chronic alcoholic, the drug addict belongs in a treatment centre and not in jail. Our province is sadly lacking in such centres which are virtually non-existent outside of our largest cities. Perhaps Mr. Lawrence's program should be broaden- ed to include the chronic drug user as well as the alcoholic who makes a nuisance of himself. After all, if we can afford $23 mil- lion for Ontario Place we can fork over a little more than $1 mil- lion per year for something as worthwhile as this. (Listowel Banner) Kissing off the babies It is traditional for the mother of the bride to weep a bit at the wedding, and somehow we feel something the same with the an- nouncement that our youngsters are to have the right to legal man- hood and woman -hood at the age of 18. The young people are rnaking gleeful noises about achieving the age of responsibility three years before they expected to, but few of them have really stopped to think about both sides of the picture. As we older folks look back we can see little cause for elation in reaching an age at which all the worries and duties of adult life come crowding in. It is true, of course, that some of the teen-agers may be elated because no one can question their right to buy a bottle of booze, but those who want to drink have never had too much trouble in finding someone to do their buying for them. More important is the fact that parents need no longer be resp- onsible for obligations to pay debts which their 18 -year-old off- spring may acquire. The signature of any person over the age of 17 will become legal and binding after the new law is enacted. Though some indulgent parents may continue to foot the bilis for their over -age children, quite a few of them will be inclined to let the younger buyers meet their own obligations. Another aspect of the lowered age limit will be the opportun- ity to vote at election time, and for quite a few teen-agers their decisions about where to mark a ballot will be more than a little unnerving. Although some young people are sufficiently aware of the responsibilities of citizenship to cast their votes intelligently, vast numbers of them don't know the slightest thing about govern- ment at any level We do not suggest that they are either irresponsible or stupid because they know so little about the affairs of their municipality, province or nation. It is simply a matter of being disinterested. ZURICH Citizens NEWS PRINTED BY SOUTH HURON PUBLISHERS LIMITED, ZURICH HERB TURKHEIM, Publisher Second Class Mail Registration Number 1385 its Ef 4 Member: 48.116.S. 1 1m Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association '7F AO e Subscription ftttes: Sten per year azs advance firm (Caarmaxdar,,; $5.00 in United States and Foreign; single copies 10 cents ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS Teen- agers' minds tend to be occupied with more exciting things than politics. They leave the more onerous decisions to their elders, at least until marriage and personal cares create a need for deeper thought. It may be, however, that with the opportunity to participate fully in the political affairs of the nation the young people will have more reason to concern themselves with the responsibilities of citizenship and will devote more attention to such matters. It was amusing to witness the unanimous approval with which the announcement about the lowered voting age was received in the Legislature when Premier Davis proclaimed the glad tidings. There must have been some members present on that occasion who were less than enthusiastic about the wisdom of the move, but in view of the 412, 000 additional voters to be wooed, not a single voice was raised in protest. It would be wonderful it all the parents in the province had such faith in their youngsters' ability to handle the affairs of adult life at the age of 18. (Wingham Advance Times) THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1971 Ah, this is a grand time of the year, entirely. Once the heat wave is over, you couldn't find a more wonderful place in the world to live. The sun is like a bronze ham- mer. But at night you need a blanket. The swimming is wond- erful, the sailors are sailing, the golfers are golfing, and the drinkers are drinking. True, the workers are working, but they're just back from their two -weeks -with -pay, peeling gloriously and bragging about the sensational place they found, with hot and cold running rats, or they're looking forward to their two weeks at Camp Missevathing. So everybody is happy. The children are delightful, graceful, brown little things, with ice cream smeared around their mouths. The mothers are strutting around in garments for which they'd have been thrown in the penitentiary twenty years ago. And loving it. (I personally think some of them should still be in- carcerated, but personal opinions have no place in an objective column.) The dads, the lucky ones who are able to be on holidays with their families, are bubbling with joy. You can tell by the way they affectionately cuff their kids roll their eyes until the whites show (sheer ecstasy), when their wives hand them a one -foot shopping list, and stroll trance- like through the supermarket, knocking down little old ladies. The other dads, the unlucky ones who have to stay in the city and work while the family is at the cottage, are pretty sad. You can tell by the way they act after work. Some of them, just the odd one or two, haven't even the heart to go home to that silent, lonely house. They know they'd burst into tears, So they just head, with a miserable, bereft gleam in their eye, to the nearest air-conditioned bar. Poor devils. No one to talk to except go-go girls. Some of the better -adjusted unlucky dads, of course, don't do that. They go straight home from work and straight to the refrigerator. Then they tear off their shirts and shoes. Then they look at the kitchen sink, almost throw up, shrug manfully, and turn on the television. Waking with a start at 10 p.m., they phone and order some Chinese food, Then they turn on the lawn sprinkler. This is the only known positive method to make sure it rains all night. Then there are the happy, irrepressible teenagers. You can spot them, regardless of sex, by their hump. They have all been told, all through their lives, to keep their shoulders back and heads up. As a result, they walk with their heads on their chests and shoulders humped. That, not clothes or hair, is the main reasor you can't differentiate between the sexes. How can you tell it's a girl if she isn't sticking her chest out? And of course, in summer in Canada, and everywhere I guess, we have the summer animals. Racoon are cute, but a pain in the arm to campers. Bears are sweet too, but a menace in the provincial parks. Tip to campers: if you want to stroke abear, make sure you do it with your artific- ial arm. But we can cope with these animals. What concerns me is the ones that walk upright. They come in all sizes and intensities. There is the mild little man : who power -mows his lawn every night, whether it needs it or not. He's probably just trying to get away fro,th his wife's incess- ant babble. Then there's the power -boat baby. He can be any age from eight to eighty. But with fifty horses behind him, he's Kirk Douglas, or Burt Lancaster or John Wayne or somebody. He's trying to prove something. And, naturally, summer spawns the motor -cycle gang. This is the wolverine of the two - legged animal. It destroys for pleasure and leaves it's stink everywhere. But it's a pretty good world. Have a happy summer. 0 About People YouKnow... Mr. and Mrs. Hilton Truemner and Mr. and Mrs. Elwood True- mner visited recently with rel- atives in Milverton. Mr. and Mrs. E. D, Brown, of Oakville, spent the weekend with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Meyers. Father E, H. Robert, who at one time served St. Peter's Church at St, Joseph, was a visitor recently at the rectory with his brother, Father A. Robert. While there he enjoyed a gathering to honour Alvin Rau, on the occasion of his 60th birth- day. Another visitor at the rect- ory was Sister Virginia (Made- line Laporte), who addressed the congregation at both Saturday and Sunday masses. M et Mme Antoine Hultman, of Zurich, Switzerland, also called on Father Robert, and later this year Father Robert will be ret- urning the visit to Switzerland and visiting with the Iiullmanns- Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Sweeney and girls spent last week camp- ing at the lake. Mr. arid Mrs. Morley Witmer, of Detroit, were weekend visitors with Mr. and Mrs. Ted Stein- bach. Business and Professional Directory OPTOMETRISTS J. E. Longstaff OPTOMETRIST SEAFORTH MEDICAL CENTRE 527.1240 Tuesday, Tiiursday, Friday, Sat- urday a.m., Thursday evening CLINTON OFFICE 10 Issac Street 482-7010 Monday and Wednesday Call either office for appointment. Norman Martin OPTOMETRIST Office Hours: 9-12 A,M, — 1:30-6 P.M. Closed all day Wednesday Phone 235.2433 Exeter Robert F. Westlake Insurance "Specializing In General Insurance" Phone 236-4391 — Zurich Guaranteed Trust Certificates 1 & 2 Years 51% 3 & 4. Years 7% 5 YEARS 8% J. W. HABERER ZURICH PHONE 236-4346 AUCTIONEERS ALVIN WALPER PROVINCIAL LICENSED AUCTIONEER For ,your sale, large or small, courteous and efficient service at all times. "Service That Satisfies" DIAL 237-3300 — DASHWOOD FUNERAL DIRECTORS WESTLAKE Funeral Home AMBULANCE and PORTABLE OXYGEN SERVICE DIAL 236-4364 — ZURICH ACCOUNTANTS Roy N. Bentley PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT G.ODERICH P.O. Box 478 .Dial 524-9521 INSURANCE For Safety .. . 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