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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1973-06-25, Page 4PAGE 4 ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 1973 Television needs a conscience We hear a good deal about invasion of privacy these days. Some people deeply resent the questionnaires we're frequently asked to fill out by some knocker on our doors, even the census. They argue that information about their make of car, the number of bathrooms, and whether or not they smoke, is their own bus- iness. One can make a case for parting with this information on the grounds that the information has economic and statistical value that is useful. Also, save for the census, we're not obliged to answer. We can refuse. There is another aspect of this invasion of privacy that seems to go un -noticed, the beaming into homes of television programs unsuitable for children but shown in prime times. Householders should have the right to choose what enters their doors. Not long ago, in some parts of Canada the Confessions of the Boston Strangler was televised at eight o'clock on a Saturday night --- just the time many parents are turning their children over to sitters. It was preceded by the pious sentence "This is not recom- mended for children under 16, when possibly half or more of their viewers were children. It is all very well to say that anyone can turn the set off; children won't and parents can't monitor everything they see. If an adult, or category X film is shown late at night, well and good. If it is running at a local cinema, clearly marked, and children see it, the onus is on the family. Beaming such a film in at eight o'clock on a weekend is another matter. If we have codes to monitor untruthful advertising, surely we should have a rule that films of violence unsuitable for child- ren should not be thrust upon them in the place where they should be safe --their own homes. Ridiculous situation A Hullett township farmer was recently charged by police with moving a piece of machinery that was too large to be leg- ally moved on a public roadway. The equipment was a large cultivator which, even when sections on each end were folded up, was over the 14 -foot limit allowed (with a special permit) for travel on a public road. If this was a piece of equipment the farmer had made himself, the charge would have been right and just. But the man in quest- ion had purchased the machine from a reputable machinery man- ufacturer. Someone once said; The law is an ass. This seems to be one of those cases that prove the point. How can it be legal for a company to manufacture a machine and sell it to a farmer, but it not be legal for the farmer to move it on the roadway? Is it reasonable to expect, in this day and age when a farmer must have several hundred acres of land to make a living, that a farmer should either take his machinery apart or move it by truck every time he moves from one of his farms to another? It is time government stepped in and made some sense of this ridiculous situation either by putting the clamps on the machinery companies to prevent them selling this machinery or by making it legal for the farmer to move it on the road. It would seem the former suggestion makes the most sense because there is no doubt there is a hazard with extra wide machinery being moved. Action should be taken at once before any more farmers pay the penalty that should more rightly be assessed to the machinery companies. (Blyth Standard) Police report (continued from page 1) on. Total damage was estimated at $550 by Constable Al Quinn. On Friday at 4;10 p.m. a car driven by Paul Yandt, Lond- on, skidded out of control on Highway No 23 north of Kirkton when he swerved to avoid collid• ing with a juvenile boy on a motorcycle. The car slid into the ditch and received $350 damage. On Saturday at 7 p. m. a car driven by Randy Connor, Lond- on, skidded out of control on the Crediton Road west of Ship- ka. The driver and his two pass- engers were taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in London for serious curs and bruises. Damage was estimated at $2, 000 by Const- able Bob Whiteford. ZURICH Citizens NEWS PRINTED BY SOUTH HURON PUBLISHERS LIMITED, ZURICH HERB TURKHEIM, Publisher Second Class Mail Registration Number 1385 Qts e Member Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association'`R Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association ' O!• Subscription Rates: $5,00 per year in advance in Canada; $6000 in United States and Foreign; single copies 15¢ "Ordinary Readers" Agree With Me About Education My views on education don't seem to upset the Minister one whit. He just goes around with his eyes shut droning that hyp- notic chant. "The standards of education are not declining the standards of education are not declining the stan. . .. " However, my views do seem to strike a cord or a nerve or an open wound among a good many other people, A recent column on education has attracted more mail than anything I've written since I churned out, "Sex and the Ed- itor." That was when I was a weekly editor, and it was a hot number, I can tell you. There were no leftover papers that week . I know. You want me to re- print it. Sorry, I'm a school teacher now, and as everyone knows, except a lot of teachers, school teachers must maintain the highest standards of moral- ity, sobriety and taste. Besides, it was harmless. Just a device to sell papers when circulation was slumping abit, Where was I? Oh, yes, letters about education. Following are some excerpts from letters rec- eived from ordinary readers, if there are such creatures. I've never yet met a person who considered himself ordinary. And why should I? We're an extra- ordinary lot. If you don't bel- ieve me, take a good look at yourself, then at your neigh- bours, then at our "leaders". They may be a lot of riffraff, but there's not one who is ordin- ary. From a merchant". "You have stated publicly what a great many of us think, but our means of communication is not as wide as yours. The Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck courses they have in high schools and so-called colleges now would be a big joke if they were not doing harm to our young people and were not so costly. It would appear from the rep- orts of the meetings that all is beautiful in education land and seldom is heard a discouraging word. In our local brain factory, the students seem to be running the sideshow. " From a mother, "We have seen the system deteriorate rap- idly. We have a son in last year law and one daughter in her last year university who managed to be outstanding students who could read, write and spell and didn't have wise and wonderful sex education in the school. Independent Shipper to United Co-operative of Ontario Livestock Dept Toronto Ship Your Livestock with Roy Scotchmer Monday is Shipping Day From Vara Stockyard CALL BAYFIELD 565-2636 By 7:30 a.m. Monday for Prompt Service No Charges on PIcIc.up What has that brought us? An epidemic of V. D, and related social problems, She goes on "Another probl- em is too many working mothers Women's Lib will hate me? One of our finest teachers told me he could tell in a week which children had mothers in the home, and which ones had working mothers." From an ex -teacher. "I am one who was educated in the old way and used to love grammar class. . . My daughter, who is a Grade 2 teacher, says what terrible English the children use... I'm sure that the high school students of today who are dropping their language courses are doing it because they don't have the basic Engl- ish grammar." From a minister "Let me put in a word for poor spellers. . . Teachers insist that spelling laws are like the laws of the Medes and the Persians --unchanging, unchangeable, as it was in the beginning , is now and ever shall be.... So generation after generation we persist in foisting (or is it foysting) the spelling quirks of the middle ages unto our children." It's foisting, but I agree. From a teacher' "I do not wish to needlessly send your blood pressure up another point, but sorrow likes company and your May 24th article was wel- . ...1.. corned in our school as a most timely and healthy counter- balance to the , .. irresponsible articles from the Blank County Board of Education... our board likes to be very avantgarde in the rush towards doomsday." Hey, teach, there's a split infinitive in your opening sent- ence, Well, that's just a sampling of the letters. I don't agree with everything they say, but I'm pleased there is evident concern about the quality of education. And I don't plan to keep hacking away at the subject. There's nothing duller than a farmer who can talk about nothing but farming, an editor who can talk about nothing but newspapers, or a teacher who whines all the time about educ- ation, It's near the end of rune and I'm too hot and tired to get excited about much of anything. I've just crawled out from under an avalanche of 255 ess- ays and short stories which I marked in my "spare time" and I have almost ceased to care how anybody spells anything. And I must say that there's a tremendous interest in educ- ation during the last week or so. Guys and dolls who have spent approximately as much time this year on their school work as I have spent being a million- aire have suddenly lost all their apathy. They come up to their teachers with the most appealing wistful smiles and wonder wheth- er they are going to be recom- mended, or whether they'll have to write the exams. They're pitiful and pathetic, but they'll see that old Smiley has a heart of solid steel. Or butter. Business and Professional Directory OPTOMETRISTS J. E. Longstaff OPTOMETRIST SEAFORTH MEDICAL CENTRE 527-1240 Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sat- urday a.m., Thursday evening CLINTON OFFICE 40 Isaac Street 482.7010 Monday and Wednesday Call either office for appointment. 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