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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1974-07-17, Page 4PAGE 4 ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS THURS. . Editorial Comment Keep people informed! (FROM THE GODERICH SIGNAL STAR) It is good to see that Huron County Council has agreed to look into the matter of restructuring. It is time. Despite the Ontario government's presently permissive attitude toward restructuring, from past experiences one can be assured that the move is toward change and if aggressive municipal coun- cillors don't accept the challenge, the job will be done for them. That is the style of the Davis government. The game is to lull the people into a sense of non -urgency, then hit them with a an edit which proves there was urgency after all. That's one way to insure that government approved methods are used. After all, the government has left the choice with the people, It isn't government's fault then, if the people don't respond voluntarily. Huron County citizens must be satisfied that county council has opted to do the study themselves. Who knows Huron County better than the people who live here? Who knows best what the people of Huron want than Huron's own people? There are indications that Huron County Council plans to use the talents and abilities of Huron folks in their study. That's important, too, for many intelligent and concerned Huron County residents will have much to contribute to a study on restructuring. Another suggestion from Morris Deputy -reeve Jim Mair is also worthy of careful consideration. That suggestion was to give Huron County residents a chance to vote on any proposals for restructuring before they are submitted for government approval. The Blyth Standard has this to say about that; "Perhaps at times people don't make the best decision (after all they keep electing Bill Davis and his Tories) but you either have to have faith in people or give up paying lip service to Democracy as a form of government. In Huron, if nowhere else, let's opt for Democracy and give the people a vote on their own future." Yes, people should have a say in their own future --and they can make wise and proper choices according to their personal needs when they are kept well informed. That will be the giant headache for county council --letting the people know what's going on, helping them learn the issues, keeping them interested and involved. That's why, from the very beginning, a committee to study restructuring must open the lines of communication such as they are rarely opened in this county. They must let the people in, they must let the people see, they must give them every opportunity to be heard. It won't be an easy task, but it can be done. It must be done if this county is to remain the leader it has always been. It will be done if Huron wants it that way. The minister agrees! (FROM THE WINGHAM ADVANCE TIMES) Herb Turkheim, of Zurich, a member of the Huron County Board of Education should be gratified by remarks from the Ontario Minister of Transportation and Communications last week. Mr. Turkheim raised the question of the safety factor in school buses some months ago and, as we recall he didn't get all that much support for his contention that overcrowded buses and inadequate safety requirements pose a very real threat to children on their way to and from school. Our comment in this column at that time was that it seemed incomprehensible that school buses should be permitted to carry so many students that some of them had to stand --a practice which is permitted on public buses, perhaps because the majority of those vehicles operate on city streets where traffic is controlled and speeds are much lower than the country runs require of school buses. John Rhodes, the provincial transport minister, however, addressed the Legislature on this very question and said that school buses need, among many improvements, stronger frames to allow seat belts to be installed in every seat. (Al- though he is not quoted as saying so, this regulation would make standing passengers out of the question). Mr. Rhodes said in a later interview that he had not approach- ed the manufacturers of school buses, but he hopes his public statement, the strongest on this issue by any Ontario cabinet minister, will prompt the manufacturers to start redesigning their buses. The minister also said the buses need higher backs and more padding on their seats, and added that legislation will be used if bus manufacturers don't make the improvements themselves. ZURICH Citizens NEWS PRINTED BY SOUTH HURON PUBLISHERSktLIMITED, ZURICH . HERB TURKHEIM, Publisher Second Class Mail Registration Number 1385 U* es Mem.,�• Canadian ViPeekly. Newspapers NewspapersAssasiation "'�JJJ,,!!! Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association .11-- Subscription Rates: $5.00 'per year in advance in Canada; $6,00 in United States and Foreign; single -copies 15¢ International Scene (by Raymond Cannon] PATRICIA HURST AND THE S. L,A. A great deal of space has been devoted in the press, both nationally and internationally to the story of Patricia Hurst,. from the time she was first kid- napped by the Simbionese Lib- eration Army until the present when she is being hunted by the F.B.I. as a common criminal. The question that has most frequently been raised is how a nice young girl from a promin- ent family could become a fanatic in such a short time; a complete turn -about from everything she stood for in the past. If I may offer a few comment: on the Hurst saga, the first one would be that none of us know the truth. In fact we don't even know if the young girls is still alive. How much has she really changed or how much was she forced to change subsequent to her abduction? As of now, we can only guess. To those people who find it strange that such a nice young girl could change overnight, I can answer that it is not all that uncommon. Psycologists will tell you of the strange love -hate relationship where there is a thin line between the two emotions. You can love somebody or something at one moment and something will happen to cause this love to turn into nothing less than hate. How many times have we all unconsciously said, "I hate him" or "I hate her." Perhaps it was not so unconscious after all and we are only expressing some thing that is perhaps truer than we think. We just hate to ad- mit it at the time. I think you can see the applic• ation I am trying to make. Here we have a young girl brought up in the best of famil- ies. She shows a streak of ind- ependence in leaving home and going eventually to live with her finance. That is something that quite a few girls do these days although many of us may not like it. One form of rebell- ion perhaps but nevertheless there it is. Some people believe that the kidnapping was actually contr- ived. It was supposed to look like a kidnapping but actually wasn't in that Miss Hurst was in on it all the time. This I find rather hard to believe. Far more likely is that she changed her mind afterwards, either of her own accord or under press- ure. At any rate, it is not as difficult, as I have indicated above, to switch from lose to hate of a certain concept or person. This makes any conver- sion to the SLA movement much more likely. In the recent shoot-out and killing of five of the leading members of the SLA, the quest- ion that comes to my mind is whether Miss Hurst is still alive. After all, the brains of the SHOPPING FOR QUALITY The quality marking of jew- ellery, silverware, watches, pens and other articles contain- ing precious metals - gold, silver, platinum, palladium or their alloys, is regulated by the Precious Metals Marketing Act. Consumers' Association of Can- ada reminds consumers that sil- ver or sterling marks indicate a product contains 92.5 per cern silver and use of the word platinum means 95 per cent platinum content. movement seem to have been killed off and, radical as she may be in her feelings right now shw has not the experience to evade capture for any length of time unless there is some exp- ert withher that we do not know about. If she is dead, we may never know the truth behind her conversion. If she isn't, I can only wonder how long it will be before she is caught and tried in a court of law or else killed in somewhat the same manner as the first five. Patricia Hurst and the story of her life since her abduction last February is just one of the tragedies with which we have to contend in unsettled times. Misguided idealists abound at such a time especially in a soc- iety where violence is part and parcel of the scene. The people I can sympathize with are her parents who must still think of it all as a horrible dream. Being a parent myself, I can readily understand how I would feel if my offspring, in whom I had tried to instill a sense of ethics and responsibility, suddenly become militant for one reason or another. As par- ents we do the best we can but there is really no guarantee, neither for the Hursts nor for ourselves, that our children will turn out exactly as we would like them to. Janghart, elIy, o g and Co. Chartered Accountants 268 Main St., Exeter ARTHUR W. 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