Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1978-06-08, Page 4Citizens News, June 8, 1978 "THE BOYS OF SUMMER" — A book written a few years ago describing the American past time of baseball is a good description of the above picture taken over 50 years ago. This was a championship team that played against Crediton, Clinton and Goderich around 1921. In the back row (left -right) are Tolly Wurm, Fraser Brown, Bill Braun, Clayton Hoffman and bat - Day Eddie Gascho. In the middle row are John Preeter, Lee Hoffman, Ed Westlake, Babe Siebert, Lennis Calfas and Vice Presi- Jent Charles Fritz. The front consists of trainer Elmer Oesch, Clare Hoffman, Arthur Henning, a Mr. Ohland and treasurer An- Irew Hess. The Citizens News thanks Eddie Gascho for the use of the picture. Life goes on If you're like us, every once in awhile you get fed up with the technicalities and complications of the materialistic age in which we live. You become weary of watching friends and relatives bent upon acquiring bigger or better commodities and devoting 99 percent of their leisure time to appearance and you wonder where the human race is headed. Now, as many tell us, we might well be headed down a sloping highway to destruction, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy life as it goes on about its business. And the best, the very best things in life are still free. Landing about a month ago at Toronto Inter- national Airport it was impossible not to marvel at the sight of the city spread out beneath the aircraft, shimmering like a multitude of jewels in the velvet of night. But far more awesome, more beautiful and more inspiring was the sight of the moon, one night off being full-faced, as it rode the skyways and was reflected in every body of water beneath the aircraft. The sights of the mighty man-made city paled by comparison. A few weeks after that we were driving home around midnight, tired after covering a council ses- sion when we noticed the northern portion of the sky was shimmering with light. Northern lights in this area are not all that common and are not of the intensity that they are in Canada's northern regions. But their infrequency, in our opinion at least, make them worth noting. In any event, upon reaching home, we found we weren't so tired that we couldn't spend about 10 minutes outside just standing in an open field and watching nature's free light show. And just last week there appeared in the daily press the most heartening story we've read in about six or seven years. Datelined Manila, the story told of a tribe of primitive cave -dwellers discovered to be living in- side the crater of anextinct volcano in the jungle wilderness of the Philippines. People from the stone age, oblivious of such meaningful inventions as television, neutron bombs and hair spray. Let's hope modern man knows enough not to turn these survivors into a kind of human zoo for the sake of science and curiosity. It's too bad the tribe had to be discovered in order for us to know of its existence; but it's great to know that life does go on and the world continues to provide its own magic without the manipulations of our 20th century know-how. Listowel Banner Iiilling is killing It appears that the international arms race is escalating with the announcement recently by North Atlantic Treaty Organization member coun- tries that they might increase military spending by as much as $100 billion over the next decade to counter Soviet military power in Europe. In an agreement concluded by the participating countries, military spending would increase by at least 40 billion to as much as 100 billion. The reasons behind the increased commitment are quite clear with the Soviet Union's military forces growing by leaps and bounds. If the Soviets decided to attack now, NATO's forces in Europe would be smashed in short order. Irony is a part of life and the same holds true for international relations. On the one hand, we have both the Warsaw Pact countries and NATO in- creasing their conventional weapons while on the other, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the Soviet Union and the United States are designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. If one were to employ logic in deducing a con- clusion from the above facts, it seems it's better to kill people with conventional weapons than with nuclear weapons. What's the difference? iJ eNA ,634 FIRST WITH LOCAL NEWS /,�.,nr+:/Y•ii:!%'iFS:Jl•it:iii ::f! ii!++::..+:. u+:: is is ✓ f.r.:ln ;.:J.li::$�i:Jl'i:::::�:+il;::; �:: �: ::'rF>i Published Each Wednesday By J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd. Member: Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association News Editor - Tom Creech Second Class Mail Registration Number 1385 Subscription Rates: $7,00 per year in advance in Canada $18.00 per year outside Canada Single copies 204 I111111111111111►111►IIIIIIIt1111t1►l11111►1pll►uauall►IIIIII►IllItIIIaU1llltlllltlll►nt11111t11 Miscellaneous Rumblings By TOM CREECH Racism One of the problems that comes with an ever expanding society are the social ills which accom- panies this expansion. As the world's population continues to increase, many people from their lands of origin are forced to move, in order to maintain a life style that they feel comfortable with. During the 30's there was a flood of Jewish im- migrants who landed ,on the shores of North America in order to avoid the tyranny of a crazed former corporal in the German army. In the middle 1950's it was the people of Poland who faced repression from an intolerant Soviet regime with a large number of people opting for the freedom of the West. The 60's and 70's saw refugees from Uganda and Czechoslovakia take up residence in Canada. A more important consideration in the migra- tion of peoples to this country has been its economic wealth as compared to other countries of the world. Prior to 1960 immigration to Canada consisted mostly of peoples of the Caucasian race with a visual assimilation in to the Canadian populace made quite easily. • After 1960, immigration from non-white coun- tries of the world went up markedly as the economic gap between the poor and rich nations failed to be narrowed and as the expectations of the poorer countries grew. In our country prior to 1960, visible racial minorities constituted a minute proportion of the populous with Canada's native peoples, Chinese and Japanese communities in the larger centres and black settlements in southern Ontario and Nova Scotia. By in large, each group kept to themselves with few outbreaks of what one would call blatant racism taking place. This is not to say that racism did not take place in a more visible form with the internment of the Japanese Canadians during the Second World War being an example. Immigration has its most telling effects on the large metropolitan centres as the citizens of a former country seek solace from those who have already made the move. Many immigrants have ended up in Toronto with few if any violent race related incidents taking place. It was not until an elderly Pakistani gentleman was severely beaten in Toronto subway station by two youths that the problem of racism in this coun- try became an issue. In February of this year a report entitled "The Dynamics of Racism in Toronto," and authored by Dr. Frances Henry of the department of anthropology at York University was released. The study found 16 percent of the population to be considered extremely racist; 35 percent inclined towards some degree of racism; 19 percent of the populous to be extremely tolerant and 30 percent in- clined towards tolerance. Five background variables were studied with age being a very important variable. The report found people over age 53 to be more racist than those individuals 39 or younger. People not participating in the labour force (retired, housewives) are the most racist while the least racist were found to be students or those not working (unemployed or laid off) , Correspondingly, educated people were the most tolerant with least educated being extremely racist. A highly interesting finding was that people who are religious are more racist than those who profess no religion. Within religious groupings Bap- tists, Lutherans and Prebyterians were found to be the most racist. In terms of ethnic background among those surveyed not born in Canada, Southern and Eastern Europeans were the most racist with Western Europeans and Americans the least. Recently arrived immigrants were less racist than those who arrived before 1949. NEXT WEEK: the recommendations of the report.