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The Times Advocate, 2008-04-09, Page 66 Times–Advocate Wednesday, April 9, 2008 Opinion Forum News LETTERS TO THE EDITOR • LETTERS TO THE EDITOR • LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Did Exeter forget about Earth Hour? Earth Hour was celebrated Sat., March 29, with a request that between 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. people would take the time to turn off their lights and reflect on what they can do to help reduce the impact they are having on the environment. Started in 2007 in Australia, Earth Hour has progressed through the world with many countries recognizing the need for this type of tangible awareness, but also a way to show people that, yes, even by turning out your lights for one hour you can make a difference. Canada took a big step forward by signing up for the 2008 Earth Hour. All of our major cities participated in events to mark the hour — from acoustic concerts to turn- ing off lights on the CN Tower and the Parliament Buildings. Our family wanted to participate in the event and thus we turned our lights. Although originally I had advocated for our household to turn everything off for an hour, this idea was vetoed when Dr. David Suzuki appeared on "Hockey Night in Canada" and told us we could leave on the TV to watch the game, just do it in the dark. I went for my dog walk that evening and was a little disappointed at the lack of involvement within the small radius that I walk. Some houses were definitely participating. One family passed me during my walk discussing the Earth Hour definition and obviously choosing to par- ticipate and celebrate with a family walk. But I was very disappointed in the lack of participation by the town and businesses of Exeter. New to the area, we chose Exeter because of its sense of community. This is a truly lovely town with flowers, parks, a community centre and much community spirit. But I think Exeter forgot about Earth Hour. The lights on most of the businesses on Main Street were burning brightly during that one hour; even the decorative festive arches that hang from each street light were shining brightly. I was truly afraid to walk towards any of the car dealerships in fear that the daylight produced by the strong lot lights would just depress me more. Now I am not a huge environmentalist. I am a normal, or I feel normal, person. Growing up I was taught in a "thrifty" way to be "green." My mother has been quoted many times shouting up the stairs, "Stop turning the lights on and off! It costs me 75 cents each time you do that!" or "You just had a 12 -minute shower — are you trying to run us out of water on purpose or what?" Her favorite or the most used quotation was, "Why is it that when you are not in your room every bloody light has to be on?" She was right of course, so how do you answer that question? I was brought up in a rural community in Eastern Ontario on the outside of town with a drilled well and our own septic. So, out sense of consciousness, I was forced into the life of being "green" due to restrictions on our separation from the glories of town life. We have made some concessions to being more "green" in our household here in Exeter. We are a one car family, we recycle, we keep lights and heat off if we are not home, we dry our clothing on the outside and inside clothes lines and we try to teach our children a little about awareness so they become the guardians of this earth in an out educated way. But last night was disappointing when my five-year-old looked across the street and counted the houses lit up. She said, "Maybe they forgot." That may be true, maybe they forgot. So Exeter, maybe if you did forget, can you this week take an hour in the evening, any evening you like and turn off the lights? Reminder: Earth Day is Tues., April 22, 2008. Please go to www.earthday.ca for ideas and events planned around Ontario. And remember, even the little things can make the difference! In response Letters to the Editor REBECCA SWICK, Exeter In his letter to the editor in the April 2 issue of the Times -Advocate, Al De Haan commented how he considered that the recent concert of the Mattaniah Mens Christian Choir, "a captive audience was taken advan- tage of." This is strange, as it would seem something like this would be expected at a concert performed by a Christian choir, and there are several things that I would like to say in response. First, I need to note that Mr. De Haan was incorrect about who spon- sored this choir. It was not sponsored by Bethel Reformed Church nor was the leadership of the church in any way responsible for organizing this event. The planning and organization were done by a person who is a member of Bethel Reformed Church, but did not include any participation by the leadership of the church. Before bringing such criticisms against an organization, perhaps Mr. De Haan should research his facts more completely. Second, I find it surprising that opening and closing with prayer and the reading and application of the Bible was seen as problematic by Mr. De Haan considering vir- tually all the music presented and songs sung by the choir were not only religious in nature but explicitly Christian. Looking over the program, it seems that if he had difficulty with the reading and application of the Bible and opening and closing prayers, he should have had equal problem with the content of the songs sung by the choir itself. Finally, as the minister who was asked to do the opening meditation by the organiz- er of the event, I did what I was requested to do. I do not regret what I said, or the set- ting in which it was said. My calling is to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ. That message is that all people stand condemned before the perfect justice of God for the wrong they have done. The only way to be freed from that just sentence is to trust that in his suffering and death for sinners, Jesus died for the sake of your wrongdo- ings satisfying the demands of God's justice against you. I have a responsibility before God to proclaim that message, and to the best of my ability I did that as requested by the organizer of the event. Perhaps Al De Haan did not appreciate that message, and I am saddened that this was apparently the case. For, it is the only message of hope in this world so full of evil. As for me I will proclaim that message every Sunday and whenever I am asked to speak elsewhere. PASTOR JIM VELLENGA, Exeter Update from South Huron mayor SOUTH HURON — Short-term planning for most of us means discussing what we are going to eat for break- fast and long-term planning means discussing what we are going to have for supper. Unfortunately, short-term planning and long-term planning isn't much different for most municipalities. Financial budgets must be passed by the end of April and in most cases long-term planning with regard to budgets means covering the remaining eight months of the year (from May to the end of December). Before you get upset and start calling your council everything but a sweetheart, let's try and figure out the cause of the problem. Theoretically, councils are elected by the people for the people, but in reality, councils are elected by the people to please the people. Most people are proud of our Municipality of South Huron, but only once have I heard that if it takes an increase of taxes to keep this municipality great, that person would be in favour of a tax hike. Most people say "keep the taxes down," or "how much are the taxes going to go up this year?" Most statements to councillors regarding bud- gets are to keep the spending down to the bare bones. To please the residents, most budgets are the bare bones that the council feels they can get away with for that year without the municipality apparently looking like it is being neglected. South Huron council is doing something a little different this year. First of all we did a Strategic Ken Oke Plan to state what we feel is important for the next five years. To implement our goals and visions for the next five years, we had to assign dollars to cover the expectant costs. In essence what we have done is the budget for five years. Budget requirements usually change year by year, so we have tried to take an average for the five years and that is what we are going to charge for each of the five years. A small per- centage of this year's tax increase will subsi- dize a year that more dollars will be required. Even though we are taught from a young age that the only thing that you can count on is death and taxes, these tax rates might have to change slightly to accommodate unforeseen things in the future. Tax rates will be presented to the public early in this month and will be finalized later on this month. If we want a sustainable future for the Municipality of South Huron we must decide what we really want in our municipality and then we have to make up our minds that we are willing to pay for it. Principal's message EXETER — In the last few years, one of the goals of the Avon Maitland District School Board has been to develop positive citizenship qualities in our students. To help us achieve this goal, a character education program was developed with input from the community, starting with the identification of 10 character attributes we would like to see our students acquire. Two of these traits are empathy and compassion, which South Huron stu- dents demonstrate remarkably well throughout the year by their involve- ment in charitable ventures, something that has been evident in the last couple of weeks. The newly formed Junior Optimists group staged a clothing drive, collect- ing gently used articles of clothing to be turned over to local charitable agencies which will sell the clothing at affordable prices. This serves two purposes: it provides clothing at greatly reduced prices for those who may not be able to afford new clothing and it helps the local agencies raise funds to con- tinue their good works. The Junior Optimists collected 2,000 items of clothing from staff and students, and they should be commended for the success of this venture. I would also like to thank all the staff and students who supported this endeavour. While they were doing this, the Change Bandits in our SCC DD classes have been collecting pocket change in support of The Children's Hospital. Their goal is to raise $500 and to date they are more than halfway there. Their campaign continues this week and I have no doubt that their target will be reached. Special thanks goes to EA Joanne Pickering, who has organized the Change Bandits campaign for the past few years. On Friday and Saturday last week, over 130 students took part in the annual 30 Hour Famine. SHDHS has been one of the most successful schools in Ontario in terms of both participation and fundraising for this event, and this year is no excep- tion. While the participation numbers are down a little from the past couple of years, it looks as though this year's event will raise almost $10,000 for World Vision. The Character Education Committee took on the task of organizing this year's Famine, and they report that the students were extremely well-behaved throughout the event, which began Friday at noon and finished up at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The students stay at the school for the 30 hours and the Character Education Committee would like to thank all of the staff, including a couple of student teachers, who supervised the event. Without the support of staff, students and parents, events like this are just not possible; so a huge "thank you" goes out to all the participants, the supervisors, organizers and everyone who pledged money in support of World Vision. This week we will be holding an assembly to introduce two more charitable events that will take place later this spring: Hoops for Heart and Relay for Life. Students and staff have been involved in both of these campaigns in the past, and we anticipate high levels of student and staff involvement and con- siderable community support of these events again this year. But the fundraising is only part of the story: what impresses me most about our involvement in all these things is the willingness of the students, staff and com- munity to get involved and the excellent behaviour of all those who take part. The excellent conduct and concern for others are truly impressive and indicative of the character of the whole South Huron community. Lastly, I would like to congratulate the boys' hockey team, coached by Ryan Soldan and Roger Dougall, for their fine performance at OFSAA, the provincial champi- onships. Though we did not advance to the playoff round of the tournament, the boys had a respectable 2-2 record against some tough competition and both victo- ries were shutouts. The coaches reported that the boys were very well behaved and served as excellent ambassadors for the school. There were a number of parents who travelled to Ottawa to support the team, and a few students as well, and I would like to thank them for their support, not only in this tournament, but through- out the year. JEFF REABURN PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE