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The Huron Expositor, 1984-10-31, Page 2OPINION Huron x ositor SINCE 1880, SERVING THE COMMUNITY FIRST ^ r ®A BIUF RIBBON, AWM3q 1983 Incorporating Brussels Post 10 Main Street 527-0240 Published In SEAFORTH, ONTARIO Every Wednesday morning JOCELYN A. SHRIER, Publisher RON WASSINK, Editor JANET L. MacDONALD, Advertising Manager Member Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc. Ontario Community Newspaper Association Ontario Press Council Commonwealth Presa Union international Press Institute Subscription .rates: Canada $18.75 a year (In advance) Outside Canada $55.00 a year (in advance) Single Copies -50 cents each SEAFOONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1984 Second class mall registration Number 0898 O an Ghosts and goblins Ghosts, goblins and other strange creatures will be making their way' from home to home, receiving treats and playing tricks. But parents, motorists and especially the young children who are dressed in their favorite Halloween costume should be careful this Halloween night. Halloween is a big night for many kids and to make it safe, parents are advised to review Halloween safety rules with their children. Remind children to stay in a group with their friends; never enter cars or strange houses; trick or treat down one side of the street, then the other. If dressed in dark costumes, the young trick or treaters will be hard to see by a passing motorist. Warn kids not to criss-cross streets --for their own safety. Costumes should be designed with safety as well as creativity in mind. Retro -reflective tape on costumes will improve chances of being seen by motorists. Masks with narrow eye slits hinder a child's visibility. If a mask is used, enlarge eye -holes and tighten the mask so it will not slip. Motorists are urged to use extreme caution on Halloween night. Be aware there are ghosts and goblins out there. But remember, they're only kids. The last most important safety rule is that children not eat candy until their parents have checked it. There have been cases where candy has been laced with drugs and sharp pieces of metal embedded In fruit. And to make sure treats such as homemade candy are not thrown away, homeowners should give out treats that have been commercially manufactured and wrapped. It will alleviate many worries. Let's do our best to make Halloween a happy occasion.--R.W. Why the change? Last wgek, we all turned our clocks back one hour, back to Eastern Standard Time. And It means were baCV In tile' dark. Instead of an extra hour of daylight, we now are faced to light up an hour earlier. And what It means is that hydro bilis will increase. At one time, there was discussion of keeping Daylight Saving Time the year round instead of having the twice yearly change. That talk made sense. By reverting back, we spend more time lirthe dark and we are forced to adjust to the change. We have to spend more electricity. The change back means an overnight jump in electric power demand. It's been estimated that Eastern Standard Time costs us about $1.50 more a month In electricity. There are more car accidents at night. The one hour difference' means most of us drive home in the dark. It means farmers are still working on the land in the dark before having their evening meal. But the Ontario government doesn't seem to want to stay with Daylight Saving Time. The question is, why should we pay to lose daylight? It doesn't make sense. Everyone enjoys daylight In the summer. Doesn't the same hold true for winter? - R.W. Hunting on farm land COUNTRY CORNER by Larry Dillon Saturday mornings have been like World War Ii around our farm the past few weeks. As soon as the first light starts trickling over the horizon the guns begin to fire. First a few lone shotguns go off as the hunters who are over eager or perhaps have better eyesight try to get their goose. Then within minutes hundreds of dollars worth of ammunition is discharged. Our farm is on the edge of a wildlife arca and we have learned to expect duck season. We meet and talk with many hunters at this time of year. Most of them are gentlemen. They show respect for their fellow hunters and for the local farmers. Unfortunately problems do arise. These hunters have to deal with some rigid hunting and trespass laws. Most of the laws have resulted from the minority of hunters who have shown careless disregard for others. The legislation does control the activities of the conscientious hunter. Unfor- tunately that undesirable minority continues to create problems for other hunters and for landowners. We have a duck pond on our farm and we allow a limited number of people to hunt there. We accept hunting as a legitimate recreation and have formed some new and valuable friendships with the people who hunt here. This year 1 have had an unpleasant conversation with some of these friends. The combine operator has been complain- ing about beer bottles being left lying in our fields. 1 know it is probably only one individual that is doing this but 1 don't know who. Most hunters are conscientious enough that they would pick the bottles up if they saw them. They don t want the farmers upset with them. 1 use to keep a small boat back at our pond for the hunters. it made it easier for them to retrieve the ducks they shot. 1 also felt that there was less chance of a wounded bird being left behind. Two years ago some one bashed a hole in the bottom of my boat. That was the same year that the decoys my brother-in-law had left on out pond. were shot over and over again. until they sank. Obviously there is at least one individual that is not welcome to hunt on out farm. 1 wish 1 knew who it was. When 1 ask the people 1 see coming in here they are somewhat hurt that 1 would even suspect them of such things. lean understand their feelings. The most likely answer is that a person irresponsible enough to destroy other peoples property does not bother to ask for permission to hunt on private land. From the position of the land owner this creates quite a problem. We do not want to unfairly accuse people of causing damage. Often we do not want to restrict hunting privileges on our farms. We do want the people using guns on our land to be responsible and conscientious. if we must we will restrict access to our land even more. We will refuse entry to all hunters. if we do not allow hunting, then we can catch the irresponsible individual, The sound of his shotgun will give him away. Unfor- tunately this action punishes the innocent along with the guilty. It stops the responsible hunter from participating in his sport. It is in the best interest of all hunters to keep an eye on their fellow sportsmen. They could correct the occasional carelessness and if necessary turn offenders in. it may be unpleasant to have to report a fellow hunter, but it is better for the sport to have the occasional hunter corrected than to have a landowner refuse all hunters access. 1 respect and like most of the people who hunt on our farm. if 1 catch the person responsible for my complaints, he and 1 will be having a serious discussion. Not only is he causing damage, he is hurting the reputa- tions of some of my friends. 1 do grumble about the early Saturday morning shoot outs with the ducks, but it's not that bad. i think i can live with it. The noise isn't really as loud as i let on. Anyway, once the pond freezes over 1 will be able to sleep in again on Saturdays. SCAREY FACES—Michael Hamon, Krista Broome watch Intently as librarian Trudy Greidanus, Rachael Broome and Rebecca Broome cuts Into the great pumpkin. The children were at a library Halloween party Saturday. (Mcllwralth photo) .Who's right and who's wrong? SENSE AND NONSENSE by Ron Wassink In recent days, I've been following with much interest the unfolding story of a heart transplant in California and the trial of Dr. Henry Morgentaler in Toronto. And as 1 keep reading more and more about these two events, I've come to the conclusion that we're coming to the point where we don't know the difference between right and wrong --or for that matter, if there is a right and wrong. First let's talk transplants. When trans- plants were first attempted in the 1960s by Dr. Barnard in South Africa, the world was in a state of amazement. Here was a man, who should have been dead, still alive because of a new heart beating in his chest --the heart of another man. Since then, transplants have become commonplace. We have kidney, liver, lung transplants to name a few. And there are implants. It's all mind boggling and fascinat- tn But for some of us who are skeptics and have strong religious beliefs, we often wonder if such transplants should take place in the first place. is this all supposed to be part of the healing process? Lives can be sustained on a support system. People who would have died 50 years ago due to liver and kidney ailments are alive today because of transplants. But where will it all stop? The most recent heart transplant case involved the trans- plantation of a baboon heart into the chest of a two week old infant. And at the same time, a human heart was available. All excuses aside, such an experiment is uncalled for, say the support- ers of animal rights. What will be next --head transplants? Will tht;re really be a Frankenstein --or is there one? And could there be a mermaid --half woman half fish; or a centaur -.-the head, chest and arms of a man and the body and hind legs of a horse. Sounds far-fetched, but so did heart transplants, once upon a time. The second news item --abortions and abortion clinics, is raising many moral, ethical and legal questions. Religious leaders have been telling us that abortions are like committing murder. Feminists tell us it's the right of the woman if she wants or doesn't WHO/ SEE PAGE THREE New ideas could make gov't money LBEHIND TRE --SCENES by Keith Roulston The new chief of staff to the finance minister was making his first report to his boss. "Sir," he said, trying to sound as impressive as his newly acquired title, "1 think the Ottawa mandarins in our depart- ment have begun to come to terms with the new realities. They seem to have abandoned their silly Liberal ideas and come up with policies that will help us stay in power as long as the Grits by spending less, getting more and appearing to do a lot for the Liberals and appearing to do nothing for the Conservatives who want less government. "For instance, we've had an ingenious new proposal that will save money, generate revenue and kill, if you'll excuse the pun, all the fuss about capital punishment. As you know, these 25 year sentences for murder are costing us a fortune. As well, and i know this isn't our department but we've got to keep the next election in mind, the people have been really upset lately about the police killings and want us to bring back the noose. it seems to me we can save a lot of money and make people happy by bringing back capital punishment. But that's not the really exciting part of the proposal. "Now as you know, people are arguing the detetient value of capital punishment but how much value is the deterrent if nobody really sees it. One of the deputy ministers came up with an ingenious solution that will make the deterrent work better and generate revenue too. He suggested we go back to public hangings. They used to be big spectator events back when society worked better. We could rent a stadium (he suggested Male Leaf Gardens but we could make more if we rented the dome in Vancouver and keep our western roots as well) and sell tickets. We could lump a few hangings together on one card with a little entertainment in between and get S25 a ticket. With concessions, the bar and parking, we should be able to take in a cool S3 million gross. "Then there's the potential of pay television. 1 mean everybody is so hung up on violence on television these days, we could give them the real thing. "It's a'gr at -Idea but the big problem may, be-getting-enough=attractions ' to supply. the demand. We may have to make not paying your taxes a capital offence. "Oh and the boys have been working so hard they've come up with an idea that we can't use ourselves, but maybe Mr. Mulro- ney, in his good neighbour policy, could pass along to Mr. Reagan. "Our man was looking at the fact that ABC television was willing to pay S700 million for the rights to the next Olympic games in Korea. He was also listening to all the rigmarole they had to come up with because the press was unhappy with not being invited along on that little trip to Grenada last year. "So he figured, if ABC would pay S700 million for the Olympics, how much would they pay for exclusive coverage of a war? He figures Mr. Reagan could negotiate an agreement with the TV networks that one of them gets the exclusive right to go along the next time the army goes on one of these little clean up missions to throw out Commies (say Nicaragua once the election's over). The war would have to be fought in prime time, of course, but if you do things right, you should actually make money at war. Imagine how popular that would make Mr. Reagan, able to have his wars and cut the deficit at the same time. Dead didn't fall, they were killed SUGAR AND SPICE by Bill Smiley 1 feel quite hurt this year. Nobody has asked me to speak at their Remembrance Day dinner. i would have turned it down, of course, because 1 think you can flog the old poppy and talk about throwing the torch from our failing hands only so long. before it becomes irrelevant. However, i've not been ignored entirely. A teacher asked me to send a copy of a Remembrance Day column 1 wrote either last year, or the year before, to be read by a Grade 8 student, to the whole school, 1 presume. Some order. if 1 kept a decent file of columns, 1 could put my finger on it, run off a copy and shoot it to him. But my files are something like my mind: scattered all over the place. confused, mixed up. Nfy wife, in a.fit of pique over some little thing. once stuffed about 200 of my columns into a large plastic bag. it'k a little difficult to reach into that bag (it's really a garbage bag, as she implied when she did it) and pull out the right column. And of course, 1 haven't been forgotten by the good old administration of our school, which has requested that i write a two -minute thing about Remembrance Day. My, how that day has shrunk. When i was a kid, the whole school marched to the arena, bedecked with flags, heard speeches about our "fallen" and "our glorious dead". I think we got the afternoon off, to enjoy more immediate pleasures. But before we were dismissed, we heard some haunting hymns, such as "Abide with me," and, Lord help us, "Onward, Christian Soldiers," and saw some real tears fall from the eyes of people who had lost a husband or father. After World War fI, but not for several years. 1 joined the t_anatlsan Legion. Not because 1 wanted to, particularly, but because i was a weekly editor. and you had to join everything to get the news. Each year we swaggered, with a certain amount of the old flair, down the main street to the cenotaph. followed by a rag -tag of Scouts and Guides and Brownies, to make up a parade. and led by the town band. The narnes of the local boys were read, a prayer, a hymn. the Last Post, some sniffles in the meagre audience, and some wet eyes and lumps in throats among the Legionnaires, who really did remember. Then back to the Legion Hall for beer and b.s. There was a good feeling between the old-timers of WWi and us young veterans who had never gone over the top, deloused ourselves, coped with a gas attack, or been under heavy bombardment of artillery, as the old vets frequently reminded us. The native Indian veterans turned out in force. This was before they were allowed to buy any kind of spirits, and they made a day of it. Now, the tiny remnant of old vets of that time are rapidly becoming old men. Then i started teaching school. Remem- brance Day was still observed, with the whole school being called for a special assembly, and the old platitudes recalled and regurgitated. was asked to speak, at one of them. The head of the students' council preceded me, and pulled out all the cliches and hackneyed references. "Sacrifice," "the fallen," and carrying "the torch" were among them. i didn't mean to, but pulled the rug right out from under him. 1 pointed out that the dead didn't fall; they were killed; that the sacrifice made by millions of young men, from many nations, all of them fighting for "the right." achieved absolutely nothing; that if someone threw them a torch to carry, they should throw it right back. and so on. The kids loved it. but the administration thought it was iconoclastic. These assemblies went on for a few more years. steadily disintegrating as the remem- brance ceremony was turned over more and more to the students. to whom both wars were ancient history. They degenerated into folk songs like " Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" juvenile diatribes against war, and maudlin sentiments about peace, far worse than the Legion, which always had a certain dignity, could perpetrate. Eventually, the assemblies were cut entirely, and yours truly became the goat. His task: to write a two -minute commercial reminding the students that Remembrance Day is not just a school hotiday. Try doing that in 200 words that will stir the students emotions, uplift their souls, and make them Want to rush out and defend their country against something or other. The wars mean almost nothing to them, and the only things they'd fight to the death for are their transistors, motorcycles, hi-fi's, and high allowances. Most of them have only the vaguest idea of the tensions in the world, and small reason. They're sick to death of politicians and are inured to violence by seeing it daily on TV. They don't really care much about abstracts like patriotism, loyalty, sacrifice. But i get my quiet revenge. There's no teaching, in the usual sense, in my classes on the day before the "holiday". i show them souvenirs, pictures of "your hero" standing beside his Typhoon, and tell them funny stories about stupid senior officers, and make them realize that if it were 40 years ago, most of them would be in the process of being shot at, or losing a sweetheart. it works. 1.