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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1984-03-14, Page 2u., Huron ▪ Apo ,tQI.. SINCE 1660, SERVING THE COMiNUNITY FIRST • Incorporating Briaosels Pot 10 Jan Street 527.0240 Rp Published in sea SEAFORTH, ONTARIO Every Wednesday morning JOCELYN A. SHRIER, Publisher RON WASSINK, Editor KATIE O'LEARY, Advertising Representative Member Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc Ontario Community Newspaper Association and Audit Bureau of Circulation Ontario Press Cpuncil Commonwealth Press Union • International Press Institute Subs.oriptlon rates: Canada $18.75 a year (in advance} Outside Canada $55.00 a year (In advance) BLUE RIBBOW AN t Single Copies - 50 cents each SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1984 Second class mall registration Number 0696 Promote farrn i ng Many children who grow up in the city know little about farmers and the business of agricultur . Unless they have rural relatives, their image of farmers is formed bf songs like "Old MacDonald" and "The Farmers- Song". armer,-Song". Lyrics such as "straw hat and old dirty hanky" and television programs like "Hee Haw" where farmers are' portrayed as unsophisti- cated and ridiculous hayseeds are the images some urbanites have of • farmers. In,many cases city children only see livestock in books or from the windw of a car when they travel from one city to another. And, Ignorant of the work that goes into food production, many.think food comes from.the shelves of the supermarket. The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food is working on a solution to ,the problem. By Including agriculture in Ontario's grade nine science program, OMAF hopes to eventually reach 200,000 students. The course will be tested in schools this year for implementation in 1985. Though programs like the Junior Agriculturalist program have started to change, the hayseed image of farmers, teaching agriculture In city schools will promote understanding between urban and rural areas even ' further. City students will 'learn that farming is big business that involves millions of dollars and advanced technology. Along, with the cows and pigs on Old Mac 'Donald's Farm, city children will learn that farmers must use specialized knowledge in their operation. Accounting, computer programming, and mechanical repairs are some of the things farmers of • the 1980s must know to keep up with the ever-changing field of agriculture. The OMAF proposal is a positive step to get urban children to learn all about the business of farming. Keep Dublin green Everi s nee the Huron'Tave(=tk in Dublin bUr`t5ed "i]own over a`•yelleegtY Dublin residents and highi lay #8T"commuters have been staring at the charred ruins of the hotel, ' Though area residents had hoped the ruins would be cleaned up, at least In time for St. Patrick's Day, that will probably not happen. Owner of the hotel, Leo Barrett of Mitchell, said he couldn't comment on the situation. "The matter is In the hands of my lawyer. 1 Intend to clean It up once my Insurance company lives up to their committment." - Some people feel the Huron Tavern ruins are of no Concern to anyone except the owners. But what's Jeft of the hotel Is a hazard and an eyesore. A barricade, erected following the Feb. 1983 fire, has deteriorated. There have been several rumors of why nothing is done and cannot be done, Some say the owner cannot rebuild on the property because of a road allowance. But Mr. Barrett says there is sufficient footage and a new building will be going up. If Dublin residents feel upset, Mr. Barrett says he's equally upset because he cannot do anything to the property. "But once we progress, it will be worked on." Public pressure may see results. Perhaps a call to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications; fire marshall's office; and even the McKillop Township office, couid speed up the situation. People must be made aware that the structure Is not only an eyesore, but a safety hazard. Let's keep Dublin in the green. To the Editor SupportRed Crdss Dear Editor The Red Cross. a non-profit organization. was created in 1864 at a Geneva Conference as a neutral aid for the wounded in battle. It provided neutral vehicles to carry the injured to special Red Cross housing where experts saw to the sick. The emblem of the society's neutrality was a Red Cross on a white background. This organization means immunity from enemy fire. Later. the concept of a humanitarian law in armed conflict was to become the cornerstone of the Red Cross movement. By 1869. national societies extended their 'mandate to include national disaster* such as flood. epidemics. earthquakes and avalanches. The overall objective was, and is, the prevention of disease and mitigation of the suffering throughout the world. It helps whenever or wherever it is called upon to help -regardless of cost. racetor creed. A total of 26 disaster appeals were announced by the League of Red Cross Societies during 1982 - a higher number than in any previous year since the League was fvv"nded in 1919. Thousands of volunteers give their time for the Red Cross relief effort. The firm basis of such work is the moral support of every concerned citizen involved. Bob McMillan Is this justice? Re: Donald Oag Story March 10, 1984 London Free Press Dear Sir, After reading this story as a taxpayer. 1 am sick to my stomach. On Dec. 10. 1958. while working in Newfoundland I had the misfortune of falling off a microwave tower. I received severe internal injuries. fractures to an arm and leg plus my spine was broken in two places. Since Oct. 20, 1981 I have had two major operations resulting from the accident. 1 haven't been able to Ince this time. I have never been sentence to a day in jail, nor have 1 tried to commit suicide. For all my pain and suffering i receive 591.50 a month from Workman's Compensation. not 5470 a month from the Federal Govern- ment. is this justice? Kenneth Morey Seaforth, Ontario. Telecom reunion planned Dear Sir: Current and former members of the Telecommunications Branch of the Royal Canadian -Airforce and its successor are planning a reunion in Kingston this year. The idea is growing and spreading across the country, to the point that even the committee is surprised at the overwhelming popularity of the idea. it's the 50th anniversary of the founding of a Telecom Branch in the RCAF. Celebrations are active for the RCAF 60th TELECOM i►_ THE INTERIOR of the old publikllehool on the corner et Chtaroll`` and James streets has deter'.igreted, Despite the fact etudenle .. haven't used the schaol'.tor 30 years, some el the Classrooms' remain in thesame a .tate as theyWere left, Shown in the bottom photo is real estate egirth Henry tuiere: (Wasslnk photo) HUI< .,. Public spewing not as easy as tsounds To stand be front of a crowd and give a speech ill probably one of the hardest things to do. B t speaking to a group of friends, people you meet and taut to every day is even more difficult. It's not that it's•hardto spew out words, it's the nervousness, the. tlggh ess in the stomach that gets you every 1 recently had the opportunity to judge 16 excellent public speakers in an area Separate school oratorical contest. You think speaking is hard, try judging. However. two other e o Judges firi MySeiritiatitl> tfje°gy�tmnppialu St. PatrkVslehoti410111,firt ler two iiek n decide who was the best of the best. All the students were excellent. To choose one above the other was very difficult: We were asked to judge on such things as, clearness of speech, grammatical accuracy, tone of voice, posture, gesture and audience reaction, just to name a few. There were 10 categories with a possible score of 10 in each. It looked easy. But when St. James principal Ray Contois said the marks had to be totalled, I said forget it. It's hard enough grading the two groups of speakers from fust to eighth. But adding up the scores was impossible, especially when my math isn't all that great. The thing that amazed me, was that the SENSE -AND NONSENSE by Ron Wassank speakers didn't seem at all nervous (but I'm sure they were), and most didn't even use the tiny notes like the ones 1 used during my bile school spe ,• debut,, They must dIlletWtiotuaii* :their s leech. And Jl,ln, attre t1li;tho is Movie :the speech from memory because they're usually the fust jgud e, FUHLLCENE. YUI 1 was never a great onefor school and publics g was e , number one. Even . 1 can't talk " " way out of a paper. bag. However. gra , e seven was the highlight of my public spe I, • career. I was in the top of my class and because of my excellent speech and had the opportunityto speak to the whole student homy. some boil student. The speech wes only average but 1 fell apart on ' stage. You know, the -shaking knees. stumbling over words and butterflies in the stomach. In fleet my knees were shaking so hard that my baggy pant legs started to wave to the audience. 1 should have sceted 10 out of 10 far audience reaction. They were all in stitches. Ever ,stnce::.. eil,.,ive been., l of )tion ,listeningint: ., t%e.ttattysppcc� e moat interesting' bit of advicePve heard a judge give to public :speakers was: "If you have utterflies, the hick is to get them to fly m focmatian." Sounds simple, but l wish someone had told me that back in grade seven. The calibre of today s elementary wheel public speakers compared t6 when 1 was in school seems to be much higher. This in part may be due to different teaching techniques • where communication is more open in the classroom, SOAR UKE AN EAGLE I recently overheard a man relate the story of the eagle who thought he was a chicken, An canna egg was adopted by a -fussy mother hen. When the egg hatched, the eagle entered the world of (he,barnyar4 chicken, As the eagle grew up, he did just as the chickens, scratching the dirt for food, One day he noticed two eagles soaring in the sky). It was a breathtaking sight. He asked the mother hen if he could one day fly like an eagle, The.hen said that was impassible because he was just a chicken and chickens don't fly. The eagle lived for many years, thinking he was just a chicken, never encouraged to do mete flute what chi�, 'leen, do..,Aud vert ally, ?;he lied. S' !'1 1'P t r }r tf Fi kf U+ Students 4f this 80s are tartntfate, They are not held back but are allowed to use their hnaginatlons at home and school. They can astions and act aitaNVers, And they are sure to win an oratorical contest If they show sortie emotion, The public speakers et the Dublin school soared like eagles. They spoke an various topics, mostly personal experiences. Some may even become standup comedians. The humor in the speeches was in balance with other emotions. As a judge, it's gratifying to see the areas winners advance to the Huron -Perth sep- arate school level and win. Not only were the speeches good, but the judging must have been accurate, which is more than 1 can say for my public speaking. New faces make for exciting television So you want to be p me minister? Then stay out of the limelight until lt's time to make your move. There seems,- to be a lesson to be learned from politics in the last couple of decades in North America, In the age of mass media exposure, familiarity breeds contempt. If you want to win in politics have a fresh (preferably attractive) face, charm. money and pretend to be totally disinterested in politics until it's time to make your move. In Canada we have John Turner already being•coronated by some commentators as the neat prime minister of Canada, even though he doesn't hold a seat in Parliament The than is a Rhodes scholar, is handsome and sexy (they keep telling us anyway) and is wealthy but his most attractive feature seems to be that he's been out of politics for nine years. South of the border we have the phenomenon of Gary Hart who hardly anyone had heard of a month ago. Now some BEHIND THE SCENES by Keith Roulston people are saying he couid beat Ronald Reagan for the presidency this fall, something that bad been thought impossible of any Democrat. This search for the fresh face has been with us for awhile. The first time lean really remember it was in 1968 when Pierre Trudean came out of nowhere to win the hearts of the Canadian people. We had just lived through 10 years of acrimony between John Diefetibaker and Lester Pearson. There had been the bitterness of the flag debate, the tension of years of minority government. We wanted a chane. Wewere tired of night after night of television coverage of fighting. And along came an unknown woo wore roses in his lapel and did outrageous things like jumping off diving boards. Television had somebody new to give them good, exciting footage, not like tired old John and Mike. We saw the same thing with Joe Clark at the Conservative leadership convention in 1976. He was new and therefore he was attractive. By 1983, he was familiar and Brian Mulroney. who had never even run for parliament was new and exciting. South of the border. ilium)? Carter seemed sonew and different than Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. After four years his familiarity, (along with economic problems at home and the crisis in Iran.) helped make him ripe for the picking by the familiar, yet now face of Ronald Reagan. Maybe'Reagan himself will now pay the same price fax familiarity to Gary Hart. Tho media, particularly television, seems to be the main cause. The new face makes for exciting television, The media flocks to the new star. They give such overwhelming coverage that the person becomes an instant personality (look at Hart). But after awhile the star isn't so new and there is a need to do something more than show him smiling and shaking hands. The media discovers the star cant deliver the expectations it had for him and starts to expose his feet of clay. The people, with this negative coverage. start to abandon the star. The polls drop, The media drops the star and starts looking for new fare. The time frame seems to be getting shorter all the time. You may get your chance to be prime minister yet. Stamp out the viciousness of hockey We are well into another season 'of what passes these days for that once -thrilling Canadian sort of hockey. Far more interesting than being a spectator, at games will be watching from the sidelines some renewed and determined attempts to decrease the potential mayhem in the former sport. As any intelligent eight-year-old knows, hockey is no longer a sport; it is an entertainment, superior to professional wrestling in this department only because it is faster, bloodier, and most of the participants, though not all. ate not fat and middle-aged. Some are fat and young. Some are also middle-aged. Some. are old enough to be grandfathers. And 80 per cent of the so-called athletes in this new forte of 'Grand Guignol vaudeville are grossly over, paid. A few discerning sports writers, and a good many former fans of the gable, are, sick at heart over what has happened to what was once the fastest and most thrillitig game on earth. The great majority of so•salled fans; however, along with Most sports Writers and nearly all of management. derides any - attempt to restore the skills and thrills of what used to be the most skillful and thrilifull sport of them all — Rrofeesional hockey. Perhaps that is because the current crop of. SUGAR AND SPICE by Bill Smiley fans consists of yahoos looking for blood, the sports writers are sycophants looking for an angle, and the owners are stupid. as they have always been. looking only for a buck. In arty view, a determined effort should be made to stamp our the viciousness that has turned pro hockey into a Roman circus. Assault and battery on The ice should be treated the mune asitisonthe streets —with , a criminal charge. Let's put cops in the arenas and lay charges against the goons who try to decapitate an opponent with a stick, or emerge from a spearing duel with the encty'sguts wrapped around the point of their sticks. Such a move, of course. will likely by greeted with hoots of scorn by the yahoos, the sycophants and the manipulators. Or as Variety. the showbiz magazine. mi ht put it in one of its succint headlines; Hock Jocks Mock Socks' Translated, that would mean that hockey people make fun of m. any attempt to stop the fighting and violence in the game. But such a move would be welcomed, however, by a majority of the people remotely interested in the game: the better sports writers, who have seen it go steadily downhill; kids who want to play hockey for fun, without being terrorized; parents of kids who play hockey: real fans of the game. who have,seen their favorite sport turned into a carnage of ctowns. Surely even the robber barons of hockey, the owners, with their nineteenth century mentality, can see the handwriting on the wall, large and clear, The game is going down the drain. Let me give some ftinstances. When 1 was a youth. our town had a Junior A team. They played it fast and tough and clean. The teferees jumped on slashing. spearing, boarding. kneeing. Fights were infrequent. In a town -of 4.000, there were 1,500 at every game. Ahiundred cars would accompany the fans to play-off games SO miles away. When I was a youngish man. I lived in a town of 2.000. We hid an Intermediate C team, made up of young local fellows who loved the game. So help me, there would be 1.200 at every match. Today, 1 live in a town of 11,000 which boasts a pretty fair Junior B team, The crowds at games run around two or three hundred. Hockey Night in Canada used to bind this whole nation together, from radio days well into television. its ratings have dropped disastrously. What's happened? A tot of things. First, the quality has gone down and the price has gone up. That's a no -no lir any business. Sixty pet cent' of the pros today couldn't made a fair -to -middling senior amateur team twenty-five years ago. Arena owners, egged on by greedy players, and those parasites, their managers, Dave hoisted the cost of tickets to the point where ticket scalpers are committing suicide. But most important of all, 'the sheer viciousness of today's game, with its Nazi storm-trooper techniques. its open support of "intimidation", its appalling message fax young ptayersmltat violence beats skill and 'speed, has made a great segment of real fans tuft) their backs on it in disgust. When the players are all millionaires, and the arenas are half empty, maybe the morons who control the sport will get the message. e