HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1989-03-08, Page 2SINCE 1860,
incorporating
The Brussels Pose
SERVING THE •COMMUNITY FiRST'
Published In
Seaforth, Ontario
Every 'Wednesday Morning
Tho Expositor is brought to you
oasis week by the efforts of: Pat
Armes, Noll Corbett, Terri -Lynn
Dale, Dianna McGrath and gob
McMillan.
ED BYRSKI, General Manager
HEATHER McI WRAITH, Editor
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc
Ontario Community Newspaper Association
Ontario Press Council
Commonwealth Press Union
International Press institute
Subscription Rates.
Canada .20.00 a year in advance
Senior Citizens - '17.00 o year in advance
Outside Canada '60.00 a year in advance
Single Copies .50 cents each
Second Class mail registration Number 0696
Wednesday, March 8, 1989
Editorial and Business Offices - 10 Main Street, Seaforth
Telephone (519) $27-0240
Mailing Address - P.O. cos 69, Seaforth, Ontario, NOK TWO
ar atla not alone isgrace
g°a
ATSOCKS
by Heather Mellwraith
When is a lie excusable?
Like the majority of the Canadian
populace, I've been following with some -in-
terest, the testimony extracted from
coaches and athletes at the Dubin Inquiry.
That testimony has been, particularly in re-
cent days, rather interesting, to say the
least.
Finally, after months of denial, and subse-
quently speculation by the media and the
general public, we know without a doubt,
that Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was us-
ing steroids - and evidently quite
extensively.
Charlie Francis, Johnson's long time
coach, has finally broken down the wall of
silence concerning Johnson's drug use, and
admitted his athlete had used banned
steroids for eight years leading up to last
fall's Olympic Games. •
Francis also said Johnson had used bann-
ed drugs just before the Games but had no
reasontouse the steroid stanozolol that cost
him an Olympic gold medal. While he ad-
mitted Johnson had in fact used the drug at
one time, he claimed the sprinter had been
clean of `it' for at least 18 months prior to the
Olympic Games, because it caused his
muscles to stiffen and cramp - side effects
he had no desire to be afflicted with going in-
to Olympic competition.
That's why the cry of sabotage once the
test results came in.
While it is alarming to think that Johnson
may have been sabotaged, it is hard to feel
any compassion for the man who has
repeatedly lied about his use of
performance -enhancing drugs - except
maybe because he obviously felt so
pressured to be the best that he had to stoop
to cheating.
After all, that's really what it is all about,
isn't it? - cheating.
This whole investigation of steroid use
among athletes was not initiated solely to
prove Ben Johnson guilty or not guilty of the
accusation launched in Seoul, Korea - but
rather to reveal a growing trend amongst
Canadian athletes to use drugs to improve
individual performance.
Whether or not Johnson was sabotaged is
not really at issue here - although no doubt,
there will be investigations launched in
response to the sprinter's allegations of
such. What is at issue, is the fact that
Johnson, and other top calibre athletes, ate
not earning their laurels through their oven
merits.
Instead they are relying a great deal en
the advantage given them by artificial
means, then doubling back to cover their
tracks.
While all Canada was hurt when Johnson
was stripped of his Olympic gold medal - the
revelation of the sprinter's drug use, was
almost a foregone conclusion.
After all 'what goes around, comes
around' and while Johnson's steroid use
may have been unjustly, or even
underhandedly, revealed it doesn't lessen
the impact of the revelation - that Johnsen
used unfair means to gain the title of 'The
Fastest Man of the World'.
But the revelation shouldn't end there.
Canada is acting responsibly in in-
vestigating the use of banned steroids by its
athletes. Perhaps it's time that other na-
tions did the same. Canada is not alone in
this fraud - it merely got caught.
Work together
A proposed commercial development on highway 8, immediately west of
Seaforth, is garnering opposition from area merchants - and understandably
so.
Seaforth Merchants have worked hard in the past three years to revitalize a
slowly dying main street, and are starting to see the fruits of their labors. No
doubt. promise of a commercial development just outside of Seaforth
threatens their peace of mind.
However, it needn't be viewed as such.
The project, as proposed by John Hart and partners, may very well benefit
Seaforth in the long run. Not only will it provide employment for area residents,
but it will serve a community that appears ripe with the promise of expansion.
Hopefully with that thought in mind, there will be enough of the market to go
around.
And, certainly the presence of competition in any community, results in bet-
ter service to the consumer.
Without question area merchants are concerned a 'strip mall' type construc-
tion abutting .Seaforth's westerly limits, will promote travel outside the town,
rather than direct it to Seaforth's Main Street. Merchants are riot ill advised
when they express fears that consumers, already on the road, will continue on
to the next town or city to purchase their goods, rather than return to
Seaforth's Main Street.
However, Seaforth merchants themselves have a say in just how many of
their fears become realized. Aggressive marketing techniques may have to be
undertaken to ensure the public remains advised of the merits of Seaforth's
downtown. And, once attracted downtown area consumers will have to be
catered to in a way they've never been catered to before. That means; for one
thing, that merchants will have to pay closer attention to the problem of park-
ing on Seaforth's Main Street - do something about it, outside of moving their
car every two hours. . .
Yes, .there are..good and bad points surrounding the proposed Highway 8
commercial development west of Seaforth. But if the town, its merchants and
the developers work together on this, it could work toeveryone's benefit in the
long run. -KM.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Prayer ruling should be ignored
For a hundred years Ontario has been rul-
ed by the majority of votes cast by electors.
Ontario has also been a Christian Society.
As a part of that Christian culture we have
had our schools open the day with an appeal
to God by morning prayer.
Now a group of three people from alien
cultures and alien religions have had the ar-
rogance to demand the six million Chris-
tians in Ontario shall be restricted and not
be allowed to open the school day for our
children in the manner we have followed for
a hundred y jars.
Never bet we in history have three people
from an alien culture been able to dictate to
six million people how, or how not, they
may, or may not, conduct their worship of
God. Never before in history have the rulers
of six million people been so insipid as to
allow three people to dictate the laws for the
six million people. And never before has any
judiciary been so insipid that they would in-
flict the dictates of three people on the six
million majority. Never before in any coun-
try have fifty thousand Christian teachers
been ruled by the arrogant dictates of three
people of alien religions.
What are we going to do about it? I sug-
gest that we simply ignore the ruling and
that every one of the fifty thousand teachers
open the school day by prayer, preferably
the Lord's Prayer, as we have done for a
hundred years. There are thousands of laws
on the books which are out of date, or for
some other reason are not applicable any
more and are simply ignored. This ruling is
one that should be ignored right from the
start.
Yours Respectfully,
Frank Southern
Storefronts 'combine stylings
Dear Editor:
I recently had a. weekend refugee from the
"CITY" visit Seaforth to get a taste of small
town life. As a resident (albeit a new one,
originally from a small town) of Seaforth,
who takes pride in the "architectural in-
tegrity" of the main street, I decided that a
walk uptown would serve as interesting
entertainment, since the local cable com-
pany had made certain that we would be
unable to watch the "CBS Thriller Golf
Tournament of the Week", if we stayed at
home.
As I had long extolled the aesthetic virtues
of our main street, my friend was out the
door and standing at the traffic lights before
I could even get my boots on. (Bought on
:Main Street)
As we walked south from Goderich Street,
I explained how the merchants, with
assistance from, government,ageneies, were
all showing common;good•spiritin maintain-
ing Seaforth's unique•streetscape.
My companion commented on how clever-
ly many of the •merchants bad combined the
classic commercial Victorian 'sty trigs with
the ,heritage :;designs of an architectural
school known .,as "Early Suburban :Strip
Mall: circa 1962".
Not ;put:outTin•'tie-least,.and -ready, .to,de-
fend, my.town;tttthelast,breath, L•auggeated
that,she look :higher to.the second,and.third
storiesiof.Seaforth's Venerable,edifiees,
Hockey fans fight at playoff game
Usnaliy when there's a fight in an arena
it's on the ice, but at the Bantam hockey
game this weekend in Seaforth there was
more action in the stands than there was on
the ice.
There was a good crowd out to see game
two of the Seaforth vs. Tavistock playoff
game, and a full complement of Tavistock
fans were in town to cheer their team on.
I was taking pictures of the game at the
far end of the arena where many of the
Tavistock fans, and a full complement of
younger Seaforth fans were stationed.
Nothing would have happened if all they
had done was cheer, but some of those
Tavistock fans started loudly commenting
on how the game should be refereed, and
what kind of hockey players some of the
local bantams, and even players from other
hockey teams, are.
The Seaforth fans, many of them
schoolmates of the bantams, took exception
(to say the least).
From time to time I would turn my gaze
away from what was a hard fought -if
chippy- game, to see what was developing in
the stands behind me. A couple Tavistock
fans thought it was funny to goad the locals,
get them going, by putting down our hockey
players and laughing at the retorts from the
young Seaforth fans.
So what we had was a running commen-
tary from the Tavistock folk -mostly one
particular man- about what a bunch of
whimpy, dirty, lousy, etc. hockey players
MY TWO BITS
by Neil Corbett
Seaforth has, followed by a string of retorts
directed at the offending Tavistock man
from Seaforth fans about the merits of
weight loss.
The thing came to a boil when a teenage
girl from Seaforth approached a Tavistock
woman (I took her to be the wife of the
mouthy guy ). I thought this girl pinched the
woman's leg from the way she reacted, but
heard later she had knocked a cigarette out
of the woman's hand. Whatever, the
Tavistock woman lost it. Went completely
amazon. She wasn't a small woman either,
but the girl didn't back down (I don't know
why she didn't, I was considering jumping
onto the ice where it was safe) and there
was a lot of punching, hair pulling, and some
really nasty language.
After a few seconds about three men grab-
bed hold of the Tavistock woman, and the
Seaforth girl wisely left.
No one really got hurt, and the incident
was basically dropped but for some choice
words in the arena lobby. (Apparently this
charming Tavistock woman, I'd guess
somewhere around 40 -years -old, asked the
Seaforth girl to step outside).
I can't make it read like Seaforth fans
Eventually we came to what I consider
the gem of Seaforth's streetscape, Cardno
Hall. Much to my joy, I saw a sight that
swelled my heart with pride a new
heritage plastic" sign affixed to the
storefront of one of the downstairs tenants. I
explained that this store had recently
changed handsand in keeping with the spirit
of our Business Improvement Association's
objectives, the new owners had spared no
expense, tying in the Early Suburban Strip
Mall motif with the unique upper floor
design of Cardno Hall.
My friend, being more interested in the
Victorian aspects of the streetscape,
demurely. decided not to comment. Steadily
gazing upwards and beyond the street level
storefronts, she praised the many arched
windows and the ornate trim integral to the
different buildings.
Eventually we came to Market Street and
my friend asked if we could go .into the
chiropractic clinic as,ahe was afraid that by
taking in such ae,dose,of;the . Victorian
splendor of.$ afor ,;she had developed a
painful•krick.infier..neck.
I calmed Mr, eaaytng,progress;,was riot
,passipg.Seafocth.hiY arid; fiat if she ,visited
agam:Aext,year theyproppsed elevated r,apid
,transit ,systep would probably be .eoln-
,pleted,; making it.ev-er,so;-mu4h,. Bier for
•visitorsAktrtilyappceciate:t2lerar�b teat i
ber)tage of,our own.
1A.,0 dent.
were completely blameless in this incident.
I'd probably be quick to anger too if I had to
listen to myself or my spouse getting cut up.
On the other hand there's nothing more an-
noying for a hometown fan than to listen to
some obnoxious rival fan who acts like he
owns the place in your arena. I wanted to
turn around and tell that chubby guy to shut
up too.
But basically everyone involved acted
stupidly. The only redeeming thing we can
say for Seaforth is that it was kids from our
town who were offenders, whereas it was
adults from Tavistock, people who were
parents of kids out on the ice, who acted ig-
norantly. People who should know better.
It's hard to know what people from other
towns think of your town. But when people
from outside Seaforth talk about winter
athletics here, you can guess what they're
saying because they've really only got one
thing to say. Virtually every team from
town -Bantams, Atoms, Midgets, Ringette
and Broomball clubs- are at least com-
petitive, and some will win at the provincial
level.
And that's the kind of reputation in sports
that Seaforth should keep.
Firebug Investigated in Hensall
MARCH 8,1889
Rev. William Wye Smith, of Newmarket,
whose recent volume of poems has been so
favourably received by the press, and ,who
has long been known as one;of our Canadian
Literateurs, will visit Seaforth .in ,a few
days, in the interest of his .volume.
Messrs. George Turnbull ,and James
Holmes cut on the farm,of the latter .one day
last week ten cords of wood.in seven how's.
They did not loiter much, .or <waste much
time spitting on their hands.
The Canada Pacific Manitoba car was at
the station here on Thursday of ;last .week
and was visited by a large number of ,people
The display of products was much the same
as on former occasions, but people seem
never to weary of hearing about Manitoba
or looking at anything that comes from
there.
Wheat has ,taken another; jump;0upwards,
and as high as from $1A3 to $1.0hass,been
paid during the present,week.
The Seaforth auxiliary .of Abe �1Ngi}Ien's
Foreign Missionary Society•S'snls ci ll4u ng
the , past ;ym
ear for,iss4onary purposes,;tlie
haadsodne:sumof$275010ekng4rf:i r;Qr Glee
of $1$,85•sover the,previous ear
i°,u h.;Bb.l?il3VIa Pqt xMtlaY
evening.aAlan,.t¢llo.:ltati; ' f l ►1, P vey
-freely. Vas irivi,ug«along lxel a, etA d
Mr-hohertiMell/SmAs,'idtiivll
�.• 'C .uu .—
0 ,,04aj0.o,jlx0Knman: f ytyrv0rxkn,wnmrmxntw00.,w ...00nbvnm,.:,,-..,.,.avW«.
i-1
and the. pole of the intoxicated man's sleigh
struck 141r. Melds on the side of the head and
glanced off, otherwise he might have sus-
tained fatalwounds. When spoken to regar-
ding his furious driving the man got out of
his sleigh .and :wanted to fight, but was
unable to stand up under his heavy load. If
such men .were -more frequently brought to
justice,it.n ightbave.a wholesome. effect on
that class of ,gentry.
,MA;ItOlt 13,1814
Dear. Expositor • I,want to say that the two
,esw o.w
jlac"t► h erecredlted.fn,theprize,winn-
jmglistpf;fiensall:$eedShow as:w,inning first
. andsecond prizes;forseedcorn„were not en-
titlt;d;to.a,prize,,at,all„as ;theirerates,ex-
-hihited rwere-notrgrown.;by .therseives, but
were imported from the south. ;An
exlliblfor,
A to eating,reppraiseptative.ef,sevecalof the
fratetlik4t etglies,tof 6estown was.l►eld,in
;the .dfelltRs llonr'WettlYPA a3'.;even(it$,
�f$,orrpf
T�'�8d•
o-b;-
ill dee
Last summer H.B. Kirkby had the con-
tract of putting in the John Street Sewer in
Brussels. On completion of the work he put
in a bill for extras claiming he had to dig
through rock. The council contended there
was no rock to call for such payment. He is
now threatening a lawsuit to force payment.
MARCH 10, 1939
Fire early Friday morning in Hensall
completely destroyed a garage and an adja-
cent frame building containing apartmetlts
and offices. The Dashwood and Zurich fire
departments.assisttd local residents to fight
the blaze which took hours to extinguish.
Investigation of two Hensall fires .which
,within five days destroyed a vacant
residence and,a five store block of stores Is
underway. Officials fear that a firebuug may
beat -work in ;the village. Daring the,Seeond
,fire on Tueselay ;eight, Chief Leo Redden
,located footprints leading to the blazing
<bu gof`g r's..Mill.near'by•
r Pelglll,.,president of the SoafQkth
di c l t on ,e,osgt$14t•Aline-
Turn•to;page,OA •
lF
J.