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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1983-03-16, Page 21u'iuron � QFxposifor Since 1860, Se-ving the Community first Incorporating •• Brussels Post hounded 1872 12 Maln St, 527-0240 Published at SEAFORTH, ONTARIO every Wednesday afternoon by Signal -Star Publishing Limited Jocelyn A. Shrler, Publisher ©Alan oiscsomMtes Susan White, Editor (4444:421;:" k. H.W. (Herb) Turkhelm, Advertising Manager Member 9anadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Comn)unity Newspaper Association and Audit Bureau of Circulation A member of the Ontario Press Council Subscription rates: Canada $17.75 a year (In advance) outside Canada $50. a year (in advance) Single Copies - 50 cents each SEAFkRTH, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 1983 �\,f \ Second class mail registration number 0696 We're still together One of the many satisfactions the entire community, all the citizens who live in all five contributing municipalities, have about the brand new Seaforth and District Community Centres building is the fact that it seems almost constantly in use. More than 1,000 people enjoyed performances of The Fantasticks there on Thursday and Friday. It was packed again for a hockey game against London TV stars on Sunday. And the usual hockey, public skating and a Saturday night dance were sandwiched in between. One of the concerns expressed by some when the decision was made to build the new arena went something like this: "Okay, say we can raise the money to build it. That's one thing. But will we be able to afford to operate this fancy new place?" Now that the budget is in for the first year of operation, it appears we will indeed. The fact, we were amaz^d to learn that the new building , with facilities far superior to anything we had in thetprevious arena, will cost less to operate than the old place did in 1980. There are savings, insurance for example, in the new build'inp that just weren't possible in the old. And too, the building's use is at such a high rate that a good deal of income is being generated. No one ever suggested the new community centre would be self supporting. The concept that municipalities would have to contribute toward a deficit was accepted long ago, just like the concept that local government has pay for policing, fire protection and roads. We believe the -Community centres management board has brought•down a bare bones budget, a conservative budget that for example, won't see the place running into problems if the present high level of bookings were to decline for some reason. As well as we are inclined to think that some of the criticism of the board, for example that too high a price was paid for roller skates that will be rented to the public, is a case of comparing apples and oranges: A Tuckersmith Township councillor was quoted as saying he'd bought skates more cheaply for his children than the community centre had bought 70 pairs. He wondered why the board hadn't gotten a price break for quantity. Probably the answer is that skates which are to be in constant use by a variety of members of the public have to be of better quality than roller skates which one person will own and take care of. But that's nitpicking. Members of the community centres board will be going back to the two area councils Tuckersmith and Hullett, which turned the board's 1983 budget down, in an effort to answer all their questions. We hope they succeed in selling the budget. Criticism of the board and its decisions is inevitable. Every one of us considers ourselves part-owners of our terrific new community centre, and we're all interested in how it operates. But let's not forget that together we made it happen, and together all five municipalities still have a duty to support the facility and its board of management. We owe protection —S.W. Those TV dishes are steeling too Communication Minister Frances Fox's flip flop on government policies about satellite dishes is an admission :by the government that if you can't eaten. the thieves, you might as well not call it a crime. Then you won't look stupid trying to stop -it. Already there have been repercussions from the move and there will be more. Plans to build a domed station in Regina have been scrapped because, the promoters point out. people drive a long way to watch football in Saskatchewan but if they can stay home and watch pirated signals either in their home or, at the local tavern, will they risk that long drive through weather that is sometimes less than pleasant? The fragile economy of the Canadian Football League may also be endangered by these stolen signals. And this is a case of stealing. Entertain- ment spots such as. bars have installed the satellite dishes to increase the number of people who will come into their bars and drink. Jake Caudaur. commissioner of the CFL has pointed out that if the football clubs The serious problems of child abuse, sexual exploitation of children and • family incest have resurfaced recently with startling new details on the number of cases. According to figures released, every one -out -of four girls is sexually abused and every one -out -of -10 boys suffer from similar traumatic experiences. Of the girls' cases registered, approximately 50 per cent involve father -daughter relationships. Those figures came to light on CTV's W5 program on Sunday evening, in which a three-year-old child described in detail how she was sexually abused by her foster father. Although the program made most stomachs turn, the revelations of tjis small child brought home the message of how serious the problem is. It also shed some light on a dark and often well hidden secret in today's society. Even more dramatic is the fact that these cases involve a large number of small children who seem to be unprotected by the law. Helpless against the overtures of adults, and in many cases unaware of what is taking place, these children carry the scars of such experiences into their adult laves. In this particular documented case, the child's statements w disregarded by the investigating officer in favour of the foster father's , statements that the child was lying. However, it seems almost incredible that a three-year-old could possess such graphic information on human anatomy. One expert told the program interviewer that the child was indeed telling the truth about her experience. According to the program, the Children's Aid Society, also failed to believe the child's story when it was presented by a couple interested in adopting the child. As a result of their inquiries, they lost their right to adopt the child because of their efforts to bring the abuse to the attention of the authorities. The apparent lack of protection for these children and the lack of help for the abused child and the person perpetrating the act is of concern. The experience these children go through has to be dealt with by professionals in order that children can recover from the experience and lead normal lives, It is also essential to realize that people who abuse young children are in need of help themselves. Open debate on the matter is needed and laws to protect innocent children have to be enacted to solve the problem of widespread child abuse. This can only be achieved through co-operation and understanding of tfie problem and its Causes, which vary from case to case. As one police officer stated on the program, children seldom lie about such experiences. Let's listen to them and act as a society to protect them —K.S. About disability 113© gd Nolo This story is not original, nor are m sentiments probably But for those who read this 1 can only hope they will say "1 never knew that'' The person looks the same as anybody He talks. jokes. drinks. laughs but he is disabled He knows he can never he a 100 per cent person. he tries but he knows that he will never he accepted or respected socially by most people Why' in some people's eves he is just a misfit He can't drive. he shakes all the time But he can't help it. r Sin A newspaper article the other day reminded me of one of the inexorable laws of modern life: Things multiply in inverse proportion to their use. It is a simple fact, and we've all been through it. that there are certain things in life that multiply like rabbits, and others that invariably disappear forever. No matter how hard you try to get rid of pennies. they just build up. and if you carry your loose change in your pants pocket, as 1 do, after a week you are listing heavily to the right, You pile your (8 pennies on the top of the dresser and start again, and a week later you have 22 pennies in the same pocket. Another multiplier is the single sock. Start out a new year with 12 pairs of socks. In three months, you'll have six pairs and six odd socks. In six months, you'll have 12 single socks. After years of suffering this, I've counterattacked. I now buy 12 pairs of identical socks. so that after six months. at least I have six pairs of socks, Ladies used to have the same problem. befog the invention of panty -hose. But this di very hasn't lessened their problems. In old days. if they got a run. they usually had a spare single 10 match the good one with. But now, if you get a hole in one leg of your pantyhose, you're scuppered. Out they by KcAll IA(DuOncmil broke into bars, stole the barrels of beer. took them to the stadium and advertised free beer as a way of attracting more customers everybody would consider it stealing. It's also stealing to take a television picture prepared at great cost and use it for purposes for which it was not intended. FAiR GAME But the public doesn't see it that way. The ordinary citizen somehow feels that if it's up there in the air, it's fair game. We even have a huge new business building up these days in the manufacturing and selling of illegal decoding machines so people can steal pay-TV signals. Not only doesn't society in general look down on This kind of theft as they would, say shop -lifting, there seems to be a kind of adrntration tor the ingenuity of the thieves. But don't expect people like me, don't expect writers, actors, singers and dancers, directors, producers and sports stars to agree with you, if you think this way. You are stealing our livelihood as surely as if you stole a cow out of a farmer's pasture or a new car out of an automobile showroom. Those electronic signals have been sent up through the air in the same way oil is sent through a pipeline or electricity through a wire and if you tap into that electronic pipeline you're stealing the product of all thoScr'Yorot3fo who depend on its sale for a living. GUILTINESS? Somehow the theft of TV signals. the illegal • copying of records onto tape, the illegal photocopying of books has been reduced to a guiltless crime, like taking a few paperclips from the office, but for those trying to make their livelihood in those areas, it's a disaster. The government's answer in this—case again has been subsidy. The government will provide money for production of more Canadian programming on television. But many people in the business are tired of subsidy and the stigma of welfare attached to it by the very same society that thinks stealing music words or television pictures is a harmless lark. We'd like to be able to earn a living without anybody being able to demean that living. It's hard to layyytjre blame entirely.at the feet of the government -for this Chicken-hearted act. How long can a government try to enforce a law society doesn't believe in? But how healthy can a society be that condones theft? gle socks are great multipliers ��gc�aQ caand opoc* by ©BGG 2iffiOGQy go. the intact one with the bum one. Women also have other multipliers in the singles division: earrings and gloves. How many women in this fair land have seven or eight exquisite single earrings and four or five superb single gloves? It's quite fashionable these days for a man to wear a single earring, and a practical chap who lost a glove would wear the other and put his bare hand in his pocket. But women don't think that way, and the gloves and earrings proliferate in their solitary glory. Old keys multiply at a fantastic rate, until cupboard drawers and plastic bowls are overflowing with then.. We have a huge collection of car keys going back to our fifth last car, every key to the house before we changed the locks. and enough skeleton kcys to outfit James Bond on one of his capers. New keys are diminishcrs. We have lost iwo sets of keys to our present car. and sometimes search for half an hour to find one of the new sets we had to order. The new keys 10 the new locks disappeared. and we had to take off the locks and go to the key man tor new ones. 1, wonder where they are, at this moment? The new ones that is. Bottles, particularly those on which there is no deposit return, pile up about as fast as you can empty them. But prepare to take back your beer -case of empties, and there are always two missing. Where did they go? Is there a guy, or a dame, hiding behind the furnace who sneaks up when you are beddy-byes, drinks two of your beers, then eats the bottles? Wire coat hangers reproduce like rats. The other day, while attempting to get niy coat out of the closet. t Knucxeu sown six empty hangers. I carefully fished them up from among the parts of the vacuum cleaner. took another 40 empty hangers off the pole. tied them all together with cord, marched calmly into the basement and hurled then into the woodpile. Two weeks later, 1 knocked down • eight hangers while getting rtiv coat, and sat down and wept tears of fury and frustration. Pencils multiply. hut there's never one in the house when you are trying to take down a long-distance phone message. Odd buttons multiply until it seems like a button factory. But when you need two the same size and color, forget it. You have six thousand buttons, no two alike. You think you don't take many snapshots. Been to the attic lately? There are twelve boxes of them up thdre. right from your own baby pictures, through your courting days, into your own children at every stage, and about five hundred of the grandchildren. But just try to find that especially good one you wanted to send to Aunt Mabel. Completely vanished. Stamps run out: magazines pile up to the ceiling. Bills and receipts multiply while bank accounts diminish. Pornography flourishes as sex drive diminishes. Television channels multiply while their contents diminish in quality, Workmanship diminishes as cost of it soars. And I've just touched the surface. How about acid rain and fish? Or safe. salted highways and holes in your car? Was it always like this. or is it just a curse of the twentieth century? Make up your own list: two columns. one headed Multipliers. the other Diminishers. It will shake you. Have you travelled with a child lately? ike a lot of parents, we were a little anxious. A vacation was something we all needed. And we agreed it was to he a family time. lis, our five year old and her grandparents. A rare chance for the three generations to enjoy one of the continent's health. spare. together. But still. travelling with a five year old. 1, 1 nights. Iwo planes and three airports .acts was. strange food and a new environ meat. .can he a little iffy. I me 'i it's hard on us. the adults. How will our daughter cope w c wondered as we set off on a getaway week Fine. thanks, lust fine. In fact, since the weather was better here at home than at our destination, North Carolina, and we didn't get the sun we all craved. I can say without reservation that travelling with our child was the highlight of the trip. 1 here was no whining or complaining. She got very little sleep but over and over again He seems to he in a fog sonic people say. He takes 28 pills a day. He keeps to himself because he Knows everybody is "busy.' anyway If they took the time to talk to and socialize with him they would learn he's just a person with epilepsy. a nervous 'lisorder that's a small hindrance in the eyes of medicine hut it makes him a social misfit in the eves of people who don't know or understand the disorder. The man is not crying with self pity. No He is just like a black man "singln' the blues with no power in his hands. He merely does so to keep on keepin' on. Alan McLean Seaforth RDia cAll ing 4c) ?© by $M5(611 WGTR® she reacted with enthusiasm. not only to the fascinating sights we saw., but when there wcrc problems that tended to easily disenur- age the rest of us. It's raining and too cold to play golf? Our live -year-old organizes an expedition to pick up pine cones. "we'll he dry under the trees," she said, and we were. It's dark. we're all tired of driving and we can't find a place to stay that's a) cheap h) clean and c) got a vacant room? She treats the poring search as an adventure and the rest of us realize she's right. it is. Our five year old was not only proud to carry her own belongings in her own knapsack, she wanted to help carry our hags. Spring brings bicycl There are two things that happen in Spring. The first one is that bikes are taken out of storage and young and old go for that first ride on the two wheeler. The second one is that dogs are found to be running loose more so than at any other time of the year. Let's deal first with bicycles and remem- ber safety first. A bicycle is a vehicle and the same rules of the road dealing with automobiles also apply to bicycles. Make sure tires are properly inflated, brakes are in • good working order and have gears properly adjusted. Bicycles must be ridden on the 'roadway no the sidewalk. Bicycles must stop for red lights and et through highways controlled by stop signs. Bicycle riders must signal stops and turns and ride with the traffic on the right edge of the roadway. Seaforth has a By -Law controlling streets and in this By -Law bicycles are permitted to be "wheeled ', that is pushed. the same as a baby carriage on. a sidewalk. She proudly handed hoarding passes to the stewards and then eagerly picked out our scats. She knows how to read row D. seats I. 2 and 3 and it was her job to du so Since her choice of fine cuisine runs heavily to hamburgers. french fries and meat and potatoes. we were a little worried about what she was going focal at the fish places the rest of us favoured. But every restaurant offered at least one meat selection and seemed used to small servings without sauces for kid's. She didn't starve. Shc wouldn't try anything different like the 01 SI the 1.1.11 01 us loved but tic had the consolation that her choices wcrc usually cheap. One restaurant, called The Oyster e and dog proble r Bar, had its parking lot covered with crushed shells and had hills of emptied whole shells mit front. We had sonic trouble convincing her she couldn't take several samples home. She did however arrive back with pockets and kraal•sack bulging with soap from the plane. shells from Wrightsville Beath, pamphlets from every house in Historic Wilmingdon, pine cones, golf tees and a branch from a Long Needle pine tree. Souvenirs For her friends, Her father and 1 got the best souvenirof all. 1lthough she's been cran ky and tired as she recovers from all the excitement, we've got memories of her flexibility. her joy in all she stns and her all-round good behaviour for a %seek. It could have been deadly without her, and it makes being a parent worthwhile. e ms Dogs present a problem for the police force as the members have the duty of enforcing the Town's By -Law. Dog owners must have their dogs registered at the Clerk's Office between Jan. 1 and Mar. 1 in each and every year. All dogs must have a current tag on at all times. Dogs must be confined to the property where they are habitually kept. Dogs are not permitted to tun at large. All dogs must be on a leash when off the owner's property. - 1 would strongly recommend all °dog owners their dcRs as soon as possible and keep the dogs confined to the owner's property. The minimum fines are S50., plus costs for all violations relating to the dog By -Law. Relations between police and public can deteriorate quickly when you must pay a SSO fine for your dog. This puts the onus on you the public for maintaining good relations. Obey the dog By -Law and you will have improved relations with your neighbours and your police force. H. Claus thief of Police