HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1983-03-23, Page 2$$troll (xpositor
,ince 1860, Serving the Community lint
• incorporating Brus' Is Post founded ten
12 Main St. 527.0240
Published at SEAFORTH, ONTARIO every Wednesday afternoon
by Signal -Star Publishing Limited
Jocelyn A. Shrler, Publisher
Susan White, Editor
H.W. (Herb)Titrkhelm, Advertising Manager
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association,
Ontario Community Newspaper Association' -and Audit
Bureau of Circulation
A member of the Ontario Press Council
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11‘4,,,27)-
SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 1983
Second class mall registration number 0696
Thanks canvassers
It's a cold, rainy and gloomy night. Despite the weather, a solitary soul
trudges through the neighbourhood, knocking on door after door. 'What is
this person," you say, "crazy? Who in their right mind wouldn't be home in
front of the tv?"
A dedicated volunteer canvasser., that's who. And this time of year it
wouldn't hurt us to take a moment and say thanks to those devoted people
who spend a few evenings calling on everyone in the neighbourhood. They
represent the Heart Foundation, perhaps or the March of Dimes. In April
folks will be out asking us to contribute to the Cancer Society.
All. these and more are good causes, and the support they get is due
mainly to the volunteer canvassers and those behind the scenes who give
some time for something they believe in.
Collecting, even for a very good cause, often isn't easy. There's the
weather to put up with or the need to call again and again because people
aren't•at home. And then there are the, rare we hope, uncaring or
unthinking residents who slam the door in a volunteer canvasser's face.
With all the hassles, it's amazing that people help out their favourite
good causes, year after year. But thank Heavens they do: advances in
research against deadly disease and aid tp the disabled is made possible
because they do.
In this cynical age, it's good to remember not everyone responds to a
request to help out with "what's in it for me?"_ --
Most of us aren't rich and can't give a huge amount to all or any worthy
cause but we can at least make those who represent the causes and who
corne to our doors feel welcome, give what we can and then thank them for
being a good example to us all. - S.W.
1
Askin' experts
As anyone who's ever sat in the same room with people Iscussing
their fine points knows, computers are complex. Just Iistenin to the
computer fanciers toss off phrases like "bits", "bytes" and
"user-friendly" is enough to make an ordinary mortal's head spin.
That's why Huron County Council made exactly the right decision, when
it voted recently to spend $25,000 on a study of its computer needs, to be
done by management consultants Woods -Gordon.
Despite the easy first reaction which is to pooh-pooh the information, but
especially the costs of information from consultants....as in'"A consultant is
someone who's a thousand miles from home, wearing a $500 suit"....there
are times when objective information -is needed.
This, when as yet non -computerized Huron County is looking for a
computer system tc' meet its needs for the next 20 years, is one -of them.
"But Company A, which sells computers, will tell us what we need for
nothing," is an oft -heard response.
We liked county clerk -treasurer Bill Hanly's response to that one.
"There's no doubt we could go to IBM, but I guarantee you we'll end up
with IBM equipment. It might not be the right equipment for our
specifications."
There are times in the life of any public body, or private company for that
matter, when consultation with an objective outsider is needed. It costs, but
the cost is small compared to the mess than can result if we choose
something as crucial as a computer system according to which company
does the best sales job.
Consultants, like architects, engineers and other experts, probably take
more than their share of knocks. But there are times, and this Is one, when
their advice can be invaluable.
-Good for county council who recognized that fact. It's a wise decision that
in the long run will probably save all -Huron taxpayers money. - S.W.
Let's get tough
A change of colotYr and you're a new person
It all started, as interesting conversa-
tions so often do, at a party. A group of
women in the 25 to 35 age range. were talking
about colours and how they make us feel.
Now, I'm sure that there's a relatively'new
marketing concept out there that says each of
us. because of our skin tones, should wear a
certain colour family. Anything outside our
colours makes us look ugly, or at (east not our
best. When we wear a colour that's
appropriate we look and feel great. We get
compliments to prove it.
Even a sceptic like me has to ad it there's
a lot of truth there, but that's not'really what
our conversation was about.
"As I get older, and incidentally, happier, 1
find I'm wearing more bright colours" one of -
us said. A- visitor from overseas, who wast
arrhyed in a brilliant tropical print said the,
colours you wear make a statement about who,
you think you are. She's an artist and not by
coincidence was wearing the most unconven-
tional clothes, in both fabric and style. in the
room.
We all giggled with another friend who was
dressed, as usual. very quietly in brown and
green tweedy clothes. Some of us have known
her since high school and we agreed with her
that she's always worn those shades,
although her life has expanded tremendously
since those far off days.
The hostess told us her more adventurous
Som@dlfng too Day
by $uoc)e Moat@
sister had offered to let her borrow a
gorgeous hot pink and turquoise outfit to
wear to the party. She'd tried it on, but
declined. "It just wasn't me," she protested
while the rest of us said we thought it
sounded wonderful.
"Mary," someone said to our friend who
always wears quiet green and brown, "why
don't you try it on? -i betcha you'd look great
in hot pink and turquoise."
More hilarity ensued as everybody tried to
,talk Mary into this daring experiment. Brave
person that she is. she marched upstairs, put
on the outfit which she admitted she would
never, in a million years think of buying and
carne back to the living room with it on.
A NEW PERSON
The men in the room, meanwhile are totally
bewildered about why the rest of us were
laughing about colours, and find it more than
a little strange that Mary went up the stairs
looking herself and came back down a new
person.
Because that's what happened. This
delightful but rather retiring woman look
totally different in hot pink and turquoise.
Since,doing some research on the "color me
beautiful" concept, I now know that's
because her olive skin tones and brown eyes
are flattered by those colours.
But what she and the rest of us noticed at
the time was that her behavior changed. She
was livelier in hotpink and turquoise than in
olive green and brown. (Note to the
disbelievers: This really happened, or most of
it did, and 1 swear alcohol consumption at this
party was minimal.)
Think about it. When you're feeling most
businesslike or know you'll be with a
conservative group of people, isn't that when
you pull out the navy, the grey, the camel or
the'dark brown? And when you're delighted,
celebrating and bubbling about life and its
possibilities, you tell the world aboutlit by
wearing bright pink or yellow or brilliant
blue.
A friend of mine used to say she,ifelt
perfectly safe hitchhiking alone in Northern
Europe because she always dressed in
classic. tailored clothes and dark colours that
made it perfectly clear she was not fo be
trifledywith.
Smiley --
' - ` -trting a taxpayers'
SugcaaQ cwud opoc@
The issue of acid rain took a new twist with the announcement by New
Democratic (NDP) MP Derek Blackburn that an eight -member all -party
committee on acid rain will be resurrected. In making the announcement,
Mr. Blackburn said the committee will play by the same tough rules
initiated by the Reagan administration.
We're not going to fool around any more. I'm not going to be a nice guy.
I'm going to be as tough as I can be 10 impress upon our American
colleagues that the waiting game is over - this is a major critical issue," he
stated.
The hard line stand was taken after the Reagan administration decided to
relaxlaws designed tocut down on the amount of sulphurhur dioxide and
nitrogen oxide emissions as suggested in a report called Still Waters by 50
per cent by 1990. The study a1 o states that Canadian corporations should
follow the same guidelines.
Central to the Reagan rejection of the study is the cost to corporations to
clean up their act. Figures released in 1980 show that American companies
spewed more than 22 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide and almost 20
million tonnes of nitrogen oxides into the air. In Cahada the figures were
about 4.5 million and two million respectively.
Estimates for such a large-scale clean up are in the billions of dollars.
However, if the problem ip not properly addressed by both governments
on the merits of its environmental significance and not on sheer cost, North
America will be faced with severe environmental problems in the near
future. Dead lakes, deterioration of plant life and buildings and a general
health risk are results that governments should not take lightly.
The seriousness of the problem can be seen in other countries facing
similar problems. In Scandinavia alone, an estimated 40,000 lakes are dead
from acid rain fallout. That fallout is not a locally created problem, but the
weather brings heavily laden winds ft'om the industrialized Ruhr valley in
Germany over Scandinavia.
As a result these countries are pressing for stricter German
environmental regulations in an effort to prevent uncontrolled acid rain
fallout.
One does not have to travel far to see the effects of acid rain. Sudbury is a
,prime example of what large amounts of sulphur dioxide can do, Lakes are
destroyed, vegetation is severely stunted and landscapes are barren and
blackened.
Thinking Canadians and Americans willlagree with Blackburn that "nice
guy' time is over and we want our governments to get tough.-K.S.
L
With the Federal government facing a
truly awesome deficit that makes me wince
for my children and grandchildren, and with
the Taxman lurking just over the horizon,
ready to rummage through my every pocket,
I'm in just the right mood to be re -reading
Thoreau's great essay, "Civil Disobedi-
ence."
Like most Canadians, 1 am ripe and ready
for telling the state to go jump in the lake.
stop meddling in affairs it invariably bungles,
and 'get its thieving hand out of my hip
pocket.
One of Thoreau's main themes is that
governments arc only an expedient for
getting things done: things that the indivi•
dual can't handle, such as national defence.
postal service. and the like. But, as he points
out, most governments are inexpedient.
In other words, they meddle, they obstruct
the natural flow of trade and commerce, they
involve the governed in all sorts of things the
latter disapprove of. and their main purpose
becomes self -perpetuation, rather than
carrying out the will of the people.
Think about it. Did you insist that the
F
ovcrnmcnl
go on spending and borrowing
till, until our national deficit is heading
5200 billion, and the interest on it alone is
more Than the entire budget of a decade or so
ago?
Was it you, or any of your friends. who
insisted that the government set itself up in
by DON Sl i as@ 9
the oil ane( gas business, without adding one
single gallon of production?
Perhaps it was you and people like you.
who )forced the federal and provincial
govCrnments to rely so heavily for revenues
on their taxes on poison: booze and
cigarettes.
Or maybe it was you who whispered in a
ministerial earhole that taxes should be
increased for the poor and the middle-class.
but held steady for the rich, because to
increase theirs would "destroy initiative".
Docs the government really carry out your
wishes about capital punishment, foreign and
urban sprawl in choice farmland?
No! No!. I hear, in great volume. Then why
don't you do something about it? But what
can I do. you say. All 1 can do is vote, you say.
and it's usually picking one turkey over
another.
Agreed. hut there is a solution. according
toP Y
Thoreau. It's simple in Iheor difficult in
practice. Just don't payyour taxes. Get up on
your hind legs, and say it: "1 Won't pay taxes
to huy oil companies. to support criminals in
jail. to advertise the glories of the govern-
` ment in publications..." and whatever else
turns your crank.
Divorce is the new
I he Statistics Canada report on the
growing divorce rate in Canada didn't tell us
anything we didn't already know in that age
group under 40 or 45 wars of aec
11 you're in this age group and have a
reasonable number of married friends, ou'll
believe nearly any statistic they want tot ow
al you about divorce these days. len years
ago I thought there must he some slip up in
the statistics taking when they said that about
a third of all marriages. I think it was then.
would end in divorce. Now I'm ready to
f,clicve the increased prediction that 40 -per
cent of all marriages end ih divorce. .lust
think about it' it means that of every five
married couples you know. two are liable to
get divorced.
I know that if I met an old acquaintance I
haven't seen for a year or two. 1 hestitate and
send out feelers before asking for the health
of the spouse unless he or she is present. I
just might end up bringing up the embarrass-
ed response that the couple is not living
1 don't know that I'd trust the power of
colour that far. But I've seen living proof that
it not only affects how you look and feel but it
sends out a powerful message to those
around you.
But. you'll say. I'd never get away with it.
They'd seize my bank account. cash my
bonds. grab my property. put me in jail. Of
course they would. 1 told you it wasn't easy.
All you have to do is persuade another
9.999 honest men of conscience to do the
same. and the revolution would be over.
Would the government throw in jail ten
thousand otherwise honest. upright citizens?
No fear. It would lose the next election. aside
from not having enough jail space to put
them.
Of course. finding the rest of the ten
thousand might be a mite dicey. Finding ten
honest men these days. men of conscience
and integrity, who are willing to stand up and
defy is about as easy as being appointed
coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs and told to
go out and bring hone the Stanley Cup.
Thoreau himself refused to pay his poll tax
and was put in jail. which he found highly
amusing.B
Imagine the government thinking
they could lock up his mind, along his
body.
But the hig trouble is that government$ are
so sneaky these days. They wouldn't dare
' throw ten thousand solid citizens in jail: But
they could garnishee their wages, seize their
,NOT CHEAP
You can, 1 understand, have your
"colours" professionally done. You spend an
afternoon or so with an expert and colour
swatches. Together you' decide what colours
and make-up are best for you. And you get
small size samples of the exact colours which
flatter you, to carry around for shopping
purposes. But that procedure doesnit come
cheap. Someone 1 know went through it a year
ago and paid $75.
Mind you she looks great and she saves
money by not making costly clothes blitying
mistakes.
Another route is to get a book, like Color
Me Beautiful" by Carole Jackson, from your
friendly Huron County Public Library. It's
interesting and you can enlist the whole
family's help to decide if you're an Autumn, a
Winter, a Spring or a Summer. (Don't ask,
read the book.)
Then all you do is answer the question
"Who do 1 want to be today?" by what you
pull out of your closet.
Sure.
revolt
i
assets, haul them into the courts and
generally harass them to death.
It was simpler in other times. They
crucified Christ, excummunicated Luther and
Copernicus. pronounced Washington a rebel,
and dealt in similar summary fashion with
other great reformers, patriots and saints.
1 know what you're saying: 1 ain't no saint.
True. But then neither are you a slave. to be
bought and sold depending on the whims of
the majority: big business, big government.
big labor.
There's many a man—and woman—
walking the streets these days. who thought
he or she was an individual, a person of
character and conscience and loyalty. tossed
out like an old broom by the system. which is
not exactly based on the New Testament.
But surely we can dig in our,heels a bit. Tell
you what. We'll work like a chain letter. You
find nine other honest men or women. I'll do
the sante. On the 29th of April. the ten
thousand of us will send a telegram to
Trudcau. saying. "We ain't gonna pay our
taxes."
It might ht t
eke us a
while,30 years or
5o.
g
Ho
'n as scarce as
a getting Hottest people are g
g
P
P
virgins. But one of these years. We'll issue or
clarion blast. and the walls will come
tumbling down.
Politicians. take note._ Better huy some
ear -plugs. just in case.
st communicable disease
Ind td)@ Og@n02
by KQath n cApkwW
to her anymore. Worse still. if the wounds
too recent. I might get to hear a replay of
fhc whole messy breakup.
Divorce seems to be the newest eoirfmunic-
ablc social disease in our society. A couple of
decades ago divorce was something that was
rare anywhere, but in our neck of the woods
was regarded as one of the evils of the city.
Many people in rural Ontario didn't even
know someone who was divorced. Today
divorce seems as common in the country as in
the city. We've caught up with fashion at last.
Why this epidemic of marriage break-
down? One expert pointed'out that people
don't seem willing to compromise personal
goals and fulfillment in order to keep a
marriage together. The new realities of
careers for women obviously have some
inlpact on the situation. In the old days the
family had one goal in mind and both
husband and wdc w crc dedicated to it. I oday
the goals of the husband's career and the
wife s career may conflict and cause added
tension. Since in our "me" generation,
neither is willing to sacrifice for the other. the
marriage is bound to be in trouble. Add
children to the -mix and there are that many
more problems.
Then too there is the affluence factor.
Women even tt decade ago thought twice
before either moving out or kicking the bum
out because where would the money come
from. Today the wife might be earning more
than the husband and it makes it easier to
consider a breakup.
And could it be that we've started a
a"
4
snow -hall: that the knowledge that many
marriages do break up becomes a self-fulfil-
ling prophecy because at the first sign of
trouble couples say, "Well. I guess this is it."
One wonders how much people gain who
arc so wrapped up in personal fulfillment
they refuse to compromise in marriage. Is the
pain of compromise any worse than the pain
divorce brings. than the uncertainty of going
back tp the single life again? Perhaps it is,
since statistics show that 75 per cent of
divorced people remarry, but the divorce rate
in these marriages is even higher than the
first time marriage rate. Obviously, these
people have not learned a lesson about how to
choose a compatible partner and hold a
marriage together.
The really frightening thing about the
divorce epidemic, however, is to look at the
future. Statistics have long shown that
children from .broken homes have a greater
marriage breakdown rate themselves. So
where does this put us 20 years from now?
t