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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1983-11-23, Page 2+; si -� Ott 1:., A.. ..Y'�.. �., ••,p�'�w^ ,i tna Ga+smunl{y nit 'it ns60,,,9240 lfrit(otaW 12M0111,5 Published at 13EAlIOONTARIO Syprlry' Wedneedsy mor,lnp $usen1,'yhlti;MIMplog Editor J0001yn A. tlhrlsr, Publisher Memor-4 ad munItyN*wspap.rAssoo OdbfiscOMhif �,omYNiwspIPeA.aoclattonand Audll 1441MOWofCfi'duhtlon 1 *at*Oriterlo'Press Council IlApag l %biptlon• rated ' C8400 104000 ytMr (In 000n00) Outside Caned lM, 00s,y',!br (In,advence) •$ingls coplest 6OCehltleigh. $EAFOATH, ONTARIO, WEbNNESOAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1983 escand clsifsnliileregistration Number 0090 Do our luds qualify? If someone with power to upend public money, say a government member or a high ranking civil servant were to ask what's more Important, our kids or the roads' we drive on, most of us would answer "our kids, of course." But the Davis government's move to make individual families pay ttie entire cost of daycare by 1986 shows that those In power in Ontario think we think otherwise. Already the move to cut prdvincial daycare subsidies has had an effect on what type of care is available for children. A daycare centre in Stratford has closed; fees are gradually moving upwards in Vanastra and Wingham centres. Parents In Wingham will pay an estimated $25 per child by 1986, making concerned, competent care in a daycare centre out of the question for all but the very wealthy or those on welfare, the chairman of that town's daycare board says. We know daycare isn't available to most families In Huron County. The " lucky parents and children have found qualified alternatives...loving, capable babysitters who provide stimulation in their own homes. Parents who aren't so lucky go off to work (and they need to work; or would we rather they stay home and go on welfare?) with a terrific load of guilt. They can't find a good babysitter. They've heard the horror stories about sitters who look after 12 kids at a time and lock them all in a room in front of the tv. - Or, and many parents who work outside the home have faced this one, they find out Thursday that their children's sitter has another job and they need a replacement by Monday. The choice between quality care for your children or making a decent family living -is not pleasant. Yet it's one that many young parents have to make. Some people don't see it that way. "I Looked after my own kids, they can look after theirs," is something you hear from those who'd like to turn back the clock. Probably the same thing was said by upper Canadians who opposed free universal education -in Egerton Ryerson's, day. And by those who thought kindergartens) were a crazy •Idea 50 years ago. The world has changed. The reality that two parents in many families work outside the home is not going to go away. The availability of quality daycare for our children is as important for today's families as free public education was more than 100 years ago. 1f the next generation of .pre-schoolers spends its time in trgnt,of a tv set with an uncaring sitter Instead of feeling secure; aware and challenged 1n' a daycare centre Cr with a loving sitter, society as a -whole will pay the price. - - All of us in the world 20' years from now will be the losers. But the Davis government doesn't'think there are many. votes in daycare. It chooses to imitate the Reagan presidency which is sacrificing people programs in the USA to allow more spending on armaments and big business. Retiring. CUPE president Grace Hartman says right-wing politicians and business leaders are in effect dismantling. the middle class in Canada. Certainly that's who the new Ontario daycare regulations hit. The very poor will be subsidized. The very rich can afford $25 a day per child. The working stiffs will be on their own, looking for the best child care solution they can find. All of us, especially here where daycare has not been widely available, need to think and talk about the issue the province's policy raises. What iii a legitimate use of public money? Presumably services that benefit society as a whole, like new .land -fill sites, faster subway trains, better sewers and the latest In snow plows, qualify. Do we agree that early childhood education, good loving care and the best possible start for our children, society's children, do not? -S.W. Hospitals are exciting Hospitals full of advanced technology and mysterious procedures can be scary places no matter v.'hat your age. But, by opening its doors to students, Seaforth Community Hospital Is promoting some understanding . about medicine. For the past two weeks, Seaforth District High School grade nine students have been spending their afternoons at the hospital learning about the laboratory, dietary, radiology, emerjtency and physiotherapy departments as part of their health class. By using needles and test tubes filled with trot and cold water, they learned on each other how to test for nerve damage if a patient coihes into emergency with head injuries. Everyone had a chance to stick their hands Into the whirlpool and the wax bath In the physiotherapy department and teacher Terry Johnston was hooked up to a electrocardiograph so students could watch how the machine recorded the electric current of his heart. For the past eight years, grade 11 students have toured the obstetrics ward to learn about childbirth. And for 12 years, kindergarten classes have dressed up as doctors, nurSeis and patients and experimented with crutches and stethoscopes. . The hands-on approach Is agood way to learn and the kids really enjoy It, says Yvonne Kitchen, a nurse at the hospital. "I try to use what the town has to offer in my lessons," says Mr. Johhston. "Besides, 1 learn as much as the kids do." A hospital can chap from a frightening, to an exciting place when the mystery Is taken out of medical equiplftent and procedures. But, most important, students earn about the hospital may become better Informed consumers who VIII ask questions and make educated decisions when maintaining their own health. - S.H. THE CRANBROOK men'e dart club held their first practise" Thursday. Organizers are hoping 30 players will loin. Making a ehot, top left, is George Zwep. Aiming darts, bottom left Is Tim Prescott, and right le Lloyd Smith. (Waselnlcphoto) My bathing. suit. and I will be gone for awhile There's a bathing suit sitting on my kitchen counter. it makes me smile a bit every time I walk past. The suit needs, mending, but that's hot why I'm "smilirf�: The bathing snit is a symbol of -where I'm going next week. of a terrific trip that's ahead for my fartlily and of one whole .year without a Canadian winter. Tuesday morning the three of us leave for a year in New Zealand. My husband Andy. who has put up with being called the better half in print for about 10 years now, is exchanging jobs with a New Zealand health inspector''.' He'll work in Palmerston North, a smell city in the North Island while Kingsley Berkahn will take on Andy'sob in Stratford. He. wife Elizabeth and childrenlJonathan, Amanda and Christina will live in, our house in McKillop and we'll live in theirs down under. "Boy, are you getting the best half of this deal," friends say as they worry about the Berkahns moving to the snow belt for a Canadian winter. (We'll spend our Christ- mas on the beach: our daughter will be on summer holidays from school until early February.) But they know what they're in for, have seen photos of our place surrounded by snow banks, and it doesn't seem to bother them a bit. Some nasty friends have pointed out that S©Y YY@ Y Y�Y Y© �OO gc)J rYn F'�''i' by Smut VIM® we'll have two winters in a row when, we comeback next December. But at this point, it's a tiny price to pay. Now that we know the exchange is actually going to happen, the two of us (our six-year-old doesn't fully grasp what a year away means) are getting quite sentimental about what We'll be leaving. - WHAT WE'LL MISS Huron County is a beautiful part of the world. We'll miss our families and friends; our house; our jobs; the lake; cross-country skiing; the sunrise out the bathroom window and the security of a fixed routine in a community we know well. We won't miss driving in a Canadian winter; snow shovelling; freezing pipes; mind -numbing tv; the usual every day hassles (we're trading them in for new hassles) and the boredom that can set in after you've done the same thidgs in the same place for more than 10 years. It's a huge amount of work getting away fora year and packing all we think we'll need in six suitcases. Your heart bleeds. 1 know. In some ways the year away will be a bigger change for me than for Andy. 1 have a I want to be i have reached one of those milestones in life, the kind of changes that Saul underwent on the road to Tarsus. i have decided that 1 want to be famous. I have made this decision knowing it will require a great sacrifice. I do not want to become famous, for instance, because of the attention it will bring. 1 have no wish to be disturbed at my dinner in some swank big -city restaurant by buzzing autograph seekers. I have no desire to have quiet cocktail parties disrupted by panting volup- tuous females wanting to add another celebrity to their victory list. i would Ss soon retreat to a cabin in the north woods 'Somewhere undisturbed even by the Nation- al News if I had my druthers. CHARD But no, f have decided to sacrifice all this, Looking around, studying the way of the world, I have decided that there really is no alternative but to be famous. That thought was reinforced last week by the fuss over the appearance at the Progessive Conservative Got a beef or a bouquet? Write a letter to the editor year's leave of absence from The Expositor and 1 won't be working, at least not outside the home, in New Zealand. My visa says 1 can't: "Oh good," says a friend. "you won't be able to wash a dish or make a bed." • I'M LUCKY While he works and learns about public health in New Zealand. i'll be taking a year of my ' retirement somewhat. ahead of schedule. Sometimes when you're regular retirement age you're too tired to enjoy the freedom. Susan at 65 might not be,nearly as healthy. enthusiastic and risk -happy as l ami now. i know I'm lucky. and I'm ready. Oh, I got plans. Write some. Weave a bit. Put my daughter first ahead of my meetings. Learn as much as 1 can about another culture in a part of the world that intrigues, me a lot. Stores stay closed in New Zealand on Saturdays as well as Sundays. We hear weekends are outdoors, family, relaxing times, not rush and spend times. We like the sound of that. Then there's the Milford Track. called the most beautiful waik in the world, an area on the South Island where we intend to take a three-day hike. We hope to see old friends in Australia, though we've lately realized it is as wide as•' thisoontiuent:soweavon•'tsee much iniaiwo+, or three week vacation. We sense i•Newr Zealanders live -ata quieter;, slowee pace and we're looking torw,hrd to trying it out. On the other hand: we'll be 20 minutes fromdowntown and not too far from Palmerston North's Massey University and we think a bit of city life will be good for us about now. We've been reading a little about the Maoris, New Zealand's native people and pre interested in how they and the white New Zealanders co -exist. it looks like a year of learning. growing and moving for us and that can never hurt. An essay 1 read a while ago said something along the lines of "To see is to live. Travel accelerates that." �k 1 agree. i hope to write a column once in awhile and share . what we're seeing and doing. Ron Wassink is taking on my editorial duties until i get back, with Susan Hundertmark's help. They make a tremend- ous team, hard-working and committed both to this community and to good 'journalism. 1 hope you readers will give the two of them` the confidence. ideas and feedback that you've given me. With your support they'll do just fine. Have' a good -year everybody and i'II see you late in 1984. famous , tho it will mean sacrifice 134AWd 4' ll @ zCC@WC@o by, rum L ©tolgtot fundraising meeting in Toronto of Charlton Heston. Charlie, as we rich and famous. people call him affectionately, was brought in from the United States to talk to some of the greatest minds of the Ontario Conserva- tive party each paying S150 to hear the great man talk. Not that he really felt he'd left his homeland. There were American flags everywhere at the dinner, a choir sang the U.S. anthem and there was a toast to Ronald Reagan. Then this star of many American films including The Ten Commandments, brought his message to the assembled politicians and community leaders telling them, basically, that if we'd all just get behind Mr. Re1<gan the world would be a better place. Fin and good. The man has a right to his opin . if he can get people in high places tsten to him more credit too him. But then 1 heard the part that changed my life. 1 listened to Hugh Segal, one of the Tory policy advisers, say on radio that guest speakers like Mr. Heston are paid from 55000 to 512,000 to make these speeches. Gadzukst You not only get a chance to influence people but they pay you what used to be a year's salary to do it. (The first thing I'm going to do is demand a raise for trying to influence you column readers.) -That's the interesting part of being famous. You can make more from not doing what you're famous for than all the ordinary people do for doing what they're best at. .1 dont care, for instance. if somebody would pay me what Wayne Gretzky makes a year playing hockey. i d just love to get what he gets from doing soft drink commercials and having his likeness cadt in miniature in plastic to thrill all the little girls who'd like to take the real thing home to cuddle. BiG BUCKS Once you're famous; yon don't even have to be very good at the extra -curricular things to be paid big bucks for them. i don't know how Gretzky can submit himself to do some of those commercials (I'iI bet he can't stand to watch them because I can't). The idea of Charlton Heston's ideas running the world is as frightening as....well, as Ronald `Rea- gan's. another ex -actor nobody took serious- ly at first. Anyway, 1 want it. 1 want 'the power of being able to talk about things i don't know anything about and having people listen. And 1 like the idea of getting rich from it even more. I once had a secret desire to be a writer Friends of mine in all walks of life can't understand how 1 can stand teaching as a vocation. With striking originality, they\ ask: "How can you stand it?" So, with another few months of my chosen way of life under way, 1 thought I'd look at it, and try to give them ail Answer. Perhaps we could start with elimination. it would take an actof God, ora change of sex, or something equally dramatic, to make me an engineer.'1 have just completed the job of trying to change a typewriter ribbon. it took me 39 minutes. I wound up with ink all over my fingers, my face, and a clean shift And guess what came out when 1 began typing? Red words. It was one of those half -red, half -black ribbons, and I'd got it upside basaackwards. The only reason you are reading this is 9n black is that it is being �aced by someone else. aek of engineering skills precludes my g a fit Whig where the real money is these days: as a repair man. if von have a Sugoo ©wd opOcG. by BM 4r4 son of daughter pondeting 6 career, for the dear goodness' sake, steer it into fixing things — plumbing, electricity, TV, cars. Took my lawnmower to a repairman the other day. It wouldn't start. Picked it np three days later. The bill was 541.16 — one dollar and 16 cents more than half what l had paid for the new machine a few years ago. The bill for labor was S27. You could have a baby for that not so terribly long ago. 1'iee never wanted to be a scientist. Can't we spending my life in a lab trying to find a new Additive that will make clothes whiter than white or a new chemical that will make deodorant dryer than ever. Medicine, since i have never had a secret desire to be God, held little appeal for me. Ws a noble profession; and yon can make a pile of money by peering into people's apertures, probing their flab, making their blood spurt, and Writing prescriptions among other things. None of those things turn me on, (hough. Dentistry, ditto. 1 can see no particular charm in standing at an angle most acrobats muldn't maintain for 10 seconds, gawking at gums and crumbling renovations. One look into my own mouth would give me nightmares for a week. To heck with the 550,000 a year. Then there's the law. of course. There's a great deal of poppyctick about the majesty and the integrity of the law. Ml of it stems from lawyers and judges. But i wouldn't care to be associated in a profession where there Is, despite all disclaimers, one ler for the rich and another for the poor. Shakespeare said it nicely: "Let them hang all the lawyers." Another field that brings in a mighty gird buck is accounting. But where's the future in that for a fellow who can't even account to his own wife for the way he behaved it the party on Saturday night? Quite a good career these days is "working, for the government." Certainly you'll never be fired, unless you turn up drunk four days in a row and rape four different secretaries. Even then, you'd probably just be "transferred to a less sensitive area," or put out to pasture on a pension. - + When I was a student, we used to say scornfully that ff yod 'couldn't do anythlhg else, yon went' into the inhulttty. This was a base canard, of course, but the delights of� Please see WRITER.' on page 3