Clinton News-Record, 1972-03-30, Page 44,Clinton News:RecOrd, Thursday, .March 30,107?
Thanks to the Major
Those who toured the recreation
facilities at the former Canadian
Forces Base Clinton last week were
all impressed by the condition of the
buildings.
We've all heard those stories about
the terrible stripping that took place
at other military installations when
they were closed down, In many cases,
the Bases were made almost
uninhabitable.
The fact that CFB Clinton is in such
good condition can be credited in part
to a change in policy by the armed
forces. But most of the credit must be
given to Major Frank Golding the last
commanding officer at the Base and
the one responsible for the phase out.
Those involved in the phase out know
that it was not always easy to keep the
buildings in a condition that would
make it easy to rehabi I itate the station
after the forces left. But the job was
done, and as a result, it took only 24 .
hours to set up the former officers
mess if near its former appearance
fora dinner held there last Tuesday.
The condition of the Base is a bonus
for John van Gastel, most will agree,
It depends on who's writing
but why to the rest of us?
Because, anything that is good, for
Mr, van Castel in his attempts to make-
the Base work as an industrial,
educational and recreational
complex, is good for The residents. of
Huron County. Some grumblerS have
said that the government practical ly
"gave" the Base to Mr, van 0000.
The point remains that no one else
wanted the Base at a better price and
both the provincial and county
governments turned it down at a Much
lower price.
But suddenly, because a man takes
something that nobody wanted, and it -
looks like he may make money on the
deal, people start to begrudge him his
success.
We should be thankful to 'the
government for giving van Gavle, a
good enough deal so he could afford to
buy the Base. We should be thankful to
Major Golding for keeping the Base in
good shape so itcan easi ly be used for
new purposes. Most of all we should be
thankful that someone came along with
the foresight to buy the "white
elephant" and make a go of it.
Most of us in the communications
businesslike to think of ourselves as
unbiased. Most of us like to think that
when we tell the story of a happening,
our readers are getting the truth, and
nothing but the truth.
Unfortunately, it just ain't always
SO.
Take for instance, the press
coverage of the visit of Prime
Minister Trudeau to Kitchener last
Thursday. The atmosphere of the visit
seemed totaly different depending on
whether one read the account in the
London Free Press or the Toronto
Globe and Mail.
The Free Press headlined its story
"Tr''udeau finds Kitchener 'attack'
mostly milk, honey" and a sub-head
read "Still popular". The story went
on to tell the story of Trudeau
appearing before a group of high
school students in an "under attack"
formula and how the kids showed
warmth and respect for him.
The writer made passing reference
to a group of demonstrating outside
,.'the hotel where 'Mr. Trudeau Was
meeting with members of the Liberal
party. He apparently handled the
situation coolly when he left the hotel
to get into his car.
The Globe and Mail meanwhile
headlined its main front page story
with "Students at Waterloo U pour
abuse on Trudeau" and a subhead read
"Mob scene at restaurant". This
story dealt exclusively with the
incident with the Waterloo student
protesters, giving a blow-by-blow
description of the student's tangle
with police.
Although there is some mention of
the real reason for the demonstration
(the students were, protesting a
proposal for a new governing body for
University of Waterloo, something
over which Mr. Trudeau has no
influence), the story seems to make
the whole incident revolve around the
demonstration outside the Prime
Minister's hotel. He was actually in
front of the crowd for only a few
seconds but the Globe writer took five
paragraphs to describe this period.
The Free Press writer took two.
Where the Free Press had said the
Prime Minister went "Shhh" to the
noisy demonstrators, the Globe said
he made faces at them.
The Globe did not even deal with the
discussion with high school students.
Here we have the same incident
looking entirely different in two
accounts. Who do you believe? Is one
newspaper biased? Both newspapers
are respected for their honesty. Both
are traditionally Progressive
Conservative supporters.
Probably neither newspaper or
reporter was consciously biased.
Probably no one could prove that the
facts are wrong in either account. BUt
both writers are human, both saw .the
facts thei r own way and both reported
their own way complete with the
hidden biasses of their own
personality.
As long as reporters are human,
such discrepancies will continue. As
long as readers are human, they will
read what they want to read into these
reports. Unfortunately, however,
human reporters and human readers
will have a great deal of influence on
the outcome of the next election. It
would help if the real truth were known
in such incidents.
God's in His Heaven
'!
\ \
• • • \MWMAiMk
"Golly — not THE Howard Hughes?"
Idea mill
THE CLINTON '1EW ERA Amalgamated THE HURON NEWS-RECORD
Established 1865 1924 Established 1881
Clinton News-Record
•
A member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association, "
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and the Audit Bureau
of Circulation (ABC)
second class mail
registration number — 0817
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KEITH W. BOULSTON — Editor
J. HOWARD AITKEN — General Manager
Published every Thursday at
the heart of Huron County'
4 Clinton, Ontario
Population 3,475
Me HOME
OP RADAR
IN CANADA
`.1.r• 4e*
Let's see. The first New
Zealander I ever met was a
French teacher called Jeanie'
Cameron. I kissed her up in an
apple tree one day. She was
twenty-six, and lonely. I was
nineteen—and nineteen.
She wasn't a New .Zealander
then. She was a high school
teacher. And I was a student. In
fact, when the word got around
that I was kissing my French
teacher up in an apple tree, it very
nearly ruined me with my fifteen•
year-old girl friend, who thought
teachers should be seen and
heard, but not touched,
However, that's another story,
Jeanie fell in love with a New
Zealand airman, during the war.
His name was Andy. Said he owned
a sheep ranch. But I reckon he was
a shoe clerk.
He was no different from
thousands of Canadian
servicemen, who married lovely
little English ducks on the
strength of their big cattle ranch,
or gold mine, back at home. The
girls came out expecting The
Ponderosa, and found they Were
the sole menial on 120 acres of
cedar and rock, Or Johnny didn't
happen to own that gold mine, He
just worked in it.
The chaps were not being
dishonest, After all, if you Said to
an English girl, 'The old man has
120 acres", it sounded as though
there must be at least ten
Servants. If he said, "I'm a gold
Miner", it sounded as though he
had a gold mine.
Well, Jeannie went to New
Zealand with Andy, and I hope she
Slept well, counting those non-
existent sheep as they leaped over
the shoe counter.
The next New Zealanders I met
were in training, in England. They
spoke English, but it was a little
different. Once I asked two of
them what they were doing that
evening. One replied, "We thett
we'd week ecress a cepple o'
peddocks anev a bayah." Much
research divulged that this meant
they thought they would walk
across •a couple of paddocks
(fields) and have a beer at the pub.
Then I got to a squadron. Three
of us in a tent. Two Canadians and
a New Zealander. By this time I
could talk New Zealand. Nick was
an old guy, about twenty-five.
Good type, Earthy, practical,
realistic. The Other Canadian,
Freddy, was nineteen, virginal,
idealistic, and credulous, I was
Sort of in between.
Nick used to tell that boy
Stories that curdled, his blood and
even curled my hair slightly. He
told us the biggest lies about the
fish and the deer and the sheep and
the women of New Zealand that I
blush, even now, to think of how I
half believed him.
Freddy was sold and we formed
a syndicate, then and there, to go
to N.Z. after the war and get rich
in two years, The syndicate was
rather shattered when Nick and
Freddy were killed in one week,
and I was shot down the next.
In prison camp, I knew another
NewZie. He was a squadron
leader, Everybody else thought he
was around the bend, but I knew he
was just another Newzie. He'd
come to my room in barracks
every so often and bellow
"Smiley, do yen know where I can
buy a truck in Canader?" His
pIan
'
aster releaie, vtas. not to go
back to 14.2. by ship, with the
others, but to bead for Canada,
and drive across the country by
truck. Ws quite possible that he
planned to drive it right across
the Pacific, too, but I couldn't
remember a single truck dealer,
so I don't know what happened.
This seems like a long
preamble to something, and it is.
Writing a column is one of the
loneliest jobs in the world. Once
in a while, shouting into the void,
you hear an echo. It warms the
heart. Such is this, from
Auckland, New Zealand.
"Thank you, dear Bill Smiley,
for your delightful column. Here I
am, 7,000 miles from home and I
felt that my little world was
crumbling around me. We are
gradually losing everything and at
present may lose our house as we
try to make a go of it in New
Zealand."
"As usually happens at times
like these, minor problems seem
major also and it seems
impossible to hold yOur head up in
a positive manner. So this is
where I was last night when the
Statesman arrived from
Bowmanville and I flipped it open
to your column..,and read about
'men and weather make
mistakes', Well, I nearly died
laughing, And it felt so good to
laugh...,
"Well, to make a long story
short, it was with a much lighter
heart that I swung out into the
balmy night to put the milk bottles
out. Things didn't seem to be So
bad after all, And I Was still
chuckling so much that I suddenly
realized that my head was high,
my stride confident and the night
sky down here is really beautiful
and God is up there.—how had I
forgotten? Just to be able to laugh
again at something, It really does
do good like medicine."
Thank you, dear lady.
The question most asked of
columnists is; "Where do you get
your ideas'?" It is, at any rate, by
the finer type of reader. The
others are more apt to ask, "Why
don't you get more and better
ideas?"
There seems to be a popular
notion that columnists sit down at
the start of their working clay
(usually right after afternoon tea)
say to themselves,. "What'll 1 he
brilliant about today?" and go
right at it, 'clipPitY-clip. This doe's
happen, 'Orcourset. I' rethembe'r
doing it one day in 1952 or perhaps
'53. But usually it doesn't work
quite that way.
That fact is, it is very rare to be
hit on the head with an idea.
Usually an idea originates as an
eeny-weeny, forlorn little thing
that just lies there, gestating and
incubating for days or weeks or
even years, growing slowly until
it finally has two heads, three
arms, one leg and a tail and you
just have to destroy it by writing
it.
The actual arrangement or
organizing of ideas is best done in
solitude and there are many
devices for this, Bill Mauldin, the
cartoonist, examines his ideas
10 YEARS AGO
THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1962
Twenty-five supporters of the
separate school in Clinton met in
the school Monday night and voted
one hundred per cent in favour of
joining with Separate School
Section No, 2, Hullett Township,
to support the new school in
Clinton.
Firemen answered a call from
L. Bannister to a fire at Wilfred
Heard's place Monday afternoon.
They found it a false alarm and not
the firstgraSs fire of the season.
A meeting of Clinton Liberal
Association is being planned for
tomorrow night, March 30 in the
town hall to elect delegates to the
Huron riding nominating
convention, Chairman E. B.
Menzies has announced.
15 YEARS AGO
THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1957
This is the season for
housecleaning, It's a time for
clearing out the attic, redding up
the back kitchen, making over the
store room. It's a time to get rid
of things you don't want.
A particularly fine program
was held in the Goderich
Collegiate Auditorium en Monday
evening, when the Harbouraires
were featured. This male chorus
is made up of 25 members from
GOderich and ten from Clinton
area,
Free admission to the public
Speaking Contest in the Legion
Memorial Hall should be an
additional enticement for
interested parents and friends to
attend this annual event. This
year it is to be at 8 o'clock,
Wednesday evening, April 3, when
contestants from elementary and
secondary schools Will take part,
while sitting in a bath tub full of
hot water and celluloid ducks. He
is not ooly the most brilliant, but
the cleanest cartoonist in
America.
The late great Robert Benchley
took an even bolder approach by
going to bed. He referred to this
as being "on the track" or
"storing up energy." In reality it
was simply a way of isolating
himself for the thinking process
, regrettably often, is
necessary.
'Eve» in' 'such privaCy, of
course, the idea must not be
confronted too directly. Ideas are
very sensitive to direct stares
and will often run away frightened
if met head-on. One must learn to
put up a rather elaborate pretence
of ignoring them. Celluloid ducks
are handy for this.
I have, myself, often gone
directly from the tub to my
typewriter without having once
looked the idea squarely in the
eye, though I don't recommend it.
A fellow can catch an awful cold,
wet and naked like that.
Ideas are often submitted from
outside sources, but since most
columnists are
but.
25 YEARS AGO
MARCH 27, 1947
A fire, which was not
discovered until considerable
headway had been made,
completely destroyed the service
station operated by Clarke
Stanley early Sunday morning
with a loss running into thousands
of dollars.
A belated snowstorm proved
the worst of a hard winter season
as a blizzard again halted the
movement of traffic. Oldtimers
say they can't remember a storm
of Such ferocity at the end of
March.
Beverly Aikenhead and Tommy
Colquhoun, two of the Beacon-
Herald paper boys in town, were
winners in a recent contest
sponsored by that paper and
received a trip to Toronto,
40 YEARS AGO
THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 1932
George Carter and Robbie Hale
were heard over station CJGC
London, at the Monday night
Music Club.
Misses Grace Venner,
Thornbury and Ruth Bognor arc
home for the Easter weekend.
Miss Helen Manning,
University of Toronto, came
home for Easter vacation.
Will Argent, St. Catharines, is
Spending Easter with his mother
in town.
Roy and Harry Robinson,
London, were with their parents,
Mr. and Mrs. W. Robinson,
W. M. Mutch, of the Royal Bank,
Hamilton, was home for the
Eastertide.
55 YEARS AGO
THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1917
While engaged in housecleaning
autobiographical they seldom
respond with alacrity or even
common decency to such
suggestions, even good ones.
It may take as long as a week for
a columnist to begin thinking of it
as his very own idea, at which
point he may do something about
it.
The reason for this is that
columnists are suspicious of any
idea in which they're not
emotionally involved. They must
bring themselves to some pitch of
anger or delight or hate or love
before they feel that they have
something worth saying.
In my own case if I am writing
anything at all that is
denunciatory I can be sure of
ruining everyone's day. My wife
is always telling the children,
"Go to your rooms, children,
your father is being trenchant
today." The little beggars
disappear mighty fast I can tell
you.
As the years go by you find
yourself thinking of ideas not so
much as wind-tremors on the
brain, but in actual forms or
shapes.
Sometimes, for example, you
on Saturday morning last, Mrs. J.
W. Shaw fell from a stepladder.
Though bruised and shaken, Mrs.
Shaw escaped without a broken
bone.
Dr. Gaudier is moving this
week into his new property, the
Whitehead place, on Victoria
Street.
The Editor:
I would like to pass along the
following article Which Was
translated from tile Dutch
magazine "In de Richte Straat"
for the interest of your readers,
Bert Greidanus,
Londesboro,
DIARY OF A
CHILD THAT NEVER
WAS BORN
July 1, Today I came into
existence, and even though I am
smaller than the period after this
sentence, I am here.
will have great, hairy, red-eyed,
slavering ideas, marauding
around in your head, their hirsute
arms dangling around their
ankles, dangerous, untamable and
quite upsetting and at other times
you will have light, elfin ideas,
stuffed with confetti and bon-bons,
hippity-hopping or even floating
about, slender, fragile and quite
liable to disappear entirely if you
pay too much attention to them.,
The kind of ideas I hate most
take the form of a vast number of
neat, interlocking boxes, rather
like a nightmarish Chinese puzzle
in which each little cube must be
precisely fitted to make the whole
structure.
It is not very often that this can
be done without one crucial piece
left over which you then try to
wedge in by sheer brutal force so
that the whole thing comes to
pieces. Every columnist knows
that one.
Indeed, I think I may speak for
them all when I say that it isn't
where you get the ideas that
presents the problem, but how to
live with them once they've taken
up residence.
Next question?
Pte. Melvin Schoenhals of the
122nd Forestry Battalion, Galt, is
home this weekend on last leave
before proceeding overseas.
Albert Palmer, Seaforth,
formerly of Clinton, is laid up just
now owing to an accident. While
working in a munition factory a
shell dropped on his foot.
July 7. Today I am one week old,
but you would not recognize me
yet. I look like a bunch of very tiny
grapes, and am searching for a
spot in my mother's little room to
develop further.
July 9. My little body begins to
take shape. Day before yesterday
I had only about 150 cells, but now
I have many thousands of them
already, out of which vital organs
begin to develop,
July 15. My first blood vessels
have been formed, My little head
Please turn to Page 11
Letters
to the
Editor
The Editor:
In your editorial of March 23
you state: "The message of the
Bible surely is that mercy (not to
mention commonsense) should
prevail." You also say: "Canada
has probably jailed more people,
proportionately, than any other
civilized country,..And it hasn't
worked."
"Eye for eye" was part of the
Law given to Israel. (Ex,
21:23,24) In ancient Israel, no
provision was made at all for
prisons, The only time persons
were detained temporarily was
when a case was particularly
difficult and had to await
clarification. (Lev, 24:12; Num.
15:34) But no one ever served a
jail sentence in the early history
of ancient Israel. It is true that
Jesus modified that law to include
mercy, but the'original law was
based on exact justice,
An element that is almost
entirely lacking from the
treatment of criminals is
consideration for their victims. A
person can be crippled, robbed,
defrauded, raped, and yet little is
done to compensate the victim,
Instead, the offender is given a
prison sentence, and later the
weight of sympathy seems to go to
the criminal, with the innocent
victim often forgotten.
As an alternative to this
unbalanced state of affairs
Washington, D.C., lawyer Ronald
Goldfarb suggested: "The
criminal without money could
serve his sentence on a public-
works project to earn money to
pay the cost of his crime. The
extraordinary offender might be
deprived of the right to work
outside of prison on probational
control, but even he should he
required to work in prison to pay
his victim."
The laws governing ancient
Israel were given by God through
Moses, Since God made man, he
surely would know best how tc
deal with the full range of human
activity, including the treatment
of offenders. No provision was
made for any prison sentences.
Crimes against property such as
theft, destruction or fraud, were
never handled by imprisonment.
Instead, the basic punishment was
Compensation to the victims.
So there was no prison
sentences in ancient Israel.
Costly prisons and the huge taxes
needed to maintain them were
unknown. And as long as the
rulers and the people obeyed
these laws, the nation prospered.
But when they failed to respect
and uphold those divine laws, then
the nation began to degenerate
into lawlessness. Eventually, the
decline resulted in the
destruction of the nation. (1
Corinthians 10:11)
For a long time, especially
since World War 1, the present-
day nations have been saturated
with negative influences. There
have been mass violence and
destruction in warfare, racial
prejudice, growing slums,
ghettos, poverty, and selfishness
and hypocrisy on the highest
levels of political, religious and
economic life. Permissive
teachings regarding morals have
further eroded high principles
and have encouraged criminal
tendencies. (Matthew 15:7-9)
Reform efforts inside prisons
fall for the same reason
criminals are spawned outside of
prison: the world's teachings,
attitude and actions work against
creating healthy minds, It cannot
realistically be expected that
prison reform will work, or
crime will diminish, in view of the
mental diet people are in general
tting.
It is true, as you say, that "We
have to help people to their feet if
we expect them to walk." Hut
sometimes people do not choose
to walk, as long as someone will
"carry" them.
ANCIENT FOE OF MAN
Cancer is found throughout the
plant and animal kingdom,
Fossils from the dinosaur age
indicate that cancer has probably
existed almost from the beginning
of life on earth. Help to put an end
to this most stubborn of all man's
enemies by a contribution to the
April campaign of the Canadian
Cancer Society.
Letter to the Editor