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The Citizen, 1985-11-27, Page 4 Act normal, ifyou're nice she 'Ilknow something's wrong. - The world view from Mabel's Grill 1 There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel's Grill where the greatest minds in the town (if not in the country) gather for morning coffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Filibustering Society. Since notjusteveryone can partake of these deliberations, we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: Got into a discussion on equal pay for work of equal value this morning when one of the waitresses, upset because of a truck driver who didn't leave a tip, said she shouldn't have to depend on tips because she was worth just as much as the truck driver. Since Tim O'Grady was away in court for the day it gave people a chance to take a shot at lawyers and Hank Stokes said he figured equal pay for work of equal value was a good thing for him because he figured he was worth more to the world producing good beef than Tim was in taking beefs to the court. He'd just love to get Tim in the spot where he didn't have any choice but to buy food from him or starve so he could get some of the money back from him that he'd over the years. Julia Flint said she didn't want any part of equal pay for equal work because she hadn't seen any man yet that was her equal. Ward Black, good Tory that he is, figures this equal pay stuff is the best thing that ever happened to the Conservatives in Ontario be- cause it's going to foul things up so much the Liberals will talk them- selves right out of office. ' Being the last one to leave, I happened to hear the waitress say equal pay couldn't come too soon. None of them left a tip. WEDNESDAY: Billy Bean says these new cellular mobile phones they're pushing in the ads these days may just persuade him to give up driving. The big thing they're pushing about these phones is that people can do business while they're driving. Having got hives the last time he drove in the city from the way other people drove even when they were concentrating on their driving, Billy said, he hates to think what it will be like if drivers are busy doing business on their phones while they're driving. THURSDAY: It happens at least once a week that somebody complains about politicians. Billy Bean was complaining that he saw one of those question period clips on the news last night and half the seats in the house were empty. Imagine paying those guys all that money and them not showing up for work, he said. Ward Black said the members weren't in the house because they had so much other work to do. People had to be paid so much because they had so much work to handle these days. You can't expect people to get little salaries THE EDITOR: In response to a letter to the editor in last week's Citizen, thanks for its publication and to Mr. Gerald Exel for his kind words about my years with the Brussels Post. They were indeed appreciated for they came, not from a close friend, but from a gentleman who was an acquaintance, spoken to briefly when we happened to meet. They will not be forgotten Mr. Exel. EVELYN KENNEDY THE EDITOR: As with seemingly 99 percent of letters to the editor I write, this one will undoubtedly land in the waste like they used to when Parliament only meta couple of months a year. Hank Stokes said he was all in favour of going back to the way it used to be. Pay the M.P.s less, he said and they'll have to have another job to make a living. Then they won't be able to spend as much time in Parliament. That way they won't be able to spend so much time dreaming up new laws. When they don't dream up as many laws, we'll have fewer rules and we'll need fewer lawyeirs. They alsowon't need as many bureaucrats to interpret the laws to us so the government will be smaller. In fact, he said, if we could get Parliament down to one week's session a year, we might get rid of the deficit all together. basket as well. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to keep trying. In reality, finding fault or giving criticism, is the context of my le tters ,b ut "just tobe miserable is not my aim" but, rather to simply point out a few facts of life, which are most often ignorantly over- looked. Being a b orn and bred farmer of heart and birth, though never an active practitioner of the profes- sion, my two main gripes to you at this time am: 1) The name of your "very welcome to my mai lb ox" newspap- er: The name implies that it would primarily concern only two-orient- ed people . To one, being a news Continued on page 5 Letters to the editor Ma2 • [640523 Ontario Inc.] Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. P.O. Box 152, P.O. Box 429, Brussels, Ont. Blyth, Ont. NOG 1H0 NOM 1H0 887-9114 523-4792 Subscription price: $15.00; $35.00 foreign. Advertising and news deadline: Monday 4 p.m. Editorand Publisher: Keith Roulston Advertising Manager: Beverley A. Brown Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1985. Editorial The American way When their television screens show newsfootage of anti-American demonstrations in Europe, Africa or South America, Americans are naturally shocked and hurt. Rather than seeing themselves as the "ugly Americans", our southern neighbours see themselves for what they really are individually: peace-loving, family people just trying to get on with their lives. But aside from their government's actions in invading Grenada or sponsoring invasions of Nicaragua or blockading Cuba, the American people are seen as violent people by much of the world because of the image they have built of themselves in their own media. Sit in front of the television screen and watch a typical evening of American-produced television and you'll think that the only way Americans have of settling any dispute is to shoot somebody, try to run them off the road or just come down to a nice fist fight in which a lot of furniture gets broken. It isn't just in Canada we get swamped with this image. The U.S. is the world's greatest supplier of television and movie entertain- ment. People who have never had enough education to read or to locate the United States on a map, can see the A-team blowing up its enemies or watch the endless street violence of Miami Vice of Hill Street Blues. This isn't something new in American entertainment. Classic movies like High Noon have long sold the notion that peace may be a nice idea to try, but in the long run, you've got to depend on gun and fist. What is new is a kind of paranoia in U.S. films in particular that brings movies like Rambo or Rocky IV where an American hero has to single-handedly save American honour from the dreadful Ruskies. If Americans want to change their image around the world they're either going to have to change the nature of their own entertainment or stop exporting it. Having it both ways Call them signs of the times. Last week the federal government announced that quotas on shoe imports were going to end and Canadian shoe companies trying to compete with companies in third world countries where labour is cheap would either sink or swim. Meanwhile in one of the smaller villages we serve, a little store will close its doors this weekend, leaving the village without a single food store left. At the same time, a report came out saying that union bureaucracy and poor labour relations had left the post office in such a mess that it should be given a deadline to clean up its act or be turned over to free enterprise. Free enterprise is the golden phrase of the 1980's. People have moaned about how far we have gotten from free enterprise. When they talk about government employees in particular, about post office employees or teachers, they complain that too few people are subjected to the discipline of the marketplace any more. Unions and bureaucracies protect people even when their jobs become redundant or when their salaries have gotten out of line with people with the same qualifications in free-market-regulated industries. Yet the free enterprise promoters are also quick to say "well, that's the system" when someone who has been trying to live without the cushion of union or even regular weekly pay cheque. Whether it be farmer or small businessman, if he gets in trouble the free enterprisers are ready to say it's all his own fault. The system can never be wrong. Yet when huge chunks of the farming and small business communities are in trouble there must be something wrong with the system. There will always be people who think they can make it on their own but find out their timing was wrong or they hadn't judged the market properly or they just didn't have enough financial backing, but this should be a relatively small portion of the total business community. We're seeing a swath cut through the small business sector. Free enterprise is based on a "survival of the fittest" philosophy but just how fit do you have to be to survive in today's market? For years, for instance, we've said our farmers have to be good busin'.ssmen, mechanics, part-time veterinarians, chemists and soil conservationists. Now we're adding computer operators. Some people say, farmers should be able to play the futures market with the skill of a full-time market analyst. How many of these supermen and women are we going to find to carry on farming in the future and how are they going to make enough from farming to reward them for their skill levels? If only superpeople can run their own business, it means more and more people will work in government or for big corporations protected by unions. Seeing the security and high financial rewards these employees get, even fewer people will want to work for themselves. Unless the free market system is welcoming enough to encourage new people to become involved, we're going to see the "free" enterprise system concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer until we have monopolies.