The Brussels Post, 1974-05-15, Page 24RP
E.
MUSSELS
ONTARIO
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16 1.9741
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community.
Putlishecl each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros.Publishers, Limited.
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Tom Haley - Advertising
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Telephone 887-6641.
Goats
Sugar and Spice
By Bill Smiley
1
Missionaries here ?
The age of missionaries, of the great white hope
being sent out from Western countries to convert the
"heathen" overseas to Christianity and our version
of civilization, is over, the moderator of the United
Church said recently. To his sentiments we add
"Amen".
"We in the churches of North America need
missionaries sent to us, from our ,Indian reserves,
from Brazil, black Africa or from Viet Nam. We need
their voices in our ears and we will not like all the
things in the gospels they uncover for us", the Rt.
Rev. N. Bruce McLeod is quoted as saying.
The biblical injunctions about being your brother's
keeper and loving our neighbour could perhaps make
us feel somewhat uncomfortable coming from Indian
or African missionaries.
The moderator has an interesting and valuable
idea. We could learn a lot of sad lessons about some
of the problems that, the new missionaries could
teach us about hunger and deprivation greater than
we could have dreamed about. '
We also could be enriched by contact' with these
missionaries from other cultures who may perhaps
have been more successful in living in harmony with
nature or recycling their societies' products than we
have.
The United ChurchModerator says we have 'been
doing too much talking to others. We need to listen
but he says our ears have "become clogged with
affluence, self-righteousness and all the various
games we play."
It may take missionaries from the Third World to
shock us out of the self-satisfied, prejudiced.
hypocrisy with which we often deal with people who
are different from us.
More information
The debate has already started over the proposed
electrical energy centre being planned by Ontario
Hydro in the "lower ake Huron area".
Researchers are conducting preliminary studies of
public attitudes and many area residents haVe
already been interviewed in this regard.
While Ontario Hydro is to be commended for this
public involvement•there is a serious question as Jo
whether those being interviewed are knowledgeable
enough to make valuable comments.
Until Hydro officials indicate the nature of the
generating station and the amount of land that will
be required for the site and the distribution facilities,
it is obviously difficult for people to know whether
the loss of agricultural land is of prime consideration.
The number of employees that will be involved in
the construction and the subsequent operation is also
required information before people in this area can
give their considered opinions.
News releases to this newspaper indicate Hydro
has not yet decided on the nature of the proposed
station and it therefore appears preMature t6 be
asking people their opinions until some basic
information is relayed.
The people to be affected by the development
should be asked for their opinions, but only after
they have been given some facts on which to base
those opinions.
(Eketer Times Advodate.)
Cross my heart, I won't write another
column about my trip to Germany. After
this one.
But I may never be treated as a
distinguished visitor again, so you'll just
have to bear with me.
Highlight of the trip (for my kid brother),
was Lunch With The General. He
.organized it, and as the time approached,
there was so much excitement about it that
I began to get the feeling I was going to
have lunch With God.
Unacquainted as I am with the military
hierarchy, and unimpressed as I am with
rank, I expect I didn't show the proper
awe, but it was impressed on me from all
sides that it was a signal honour.
I don't know what kind of a line my
brother shot about me, but it must have
been a good one. It seems that The General
just doesn't normally invite small-town
columnists to lunch or anything else.
It wasn't much of a lunch,- as The
General is a spartan type, one of those
infuriating people who get up and jog in
the morning, are on the job at 8 a.m., work
like fury and have no bad habits.
There was a gaggle of American one and
two-star generals present, and two other
Canadians, Colonel Smiley and Brig. Gen.
"Joey" Romanow, a westerner.
THE General, David C. Jones, has four
stars, about as many as they hand out, and
is Commander-in-Chief, U.S.Air Force
Europe, and Commander, 4th Allied
Tactical Air Force. A real wheel.
He greeted me pleasantly, sat me on' his
right, and after some desultory luncheon
talk, gave me a lucid exposition of the
military picture, and kept waiting for me to
ask intelligent, penetrating questions. I
didn't have any.
He threw my brother a compliment,
telling me the kid was his right-hand man
when it came to liaison with the French.
My brother beamed. I threw a little cold
water on him by reminding him that he
wasn't always so smart. I used to borrow
half his paper route money from him every
Saturday night, and still owe him $7.45. He
countered with a reminder that he was
keeping track, and at compound interest, it
was now in the neighbourhood of $40,000.
.0h, the gay banter when we big wheels get
together for lunch.
Anyway, the general made me feel safer
about the Warsaw Pact people on the other
side of the Iron Curtain. They have more of
everything, should hostilities break out,
but "we" have better hardware for both
defence and attack.
Dear Madam:
It is criminal in the way the
Post Office is handling the
delivery of the good old "Brussels
Post".
The last copy of the Post which
I received on April the 9th was
published on April 3rd and I have
not received a copy Since that
time.
So, the Brussels news is history
when and if I receive the Post.
More fun than the lunch with the gen
was a visit I paid to the4Canadian schoo
Ramstein. Only seventy kids and se
teachers, an ideal educational situati
The kidS have it lucky and know it. So
the teachers.
Here I was at home, Teased the kids
about not having long hair, scared them
about the big sausage-factory schools they
were going back to, signed autographs on
copies of my column they had, and went for
a ride in a simulated space-ship with four
little guys. A bright, livelx group of
youngSters, who are seeing a lot of Europe,
but who signified they'd be glad to get
home to Canada.
Teachers young and friendly, wishing
they could stay on an extra year, Principal
Warren Haacke of Regina said it's a great
experience. Bright young English teacher
Bryce Tanner; a Kincardine boy, reads my
column in ,the hometown paper, and
reproduces some of them for the students,
One more party to go to, an all-Canadian
bash. It was formal dress for officers. I had
none, and wanted to tag along in my blazer
and flannels but the kid brother is a man
for protocol, and would have none of it. He
dug through his duds and the result was
something to see. Can you picture your
faithful correspondence in a pink eveni ng
Shirt, with ruffles down the front, a huge
black velvet bow tie, a black evening jacket
big enough for two of him, black evening
trousers cutting him in two (my brother is
shorter) held up by a pair of red skiing
braces? My wife was horrified when I told
her, but I looked rather dashing.
Off in the morning, groggy with fatigue,
for the mad dash home. Ramstein to Lahr
by autobahn. Lahr to Gatwick by plane.
Gatwick to Ottawa, Ottawa to Trenton.
First casualty of trip. They'd 'taken off my
bag at Ottawa. Slept at officers mess,
borrowed razor in morning, had breakfast
with R.C.Padre, most sensible chap I'd
met in five days. Bag had arrived.
Bummed ride to city with Bill Padden,
Major, and his dog.
Everything was running down, includ
yours truly. From Lunch With The Gene
to sharing an old station wagon with
dachshund. Long, dreary bus ri
Connecting bus late. Snowing.
Finally home, feeling like skelet
And I knew the V.I.P. was back to his us
Very Unimportant Person status, when
wife, after bussing me heart
proclaimed, "Bill, I've, had a terrible ti
with those cats.
"Cut", as we say in the movies.
mail late
If the Post Office is unable to
make delivery within a reasonable
length of, time - you may as well
forward my copies to the
Wingham.Hospital or the Old
Folks Home in Clinton - maybe
the Post Office will know where
these towns are.
Fred J. Williamson
,382 Dovercourt Rd.,
Apt. 34, TorontO,Ont.
To the. editor
News is history when