The Brussels Post, 1978-06-07, Page 2111.14SSE LS
OM TAR 10
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 1978
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community,
Published each Wednesday afternoon. at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros. Publishers Limited,
Evelyn Kennedy Editor
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9,00 a Year.
Others $17.00 a Year, Single Copies 20 cents each,
f l°111111"111111111 NMITArinreck
gBrussels Post
Our bloody highways
Close up iris
Behind the scenes
By Keith Routston
We have progressed
Canadians are killed in automobile accidents at the
rate of more than ten a day and it has been estimated
that between five and ten per cent of the beds in our
general hospitals are occupied by traffic-accident
victims. Our highways are awfully bloody.
Faulty design and mechanical failure have
contributed significantly to the blood-sacrifice
exacted from us for the privilege of having,
automobiles. Manuta0tUrers, prodded by pu:41c
opinion and governmental action and probably by
their own consciences, are showing increasing
responsibility in the design and making of
automobiles. Most garagemen seem to be men of
basic honesty and competence, but there is ample
evidence that some of them do careless work on our
cars and trucks. '
But if every manufacturer and garageman agreed
_not to put a vehicle on the road until it-had received
Ralph Nader's personal stamp of approval, we
would still have serious road safety problems. When
we have said all that there is to be said aboUt tht
makers and maintainers of automobiles, we still have
to come to terms with responsibilities of drivers, your
responsibilities and mine.
A few years ago the Roman Catholic Church in
France declared certain driving faults to be "sins",
which must be confessed. A spokesman for the
French bishops pointed out that these are all "sins of
pride", and among them he Ii sted dangerou's
speeding, illegal passing, and drunken driving. We
are all proud of our driving ability: one gets the
impression that about 95 per cent of all drivers
consider themselves above average in driving ability.
Many of us, perhaps most of us, undergo subtle
personality changes when we get behind the wheel of
a powerful automobile -- and a false and dangerous
pride is an important element in these changes.
Road safety is not merely.an engineering and legal
concern: it is also a significant issue in personal
morality, a matter of personal integrity. A British
organization, "Christian Action", used to publish
advertisements in which this declaration was made:
"Carelessness on the roads is sometimes a crime - -
it is always a sin.".
(Unchurched Editorials)
Obituary
brothers, Bruce of Blyth and Glen
of Brussels and two sisters,
Harriet (Mrs. Torn Miller) of
Brussels, and Mrs. Art Ruttan of
Holstein, also 17 grandchildren. -
Funeral service was held from
the Tasker Funeral Home; Queen
Street, Blyth, on Wednesday,
June7th with Rev. D. Sargent of
St. John's Anglican Church,
Bmssels, officiating,
Interment in St. John's
Cemetery, Morris Township.
Pallbearets were five
sons-in-law, Edgar Steinbach,
Delbert Stewart, Ross Alcock, Bill
Hetherington, Walter Hicks arid
John Smith.
Flower bearers were Brian and
Stephen Thiel and Connie and
Karen Steinbach..
On my better days I think the world really
has progressed in the last century.
I don't mean that we've progressed in terms
of material things . such as our easy,
gadget-filled way of life of the 1970's but in
human, man-to-man terms. Despite such
idiocies as hate letters against immigrants or
the booing of a partly-French version of our
national anthem at a ball game in Toronto
recently, I think we've really improved. Our
country may be less churchy than it was in
Victorian times, but I think. in general it's
more Christian in the terms of practicing the
principals of Christ such 'as brotherly love and
understanding. People aren't so sure they're
privy to the only truth today as our
narrow-minded ancestors were and it makes
us more ready to understand the problems of
others.
Progress, howevor, seems to be a case of
two steps forward and one back, even at the
best of times. We've gained over the pioneer
days in some ways, but we've also lost
,something.
I happened to be involved in a. project
recently that was truely a community-type,
work-sharing event. A century ago that kind of
thing wouldn't be very unique because it
happened all the time. Today it still happens
with some groups, but less and less often in
our society as a whole.
This particular event was planned and
organized from the beginning by volunteers.
The leaders spent a good deal of their time
laying the groundwork. When the day of the
event arrived, however, it became a
community event with everybody pitching in.
The whole organization was involved with
people devoting hours of their time.
People worked like dogs. Some were so
tired at the end of the day they could hardly
limp home to go to bed. The event was a
success, though hardly a huge financial event.
If you totalled up the number of man hours
expended and multiplied by the usual rate of
pay the same people would have received at
their regular jobs, probably everyone would
have been better financially just to make a
donation.
Financially perhaps, but not really. Because
no matter how hard people worked, I never
heard a really serious complaint all day. There
Was a lot of good-natured grumbling but When
it was all over everyone was ready to admit
they'd had a great time. It wasn't just the
Money involVe d, it was that they had done
something together and done it well. That
kind of feeling is worth more than money.
That kind of feeling is what built this
country and part of the problem today is that
we've lost it. People don't want to get
involved today. If something needs to be
done, well pay for it out of taxes and hire
somebody to do the job. We've abandoned
everything'to the professionals. Parents were
once involved heavily in the running of every
school and it was a true community school.
Today a handful of amateurs is supposed to
run the school system made up of hundreds of
professionals. What chance do they have of
really making it a community thing? We're
doing our best to isolate our hospitals from the
community. Our local government has become
more and more remote from people, Where
once people got together to havea dance or some
other event to help the poor in their
neighbourhood, today we have a huge
bureaucracy eating up vast amounts of tax
dollars to do the same job.
Communities used to be close-knit places
where people really "lived" together. Today
the community is a place of convenience
where we take but don't give back. We take
the good things the community has for
granted but please don't expect us to
contribute something back except our taxes,
and not too many of those please. There is
little loyalty left in the community. People are
as apt to shop in. London as they are on main
street. Businessmen are as apt, to follow the
economic trade winds and relocate their
factories or shops in more prosperous towns
asthey are to work toward really building u p
their communities.
Whose fault is it? Everyone's I suspect. I
don't know how it got started, this modern
trend, but it was probably because some
people got tired of pitching in to help in barn
raisingsandcommunity bees of that kind and
started to give money instead. Then the
demand came to have the government provide
and today government has become anentity in
itself always grasping out for more and more
control..
Thankfully there are still some community
organizations left. Our churches are one of the
few aspects that haven't been taken over by
the bureaucracy yet. People tend to become
more personally involved in them when
something needs to be done than they do in
most other community institutions. The
women's institutes and the fair boards and
other such organizations still keep the
principal of community participation alive.
People often look at members of these
groups and watch them working their heads
off to raise a few dollars here or provide a
service there and wonder why they would ever
I work so hard for SO little? But those who
wonder are those who can only see things in
Monetary terms. There is something gained
bythese workers that is far more valuable: the
feeling of working with others to do something
really good for yOur eomtnimity. Your tax
dollars can never buy that for your town.
JOSEPH C. SMITH
Joseph Crawford Smith, a
former Morris Township resident
died in , Huronview, Clinton, on
Sunday, June 3rd, 1978, in his
66th year.
He is survived by his wife, the
former Laura McCutcheon, five
daughters, Anne , (Mrs. Edgar
Steinbach) of Zurich, Carol, (Mrs.
Walter Hicks), of London, Cora
(Mrs. Ros Alcock), of Brussels,
Pauline, (M rs.Bill Hetherington),
of Hamilton, Doreen (Mrs.
Delbert Stewart) of Cayuga, and
one son Adam, of Morris
Township.
Two daughters predeceased
their father.
Also surviving are two