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The Citizen, 1988-08-24, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1988. These politicians lead In these cynical days politicians generally aren’t given much credit for anything good and at best are credited with following, not leading the people. Politicians of three area townships, however, should be commended for the leadership they have shown in implementing recycling programs in their municipalities. The councils of West Wawanosh, Grey and McKillop have looked long and hard at the problem of exploding volumes of garbage and have seen the tremendous costs, both economically and environmentally of not doing something to change the trend. They have decided recycling as much as possible of this trash only makes sense instead of burning or burying it. Recycling has become more common in urban areas but there aren’t that many examples of rural townships adapting recycling for the political leaders obviously had some extra work to get information about the rural recycling alternatives. They did the work and they have the recycling facilities in place. For residents of the three townships (plus the portion of Morris that uses the Walton waste site) the challenge is to now live up to the kind of leadership their councillors have shown. It’s one thing to have recycling facilities available. It’s another thing to use them. The thought of separating out the newsprint, cans and bottles from the other household garbage frightens many people. It’sabigchange from just opening the kitchen garbage can and throwing everything in. Yet the change is mostly a mental one. Separating garbage may take a little more room but once a system is set up, it really doesn’t take a lot more time. Mostly, as an expert said recently on a CBC radio show, it’s just a matter of habit. As individuals, we can’t do much to solve the big environmental problems of acid rain or industrial pollution but we can do something about cleaning up our own little corner of the world by supporting these far-sighted politicians in their attempts to reduce the amount of waste in our society. Sophisticated Toronto Torontonians, from the politicians to the media, have been telling us for years now what a sophisticated city it is. The evidence is out, in sports at least, to prove that Toronto must indeed be as sophisticated as they say. Now there are those who will argue that Montreal with its joie de vivre and its international flair is Canada’s most sophisticiatedcity but not in sports. Montreallers are notorious for only following winners in sports. When the Expos look like they could challenge for the National League East pennant, the fans will fill the park. When the Expos are also-rans, Olympic stadium sounds like a big hollow cave. When the Montreal Alouettes won the Grey Cup, they put 57,000 fans in the Big 0. Last year the team, now a loser, folded. Heck they even filled the park for professional soccer when their team was on top. Toronto is different. Everybody knows about Toronto’s le gendary support for the Maple Leafs (sometimes called Laffs) who haven’t won a Stanley Cup or even come close since we were all still celebrating the Centennial and look like they may not come close until the bi-Centennial. Winners? Who needs winners in hockey in Toronto? Th e Blue Jays seem to have caught on. With a team with supposedly more talent than any other around, the Blue Jays still look like a poor peewee team, only less well behaved. The fans love them. One recent Monday night against an equally-inept team, they drew 31,000 fans to see them and no doubt Blue Jays will again have one of the best season attendances in the major leagues. Now there’s another Toronto team that hasn’t learned how sophisticated the city has become. The Toronto Argonauts seem to think that winning can bring fans. They’ve won every game but one this year and they’re in first place but while the Blue Jays can draw 31,000 people to see them lose to another poor team, only 25,000 show up to see Argos beat their arch-rivals the Hamilton Tiger cats. We in smaller towns might expect some loyalty frpm our athletes and might feel hurt if they turned their backs on us and took the money and run as soon as the season was over but not in sophisticated Toronto. By the last week of the season the Blue Jays will have packed their millions, ready for a quick getaway to California or Florida of the Dominican Republic. Live year round inToronto? Areyou kidding? Only one Blue Jay has done that in 11 years. Ah yes we can all learn from Toronto so that someday we too can reward ineptitude, ingratitude and bad manners while turning against winners who show loyalty to their community. The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Phone 523-4792 We need good examples BY KEITH ROULSTON Huron county has had a terrible loss of the kind of people you could look up to in the last year. Two of my colleagues, A. Y. MacLean of Seaforth and Bill Batten of Exeter and the legendary Jack MacLaren, an artist from Benmiller, among others, have all died. The three men were examples to young people growing up in the county that you could live an exciting, full life without abandon­ ing Huron. It’s important to have that kind of role model for young people so they can see that even if you don’t want to grow up to be a farmer or work in a retail store, there are other options. There is an exciting diversity in Huron that is available in few parts of the county. While we have some of the best farmland in the nation, we also have professional artists. We have tourism, but we also have sound careers to offer in medical facilities P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 Summer Shade Letter from the editor t or in education. But the impression that’s pump­ ed at young people all the time, through the media and elsewhere, is that rural life is a dead end, that if you don’t want to die of terminal boredom, you’ve got to leave your roots behind and go to the city. One of Huron county’s biggest exports has always been its youth and probably always will be. It’s natural thatmany young people won’t find the kind of work they’re interested in, in our area. But young people should know that there is an option, to create your own exciting life right here. You may have to work harder at it, but it can be done. These three men we’ve lost were examples to young people that it could be done. Bill Batten had plenty of chances to leave the county and work in journalism elsewhere. He had a reputation as a good newspaperman across the country. But he stayed in Huron and devoted his talents to making his home community a better place. Andy MacLean had seen the bright lights. He had been a members of Parliament. He had served at the United Nations in those heady days of the 1950’s when the UN still seemed like the answer to lasting world peace. Yet he still came back to Huron and got involved in improving the com­ munity, helping build a new hospital and community swimm­ ing pool as well as many other community deeds. Jack MacLaren lived most of his life before he came to Huron on his retirement. He served in the group The Dumbells and played on Broadway, he painted with the Group of Seven, he was a friend of Nobel prize winner Dr. Frederick Banting. Yet when he retired, he he was cut free of the economic chains of earning his living, he chose Huron as his home. When I was growing up we didn’t have examples like that of people leading such exciting lives right around home: or at least we didn’t know of them. Teachers never thought to show us the successful people right around home. It was always just sort of understood that unless you were going to take over the family farm or business, you were going to go off and make your life in the outside world. Continued on Page 8 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario, by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $17 OO/yr ($38 00 Foreign) Advertising isacceptedon the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 pm - Brussels, Monday, 4 pm- Bly th We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright. Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. 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