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The Citizen, 1994-06-22, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1994. The North Huron P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M1H0 Phone 523-47! FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1 HO Phone 807-9114 FAX 887-9021 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $20.50/year ($19.16 plus $1.34 G.S.T.) for local; $31.03/year ($29.00 plus $2.03 G.S.T.) for local letter carrier in Goderich, Hanover, Listowel, etc. and out-of-area (40 miles from Brussels); $60.00/year for U.S.A, and Foreign. Advertising is accepted on the condition that In the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright. Publications Mail Registration No. 6968 E ditorial I . ......... I Letters We must begin to compromise No issue is more touchy than religion so it's difficult to separate common sense from prejudice but one has to wonder about the sense in the province providing $3 million to build a new Roman Catholic high school in Huron County when the compromise of using unused space in an existing public school was on the table. In all, the new separate school will cost $4 million with most of the money coming from the province at a time when there is no money to hire new teachers in most schools, public and separate. Taxpayers are already being hit with tax increases caused by cuts in the provincial funding of the school systems. Moreover, the opening of the separate high school will mean a loss of enrollment in the public system as Roman Catholic students switch school systems. That means even more over capacity in the public system and even less efficiency. There's no doubt sharing part of the Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton would not have been as satisfactory for the separate school system as having their own brand new school. Somewhere along the way, however, we've got to finally get the message into the civil servant mentality that sometimes what we'd like to have isn't what we can afford to have. If you look back at the world 30 years ago, you'll see there were many times when we simply had to do without the things we really wanted, even if we could really justify them to ourselves. We've had three decades now of "excellence" in services provided by the government. We also have a huge debt that is threatening our future and a tax burden that is making the public rebel. We simply have to start to compromise our desires with a little practicality. There seemed to be a very practical solution with the sharing of a building. It probably made too much sense to hope it would be used. The province, if it was wise, would have put the pressure on parents and the two boards to accept the compromise. Instead it just threw money at the situation. No wonder we're in such a fiscal mess. — KR Silly season is here It must be the heat. How else does one explain the happenings on Canadian television Friday night. If you turned on the TV to watch the 11 o'clock news Friday night you would see one story obliterating all other coverage. It wasn't coverage of the war in Bosnia. It wasn't the slaughter in Rwanda. It wasn't the possible war between North and South Korea. It was on­ going, live coverage of former football star and media star O. J. Simpson as he sped down a highway, followed by dozens of speeding police cars. The world then stood still while police tried to convince Mr. Simpson, by now trapped in front of his mansion, to surrender. Certainly there was human interest in the tragedy of this man who seemed to have everything but still had reportedly beaten his wife several times. Now he was charged with taking her life and that of another man, and was fleeing from police, reportedly with a gun at his head and threatening to kill himself. One can perhaps sec live coverage of the story by TV stations in Los Angeles where he lived. One can sec the story getting major attention on U.S. networks which had helped to make O. J. Simpson a mega-star. One can understand some coverage on Canadian TV. But Jive coverage? Minute after tedious minute? There arc incidents of domestic violence every day in large cities that go uncovered. There arc car chases somewhat less frequently but they don't warrant a lot of attention on local news, let alone national or international TV. But this case was given the kind of treatment first accorded the death of President John Kennedy. One has to think that Marshal MacLuhan was right when he said the medium is the message. TV producers got so carried away with the fact they had live TV coverage of a standoff with a famous personage that they set aside all judgement of what really constitutes important news. Better to have live pictures of an event of relative importance than no pictures of an event of huge proportions, like the death of hundreds in an earthquake, tidal wave or plane crash in some obscure part of the world where there were no TV cameras present. For TV, if there is no camera to record it, it isn't news. One can see Americans getting caught up in all this. Canadians have a right to wonder, however, why Canadian editors didn't have enough perspective not to let this one story obscure news that is a lol more important than the tragedy of O. J. Simpson.— KW Out on a limb CNA Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Sales Representatives, Jeannette McNeil and Julie Mitchell r«iO Photo by Bonnie Gropp Pastor’s column angers reader THE EDITOR, As a Secular Humanist, I have to take issue with James Came's last few columns "From the Minister's Study", the most recent being June 8 Citizen. His ideas regarding Humanist and all the "evils" plaguing the world past and present are red herrings. Anyone pointing a finger at Secular Humanism, should be reminded there are others pointing back at his/her own religious rhetoric. Pastor Came's claim that without the yoke of the Christian religion we would all be depraved, murdering, greedy licentious zombies is a myth. History and the daily media provide enough evidence that the opposite may be reality. To quote from Deadly Doctrine (1992) written by Wendell Walters, MD, professor emeritus in psychiatry at McMaster University in Hamilton, "On the social level, the history of Christianity does not make for pleasant reading, once the reader gets below the self-serving veneer glued to that history by centuries of Chrsitian historians. It is remarkable that anyone can read that record, even in its whitewashed version, and still remain a practising Christian. The highlights of that chronicle are all too familiar: the bizarre debauchery and bloody deeds of the viciously corrupt medieval popes; four centuries of absolute madness during the Crusades, in which millions of Christians, Jews and Muslims were slaughtered or starved; six centuries of terror •perpetrated by the Roman and Universal Inquisition, also called "The Holy Office" (not abolished until 1965), during which countless thousands of human beings were imprisoned, tortured, or burned at the stake; the censorship, imprisonment or martyrdom endured by Galileo, Bruno and other scientists who challenged biblical "truths" by daring to use human reason in an attempt to make sense of the universe; and the burning at the stake of thousands of women and young girls during the great witch-hunting mania. And all in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God and Saviour of the World." Some Christians have an ingenious explanation for this mad, bloody record: these dreadful deeds were really manifestations of Sata working in human beings (alas, even in holy men), and thus they constitute additional proof of man's innate evil as well as provide further proof of the need for God's divine guidance and grace through Jesus Christ. However, this explanation ignores the fact that most of these deeds were carried out in the name of Jesus Christ; they were relentlessly logical outcomes of the core doctrine of Christianity. Yet, we are asked to believe quite otherwise; and, in fact, to embrace that doctrine more completely and more faithfully; it is rather like trying to douse a fire with gasoline." We need not confine ourselves to past centuries of total madness. Modern day examples include, Nazis, Jim Jones, Bosnia and David Koresh in Waco, Texas. Wendall Watters is a Secular Humanist. Secondly, in the former Soviet Union, Andrei Sakharov, a nuclear physicist and a Secular Humanist, spent years of imprisonment and exile in Gorky for his activities in defence of human rights, statements on public issues, his views on thermonuclear weapons, and for defying the totalitarian regime in power. Sakharov, in a May 14, 1990 Time cover story was called a "20th century giant" who paid a high price for his freedom of speech. Thirdly, a many who has done more for women's rights and reproductive freedoms than any other man is Henry Morgentalor. Not only is Henry a Secular Humanist, but he is the founder and first President of the Humanist Association of Canada (HAC). He has received praise from such feminists as Michele Landsberg, journalist, and Judy Rubick, former president of NAC. Morgentalor is also a survivor of the Nazi death camps. Fourthly, some of the world’s leading experts and researchers on social violence, behaviour and psychoanalysis are Humanists such as John Money, James Prescott, David Finkelhor and Alice Miller. Finally, if one was to read the Statement of Principles and Values issued by the HAC, I don't believe anyone would find any of the "evils" which have been suggested in its words. I can supply a copy to anyone who wishes. Continued on page 5