The Citizen, 2004-07-01, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2004. PAGE 5.
Other Views
Don't know what you got 'til it's gone
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got
'til it's gone...
— Joni Mitchell
There's a thief in the neighbourhood.
A chilling six-pack of words, that — but
true, alas, of my neighbourhood —
which is not, I hasten to add, downtown
Baghdad or the Lower Bronx. Not even Yonge
and Dundas in Toronto or East Hastings Street
in Vancouver.
I live in a tame and quiet little corner of
Canadian countryside seven kilometers from
the nearest streetlight with nary a high-riSe to
blight my honzon.
It's a place where everybody knows
everybody else, along with their kids, their
dogs and the kind of cars they drive. We have
no bars, no casinos, no strip joints — not even a
gas station or a Seven-Eleven.
Our neighbourhood is not, in short, what
you'd call a fecUnd Petri dish for a. one-man
crime wavelet, but it seems we've got one just
the same.
He's a weird specimen. our thief. (I'm
assuming it's a 'he' because most thieves —
most crooks. in fact — are male. As some
wiseguy once said: 'the race is not always to
the swift, but that's the way to bet'.)
So far, our thief has stolen a hundred bucks
out of a wallet, but left the credit cards intact.
He also lifted another neighbour's Palm
Pilot and his Global Positioning device, but
ignored a fat billfold sitting right next to
them.
In his only break-and-enter, the thief busted
a window to get into a vacant house, used the
coffee machine (?!?) then left, taking, as far as
anyone can tell, nothing more than a bellyful
Showin
provincial politicians must be feeling a
bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger. They
have shown they have muscles and the
ability to influence a federal election more
than at any time in memory.
Dalton McGuinty, Mike Harris, Ralph
Klein, Bernard Lord, Gordon Campbell, even
John. Hamm, all current or former premiers,
were mentioned more often in the federal
campaign than anyone/except the federal party
leaders.
References to them were not always
complimentary, but they were noticed. This
was particularly true of Ontario premier
McGuinty, who had the most impact because a
few days before the election he broke a
promise and increased taxes and raised a storm
of anger against his own and federal Liberals.
Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin
pretended he never even knew anyone called
McGuinty, but so many federal voters said
they were mad at the premier there is no doubt
he hurt the prime minister.
It has been much more common for federal
Liberal governments to raise taxes, squabble
publicly or otherwise pull the rug from under
their Ontario relatives in provincial elections
and it was a rare empowerment for`the boot to
be on the other foot.
McGuinty tried to repair damage he caused
Martin by dragging former Progressive
Conservative premier Harris into the fray and
warned if federal Tory leader Stephen Harper
cut taxes significantly as promised, he also
would cut public services significantly, like
Harris.
This comparison could have hurt Harper.
because most Ontarians feel Harris's tax cuts
were not worth the erosion of services.
Harper was stung enough to retort that
Harris kept promises. unlike McGuinty, and
of java.
Naturally, the police were notified. In due
course, a constable rolled up in a cruiser and
started asking the standard questions and
taking notes. This house where the gizmos
were stolen — it was locked, right?
Well... no, not really.
And the wallet that the money was stolen
from, where was that?
Umm, it was sitting on the dashboard of a
pickup parked by the road.
But the pickup was locked, right?
Actually ....no. As a matter of fact. the keys
were in the ignition, too.
I couldn't see the cop's eyes. but I'm pretty
sure they were rolling back in his head. Who
could blame him? He's got a tough enough job
without playing nursemaid to a gaggle of
gormless burghers who practically have "ROB
ME" signs scotch-taped to their foreheads. He
probably thought we were idiots, but he was
nice enough not to let it show. He told us the
thief sounded too dumb to be professional.
Probably a- druggie.
He advised us to 'be aware' of any strangers
lurking in the neighbourhood.
"Oh, and lock your doors from now on," he
added, resisting, no doubt, the urge tO add "ya
morons."
The cop was right, but he was wrong as well.
voters are better off with leaders they can trust.
Martin seized the opportunity to slide in that
Harris left a record of reckless and
unnecessary cuts to important services and
Harper was praising it. Harris's impact was
enough that more than two years after he
retired parties in a federal election fought over
it.
Alberta Tory premier Klein threw a scare in
the federal campaign by announcing that soon
after it he would unveil important changes in
his province's medicare system to make it
more sustainable and they might be seen as
violating a federal law which lays down
conditions under which that government helps
fund it.
They include full accessibility to treatments
and Klein has said often he favours increased
private sector involvement in medicare.
Harper already had urged Alberta to take
more control over areas within its
constitutional jurisdiction, including health,
and in inflammatory words set up a "firewall"
around itself.
Martin then made the serious charge Klein
plans to expand dramatically the role of
private, for-profit clinics and charge user-fees
and Harper was encouraging him and failing to
defend medicare.
Harper countered Martin was imagining a
conspiracy to divert attention from his own
We didn't leave our doors unlocked .because
we're stupid; we left them unlocked because
we could. That's the kind of neighbourhood
we are — or were.
If you were going to Mexico for a week or
two, well sure, you locked up and notified your
neighbours. Otherwise, why bother?
All that's changed now. There's a new sense
of vigilance in the neighbourhood. We no
longer assume that cars rolling through our
streets are rubbernecking tourists or folks just
out for a drive. A kid with a skateboard under
his arm walking down the road is no longer
just a kid with a skateboard. Now, he's a
potential B and E suspect.
No doubt our neighbourhood 'plight' would
qualify as pretty small patates frites to an Iraqi
widow or a street kid in Tegucigalpa. What did
we lose? A few dollars and a couple of Yuppie
gadgets.
But something else as well. We lost
something you can't measure on a social
worker's chart or pay for in your taxes. A sense
of innocence?
No, more like a presumption. The Real
World paid us a wake-up call. We're still
working on Our response.
Jane Jacobs, the world-famous writer,
philosopher and best friend North American
neighbourhoods ever had, became a
community activist after watching her
favourite New York City neighbourhoods rot
and fall apart. Her solution? She moved to
Toronto where she's lived for more than 30
years. If Jane Jacobs thinks there's hope for
Toronto. there's no reason for the rest of us to
surrender our communities.
We just have to work a little harder at
keeping them healthy.
cuts in medicare funds, but the issue worried
many.
New Brunswick Tory premier Lord endorsed
Harper's plan to have senators elected by votes
organized by provinces instead of prime
ministers appointing political and personal
friends.
Lord said his province was ready to elect
senators if Harper won and this was part of "an
appetite across the country for change."
Electing senators has been mostly a goal of
alienated westerners, but also is catching on to
some degree in Ontario since opposition Tories
started promoting it.
Nova Scotia Tory premier Hamm got in the
act by criticizing the federal Liberals on
healthcare and declaring "it's a great time to be
on Harper's team."
Newfoundland Tory premier Danny
Williams praised Harper as someone who,
when he promises something, "you can take it
to the bank".
And British Columbia premier Campbell
was pointed to by federal New Democrat
leader Jack Layton as an example of
politicians calling themselves Liberals who cut
services to the bone.
Provincial politicians who often complained
federal parties ignored them were praised and
panned, but noticed, and they should have
enough clout to make themselves heard more
often.
Never put off 'til tomorrow anything you
can get someone else to do for you today.
— Unknown
Too short
Grade 8 should not have ended like this.
One day into summer holidays, a 14-
year-old boy tragically lost hi* life in a
freakish mishap.
It is a story full of such bitter ironies. A
youth full of promise and hope who just the
night before took one more step to maturity,
celebrating with his classmates during the
graduation festivities. Then that hope and
promise was cut short when he began the
much-anticipated summer holidays with
friends from his church youth group, and a
split-second moment changed a family forever.
It is a story made even more tragic by its
capricious cause. Travelling in the back of a
truck to transport canoes from the church to
another location, Joseph Kerkhof had the
unfortunate timeliness of leaning into the cab
window at precisely the moment one of the
canoes swung. Sadly fate, for whatever reason.
chose not to be with him on this day.
I have knoWn Joseph since his birth. Three" of
my four children had babysat him as a
youngster. A plump-cheeked, curly-lashed
bundle, he was a beautiful baby. His parents
welcomed their first addition to the family with
all the joy and wonder typical of all of us with
children.
And as most children, Joseph grew up secure
in the comfort of a close and loving family,
who gave him room to grow up, to challenge
himself, to make mistakes and to learn from
them, while giving him all the guidance and
protection that doting parents will.
It is this that frightens parents. When given
the ultimate gift of children we cherish them,
taking every step imaginable, and sometimes
unimaginable, to keep them safe. Then
something happens like this past week's
bizarre catastrophe and we are forced to
acknowledge that so much of this is out of our
hands. We cannot hide them from the world.
We cannot lock them from their freedom. We
car, not stop them from experiencing the
adventure of living.
I remember attending the funeral of an 18-
year-old boy who had died in a violent car
crash enroute to Florida for March break with
a friend several years ago. I knew that his
parents had suffered no small amount of
turmoil before deciding to give him
permission. But, both he and the young man
accompanying him were responsible, neither a
risk-taker. Both had excellent driving records.
But both also became tired on the long trek
and the driver fell asleep behind the wheel.
There is little doubt that the boy's parents
suffered for their decision. Yet, in his sermon
the minister praised them for it, for being the
right kind of parents to their son. They had
encouraged his independence. They had given
their son freedom to live his life fully. The
minister reminded them that the hours before
their child's untimely death had been joyful
ones, full of the pleasure and excitement that
accompanies a new adventure. He credited
them for being the ones to give him that joy
with their trust and with the strength to let him
move out of their control.
We will forever question how such senseless
things can happen and why. We will always
rage against the unfairness of tragedy. We may
too from time to time, be fearful of the
decisions we make in raising our children.
Joseph's life was far too short. His life
should not have ended the way it did. But some
comfort should be found in knowing it ended
while he was living it to the fullest.
some political muscle