The Huron Expositor, 1998-06-24, Page 44 -THE HURON EXPOSITOR, JUNE 24, 1998
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Wednesday, June 24, 1998
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Editorial
Let's break up
break and enters
Break and enters are personal crimes.
They involve a faceless stranger forcing his
way into your home, touching your belongings
and taking that which doesn't belong to him.
It leaves victims feeling violated and unsafe
in their own homes; the one place that should,
always remain a sanctuary.
People work hard to earn what they have
and in just a few minutes, someone
undeserving can come through a home and
take some of that away.
It's unfortunate that even in small
communities, people have to be guarded
against crime.
People still leave their homes with doors
and windows unlocked.
It may seem silly but police recommend
people keep their doors locked even when.
they are at home.
While this is a small town, often, the people
who would violate its residents come from
larger communities.
They operate in rings and for organized
crime, coming through communities, taking
property to sell again on the streets.
But it's not just complete strangers. People
in our own communities will violate our homes
too.
That makes it worse.
Regardless, this is a society that no longer
allows us the freedom to leave our doors
unlocked.
It doesn't mean we have to be prisoners in
our homes.
It just means we have to take precautions.
Lock those doors with solid locks.
Don't keep a spare key hidden under a mat.
Make sure windows are locked securely.
Don't be afraid to ask for identification from
someone who comes to the door --even the
police.
Have neighbors watch your home if you are
away.
Keep lights on with timers so it isn't obvious
no one is at home.
OPP are taking initiatives to reduce the
number of break and enters in the province by
five per cent.
These are just a few of the steps that can be
taken to make a home less likely the target of
a break and enter and help the police get their
statistics even lower.
' STH
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Local police give better service
To the Editor:
We want to wish Wingham
Police Chief Jim Dore all the
luck in the world at "keeping"
his local police service
"intact" as going OPP would
be a big disaster.
For the townships of Moms
and Howick and the villages
of Brussels and Blyth, if you
people really want "good':
police protection, please listen
to Chief Dore.
Since Seaforth and
surrounding townships all
went to OPP, our contact with
an OPP officer is few and far
between.
Their (OPP) comments are,
"they have such a large area
to cover, it's hard for them to
get back to each individual
person for as many as every
10 days or more."
Since June 2, 1998, we
have seen an OPP officer
twice regarding an incident.
Even though names and
addresses of the offenders
involved were given to the
OPP, we still have no heard of
what has been done.
More than $2,500 in
damages were done to
vehicles and things were
stolen. We wanted charges
laid as soon as possible but
since 22 days have passed and
no word yet, why lay the
charges now?
And yes, OPP are much,
much more expensive than
local police. An example is
Gpderich Township which
budgeted $128,000 for OPP
coverage for 1998 but the
estimated bill from OPP for
their coverage was $478,000,
quite a huge difference.
We certainly hope
Wingham and surrounding
areas listen to Chief Dore and
keep their local police. You
will all have far better police
protection when it's local.
We sure wish Seaforth still
had local police. We had
excellent service from them:
certainly not anymore with
OPP.
C.B. Brown
Egmondville
Catholic
school
funding
violates
To the Editor:
Human rights issues are
close to the hearts of
Canadians, and our political
leaders have often spoken out
for international observance of
these vital freedoms. `Recently,
Prime Minister Chretien has
championed human rights in
Cuba, yet there are cases of
discrimination in Canada
which our governments have
ignored.
But now, the United Nations
Human Rights Committee in
Geneva, Switzerland, has
received and formally
accepted a complaint filed by
Friends of Public Education in
Ontario, Inc. against Canada
claiming that Ontario's
government funding of
separate schools violates not
only our own Charter of
Rights and Freedoms, but
international human rights law
as well.
In particular, separate school
funding violates Article 26 of
the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights..
(Article 26: "All persons are
CONTINUED on Page 5
Welcome, school board employees
Dear Abby:
We read with great interest the announcement that the
Avon Maitland District School Board is planning to move
some of its offices to Seaforth, as we wanted to welcome the
staff to our community.
We are a group of dedicated volunteers who have been
meeting for over a year, in an effort to keep Seaforth and area
a.viable place for business and families to live. We have
since taken on the title of Seaforth Business Retention and
Expansion Committee as we are undertaking a visitation
program that involved volunteers meeting with an
interviewing 77 area businesses (manufacturing,
retail/service, institutional, other and farm enterprise) to
identify concerns and barriers to survival and growth (acing
local businesses.
Our goal is to maintain a viable, community with all of its
current services and facilities including our hospital, high
school, vibrant downtown and expanding manufacturing
sector. In addition, we are here to welcome new business to
the Seaforth community and to provide assistance in any way
we can to make the transition as easy as possible.
Seaforth truly is a friendly town. On behalf of our group,
and the entire Seaforth community, please advise your staff
that Seaforth will welcome the Avon Maitland District
School Board with open arms. If there is anything we can do
to snake your settlement in the community easier, please
don't hesitate to contact me.
Kindest regards,
Joe Steffler.
Chair .
Seaforth Business Retention and Expansion Committee
(Editor's note: this' letter was sent to chair of the Avon
Maitland District School Board, Abby Armstrong. A Copy of
the letter was sent to The Huron Expositor) •
A tribute to Aunt Agnes Murray...
She had, tremendous impacton family
A couple of minutes ago, I
was setting aside a sheet and a
pillow case that needed
mending.
Isn't memory one of life's
greatest gifts (mind you, it
can also be one of life's most
painful things as uncle Pete
once told me).
Anyway, a flood of
memories came back as I set
the sheet and pillow case in a
separate "to be repaired" pile.
It was Aunt Agnes
(Delaney) Murray that first
taught me to do that. Before
that, we used to just put all
the laundry wherever, but we
didn't separate the injured
from the whole, so to speak.
This same dear Aunt Agnes
Delaney -Murray is ill.
I want 'so badly to tell her
what a tremendous impact she
had on my life and the lives
of our family of origin.
I'm sure my mother went
on ahead of us in an easier
state of mind knowing that
Agnes would do what she
could for the children and
husband she would have to
leave behind.
That dear, reliable,.
encouraging, affirming
person, taking an interest in
us. The list is so long of the
good that she did.
The thing I am most
thankful for, was it was her
who taught me that when we
are praying, pray to our own
good people Who have gone
on before us. Saints are
friends of God and she taught
me and' I firmly believe that
they can and do put in a word
for us.
She was such a good friend
to my dad as well.
We simply weren't old
enough or big enough to do
what had to be done to keep a
place going after my mother
died.
Marion says Ray raised us.
That is right. He was only 14,
then he got in an accident and
had to go to Toronto for what
seemed like an eternity. it was
years.
Yes, Ray lit the fire when
we'd come home sometimes
to a freezing cold house when
the pressure just got too much
for my dad, as it does for all
of us sometimes.
This story isn't supposed to
be about Ray; it's about
Agnes Murray.
When her turn ,comes to
cross over to the "other side,"
the good Lord will recognize
her as the one who faithfully
spring cleaned the Maloney
homestead and baked cookies
and helped keep us all on our
feet, for one more round. for
one more shift.
Love Bea
(Editor's note: The preceding
was written by Bea Maloney
of Mississauga. Her Aunt
Agnes is from this area and
has children who reside here.
/t is written as a tribute to
Agnes Murray)
People with good skills can be hard to find
J _ ` became a Children's Aid Society
clown a few years ago and has taught
herself the art of making these
animals.
While I wasn't really looking for a
new form of artistic expression, I
asked Val if she would teach me a
basic balloon figure.
My father is organizing a tall- ships
event in Goderich this August and
I've seen Val make swords.
My role during that weekend will
likely be "gopher" running errands
and filling gaps when needed for the
network of volunteers.
But when I'm not gophing, l
thought it might be neat to make
balloon swords to give to the kids.
I've watched her make dogs. hats
and a host of animals and now, she
can make teddy bears, complicated
horses with manes and other figures
that are far too complex for Mc to
tackle yet.
However, after one lesson, Val was
able to teach me not only how to
make a sword, but also a dog. (The
swords are easier though.)
That's not to say that after one
lesson, i can quickly shape the
balloons into dogs with four even
legs, a tail that holds in place and a
head that's proportionate to the rest of
the body. Val can make one in about
30 seconds. I can make a balloon dog
that no one would take home.from the
pound in about three minutes.
So far, the work I'm doing just
about matches that of my Grade 9 an
projtcts but i've got until August
before this one is due.
• I think I've just learned an
indispensible skill.
1 should say, I'm learning an
indispensible skill. I've far from
mastered it.
Until now, my 4rtistic ability never
grew much past the fifth grade.
Sure, I could make a pretty good
macaroni picture and, being a child of
the Star Wars generation, I could
draw space ships in battle.
But by thc time I reached Grade 9
art, a mandatory class I was sure 1 had
no business taking, my drawings of
real life people and landscapes still
had the ragged age of that Grade 5
student.
At that point, pencil crayons were
traded in for pastels, charcoal and a
host of other artistic mediums with
which I couldn't quite seem to master.
I did pass but I think the only way
an art teacher would truly fail
students is if they didn't even try to
figure out whatever new mediutn was
dropped in front of them.
One of the, most frightening was
working with clay.
Working with clay was downright
frightening. I couldn't go from
making a glob of brown muck into a
replica of the mask of a volcano god
as was assigned. It son of looked like
the face but you could see marks
from my fingernails and areas that
would just never smooth down.
And I had to work on it after school
to get it done because of how many
times I started the project over. It was
much easier to make the mask back
into a glob of brown muck.
But now I've found a new form of
sculpture that 1 think, with a little
patience. I can master.
i've been learning how to make
balloon animals.
In some ways, it's actually easy but
there's a lot to know.
Did you know you can blow a blood
vessel in your brain by blowing up
balloons with the force of your own
breath?
In balloon sculpting you use a
special tool called a balloon pump
that saves your breath and brain cells.
But blowing up the balloon is the
easy part.
The hardest part was breaking
through thc tension that mounts when
the time comes to start twisting the
balloon, waiting for it to pop.
it hardly ever does. And once you
know this, the tension goes away and
the project can actually be a little bit
of fun.
Bending and twisting the balloon
won't break it if you leave enough air
out of the end of the balloon. That's
where the extra air goes that you force
out of one location or another as you
twist a balloon into legs or the
handles of a sword.
A friend of mine. Val Mallough,
tti