Huron Expositor, 2006-06-21, Page 4.04
Pogo 4 June 21, 2006 • The Huron Expositor
Opinion
Proprietor and Publisher, Bowes Publishers Limited, 11 Main St., Seaforth, ON, NOK 1WO
Ethanol plant
announcement
for Hensall is
good news for
uron County
A county -wide proposal created a year and a half
ago suggesting four different sites for an ethanol
plant in Huron County appears to have paid off in
the recent announcement that Hensall will be the
location of a new $150 million ethanol plant.
Seaforth was one of four locations, including
Hensall, Goderich and South Huron, proposed in
Huron that was submitted to the Canadian
Renewable Fuels Association.
But, while Huron County was turned down dur-
ing the first round of announcements last fall, the
recently -announced Hensall plant is expected to be
the largest of three in the province, bringing 60 to
75 jobs to the area.
It's no wonder that. Huron East economic develop-
ment officer Ralph Laviolette is celebrating with
the development just across the highway from
Huron East's borders and a short drive from
Seaforth.
Predicted to become an "economic driver in the
area" by Huron -Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell, the
plant is also sure to give local farmers one more
market for their corn as Ontario's gas will be
required to contain five per cent ethanol by 2007.
While farmers may still have to compete with
subsidized U.S. corn, Huron County did produce
11.7. mill ion bushels of corn in 2003-04.
The environment should be a winner as well. It's
hard to see the down side of the plan to use Ontario
corn, wheat and straw to produce a renewable fuel
that is supposed to reduce greenhouse gas emis-
sions.
Ethanol is also predicted to eventually reduce the
price of gas at the pumps, something every driver
now paying over $1 a litre for gas should appreci-
ate.
As Huron begins to promote itself as a county for
economic development, let's hope this is just the
start of many such announcements to come.
Susan Hundertmark
My sister's speech is
a triumph over deafness
When my older sister
Kim was 18 months old,
she was diagnosed as
being profoundly deaf in
both ears.
She had lived her life
with the sounds around.
her mostly muted, but my
folks didn't find out about
it until this moment.
The doctor, breaking the
news to Mom and Dad for the first time,
explained that Kim's disability would make it
very difficult for her to learn how to speak.
We gain this skill by imitating the speech of
others, after all, and it's difficult to mimic
something you can barely hear.
Perhaps trying to lighten the mood, the doc-
tor then said something like this: "It might
not be such a bad thing, considering how
women are."
"It was incredibly inappropriate," my dad
said when relating this story not long ago. "I
could have punched him."
He didn't, but this knowledge presented my
parents with a difficult choice. Option one
would be to ensure that Kim attended a
school for the deaf and learned to communi-
cate primarily through sign language.
This is the path many would have chosen,
and there's nothing especially wrong with it.
The disabled are often outcast and ridiculed
when so-called "normal" people come in con-
tact with them.
And where suffering is shared, fraternity
often flourishes. Even if Kim had nothing else
in common with her peers
at a school for the hearing
impaired, their common
disability may have drawn
them together.
My folks chose option
two, however. It's not that
extraordinary, really, and I
don't want to leave you
with the impression that
others haven't done the
same. But it's a large part of the reason Kim
is able to function in the hearing world right
now.
It was decided that Kim would enter the
public school system, sit in the same class-
rooms as "able-bodied" kids, and "doctor's
warnings be jiggered," learn to communicate
with her voice box rather than her hands.
The road was long and difficult. Kim's class-
mates were often brutal, teasing her to her
face, behind her back and in:: a million other
places, without mercy.
Even with, the help of hearing aids, which
she used in those days, comprehending a
teacher's lessons was a challenge.
There were also trips to Toronto for speech
therapy sessions, a process that was arduous
at times, but an investment in her future.
Mom kept taking her, every week for six
years, and supplemented the program with
nightly lessons of her own.
The effort paid off. Kim learned how to
speak, and the standing joke in our family is
See LONG, Page 5
Ron & Dave
Have you read
Orwell's "1984"?
Yeah. It's all about
a totalitarian state
of the future.
It details the
oppression of
"Winston Smith"
in the country
of "Oceania".
The state is
represented by a
paternal figure
known as
"BIG BROTHER"
who watches
• ev one.
"Big Brother"
knows every-
thing about
everyone and
is always
watching.
by David Lacey
Your Community N.wspap.r mac• 1860
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