Times Advocate, 1992-04-15, Page 4Times -Advocate, April 15, 1992
Publisher: 11m Beckett
News Editor: Adrian Harte
Business Manager: Don Smith
Composition Manager: Deb lord
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!i)FFOR11t
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All those solutions, and navy
no problem
0s sao�iid serol ilii
a little clieato d Eby the-actga-rah
last Wednesday of two police
officers involved in the shooting of a
black teenager, Wade Lawson, in 1988.
The officers, the court tells us, were
not guilty of second degree murder, nor
of unlawfully discharging their firearms
at a stolen car.
All the fuss over the Jast four years,
has been for nothing, we discover.
The shooting in 1988 triggered quick
reactions from the province. The
whole policing system was put under
review, mainly to quell outrage from
the black community over the shooting
of another one of their members at the
'hands of a white policeman. The prov-
ince quickly stepped up its demands
that Ontario police forces increase mi-
nority representation in their ranks.
Control over municipal police forces
was' later seized by the province
through the mandatory introduction of
police ,services boards, despite outrage
from .many municipalities, Exeter in-
cluded. -
. And because a hollow -point bullet
was -used in the police officer's -revol-
ver, all such atmnunition was immedi-
ately banned from sale inOntario, pre -
mgt
even tecie`aioiill Ms ua-
tions.
Yet, we learn now, there was no
wrongdoing in 1988. We are expected
to believe that all those "reforms" had
nothing to do with the shooting of a
black teenager. .We are expected to be-
lieve car theft can beta capital offense.
We are expected to 'believe the verdict
would have been the same if a black of-
ficer had shot a white youth from a more
respectable neighbourhood.
We are also expected to believe that
the province's overhaul of the police sys-
tem through police services boards pre-
vents the police from protecting their
own in situations of dubious judgement
even though a member of the provin-
cial board itself can carry a holstered
handgun and wound a thief in a bakery,
and not merit an inquiry or a resignation.
We have much to be concerned about
last week's verdict. Either the officers
were justified in their actions, and the
province's "reforms" of the police sys-
tem were opportunistic power grabs by
the politically correct, or the -t--_
ability of the police to their own jaws !add:
reviews is nothing more than lip -service.
A.D.H.
nom -tt
Don't say that; it hurts me!
I have been suffering sympa-
thetic pain for longer than I care
to remember. This means that
when I read or hear of people
experiencing "real" pain, I feel
an "imagined" pain in the same
region of my body.
My pain becomes so real that
it isn't clear who suffers more,
the original patient or me.
If you're not satisfied with my
lay explanation of the com-
plaint, I give it to you in the
"plain English" of Webster's
Third (abbreviated for easy read-
ing):
"Sympathetic pain activates a
part of the nervous system con-
taining adrenergic fibres. It de-
presses secretion, decreases the
tone and contractility of smooth
muscle and causes the contrac-
tion a blood vessels consisting
essentially of preganglionic fi-
bres arising in the thoracic and
upper lumbar parts of the spinal
cord and passing through deli-
cate white rami communicantes
to ganglia in the ganglionic
cords situated one on each side
of the vertebral column or to
more peripheral ganglia or gan-
glionated plexuses and postgan-
glionic fibres passing through
grey rami communicantes to spi-
nal nerves with which they arc
distributed to various end or-
gans."
Now do yOti see what I mean?
Do you know what I'm up
against? Far from being merely
psychotic, I'm the victim of my
own fibres ganging up on me.
My disability is that my plexus-
es and and rami seem to be pass-
ing in the wrong direction. Or
something like that.
You'll understand why I try to
stay away from medical text-
books. In fact, I don't even enter
Elizabeth's office where she has
a whole bookshelf full of very
explicit nursing manuals. Just
thinking of the illustrations caus-
Peter's
Point
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Peter Hessel
es me great discomfort. I avoid
the front page of newspapers
with their graphic and bloody
accounts of murders, suicides,
murder -suicides, fatal and near -
fatal accidents. When I watch
the National, I tum the sound off
and close my eyes through half
the reports. And I stay away
from action movies, videos and
cartoons where everybody is
shot, clubbed to death, crushed.
nun over or otherwise killed or
maimed every twenty seconds.
I don't like violence and try
not to think about it. But people
wol't cooperate. When I greet
you with: "How are ya?", I only
expect you to say: "Fine, and
how are you?"
But the older I get, the more
you have the urgc to confide in
me. \You think I really want to
knout how you are. Now don't
get Me wrong. I am interested in
you. And if it weren't for that af-
fliction of mine, that sympathet-
ic.pain business, I'd be delighted
to listen to your health prob-
lems. But while it makes you
feel better getting things off
your chest and crying on my.
shoulder, I'm almost fainting
"Men are never so likely
to settle a question rightly
as when they -discuss it
freely."
... Thomas Macauley
tibMbed Mr* W.Oneedey Menke et 424 Mals $t.,
Exeter, Ontario, NOM UM by l.W. £edy PubNosttees Ltd.
TMeebeee 1.511,2351331
esf.T. *nos210ess
•
"See — 1 told you it was a dumb name for a boat!"
Cultural invasion
Two steps forward, one step
backward. The Berlin Wall
came down, Euro Disney goes
up.
There cannot be any better ex-
ample for.Quebec to offer as an
iron clad reason for demanding
distinct society status for their
province than the events in
France these past few days.
I should expect it to become
part of the new_ Constitution, if
and when it is drawn up: Save
us from the Americans - no Dis-
rteyLand for Montreal.
Only the Americans, who are
not dearly beloved by. the
'French anyway, could have the
audacity to buy up 5,000 acres
of land (a quarter the size of Par-
is) and build a theme park - an
American theme park.
If they can do that in Europe,
just imagine poor little Quebec
trying to fight off the tide of
English-language overbearing
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from pain. American culture all by them -
The other day I met Mike selves. The rest of we Canadi-
whom I hadn't seen for a few ans who sit whining about
months. "How are ya?" I said. I French on cereal packages and
was ready to exchange a couple store signs are missing the point
of sentences with him and then entirely.
get on with my business. Twen- Americans can now travel all
ty minutes later, I had learned a ,the way to Europe, stay in
great deal about gall stones in
general, the size of Mike's in
particular, and the excruciating
pain he had experienced before,
during and after whatever it was
that had to be done with him. He
never noticed that I was dou-
bling over with pain, that my
lower abdomen. began to pul-
sate, that I was breaking out in
cold sweat. '
"Stop!" I shouted. "You're kill-
ing me." Mike didn't understand,
and I may have lost a friend.
What am Ito do. Avoid people
in.the street? Wear dark glasses,
a wide -brimmed hat, tum up my
coat collar? Should I pretend to
be in a hurry when I'm not?
How can I avoid hearing your
gruesome clinical details, when
I only want to be friendly?
Maybe I won't say "How are
you" any more. I could switch to
"Hello there" or to a non-
committal "Hi!" followed by
"you're looking marvellous!"
Surely no one could send me
into contortions of pain after
such an enthusiastic greeting.
So if you're really in trouble, if
you must pour your heart out,
give me a call. I'll set aside an
evening for you, swallow a
couple of pain killers and listen
to your story with a sympathetic
ear. But don't ambush me in
broad daylight and give me sym-
pathetic pain when I':n totally
unmedicated.
American hotels at Euro Disney,
,eat American food, watch Amer-
ican entertainers and cartoon
characters, and then return home
with black vinyl mouse ears and
tell everyone they saw France
Hold that
thought ...
By
Adrian Harte -
and how it was almost as -good
as home.
Unless I miss my guess, I'm
willing to bet there's got to be at
least one reproduction of the
Eiffel Tower on the Disney
property so tourists won't have
to bother going to see the real
one.
French president Francois
Mitterand is probably grateful
he hasn't yet destroyed his coun-
try's nuclear arsenal.
Europe is suffering enough
from the shock of realizing that
1992 - the year of breaking
down Europe's borders and bar-
riers - is finally here. Now the
Letter to Editor
Americans, who have yet to
reach the limits of the concept of
"over the top", go and do some-
thing like this.
And there's Quebec, no doubt
not missing a single lesson of
how a culture blessed with one
of the world's More minor lan-
guages can be utterly swamped
'by those with too much money
and not enough good taste.
If there is a silver lining in it
all for the French, they may be'
comforted in the knowledgeat
fewer of the polyester criowd
will make it to downtown Paris,
where they annoy local shop-
keepers with their insistence that
if they slow down a southern
drawl enough, and speak loudly
enough. it becomes a universal
language - with no need for
apology.
For English-speaking Canada,
Euro Disney could not have
come at a worse time i(' the
Constitutional debate - nor at a
better time for Quebec. A ho-
mogenized world culture has
never been a goal for most Ca-
nadians of any language. The
vague phrase "distinct society"
may have more meaning than
ever before.
Big Brother government at it again
Dear Sir.
The government of Ontario is
currently investigating the impli-
cations ations of a MANDATORY hel-
met law for bicyclists. This law
would be an amendment to the
ONtario Highway Traffic Act that
requires motorcyclists to wear hel-
mets.
The standing committee, chaired
by Peter Kormos, has finished
hearing public presentations and
will begin a point by point discus-
sion on th issue in March.
This legislation has one major
flaw -it ignores the aspect of train-
ing and education as to the proper
method of how to and where to
operate a bicycle. Accident pre-
vention rather than injury compen-
sation is the best method of reduc-
ing the number of injuries icurred
by bicyclists.
You can help the cause of re-
sponsible legis-
lation by writing
to yur local
MPP to voice j
your concert on I
this issue and to ask '
for his or her opin-
ion, in writing.
Knowing how each MPP feels
about this topic and how they will
vote when the time comes is very
important to the effectiveness of
several organizations work. A sim-
ple letter m your own handwriting
will get the attention of your elect-
ed official at Queens Park. It is
time 10 get them to earn their pay
and be responsible to the people
who put them in office.
By asking for a written response
your MPP will b c obligated to re-
ply. You can then pass these and
your own responses along to the or-
ganizations that can help represent
the varying opinions.
Please send your replies to:
Biker Rights Organization of On-
tario, Government Liason Bryan
Willis, 1275 Line 3, RR#6 Niaga-
ra -on -the -Lake, Ontario, LOS 1JHO
or
Bikers Right Organization Sar-
nia-Lambton region, cio Ken Mac-
Donald, RR#1, Box 29, Wyoming,
Ontario NON 1TO
Freedom isn't free and nothing
will get done by waiting for the
other guy to do rt: take it upon
yourself to write and be part of the
many who tried to stop something
unenforcable and an inferogement
on our RIGHT to choose for our-
selves.
Ken MacDonald
Wyoming, Ont.
What's on your mind?
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