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Times Advocate, 1999-06-09, Page 6{ a 0• 6 Exeter Times—Advocate _ . Wednesday. June 9, 1999 Ac a Editoria1&...pinion tor TIMES-ADVOCATE PUBLICATIONS MAIL REGISTRATION NUMBER 07511 Jim Beckett "Publisher and Editor Don Smith General Manager Production Manager Deb Lord Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited 424 Main Street -South, P.O. Box 850 Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6 • (519) 235-1331 EDITORIAL Environmental issues: children get a conflicting message ow that the election is over and the Leafs are toast, life can get back to normal, whatever that is. In the same couple of weeks, news reports came in about a school getting an important environmen- tal award, an organization launching a new haz- ardous waste program, kids collecting a frightening number of beer bottles and cans tossed out of car windows, and somebody pouring paint down a storm drain. Something is not making sense, here. Apparently there are people who feel a strong sense of responsibility for what happens to this world of ours. If people keep producing garbage like there is no tomorrow, there will be no tomorrow. There are also people who could not care less about environmental issues. Children learn about reduce, reuse and recycle at school, then go out and see the trash people toss out of cars. What kind of message are these children getting - that garbage is like smoking? There is an analogy here that goes beyond the non -biodegradable debris cigarette butts and empty dispqsable lighters - that accompanies smok- ing. Children learn at school how dangerous smoking is, but then they see fine, upstanding citizens light- ing up in fancy restaurants. The message too many kids get is smoking may be forbidden by the school, but it is part of the "real world". Teens who want to rebel against an authoritarian school system, without doing anything that could land them in jail, can simply stand outside the school and light up. Or they can toss a few chocolate bar wrappers on the ground to show they are too grown up to pay attention to what the. school says about littering. Schools must be applauded for taking such a strong, proactive stand on environmental issues. But. as long as society keeps giving out conflicting ideas �t'ith rtverpackaged goods, machines and structures des ' ,,1 to be replaced after only a few years' use, and la- ns which are sprayed with so many toxic substances one probably should not step on them barefoot, the message will be garbled. Environmental issues must be more than a few sets of rules to be broken by kids trying to prove how daring they are. The reason why the education campaign against impaired driving has worked so well is many ele- ments of society are involved including law enforce- ment and big business. Moreover,, high school stu- dents have taken ownership of this campaign through such groups as Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving (OSAID). Thpse arrested for drunk driving tend not to be teenagers or those in their early 20s, but their par- ents. Teenagers do, apart from a few tragic excep- tions, use designated drivers or stay overnight if they are planning to consume alcohol. The same thing has not happened, at least not yet, with tobacco use. And it certainly has not hap- pened with environmental issues. Those who protest against contaminating the environment are often sneered at and called "tree huggers". Those who commit small scale environmental assault are called litterbugs and are occasionally punished by slap -on -the -wrist fines; those who com- mit large scale environmental destruction are often. applauded, and are called captains of industry. We must congratulate all those students,' and their teachers, who participated in Earth Day cele. brations, Pitch In activities, and environmental pro- jects over the past year. But society as a whole can do a much better job of supporting such efforts. k'll get what we voted for:in spades can scarcely see any benefits of ►he tlast Most, off the jobs the tax cuts have created are minimum wage dead-end ones, not the kind the PCs would lead you to O newer. i a have 10441 d another majority r an election with a few surprises. In Huron -Bruce, incumbent PC Helen Johns, an Exeter native, won a closer than anticipated race believe. against Liberal Ross Lamont of the Port Elgin area. It has been proven people like the tough -talking NDPer Tony McQuail garneredonly one sixth of the Conservatives and their 'Blueprint' But it has also votes Johns received. been proven far more people don't like the damage the Congrats to Johns, our future cabinet minister. She Harris government has done to health, education, wel- ran a seamless campaign that relied on her strong fare and the growing rift between the rich and the Exeter area support, her party's record and the silent 'I like Mike' vote. Stay tuned for which cabinet post she will be awarded. Ontario voters kept Mike Harris in the dri- ver's seat with over 45 per cent of the popular vote, a tad more than the support his `Common Sense Revolution' had when they swept to power in '95. The second place Liberals gained in popularity while the NDP took it on the nog- gin and dropped in popularity and may, not hold on to its official party status. The Tories won on their own terms on. a CRAIG shortened campaign and I new registration BRADFORD system that had some returning offices itr MISSILES AND chaos. It was a well run and manipulated cam- MUSINGS poor. No one seems to remember some of the early cuts the Tories made. One of the first cuts (made barely before the last ballot was cast) was to cut almost all funding of women's shelters and abused women's housing. Then the. Tories worked at trimming the health budget forcing many hospital boards to let nurses go. Now Harris is hiring 10,000 nurses, though many have found more pleas- ant pastures south of the border. And remember that much ballyhooed wel- fare cheat hotline? What' it found, is there aren't many people collecting welfare on the sly -- almost everyone on social assistance needs it desperately. What's to come? Drug testing the downtrodden before they can collect; welfare. Arresting panhandlers that may in fact be homeless. More chaos in the class- room and m our hospitals. The rich getting richer, the Pte• We've voted for tax cuts to revitalize the economy and to create jobs. We've voted to get tough on crime and welfare cheats. We've voted for continued reforms to the education and health system that has teachers crying foul and making for longer waits in emergency poor getting poorer. rooms. We've voted for borrowing to finance a tax cut Yes, voters deserve what they cast their ballots for. for the rich. We've voted for a government that says it We've traded some more change in our pockets for solicits public input then does what it wants anyway. more hardship for the less fortunate. While the rich may have more money to spend on Will the Tories be kinder, gentler rulers in their sec - toys and vacations, the middle class and poorer of us and mandate? Don't count on it. About the Times -Advocate Address & Office Hours Times -Advocate, 424 Main Street South, P.O. Box 850, Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6. Our office is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. 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