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Clinton News-Record, 1985-08-07, Page 4fag§ +—CLINTON NEWS,RECOLID, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST?, 1%5 1h4 0191/40 NpW6 REgr.4 lg Pg40i09d 4gch Kiladolpf107 qt 9.0. Pox 99. Gllntta.,C+n.teNtl. Caood8. NOM ILO. Tela 482.3443. SubocrlpiIon Rote: Canada 6119.79 Sr. CIeJTzan - 61.6.75 per yew U.S.A. footle°'-S95.00.per yew It It rRgI iteryd tum tAaond dans m�� lir, tka Poet offl4a under 11,13 permit mother 9017. The New■.Record Incorporated In 1924 the Huron News.Record, founded qn 1501, and The Clinton News Era, founded 1n 1865. Total proem runs 3.700. Incorporating THE BLYTH STANDARD) CGN4 `A MEMBER .1. HOWARD AITKEN - Publisher SHELLEY McPHEE - Editor GARY HAIST - Advertising Manager MARY ANN HOLLENBECK - Office Manager MEMBER Display advertising rates available on request. Ask for Rate Cord No. 15 effective October 1. 1984. a IILUE P116BOR AWARD 1985 Risks in high speed chases Saturday's tragic accident which took the lives of two young women and a police officer again raises questions about the risks involved in high speed chases. • A young bride-to-be, Helen Wattam, 17, was killed on the day of her wedding, along with her maid of honor, Christine Lindsay, 16, and a 24 - year old Kincardine OPP officer, Constable Craig Campbell. The three died in a fiery crash, the result of a high speed police chase near Walkerton. Three others were injured in the accident. The August 3 accident refuels the protests and concerns about police high speed chases. Presently a special committee of the Ontario Solicitor GARAGE sales are quite the fad these General's Ministry is studying the issue'. days. Many people make them part of their ng for There is evidence that Ontario leads all other provinces in the number hand- They troop and check the around town adder the of high speed police chases, and deaths resulting from them. The London classified section. Free Press noted that one newspaper survey showed • that since 1982, Drive around any small town and you'll police chases resulted in 24 deaths in Ontario, two of whom were police of- see a cluster of cars, in front of a house. Must be a wedding or a funeral," you ficers. No other province reported more than three persons killed in this muse. Then you see a pile of junk with a manner.,horde of human magpies darting around it, One hudred and twenty-six civilians and 47 police .officers were in- snatching up • bits, beating each other to jured as a result of high speed chases in 1983. • another heap of rubble, like seagulls divingand screeching for a slice of french -fried Despite the province's high statistics., the Ontario Association of Police sp.ud alaidosco We may be living in the age of discussion about Star War 'defence, but the public's general option of nuclear warfare hasn't changed much in the past 25 years. In 1960 an editorial in the Clinton News - Record criticized the use of nuclear arms and today our editorials still do the same. The following editorial was published in the June 30, 1960 edition of the News -Record. It came from the Ontario Labour Review and its message still bears repeating today. Either we approve of nuclear weapons, or we don't. If we don't approve them, we don't want them. If we do approve them, then we mean to use them or we mean not to use them. If we mean to use them, we will fire .the first shot or the enemy will fire the first shot. If the enemy fires the first shot, we shall at once nearly all be dead; so we shall not require nuclear weapons. t?: Al By Shelley McPhee If we fire the first shot, we shall get retaliation; and. then we shall nearly all be dead and uninterested in nuclear weapons. The conclusion which the (British) Government draws from all this is that everybody should have lots and lots more nuclear weapons. 7. A much cheaper and simpler way of arriv- ing at the same results might be that we shall all agree to jump into the sea tonight. Letters to the editor Had a few calls recently about our letters to the editor column. There seems to be some confusion about signed and unsigned letters. Letters for publication in the News - Record must be signed by the author. We re- quest a signature and telephone number as an insurance that the letter is indeed authentic. There have been instances in other area newspapers were anonymous let- ters that have been published have proven to be complete hoaxes, without an ounce of Sugar and Spice truth or me, • For this reason, the News -Record has established a policy that is designed to pro- tect the -newspaper from doubtful letters. All letter writers are encouraged to` stand' behind their opinions by publishing their names, however the author may request that a.pen name be used. This is permitted with the clear understanding that the editor has the name and the telephone number of the author, and that it will'be divulged if so- meone requests it. This is where the confusion comes in. Some people have misunderstood that published letters that bear pen names are unsigned letters. In fact, these letters are authentic and the names and telephone numbers of the authors are known to the editor. For the author's own reasons, they have requested that a pen name be used and this is only approved at the discretion of the editor. Garage sales Chiefs has indicated that police don't want to give up such chases unless It's no wedding. There are no vows ex - the government comes up with an alternative. . changed, except for those who pay six bucks And a viable alternative is available. Currently provincial laws under for something that cost three 10 years ago. It's a garage sale. .the Highway Traffic Act prevent police officers from recording the This phenomenon resembles a mini- licence number of a.fleeing vehicle and charging the owner with failing to auction -sale , minus the auctioneer. The stop for police. , _ • garage sale allow the proprietor(often abet- ted by some of his neighbors) to_get rid of all Under current legislation; police must directly apprehend and charge the useless items overflowing the garage, the •driver, which the police chiefs. say means chasing the offending the tool -shed, the basement and the attic. drivers. It sometimes brings in two or three hun- The Association of Chiefs wants legislation changed, and rightly sol. A dred dollars to the vendors, and the garage- high go home all excited because high speed chase is nothing short of a life endangering gamble, to the they have bought a three-legged chair, a police, the offenders and any innocent civilians who are unfortunate horse-drawn sleigh, an unbrella with only enough to be travelling on the same stretch of road. one spoke missing, or six paperback novels Yet the police are given no choice under the current Highway Traffic f°r a dollar. One of my 'contemporaries, an habituee of Act. They inust pursue, or they may ignore. these bizarre events, was more than a bit In the.fall of 1984 a coroner's jury investigated the death of Goderich thuederstruck when he found at one sale OPP Constable Bruce Crew. He died in a high speed chase in September that he could buy text -books from our school. duly stamped as such, dirt cheap. He 1983. • remonstrated with the owners, pointing out The jury made recommendations specific to the case and also made that the books belonged to the school and two general suggestions regarding chases 1) that training of law enforce-. had been stolen by their children, but they'd ment officers in the strategy of pursuit, and skills of high speed and defen- have nonemucof or f it. They wanted d cash. were sive driving be mandatory, and that such training include both taxpayers who had helped buy the books theoretical and practical experience, and compulsory re-training on a their kids had stolen, and now wanted, to sell regular basis; 2) That measures ( such as increased enforcement ,and them back to the system so that other kids more severe penalties) and programs ( such as public awareness and could steal the books they were still paying taxes for. education) to discourage "drinking and driving" be continued and stress - May I disagree for a moment? Kids do ed. These are valid suggestions, but they still do little to address the pro- blem of reducing high speed chases. Police must know how to properly handle high speed chases and penalties must be made more sebere to discourage alcohol abuse on the road, but the only way to reduce the risk is to avoid high speed chases, not by police avoidance, but with changes to the Highway Traffic Act. Only then can reports like Saturday's tragic accident can be reduced. - by S. McPhee` Behind The Scenes By Keith Roulston Blyth Festival today village to raise enough money to get the theatre going. Today she is better known to many people across Canada as Anne Chislett ( she uses her maiden name for her writing to avoid, confusion), one of the country's top playwrights and /winner of the Governor General's Award for her play Quiet In The Land. She didn't get much chance to reminisce in her time back at Blyth, work- ing 18 -hour days at her word processor on a screen adaptation for a movie version of Quiet In The Land which is possible in the future. She was.also working on co -writing a play which may appear next year at the Festival. When she goes back to Winnipeg she faces a series of deadlines for writing projects for theatres across the country. But perhaps the people who have come the farthest in the last decade are the people who make up the audience for the Festival. Local natives have gone from perhaps never having seen a professional theatre produc- tion in their lives a decade ago to being blase sophisticates today. Sets and costumes for the Festival today for. one show cost about half the entire Budget of that first year. Casts' are huge by comparison. Lighting is intricate. Top writers from across the coun- try vie to have their plays produced there. Yet the Festival has made itself a tough act to follow and the audience seems to come saying: "All right, give me something as ex- citing as Quiet In The Land" ; "Give me something as exciting as I'll Be Back Before Midnight'. Standing ovations were once commonplace. Now it takes something truly remarkable to get people on their feet. And that is as it should be because when the Festival was begun there was a philosophy that our own people deserved the very best. Now they keep challenging the writers, directors, actors and technicians to deliver on that promise. Ten years can seem so long a time and so short a time, a. blink in the history of the world, sometimes an eternity for an in- dividual. Memories of 10 years were' alive For some people at least at the recent opening night of Primrose School District 109 at the Blyth Festival. For the first time since 1979 James Roy, the man who made the Festival a reali- ty was back directing a play and memories of another July night just over 10 years ago came flooding back. In a way, the fact James Roy had directed the play and the fact there was a reception afterward in the basement of Blyth Memorial Hall were about the only similarities that existed. For one thing, at that reception 10 years earlier there was hardly anyone who lived farther that a dozen miles from Blyth. In 1985 many ec :he people present had not even heard of Blyth a decade ago, let alone about the fledgling theatre. Press was there from all over this time. No one but the local paper discovered the theatre for weeks that first season. Theatre people from across Canada were in that opening night audience this time, , people from Toronto, Winnipeg and Strat- ford. ,lames Roy is now one of the leaders in theatre in Canada himself. A decade ago he was an unknown, a young director who spent his early life on a farm near Blyth, finished his high school at Clinton then studied directing at York University in Toronto. Today he is artistic director at Manitoba Theatre Centre, one of the three or four most prestigious theatres in Canada. His wife Anne 10 years ago subsidized the theatre by keeping the pair eating, through her teaching job in Toronto while they work- ed for nothing at the theatre. That first sum- mer she did the administrative work for the theatre and personally canvassed the business people along the main street of the By Bill Smiley steal books. regularly. They don't con- siderate it "stealing". It's just taking something from a big institiution. That's not stealing, according to about 50 per cent of them. It's just like dad not declaring something on his income tax or mom order- ing a dress from Eaton's, wearing it to a party, then taking it back to the mail order office and returning it, claiming it was "too small" or had smudge marks in the armpits (after she'd discoed in it for four hours). They wouldn't steal from a friend. They might steal from their parents. But they have no compunction about "ripping off" a department store or the government. This is fact, not fancy, as I've learned in discus- • sionsabout morals. Back to the garage sales, There is no sug- gestion of stealing here. Both parties, buyer and seller, are perfectly aware of what's go- ing on. The seller is trying to get rid of something he doesn't need. The buyer is buying something he doesn't need. It's a classic example of our materialistic age. We want to get rid of some of the garbage we've bought, and the buyer wants to buy some more garbage. The epitome of a garage -sale -groupie would be a person who goes to four garage sales, buys a 16t of junk, then has a garage sale to dispose of it, perferably with a small mark-up. But they're fun. A friend of mine, who'll make a bit on anything, even though he doesn't know what .it's for, has bought two old-fashioned horse- drawn sleighs. He has wcrked on them until they are serviceable. All he needs now is a couple of beasts to haul the things. He'll pro- bably wind up with a camel and a Shetland pony ( and will make a fortune hauling peo- ple around when we run out of gas). Well, I should have a garage sale. First, I'd sell the garage, a venerable institution. None of this electronic eye, or press a button and the door opens. It has a vast door, weighing about 800 pounds. You hoist the door and it slides on pulleys and cables, and at the regnt moment, on a goon flay, it stops rising just at the height to tear off your radio aerial. The balances filled with sand, aren't quite enough from crashing down on your hood, but I've fixed that. To one, I've added a- axe -head, to the other, a quart of paint. Perfect balance. a real buy. Behind the garage is a sort of tool shed. I say "sort of", because when I've sailed into the garage on a slippery midwinter day, I've sometimes gone an extra foot and crashed into the tool shed, which now leans about 35 degrees to the north. . I'll throw in the tool shed with the garage, but not its contents. Migawd, the stuff in there would bug the eyes of either an anti- que dealer or a garage -groupie. We have garden tools in there that haven't been used since Sir John A. MacDonald's: wife told him to get his nose out of that glass and go out and stir up the garden. .We have at least four perfectly good tires for a 1947 Dodge. We have enough holy tar- paulin (or is it holey? I'be never known) to build a theatre under the stars. There's a perfectly good set of golf clubs, a wee bit rusty. There's a three-legged garden tool that must have come over with Samuel de Champain. There's a three -wheeled lawnmower (mechanic's special). Six hun- dred feet of garden hose that a little adhesive would fix. And many 'more, too miscellaneou,, to mention. And that's' only the tool shed. In- side the house, we have eight tons of books, left by our children. The attic is going to come right through to the kitchen, one of these days. How, about a copy of Bhagavadgita, 1,000 pages, at $1? Man, I wish I'd got this idea off the ground about two months ago. Anyone interested in an iron crib, sides go up and down, filled with three hundred dollars worth of broken toys, exotic paintings, some records an a bag of marbles? Who needs to retire, with all this wealth dying around? Do authorities really care Dear Editor: Recently I had a 17 year old girl knock on my door at 12:30 pm. She was in trouble and my lights were on. She needed a place to spend the night. We spent from then till 3:30 calling police, crisis centre and Family and Children Services to no avail. Family Ser- vices said they couldn't help because she was over 16. Police couldn't help because they didn't know what to do and the crisis centre in Goderich wouldn't help because they had helped her before. All three ser- vices asked me to keep her for the night. I'm not in the business of taking in troubled youth. 'You see advertised by all media to call these agencies during troubled times. Why?. None of these places helped her. She was totally. abandoned, not a .soul cared about this young person, What has our 'society come to when a teenager in need is turned out in the street by the authorities who are supposed to be there for them? It was not my responsibility to attend to this child, .even though that's how it ended. I hope they all slept well knowing that she may have been in the street all night. I am very disappointed, disgusted and down right mad at these agencies that' ould • • be so cold and uncaring. 't'hey didiet even care about a girl whose only. crirne was to be unloved and confused, yet society shuns and punishes her by ignoring and neglecting her. I'd like to know how some of those authorities would feel if they were placed in her position for even one day let alone a lifetime, Has anyone read our teenage suicide ratle lately? I wonder if this type of situation has anything to do with that! I'm signing this letter' anonymously to protect this girl but the authorities involved will know who I am. A citizen Farms safety awareness is important Dear Editor: The directors of the Huron County farm and Home Safety Association heard some alar- ming statistics at their regular meeting held recently. Twenty-five of the 458 Farm Accident Fatalities reported in Ontario over the list 10 years have occurred in Huron County. THIS IS THE 3RD HIGHEST IN ONTARIO. In 1984, Ontario had 50 Farm Accident Fatalities reported with SIX BEING IN HURON COUNTY. To commence Faun Safety Week '85, the Directors reviewed and outlined projects: 1. Safety Poster Contest for County residents. 2. Increased Safety Awareness. 3. Sponsor- ing of Workshops, Seminars, and Youth Safety Programs. 4. Continue to Press for Legislative Changes where necessary. Jim Gibb, Woodstock, President, untario r arm Safety Association Incorporated, commend- ed the Directors on their concerted effort to promote Safety Awareness. He stated although a large percentage of fatalities have occurred in Huron County one must look at all related factors. The County Associatio'n submits more resolutions than other counties, is unique in having all are s of the County equally represented art should soon have one of the lowest fatali,,, rates in the Province. The next meeting will be held on September 26, 19:',5. Lifeguard competition a success Dear Editor: To all those,who helped with the lifeguard competition, I would like to thank all the volunteers who helped to make the Second Annual lifeguard competition a success. Thanks to the Optimist Club of Clinton for their donation for our plaque to the winning team, the Hair Shop for their donation of make-up for our situations and all the volunteers who played our victims on Sun- day, July 28. Finally, a special thanks to all Don Young, Secretary Huron County Farm and Home Safety Association RR 3, Auburn, Ontario NOM 1E0 uie illeguaras and cooks who helped to manage this event. Thanks for all your help. I hope to see everyone out to next year's competition. Karen Cook, Competition Coordinator The moon's influence over people For thousands of years, people have believed that the moon possesses the power to influence human behavior. Most often -the belief has been that the moon induces epileptic fits, though lunar cycles have also been used to explain sexual passion, bad dreams and hallucinations. Today, many people still hold onto this old notion, despite numerous scientific studies which show there is no association between lunar cycles and human action. Dr. Michael Coles, a psychologist at Simon Fraser University, says: "If you speak to the staff on any of the local obstetrics wards, you will find nurses who firmly believe that there are more births at the time of the full moon, as though the moon pulls on the amniotic fluid in the same way it pulls on the oceans to create tides. There are also psychiatric professionals who yliill tell you that there are more unusual occurrences and incidents of 'crazy' behavior around the time of the full moon." So why do people persist in this belief? For one thing, people tend to forget that the phases of the moon roughly coincide with the four weeks of each month, Dr. Coles says. "When we look at abnormal behavior, what we could be seeing is the result of a weekly cycle, not 4 lunar cycle - and any Tuna to page 8