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The Huron Expositor, 1984-11-21, Page 2Huron xpsitor SINCE 1880, SERVING THE COMMUNITY FIRST Qa ^ Incorporating Brussels Post RIVE 10 Main Street 527-0240 RIO BON, nwnRn Published In tse3 SEAFORTH, ONTARIO Every Wednesday morning JOCELYN A. SHRIER, Publisher RON WASSINK, Editor Member Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc. Ontario Community Newapaper AseociatIon Ontario Press Council Commonwealth Preaa Union International Press institute SLbacrlption ratea: Canada $18.75 a year (in advance) Outelde Canada $55.00 a year (in advance) Single Coples-50 cents each SEAFOR71-1, ONTAi 10, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMdiE ; 21, 1984 Second class mall registration Number 0696 Another murder Once again, Ontarians were horrified at the' recent death of yet another police officer. This was the sixth police murder in three months. What has ensued is that many people are calling for the return of the death. penal.ty. But others say capital punishment will not act as a deterrent — people will continue to kill. However, a study by two University of California sociologists, found that four days after a person is sentenced to life Imprisonment or to death or is executed for committing murder, there is a significant decrease of 3.32 per cent in homicides of white victims. They added that'at present, they have no evidence that life sentences have a significantly. weaker deterrent effect than death sentences or executions. This tends to weaken the argumentfi favoring capital punishment. - In the same study, the sociologists looked at the media coverage of prize fights. And they found that where violence against an Individual is rewarded, this leads to an increase of 3.54 per cent in murder rates In the following days. "The prize fight is at the opposite end of a continuum from a successfully prosecuted murder trial, which heavily punishes one person for inflicting physical violence on another,'; they wrote. Emotions are usually high when there's -a murder. And those emotions are so Intense that people demand that "an eye for an eye" is the only solution. , If the study is correct, It would appear that fife sentences are Just as effective as the noose. Perhaps we already have.the right solution --maybe It's time we looked at the problem. If a televised prize fight causes the rate of homicides to Increase, maybe we should be taking a closer look at violence, not only in theatres, but on television. We live In a society which-Nret+@s heavily on Information. If that information is being misused and/or turning normal citizens from Mr. Hydes Into Dr. Jekyls, then we have a serious problem. Some say censorship is an Invasion of human rlOts and freedoms. But If censorship saves fives, isn't it worth looking at? --R.W. Starving to death The famine persists and people continue to die In Ethiopia despite efforts on the part of relief workers to feed the hungry thousands. News articles of the famine are alarming. "....the body of a boy whose life had Just left him was already covered with sacking to keep off swarms ,of flies. On a litter next to him lay the skeletal frame of a man, also plagued by files. An occasional twitch of his arm was the only Indication he was alive," It's estimated that 50 people have been dying daily at one food camp. And that figure Is multiplying with each passing day., By government estimate, 6.4 million people out of a population of 42 million have been seriously affected by a prolonged drought and famine in Ethiopia. It's predicted that the famine could take 900,000 lives by the end of this year. Death through starvation Is indeed horrible, Let's continue to. support food relief efforts. - R.W. Broken promises COUNTRY CORNER by Larry Dillon The people of Canada don't want an honest government. That's the message we give to our representatives when we elect them, then complacently accept actions which violate pledges made throughout the election campaign. We expected that the promises of the present government were too wonderful to be true when they made them, but by golly, they sounded good. We -showed our approval of their extensive list of promises by giving them such an overwhelming balance of power. Our new government has recently taken office and already has started on its list of broken promises. During the election cam- paign they claimed that the deficit for this year would be $36 billion. Now that they are in office they claim that the actual deficit of $34.5 billion is higher than they expected. And it gives that as a reason for reneging on commitments to the people. The way 1 see it, either the first statement or the second is a lie. They are incompatible. Either government believed that the annual deficit was at a lower figure than claimed during the campaign or after the election it was lower. Government cannot have it both ways. On Aug. 28, the Conservatives promised to spend $190 million more on defence over and above what the Liberals had planned. They have just announced a.$154-nfillion cut from the Liberal defence budget., That is quite a discrepancy in their committtient - S344 million to be exact. The government seems to be backing down on its campaign promises of universality in social service programs. If it, was a "sacred trust" during the election campaign that could not be compromised, why -did it now announce an extensive review of universal- ity? The actions that the government is taking may be in the best interest of the country. However if that is so. politicians could have stated their true intentions ,during the campaign. Electing one of the other parties probably would not have given us different results as far as keeping promises is concerned. The people of the country have not reacted strongly to broken commitments regardless of the party making them. - The electoral system we have developed in this country has become an elaborate ritual which has no meaning. An election is an expensive diversion which provides enter- tainment for the population. but provides little indication to the voter of how the candidates will actually act when they are elected. The population has become cynical about political promises. Even at the time the promise is made people openly discuss the chances of such promises being kept: i believe that when a man promises that he will take some action if we elect him then he is making a contract with the Canadian people. He has a moral and legal obligation to fulfull his commitments to the people. Under the present system we are encouraging politi- cians to sacrifice their personal honor in order to win elections. We are as much at fault as they are for allowing them to lie to us. The people make a commitment to the politician when they vote .for him, but by tradition, the election of that politician releases him from the commitments he has made to the people. The voters of Canada are failing in their responsibility to themselves and to their country when they allow their leaders to deliberately mislead them. LOVE iS A WARM PUPPY—Jane Crowley takes over the duties of Dr. Brian Nuhn and listens to the heartbeat of this homeless visited the Seaforth Veterinary Clinic Mon - puppy. The Pre -School Learning Centre day. (Mcl'wraith photo) Best wishes only please SENSE AND NONSENSE by Ron Wassink 1 was just sitting here looking over my column idegas when 1 realized i've been doing this for -lone year. Hcy guys, it's my- anniversaty. It's been one year since Susan White and her family left for a one year sabbatical in New Zealand. And as 1 think back to the time Susan said,she was leaving. 1 remember I couldn't stop shaking for a week. U "Why, you can't leave Susan.•What are we going to do without you? There's council meetings to cover. the landfill problem hasn't been resolved. and you just finished writing that birth control story." Who's eoine to cover all these issues, and especially possible flak about that birth control thing?" 1 can remember clearly that Suian pointed her finger at , me. Right then and there, paranoia set in. 1 could already see the work piling up. There would be features to write, people to interview, photos to take, correspondence to edit, and heaven forbid, a column. There 1 was, stuck between a rock and a hard place. I had visions of irate readers raking me over the coals for one reason or another. My most vivid vision was of a circus barker announcing, "Ladieees and gentlemen. And now, for our next act, we have in centre ring, SEE WISHES/ ON PAGE THREE Morgentaler will be seen as misguided BEfflND THE SCENES -- by Keith Roulston The national media attention for the Dr. Henry Morgentaler trial and recent acquittal has once again focussed the nation on the tragic controversy where there are two "right" sides. each' accusing the other of being evil. It is easy to see how a jury can agree with Dr. Morgentaler and his defenders of the right of the woman to end a pregnancy' she doesn't want to continue. The pro -choice side secs the tragedy of a woman being scntepced to 20 years supporting a child because of one mistake. see Careers hindered, lives changed. Dozens of tearful stories can be told of the effect of an unwanted pregnancy on a woman's life, of the humiliating experience of having to go before a hospital abortion panel. The pro-life side is made up of many factions, from evangelical religious fantatics to more thoughtful people who worry that acceptance of widespread abortion, like acceptance of capital punishment. cheapens mankind's respect for life. Once you agree that one human has the right to end another life that it finds inconvenient, these people argue, what is to stop the deterioration to the point we arc willing to accept that other inconvenient individuals such as retarded and abnormal habies or senile and bedridden old people ean also be declared on -persons and disposed of as humanely a possible. Even most pro-choicers will arse that abortion is a tragic final solution. An unwanted pregnaAcy is the result of a failure of men and women to take adequate birth control measures. Yet a faction of the pro-life coalition undermines its public suppd t by arguing against any form of birth contrail and sometimes even against family education classes in schools. The pro -choice argument is the ultimate extension of the liberal view that mankind can build a perfect world where we can control our own lives and bring ourselves complete happiness. We should no more be slaves to our biology than workers of 100 years ago should have been slaves of greedy factory. owners. With the Morgcntaler victory. the pro• choice side pow points to four different acquittals of Morgentaler. They point to polls that show a majority of the population is in favor of abortion on demand. And they argue that the government should get busy and rewrite the law to allow free choice in abortions to any woman without any screening process. Yet the argument that "because a majority is in favor makes it right" ignores all the times the majority h.ts supported wrong causes. Ninety percent of the German population supported Hitler and willingly turned the other way to pretend they didn't see when he undertook his "final solution" of ridding Germany of the incon- venient Jewish population. But the pro -choice side is right when it says you can't enforce an unpopular law. Prohibi- tion was a noble effort on the part of reformers and politicians to rid society of the evils they saw excessive use of alcohol causing. Their efforts didn't solve the problem they set out to. People drank anyway and all they did was create a lot of other evils as criminals stepped in to "fill the need". Abortions were happening before the laws ever allowed legal abortions. Dr, Morgen- taler and others will continue to challenge the law. and sympathetic juries hearing the sad stories of women (with no one to represent the destroyed lives of the babies) will continue to acquit them. There will be no end to abortion until there is a fundamental change in society, until human beings are willing to take responsibil- ity for their own actions, even if it means changing their plans for the next 20 years. Someday. if we really do progress toward the better society as liberals believe, Dr. Morgcntaler and his supporters will be seen not as heros of progress but as well-meaning but misguided representatives of a barbaric time in history. in the meantime, there is little those who deplore abortion can do but make sure that men and women have as few unwanted pregnancies as possible so there will be fewer abortions and work to bring about a change in attitude in all of society. Visit a hardact to follow SUGAR AND SPICE by Bill Smiley Merchants and hucksters across the land will glady sell you a souvenir of the Pope's visit for 80 per cent off these days. They overbought, misled by the media, whose figures were on the high side. and scared away a lot of people who don't like mobs-. On the other hand, no visitor to this country could command the huge 'crowds. Catholic and otherwie, who trudged through mud and were belted by cold rain and suffered cruel winds, to see the Holy Father. No other figure in the world could come to this country and say the things he did and get away with it, indeed, be cheered for it. Some of the things that came through from a week of Pope -watching were evident to all: `he man's tremendous endurance; his sometimes fierce insistence on spiritualism over materialism; his love of children and succour for the sick and crippled; his insistence on a better deal for the poor of the world. Even the most staunch Irish Orangeman could scarce forbear to cheer. It's going to be a h rd act for the Queen to follow. She won't dare talk about native rights and poverty and the questionable politics of somerovinces. Let's faee it. 1:1 Papa hits more clout that a distant descendant of Good King Harry, who broke with Rome, seized the Church's wealth, found himself a tame Archbishop; and married at will. 7vas not always so. The stayat-home Popes, huddled in the Vatican, became almost symbols, with the odd exception, of everything reactional -y, timid. and non•sen- sical, thereby creating a virtual revolution within the church. John Paul i1 has not exactly won over the feminist movement, nor the priests who want to get married (silly idiots). but at least he goes out and lays it on the line, not hiding behind the skirts of Rome. He has been shot, threatened, and probably frost more in security, services than anyone in the world. i don't know whether he has created a great resurgence in the R.C.'s. 1'11 count the cars parked outside my house this Sunday, and for several afterwards. it's only two blocks from the church. Personally. 1 didn't get to meet him, though my arthritic foot should have got me in the front row. I,didn't exactly expect him to kiss my foot and make it better, though I'd have kissed his hand if he had. 1 have an apology to make to His Holiness, 1 accused him of not saying a prayer for Team Canada against the Russians. That column was written just before the Canada -Russia game. Apparently he got the message, and sneaked off for a minute to have a word with the Lord. Anyway, we won that night, 3-2. Thanks Pope. Despite the fact that he was only three miles away, 1 didn't go to see or hear him. It involved swimming a lake and wading through a marsh. 1 don't think he missed me. instead, i went to visit Mammon, my bank, At 5:30 on a Friday, i was the only customer in the bank. I proceeded to a vendor of potables, which had hired extra staff for the day. 1 was one of two customers there. A striking blow for His Holiness, methinks. Frankly. 1 don't care if 1 never see another facsimile of John Paul. I have been confronted by them in every store window, newspaper, fast food shop and gift shop for three or four months. He's a handsome chap, for Pole, but enough is enough. What i do wish is that I had a video of him kissing children, blessing the afflicted, and doggedly serving mass in a wind -whipped arena without saying, "get me the hell out of here." Something I don't understand is that the hucksters didn't sell Pope headgear. There was his tall hat, which he didn t wear too often, but would be priceless for Hallowe'en parties. Then there was his beanie, or skull -cap, which he wore often, and must have used Krazy-Glue to keep on, in some of those winds. A guid, canny Scotsman could have made a fortune out of those two head -pieces. But 1 hear stories, instead, ofppeople at the Pope's site trying to sell hot dogs for $l.75 and hamburgers for 51.95 and having to give them away at the end of the day, because we're not a' that stupid. Pity. Anyway, we won the Canada Cup, thanks to the Pope's little duck off for a prayer, and God's apparently in His Heaven, and all's right with the world. And 1 had an advocate, saying a prayer for me, right up there with the Pope. 1 haven't checked it out yet, but if she didn't say that prayer, we're both in trouble. She with me, 1 with the Lord.