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The Huron Expositor, 1983-03-09, Page 2(lie o ii fxpositor Since 1860, Serving the Community first Incorporating lPost `_ost founded 1872 12 MaIn St. 527-0240 Published at SEAFORTH, ONTARIO every Wednesday afternoon by Signal -Star Publishing Limited Jocelyn A. Shrler, Publisher Susan White, Editor t . H.W. (Herb) Turkheim, Advertising Manager Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Comrn{rnity Newspaper Association and Audit Bureau of Circulation A member of the Ontario Press Council Subscription rates: Canada $17.75 a year (in advance) outside Canada $50. a year (in advance) Single Copies - 50 cents each SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1983 Second class mail registration number 0696 O' Cn a BRIC is good for us A number of Seaforth buildings may be looking better than ever in the next few years, thanks to council's Tuesday night decision to get involved with Ontario's BRIC (Building Rehabilitation and Improvement Campaign) program. Acting on a request from the town's LACAC committee at the February council meeting, elected officials have agreed BRIC will be good for Seaforth. We say good for them. BRIC will provide owners of designated heritage buildings with grants of up to $2000 a year for four years to preserve or enhance their building's heritage features. Owners must match the grants with their own money. As LACAC spokesman Walter Armes said last month at council, the program means a ,potential of $72,000 in work and sales of materials can be created in town each year. Council's decision to go ahead with BRIC recognizes its economic benefit and also the more intangible benefits that well preserved, fine 'examples of early Ontario architecture can bring to the town. Having just come from the southern USA where restored heritage districts bring tourists in by the busload, we can add that heritage buildings as well as showing' that Seaforth is a place that respects its past, make money too. Congratulation to all involved. —S.W. This is hockey? In their first round of playoff action, the Brussels Midgets played their , first game against Ilderton last Thursday. The unqualified observer; might question whether hockey was, being played. At one point in the second period, as many as seven players cooled off in the penalty box. The hockey game, especially the second period,. was marred with penalties. Brussels only occupied the penalty box twice in the third period. It would almost seem the Brussels coach told his players to get down to playing hockey. Good for him. But it was Brussels hockey fans, who really set a popr example. Hockey fans, caught up in the excitement of a game, usually cheer for their home team. The Gage Canadian Dictionary describes a fan as a person extremely - interested in a sport. These Jans .seemed more interested in hell raising. Following the game, the I lderton team, on their way to the dressing room, were faced with an onslaught of a number of fans who crowded the bleachers, shouting abuse. Brussels fans followed their team into the dressing room area. .Fans put their abuse' into action, pushing, shoving and punching at the opposing team. The fans said a Brussels player was pulled into the Ilderton dressing room and therefore they retaliated. Another fan boasted about how he held down an Ilderton player so he couldn't lodge any punches. If the fans had stayed away from the dressing rooms, as the sign on the door said, 'then coaches and referees could have handled the alleged incident. With a hallway full of fans, the incident was almost uncontrollable. The Wingham detachment of the O.P.P. were called and two officers had to escort the visiting team from the arena. To ensure the survival of minor hockey in a small town, measures must be taken to ensure such an incident does not happen again. Some of the fans did,jot even have sons on the team. They are the ones who cause distress in minor hockey ranks. If such fans are not banned from the arena for the balance of the series, then strict rules should be enforced within the arena. It has happened that coaches and players were thrown out of a game. It's high time this rule applied to fans. Minor hockey and recreation departments cannot condone such action. After all, what is hockey all about? Sportsmanship, we thought. -R.W. Women are secondary OpBwo11D Fi•J;•:::• ;r:f?{'f.;iT}i:4i:{; :viT: :f":•:%ii"• ??•I•-� f!. /`6Y- F LL;ti}: • :'lr;?�`�?FJ r{`%f,.n:�.•'F+.....f �:•F i•: Saturday marked the start of a week-long -celebration of International Women's Day. Thousands of women throughout the country participated in demonstrations to voice the concerns about problems facing women in the present day society. Free abortion clinics, equal pay and more day care facilities are only a few of the issues faced by Canadian women. The women .also demonstrated against what they term "the oppression of women." Undoubtedly the issues are important not only for women but also for men who are closely tied to the problems faced by women. Designating a full week for women to address these problems is essential to help publicize the issues and possible solutions. It does not require any deep analysis to understand that women continue to serve a secondary role in society. A quick glance at the majority of advertisements that bombard us daily reveals that women are often considered objects and not individuals. They clean the home, feed the kids, cook the meals and maintain their appearance through a wealth of beauty products, all to please their men. Unfortunately, the week of celebration has not been extended to each and every day of the year. On one particular radio station from Toronto, the kick-off of the marches on Saturday was depicted as a week in which the country lets its women say their piece and then shut up the rest of the year. Through off-the-cuff comments made on this particular program, women were belittled for their efforts to achieve equal status in society. Efforts if only subconsciously were made to shed a black shadow over the' demonstrations and the true meaning of the problems. Organizers were depicted as fringe left wingers, radical feminists and lesbians, in an attempt to discourage other groups from becoming involved. This awesome power of "labelling" is designed to split and cloud the real issues. The facts remain. Women continue to hold lower paid jobs. Some have made it through the corporate structure, but they are a small majority. Modern day sweat shops in the clothing industry are allowed to run through the work of underpaid and often, non -organized groups of women. There is greater pressure to have women stay in the home because of the poor employment situation. Unfortunately many people do not consider that women have an equal position in society. Both men and women should be working toward this goal to improve the quality of life for everyone. That Is why it is significant that the issues brought out by Canadian women are addressed not only during this week, but throughout the year. This can only be done through understanding, not through flippant off-the-cuff comments by Individuals and the media. K.S. ti Children have rights and responsibilities. One of the things that raising children does for you is give you a new way to look at the world. For instance, to listen to the media, one would think that the battle for more rights is a very mature, adult undertaking. We have lawyers. we have politicians, we have civil libertarians and consumer groups, all con- cerned with building more rights into our constitution and our way of life. The struggle has been going on for years and it has often been vicious. But it's got nothing on the vicious struggle that's been going on at our house. We're having our fourth child go through that horrible stage when the little angel becomes a demanding little-menstpr- caacerned about getting her way, always claiming "14 not fair" when she doesn't. And the depressing part is we know this won't end until the darling goes out the dgor at 19 or 20. Society and 1 seem to be fighting opposite battles. While the civil rights activists and 1:3Qhfind tth@ 24@w@g by MOO) IY ©giOgIcm consumer groups keep telling people they have more rights and they should grab them, I'm trying to battle my children to show them, that, yes, they may have rights, but they also have responsibilities. 1 think anybody who was ever a parent knows that you don't have to teach children about their rights. They seem to-grabthatinstinctively from the time they start asserting their independence at that terrible period we call the "terrible twos". In fact, 1 suppose. it goes back farther thak that to when the kid is in the crib and fighting a battle of wits to get as much of his parents attention as possible: Put more than one child old enough to walk and talk into a room together and you'll quickly see children already know about rights. Take your little angel out to visit someone with other children and you'll quickly see him become pushy, possessive, belligerant and greedy over who should play with whose toys. It seems to me that the whole process of raising children -is trying to knock the edges off this instinctive "me first" attitude. The success of a civilization is in how well parents can teach their children that their personal righ van sometimes get in the way of other people's rights. that just because you think you should have something in life doesn't , mean you have a right to it. As parents, we try to stop children from thinking only of themselves but of the good of their brother or sister, their family,as a whole, and through that, to the community. the country and the world. I wish the civil libertarians would talk as much about responsibilities of the individual as they do of his rights. 1 wish the word "justice" was heard more often in a broader term. Too often it means only justice to one person. But justice, the dictionary says is fairness, rightfulness. Justice is a broad tern. What is "right" for one person may not be just because justice. it seems to me, encompasses all the rights of everybody. 1 guess the word we're really talking about here is the old fashioned term morality. something that's bigger than all of us. But in our childish. "me first" generation, we don't want to acknowledge anything that's bigger than ourselves. We're just like my two-year-old. Hopefully, though, she'll grow out of it. Will our society? Huron bounty English meets North Carolina I'm a student of language. I'm fascinated by its power, by why we choose the words we do, by the difference, just now being studied, in the way pet. ;peak and women speak. By the diffyt'ences in the way people in power use words and the way the powerless use them. If yotl'think about it, you'll realize that you speak differently when you're talking to your boss, than you do at coffeebreak with fellow employees. One way to your kids. another way to your spouse. People are studying for example the way care givers speak to patients or clients and how the so-called normal speak to people who are disabled or to those they consider different. REVEALING Choice of words, tone of voice, the fact that we turn a flat statement into a question. depending to whom it's directed, all enter into the process. Pay attention to who speaks how at meetings, at parties, in day to day transactions and you'll be fascinated at how we talk influences who we are, how we act and what we think of ourselves and of others. This is a long justification for my telling you How I Spent My Holidays when my family took a week off recently, We went to North Carolina for a visit with' my daughter's grandparents. Natives of the area, called the 5o rC�n @Uwg too $ay b}y $upon WhttG. Piedmont, in the south-central part of the state, speak differently than we do. You could say they have an accent but that doesn't tell us much. We all have an accent of some sort. It is stronger in some situtations than others (see above) but it's caused by geographic and social isolation. There's Huron County English, Motor City English, Ottawa Valley English (more than 10 distinct dialects in that area alone, according to a recent news story) and so on. Probably the closest thing to standard educated North American English is what's spoken by Canadian and US tv news people. Even in Carolina where most people's pronunciation was very different from ours, the newscasters, no matter how small the station, wouldn't have stood out in conversa- tion with Barbara Frum or Harvey Kirk. They were homogenized in tone; perhaps because they're people who want to have a great deal of career mobility. perhaps because they want to be clearly understood, as communi- cators by as large. a variety of people as possible. The early settlers in the part of North Carolina were Scots. They were there a good century before their countrymen settled Huron County and 'our neck of the woods. Some of the speech habits are apprently frozen versions of English as'it was spoken in Scotland in the 1700s. I'm no linguist, but likely an expert would tell us that some Huron County speech is likewise indicative of what was current in Scotland when the settlers left there for the Huron Tract 100 years later. INFLUENCES Both societies have of course been influenced by the speech of more recent immigrants. The Irish followed the Scots by a very few years here, then we've had Dutch immigration in the last 30 years. Their sayings, and speech habit like their cultures, have enriched what was already here. Since Huron County English is my own dialect I'm too close to it to analyse what came from where oteven to point out how it differs from textbook standard North American English. That wasn't so hard in North Carolina. Because we ate in restaurants a fair bit (the weather was lousy and eating quickly became the vacation's highlight) we all quickly picked up on the North Carolinians' question: "Would you like a piece of pah?" Pah is pronounced likre hah, as in hahschool; where the older students go. As opposed to middle school, which corre- sponds to our elementary school. We Northerners laughed when we used this pronunciation among ourselves. And it was fascinating to see all the attitudes in the area which are similar to those here (conservat- ism. thrift. solid religious belief, a love for fine country and western music), the place names (Aberdeen was just down the 'road) and family names (plenty of Mcs and Macs) while at the same time hearing a variety of English that on the surface bears little relation to ours. But as you learn to do if you love to travel and want it to be a joyous rather than a disturbing experience. we concentrated on the ways we are similar, not our differences. And you could transplant many of the citizens of Southern Pines. North Carolina to the stores and restaurants of Main St. Seaforth next week and in attitude, values. dress, everything else they'd fit right in. And vice versa. Until we opened our mouths. If we all shop at home, we all benefit There is no doubt that in these depressed times. the purchasing public has had to shop selectively, thus forcing business to maintain competitive prices. And no doubt this has decreased the sales revenue of smaller community business which granted. arc slightly more expensive than the chain supermarkets due to.limited stock turnover and poorer buying power/quantity yet are so important to us for their service. It is generally thought that we are at the bottom of the economic slump and should al some point begin a long climb toward "good times . Myself I find that the general attitude of those people I meet lately. has been more positive and this may well be the first seeds of recovery. Certainly. a positive attitude is all important to every success story. If. as individuals. we feel our conditions ease so we are better able to cope. perhaps we can return even part of our cash flow to the smaller local merchants. As we begin to circulate our cost of living revenue in a community circle, this will ease the strain on some businesses who apparently can only survive so long. By the same principle it is evident that our dollars are mostly wisely spent on Canadian products. If our circle of positive thinking and positively directed 'spending does not im- mediately grow to stimulate all of Ontario or Canada, still we have done something to become stronger in ourselves. As more in general gains stability inside our home circle. so too each. living inside that circle becomes A cry for help attGi @C5N©c? The Seaforth-Dashwood nmunity Band met for a practice in the Sea th Town Hall on Sunday afternoon with 17 members turning out. A good practice was had under leader T. Harry Hoffman of Dashwood. A short meeting was held with the new officer slate for the organization: President - Frenk Van Burgen, Dublin; Secretary -Trea- surer -Melvin Stade. Dashwood; Parade Co- ordinator -Gerald Martene. Seaforth. For the band to exist more players are needed from our communities. So if you have more stable and stronger in himself. It will be unfortunate if any local private If one feels it might help maintain the enterprise discontinues its business becom- momentum or help pick it up. he aright ing a lost service or perhaps to be replaced compliment his friend or nci; hhour''that's a as an amalgamated chain branch. positive attitude" or "that's positive spend Brian Melady RR3 Mitchell from the community band ever played an instrument or know of ancone who does, nomatterwhat it he. in a hand and would enjoy the outing of parades mid concerts please contact Gerald Martene RR 4 Seaforth. 521.1501 or anv officer or memhcr of the hand. Better yet come nut to our next practice on Sunday. March 20 at 2 'p.m. in the Scatorth Town Hall,. Gerald Martene RR4. Seaforth An apology , One of the photographs that appeared on this page in the issue of March 2 was deemed in had taste by some readers. The Huron Expositor apologizes fb ancone who was offended by it r f 1