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The Huron Expositor, 1983-11-30, Page 2tiro! { , xposi S1na.leap,W,itinO'ft!tt omniunlfyflrel ,r `tncorporad•no;*..�seJs j?St, Iountfbd 18?2. 121flaln SI L ' 527-0240 ' r<, P4bllatted'at SBAFORTH, O iT $RIO t iarti' Vlfednelattay morning • ', • .Siam White, Managing Editor . • Jocelyn A. 9hrler, PubUahsr member Caffadlan Communhly Newapep.r Altaic Ontario Community,Newapaper,Apia:10flon and • .Audit Bureau of Circulation , A member of the Onterlp Press Counc(l. 'Subacriptionrates: Canada $10,75 ayear (In ad ange) Outside Canada $55.00 a year,(In advance) Single Coplea -50 cents each ri 4 .d '' _ SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, WEDNES'bAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1983 • Second class mall regletratiof,Number,0696 Support rotatorsh ` Exeter schoolteacher Joanne Young took .some -time off school recently to protest the manufacture of guidance systems for cruise missiles at Litton Industries In Rexdale although she wasn't sure that job would be waiting for her when she returned. Forbidden to use personal business days to•participatte in the ,protest by "her ,principal and the county school board -and condemned by her local newspaper, she.nevertheless listened closely to her conscience and acted to try and prevent the single area est threat to the human race today - nuclear war She was not protesting to save just her own.skin. If she and the rest of the peace movellrtent are successful, she will have helped `to save us,all - members of=t a school board, the principal of South Huron-•Sectfndary School, the newspaper staff, her students s the human race. Ms. Young, who has the courage to act regardless of the censure of the community, is speaking on behalf of the continued 'survival of everyone. "But, she b oke the law!" is the common cry against -her. However, when youctftink back in history, she's imigood company. The British colonists in America broke the law and threw tea into the harbor 8t Boston because they thought King George ill's taxation was too harsh. Womeh in England, Canada and the United States, in the fight for the vote, chained themselves tafences�ivent on hunger strikes and enduty force feedrflg. American blacks`le�d by Martin Luther King Junior broke -the law when they'sat In the white sections in restaurants and on buses in their fight for equal rights. • Civil disobedience was the only way, short of violence, that each group could make people listen to them and act to make change. Their strong beliefs about independence, the right,to vote and equality; forced them to break laws to right a larger wrong. -The rest of humanity benefitted from their actions. Though we may not have the same courage to stand" up for our convictions, we should not condemn Joanne Young. If we cannot join in the protest; we should at least send our support with her. She and others like her might mean the difference between life and nuclear holocaust. - S.H. 4' n Stay alive - don't drink It's that time of year again when people attend Christmas partibs and New Year's party revelers will bring in 1984. It's the time when people imbibe in Christmas spirits -- sometimes to excess. And it's'Urifo'tunate •people aren't more cautious and use common sense. But how much sense does a drinking driver- have? t Facts are alarming rinking drivers kill hundreds of Canadians each, year. Over 35 per cent of all fatal traffic accidents involve booze and in many cases, it's the unsuspecting driver or pedestrian who suffers. The Canada Safety Council has set aside the week of Dec. 1-7 as Annual National Safe Driving Week. The Council urges all motorists to look at their drinking habits and not drink and drive, not only during safe driving week, but at all times. • Co-inciding v0h the safe driving campaign is a recommendation from the Law Reform'Commission of Canada that peace officers be allowed to demand blood samples from people suspected of impaired driving "but only under the most stringent safe -guards." Presently, breathalyzer tests are used to test drivers for blood-alcohol levels. Drinking drivers continue to be sentenced, but they also continue to drink and drive. Taking blood samples to supplement breathalyzer tests has won the support of most provinces and is now being studied by Justice Minister Mark MacGuigan, Blood samples are a step in the right direction but mandatory jail sentences for drunk drivers would only fill the jails without solving the problem•" Mr. MacGuigan hasuggested that drivers who cause death or serious injury begiven poss ale penalties ranging up to a lifetime ban on driving in the most serious . At present, drivers involved in fatal accidents often are only charged with impaired driving which carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $2,000 fine for first offenders. Let's take a page out of the European books and hand out harsher drunk driving penalties. In some countries; many people don't drink and drive. When they party, they take turns driving and the driver doesn't drink. They can't affo Let's all get into th occasion for everybody others. d to drink and drive. Christmas spirit, but let's make it a happy Don't drink and drive. It could kill you and —R.W. Get involved in projects The headaches and the sometimes nightmares of wrestling with the restoration of the Van Egmond site have finally been put to rest. The bills are paid. During the next two months the Founda- tion will be making radical changes in 'how' it operates. The goal will be to respond to community need in heritage, culture and recreation. Possible directions will include: 1. further development of support for local arts & crafts (The Sitting Room was a successfal venture which has its last day on Dec. 4) 2. using the house as a base for social and recreational activities (a cross-country ski ow that we're metre.. everywhere there's signs," ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? "Signs, signs,• .l is a song by the Five Man Electrical Band. The song was a top, 10 hit several•'years ago (at least 10) and was popular because people were • fed -up with all the signs which in most case$ they (ire forced to read. And there are a lot of them. Store: signs, advertising,signs •alppg roadways that tell drivers a motel is only five kilometres away, picket signs used by strikers, directional read signs, and Trudeau finger signs are only a few. But the most important and most lead are the speed limit and mileage signs that tell drivers the distance to the next town and the speed they can drive to get there. Everything was hunky-dorry until the early 1970s when -the federal government decided to make life a bit more interesting for Canadians. Metric had been talked about and most of us were opposed to change inches, feet, yards ane miles to ,millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres. The change came anyway and before long we were talking and thinking metric. Well, some of us were. Many found the new system mind-boggling. by Ron n IkBn03 ,'Pye bought, my meatiq•pounds and,dish sogp in ounces my Whole life. What's all -Otis metric stuff. A kilogram sounds like it should be a bomb and 454 grams seems 'the a lot. A metre is something the Hydro man reads and a litre is less than a quart. i buy my gas in gallons, not quarts. Why litres? Metric sounds like a conspiracy," said some Canadians. . Fighting the change, a couple of Toronto gas station operators reverted back to. imperial measure and sold gas in gallons. The action resulted in the pair being en to court, but an Ontario judge's ling dismissed charges. The case has set a precedent, now the stampede begins. Other provinces are looking to change back to the old system, Nova Scotia leading the pack. Premier John let's stay '4, ,144E (044/ 441),:1..' 3. 4 Buchanan suggested- 'r�Eiiitt%i'ng'�to'• the system we love."Arid the • changes have started. All road signs in' that province, as in other provinces, are metric. The speed limit is 80 km/h (kilometres per hour) instead of the old 50 mph (miles per hour). Distance signs are all metric. But the Nova Scotian premier has ordered distance markers •• to ' include miles and • kilometres because most Canadians prefer "the real system." But speed limit signs, will be in metric only. We are just getting used' to talking -metric--to the point where we know, how it works. Besides, the switch wasn't cheap. Just ask any grocery store owner who was forced to change weigh scales. We have made the change, so why change back? The bewildered will be even more confused. All new cars have odometers' in klometres. • Some older models are still in miles but most owners have used the.little, hard to manage, stick -on numbers to show their_gd fOz mite es1!ad ` anc�,r1ti'9e, owever; tehtbtal toy decepte ,titetri`c. Solite iiditstries have: changed•and'others.ak''in the midst of switching. Educational S stetas are now tuned to metric. Kids are talking the new language; some probably don't even know what Inches are. The fight over metric is now Mainly in the political arena. A few die-hard politicians continue to push for a bit of both or a complete change back to imperial measure- ment. If they succeed taxpayers and consumers will have to pay more. It's cost enough to get metric. Let's accept it, and spend tax money where it's realty needed like daycare centres or programs for the unemployed. 'And the provinces looking at changing back, are the ones with high unemployment. Where are their -priorities? Movie does not convey horror of nuclear war Like a few million North Americans I recently spent an evening before the television, hoping life doesn't imitate art. The Day After, a made -for -television movie about a nuclear attack on an American city is probably the most controversial television show to be seen 'in .years. it attempts to show graphically just what horrible consequences, there would be if this nuclear madness ever got completely out of hand. l say attempts, because for me the movie failed to convey the horror of it all as well as two books that have long been in existence. When 1 watched The Day After i couldn't forget that this was, after all, a movie. There was no such comfort when 1 first read Hiroshima. John Hersey's reports of what happened in the first use of nuclear weapons against humanity. The book first appeared in 1946 and it's slim 115 pages tell a story so grim television audiences couldn't possibly watch it. These were real people. Their pain was real. Their numbness at the immensity of what had happened was real. Their lives club will be based there this winter) 3. hi -lighting the history and contribution of local families 4. developing a history of Egmondville 5. preparing teaching materials for local history in the schools 6. liaison with Tuckersmith and Seaforth in municipal heritage projects 7. generating support for other restorations (eg. Cardno Hall) These are'people' projects. An invitation is extended to get involved. interested persons are urged to contact me at 527-1860, call Lynda Jones at 527-0799 or Jan Delvecehio at 527-0670. These 'new directions' should be satisfying, informal and not require a heavy commitment of time. Sincerely, P. Carroll, Chairman. Coot a beef or bouquet? Write a letter to the editor [3@Good oc®ri by Gtokh ° otJOatoI changed forever in one blinding flash, one storm of wind and fire. LESS THAN REALITY How could television show the reality of all the skin pulling off the arm of a survivor like a glove? How could we stomach seeing eyeballs melting and running down faces? For all it's controversy the television show was considerably less than reality. Nor did it touch, for me, the sadness, the feeling of waste and futility of Nevil Shute's book On the Beach published way back in the 1950's. Shute deals with a family in Australia waiting to die as the radiation from a nuclear war works its way south on the changing winds from a northern hemisphere that is already dead from the first explosions of the war. No, for me the most frightening, the most' infuriating, part of The Day After came in the discussion afterward on Global Televi- sion. There seven people representing the opposing sides of disarmament question showed us exactly why we should be afraid. The peace movement activist's trotted out their old jargon. The right wingers brought their's out and dusted it off. They spent most of the night shouting at each other. if a small group of Canadians cannot agree how can we expect the i1.S., France, Britain, China and the Soviet Union to agree. END MADNESS The only thing that can keep us from a nuclear war worse than that portrayed on television is some flexibility. The right wingers insist on seeing the Soviet Union as an evil force. The liberals claim if only we would take the first generous step the Soviets would glady follow. They then make the U.S. and our allies the bad guys by comparison. ' The peace movement, if it is going to have any credibility, must appear to be fairer, must demand of both sides an end to this madness.. Why, for instance, if they are willing- to lay down their lives for peace, don't German peacemarchers march right through the gates of the Berlin Wall and protest on the other side. of the border. If they get through, they can show the people onthe other side that we want them to give up theirweapons.too. If they don't, at least they will win respect on our side for trying. As it is, they're taking low -tisk measures against one -side only and are winning converts to the right-wingers arguments that the peace -movement is only showing a weakness that the other side will try to exploit. If we want peace, we've got to do • something else that retreat to old argu- ments.• he year November's the worst month of t I don't know anyone who has written an "Ode to November." It is just possible that some idiot in Florida or California or Portugal, or the West Indies, has donc44so. because that is the month their oranges. grapes, or sugar -cane achieved their finest flavour. Long gone are Thanksgiving, the glories of autumn foliage, the bright yellow sun of October. Instead. there are the withered fields. There are the black, accusing branches, like witches' fingers, of the stark and naked trees. There is the first snow, turned to dirty slush. Fittingly, November has no holiday. The only thing near itis Remembrance Day. a day or mourning, of remembering old slaughters and young men caught NO HOLIDAYem There are the first obscene Christmas carols,•the first phoney Santas, the intricate arrangements of coloured lights, to remind us that if we spend, spend, spend; buy, buy, buy, we are supporting those two great edifices of the western world, Christianity and free enterprise. November, for most Canadians, is a time of fearful, tentative waiting, shoulders met- aphorically hunched. Waiting to see what The Lord has in store for us. There to no promise in November, no hope. Sugar awd optic@ by DODO 5 i lk@p OnlY more of the same for the next five months. Grey, greasy, unyielding, November grips us to the bone with its certainty that we have sinned, and now we are going to suffer. Even with modern heating and lighting. with the tranquilizers of television and frozen dinners, and no trips to the backyard john necessarf, November makes us cringe. MARES US CRINGE Probably It's a legacy from our pioneer ancestors. 1 can't help thinking what November meant to them, The closing in of days. The black of the morning. The wet chill of the air. The worry about enough hay for the beasts, enough wood in the woodpile, enough salted meat for the winter, enough spuds and turnips in the cold -cellar. It was no time for watching the Grey Cup, or the Dallas. Cowboys, on a Saturday afternoon. it must have been a time of frantic scrambling for those pionES. Chinking the draughts between the logs ting wood like mad. Slaughtering ands ng and "put- ting down" food for the long bitter days ahead. There was no running over to the supermarket for a few bags of flour, a bag of sugar, and eight cartons of margarine. It was a siege ahead that could last seemingly indefinitely. with no relief force just over the horizon. it must have been especially frightening for the women. For those long, dark months ahead, they would be virtually locked in their cabins, with almost no social intercourse outside the family. Endless days of preparing hot meals, knitting warm clothes. with no company after the children were bedded down except that of a sullen, exhausted husband. For the men at least, Imre was some escape; the daily chores, thelbattening down of hatches against the coming storms, perhaps a trip to the village for supplies, the tending of animals. As we turn up the thertiiostat; flip on the lights, or flush the toilet, we should remember, with a touch of awe, What November must have been like for out grand 'and great-gtdndparents, Nfow, I limier not everybody will agree with - me. That'$ as should be. For aficionados of curling, November means the opening of a new season, with the slap of brooms. the •conviviality of the bar, the urge for competition beckoning then) out of their cosy homes into the dark, cold night. For the skiing crowd, November does hold promise. They sniff the air like beagles, cheer like children when the first flakes fall, and generally irritate the rest of us. ANTICIPATE CASH it's even a ratherexciting time for merchants. They anticipate' the jangling of cash registers, the pushing of hot, sweaty mobs through their aisles. it enables them to blot out for a brief time, the doldrums of January that lurk ahead: And of course November hotels no fears for the deer hunters and those idiots who stand in Icy water o the waist, trying to catch one last big rainbow trout. "Best time of the year", they chortle heartily,.But for golfers; boatsmen, and most old people. November could be left right off the calendar.,,„ For Whitten te Greet jail. and at sea, Ills a month fraught with dlsetnnfott and even peril, with storms howling out of the northwest. You may have gathered that 1 don't like November and I'in glad it's over. 1