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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY. MARCH 13, 1985, PAGE 5 "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." - Thomas Jefferson THE CROW'S NEST by Michael Knell Whatever happened to the mayor's team? This month's edition of Business and Finance in Ontario is devoted to a profile of the Town of Whitby. Within its pages, the reader can gain an understanding of the workings of the municipality and its various departments. Despite its value as a marketing and public relations tool in the town's efforts to attract more development to the community, the six members of Whitby Town Council are upset because they feel, and rightly so, that it did not give an accurate account of this municipality's leadership. Last week, I spoke to all six members of council on this subject and they all said, sometimes in jest and sometimes not, that the magazine appeared to be the first piece of literature published in Mayor Bob Attersley's campaign for re- election later this year. All of themn noted that the Mayor had his photograph included 10 times - eight of which were in living color. Now, before I make some specific criticisms of the magazine I would like to state that I think Bob Attersley has been an excellent mayor. His leadership and dedication have been more than evident and without his efforts, I am sure that Whitby would not enjoy its current level of prosperity and growth. Bob is a promoter, everywhere he goes he talks about Whitby and all the things it has to offer. (He even outdoes former premier Bill Davis who was notorious for talking about his home town - Brampton.) But as Bob has said time and time again since he took office, Whitby Town Council is a team. Council is not one man. The Town qf Whitby is not one man. Throughout this magazine we see the quarterback, riot the front line and the front Une also deserves some of the credit for the team's performance. While the reader sees Bob with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Premier Frank Miller and in various other poses, all we see of the members of council is théir photograph with their name underneath. Not one paragraph in the magazine mentions anything, for example, about East Ward Coun. Joe Drumm's efforts as chairman of the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority and the vital role it plays in this community. Not one paragraph mentions anything about Reg. Coun. Gerry Emm and his work as chairman of Durham Regional Council'spublic works committee and the work it does. Also unmentioned is Reg, Coun. Tom Edwards and the work being done by the Downtown Improvement Area Board and their $500,000 improvement plan will bring about exciting changes to the downtown core. We are also not told that West Ward Coun. Joe Bugelli has spent the last few year's as chairman of both council's standing committees and the vital role they play in the day-to-day management of the town. While the reader is treated to a very complimentary (and again, rightly so) biography of Bob, we are told nothing of Centre Ward Coun. Marcel Brunelle or North Ward Coun. Ross Batten. The reader of the magazine is informed of the town's departmnents, but when we see the photos and read the stories, not one word is written about the coun- cillor who is'responsible for it. We read about the treasurer's department and Marcel Brunelle is no where to be found. We read about the planning depar- tment and Ross Batten is no where to be found. Is this the team? Is this the team spirit in action? As a journalist and the editor of this newspaper, I am more than aware that sometimes space considerations force a publication to drop an item. Because there was insufficient advertising revenue, one cannot publish everything one would like to. But that does not mean that we leave out what is important. While many details may be left out, a good publication will try to touch all the bases. Having known each of the men who sit on Whitby Town Council for several years I know that they are modest enough and politically prudent enough to speak of their entirely justifiable complaints in public. They were elected to do a job and people have the right toknow thatthey are doing the job. . Ail of them acknowledged Bob's leadership role, they ail applauded his effor- ts but they will not speak about theinsultthey have suffered. SoI will. While the magazine did a good job of portraying Whitby and told us a great deal about the community I think they failed to show that this town is governed by seven well intentioned, hard working and dedicated individuals. We may not always agree with what they have to say or with what they do but they were there doing the job. I don't think that the people who will read this magazine will get as complete a picture as they should. When our elected representatives do something wrong, they deserve to be criticized, loudly and severely. But when they do a good job, they deserve to be recogmized for it. As Bob is o fond of saying. Whitby Town Council is a team. They work together for the best interests of the town. But by reading this month's edition of Business and Finance in Ontario, you would never know it. SOLWAY Now that Ernst Zundel has been found guilty (subject to appeal) there is a mounting sentiment against the prosecution. More and more people are saying that silence is the best way to handle nuts like this neo-Nazi. Drawing attention to him only gives him the publicity he wants. Without the glare of public exposure he would go unnoticed and unheralded. We - the courts, the media, - have made him into something he is not: responsible. And for a while I agreed. I went along with all these "Silence is the answer" arguments. Then I read Dalton Camp's comments, an echo of all the above ideas and it really turned my head around. Where was I hiding? Why would I agree to a con- spiracy of silence? No. The Zundel case deserved to be heard and displayed. It is the collective conscience that must not be allowed a reprieve. The fact that he may be demented has nothing to do with it. Why this sudden turnaround? Simply because perhaps some of my own relatives were gassed at Auschwitz? Maybe. There are critics who say it is time to forgive and forget. I challenge those critics. I challenge the theorists and journalists and jurists and historians who want Zundel consigned to some trash heap because he is perhaps not operating on all cylinders. Pardon my passion. Let me try to make sense instead. First of ail, those who say "time to forget--after all it has been 40 years." I wonder why. After 2,000 years not one Christian seems prepared to forget the fact of Christ crucified. Not one war widow seems prepared to forget 1939-1945. We are all en- titled to history and to memories and to memorializing the facts of our past-whether they be of the Holocaust or of Glory. We are remem- bering creatures. Our lives are based on our social, traditional and historic memories. Why disqualify the Holocaust survivors from that right? Next point. Is it reasonable to ignore any anti- social act simply because it is possible to describe the person who commits the act as not operating with a full deck? No where in our laws do we excuse crime because of the state of mind of the criminal. If we ignore Zundel perhaps we should ignore the loonies who make obscene phone calls or expose themnselves to little children. There are a great many weirdos running the streets. Do we ignore their behaviour if it breaks the law, just because their is no violence to property or person accom- panying their loony acts? Do we treat them like children, who when they mouth a four letter word are "ignored"? The law does not allow us to lock up our lunatics, but it does insist that they be brought before the Bar of Justice. A third argument. The Zundel ravings are attrac- tive only to other loonies. No one in their right mind would believe either that the Holocaust was a hoax or that there is a Communist-Zionist-Freemason conspiracy to take over the world. For all these reasons, and more I cannot ar- ticulate, I have decided that Zundel and his ilk must be paraded publicly. I have also decided that it is not Zundel who is paraded. He is insignificant. Bringing him to "Justice" might relieve the world of one more unrepentant anti-Semite, might give us the satisfaction of dealing with one more Nazi-lover who wants to rewrite history to turn Hitler into a saint. What makes me truly sad is that our dismissal of Zundel has very little to do with "silence" being the best policy, and everything to do with our own collective guilt and conscience. Canadians have congratulated themselves for years on how tolerant they are. Rubbish. We must sooner or later face up to a reality: that this country harbours and perhaps without meaning to, nourishes racism; nourishes it with exclusive clubs, with fraternal orders, with employment and housing, "gentleman's agreemen- ts" and with racial slurs heard and understood every hour of every day. The Zundel trial and every other prosecution of haters must be allowed to go on. For all the reasons already mentioned, but most of all because we must not be allowed our false self-righteousness. The silent majority among us who refuse to look and find excuses for not looking, had better stare it in the face. It is part of us. They are among us. They are not small and they are neither loony nor harmless. It may be easier to treat the persecuted racial or religious minority as invisible, but it does not make the problem go away. I guess you have to be inside the right kind of skin to feel the pain. I do not think that anyone has a monopoly on the words "Lest We Forget." Confront your own conscience, and ask yourself again whether or not Zundel should have been given the silent treatment.