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PAGE 14, WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 8,1987 Reflections of a Golden Age By MABEL M. MCCABE An incident occurred a few weeks ago and was spoken of on all the news reports. It was unusual because it harked backed to the days of radio. Remember radio? That was the entertainment cen- tre of our youth. A man some years ago started a local radio show that bucked the tide. of all communication pundits. His name was Garrison Keillor and his show was called "The Prairie Home Companion." It was a variety type show that had a very inauspicious beginning. It became a smashing hit over the years because this quiet spoken man introduced his twenty-minute monologues about life in his mythical home town of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. Now I have never had the chance to hear one of those talks as it was a small station in the western United States. As the old saw quotes, "If you do something worthwhile the news spreads." Now this man has retired from the show and we have all lost any iurtner chance of hearing his quiet ramblings of Lake Wobegon - more's the pity. I've just finished reading his book called "Lake Wobegon Days" and realize how much he will be missed. This one man doing a simple thing that made him happy has reminded me of all the days long ago I spent listening to the radio. And the evening shows were great. The whole family would gather to listen to Fred Allen, Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny and the laughter would fill the room for the hour they spent together. I'm sure I'm not alone remembering "The Shadow" and "The Creaking Door" and many other. scary shows. Then we had drama like "Pall Mall Theatre" and others. Radio is where the hit parade started and Fibber Magee and Molly, as well as George Burns and Gracie. It was so great to sit back and close your eyes and let your mind draw the pictures that the actors placed before you. sure television is great but sometimes I miss the days when you could use your own imagination and not depend on some art depar- tment to plan what you see all the time. We had time to talk and get to know each other in those days and the great bands of the day were all to be found somewhere on the radio dial. If the gang came over and you wanted to roll up the rugs and dance, it was easy. Take your pick of Tommy or Jimmy Dorsey or Benny Goodman, Sammy Kaye, or Glenn Miller, they were all to be found sometime through the evening. Remember the "New Year's Eve Bands Across America" show? It started in New York at midnight and as the time zones changed each new area started the celebration again. You could dance and not pay a dime. I really wonder if the folks have as much fun now as we did. They have to show others how much they can spend before they feel they are enjoying themselves. When they sit back and think about it Ill bet they are rather disappointed at what their dollars buy. Too bad. We could tell them if they would only listen. So now it seems that Lake Wobegon will pass into the mists of time and join Allen's alley, Fibber Magee's closet and Jack Ben- ny's famous vault. Isn't it a shame? Our airways will be lessened greatly by this demise. Optimists heading north Whitby Optimists are planning to "go north" to recruit new members and begin a Brooklin-area branch of the club. The service club, known as "Friend of Youth" (the club mot- to), raises funds to support a num- ber of sports and activities in- volving youth. The club also helps Whitby General Hospital and Fair- view Lodge home for the aged provides Christmas food baskets to needy and supports the handicap- ped. Optimist clubs began in 1911 in Buffalo, N.Y. The first Canadian club began in 1924. There are now more than 3,900 clubs and some 150,000 members. GRANT REVELER (1) and Colin Moor for Brooklin and District Kinsmen recently cycled to Sudbury to raise funds Free Press photo Duo makes trip to Sudbury from Brooklin on bicycles It's a long trip from Brooklin to the Sudbury area no matter how you slice it. Imagine then making the 233-mile jaunt on a bicycle. Two young men from Brooklin recently did just that. They cycled from their hometown to the west arm of Lake Nipissing and raised money for Brooklin and District Kinsmen at the same time. The duo are Colin Moor of Way Rd. and Grant Reveler of Baldwin St. Both born and raised in the village, they attended Meadowerest Public School and recently completed Grade 13 at An- derson Collegiate. According to Reveler, cycling to his grandparent's lodge in Nor- thern Ontario had been something he had wanted to do since he was a small child. So when Moor in- terested him in touring this spring, the pair decided they were finally going to attempt the long trip. Moor has been racing for a year now and the trip was his longest voyage to date. It put his Raleigh racing bike to the supreme test as it did Reveler's Italian Miele touring bike. When the decision to cycle the distance was made, the two trained as much as they could by making small side trips in the Brooklin and surrounding area. - But with studying, holding down part-time jobs and playing rugby for Ander- son, they admitted their training was limited and were a little ap- prehensive of whether or not they would be in shape for the ordeal. Rather at the eleventh hour, and possibly spurred by the accom- plishments of Rick Hansen, Moor and Reveler approached Brooklin Kinsmen and were delighted when told the Kinsmen would sponsor them. They also received spon- sorhsip and encouragement from Peacock Family Sports in Whitby where Moor works part-time repairing bikes. Gene and Linda Peacock threw in spare tubes for the bikes and many other pieces of equipment the two would need along the way. Carrying all their possessions in a small pack on the front of their bikes, the pair left Brooklin early one Wednesday morning. They had chosen to travel mid-week in order to meet the least amount of traffic. After a short stop in Sunderland for coffee, they were surprised, and hungry, when they pulled into Brechin at 8:30. After lunch, it was on the road again. As luck would have it, record temperatures were set throughout the area on the days that they were cycling. By the time 10 a.m. rolled around, they were in Washago and were hot enough to be tempted by the cool green water there. It was time to cool off with a swim before taking to the road again. In the Gravenhurst area, Reveler was forced off the road by a passing vehicle and after hitting the soft shoulders took a massive spill that resulted in a hours rest. The cyclist's special shoes are tied into the pedals for speed - a great theory until a spill occurs. At 2 p.m. they called it a day and stopped for the night at Bala". At 6 a.m. on Thursday, they were on the road again and after a few stops for food and rest made it to the French River by 3 p.m. They were so close to their destination, but too tired and hot to bike the remaining two hours they knew it would take thm. They stayed the night and con- tinued to their destination on Friday morning, arriving at 9 a.m. SEE PAGE 15 Last week I gave my preamble concerning the growing number of plea-bargaining cases appearing before our Canadián courts. In closing, I made reference to the fact that innocent defendants can be victimized and I'd like to expand on that theory. In extreme cases (and I hope you realize this is by no means the norm), a defendant may even be pursuaded to plead guilty to an offense which he or she did not commit. Harry Walsh, a Winnipeg criminal lawyer asks, "How many persons facing imprisonment on a charge of mur- der, can withstand the inclination to plead guilty to man- slaughter so as to avoid a mandatory life sentence? " Another problem with plea bargaining is that in the crush of a big-city criminal justice system, a defendant is apt to see a lawyer from the legal aid office for only a short time before appearing in court. With such brief con- tact, the lawyer may have little notion of whether the client is guilty or not, and is quite likely to present the plea bargain as the most desirable alternative. Inadvertantly, the Ontario legal aid plan encourages this by creating a situation wherein lawyers can make more money in less time for guilty pleas than for trials. While abolishing plea bargaining might not be the answer, the practice should be drastically reduced and hedged with safeguards. Recent publicity is beginning to have positve effects, and the dangers of plea bargaining are now more openly discussed, but not enough is being done fast enough. VIE WPOINT by ROXANNE REVELER PLEA BARGAIN PLIGHT In Ontario where the number of criminal cases jumped 85 per cent in six years, guidelines were issued by.then At- torney General Roy McMurtry to crown attorneys with emphasis on plea discussion. They stressed the importan- ce of putting the reasons for, and results of, plea bargains on the public record in order "to satisfy the public that there is nothing sinister or clandestine in the process." More and more judges are concerned about plea bargaining. "It diminishes the right of the accused to have a fair and public hearing; it might leave the accused with a sense of injustice and create the impression that justice has not been manifestly done," said Jacques Ducros of the Quebec Superior Court. Many were quick to agree that plea bargaining leads to abuse even when commenced with the best motives...it always smacks of some deal. The federal Law Reform Commission felt that legislation was not needed to eliminate plea bargaining; all that was required was for each attorney general to ban plea bargaining from his province and for every judge to use his influence to wipe out the practice. But this is easier said than done. Would the reduction of plea bargaining result in so many'not guilty' pleas as to hopelessly clog down the .courts? "No," says the former director of public prosecutions for Saskatchewan where plea bargaining is not permitted. "When the accused and his counsel know that the Crown proceeds only with proper charges - 'not with the inflated charges on which plea bargaining is based - the guilty pleas are entered with greater confiden- ce. Our experience indicates an overall increase in the number of guilty pleas." The*system of plea bargaining will not be cut down overnight. Reform in this area requires determination and imagination on the part of a prosecutor. Each com- munity will have to spend more money on courts, judges and prosecutors. But plea bargaining poses a grave threat to justice, and limits MUST be placed on it. Perhaps now the matter of returning capital punish- ment has been settled in the House, a little time, effort, and yes, money, can be channelled into where it will do the best for the majority of Canadians. At least that's the way it looks to me.