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2 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, March 14, 1979 Section Two The Annual Battle Is On For almost as long as we can remember, there have been attem- pts made to control violence in hockey. The rules have been changed, more protective equip- ment added, politicians have injec- ted themselves into the scene, yet we still find fights breaking out all over, sticks being swung and players being injured by rough play. The current agitation for something to be done resulted from a two team bench clearing brawl on the weekend betWeen Philadelphia Flyers and the Los Angeles Kings, the scrap continuing for about a quarter of an hour before tempers cooled and peace was restored. There have been a few others in the pro ranks during the season and probably will be more individual in- cidents as the season winds down to the playoffs. What appears to be disturbing more and more people is the way violence is spreading to younger teams, even into the minor hockey clubs where fights and stick swinging seem to be on the increase as they learn from pros and the juniors. In some places it has reached the stage where many young people have given up playing hockey rather than risk injury. We wonder if it's any more hazar- dous than it used to be. It's been a long time since we were involved in the sport as a player, but we can recall butt ends, stick swinging and slugging matches in hockey games taking place on almost a regular basis 40 or 50 years ago. In those days, players didn't wear helmets and their skates didn't have protec- tive guards on the heels, the pads weren't nearly as strong as they are today, but it didn't matter. Players lost their temper either because of real or imagined dirty play by an opponent or from frustration when they weren't doing too well. And they started slugging or swinging, depending on how out of control they were. Hockey is a game that seems to arouse intense feelings in both players and fans. We can sit back now and look at it objectively, not being involved as either a player or a father, but it's hard to do when you are out on the ice or when one of your sons has just been hammered by a crushing body check. Or, when you are down one goal in an important game and about to score when somebody takes your skates out from under you. And the referee doesn't call the penalty. There are so many things that can happen during a fast game to upset your normally calm disposition either in the stands or on the ice, that sometimes you see red and want revenge. So, frankly, we doubt very much if any major changes will result from the current flap. The hockey season will soon be over and everybody will starting thinking about baseball, tennis, swimming or some other summer sport and all will be forgot- ten until next year. Those involved in a big fight will probably remem- ber it as a highlight, especially if they came out on top. And the issue will be forgotten until next winter. We fear it's the old story that you just can't legislate human feelings out of existence. Even the mildest player will blow his top if the provocation is strong enough. And hockey just wouldn't be hockey without some of it breaking out now and then. It's built into the game because of its speed and its bodily contact. We certainly may be able to clean it up somewhat and penalize those who become involved in such goings on, but we doubt very much if it can be eliminated unless we ban hockey from being played, which appears highly unlikely. They Don't Think Alike Warren Allmand, federal minister of consumer affairs, is all riled up about the spiraling cost of food in this country. So much so, in fact, that he is pushing for a bill to restore competition in the marketplace. He says he is "fed up" with the rising cost of food prices, which have recently hit an annual inflation rate of 23 per cent. Too bad these upper level politicians can't get their act together says the Wingham Advance Times. On more than one occasion Allmand's cabinet colleague, Agriculture Minister Eugene Whelan, has expressed his contempt for Canadians who whine about the high cost of eating. His sentiments were echoed only a few weeks ago by Ontario's minister of agriculture and food, Bill Newman, who also im patiently pointed out our childishness. Both cited the fact that it takes less cents from a Canadian dollar to put food on the table than anywhere else in the world. Both of these ministers, of course, were playing up to their farmer sup- porters ... making heroes of them- selves to the sons and daughters of the soil. Both are forgetting that the agriculture portfolio in any cabinet carries a responsibility not only to farmers but to all the citizens of the nation or the province. They are ministers not only of food production but also of food availability to con- sumers and consequently should be concerned about its price. Nobody in this part of the world is suggesting that farmers are getting fat and wealthy at the expense of the town and city people. But many sound thinking farmers are deeply concerned about the vaulting price of food products on their way to the table. They don't like paying $3 a pound for beef any more than the rest of us do. Allmand i richt. Whnta'vpr the means we must~ find out why the route from feedlot to dining room is so expensive. When ministers fail to understand the complaints about high food prices it's a sure sign they are out of touch with thepeople who elect them. It reminds one of Marie Antoinette's famous remark to the starving mobs of Paris: "Let them eat cake." Perhaps the- quickest road to un- derstanding would be to put Mrs. Whelan and Mrs. Newman on a budget of $40 a week for food pur- chases. Eugene and Bill would find themselves without very much beef- steak. And Then, On The Other Hand There are usually two sides to every story. While Mr. Allmand is pressing for a chance to put a stop to the growth and control of big, non- competitive food chains, there is plenty of evidence that business in this country already suffers from too much government interference. Rogert Naegele, president of Dow Chemical of Canada at Sarnia, says that he will recommend his com- pany not spend $100 million in this country for expansion of its facilities. Naegele cites the attitude of the Canadian government as his reason. He says government's inter- ference in the conduct of business, its actioin in rolling baçk the profits of corporation make Canada a poor place in which to invest business capital. The fact that jobs are created by capitalists investing their money in profit-making ventures often seems to be lost on the socialists and the more greedy of the labor unions. Profits are the compelling factor in the business world, whether we like it or not. Without profits there is no employment ... and goodness knows we could stand quite a bit more em- nloyment right now. Young Artists ai Bowman ville Mal Su gr and Spiwmce Speaking of Tr'avel I've been helping a student, the lively and lovely Julie Noack, to prepare her speech for the Lion's Club public speaking contest. She wrote it; I just listen and make critical comments. We've had a few laughs. Her speech is in praise of travel in Canada, instead of taking our lame dollars off and spending them on the often spurious attractions of other countries. It's a sort of travelogue of Canada, and sounds pretty good. But at one point she broke me up. We have just crossed the Ottawa River from Quebec and are cruising around the capital, "where dwell", according to the speech, "our Prime Minister, ambassadors from all over the world, and . . ." She slurred the "ambassadors" a bit, and it came out, "Our Prime Minister, bastards from all over the world. . ." I couldn't agree more. Another one that shook me up was when she said that, "Canada is more than 'a few acres of snow', as the French writer, Voltaire dismissed it." Voltaire came out as Volare. The powers of television. However, one point in her speech got me thinking along a different track. She pointed out that, despite the vast variety of vistas this coun- try offers the tourist, it is expensive to travel in this Canada of ours. Too true. Hotels and motels are ridiculously costly. Many of the big new hotels in 164 North Street Newcastle, Ontario March 7, 1979 Re: "Superman", February 28, 1979 Dear Mr. James: I have been a Christian and known Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour for almost three years. The above article that appeared in your publica- tion is both offensive and untruthful and thereby mis- leading to your readers. At least one of the "ordinary" people mentioned - Martin Luther King, contrary to what the article says, knew Jesus to be the answer. In her book on her husband, Coretta Scott King states "Martin believed that a man must actively seek God. Where will you find Him? In a test tube? No! Where else except in Jesus Christ, the Lord of our lives, Christ is the Lord made flesh, He is the language of eternity transiat- ed in the words of time. .. By committing ourselves absolutely to Christ and His way we will participate in that marvelous act of faith that the cities want an arm and a leg for a place to lay your head for a few hours. Motels want from $20 to $36 for a plastic room, no room service, often not even a place to get a cup of coffee, and get out by one p.m., no matter what time you checked in. Restaurants in this country are equally usurious, with a very few exceptions. I don't mind going out and spending a day's pay at a good restaurant, with suave service, food carefully chosen and cooked with care, and nobody hustling you out the minute you've sipped your last drop of fifty-cent coffee. But it burns my butt to be served a leathery omelet with the inevitable piece of limp lettuce, the inexorable one slice of green house tomato, and the ubiquitous helping of french fries, none of which you want, and charged enough to feed a fair-sized family a good meal, at home. Then there's the mark-up on drinks, anywhere from one to two hundred per cent. Don't believe me? Check it out. A bottle of beer at home costs about 35 cents. In a restaurant it'll cost you about one dollar. A drink at home will cost you ap- proximately 45 cents for an ounce and a half with free tap water thrown in. In a bar or restaurant the same drink will cost you from $1.25 to $1.60, depending on the decor, for an ounce and a quarter. And if you prefer wine, they just triple the price. No wonder so many restaurants will bring us to the true knowledge of God!" Another fallacy from that article, a person does not have to send money or have any fancy prayers made over them to receive life, that begins from the moment we ask for the Holy Spirit (Jesus goes into detail about this in the gospel of John as does God throughout His book to us.) Any simple S.O.S. from the heart - Lord Jesus, the best I know how, I receive you as may Saviour and Lord. He loves us and He has been waiting for a similar plea from each of us so that He can allow the Holy Spirit of Jesus to be conceived in each one of us, as it was in the beginning. He takes us wherever we are at in our lives and whoever we are and gives us the meaning for it all. He didn't want our money while He was here on earth and He certainly doesn't want it in Heaven. Throughout His Word to us God shows us "His purpose". As I understand it, ours is a Christ-ian nation. We cele- brate His arrival here on earth, at an event called Christ-mas and we remember Him for the time He shed his precious blood for us on a cross at Calvary and in three days arose. We call this Easter. The Christ-ian church represents the body of Christ and we are members of that body. If we don't believe Christ is the answer and call ourselves Christians then I think we should consider "our purpose." Enclosed is a clipping about another "ordinary" person who knew Jesus to be the answer. His name is Abraham Lincoln. Trusting that this letter will find its proper source, I am. Sincerely yours June Gamble (an ordinary person) Bowmanville, Ont. Mar. 10, 1979 TO: Readers Of The Statesman, Is there no end to greed, rapacity and stupidity? Do our local representatives still believe the people whom and bars go broke. The business is so profitable that too many people want into it, and the law of supply and demand looks after the rest. Travel in this country is equally unappealing. Internal airfares are ridiculously high. It costs almost as much to fly from Toronto to Van- couver as from Toronto to London, England, a thousand miles or more. Trains are a dying species. They have lost their old grace of service, good food and excitement, cut off all their branch lines, and become a rather wistful anachronism for people who like rough road-beds, frequent breakdowns and aban- doned stations. Buses are better. Some have even crept into the twentieth century with air-conditioning, heat in the winter, and fairly punctual time-tabling. But all this is ruined by the bus depots, which are pure 1970s Sleaze, dirty, impersonal, and with the inevitable drunk sounding off. Or throwing up. Another aspect of travelling in Canada that puts people off is the service, or lack of it. There's very little service with a smile. Too often it ranges from grudging to surly, from indifferent to sullen. Waitresses slop coffee into your saucer or wipe off your plastic table with a dirty damp rag. Waiters stand with their backs to you when you are in a rush to catch a plane. Hotel doormen are all smiles when you are checking in, and non- they represent are not paying attention to their moves and countermoves or that the local populace is too dumb to understand? We've been diddled and dandled and waltzed about for four years about the pros and cons of the advisability of having the Darlington Nuclear Station. First, our mayor assured people there would be no agreement made with Ont. Hydro until an environmental hearing had taken place. He was, he said, "afraid to look in their direction in case it might be taken as assent." Then, with no change of bv-bw rr the )midFte of Darlington, we were startled ny seeing on the front page of this paper, the picture of our Mayor Rickard and one of the last term councillors signing an agreement with Hydro officials to begin building a nuclear power station on twelve hundred acres of prime agricultural land! The Porter Commission's hearing began at some cost to tax-payers, here and in Port existent when you are struggling out with three heavy bags. Hotel clerks are almost invariably insolent, exuding the atmosphere that they are doing you a favour by letting you sign in. Car jockeys come squealing up to the front door of the hotel, jump out, hand you your keys with one hand while holding the other out, and disappear to let you, with your bad back, load the bags in- to the trunk. You can spend ten minutes looking for a clerk in a supermarket.'You could spend the rest of your life looking for a porter at an airport. You can turn purple in the face waiting for service in a department store, while two clerks chat about their night out at the singles club, and a third burbles away on the phone to her boyfriend. Occasionally you get a genuine smile or a real thank you, but more often they are perfunctory or non- existent. Why? Is it that native-born Canadians feel themselves above the service trades, so that they take out their resentment on their customer. Is that why most jobs in these fairly lucrative trades are held by immigrants? Is that why our minority of good restaurants are operated by immigrants. Julie is right. The country is magnificent. But high prices, bad food and bad manners make it less than a paradise for travellers. Hope. The decision of The Porter Commission has so far been in favour of the small group, dubbed ignorant and uninformed. That decision is based on health and safety factors. Don't be duped into believ- ing some great calamity to our "unemployment situation" happens without Darlington. The few local workers who would be used in construction wouldn't make a small dent in the numbers of our unemploy- ed. People are not leaving this region because of the cessa- tion of the nuclear station, (except those experts who came from far away). People ARE leaving because of the fact it was being built! An article in the paper from Queen's Pk. a few weeks ago stated and complained that this Region of E. Durham Northumberland used up more of the health and hospital services than any, other region in Canada. Small wonder. We're sandwiched between a leaking nuclear station and a radio-active dump-site. We've been assur- ed the dump-site may be cleaned up in two years time. If hydro wishes to re-coup losses and employ the unem- ployed it could make a fortune growing fruit and vegetables on that good fertile land meant for Darlington. At current prices they'd "clean up" and nobody would lose. OK developers, your thoughts re this letter are loud and clear. It is plain how- ever, only you and a few misguided leaders "plead for Darlington". Not the people of the town who have shown by their conservation effort these past years that less power of electricity is needed than hydro and business develop- ers' forecasts showed. You just jumped the gun is all . . loss of money? Less progress? More health? Longer life? These matters should be the people's choice since one way or another theirs is the cost. Signed: A. Smith