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f LAA AT 0. NA ORG NH RSIS FR ROL} Remember when..? 50 YEARS AGO Thursday, November 5, 1925 % An application has been # Editorial Comments - Violence..where it lives E 2 There's a growing tendancy these days to blame the media for most of society's ills, inspired by pre-Watergate Washington's since-admitted frontal attack on the press that, despite Watergate, has had more than a little success. Convicted felon and admitted media-hater Spiro Agnew still gets standing ovations from some audiences, while the media is considered by many, at best, as mischieviously sensationalistic. That's in the U.S., you say? Well, we hear familiar sounds following the second horror story involving school, students, guns and death. In statements following the shooting, many put it in undisguisable Spiroism: The media did it. These are the same people, mind you, who will call anyone concerned about television violence an 'alarmist'. "Prove to me," they'll tell you, 'that 150 shootings and other violent acts on prime-time T.V. every few days is harmful to the average 10-year-old, and we'll complain. The same guy will probably hang over the boards at his home town arena and urge junior to murder the guy on the other team. : ~ Or, he's the guy who'll make political points by publicly screaming on the legislature floor for stricter gun control. And when all the hay has been made of it, he forgets about it. In a society where the long arm of the law had to stretch into the sports arenas to enforce rules and regulations and keep players from entertainingly maiming one another, we all must accept the responsibility that goes along with our own attitudes. The media, more than anything else, is a reflection of ourselves. If anything, the Media serves to warn us of what we are all becoming...or could become. It is easy to condemn the bearer of bad news as its creator. Pharaohs, Hollywood tells us, used to put to death those who spoke of bad tidings. Yet the plague comes, anyway. We must quit looking for scapegoats in the 6 o'clock news or today's banner headline, and start finding the causes and answers to problems such as violence where we it lives. In our mirrors. i - . 2 Media madness? Speaking of the media as a scapegoat, we've heard some well-publicized reports by government officials that the cause of the apparent lack of co-operation in the country to the federal govern- ment's price and wage restraints is because...you guessed it...the poor and sceptical way the media has presented the program to the public. "YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS made to the Town Council for the use of Town Hall for the operation of a moving picture machine during the winter months, Owing to certain requirements as to exits, a special temporary permit is being sought from the Amusement Tax Depart- ment, Nothing definite has resulted as yet. WARNING! "A stranger has been in town asking young girls to go for a ride with him in his auto. DON'T. Parents and guardians will do well to warn their child- ren of the danger of accept- ing the - advances of strangers. The points standing from the field day events: at the High School including high jump, standing broad jump, running broad jump, hop, step and jump, 100 yard dash, 220 yard dash, % mile race and shot put is as follows: Seniors - Arnold Roach, 750 points; Clifford Vickery 645; Ben Ward 620; George Cawker 595. Juniors - Lloyd Rundle, 870 points; Robert Brown 830; Ralph Wallace 715; Vrytle Crozier 695. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, November 2, 1950 ..Mr. Roy Cornish acted as chairman for the first important hockey meeting for the district. Attendance was good and a set of regul- ations to be carried out by a parent body slated as fol- lows: Dr. R. S. Irwin, pre- sident; C. Hewitt, Vice-pre- sident; 'Archie MacMaster, Secretary; Bruce Beare, Treasurer. Girl Guides and Brownies collected $30. during their annual "Cookie Day". An arrangement worked out between the High School and the Port Perry Star will give students interésted in journalism the opportunity to cover events at the school for the local paper. Jack (continued on page 5) My autobiography by John Squirrelly | have kept diaries all my life and in them | have recorded the trivial as well as the major events that | have experienced in almost 38 years. Admittedly, a good part of my infancy is somewhat blurred in my memory but my mother assures me, frequently in a broken voice, that | was a most unusual child. It was shortly after | learned to write that the urge to commit to paper my daily activities arose. | now have neary 10,000 pages in inimitable history ranging from a barely legible childish scrawl to a bold mature style of masculine handwriting that is almost completely unreadable. Not too long ago, | decided it was time to release them to the world as my autobiography and, after labouring for most of my two weeks vacation this' summer, | came up with a 462 page manuscript. It contained everything that formed the individual that sits now behind this typewriter, all my joys and woes, my emotions, indeed my very soul had been poured into it. | sent if off to a Toronto publisher and sat back to dream and count the royalties. | could see it all. "That's John Squirrelly," they'd say, "poured his soul into his book. Made 'im a millionaire, it did." | opened another beer. Four weeks later, my manuscript was back. After some desultory remarks on the quality of the writing, mainly that it was juvenile and bordering on the illiterate, the editor went.on to say, *... while | agree with you that being refused a position as an assistant shipping clerk has some good possibilities for demonstrating pathos, | did feel that telling the personnel manager he would never see his children alive again was not the mark of a sportsmanlike person. If you ever write another book, please do me the kindness to send it to one of my competitors." | was encouraged by this last comment and promptly did so. Three weeks later, the mailgirl contemptuously tossed the package back on my stoop. The note accompanying my latest rejection slip indicated that the editor felt that if the plot had been as thick as the manuscript, the action as varied as the errors, and the general theme as deep as the hole in which he would like to bury it, it might have been worthwhile. "'"However," he continued, "'beat- ing up a 10-year-old newsboy when you were sixteen sitnply because the paper listed you as a grade eight failure is not, | feel, an effective use of irony.' | hastily made some corrections and sent my book off to another publisher, an American company this time, together with a note on its production. Two weeks later | picked up my manuscript out of the rose bushes. Typed on the bottom of my new rejection slip were some generally derogatory observations which concluded with, "You say you poured your soul into this book. Well, we are not in the market for buying souls. However, | know someone who is and | strongly suggest you go to Hell and find him and take your manuscript with you." | began to realize that perhaps there was something missing from my work, a particular essence, a certain element that marks one piece of writing off from another and gives it the touch of greatness. Then, quite suddenly, while | was analyzing it, | knew where | was in error. | was sending it to the wrong people! Obviously, it should go where sloppy and extremely poor taste are not a hindrance to having the material produced. | sent it to Hollywood. And I'm back dreaming of royalties again. PORT PERRY STAR Company Limited Phone985-7383 (x CNA Serving Por Perry, Reach, Scugog and Cartwright Townships ALL, a ¢, Sa, % § 1, \ "ras ws P. HVIDSTEN, Publisher John Gast J. Peter Hvidsten, Editor Advertising Manager Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Member of the Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association Published every Wednesday by the Part Perry Star Co. Ltd., Port Perry, Ontario Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, and for payment of postage in cash Second Class Mail Regisiration Number 0265 Subscription Rate: In Canada $8.00 per year Elsewhere $10.00 per year. Single copy 20c