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Editorial Comm ~ChatterBox by John Gast Quebec Go Suck A Lemon Incensed would be a euphemistic way to describe this writer's reactjon when some local people walked into the STAR office and emphatically plunked down on the table a piece of literature (forgive the term) with every intention of having his newspaper carry it...let alone support it. Besides being the most outrageously superficial piece of beer-hall explication of a complicated and sensitive issue we've seen for some time, it also shows that those who submitted it to us haven't been reading the STAR...at least not the STAR editorials, or they would have realized that this newspaper has been repeatedly opposed to this kind of borderline hate literature. The item in question was a transcript of a radio commentary that some people apparently were so in tune with, they just had to send away for their very own copy. NS And what was this brilliant piece of philosophy that "*had phones ringing off the walls with people asking for copies", and "reflects the attitude of 95 per cent of the people in the community"? Well, this penetrating grasp of Canada's problems - starts out with an intellectual statement worthy of a Joseph Goebelles or Edi Amin. "Hey Quebec! Go suck a lemon!" That's the intro, and the mindless rabble that follows gets progressively worse as it systematically disparages the language, culture, lifestyle and views of millions of Canadians. Never mind the white collar Canadian or even the blue-collar citizen. This piece of garbage is aimed at the T-shirted Greb-booted beverage room resident who guffaws in his suds as he reads all about tellin' all those Frenchies to go suck a lemon. Har Har. In the self-inflating style of bigots everywhere, the authors see the English Speaking Righteous as a kind of benevolent patriarch who has patiently and exhaustedly forgiven French Canadians for being French, but now has reached the end of his all-knowing rope. "We've thrown away the Dr. Spock book and replaced it with a switch, No more bad by tactics to "rule the Roost' states this pompous pedagogue. "'Holding your breath and turning blue isn't going to help". Har, har, har. Talk about living in a glass house and pitching rocks, the authors instruct Quebeckers to take their tainted meat, past corruptions and future graft, the sewage polluted St. Lawrence, Marabell airport, air traffic controllers, James Bay project, and get out of Canada along with the French language. There's even a bit of that good old Anglo-Saxon jingoism as the author reminds Frenchmen that they shouldn't feel bad "about being trounced on the Plains of Abraham'. ' And then, of course, comes that part of this repulsive piece of scribbling that is becoming the rallying cry of the simple-minded everywhere. If you're Canada and over three years old, you've heard it before. It pops to the tongue like a Cereal jingle and is beginning to take its proper place along with other great jingles like Reds under Beds, Heathen Hordes, and Look Ma, No cavities. Like all jinglés; it has the added advantage of being based on simplistic, inaccurate trivia. "I would love to speak French," this piece of original narrative goes, "but I will not have it shoved down my throat" (paraphrasing the old chestnut: Some of my best friends are black). One wonders how many hours the author spent before the television set when Montrealers treated the - rest of Canada to an all-expense paid trip to the Olympics, because now, conveniently, he spouts off that Quebeckers can "take your Olympic deficit, Jean Deapeau, etc. etc." The author also reveals indignant disgust at all the graft, corruption and overspending in Montreal like it was a phenomenon peculiar to that province. Perhaps the line or two that shows a complete ignorance of how societies are organized, let alone the Canadian confederate system, is the one about the Ontarian as the Great Behefactor. 'Most of the advantages you've been getting," it goes, "might as 'well have been taken directly from the pockets of Ontario taxpayers. I do, you know, pay most of the shot." And can you believe the naivety of a statement like: Forgiving the black sheep of the family (Quebec) isn't easy when there's so much to forgive." "I find it hard to overlook the FLQ, the War Measurers Act, Montreal Mailboxes, organized crime, etc. etc." The author forgot the long Canadian winter and Communism. "You're the embodiment of everything I hate about minority groups," says the author, "the whining, the yelling, the screetching about your rights, etc." We put it differently. The author of this bit of junk is the embodiment of everything I hate about majority groups; the mindless repetition of platitudes; the generalizations; the insensitivity and often truculence; the force-in- numbers trampling of opposing views; the willingness to go along with the mob rather than accept the responsibility of investigation, analysis, then deduct- ion; the intolerance; the impatient belligerance; the self-rightousness; and very often the cavernous mouth and accompanying Lilliputian mental apparatus. People who spread this kind of garbage (and those who condone, approve, or ratify it) are the seeds that in the past have grown into Aushwitz, The KKK, - Apartheid, Belfast, and the mushroom that threatens to annihilate us all. 'In short, you are what's wrong with the world today. $ For those who can't live with bilingualism, we; a bilingual country| If we cease to be bilingual, we cease to be Canadian. To provide French Canadians the opportunity of dealing with their government in French is not "giving in" or "being generous", it is simply complying with a fact of Canadian law. advise them to turn I their citizenship and go. This is larger community, perhaps we won't deserve Think Before You Vote With Scugog's municipal election less than a month away, we are already beginning to hear the rumblings of a massive Anti-Pen movement underway within'the township. It has been the. Star's stand since the | v beginning, some 16 months ago, that the proposed reception centre would be of much more benefit to the township than it would be a detriment. But, whether you are in favour of the centre or not is really not significant in the upcoming election. Presently the penitentiary services are looking for sites in Uxbridge Township and a rs on December 6, voters there will be given the chance to vote for or against the centre...by way of a referendum. It would be a crime to think that Scugog anti-pener's would once again start a 'fear campaign' in thg township in an effort to either have a referendum held here or to get people elected to office who would oppose such an institution, not knowing the outcome of the 'S a Uxbridge decision. Who knows if the penitentiary services are even interested in Scugog again, after the bungling council made of the issue over a year ago? : The voters of Scugog should be taking a long, hard look at what: our local council has accomplished over the past three years, and if satisfied, should by all means vote for them on those merits. } LS 24 If you are unhappy with their performance, take the initiative to get out and vote Dec- ember 6 and elect the people you feel can run the business of the township to your expec- 'tations. We urge everyone in the township to put aside the fears of a penitentiary being built at this time, for the council you elect will have many other issues ahead of them during the next two years. To elect a council whose only LL ¢ aim would be to squelch the possibility of a reception centre being built in the township would be a complete injustice to every resident ' of Scugog. A council of this Jlive would become pawns around a table aftet their ultimate defeat of the project was completed, if the issue of the reception centre ever did come to a head. The remainder of their term would quite likely be © . filled, but with little interest in the major concerns of the township. It's your choice, but remember we are in need of a council that will work on behalf of the residents of the township for the full term. Co-operation Needed =, |, It was encouraging to hear most of the members of Scugog Township Council regard a proposed Scugog landfill site as one of the responsibilities we have as members of thé Region of Durham. There may still be some in the community who still rail about being swallowed up by the urban south, but it's a reality now, and no amount of complaining is going to change it. Faults or not, regionalism is here to stay, and if we are going to make it work as effectively as possible then we are going to have to -quit thinking of ourselves as an island surrounded by hostile waters. Perhaps one of the main ideas behind regionalism is the need in an ever-expanding society to get along and co-operate with one another to solve common problems. Strictly local efforts to combat pollution, for example, won't work if the community up- stream continues to pump waste into the river. If we simply sit here and doggedly oppose such things as landfill sites, perhaps the region will see more suitable industrial sites in other areas. In other words, if we won't take on any of the responsibilities of our membership in the the advantages.