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PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, April 21, 1987 -- § ~~ Viewpoint by John B. McClelland It must be a sign of the times. Most people know how TV preacher Jim Bakker fell from grace over an affair several years ago with a young secretary with his church. Can you believe that now the Florida motel where Bakker and the woman stayed is being deluged with re- quests for pieces of furniture, linen and bedding from the room? And the motel has had hundreds of requests from people who want to book in and spend a night in that very room. Are people taking leave of their senses" : I can fully understand a loyal fan wanting a' spuvenir from the room where a rock star or movie idol stayed. Nothing wrong with that. But why in the name of *eaven would somebody want a chunk of furniture or a piece of the pillow from the room where Jim Bak- ker had an affair with a half-drunk woman barely out of her teens? Sick, that's what it is. TO NAME A SCHOOL A trustee with the Scarborough Board of Education is facing legal action because he refuses to publicly apologize for remarks he made about Mohandas Gandhi. During a school board discussion about whether to add Gandhi's name to a list of suitable names for a new school, trustee David Horrox said Gandhi should not be considered because he was not a good role model for children and some of his personal habits and quirks were strange, to say the least. Some members of Toronto's Hindu community were outraged at the trustee's remarks. stormed a board of education meeting to demand the apology and failing to get it, they now plan to haul Horrox in front of the Human Rights Commission and/or take legal ac- tion against him. Horrox, to his credit, is not caving in to these threats. He said his statements about Gandhi were not meant to slander anyone, but rather were historical truths about the late Indian leader who led the strug- gle to Independence from Britain in the late 1940's. Never mind Gandhi's personal habits, which were bizzare, to say the least. Why would the Scarborough Board of Education even consider naming a school after him? He has no relevance to the history of Canada, On- tario or Toronto. That's the main point in this sordid little affair that is rapidly becoming more than a tempest in a tea- -pot. Surely we can find some Canadians of historical significance to name our schools after. Gandhi is not one of them. And the people who are now racing around clamour- ing for the trustees neck should be ignored. Since when it is a crime to be critical of some historical figure. Since when is it a crime to speak the truth, even if the truth hurts a little or is unpleasant. - There is going to be a major back-lash over this issue if the members of the Hindu community insist on pushing this much further. Already, they are talking about a major demonstration in Queens Park next month. The Toronto papers last were filled with letters to the editor in support of Horrox. And to the surprise of nobody, the Moslem and Sikh communities have jumped into the controversy as well. This of course is a carry- over of the ethnic squabbling between Moslems, Sikhs and Hindus that continues in India today. I don't know about you, but I get a little teed off when people start screaming "racism" and 'human rights commission' at the slightest incident. Maybe the remark Horrox made about Gandhi are offensive to some. But talk about making mountains out of mole-hills MONEY MATTERS Got to hand it to sportscaster Pat Marsden who beat the Vegas Casino last week in an Ontario court room. Marsden, late of CFTO sports and now on the Sports Network as a phone-in host welched on a $20,000 gambl- ing debt with the Dunes. Three years ago, he lost $30,000 there. He wrote three cheques at $10,000 each to cover the loss, two of them post-dated. When he got back to Toronto, he simplyd3sued a stop payment order on the post-dated cheques. . Well, the Dunes Hotel didn't like that much, so they took him to court in Ontario. The judge ruled that Nevada Gaming Laws have no place in Ontario and he threw the case out. Marsden | is off the hook for the 20 grand. I wonder if they're still taking cheques from Cana- dians in Vegas, especially post-dated ones. Hmmmmmm. Still with money, a front page story in last week's Star about Regional council pay hikes contained a goof. Chairman Gary Herrema is not getting the four per cent hike retroactive to January 1. He got his raise previous- . ly. The chairman is not making $60,000 per year as the | article stated. 1t's only $57,000 and change. AA ct a ASA Yesterday's Memories 70 YEARS AGO Wed. April 18, 1917 Rev. D. Norman, D.D., Missionary from Japan was the guest of Rev. John Harris. Mr. Gordon Bradley has enlisted in the Divisional Signals Corps of the Engineers Department and is leaving for Ottawa. Scugog Council, the Reeve and Clerk were instructed by motion of John Ploughman to sign the Dominion Alliance petition asking the government to stop the sale and importation of Intoxicating Liquors. ~~ Mr. WW. Holtby has purchased a Chev. car from Beare Bros., Port Perry. A serious fire consumed the barn on the old James I. Davidson farm at Ashburn. The loss was estimated at $20,000. 45 YEARS AGO Thurs. April 23, 1942 Mr. Art Jemison presided, when 50 members of the Business Men's Association met in the Sebert House. The new officers for the year are: Pres. A.L. McDermott; Sec'y Percy Densham; Treasurer A.M. Lawrence. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Brock and Mr. and Mrs. R.A. Peel attend- ed the "Ladies Night" of Composite Lodge, Whitby. Dr. M.B. Dymond of Toronto, has purchased Dr. Peterson's in- terest in the medical partnership of Drs. Rennie and Peterson. He will be in his office, starting May 1st, 1942. 30 YEARS AGO Thurs. April 25, 1957 Mr. Murray Jackson, Brooklin, was named /Grand Champion Livestock Showman at the recent R.A S. Royal, held annually by the student body of Kemptville Agricultural School of which he is a se- cond } year student. Mr. Storey Beare was re-elected as the President of the Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Garry Edgar, student of Port Perry High School, received the outstanding award from the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada, the Tom Longboat Trophy. This medal was awarded tothe Indian student in Southern Ontario showing the greatest proficiency in _ sports, leadership, character and general proficiency. 20 YEARS AGO Thurs. April 20, 1967 A capacity crowd filled the Arena for the 9th annual Ice Revue staged by the Port Perry Figure Skating Club on Friday night. The theme of the first half was "Home on the Range' starring Paul Stone as the farmer and Marlene Ives as his wife. Six daughters and a far: myard of animals completed the scene. Suess ""A Salute to Canada's Centennial" completed the show, starr- ing Sharalyn Reader and Jean MacTavish Archie Cecil Menzies of Port Perry, has been appolited as a Justice of the Peace for Ontario County. Mrs. E: Hayes, Port Perry, has returned home after three weeks visit in Ottawa and since Easter, three weeks in London, visiting three sisters and a brother. (Turn to page 6) Letters Dear Councillors: : As a former member of the Scugog Memorial Library Board of Directors and a former employee of ~ the library, I read with dismay that Township Council had not approved - the Library Boards' budget. - The Scugog Memorial Library Board has always acted very responsible when drawing up the gbudget. "Exorbitant" is a very un- ? fair assessrhent. . requested Budget cut unfair To The Editor: The Scugog Council has suggested an 11.5 percent reduction in our pro- posed budget for 1987. We feel that it is not justified. Just over 50 percent of the population are registered members of the library. In 1986, there was a 36 percent in- crease in the number of people com- ing into the library, and an 82 per- cent increase in in-library use of materials. These increased demands for service resulted in the Board having to request an increase in their budget for 1987. Continued Let's bury the labels To The Editor: 'We are a group of people who began a "People's First Group' in Port. Perry. We formed our group six months ago. It is a group where "we learn to speak up for ourselves. We meet regularly and talk about issues that concern us. We are work- ing to do sogigthing about these issues. One of the issues that confronts us on a daily basis is to be labelled by people around us. We do not like the, label mentally retarded, mentally handicapped, mentally disabled, or developmentally handicapped. . Sometimes, it makes us feel like (Turn to page 6) growth in the Township leads to in- . creased use of services. We believe that it is important to have good library service in this community, and that this community has demonstrated a Gogire for such service. The budget that we have re- quested for 1987 would mean an in- crease of $3.09 per household ($15.93 in 1986 to 19.02 in 1987). The municipal support of our library is the lowest in Durham Region. The following statistics are the latest available from the Ministry of Citizenship and Culture, and are for 1985: - Local Support Per Household - BIAR aor inicsnisanrcincsrninsiiapie $48.92 Oshawa... $44.75 Pickering............................ $42.27 Whitby... $41.49 (Tum to page 6) hg "Council should reconsider budget © Scugog Township's population has increased enormously over the past ~ years. This population increase puts "further demands on all our recrea- tional facilities. The library's _ membership now numbers well over 7000 people. That is over half our Township' Ss population. There is an! ever increasing de- mand for library services from a staff that has not increased in size since the new library was opened. More money is needed to keep ex- isting services operating. Staff salaries are far below those of our municipality's staff and other libraries of equal size. Maintenance costs have escalated substantially as has the cost of books, magazines, audio-visual resources and programs for the public. Scugog Township is fortunate to have such a dedicated and in- telligent group of citizens as presently sit on the Library Board of Directors. Council is irresponsible to deal with their budget in such a fashion. Please reconsider this budget submission. Yours truly, Elaine Hammett Port Perry ter to the editor. Letters to the Editor our policy It has always been the policy of this newpspaper to encourage our ~ readers to make use of the letters to the editor column. -- . Our readers have a right to freely express their opinions and view- points on just about any subject, and we feel that a lively letters col- umn helps make a better community newspaper. We insist, however, that a letter writer sign his or her name. On rare occasions, we will agree to with-hold publication of a letter writer's name, if we feel there are very good reasons to do so. Under no circumstances will this paper print an anonymous let- While we enjoy receiving letters from ovr readers, we must con- tinue to insist on knowing the identity of the writer.