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ae ae i ia. i ie dl i. ia we, oop EC UNMET. DMT. LSS, OF WE WE NER NRE YE 6 -- PORT.PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, August 29, 1989 The Pout Perey Shar 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO PHONE 985-7383 FAX 985-3708 The Port Perry Star is authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, for cash payment of postage. Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 Subscription Rate: InCanada $20.00 per year Elsewhere $60.00 per year. Single Copy 50¢ EDITORIAL Publisher - J. Peter Hvidsten Editor - John B. McClelland News/Features - Julia Ashton News Reporter - Rob Streich PRODUCTION Annabell Harrison Trudy Empringham Darlene Hlozan BUSINESS OFFICE Office Manager - Gayle Stapley Accounting - Judy Ashby Billing Department - Louise Hope ADVERTISING Advertising Co-ordinator - Valerie Ellis Advertising Sales Representative: Anna Gouldburn Retail Sales - Kathy Dudley, Linda Ruhl, Tracy O'Neil Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Ontario Community Newspaper Association Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Ltd. Port Perry, Ontario Editorial Comment 50 YEARS AGO On Friday, September 1, the world will mark an infa- mous anniversary. It will be 50 years since the start of World War 2. On that fateful morning a half century ago, Adolph Hitler turned his armed forces loose on Poland, Germany's small neighbour to the east. What followed in the next five years and 11 months was a world wide conflict without equal in the history of this planet. Some historians say that 50 million people lost their lives during World War 2. Included among the dead were 50,000 Canadians. When peace was finally restored in the late summer of 1945, all of Europe, and much of Asia was in ruin. The world had witnessed for the first time, the horrible destruc- tive power of the atomic bomb. In Europe, Hitler's demon- ic "final solution" claimed six million men, women and chil- dren. They were gassed, shot, starved, beaten and ° worked to death. Auschwitz became a household word and a testament to how low the morality of mankind could sink. "Where was God," people asked themselves. Others, perhaps more to the point wondered "where was man- kind." No other period in history has been studied in such microscopic detail as the first half of the 20th century, as historians and scholars poke and prod the origins and causes of World War 2, and in doing so try to shed some meaningful light on what truly was the darkest era since the start of civilization. In the years right after the conclusion of World War 2, the world made a valiant effort to put its house in order once and for all, to set up structures that would guarantee global conflict would never be repeated. There were some initial successes, but it wasn't long before the world once more broke into ideological camps which viewed each other with hostility and fear. True, global war has been avoided in the past half century, but the killing has gone on un-checked in hun- dreds of "regional conflicts" in nearly every corner of the globe.lIt's as if no lessons were learned. The world is still spending an estimated $3 million per minute on weapons and "defense," and though tensions among the superpowers have waned in recent years, their efforts to reduce nuclear arsenals have proved mar- ginal at best. . Though the visual scars from World War 2 have for the most part healed and all the players who strutted the world stage in that dismal time have long since departed this earth, several legacies remain with us. . Numerous countries of eastern Europe and the Baltic region remain in the same chains imposed by the Soviet "liberators" when they pushed the Nazis out in the spring of 1945. : The people of these countries have been denied basic rights and freedoms, their culture, languages and religions have been ground down (but not erased completely) over the last 45 years. And although there have been recent hopeful signs that some fundamental freedoms will be restored, full and complete autonomy and independence from Moscow is still a huge question mark. How crushingly ironic it is to survey the world today and think of why it went to war 50 years ago this week. Perhaps another 50 years will have to pass before the guns are truly silent and all people enjoy real freedom. LAN HE CFL, | THINK THEY VE | coy TROUBLES! "<>" = NN SSN THE WAITING ROOM On behalf of all the good people of Scugog Township I'm making an appeal this week to the Doctors of this community. : If there is one complaint | hear more often than any other in this town, it is the length of time a person has to wait to get in to see their doctor. Making patients wait for anywhere up to an hour and a half past a given appointment time is not only inconsiderate, but is possibly the most frustrating experience in a persons day. A couple of weeks ago | made an appoint- ment to see my doctor, and was told to be in his office at 10:45. As is normal for me, | arrived on time (my first mistake). Noticing the room was about half filled with waiting patients | grabbed a couple of maga- Zines, sat down and began to leaf through the pages, reading the odd article. About 35 minutes after arriving in the office a nurse called my name. | began to follow her to one of the small rooms at the rear of the build- ing, when she asked if | had brought my maga- zine with me. This was the first hint my wait wasn't over, and | kidded with her, as | picked up another magazine, that the doctor must be a little be- hind. She smiled coyly, and said, "yes, a little." Seated in his office, | read my book, listen- ing as doors opened and closed nearby. Every so often the sound of the doctors voice would ring out an apology to a waiting patient as he closed to door to another room. At 11:40, just about one hour past my appoint- ment, an associate doctor walked into the room, sat down, picked up my folder and began to ask questions in regards to my appointment. She checked me over, wrote out a prescription, and walked out of the room saying the doctor would be with me shortly. One hour and fifteen minutes after | arrived for my 10:45 a.m. appointment, my good na- tured doctor breezed into the room, apologizing for his tardiness as he closed the door. | replied, "it's all right", but down deep | was ticked right off having to wait for so long. | don't know why | said it was all right, because it wasn't! | guess it's because | like this man, and | didn't want to hurt his feelings. Random Jottings by }J. Peter Hvidsten I've always felt that everyones time is valu- able and nobody should be asked, or forced to wait for a lengthy period when an appointment has been scheduled. | just can't imagine a doctor waiting for an hour in our front office to see the editor or pub- lisher of this newspaper. In fairness to the doctors, | know on some occasions they get called out to emergencies which are beyond their control. | don't think any- one minds waiting in this situation, as they would want to be taken care of immediately if they were in an emergency situation. But when you sit in a waiting room for an hour waiting for your appointment, and you hear other patients have an appointment at the same time, with the same doctor, it's a little frustrating. If there is any consolation for the waiting we do to see our favourite physician, it's the quality of care available to this community. Scugog is indeed fortunate to have excellent medical facli- ties, and our M.D.'s are second to none. But all the good about our medical faciltites and doctors is quickly forgotten when a trip to the doctors office is ruined by the ordeal of excessive waiting. Just an observation! THE BELL TOLLS Not sure how many times a week | walk along Queen Street past the Post Office, but it numbers in the dozens. But until Sunday night, | didn't realize the clock, and the bell in the old bell tower are no longer synchronized. We had just finished the 3:00 a.m. feeding of the twins and climbed back between the cool sheets when the crisp ring of the post office clock began to sound. | don't know why | began to count, but after three strikes, when | expected it to stop, the bell kept ringing. Four.....five......six, it continued sending out the chilling sound into the black night.......nine......ten......eleven......twelve! When morning arrived, | drove by the pos) office, looked up and found that the face of the * clock was only out by about 15 minutes, while the bell was three hours slow. Maybe someone from the post office could arrange to get the time and the chime reset, so once again, we can rely on that timely old clock.