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Page’6 — Halton Hills This Week, Wednesday; May 26,1993) Editorial These are the good old days One truly wonders if there ever really was such a time, era, decade, often warmly referred to as ‘the good old days’. No mere maudlin meandering this, but a combination of thoughts, conversations and opinions perused over the Victoria Day long weekend. Granted, the three-day reprieve from the working world (enjoyed by most people) couldn’t Teally be termed ‘balmy days in May’, weather-wise, but as the political prisoner rot- ting in chains in a Ugandan prison might exclaim, “It sure beats hanging around here.” Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand. “Ha!”, snorted the crusty conversationalist peering malevo- lently through the blue cloud of pipe tobacco smoke. “Ill tell you what the good old days were. It was when men were men and women weren’t!” “Pardon?”, I queried. “You know damn well what I mean, don’t give me that dumb look. When men were allowed to go out and earn a decent wage to take care of the family and the women stayed home, looked after the kids, cooked the meals and cleaned the house. Everyone knew what their role wa’. We don’t have that anymore and that’s why there’s so many problems.” Taken at face value, this statement might grate on some, seem outrageous to others and be rejected out of hand by the vast majority as the mere ramblings of an old man. However, there is a core of truth to the outburst. “The good old days, eh?”, pondered another acquaintance. “Well, I can’t go that far back, but I seem to remember my father was able to get a pack of cigarettes for around 50 cents and gas was about the same too - by the gallon. As a kid, I also seemed to have a lot more freedom. Things weren’t as orga- nized and we made our own fun. Camped out in the bush, played scrub baseball, street hockey, went fishing when we wanted to. Hell, I can remember when you used to be able to get 10 black balls for a penny. Are you allowed to say. that nowadays. I don’t think black balls are around anymore. If they were, we’d probably have to call them balls of color.” “I don’t know if you can ever really define the good old days,” offered a university friend of mine. As you know, mem- ories tend to take on a rosier hue with the passing years. What might have seemed bad at the time, in Tetrospect, now doesn’t seem so bad, and the good times now seem to have been even better. It seems, though, there were a lot more free thinkers around in our time.” So what, pray tell, were the good old days. Or better --horror of horrors - will the Mulroney years be looked back fondly by future generations as the good old days? Were the Trudeau years that good? Depends on which side of the political fence you sit. What about the ‘60’s and the hippies, the-Vietnam war, the assassination of John F, Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis? The ‘50’s, with the Korean War and the Suez crisis? To many, strange as is may seem, the war years of the ‘40’s and the ensuing years of that decade were the definitive good old days when everyone - at least those on the winning side - pulled together for the good of the whole. Then there were the dirty ‘30’s, which brings us back to the Present, in a deja vu sense, and a time of real economic hard- ship. The good old days might best be termed the quintessential mind warp, because of dissatisfaction with the present. Be that as it may, but you only get one kick at the can and better realize ‘that your own good old days are happening right now - whether we admit it, or not. Colin Gibson i | HIS WEEN Halton Hills This Week, y edition i ry ay at 2: St., Georgetown, Ont. L7G 41, and is printed in Oakvil at Q.E. Web Printing. Guelph Halton Hills ly written consent of the publisher. In the event of i isi ser- vices at price, goods or services may not be sold. Advertising is merely an offer to i time. PUBLISHER Ron Beam oe EDITOR: Colin Gibson PRODUCTION MANAGER: Kathleen Topolsek CIRCULATION MANAGER: Marie Shadbolt OFFICE MANAGER: Jean Shewell HALTON HILLS THIS WEEK IS INDEPENDENTLY OWNED & OPERATED. PHONE: 873-2254 FAX:873-3918 The People's Corner Libertarians forsake phone booth To the Editor, T enjoyed a good-laugh from your description of a Libertarian Party of Canada convention. In fact, a lot of Libertarians also enjoyed it because copies were Passed around at our national lead- ership convention held in Toronto this past weekend. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a phone booth of suitable size to accommodate attendees and were forced to rent facilities from the Holiday Inn. But it’s a great idea for cutting costs - as long as Bell Canada doesn’t mind. Calling us a populist or special- interest party is off the mark, how- ever. Our party follows a fixed set of principles that offer no special advantages, deals or favors to any- one. They protect the rights of each individual in society, something government at all levels has failed to do. This makes us unique compared to other parties whose “policies” are driven by special interests or opinion polls and change from year to year. Our principles have not changed in the 20 years since the Party was founded. But other par- ties have been adopting some of them as their “policies” continually fai dent you will agree the phone booth would have been a bit up the good work. We can all use a laugh these days. Hilliard Cox, Leader, Libertarian Party of Canada, _l was trained as a farmer. We came to Canada in 1954 hoping to find a farm here. At that time, Ontario had plenty of beautiful The family farm, this most sen- sible of all Canadian institutions of the past, still existed. Everywhere one went in southern Ontario, healthy families made their living on 150 acres of land. Few had more. One hundred and fifty acres was the right amount for a family to make a living from and to be independent. The family farm was the very ‘these f. Nobody called ‘ms an “industry” i farm Numerous books and thousands of papers have been published dealing with the application of these principles. The enclosed list of the most popular books will show you we are not what you claim. I recommend “The Libertarian Idea” by prof. Jan Narveson of the University of Waterloo. Now here comes the truth: We couldn’t use a phone booth for this convention because Narveson was a keynote speaker and there was no room to fit him and the video equipment in the booth for taping. We’ll send you a copy of the tape when it’s ready and are confi- P.O.W.E.R. sale a great success To the Editor As the backs are just about Teturned to normal and the heat lini- ment has been put away for another year, the P.O.W.E.R. executive would like to take this Opportunity to thank the many people who have made this year’s garage sale a suc- cess. We want to thank the businesses who supported our efforts with their donations. We want to thank Georgetown Terminal Warehouse for their storage space ‘and man- Power, without which our sale would not have been possible. We want to thank the many volunteers who gave of their time and labor to make this event possible. Thanks go specifically to Susan Coxe, Lois Fraser and Mary Grossman. Their tremendous efforts made this year’s sale financially rewarding and ful- filling. The many hours of volun- teer time were appreciated. In events like this, we can see the true spirit of community shining through. For the P.O.W.E.R. Executive | P. Hynds ‘the proce: ci In those days, farming meant you used all your waking hours | are for y and ness the end of this whol some way of life. But by 1 Our taste for farming had evapo- tated, because the pressures of the market forced the North fountainhead of our democracy, ole- | 961 Editor’s note: We thank Mr. Cox for the reading list and his upbeat and humorous letter, taking us to task for an editorial comment - we hope this sort of give and take becomes politically contagious. Mr. Cox succeeds Stan Tyminski, who left the party to run for the presidency of Poland. their lives, They hate to imprison their laying hens in wire cages and to shut them up in window- less buildings. They know that it is wrong to use a good field merely as a feed lot, thereby poi- soning the soil with an overabun- dance of manure for years to come. They would rather not American to pt farming methods that were farming. _ Few farmers still care for their farms, as the majority of farmers once did. They cannot afford it anymore. I always thought the price of food cheap in this coun- try, and I still do, In other countries and in other times people paid more to feed themselves, compared to their earnings. Many of our prepared, ready-to-be-eaten food stuffs are expensive, but that is hardly the fault of the farmer since he does not benefit from prepared food. A food processing industry is push- ing prepared foodstuffs under the guise of “saving work”. The truth is, the consumer does not want to spend money on food, he or she lusts after a thousand things of doubtful value instead. This con- stant push for cheaper food forces the farmer to cut comers. Instead of weeding with a hoe, he uses poisons; instead of returning the manure his animals produce to his fields, he uses artificial fertil- izer; instead of using machines | moderately, he is forced to buy heavy, complicated and seldom- used machinery that is costing him a mint. The capital needed Acton in opposition to good, long-range Ti farm : totally dependent on food imports. This is terrible house- hold management and no way to balance one’s budget. Our own food production should save us | the money we need for imports of another kind. : North American “agribusiness” is fantastically productive. It is also very, very expensive in a way we prefer not to mention. The results of North American farming methods are loss of soil, loss of farms and farmers, soil and water pollution, the decay of communities, and the slow destruction of the local food sup- ply. It is an absurdity that fewer and fewer people can find work | where they are needed. most, | namely on farms (because the farmers can’t pay them), whereas in the cities we have millions who are unemployed or living on_ welfare, ; - Economics? It doesn’t deserve that name. I call it madness. Georgetown, since 1962.