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Letter to unborn child Voice in the wilderness should be heeded I grew up in Northern Ontario in the small community of Cochrane about miles north of Halton Hills to be exact as the polar bear flies Growing up in a semi isolated northern community can be both a blessing and a hardship in terms of recreational outlets of which there werent too many in Cochrane in the 1960s There was no indoor pool our community arena didn have ar ice and usually you could expect nine months of winter with a three month summer hiatus which was put to excellent use in various parts of the anatomy There was however the great outdoors the vast expanse we call ed the bush which was only a minute bike ride or slow jog from any part of town I was never an avid hunter or angler but the bush had a hold on me that exists to this day that was almost physical in its beckon My pals and I would disappear for days at a time into the bush during summer months and emerge mosquitobitten filthy and hungry with tattered clothes and an almost sensual sense of fulfill ment that never really was sated Winter months and the frozen panorama of snow blanketed woods offered even more challenges to intrepid youngsters My father was a member of th Cochrane Rod and Gun Club and for several years worked for what was then called the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests I used to trek with my father to Rod and Gun Club functions and he would often bring me along on work assignments that would take him into the bush The people I met because of this association with the outdoors could accurately be called salt of the earth types Hunters fishermen trappers hunting and fishing guides and lodge owners who had one thing common A true love of the out doors and a very serious sense of conservation responsibility As an ex serviceman I have a healthy respect for but no fear of firearms The true reflects this view Our outdoor recreation area is shrinking not by decree of nature but by human decree for the most part by people whose experience of the great outdoors is limited to watering plants in the backyard or reading volumes of reports written by back room campers who think a blue jay is a professional basebal player In the March edition of Angler and Hunter magazine published in Peterborough Ont editor Gary Ball offers an editorial view lamenting the sad state of fairs involving the serious threat o our outdoor heritage in a Letter to a grandchild yet unborn COMPUTER SALES SERVICE IBM COMPATIBLE 386 MHZ memory One or meg floppy meg hard disk Monochrome Monitor Hercules Compot bin Unit With Mr Balls permission I have decided to use the editorial in the Herald His is a voice in the wilderness that out to be heard As I see it anyway STEVEN C FOSTER BA LLB BARRISTER SOLICITOR 37 MAIN ST SOUTH GEORGETOWN nut 8734962 Dcir Gary is something of a lough letter for me to write Its tough mostly because we ve never met not certain thai we ever will meet In fact I not even sure of your name ItcouIdbeGary pcrhapscvenGrace You re the grandchild who yet been bom grandchild writing this letter now while every thing is still fresh in my mind to make sure that you and all of my descendants under stand what kind of man I was no matter what your teachers or your history books may tell you I want you to know from me before the history books are rewritten And I know hose history books arc being rcwni ten I see the manipulation and distortion before me each and every day My friends and I are being vilified daily in the mass media of this country We arc rapidly becoming the victims of a media and political witch hunt fuelled as were the first witch hunts by ignorance and fear are beginning to fight back and I am optimistic that if we all band together work together and stick together we can win Bui should another witch hunt like this one crop up in vour I d like vou to know what was like mm time struggle when it comes My sin is that I actually own firearms in 1990 Worse I actually shoot those firearms And worse still from time to time as the seasons permit use those firearms to hunt animals I am also an angler but the witch hunters seem comcni to leave anglers alone until the last until he irush the trappers hunters and hooters Tod a as the issues heat up my news papers my screen and even my political arc all painting he same portrait of hunters other firearms users I am portrayed as a raving maniac a very likely man to abuse my wife and child ren interest in rearms shooting and hunting is linked bv the wiich hunters to some son of mental disease sexual or blood lust Inyourdav I guess the portrait is even more devastating It matter a lot that the portrait is completely untrue Its like a lot of s popular images whatever sticks becomes true I have handled firearms now for nearly years and have never commit ted a criminal offense with or without a firearm The only act of committed against mv family excluding snoring was the time I kicked Charles in the shins He II be either or your uncle I don He was sob gov then thai he could have broken neck had he not found the whole thing so funn he collapsed in laughter J am neither a saint nor a nncr I am an man do he best I can do for myself am and he AS I SEE IT live in Oihcrs see me This all started as do most witch hunts with acts of insanity Firearms are of course lethal In the hands of a lunatic they are chillingly lethal But no one has yet come up with a way to against insanity In the late 1 there were a number of cases on this continent of mentallyderanged individuals slaughtering innocent people When they used matches or knives or screwdrivers or ropes or even motor vehi to snuff out lives were accepted as acts of insanity But when the lunatics used firearms the witch hunters declared war on honest responsible firearms owners ana demanded thai firearms be restricted and eventually banned Earlier in the decade there had been a tremendous of public opinion against the irresponsible use of one of the century s other most lethal weapons the automobile Speeding impaired driving were taking a staggering toll on our roads and highways Something society decided had to be done And some thing was done Automobiles were not banned High speed automobiles even racing automobiles capable of speeds double or triple existing speed limits were not banned Canadians and their lawmakers adopted very rational solu tions Existing laws were used to control criminal behavior not automobiles The country clamped down Judges passed sent with the idea of deterrence in mind Dnvtng under the influence of alcohol or drugs meant jail Careless or criminal lor behind the wheel drew stiff penalties Carnage on the streets and highways levelled off and actually began to decline It was a short time before criminal behavior with firearms caused a wave of public outrage the same country that had reacted so rationally toward curbing the problem of criminal use of automobiles Interestingly witch hunters were no content to confine their concerns to the mal abuse of firearms They went after the firearms themselves and their law abiding owners They demanded import restrictions model restrictions and bans on the ownership and use of firearms Why did happen Why did a country thai reacted so sensibly one of cnmi behavior so differently when it came to another Wn was the law abiding fire Nells DRIVING SCHOOL tho Ontario NEXT COURSE APRIL MAY 2 Mon Wed Evenings 6 30 For Information About Courses or Private Lessons phone 8772671 POSITIVE APPROACHES TO PARENTING A 6 week course in parenting young children VALERIE CUNNINGHAM RN CHILD CARE CONSULTANT St Andrews Church 89 Rd S Wednesdays 1245 245pm Apnl4- 35person or Child care provided Call 8732960 8779231 PARTIALLY SUBSIDIZED MIRACLE FOOD MART arms owner and user called to account for the criminal behavior of others when the law a biding motorist was am not certain that 1 can answer either question The closest I can come is a lion that fear and ignorance were at the root of the problem The fear came from a number of sources among them the increas ing urbanization of Canada population a population that neither knew nor understood firearms That population knew only of the uses of guns of the increasing urban society soaring drug traffic and violence associated with growing alienation from family units and more violence These people in the cities were fright They had been long removed from the land in this country Firearms to them were the tools of wamors and criminals unfamil lar and fngntenmg What frightened them they wanted removed In contrast most of them owned used and even enjoyed auto mobiles lethal though they were Control the criminal use of automo biles they told the politicians but leave our personal vehicles alone And the cuns listened for they too owned used and appreciated automobiles But the witch hunters said do not own use or understand firearms We are of them Please remove them And the politicians began to listen And the mass media of the country the newspapers radio stations television stations and magazines being largely city institutions shared the fear and ignorance They fuelled the flames These fnghtencd people huddled their concrete and asphalt jungles built where ducks once nested and deer once roamed They pointed their fingers at hunters as des troyers of wildlife Those of us hunters almost all who had worked since the 1 to preserve wildlife habitat looked on in dis belief Those of us who had raised and con tnbuted millions upon millions of dollars to ensure a place for the wild creatures of this continent couldnt believe what we were hearing We watched as the use of renewable natural resources like wood and leather and meat was replaced by the use organic synthetics derived fiom mate rials that could never be replaced We watched those synthetics choke our air our waterways and our lands We watched as a nation began itself in its own refuse Those of us again whohad led the fight for licencing and firearms tram ng those who had fought to curb the criminal element within our ranks were stunned We knew we were right We knew we were honest caring law abiding citizens who had worked long and hard for wildlife for forests for clean air and water We knew we t crazed killers perverts or nals We knew cared And we believed as we had been raised to believe thateventu ally the truth would win the day for us We were proud and independent people We watched well financed charitable organ nations plunder Canadian pockets to serve their antitrapping fishing and anti firearms agendas We watched as those untold millions were spent not in preservation of wildlife habitat not in wild life rehabilitation or research but on rais more funds for the witch hunt war chest We watched as these same groups mounted attacks on all use of animals cultural groups medical research laborato ries breeding operations designed to save endangered species all came under fire We stood by and watched For years most of us steadfastly refused to get organized to get involved We refused to believe anything bad could happen to us Our voices were scattered rj often raised each other in petty squabbles hunters against trappers against anglers We remained aloof from the who fought on our behalf Almost too late some of us began to see the future We began to join organizations like the Federation of Anglers and Hunters the group I belong to We began to spread our message in the face of the propa ganda We began to demand an accounting from our political representatives and the civil servants our taxes hired But countless thousands of our fellow hunters and fisher men continued to stand stubbornly alone unheard As I wnte this letter our battle is far from over We can still hunt and fish We can still own firearms for the moment But the witch hunt is heating up once again gathering momentum And still we have not learned to organize with one voice in defending what is so impor tant to us I don know for sure what will happen over the next decade I m not certain what sort of a world you will grow up in But I know if we and those who follow us do not continue to stand up and be counted you won t have much use for my bequests my fishing rods my shotguns and the old Savage that my grandfather left to me One thing I ask is thai you do not become complacent We were complacent once and nearly lost a precious part of our and your future BOM MtiKTSOH CHUySltKDOBGC UP WOULD YOU LIKE 109 FINANCING ANDREW DILLON Toll Fret Srrihg We have Shadows Spirits Daytonas low low Interest rates or perhaps we can show you our selection of good used vehicles For Personalized Service contact ANDREW DILLON 324 QUEEN STREET EAST BRAMPTON Associate Tax Consultants INCOME TAX RETURNS DONE ton Thurs 00 a 9 a m aturday 3 in 101 GUELPH ST GEORGETOWN 8772217 WE ARE FULLY COMPUTERIZED