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THE WEEKEND OUTLOOK 1991 Page Peoples Forum- Commenting on the Yuppie threat Dear Editor I have just read the letter from Mr John stating that the Yuppie threat is causing the breakdown of the family unit and wish to make some comments and ask some questions Here they are Don be too hard on your Yup pie friends Mr especially your Yuppie woman friends in their choice of a career over family Your nuclear family model is becoming increasingly rare only one ten families now have a working Dad with a stay at home Mom looking after the kids There are good reasons for this In our society we reward with dollars Consider the rewards of the stay at home Mom a She is one man away from poverty No benefit packages for her Totally dependent on her husbands bounty she is depen dent on him for everything but the family allowance cheque This means that no way Is there going to be an equal partnership in this marriage To redress this balance would you be willing to see 50 of your gross pay sent directly to her No strings at Isolation is her lot She may have friends over for coffee or see the girls once in a while but her job is tied up in four walls with little kids to look after seven days a week twenty four hours a day How much of that Isolation are you willing to take on to relieve her c Housework Repetitive endless much of it mindless ever recurring never finished Scarcely stimulating scarcely to the improvement of the mind Studies show that when women go out to work they take on two jobs the new one and housework Yet women who go out to work are healthier both mentally and physically than those who stay at home to raise children Men whose wives work increase their contribution to household tasks by only 1 8 That s because housework is so darned boring How much of the boredom of housework do you take on Incidentally housework is not counted as work in our society It is not part of the If it were economists estimate it would add to totheGNP Family violence One in four women is abused physically and emotionally by her male partner Given the facts that she is dependent on him for sustenance isolated her home doing boxing housework which Is not recognized as worthwhile in our society it is scarcely surpris ing that she stays and puts up with it The aforementioned ac tmties are not exactly to the building of her selfesteem Nor does she have the money to extricate herself and her children Have you and your friends talked about this of the nuclear family No Mr The tradi tional nuclear family is all about a man getting an unpaid household servant who will bear and raise his children note they even bear his name while he can go out and take a full and active role out there In the world Women in increasing numbers are just not willing to be shunted aside from their equal right to a full active life in a dynamic society such as ours Perhaps when the traditional family breaks down some more we will see our way through to different social structures that will be truly egalitarian and therefore more condusive to raising happy stable creative intelligent and wanted children of both sexes Sincerely Joan Davison Georgetown Police defended Dear Editor May I at this time take the op portunity to strongly object to the Letter of the Week published in your paper on regar ding Police Propaganda It is my view that the facts reported by your and other local papers concerning thismatter were based on actual facts as reported by the police I ask myself these questions 1 Why was a juvenile out at such late hours 2 Why was he carrying a air pistol or whatever 3 Where were his parents It is my opinion that the Halton Regional Police acted in a sional manner in this case I may go on as being a victim of juvenile irresponsibility twice in the last year Both incidents are on police record To the unknown author of this letter to which I object may I suggest that your myopic view is from the wrong end of a tunnel that is the large end Nuffsaid To the Police I say you are doing a great job Keep it up In ending may I sign my name 1 hive no fears Sincerely Cochrane Georgetown Shop around NDP initiative criticized Dear Editor In an article that appeared on front page of the Star on January 1st columnist Paula Todd tried her best to represent the view I expressed to her in relation to the extension of family benefits to homosexual couples However in her article NDP faces battle over gay rights she missed at least one important point The granting of a privilege to a par ticular sector of society does NOT constitute an infringement on the rest of society In her article she reports the views homosexual activists who speak about historic discrimination as they have been denied family benefits in the past The key premise is that we as a society believe that a trad family one with a mother and a father in a stable long term relationship is the ideal in stitution where children are born and raised on the model of their parents to be responsible and caring citizens We are also con cerned when due to family breakdown or divorce the children are left without the pro per means and we have specific legislation for child support However the family model becomes less effective as other definitions of family are substituted which include less stable relationship between the parents or possibly abusive or unhealthy relationships Given this premise society has supported the traditional family monetarily and otherwise in the past as it recognized that this institution represented the nucleus of society Supporting the traditional family did not infringe on anybody rights in the same way as granting govern pensions to the old does not infringe on the rights of the young or supporting poor single- parents does not infringe on the rights of other single people The current government in recognizing the gay or lesbian models of family more than intending to strengthen the family institution seems to have been prompted by political op portunism This policy is also short sighted harmful to the weakest members of society our children and detrimental to society itself Sincerely Giuseppe Gon Executive Vice President Coalition Party of Ontario Acton Opinion Dear Editor In the Dec 22 edition Page you published a letter named GST column redux This reader seemed very much formed about the GST regarding prices falling and I think it time to look at some facts Firstly the company I work for maintains a car fleet for its sales staff The price of a car same model same options purchased in January under GST is less than if purchased in Dec 1990 Second fact I recently receiv ed a price from Lee Valley Tools published specifically for the GST The mail order prices have changed downward For ex ample Sanvik Bevel Edge Chisels item 97504 15 Christmas catalogue received Nov 90 50 Special GST price list same item 50 That s less These are just two examples and I m sure there is more Peo ple just have to look I think people should start ing sure that the price is down Anyone who doesn t is paying more than he should He should go somewhere else to shop In these hard economic times retailers are scrambling for your dollar They will respond if they don t take your business elsewhere Regards Shirtkffe Write us a letter The Herald wants to hear from you If you have an opinion you want to express or a com ment to make send us a letter or drop by the office Our address is Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario All letters must be signed Please include your address and telephone number for verification The Herald reserves the right to edit letters due to space limitations Only the threat of the iron fist remains If the Allies are to go to war in the Persian Gulf there are two things that must be done first One is the Allied nations that have democratic governments which obviously include the U S and Canada must put the United Nations war resolution before their congresses and parliaments Military action of this magnitude cannot be launched by executive action alone Second the Allies must deter mine what their objectives are in any war before the first shot is fired Getting the Iraqi army out of Kuwait is no longer goal enough once the shooting starts Even if the Allied forces sue cessfully liberate Kuwait it would still leave Saddam Hussein in power in Iraq and at least part of his army intact He would almost certainly in low level war fare from the safe haven of Iraq itself He had no qualms about fighting with Iran for eight years GARRISON Even if a truce were reached after a limited war his very presence brooding across the border would require a perma Allied garrison in the area something no one wants Fortunately U S President George Bush has made it clear here is no way Allied forces will be committed to battle with any other goal than victory This would mean forcing th surrender or overthrow of Sad dam Hussein himself He began the war it would end the moment he and possibly the small cabal from his home town of Takrit who rule with him no longer hold power Bush will undoubtedly make it clear that the Allied aim is not to dismember Iraq occupy it or destroy its armed forces Even the limited goal of Saddam would not apply if sanctions and the threat of war convince the dictator to withdraw from Kuwait before the final United Nations ultimatum ex 15 It is for these reasons that the leaders of the democracies must present the latest UN resolution to their legislatures Let the elected representatives of the people choose The Canadian Parliament which went to war in to save the dictatorship of Poland from the dictatorship of Germany because a higher nciple in vol ing long term world peace was at stake must make a similar choice again Should it re ject participation in a war then we should withdraw our forces immediately This won prevent war of course just our role in it In prac tice only the decision of the American Congress counts and should Congress reject or even endorse by a small margin the war option then clearly the only course open is to try to maintain sanctions at a distance All other military units should be brought home It be impossible to keep them sitting in the Saudi sand for the next year or three waiting for the sanctions to work Probably the sanctions option would receive more respect if its advocates t point to South Africa and Rhodesia as examples of their success South Africa has been under a total worldwide oil for years and yet has never found any difficulty buying expensive oil during that time The country has certainly not broken and one might guess that to the degree it has bent the cause is less sanctions than demographics the fact that the black birthrate is soaring while that of whites is flat Rhodesia is an even worse case study Put under sanctions in it only fell in 1979 after seven years of bloody warfare with guerrilla arm es based in adjacent sanctuaries Rhode had learned to make do with a vast number of inferior but useable homemade substitutes for imports Whatever economic difficulties Iraq is suffering It seems clear that It Isn t going to be enough to force Saddam who personally t suffer at all to withdraw from Kuwait Sanctions were a hint the velvet glove Only the threat of the iron fist remains Berrys World Will you please stop humming that music from Jaws