The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

THE NEW TANNERTHURSDAY, JANUARY 04, 2018 5THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, JANUARY 04, 20184 Just a thought Not for #MeToo Letters The views expressed in these published letters are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The New Tanner Publishing Ltd. sports taLk By Trish Bell 2018 predictions or wishes By Michael Oke The New Tanner welcomes your Letters to the Editor, but, please keep in mind that letters must include the author's name, address and phone number in order for us to contact you if needed. Letters that are sent in anonymously will not be published. They may be edited for content or length. They are published as a first come first serve basis and we do not guarantee publication due to space availability. The transition to a brand-new year al- ways comes with the usual resolut ions , predictions and even a bit of anxiety about what the New Year holds. 2018 won't be any different as we have a lot going on in the sports arena during this year of the Dog according to the Chinese calendar--start- ing middle of February. This year's sports events calendar will be bookended by the 42nd and 43rd editions of the World Junior Ice Hock- ey Championships; the former is already in its final stages in Buffalo, while the latter will be hosted in British Columbia between Boxing Day and Janu- ary 5, 2019. Inserted between these jun- ior hockey tournaments are the usual suspects--Super Bowl, NBA finals, Stanley Cup play- offs, Baseball World series and the MSL Cup finals. Not to mentions Formula One races, Tennis Grand Slams and Golf Majors. We also have the once in a blue moon events like the winter Olympics, FIFA world cup , and Commonweal th Games in Australia in the spring. As far as predictions go, I'll limit myself to what I would like to see this year. Olympics: Canada tops the medal table with gold medals in men's and women's hockey. Super Bowl: The underdogs Buffalo Bills take on the Carolina Pan- thers. NBA finals: The Toronto Raptors versus the Houston Rockets to put a stop to the dominance of Golden State and Cleveland Cavaliers. Hockey: The Maple Leafs make it to the Eastern Confer- ence Finals. Baseball: The Blue Jays win the Word Series. Soccer: The TFC retains the MLS Cup. Canada is one of only six countries that have participat- ed in all previous 20 editions of the Commonwealth games. We have only topped the med- als table once, so it would be great to see Canada leading the final medal tally at the end of the games on April 15. I have already predicted that Germany will win the FIFA Soccer World Cup, but it would be great to see the one of the underdogs go far in the competition. That always adds a lot of fun to the World Cup. It would be great to see Serena Williams win a tennis Grand Slam after taking time away from the sport to have a baby, and who could bet against Lewis Hamilton win- ning a fifth F1 Championship? Tiger Woods winning a Golf major in 2018? That may be stretching it. All in all, I look forward to a very exciting year of sports in 2018. To the Editor, I gathered from Trish Bell's recent column that she's been under some criticism of late because of her out- spoken opinions. Personally, I relish that outspokenness of her. Do I always agree with her? No, of course not. By the same token, I don't often agree with editorials that in their wishy- washy way say what they think the reading public wants to see. It seems to me that Ms. Bell calls a spade a spade. If I have a criticism of her, it's her frequent negative comments about the Liberals. And no, I'm not a Liberal. But, in fairness to that party, I haven't seen a party in power yet that wasn't plagued with scandals, nepotism, fa- vouritism, wasting of tax payers' money, ineptitude, etc., etc. Keep up the good work in 2018, Trish! Bert Zonneveld Rockwood Supporting calling a spade a spade To the Editor, Here is a helping hand for improv- ing your chances of a good New Year. Leave behind your grudges. Replace them with changes in your own atti- tude. Perhaps you hadn't considered the possibility that someone mis- understood your actions. Or Maybe your words were misunderstood. So, what to do? Be the Hero that you al- ways hoped to be. Here is when you may even admit that you may need extra help. Try the ever-present Helper that you may have forgotten. You will be totally surprised. In case you don't recall His advice, "do to others as you want them to do to you" And you will have a really Happy New Year! Sytske Drijber Rockwood Improving chances for a good New Year As another new year is ush- ered in, there are several things you can count on: observations, celebrations, and resolutions. For many, this Gregorian Calendar flip is a symbolic in- ventory check; a sentimental time to take stock of what we have accomplished and what remains on each of our bucket lists. The media cements our memories with award predic- tions and lavish lists of the who, what and when of every positive and negative moment. Best books, worst movies, top celebrities, most disastrous-- believe me, if someone even thought about it in the last 365 days, someone else has made a list about it. And while some of these lists might be illuminating, others will ultim- ately define this moment and mold our future. And it is this facet of year-end reviews that truly terrify because no matter what we say, man downplays his mistakes and overstates his successes to a point where truth and progress fade. Case in point: Time Magazine names "the Silence Breakers"--aka the #MeToo Movement--Per- son of the Year. Now, I honestly and whole- heartedly agree with the premise of victims having a voice. No human--heck, no living thing-- should EVER be victimized or abused, but this movement falls dangerously short. For starters, no voice is being given here. Every one of these victims al- ready had a voice--thinking otherwise is part of the col- lective problem. I think we all concede that some of those who did and did not use their voice were ignored, and to this end so- ciety failed them, no question. But, simply trading one victim for another does nothing to rect- ify the wrong--and more to the point, it doesn't fix the systemic social problem. As writer Erin Gloria Ryan put it, "firing Matt Lauer is not the same as fix- ing NBC." Clearly, those that commit heinous acts should be punished, and I say throw the book at 'em. However, we seem to have forgotten the part about due process, and with- out it, we have the potential to repeat the abusive nature to which this movement is so adamantly opposed. How, men must now wonder, does one know if a woman feels uncomfortable with what is said and done if they do not mention their discontent until years later? Is taking any form of abuse okay? What if it gets you where you want? What about saying something once you get where you want to be? It gets awful murky when we try to establish if an industry culture such as Hollywood twenty years ago can be held to account for what it might have done had more people said something. Hindsight is great and all, but it can't fix past transgressions--only the future. And while time does not change the crime, it certainly hampers our abil- ity to filter truth from more sinister motives like greed, revenge or fame. I mean we all know a girl can be pretty witty and resourceful; as they say "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Even Lena Dunham has learned that yep, women can and do lie about anything--even rape. If we are going to amplify the voice of victims, we need to be darn sure a "victim's" opinion of what happened doesn't be- come "men are guilty simply because they are men and to hell with the idea of justice for all." I mean what happened to innocent until proven guilty in a court of law? Sure, it isn't a perfect system, but we can all agree it's better than trial by social media where choosing ideology is above all else. Ideology is how so- ciety created a culture that perpetrates such behavior. Let's face it, sex sells every- thing from ice cream to cars because advertisers know we are preprogrammed. Research shows that the human brain is actually hardwired to override all else and react to messages about three fundamental fac- tors: danger, food and--yep, you guessed it--sex. Now, that doesn't mean men have the right to grope everything within arms-reach, but it cer- tainly explains the fascination and suggests to us that how we act and dress might be inter- preted differently than desired. Abusing that interpretation is not new, will likely continue and, brace yourself, is a two- way street because abusing power is an old game. But what we forget is that stand- ing up to abuse is just as old and we seem to forget that how we solve such issues says more about us than the abuse does. Taking a woman's accusa- tions as gospel without proper investigation puts her word above the law and is remin- iscent of the thinking that led to those lynch mobs of the old west. It validates the idea that what others say and do can hurt us thus removing power, responsibility and control from us and handing it to others. For a group that wants to empower women, this movement does everything but, making it the ultimate victimization scheme. We can and must do better than #MeToo, but it takes all of us to decide it.