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THE HERALD Wednesday March 15 1989 Page Opinion Page j I Moral principles are key 30 years ago An oil painting by local artist Frank Black will have an honorable place in Georgetown High School in future years The painting commissioned by the students portrays the old portion of the school scheduled for demoli tion in a construction program presently in progress John Lenz president of the student council presented the painting which was received by school board chairman Murray Coles and unveiled by another student Joan Cummins at the high school commencement ex Friday evening in the Knox Church Hall Speaking on the Importance of the club organization Bob Merry of Georgetown placed se cond in the zone competitions of the Lions Club speaking contest in the Legion Hall March 3 Georgetown representative Carol failed to place with the winners but was highly rated by the judges She spoke about TV commercials and their affect on daily life Mrs James Kirkwood of the Afternoon Auxiliary of St Johns United Church spoke about the West Indies at the groups March meeting Mrs Kirkwood spoke of the tragic events of revolution in Cuba She said the fanatical leadership of Fidel Castro has young boys of 10 or years bear arms 15 years ago Key political figures from both levels of the regional government painted a grim and bleak portrait of political profile to Ac ton residents last week Regional Chairman Allan again publicly accused his councillors of footdragging while Acton Coun said of regional govern it was evident to me at the very beginning that it wasnt going to work Flying high and scoring to boot the Georgetown Raiders romped to an easy threegame win Friday over the Oakville Adanacs to wrap up a quarter final in OHA intermediate hockey The Raiders bounced the 1 superceding their win in the opening game of the series Wednesday the Raiders squeaked to an overtime win over the Oakville club Alt across Canada and the United States there has been a new popular sport emerging in high schools and colleges However this sport has yet to reach GDHS Everyone is wondering when the first person 15 going to go streaking in Georgetown High 10 years ago Halton Regional Chairman Jack will meet the mayors of the regions four area municipalities to discuss the feasibility of establishing a United Way that would coordinate fund raising and History from our files administrative effort for all health and social service organizations in the Region Acting on a suggestion from Burlington Mayor Bird Regional council last Wednesday endorsed a move aimed at max fund raising and fund allocation efforts through a single umbrella organization Mr Raftis agreed to arrange a meeting with mayors Bird Harry Barrett of Don Gordon of Milton and Pete Pomeroy of Halton Hills Vanan Associates of Canada Ltd has won two contracts from federal government departments Vanan will provide the depart ment of consumer and corporate affairs with worth of optical instruments and the Atomic Energy Control Board with worth of optical instruments The two contracts were among awarded the week ending Feb 23 to Canadian companies by the department of supply and service on behalf of federal government departments and agencies 5 years ago Hills trustees blasted the Board of Education Thurs day night for having no clear policy on cutting off French language programs at its schools At a special meeting to review the Boards core French and early and late immersion programs Thursday trustees demanded the proposed French policy guidelines include information on cancelling French courses The thrust of the report is that we will continue to add French immersion at schools but I dont think there is any machinery for designating a French immersion school if there is such a word said Trustee Dick Three million dollars has been spent trying to find solutions to Haltons garbage disposal pro blem Thats the figure being sent to the provinces Ministry of the Environment as seeks some provincial money to pay for the bill Regional councillors blame the Ministry for con tributing to the costs when it ordered Halton to carry out its landfill search under the En vironmental Protection Act in The bill for the EAA study is already over million There was little chance ac cording to a Regional report that the Regions new landfill site would end up in Halton Hills Three of the candidate sites are in Oakville Burlington and The best is free Every two minutes someone somewhere in Canada needs blood Lifesaving blood and blood pro ducts are distributed free of direct charge to almost 900 Canadian hospitals by The Canadian Red Cross Society Since volunteer donors have been providing the lifeline for Red Cross blood services The Red Cross now operates 17 blood cen tres that collect test process and distribute more than 20 different blood products across Canada These products are used to treat people undergoing surgery hemophiliacs pregnant mothers and new bom babies cancer and burn victims The Red Cross makes the most efficient use of each donation Five per cent of all units collected is stored and distributed as blood the other per cent is separated into red cells white cells platelets and plasma Each part can then be transfused separately according to a patients specific needs The whole donation process registration drawing of blood rest takes only about minutes yet one donated unit of blood 450 ml can help up to three or four people You can give blood every three months Thats how long it takes your body to completely replenish the blood given March is Red Cross Month The Canadian Red Cross Society depends on your help to continue its lifesaving service Become a blood donor and experience the greatest gift you can give the gift of life For more Information on bow you can help the Red Cross call your local Dear Sir One year ago Canadas Supreme Court decided that the bitrary nature of the old abortion law violated a womans constitu right to life liberty and security of the person The same court last week was not satisfied that the Charter of Rights clearly implies the right to life of every human being Note that Section 7 of the Charter says exactly that everyone has a right to life That apparently is not clear enough The court will not pronounce itself until the government will pass a new law regulating abortion The judges did not cast any doubt on the humanity of the unborn perhaps enlightened by the enor mous amount of evidence presented by Mr Rather they indicated that acknowledging the rights of the un born would force doctors and hospitals to choose between the constitutional rights of the unborn and those of the pregnant woman So they unanimously decided to bury their heads under the sand The matter is now in the hands of our elected representatives There are indications that a motion such as the one defeated by only a few votes last July would be supported by the majority of the newly elected MPs Such a motion would allow abortion only in those cases where the mother life is in danger In addition the results of a Gallup poll published by the to Star on Feb 27 show that the majority of Canadians per cent believe that abortion should be only under certain Among the table circumstances the one that scored the highest percentage per cent was If the womans health is endangered by pregnan cy In contrast only five per cent believe that abortions should be allowed up to 22 weeks of pregnan cy Remarkably the alternative Only if the womans life is in danger was not on Gallups list In addition another 13 per cent believe abortion should be illegal under any circumstances I would like to emphasize that questions of life and death cannot be resolved on the basis of a ma jority opinion but rather should be decided according to moral prin ciples My analysis only shows that the government has more than one option for formulating a constitu but more restrictive abor tion law than the one that was struck down last year The polls also show that the majority of Canadians would be happy with such a law Giuseppe Gon Family Coalition Party Halton North Riding Association Lining up in solidarity Dear Sir In Columbia people were jailed overnight on Feb 7 and were held from Feb These people blocked the en trance to an abortion clinic by passively sitting on the steps and sidewalk to the abortuary Studies show that 20 to per cent of women who have to reschedule an abortion find a dif ferent solution to their problem and allow their child to live Therefore rescuers believe they save one five babies on the day of the rescues simply by occupy ing the entrances Judge McKenzie dismissed the defence of necessity Righteousness is no defence he said and added There are no moral standards in abortion Judge Wood also dealing with the rescuers said the defence of necessity doesn work because the rescuers speak only for themselves and not for a larger segment of society Members of North Halton Life hereby pledge solidarity with the rescuers in their efforts to save lives May we help all women find alternatives to abortion when fac ed with problem pregnancies Grace President North Halton ProLife The last of the clan to leave Dear Sir On March 31 when I move from Georgetown to Pickering I will be the last one of a Peters family to leave They moved here over years ago On July 1 1943 our family of eight including Grandpa Brock moved to Georgetown from New Toronto We lived on a 10acre place on River Road across from the Alliance and Provincial Paper mills We did some market garden farming and enjoyed our new home After World War we made concrete blocks for the Normandy Blvd housing project and other construction sites For several years after that I worked for Smith and Stone In 1956 Dad Mom and I moved into the present house at 31 Byron Street For over 23 years I worked for the Town of Georgetown later Halton Hills retiring late in 1988 Now I am off on a new adven ture and wish all my fnends in the Georgetown area good health and the best of luck Sincerely Robert Bob Peters A deranged sense of priorities Its amazing how a guy can wake up one morning and discover that he has his priorities completely mixed up If I hadnt read the newspaper the other day for instance I would never have known that the true esbentials in life are the microwave oven and the telephone answering machine closely follow ed by the home computer and the VCR Its true A survey of 600 Americans whose households br ing in more than a year shows that microwaves rank as the most important lifestyle with 79 per cent of those polled stating they could not live without one Fortynine per cent could not live without an answering machine per cent could not survive without a computer and 36 per cent could not continue to exist in this vale of tears without a VCR Just imagine what these people would do if the toaster broke down Now its certainly tempting to dismiss this survey oh the grounds that it deals only with wealthy peo ple But this would be unfair since people who make are con stantly telling us theyre not rich at all My own upper income fnends are adamant on this point A hun dred grand isnt wealth Here in 1989 its barely subsistence Apparently earning means little more than being able to drive a nice car to the street cor ner where you sell pencils from a little tin cup Granted its easy to be skeptical about this if youre nowhere near the hundred grand mark yourself if youre a little below the income- level at which life without a Jacuzzi Weirs View Thomson Newsservice cant be envisioned and are in fact closer to the level at which youre just grateful for indoor plumbing But we must take people at their word Now no one would argue that the true essentials of modern We go no further than those ancient basics clothing shelter and food Lets be realistic at the very least you need a few pairs of Levis an apart ment- with a balcony and a decent pizze restaurant that delivers And its certainly possible that my amazement at this survey arises from my failure to keep up with modern technological gadgetry There are those of us who feel a little out of step in a society in which everyone under 21 regards a black and white TV as a medieval artifact and assumes that prior to the invention of the automatic dishwasher humankind had to eat off paper plates Even so I have some basic pro blems with that survey For starters I violently disagree that the home computer Is an essential for life given my convic tion that the computer is merely an overgrown pocket calculator with delusions of grandeur Ditto the microwave Ive never felt the slightest need for one Dear Heart manages just fine with the stove The VCR to be fair has more to recommend it A VCR is pretty im portant especially if you have kids Without a VCR youd have to spend Saturday evening watching the hockey game instead of help ing the little ones view The Reluc tant Dragon for the seventythird And the plain truth is that a telephone answering machine is darned near essential Ive had mine for a year and its wonderful Presumably people in the hundred grand category find it guarantees they never miss crucial business calls I find mine indispensable for ducking creditors In fact I no longer answer my phone at all If its someone I want to talk to I phone back five seconds later generally making the excuse that I was just stepping out of the shower Sooner or later its possible my friends will get together compare notes and conclude that Im kind of weird but awfully clean But even so the answering machine and the VCR constitute just 50 per cent of lifes essentials Its Mud of shocking isnt if If youre like me then there you are muddling along telling yourself that youre on the brail that leads to happiness and fulfil ment and then suddenly discover ing that you lack at least half of the basic necessities for human ex istence Do you ever wonder how you sur vive In this century at all