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BEST AVAILABLE LETTERS- Opinion Page J I Reader wants big changes 30 years ago A member of the Liquor Control store staff for five years Ed Fran cis has been appointed vendor Mr Francis succeeds Jim Ritchie who was recently promoted to the auditing staff in the district Mr Francis is the third manager since its establishment when Early held the position George Sargent has been named assistant vendor and Thomas joins the staff as a new member Rev Murdock who will 90 this week was honored at a din ner at the home of Mr and Mrs Morgan of Market Street Others at the dinner includ ed and Mrs Barry Douglass and Kenneth of Cenneville Quebec and CD dock of Toronto The annual business meeting of the Brotherhood of Anglican Chur chmen of St Georges was the set ting for the election of Ernie of Ballinafad as the presi dent of the brotherhood He suc ceeds Clare Francis who held the office last year Wilfred Bnsbois is the 1st vice president Thomas is the 2nd vice president and Ernie is the secretary- treasurer 20 years ago Ivan Crabtree long time member of the arena board was elected chairman of the newly formed Georgetown Recreation Committee and Board of Parks Management Other members of the first board are Allan Drake William Fisher Mclaren Robert Lane Donna and Harry Levy A new section of the North Halton Golf Club covering winter sports was inaugurated when and skiing were add ed to the present golfing and curl ing facilities The snowmobile club formerly the Credit Valley Club has moved to North Halton and elected their officers for the year The president is Ab Tennant and his vice president is Allison The secretary is Matt Todd and the directors are Bill Garbutt Glen Campbell and Gerry Smith Mrs Harry Clarke was elected president of the 1st Georgetown Scouts and Cubs auxiliary at a re cent meeting which followed a supper in St Johns United Church hall She succeeds Mrs Ben Boyle 10 years ago The Acton Agricultural Society members have chosen the weekend of Sept to Sept 21 for the fall fair They also chose their new executive including Brian Evans as president Norm Shea and Keith Altken as vice presidents and John Rowe as Halton History from our files secretarytreasurer Mr Evans succeeds Brent Marshall as presi dent Students at the Holy Cross School and Stewarttown Senior Public School competed in a con test to design the best antismoking poster The entries at each school were judged by Joe on behalf of the cancer society and by Mary Ellen Bridge chairman of the local societys education com mittee The winners at Stewart- town were Nancy Hoodless and Tammy Gower The winners at Ho ly Cross were Cindy Buchanan and Jane Ian Clark came in first in the junior metres to gam a berth on the Canadian team headed for Paris in March for the World Cross Country Championships Mr Clark is a Grade 13 student at Georgetown District High School and placed fifth in the world championships in Limerick Ireland He also competed in the afternoon section of the Toronto Star Games The local runner has once again been invited to compete in the Star Games this year years ago Hattie Gibbons thinks its silly to be getting congratulatory letters from Prime Minister Brian Mulroney leader of the federal op position John Turner and BramptonGeorgetown MP John McDermid on her 90th birthday Mrs Gibbons thinks they should have waited until she turned 100 The Sargent Road senior celebrated her birthday at a sur prise party She has lived in Georgetown community all her life The Georgetown District High School girls bowling team avenged a twopin loss from the year before as they won the provincial bowling championships in The previous year Cornwall beat GDHS by two pins for the title This year members of the team include Julie McCorry Debbie Lane Jane Hicks Leanne Burt Dee Dee and coach Wendy Chaplin For the first time ever the Tn- Presidents Dinner and Honor Award was held in Georgetown This years winner was Cliff Martin On hand for the presentation were NHI referee Bruce Hood past winner Bob and president Karen Har rison of Georgetown The dinner was held at Sacre Hall Who listens when Canada speaks Continued from Page fi in its dues five years ago under the Reagan administration and now owes the organization million Only of the 26 member nations are up to date on their dues The other 16 nations including the US owe a total Of million The Bush administration has promised to pay Its dues and the State Department has sought ap propriations but Congress in the past has reduced appropriations below the level requested Faced with a deepening financial crisis the OAS laid off almost one- third of its employees a year ago and obtained a second mortgage on its office building CHEERS When Canadian External Affairs Minister Joe Clark arrived last November to officially apply for membership he was greeted by cheers from workers who moments before were loudly pro testing their low pay and lack of a significant raise It was either a reflection of Canadas popularity or the workers were overjoyed by the fact that a country that intend ed to pay its dues was joining the OAS The OAS shares some of the blame for the US refusal to take it seriously The former secretarygeneral Argentinas colorful Alejandro Or- fila once left a meeting with ex perts on Latin American rights on the pretence that he had to attend another urgent meeting His name turned up the next day in a Washington Post story titled The Playboy Girls of Washington an account of a wild party in upscale Georgetown The story circulated for years in minor hockey program Dear Sir This is in regard to all minor league hockey in Georgetown Something has to be done The kids and the parents are getting very frustrated The kids complain but nothing is getting done Last nights hockey game in the juvenile league was an utter disgrace to watch The refereeing if you could call it that was almost nonexistent and when it was it was absurd Now I had a boy on both teams last night so it is not a matter of being prejudice Calls were made that left the kids and parents alike bewildered about what was happening To make an observation at one point two lads from the same team collided and one got a penalty for tripping another one was very heavily boarded and no call was made These are just a couple of the calls or judgements that were made It is not easy to be a ref know but they do get paid for the job and they should try at least to do the job They should be there in body as well as mind for the dura tion of the whole game Now for the administration I pay good hard earned money to put my kids in hockey Where are their sweaters for this year and why do the kids have to put up with shar ing sweaters every year This year is almost over We pay enough to enroll them Where does all the moneygo I ask And still on about last nights game and it has hap pened many times before the last five minutes or so of the last game is always forfeited Why do the boys have to suffer for games that have run late all day Even the winning team was annoyed as there was only one point dif ference Five minutes can make a big difference in the outcome of the ame and in the point standing If there has to be another flood for the next game why not cancel the flood between the last two periods of the game give the kids a five minute rest and continue the game so they can finish on time They have paid for the full ice time No wonder kids are getting frustrated with our hockey and give up and do not continue play ing Should we as parents support this shoddy hockey and let them get away with this We pay taxes and support the arena Some things have to be changed Ive supported the GMHA for years and have rarely missed a game but I feel that someone has to speak up finally as phone calls and talking does not seem to work Maybe if all the parents got together maybe this apparent flagrant disregard for our childrens hockey for fun or career and of what good hockey should and can be could be changed This has been going on for too long The town needs another arena which has already been ap proved years ago was to be a double rink then maybe the kids wont need to practise at am or the men wont need to wait until all hours of the night to play Signed a concerned parent a tax payer and a supporter of minor hockey up until now Mrs G Adams Write us a letter Tht Herald wants to hear from you If you have an opinion you want to express or a comment to make send us a letter or drop by the office Our address is Guelph St Georgetown L7G3Z6 All letters- must be signed include your address and telephone number for verification The Herald reserves the right to edit letters due to space limitations or libel The Fur Side World production of mink pelts 1988 Country Percent Pelts in millions Scandinavia 18 12 United States 11 China 7 Canada 3 15 Holland 14 jr Farm Animal Coalition GRAPHICS The countries of Scandinavia produce nearly half of the worlds mink pelts 18 million in 1988 The Soviet Union is the No 2 producer Rats Snuffy got saved As you undoubtedly know by now Sniffy the Rat has not been snuffed Sniffy of course is the rodent who achieved national fame when a West Coast artist named Rick Gibson proposed to turn him into an by squashing him on to a canvas with a 25kilogram weight outside the Vancouver Public Library Animalrights ac tivists vowed to save him and a nation waited breathlessly for the result As it turned out Sniffy was sav ed by an irate mob which forced Mr Gibson to flee for shelter I first learned of this from Dear Heart who rushed in shaking a newspaper in wildeyed indigna tion Look what theyve done she cried Those ideots have saved a rat Dear Heart may not know art but she knows what she doesnt like and what she doesnt like are rodents In any case its time to assess the philosophical implications of Mr Gibsons artistic endeavor or as he subsequently explained his brilliant exercise in media- manipulation Just for starters of course this episode raises some provocative questions about the nature of art As someone who has never studied art history Im naturally unqualified to judge whether a squashed rat on a canvas con stitutes a work of art Still I have a laymans opinion on whether Id like to hang this over the Given a choice most of us would prefer a nice watercolor sunset The issue also raises questions about what constitutes an artist as Mr Gibson was invariably described in the media reports iVskilled ratsquasher is certain ly free to call himself an artist just as you would be perfectly free to call yourself Napoleon Bonaparte But whether this would get you into the throneroom at the Palace of Versailles is another question You and I both own toothbrushes but cynics might dispute whether this qualifies us as dental hygienists Theres actually a serious point at stake here since people like Mr Gibson do a dandy job of handing ammunition to the growing list of politicians whod love any excuse to slash government funding to the arts Tory MP Felix the hogfarmer who is now chairman of the House of Commons Culture and Communications Committee has dismissed the arts about which he admits to knowing relatively little as airyfairy In fairness it might be pointed out that artists do not dismiss hog- farming about which they know relatively little as piggy- wiggy But I digress Besides it turns out that art wasnt the object of Mr Gibsons exercise in the first place Apparently he was more in terested in rtaanipulating the media and whipping people a self- righteous frenzy which would reveal their foolishness and hypocrisy For starters Mr Gibson inform ed us that Sniffy had been purchas ed from a pet store which sells its other rats as live food for exotic snakes As such squashing Sniffy would be doing him a favor This undeniably gives pause Personally I dont favor feeding live rats to snakes I dont favor feeding anything to snakes Given a choice Id favor squashing the whole reptilian lot of them with 25kilogram weights But even more importantly ac cording to one of Mr Gibsons sup porters the event exposed the hypocrisy of people who will do more to save a rat than to save the human victims of brutal govern ments abroad Well There is a technical term for this sort of argument It is familiar to those of us who must clean up after male bovines Unfortunately its terribly dif ficult for the average citizen to save someone halfway across the world But its entirely possible to stop little displays in front of the public library Anyway lets hope Mr Gibson has learned his lesson Perhaps he has seen the artistic light and will henceforth restrict himself to pain ting blackvelvet sailing ships or perhaps acrylic Elvises Hes welcome to squash these under 25kilogram weights Or even feed them to boa constrictors Meanwhile Id just like to pass on my best wishes to Sniffy Now that his brush with artistic Im mortality is over lets hope he en joys a long and blissfully mundane existence Just dont tell Dear Heart I said