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the HERALD Editorial Wednesday August 1991 IS Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established 1866 A Division of Canadian Newspaper Company Limited Street Georgetown Ontario K ROBERT Publisher and General Manager SUBSCRIPTION HATES 8772201 COLIN Managing Editor ANTaVLOB Manager 2AaSs IMI not be Violence begets violence The still unfolding Kayla tragedy strikes like a cold spear into the hearts of decentminded people everywhere The innocent little 3yearold girls body was found floating in a seldomused channel in Toronto Harbor last Friday night ending a 23day search which involved over 2000 volunteers and hundreds of police officers Although the exact cause of death had still to be deter mined at press time police information officers did reveal the little girl had been sexually assaulted Rage at the senselessness of the crime percolates throughout individuals and communities a lust for vengeance surfaces replaced after a time with a bone- chilling feeling of sadness Sadness for the little girl whose light of life was snuff ed out at such a tender age Sadness for the grieving family whose loss only they can bear And yes sadness for a society where violence in all shapes and forms appears more and more to be accepted as a part of everyday life Children are the most precious natural resources in the world Children represent mankinds hope for the future for a better safer world than the one we now in habit One wonders however what kind of a world the childrens children will have with the adult role models and examples being presented to todays younger generation All hail the leaders of the conquering Desert Storm countries whose troops by unconfirmed estimates wiped out 100000 Iraqis These same leaders encourag ed Kurds within Irag to rebel then abandoned them resulting in thousands more deaths Desert storm has blown over and although Kuwait was liberated little has changed for the better in the region of conflict A United Nations working group reports that Cana dians have purchased 500 Romanian babies as upheaval reins supreme in that country following the toppling of the Communist regime The average mon thly wage is 100 and parents who cant cope are selling their babies to foreigners including Canadians Lets hear it for the Turtles and the Terminator- perfect role models for youngsters to emulate Violence begets violence and there is the fear a socie ty can become immune to its perfidy Then a 3yearoldgirl is sexually assaulted and murdered and we wonder how it could happen It could and did happen in a society that more and more is taking violent acts for granted Hopefully society has learned a lesson albeit a tragic one Turner rejects Libertarian claims To the Editor While not normally responding to Libertarian John Shadbolts frequent letters Ill make an ex ception for the last one He wrote you A letter to the editor thanks Garth for taking them off of unemployment or welfare and hiring them for the GST office We taxpayers are lucky to have Garth take them off one government spending scheme and put on another Either way taxpayers lose the only winner is Garth who no doubt enjoys the travel and perks at taxpayers expense If anyone cares about the facts here they are The military base in Summerside is closing due to federal spending cuts The civilian workers at the base who are losing their jobs asked to be given priority for work at the GST processing centre to be opened in 1993 They are not on welfare or unemployment They are proud employees of the Cana dian Forces I helped them get assurances from the Minister of National Revenue that they would be con sidered for the new jobs I did this in Ottawa after they had travell ed from PEI at their own ex pense And some months before when I had been on the island I travelled at my own personal expense Mr seems to assume that people in Atlantic Canada are all on pogey Thats unfair He also assumes that tax dollars are being wasted in trying to help them Thats both unfair and un true Every time government spen ding is further cut people get hurt As more military bases are closed local economics are shat tered Unemployment goes up and real estate values go down But until our national finances are in order there is no choice but to cut further Surely the ef forts of a few Members of Parlia ment to soften the blow for fellow Canadians doesnt deserve this kind of reaction Garth Turner MP HaltonPeel Peoples Forum GMHA clarifies Hurricane watch The Editor After reading the July 24th article Hurricanes facing ice availability squeeze and a previous article AAA history troubling for GHMA I felt compelled to respond to both in order to clarify the posi tion of the Georgetown Minor Hockey Association with regard to its relationship with the Hur ricane AAA Association With regard to my statement expressing disappointment with the Hurricanes for allowing hours of ice to sit idle last year Hurricane Vice Chairman Terry Brandt stated that most unused ice was very early weekend time He further states a Saturday is not very good practice time and its asinine when youre bringing in players from Flamborough and As I stated to your Sports Department in several telephone conversations the Hur ricanes were issued only ONE early weekend ice slot 700 am Sundays- However this ice time was specifically requested by th Hurricane Midget Coach No other early weekend ice was allocated to the Hurricanes Mr Brandt further states that he requested more weekday ice but was not optimistic in part due to the fact that the GMHA had chosen its hours first Surely Mr Brandt cant honestly expect the G H A which has been a part of the Georgetown Hockey scene for probably close to 50 years to relinquish its first right of refusal to the Hur ricanes The twelve hours per week allotted by the GMHA to the Hurricanes for the upcoming season Is not sufficient ac cording to Brandt due to the fact that Georgetown is the preferred location because of costs and the majority of Hurricane players are from the immediate area In actual fact registration records show Milton as having more than twice the number of players than Georgetown last year If Mr Brandt is suggesting ice time be proportioned in a ratio to the number of players from various centres then obviously Milton should be the location of choice not Georgetown It is interesting to note that the Hurricanes have been allotted only two hours per week by Milton for the upcoming It is not my intent to enter into a continuing war of words with Mr Brandt and the Hurricane Association but since your re cent articles appear to give the impression that the GMHA is unsupportive of AAA our posi tion must be clearly stated Despite explaining our position on several occasions to your Sports Reporter some of our ra tional was not printed The most contentious issue is that of reduced weekly ice time for the Hurricanes While this is fact the reasoning was not ex plained in either of your articles Simply put it is the intention of the GM HA to ice nine representative teams for the up coming season This is one team more than last year and therefore we require a minimum of three additional hours per week As in all other centres the traditional teams in the MHA last year were severely weakened by the exodus of players to the Hurricanes As a result most of our teams were reclassified to lower ratings Some of last years teams were so weakened that it is possible that we may not have enough players to ice a competitive team this year Evaluating these situations brought us to the realization that a comprehensive development program for the GMHA must be instituted Obviously to ac complish this more ice time is required Another cause for the reduction of Hurricane ice- While the GMHA applauds the efforts of the 35 Georgetown players who made Hurricane teams last year it still has an overwhelming obligation to sup port encourage and help develop the approximately 535 players who remain in its system This obligation should not be con strued as a lack of support for the Hurricanes In the future I hope that the space limitation in your paper as indicated to me by Rob Risk will not prevent the inclusion of all relative details and therefore eliminating any confusion and misinterpretation Thanks Yours in hockey Hal Pells President GMHA I Editor Colin Gibson receives another letter from a concerned reader