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the HERALD Wednesday September 4 Opinion School days school daze fond memories flow If we accept April as a harb inger of Spring and rebirth of sorts then surely we must regard September as a harbinger of Fall and a rejuvenation time for all the young people returning to school Much more than in the past it seems youngsters are chomping at the bit to get back into the school environment When this intrepid scribe was in- school I looked forward to what I regarded as the four highlights of the day Two recesses a lunch break and the final bell signalling an op portumty to run over any number of my pals as we scampered down the stairs to freedom This behavior continued through my university years I must admit My personal Darth Vader Mr Mathews was always there to check the footprints on the writhing bodies left hither and yon on the stair steps and hang precariously over the ban nisters No one was every seriously injured during the daily Great Escape but occasionally the janitors would question the lunch selections of the students as they were mopping up after the horde had exited Bnght and early next morning I would show up in the school yard for some pre school frolics with my buddies and Mr Mathews would be on yard duty casting a stern eye on our antics Inevitably he would call me over and start Interrogating me about the footprints found on the slower students who were left lit tenng the halls after the previous days final bell I could never win Mr Mathews was always right He despised me with a passion I wore size six shoes Mr Mathews would wave a jacket in front of my face with a size twelve footprint on it and accuse me of running over the fortunate victim I would point out my running shoe size and Mr Mathews would then confront me with the inescapable evidence that I must have run over the poor sucker twice Into the main office we would trot where Mr Mathews would proceed to give me suggestions on what I could do with my wor life if I survived Grade Five while administering the As I See It by Colin Gibson strap One of hi suggestions was that I join the circus and volunteer for the lion teeth cleaning detail My response was that if I wanted to see a circus all I had to do was hang around the teachers room after classes This I pointed out was when the real clowns could be seen Eight more lashes with the strap Yes times have indeed ed The last I heard of Mr Mathews he had been run over by some kid with a size 14 shoe and since the strap has long since been abolished all he could ad minister was a tongue lashing You know where you can find sympathy in the dictionary Some advice to teachers patrolling Ihe hallowed halls of schools nowadays Don t underestimate the kids of today Sure you 11 get some knob heads but then again knob- heads have always abounded And not the student population You can also find knob heads in the teaching fraternity Kids know whats going on in their school even if they pretend they dont Taken further the school is the kids world and believe me despite the respective knob heads that abound they will pro tect and defend their school When the Beach Boys record Be true to your was first released it was adopted as an an them by both public and secon dary students A case can be made that the same emotion still rings true Walk the streets of Georgetown or Acton and ask some youngster what school heshe attends You will likely get a pugnaciously reply en ding with And my schools the best In the small town in Northern Ontario where I grew up there were only two public schools and the rivalry was fierce The local volunteer ambulance brigade used to attend sporting events between the two scholastic rivals until their ambulance was torched one time whom we shall never reveal because the attendants appeared to be paying more attention to one schools in players than the other schools maimed warriors The two schools played Jiockey games against each other at various times during the winter months on outdoor rinks and the guys on my team used to warm up by firing pucks at the other schools coaches A lot of games never got finish ed Then again a lot of games never got started Unfortunately Mr Mathews didnt coach School days school daze Looking back I really do miss them As I see it anyway Residential waste challenge rests with the public The message is clear recycl ing alone wont solve the Greater Toronto Area garbage crisis Halton residents along with peo ple throughout the GTA will be required to reduce and reuse a lot more material that would nor mally end up in a landfill Regional Public Works Com missioner Art recently pointed out recycling only diverts per cent of the waste stream from landfills The only way a more significant amount of potential residential waste could be diverted from landfills is decreasing and reusing a lot of this material and the challenge rests with the public People can either do their part voluntarily or be forced to through legislation The urgency of the matter becomes that much clearer knowing the province re quires municipalities to reduce their waste stream by 25 per cent by and 50 per cent by the year 2000 I agree with Halton Hills Engineer Ted who favors using education as the means to encourage people to reduce and reuse potential gar He explains forcing people to take such action would be an administrative nightmare and extremely costly An example of the legislation that could be used would only per people to put out a maximum number of garbage bags on the curbside per week Mr Drelow said the Town would require garbage police to ensure peo ple would be abiding by The end result would be a significant increase in taxes As well people in reaction to Bens Banter by Ben Dummett the legislation would find ways to get around the legislation such as placing their extra garbage bags outside other people houses As Mr Drewow puts it legisla tion teaches people how to get of garbage at the expense of others instead of teaching people about the importance of saving the environment Education appears to be the way to go at least initially Because the push has been on recycling more so than on tion and reuse at both the provin and municipal level of government it follows people are not fully aware of the importance of reuse and reduction as well as the methods to achieve results in these areas of environmental pro tection However few if any dont realize the province is running out of landfill space In this sense it should take little public tion for people to realize the of reuse and reduction and the need to act accordingly If people don t jump on the bandwagon In the areas of reuse and reduction as they have done concerning the blue box pro gram they only have themselves to blame when they are legislated to do so Meanwhile Halton Region could lead by example by doing more work in encouraging in and commecial sectors to reduce reuse and recycle their waste stream It doesnt make sense these two sectors produce more than 50 per cent of Ontarios waste stream and yet the Region has virtually no staff devoted to help industry divert potential garbage from landfills If people and governments haven realized it yet the waste problem will only go away once all sectors of society focus their attention on the reduction and reuse of garbage Recycling isnt enough it Muddling through no longer an acceptable excuse The obvious reigns Even at the municipal level candidates for of fice vie with each other for the ultimate banality They wish a regulated growth to preserve the environment quality of life No candidate is in favour of poverty and squalor slavery pollution and child pro stitution Which in a way is a pi as it would give us at least some vanety As a public ser vice some suggestions Growth is not necessarily a good thing Growth is also not a necessity Growth can become a sickness see cancer There is no example of growth having reduced taxes In fact an inexpensive trip down to Bramp ton or to Toronto will show how growth has increased urban squalor crime and taxes We are not obliged to grow The reason we have a decent quality of life is there are few of us As scientists did provide years ago population density is directly correlated to social tension and eventually violence There are no two ways about it growth is tak ing away from quality as anybody who has lived around the neighborhood for the last fif teen years can confirm And stooping growth does not mean being selfcentred it means be ing good stewards of what we have Once the countryside is lit tered with subdivisions the beau ty we now enjoy is there no longer for anybody By the way many municipalities the world over have thnved on zerogrowth It is not a pipe dream it is successful reality We are totally ignoring the needs of our youth and our seniors We have built an utterly unnecessary municipal building while our children hang around gas bars conve stores and pubs We can build for our politician a council chamber which is used a few hours a week but we do not have the money to provide seniors with comfortable accessible friendly meeting places We have the money to build for our bureaucrats straighten rural roads remove old bridges We talk of quality of life while our kids spend their youth at fast food outlets making a few dollars and spending them smok ing around gas bars Our public buildings are closed to the public sorry they are clos after five is the idiotic answer so schools stand empty gyms deserted labs abandoned arenas shut down cafeterias shuttered while our most and vulnerable people are left to their own devices The first duty of government is to serve the needs of its people not to protect the integrity of its assets or the slumber of its staff Municipal politicians are the most important elected officers of the country they have much more power to make our life miserable than the feds or the Queen Park boys The past council and the one before show a remarkable ability for mud died thinking and lack of Another View by Carlo Testa have built and replace it with some beauty She may also tell me that she is against the Acton dump what the tick I am will ing to take some bromide if I get the rest Do you know that severe speed and weight limits on dirt twisty bumpy roads with narrow bridges make dumps and similar beauties uneconomical ston The only predictable feat has been the growth of taxes well above inflation rate But do not forget grow so that we can encourage growth which will cause higher taxesl In the past muddling through was for a small municipality the best policy No action was a good way of ing a certain way of life Now mental sloth is no longer accep table to go along is not enough We need rigorous analysis comprehensive plans of action aggressive implement a tion But to get my vote the can didate needs simply to tell me what she will do to make the arena available to kids or seniors what will be offered to them in terms of recreation and public transportation where do all the yellow buses go after nine She just needs to tell me that the town population will re main the same that we will try to eliminate some of the ugliness we Poets Corner LAUGHING STOCKS Snowbirds flit around Ona wild sort of day We have a way of shopping In a wild sort of way Americans have their laughs Aware in their lews They know whats going on It snot exactly news They know we re the dupes They lap it up they grin They know we re all washed up They know wedon fit in The whole world must notice Watching us like hawks Waiting to decend on us We re in for multi shocks By Lois Richardson THE PROPOSAL Where was Paul on Saturday night And where was Ms Leslie his love What were they doing at about 9 m When the plane towed his proposal above Paul offered his heart to his Leslie He declared his love witnessed by all What a beautiful tale for their children- Leslie 1 love you Marry me Paul Its obvious Pauls a romantic Tho romance Is supposedly dead We all saw Paul propose to his Leslie And we wonder what answer she said Could It be that Leslie and Paul have decided Theyd like to tie the knot And say the vows to each other That most of us forgot Theyll pledge thelr forever Paul will take her for bride And theyll begin their life together True love side by side LW Rockwood