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Wednesday December 13, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER A7 COMMENT A decidedly un-Canadian admission about winter Even as we speak I have done the unmentionable: kicked the kids out into the snow after school and bleated at them to take the dog for a walk. "It's snowing," they wail in unison. "We don't live in Texas," I retort grimly, holding fast to my lock the door policy. I'm on deadline, my third today and I am not playing happy mother. "Witch," they hiss, as they walk by with resolute faces. Oh, happy Christmas. I pound away here at the front window and watch as they pummel each other with snow, hop ing for a snow day here in snowbound Oakville. Somehow using the snow shovel as a catapult and then pelting one another doesn't look much fun from DIANE HART where I sit But then I'm a fossil, right? They are out there, one holding a pile of snow aloft over the head of the other (guess who), my car is unrecognizable under a huge sheet of snow and the dri veway is still to be shoveled. They draw lots as to who has to do the deed: bonus is they get paid at this time of year. But still. They are not exactly brim ming over with enthusiasm. Extra-curricular activities have been canceled and they are left to their own devices, blasphemy in this day and age. And still the snow falls. What a win ter. This is the kind of winter we had, I say to my kids, who look decidedly unimpressed with the announcement except to ask if it snowed in the stone age, very funny, ha ha. They talk end lessly, my spouse joining in, about the skiing (snowboarding, please, we are too cool to ski) planned for after Christmas. I suppose I will be happy to get to the hills. But I don't know. My fire draws me back every evening. It's hard to leave it to bundle up and think about paying money to freeze on a chairlift. But I have to admit that ski ing has changed my outlook on winter. I watch the snow fall and I think, strange ly enough, about what it's like to do the last mn of the day. The sun is going down, the crowds have thinned, and you want to make your last mn a good one. It's a great feeling. But I also know what it feels like in the comfort of my home and what it's really like out there on the hills. This year, I am going to be prepared. Already I've hoping for that basic at winter: quality long underwear. The manufacturers promise me, lovely people that they are, that I will be cozy out there in my hot Chillies. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Code of conduct must apply to newspapers Freedoms and rights carry corre sponding responsibilities. Freedom of the press is no exception. Your front page story of Dec. 8th `Peace Garden opens w ithout M ahaffy' poignantly addresses the issue. On Dec. 6th, the Toronto Sun carried a front page story on Karla Homolka replete with photo. This left a devastated Debbie Mahaffy unable to address those attending Sheridan L e tte rs to T h e E ditor College's Peace Garden dedication. (The garden commemorates the 1989 mass m urder o f 14 women at M ontreal's L'Ecole Polytechnique.) Newspapers are created to make profits as well as inform. All the more reason to insist their code of conduct extends to the type of stories printed. All the more reason to resist content of a strictly gratuitous nature. What possible good was served by the Homolka story except to stimulate sales? Did the paper not have other options at its disposal? For instance, why didn't the Sun run a feature on Debbie Mahaffy's indefatigable efforts on behalf of victims of crime, or one on the pending Peace Garden dedica Alternatives to pesticides Recently, The Oakville Beaver has printed letters from citizens worried about the use o f cosmetic pesticides on O akville lawns, parks and schoolyards. The con cern is growing as people becom e aware, and begin to question the effects o f the accumulation of these poisons on our environ ment. Scientific studies , done on the safety of these substances are not reassur ing. It raises the question of why H r r a u /y we continue to take such Let our designers custom create a holiday chances with the arrangement for your home or office. Makes a health o f our great gift. Ask us about our FTD and Teleflora beautiful com services. We will arrange delivery 7 days a week munity, for the to any destination worldwide. sake o f weedP riced / tor ~ . . . free parks and © lawns. A lte rn a tiv e s O leleflota do exist to cre ate a beautiful A CC front yard. All across Canada, a * d A * y e fr urban hom eDecorate your home with ow ners are replacing mani an elegant Santa or Angel cured, pesticidefigure. Choose from our dependent grass w ith natural entire collection! 1 looking gardens Many styles of perennials and wildflow available. ers. The new trend is away from masses of lawn and toward creating a more interesting look Ct<r with more RepiUA-r flowerbeds, P rC ce f pathw ays with wild flow ers etc. and even a front yard total ly o f flow ers and bushes. People are using their im agina tions. There are about 40 Canadian com m unities that have form ed task forces to study this ques I D reffed P oiureffia tion, reported to I Beautifully arranged poinsettias add to your their municipal ities and, subse home decor or make a terrific ^ a quently, were holiday gift. As shown 39.99. m ' y y declared pesti r vn* -- P riced ! > cide-free. We are a few concerned citi zens who are trying to increase our aw areness of this im portant W ith a G arden G allery G ift subject, and to C ertificate, you're sure to give study and share alternatives to th e perfect gift every time. pesticide use. T hey are a great idea for We welcome th e person on your list who anyone who is is difficult to buy for. interested, to come to a meet T h e decorator or gardener ing and talk in your life will love them . with us. Please Available in any denom ination. call 257-3504. tion itself? Though vastly more con structive, the fact is neither of these choices would have sold as many papers. Sensationalizing news lowers integrity. It renders papers, like the Sun, part of the problem rather than part of the solution. If violence is to be cur tailed, newspapers must report such events in a more responsible and sensi tive manner. When stories of a profoundly dis turbing nature are given saturation cov erage, a line is crossed. The role of pub lic informer devolves into one of pro moting sales. Indeed, nothing more need be said about either Paul Bernardo or Karla Homolka -- particularly sto ries pertaining to them personally. Recently, Oakvillians voted over whelmingly against relaxing the Town's sign by-law. The reason was simple. Public spaces should not be cluttered with commercial messages. Newspapers enjoy an enormous privilege by having boxes displaying front page stories in full view all over town. Such a privilege carries the responsibility to print stories which are at least legitimately newsworthy, and at best meritorious. Democracy implies a free press. However, freedom does not imply licence. Reasonable limitations apply to the media in the same manner as they do to individuals. When newspapers wallow in the gutter of sensationalism, they do themselves and their readers a great disservice. Peter D. Pellier As much as I love to ski, or let's be honest, try to get down the hills in one piece without killing someone, I'd love to try snow shoeing. Just get out there in the snow and run. Fun, no? Anything, of course, beats toboggan ing. Now, I know people, my spouse among them, who love nothing more than sitting on a crazy carpet and flying down a hill only to land in a large heap in the snow. I know I ought to like that too. But I don't. I loathe tobogganing. Just the thought of lugging some piece of plastic to the edge of a hill and placing my ungainly body on it fills me with dread. No, far better to careen down a hill on two skis, a danger to all, than a piece of plastic. So stone me, as a character in a book said. Stone me if I don't want that allCanadian winter kind of activity, tobog ganing. I don't even know how to spell it, much less do it. Do you cross your legs on the plastic or leave them dangling at the front, ready to break the moment you pick up speed? Never mind. I suppose the fun is just taking a mn at one and leaping aboard. Yippee. It's still snowing and the kids come inside, covered in big white flakes of snow. The driveway, I notice, is still is in dire need of shoveling. Some lovely soul told me the other day she loves to shovel snow late at night: it's quiet, she's all alone getting some exercise in the out doors and she gets to chat with the neigh bours. All of that may be true. But the biggest advantage is what it's not: tobog ganing. H o U c n d Pew tc -j 4 f a v o u r th e f c e u /f o £ C h r tf f t+ c a f Fill your home with the inviting scents of the holiday season. Garden Gallery has a large selection of festive candles and pot pourri. See in-store for selection. Ot*r Reducer P r ic e f Ho C u r Y o ^ r m Greed felecfcon. o^ fop ejucUdy freer, f u ll <knd brtey / a ffieFe freer cod/. . fooefy eoeryreei*. F rerf H o b d a y \ Z oupu pf Prefer/^ro**.... A beautiful combination of flowers in holiday colours. Makes a great hostess gift C --V ' ' f d T c e n f in fo y o u r fo n ^ e . freefedrivt*^ Q u a lify G cohk Pc*e ' : Tj r j *. ' eacA OS. f l if o A v a ila b le ; Haifa***- F ir, D cu^C& f F ir, F ru fer F ir. 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