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Ian Oliver Publisher Robert Glasbey Advertising Director Norman Alexander Editor Geoff Hill Circulation Director Teri Casas Office Manager Tim Coles Production Manager I think they should be eliminated totally. They are getting paid for a whole year. They have summer off. They have all the holidays off. There‘s enough time in a whole year that they can do their business otherwise. Be like normal people. Take night school, take weekâ€" ends, whatever. I think they are abusing the system. We‘ve got to start cutting off someâ€" where. I think that nine PA days is way too many. Not only is it an example of how the educaâ€" tion system is taking shortcuts â€" there are many other examples â€" but what about the costs of the parents having to provide daycare for the kids when they are having to stay at home when they are working. at Mack Canada‘s Oakville truck assembly plant. When it became clear that all the cards were in the hands of the compaâ€" ny‘s U.S. workers, hope for saving the 170 jobs at the local facility evaporated. There was a certain inevitability about the recent developments I think it‘s a grand idea that teachers have nine days to further their knowledge of educaâ€" tion. However, I don‘t think that they should be held during the course of the regular school year, but after the final exams for the students when it won‘t interfere with their normal course of activity. There was the usual attempts to try and change management‘s mind by offering possible concessions here but they fell on deaf ears. Local workers shouldn‘t have been surprised at the way in which Mack hanâ€" dled the bad news. By voting for a variety of wage and benefit cuts, the U.S. workers have given themselves a reprieve. Too bad Canadian workers didn‘t have that chance. It‘s ironic, that at a time when one multinational firm is picking up stakes and moving south, another, Lear Seating, is expanding into Oakville. The company is providing seats for Ford‘s new Win88 miniâ€" van that will start production late this fall. Lear is expected to break ground on the new plant soon and when operational, it will employ about 350 workers. It is to be hoped that Lear will tap the reserve of skilled Mack labor that could ultimately see these workers better off than had Mack continued in operation. Regarding the nine PA Days being enough, I think it‘s not enough. I think we should have more than nine PA days. I‘m a teacher in Halton and I feel that every minute of the PA Days that I experience are useful and I feel that although there are not kids in the classroom, I feel the kids in the class do benefit from this time. I firmly believe that nine PA days is sufficient and would even welcome an increase in those number of days. However, PA days to enhance a teacher‘s education should be conâ€" ducted in either the first two weeks after summer school is out or in the first two weeks before school begins â€" not during the academic year. P.D. days should remain at nine because professional development days are required to keep abreast of new and useful techniques in curriculum presentation skills to meet the demands of today‘s classes. Three of the nine PD days might better be called professional activity days that are very long hours in which teachers are involved in doing interviews with parents to update them on their children‘s progress. EDITORIAL _ Bad news...good news Do you think the number of PA days should remain at nine or be reduced? 467 Speers Road, Oakville, Ont. L6K 3S4 Classified Advertising: 845â€"2809 Circulation: 845â€"9742 or 845â€"9743 The Oakville Beaver, published every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, at 467 Rd., Oakvile, is one of the Metroland Printing, Bom,OrleToda‘, All material Sut News, n, Stouttville/) Nowmarketâ€" Liberal, reproduction in whole consent of the publisher. the Oakvile Beaver is or in part of this material * published in Scarborough WMWWWWM smw Wihour A o QUESTION OF THE WEEK What â€" measures could Ontario Premier Bob Rae take to help reduce the deficit? A sampling of the best answers will be published in the next Weekend edition of the Oakville Beaver. Give us your opinion on this topic by calling 845â€"5585, box 5012. All callers are allowed 45 seconds to respond and must provide their name, address and phone number for verification. Mike Veenhulzen Doug Lincoln Mrs. Lipinsky Jack Benton Ray O‘Kane Jean Brown Ah, the humble excuse. Could modern civilization function without the veritable vermicelli of little white lies we all tell to get out of things we don‘t want to do each and every day. Probably not. It‘s early morning as I type this, but already I‘ve fended off a flock of Jehovah‘s Witnesses by telling them I‘m a practising Buddhist; I‘ve deflectâ€" ed a telephone sales pitch for magazine subscriptions by claiming I‘m stone blind, and I‘ve promised my Boon Companion and Faithful Cohort that you bet, for sure I‘ll get those storm windows off this afternoon, first thing. Lies, all lies. Well, not lies, exactly. Excuses. Little dabs of social lubricant that help to smooth the meshing gears of everyday life. An awful lot of impressive human creativity goes into makâ€" ing excuses â€" sometimes we expend more mental sweat trying to avoid a job than we would if we just went ahead and did the damned thing â€" but that‘s human nature too. And sometimes the excuses themselves become somewhat twisted works of Art. Just as soon as this twinge in my back eases off. The creative art of making excuses is really an exercise in telling lies Sorry can‘t come to dinner. Lie follows by post. Telegram from Lord Beresford to King Edward here is hardly a man strict as not to vC when he is to make Lord Halifax to vary make an Consider, for example, the excuse of glamour girl Zsa Zsa Gabor, explaining why she slugged a Beverley Hills cop when he ticketed her for driving with expired plates on her Rolls Royce: Then there‘s Jessica Hahn, Jimmy Bakker‘s exâ€"playâ€"toy, excusing herselt for doing a 10â€" page, fullâ€"color niude layout in Playboy: Not as famous, but just as inventive, is the spokesman for the U.S. Defense Contractor Pratt and Whitney, desperately trying to excuse the fact that his company charged the Pentagon $999 for pliers. That‘s $999 for each pair. Explained the spokesman: "We;;, chey‘re multiâ€"purpose pliâ€" »» ers. Anyone who starts most of his sentences with a long, drawnâ€"out "Wellllllll;" is "bound "We‘ve got to ask ourselves: how much clean air do we need?" "It brought me closer to God." "I am from Hungary. We are descendants of Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun. We are Hunsarian Freedom Fighters." Or how about Chrysler shill Lee Iacocca, making excuses for not cleaning up automobile emissions: to be a good excuseâ€"maker. Exâ€" U.S. President Ronald Reagan proves the point. His excuse to Chief of Staff Jim Baker for not reading his briefing notes for an important economic summit meeting : "Wellll, Jim, The Sound of Music was on last nicht." "Musumba Bwayla is a stupid man" says Ndefwayl, "*â€" and a hopeless player. He has a big nose and is crossâ€"eyed. Girls hate him. He beat me because my jockstrap was too tight and because when he serves, he farts, and that made me lose my concentration for which I am famous throughout Zambia." "I didn‘t like it and I didn‘t inhale it." Until last year, that is. Last year Mister Ndefwayl was defeated by another Zambian tennis player â€" one Musumba Bwayla. Mind you, Mister Ndefwayl has an excuse for his loss. Well, perhaps so, Mister Ndefwayl, but you‘re still the number two tennis player in Zambia. My allâ€"time favorite excuse? I give the nod to Lighton Ndefwayl. Mister Ndefwayl isn‘t a household name in Canada, but he is in Zambia, where he‘s known as the best tennis player that country ever produced. And then there‘s Bill Clinton‘s classic â€" an excuse that will go down in the annals of Born Again Pot Smokers Everywhere: According to‘ thé last report.®