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2 The Canadian StatesmanBowmanville, August 9,1978 Section Two EdiCtorihael Coment Here Comes the Election It's the time of year when many thoughts will be turning towards Èpeech-making, knocking on doors, shaking hands and maybe even kissing a few babies. By this time next week, the municipal elections will be just a slim, three months away. And that means we can look forward to an autumn full of door-to-door visits by persons running for office; all- candidates' meetings and enumera- tions. No doubt there will be political promises falling thick and fast as autuin leaves. Perhaps there are some people too cynical or apathetic to care about civie government. But in the municipal elections two years ago, plenty of people did take part. Candidates' meetings were almost always well-attended as incumbents and challengers dealt with issues such as sewer and water rates, taxes and (it almost goes without saying) regional government. All in all, the election season can be a very interesting time. It is a time when all of our ideas and theories on free speech and government by the people themselves can be seen in action. The more informed and capable people take part in the election process, the better off we will be. An election, especially on the local level, is something that everyone can take part in. We may not all be experts in complex subjects such as high finance or international affairs. But, when it comes to common sense matters like dog control and the planning of local land use, and the selling of taxes, everybody can have a say. Of course not all of us are capable of running for office. However, many people can take part in the, upcoming town and school board elections by supporting and working for a candidate they fell will do a good job. And those who cannot run or work for a candidate who is in the running can do their part by reading candidates' literature and advertise- ments, attending meetings where the candidates are speaking, and keeping watch on the proceedings as reported in the local newspapers. With any sort of luck at all, the pre-election activity will lead to informed, rational decision-making when the voters go to the polls November 13. When that sort of election takes place, we are all winners. Nice Work! Organizers of the August Red Cross clinie have every right to be happy this month. A total of 230 units of ood were collected last Wednes- day afternoon and evening during the summer clinic. That's the best performance for August in at least the last 12 years. The donors and volunteers who took part in this month's effort are to be congratulated. Fortunately, the spring, autumn and winter clinics are usually well attended; unfor- tunately, the attendance sometimes lags during the August clinic. Blood is needed àll year round and therefore a good turn-out at an August clinic is a doubly important accomplishment. Of course it is important that we do not rest on our laurels. The area has a quota of 1400 units and that means an average of 350 must be collected at every clinic. So put a big circle on the calendar around November 1 because that is the date when donors will be needed once again at the Bowmanville Lions Centre. 11x4 ~46a~~ ai Way back in 1555, a French doctor named Nostradamus published a book of predictions that has been causing considerable interest lately because many of his forecasts have been correct. An enterprising firm has actually made a record of the predictions and put them to music. In his book, "The Centuries", he predicted that 100 years after his death in.1566, there would be a great fire in London. He also predicted that the English Parliament would put its King to death, referring to the death of Kng Charles. His most astonishing predictions refer to the Anti-Christ. Nostrada- mus saw a French leader being born near Italy whose name would be Napoloron. Then appears another Anti-Christ whom Nostradamus called Hister, the German of the Crooked Cross, Captaine of Greater Germanie. He saw a third Anti- Christ who would come from Asia and would be linked with the death of a Pope named Paul. He even wrote Pope Paul VI is dead and in traditional fashion, the cardinals have been summoned to Rome to engage in the age old ritual of selecting his successor. In the meantime, his death at 80 years of age is being mourned by 700 million Roman Catholics and religious leaders around the world who admired the Pope for his untiring efforts to bring about unity and peace. The Pilgrim Pope as he was called travelled extensively, visiting six continents in his efforts to bring that Pope Paul would die nine miles from Rome. He was slightly off on this prediction. The Pope died ten miles from Rome. Nostradamus then predicted that World War III would begin when the third of three brothers who holdt power is assassinated. Senator Edward Kennedy better be on guard since he appears to be the likely candidate. Nostradamus sees the war lasting 27 years beginning in the late 70's. Nostradamus also sees New York being poisoned by its own water supply, and Britain and France unting in the Common Market which they did about five years ago. So there you have it, but we'd wait awhile before cancelling your: insurance. Oddly enough, he didn't make mention of such events as Canada's Prime Minister snubbing the Queen, the rising inflation or the great showing of Canada's young athletes at the Commonwealth Games. about Christian unity, unfortunately without complete success. But, his firm stand on birth control and priestly celibacy left his church divided. There is no clear choice as his successor, but advisors say he probably will be an Italian. Only 42 of the 263 Popes chosen have come from outside Italy. In the meantime, the mourning period will continue throughout the world, to mark the conclusion of this great man's efforts to improve the world in which he lived. Canadians have a great pre- occupation with death. It is common knowledge that.we carry more life insurance than any other nation in the world, on a per capita basis. I wonder why. It must be a great country in which to be selling life insurance. Even Simpsons-Sears, Limited, is getting into the business. Only in Canada would a big department store be selling insurance. Pity. But it's a fact. In my wife's last computerized, machine-signed letter from that august organization, one L. Visosky, General Credit Manager, talks earnestly about an accidental death policy, exclusively for Simpsons-Sears account custom- ers. It pays up to $100,000 in benefits and "protects you while you're driving, riding, or walking - even when you're at home or at work - everywhere in the world! NO MEDICAL EXAM! NO AGE LIMIT!" Well, I don't do much driving, riding or walking when I'm at home or at work, but perhaps it's a good idea. It costs only $3.50 a month for a family. Does it mean that children under five can be insured for up to 100 grand for accidental death? Does it mean that people over ninety who decide to jump in front of a bus, accidentally, can leave their heirs set for life? Somehow I doubt it. It's far more likely that Simpsons-Sears just want to be dang sure they're paid off, if you've managed to get into them for a few hundred dollars on your charge account. Perhaps Canadians are not so foolish in their concern about death. A pretty good English playwright, Will Shakespeare, was fascinated by the subject, and speculated upon it in Hamlet's soliloquies. And a thousand other poets and playwrights have attempted to probe into the meaning of death. A quick look at Bartlett's Familiar uotations shows more than three solid pages of references to death. Thus we learn that Death among other things, such as the end of Life, "borders upon our birth, breaks every bond, is only a horizon, is the fatal asterisk, is like a friend unseen, is the end of a journey, is but the long, cool night; a debt, a trumped ace, a boatman, a road we all must go." And so on. They all sound like cliches, don't they? Brother Death becomes more familiar as you grow older. Children are completely unaware of him, young people are barely so. It's a rather distatesful thing that happens to other people, mostly old ones. When I was a young fighter pilot, I was very close to death, fairly often. But I didn't even feel his cold breath, nor smell his slightly mouldy scent. A few times I was almost literally scared to death, but not of death. When you begin seeing school friends in the obituary columns, when a brother dies, when a colleague dies, all of them in their to prime, you begin to feel and smell the Old Boy. It's not particularly frightening, merely a bit disconcert- ing. In your heart, you are twelve years old, with a little sophistication plastered on the outside. In your head, you're a couple of years away from retirement, a decade or so away from senility, certainly on nodding terms with Brother Death. Holy Smokes! I hope this is not too lugubrious a column for a family journal. It was that thing from Simpsons-Sears that got me going. And then my wife suggested I make a list of my insurance policies and the junk in my safe deposit box, and leave it all in the hands of my brother-in-law, the lawyer, before we embarked on our trip. What a gloom-box way of commencing a summer holiday. I told her I would, but never got around to it. If we're hijacked or go down in the Atlantic or die of seasickness on our voyage down the Rhine, let somebody else sort out the mess I've left behind. I've been sorting out their messes long enough. Let's see, now. There are two insurance policies in the bottom drawer of the dresser, beneath my thermal underwear. There's another with the county school board. There's a stock certificate some- where in my desk drawer, worth $94.00. There's a house, paid for, and two cars in the driveway, worth $250 each, on a good day. As for mv safe deDosit box at the the bank, I lostmy key the first week I had it, and the girl told me they'd have to have a chap drill it open, with me present. We were to have a chap drill it open, with me present. We were to make a date mùtually agreeable. That was six months ago. I don't know what's in the thing anyway. Mý wife has a sewing machine that s worth more than our two cars. The color TV is ten years old, but going strong, ever since we had the TV repairman put back new knobs where the grandboys had ripped all the originals off. My colleagues in the English department are perfectly welcome to split up my reference books, my filing cabinet, which has not been opened in ten years, and my picture of the Queen, the one with the moustache drawn in. Any left-handed golfer with arthritis may have my clubs and cart, which are so old and shabby they almost qualify as antiques. There's a pretty good fishing rod down in the basement, with the Christmas decorations. A few patches and there's a dandy pair of hip waders to go with it. They're in the trunk of the old Dodge, along with a case of beer that froze last winter. There, I think that pretty well clears the decks. If Brother Death gets over-friendly, my daughter won't need a job for the next three years. It'll taker her that long to sort out the estate. Bum Voyage. ditor Zbe canabian btate5man Durham County's Great Family Journal Established 124 years ago in 1854 Also Incorporating The Bowmanville News The Newcastle Independent The Orono News Second class mail registration number 1561 Produced every Wednesday by THE JAMES PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 62-66 King St. W., Bowmanville, Ontario LiC 3K9 GEO. P. MORRIS Business Mgr. JOHN M. JAMES Editor - Publisher BRIAN PURDY Advertising Mgr. E O .9- ~ I ~ <I -o <s * o I. DONALD BISHOP Plant Mgr. i nhn wua d rerproduce in whole or in part and In any form whatsoever, particularly by photographic or offset process in a publication, must be obtained from the publisher and the -printer. Any unauthorized areproduction will be subject to reCourse in law.11 et0a sa L "Copyright and-or property rights.subsist in the image appearing on this proof. Permission td $10.00 a year - 6 Months $5.50 foreign - $21.00 a year strictly in advanýe prec 00 p Stri C AlfhoÙih ev«éry precautiofi will be taen to avoid error, The Canadian Sfatesman accepts advertising in its columns on the understanding that it will not be liable for arly error in the' p tp r0urrr advertisement published hereurider unless a proof of such advertisement is requested in writing_ cg0 ug v by the adVertiser and returned tO The Canadian Statesman business office duly signed by the advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noted in writing thereon, and in that case if' any error so noted is not corrected by The Canadian Statesman its liability shal 1 not exceed such a portion of the entire cost of such advertisement as the space occupied by the noted error bears to rp 0 Dear Johnny,' We were wakened one morning by a lot of noise; sounded like someone tearing up our road, which is what it turned out to be - 3 or 4 men,1 bulldozer and 1 truck digging a big hole and ultimately putting in a hydrant. Nothing so odd about that except the hydrant was just beingtrans- planted from sixty ft. south. Someone boobed last lafl and the hydrant was instalaed on a Iawn rather than on the road allowance If the thing had been put in propsrly n the first place perhaps we could have used the money wasted to extend the paving of Horsey St. to the bridge and eliminate ail the pot holes that develop there every spring. Going downtown I see we, have a new taxi stand on Silver St. which I am informed (facetiously?) was put up without a permit being issued; but, since the owner was ignorant of the law council passed a by law to make it okay. Silver St. has meters on one side which makes it pretty narrow and it is busy and I am not sure it is a good location for a taxi stand so let's hope they get excellent drivers. And then I read in The Statesman that someone forgot to turn off and drain the water at the swimming pools and this will result in several thousands dollars damage so why be concerned about a misplaced hydrant. On the other hand, are all these consultants getting us overloaded at the top at the expense of the workers. Some- thing seems to be getting a bit ridiculous. Heardupart of the P.M.'s talk the other night and I was sure glad to hear him say the civil service, which numbered 369,000 in 1968 and is over 500,000 in 1978, is not going to be enlarged. He did not mention his own office staff which has gone from 40 to currently 120. Maybe that is all the bodies the space will secommodate. Although he is going to save us all kinds of money he did not see fit to do anything about the indexed pensions of M.P.'s and civil servants or perhaps he feels he is entitled to the pension of $46,700.00 he will receive should he retire at age 65, which will grow to $91,900.00 at age 75 if inflation runs at 7 per cent. In Nova Scotia Premier Reegan was all set to introduce indexed pensions (on a, limited basis) but ran into such a barrage of criticism from all over the place that he dropped the whole issue like a hot potatoe. Hats off to Nova Scotia. In The Statesman, I read that an architect from Cobourg is going to have a look at our town hall which gladdens this old heart. Morgan Dear Editor, Who Wins? Admittedly, unions have done much to improve the lot of workers in the past. Now however, unions not only control the working population but seemingly governments as well. When there is moral rot within nations, governments topple easily but with strong sensible leaders of integrity, there is stability. Now workers are terrorized into NOT working, when they feel it more to their advantage to keep right on working-- working an honest day for an honest day's pay. Do union controllers here, really hate this country MORE than they love themselves? Is it the government who loses? Does the worker now really gain? NO. All taxpayers and workers finally make up for the loss of time and increases or damages incurred during the time workers have been kept on strike! The only group who gains, at their country's loss, is the anonymous group who control unions. These so- called controllers are now organized as a world-wide organization, who not only terrorize workers but black- mail governments by threatening job cutbacks if their terms are not met. Get SMART workers and look ahead, noticing as you look, where all these strikes are leading us and our great country. Signed: N.S. Dumm Dear Editor: Family Doctor or Emergency Room? It seems that for some time now, the medical profession has been saying that the services of an "Emergency Room" are being used by the public, and are constantly thinking up ways to correct this abuse, such as patient fees. Actually, what doctors are doing in their own practices is only encouraging this abuse. On a certain afternoon recent- ly, a so-called "Medical Cen- tre", normally staffed by two doctors and a lab technician, as well as a secretary, had no I person present other than the secretary, and even she seem- ed to be catching up on work, following a few days aways, and was not too helpful in providing information. If someone had presented themselves in serious condi- tion, they would have been sadly disappointed and their friends or relatives would have had perhaps a painful visit to a hospital and perhaps the patient would have suffer- ed from delayed medical attention. Surely two people can agree between themselves to cover the medical needs of the community in more reason- able manner than was display- ed on this occasion. Yours sincerely, Nettie Aiken Pontypool, Ontario. Pi7RTIPatoeJ World War HI ? Pope Paul VI Letters Imm-Il, FI-- 4ýC N A tao