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2 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, December 6, 1978 Section Two Editorialm mn G¢od Samaritan We hear and read so much about the seamy side of life thèse days that it makes one feel good when something nice happeng. This is one Qf those happy ending stories that's true. On Saturday morning, we dropped in at Brock's BP station on King St. East for some gasoline. While the chap was filling the tank we went inside to have our credit card marked up. Shirley Brock waý puttering around in the office and suddenly looked out the window to where an elderly man was standing near the pumps. He was dressed in a suit coat with no overcoat and it was cold outside. Ron Brock came in and said he'd seen the same man earlier in the morning wandering along King St. East. "There's something wrong with him and he must be freezing," said Shirley. "I'm going out to see what it, is. She brought the old man into the office and tried to find out where he lived, but to no avail. The old fellow appeared dazed, bewildered and chilled to the bone. The next step was to contact the regional police and they responded within a few minutes, the officer questioning the man while Shirley poured him a cup of steaming hot coffee. Finally, they tracked him down. He had wandered away from one of the local nursing homes shortly after breakfast. The kindly officer took him back to the home and it all ended happily. We say hats off to Shirley, the gang at Brock's BP and the regional police officer for a job well done. It might well have had a different ending if no one had cared. Councils Letter to Santa Newcastle Town Council officially took office Monday night and this occasion made us think about issues and decisions which council will have to face during its term of office. Since this is the festive season, we thought that the local political issues could be illustrated in the form of a Christmas list. The folowing are some of the things that we are sure members of Newcastle council and municipal staff would like to receive for Christmas. District plans for local hamlets and towns are one item. If Santa could bring the new council a complete stack of plans mapping out development in a mann er suitable for all concerned, councillors would be overjoyed. Previo s councils have decided plans ar e needed in Enniskillen, Courtice, Burketon, Newtonville, Newcastle, Tyrone and Bowmanville to name just a few places.i Water and sewer projects are another item we could place on the list. If Santa could arrange to deliver some shiny new water works and sewage treatment plants during the next year town official would be grateful. In Newcastle, te village's new water treatment plant has been started but the BowmanvIlle sewage treatment facility is still in the planning stages after a setback this year. If an arrangement for a suitable solution to the town's shopping centre dilemmas could be delivered to the town on Christmas morning there would be cause for celebra- tions too. Town officials would dearly love a fool-Droof olan saving Last With many fatal diseases, the patient first passes through an early phase during which the iIlness could b e cured. Left unattended, however, the disease strengthens and, ulti- mately conquers. Canad is now in the grip of just such a potentially fatal - yet still developing - Disease. And nowhere are the symptoms more apparent than in the Post Office. The Post Office - both the largest and most appalling of gbvernment institutions - symbolizes every- thing that is wrong with big government. Too much bigness has led to insensitivity, poor service, spectacular deficits, bureaucratic mismanagement, union irresponsi- bility and general chaos. According to information received by Parliament on October 10, 71 of the 99 illegal public sec‡or strikes staged between 1970 and 1977 in- volved the Post Office. Fumbling management on one side and damn-the-consequences eadership in CUPW on the other have reduced the Post Office to a trayesty of a service.i But all is not yet lost. Before the where and when shopping centres should be built in Bowmanville. The Town of Newcastle could also ask Santa for some safe, clean prosperous industries that would create local jobs. Other things that council would probably like to receive this Christmas would be new senior citizens housing develop- ments, final agreement with the school board over the construction of the Splash Committee's indoor pool project, an aerial ladder for Bowmanville's fire department and certainly a parking lot for downtown Newcastle Village. A new town hall that would bring all of the municipality's depart- ments under one roof is sometimes discussed by council members. We're not sure where the new members stand on this issue but we expect that municipal officials would love to see a modern town hall complex (without pigeons on the roof) delivered this Christmas morning. And we are certain that shorter less expensive 'Ontario Municipal Board Hearings, and lower fees from consultants' bills are two other Christmas wishes from council members and town staff alike. With projects such as the Darling- ton Nuclear Generating Station and housing developments in Newcastle, Courtice and Bowmanville, the municipality will face many large- scale challenges in the next two years. So what we would wish most for our civic government is a large helping of wisdom, common sense and good judgement during the next two years. Rites? overbearing bureaucracy and mili- tant public sector unions strangle our economy, there is action that can be taken. Our political leaders must be pushed to reduce the size of the government sector and to ensure that civil service are kept down to private wage levels. Moreover, unions which break the law can be sued, as CFIB members Santana, Inc., a Quebec-based shoe manufacturing firm demonstrated. Following a 16-day illegal walkout by CUPW against the Post Office in 1974, Santana sued the union for damages suffered during that strike. The company won damages plus costs and the decision was upheld by the Quebec Court of Appeals. The decision will stand as a legal precedent within Quebec and ,will influence decisions in other provinces. The implication of the Santana decision - that private business can sue rogue unions - is stunning. Resorting to the courts, is, of course, a drastic step. But these are unsettled times and unsettled times require strong measures. Federation of Independent Business) n btat'bman ri't Fam[ly journali safigo o1154 0 X rporat ing le ndependent s News rc tiration numiber 1561 'Wednesday by L 4G COMPANY LIMITED anvile, Ontario C 3K9 PURDY DONALD B!SHOP sng Mgr. Plani Mgr. ie image appearing on this proof. Perss to ¡ ais heve r tkieUlary by oer a D, r,h nbiSfer and the priIter. Any unauthorieý toreign-$1OOa yeair void error. The canemian statesmaen.aecceps that it w1f nlot be l4able for any error in the f fsctTsnvenfsen s r uested i tng n y.notedf in writing thereon, aind in that case a ..... scen tyiUex e a........ S-tese e 9llmileen ear e Goodyear Belt Protected by Electronics An electronie system protects Goodyear conveyor belting at this dock- loading facility near Thunder Bay, Ontario. Mounted under the belts at strategic locations, box-like detectors react with metal sensors imbedded in Chap wants to do a television shortie about me. I hae me doots about agreeing. I have deep suspi- cions about that particular medium, and a very low regard for the vast majority engaged in its machina- tions. First of ail, TV is one of the most pernicious influences on the imaginations and vocabularies of the young, to whom I am trying to teach the subtleties and beauties and clarities of the English language. There is almost nothing to stretch the mind, to titillate the senses, to improve the.language. Most televi- sion drama is one-dimensional. It's laid our flatly before you. The language is brutalized. Suspense is childish. Acting is insensitive. And if, once in a blue moon, there is an intelligent, suspenseful, sensi- tive and imaginative iece of work on the screen, the moo is constantly shattered by noisy beer ads, or distasteful commercials about ring around the collar or underarm deodorant. It's a pity. Television, in the right hands, could become the most warming, enlightening, enlarging experience in the lives of many people, aside from their personal experience with other human beings. But 90 per cent of it is garbage, aimed at the intelligence of a slow six-year-old. The tinny, artificial "applause." The ever-increasing sexual innuendo. The constant shouting of so-called comedians. The dull and derivative dance routines. The biatting and snarling of rock groups. And perhaps worst of all, those insane, greedy game shows. It is literal facttthat I can scarce refrain from throwing up when I come across one of those, with the bellowing master of ceremonies, the fawning contestants, and the idiotic audiences. You know, when television began, it had a good many flaws, but most of them were technical. At the samne ime it had a vitaiity and reality that swept ail before them. Drama was done live, and we had such great plays as Paddy Chayefsky's Marty. Compare that Feality and pathos with the slobber- ng, sugar-encrusted stuff like The Waltons. Compare shouting, leering Laverne and Shirley, or the late unlamented Maude with the great comics of the early days: Art Carney and Jackie Gleason, Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. You can't. There is no comparison. Perhaps it's because the big poobahs of television have treated their massive audiences with more contempt than any other medium has ever done, including the Hollywood of the big studios. And those appearing on television respond like fawning puppets. Hockey players get into needless fights so that they can display the big macho on the screen. Football players don't just score a touchdown any more, and leave it at that. They do a dance, or they bounce the ball hard off the ground and run around with their arms up in self- congratulation. Learned and intelligent professors allow themselves to be made ridiculous by rhetorical questions from ignorant interviewers. Politi- cians allow themselves to be chivvied by churlish reporters, just to get their images on the boob tube. Talented people in show business will appear on the screen with an ape or an alligator, and allow themselves to be insulted by a late-night-show MC, just to get in the picture. Only very occasionally does some- one with great powers of articulation and a certain inborn arrogance, someone like Malcolm Muggeridge, manage to break through the banality of the typical television interviewer. Only rarely does an interviewer, someone like Patrick Watson, break through the carefully guarded porridge of the interviewee. With very few exceptions does a news reporter depart from a delivery as monotonous as a metronome. The National, Canada's 11 o'clock news, 11:30 in Newfie, is about as exciting as a funeral service. We had smarmy Lloyd Robertson with the oiled tonsils, reading the news as though it were the phone book. Then we had contemptuous Peter Kent, who gave the impression that he was doing us a favor. These days we have dull old solid,' stolid George MacLean, who delivers the newsras though it were a warmed-over pot-roast. Which it is, on most occasions. In short, TV is dull, dull, dull. Ii have great sympathy for two groups in our society. One is the oldsters and shut-ins, who have so ittle lef t in their lives, and rely on television for a diversion, something to take the mind away from the aches and pains and the loneliness. What they get is a combination of the utmost pap and crap that only a sadist could devise: cheap, ancient, Grade C movies; the rubber to set up a circuit that, if broken, shuts the operation down. The conveyor belts were manufactured in the company's Bowmanvile plant. soap operas; sickening game shows. And the other group that gets my, sympathy is young children. With a few exceptions, such as Sesame Street, all they have to watch is pictorial pablum, great, uplifting epics like The Flintstones, or violent and bloody movies. What a pity, when the medium could educate their minds, stir their senses with color and music, and send their imaginations soaring. Andy Warhol, a New York pop artist, said everyone eventuaily will be a celebrity for fifteen minutes. If that's the case, include me out, The TV chap told me it would take only two hours of my time to make a two-minute epic about me and my column. I have no particular desire to look like a turkey for two minutes and spend the next two days feeling like one. Control of Elections In the eyes of broadcasters the federal election - when it comes - wihh be fought not by political par- ties, but by the advertising agencies representing them: MacLaren Ad- vertising Co. Ltd. for the Liberals; Media Buying Services Ltd. for the Progressive Conservatives; and Lawrence Wolf Ltd., representing the NDP. Recent amendments to the Canada Elections Act give the agen- cies wide authority to use whatever commercial time they want, paying the lowest rate charged, even if net- works and individual stations have already sold the time to someone else at a higher priée. Every broad- caster in Canada will be obliged to provide 6.5 hours of prime broadcast time to the political parties. The high priority the agencies give this activity is indicated by the fun- ctions of those assigned to take charge of the work. MacLaren has Prophets We shouhd resist te propnets of ghoom. One of these was Aureiio Peccei, president of the Club of Rome. He was delivering the keynote in Ottawa recently. He said that the world is getting older but not better, that there is probably less than a decade left before certain op- tions which may still be open are lost. One way to resist the prophets of gioom, is to endeavour to see the world in better perspective. For in- stance, let us imagine that the entire progress of the human race is represented by a period of 50 years. This is for many a more easiiy compassable period, and carries more meaning than descriptive writing in terms of tens of millions of years. Until 49 of the 50 years were over man would not have begun to be at al civilized. Having emerged to, somethin iworth calling human, he would stihi be hunting with primitive assigned David Harrison, executive assistant to the president. The president of Media Buying Services, Peter Swain, is taking direct charge of the Conservatives' com- munication planning. Lawrence Wolf has just taken over the business of the NDP, handled for years by Dunsky, Pradinuk and Associates. In contrast with Dunsky, which had been noted for its connection with NDP and labour accounts, Wolf has a client list that includes Imperial Oil Ltd. and General Foods Canada Ltd. Mr. Wolf said he was not concer- ned that the agency's corporate clients will be alarmed by its taking the NDP account, since the party has "demonstrated that it is one of Canada's mainstream political par- ties. It's interested in building a bet- ter Canada, and that will be good for companies as well as individuals." of Gloom weapons. He would have no settled environment. Yet note the sudden and swift change. Half waythrough the fif- tieth year man invents writing. Man's printing press would be oniy a fornight oid. And oniy in the hast week he travelled by road. An hour or so ago he learned to fly. Peccei's keynote address outlined many of the Club of Rome's behief first stated in 1968 when the Club of Rome was established. It may be significant that the president somewhat relieved a traditional pessimism by saying, "We are living in a kind of period of grace. " Aurelio Peccei spoke better than he knew. Since then Pope John Paul I has become Bishop of Rome. History is full of surprises! For that matter, this world of ours is but a child, still in the go-cart. Take heart. Give it time to learn its limbs: there is a Hand that guides. ran ice Distateful Television