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i 2 The Canadian Statesman. Bnwmanville. November 7,1984 Section Two [ Editorial Comment "] But, What Did He Say? You might describe the first Tory throne speech as something resembling resembling verbal jello. No matter how hard you tiy, it's impossible to grasp hold of any single concrete idea which the Prime Minister intends intends to implement in his first term of office. No doubt, that's the way the speech was designed. In fact, most throne speeches are long on rhetoric and short on specifics. If nothing else, it has kept us guessing. guessing. What else can we do but keep watching Parliament Hill for some sign of positive leadership promised promised during the summer election. It's hard to argue with concepts such as co-operation with the United States and harmony among the provinces. But then, on the other hand, if the Tories were about to advocate antagonism with the U.S. and strife between the provinces provinces they don't deserve to be anywhere anywhere near the government side of the House. Most of us were expecting expecting something more to be said. Similarily, the government promises promises to bring down the deficit and introduce innovations which will fight unemployment. These ideas should be hardly surprising, since Tory candidates made these pledges for the three or four months surrounding the election campaign. campaign. What is clear from the contents of the throne speech is a an enormous enormous amount of caution on the part of Prime Minister Mulroney and the cabinet. They are taking no chances with rash promises which could have to be retracted at a later date. It's pretty obvious that they are treading lightly and avoiding political political booby-traps. They seem to be building for a long, long time in office. office. All of which is fine, we suppose. But let's remember that these same Tories also warned that the country's country's economic condition required urgent action because of the mess left over from the previous regime. You'd think that such urgency would demand a throne speech of more substance. You'd think they'd begin signalling the corrective actions actions they have been preparing over the past two months. Through all of the rhetorical haze which surrounds the throne speech, it does seem as though reduction reduction of the federal deficit is the number one priority. But we'll have to wait until Finance Finance Minister Michael Wilson talks about specific ways of trimming trimming the budget when he releases what is billed as a major financial blueprint on Thursday. Of course, it's entirely possible that even this document will be short on specifics and long on phrases such as "prudent economic management" or "innovative costcutting costcutting measures." But because this is a new government, government, we will have to give the Finance Finance Minister the benefit of the doubt and assume that his statement statement on Thursday will demonstrate substantial ideas for putting the economy back on the rails. However, if specific proposals are not brought to light soon, this new government will be in serious danger of sinking under the weight of its own words and platitudes. Greatest Risk to Mankind Technical Awards Presented at BHS Bowmanville High School presented awards for Office Products; Raymond Mostert, winner of the technology trophy donated by CETA Limited; and : technical subjects in a program held at the BHS George Moore Electric Trophy for highest stand- Louis Tattrie, winner of the Sturrock Award for : auditorium on Monday, October 29. From left are ing in year three in electrical teqhnology; Herb highest overall average in welding, drafting, : just a few of the prize-winners. They include: Tim Cooke, winner of the first year machine shop machine shop, and automotive shop. Louis Tattrie : Kirkton and Greg Harden, co-winners of the Year trophy, donated by Movies in Motion; Rick Van also received the first year drafting award and : Three machine shop trophy presented by Durham Scheltinga, recipient of the year two electrical the Mutton Award for first year welding. For over three decades, the world has seen atomic weapons as the biggest threat to peace and perhaps the greatest risk to civilization itself. itself. No doubt those fears are well- founded. But we sometimes wonder if the world's greatest danger comes from a different source. Nuclear Nuclear weapons remain a desperate last resort. They are too fearful to be used by any country which has maintained its sanity. And so, the threat to peace comes in the form of violence by organizations organizations from the political fringe -- groups such as the IRA or the PLO or those responsible for the murder of India's prime minister last week. No matter how modern our world becomes, it's a sad fact that violence violence is never far from the surface.. The October 31 assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is just one more example of the conventional, conventional, garden-variety kind of violence which threatens to turn civilized society to a jungle. As we all know, the attack on the Indian prime minister is no isolated isolated incident. A total of 28 world leaders have been assassinated since World War Two. Moreover, President Reagan, Prime Minister Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II have all be the intended victims of assassins. And who knows how many plots by would-be killers have been quietly stopped by police before before the target of such an attack was endangered. What is ironic is the fact that attacks attacks on heads of state do nothing to encourage freedom for political dissidents. When political leaders are physically threatened, they are all the more likely to resort to suppression suppression of groups which represent a threat to those in authority. In Canada and the United States, we have been lucky so far. Political acts of violence are almost unknown. unknown. For one thing, North American American prosperity doesn't contribute towards terrorist actions. To a certain certain degree, terrorism is the result of desperate individuals with nothing nothing to lose. So long as North America is a place where people have jobs and food and shelter, it's unlikely that the situation will change. Moreover, North America has traditionally been a country where people could start their lives over again. As a new country, it didn't inherit the kinds of longstanding feuds which are behind behind the violence in many of the world's trouble spots. Perhaps, our luck will remain. But every terrorist action threatens to chip away at our own rights and freedoms. The threat is under-rated, but very real. In fact, it may be the world's greatest single danger. United Way Tops Million The Oshawa - Whitby - Newcastle United Way campaign has topped the million-dollar mark. Fund-raisers announced last week that the campaign has reached 66 per cent of its goal. As of last Wednesday, October 31, $1,140,196 had been collected. The largest single contribution to date is from General Motors employees employees who have raised over half a million dollars. In the Town of Newcastle, just over half of the 1984 objective has been achieved. Maurice Preston, chairman of the United Way program program in Newcastle, stated that as of last Wednesday, pledges and cash amounted to $22,328. The town's goal is $40,000. United Way Chairman Gord Pearson Pearson congratulated the many volunteers volunteers for their fine work during the past month. But he added that a 100 per cent effort will be needed to raise the remaining one-third of the objective. Site Canabian Statesman 623-3303 (JcNA Durham County's Great Family Journal Established 130 years ago In 1854. Also Incorporating The Bowmanville News Tho 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 L1C3K9 V L ► JOHN M. JAMES Editor -- Publisher GEO. P. MORRIS Business Mgr. BRIAN PURDY Advertising Mgr. RICHARD A. JAMES Assistant Publisher DONALD BISHOP Plant Mgr. All layouts and composition ol advertisements produced by tho employees of The Canadian Statesman, The Newcastle Independent and Tho James Publishing Company Limited nro protected by copyright and must not be roproducod without written permission ol the publishers. $15.00 a year -- 6 months $8,00 strictly In advance foreign - $45.00 a year Although every precaution win he taken to «avoid error. The Canadian Statesman accepts advertising in its columns on the understanding that it will not he ii.ihii» lor any error In the ndvmliscmcnl published hereunder unless a prool ol such advertisement is requested m veiling py the advertiser and returned to The Canadian Statesman business ollice duly signed by the advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noted in writing thereon, and in that case il any error su noted is not corrected by the Canadian Statesman its liability shall not exceed such a portion ol Hie enluo oosl of such udvertistment as the space occupied by the noted error bears to the whole space occupied hy such SUGAR and SPICE Lest We Forget I feel quite hurt this year. Nobody has asked me to speak at their Remembrance Day dinner. I would have turned it down, of course, because I think you can flog the old poppy and talk about throwing the torch from our failing hands only so long, before it becomes irrelevant. However," I've not been ignored entirely. A teacher asked me to send a copy of a Remembrance Day column I wrote either last year, or the year before, to be read by a Grade 8 student, to the whole school, I presume. Some order. If I kept a decent file of columns, I could put my finger on it, run off a copy and shoot it to him. But my files are something like my mind: scattered all over the place, confused, mixed up. My wife, in a fit of pique over some little thing, once stuffed about 200 of my columns into a large plastic bag. It's a little difficult to reach into that bag (it's really a garbage bag, as she implied when she did it) and pull out the right column. And of course, I haven't been forgotten by the good old administration of our school, which has requested that I write a two- minute thing about Remembrance Day. My, how that day has shrunk. When I was a kid, the whole school marched to the arena, bedecked with flags, heard speeches about our "fallen ,y and "our glorious dead." I think we got the afternoon off, to enjoy more immediate pleasures. But before we were dismissed, we heard some haunting hymns, such as "Abide with me," and, Lord help us, "Onward, Christian Soldiers/' and saw some real tears fall from the eyes of people who had lost a husband or father. After World War II, but not for several years, I joined the Canadian Legion. Not because I wanted to, particularly, but because I was a weekly editor, and you had to join everything to get the news. Each year we swaggered, with a certain amount of the old flair, down the main street to the cenotaph, followed by a rag-tag of Scouts and Guides and Brownies, to make up a parade, and led by the town band. The names of the local boys were read, a prayer, a hymn, the Last Post, some sniffles in the meagre audience, and some wet eyes and lumps in throats among the Legionnaires, who really did remember. Then back to the Legion Hall for beer and b.s. There was a good feeling between the old-timers of W.W.I, and us young veterans who had never gone over the top, deloused ourselves, coped with a gas attack, or been under heavy bombardment of artillery, as the old vets frequently reminded us. The native Indian veterans turned out in force. This was before they were allowed to buy any kind of spirits, and they made a day of it. Now, the tiny remnant of old vets of that time are rapidly becoming old men. Then I started teaching school. Remembrance Day was still observed, with the whole school being called for a special assembly, and the old platitudes recalled and regurgitated. I was asked to speak, at one of them. The head of the students' council preceded me and pulled out all the cliches and hackneyed references. "Sacrifice," "the fallen," and carrying "the torch" were among them. I didn't mean to, but pulled the rug right out from under him. I pointed out that the dead didn't fall; they were killed; that the sacrifice made by millions of young men, from many nations, all of them fighting for "the right," achieved absolutely nothing; that if someone threw them a torch to carry, they should throw it right back, and so on. The kids loved it, but the administration thought it was iconoclastic. These assemblies went on for a few more years, steadily disintegrating as the remembrance ceremony was turned over more and more to the students, to whom both wars were ancient history. They degenerated into folk songs like "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" juvenile diatribes against war, and maudlin sentiments about peace, far worse than the Legion, ; which always had a certain dignity, • could perpetrate. Eventually, the assemblies were cut entirely, and yours truly became Y the goat. His task: to write a two- minute commercial reminding the - students that Remembrance Day is not just a school holiday. Try doing that in 200 words that will stir the : students' emotions, uplift their : souls, and make them want to rush out and defend their country against something or other. The wars mean almost nothing to them, and the only things they'd fight to the death for are their transistors, motorcycles, hi-fi's, and high allowances. Most of them have only the vaguest idea of the tensions in the world, and small reason. They're sick to death of politicians and are inured to violence by seeing it daily on T.V. They don't really care much about abstracts like patriotism, loyalty, sacrifice. But I get my quiet revenge. There's no teaching, in the usual sense, in my classes on the day before the "holiday." I show them souvenirs, pictures of "your hero" standing beside his : Typhoon, and tell them funny stories ; about stupid senior officers, and make them realize that if it were forty years ago, most of them would be in the process of being shot at, or losing a sweetheart. It works. Byline by Peter Parrott MEMO TO THOSE PEOPLE WHO KEEP SENDING ME JUNK MAIL: Frankly, I can't understand understand why you keep stuffing my mailbox with your latest once- in-a-lifetime offers. I know that I'll probably probably regret forever the fact that I have failed to purchase your amazing album of aborigine drum solos. But I'll live without it. Nor do I wish to enter your sweepstakes. I must confess that in a moment of weakness I succumbed to your offer of a complete set of sterling silver toothpicks toothpicks five years ago. Or perhaps I made the mistake mistake of contributing to a fund for the preservation preservation of the web-footed ring-tailed fur seal. Possibly, I filled out an entry form for some contest at the Canadian National Exhibition 10 years ago. I'm not sure how you managed to get my address. address. But I wish you would erase it from the memories of your computers computers because I'm not interested in buying. I know how the mail solicitation business works. You play the game of averages. You know that persuasive writing will lead to one or two per cent of your correspondents willingly willingly signing up for something. something. But the fact of the matter is that you also annoy about ninety per cent of your mailing list through your hard-sell messages in envelopes with windows. I particularly detest the "personal" messages messages contained in letters letters with blank spaces for typing in my name. Have you, the direct mail moguls, ever thought that some people would rather buy magazines, books, records, tapes,. tableware, tableware, and all of your other mechandise, in stores? Some of us actually like the idea of making a purchase from a real live person in a real live shop with a cash register. register. If 1 wanted to order all of my worldly goods from some address address in the United States, I would build a two-storey mailbox. Let me conclude by asking you to check one of the two statements listed below: No, I will not send you any more unsolicited junk mail. Yes, I will agree to your request and no October 31,1 DIM Statesman Canadian, e/o Mr. Peter Parrott, (12 King- Street West, Bowmanville, Ontario L1C IN-1 He: Addiction Awareness Week Dear Peter: I wanted to lake this opportunity to personally thank you for your support of longer flood your mailbox mailbox with unsolicited material. Either of the above answers is fine with me. And if you were thinking thinking of letting me know your decision by mail, don't bother. Addietion Awareness Week. Our goal was to increase public awareness about the extent of addictions and the available resources so I was very pleased with the media coverage. Thanks for your help. Sincerely, Elizabeth Gilbert, Publicity Chairman. Letter to the Editor