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n ! SECTION TWO WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21. 1988 Elje Canadian Statesman 623-3303 (J^IA Durham County's Greet Family Journal Established 134 years ago in 1854. Also Incorporating The BowmenvWe News The Newcastle Independent TheOrono News Second class mall registration number 1561 Produced every Wednesday by THE JAMES PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 62-66 King St. W., BowmanvIMe, Ontario L1C 3K9 JOHN M. JAMES Editor--Publisher GEO. P. MORRIS Business Mgr. RICHARD A. JAMES Assistant Publisher BRIAN PURDY Advertising Mgr. PETER PARROTT Associate Editor DONALD BISHOP Plant Mgr. 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Editorial Comment ) Extend Christmas Spirit to '89 Could it be possible that the old villain, villain, Ebenezer Scrooge, was just a tiny bit right about the festive season? We realize that such thoughts are subversive. Uttered at this time of the year, they might get one lynched by mobs carrying carrying tinsel ropes or 100 yards of electric electric lights. We are by no means opposed to such things as Christmas dinners, gifts, or children's choirs singing in candle-lit churches. Not at all. But some of the "humbug" which surrounds surrounds the Christmas season we could do without. You see, far too often, the "festiveness" "festiveness" of the festive season gets lost in a mindless flurry of visiting, shopping, shopping, house-cleaning, baking, partying partying and all of the other trappings of this time of the year. Some of that is good and some of it is, in Ebenezer's words, pure humbug. For example, it's humbug to assume assume that material wealth which is poured out to such a large degree at this time of the year will equal happiness. happiness. It is humbug to think that good intentions intentions and charitable acts performed performed during the few weeks before December 25 will make up for a year of indifference to the plight of one's neighbour. And it is humbug to think that Christmas is an excuse for over- indulgence in such things as food, al- Watchful Eye ' cohol, or the abuse of one's credit rating. rating. But, despite the humbug of Christmas, Christmas, this season never fails to be a time when even the cynics among us would have to admit a general increase increase in the amount of altruism, contentment, and happiness in the community. We have often wished that some of that spirit could somehow be preserved preserved for use at other times of the year when it is needed most. It should not be packed away like the plastic Christmas tree in early January. The observance of Christmas proves that huge numbers of the world's people can be generous and unselfish, if only for a few weeks of the year. Perhaps a time will come when some of that contentment will begin to radiate into the rest of the year. Returning to our remarks on Ebenezer Ebenezer Scrooge, we should point out that no one knows exactly how Scrooge lived after that first Christmas. Charles Dickens never wrote a sequel. sequel. But the popular movie of the classic Christmas story suggests that Mr. Scrooge carried the Christmas spirit into the rest of the year and became became well-known for his good deeds in every season. So, we bid everyone a merry Christmas. But, most important of all, let us hope that some part of the joy of the season (and none of the humbug) humbug) follows each one of you into 1989. n Soviet Moves ; We awoke Thursday morning and the world had changed-or had it? Mikhail Gorbachev, two weeks ago, announced large-scale cutbacks in his country's military arsenal, most significantly in Eastern Europe where Soviet guns have been trained ;on the Western democracies ever ;since the Second World War. In the wake of his surprise announcement, •world leaders were falling over '.themselves to express their hearty approval approval of his most magnanimous of ;gestures. v In 1962 Nikita Khrushchev addressed addressed (shoe-whipped) the United 'Nations General Assembly, a body :which was not so unabashedly anti- .American then as it is today. He palled for military reductions, more Pmicable relations, and an end to the Cold War. He then went home and made history as the first Soviet leader To retire from his position. His Politburo Politburo comrades made him an offer he '.couldn't refuse. Two decades later the first college ;graduate ever to lead the Soviet empire empire has spent three years shaking the : world with his brashness and charis- ima. He has proposed far-reaching '.changes in Soviet society and in Soviet Soviet foreign policy. Although he is ;backstepping now, he did agree to pull Soviet troops out of Afghanistan, a •large step by Stalinist standards. Although Although bread and meat lines have not shrunk and may have increased since perestroika was unleashed, the Russian people now are free to read and hear about the shortages in state newspapers and on state newscasts. They soon will be allowed to read Dr. Zhivago in an official state publication. publication. In his speech (on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor), Gorbachev promised promised to cut half a million troops from his armed forces - a ten percent reduction reduction - without demanding any quid pro quo. He pledged to remove six tank divisions from the satellite nations of East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. And he told the world that he would restructure the remaining remaining Soviet troops in Europe into a defensive posture. For 40 years, Soviet Soviet officials have insisted that their troops were already in a defensive posture. Gorbachev s announcement implicitly acknowledges that as a lie. The mathematically inclined will note that a ten percent cut in armed forces which equals half a million persons still leaves a healthy contingent contingent of five million people calling themselves soldiers in the Soviet Union. Union. No other country has such a large standing force. In fact, the combined resources of NATO add up to less than half of what the Soviets will still retain retain after these reductions are carried out. It is a recipe for caution. ' Amidst our celebration of the Gor bachev announcement the Western world would do well to review the last eight years (at the beginning of which President Reagan called the Soviet Union the Evil Empire) and contemplate contemplate the reason for the dramatic changes in Soviet statements and attitudes. attitudes. Let us keep in mind the fact that Gorbachev rose to the pinnacle of power power through the Brezhnez years in the USSR when a whiff of the kind of proposals proposals he now is making landed an official deep in the Gulag. Mr. Gorbachev Gorbachev once ran the KGB, not a lantern for democratic principles. He most certainly is not aiming to democratize democratize his nation. The Herculean task, which he has set for himself is that of resurrecting the Soviet economy which has prospered prospered (when it has) on the backs of virtual slave labour and at the expense expense of the rich agricultural land in the Ukraine. When he came to power the new Soviet leader acted on a simple simple truth: communist economic theory does not work. The cuts he makes in his country's conventional and nuclear nuclear stockpiles are made more so he can redirect the surplus funds toward the staggering Soviet economic muddle than they are to promote international international peace and goodwill. Coupled with the economic incentive incentive to pull back, the Soviet leader also faces a stronger NATO which has spent eight years rearming itself after after the so-called detente of the 1970's during which the Soviets hid their massive expenditures on weapons behind behind a public relations olive branch. Precisely because the West is now stronger Mr. Gorbachev feels compelled compelled to negotiate actual cuts in his armed forces. The instinctive reaction reaction of many in the free world is to call for a voluntary cut in NATO's forces (possibly nuclear) to show our good faith to the Soviet leaders. Let us not forget two important facts: firstly, we must continue to negotiate negotiate from strength for it is from strength that we have watched Soviet behaviour begin to change, and secondly, secondly, the ghost of Nikita Khrushchev haunts Mr. Gorbachev. The good news emanating from Moscow these days could be halted and reversed very quickly if some of the Kremlin's hardliners decide that reform has gone far enough and collaborate to displace him. Many experts on the Soviet Soviet empire still feel he has only a 50- 50 chance to survive as leader surrounded surrounded by the upheaval he has created created in the Soviet society. Peace, of course, always should be our objective when we deal with the Soviet Union. But wide-eyed admiration admiration for the Gorbachev announcement followed by a decline in Western steadfastness against Soviet aggression aggression and oppression is the wrong course to chart at this critical time. rt Relax, Rest, Enjoy! ft It's Christmas! Let's share in the beauty and joys of the season together, as we express our very best wishes to you and yours. (jàeeùnai j/uun the McMaaement, Stall and GoMedfUMtdetdi <4 ®jje Canadian Statesman ana Eljc jleto castle 3ubepenbent xS by Peter Parrott One of the news releases releases crossing our desks in recent weeks noted that many of the same farm families offering offering guests summer vacations are also providing providing opportunities for urban folk to enjoy a rural rural Christmas. The announcement went on to extol the virtues virtues of a Christmas in rural Canada, noting that it offers such pleasures pleasures as shopping in friendly towns and vil^ lages, skating and skiing skiing outdoors, sleigh- rides, and much more. It is unfortunate that so few Canadians have experienced the joys of a rural Christmas and lived first-hand the sort of life which now survives survives chiefly on the sentimental sentimental Christmas cards that depict teams of horses carrying sleigh- bound passengers down corridors of evergreens. Having spent my first 12 years in the country, I can say that those memories memories of Christmas on the farm continue to inspire my Christmases today. I must have had either an uneventful or a blissful blissful childhood because of the fact that I can recall few vivid memories from that time. But the general atmosphere is quite clear. I can recall, for example, example, the squeak of heavy boots on snow and nights when the reflection of the moon on the white hills turned the world into an enchanted place quite unlike either day or night. At Christmas there was always the traditional traditional concert at the community community school in which the plain classroom with wooden desks was transformed transformed into Broadway. Because people who live in the country spend a few more hours outdoors outdoors than most of the population, houses are particularly appreciated rather than taken for granted. A farmhouse, rides the crests of frozen hills like a ship on the Atlantic and is the same kind of refuge from the snow and cola outdoors. I can recall the delights of a house fragrant with Christmas baking or warm and dark with the anticipation of Christmas Christmas morning. Of course, a rural Christmas is not precisely precisely like the life depicted on a traditional Christmas Christmas card. Those cards do not usually reveal less-romantic activities such as getting the tractor tractor started in order to plow out the driveway or thawing frozen pipes. Nor do they show the rural rural folk engaged in milking a barnful of cows before they can unwrap unwrap their Christmas presents. Over the past 50 years, one of the major changes that has occurred in Canada Canada has been the transformation transformation of our society from rural and semi- rural to urban. I'm not certain, but I believe that the number of people who will be having a bona fide farm Christmas this year is something like four per cent. The rest of us are chiefly living in city high-rises or suburban suburban sprawl. Given the amount of distance that we have placed between ourselves and our rural heritage, I can understand the attraction attraction towards spending spending Christmas on the farm. But it's questionable whether the casual visitor visitor to a rural setting would really enjoy the experience as much as one for whom the countryside countryside is home. Whatever are your Christmas memories and wherever you spend this Yuletide season, I wish you a very merry Christmas and all the best wishes in 1989. T'was a Time in Newcastle Helen MacDonald December 1988 R.R.#1 Newtonville, Ontario LQA1J0 'TWAS a Time in Newcastle, When all through the Land, Existed few dumps (none of which were very grand). The Town was agricultural and rich in green trees Ana the people lived quietly, and felt quite at ease. The children all played in the woods and the streams. With visions of fishing and splashing splashing in their dreams. The moms cradled their babies, The dads brought home the bread; All were settling their roots for a happy happy life ahead. WHEN out from the blue there came such a surprise, Eldorado proposed a dump site before our very eyes! Away went the people, in a rage like a flash - Public meetings, the media - almost like a bash! The moon was a crest on those warm summer days, And, soon came fall with sun setting sky ablaze. WHEN what to our wondering eyes should appear, A surprise visit from Minister Merri- thew to allay our fears. With the news that the search was not done just quite right, A Task Force would be established to search for a site. So, slowly, but surely, the job had begun. begun. And the people went home to their daughters & sons. BUT, wait - then came Metro with dumps N1 through N4 Descending on the Town, as Eldorado before. Now Courtice, Now Bowmanville, Now Newcastle, Now Newtonville! Searching and grabbing a site for their landfill. To the shores of the lake, to the fields of farmland, Metro slunk into the Town like a snake in the sand. As each site was studied, analyzed and investigated, Courtice became the one favoured, so further research there rated. SO, in came the drills, and they bore into the land; The people got together and put up signs in a band. And, then, in a flutter, probably because because of an election, There was made an announcement which requires some reflection. The concerns of the people had encouraged encouraged some discussion, Now, Ottawa would not allow aviation aviation boundary reduction. And, though the news was like a gift from St. Nick. Metro continues to drill - yes, still up to old tricks! A BUNDLE of half-truths, some fairy-tales and fiction, Seem all we can get from all levels of politician. Their eyes, how they twinkle, their dimples, how merry! Their "cheeks" (always "covered"), their noses like a cherry. Their droll little speeches wrapped like gifts with a bow, And their promises, seldom go far, as you all surely know! Now, as we tell you a tale of many woes, There are other considerations in the books of our foes. The Town is a land of great beauty and space; A temptation to many to seize and deface. deface. Just consider, for a moment, all of the locations, To which, we suggest, you not take DARLINGTON - has Tritium; LAIDLAW - want expansion; METRO'S inflicted with landfilli- um. DURHAM, in its desire to divorce from the big city Looks to Newcastle also, for its garbage garbage facility. HYDRO has a problem - it needs a new stash, To store and process its coal incinerator incinerator ash. And last, but not least, the most recent proposal; BFI has made application for medical waste disposal! YOU may ask of yourselves, what next? Could it get worse? Only time will tell us; but, the message message of our verse - Is that without you and I raising voices voices loud and clear, The price of our community is payment payment too dear! In this season of joy, peace and good cheer, We suggest that when we ring in the New Year A letter; a phone call; any action that is taken, Are the very things that could help save our "bacon". By "bacon", what we mean is our way of life, our land, The things in our community which go hand in hand With the quality of expansion, growth and development, That to us allow only for beauty and enhancement. SO WE DECLARE on this cold, wintry wintry night, MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, and to all a good fight!