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Section Two The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, July 27,1994 3 Letters to the Editor Staff Overworked and Underpaid Dear Editor, In last week's edition of The Canadian Statesman there appeared on the front page a clip under the heading "Then we get to Gord." I have no idea who is responsible for writing most of the articles that appear in your newspaper. One is left just to guess if it's you or some ghost writer. It would be nice to know just who is behind the. written word all of the time. But then, I ask so much! Whoever penned the clip, certainly certainly got everything wrong. Some of the substance contained in the clip relating relating to the jobs issue I have addressed in my weekly column. However, to get to the personal points I want to raise with you. My staff in the constituency constituency office in Bowmanville, and in my Toronto office too, work full time addressing the needs of all who seek our assistance. They also work overtime, without pay I might add, serving the needs of the countless people who need help, advice and assistance. assistance. This help covers the whole spectrum of the people who live in Durham East. One minute may see them making pertinent enquiries on behalf of a developer. The next, seeing seeing how we can arrange a loan for a businessman trying to expand. They get birth certificates, handle support and custody problems, arrange for highway business signs, show compassion compassion to people in hopeless positions, positions, help the disabled with a WCB claim, and the list goes on and on. You would have to be around the offices offices for a whole day to begin to understand understand the workload. What my staff do not do is write letters for me under my signature. So, Full Disclosure is Necessary Dear Editor: In last week's edition of The Canadian Canadian Statesman the Editorial asked if the new provincial government's proposal to have all municipal politicians politicians disclose their assets-and liabilities liabilities would make people quéasy and even angry. Speaking from my own experi : ence, I can tell you I was quite surprised surprised when told by the Premier's staff that I was scheduled to meet with Conflict of Interest Commissioner, Commissioner, The Honourable Gregory T. Evans to discuss my assets and liabilities liabilities prior to my appointment as a Parliamentary Assistant. At that meeting I was told to complete complete an extensive disclosure document, document, and on completion to return for a discussion of the contents with Judge Evans. The document asked for disclosure of money in the bank, name of bank and account number, including the account of my wife. Mortgage held or owed, including my wife. Property owned or rented, including my wife. Pensions and sources, including those belonging to my wife. Insurance policies and beneficiaries, beneficiaries, and any jointly held insurance insurance policies. The year, type and cost of any automobile being financed. financed. All assets owned by myself and my wife, including furniture and the contents of our home, and property property owned by educational, recreational, recreational, social or aesthetic purposes. All details of RRSPs for both myself and my wife. Detail of all QIC's and all other similar financial instruments for both self and wife. Detail of all mutual funds held. Any unpaid reality reality taxes. Private business interests in public companies. Private business interests. Canada savings bonds and other government securities. Offices and Directorships. Notice of income tax paid, or owing. Following my meeting with Judge Evans, I met later with a lawyer to review review my Private Disclosure Statement Statement and to answer questions pertaining pertaining to any outstanding charges, civil and criminal, and to discuss any criminal offenses in the past. All of this detail is completed every every year, and checks are made frequently frequently to ascertain the accuracy of the disclosure. All of this detail, less the actual dollar figures is all open to public scrutiny, no matter who seeks the information. Does this make me queasy, angry or unwilling to accept any public office? Simply put - NO. I believe all those in or who seek public public office at any level, must not only obey the law, but they must also be seen to obey the law. Full disclosure is the only way to achieve this to the satisfaction of all concerned. Everyone Everyone must have access to this information, information, not those who others deem to be selected to have it. Sincerely, Gord Mills, M.P.P. Durham East. your assumption that my staff are working overtime preparing letters to editors, etc. and generally getting ready for the upcoming fray as you put it, is absolutely wrong. Every letter letter sent under my signature comes directly directly from me, and is written by me. My letters are personal, to the point, and I pull no punches. I make no excuse excuse for that whatsoever. I have found that people don't want wishy- washy politically self-serving "nice" answer types of letters. They want to hear it as it is. My way of doing things of course takes time - lots and lots of it. It ruins my weekends for sure, but I'm satisfied with the way I do things^ And come what may, I always always know within myself, I worked full-time at this job of being an MPP. As for my assumption that "I'm getting ready for the fray" I can tell you frankly that my decision to seek re-election hasn't been made. You should know by now, and of course you know but won't say it, that my efforts in giving full time service to all, are not geared to any election call, whenever that may be. Sincerely, Gord (Our incumbent MPP, name of Gord Mills - as you put it) Ed's Note: An NDP member, working his staff overtime without pay - for shame!- Where's the shop steward? Gord Did It, Not Us Editor: Your Bits and Pieces columnist credited us with working overtime preparing letters to editors as part of pre-election procedures. We wish to set the record straight. We have never written any letter to .the editor to which we had not signed our own names. Mr. Mills writes his own columns and letters to the editor. editor. Regards, ' Jenny Yorgason Leanne Mutimer. Michael Smith Constituency Assistants to Gord Mills, M.P.P. Durham East. Editor's Note: Good for him. We didn't know he was a competent typist typist to go along with his other talents. Please advise him that the M.P. for this riding is Alex Shepherd -not Sheppard. We've corrected it in one of his letters. Bad Deeds Usually Rewarded While I am not a famous person, I do get the occasional letter from Outlook Outlook readers. It's nice to get ones that don't call me out on the rug, if you know what I mean. As I was casting about trying to figure out what to write for this column column to be published while I am on vacation, vacation, an interesting letter came to me a week or so ago. I thought I would share the contents with you. With the writer's permission, of course! It seems that this person has become become a cynic. And, as she watches her birthdays roll over her, she has begun to wonder about other people and their attitudes. She asked that OUTLOOK be used as a fomm, and while I normally don't think it is a good idea to use the letters I get, I thought I would do so, for the second time in three years. It was this plea that sparked me to do so: "I hope to be able to point out that every good deed does not come back to you tenfold, as the old saying goes. And bad deeds are usually rewarded - - in my experience, anyway. Maybe people will think about how they have behaved toward their neighbors in the past -- your column always gives people food for thought, even if they don't agree with you all the time. At least it gets them drinking!" These are her words: "It's funny how things work out. some of us work hard all our lives and never get ahead, no matter what we do, while other folks leap ahead in bounds! Why the gap? "I've come to the conclusion, after many years of dwelling on the subject, that it all comes down to how you treat your friends and neighbors. "I have found that if you are ruthless ruthless and nasty, all things will come your way. You will have everything you ever wanted, including enough money to assist your kids to higher education. education. "Yet, if you are giving and compassionate, compassionate, sharing your last dollar with your neighbours, you will have nothing -- sometimes not even food for your own table -- nothing plus a slap in the face every time you turn around. "Most of the time, I find myself in the second scenario. "I remember one year one of my neighbors couldn't afford to buy her son a winter coat and boots and so he didn't go to school. I thought he was home sick from school, but when I heard the real reason, I was so sad that I took him and his Mom down to Stedmans and bought him a winter coat and boots out of my grocery money. "It was mighty tight at our house at supper time for the next two weeks! "I was looking for no rewards, but believe me I was paid back -- the kid stole most of my son's toys. When I approached his mother to mention it, I was physically ejected from her house. "I remember one year, as if it was yesterday. We were having a pretty tough time stretching the pay cheque as usual. "I suggested that, as we couldn't afford to take holidays, that my husband husband look after the kids while he was on holiday and I could go and work on a farm to earn some needed cash. "And so, for 10 days I rode my ancient ancient bike to the location. Boy!, was it hot in the fields that year! "This particular grower wouldn't pay at the end of the day as did other growers. We had to wait until the end of the season to collect. I wasn't pleased, but what could I do about it? "The September payday finally came. Boy, could we use that hundred and some dollars! I rode over and picked up my cheque and got quite a surprise -- $9.38. "I knocked on the door. 'There's something wrong here,'" I said, showing showing the wife my cheque. "'No there's not. I did them myself. myself. There's nothing wrong,' she said, and slammed the door in my face. "I knocked for 15 minutes. My knuckles were so sore I couldn't knock any more. She wouldn't acknowledge acknowledge me. "I phoned that night to speak to her husband. Not home. Didn't know when he'd be there. "The same answer the next day and the next. By midweek she'd hang Continued on Page 4 by Rick James "E-nuff of E-mail" Anyone who uses a personal computer at,work or play knows about E-mail. For those who haven't heard of the technology, technology, it's an electronic messaging system that allows users to send memos from one computer to several others. The idea behind E-mail is that you can send a message instantly to another person's person's computer, and in theory, improve efficiency. efficiency. But, according to a story in the Globe and Mail recently, E-mail is rapidly becoming very inefficient. Even its inventors inventors are telling people to fax, not E-mail, important messages. The problem is that E-mail is too accessible. accessible. For example, among the hundreds of messages the chairman of Powersoft Corp. received last week was a note to all employees employees from a worker trying to sell a dog. Charles Wang, chairman of software giant giant Computer Associates, no longer sends or reads E-mail, even though his company sells an E-mail program. He also shuts down the company's E-mail system for five hours a day so employees can get some work done. E-mail was promoted as a tool that could provide instant communication of vital or worthy information. Instead, it has become a phenomenal way to communi cate trivia. Even one of the world's wealthiest computer wizards, William Gates, became an E-mail victim after receiving receiving more than 5,000 messages on his computer from critics protesting the termination termination of a Microsoft employee who used the company's E-mail address to distribute propaganda about Ukrainian communists. Following that episode, Gates developed a special software program called a "bozo filter" that only allows important messages messages to be received, while all others are sent to the computer's basement. E-mail has tremendous power and reach. One message can be multiplied into thousands using simple commands. However, it becomes a very real problem for business when its computer screens arc being swamped by messages about baseball. baseball. practices, instead of accounting spreadsheets. Even with these obvious problems, the Electronic Messaging Association estimates estimates E-mail will grow by 50 per cent this year to as many as 60 million users. It will be interesting to sec if the number shrinks in the coming years as managers notice that transmission of trivia can impinge on employee productivity. Incredibly, there arc some who can't get enough E-mail. The chairman of Sun Microsystems, Scott McNealy, encourages his 13,000 employees to "send about 1.5 million messages a day. He alone receives about 200 messages including one he sent himself recently that read, "Scott, your fi- ancée's birthday is next Friday. Don't forget, forget, dummy." What ever happened to tying a string around your baby finger to remember these things? "Back in the good ol' days..." While flipping through one of our trade association newsletters, I came across this advertisement which complements my previous thoughts about E-mail. It reads... We don't need no darn computer, We don't need no Macintosh, We don't need no laser printout, We don't need no system crash. What we want is great mechanics, What we want ain't got no RAM, What we want is called a typewriter, Underwood if5 by name. Essential for an older, somewhat conservative conservative publisher who otherwise would crush those dainty plastic keys right through the desktop. If you have an Underwood #5 in good condition for sale please call John Henry at The Alymer Express, 1-800-465- 9433. Although I admire admire John Henry's nostalgic view of the newspaper industry, my fingers have been spoiled rotten on electronic keyboards. Having started on an Underwood #5 more than two decades ago, there's no way these pinkies are going to hurt themselves by returning to a manual typewriter. Interestingly enough, that ad appears directly above an advertisement for a high tech digital camera that plugs directly into a computer to produce full colour images from a laser printer. No film, no chemicals, chemicals, and worth only about $1,350. At $1,350, it would probably be cheaper cheaper to move to the new technology than find a good Underwood #5. "There's only one boss..." For everyone out there who thinks they own their own business and can hire and fire as they please, here's a little tidbit of information about customer service that someone passed along for this week's column. column. There is only one boss, the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.