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Scugog Citizen -- Tuesday, June 27, 1995 -- 9 = VIEWPOINT by John B. McClelland LETTERS TO EDITOR What a great idea by the Scugog Chamber of Commerce to invite World War 2 veterans from the area to have a prominent role in the Canada Day celebrations coming up on July 1'in Palmer Park. As of this writing, I am not sure just how many veterans will be taking part in the event, but Bob Douglas says the number should be over 40. # Bob, himself a veteran of the Korean War and an executive officer with the Korean Veterans Association (KVA) has been working closely with Rick McCoshen of the Chamber of Commerce to organize the WW 2 veterans participation in Canada Day 1995. This is of course the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, so it is absolutely fitting that the veterans take part in the Canada Day celebrations. The presence of the veterans at the opening ceremonies will allow the general public to reflect on the role they played half a century ago and remember those who did not come home. Starting at 7:30 PM, the veterans will parade from the parking lot at the municipal building®on Perry Street down Queen Street to Palmer Park where the Canada Day Opening Ceremonies will take place at 8:00 PM. The Canada Day theme this year is "proud to be Canadian." The veterans who fought for this country fifty years ago where proud to be Canadian and proud to be part of the Allied forces that liberated Europe from the clutches of the * Nazis. What a great chance on July 1 for young and old to celebrate Canada's veterans who put their lives on thé line to give us the country and the way of life we enjoy today. The July 1 celebrations in Palmer Park this year will start at 1:00 PM and continue through the afternoon and evening, culminating with the fireworks display about 10:00 PM AM 1 MISSING SOMETHING? I was able to tune in the last.half of the New Jersey-Detroit playoff last Thursday night. Between periods CBC ran a story on the possibility of the Devils moving to Nashville for . next season. Nashville, I thought to myself. Good grief. As the CBC clip showed, Nashville is not exactly a hockey hot bed. Most folks interviewed would much prefer to see pro basketball or football in that city. How strange and ironic it would be if the Devils won the Stanley Cup this year for the first time in franchise history, then packed it up with the sticks and skates and moved south to Opry country. , Devils fans in Jersey deserve better. But then, who can figure out the NHL these days. Moving pro hockey clubs from north to south is getting as easy as changing one's socks. po i "Still with thé Devils for 4 moment, much has been said and written about the "neutral zone trap." It . sounds like a term dreamed up by some Afmerican sports writer covering basketball or the NFL. Any pee wee hockey coach worth his salt can tell you this "neutral zone trap" has been around for years, #7 It's a simple defensive system, not some kind of magic. Jacques Lemaire and Larry Robinson (who were both outstanding defensive players in their playing days with Montreal) have obviously taught their players well. But they didn't re-invent the wheel here. TRIALS AND EVIDENCE: Over the past couple weeks, more than one person has asked my opinion about the media coverage of the Bernardo murder trial. The dailies are devoting pages to some of the most sordid and gruesome testimony one will ever hear. The questions people pose to me are 'why, and why must the media report every last detail? Are they just trying to sell mote newspapers? There is no simple 'answer, but in my view, an open court is fundamental, absolutely fundamental to a free society. Evidence, ho matter how gruesome must be open to all in that court room, and by extension through the birthday and to pay tribute to those: media to all who are not there. The dangers of exploitation, especially'in a case like Bernardo or the Simpson case are enormous. But the dangers of excluding evidence from the public are greater, no matter what that evidenceimay be. IN CLOSING: Howard Hall is well known in this community as our Mayor in his third term. He's also known to some as "Mr. Hospital." ' Howard was recognized at the hospital annual meeting last Thursday night for his work on the board for 20 years. He has also served on the Hospital Foundation, the Durham Health council, fund- raising and building committees. He really is "Mr. Hospital" in this community and for his many years of service, the recognition afforded him last week was appropriate and well deserved. -Right wing social crusaders rhetoric To the Editor: Over the past few wggks I have been following the letters of Mr. Dave Switzer with interest. Although I usually have little time for letter writing, I feel that I should comment. Now that Bill C-41 has passed unmolested by more conservative elements and it is now ajmore serious offence to commit hate crigpes, I certainly hope e issue restggmlthough 1 will _be-sutprised if the ill ous Switzers _give up their passionatéinterest in letter writing. In most issues that concern the ghostly spectre of "family values" there is one missing factor: a definition. Right-wing social crusaders frequently spout mountains of rhetoric against threats to "family values", but'I have yet to hear anyone provide me with a definition of what I can do to have "family values". It is very amusing that Mr. Switzer would be outraged at the lack of definition of "sexual orientation", and yet I have not seen coherently the position from which he stands. . | ~ On a more general note, I believe that militant family values types would be better off consolidating their own philosophies before attacking things that supposedly challenge them. Or perhaps there is a logic at work here: if everyone was fully aware of exactly what "family values" meant many would recoil with the same violent fervor as the conservatives do at mention of gun - control, homosexuality, and races or classes that they find objectionable. Soul searching or detailed research, however, are not things that the "family values" camp do well, as can be demonstrated by Bob Dole's recent attack on certain "morally bankrupt" Hollywood films...films that he admitted to never actually seeing. . More troubling than the recurrent theme of family values was Mr. Switzer's vse of the term "totalitariahism" in describing the Liberal's approach to the said legislation! Any educated look at: togalitarianism will reveal that it was utterly dependant more on the presence of mass society than the will of an evil leader. Dr. Hannah Arendt, in her now- standard account of the totalitarian ethos "rw The Origins of Totalitarianism, points to the role of mass society in feeding the terror implicit in true totalitarian societies: "Totalifarian movements are possible wherever there (considerably large) masses, who...have acquired the appetite for political organization." And exactly what is mass society? Arendt gets rather complex in her definition, but I will sum it up as meaning a large group, of politically and socially alienated people who share various visions, tied together by their quest to see these visions fulfilled with little thought' to exactly how they will fulfill them; the angry mob mentality with a vision of the future. To quote Arendt, "they lack that specific class articulateness which is expressed in determined, limited, and obtainable goals." This is still rather vague, so I will employ a very important example, that of Hitler's "folkish state". * In Mien Kampf, and indeed in most of Hitler's other discourses he defines the "folkish state" as being the highest point of national life...a point that the German race were once at, and must strive to be at again; a state of simplistic, down-home citizens. Hitler went on to define this "high point" in crude racial terms, but it is the process that I find most frighteningly comparable with the current grass roots populist, movement in Canada today, most of whom see Canada as having been a once-great state befelled by liberals, deviants, immigrants, and/or a loss of "good ol' fashioned family values". I firmly believe that as soon as someone comes around with truly totalitarignist dictorial leadership skills (or Fueherprinzip, as Hitler termed it) it will be the so-called populist democratic grass roots "family values" types who will be the most enthusiastic proponents of the "New Canaddy I certainly hope that although the "family values" grass roots people lack the knowledge to intelligently address the issues that confront them, they will have the flexibility to adapt to them and then perhaps over time they will give ig to the rationality that others enjoy. With warmest regards FY Andrew Broadworth Scrap this plan To The Editor: I read with interest the fact that council is going tu pay $73,000. to hook up town water to the lots that they are creating out of the parkland in Blackstock. Their goal is to net $100,000. from the proceeds of the sale of the parkland. There will have to be another $10,000 - $20,000 added to the price of each of the lots to pay for development costs, surveys, legal fees, commissions, farm drainage rerouting, catch basin installation etc, 1 question who will be willing to pay $80,000 for a lot in today's market. With so many other less expensive lots available, larger and pr«.tier, and so many people desperate Hell them, why is council so set on adding to the problem by putting more lots 'on the market? Perhaps council should take another look at this plan and scrap it. It is just common sense to do so. Yours truly, Fred Ford, Blackstock Individuals can help reduce smog problem To The Editor: Smog - a word we've been hearing quite a bit recently. Most of us know smog has something to do with air pollution, but how many of us realize the major cause of air pollution is vehicle exhaust? And that thé major source of this exhaust is all the cars and trucks on the road? There are some things individuals can do to help to cut down on smog - which not only damages crops but also aggravates respiratory problems such as asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis (asthmatics and children suffer the most.) Why don't we think twice before hopping into our smog/global warming machines? We can carpool and use public transit (the Go trains in Whitby and Oshawa, the Go bus in Uxbridge) mare, walk and bicycle more, and consolidate errands more efficiently and/or do them with a friend. Let's encourage our kids to walk to school, friends' houses, and sports activities whenever feasible. Making a family "no car within a certain radius" C-- rule can also help. And for goodness' sake let's not idle our cars unnecessarily (eg. leaving car air conditioners running while polluting the surrounding air)! Maybe this sounds tough, but some of the work we need to do for the environment does involve personal sacrifice. Isn't our kids' future worth it? Pollution Probe in Toronto has targeted Wednesday, June 28th as the day for the "Clean Air Commute". Why don't we all try - for that one day - to cut down on our personal contribution to the smog problem? Who knows - maybe that one day's effort - and dreams of cleaner air for tomorrow. - will prove contagious! Janet Banting Greenbank