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gE "Scugog Citizen -- Tuesday, August 27, 1991 -- 7 a -- Ai VIEWPOINT/COUNTERPOINT - | John B. McClelland Yet another woman has been 4 murdered in Ontario. They pulled the body of Nina DeVilliers from a creek near Kingston. She had been shot in the head and her # gorpse presumably dumped from the way 401 bridge that crosses the She was 19 years old. : + How many women of all ages have been murdered (or disappeared and pre- sumed murdered) this year? I don't know. I gave up counting a long time ago. i ike most people who still have their *anity (I think I stile my sanity) I read 'these horror ies in the daily papers or watch on TV and I wonder why. My blood comes to a boil thinking the head, or three-year old Kayla Klaudusz, sexually assaulted, murdered, then tossed in Lake Ontario. Who in God's name could do that to a three-year old? Or Leslie Mahaffy, all of 14, mur- dered, then chopped up like a slab of beef, her body parts encased in cement and dumped in a lake. Who in God's name could do something like that? These are just the three most recent horror stories that have rocked people in Ontario this summer. The same thing is , happening elsewhere in Canada. The guy who is .a strong suspect in the DeVilliers murder (he committed suicide when pulled over by police) was free on $3,000 bail for rape, committed at gun- point. He's also a suspect in the murder of a New Brunswick woman and in the attempted abduction of a woman in London, Ont. And he was out on bail? No wonder women are angry. And so are a lot of men. I can't help but think about my own daughter, a pre-teen with her whole life in front of: her. Could she . end up a statistic? What can I do now to protect her? Karate lessons? Cans of mace? Buy her a switch-blade and teach her how to use it? Or a high-powered pistol that fits in the * purse with specific instructions to shoot to kill? How about all of the above? ' I'm serious. If I were a woman, I would be arming myself with more than just a work-out at the neighbourhood fit- ness club. And why shoy 'mercy? Did the guy who murdered 1a show mercy? How about DeVilliegs' killer? Do you think he showed any y before he shot her in the head and ped her naked about Nina De Villiers, shot in the back of Don't talk to me about mercy. Talk to me about protection. If someone ever threatens my daughter or anybody close to me, I want protection. And let's face it, the police (over- worked and under-staffed) can't do it. The courts (over-worked, under-staffed and far too lenient) aren't doing it either. Bail is as easy as falling off a log; a prison term is a joke. The scum of the land who com- mit these deeds get more protection after the f fact than their victims ever got. ber when Canadians used to look smugly at our friends south of the border who were armed to. the teeth and say "that will never be necessary here." Well, ask yourself now if it's neces- sary. | hate to say this, but the day has come when law abiding Canadians have no choice but to beef up their own means of personal protection. I hope to God I am never put in a situa- tion where where the life or physical safe- ty of myself or my family is in danger. But I'm convinced I'd have no trouble doing "whatever's necessary." A few years ago, when my heart was bleeding over my shirt for all kinds of "just causes," I would never have enter- tained these thoughts. These days,I can't afford not to think about the safety of my family. And with the scum walking the streets, yo can't either. What happened i in the Soviet Union last week? Gorbachev is deposed one day and 48 hours later he's back in Moscow. The coup failed, or did it? My guess is that the 'hard-liners' were able to gain some pretty big concessions in retum for putting a leash on the military and the KGB; thus avoiding what would have been a blood-bath in the streets. Make no mistake, had the army and KGB wanted to put the boot down on Boris Yeltsin, they would have first cleared out the foreign TV cameras arid reporters, then rolled the tanks over anybody in their way. After all, they TavETac sive experience in aig ind of ing over the years. In the first few hours: of the "coup," ny pundits were blaming the west for not giving Gorbachev enough money to carry out the , reforms and more importantly forget the Soviet people through the coming winter. Watch for the West to open the purse strings over the next few months And well it should. Keeping the Soviet Union together and on the path to democracy and a market economy is the most important foreign policy initiative facing the United States, Britain, Germany etc. For the Soviet Union to slip back into "stal- inism," . the cold war and the arms race would be a travesty for the entire planet. What day is it?' I don't know. At least, not right off. Time has been going by so fast that one week blends into the next, one month becomes another. Time itself has spun into some strange vortex where there's no distinguishable line between yesterday and tomorrow. I'woke up with a jolt the other day and suddenly realized summer is almost over. Next week the kids are going back to like only yesterday they were let out for summer vacation. Time never used to cheat me, the way it does now. Twenty years ago, summer was longer and slower than the haziest thoughts. It went on and on, the droning buzz of heat bugs as symphonic accompaniment to the blistering boredom of endless days and Kool-Aid nights. "Whatdoyouwanttodotoday?" My friend Kim and I, sitting on the concrete front steps, swinging our young legs. It was the same thing, day in, day out. We had time to do anything we wanted, with- in the limits of our nine-year-old imagina- tions, but we had no idea what 10 do with school. I can hardly fathom that. Seems ourselves. Our mothers suggested cleaning our rooms and other household chores. But we were never that bored. 5 When I was 10 or 11 my parents bought a cottage on 12 Mile Lake in the Haliburton Highlands for less than what you'd pay for a cheap car these days. It had an outhouse that needed to be replaced and a roof that leaked, but it was the Taj Mahal of my youth. I made new friends, but the "Whatdoyouwant todoto- day?" refrain never changed. Kathy and I took long walks, we swam, we water- skied, we talked. Our skin was brown. The soles of our feet were tough as leather, . After Labour Day, Kathy's family rarely came to the cottage. Mine came every weekend, and I was very lonely, The water was too cold to swim in. It wasn't any: fun walking, alone. I recall leaning against a leafless birch tree, star- ing at Kathy's empty.cottage, wishing it wasn't empty! Wishing the summer hadn't ended. Even then, the clock was ticking. = MysiERY 4 Either he's got moustache wax, or he's dipped the end of his faclal hair in too many soup bowls. The right answer wlll likely remain a mystery, but maybe some- one knows who the nous- tache belongs to. The photo was taken sometime in the late 1800's by J.A. Lord of Brock St. in Uxbridge. There are many, many unidentified photos at Scugog Shores Museum, and curator Gail Sheridan would love, some day, to have them all properly identified. To give her a hand, the Citizen will print a different 'unsolved mystery', each week, in the hopes some of these marvellous but myste- rious people and places will have names once again. If you think you can solve this week's unsolved mystery, call Gail at the museum -- 985-3589. B=IScucoc CiTizensEd T this year! RIDE 'EM, COWBOB! That's right, BOB, ot boy, riding Ferdena with Buckle watching. If you need to know more, better ask the photographer, Susan Perhinski of Nestieton. Thariks, Susan! Send us your favorite snapshots ~ of your family, your pets, your vacation, whatever photo you've taken and you're proud of! Citizen staffers will select their favorite snaps and run them in this space. Then, at the end of the year, we'll have a panel of judges choose their favorite picture, and the photographer will win a brand new 35mm camera. Our address is 36 Water St., Port Perry. Bring them in} Introducing Andy Molloy! Born in Galway, Ireland, Andy has lived in Durham Hegion for 20 years, spending the last fawr in Port Perry. He is a self- employed renovator who really enjoys his « work. When not on the job, Andy spends his time collecting and refinishing antiques, or with friends and his very large Irish Wolfhound, 'Bailey'. He looks forward to a long snow- mobiling season, but has vowed to avoid open water