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A ' PIII 'editorio Today's Youth From timeto time, the Port Perry Star, like all community newspapers, gets its share of criticism for publishing the names and addresses of people who get into trouble with the law, especially it seems, where teen-agers are involved. The reasons, of course, are obvious, and the Star recognizes fully why people in trouble with the law, and their families, don't want to see the names and details published. But at the same time, the Star is like all other newspapers in that it adheres to the concept that covering police and court news is a legitimate function of the press in this country. The public access to the courts and the court proceedings and judgements is a fundamental cornerstone of a free democratic society. In publishing police and court news, this paper does make a conscientious effort to do several things: to publish only the facts released by the police or the court reports, and to de-sensationalize as much as possible by avoiding large and lurid headlines. Sometimes the criticism suggests that the newspaper is only interested in stories of young people in trouble. That is simply not the case. Anybody who reads the Star on a regular basis can't help but see that we are constantly running stories and pictures of young people who have achieved something, earned some kind of honour or recogniition, or have contributed in a positive way to the community in which they live. It is the policy of this paper to make every effort possible to recognize the achievements of young people of all ages, and from every part of Scugog Township. In doing this we have reached some conclusions of our own. The overshelming majority of young people are pretty decent citizens who have their heads screwed on the right way, who know what they want and where they are going, and are capable of remarkable achievements in all kinds of activities from athletics to art, music special events and projects, and scholastic excellence. And we have found that those who don't get their names and pictures in the paper for some kind of achievement are also darn good citizens and every bit as much a credit to their community and their families. From time to time, young people in this community, and elsewhere, are going to find themselves in trouble with the law. That is an "unfortunate fact of life. And this newspaper will continue to publish these occurrences. That's part of our job. But it is also part of our [ob to balance the bad with the good, so to speak, and we will also continue to recognize and salute the achievements of young people. In stating this, we can also say quite plainly | poge tts <I that the positive activities represent by far and away the true picture of where young people are at these days. Anyone who doesn't believe this is walking around with blinkers on, or hasn't taken the time or made the effort to find out that on balance the generation of today's youth is solid and straight. And that is a most fortunate fact of life. a 7 7 9 bill smiley NEGA PROD this years ago. When they had lots of Some people, like me, believe in rolling with the punches, rather than sticking out our chins to show how many we can absorb. I have found- that, in general, if I avoid trouble, trouble avoids me. If I know that some pain in the arm has been trying to get me on the phone, I also know immediately that he or she wants me to do something that I don't want to do. Therefore, I take the phone off the hook and leave it off until the pain has found some other sucker. Another invention of mine to stay out of trouble is patented as Nega-Prod. This is short for Negative Production. The theory is simple. The more you produce, the more problems you have, whether it is children, manufactured goods or farm products. The more children you have, the more emotional and economic problems you create for yourself. The more goods you produce, the more you have to hustle to find customers and meet payrolls. The more farm stuff you raise, whether it's beef or beans, the greater your chance of being caught in a glut on the market. Our great national railways caught on to passengers, they had lots of problems. People wanted comfort, cleanliness, decent meals, and some assurance that they would get where they were going on time. There was much more money to be made, and fewer problems, by transporting wheat and lumber and cattle. So the railways began treating people like cattle. Passenger trains became uncom- fortable and dirty. Quality of the food dropped like a stone. And they never arrived on time. Presto. End of problems. No more passengers. So the railways were able to cut off non-paying passenger lines, get rid of all those superfluous things like station agents and telegraphers and train conductors, and concentrate on taking from one point to another things that paid their way and didn't talk back: newsprint, coal, oil, wheat. Perhaps this is the answer for our provin- cial governments, which are quickly and .quietly building massive mountains of debt for future taxpayers. Perhaps they should just stop building highways, and repairing those already in existence. We'd all be sore as hell for a while, but as the roads got worse and worse, most of us would stop driving our cars. The governments would save millions of dollars now spent on highways, and they could fire two-thirds of the highway cops. I don't quite see how the governments could use Nega-Prod to get out of the liquor business, which certainly produces plenty of problems. The booze trade is so profitable that asking overnment to abandon it would be like asking a millionaire to forsake his country estate for a run-down farm. Perhaps if they had a Free Booze Day, once a week, every week, say on a Saturday, it would solve a number of problems. It would certainly reduce the surplus popul- ation.- This, in turn, would cut down, drastically, the unemployment figures. Should the provincial governments find that Nega-Prod is all I've suggested, some of it might spill over into the federal government, usually the last to catch on to what the country really needs. Instead of the manna and honey flowing from Ottawa in the form of baby bonuses and pensions, we might get some terse manifestos: "People who have more than one and a "half children will be sent to jail for four years. Note: separate jails." "Persons who plan to live past 65 and claim a pension will be subject to an open season each year, from October 1 to Thanks- giving Day. Shotguns and bicycle chains only." ; "All veterans of all wars may claim participation by reason of insanity, and may apply to Ottawa for immediate euthen- isation." These might seem slightly Draconian measures, but they sure would put an end to a lot of our problems and troubles. Think of what they would do for such sinful activities as sex, growing old, and hanging around the Legion Hall, playing checkers. But we must also think of the economic benefits. With a plug put into that river of paper money flowing from Ottawa, taxes would drop, inflation would vanish and undoubtedly, separatism would wither on the vine. People would be lined up six deep at the U.S. border, trying to get across, and that would solve, in one swell foop, our unemployment difficulties. We could go back to being hewers of water and carriers of wood, which was our mani- fest destiny before the politicians got into the act. Fishermen or lumberjacks, in short, which most of the rest of the world "thinks we are anyway. Nega-Prod may seem a bit lofty and abstract at first glance, but it works. I know from personal experience. Every time I try to make something, or fix something, it costs me a lot of money, and I get into a lot of trouble. } ] So, I have a policy of never trying to fix something or make something. It's a lot less trouble to put up signs: "Beware of falling bricks; Not responsible for slivers from picnic table." And so on. The Argyle Syndicate Ltd.