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Yo Fo WC Ae Ei LE) FIND Smt 4 = LC ap a a AS 3 Pt A 35 Tt, The Library: Back to Square One It has not been a happy year for the people of Scugog Township who happen to believe that a library is important to any community, and must offer the best possible services to its citizens. The proposed expansion of the War Memorial Library in Port Perry took its last shot on the chin when the Library Board"s application for variances was rejected by the Committee of Adjustment. The committee's decision came as a surprise to nobody. In light of reports which surfaced recently about the flood potential of the property to the back of the existing library building on Queen Street, and the fact that the variances being sought were 'anything but 'minor', the committee did the right thing in turning them down. Had the committee passed the variances, Scugog council probably would have gone to court over the decision (at considerable expense) and that kind of wrangling would have turned the public completely off the idea that this Township does indeed need improved library facilities. But that is all history now. There can be no expansion of the present library building. And it is just as well. Tacking an addition on the library would have ruined the physical appearance of the building, and would not have been very functional as far as good public library services are concerned. Nonetheless, the Library Board remains committed to the idea of improving services for all the people in Scugog Township. And there are very sound arguments that can be made that a good library is vital to the quality of life in any progressive community. Despite the set-backs of the past year or so, the Library Board is ready to forge ahead with a new proposal. It may not be all things for all people, but at least it deserves a sympathetic listen. Nice Try, Expos The miracle came to a quick end on the weekend. The boys of summer who play professional baseball in the city of Montreal ran out of story-book endings. But in doing so, they captured the fancy of sports fans the whole country over. For three weeks, they kept their hopes alive, time and again, sneaking out a victory in the dying innings of each crucial game. In the end they just ran out of miracles, victims of an exhausting September at better than a game a day, and of course the big bats of their Pittsburgh editorial poge rivals who refused to knuckle under to the pressure. The Expos are finished in '79. As the autumn leaves begin to fade, they came oh so close to a day in the sunshine. Nevertheless, the Expos proved several things during their run to the wire. They have the talent to be a contender next year, and probably for several years after that. And strange as it may seem, they brought together people in this country, if only for a few brief weeks. Even that matriarchal institution known as the CBC recognized that something was brewing and agreed to bump regular programming to televise the final few games. On Sunday last, the CBC even pre-empted a game of Canadian football so that sports fans in this country could watch a bunch of American boys in Montreal uniforms play out their last hurrah. And it was worth it. Despite the fact they finally ran out of steam, the Expos took the minds of Canadians off our usual worries. They bumped politics off the front pages of newspapers in. Quebec and around the country. That in itself is something that usually only the Grey Cup and the Stanley Cup final were able to do. Somehow it is a little Ironic that the country can stop for a few weeks to focus its attention on a team playing a sport that really has its home south of the border. Nice try, Expos. You gave baseball fans in Canada some great moments in '79. The country needed a hero, any kind of hero, and who knows, if the Expos go all the way to the World Series in 1980, Canadians might even start talking to each other again. CINDERELLA AND JHE Uely 515TERS [4 bill War Times Boy, the world is in some mess, today, isn't it? With two world wars in this century, and the oceans of blood shed in them, not to mention the limited wars in Korea and Viet Nam, you'd think mankind would come to its senses, sit back and say, "Hey, chaps. Enough is enough. Let's sit back, cultivate our own gardens, and have a few centuries of peace and friendship. Let's relax a little, try to make sure everybody has at least two squares a day, stop burning up irreplaceable energy, and make love, not war." Not a chance. All over this planet people are starving, shooting, burning, blowing up, raping, mutilating, and demonstrating, all in the name of some non-existent ideal, such as freedom, or nationalism, or language, or religion, or color. And nobody is making a nickel out of it all, except the purveyors of weapons. All over the world, in vast areas of Asia, Africa and South America particularly, there are probably 300 times more refugees, orphans and just plain starving people than there were at the beginning of this century smiley of enlightenment. World War I, with its millions of dead, produced a bare decade and a half of peace. It also signalled the beginning of the end of the fairly fair and benevolent British Empire, allowed the beginning of the massive international communism, and by its punitive peace terms, laid the founda- tions for World War II. That one produced as little, or less. It vaulted Russia and the U.S. into the great confrontation that has been going on ever since. It wrote finis to the British Empire and reduced that sturdy people to a drained, impoverished, third-class power. It split Europe down the middle between two philosophies, communism and capitalism. It launched on the world the final weapon by which mankind could write kaput to his own species. Has it smartened anybody up? Not exactly. Today we have Iranians beating on Kurds, Chinese glaring at Russians, Cam- bodians hammering Laotians, blacks fight- ing blacks all over Africa, Jews and Palestinians toeing off, dictatorships in South America, India in turmoil, revolution in Central America, Irishmen blowing up each other with giddy abandon, old Uncle Tom Cobley and all. We don't seem to learn much, do we? The United Nations, a noble idea, conceived with a touch of the greatness man can aspire to, is a joke, albeit an expensive one, merely a political sounding-board for every new pipsqueak nation that wants some publicity, along with plenty of foreign aid. The U.S., which emerged from W.W.II as a great, powerful and wealth nation, has been terribly weakened, chiefly by its external affairs policies, or lack of them, and the meddling in foreign affairs of the notorious CIA. It had its bining moments: The Marshall Plan to put devastated Europe back on its feet, Kennedy's showdown with Kruschev over the Cuban missiles instalment; an attempt to make a better deal for blacks in their own country. But these were flawed by other events and attitudes: the backing of right-wing dictat- ors around the world; the loss of face in Korea; the treatment of Cuba; the meddling in the affairs of other nations; the fairly indiscriminate supplying of arms to any- body who could pay for them; and finally, the abortive, badly-burned-fingers mess of Viet Nam. At home right now, the States has a rather panicky President, growing inflation and unemployment, belligerent blacks and hard- line unions, and a recession on the horizon. Abroad, "it has lost a great deal of credibility, and seems to be pushed around by anybody who has plenty of oil. American imperialism is coming home to roost, and there are a lot of vultures among the roosters. Cuba is an out-spoken enemy. Mexico, sitting on a huge oil deposit, is cool, considering past grievances. The Philip- pines are gone. Japan and Germany, the losers in W.W.II, are the winners in the economic war. The U.S. dollarg is no longer the international monetary standard. The Panama Canal is going. But let's not forget the tremendous power that lies in that great, half-stunned nation of the Western hemisphere, the U.S. of Amer- ica. The giant may be slumbering, having nightmares, twitching in his sleep. But he's far from dead. There is still a great, latent vitality in the States. With strong leadership, and a renewed sense of purpose, the Yanks can make a tremendous comeback, as they have proven more than once. ) For our sakes, they'd better. Despite what our ubiquitous nationalists blather, Canada is riding on the coattails of the U.S., and you'd better believe it. If they suffer, we suffer. If they bleed, we hemmorhage. Let's not give it away; our gas and oil and water and hydro power. Let's trade shrewdly, like a Yankee. But let's not get mean and stingy and narrow, either. Let's be neighbourly. For the simple fact is , that if Canadians get all upright and righteous and miserly, refusing to share, they could walk in and take over this country and help themselves. And nobody, nobody in the world, would lift a finger to stop them. End of sermon. 3 3 ET --