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editorial com RADII DEH 5 New Image For Old The following editorial was printed recently in the Haliburton County Echo. The Star feels that many of the thoughts expressed in this editorial are timely, especially in light of the fact that last Friday a new, attractive apartment building for seniors was offic- ially opened in Port Perry. "Already they form a significant proportion of Can- adian society, and their numbers continue to grow. Once viewed simply as the old, they are taking on a new image. Now called senior citizens they are becoming a prominent social force, a demographic reality to be considered by politicians, business, labour, education and the tourist industry. The changing Canadian attitude toward the elderly is evidence as much of a return to an earlier view as of amove forward into new understanding. In many of the world's cultures, the old are venerated. They are cherished as the embodiment of wisdom and spiritual strength, as the possessors of insight born of long and often harsh experience. Yet too may Canadians have lost that view. In a society geared to youthfulness, where merely being young has been elevated to the status of a virtue, to grow old has all too often meant to be shunned and forgotten. Yet youth, like old age, is merely a fact of the human condition, the one no more avoidable than the other. Society has not lost its fascination with youthful- ness, or the illusions that surround it, but it is beginning to realize that there can be virtue in old age, too. Most of those who today call themselves senior citizens have faced difficulties and challenges people in their 20's and 30's can only imagine. Today's seniors lived through years when the basics of food and shelter could not be taken for granted, when the need to survive rather than the urge to possess dominated daily life. The challenges of the past are gone of course, but the struggle to live with fixed incomes and in the face of indifference remains all to real for many of Canada's seniors. 7 If Canadians are to build a stronger society, we must continue to bring senior citizens from the fringes of our daily life into their rightful place in its mainstream. We must allow their wisdom and exper- ience to enrich the pattern of society. We must educate the young if not to venerate the old, at least to respect them. Canada's senior citizens can continue to make valuable contributions to society in the same way they always have, if society is willing to give them a chance. The rise of senior citizens as a social force is a welcome change. It may give many Canadians the push they need into a new way of seeing what it means to grow old." . {= Go' sour JHE HARD uly b 7 AABN La Showed Courage Scugog Township councillors Don Crosier and Robert Espey showed courage last 'week when they "cast their votes in favour of locating the new Scugog Memorial Library on the contentious Water Street site. Both councillors had publicly stated during the recent election campaign their opposition to the Water Street site. And as both stated during the council meeting last week, their decision to change was not taken without considerable thought and soul- searching. Sure, they are going to get some flack from those in the community who remain adamently opposed to the Water Street site, and those who are opposed to the construction of a new library building, period. What councillors Crosier and Espey did last week essentially, was ensure that Scugog Township will probably have a new library facility in the near future, at a cost that is not going to break the backs of the tax-payers. As. was indicated during the meeting last week, to start again at this point in time on a search for a new and viable alternative site for a building would add considerably to the cost, and in fact may have put the project beyond reach for several years. ~<In short; the two" councillors 'made their tough political decision only after they were convinced that all other reasonable alternatives had been exhaus- ted. But leaving aside the library issue for a moment what councillors Crosier and Espey also did last week was serve notice to their colleagues on council and the people of this community that the squabble has gone on far too long and it is time to start patching up some fences in Scugog Township. As councillor Espey rightly pointed out last week, the issue has caused a deep rift: in the Township to the point where it has turned friends against friends and neighbours against neighbours. Library or no library, Scugog Township council still has to get on with the job of providing good local government and wise administration of the tax- payers dollars, and the citizens of Scugog have to get on with the business of their daily lives. It is not an easy thing for a politiclan to change his mind, especially on such a volatile issue. But in the long run, time is going to prove councillors Espey and Crosier right, not only for those who happen to feel that Scugog needs a new library facility, but for all who believe a sense of harmony must be restored in this community. And you'd be quite right. Nobody believed beautiful country like the bubonic plague, while government talks tough and does nothing, and industrialists, in sincere surprise, ask, 'What pollution?" while our lakes are killed of fish, our soil is poisoned, and our health is threatened. bill smiley PEERING AHEAD It's difficult to peer ahead into 1981 with wild enthusiasm. Unless you live in Alberta, where the taxes are low and the living is high. . Inflation is almost guaranteed to increase from 10 to 15 per cent. Our Prime Minister, in his infinite wisdom, had some advice for poor_people and pensioners who dread such __ a forecast. In effect, he said if they can't afford bread, let them eat cake. The last person who uttered those sentiments wound up with her head in a basket. Yes, Mr. Trudeau has much in common with Marie Antoinette, and is just about as close to the people. Peace and goodwill seem like a hopeless cause for the coming year. The Russians are still in Afghanistan, keeping the peace. The situation in Poland, as I write, is on the verge of catching fire, literally and figura- tively. There are wars and rumors of wars around the globe. And our country is not exactly in glowing health, politically, although that's nothing new. Barely has Rene Levesque had his ears pinned back when out of the West gallops, not young Lochinvar, but fairly serious threats of separation from Canada, These may seem pretty gloomy thoughts, but there are even more horrible prospects for 1981. Every one of us is going to be one year older, and not one whit better. That may be all very well for a kid of 18 who wants to become 19 so he can drink legally. But for many of us, all it means is more aches and pains, new glasses, new teeth, and one step closer to the grave. Many of us will lose friends and relatives airily dismissed by our P.M. as '"'hysteria"'. It's anything but. If everybody west of Ontario went along with it, the West would have one of the biggest countries in the world, with a small population, great resources. And it's about time Ottawa, and Ontario, the fat cat of Canada since confederation, did more than pooh-pooh the idea. to that old Grim Reaper, and many will ~ desert the sports page or the comics for the obituary columns. We'll probably have a dreadful winter, a late spring, a short wet, cool summer, and another lousy fall, like that of 1980. I can feel it in my bones, especially the middle toe-bone of my left foot, upon which I dropped the mickey. Unless the feds go on priming, the pump with our taxes, gas and oil prices will soar, who happens to be Minister of Finance, isso creating dreadful hardships, such as htiving eager to de-index our income tax that he's to wear a sweater in the house, or walk to dancing about like a kid who has to go the work. the bathroom. If he were allowed to get Now, everything I've said is true, and you away with it, no matter how hard you know it. But I can just hear you saying: worked. or how bright you were, your "What's wrong with Smiley? Who does he income would melt like a snowball in think he is? Cassandra? He's getting into vou-know-where. his dotage, and should be put away in an old Pollution and acid rain are attacking this people's home." Meanwhile, let's get back to the trivia that is so much more important to the individual. It's still a gloomy outlook. Young people, unless they have a double income or inherited' wealth, might as well forget about buying a house, with mortgage rates so high that even the Lord can smell something rotten in the state of our economy. Donald McEachen, a wealthy bachelor Cassandra either, and it was a good thing. If they'd believed her, the fall of Troy would never have taken place, the great Greek tragedians would have had no material, and instead of working like Trojans, we'd probably be working for Trojans. But inside, I don't feel any of that gloom and doom I've been spouting. I feel like a boy. Rather an old boy, but a boy, nonetheless. = Despite our economic situation, high taxes, inflation on both port and starboard bows, war and violence, our everyday diet, we'll survive, and probably have as good a year as we ever had. We still have one of the highest living "standards in the world. We are still a rich country, comparatively. We still have a sturdily independent nation of individuals. Our inflation rate is no worse than most countries, better than many. So, if you can't buy a house, as Trudeau would say, buy a condominium. If you can't afford the supermarket prices, get out and cultivate your own garden. If you can't afford gas, walk. If you can't afford fuel, drop dead. It'll be warm enough where you go. When 1 think of what Canadian pioneers faced, every new year, I just laugh at the whining of modern Canadians, one of the spoiledest nations in the world. Personally, I'm going to have a great 1981, eben if I can't afford teeth and have to gum my grub. have to get around on crutches. And the same to you. ¥ § a i A pms Son ENE