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jai oa EI Ll Gi he dl il Li Ld Lilia i 4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, February 4, 1986 Editorial Comments Tackling An Issue The Students Against Driving Drunk (S.A.D.D.) organization at Port Perry High School is starting to generate publicity beyond the borders of this community. Last month, CFTO television in Toronto sent a reporter and camera crew to the school to do a story on the organization. Last week, the Oshawa Times carried a lengthy front page article on S.A.D.D. in Port Perry. That same article was picked up by the Cana- dian Press and appeared prominently in the Monday edition of the Toronto Globe and Mail. The formation of S.A.D.D. is not a happy story, and the publicity is not the kind that any school or community would seek. The genesis of this organization, of course, stems from the fact that a lot of young students at the school have lost their lives in car accidents over the past three years, and alcohol was a factor in many of those tragedies. We know that some in the community are being critical. We know that every time the organization receives some publicity, the memories - are painful for the families and close friends of those who have died. Nothing is going to change that. The formation of S.A.D.D. is not go- ing to change the pain and sorrow that already this community has . experienced. What it may do, however, and what all of us hope it will do, is prevent further pain and sorrow in the future. For this reason, we will continue to support the organization and admire the courage of the students who had the guts to face this issue and attempt to do something about it. The time for sweeping things under the carpet, pretending it would go away, was long overdue. The organization seems to be gaining momentum at the school. Membership is now up to 200 students, and there are hopes this number may grow to 500 by the summer. Unfortunately, the real suc- cess of.S.A.D.D. is something not easily measured. We may never know how many kids decided to leave the car at home, or have so- meone drive them if they had been drinking. This organization is not out to "tut-tut-tut' people about the evils of booze. This is not a temperance group. The message is simply that if you drink, leave the car keys in your pocket. : Organizers of the Port Perry group have been invited to speak to students in Bowmanville, Oshawa and Lindsay. We wish them well. .And this Wednesday evening at the school, there is a S.A.D.D. meeting with- Wendy Crawford as the guest speaker. She was an aspiring model until she was hit by an impaired driver and now spends her time in a wheel chair. Maybe a few of the detractors in the com- munity might find it useful to take in this meeting. OH, WELL! ANOTHER. CANADIAN \OENTITY, THROWN AWAY BY MULRONEY. 1 WONDER WHAT'S NEXT 7°? Letters to the Editor ... our policy It has always been the policy of this newspaper to encourage our readers to make use of the letters to the editor column. Our readers have a right to freely express their opinions and view- points on just about any subject, and we feel that a lively letters column helps make a better community newspaper. - We insist, however, that a letter writer sign his or her name. On rare occasions, we will agree to with-hold publication of a letter writer's name, if we feel there are very good reasons to do so. Under no circumstances will this paper print an anonymous letter ' to the editor. While we enjoy receiving letters from our readers, we must continue to insist on knowing the identity of the writer. ' the EWE PORT PLERY $100 CO LWTNTID ' 133 Quite Ten? i (GDR | $0 80190 | HOA) | PORT PLAY ONTARIO -- . 108 WO fom | y/ (018) 983 730) NN \ J. PETER HVIDSTEN Publisher Advertising Manager J.B. McCLELLAND Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Community Newspaper Association Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co Ltd . Port Perry, Ontario Editor Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa. and for cash CATHY ROBB payment of postage in cash News & Features Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 anc WhO! OMMuNe Gn ole a » Pray ayy OSe * Subscription Rate: In Canada $15.00 per year. Elsewhere $45 00 per year. Single Copy 35° \ 5, COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the adver tising department of the Por: Parry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher Chatterbox by John B. McClelland GOODBYE, BILL Bill Smiley, the syndicated columnist whose words of wisdom, crusty humour and sometimes pointed sarcasm have been a feature of the Port Perry Star (and more than a 100 other weeklies in Canada) for so many years, is hanging up the typewriter ribbon. We have been informed that Smiley will no longer be writing his column each week due to fail- . ing health. I think I'm safe in saying that many of our readers are going to miss him each week. Smiley had a way with words, to be sure. He also had a way of expressing those little irritants of life that plague us all. For the most part, he kept his columns on the light and breezy side, but when he took the barbs out, they could be sharp and painful. "I recall one day a few years ago when a Port Perry Star reader phoned me at the office and demanded Bill's home phone number so that she could give him a call and blast him for something he'd written in a column. The reader was positive that Smiley lived in Port Perry and was not convinced when I explain- ed that he in fact was a high school teacher in northern Ontario. The reader accused me of try- ing to protect Smiley by not giving out his home number. The fact that this reader (and probably quite a few others) thought Smiley was a Port Perry resident illustrates the strength of his work and the fact so many community weeklies carried column for so many years. It was "down-horhe" stuff, comments on every-day ordinary life that were not restricted by geography. We're going to miss Bill's words. As of this date, I'm not sure how we are going to fill the space at the bottom of the editorial page each week. We'll come up with something, I'm sure, but we'll never be able to replace Bill Smiley. FISHING LICENCES | There is a possibility that Ontario residents may soon need a licence to sport fish in provin- cial waters. The Ministry of Natural Resources is toying with the idea of a Resident Angling Licence for Ontario and is now in the process of seeking the opinions of Ontario anglers about the idea. Frankly, as an angler, I think the idea is over- due. Let's face it, there are no free rides for anything these days. People who want to fish in Ontario waters should have to pay for it, no mat- ter where they live. : However, I have to agree with the position taken by the 50,000 member Federation of Anglers and Hunters, which last week issued a statement of support for the Resident Angling Licence on the grounds that all monies raised from the licence fees be used for research and the improvement of sport fishing in the province. It is estimated that if the licence fee was $10 per-year, this could raise as much as $15 million yearly. I would not hesitate for a minute to pay this fee, provided the money doesn't get thrown into the general revenues of the province where it might end up spent on something else. The Federation of Anglers and Hunters wants ~ the monies put into a separate trust fund, and that seems like a sensible idea. When I was a kid, I took fishing pretty much for granted. The streams and small lakes where I did my fishing almost always had plenty of trout. On the rare days when I came home empty- handed, it was just because the fish weren't biting. But now it's 1986, and most anglers have come to the conclusion that sport fish are not an infinite resource. Pollution has taken its toll, creeping development, logging, mining, over-fishing and so on. Mother Nature isn't as tough as she once was. There is a need for research, fish hatcheries, im- proved habitat and more enforcement of the fishing laws to ensure that certain species con- tinue to live and thrive. This takes money, lots of it. I can't imagine any sport fisherman balking at the idea of a $10 licence. The ones who will gripe are the jerks who fish out of season, take more than the daily limit, and leave their damn beer cans all along the shores of the lakes and streams. Ta A a "THIS LOOKS LIKE A LIVELY PLACE." DL pai i 5 A a MS 2 i ha Sac. ar pi oe Sa Jl A - BT pata at ol