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"A Family Tradition for 128 Years" PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, March 5, 1996 -7 I _ETTERS The wrong place for union rhetoric To the Editor: The provincial workers' strike that we have all heard about struck home for me this past week in a way I had not ex- pected. I had occasion to call an Ontario government office in Port Perry. I was told on their voice mail that the office was closed "due to the unreasonable attitudes" of the provincial gov- ernment in power. I was treated to a 15-second labor biased mini-message I neither re- quired nor requested. To add insult to injury, I was forced to pay for this union mes- sage with the tax dollars that provided the voice mail system on which it was passed. Listen up... To the Editor: The recent peaceful and highly successful demonstra- tion in Hamilton was the largest of its kind in Onta- rio's history. Well over 100,000 people from all over Ontario converged on Hamil- ton. with a very clear mes- sage to Mr. Harris and his government: "It's time to start listening to the people of Ontario." Mr. Harris was quoted as saying that he would not be deterred by a "macho" show of force. Ironically, the only macho show of force during the entire two-day protest was the massed and heavily- armed phalanz of security guards that had transformed the Hamilton Convention Centre into "Fortress Hamil- ton." The barricades that went up at Queen's Park in July of last year, and now Fortress Hamilton, clearly show that this government thinks it can hide behind its walls and do as it pleases without lis- tening to the people of Onta- rio. Michael Strahl, : Courtice Up to this point I was rather in the middle on my views of this labor dispute. Listening to "my" phone lines be used as an electronic picket sign has forced me into the government camp, where frankly I'm not entirely comfortable. I have personally been fighting certain govern- ment cutbacks, some of which have been dreamed up and 1m- plemented by the very people who now cry foul from the safety of the picket lines. It would serve the union well to remember that the weakest, the poorest, and the youngest are the ones who are suffering from the round of service cut- backs implemented by high- level civil servants. These same people are now the ones suffering from the withdrawal of services by the union. If you wish the support of those of us at street level you should consider an apology for the disruption, not a wise-ass shot at your opponents while the public pay. Keep in mind that, forever, your arguments fall short for a great number of the people you service, for one outstanding reason: You have a job. R.W. Davie, Nestleton Smoking area baffling To the Editor: I am writing to draw your at- tention to something at your lo- cal hospital which surprised me. While visiting at the Port Perry hospital I inquired about a newly bricked area inside one of the doors. I was told that it had been created so that staff and visitors as well as patients could smoke in an enclosed area. I was amazed that with all of the financial cutbacks in the health care field and the threat of staff layoffs and bed closures that money could be found in the hospital budget for this smoking area. I realize that the cost of the materials and labor would be minimal, but any amount of money taken from the bedside is money poorly spent. I would also like to question a hospital which appears to be promoting smoking. Surely one of the roles of any health insti- tution is health teaching. Since we are so aware of the hazards of smoking I wonder why anyone would support this enclosed smoking area in a hos- pital. Even Tim Horton's donut shops promote smoke-free envi- ronments. : I realize that the stress creat- ed by hospitalization is often reason to need to smoke, but any other hospital that I have visited did not allow smoking in the hospital; instead they had a designated area outside for smokers. I feel that designating an area outside of the hospital would have been a more cost ef- ficient measure as well as a bet- ter promotion of healthy living. Donna Campbell, London, Ont. You can fax your letters to the Editor's Notepad by Jeff Mitchell a . ALANIS MAKES ME FORGET ELTON GIMME THAT GRAMMY: I'm feeling proud to be Canadian this morning -- even more so than usual -- after reading the news that Canucks cleaned up last night at the Grammys, the pop music world's equivalent to the Oscars. Alanis Morisette snapped up four of the awards in her rock category, while the beautiful and talented Shania Twain was honored for best country album. Others included the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the stalwart Joni Mitchell. Neil Young continues his Grammy drought, which is too bad, but meanwhile reels in one generation after another -- last year Pearl Jam fans were rockin' In the Free World, for crying out loud -- and further reinforces his status as an all-time rock icon. | didn't watch the televised Grammy ceremony -- | can't stand awards shows, particulary the Grammys. They invariably have given top awards to patently undeserving nominees, such as | when Elton John took song of the year for a recording that was featured in a Disney cartoon. Preposterous. | was livid, and remained so for several days. And every time my kids plug their copy of The Lion King into the VCR, the outrage comes back to haunt me. Anyway: We should be proud of these women who conquered the pop world, and proved -- probably to their fellow Canucks, more than anyone -- that Canadian musicians stack up with the best of 'em. SERIOUS SUBJECT MATTER: Here's a word of thanks to Scugog's Green Team, the small but mighty group of environmentalists who have been presenting over the course of this winter a series of talks on matters that should be of importance to everyone. Last Thursday night there was a discussion on incineration, and this coming Thursday night, at 7:30 in the hall at the Scugog Centre, the hazardous effects of ultraviolet rays from the sun will be on the agenda. The talks are informative and interesting and -- this is good -- have garnered the attention they deserve from the people of Scugog. You don't have to be an activist to care about the environment. And information is the most important weapon in the battle to reclaim and heal the planet. Good show. SHOULD WE BE WORRIED? ...Word from NASA scientists last week was that the expensive satellite that broke away from the space shuttle would not be retrieved, as such an operation is considered too risky. They'll just let it float along until it starts crashing toward earth, where it should burn up in the atmosphere sometime in the next couple of weeks. Maybe | have too much time on my hands; | don't know... but | worry occasionally about the multi-tonne bits of space junk floating above my head. It's not that far-fetched a notion, | think sometimes, to imagine it crashing down to squash my house, my car... even me, while I'm out walking the dog and gazing up at the stars. It's an irrational fear, like contracting food poisoning from tinned salmon with that --- smell, or being bitten on the shin by Leah Casselman. Editor: 985-3708 But ya just never know... EE -----_ adr ti ris i Hh eR --.,sARH Random Jottings By" WR) by Peter Hvidsten ON HOLD WITH ELECTRONIC VOICES Irritate... bother... bug... annoy... M or infuriate. Those are all words { that describe my emotions when dealing with telephone etiquette. Some of the most annoying incidents | can think of relates directly to new services provided by tele- phone companies and the lack of etiquette by those using the phone system. Among the worst of the new services is one they refer to as 'call waiting'. This service produces a faint 'beep' when you are talking on the phone to alertyou that another call is waiting on the line. What usually happens nextis "you're puton hold." That's right, the phone goes blank while the person you're speaking to checks to see ifthe next call is more important than yours. This interruption of a call is both rude and inconsiderate, and | have decided in future | will hang up if put on hold. Another situation similar to 'call waiting,' but one whichis usually initiated by a receptionist, is when your call is answered with the question... "can you hold for a minute?" Most often the caller never gets a chance to answer, as the phone is hung up in your ear and you are left to fume at their arrogance. Another beef about telephone manners is the 90s version of an answering service... voice mail. This beastof the phone lines is becoming very pop- ular with business, but in my opinion being relied on too heavily. When you can no longer callacompany during regular business hours and speak to ahuman being, something is very wrong. Afriend recently related a incident when he phoned a local bank only to be greeted by voice mail. After lis- tening to the usual list of options... press one if you want to know about... press 2 if you wantto..., press 3 if you need....etc., he pushed the number for the desired service and was greeted by Mr. Banker. After discussing his business transactions,he thanked Mr. Banker and hung up the phone. Afew days later, while in town the man decided to drop into the bank and see Mr. Banker, but was sur- prised to learn that Mr. Banker didn't work at the Port Perry branch. In fact, Mr. Banker satatadeskina high rise building somewhere in the city and that 985- number he had dialed had transferred him right through to Toronto. Probably the worst offender of voice mail is the gov- ernment. Anyone who has ever tried to get through to agovernment office, will know the frustration of trying to get information. | spent almost ten minutes on the phone one day recently trying to reach a government office and was never able to speak to anyone, So finally hung up in disgust. Change is inevitable, but amidst all this change we must not forget that people (consumers) are still the most important ingredient. It's been proven machines are capable of perform- ing alot of tasks, but they still can'treplace people.