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6 - PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, July 25, 2000 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" PUBLISHER J. Peter Hvidsten ¥ i Sa iran SRT = ; Member BUSINESS OFFICE: Judy Ashby. Kathy Dudley. GENERALMGR ....... Don Macleod oCna |& @ 124 : [2 F RR Y WV Canadian Heather Callan, Janet Rankin, Lesley West - 2, - . MANAGING EDITOR Jeff Mitchell TITRE pA arm-- 2000 GomLAY % CNA Co OFFICE MANAGER . Gayle Stapley Member Ontario Community © me > ib 4 ny. ------ Association ADVERTISING: Ginni Todd. Cindy Jobin, Gail Morse, Heather McGregor, Linda Clarke. ADVERTISING MGR .. .Deb McEachern Lisa Monk, Janet Archer, Malcolm Lennox PRODUCTION MGR . . Pam Hickey Newspaper Assoc REPORTER = Chris Hall Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Company Limited, 188 Mary Street - Port Perry, Ontario - L9L 187 PRODUCTION: Trudy Empringham, Daryle Wright. Pax (SO 30s Tass SUBSCRIPTION RATES Arlene Cheel, Robert Taylor, Richard Drew 1 Year - $37.45 (includes GST) Six Months - $19.79 (includes GST) ~~ Foreign 1 Year - $96.30 (includes GST) Freelance Wiiters Heather McCrae. John 8 McClelland, Rik Davie E MAIL. port perry.star@sympatico ca EDITORIAL POLICY: Opinions expressed by columnists, contributors and letter writers are not necessarily those of The Port Perry Star. Letters must be signed and the telephone number (which will not be published) included Requests that a name be withheld will be honoured only if there Is a compelling reason to do so. Errors will be corrected if brought to the editor's attention. We reserve the right to edit or refuse publication of any matenal submitted ADVERTISING POLICY: The publisher is not able for sight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement The pubdisher is not hable for other errors or omissions In connection with any advertisement in any subsequent issue or the refund of any monies paid for the advertisement All daims of error in publication must be made by Wednesday. noon, prior to the next week's publication, and. if not made, will not be considered No dam will be allowed for more than one insertion Editorial Comment Addressing local crime Every few months there comes along another study or set of statistics, all coming to the conclusion that crime is on the decline. In fact, the studies indicate that in Canada, crime has been on the wane for the past several years. That includes violent crime and property crime. About the only offence on the rise is possession of marijuana, hardly something that keeps the average citizen up at night, sick with worry. So why is everyone so petrified of being victimized by criminal activity? Maybe it's because of the nature of the crime we're hearing about these days. In the city, disputes among enemies and even perfect strangers are settled with gunfire, or knives. } Here in Scugog, a large segment of the population has been victimized by thieves. Day and night-time break-ins and other thefts are constantly showing up on the police blotter. And a continuing problem in Port Perry's downtown is vandalism - pointless, mindless damage perpetrated by a There was a new event al the Highland Games this year: The Haggis Toss"! C [} witless squad of illiterates, armed with spraypaint cans and MC GREGOR'S : AUTHENTIC bad attitudes. . : : : SCOTTISH Statistics, which may be reassuring to some, are of little CUVSINE comfort to victims. They want the assurance that there will be efforts made to catch the perpetrators of the sorts of property crime so pervasive here, and that action will be taken to prevent it from happening. People want stepped-up police patrols, and rightly so. Vandals and thieves can be deterred if they know the dark places they hide in will be checked regularly by officers. The public can help the cops by providing them the infor- mation they need as they go about their job of crime preven- tion. Everyone has a role to play. Remember When? " | tara 77) AN Qh YorT Perey STAR Port Perry Star Letter of the Week Proposal is unconstitutional To the Editor: this law; if we do, we allow him - I am writing this letter in response to Premier Harris' recently-announced organ har- vesting law. I thought we lived in a demo- cratic society, not a communist dictatorship Premier Harris' mandatory organ donation law is unconsti- tutional, close to cannibalism, and it does an indignity to a human body, it is also barbaric. We are supposed to have the right to choose. We should not be forced to donate our body parts. don't like the fact that people are dying while waiting for an the right to dictate our entire lives. We are a free society. This isn't the old Soviet Union This law tells me that when we know we are about to die it is time to leave the country, and head for the hills and commit suicide where Harris can't rip us apart. Don't get me wrong; | do feel for the hundreds of people that are waiting for an organ trans- plant. But | know if | was waiting for an organ transplant, | would not want to steal an organ from a person who doesn't wish to donate it. I would rather die than do organ to be donated. But a human being had the something like that. right to say whether or not we want to donate our organs. We can't allow Harris and his governing body to implement was » Port Perry, during the late 1800s. Corner of building at the left of picture is the old Port Perry Baptist Church, located at the northeast corner of Queen and Rosa St., and the house is immediately east of the church. The church is now used as an exhibit building at the fairgrounds, but the house is still standing, although it has undergone $e ) SRR 8 SEERA Ne Ne | $ wr 3 RN Fa 3 3 ; This was the residence of Mrs. Chas. Paxton Thomas White, Caesarea 3 ». . » en ¥e ¥ Re LE, © Photo courtesy Scugog Shores Museum Archives