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Question of the Week... Do you think the provin- cial govemment is doing enough to ensure safe 5 a Rob Glendenning | think they could do a Paul Ibey Yes, they inherited the Jason Evans Yes. Rob Evans They could do a little better. There seems to Bev Thompson They could do a little bit ; tal rbage from other d qi f thinas t ; drinki ga more, and give people ew more things to 4 ng water for the governments in past be bad water every- proper wamings if their make sure the water's f people of Ontario? years, but | think where, and that water is contaminated. safe. they're doing what's shouldn't be such a i problem for a well- | oss SRany 12 Ee established country like § ours. again. Page Seven THE RIVER SERENDIPITY by Jeff Mitchell "This," | thought to myself as | writer based in Wawa. There's a tiny book of right-wing | ~ came down the hallway, armed with philosophy, giving consideration to everything from gay , two oversized green trash bags, "is rights to capitol punishment, from some kook in B.C. | Critics should lay off the police To the Editor: Regarding last Sunday's with going to Newcastle. The police were out everywhere. accident when three died on Highway 12. The lady launching a complaint against the Durham Regional Police could make better use of her time by support- ing the police, rather than putting them under more pressure. Why did she not take the keys to the pickup? On Wednesday, July 26, | was on business in Pickering, Port Perry and finished up Radar was evident, and flash- ing cruisers were the norm. I honestly feel that the police are a lot more visible than before. Should anyone doubt me, try speeding on Taunton Road or run some red lights on Beaver Street in Newcastle. You'll get pulled over for sure. The cops need your help, not a slap in the face. Philip Dawson, Oshawa Chorus Line has been cancelled To the Editor: Seventh-Star Productions wishes to convey a strong thank you to the cast and crew for all of their time and efforts during this pro- duction period and for the fine talents of director Leigh McClymont. It is with great regret I announce that "A Chorus Line" has been cancelled due to circumstances beyond my control. I would like to wish the best of luck to the cast and crew for future endeavors. Ticket refunds are available by calling 985-8255. Sincerely, Joel A. van Veghel Executive Producer "amusin buried here over the six years I've how it begins." Actually, it began with a simple earch for reference material, which could not be found. That led to great consternation and no small amount of shuffling through heaps ofpapers, file folders, magazines, paperback books, government reports, and all manner of rubbish. The kind that accumulates, ¥'m sure, in editors' offices around the world. We are inundated daily with reams of paper, even in this age of electronic communica- he long and short of it is that in the midst of my ré h oned material, | was , to clean the place up every r | think it needs it, ornot. this moming. It's now 3:30, and | 8 been an interesting, and sometimes very using, exercise in serendipity. For | never did find the file that launched this effort - indeed, | can barely remember what was in it, now - but | have found plenty of otter stuff, | have found photos, photos, and more photos. Baby photos. Car wreck photos. Photos of my family. Photos of other peoples' families, all of them quite unknown to me. But not the photo | was looking for. Or another | lost a few months ago, and was hoping to find. It's not their time to tum up yet, | reckon. | have found numerous books which came to me unso- licited and which | have, for reasons | can no longer fathom, kept. There's a book of poems from a novice There's a disturbingly thin publication from the federal gov- - emment entitled Men and Women in Canada: A statistical glance. (No doubt this pamphlet's insubstantial size is because it is based on the similarities between the sexes, rather than the differences.) ) "1 have unearthed numerous letters that were never printed, because they are unprintable. One is a screed on white supremacy. Another provides the inside dirton a couple of married folks who are stepping out, which would be okay, except they're both married to other people. Yet - another outlines, in the painstaking and densely-packed - handwriting of the insane, a plot by a former mayor, some councillors, and other community leaders to ruin the life of the letter writer. : i ( have found enough slightly-used office supplies to give the Star Office Centre some serious competition, even if | were to set up a card table in the driveway and , hire my kids as sales staff. Paycheque stubs for the past six years. A dozen or so rolls of film that were never developed. Christmas cards from assorted officials | have never met. Dead batteries too numerous to count. Notes | wrote to myself as reminders, then lost. A shoe. (A shoel) : Nine thousand, three hundred and thirty-two discarded ncaps. Despite all the tumult and homeless dust bunnies, | must say the place looks nice. And will be kept that way until the next cleaning. Which is scheduled to occur in August, 2006. Random Jottings by J. Peter Hvidsten THE DEMISE OF THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER It wasn't that long ago in this space - less than a year now - that | lamented the loss of the Bowmanville Canadian Statesman as an independent- ly-owned newspaper. The 140-year-old paper had been published continuously for more than 100 years by three generations of the James family when it was sold to the corporate giant Metroland. The demise of independent newspapers may not mean much to the average person, who gets three or four free papers thrown on his driveway or doorstep each week. In this fast-paced society of ours, readers have so much information thrown at them they seldom spend more than a few minutes scanning through the pages of free papers, picking out items that catch their eye, then throwing them away like a bad piece of meat. For the most part, independently-owned newspapers provide a service that few of the large corporate-owned newspapers can. They are generally owned by people who have made the community their home for years, and are committed to the welfare of the people of that community. But the ravenous appetite of giant media conglomer- ates like Metroland, Quebecor and Bowes Publishing continues to devour small independents across Ontario at a rate that is unhealthy for the industry. This past week, Metroland took control of a small chain known as Citizen's Communications Group. CCG has owned and operated small town weeklies in Uxbridge, Cannington, Beaverton, Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls and Georgina for a number of years. Like the sale of the Bowmanville Statesman last year, the sale of the Uxbridge Times-Journal personally saddened me. My parents owned the Times-Journal for more than 20 years, throughout the 1950s, and into the 1970s. We lived in an apartment above the printing plant, and | remember lying in bed at night, falling to sleep to the rhythmic sounds of the presses below. The large press that was used for printing the paper, actually rocked the building as the flatbed rolled back and forth under its huge rollers. So the fact that the Times-Journal is no longer owned by people who really care about the welfare of the residents of the community troubles me. It also troubles me that this newspaper, The Port Perry Star, is the only remaining independent newspa- per left in Durham Region, and possibly in York Region as well. As the last holdout in the community newspa- per industry in this region, we can liken the task that lies ahead of us to how David must have felt when he ran head on into Goliath. Large corporations across the world are scooping up small businesses at an alarming pace. The whole world as we knew it just a few decades ago no longer exists. Everything we encounter seems to have to be bigger, better and faster. And as much as people say they don't like change, in the time it takes to fill the space in a bucket of water made with your finger, people forget the past, and move on. Like so many things in life, we often don't appreciate what we have... until we no longer have it. Such is the case when small community newspapers are absorbed by large groups. Unfortunately, it's a sign of the times.