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"Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, December 12, 2000 - 7 Question of the Week... Do you think the federal government should do more to help subsidize the country's farmers? Lori Beatty Yes, the government is subsidizing every-.- one else, why not the farmers too? Sheila Tarreld Yes. We need the such an inequity on food and they're not the world market on making enough subsidies. It varies mone | enormously and we y Peter Walker Of course. There's Richard Bowles They should do as much as other coun- tries do and have the same support as in the U.S. and Europe. Marilynn Lacourse Of course, because they need the help. We rely on the farm- ers and they need Make it a level playing the support. field. need to make them the same. Letter to the Editor "Seniors dinner was just grand To the Editor: Last week my husband and I, along with other seniors and various groups of invited guests, attended abeautiful Christmas dinner sponsored by the Rotary Club. What a kind and caring gesture. I understand it was the combined effort of many volunteers. The catering was superb, the hosts and waitresses friendly and effi- cient and tables decorated in a festive manner. Young people in the Salvation Army Band played loved Christmas carols before dinner and the Greenbank United Church "Puppeteers" portrayed the Christmas message in their unique, fun-loving style. All taking part were talented young folk. On behalf of all who enjoyed this special treat, | wish to express our appre- ciation. Eva Hunter, Port Perry Thanks to caring firefighter To the Editor: Once again Port Perry firemen have proven that they never miss an oppor- tunity to help the com- munity. When we were wonder- ing how to get home after our car broke down on Crandell Street, we went to the fire hall to make a phone call, unable to get through to our party, a fireman named "Jamie" offered to drive us home which we readily accept- ed. Your act of kindness was very much appreciat- ed, thank you again "Jamie" from two grateful people. L&C Mallory, Port Perry Some notes from the news busi- ness: It's interesting to watch the righteous indignation of Ontario's Liberals - and who, save for the NDP, does righteous indignation better? - who all have their nickers in a knot over an attack launched by the Tories on their leader, and posted on the Ministry of Community and Social Services website. They have a point when they say the message - an attack against Liperal Leader Dalton McGuinty - was a partisan use of what's essentially a public resource. But they've missed the scope of the practice. That particular message was also sent out to this newspaper via fax and, one assumes, to all the other newspapers in the province. And Tory MPPs routinely issue so- called press releases, on their constituency letterhead, slagging their opponents. To all the newspapers in the province. In fact, here's one now: A certain Brenda Elliott, MPP for Guelph-Wellington, says Dalton McGuinty is making light of the need to test welfare recipients for drug use with his farcical request that all MPPs submit to similar testing. Sent to all the newspapers in Ontario. Now Brenda Elliott can return to the backbenches, there to dwell in quiet anonymity, until'it's her turn to issue another poison-pen release. The Liberals are right about this use of time, supplies and fax lines for such useless propaganda. It's a waste of time and money, and | doubt there's a Page Seven SOME NEWS NOTES by Jeff Mitchell single editor out there who makes use of this garbage. You learn pretty quickly in this business that although we try our best to be communicators, some- times our message doesn't come across in the way we want it to. Such was the case last week, with the picture we published on the front page on the Weekend Star. It depicted a little girl, grimacing and red-faced as she received her flu shot. Our message was: Saturday there's a flu shot clinic in Port Perry, so go and get one, and here's a picture from the one in Uxbridge, and don't kids tend to over-react, ha-ha. Well. Tell that to the folks at the Durham Region Health Department, who were on the phone just after the ink dried to say thanks for supporting the initiative, but please, in future, don't run colour pictures of people who look like they' re in agony. Seems people saw the picture and began phoning the region to ask just how painful these needles are, anyway. "Right intention, wrong message. Everybody has opinions. Some folks have very strong opinions. Some folks have very strong opinions that they'd like to share with the community, by way of a letter to the editor in the newspaper. Great, we say. We encourage letters, even from the folks who phone to tear into us for one thing or another. But here's the deal: If you don't sign' em, we don't run 'em. I've discarded a few good letters because they weren't signed. So remember, we're happy to help you broadcast your opinion, but you've got to stand behind what you say. Anonymous opinions amount to grafitti. Random Jottings by J. Peter Hvidsten SOME VALID POINTS A very harsh letter regarding the recent Santa Claus parade was published in last week's issue of The Star, and although | hate to see volunteers criticized, the writ- er of this letter did make some very valid points. In his letter, Keith Allen suggested that the event should be for the benefit and enjoyment of the chil- dren and families, not a time for local businesses to advertise their services. He also pointed out that vehicles decorated with little more than holly dan- gling from their rear-view mirror are a feeble conces- sion to Christmas. . | doubt anyone would disagree with either of these statements, and I'm sure there were many people who lined the street, disappointed with the lack of effort by many participants to create a float with a Christmas theme worthy of their participation. There's a lot that needs to be done before next year's parade rolls around, and there's lots of time to address the issue and problems of this year. Not so many years ago, commercial floats were not allowed in the parade. That is to say, local busi- nesses were encouraged to enter floats in the parade, but they had to be decorated in a Christmas theme, and were only allowed a small sign stating the float's sponsor, at the rear of the float. Possibly a reinstatement of that policy would go a long way to avoiding the self-serving entrants in this year's parade. Mr. Allen's mention of the meagre evidence of candy being handed out is another problem. For many years now, the Chamber of Commerce has discouraged the throwing of candy from floats as a safety precaution, because little tykes rush out in the road to pick them up from the street. While | like the idea of goodies being handed out to the kids, safety is the main concern, and for this reason it has been discouraged. There are probably ways around this, but that's up to the directors to decide how it can be done effectively and safely. It takes a lot of work to mount the Santa Claus parade each year, and we would not want to see negative reaction discourage the Chamber from con- tinuing this most popular event. But sometimes it takes the eyes of someone not as closely connected to the event to point out areas which could be improved. We hope the directors of the Chamber of Commerce accept the comments as "constructive criticism", no matter how harsh they seemed. LIGHTING UP CHRISTMAS A trip through downtown Port Perry at night is a breathtaking event the past couple of weeks. The BIA and individual merchants, with the co-operation of Scugog Hydro, have transformed Queen St. into a Christmas wonderland. Not only are the stores lit up with lights and deco- rated windows, but this year, most of the buildings in the downtown core have been outlined with strings of sparkling white lights. Congratulations to one and all for this amazing transformation of our downtown.