The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Of dust and garbage s the dust has fallen over the last round of the garbage dispute, we Can s9w examine the events in a less emotional light. lt is very difficult to appropriate praise or condemnation with a story like waste management. It's so complex, there are too many veriables at work to cloud the achievments and failures of the cast of characters involved. Today's NSWMA and today s provincial government are largely working with the legacy of their predecessors. There seems to be no good reason for this last minute rush to build a transfer station. Three years of squabbling between the NSWMaA, Tiny Towrship and the Ministry of Environment have forced us to make large decisions quickly. But were the negotiations in Toronto of a week-and-a-half ago successful? Certainly not completely. Perhaps not very much. But what has to impress us all is the initiative which the NSWMA showed in at least trying to get something done. The Reeve of Tay Township should be singled out as the guy who got the ball rolling and for daing something which was inspiring to behold: raising = little bit of kell At the verv least, the NSWMA cemanded personal consultation wi: tke people within the Ministry of the Environment who make the decision insiead of accepting second or third-hand information. Bit the people of Huronia are heavily taxed as it is. Hauling gar- bage te Torento is not going to ease that burden. Let's hope it doesn'! take any longer than three years to find another garbage dump around here. Ban tobacco advertising Dear Editor: The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) believes the health of Canadians would be im- proved by speedy passage by Parliament of Bill C-51, the Tobacco Products Control Act. The Bill, introduced last spring by Jake Epp, Minister of National Health and Welfare, would eliminate advertising of tobacco pro- ducts and introduce other measures to reduce smoking. There is no doubt in the minds of physi- cians that smoking, which is responsible for more than 35,000 deaths every year, is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Canada. The CMA, which sup- ports efforts to eradicate this killer, has ask- ed Canada's 56,000 physicians to contact their MPs to voice their support for Bill C-51 as citizens and as health care professionals. While I believe it is the responsibility of the medical profession to show leadership on this important health issue, I think every Cana- dian should express their opinion on Bill C-51 to their elected representatives. I urge readers to join the doctors of Canada and make their views on prohibiting tobacco advertising known to their MP and this newspaper. In- formation on who your MP is, the correct ad- dress and telephone number is available by calling the toll-free number 1-800-267-3800. Yours truly Dr. Athol L. Rokerts President, Canadian Medical 4ssociation Council statements like information from Pluto Dear Editor: I am somewhat confused about the statements by Tiny Deputy Reeve Peter Brasher when he is quoted in your article about gu.bage last week as saying extreme care must be taken that no spill occurs at the temporary garbage site and that the Pauze site should have been used for a longer period of time. If my memory is correct, the opposite at- titude by our Tiny council prevailed last spring, when a proposal by the NSWMA and various ratepayer and protest groups agreed in principle to ask the Ministry of the En- vironment to consider keeping the existing Pauze site open, it if could be proven safe, for one or two more years. At that time council informed the public it could not agree with the plan since further use for one or two years would aggravate the plume movement and that the plume was detected by the township's consultants as moving faster towards the waterfront than anticipated. : How come Peter Brasher now thinks it is a good idea to reactivate the Pauze site? Would not a spill be just as polluting if it oc- curred in Perkinsfield as the temporary site on Golf Links Road? Does our council really know what they want or remember what they said in the re- cent past? It has only been six months since their announcement. Obviously they must be getting new information sent from another planet. Pluto, perhaps? One more thing. How come if a sand base is not acceptable at the Golf Links Road site, as Mr. Brasher insists, why is a sand base good enough at Perkinsfield for the council's proposal for an engineered site? Yours truly Gary Posey County Road 6 Perkinsfield, Ontario Didn't suggest picketing Leitz, says MSS teacher Dear Editor: As a teacher of English I try to impress upon my students the need to quote accurate- ly and to keep those quotations in context. It would seem someone needs to impress these necessities upon your reporting staff as well. In its Wednesday Nov. 4 edition, under the headline "Midland peace group forms," your newspaper quotes me inaccurately and removes that quotation from its context, en- tirely reversing the spirit and intent of what I originally said. "Go down and picket at Leitz for days on end," - he. suggested. '""They're producing (military-related) equipment. You have a lot J: Energy .O Channel in uvzens OF Uirections. ' What I, in fact. raeant was they had limited energy and resources, and should narrow iheir fccus to the nuclear arms rec2; i. they tre tc Jemilifarize the world they would dissipate their strength by going in too many directions; they could, if they wished, spend days picketing Litton Industries in Toronto or Leitz here in Midland (both of which pro- duce military equipment), but such actions would dilute any effect the group had on the much more serious proliferation of nuclear weapons. I am highly disappointed and extremely angry at this misrepresentation. And I'm sure the people at Leitz feel chagrined at being lumped in with the producers of nuclear weaponry, of which group they are not members. We need and want publicity, but if even the smailest pari of this exposure is based on such inaccuracy, then we'll happily do without any coverage. Roger Bell Staff edvisor to FND ed) ii a It is always difficult to get ten historians to agree on specific historical contentions. History is often a commodity which is open to the highest bidder: present the most coherent case and you own the rights for explanation. But historians can generally agree on generalities. The American Civil War did happen between 1861-1865. There was such a thing as an Inquisition. The large events are seen by all; the intracacies of detail may be subject to argument. But what happens when historical facts are determined on the basis of their political use? What happens when there are two political versions of history? Well, when this happens, history serves the interests of a ruling caste and political regime. -Penetanguishene Citizen Published by Bayweb Limited every Tuesday at 74 Main Street, Penetanquishene, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 2327 Year subscription rate $39.00 Page 6, Wednesday, November 11, 195/ In other words, I see what I want to see in history. If certain events conflict with my political ideology then these events simply didn't happen. History becomes subordinate to ideology. This is precisely how Marxists think. Never were whining ideologues ever more convinc- ed that history was unfolding just for their discerning eyes. There's been a lot of discussion over one Marxist's supposedly startling reinterpreta- tion of his nation's history. I'm talking of Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev's speech last week in which he publically revealed Joseph Stalin's excesses. Here we had an honest appraisal of the past, people said. Well, in the first place, I find it incredible 549-2012 Publisher: Andrew Markle Manager: Judy French Managing Editor: Tim Kraan Editor: David Krayden Reporter: Murray Moore Sports: Arnold Burgher to call Gorbachev's speech heroic or courageous. The crimes he accused Stalin of were committed some 50 years ago. If a Ger- man leader were to announce for the first time this week that Adolf Hitler had been guilty of a few political excesses and wasn't quite the nice man we all thought, I don't think anyone would be very impressed. A paranoid psycopath who used the power of the state to crush millions of individuals has finally earned some bad press! If Stalin is not seen as a criminal of Hitler's calibre, it is only because Uncle Joe won the war. Troops did not occupy the Kremlin and find all the documentation of horror that fill- ed the file cabinets in Berlin. And I must make this clear. I see Gor- bachev's speech not as a dramatic movement Letters. Stalin: the lonely psychopath away from the traditional Soviet use of history but as a continuation. Why? Because Gorbachev is once more appropriating history to justify the political plans of the present. We can criticise Stalin now because Gor- bachev's political agenda requires that criticism. Make no mistake, Gorbachev is still a good Marxist, just a more pragmatic one. If it is now time to see history a little more clearly - and Gorbachev is still not admitting to the full terror of Stalin's reign - in order to keep the present blurry, then so be it. Stalin is in the grave. The socialist state has outlived him. Now that state can finish anything Stalin lacked the time to do. #CNA Member The Penetanguishene Citizen welcomes Letters to the Editor. They must be legible. signed (by hand), and carry the writer's address and telephone number for verification. Pen names are not allow- ed and anonymous letters will not be published. Letters published by this newspaper do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this newspaper, its publisher or editor.