PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5,1983, WHITBY FREE PRESS whitby Volce of the County Town The only Whitby newspaper independently owr illshed every Wednesday Michael lan Burgess, Publisher . Managing Editor na nd n pr--•. df --u W i -- -9- -- i-2-- rM'1I miuA .IIII. --. - u'q"ateu 13 VViILUy 'iesiuents for Wflitby residents. by M.B.M. Publishing and Photography Inc. Phone 668-61i l The Free Press Building, 131 Brock Street North, P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. P.O. Box 206, Whltby, Ont. Registration No. 5351 LESLIE BUTLER Community Editor ELIZABETH NOZDRYN AdvertIsIng Manager Second Class Mail Registration No. 5351 Keeppolitics out of schools, church out ofpolitics The Durham separate school board recently ap- proved the trial use of Right to Life Stamps on school correspondence, and as "decorations" on windows, books, furniture and clothing. The stamps, issued by the Right to Life organi- zation, have two printed messages. The first says "the seeds of life - children, abortion kills". The second says simply, "avoid abortion". - The stamps, purchased at a cost of $100 to the board on the recommendation of the progr- amming committee, will be issued to principals in separate schools to-use as they see fit. Right to Life calls itself a "pro life" organiza- tion, and Is essentially an anti-abortion political lobby group. The aim of the group is to have abor- tion outlawed in Canada. We assume the approval of the stamps for use in Roman Catholic schools was given by the board on the basis that the schools should espouse the Catholic church's view on abortion - that it is Im- moral and amounts to infanticide. It is hardly surprising, and scarcely noteworthy, that the board landed on the Right to Life side of the fence in the abortion Issue. What is surprising, is that the board has decided to jump into the middle of what is essentially a political debate, i.e. should abortion be legal. The Roman Catholic church has always voiced its strong view on the morality (or immorality) of abortion, but this is the first time the school board has used its powerful position for political ends. In the past, the schools and the church have kept to the task of educating Roman Catholic children on the evils of abortion. But stamps go beyond Roman Catholic classrooms and Sunday schools. They are a public statement designed to sway public opinion against abortion. Surely it is a giant step backwards to again try to fight political issues on religlous grounds. (Perhaps to the Middle Ages?) If the Roman Catholic Separate School Board wishes to fight this political issue, may we suggest they join a poiltical party like other political animais? By allying itself so closely with a political lobby group (Right to Life), the board has left the spiritual/moral/religious sphere and entered the political arena. There may be nothing wrong with this (although the Pope himself has repeatedly stressed separation of church and state), but let's call a spade a spade. We wonder if the next step will be to print anti- homosexual stamps, anti-contraception stamps, or...pro-rhythm method stamps? We also wonder if it wouidn't be prudent for the public schools, or another body, to print stamps which say, "Politics has no place in the class- room". If the Roman Catholic schools and church wish to Indoctrinate young minds into the belief that there is no choice on the abortion issue, we strongly suggest they keep their message in reli- glous education classes. The rest of us, who will have to see these stamps pasted on books, win- dows, furniture and children's clothing, aren't in- terested in the board's political views. LETTERS Attention Ebenezer Scrooge: This letter is for the person who decided to report two streets in Whit- by for parking their cars more than three hours (we ail got tickets), Why our streets? And why only half of those streets? One street Is a dead end. So Mr. Scrooge, what did you have against us this Christmas Eve? Mary Kristmus, Ted Farrow, 909 Annes St., Whitby. The Free P-res-welcomes letters to the editor 131 Brock St. N., Whitby There doesn't seem to be any adequate way to report oi the unemployment problem. Even the use of the word "problem" to describe it must seem cold, unfeeling and a touch smug to the people who are part of it. Unemploy- ment møy be a "problem" in statistical terms, but in human terms, it's a disaster and an outrage of almost unbearable proportions. No one was prepared for the con- sequences of having a million and a half Canadians without jobs. Not governments, and·not individuals. The chronically unemployed a hid core which has existed for a long time now) have been joined by people for whom employment has never been a problem. People who do i not fit the stereotype clung to by many of those still work- ing. People who don't fit the profiles expected by bureaucracy. For one thing, senior people, executives, if ydu like, have been added to the unemployment Unes in significant numbers&for the f irst time. There is no nachinery, no philosophy to handle them. i had a visitor at home recently - a talented, hard-working executive who's been out of work for over six months now. In that time, my visitor has made 92 contacts for jobs - some little more than a letter followed by a phone call; others, long exhausting rigamaroles invoiving tests and interviews and surviving almost to the end while a prospective employer weeded out as many as 200 applicants for the same position. It doesn't matter how tough you are. Something happens to the human spirit when you draw that many blanks. You begin comparing yourself with others, and wondering why they're working and you are not. And if you do that often enough, you run the risk of becoming paranoid or worse than that. My visitor wants to take a real estate course, in the hope that the market will pick up and that eventually in that field there would be a reward for hard work and enterprise. But you can't draw unemployment insurance and take a course full time. And retraining grants are not available for some- one who wants to learn real estate. My visitor is used to dead ends and blank walls by now. But this one was unexpected, and recalling it, my visitor cried. It makes you vvant to tell those clowns in Ottawa to forget about spies and polls and their ridiculous party politics and get on with theunemployment tragedy. But talk is cheap, for them dnd for me. We have jobs. That's not news but that too is reality.