PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1984, WHITBY FREE PRESS whitby wy. Voice of the County Town blished every Wednesday Michael lan Burgess, 1 The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby Pu Publisher - Managing Editor y residents for Whitby residents. by M.B.M. Publishing and Photography Inc. Phone 668-6111 The Free Press Building, 131 Brock Street North, P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. PO. ox 06, hity, nt. egiîra ionNo.535 MICHAEL KNELL Community Editor CONWAY DOBBS Advertising Manager Second class Mail Registration No. 5351 LLBO ad policy doesn't fulfill our right to know The stories of government stupidity are simply legion. Almost everybody has their favorite story about the post office delivering a letter or post card one, two or even more years late or have known a particular government department to spend hundreds of dollars for a$2 screwdriver. Well, the Whitby Free Press has yet another of these stories to relate to an ever more suspious public. Recently, Whitby Town Council was asked by the Liquor Licensing Board of Ontario (L.L.B.O.) for input regarding an application for a liquor licence by the Thunderbird Golf and Country Club in Ashburn. There is nothing unusual about this and our town fathers had no objection to the ap- plication. What was a bit bizarre was a letter attached to the L.L.B.O.'s request addressed to the applicant onefCnid' ouundn wsppHaiI 0> .. Â N K E A Ç T L cB L N W I came across a quotation in an Associated Press wire story recently that I haven't been able to get out of my mind. The story concerned Hollywood film direc- tor Blake Edwards, whom I gather has had his ups and downs. Mr. Edwards told his interviewer and I quote: "As Mort Sahl recently told me, survival is the best revenge." I know what he meant. Anyone who works in a volatile, high profile business with a flock of creative egos for colleagues, knows what he meant. Anyone whose work is the subject of public criticism knows .what he meant. If a feature film is knocked by the critics and makes millions of dollars at the box office despite its reviews, I suppose that is revenge of a kind. If a politician is shafted by the media and the voters re-elect him anyway, I suppose there is an element of revenge in his survival. But if survival is the best revenge, as Mort Sahl sug- gests, it is because survival isn't really revenge at ail. It can't be revenge, because survival tends to be solitary. It doesn't involve anyone else. Survival, after ail, is a form of minding your own business, living your own life, no matter what is going on around you. The primary definition of the word "survive" offered by the Shorter Oxford Dictionary is "to continue to live after the death of another, or after the end or cessa- tion of some thing." But the Oxford adds that the ex- pressed or implied meaning is simply "To remain alive; to live on." i walked to work the other morning, six miles, most of it up the Don Valley and through Taylor Creek Park. First of ail, I had survived another night. I had lived to see another spring morning. I had survived another Canadian winter. It was a thin, watery kind of a sun at times that mor- ning, but there was no mistaking its warmth and veil- ed promise of another summer. I remember thinking that ail we need is another couple of days of this, and he leaves will be out. They're very close to it now. The red-winged blackbirds knew it. This is their season in places like the Don Valley. They were calling their hearts out that morning, because they too had survived. The fact that I had' survived another six mile walk is something I don't sneeze at anyrnore at 49. And the fact that I could have walked another six, would rather have walked another six, than come into the office, is simply more assurance that I have remained alive, that I live on. It is a joyous feeling. I do not live on out of spite. And so if survival is, as Mort Sahi suggests, the best revenge, then the best revenge is no revenge at ail. 4>- lf fi .... - ____4. by one of its officiais. In this letter the applicant was informed that an advertisement was to be placed in an Oshawa newspaper informing the public that he was seeking his licence. The pur- pose of the advertisement was to afford the club's neighbours the opportunity to either support or object to the application. While there is nothing wrong with the intent of the advertisement this publication has to wonder why it was ordered to be placed in a newspaper that does not, so far as we know, circulate in Ash- burn. Now before anyone accuses us of crying the blues, it shouId be pointed out that the $25 or so that the advertisement would bring into this or any other newspaper would not make or break us. What we must question is the seriousness with which the L.L.B.O. takes the public's right to sup- port or object to such applications. Unless one of the club's neighbours went to Oshawa and picked up a copy of our competitor's publication the odds are that they would never have found out about it. In fact, this newspaper would not have known about it if we had not read the item in council's agenda. What the L.L.B.O. has done through this over- sight is effectively deny the people of Ashburn the right to voice their opinions and concerns, if they indeed have any, about this application. When this newspaper contacted, the L.L.B.O. and asked why the advertisement was not placed in a publication having general circulation in the hamlet of Ashburn (as we do) we were told that the L.L.B.O. does not place advertisements in 'free' publications. We then pointed-out to that officiai that we are 'free' in the same way that this par- ticular esteemed competitor is 'free'. We are both on a voluntary subscription system. To the best of our knowledge, there are no ob- jections to Thunderbird's application and we know that we have none. But it stili annoys us that the opportunity to object was hidden and that no one in Ashburn was effectively told of their rights. Another thing about the L.L.B.O.'s letter that annoyed us was that the hearing on the ap- plication (as usual) was to be held in the Peter- borough County Court House. Surely there are enough of these applications from Durham Region County Court House on Rossland Ad. Holding the hearings in Durham Region would make our rights'to support or object to these ap- plications more meaningful. After ail, a return trip to Peterborough to participate in a hearing could be a long process and by having them closer to home at least the process would be more bearable. The advertisement itself is not an issue. What is at issue is a government agency's attitute towards fulfilling its obligations to the citizenry which it ls supposed to serve. Government should be more responsive to the concerns of the citizens whom it is supposed to serve. We have the right to know and the right to the opportunity to make our concerns known to government. Government also has the obligation to afford us every opportunity to do precisely that. Decis ions, decisions.... '~ 4 ýW4 14 qi t 1 7. 1 v mmý