Whltby Free Press, We dnesday, Nove mber 6, 199è , Page 7 I -,Um This,, we are told, is the information age. Newspapers such as the one now in your hands provide untold riches on information about the community in which you live. That is, if you happen to live in Whitby, or nearby. Huge metropolitan newspapers, some with national pretensions, can be plunked on your' doorstep every morning. Counting only daly newspapers, coming out of Toronto, one could, if one chose, have several hours more reading a day than time in which to do it. Radio and tellevision both pour fbrth hours of programming daily. Our problem now becomes not aoeessing these programs, but selecting. In sorne cases, our energies must go into avoiding the watchfuj,single eye of television. MTy to go a day now without seeing the mbank commercial. You know the one,-with the marching children and The ïmes They Are A Changin. Those complaining about the commercialization of Bob Dylan haven't listened to the words, didn't realize what Bob Dylan was writing about. Hey, hey, the times they did* a change. Dylan sold the rights for cash a long time ago. You think he wrote for fun? But life goes on. In our spare bedroom, we have displayed on an ooeasional table a small book with tattered pages. The book was published in 1872. The stories in it are terrible: badfly written, with huge morality lessons garnishing each one, like spilled pepper. The book belongs to me because it once belonged to my great-grandmother Using it, and some help from her own children, Elizabeth McMeekin learned to read. She was in her early thirties at the time. The family story tells how, having once learned to read, she would devour books by coal oil lampa. The strain finally robbed her of her sight in her seventies. (We now know that her lose of sight was due to a genetic disorder, shared by at least thiree of her children and one grandchild, my mother.) But as Preston Manning would say in trying to explain his wish te increase expenditures in health and education, I digress. My great-grandmother would hardly comprehend the swirling blizzards of information in which we now live. Our problem lies flot in access, but in selection. Superelectronic tools, such as the Internet, speed transmission of ideas, filth and junk Next Friday go te, your neighbourhood video store and'watch people wander in stunned stupefaction. A few select souls will prepare a "seek7 list, and rent movies only from that list. Most will simply look at the list of latest releases, and what is being proioted, and hope it's stili Mi s tock. Many of us are so overwhelmed by the volume that we continually make bad choices.. What do we do with ail this information? Well, take a look at the turnout in yesterday's U.S. election. Experts were, predicting that fewer than haif of eligible voters would do so. Just as an aside: one study found that in the U.S., the single moat popular source of political information for votera in their twenties is - ta-da! -- late night TV comedians. Is it a wonder many think politics is ajoke? The only answer te ail of this lies in that bony protuberance just above our shouldera and between our ears. It would do us no good te jump back 120 years, even if we had the Slider8 technology. Messages are messages, whether they are for banksaa changin' or the need te live good, dlean Christian lives and starch aprons every Monday. We have a imuch mre ifcints oa ha yget Df Amatter of selection DEDICAITON OF HONOUR ROTLAT AISLI&NS'CHRo4NOVENUM 191947 Lo--ft to right are:- Rev. Carl Swan, Ajax Division, Uni-versity off Toronto; Matthew Kerr Honour Roî l Charman; Thomnas Rlichardson, People. Warden; Rev. A. Gordon Channen, Rectoi and Rt. %ev- A.R. Beverleyp, Anglican Bishop of Toronto. The honour roll listed ail members a, the church who served in World War II. WhltbY Archives phott 10 YEARS AGO from the Wedxieeday, November 5, 1986 edition of the WHrITBY FREE PREss *Wheelchair athiete Rick Hansen's "Man in Motion"f tour came through Whitby last weeli to raise funds for spinal cord research. * Durham Centre NDp rldlng association wants Whltby Councillor Tom Edwards te be its candidate in the next Provincial election. " Town Council bas rejected a proposaI for il aduit crossing guardsà for Whit by's separate schools. " Whitby resident Susan Bissell will work for the United Nations International Obhlîdren'. Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in New York City. 85 YEARS AGO from the ThursdaYp November 2, 1961 edition of the WIBYWEEKLYNEWS * The Town ofWhitbys ta'Ying to get a servie road from HopkIns StreetorhfHgwa 401 complote& ot f Eha *Oral French is being taught in Whitby's public achools*. * Mêl Ron Constructon ia building a warehouse for the Public Utiities Commission af Mary and Hickory streets. *Ron Armtroýng's Men's Wear la selling men's suits for $69.50 te $85.00. 100 YEARS AGO from the Friday, November 6, 1896 edition of the WfflTY CUONCLE " Halloween pranksters placed an outhouse at the corner of Brock and Dundas- streets and changed the signa on several local stores. 0 Ail Saints' Anglican Church la celebrating its 3Oth annvrareçngaertnsv repairs. vm .ro nn feexnse " St. Andrew's Day will be olebrated by the SCOts of Whitby. with a concert ln the Music Hall on Nov. 30. * No blame bas been plaoed for Levi -Bailey's death by poisoning. The exact> cause remana a mystery. 1