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6- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday March 8, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate.The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Commentary NEIL OLIVER Publisher DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager Metroland Media Group Ltd. includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Caledon Enterprise, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News, City Parent, Collingwood/Wasaga Connection, East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Review, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvil ebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver is a division of Letter to the editor North Park is Smart Growth Smart Growth means planning for and putting our resources to the best use and in the best place possible. The North Park Sports Facility answers this call. The reasons are many: No. 1: Putting all of the soccer fields in one area is the best use of the land itself. Having a lot of smaller parks (with a parking lot attached to each) scattered through the new area of town is a poor use of land. As far as having the parks close to 16 Mile Creek, there is a no-pesticide law in effect since Jan. 1, so there will be no weed killer used on any of the fields. Along with many others, I worked hard to get this pesticide bill passed. No. 2: Maintaining the parks will be more economical and more environmentally friendly. Town crews will not have to truck and trailer their equipment and heavy lawnmowers all over town to do the small parks. This is a tremendous savings in gasoline and manpower. No. 3: Police resources will be used more efficiently as well. The problem with the small parks is that policing them, especially after dark, is a major problem. Again, along with hundreds of other concerned people, I urged council to keep our north Oakville walkways open to the public when council had decided to close them due to nighttime security issues. Coexisting with that issue was exactly what our teens in North Oakville have to do for activities when they are not at school. The new sports park seems to be an ideal answer to provide outdoor activity for the kids in north Oakville. My understanding is that there will be a skateboard park, a sprinkler pad, a dog-leash-free area and hockey rinks; in other words when a family takes their ten year old to soccer, there are alternative things for the rest of the family to do should they not want to watch the game or decide to stay longer or arrive earlier. The little tykes can go the sprinkler pad; the older ones can to go to the skate park. Any person who believes they can walk their child to their weekly soccer game has not raised any kids in Oakville. Having raised three kids of our own, each involved with soccer from Kindergarten to Grade 12, our family, like most, is very familiar with every single soccer park in Oakville. You have to drive your kids to a different field each week ­ usually a small field where there is little or no parking and your car is a hassle to the homeowners who live on those streets. The greater issue here is two-fold: Providing healthy physical activities for our kids as well as adults while reducing our dependency on the automobile. First, probably our biggest health problem: obesity in young children, teens and adults. A great way to keep our kids healthy is to get them back into unstructured outdoor play: instead of playing computer games and television, to get them back outside walking, hiking, biking, and flying kites or Frisbee, pick-up softball, kickball or hockey. Not sitting around watching TV until someone whisks them off to a one-hour soccer game in the family car. Small parks in each neighbourhood would help achieve this but only if someone has the guts to say: "Turn off the TV". My understanding of the proposed new developments is that each neighborhood has already planned small adjacent parks, walkways and storm management ponds. The second issue: How to reduce our dependency on automobiles. To this issue, the town south of Dundas has already been built. We cannot go in now and straighten streets and make them more transit friendly. We can however use more, smaller buses to get people from place to place. The issue of more, smaller buses has been called out for time and time again. The new park will be easier to keep well lit and easy to monitor, day and night. It is the wisest use of our natural resources, our maintenance resources and our policing resources. The new park is Smart Growth. BERNIE GERMAN IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora EraBanner, Northumberland News, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News, Oldtimers Hockey News, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune, Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week, Picton County Guide, Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror, Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Young, City of York Guardian RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION Women rule, men drool, and everyone sings Kumbaya E ver wonder what the world would be like if women ruled? Well, stick around because many experts believe that with or without Hillary Rodham Clinton in the White House, it's going to happen. And it's going to happen sooner rather than later. Professor Steve Jones, a geneticist at University College in London is "fairly confident that in the West, the 21st century will be the century of women." With women outperforming men academically, socially and technologically. With women kicking butt and ruling. Former Bill Clinton White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers gazed into her crystal ball, envisioned a future wherein women rule and liked what she saw so much, she wrote a book -- part memoir, part social commentary, part cautionary political tale -- entitled Why Women Should Rule The World. According to Myers, if women ruled the world everything would change for the better. Politics would be more collegial. Businesses more productive. Communities would be healthier. "If we were in charge, things might actually change. Instead of posturing, we'd have co-operation. Instead of gridlock we'd have progress. Instead of a shouting match, we'd have a conver- sation. A very long conversation. But a conversation nonetheless. Everyone would just hold hands and sing Kumbaya." Okay, I think she's kidding about Kumbaya. And I think she can be forgiven for falling face first into stereotypes, such as: women talk more than men (not more than some of the gabby guys I know); Andy Juniper women are more civil (not some of the rambunctious women I've encountered). But she makes the point -- and it's a tough one to argue -- that men from the socalled white boys' club have been in charge for a heckuva long time, and their track record is underwhelming. Personally, I would love to see women taking the reins. As a man who has been surrounded throughout life by strong, independent women ­ from my own mother, to my wife, to my 12year-old daughter (who could rule the world single-handedly if it didn't cut too much into her Facebook time) -- I say (in my best Oprah voice), you go, girl! That said, you'll have to excuse me if I wear a little spilled skepticism on my sleeve. What would the world be like if women ruled? Sadly, I don't think it would be that different. I know there are some people who believe that women have actually been running the world since the beginning of time: the theory being that countries are really just big families and -- despite the patriarch who is the face of the family, the man who thinks he runs the family -- it's really the women in the tribe who rule. I once read a study that concluded that most ugly, long-running family feuds -- you know the type that last so long no one can remember how the feud even started -- are initiated and perpetuated by the women in the clan. No, dear readers, not all women are Kumbaya-carolling saints. In the sisterhood there are good seeds and bad seeds, just as there are in the brotherhood. Seriously, I think if we want to see real change in the world, if we are determined to make our tiny planet a better place, we don't need women ruling, or men ruling, so much as we need kind and compassionate people ruling. Ah, Kumbaya. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajuniper@strangledeggs.com.