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6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday November 12, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: NEIL OLIVER Vice ­ President and Group Publisher of Metroland West The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER President Media Group Ltd. 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 MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager Take message to heart It's an all too familiar refrain. Drinking plus driving equals tragedy and jail time -- that is, assuming you live. Oakville resident Amy Tiberia knows first-hand the toll impaired driving can have on innocent bystanders. In late 1994, a drunk driver caused an accident that has left deep wounds -- both physical and psychological -- on her Oakville family. Amy's son Raymond, threeand-a-half years old at the time of the crash, sustained a severe brain injury. He was in a coma for 16 days. He had to fight for his life and then relearn all that he knew. Today, the teen still has memory trouble and can't retain much information. The driver of the other car served six years in prison before being paroled. For the Tiberia family, there is no parole from their lifelong sentence of heartache. "From the second it happened almost 14 years ago, the choice one person made to drink and drive forever altered the path of our lives," said Raymond's mom. It was appropriate that Amy and Raymond, last week, kicked off this year's Mother's Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Halton's Red Ribbon campaign in an effort to drive home the real damage impaired drivers inflict. Sadly, the message isn't getting through. There have already been more than 200 drinking and driving related charges and four related deaths in Halton this year. In all of last year there were fewer than 200 alcohol-related charges, but eight deaths. As the holiday season approaches, the Tiberias are hopeful that Halton motorists will tie on a red ribbon to remind everyone that drinking and driving ruins the lives of everyone involved. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR My wife, Rose, and I drove to Chicago on Tuesday, Nov. 4 to first hand witness the change that is transpiring in the United States. We decided that we wanted to witness history in the making instead of watching it on CNN just like millions of other people who are involved or interested in the political process. It was one of the most interesting journeys I have ever made in life. Throughout our eight-hour drive to It was worth the drive to Chicago to witness historic moment Chicago, I was so excited and emotional and kept thinking if anything like this has ever happened in Canada or could happen in Canada. We made it to Chicago in the late afternoon and after checking in at a hotel, we started our walk to Grant Park where the Obama rally was supposed to take place. There were hundreds of others also doing the same -- young, middle age, older, white, African American, Hispanics, Asians and on and on. We stood in line for over two hours to get in and we chatted with our immediate neighbours. We were in the rally area of the park by 7:30 p.m. From that time to the moment Barack Obama was declared elected as President of the United States at about 11 p.m., we stood on the ground -- listening to the crowd, watching CNN on a Jumbotron, talking to our neighbours, observing the American way and flag waving. As soon as CNN declared Obama the President-elect, the crowd roared like I have never witnessed before. The atmosphere was full of excitement and from that moment on they were waiting for only one man to come and talk to them directly. We were sandwiched among hundreds of thousands of people -- CNN estimates 250,000 people, to us it felt like over a million. The atmosphere was electrifying. We were surrounded immediately by four young white people from NorthWestern University, an older African American couple, an older African American man See Election page 7 This week's poll Pud The Oakville Beaver has a polling feature on its website oakvillebeaver.com. A new poll will be posted every Wednesday with the results of the poll published in the folBY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com lowing Wednesday edition of The Oakville Beaver. This week's question is: Do you support the proposal before the town's budget committee to cut the Oakville Arts Council's operating grant and funding for cultural grants? · Yes · No To vote, visit oakvillebeaver.com Last week's poll: Do you support Oakville Transit's 25cent fare increase on Jan. 1 to $3 for an adult cash fare? · Yes 12.12% · No 87.88% 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.