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PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 8, 1982,.WHITBY FREE PRESS whitby Voice of the County Town Published every Wednesda by M.B.M. Publishing g ,and Photography Inc. Phone 668-6111 The Free Press Buildin Michael lan Burgess, Publisher - Managing Editor. The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. t y LESLIE BUTLER Community Editor ELIZABETH NOZDRYN Advertising Manager g, 1:O1 Brockt2et rh>y Ont. Second Class Mail Registration No. 5351 Fate of the retarded is coldly sealed by Drea Sometimes the actions of government are mysterlous, questionable, and inexplicable. But the closing of six institutions for the men- tally retarded by the Ontarlo government Is hypo- critical, polltically expedient, and nothing less than cruel. If the adjectives seem strong, consider the ac- tion. Six medium-sized facilities in Whitby, Aurora, Coburg, Brockville, St. Thomas and Goder!oh will bè phased out over a five-year period. The residents, ranging in age and ability from children to senior citizens, and from helpiess to employable, will be "integrated" into community gràup homes. In Whitby, that means 150fmentally handicap- ped residents of Durham Centre will require "inte- gration", either in Whitby, or wherever a group home can be established. The action is hypocritical because it purports to be in the interest of the retarded, but in fact it takes none of their needs, aspirations or abilities into consideration. Community and Social Services Minister Frank Drea has proposed the entire scheme under the guise of helping the retarded gain acceptance and experience living in the community. But the in-, terests of the retarded are the last thing that will be served in the plan. Drea makes so many unsubstantiated assump-' tions about the ability of the residents to cope in group homes, and the willingness of the commu- nity to accept them, it is quite incredible. Almost as an aside, Drea mentions that those who are unable to lîve in group homes will be returned to larger institutions such as Huronia in Orillia. The factis, that will be the fate of most of these residents. Instead of "Integration", there will be institu- tionalization on a large scale. More than 300 mentally retarded persons are on a waiting list to enter group homes In the Toronto area alone. Many more will never be on a waiting list because they do not yet, or may never, acquire the skills necessary for community life. For these, the verdict is life - in large, imper- sonal Institutions far away from family and frien- ds. The move is politically expedient because it is a qulck, and painless (for all those but the retarded) way of saving the government money. And it does not stop short of being cruel because it takes away the opportunity for a full, rewarding life only 10 short years after it has given it. (Durham.Centre, and all its vocational, social and personal training, is just over 10 years old.) A coalition of parents is organizing a petition to stop this action. They are afraid for their children; many of whom have made great progress in the past 10 years since leaving institutions such as Huronia. They wIil make their splash, Drea will glance briefly over his shoulder, and by 1987 the majorlty of the residents will go sllently to the large Insti- tutions. And the public, if it has noticed at ail, will forget. Even those not connected with the retarded should be outraged by a government that would so blataritly put human rights s9cond to the effi- cient running of a bureaucratic machine. There was a story in the Globe and Mail recently by the Canadian Préss, datelined Montreal, that provided considerable food for thought. The story concerned a 34-year-old woman who is the manager of a jewelry store in suburban Verdun; a woman who shot and killed an arm- ed man Who held her-up. The man had asked to sée some jewels and thenpulled a gun. The lady manager, with the gun pointed straight at her, turned around and got her own gun. When the stick-up artist saw her gun, he fired and missed. She fired and fatally wounded the would-be ban- dit, who died on the way to hospital. Coincidentally, it was the second time in a week that a Montreal woman who objected to being robbed shot the hold2up artist. The one shot previously is recovering What floored me about the story was the last paragraph, which read simply: "Police have not laid charges against either woman." Has our concept of justice changed so much that using a gun in self-defense js automatically assumed to be some sort of crime? Is the police failure to lay charges so unusual as to be newsworthy? I an't say I'm really in favour of shopowners arming themselves. And it's not because i worry about the people who stick them up. It's the safe- ty of the shopowners themselves that concerns me. A pistol in relatively jnexperienced hands can be an invita- tion to danger. There is a good chance, for example, that if the store manager in Verdun had not reached for her, gun, the robber would not have thought of firing his. Two people with guns pointed at each other constitute a situa- tion which is a hundred times more dangerous than one person pointing a gun at a second person. But having said that, the faintest suggestion that charges should be laid against a lady with coürage and skill enough to shoot straight after being fired on approaches the preposterous. You could argue that in slightly different circumstances, such as the two world wars we've recently been remernbering, the lady would have been cited for con- spicuous gallantry. is a man who comes into a store with a gun to take by force what doesn't belong to him any less the enemy than some of the people we've declared war on in living memory? Or have i completely missed the point somehow? That's not rnews but that too is reality. DearSir:1 As a tenant of the White Oaks apart- ment complex, I was angered to read Mr. Joe Drumm's comment "Those people who are parking Illegally should be nailed to a tree". (Wednes- day, Nov. 24,1982) I have lived at White Oaks Court for two years, my husband for three.. Therefore, having been both a tenant' and a visitor, I know f irst hand just how frustrating it can be for visitors to find a parking space. At our building there are only nine visitor parking spaces for 162 apartments. This means, if every per- son on one f loor has just one visitor, there is only one parking space left. The other three buildings are just as bad. Just where do the owners ex- pect our visitors to park? I am not condon- ing illegal parking, but it seems to me if the owners of the apartments provid- ed sufficient park- Ing, no one would have to park illegal- ly or for that matter, at the median. About one month ago my husband was told by some- one who works at the complex, the owners have been trying to put in addi- tional parking, but it takes ages to get permission from the Town Council. Perhaps the ille- gal parkers should be "nalled to a tree", but that same tree should be used to bulild a fire under the Town Council to find a permanent solution to the pro- blem, l.e. provide the necessary ap- provals or ensure necessary parking is provided. Yours truly, Mrs. C. Ward, 200 Wi1te Oaks Ct, Whitby. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR /ärO/Oft/dFEE,PAZ, I dANTO7 OODe V I CA/TAE 7r" ril