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PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1984, WHITBY FREE PRESS, whitby Voice of the County Town Michael lan Burgess, Publisher - Managing Edito The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. Pub r blished every Wednesday 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. MICHAEL KNELL Community Editor CONWAY DOBBS Advertising Manager Second Class Mail Registration No. 5351 Community awareness will prevent crime It seems that for the last few weeks Whitby has been suffering from a crime wave. Literally scores of homes have been broken into, the privacy of our citizens has been violated, personal property has been stolen or destroyed and the feelings left behind often include anger and frustration. While the professionals who serve on the Durham Regionai Police Force have been doing an outstanding Job in apprehending the suspected perpetrators we must consider the fact that they should not have had to make the arrests in the fir- st place. Those most recently charged wlth the offences have been young men who have not even reached the legal age of adulthood and while the court has The Globe and Mail has been carrying a series on the growing water shortage in the United States and pro- bability that Washington will turn to Canada for relief, This situation has been in the making for a long time now, and it should not come as a surprise to anyone. The heart of the problem is a vast underground pool of water in the central United States known as the Ogallala Aquifer, on which a vast American agricultural area depends for irrigation. Its reserves were once con- sidered boundless, but they are being used up at an alarming rate. When the aquifer is finally dry, a major chunk of the American heartland will face dust bowl conditions and a social upheaval which cannot be con- templated. And so, for a long time now, knowledgeable Americans have been eyeing Canada and thinking of water diversion on a scale that is gigantic. The general Canadian view is that such diversions would be a tragedy; that it would be tantamount to ex- porting our environment. But I don't think we can ex- amine this question purely in nationalistic terms. This is no time to jump up and down in the schoolyard shrieking "It's mine, it's mine." Like it-or not, our fate and that of the Americans are hopelessly entwined. It isn't just our economies. It is the fact that no two cultures are closer, and that we are unavoidably neighbors and traditionally allies. i am not suggesting that we assume our usual wimp posture with the United States and sell off major chunks of our birthright for a few strings of wampum. l'm sayings that we should begin by agreeing, in prin- ciple, to giving what water we can spare to a friend and neighbor. You can't avoid the fact that if they get into trouble, we'll be in trouble as well. But i think that our negotations with them should be tough and hard- nosed iri a way that they have been only rarely, if at ail. We have them by the short hairs on this one, and we should not let go until we negotiate some things that will benefit ail of us in North America. We are polluting water on both sides of the border almost as fast as we are using it for drinking and agriculture. We should make the sale of water to the United States conditional on a massive joint effort to clean up acid rain and put an end to the Love Canals. We should make it conditional on a program with teeth in it to restore the Great Lakes to somethtng like puri- ty, and to make a start on doing the same thing for the oceans along our coastlines. We have other things the Americans want: oil, natural gas and wide-open spaces which they are going to need increasingly for industry, transportation and recreation. Without generosity of spirit and breadth of vision, we'll ail fali victim to water shortages, the greenhouse effect, and that most feared of seasons, the nuclear winter. Mere national frontiers will protect us from none of these. yet to decide on their guilt or innocence, their mere apprehension raises some very serlous issues that must be debated and râsolved by the community as a whole. This newspaper would like to bring to the forefront two major issues in the fight against crime, one being education and the other being prevention. By education we mean that we have a duty to our children to instill in them a value system that respects the needs and privacy of others. We must teach them and guide them, we must show them that we have the respect of persons and property and through that example help them to become full fledged and caring citizens. Whenever a young person is charged and con- victed of a crime, that crime has also been com- mitted by his parents and to some degree by the rest of society.-Just as the captain of a ship is responsible for the actions of his crew, parents are responsible for the actions of their children, at least until they are recognized as legal adults. Our school system, as beleagured as it is, must become a more vital arm in the fight against crime, any crime not just Juvenile crime. Time, energy and resources must be made available to instill in our youngsters - who are our only true hope for a better and brighter tomorrow - a sense of values that respects honesty, hard work, decency and the rights of other people to live full and rich lives unviolated by the acts of those who reject society's standards for behaviour. The second issue this newspaper wishes to ad- dress is prevention. On another page of today's edition the chairman of the Durham Regional Police Commission, Mayor Bob Attersley, has called for the cornmünity to become more aware of crimes such as those that we have been ex- periencing and learn how to deal with them. He also has advocated an expansion of the Neighbourhood Watch program that has worked so well in the Pringle Creek area. The mayor would like to see the program expanded into the Otter Creek, West Lynde, *Blair Park, Corridor and Brooklin areas of our community. This newspaper fully applauds thîs effort as one means of changing the situation. The police force's Community Service Branch is ready and able to respond to the requests of groups and individuals who desire to make their homes and their neighbourhoods more secure. We should not hesitate to take advantage of their skllls and advise. But the bottom line Is this: be aware and infor- med, find out what to do it you see a crime being committed, and do not be afraid to get involved. If something is wrong don't take the law into your hands, call the police, they are trained professionals who will be on the scene in minutes, ready to deal with the situation. Much work has been done over the last few years to make Whitby a good place to "live, work and play." This work has not been done just by our civic leaders, but by many co'mmunity organizations and public-minded citizens who realize that our potential as a town cannot be challenged. But if we cannot control our residen- tial crime rate no amount of publicity will do us any good. This problem will not simply vanish, even if those currently in police custody are convicted and incarcerated. Crime can only be prevented, it cannot be cured. The best prevention has two thrusts: education and awareness. So, let's teach our children and keep our eyes open. le,, 't 4, 'a - . ****.**. ~#~,, ~ *#4# v&i-4' 1k fi -'-j