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PAGE 4 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1985 WIIITBY FREE PRESS whitby. Plublished every wedlnesday BILL McOUAT bM...Publishinig Comnmunity Editor andi lhotography Inc. lione 608-1111 VALERIE COWEN wi n ÈM The Free Press uilding. Advertlslng Manager 131 Hrock Street North. Second Class Mail Voice the County Town Michael an Burgess, Publisher - Managing Editor .. Box 20, whiby, Ont. Registration No 5351 The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. Impaired driving is a cruel, deadly gamble Last week, the students at Anderson Collegiate got a stark lesson in the human cost of impaired driving, a lesson many will not soon forget. Im- paired driving has received a lot of attention In the media of late and the Indications are that the generàl public is finally awakening to the fact that Impalred driving is a deadly game. And for those that aren't easily swayed by public opinion, perhaps the new legislation being introduced by both the federal and Ontario governments may prove to be an inducement for potential Impaired drivers to think twice before getting behind the wheel. Certainly the prospect of spending up to 14 years behind bars for killing someone while OTTAWA - At the old Rockcliffe Air Base, now the site of our National Air Museum, there is a replica of a Nieuport 17 biplane. From the spinner on her prop to her tail skid, she is nine feet, seven inches long. Her wing span is 26 feet on the upper wing and about half a foot less on the lower. She is powered by a 110 horsepower Le Rhone engine, a rotary. Because the entire engine spins as the tiny aircraft flies, she turns easily to the right, but fights the pilot every inch of the way if he tries to turn her left. Her frames are of wood and metal, and the whole fragile contraption Is covered by a fabric skin and dope. She is armed with a single Lewis gun, calibre 303. Her crusing speed is 110 kilometres an hour, that is, about 70 mph, and flat out, she'll do 165 kph at sea level. She is not armoured, and even in World War One, bullets travelled a lot faster. The whole kit and caboodle, empty, weighs 825 pounds, soaking wet. By now you may have guessed that the Nieuport 17 In the National War Museum Is a replica of Billy Bishop's. I mean of William Avery Bishop, VC, who was the top scoring Imperial ace of the First World War, credited with 72 victories. This flamboyant flyer was known as a crack shot, but a terrible pilot by his contemporaries. Now we are told in a National Film Board docu-drama called "The Kid Who Couldn't Miss", that Billy Bishop was also a liar and a cheat; that he was not the hero we thought he was. Although I don't agree with the senators who ex- pressed their outrage to the producer in a recent committee meeting, I have a certain sympathy for them. To tell you the truth, I dort't really care whether Billy Bishop shot down 72 enemy aircraft or seven. Anyone who got into one of those cranky cockleshells and flew over hostile trenches, is a hero In my book. I cannot, as a journalist, condemn someone who has done his level best to tell the truth - whether in the final analysis the producer took us closer to the truth or farther away from it. But it seems to me that there are more important subjects for revisionism than Billy Bishop, whose exploits real or imagined, made a whole generation feel better about them- selves as Canadians when the flower of our young manhood was rotting in the trenches. May he rest in peace. driving impaired Is worth at least a moment's reflection. Stiffer penalties and the continuous barage of media coverage have had their impact, but there is no argument against impaired driving so com- pelling as the sight of a 21 year old girl who is going to spend the rest of her life in a wheel chair courtesy of a drunk driver. That girl Is Wendy Crawford and last Wednesday afternoon she spoke to students at Anderson Collegiate. The afternoon began with a hard hitting documentary film entitled Make Sure It lsn't You. The film chronicles the devastatIng impact of impaired driving, the loss of life, the debilitating injuries, the anger and the helplessness of the vic- tims and their families and, perhaps most telling, the fruitless and incessant remorse of the im- paired driver himself. It was a highly charged and emotional 30 minutes of film but il was only the beginning. After the house lights came on, Constable Peter Wraight of the Durham Regional Police Com- munity Services Bureau wheeled Wendy Crawford out onto the auditorium stage and at the first sight of the blonde, striking young women, the real message of the afternoon began to sink home. Her hands, frail and slightly attenuated in the way that quadrapalegics' hands often are, hung limply off the arms of her wheel chair as she told her audience how she tries not to think about the way things used to be before the accident and the im- mense adjustments she has had to make. "It's taken me a long time," sald Wendy. "At fir- st i think deep down Inside I didn't really think I'd be In a wheel chair for the rest of my life but l'm doing better now." She said It was hard for her to see her family hurt the way they were, and to know their frustration because there Is nothing they can do to change what has happened. And then there are ail the things any girl of 21 loves to do and dreams of doing. For Wendy, these things must remain a dream the rest of her life. When one of the students suggested It must have taken "a lot of guts" to come and speak to them Wendy replied "It's not guts. It's just something that has to be done so let's do it. You know?" To see someone not much older than most of the kids in the Anderson auditorium handle her- self with such aplomb after everything that has happened is testimony to the real insanity of im- paIred driving. People like Wendy Crawford deser- ve more from life and to loose so much because of something so foolish is a terrible thirig. Whitby Free Press holiday deadline Believe it or not, next 50 that our staff can en. than 5 p.m. on Thur- week is Christmas and joy the holiday season sday, Dec 19. because it falls on a For aur Dec. 23 issue ail Our New Year's issue Wednesday this year we adds and editorial copy wilI be coming out Dec. will be putting out the must be in our offices at 30 this year and the ad- Free Press a little early 131 Brock St. N. no later vertising and editorial changes deadline is 12 a.m. Friday, Dec. 27. We apologize for any incon- venience these changes may create.