The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

i 6 The Canadian Statesman. Bowmanville. April 5.198!) E&t Canadian statesman Students Win Optimist Club Essay Contest cn Durham Region's Great Family Journal Established 135 years ago in 1854 Also Incorporating y A I m The Bowmanville News ■ Vf! .IMA The Newcastle Independent VT ^ ^ The Orono News Second Class mail registration number 1561 Produced weekly by James Publishing Company Limited 62 King Street West, Bowmanvi'le, Ontario L1C 3K9 416-623-3303 Fax 416-623-6161 John M. James Editor - Publisher Richard A. James ' Associate Publisher Brian Purdy Peter Parrott Associate Editor Geo. P. Morris Brian Purdy Donald Bishop Business Mgr. Advertising Mgr. Plant Mgr. All layouts and composition of advertisements produced by the employees of James Publishing Company Limited are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. Subscription Rates Six Months --$11.00 One Year--$20.00 Three Years -- $57.00 Five years -- $90.00 Foreign -- $60.00 per year Although every precaution will be taken to avoid error, The Canadian Statesman accepts advertising in Its columns on the understanding that it will not be liable for any error In the advertisement published hereunder unless a prool of such advertisement is requested In writing by the advertiser and returned to The Canadian Statesman business office duly signed by the advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noted In writing thereon, and In that case if any error so noted Is not corrected by The Canadian Statesman its liability shall not exceed such a portion of the entire cost of such advertisement as the space occupied by the noted error bears to the whole space occupied by such advertisement. v Editorial Comment | Fusion or Confusion Intertwined with the justified concern concern for our environment is our energy policy. The world produces and consumes consumes vast amounts of energy every hour of every day: a process we have grown to depend on just as we depend on oxygen and water. Last week, the energy industry was on centre stage. The Exxon Valdez ploughed into a reef which tore the ship open and emptied nearly a quarter quarter of a million barrels of oil into the ocean. The damage, scientists say, will last for decades. There are lessons to be learned from that incident, not the least of which is the fact that industrial industrial accidents cannot be avoided 100 per cent of the time. Environmentalists should be forgiven forgiven for reminding us of their repeated warnings about sending oil tankers through the tricky waters off Alaska. They have predicted for years that sending ships the length of three football football fields into the Arctic would bring about certain disaster. Even those who saw the accident coming likely were not prepared for the magnitude of the spill. Work crews attempting to clean up the enormous mess still were battling high winds and the resulting dangerous dangerous waves when March 28 rolled around - the tenth anniversary of the near-disaster at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Middletown, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Crowds gathered at that crippled facility to protest the continued continued use of nuclear energy in the United United States. For all of their concern, few could suggest tenable alternatives. And none of them was comforted by the fact that the safety of nuclear energy energy in their country today has improved improved vastly since disaster nearly struck on the shores of the Susquehanna Susquehanna River ten years ago. The kind of full-scale reordering of our world which is required to slash our energy appetite by meaningful amounts is nothing but a utopian sparkle in a wishful thinker's eye. Until Until we actually begin to run out of energy, energy, that sort of transformation of our collective values and attitudes is not going to occur. And so it was with reserved excitement excitement that the scientific community greeted an announcement last week by professors Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons in Utah. They claim to have concluded a successful experiment experiment on fusion energy. The excitement derives from the immeasurable benefits benefits which a perfected system of fusion power could bring. The reservation flows from the years of frustration other other scientists have experienced trying to achieve such a positive result. Some are highly skeptical, especially especially because the experiment was relatively relatively simple and very similar to a commonly conducted procedure undertaken undertaken by university students. As the pitfalls of our current energy sources continue to evade our drive for perfection, and as we march on to the unavoidable depletion of our fossil fuels, the clean and abundant energy from fusion becomes increasingly attractive. attractive. Fusion, in effect, creates a miniature miniature sun in a controlled area. The energy energy captured from the reaction is immense immense and dwarfs nuclear power. The problem always has been sustaining the reaction. No man-made fusion reaction reaction ever had been continued long enough for any practical use, at least until this most recent announcement. When we learn how to harness the immense power in the hydrogen and oxygen reaction, we should have clean and abundant energy for as long as we can imagine. Unlike nuclear power, there will be very little hazardous waste of which to dispose. Unlike coal, acid rain will not result. There will be no need to reroute rivers and flood miles of useful land. The potential is overwhelming. As encouraging as the fusion progress is, tempting us with light at the end of the tunnel, we must remember remember that years will pass before we can start benefitting. And in the interim, we still must find our way out of the tunnel. Christmas Rolls Prove That Postal Miracles Do Happen Last week, we published an editorial editorial sort of chiding the Post Office Department Department for boasting about its much improved service. We didn't mention that .we had received received a letter from a former area resident resident now of Oshawa, who not only brought a couple of postal horror stories stories to our attention, but also recalled a near postal miracle. We won't go into the slow delivery items, the super service service story is unbelievable and happened happened to an ex-Statesman staff writer. It all happened back in 1958 when a Christmas parcel, containing a dozen Parker House rolls was posted in Oshawa, Canada, Dec. 23, with stickers stickers denoting " Special Delivery" "Airmail" "Airmail" and "Perishable,"for delivery in San Diego. Santa Claus took command and flew the parcel 3000 miles to its destination, where it was signed for Dec. 24th. The rolls were baked by Miss Mildred Mildred Snowden (now Mrs. J. Huband) for her Uncle Art Baker who was Ê laced on a strict diet recently and for- idden Christmas cake. The parcel was rushed to his San Diego home by motorcycle, and when opened the buns were still warm from the Canadian oven. Believe it or not!!! Plastic Diapers Causing Problems for Dump Sites Dear Editor: Once upon a time, not that many years ago, there were no white men on this continent. The land was inhabited inhabited by Native People, also known as Indians. These people lived in harmony harmony with Nature, used the products of the land for all of their needs and did not leave garbage dumps full of plastics, chemicals, glass and metals. These people had children children just like people do today, today, but archeologists have not found one plastic diaper anywhere. The native people used spngnum moss as their source of absorbant material. material. The material is totally biodegradable ns is the material material deposited into the moss by the baby. When the pioneers arrived arrived they also had children. Those children acted and reacted reacted very much like native children and deposited their excrements not in spngnum moss but in cloth diapers. Diapers which wore fully re usable and which had besides besides their obvious primary purpose, several alternative ad hoc uses such as stuffing into cracks under doors, wiping wiping up spills, material for quilts ana probably a thousand thousand other uses. One thing, was very sure; most of the diapers were used over again. Next enter the children ol the 80's. They too act, react and dirty exactly like the children of the native people and the pioneers, but their parents do not use spngnum moss nor cloth diapers. Instead, Instead, they use plastic non reusable diapers. These diapers diapers are therefore non- biodegrndnblo, not reusable and therefore fill up garbage bags, another plastic product, product, and end up filling up municipal garbage dumps to overflowing. What can bo done to overcome overcome this obvious problem? Wo could try to revive the spngnum moss industry, but I doubt if it would be accepted accepted with much enthusiasm, The Bowmanville Optimist Club recently sponsored an essay contest on tne environment. Henry Knoop (far left) from Durham Christian High School and Debbie Cavanagh (far right) from St. Stephen's Ele- lllSt *. % villi by Andrea Adair or cm ul dly Ferrets. Ferrets aren't like puppies like kittens. A ferret isn't cute like a rabbit. It doesn't sing like a canary nor does it swim like a goldfish. A ferret, so the dictionary dictionary explains, is a variety of polecat (small animals in the weasel family) used for driving rabbits from burrows and killing rats. Everyone in southern Ontario, unless they've been out of the. country for the past two weeks, has probably heard all they want to know about this particular animal thanks to a certain Toronto Toronto daily newspaper and a number of Toronto area radio stations. It all started when a little boy in Toronto lost his pet ferret, Willy. He didn't know it was missing for a day or two. When he finally realized Willy had vanished and the Toronto Humane Society Society was contacted, it was too late. Willy, it turns out, had been picked up by the THS and was legally adopted by a THS employee. employee. The local media jumped on the Willy story, story, arousing feelings of people's rights and suggesting suggesting that the new owner owner of the animal should return it to the original owner. Some readers also questioned the right of the Humane Society employee employee to adopt the beast. A "prominent Toronto lawyer" who just happened happened to be a ferret lover as a boy, has decided to help the youngster in his quest to be reunited with His best buddy, Willy. The lawyer, who has kindly decided to help the Essay Wins First Place nor do I imagine that many working parents will be terribly terribly excited about using cloth diapers, but we cannot continue to fill up dumpsites with plastic diapers either. What we need is an environmentally environmentally friendly product product which is reusable (recyclable) (recyclable) and which does not destroy the family budget. A product which has not yet been invented by some enterprising enterprising individual - or has it? Perhaps the fastest growing growing industry in the Western World is the Reusable Diaper Diaper Laundry Service. This service presents parents of infants with a quantity of clean diapers and a sealable container, and they come and pick up the container and its contents to wash and reuse the diapers. What a terrific business for„ the Town of Newcastle! When will someone start this needed, needed, valuable service? Yours sincerely, John Vcldhuis A recent Optimist club essay essay contest on- the topic of environmental protection produced several excellent entries. David Winters, a grade nine student at Durham Durham Christian High School, was awarded $100 for this first-place submission: Canadians just don't realize realize the importance of the environment. environment. They don't realize realize that what we do to the environment now, will affect us and future generations in a very big way. What can the government do to save the environment from pollution, pollution, over-mining, and other environmental problems? What is it already doing? In the last 30 years or so, the federal government has been more conscious of environmental environmental issues than ever before. Politicians have passed bill upon bill to regulate regulate the exportation of natural natural resources and the polluting polluting of the air and water. More public education has increased the awareness of what is going on in our air, water, and forests. The public public is getting involved in saving saving the environment too. Many groups and organizations organizations have sprung up in the last few years, devoted to the preservation of the environment environment and are putting more pressure on the government government to preserve the environment. environment. The Green Party is a political party whose main goal is to preserve the environment. The government government is responding to the public's wishes and is making making the environment a top priority. But what actually is the problem? The problem is that despite the laws, many companies and large corporations corporations are still dumping dangerous chemicals into our water and air. The government government can't catch everyone everyone who is polluting the environment. environment. Another problem is the large American companies companies across the border. They can dump their wastes into our water, but the government's government's hands are tied because because the companies are out of its jurisdiction. Many Canadian companies companies can't afford to take measures to stop polluting and to be competitive at the same time. If the government government were to close these companies down, many jobs would be lost. Garbage is also a very important important provincial issue. As I am writing this, mounds of garbage arc piling up, and there is no place to put it. Mines and forests are being cleaned out. Soon there might bo shortages of things we need to live on. We arc running ou it of places to store PCBs and other harmful harmful chemicals. How can we dispose of these? Foreign governments are killing off square kilometres of tropical rainforest every minute, and our government can't do much to stop it, My topic is a very large problem. If the government made any mistakes, I think that Canada would be in serious serious trouble. Our resources would be wiped out. Air would be harmful to breathe. We would have to walk around with air filters on. Water would be undrinkable. undrinkable. Water filters would be a household necessity. Even then, how many chemicals can the filters remove? The government is responsible responsible for all matters that concern the environment. environment. People may pollute the environment, but it's the job of the federal and provincial provincial governments to make sure that this illegal pollution pollution doesn't take place, and if it does, they have to clean it up. The government faces some hard choices. They have to decide whether or not to prosecute large companies, companies, and if a company is convicted, what will happen to its workers? Whatever the government does, there is a group that opposes its decision. However, there are many sides to this issue. Some are radical and some are logical and some really don't care. Some of the "radical" environmentalists environmentalists believe that most of the tax dollars should be put into the cleanup cleanup of the environment. Nuclear Nuclear energy plants should be closed because they are a danger to the environment. Companies that handle dangerous dangerous chemicals should be shut down because the environment environment might be threatened. threatened. A borderline "radical" group is Greenpeace. There is also the Green Party, as I mentioned before. Another side is the one the government trios to take. It tries to make a delicate delicate balance between the environment environment and the business environment. Politicians still want to protect the environment environment for future generations generations of Canadians but at the same time, they have to protect the businesses of Canada so that we can remain remain a strong competitor in the world market in the future. future. They know that in order order for the balance to work, a certain amount of pollution pollution has to bo allowed, but not so much ns to destroy the environment. I agree with this Inst opinion my self. Another'side to the issue issue is: "Who cares about the environment? It's expensive to get rid of this stuff. The money put toward the environment environment should go towards guys like me." There are many things that can be done, or already have been done by the government. government. Staffer penalties toward companies that pollute pollute and government assistance assistance to help them clean up are two actions already taken. taken. Another is to protest the destruction of tropical rainforests rainforests to save our air. We could regulate the output of mines and forestry and start programs that re-seed logged pieces of land. Or make more efficient and safer safer storage sites for PCBs and nuclear waste. Recycling Recycling programs would reduce the need for more garbage dumps. Tne environment is an asset too valuable for the Canadian people to waste. With the proper people doing doing the right jobs, hopefully the government of Canada will save the environment for the future generations of Canadians to enjoy and prosper from. boy free of charge, plans to take the matter to small claims court. The story should end there. Most people must hope the story ends there. Most reporters would let the story end there. Unfortunately, the story story doesn't end there. Rumors have surfaced that the THS employee who adopted Willy has had her life threatened. Others have said some people have vowed to stop offering financial donations donations to the Humane Society Society because of this episode. episode. But the real corker in this sad, stupid story is that, someone offered to giye the kid another ferret ferret but he said no. It just wouldn't be the same. There are a number of points where this tale ought to have ended. But it's one of those issues which just refuses to die. I can envision protesters, protesters, taking to the streets in front or Humane Societies, Societies, fighting for the rights of animals everywhere everywhere to be with the people people they love. I can see our members of parliament at the provincial provincial and federal levels being bombarded with phone calls and letters demanding they intervene intervene in the matter to help return Willy to the family that loves him. Newspapers will print letters daily from concerned concerned citizens airing their views on the sorry state of society if a boy and is ferret can't be reui- nited. The story will continue until someone finally realizes realizes that this isn't a tragedy and that life goes on for humans and ferrets. ferrets. Writer Responds to Policy on Lot Levies *in 'V vr ! mentary School join the winners: (from the left) Nancy Morphet, second; David Winters, first; and Bobby Kraemar, third. Dear Sir: On March 15. 1989 you printed the article "Ontario turns the Tables" in which it was noted that the Ministry of Education for Ontario had proposed "whopping" new lot levies on new houses in order order to finance new schools "thereby shifting the financial financial burden for education increasingly increasingly onto municipal shoulders". Let us not ignore the fact that this amount of money, be it $5,000 or whatever, will be passed on to the new home buyers. This is essentially essentially an unfair tax because new home buyers will be paying this lot levy to obtain for their children the same education as that obtained without lot levies by parents who live elsewhere in established established neighborhoods. Furthermore, people who buy a new home are likely to have lived elsewhere and are likely to have paid taxes to all three levels of government government for the establishment and maintenance of schools in established areas. _ Do we in our democracy wish to penalize people for buying new homes? Or, alternately: alternately: Do we unconcernedly unconcernedly daydream that new home developers will foot the bill for new schools by philanthropically absorbing the entire cost of educational educational lot levies themselves? - an unlikely scenario indeed. Taxes for education are taxes that are appropriate for all people to share whether they have children or not. The provincial and federal governments are the most appropriate levels of government to collect and distribute these funds because because these levels of government government can raise money from all taxpayers and allocate money to where it is needed in any municipality. The , disproportionate growth of a municipality is largely, and most often, due to an influx of people from other municipalities or provinces. provinces. The tax money that was paid for school buildings and school maintenance by people in their former municipalities municipalities should not (when these people move into another municipality) be left locked away in their former municipality as if that municipality were separate separate nation. Money paid in taxes that went to the establishment establishment and maintenance of schools in a former munic- /, should not become a onus" to make the cost of living cheaper there on the "merit" that this former municipality municipality was able to get rid of some of its excess people • or was established sooner than other municipalities - it is not on these kinds of principles that a fair and democratic nation should work. It is due to our educational educational system that we enjoy a high standard of living. Primary Primary education is not a luxury luxury or a handout. Uneducated Uneducated people are more likely to be a burden on society than educated people. Some people people without children may well talk as if parents are getting favors from the government government by getting primary education for their children funded from a tax base that includes all taxpayers, but the fact of the matter is that we all benefit from being able to produce goods and services with, or consume goods and services from, people who are literate and have the basic education needed to work competently and efficiently. (How much of an automobile can be made at a company run by, serviced by, and employing, ■> v . v";. - . ■>--£ ' ' , ' ' - " ' w/. ■ : j» • V tv -i-z;-;::--- v-Zz: people without primaiy cdu- • cation?). I There is another impor- ; tant principle involved in * the snaring of certain tax ' burdens: the fundamental j principle of nationhood. If a ,j nation grows, and a munici- 1 pality gets a disproportion- • ately large share of that ■ growth, the entire nation ; should share proportionate- » ly in the creation of the ' same services and infra- * structure in that growing > municipality as the nation j has shared in creating else- ; where (e.g.: primary cduca- .< tional facilities, highways, ' etc.) ) Ultraconservatives may ) gag themselves when con- ; fronted with the fact that a 3 democratic nation has a ;; commonwealth basis and -J that everyone has the same • privileges and rights on pub-. lie roads, in public parks, to •; public education, etc. - > whether or not one has paid j a large amount or nothing at all towards the creation and j upkeep of these things. Ba- - sic infrastructure ana basic ? services are necessarily pub- * licly owned in a free country •' - we share the cost of pn- ; maty education and road in-; frastructure and do not sell ; public roads or public grade! schools to be operated by toll; or, tuition for private gain. Nevertheless, socialists do not have the right to misappropriate misappropriate these ideas as the idealogical private property of their organizations even though these ideas are social in character. ; This brings me to my concluding concluding statement: The social social character of a nation can only be ignored to toe detriment of the nation itself. itself. Because government dealings have social repercussions, repercussions, governments should not shirk their democratic democratic responsibilites and duties and should conduct their affairs with good, judgement and- in such a way as to be fair to all people. people. A properly balanced division division of responsibility and duty for governments and for individuals helps the commonwealth basis of our nation remain, insofar as it is, intact and unstrained, p Mark Dikkof 138 Queen St., Bowmanville, Ontario. ; L1C1M0 Arthritis Club Holds Meeting The Arthritis Society is sponsoring a meeting and information session entitled- "Living with Arthritis" op Tuesday, April 25, in Oshawa. The meeting will take place in the North Building Auditorium at Hillsdale Manor, 600 Oshawa Blvd. North and will begin at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free and refreshments will be served.- The guest speaker will be rheumatologist Dr. JoAnne McDonald who will focus on several topics including: types of arthritis, medication, medication, surgery, and physical problems. People interested in attending attending the meeting who need transportation should arrange for help ahead of time by calling 434-7221 or 655-3898 during the day and 579-6028 in the evening. evening. The organizers are anxious that everyone who is interested be able to attend. attend. There are no stairs at the meeting place. Donates $1,000 to Memorial Hospital The Bowmanville Lioness Club has donated $1,000 was used to purchase are: (from the left) Linda Ilar- reaves, head of the department; Norma Lewis, presi- to the Memorial Hospital recreation therapy department. department. Displaying some of the equipment the money lent of the Lioness club; and Chris Kooy.