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VIEWPOINT by John B. McClelland Rin, LOCAL ELECTIONS This coming Monday, November 14, voters in Scugog Township will go to the polls to elect a new council. Just about everyone I have talked to in the last few weeks has had some comment about the lack of "sparks" during this campaign. It has been, in the words of one acquaintance, "dullsville." And the two candidates meetings were almost mutual "love-ins," with everyone being mushy nice and none of the candidates opting to take the gloves off to un-load even a jab here and there. I agree. This election campaign in .Scugog has not taken off in any way that would grab the attention of most voters. Sure, there are a couple of issues (if you can call them that) such as a néw lease for the fairgrounds and the construction of a multi-purpose facility/banquet hall at the Scugog Arena. These are important issues, to be sure, but mostly the candidates have been talking generalities about the need to attract the right kind of development, boost tourism, preserve the heritage, and keep Scugog the kind of place that brought people here in the first place: quiet, friendly with no shortage of things to do for families of all ages. These may be "motherhood and apple pie issues," but they are important to a lot of people. After all, who wants the kind of residential development that has mushroomed along Highway 2 between Whitby and Pickering; or a strip mall on every corner; or one of those new "super stores" on the outskirts of Port Perry. I like the quality of life here and don't want to see radical changes, though I'm a firm believer in the old adage that all communities must grow or die. My wife and I arrived in Scugog with an infant son with the belief we might stay a year or two before moving on. That was 17 years ago and we're still here, Obviously something grabbed our fancy. Election campaigns on "motherhood issues" are not usually popular with the media. After all, they don't make for good headlines, or even good copy. I can live with that. Far better a campaign filled with niceties than one where the mud is flying in all directions. They serve no good and only make for bitter feelings when the new council is finally elected and gets down to business. On November 15, there will be seven people elected to the council. If there is a need for anything in Scugog right now, it is co-operation among those seven. We won't move forward or accomplish very much without it. My biggest fear in a campaign void of any "burning issues" is that voter turn-out at the polls will be Tow. I have never been able to comprehend how anybody can fail to vote, be it in a local, prongs or federal election. But voter turn-out in this one could be under 40 per cent. I was given the right to vote many years ago (on turning 21) I voted in my first election within days of that birthday and have never missed voting since. Maybe I'm just Gid fashioned, but I consider it a privilege (not a right) to have the vote, and I would fight tooth and nail if anybody ever tried to take that privilege away. Not voting is _ akin to not buying a poppy. In fact, there is a connection, is there not? Or to put it another way: if you don't vote, don't bitch later on. IN CLOSING: Still on this election, a lady stood up at a candidates meeting last week and said she has no idea who is running in what ward, and she has lived in Scugog for the past year. Was she kidding? How can somebody move to 4 community and not know who the ward rep is, or two full weeks into an election campaign, not know who is running for what? The local media have been full of election ads and articles, there are signs on just about every corner, yet somebody can stand up at a public candidates meeting and claim total ignorance. Even if you don't ever look at a local paper, or think those folks on the election signs are real estate agents, you could phone the clerk's office and find out where you live and who is running where. If, you have a Scugog phone book, that is. If thére is one thing that ficks me off, it's a person who claims ignorance of an issue after it has been covered in great detail and over many weeks by the local media. In the next breath that person says "I never read the local paper, there's nothing in there of importance, anyway." Happy election to you. Get off your duff November 14 and mark an X beside somebody's name. , Brae CHizen -- Tuesday November 8 7000 -- 9 on LETTERS TO EDITOR Gun owners share strong moral beliefs To the Editor: 1 would like to assure H. Vandeloo of Port Perry that his or her "human rights to live" are not outweighed by the "human rights" of legitimate gun owners. 1 would also like to assure you that the vast majority of gun owners share the idea that "better education, solid family ethics, strong moral beliefs and an effective and efficient crime control would help in gettin@ rid of the excessive we are now wit ing," and that we have a very good view of what is right and wrong. Guns for any purpose, other than to serve and protect, have always had, always will, and always should have a plagein our society. ~#They have been part of our heritage and history since the first white man set foot on this land and have been used in a positive way, much more than in a _ negative way. Hunting for sport, and target shooting, have no more to do with ego, or a thirst for dominance and control, than you getting up each morning and striving to liye each day to its bestrand to make the following even better. I do hope that this is the way to greet each day. I'don't know where you get your figures from, concerning the hundreds of children violated by guns in the home but I don't think that you are aware of the safe storage laws that we as gun owners have to and willingly abide by. No. Our livelihood does not depend on snagging a deer for supper, but many of us like to supplement our diets with venison or fowl just as you may ehovss to be a vegetarian. I would like to mention that if the rest of society understood and realized that we are all responsible for our actions, and that we need to respect and honour life in any way, shape or form, the way that legitimate gun owners do, our efforts will not be futile, and there won't be any spent cartridges on another street in town. * Stu Jacobs, Blackstock, Ont. Can't take credit To the Editor: In the coverage of last week's debate on education, it was mentioned that I worked to establish Immaculate Conception School in Port Perry. I cannot take any credit for this. It was when my oldest daughter entered Junior Kindergarten, then in the church hall, that I got involved. The school had been established for a couple of years. I give all the credit to the people who started from scratch, gathered community support, and convinced the board to provide Catholic education to the children in Scugog township. This group of people have always kept a low profile and have never sought recognition while.all Catholic school supporters have reaped the benefits of their time and effort. Yours truly, Kathy LeFort, Port Perry. Education must teach kids to think To the Editor: I am writing to say that I agree one hundred percent with John McClelland's Viewpoint column in the November 1 Citizen. I think that the most important thing children can learn in school is how to think. This means how to find data and how to evaluate it. It means thinking laterally and creatively, rather than going along with the crowd, or the government, or even the textbook. Education should teach people how to live, rather than how to get a job. If you know how to live, you will have the mental resources to find or create a job; or even to choose to get by on less. If you've just been trained to do some task or other, you won't have the resources to cope if your job becomes obsolete. The last thing we need at this crisis time in human history is a generation of technocrats, something reminiscent of Brave New World or 1984. For my tax dollars, I'd like to see everyone studying a broadly based liberal arts curriculum. This will produce thinking, humane citizens, capable of responding in creative ways to the world's problems. It will give people some perspective beyond the present moment from which to evaluate the current situation. Personally, I think this is vital to our survival as a species and to our survival as a civilization, We couldn't spend our tax dollars better. Sincerely, Michelle Bull, Port Perry. Not impressed with tactics at meeting To the Editor: On Thursday, Nov. 3, I (along with all the other voters of Ward 1) was invited to participate in an "Electoral Information Meeting" sponsored by "The Green Umbrella". A pleasure | thought, to go and meet my neighbours from this wonderful place in which I live --"Ward 1 Scugog" and to participate in this preliminary and informative stage of "The Democratic Process. This evening turned out to be anything but a pleasure. It was in my opinion a miscarriage of everything that I hold dear- honour, dignity, honesty and most of all-fair play. The incumbents were subjected to the most humiliating abuse and denigration that | have ever witnessed during my time in Scugog Township. To discuss and debate with passion and spirit is the very essence of the "democratic process". For a "moderator" to manipulate, . distort and transform an "Electoral Information Meeting" into nothing more. than a well orchestrated attempted assassination wreaks of the tactics of a Third World Banana Republic Dictatorship-- Not Democracy! No individual or a group should ever be allowed to destroy the "Democratic Process" by attempting to manipulate or short circuit an "Information Meeting". The incumbents at this fiasco demonstrated a level of courage, manners, dignity and class of which every resident in Scugog Township should be rightly proud. It is under pressure and in the face of adversity that a candidate's true qualities shine the brightest. It is also under these conditions that the weak, shallow and self-serving are revealed for what they really are. Thank goodness this special interest group is so narrow in score and short in vision (virtually blind) that the voters will have no difficulty making the right decision on Nov. 14. In closing please accept by apologies Mr. Mayor, Councillor Christie and especially Councillor Carruthers for the disgusting behaviour of this small group of self-serving zealots. (writer asked that name not be published)