» LL Yh SSA - ro rr Lo » - > "Nn Ear AXE ox Fes . ASN * Lion A He nd SA rr = SEG "3g, oe 21 rol nt TALS aaa aad ROA Da 2! UR Sea Va Rey 0 : 'g oe ot 5 DALE Yate RY o = Se RPE on 4 A Aad 240% uM NE a a rp a Xie). Ted Ye # LRN ~~ ne You oN 3 ERT EW YS 3 eT EIN RIVA i ry 4 A EO AR SE A a ee hy i - LJ 34 REPEAT HL. EAE 2 A SATE AR. NL FER Sr a ME 8 FA NaN PAE 224 Red ARB CERALSTUR Y ADCS L) RASA SOC NA SRA SER, adentd APSR A LA if * 2% editoriol p Madness In Iran The United States can hardly be blamed for the attempt last week to rescue the 50 embassy person- nel who have been held hostage in Iran for the past six months. Our neighbour to the south has displayed re- markable restraint in dealing with the Iranians and trying to find a negotiated settlement to the hostage crisis. The criticism is not that the mission was attempted, but that it ended in dismal failure. And to add insult, the charred remains and personal effects of the U.S. servicemen were put on public display near the American embassy. Obviously, this gruesome exhibition was design- ed as a warning to the American government, and to illustrate to the rest of the world that the rescue mission had failed. Understandably, the reaction of the American government is outrage, and there can be little doubt that those now in power in Iran are nothing more than fanatical lunatics. In the wake of all this is the very real possibility now that the Americans will launch some kind of military attack against Iran, a move which could blow the lid off the crisis and engulf the area in conflict. If this happens, it is not unreasonable to expect that the Soviets would become actively involved: either at the invitation of the Iranian government, or simply by inviting themselves into the country to "'keep order' as they did in Afghanistan. The recent events in Iran must serve as a warning to all western democratic nations, including Canada. Anti-western sentiment bordering on lunacy is running rampant in many countries around the globe. The chance of maintaining relations at anything close to a normal level is remote, and the western democracies must face this fact and be prepared to deal with it more and more in the future. This means increased co-operation, politically, economically and militarily, among the western democracies. The present crisis in Iran involving the United States is a crisis for all countries in the world where freedom and democracy are enjoyed. If the western democracies must seek increased co-operation among themselves to meet the chal- lenge of despotism and lunacy in countries like Iran, they must at the same time recognize that the Soviet Union is unwilling to use its influence to de-fuse international tensions and crisis. In fact, the Soviet Union's behavior recently is having just the opposite affect. The Iranian crisis is symbolic of anti-western sentiment in many areas of the globe. And while it may be Americans who are held hostage by fanatics, they could just as easily be Canadians, or British, or West Germans. Cm ------ a A worpan SPEAKER, A Woman TEACHER, A LWomAN MOTHER - - . FIRST THING YOU Kvow THEY LL HAVE 50ME DAME LEADING THE LEAFS a Do We Need More Parkland? Objectors to the site of a proposed new library for the Township made it clear at an Ontario Municipal Board hearing last Thursday that a new or expanded library is not the issue, but rather the use of lakefront property as a building site. One thing should be made absolutely clear. If the OMB rules in the Township's favour and permits' the re-zoning for the site, the library building will not be situated right on the shore of the lake. It will be 100 to 150 feet from the shoreline, and that area will be used as open space parkland. The concerns over parkland raises the question whether this Township needs more of it, especially along our lakefront. We have always maintained that Lake Scugog is the greatest natural resource available for the enjoyment of the citizens of this Township. The problem is no so much a lack of parkland along the shoreline in Port Perry, but rather a lack of continuity which gives the appearance that there is not sufficient open space. That continuity is broken by several things such as the Port Perry Marina and Township Works garage. Both are owned by the municipality and slated to be removed in the not too distant future. The Works garage would have come down this year, but a shortage of funds has delayed construc- tion of a new garage to be located near the Scugog Arena on Regional Road 8. As for the marina, the logical location would be in the area of the new boat launching facility to the north-west of Birdseye Park. When the garage and the marina are removed (Turn to page 6) SMI bill SPRING HAS SPRUNG Spring actually sprang this year, in- stead of limping in with a bad cold, its customary wont, in these climes. Usually, in this country, we don't really have a spring. We leap from the lingering frigidity of a cold and wet April, rather similar to an English winter, into a hot spell in May that leaves us dizzy, stunned and stupefied. And before we know it, we're into a humid June, complete with mosquitoes, and things, including young ladies, busting out all over. . This year, after one last wild blizzard near the end of March, Spring decided to live up to her name. A sunny winter, a mild March, and suddenly, one looks out, and there is no snow on the picnic table. One hurls one's clumsy rubber boots into one's closet. One disrobes from the massive, blanket-like contraption in which one has hidden one's frozen bones for the past five months. One skims one's hat into the top corner of the closet. And one comes rm © ww eA TN LY FURR TRE XB URRY SL CRN H Pra TR Abs 5h ' USES oR WAY AE of i TE 7 vy % BTA PTV hid TA on ¥ ey down with one's annual spring cold, snuff- ling and sniffling towards summer, that apogee of the Canadian psyche. Deep in that Canadian psyche lurks the suspicion that possibly, just possibly, this year the winter will never end, and that we shall go through a summer of frozen branches etched against a gray sky, frozen ground under foot, no flowers, no foliage, no hot summer sun to peel the skin. At least that's the way I feel, and I'm an average (my wife would say ordinary Canadian in every way. Perhaps that's the reason Canadians go winging off to hot places all winter, at phenomenal costs. When it comes to getting away to the sun, we have no equals on earth, except perhaps the Scandinavians. I know couples who, if they were having you for dinner, would argue about whether to give you a hamburg barbecue or the tuna casserole, the cheap plonk or the expensive wine with a body. Yet they'll blow a couple of thousand dollars for a week in the sun, living and letching and drinking and brown- ing for seven days, and returning to the WET HATS 3 gray, grim landscape they left. It's insane. But then there's something insane about all Canadians, when they feel they are escaping, once again, the icy talons of winter. They go cuckoo. Just the other day, I saw an old lady, wrapped to the ears so that she could scarcely move, out raking leaves, simply because the sun was shining, and the calendar, though not the temperature, told her it was spring. She should have been in by the fire. Before the snow has even begun to melt, our department stores have packed away their winter stuff and are flaunting bikinis that would make a stripper blush. Boats are hauled out before the ice on the bay has begun to melt. Ardent curlers stash their brooms and dig out their golf clubs, though they would sink to the hocks on the fairways. Trout fisherman, who have been chain- ed to the arduous ice-fishing for perch for the past few months, get a wild gleam in their eyes, go out and buy a small fortune's worth of new tackle, and rush like lemmings to the choice spots on Opening Day, elbow-- ing and struggling with thousands of their ilk to get a line in the water. Kids go goofy. They like winter, but spring drives them right around the bend. Puddles to splash in. Mud to tumble into. Exploring to be done into all those secret corners that the snow had kept hidden. Housewives go hairy. Their well-kept homes, dusted and vacuumed and polished to within an inch of their lives all winter, are Clay og NT RD SE A PSE Farsi pe VEE BH suddenly, as the suspicious spring sun peers in, "shabby, filthy, disgusting," and they # launch into an orgy of cleaning and decora- ting that drives their men simultaneously vp the wall and into debt. Old people behave oddly. With a sort of glint in their eye, they realize that they've licked the old graveyard one more time and go out and get terrible cricks in their backs planting flowers and gardens. And young people! Well, we all know what happens to them when Canada occa- sionally enjoys a real, legitimate Spring. They stand on street corners, after school, bunting each other like young calves. They strip to beach-wear on days that would freeze the brains of a brass monkey. They fall wildly in love with someone they hadn't even seen all winter, except as a sniffling, snuffling, stripling across the aisle in Grade 10 English. They go wild with the sheer delirium of being young in springtime. The boys drive too fast and recklessly. The girls have strange fancies and dream of sex and summer and secrets. What do aging school teachers do in the spring? They're just as nutty as the rest. They look with aching longing to their long summer, wishing their lives away. They try to retain their dignity, while they feel like kicking up their heels, running off with a grade 11 girl, or boy, shooting golf in the seventies, catching a whopping rainbow trout. And dreading retirement. It's a grand madness that seizes this nation, come Spring. Long may it continue.