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SP eb 8 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, February 6, 1990 Letters to the editor Different opinions about growth To the Editor: In your year-end editorial you wondered if our community real- ly wanted growth in the manner advocated by some of our fellow- citizens. I took up the challenge and asked about the benefits of growth and for whom. I congratulate Mark Hamilton for his Jan. 30 letter to the Editor affirming the benefits of growth for business and employment. At the same time I am sorry he feels he must dismiss me as a selfish, uncaring retired person, and I apologize to the other retired peo- ple in Port Perry if I have ir- ritated Mr. Hamilton so that he lumps us all together as a drag on progress. We all have our opinions about issues and while we don't like to admit it, our arguments are for the most part based on self- interest, including Mark Hamilton's, hence the need for countervailing opinions. As one shrewd observer of the human scene put it, "People can be good enough to make democracy possi- ble but bad enough to make it necessary." Does Mark know that the master plan for the developme of Durham Region designat Port Perry as not an area for growth beyond a population of around 10,000? There must be reasons for this. Let the discus- sion continue! Donald E. Tansley, Port Perry. Respect for teachers To the Editor: In response to the letter of January 23 'Teachers Not Owed A Living" I was a little upset at the comments made. A lot of peo- ple don't realize (and apparently P.W. Kent is one of them) how much work the teachers do after school is finished for the day. Most people work 9-5 and that's it for the day, but teachers have papers to mark, lessons for the next day to prepare as well as many other duties they do at home. My children go to Immaculate school and I have great respect for the teachers there. They do work hard. I also feel that one of the issues they were going for, the classroom size, should be a set size, because if they were allow- ed to put 30-50 students in a class and if even a few needed special help how are the teachers suppos- ed to give individual help with a class that size. Maybe P.W. Kent should work as a teacher before they start put- ting them down. Keep up the good work teachers of Immaculate Conception School. D. Hatter, Port Perry. Life's Like That by Julia Ashton Fat chance that we'll all be "perfect" Question: What do Kim Bassinger, Bo Der- ek and Jane Fonda have in common (besides being well-known actresses)? Answer: They all have perfect bodies. At Jas, that's what we've been brainwashed to ieve. Although some experts would argue that the quest for being a perfect "10" went out of fashion years ago, it certainly isn't evident. Women are still obsessed with becoming pret- zel-thin mannequins. But why? Because soci- ety has etched into our brains that there is only one acceptable body shape. Look at any television commercial or maga- zine advertisement and you will see an array of slender women promoting everything from chewing gum to shampoo. Even advertise- ments promoting household products don't have a Roseanne in the bunch. But most women -- regardless of how much they diet and exercise -- will never look like the models they see in their favorite maga- zine. They just don't have the body make-up. There's no way a 52" female with a wide hipped, narrow shouldered frame will ever look like the models in Vogue or Cosmopoli- tan. "We live in a culture that brings tremendous pressure to bear on women to fit a certain physical ideal, even though for most women that's biologically impossible," psychiatrist Al- lan Kaplan told the Toronto Star. (Dr. Kaplan runs an eating disorder clinic at Toronto Gen- eral Hospital.) Let me stress right here that there is noth- ing wrong with having a well-toned body. But the obsession goes farther than this. Take, for example, Toni Sullivan. The 44- ear-old real estate agent from Unionville died ast July from a massive blood clot two days after almost two litres of fat was removed from her thighs. The operation that was performed on Ms. Sullivan is known as liposuction. According to an article in the Toronto Star on Wednesday, Feb. 1, liposuction is a "way to suck fat cells out from beneath the skin with a vacuum-like machine. "It's usually done on thin people who want to get rid of bulges around the hips, thighs, belly, buttocks or chin." The article continues by explaining that everyone is born with a specific number of fat cells. The cells get larger or smaller as a per- son gains or loses weight. "Liposuction permanently changes the con- tour of the body by removing some of the cells. If the patient later gains weight, the bulge won't reappear." The whole operation sounds like a miracle. Fat cells sucked right out of the body and nev- er reproduced again. But like any kind of sur- gery there is always the risk of death. I'm not going to malign the surgeon who performed the operation on Ms. Sullivan. Lip- osuction is elective surgery and not covered by OHIP, so Ms. Sullivan obviously opted to have the operation and paid for it out of her own pocket. But she also wasn't the classic liposuction patient. Ms. Sullivan had gained 30 to 40 pounds in the months preceding the operation and weighed SpproTImatel 180 pounds when the surgery was performed. I certainly cannot blame Ms. Sullivan for having the operation. | blame society for brainwashing us all into believing thinner is better, and even a slight roll of fat is disgusting. | have never been a so-called perfect "10" although | have tried to no avail. After reading about Ms. Sullivan's quest for a perfect body, I have decided that being me -- all of me -- is fine. It's time we all started looking at what's in- side each person, instead of the fancy pack- age it's wrapped in. Viewpoint by J. B. McClelland (From page 7) does not have an extensive passenger rail network. Of course, one of the most poignant parts of this little book is the suggestion that the people who made the deci- sions on VIA- the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and senior government officials-never use a train. They travel everywhere by air (at our expense) or by limo (again at our expense) and thus have no real understanding of what the trains mean to the millions of ordinary Canadians who can't snap their fingers and beckon a jet or a limo. The book is available by sending $9.95 (includes post- age and handling) to Not A Sentimental Journey, Box 37, Goderich, Ontario. N7A 3Y5. Any proceeds above costs will be used by the Turna- round Decade Group to further this and other environmen- tal/economic projects. IN CLOSING Readers of our letters to the editor column the past few weeks will have noticed a wide variety of views and opin- ions about teachers, specifically, a strike by Catholic High School teachers in Durham Region. : We all know that education costs have sky-rocketed in the past few years, putting huge stress on property owners whose taxes pay the lion's share of education. This debate brings to mind an expression | heard not too long ago. "If you think education is expensive, try ignor- ance." = Editorial Comment (from page 6) a loud and clear voice (by a vote of 11-2) is that enough is enough. The cake cannot be had and eaten, too. What is regrettable is not the action by 11 members of a city council, but the entire language climate in this coun- try that is pulling the nation down, setting Canadians against Canadians, and has cost countless millions in the process. It's also regrettable that politicians like Mr. Mulroney, Mr. Peterson and others refuse to listen to the "little voices" in this country, and insist on plowing ahead with something that hasn't worked and may now be beyond any hope of repair. As the furor over the saga in the Soo dies down, it will be interesting to watch if the city council's action on lan- guage policy results in a tightening of provincial and feder- al grant monies for such people services as roads, sewer and water pipes and recreation facilities. Interesting in- deed. WHERE ARE YOU GOING? ) SUE YL STHIS | THE CAFETERIA or! WANNA ALLYSON'S ST Hel/ ker! g | TME ~1 UNDERSTAND, by Lynn Johnston ITS CooL I'M NOT GING YoU A HARD OK ( .. ) LIKED A BRL ONCE. EMMERSON 193 QUEEN ST., PORT PERRY, ONT. LOL 1B9 (416) 985-7306 ALL LINES OF GENERAL INSURANCE * * * HOMEOWNERS - FARM - AUTO COMMERCIAL tt y= TO Ni ume = nr =