A a ES re. a ---- wo 8 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, June 12, 1990 Keep up great work To the Editor: We attended the recent Millar Lights production of the musical "Annie." It was a beau- tiful evening of singing and act- ing; all performers were excel- lent and stars in their own right. We wish Dr. Tom Millar and Catherine every success, and say to them, and to the Cho- ral Society and the Millar Lights, we really appreciate the talent and skills, all the hard work and the extra time they putin. Carry on, Dr. Tom and Catherine. Good luck to your musical talents, marvellous work. We are very proud of you, gepecially giving 80 much time in helping others. We have been to almost all the performances since the deci- sion to do something about the Town Hall. We know some very special dear friends that helped to get it started. How proud they would feel today. We pray something can be worked out as so many have done a lot over the years. We thank you too, as we en- joy the theatrical presentations nour community. Yours truly, George and Eleanor Jackson, Port Perry. Letters io the editor Comments were food for thought To the Editor: I really think you might have thought of a better way to celebrate environment week than by writing your June 5 editorial, "Food for Thought." The articles you quoted, with very little analysis or comment, were in- deed food for thought, but they hardly presented a very balanc- ed or well-informed picture. They also completely ignored or misrepresented the environmen- talists' concerns. Disposable diapers: The point here is not to find something that by Julia Ashton People are always asking me what I'm going to do with my life. Do you have aspirations to work at a large Metro daily? they ask. Do you want to be the editor of some glossy magazine? Just what are you going to do when you grow up? Well, I've thought about it a lot and | think I've finally made a decision. I'm going to scrap my writing career. Yes, | know. Three years of college and two years in the business is a lot to just throw away in one fell swoop, but what the hay. No more pencil pushing for me. No more late nights covering meetings or taking pictures. I have new aspirations now. | want to be a senator. : What other job can you be paid $153 just for showing up to work. And that $153-a-day-bonus is over and above the senator's already over- exaggerated salary. (Let's see, that's a $63,000-a-year salary, a $9,800 tax-free allowance, and $153 for show- ing up for work. You don't have to be a mathe- matical genius to figure out that that equals BIG BUCKS) Talk about an incentive program! I'd miss Canada AM to be eligible for this one. I'd drive through rush hour traffic (even in the hot sum- mer months, or winter's dreadful snowstorms). I'd give up my illustrious career as a journalist for that kind of walk-through-the-door cash. With bread like that | could stop saying those hokey phrases, like "Money isn't everything" or "Money can't buy happiness." No it can't buy happiness, but it can buy a house. It could pay off the debt on my car. Mon- ey could put clothing on my back. And it could put food on my table, if that was one of my pri- orities (I'd probably dine out every night). | might even have enough money left over to, say, help the homeless find a place to live or help the jobless find work. A heartfelt thank-you to the arrogant son-of- a-senators who are now in office. If you live to see the proposed pay increases, I'll be watch- ing your jobs very closely! LE Life's Like That Talk about one p----d off official. Nikos Filaretos is one of the International Olympic Committee members who will decide just, where the '96 Summer Olympics will be eld. During a recent bidding conference -- which included representatives from would-be hosts Toronto, Athens, Atlanta, Melbourne, Manches- ter and Belgrade -- Mr. Filaretos couldn't even skip to the loo without some over eager bidder tracking him down to pitch his city. | don't know about you, but | don't think a public washroom is the best place to make a usiness proposition. Picture this, if you will: The smell of soap cakes permeating through the air while men discuss who is better equiped to host the '96 Summer Olympics. Quite frankly, | think the ambiance is all wrong. If | was on the IOC committee, | would choose Belgrade. Why? Well, for number one, they are the low man on the totem pole in this race and I'm a sucker for the underdog. heap? use the city hasn't spent millions of dollars on Jitzy promotional material. The only promotional tool the representatives brought to the Toronto-based conference was a virtually unchanged video tape they used in their losing bid to host the '92 Summer Olympics. My number two reason for wanting Belgrade to win is because the people seem so honest. During a ment of the video, a woman re- marks that airplanes in Yugoslavia may some- times be late, but they are never hijacked. LE BA BN J Finally, my hat is off to a former Guelph po- lice officer who has developed Dye Witness, a foaming green dye that women can spray on at- tackers. - The green dye is impossible to wash off. The attacker then becomes a marked man, making identification a lot easier for the victim and po- lice. (Dye Witness does fad away after 1 week.) It's a sad commentary on life that women must be prepared, but since life's like that, I'm glad there's Dye Witness. And ust why are they at the bottom of the - we can throw into landfill sites to absorb toxins (for how long?), but rather to stop putting toxins into landfills at all, and to cut down on the amount of other stuff we put into landfills, like disposable diapers. We should all know by ow that toxins leak out of land- ills, and into our drinking water, even if some are absorbed. We should also all know by now that we are having serious problems finding places to dump our gar- bage, and the more garbage we have, the worse the problem. Furthermore, those who still use disposables should still rinse them out, because even if viruses are dormant, they are not dead. Given the right conditions, like a warm body, they can revive pret- ty quickly. None of these things even ad- dress the question of the resources that are wasted in manufacturing the disposable diapers in the first place. Clear Cut Logging: The main objective we have to this is not ap- pearance, but the disruption of the delicate ecosystem. There.are a number of issues here. The first is soil erosion, which is a serious problem, especially when reforestation is not done im- mediately, as it often isn't. Clear cutting also destroys the habitat of birds and animals, many of them endangered species, thus contributing to their extinction. Logging companies also replace a varied forest with a monoculture, making the trees more susceptible to disease, and less useful as a habitat for animals. Nuclear Power: No one is deny- ing that we need electrical power, and no one really wants to turn back the clock and use foot powered machinery. There are alternatives besides nuclear power and "badly designed coal- fired plants with nary a trace of emmission controls in place." In fact it is not even a choice bet- ween nuclear power and fossil fuels. There are other alter- natives, lots of them. We have been using hydroelectric power for years. Solar power is being developed. With our technology, a lot of other things are possible. All that is needed is a little research money and less interference from the big companies. Perhaps we might pressure our government to work on this. Environmentalists are not ter- ribly worried about Chernobyl be- ing repeated in Pickering, although accidents are not im- possible. The main problem is what to do with the fuel when it is spent. And the truth is that no one (yes, that's right, no one) has a very good answer. The attitude has been that we should go ahead with the development of nuclear power and hope something turns up to store the waste safely for several thousand years. So far nothing has turned up. We need energy, but we need to address the problems that come with it before we develop a new source of energy, not after it's too late. Or alternatively, we could try to conserve energy a little. Remember the oil scare a few years back? All of a sudden cars could be made with twice the gas mileage. Do you suppose the technology wasn't there before? Someone was making too much profit to let it be put into effect. And we could do much better, right now with our present technology. And people waste energy. They leave their cars running while they run into a store for ten minutes. We leave our lights on and our stereos and T.V.'s on, we overheat our houses in winter and overcool them in summer, we use electrical tools to open cans, chop carrots and heat our beds. We are a wasteful, overconsuming socie- ty. Maybe we don't think about tomorrow because we think tomorrow will never come. If we don't change our attitudes, and our habits, tomorrow never will come. Editorials like the June 5th one don't help matters in the least. - Yours truly, Michelle Bull The Heart Facts Can my diet pile, | lodicemy ANN chance of having Foard | a heart attack? Yes, choosing foods low in fat and high in complex carbohydrates can help reduce your chances of having a heart attack or stroke. Eat low fat dairy products; lean meat, fish and poultry; high fiber breads and cereals, and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables for your general well-being. : For more information, contact our local chapter of the Heart and troke Foundation of Ontario. Improving your odds against Canada's #1 killer LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Star encourages our readers to make use of the letters to the editor column to express their opinions and viewpoints on just about any subject, as we feel a lively letters column helps make a better community newspaper. We insist, however, that all letter writers sign their name. Sorry, no anonymous letters will be printed. For Better or For Worse® YOU LIKE. ME,0ONT¥QY Dogs DONT CARE (Ho ARE OR How \oL LOVE. 00 , FARLEY. (LL vou Rava' BPS) RRR RRR RRR by Lynn Johnston INSURANCE BR 193 QUEEN ST., PORT PERRY, ONT. 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