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8 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Wednesday, May 22, 1991 AWOL prisoner enjoys his day of 'freedom' in Port Perry From Page 7 monsters who make such ac- tivities a chancy pursuit. I know. I've lived with more than a few. Port Perry, the main drag, Queen Street if I remember cor- rectly, and I recall that more for what there wasn't than what there was. No shabby elderly with patchwork clothing and satchels, no juvenile prostitutes and no very young with terrified eyes. No predators. No blatant 'rudeness and ignorance -- no manifest in- humanity. Oh, it was and is pro- bably around, but I got the distinct feeling that the people I saw wouldn't tolerate such things -- that they'd do whatever had to be done in very short order to put it right. At least I'd like very, very ifiuch to think that. I did a 'few more things and saw a few more LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Star encourages our readers to make use of the letters to. the editor column to. express their opinions and vi about any subject, as we feel a lively letters column helps make a - ints on just people too. A very nice lady in a book store. who wanted to make quite sure that I found something agreeable to read. A gal at the - Port Perry Star who I sincerely hope will never "'get discovered" and turned into an electronic clone -- an older couple who col- laborated on giving me the big- gest ice-cream cone they could get through the pick-up window. For an AWOL prisoner it was quite an experience in positive liv- ing, because things like sensual deprivation and many shades of callousness and cruelty are more than just words where I've been living for a number of years, and better community newspaper. We insist, however, that all letter writers sign their name. Sorry, no anonymous letters will be printed. where I'll be returning. But also, and I think this is very By land or by water you run into them, ple who should never have been allowed behind the wheel of any vehicle. Fun in the water is not so fun when you en- counter idiots (for lack of a better word) like the ones | have come across recently. Since | was young, our family has enjoyed the recreational sports: of waterskiing, boating, along with the recent crazes of kneeboarding, and tubing. It was always fun to take ped in these activities without a second thought that there would be any danger to whomever was tugging on the ski"rope. There was never a thought of danger on this quiet little lake in Hali- burton Highlands. What changed, well a couple of young men with a death wish bought a cottage down the lake, and that safe, quiet lake is now absolute mayhem. While most of the cottagers on the lake are driving their 50, 60, or 70 h.p. Mercury's and Evinrudes responsibly, these gentleman from down the lake are continuously driving their 200 Mercury full out and playing chicken with other boats, canoes, and believe it or not water- skiers. One close call too many came last year when they decided it would be fun to cut across the wake behind our boat.- What he may not have known, or maybe he did know, is we had a fal- len waterskier, but despite our waving and hol- lering he sped between us. This gentleman??!! was looking straight ahead not a care in the world except how much speed he could muster up by the time he passed us, and never noticed hg allen waterskier he missed by only mere inches. The five W's | learned in school quickly came to mind. Who does this fool think he is? Why is he allowed to operate a boat? What could pos- sibly be going on in his mind? Where are his brains? When was he going to learn, when it is too late? How could we teach him a lesson. | decided that hoping for a police patrol boat to catch him was useless, as | haven't seen one on our lake since | was about nine years of age. Earlier this year my husband and | purchased a boat, with a large motor, and | decided that maybe we should give him a taste of his own medicine. | have half a mind to follow him around the lake in his wake, and see if he can Back Talk by Kelly Lown take a hint. | quickly put this out of my mind, as | realized | would have to have only half a brain to do this. | only wish that | could have a temporary lapse of conscience, and compassion for hu- man life, just long enough to have the courage to stick to the back of his boat like a magnet, just long enough to scare his zest for boating right out of him. Maybe then, and only then it will not be so funny if we came up on his tail, equipped with dark shades, loud music, and played chicken with his waterskier. My whole point is, how do these people get away with it. Well | have decided there is a sim- ple explanation, no one of any authority has ever asked them to stop. Where are the police patrol boats when these fools are risking every- one's life who is on the water? If these same boaters were to weave in and out of traffic, tailgate cyclists, they would be charged and stopped on the highways, why not on the waterways as well? | am not saying that every boater with a large motor is "hell on pontoons", but the few that are should be straightened out and quick. Most boaters, myself included have taken- upon ourselves a habit that is hard to break. Call us strange, but most boaters tend to slow down when we are closing in on smaller ves- sels such as canoes, aluminum fishing boats, and paddle boats, and even stranger when we see a waterskiier, or kneeboarder, common sense steers the boat the other direction. Maybe it is time for the police to do some- thing about these boaters. It seems in the win- ter snowmobilers are constantly warned of their dangerous driving habits, why not boaters. The only time | have seen police or Minisity officials uestion boaters, they tend to stop and talk to the ones who are anchored. These boaters are given the third degree, how many lifejackets, al- cohol on boat, bailing can, horn, lights? We should all have these items aboard for oyr own safety, | understand that perfectly. The conflict | have is what good are these things going to do us other boaters. Afterall, we boaters are going to require more than a bailing can if these pecple are not stopped. Maybe boaters should also be required to carry a horseshoe, or four-leaf-clover. by Lynn Johnston GENEROSITY, EL-AND GENEROUS TOA 3 VICTIMS OF THEIR Cu fal FACE (T.- WERE 10. important, where a whole lot of people live right now who are free and who haven't done anything wrong at all. What they are is poor or defenceless and scared and lonely. So though I don't know much at all about people like Premier Rae I have to thank him for putting people ahead of money cause that's always where people belong -- and I can't help but think that money wouldn't be.the big problem it is if waste was eliminated and priorities were properly attached. And I guess that's about all I have to say except that you are very lucky in Port Perry, pro- bably because you deserve to be. But don't forget that there are monsters, and that if you stop car- ing and stop trying and stop believing, nothing can stop them from being real there too. And if all that sounds very sim- ple and uncomplicated, things like real justice and genuine truth tend to be very fundamental, and only when the responsibility for their integrity is surrendered to some agency or person or politi- cian, do they become subject to translation. The buck doesn't stop somewhere way over our h&ads. It stops and it should stop with each one of us. Me? I'm just try- ing to get mine back. : Thank you, David Clifford Maltby, . Whitby Jail May 10, 1991 Editor's Note: David Clifford Maltby came to Port Perry in mid-April while on a day pass from Warkworth Prison where he was serving a nine-year sentence for holding a hostage at an embassy in Ottawa. While in Port Perry, he gave an exclusive interview to reporter Julia Dempsey before being cap- tured by Durham Police. On May 16, he was given an ad- ditional four months in prison for being "unlawfully at large." Disappointed with NDP To the Editor: As a voter in the Province of Ontario, I am very disappointed with the competence of the new NDP government. Over the last six months, I have watched the new government betray a commitment to bring GO train service northeast out of Metro to Peterborough. I have watched as seven infamous NDP MPP's east of Metro refused to attend a meeting in Ashburn, On- tario, called by the affected passenger group. Instead, an anonymous bureaucrat was sent to monitor the meeting and report back its events, his presence totally unan- nounced and never declared. It seems these seven cowardly: representatives are prepared to. push their election betrayal to the bitter end, with a '"dam the torpedoes' arrogance. Well, as one of our members who did attend the meeting ex- claimed with visceral exaspera- tion, "enough is enough!" And I want these seven politicians to know, there is one very monstrous torpedo just below the surface of this issue that will come back to haunt not just them but all of us. I know how Paul Pagnuelo, David Lester and others worked so hard, pushed through so many doors and fought so tenaciously to make this GO train service come to life. And I know how totally betrayed they feel by the decision to run buses to the Lakeshore GO train instead. I know I'm sick of listening to politicians promise anything to get elected and then betray the voters once elected. I'm sick of watching politicans waste millions of hard-earned tax dollars on phony solutions to phony. problems for no other reason than to cover their political posteriors while the real problems just get worse and worse. And I'm sick of listening to these same pompous fools then try to defend their abysmal policy because they have the majority with which to run it down our throats. "Whether it's the federal Tories with their policies that have brought us both high taxes and high unemployment or New Democrats with this travesty and Lord knows what else to. come, the growing perception is, the system isn't working. This belief probably best manifests itself in the emergence of numerous fringe parties and contributed to the NDP's majori- ty position with only 38 percent of the popular vote. People are becoming ever more distrustful of the main line parties and are displaying this distrust by voting for fringe parties to police the "old boys." This tendency will probably result in five federal parties elec- ting at least thirty members each in the next federal election and certainly if your government con- tinues to emit a suffocating stench out of Queen's Park, we could see the , same phenomenon provincially. I don't think any of us know where this many party format is going to take us, but unless the main line parties clean up their act and become more ethical and competent in pursuing their politics, the slide into multi-party anarchy will be inevitable, ir- reversible and perhaps most tragic of all, completely justified. Yours sincerely, Jim Wilson, R.R. 11, Peterborough, Ont. EMME INSURANCE BROKERS LIMITED 193 QUEEN ST., PORT PERRY, ONT. LIL 1B9 - PHONE (416) 985-7306 ALL LINES OF GENERAL INSURANCE HOMEOWNERS - FARM - AUTO COMMERCIAL SON * » . ha BT NG SS RS EPRI -- A aN ER TOI 39 " tn. = RAT ------ Rapa RE ee et ee ae i