The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

~"Page'4, News, Wediiésday, December 14 , 1988 The Terrace Bay-Schreiber News is published every Wednesday by Laurentian Publishing Limited, Box 579, Terrace Bay, Ont., POT-2W0 Tel.: 807-825-3747. Second class mailing permit 0867. Member of the Ontario Community Newspaper Assn. and the Canadian Community Newspaper Assn. Editorial Page == General Managev......Paul Marcon SNE siieke Sanstiier ec: David Chmara Admin. Asst..........Gayle Fournier Production Asst...Carmen Dinner specie Pr Single copies 40 cents. Subscription rates: $15 per year / $25 two years (local) and $21 per year (out of town). International relations after Gorbachev's U.N. speech So, Mikhail Gorbachev made recent history last week by being the first Russian leader on American soil since Nikita Khrushchev, 25 years ago. It was quite a different visit from the one Khrushchev took to the U.N. - made memorable from the scene he made thumping his shoe on the podium as he spoke. This time, the result of the proposals Gorbachev made could change the world for the better to one that is more unit- ed and with less tension between the two super powers. But it was only 4 years ago in Iceland that Gorbachev sug- gested to the U.S. the two countries destroy half their nuclear 'arsenals - and the States backed down. I guess they felt blow- ing up the whole world 20 times each wasn't enough. This time, following the unilateral decreases by the Soviet Union, it seems incumbent upon the U.S. to make some sort of reciprocal move. It has been suggested, that because the reductions the Soviets will make will bring conventional forces to more of an even level, the U.S. should destroy some of its nuclear warheads. Should the States take this action, it could lead to a new era of international relations and further military reductions. One of reciprocal reductions instead of, or possibly even along with mutual treaties. This proposal by Gorbachev seems to be only the begin- ning of a new era in world politics. Within Russia drastic changes are taking place. No longer is it the secretive enemy it once was. This new openness, Parastroyka, Glasnos, call it what you will, it can only serve to improve superpower rela- tions. Then there's Yasser Arafat, PLO leader, saying Palestinians are willing to officially recognize the right of Israel to exist. A move that could lead to a diffusion. of 'tensions~in the Mid- East, if the U.S. and Israel take a more accepting attitude towards the Palestinian offer. Here too, the U.S. can play a major role. But this doesn't seem very likely considering their refusal to grant Arafat a visa to speak at the U.N. The Soviets also want the U.N. to play a more active role in peace keeping, specifically in Afghanistan. Considering the drastic changes in Russia, and throughout the rest of the world, the U.S. should review its own foreign policies and take a more conciliatory approach to solving the world's prob- lems. If they do, they can help bring real "Peace on Earth" this Christmas and in the years to come. Christmas is a confusing time. You can hear "O Come All Ye Faithful" in St. Martin's, the Community Church or in Zellers; You can hear the Bible Story about Jesus being born in "Bethlehem of Judea" or read the Times News headline announcing that (because of political conflict) Christmas will not be celebrated in Bethlehem this year. The commercial yuletide is so hopelessly mixed up with the birth of "A Saviour Who is Christ the Lord" that it is impossible to unrav- el in those precious few shopping days before X-mas. Can anything be done? Perhaps the only thing we can do is to open our senses up to the traditional signs of Christmas...If we listen very carefully we may hear voices singing "Glory to God, peace on earth" and we may hear Mikhail Gorbachev speaking of a new understanding between East and West, and a challenge coming to us to end a personal conflict. If we observe shepherds leaving their flocks and coming to the sta- ble in Bethlehem we may see Yasser Arafat leaving the Gaza Strip to speak of recognizing the State of Israel, at the United Nations and we may be encouraged to visit a neglected friend of ours. If we look up we may See a star brighter than all others in the sky and noticing three powerful rulers on a journey, may follow them to Joseph and Mary's lodging place. And we too may kneel and worship with prayer and carol the vulnera- ble baby whose potential is there to change with love, the world for good and always. - Keep your ears and eyes open this Christmas for a wonderful experience. David Sparks, Minister of the Community Church The very best thing that can be said about Election '88 is that it's over. It was a very painful experience for me -- and not just because the Rhinos failed once again to form the government. It was painful because I deviated from my normal election night procedure. - | paid attention to this one: Normally on election night, I don a sandwich board reading VOTE FOR SALE and stand outside the poling booth until ° some campaign worker makes me an offer (a mess of pottage is the minimum ante). Vote sold and all ' that loose change in my pocket making me 'list to port (or cooking sherry in a pinch) I make my way back to my tree hut, there to stretch myself out in front of a warm TV to watch Laverme and Shirley reruns. At 8 p.m., I tune in CBC Radio to find out who's going to be the next PM. I know all votes haven't been counted and that most folks west of the Sleeping Giant haven't even made their X Pf ee eS eo Pe Messrs. Gallup and- Goldfarb, Reid and Environics have cast their spells and read their chicken entrails. By 8 p.m., the sinister polstergeists can -- and do -- tell us who will park his loafers in the closets of 24 Sussex and how many of his henchpersons he'll take with him. So there's really no point in sitting glued to your TV or radio on election night, waiting breathlessly to hear from polling station 26 in Naim, Labrador. I knew that, and still I did a foolish thing. I not only listened to CBC Radio, I actually went down into the lower bowel of CBC Headquarters and sat with the reporters and pundits and numbers crunchers, watching them analyze the results as they dribbled in. I thought it would be exciting to be at Action Central. I was wrong. It was boring. It was numbingly, stupefyingly, mind- erodingly boring. In terms of thrills, I would place. the experience somewhere between wino-epae amis ~an: a Ey ee ee ee ee stuck in an elevator in an un-air conditioned highrise on the equator. But then, I'm not a political junkie. Unlike the other folks in that room, I don't get a visceral rush from the realization Black that, with 67 percent of the polls reported, someone I never heard of from some riding I never knew existed has a slim lead over a lot of other people I never heard of. The best thing about Election '88 - it's over the whole experience? Yeah, one. A six-page, computer printout I stole as a memento from Action Central Election Headquarters. It's a listing of each and every federal riding in the country. I know. . . sounds boring. But it isn't. It's thrilling. Are you worried about the Americanization of Canada? Well, to paraphrase the President Elect, read my list: Medicine Hat, Wild Rose, Yellowhead, Souris Moose Mountain, Cariboo Chilcotin. Not exotic enough from you? ' How about Esquimault Juan de Fuca? Okanagan Similkameen Merrit? If you string the names together, it becomes like a vast geographical tone ~-poem summoning up the ghosts of Indians, voyageurs and other Canadian visionaries past -- Hochelaga, Maisonneuve, Restigouche, Matepedia, Wetaskiwin, Jonquierre,: Longelier, Selkirk; Ahuntsic, Malpeque. eed oy Se ee, See and rolling like a John Crosbie soliloquy. Bonavista, Trinity, Conception -- that's one riding. Humber St. Barbe Baie Verte is another. 5 Mind' you, it's not: all Wordsworthian, this riding-by-- riding printout. I wish someone had worked a little longer on names like Kent, Egmont, and York West. Also,for that matter, on Hastings-Front-Lennox and _Addington. That's all one riding, but it sounds like a Bay Street _law firm. Scottish names abound -- Dundurn and MacLeod and Glengarry, Prescott and Russell. Thank God for the infusion of French and native names to cut the unrelieved plaid, or we'd begin to look like the roll call: from the Battle of Culloden. But, there's not much chance of that. When you see names like Okanagan Shuswap, Dauphin Swan River, Nunatsiaq and Temiscamingue, there's only one country you can be in. Only in Canada you say? You lhateha