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p 4 the tribune thursday may 15 1997 thursday may 15 1997 vol 109 no 22 the tribune com merit 0 inions st send your letters to the editor to the address below editorial familiar issues in york school board teacher negotiations it may be an endless summer for local high school students this year if the york region board of education and the pub lic secondary school teachers union dont get their act together in negotiations for a new contract high school doors will remain closed come september while many students may find the idea of an extend ed summer holiday appealing it will certainly cause havoc for parents and not to mention that senior stu dents applying to university or college could be adversely affected at issue is the boards desire to change the collective agreement with the teachers while legal the union has not surprisingly said it will strike if the board takes such action negotiators for the ontario secondary school teach ers federation say they have been asked to take 9 mil lion in concessions they say this will lead to a loss of jobs and an increase in class sizes these issues seem familiar as the public board and its elementary teachers also took negotiations down to the wire this spring the issues were also similar in the recent york university strike which had calamitous effects on the students who are just this week getting back to classes hopefully both sides in the york boardteacher dis pute will realize the students are the most important people in these negotiations and a settlement can be reached without a strike train recalls a great trip the ol train whistle will be blowing again this weekend as the york durham heritage railway gets rolling on its first complete season on the rails between stouffville and uxbridge taming the savage breast dear editor re the ongoing controversy over women having the legal right to be bare- breasted in public in ontario although i support individuals having the legal right to be completely naked in public i am disgusted by feminists who whine that women are being unfairly dis criminated against because unlike mens breasts womens breasts have been natu rally preserved in part to be highly erogenous meaning that they are physio logically sexual and consequently women but not men are legally required to conceal their breasts in public in provinces other than ontario letters i openly admit that these feminists false allegation that ccc section 173 1 a which concerns public indecency acts on a sexist double standard outside of ontario and this would not annoy me nearly so much if i did not suffer from breast envy as a man i wish that my breasts were as erogenous not to be con fused with erotic as those of the aver age woman even if i were legally required to conceal them in public as a result of their being such sheldon warnock teens could learn from bible dear editor i am responding to a letter published in the april 23 edition in the opinion section i am a 1 5yearold and a grade 1 0 student i totally agree with what james pitenis said about the abandonment of the bible i notice that kids not only have no respect for elders but no respect for friends teens and themselves the only people they seem to respect and admire are people in movieson tv who play pro sports and musicians you cant tell me that thats a good thing certainly the bible gave me a higher moral standard when i became more familiar with it for example i dont smoke i try not to swear my manners are better and i try to give a person a chance more often than i would have before the bible is relevant whether it is the past the present or the future the only reason this is true is because the author already knows every thing praise the lord andrew winegarden there is something about a persons first ride on the rails and my own was something i dont think ill ever forget having grown up in the north my only exposure to train travel was a brief jaunt on the subway while on a trip to toronto my first real train trip came in 1969 in britain on a crosscountry trip to london i was six and like most sixyearolds the scenery held little inter est for me so my brothers and i decided a train would be a great place to play hide and seek my older brother counted and while my parents dozed i scrambled out of the cabin to find a suitable hiding spot my younger brother was caught quite easily being a three-year- old he simply sat where we was beside my mother and covered his face with his hands then giggled mania cally when my older brother found him i meanwhile had found a great spot to conceal myself a steel cabinet in the porters closet oh i was wickedly clever they would never find me in here i thought this was very nearly true apparent ly about 45 minutes after i went missing the entire train set out to find the errant sixyearold who had somehow disappeared off a britrail train hurtling 100 minute with mair andrew mair kilometres an hour through the english countryside the panic was heightened by my mother who had heard on the bbc that morning that a woman in the punjab had given birth while on the loo the facili ties where open air meaning they emptied directly onto the tracks by some miracle the baby was found alive even though three trains had roared over it my mother i guess thought i might have fallen in and was demanding the train be stopped to search the tracks i meantime had fallen quite asleep in my little hideaway from the rhythmic rocking of the train had it not been for a person in the bar car who had made a mess of themselves requir ing the services of the porter and some spic and span i might be there still i remember what hap pened next best hysterical screaming and wailing with relief has a way of making an impression on you at that age i hope to be out riding theydhr soon and i hope to see you there just be sure to go before you leave the house stouffville tribune patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief alan shackleton editor debra weller director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager about us news 9056402100 m m 905 fax 9056405477 ca i tub i lubfcd every ft i nd slurdaj melrolond pr pi- y thurwlav lmy newapapm which iijcludfljc i ajtxpjckuring nntvs advert ir alluton horaldcourior brrl advance braaptcm gimrdtat bnrtlnffffi fohi cityharenw coluflcwodwfcjt tkaob con- uertioo kttt york mirror kt oofce guxrriun guorgriotro peodrtacpa r kbinton thto we ff4m mldlndf mflfnn cnndufn ituuntv erbnner new north york ber ortllu ibday oami whitvycirli1ionport pwtv thi week peterborough thin weuk blchmoad hilimornwayush liber f uibrsdjo conlenm krvanrnrt bnnberut ugh mirror an vjimayisenlo he reprinted icll cut written ptnalwivo frum ih putiluijutti permit i247 thu pub uwraserve u right co xefum or cuwuy on advdrtufmanl credit for advorilmmenl limited letters policy the tribune welcomes your 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