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p 4 weekendr satcjrdar november 8 1997 st saturday november 8 1997 vol 13 no 45 the tribune comment send your letters to the editor to the address below editorial please remember to vote on monday monday is election day the tribune is not going to tell you how to vote thats your decision we are however going to tell you to vote the 1994 municipal election saw about 30 per cent of the eligi ble voters turn out to cast a ballot thats appalling come on people surely we can do better than that this time around for those who think its a waste of time to vote especially in municipal elections please think again this is the level of government that is closest to you its also the level at which you can make yourself heard this newspaper hears almost endless complaining about things which happen in the town people are upset about a host of prob lems obviously they care about whats going on in the town however when it comes time to vote and actually make a step towards doing something many of these people fall strangely quiet voting is a privilege there are a lot of countries in the world where democratic rights are nonexistent we on the other hand are blessed to live a free country dont forget though that this freedom came at a very high price its appropriate that this election takes place the day before remem brance day people gave their lives so you can vote on monday please use your privilege designer water selling like hotcakes all day i face the barren waste and crave the taste of water coooooooooooool water old song lyric some day thousands of years from now anthropologists from a distant galaxy will come to earth to study the fossilized traces of the human popula tion that once thrived here and theyre going to be mystified not by the hulking relics of our sky scrapers not by whats left of our libraries or our computers or our cracked and crumbling superhighway systems no its the water bottle empties that will drive them nuts theyre made of plastic for starters that means theyll probably still be around thousands of years from now our garbage dumps and landfill sites middens the arche- ologists will call them will be rad dled and infested with empty water containers evian perrier canada glacier pelligrino and several dozen other brand names and the alien arche- ologists wont be able to figure out why religious artifact fetish symbol primitive form of currency advanced chemical analysis will reveal that all the bottles ever contained was water why would a civilization even one as bar barous as the human one carry around containers full of the cheapest most plentiful substance on the planet a substance that was readily available from lakes rivers wells fire hydrants even hot and col running faucets in each and every domestic household its not hard to figure out why folks in beirut or acapulco or even paris buy bottled water the stuff that comes out of their taps is undrinkablc i even understand why people in toronto drink bottled water the stuff that comes out of toronto taps is safe to drink but it basic black arthur black tastes like it was piped in from the shal low end of the swimmingpool similarly i can understand why folks in winnipeg were snapping up cases of bottled water during and after the horri ble spring floods they lived through last spring what i dont fully understand is how companies like evian perrier and canada glacier can make a living sell ing water to the other 95 percent of canadians the vast majority of whom have perfectly good drinking water in their kitchens their bathrooms hell even in their washing machines is spring water better than tap water theres no guarantee springs can be as easily contaminated as any other ground water besides who says the this strike not about school its about power dear editor thank you teachers for your efforts on behalf of the students of this province the removal of teacher services would not have been neces sary if the public had mounted a serious protest against this govern ment unfortunately premier har ris has been and is continuing to misinform the public about the main issues in this dispute standardized testing standard ized reports more parental involve ment are not issues in this strike teacher preparation time is not a main issue although it is an impor tant issue to secondary teachers because students receive individual assistance in this period power is a main issue should vir tually all decisionmaking functions be removed from local boards and placed in the hands of the cabinet not even the legislature bill 160 does this the other main issue is funding can removing a billion dollars more from our educational funding be in the best interests of our students premier harris asks teachers to put students first is he putting students first with cuts of this magnitude our oh so pious premier is now condemning teachers for their law- letter lessness in having the courage to protest government policies did he expect teachers to twiddle their thumbs and say oh dear people have a right and at times even a duty to protest teachers i applaud you for your courage determination and willing ness to accept the high emotional and considerable financial costs of your actions bruce johnston stuff you paid a couple of bucks for ever saw a spring it wasnt until last year that us authorities got around to regulating the term spring water until then any entrepreneur could drain dump truck radiators into bottle and sell it legally over the counter as honest freds pure spring water since 1 996 anything labelled spring water must actually come from a spring one giant step for mankind no the truth is designer water is sell ing like hotcakes because a handful of hollywood types like pamela anderson lee tom cruise and melanie griffiths have appeared in public clutching their designer water bottles the way linus clutches his security blanket this has made it chic and trendy to be seen in public sucking on a bottle of water indeed some yupoid types wont leave home without it 1 hate to be the one to tell them theyve been had so ill let the new york times do it a couple of months ago the times ran an expose that showed more than a third of all bottled water sold in the us is merely filtered tap water in other hustlers arc selling water for a dollar a quart that costs them 11 0th of a cent to draw from their tap even pt barnum never figured out a scam that brazen the times further reports that several american cities including houston texas are finalizing plans to put their municipal water in plastic bottles and sell it up on the shelves right alongside the expensive exotic brands they figure if people arc dumb enough to pay for a substance they can get for free then the municipal coffers might as well see some of the action too after all it doesnt take a genius to figure out what evian spells backwards stouffville tribune weekender a metroland community newspaper patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief tracy kibble 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 9056402x00 retail sales 905 6402100 classifieds 905 6402874 distribution 905 6402100 fax 9056405477 email thetribistarca 6244 main st stouffville ont l4a1e2 the stouffville tribune pub lished every tuesday thursday and saturday in one sot the metroland printing publishing and distribution group of commu nity newspapers which includes ajaxpickering nows advertiser alllston heraldcourier barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post cityparenl collingwoodwasaga beach con nection east york mirror etobi- coko guardian georgetown inde pendentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week markham economist a sun midlandpenctanguishene mirror milton canadian champion mis- sissauga news newmarketaurora brabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakvllle beaver oriiha today oshawa- whilbyclaringtonport perry this week peterborough this week richmond huirhornhlllvaughan liberal scarborough mirror and uxbridge tribune todays seniors contents cannot be reprinted with- out written permission from the publisher permit 1247 the pub lisher reserves the right to refuse or classify an advertisement credit for advertisement limited to space the error occupied letters policy the tribune welcomes your letters to the editor please keep letters to no more than 300 words note that letters may be edited for space libel spelling grammar while we endeavor to print as many letters as possible we regret that not all let ters may be printed