page 2 the tribune wednesday dec 24 1969 breath tests a good move despite the outcry of those who talk freedom for everyone which would turn out to be freedom for no one the breathalyzer tests which came into effect for motorists on monday are an excellent move con viction under the new law could mean a fine from 50 to 1000 six months in jail or both the penalty is the same if one refuses to provide a breath sample drinking drivers must be kept off the road at all costs as a drunk driver is a potential murderer behind the wheel of a car government surveys have told us that one out of every three fatal motor accidents involve a drinking driver and more than fifty percent of the christmas season fatal accidents involve a drinking driver britain has reduced such accidents nearly 15 and serious injuries nearly 12 such savings by our figures would spare 785 lives and 16- 500 injuries every year the carnage has existed now all too long and is particularly due to the slack penalties meted out for such offences with traffic increas ing by leaps and bounds the crack down must be hard and irresponsible drivers must be off the road for the safety of all the only way to be absolutely cer tain of avoiding a charge under this law is not to mix drinking and driv ing good news or bad why dont you print all the good news in that paper of yours how many times has this writer been chal lenged by this statement up and down the street its been the same as long as newspapers have been in existence probably if these people would change the statement around this way they might get the idea just turn the saying into no news is good news newspapers try to dig out the negative and the shameful and give them an airing if the newspaper doesnt who will in short good news is not always printed because good news is not al ways news when bad news is left covered and then discovered who will be the first to be jumped upon why the newspaper of course we must have been asleep weekly newspapers like the tri bune possibly do print more good news than any other media but these same newspapers to be truly doing their job must also give space to the not so pleasant otherwise they will be operating with their heads in the sand and so will their readers it just doesnt add up were entering a period socalled new culture but what a price were paying education costs are under study by the ontario legislature in ontario the figure has risen to one billion dollars how much is a billion the f igures show that back ten years ago the figure was just 177 million at this rate of advance the cost will be 5 billion by 1979 what are we getting for all this money during this period of sky rocketing education costs the way of life of canadians has gone into a slump morals have declined crime has increased there are protests against almost everything church af filiation has dropped is this the new culture educationists exert constant pres sure for new research projects new buildings new courses it spreads ever wider into every area of our lives to get away one has to be either dead or not yet born are we spending even more just to speed our progress downhill jqttmtotkfdjit dear mr editor the followup report to news that last august was deemed worthy of front page coverage with bold black edging for emphasis is now obscurely noted on page 15 of the dec 18 issue of this paper i refer of course to the item concerning criminal charges against mr george foote of which he has been declared not guilty i protest this unfair arranging of the news surely the dismissal of charges against a man is of as great impor tance to our community as is his re ported guilt responsible editing would have located this new informa tion in the same place as the first re port or is this paper not interested in helping to remove a stain upon a mans reputation many people who read the august report because of where and how you presented it will miss this december report for the same reasons but my fear goes even deeper for i am of the opinion that had the courts decision been reversed the news would have made the headlines in other words you are not interested in the real value of the news but in the commercial value it provides that real value must give considera tion to the welfare of the people mak ing the news and to the benefit it provides all men you have demon strated that the news media does not have this concern i regret having to express my ob jection but i cannot leave unchal lenged this obvious injustice gordon t gooderham pastor stouffville baptist church editors note if the good pastor had taken the time to enquire personally into the matter he would have learn ed that i the editor was absent last week on vacation and 2 the commercial value of news never has and i hope never will supplant its real value as suggested by the writer the placement of the story on page 15 was an unfortunate error with nothing intentional or personal involved it only goes to prove that all persons perhaps even ministers are guilty of making mistakes dear editor recently there has been a great preponderance of items in the tri bune concerning the matter of drugs and suggested drug use this is mt unique however since we are bom barded continuously by the news media with information on this prob lem what strikes me most emphatically is the consistency on the part of the general public to despair in the face of this undaunted invasion into the lives of our perplexed youngsters in my teen years 10 to 15 years ago it was children from broken or underprivileged homes who fell prey to this destruction but now it is children and young people from all stratas of society including church goers products of respectable con scientious upbringing no one can say my children are immune i came from a home in which the head of the house was engaged in teaching the dangers of alcohol for a living and i well knew how that first drink could begin the lonely downhill ride to worlds skid row i saw many a film depicting smashed cars and lives when alcohol and gaso line had a rendezvous on the high way but when i left home and paren tal restrictions at the first oppor tunity i was knowledgably sipping rye on the rocks does this mean i should have been taught how to drink at home really now do we show our tod dlers how to take small sips of bleach message for christmas xo you our good friends and customers were extending warm wishes for a bright and merry holiday season abounding with good cheer fellowship and joy and with deep appreciation we send along our many thanks for your thoughtful consideration all year serving you has indeed been our deepest pleasure and privilege hz wtthnnt james thomas peter harris noel edey tom vernon audrey smith dorothy moyer rosalie niehswander c h nolan publisher margery mertens glenys davis bert jackson stan schmidt bill stephenson carl mantz wilbert gower r harry hodge myrna curran betty acton elva nighswander george baker glenn thompson sugar and spice christmas is hairy as the getting-ready-for-christ- mas tempo around our house increas es from mild panic to wild hysteria i cant help thinking a long way back to the times when christmas was an experience to be anticipated with thrilling delight to be savoured when before dinner so they wont down the whole bottle when left alone do we drop pills into their mouths and shoot drugs into their veins to bring them along under the watchful eye of our family doctor we have tried culturing and edu cating and found it to be wanting even the young people chained by their habits can give no reason why they began knowing the ghastly fu ture awaiting them if they say yes to the pusher i shudder when i con template what may have been my fate had i not met someone who had an answer to my insatiable inner hunger and search for satisfaction at the age of 18 as long as parents adults skirt the only proven answer and seek for nonexistent remedies at best tem porary there will be a continual rise in drug use so much so it will be the norm rather than the exception to be high and go on trips our younger generation need to have an alternative presented to them there is a way out a way up a way back i am speaking of the eternal remedy for every dilemma of sinful mans making jesus christ until a young person discovers that true life is jesus christ he will suc cumb to many or all of the counter feits the deceiver lays in his path millions have found forgiveness of sin reality freedom love and peace in the person of jesus christ i did you can two books that may be helpful are the cross and the switchblade by david wilkerson and i believe in miracles by kathryn kulman jesus is the only final answer to drugs to any human problem you will find no other mrs delia soper rr 2 pickering it arrived rather than the inane ex hausting scramble it has become in these affluent times first real indication of christmas was the buying of the turkey in my home town there was an annual tur key fair late in november exciting for youngsters farmers brought their turkeys to town freshkilled and plucked but with heads feet and guts still there housewives wandered among the turkeys looking for the perfect bird pinching poking snif fing then it was hung in the wood shed by the feet a the right time it was brought in the pinfeathers plucked with care head and feet chopped off and guts removed then the scent of home made dressing filled the air it was a real turkey today we elbow and shove our way along the meat counter gazing at a row of pallid yellowwhite lumps wrapped in plastic legs neatly tucked in thev all look the same and they all taste the same wet paper but we are secure in the knowledge that we dont have to disembowel them that they are eviscerated and that the giblets are in a nice little bag tucked inside the frozen carcass i cant quite believe that they have ever been real turkeys that have walked and eaten and fought and mated getting the tree was the next step you went out into the country with your kid brother walked half a mile into the bush and selected a beautiful spruce one cutting the other watch ing for the farmer you dragged and by bill smiley carried it sometimes two miles home there was a great sense of satisfac tion today we go down to a christmas tree lot fumble through a pile of halffrozen crumby scotch pines select the least misshapen take it hme and when it thaws discover that the frozen side has a gap the length of your arm in it this after forking over a small ransom there is a great sense of dissatisfaction decorations in those days were simnle inexpensive but just right strings of red paper bells venerable but cheery strings of red and green curled tee nrer all over the house the tree itself had icicles and some colored balls a few wealthy people had colored lights on top was a homemade angel today on decorations alone some people spend what would have fed a family in those days for two months fancy candles storebought wreaths of ersatz holly colored lights every where inside and out trees that are almost hidden from the naked eye by festoons of fribbery buying gifts in those days was simpie compared to the frenetic busi ness it is today there was scarcely any money then and everybody need ed something so it was long under wear or a handknit sweater socks or gloves maybe a few real luxuries like a 59cent game of snakes and ladders or a book ten dollars didnt go far even then today people almost go around the bend trying to find something for othr people who have everything or wlte rxhum established 1888 c h nolan publisher jim thomas editor nofcl edey advertising published every thursday by inland publishing co limited at 51 main st stouftville ont tel i02101 single copies 13e subscriptions 500 per year in canada 50 elsewhere member of audit bureau of circulation canadian weekly newspapers association and ontario weekly newspapers association second class mail registration number 0396 yes tina there is a santa claus by jim thomas her name is christine beattie to her mom and dad brothers and school chums shes just plain tina but plain is hardly the proper word to describe this cute little nine year old in fact shes quite the op posite pretty polite and bright as a new silver dollar less than three weeks ago how ever the prospects of a merry christ mas for tina were anything but bright and while the tragic circum stances that surrounded her young life had failed to dim the sparkle in her dark brown eyes there was little hope of improvement her father was in hospital her mother should have been if any home in the whole wide world was destined to be missed by st nick in his nightflight christmas eve tinas humble abode would be it dec 25 would be just another day in 305 but such a thing could net occur in stouffville there are just too many parents of too many tinas to let it news of the familys plight soon spread and the response was not confined to this community alone for many miles on every side offers of aid poured in a stouffville church congrega tion donated a christmas turkey a senior resident of parkview home sent along a cheque for 10 a sympathetic lady on rupert avenue donated a blanket a chair and a house plant a stouffville man and former reeve gave 100 in cash the lions health and welfare committee redecorated the familys apartment the children of glasgow public school conducted a canvass in two rooms and donated 1550 the sum was then matched by their teacher the list could go on and on cloth ing canned goods groceries and toys and many were accompanied by heartwarming letters all of which i have on file one i feel deserves re peating its from a grade 4 boy it reads as follows dear mr thomas here is six dol lars i saved it from my paper route please put it to some good use for the family i read about in the tri bune maybe for tina im nine years old same age as her i feel you and me are something the same were both newspaper men excepting you make it and i deliver it i walk my route every afternoon after school it takes almost a full hour some day i hope to have a bike and was saving the money for it but whats a bike when some folks dont even have a turkey or a christmas tree my mom doesnt know im do ing this im sure she wont mind cause she knows i earned it by my self maybe shell be even proud cause shes all the time helping others too when you see tina or her mom and dad tell them merry christmas for me i dont know them and they dont know me but my christmas will be better if theirs is bye billy its because of you and boys like billv that tina is assured of the merriest christmas ever yes tina there is a santa claus can buy it nobody makes a gift they buy them they havent time because of the christmas rush clothes that dont fit eightdollar toys that last five minutes a hundred dollars worth of ski equipment that isnt the right kind christmas eve then was carols around the piano mother stuffing the turkey kids to bed early quiver ing with excitement stockingstuf fing time for the adults a quiet chat with a little despair that there wasnt money for skates and new winter coats and things like that today its frantic lastminute shop ping and wrapping of gifts entertain ing people who have managed to fin ish their ratrace we got to bed at 1 am last year after receiving carol- lers and others and believe it or not we had frozen chicken pies for christ mas dinner hope im not getting maudlin but christmas used to be merry now its just hairy