Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday, October 2, 2002 - 2 ) A ocna (+CNA NO Weekly Times Subscriptions $29.91 + $2.09 G.S.T. = $32.00 per year. - Publications Mail Registration No. 09301 • Agreement No. 40012366 Publishing 48 Issues Annually at the Office of Publication We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs. ■" Staling E.ist Cl.inngton j/ni l^'yonJ since /.*V, Orono Weekly Times 5310 Main Street, P.O. Box 209, Orono, Ontario LOB 1M0 E-mail: oronotimes@speedline.ca • Phone/Fax 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart s The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly Times. Letters must be signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Notice of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the loss or damage of such items. Super schools, way of the future? by,Anita DeVries Politics is often perplexing, and at times it's downright downright maddening! Closing schools and making kids learn in portables just to get more funding from the province, which in the end will cost taxpayers more, is ludicrous. But that is exactly what a recently released consultant's consultant's report is recommending the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board do. The consultant's report'recommends report'recommends closing The Pines and Clarke and building brand new schools! There's no doubt that it will cost v more money to do that than to just keep the schools running. The reason behind the recommended change T is so the government will be forced to pay more monéy to the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. The Ministry of Education is responsible for the capital expense of building new schools, which will be under capacity from day one, giving the school board maximum maximum funding. The report wants to close The Pines Senior Public School by the 2003/04 school year and send all the grade 7's and 8's back to the schools they came from. For Orono, Kirby and Newtonville, that would mean portables. The health risks of portables have been examined a number of times, and plans are underway to make them safer and better, but still, who wants to learn in a portable, especially when the relatively new Pines (27- years-old) is sitting abandoned in the field? Kirby Centennial and Newtonville Public Schools are also slated for closure. The four-year-old junior kindergarten kindergarten kids would then be bussed into town (Orono or Newcastle), surrounded by many unfamiliar faces, whom over the course of their eight years at the school they would still never become totally familiar with (whatever happened to a sense of community?). No matter how the funding policies work it is still the taxpayers who will be paying the bill. Even if the school board is allocated more money, in the end, the students will hopefully (after suffering for a bit in portables) be getting the same service. Whenever you just focus on the financial aspect of things you will be left in the lurch. So, the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board will win more money, students will lose their battle to stay out of portables, parents will lose their small, secure community schools, and taxpayers, as always, will end up paying more for less. VIEWPOINT By Alex Shepherd, MP Durham East There are some profound questions Canadians should be asking about the state of world affairs as they affect us. For example, does inflicting injury and death on the people of Iraq have anything to do with the so-called war on Terrorism? The U.S. ambassador to Canada has said we should spend more on continental security. Does his comment have more to do with the promotion promotion of the U.S. defence industry as opposed to providing providing continental security? It is unclear what role Iraq played in the World Trade Centre disaster. It is likely there is little or no connection. connection. Still the Bush administration administration is using the events of last September 11th to justify military intervention. Recently I read a newspaper newspaper story that stated the U.S. will strike first at anyone it considers an enemy. How strange, and Draconian, that this policy approach has been accepted by western countries. If the U.S. said this in the 60's or 70's the streets would be full of protestors. Its alarming that today everyone sits contemplatively as the United States engages in a unilateral approach to world affairs. Americans give Bush the benefit of the doubt when his administration proclaims states of emergency at home. But you have to stop and wonder if there is a real threat of terrorist attacks or if the proclamations only serve to terrorize Americans. This form of propaganda serves only to help Americans accept a militarists power agenda complete with big investments in military spending spending to benefit U.S. weapons manufacturers. Weapons manufacturers pay hefty lobbying lobbying fees and are huge contributors contributors to politicians' campaigns. campaigns. It makes no sense to me that the U.S. plans to fight AI Qeada terrorists, who don't use conventional weapons, by using more conventional weaponry instead of diligent use of intelligence gathering and policing. ITie U.S. Congress' blind acceptance of Bush's approach to foreign policy and defence reflects just how ignorant Americans are about the world around them. One would think that in the aftermath of 9/11 Americans would be more concerned about establishing a proper foreign and defence policy for themselves. Instead they have concluded might-is-right. Therefore, every time you don't trust someone you invade their home and maim their families. I'm no defender of Saddam Hussein. I'm certain he's a despot but likely no more so than hundreds of others around the world, many of whom the U.S. supports. The matter is so surreal that we are led back to the writings writings of George Orwell. He said if we don't have an enemy we better invent one, because we need to justify our Continued on page 5