Page 4, News, Wednesday, June 22, 1988 TERRACE BAY Mg sree ee is weap a Wednesday by: Laurentian Publishing Subscription rates per year ea : q . Lid., Box , Terrace Bay, Ontario, -2WO. Telephone: (807) 825-3747. int 5.00/yr. SCHREIBER Second Class Mailing Permit Number 0867 i fie ieee es out of town $21.00/yr. Se cea orn a el alg, ocethng ys case cadnceoseevanee Greg Huneault! Member of Ontario Community 2 - General Manager/Advertising............cscssssssesscesescesees Paul Marcon: | Newspapers Association and The @ CN A ; Administrative Assistant..............csscsescsssscecsseseseees Gayle Fournier Canadian Community Newspapers = Production ASSistant........s.sccsssessssssscseesssseessnseesees Carmen Dinner Association A perpetual smoke screen In a landmark legal case last week, a cigarette manufac- turer was held liable for the death of a 58-year-old woman who had smoked for 40 years. She had died before the con- clusion of the four-month trial, and her husband continued the suit against the tobacco company. The decision of the jury to point a nicotiné-stained fin- ger at a maker of cigarettes has sent shock waves through the industry. Those waves ought to grow as they progress throughout other industries which create hazardous or lethal chemicals and compounds as primary or waste prod- ucts. It is indeed a much-debated issue. In this particular case, the woman had been smoking long before health warnings were inscribed on the sides of cigarette packages. How could she and others have been completely aware of the potentially lethal nature of this addictive consumer prod- uct? And it is a consumer product. Consumers buy this prod- uct for the explicit purpose of drawing smoke at least into the mouth before exhaling it. More often than not, howev- er, the smoke is inhaled into the lungs. Cigarette smoke is not an undesired by-product of the chemical industry; it is not a waste material produced by the pulp and paper industry, or any other large-scale indus- try. Cigarette smoke has become an industry unto itself. As an industry, it must set its own guidelines and param- eters. But various levels of government must set guidelines and establish limits just as they ought to and do for any other industry. Unfortunately, it has come too late for many smokers and their families. Among other measures, the federal government has put warning labels on the sides of cigarette packages indicating that danger to health increases with amount smoked. Municipal governments have begun implementing by-laws which prohibit smoking in various public buildings and institutions, with penalties for offenders ranging from Single copies 40 cents REGULAR warnings to imposing $1,000 fines. Clearly, it is time the government took the lead in draw- ing attention to the specific dangers of this industry, and taking the appropriate measures to ensure that the public _ and consumers are educated not only by the government itself, but by the tobacco industry also. This is where government seems to be going up in smoke. More emphasis must be placed on determining the harmful, hazardous, and deadly effects of all industries, and the government must strive to provide comprehesive information and education to the public on health-related concerns. Without stricter and more uniform across-the-board standards and policies in place, the public can not make educated decisions. Without educated decisions, there will always be smoke screens. You are invited to write a letter to the editor. The purpose of "Letters to the editor" is to provide a forum for public discussion on any sub- ject. Your letter can state a fact, or present ideas or suggestions on any issue about which you or others feel strongly. : Letters are greatly encouraged; however, the editor reserves the right to edit content as a last resort if deemed necessary. Address letters to: Letter to the Editor Terrace Bay/Schreiber News' P.O. Box 579 Terrace Bay, Ontario. POT 2W0 All letters must be signed. On the road again with gucci shoes and a polo shirt Now the joys of the road are chiefly these: A crimson touch on the hard- wood trees A vagrant's morning wide and blue, In early fall, when the wind walks too; Bliss Carman Ah, the pleasure of the vagabond life! No nine-to-five scrabbling on the treadmill of wage slavery to make the car payments, the mortgage, and a small dent in the orthodontist bills for your first-born's class three malocclusions. No worries about crabgrass, a new boss or mustard stains on your Harry Rosen three-piece. Just...freedom. The freedom of the sun in your face and the wind at your throat. Vagabonds don't suffer from your anxiety about whether or not the place they're going takes American Express, because (a) very few vagabonds carry American Express, and (b) empty boxcars and abandoned barns seldom take credit cards _ anyway. We haven't heard much about the joys of being a penniless bum over the past few years. We've been too heavily into greed. People have been more interested in fleshing out their stock portfolios and sandblasting flophouses into trendy townhouses. But times change. I don't know if it was the stock market crash last fall or if young folks have finally realized that twin BMW's, a vintage wine cellar and lifetime membership to Vic Tanny's do not-a full life make, but interest in vagabondage is on the rise. I hold the proof in my hand. It's a new publication called The Yuppy Hobo Travel Guide. Its no joke either. The guide is put out by--no guff, now--The National Hobo Association of Los Angeles, California. It includes an equipment and clothing checklist for the novice hobo; a rundown of the ten fastest and the ten slowest freight trains in America; a chapter on hobo sign language, a glossary of hobo phrases (farmers are clover kickers, railroad police are cinder dicks) and even some favourite side-of-the-road hobo Arthur Black recipes such as Coyote Slims Squirrel l"Orange, which starts with the juice of six stolen oranges and ends in a flambe of : vodka or gin. Curiosity got the best of me, so I tracked down the editor of The Yuppy Travel Guide . He turned out to be a young Yuppy-ish-Looking Bobb Hopkins--actor by profession, "Santa Fe Bo" to his drifter friends when he leaves the glitzy world of L.A. and hits the open road. He calls himself a "recreational hobo"--which is to say that whenever the spirit moves him, he ties a few provisions into a bedroll and hops the nearest freight out of town. Sometimes its just for a weekend; other times he stays out until the snow flies. Santa Fe Bo says he's just the lead wave in a coming trend. He claims a "rebirth of the nomadic spirit" is underway. He admits the fact that "you save a wad of money by hopping freights and sleeping under bridges doesn't hurt either. But isn't it illegal and downright dangerous to hop freights? Yes and yes. Santa Fe Bo, with a nervous look over his shoulder at potential future law- suits , hastens to explain that railroad bulls can indeed be mighty mean and he isn't advising + anyone to actually get out there and throw their leg up on a moving boxcar. But I don't think Santa Fe Bo needs to worry. He knows that the chances of the average subscriber to The Yuppy Hobo Travel Guide actually riding the rails through the Rockies are about as good as the chances of the averages purchaser of a Trans Am muscle car driving in the Grand Prix at Monaco. The Yuppy Hobo Travel Guide is about fantasies, not vacation plans. Still, I can't help picturing some old bindlestiff picking his teeth and warming his hands over Over a can of sterno, as he watches some soft-handed, L.L. Bean-garbed would-be vagabond try to hop a freight. I can read the old-timers thoughts from here. What" he is asking himself, "the hell ever happened to good honest hobos?" |