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Page 4, News, Wednesday, June 1, 1988 TERRACE BAY 'SCHREIBER The Terrace Bay-Schreiber News is published every Wednesday by: Laurentian Publishing Co. Ltd., Box 579, Terrace Bay, Ontario, POT-2WO. Telephone: (807) 825-3747. Second Class Mailing Permit Number 0867 RN erty v0nc scteccice oss auiccks cagsimaicenieitiyecedvaguacoawsdsases see' Greg Huneault | Single copies 40 cents Subscription rates per year in town $15.00/yr. two years $25 out of town $21.00/yr. =a: Member of Ontario Community General Manager/Advertising peesene nti fe anaiteadagalietssnstteee Paul Marcon' Newspapers Association and The Administrative ASsistant............ssssssesesssesesceseeees Gayle Fournier Canadian Community Newspapers Production ASSistant..........ssssssssessssesssesssseesssneeessess Carmen Dinner Association Break the barriers ' WEY,MAN / IF THATS of ignorance DISTINGT SOCIETY. a Think about it for a moment. Imagine what it would like to be unable to go to the municipal office in Terrace Bay because there are stairs in your way. Imagine the frustra- tion you would feel having to wait at the bottom, while a friend or family member walked up the four stairs to pay a bill or to talk with a municipal employee about your con- cern. Or think of how it would be if your vision was so cloudy, or absent so that you were unable to clearly see a step. Picture yourself or a family member having to, enter one of the local banks in a wheelchair and going up to be served-- only to have to reach up to the high counter and complete your transaction with arms up in the air. This is the goal of National Awareness Week, which is being held from May 29 to June 4. The intention is to raise the public's awareness of the needs of the those with physi- cal handicaps . Things that able-bodied persons take for granted -- walking up and down stairs; walking steadily and confi- dently without the aid of a cane; hearing a noise such as a car horn before they see a potential hazard; having the gift of vision necessary to see where a step, crack or obstacle is -- become barriers to the disabled. 2 Perhaps the greatest barrier of all is our inadvertant ignorance of their needs. Those without physcial disabili- ties have the priviledge to enter many public buildings, but all have a right unless otherwise legally restricted. We must strive to provide those with special requirements the facili- ties and means to share the same rights and priveledges. It is an issue which must be examined closely. The cost of providing access for the diabled might be prohibitive to many local and area merchants. The government must take a more active role in providing grant funding so that access and freedom of movement are improved. But we must ini- tiate that role by becoming more receptive to the needs of the disabled and fighting strenuously for improvements. The study conducted by local students and highlighted in I'M ALL FOR IT / this issue is a positive step. They have become more receptive to the problems faced by residents in their own towns. Hopefully, they. will begin the change by sharing their new insight with oth- ers. It is this sharing of knowledge and experience that break down the biggest barriers of all: the barriers of ignorance and indiffer- ence. Letters to the editor Dear Editor: As a mother of two young cyclists, I was pleased to hear that on May 20 a "Bike Rodeo" was being planned for their school. I was able to attend the event with my children and was very impressed with the organization and volunteer effort that was put into it. Mother happy with 'rodeo' I would like to take this oppor- tunity to thank the O.P.P. and CLP. Rail employees as well as the other volunteers for making my chil- dren's bike riding safer and giving what I have been trying to teach my children about road safety, the conviction of authority. Yours Truly, Alice Gowen Politics has not ceased to make strange bedfellows or, at least, the politicians of both parties continue to share the same bunk. Calgary Bob Edwards Saints preserve us and will wonders never cease. I thought these eyes had beheld all the miracles one pair of beady bloodshot orbs could register, but no, last month something happened in Washington that must have fogged up even Knowlton Nash's bifocals. A politician was fired for lying. What next? Pigs in flight? Actually, it wasn't a politician who got the axe -- only part of one. The mouth. Larry Speakes, former spokesman for President Reagan, admitted in a book about his White House years that he made up quotes and attributed them to the President. At the Geneva Summit in 1985, Speakes told reporters that Reagan ae There is much that divides us, but I believe the world breathes easier because we are talking together." Profound. Statesmanlike. Never happened. When the Russians shot down the Korean Jet Liner in 1983, reporters clamoured to hear what the President would say. Instead they heard the fiery words of George Shultz, plucked from the mouth of the Secretary of State and popped into the maw of the not-quite-on-top-of-things President, who, even five years @ ago didn't always have both boots in the stirrups. The culprit? Larry Speakes again. "My decision to put Shultz's words in Reagan's mouth played well" wrote Speakes, "and a Arthur neither of them complained." Ah well...it's a tough job, packaging politicians and making them palatable to the public. Some pols are astute and talented enough to do the job themselves. Winston Churchill needed no speechwriters. He observed events then sat down with a fountain pen and dressed them up himself, in long, rolling magnificently cadenced sentences, Black But public figures don't have time to be literary, so they hire agents. A lot of people think This, loosely speaking, is what I think you almost said Caesar proclaimed "Veni, vidi, vici" -- I came, I saw, I conquered -- after a military victory in Asia Minor. Not true. What Caesar really said was: "Thank Pluto that's over! Pull these boots off and order me a deep dish pizza with a side dish of catamites!" The punchy Veni Vidi Vinci quote comes from a parchment press release put out by Caesar's advance man, a Phoenician flack by.<=the. name. of arms : Speakistibus. Similarly, President Kennedy reaped huge -- and unmerited -- PR profit from his speech before S the Berlin Wall back in 1962. Anyone who 'speaks fluent German knows that 'Ich bin ein Berliner' is only a phonetic hop, " skip and a jump from what President Kennedy was really shouting -- "Where is the men's room?" I have no doubt that our own Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King used the services of a wordslinging mercenary to prune and beautify his verbiage when -- No. Strike that. Any man who can say 'Conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription' -- has no need of a public relations flunky. Which brings us back to Larry Speakes, a man whose career proves the old adage 'He who lives by the manure fork, dies by the manure fork." The Speakes case abounds in ironies. First, he's been fired from his new job with Merrill Lynch, for what he did in his old job as White House spokesman. Secondly, the only man who could have saved his bacon with a kind word or a forgiving nod -- Ronald Reagan, claims he 'can't remember' not having said what he didn't say. Third, Larry Speakes didn't even admit to the outrage. Not technically. Because Larry Speakes didn't even write his own book. He -- like President Reagan -- employed the services of a ghost writer. Who says there's no God?