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Page 4 TERRACE BAY/SCHREIBER NEWS Wednesday, October 11, 1989 ee ae eetes Editorial Page = The Terrace Bay-Schreiber News is published every Wednesday by Laurentian Publishing Limited, Box 579, Terrace Bay, Ont., POT-2W0 Tel.: 807-825-3747. Second class mailing permit 0867. Member of the Ontario Community Newspaper Assn. and the Canadian Community Newspaper Assn. ~ If you give a damn about VIA do something about it Last week, the federal government showed Canadians once again how backwards it is in its thinking. First the announcement is made that VIA Rail services will be cut in half, then the government announces a Royal Commission is being formed to look into passenger travel service for the next century. Once the announcement was made concerning the passenger service cutbacks by VIA, a public outcry was, heard from coast-to-coast. Locally, we've been hit hard - as hard as possible considering VIA passenger service will be totally eliminated on Jan. 15, 1990 - only three short months away. The government has said VIA was becoming too expensive to operate and was adding to the national debt. Considering the deficit is increasing by about $30 billion every year, and the VIA subsidy is being decreased by $300 million following these cuts, that means the deficit will be reduced by one per cent each year. If the federal government is determined to go through with the cutbacks, as it seems they are, the least it could do. would be to increase transfer payments to the provinces to improve the roads and highways which will see increased usage. But I'm sure many, if not most Canadians would be - more than willing to accept the additional $300 million that would be needed to keep VIA operating. And what about. people who depend upon the railway. General Managet.......Paul Marcon ECIOM, <<5.<c0-0 .......David Chmara Admin. Asst...........Gayle Fournier Production Asst....Carmen Dinner and Single copies 40 cents. Subscription rates: $15 per year / $25 two years (local) $21 per year (out of town). A 46,000 MANPOWER ENGINE ONLY DRIVEN BETWEEN STRIKES ! " a if . * Now, THAT LiL BABY THERED BEA REAL STEAL / g People who are ill, elderly or who don't drive will now be forced to take a cramped bus or pay for expensive airfare. And what are people 'to do now when the highway and airports are closed because they've been snowed in? Has the government considered the costs associated with the cutbacks? First, there's the $140 million in separation allowances and benefits to be paid to the laid off workers. Also, there's the increased cost of having 2,700 people added to the unemployment list and add to this the loss in revenue many communities will feel due to the decrease in Continued on page 5 The News welcomes your Letters to the Editor. Feel free to express comments, opinions or anything of public interest. There is no charge for this service. Write to: Editor Terrace Bay/Schreiber News. -- Box 579 Terrace Bay, Ont. POT 2WO So we may verify authorship, please sign your letters. Putting all our eggs in one electronic basket I was sitting in my office last Wednesday, talking on the phone when the lights went out. It was a tad bland, as office thrills go -- sort of like an indoor eclipse. The room was washed with gray, outlines of my desk and bookshelves became softened and indistinct. I couldn't make. out the calendar on the wall or the papers on my desk. It was no big thing, really. Just a typical power "outage as they say. Happening more and more these days.. Some kind of ionic surge in the electric system, I suppose, like a rogue' wave on the ocean or an unexplained tic in the cosmic eyelid. Besides, these brown- outs only last a few moments, and then everything returns to normal. At least, that's the way it's worked out so far. But it got me to thinking: what happens when we get a brownout that doesn't disappear in a few moments? Oh, I know...much of North America experienced "The Great Blackout" back in 1965, but things were more primitive then. Our lives are much more electrified than they were even ten years ago. Have you tried recently to get money from you bank account when "the computer is down"? Or attempted to book an airline ticket? Get a phone number | from Information? There was a time not so long ago when all of those transactions were per- formed by a harried young woman with a pencil stuck in her hair bun, but no more. Those are all computerized operations now. Do you think if we had a power brownout that went on for some time, folks would cheerfully revert to doing the operations by hand? _ Nah. Going from computer to manual operation is like going from a hydrofoil to a dugout canoe. Besides, who would even remember how? Which is kind of scary, because it seems to me we've put all of our eggs in one electronic basket and_ if somebody -- or something -- pulls the plug, we're going to have big problems. Which is why I'm worried about the news reports emanating from Contra Costa. Contra Costa is-an affluent residential county on the ' - * 4, Arthur Black 'outskirts of Los Angeles. Last month, many of its well-to-do denizens noticed a strange and frightening thing. Their garage doors wouldn't open. The electric ones -- you know? Where you drive up to your closed garage door, point what looks like a TV channel zapper at it and -- hey sesame! -- the whole garage door slides up. Except not in Contra Costa county it doesn't. Suburbanites there have wheeled up to their garage doors, palmed their electronic openers out of their sun visors, pointed them at their garage doors and pressed 'til their thumbs turn white -- nothing. The garage doors of Contra Costa County are revolting en masse. They are refusing to obey the electronic commands they're supposed to obey -- and no one is exactly sure why. The plague of insubordinate a: garage doors, 'though so far fairly localized, appears to be spreading. Outbreaks have been reported in the suburban enclaves of Concord, Clayton, Orinda, Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Moraga, Danville, San Ramon and Livermore. Can Los Angeles be far behind? I fear not. And if the insurrectionist garage doors take Los Angeles -- well! You think anything as radical as a garage door throwing off its electronic shackles is going to be show any respect for a crummy undefended inter- national border? How long before the disease shows up in your town and mine? : I hear ya, I hear ya. "Who cares?" you saying. "I've gota mortgage, an overdraft at the bank, a kid that needs dental work and I don't even have a garage, never mind a electric garage door. Why should I care if a bunch of California burghers have to get out of ' their BMWs and open their garage doors by hand?" Don't you see? The garage _ doors are just the opening salvo -- like Hitler invading Poland. If the California garage doors emerge triumphant, who knows what's next? Green Machines, maybe. Or cellular phones. Or even your Rem- ington razor. - Personally, I blame the Bolsheviks. '>, ss 8S,