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Page 4, News, Tuesday, January 8, 1991 'Editorial The Terrace Bay - Schreiber News is published every Tuesday by Laurentian Publishing Limited, Box 579, 13 Simcoe Plaza, Terrace Bay, Ont., POT 2W0 Tel.: 807-825-3747. Second class mailing permit 2264. Member of the Ontario Community Newspaper Association and the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Tel.: 825-3747 i ; inc}, Publisher............:-..-+.-0+ Sandy Harbinson OR aie Advertising Mov............... Linda Harbinson #CNA $18 per year/seniors $12 -- ECUtOM...........c:ccsseeeeeeeeeers ;....Robeért Cotton © (local); $29 peryear (out Of Sales REP.........ssecsecceecseeseeees Tammy Smith cn ee, ee Admin. ASSt............0:s0e0000 Gayle Fournier = Production Asst............... Cheryl Kostecki New year's blues In the summer of 1990 two Canadians in full battle dress, a Mohawk Warrior and a Canadian soldier, confronted each other at Oka. It is an image that symbolizes the cultural, racial and economic intolerance that continues to pull nations and the world apart. ' Canadian unity is threatened by the inability of two cultures, French Quebec and English Canada, to live and work together with mutual respect. Oka was about the inability of all Canadians to respect the culture of the First Nations and to live and work beside its people. South Africans have been throwing rocks and bombs at each other because regressive laws created a legacy of racial distrust. It did not take long for the first rock to be thrown during the Oka crisis. Oka was about racial distrust. The confrontation at Oka was also about the resource of land, who owns it, who needs it and who controls it. The confrontation now playing itself out in the Middle East is about the resource of oil, who owns it, who needs it and who controls it. The past year began full of hope for a new world order. The Cold War was over. The countries of Eastern Europe free to establish democracy and work towards creating prosperous, progressive economies. In South Africa, after 27 years of imprisonment, Nelson Mandela was released and apartheid laws eased slightly. It seemed that the nations of the world might even find time to tackle environmental problems on a global scale. Unfortunately most of that hope evaporated as we prepared to enter the first year of the last decade of the millennium. Canadians woke up cranky and disillusioned on January 1, 1990. They woke up to the real possibility of war, to a recession and to an unpopular tax. We are not well prepared to deal with the issues of the new decade when we are facing each other in full battle dress. Robert A. Cotton Dear Editor, On behalf of the Thunder Bay Chapter, Ontario Friends of Schizophrenics, I sincerely thank you for giving front page coverage to recognition of the Community Action award won by Ivan Niemi. Your excellent report should serve to increase public awareness of the.severe problems found by those who suffer from mental illness. Schizophrenia strikes 1-100, in the prime of life, between the ages of 17-30. An almost equal number are afflicted with maniac depression. Unfortunately these severe debilitating illnesses seldom receive front page coverage. You have made a difference. Joan's book, "In Search of the Source of Light", published by Tyro Publishers, Sault Ste Marie, and Hasti Notes made from photographs of her North of Superior collection, are available from our chapter. For more information, phone 807-767-5008 or write Helen Schumacher, 240 Robinson Dr., Thunder Bay, P7A 6GS. Once again, our most sincere thanks. We sell the books for $7.00 and packets of 8 Hasti Notes for $5.00. The money raised is used for public education and research. Sincerely, Helen Schumacher, Chapter President Thunder Bay Dear Editor, As a visitor to Schreiber I was thrilled to see such a beautiful display of Christmas spirit upon my arrival. I'm referring to the beautifully lighted tree on top of the hill overlooking Schreiber. The tree seems to shed light on the town, warming hearts with joy and happiness of the Christmas season. continued on page 9 YOU MEAN THIS WEAPON DOESN'T GO WITA There are aliens among us What would you say if I took you over in the corner, put my _arm..around.. your; shoulder, glanced conspiratorially around to make sure we weren't being overheard, then whispered in your ear "There are alien invaders in our midst"? You'd start filling out forms for my admittance to the Shady Acres Rest. Home for the Cerebrally Unstable, would you not? Any guy talking about alien invaders has gotta be playing goal without a stick. : Nevertheless, I hereby slide my arm around your shoulder like this, and I whisper into the cute little curly blonde hairs in your shell-like ear... There are alien invaders in our midst! I can tell you what they look like, too. They've got one big eye, stand anywhere from two to . five feet high, they're built kind of boxy -- like Roseanne Barr, -- but smaller -- and they like to hang out in the corners of living, rec and rumpus rooms. They don't precisely wear name tags saying Hi, my name's Reg! -- but close. They all bear metal or plastic i.d.'s on their chests. Some of the more common: names are Sony, Phillips, Panasonic, Admiral and Hitachi. Well, sure they're television sets!. Disguised as TV sets anyway. What did you expect? Listen, if you were a Venusian intergalactic warlord bent on conquering a foreign planet by infiltration and stealth, what would you do -- send down undisguised agents? Wrong. It's tough to crash an earthling Tupperware Party when you're in a slimy purple jumpsuit and sporting 30 foot tentacles. Much better to go undercover, disguised as a Westinghouse 24- inch with the works-in-a-drawer. I'm kidding, but only a little. Sometimes the ubiquity of television does make it seem as if a kind of space fungus has infested our planet and taken over Arthur Black our lives. I don't suppose there was another time in history when you could leave your cave and visit another family cave, only to find the inhabitants sitting in a slack-jawed semicircle around a glowing, blue-grey icon. Remember conversation? Well, forget it. Conversation is dead when the television is on. Which is just about always.. And anyway what could you say that could possibly be more interesting than a body slam by The Macho Man or a vowel movement by Vanna White? You can run from television, but it's mighty hard to hide from it. I've watched Irv Weinstien deliver the Buffalo evening news to my motel room in Morden, Manitoba. I've turned the boob tube on in Yellowknife and found myself gazing at a rush hour traffic report -- from Detroit: Just think -- Hunkering down on the treeless barren lands of our north tonight, a family of curious Innu will ponder the infinity of oddities Canadian TV has to offer, from Don Cherry's shirt collars to Barbara Frum's coiffure. And the invasion is spreading. I got word this week of something called The Checkout Channel. Yes, TV is coming to _ the checkout lanes of your favourite supermarket. The idea is to catch people waiting in the checkout line -- i.e. with nothing much to do and nowhere to go -- and flog some products. Defenseless slobs waiting to pay for their Wheaties and Alpo are then subjected to six minutes of news headlines fiendishly laced with commercials. Will that be the end of it? Not on your channel-changer, chum. A spokesman for the Checkout Channel says with a leer "We're exploring every opportunity...this is really the wave of the future. You're going to see television everywhere you go." O, brave wired world. I fear the man is right. I have a copy of the TV listings from a hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. Want to hear what's on there tonight? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Wall Street Journal Report, Hit Video USA, The Flintstones. Or, if we were really bored, we could flip on our Jakarta TV and watch...The Beachcombers. Alien invaders -- they're everywhere? I knew it all along. I always thought Nick's gold neck chains looked suspiciously like a Klingon 2-way radio.