Terrace Bay Public Library Digital Collections

Terrace Bay News, 5 Feb 1991, p. 4

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Page 4, News, 'luesday, February 5, 1991 * e 'Editorial Tel: 825-9747 The Terrace Bay - Schreiber News is published every Tuesday by Single copies 50 cents incl. PUIIGNOE. 3. .2.5.2. .. piennts Sandy Harbinson CNA Laurentian Publishing Limited, Box 579, 13 Simcoe Plaza, Terrace Bay, GST. Subscription rates: = Advertising Mgv............... Linda Harbinson Ont., POT 2W0 Tel.: 807-825-3747. Second class mailing permit 2264. $18 Per yoar/ seniors $120 editor a sseeseenee Robert Cotton © Member of the Ontario Community Newspaper Association and the (local); $29 per year (out o : cn Ganadian Community Newspaper Association 40 mile radius) $39 inU.S. Admin. Asst.............. Gayle Fournier -- Add GST to yearly subs. Production Asst................ Cheryl Kostecki The right to speak out The conflict in the Persian Gulf is creating conflicts at home between those who support the war and those who 'don't. Many columnists and letters to the editor appearing in various Canadian newspapers have attacked anti-war protesters on their stand and their tactics. The anti-war protesters themselves have attacked those who support the war.. Factions of the peace movement have been accused of using the war in the gulf to further their political ends which, it is said, have nothing to do with the Gulf War. This may be true but: some groups and organizations that support the war are probably using the situation to their own advantage as well. Unfortunately there will always be vultures hovering about the edges of a battlefield. Those who take a stand, for or against the war or any other issue have the right to do so. Canadians should respect that right and keep the arguments to the issue itself and the finger pointing at the principals involved. Nothing is to be gained by attacking people for expressing their point of view. In fact, such behavior weakens us and threatens the freedoms we are supposedly fighting for. Robert A. Cotton Support for members of Canadian armed forces Some spacey thoughts Dear Editor: I would like to express my support of the _ brave servicemen and women who are in the middle east. While I detest human life being wasted over the price of a barrel of oil, I sympathize with the innocent men, women and children in Kuwait and the other countries who have been thrust into a war not of their choosing. Our soldiers and sailors . have joined the fight to protect this innocence and freedom and I firmly believe that we should do all we can to let them know we support their efforts. In- keeping with this thought, my family and myself have proudly joined many others across Canada in displaying yellow ribbons. I ask all those who read this to do likewise. Tie them around doorknobs, trees, porch-posts, car antennas, even on your jacket zipper pulls. Let our service people know you care and pray for their safe return. Yours truly, Carolyn Williams Terrace Bay Questions role of Queen and Governor General in Canada Dear Editor: On Christmas Day the "Queen" gave her annual Christmas address. As she sits in her palace, among her treasures looking down on all the commoners and reminding them to be grateful for what they have because many are less fortunate, I am reminded that this is the stuff fairytales are made of. Where does this woman, the richest woman on earth, get off telling anybody to be grateful when thousands in her own country are homeless, hungry, taxed to the hilt and unemployed. Her Royal Highness is a "figurehead" in our country. I would tend to think she was more of an "airhead" in any country. Gov. General Ray Hnaytasn is the Queen's Representative in Canada. Now that we have "broken away" from Britain why would we need her rep here? Could the Canadian Ambassador to Britain not do the same job? I suggest we eliminate the Gov. General's job and the $9 million in taxpayers money it takes to run his residence each year, and get on with the business of being Canada. This blueblood attitude has infected our political system far too long. It's time for the commoners to demonstrate their Common Sense! S. MacFarlane Schreiber Put three grains of sand inside a vast cathedral, and the cathedral will be more closely packed with sand than space is with stars. Sir James Jeans A wonderful commodity, space. As someone once pointed out, without space, all matter would be jammed together in one lump -- and that lump wouldn't take up any room. Of course, space is a very relative commodity. There's more of it between atoms of mahogany than between atoms of balsa. More on a hockey rink than on_a chess board. More between residents of Tuktoyaktuk than between. residents of Tokyo. And then there's Outer Space. These cold, clear winter nights are perfect for gazing up at the sky and rediscovering the real meaning of space. It's the same wide-screen extravaganza, unreeling night after night. Your grandparents watched it. So did Mackenzie King and Champlain and Shakespeare and Cleopatra and Moses and Methusela all the way back to those nameless, heavy browed -- shuffling ancestors of yours and mine, huddling in caves, fearfully peering out at the nocturnal spill of jewels across the sky. It's a very humbling experience, looking at the night sky. It's one of the few things mankind hasn't managed to alter or desecrate. I sometimes think that if our leader had spent more time levering his massive mandibles skyward and less time rolling dice in the back room, Canada might not be in the mess it's in. But politicians tend to cluster in cities, and light pollution makes cities the worst place to star gaze. In any case, ten minutes of uninterrupted star gazing makes Canadian politics seem farther away than Jupiter. I haven't managed to pick Arthur Black them out yet, but I understand there are four newly-named asteroids winging around up there. They used to orbit under the stunningly boring names of Asteroid 4147,4148, 4149, 4150, but astronomers in a playful mood decided to re-christen then Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr. That's right -- the Beatles in Outer Space. Sort of....loosely in the sky like diamonds. It's not often you'll catch astronomers in a playful mood. They are, by and large, a solemn bunch. And if you ever want to catch them at their grim and grumpy worst, ask astronomers what they think of astrologers. "Pure hokum!" they'll snap. "Utter nonsense!" Astronomers have no use for a people who predict the future by eyeballing the arrangement . of the planets. Astronomers can produce roomfuls of data to prove that astrology and horoscopes are just a crock of moonshine -- the problem is, most folks don't want to hear it. 1800 daily newspapers carry horoscopes on this continent. Editors claim it's invariably one of the most popular features. A recent Gallup Poll discovered that 55 percent of North American teenagers believe that the position of Venus vis a vis Saturn will determine their chances at the Saturday night dance. And it's not just North American teenagers. In the East, politicians and businessmen regularly consult astrologers for help in selecting auspicious dates to launch new enterprises. In Korea, China and Japan, it's the neighborhood soothsayer who gives the final nod for wedding days. My favourite quote on astrology come from a New York city detective whose job it was to bust fortune-tellers for operating without a licence. "I've. gone into hundreds of fortune-tellers' parlors" she recalled, "and I've been told thousands of things, but no astrologer ever predicted that | was a policewoman getting reading to arrest her." So I guess when it comes to astrology, you can put be down as suspicious. But then you know what we Virgos are like.

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