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Page 4, News, Tuesday, October 30, 1990 = 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. sienna " Publisher............... A. Sandy Harbinson Advertising Mgr......Linda R Harbinson Advertising Rep......... Halyna O. Worth Single copies 40 cents. Subscription rates: $16 per year / seniors $10 (local); Member of the Ontario Community Newspaper Association and the -- $27 per year (out of 40 mile 3 z 5 Canadian Community Newspaper Association. radius); $36 in U.S. News Editor.................... Robert Cotton < gee Admin. Asst.................. Gayle Fournier =e Winds of war or winds of change The winds of change have been blowing up storms around the world with great regularity in the past year. They have swept across Eastern Europe, China and even our own Ontario. However, there has been one thing unwilling to bend before the storm. That is the world's, and especially North America's, continuing reliance on one major energy source - oil. Attempts at conserving oil consumption for home heating, transportation, electricity and manufacturing haven't reduced this reliance. The world is so frightened of losing vast quantities of oil in the Arab states it is preparing itself to fight a violent and costly war to maintain control of those reserves. Some of the effort and resources going into those preparations would be better spent on developing alternative ~ energy sources such as wind power. 'Oil prices that are constantly changing and the threat of war that seems to be attached to oil ownership and control should make alternative sources of energy more attractive. Denmark is now building the first offshore wind energy facility. Eleven turbines placed on rocks in the Baltic Sea will be able to provide enough clean electrical power for nearly 4,000 homes. Danish officials have stated that a wind turbine, properly positioned, can pay for itself in 5-6 years. Wind power is only one of many altemative energy sources that could be developed and, along with existing energy sources such as gas, hydro-electricity and nuclear power, help reduce the reliance on oil. We do not need to be fighting expensive wars over oil when cleaner and more efficient sources of energy are available. Robert Cotton English is lost - C 'est dommage Is it my imagination, or is our country shrinking? I don't mean just the ~ threatened amputations of Quebec, Oka, the Innu Nation, the Dene People, the western provinces and Quasi-Utopias- To-Be-Announced. I don't mean just the pathetic pygmies of Parliament Hill -- those strutting impostors, elected and otherwise, who squawk and scramble in ever decreasing circles, barely pausing long enough to cash their bloated paycheques. When I talk about Canadian shrinkage, I mean the very idea and essence of our country. Seems to me Canadians used to be gentler, - more generous. The Canada I grew up in was a quiet backwater of a nation, easy- going, a little dull maybe, but liberally doused with a live- and-let-live attitude. Canada's not like that © anymore -- or least not on the mean streets I've been driving lately There's a New Yorkich brittleness in conversations: I overhear in bars and onthe buses.° The spirit of Canada seems to have degenerated into that of a particularly ugly bush-league hockey game. Exhibit A: APEC -- the Alliance For the Preservation of English In Canada. This is a group that claims to want to "save English". In fact, it is simply a catch basin for all those tiny minds and stunted souls who believe life would be beautiful if we could just unload the French Canadians. These are the folks who suffer anxiety attacks when they find themselves faced with the French-language side of the Rice Krispies box on the kitchen table. These are the people who believe there's a Quebecois plot to (as they love to say) "ram French down our throats". These are some terminally paranoid people. One hesitates to be the bearer of bad tidings, but it's a job that has to be done, I guess. Fact ie ADERC Wu are wan might ac well: fold up your petitions and go home =- you're already whipped: -' It's too late to preserve English from the depredations of French. That battle's already been lost. About'924 years ago. Arthur Black -- Back in 1066, a chap by the name of William the Conqueror invaded England and, as conquerors will, demanded that his new subjects speak his language -- to wit: Norman French. As a result, approximately 50 percent of the language we speak today comes from the French -- or from Latin words that are also used in French. Wanna meet some Norman. - French invaders face-to-face? abbot, beauty, Bible, court, dress, feast, joy, liberty, marriage, navy, parliament, people, pleasure, prayer, reign, soldier, treasure, verdict, war. French words, touts. 'Willy the Conqueror indulged in some: serious French throat-ramming and gave us the language that the Alliance for the Preservation of English is campaigning to "save". Alliance members have nothing to fear but their own timidity. Other countries such as Belgium and Luxembourg survive very nicely on a multi- lingual foundation. All it takes is an attitude change. APEC members -- all Canadians -- shouldn't regard another language as a threat or a curse. It's a blessing. English will not be mortally wannaaa tewe Dawawranksata infamous Bill 109 -- or anything else © myopic bureaucrats throw at it. English has clout. After Mandarin, it's the most widely 'spoken language in the world. It all depends on how you handle it. We can be like APEC and babble of plots and subterfuge. Or we could be like Switzerland with four recognized languages (and I guess the biggest Rice Krispie boxes in the Western world). Or if we were really brave we could be like Mike Hayes. Mike runs a car dealership in Newport, Vermont, a town not far from the Quebec border.. He's set up French classes for his entire sales staff, the better to sell cars to Quebeckers. "Just 'cause we're American" says Mike, "doesn't mean we don't want to learn." "I mean, if learning French is gonna help me sell cars, I'm gonna do it. What could be more American than that?" Only in America, you say? | Se he Ree Se