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Page 4 +..~ Wednesday, March 15,1989» ee Editorial Page The Terrace Bay-Schreiber News is published every Wednesday by Laurentian Publishing Limited, Box 579, Terrace.Bay, Ont., POT-2WO Tel.: 807-825-3747. Second class mailing permit 0867. Member of the Ontario Community Newspaper Assn. and the Canadian Community Newspaper Assn. ------ Ses aaa General Managet.......Paul Marcon Editor.:...........--........ David Chmara Admin. Asst...........Gayle Fournier Production Asst....Carmen Dinner Editorial Asst......... Connie Sodaro Single copies-40 cents. Subscription rates: $15 per year / $25 two years (local) and $21 per year (out of town). In response This editorial is in direct response to the letter to the editor which appears on this page. Mr. Southern states that Ontario has been a Christian society. That point cannot be argued. However, Ontario is also a multicultural society, and with multiculturalism comes an array of values, traditions, and yes, religions. The increasing numbers of immigrants coming to Ontario bring with them a piece of the society they have left behind - either through free choice or by force. Southern states, "three people from "alien" cultures and religions have had the arrogance to demand that the six million Christians in Ontario shall be restricted and not be allowed to open the school day for our children in the manner we have followed for a hundred years." Why does he use the word "alien"?. Does he believe by using this word it somehow makes them less human? Why not use the appropriate word, foreign, or an even less offensive word, "other"? The Ontario government, realizing religion no longer plays the key role it did one hundred years ago, and also realizing the increasing multicultural make-up of our society, has enacted legislation which calls for opening exercises to ' reflect this new multiculturalism. Opening exercises are to now espouse a variety of religious teachings - Christian and otherwise. Are teachings from other religions less valid, less relevant to today's society than those of Christianity simply because they are different? Those opposing this new legislation have suggested people not of Christian persuasion can leave the classroom during opening exercises if they so wish. It is hard enough for immigrants to try to fit into a new society. They face racism and ridicule because they are "different". Why expose them to further maligning, as will surely happen if they were to leave the room during these opening exercises? Mr. Southern claims the Ontario government passed this new legislation because of the arrogant dictates of three people from alien cultures. This is not the case. These three people represent all those who do not hold Christianity as their religion. All the Muslims, atheists, agnostics, Natives, Buddhists, Hindus and others who make up the dynamic fabric of our society. Continued on page 5 1 \- a "Now, iF We CAN ONLY GET THOSE SKIS TURNED AROUVD, MAYBE GRAVITY WILL COME INTO PLAY f" Dear Editor: For a hundred years Ontario has been ruled by the majority of votes cast by electors. Ontario has also been a Christian Society. As a part of that Christian culture we have had our schools open the day with an appeal to God by morning prayer. Now a group of three people from alien cultures and alien reli- gions have had the arrogance to demand that the six million Christians in Ontario shall be restricted and now be allowed to open the school day for our chil- dren in the manner we have fol- lowed for a hundred years. Reader wants Lord's Prayer to be included in opening exercises Never before in history have three people from an alien culture been able to dictate to six million people how, or how not, they may, Or may not, conduct their worship of God. Never before in history have the rulers of six million people been so insipid that they would inflict the dictates of three people on the six million majority. Never before in any country have fifty thousand Christian teachers been ruled by the arro- gant dictates of three people of alien religions. What are we going to do about it? I suggest that we simply the start. ignore the ruling and that every one of the fifty thousand teachers open the school day by prayer, preferably the Lord's prayer, as we have done for a hundred te "--_ years. There are thousands of laws on the books which are out of date, or for some other reason are not applicable any more and are sim- ply ignored. This ruling is one that should be ignored right from Yours Respectfully, Frank Southern 534 Byng St. Sudbury, Ont. What do you say after your phone goes BRRRINNGGGG and you pick itup? You say "Hello", right? Most of us do. Oh, I know some no-nonsense business types who say "Joe Blow here" or "Mary Jane speaking". I even knew one laconic bartender who used to hook the receiver under his chin and drawl "Your dime, my time" as he worked the draft beer pump. Well, I just thought you ought to know that, but for a simple twist of fate we might all be picking up the phone and hollering "Ahoy! Ahoy!" each time it rings. That's how George Willard Cay wanted it to be. George was a telephone pioneer -- North America's first full-time telephone operator, as a matter of fact. He worked one of the very early primitive switchboards for the District Telephone Company of New Haven, Connecticut, way back in 1889. Everybody who placed a call had to go through George and every time George fielded an incoming call he greeted the caller with a shouted "Ahoy! Ahoy!" But despite Harvey's indefatigable efforts to educate the public, the jaunty nautical expression never quite caught onas a telephone greeting. We chose the blandly neutral "Hello" instead. : Pity. If we'd followed in Harvey's wake, telephone ' etiquette might have picked up a colourful sea-going tinge. Wouldn't it be satisfying to call up some sleazy bill collector who'd been hounding you and open with "Avast, ye barnacle-scabbed scow master! Call off your boarding parties or I'll let fly a broadside that'll take the wind out of your sails!" If we'd listened to Harvey we could all sound like salty old sea dogs when the phone rings. Speaking of which -- ever thought about why it does? Ring, I mean? Ever wonder why a telephone doesn't buzz or honk or blatt or squeak or grunt? Arthur Black My theory is quite simple. the telephone doesn't honk because the name of the man who invented it was not Alexander Graham Honk. It was Bell. A.G. Bell. And In search of the phoneless cord bells, as any school kid knows, ring. Actually, that's a tradition we're losing, too, isn't it? Telephones don't ring anymore. Not in my office, anyway. I don't know quite how to describe the unpleasant electronic whinneying sound my office telephone makes now, except to say that it sounds like an adding machine in the final stages of a difficult labour. That's not the only big change in Doctor Bell's infernal little gizmo of late. Telephones are mating like minks and showing up in the damnedest places. Used to be there was a telephone in the front hall and maybe a phone booth down by the Texaco station, and that was about it. But not anymore. Nowadays, any self-respecting Yuppie household boasts a telephone in the bathroom, the bedroom, the kitchen, the parlour and out by the pool. The latest rage for anybody who has a thousand bucks they don't know what to do with? Why, the cellular phone of course. Fits right in your car so that you can take calls offering you magazine subscriptions and free broadloom estimates as your drive down the Parkway. It will be a rainy day at Hades Central Switchboard before this phoneophobe installs one of these instruments of torture in his car. Heck, the only good thing I know about driving these days is that there's always a chance of finding a nice cosy traffic jam where nobody can reach me on the phone. You don't drive a car? You still can't escape. We have "floater" phones. Portable wedges of molded plastic that can hook on your belt just in case you were thinking of. escaping to the garden to get away from your worldly cares. Personally, I'm holding out for the next big tele- communications breakthrough. The phoneless cord. " ee ee a a a a