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His letter mentions that fluorine in drinking water may cause motâ€" tled tooth enamel. but it does not mention that it does retard tooth decay There is also no specifiâ€" cation of the concentraâ€" tion of fluorine in Waâ€" terloo water® How does it compare I do not believe that John Grace intended to insult our firefighters, but he did. I do believe that Grace wished to prove to his readers that the presenâ€" ce of fluorine in drinking water is dangerous, but he did not. If it does anyâ€" thing, his letter spells out the danger of having water in our environâ€" ment‘! ‘‘The water acâ€" tuaily burns ..... the hyâ€" drogen is explosive and the oxygen supports combustion .‘ I don‘t like to make a special case, but I think winter affects that fairly large segâ€" Some people like it, the imbeciles: skiers, curlers, ice fishermen and small children, and misanthropes of all varieties. The vast majority of Canadians hate winter, with a deep, unrestrained violence. They hate struggling into boots and overâ€" coats, and cars that won‘t start and the town snowplow, which fills their driveway just after it has been shovelled, and getting up in the dark to go to work, and having something like a sauna bath in overheated stores, and shivering and shuddering waiting for a bus or street car. The letter by John Grace, B.Sc., in the Feb. 25 edition of the Waâ€" terloo Chronicle insults our firefighters as well as our intelligence‘! I was lucky enough to have a Wateriloo fire fighter as a neighbour for several years, and learned through converâ€" sations with him that we have a firefighting force well trained in the proper methods of fightâ€" ing various types of fire, and aware of the haâ€" zards likely to be enâ€" countered in different types of buildings. Had a ride with a cab driver about a week ago. He was from the West Indies. It was one of those comparatively mild days, about sixâ€" teen Fahrenheit. It had been way below zero for about a week. His response, ‘‘*Mon, I am ireezing to death. I been freezing to death since I come to this ?*!&: country two years ago. Letter demonstrated lack of ‘grace‘ As a good Canadian, I commented on the weather. ‘‘Nice to see the cold spell over." We had a visitor this week from Sao Paulo, Brazil. He had never seen snow before. He couldn‘t believe how we survived. Winter in this country is nothing to write home about. Especially if your home is Caliâ€" fornia, or Texas, or Florida. BILL SMILEY More than dental report required Writer told to wise up In his letter (Waterloo Chronicle, Feb. 25, 1981 ) talking about liquid fluorine, he stated that if a leak or spill took place. our Fire Departâ€" ment would rush in and douse it with water. Re: ‘"Caution is Adâ€" vised." Being a member of the Waterloo Fire Departâ€" ment. I gather Mr. This letter is directed to Mr. John Grace. Although we do not exâ€" pect our provincial minâ€" istries to be fully inâ€" formed initially, we exâ€" pect them to educate themselves along the way with the 2 ppm that posâ€" sibly might cause motâ€" tied enamei? 1 wish that the drinking water of my childhood had been fluoridated, and that l now had more teeth. mottled or not. Hopefully John Grace did not receive his B.Sc Thus, on the matter of fluoridation in water supplies. we want the Ministry of Health to look at both the positive and negative factors from the points of view ment of our population involved in the educaâ€" tional process even more deeply than all the other winterâ€"haters. It is a grinding, wearing, tearing process for teachers, students, custodians, bus drivers, and even the ladies who dish up the grub in the cafeteria. Christmas vacation is but a memory, and the March break is so far off you wonder if you‘re going to make it without going goofy or slitting your wrists. From January to March, teachers are either catching or getting over the ‘flu. One headâ€"cold is followed by another. It seems that a third of the staff â€" the smart ones who don‘t stagger in to work half alive â€" are home sick. If the human body reaches its lowest point at around four a.m., education reaches its lowest point in the long Jan.â€"Feb. haul. There‘s nary a holiday in those two months. That means more work for the dumb ones, like me, who stagger in to work halfâ€"dead. We have to cover for them, which means your couple of spare periods, normally used to mark papers, plan lessons, and try to get over the chaos of the last class. go out the window, We hate the one at home in bed, or sitting up, drinking lemonade and rum and watching TV. It‘s even harder on the students. Many of Make school holidays in winter Grace thinks we spray water everywhere in any situation that we are confronted with. degree from the Univerâ€" sity of Waterloo, for if he did we have educated him poorly. He has writâ€" ten a letter of little grace, less logic and no consequence Wise up. We do have chemical books and proâ€" cedures that we follow in case of ‘spillages. leaks. fires, etc. Please give us a little more creâ€" dit Even though I don‘t have a B.Sc.. I have soâ€" mething better. comâ€" mon sense. Larry Koch of biochemists and meâ€" dical personnel as well as dentistry. Thus, it is no wonder that Waterloo council expressed dismay when they received another ‘‘dental report from Dr. _ Barbara â€" Blake (Prov. Ministry _ of Health). Hugh M. Morrison Harvard Rd., Waterioo Norma Sangoi Marshall St. Waterloo We haven‘t heard a peep from anyone since I even chanced upon one of the candidates last week and told him to feel free to call us if he had anything significant to say by way of a phone inâ€" terview. I‘m still waiting for some issues to develop and local candidates have been so quiet, they‘re liâ€" terally unheard of in these offices. There haven‘t been .any calls from candidates or campaign workers, or letters to the editor about the election. I was a little astonished the other day looking at the calendar, realizing how time was flying by. and musing that it‘s little more than a scant two weeks before the provincial election And if there‘s yet been an allâ€"candidates meetâ€" ing strictly for the Waterloo North candidates, we haven‘t heard about it. Not that we didn‘t ask to be kept posted by conâ€" tacting campaign headquarters several weeks If I felt it was worth the ink, he could have got some space. Bui I haven‘t heard anything on that one either For a moment, 1 saw a faint glimmer of hope when one of the campaign headquarters phoned Monday while I was writing this piece Never mind that this column might have been rendered somewhat inoperative â€" I thought perâ€" haps things might liven up a little. However, to my dismay. I quickly realized that the campaign worker was actually just usinfg the phone at headquarters to tell me about an upcomâ€" ing event for the social organization she belongs 1 realize there are some allâ€"candidates‘ meetâ€" ings coming up â€" only two for strictly Waterloo North runners, it appears â€" and that some private organizations have been meeting the candidates I also realize it‘s incumbent upon a newspaper to doâ€"a little ferreting out and digging on its own And the kids are sick. The sniffling, noseâ€" blowing and coughing drown out the teacher‘s voice, already enfeebled by anâ€" other sore throat. It‘s no wonder they are tired out, surly. insolent. and groan loudly when they are asked to do some work. They are bound to be resentful when somestupid teacher says they‘re going to have a test tomorrow and they missed the entire week when that work was taught. because they were in bed with the ‘flu. Custodians, or janitors, as they used to be called, have all the problems of teachers, but must mop up every day the ocean of snow and salt and sand tracked onto their pristine linoleum by teachers and students. School bus drivers also have all the aches of rising at an unearthly hour, getting the old bus started and warmed up, coping with a group of unruly kids just coming @live, and fighting their way through drifts and blizâ€" them stay up until midnight watching the box, get up in the dark at some ungodly hour, stand in a blizzard for ten minutes waiting for a bus, and drive twenty miles toward soâ€" mething that bores them out of their skulls Others, living in town, walk anywhere from half a mile to a mile and a half, halfâ€" frozen. heads bared to the elements and throats unscarved. as is the way of youth. What election? WA TERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4. 1981 â€" PAGE 7 JALSEVAC The NDP go on... and on ... about the same basic issues they‘ve long been identified with and makâ€" ing propositions â€" such as making the mimimum wage $5.10 an hour â€" without having to worry about ever implementing them as a government. The Tories are running around handing out cheques and tooting their horn for every conâ€" ceivable project and program they‘ve devised or are in the midst of conveniently putting into operation . in regards to the candidates and the issues Perhaps we could be doing more as a paper , but it‘s been awfully hard to find anything to get exâ€" cited about, to get the curiosity piqued and the adrenalin running. â€" Let‘s face it â€" this 1981 winter campaign has been just downright dull, drab and dreary, the worst problem being to find and isolate one or even two or three main issues. What are the crucial issues" _ I‘m stumped. The candidates and leaders seem to be all over the place, delivering slightlyâ€"reshaped policies on a host of wornâ€"out themes The Liberals‘ leader, Dr. Stuart Smith, has tried to focus on the economy while a recent poll shows that about 75 per cent of the population is satisfied with economic conditions in the provinâ€" What premier Bill Davis should have done. if he could have, is set the election date for as soon as the election machinery could be in place. and forâ€" get about a campaign. No, it‘s been a terrible campaign. and the local scene appears to bear out the lack of dynamism coming from the three leaders and their respecâ€" tive parties‘ pitches. Everyone knew who they were going to vote for when the election was called anyway and few are likely to change their minds in the interim. I here and now advocate, implore. and inâ€" sist that school continue through the summer months, and that January and February be declared the long vacation . And if there is no response, don‘t expect me to be teaching next year at this time. The entire school system is still in the nineâ€" teenth century, when the long summer holiâ€" day was established because boys and girls had to help with the farmâ€"work in the sumâ€" mer months. Ridiculous. The work is now done by machines. Jesus changed the world So did Coperâ€" nicus. So did Mahatma Ghandi. Einstein? The guy who invented TV. The guy who inâ€" vented the wheel. Stephenson. who invented the internal combustion engine. Alexander Graham Bell, whose relicts are practically supported by my wife. Even the cafeteria ladies have to punch their way through drifts, batteries that won‘t kick over, icy roads. frozen french fries, and come up smiling. Some of my students, in a recent essay. stated that one man cannot change the sysâ€" tem, and that we must compromise our prinâ€" ciples and go along with it, or try to change it by degrees and legislation. zards and freezing rain and stupid drivers who stall in the middle of the high way, or go into a skid right in front of the bus.