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WINDING down. The school year is winding down to a close, and I occasionally feel that I‘m winding down with it to a permanent close. Last term is panic term. Back in September, everybody, students and teachers, was optimistic, healthy, looking forward to a solid year of accomplishment, whether of learning or of teaching. warnings This year we had two who didn‘t finish. One of them had enough sense to quit, and drops in occasionally to rub his bronzed, heaithy face into our pallid, twitching ones, informing us with deliberate malice that he‘s just completing his morning‘s fourâ€"mile walk. Ever since the 1914â€"18 war, the war that was supposed to end all wars, we have had nothing but vioâ€" Second term is the grinder. It‘s cold, or stormy, or both. The days are short, the nights long. There are no long weekends to break the monotony. Everybody is either at home in bed with the ‘flu, or sneezing and snuffiing all over the few teachers and students who don‘t have it. Somehow we all struggle through, get a lift from the March break, and head into the home stretch, weary and short of wind, but with just enough stamina to make it to the wire, not necessarily first, though even the long shots manage to finish. Most of Many people today are ignoring the warning Jesus gave regarding our system of things. They have their heads in sand like an ostrich The other one, a superactive, exceptionâ€" ally outgoing guy, looking forward to second presence. He told them to look for signs at the conclusion of this system of things, such as that nation would rise against nation. Mark 13: 8. That there would be food shortages in one place after anâ€" other. Luke 21: 11. Pestilences in one place after another. He said: "Just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of Man will be." In Noah‘s day people ignored the warning that was given and were swept away by the Flood. He spoke of many earthquakes in many places. He said: hatred and persecution of his followers would take place. Luke 21:12â€"17. He statâ€" ed: Christians would betrayed by their own relatives and friends. Luke 21; 16. He warned that in these "‘last days‘"‘ many false prophets would arise. Mark 13 21â€"22. He also said there would be an increase in lawlessness, yet our government authorities have decidâ€" ed to lay off law enforcement officers to save money. He said there would be an anguish of nations not knowing which way to turn. How true! Luke 21:25. He spoke of moral degeneracy in public and private life. 2 Timothy 3: 1â€"5. He warned us that destruction would come upon the earth when they are saying *"‘*peace and security."" Turning their swords into plowshares is not in the minds of those who rule. More arms is the way to peace they say. 1 In Matt: 24:3, Jesus gave visible BILL SMILEY Outcome a sound defeat In their silence then, the 69 per cent gave their consent to the continuation of fluoridation and it adds up to a sound defeat for the antiâ€"fluoridation people in Waterioo, a defeat that should for the time being be accepted with grace. vote. Since people generally are concerned about their physical wellâ€" being (and get enraged when it is put to risk by the activities of other people) we must conclude that if the nonâ€"voting 69 per cent had believed but a part of what the antiâ€"fluoridaâ€" tion people had so passionately stated in their campaign, they would have stormed out to support them at the polis. . The funds will be used for youth activities and community service in Lakeshore Village and the City of Waterloo. â€" hoping these things will not hap pen. â€" W.D. Pope Westmount Rd. N. The Optimist Club of Lakeshore Village would like to. thank the residents of Lakeshore Village who donated almost $1,500 to the club‘s trust fund during the Tollgate on May 29 and 30. Your editorial on the fluoridation question, A divided city, overiooks en important factor in the vote. Only 31 per cent of the eligible Optimists say thanks I can stand all this; I‘ve been doing it for 21 years. And it all comes out in the wash. The students who were doing well continue to do so. The students who were flunking continue to do so. A few, around the squeaky line, become extremely solicitous of the health and welfare of their teachers, in the hope of a miracle. Then, in the last term, the panic starts. Teachers must have marks for the year‘s work, and begin setting and marking tests and essays like maniacs. Students roll their eyes and groan when they learn that they‘ll have four tests next Wednesday. The administration showers us with memos, threats, warnings, and other assorted garbage. Students who are not ‘highly motivated", in educational jarâ€" gon, feel the pull of sun and green grass and a stirring of the loins, and drop out. Everybody decides to have a field trip for his grades. The other day I had 13 out of 34 in a Grade 13 class. All the others were on a field trip, or off with the track team, or off with the concert band, or just spending a day in bed, because ‘"There‘ll be nobody there anyway." taking early retirement in a couple of years, and following his true vocation â€" preaching â€" was struck down by a tumour of the brain, and has retired permanently from this vale of tears. The Optimist Club Lakeshore Village Thomas S. Smith Glenridge Drive Waterioo Waterioo It‘s coming to an end But if Carroll is as politically astute as I reckon she is, she‘ll put some of her personal feelings on fluoridation a little further in the background and try to reconcile those with the large numbers of her constituency who are opposed to fluoridation. After all, Carroll is supposed to be mayor of all the people, and the more than 5,000 And some of them are talking about who to vote out of the mayor‘s office should a worthwhile contender present him/herself as an alternative to Carroll in the next elecâ€" This, incidentally, is exactly the sort of scenario the mayor has argued against, i.e. making fluoridation an election issue and basing one‘s vote partly on a candidate‘s The mayor believes there are a lot of other more important issues that one should vote for or against a candidate on, and views fluoridation as simply a public health meaâ€" sure that should be relatively nonâ€"debatable. Mayor Carroll will be unable to stop the wheels from spinning that seem sure to bring fluoridation to another vote, only this time, the vote could be tied in with civic elections to office. I hear from tunedâ€"in sources that there are a heck of a lot of people who are hopping mad with the mayor‘s attitude towards the antiâ€"fluoride side. Some postscripts to the fluoridation fooâ€" fteraw follow. I think Mayor Marjorie Carroll may be treading on some thin political ice regarding her wholesale support of the proâ€"fluoride side.. The mayor was quick to congratulate memâ€" bers of the No Means Yes committee at their campaign headquarters in the Marsland Centre following last week‘s plebiscite victoâ€" She aiso denounced a suggestion that perhaps there should be another vote on the issue in the next municipal elections. Postâ€"plebiscite punditry Tuesday, column day, had to sit in on interviews with two teachers for a job on my staff. An hour and a half down the drain. One changed his mind; the other wasn‘t the fireball I need. No column writâ€" Just the other day, a teacher caught a kid cheating on a test. He had no need to. He was a top student, and now, because of cheating, must write all his finals. Guess what the subject was? Canadian Law! Take last week. Monday was, as usual, pullâ€"yourselfâ€"togetherâ€"dayâ€"afterâ€"theâ€"weekâ€" end. Had to write out two exams after school (to be written four weeks in the fuâ€" ture). But this is all normal, and all blood under the bridge. As I said, I can hack it. What gets me are the extras. Everyday there‘s some niggling chore to do that rubs the sandpaper into the wounds. A couple of years ago, a fairly good student got into my marks book, and raised his marks by 20 per cent across the board. The forgery was so obvious that I let it go, reducing his marks by 10 per cent from the original. Strange things happen in the panic term. Just talked to a teacher today who still has a kid on his rolls, and hasn‘t seen him since Sept. 8th, 1980. Naturally, he thought the boy was long gone; but he‘s still regisâ€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1981 â€" PAGE 7 PHILIP JALSEVAC It‘s a hot potato they‘ve decided to pass on but, to me, it‘s more like, to paraphrase an expression, transferring the dollar. But I suspect the government won‘t inâ€" troduce compulsory fluoridation because it can‘t take the heat. Can you imagine the demonstrations at Queen‘s Park if every antiâ€"fluoridationist in the province united? No, better to deflect the opposition and let them fight in small groups. It‘s worthy to note the government would also face tremendous pressure if it disallowed fluoridation completely. residents who voted mn&alut fluoridation is not something to be ed at. I‘ve heard that any provision of dental insurance by the Bill Davis crew is somewhat tied in with the advancement of provinceâ€" wide fluoridation. That would mean a politically popular move at the least cost to the provincial Nobody complains to the provincial govâ€" ernment for allowing the practice in the first place through its legislation empowering municipalities to institute the practice. And should one fight against fluoridation be won somewhere, it‘s likely to be offset by another or more elsewhere where the proâ€" fluoride forces will rule. So the government can have at least partial fluoridation of the province, even if total fluoridation is its The provincial government is very clever on the fluoridation issue. It knows what intense opposition there is to the practice and so dissipates that by leaving the decision on whether to fluoridate or not to individual municipalities or to the people in a community through a vote. As pointed out in last week‘s editorial, this leaves politicians and the public in each separate area of the province to battle it out amongst themselves. Monday, drive home, same mileage, and find skunks have torn up half the lawn, searching for grubs. Tuesday, back to work with no marking done, pants have big grease spot on front, and column to write. And here I am. Friday, have to trot colleague off to the emergency with chest pains at 3 p.m., after missing a class at 9 a.m. to have a filling fixed (thirtyâ€"four dollars.) Friday night, have to go to a play with old friends in it. It was excellent but I was whacked by time we‘d got home and done the post mortem. Saturday, drive 120 miles to see greatâ€" grandad, 88, who was more concerned with getting hold of some nice, rich manure for his roses than he was about the 88 papers I had to mark. Sunday, play with greatâ€"nephew for two hours while his mother, father, grandâ€" mother, grandfather and greatâ€"aunt busy themselves at less strenuous pursuits. Wednesday, have to go up to emergency ward at the hospital, to pick up a girl who had tried to sew two fingers together in Family Studies, and done a fair job of it. Column written, hastily and not so hotly. Thursday, a.m. had to get the car to the dealer‘s to fix the flicker lights, then go and get it after school. Twentyâ€"four bucks, and it isn‘t working.