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PAGE 6 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1985 Waterloo city council‘s endorsement of a twoâ€"year proposal that effectively could result in the banning of smoking at city hall offices adds more fuelâ€"to a raging fire sparked by smokers/nonâ€"smokers ongoing debate. The establishment of incontrovertible evidence linking smoking with heart and lung disease, to say nothing of various other ailments compounded by the apparent dangers of secondâ€"hand smoke â€" the pet peeve of the ‘80s â€" has turned popular sentiment against those who look upon smoking as merely a relaxing, pleasurable pastime. It isn‘t, to be sure. However, while instituting an office smoking ban may sound spiffy and squeaky clean, it surely also infringes on those grey areas of human rights set out in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Smoking, after all, is perfectly legal, at least until our feds decide the good of our health is more important than tax revenues, and this latest proposal is just another indication of the difficulty we have in drawing the line. The trend in recent years has been to ban smoking in arenas, meeting rooms, elevators, stores, and more recently, restaurants or parts thereof. In isolated cases, newspapers have rejected tobaccoâ€"oriented advertising and have â€" breaking longâ€"standing traditions â€" followed up by banning smoking from the newsroom. Most of these cases are kneeâ€"jerk reactions to howls of "your right to smoke ends when I am forced to breathe the same air," a rational but hopelessly idealistic claim in an environment fouled daily (and, for shame, often legally) by air pollution, water pollution, industrial pollution, noise pollution and the like. Now, no doubt prompted by the move to nix smoking at city hall, other offices will jump on the "banâ€"wagon"‘, which doesn‘t bother us since the end result is a praiseworthy goal. What we recoil at though is the forced intervention angle, which, in places such as restaurants, has proven highlyâ€"imâ€" practical and unfair to the point where the proprietor of one of Toronto‘s classiest restaurants now herds nonâ€"smokers off to a lessâ€"attractive basement section in retaliation for what he views as reverse discrimination. Also, if indeed this banâ€"smoking stance must be legislated, let‘s see an equal effort pointed towards the combatting of other known health hazards in and around the work place â€" hazards which cause problems for smokers and nonâ€"smokers alike. For starters, what about the banning of controlled air circulation systems and the return of offices with open windows and fresh air, not the recycled stale variety most of us are gagging on now? We could also eliminate fluorescent lighting and the problems it causes re eye strain and fatigue. And what about computer terminal hazards? Fumes from copy machines? Pipedâ€"in music and other insidious noise mufflers? Heavens, even workers drenched in perâ€" fume/after shave! If we‘re bound and determined to clean up conditions in the work place, let‘s not just pick on the easy target, the smokers. Let‘s root out all the problems, all the conditions that contribute to sickness, absenteeism, lack of worker productivity. In an ideal society, legislated intervention would not be needed to solve the smoker/nonâ€"smoker dilemma. This latest proposal is just another reminder of indeed, what an imperfect world we do live in. Second Class Mail Registration Number 5540 address and telephone number and will be verified for accuracy. No unsigned letters will be published and the Chronicle reserves the right to edit. individually signed with name, The Chronicle welcomes letters Letters policy . Imperfect published every Wednesday by Fairway Press, a division of Kitchenerâ€"Waterloo Record Ltd., owner T . 225 Fairway Rd. S., Kitchener, Ont. address correspondence to Waterloo office: 45 Erb St. E., Waterloo, Ont. N2J 1L7, telephone 886â€"2830 Waterloo Chronicle office is located in the Haney, White Law Office Building (rear entrance, upper floor). Parking at the rear of the building. Open Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Publisher: Paul Winkler Manager: Bill Karges B ¢_ @ Editor: Rick Campbell The Chronicle is proud of its tradition of accuracy and fair play but does acknowledge the possibility of human error. Conâ€" structive criticism of news, opinâ€" ions and advertising is welcome in hopes that all complaints can be resoived. Those who fee} further action is needed should address their concern to the Ontario Press Council, 151 Slater St., Suite 708, Ottawa, Ont. KiP 5H3. Press Council established 1854 Now I think I know how a fighter feels when he gets not one, but two punches below the belt. A couple of fouls. First, I got word that my kid brother had been delivered his death sentence, at the age of 62. He has anywhere between three months and a year to live. In fact, when he received his sentence, he was in the process of moving back to Canada. He had bought some property not far from the old home town. Florida in summer is as bad as northern Quebec in winter. He had retired to Florida. But not in the usual way, sitting around in the sun, waiting to get old He still acted like a whirling dervish, as was his wont, when I visited him two winters ago, even though his health was not great. _When I talked to him on the phone recently, 1 was astonished at his stoicism. No whining. No, llwhy mo?!! â€" He was as brisk and lively as ever, making plans to sell His property, get his affairs in order, and organize what remains of his life. He even said he might take me on in a golf game one of these days. But his heart was not really in Florida, though he‘d gone there in disgust with Canadian politics and Canadian winters. He had been through about four winters in northern Quebec, enough to curdle one‘s blood for a few years. There was only one slight falter, when he said. "It seems a little unfair, though," and explained why. He had done two tours of operations on fighter planes in WWII, had been in numerous dogfights. had been shot down and spent a couple of days and nights in a dinghy in the English Channel, blinded from the cordite of a cannon shell that had gone through his canopy. had survived about a dozen crash landings. had come through a couple of hairy operations (surgical), and now this. The rotten little worm in the guts. A little unfair, indeed. May I have his attitude when my days are numbered, as, of course, they are for all of us But, as he said, he‘d had a good life, done most of the things he wanted to do, and accepted the hand he‘d now been dealt. without rancour He‘s off to England, to spend the rest of his time with his family and. see more of his grandchildren. I hope to see him there this summer, if my own grandchildren don‘t get me hopelessly bogged down If not, a belated salute to my little brother. Colonel Blake Smiley. D.Fâ€"C. I know he always â€"â€" It is written "When I first started, all the students were so nice and clean cut. Then they came into that bippie era of long hair and torn jeans. Now they‘re all neat and tidy again ~ WLU longest employed staff member Norma McClenaghan reflecting on her years at the school. â€"SEE PAGE 4 ((s °3A _ ’,/'” ;;,/ %Jm\{ on _ _( j _.@"}z â€"a4333â€"â€" CÂ¥ C (¢ U Câ€"=â€"â€"(¢ ) |_ 4 53> \| â€"â€"<=B[â€"] . 11â€"\ [ T7 4A Reeâ€"â€"[4 y ttts.f ol J h j s 1 | % w# @4 > P" ZP4 7 * F 7 7 maplLe DP e i‘enAr LEA pYÂ¥ Crcai P1 I A £ Te mownor‘s crear," The mriE‘s DEePRESSING / Does rtay mEAN 1SICKâ€"HANDLE THROUGH LIFE A7 mE Borrorg oF TiE tEAouE 7 "~ Sad notes Bill Smiley Syndicated columnist wanted me to salute him Though he was not an air force buddy, he had been in the Norwegian Air Force during the war, had come to Canada to train, married a Canadian girl and gone into the weekly newspa per business after the war. That‘s where I first met him, at a newspaper convention. Another kick in the groin came recently with a message from Port Perry, Ont., that my old friend of many years, Pete Hvidsten, had died.. Per,. his Norwegian first name, or Pete, the English equivalent, was a prince of a good fellow, and we got on together from our first en counter. He was a man of many parts, though he didn‘t Naunt them. He could operate a linotype, play the flute, keep people happy just by his presence, and cope with difficulties by staying calm and reasonable Per was an intelligent talker, a good listener, and a loyal friend when you needed one (as 1 know â€"from personal experience). He had manners that could charm the ladies right out of their shoes, an excellent sense of humor, and both feet on the ground . Over the years, though we met only at conventions, we became closer. Even our kids got to know each other. He brought his family to the city for a Concert my son Hugh was presenting, on a winter night with the tempera ture 30 below. and that wasn‘t Celsius I watched his daughter grow from a terrible teenage brat to a lovely and charming young woman. His son from a teenage goof to a responsible, likable young man With our wives,. and another charming eccen tric. Gene Macdonald of Alexandria. the Man from Glengarry, we sat up all one lovely summer night in the bow of a steamer going up the St. Lawrence, exhausted after a convention at Murray Bay. watching the lights of shore and passing steamers. An enchanted evening Pete and I played eighteen holes of golf one day. after getting to bed about 1 a m As we struggled up to the last tee, we were both reads for an ambulance, but he was out in front by 20 feet, a litle purple but not yielding an inch Last time I saw him was in Halifax, at another convention. He took me in hand, made me walk half around the city, then led me, on foot. up Citadel Hill By the time we got to the top. 1 could neither see nor walk, as he amiabls pointed out interesting things â€" His passing closes off another of the happ» trails of my life gI»