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The Waterloo Chronicle welcomes letters to the Editor They should be signed with name, address and phone numâ€" ber and will be verified for accuâ€" racy. No unsigned letters wili be published . Submissions may be edited for length, so please be brief. Copyright .:â€" fetters and other materials submitted to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author, but the publisher and its ficensees may freely reproduce them in print. electronic or other forms. Our mailing address is 75 King St. S., Suite 201. Waterloo N2J IP2, our eâ€"mail address is wechronicle@sentex.net, and our fax number is 886â€"9383 Letters Policy WATERLOO CHRONICLE ‘ = J ol S ua ~__ 18 _ @ Carolyn Anstey _ Karen Dwyer Lynn Bartol _ Laurie Ridgway The views of our columists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 136379 International Standard Serial Number ISSN 0832â€"3410 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 Andrea Bailey _ Bob Vrbanac The Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group, a division of Southern Ontario Community Newspapers Inc., a division of Southam Publications, a CanWest Company. 886â€"2830 Fax: 886â€"9383 â€"mail: wchronicle@sentex.net Audited circulation: 26,056 Publisher: Cal Bosveld I‘m sure the wait staff had a great laugh at their expense later than evening as they enjoyed a glass of beaujolais at the tourist‘s expense. I know we did. Even French waiters, mythologized for their indifference towards the paying customary, broke out their best service for those trying to order in french. Meanwhile, the tourists were left eating a dish of calves feet when they choose to complain about the fact that the menu wasn‘t in English and that the service "sucked." The tourists often got a different reaction from the locals than the travellers on the trip. The travâ€" ellers at least tried to communicate in the vernacular of the country they were in, getting knowing smiles and gentle understanding from the people that they The tourists on tour chose to respond in another way, complaining of all the possible diseases that they were know infected with after walking barefootâ€" ed in the open sewer that was once the palazzo. These were the same people who also complained about the funny money of each country they were in even though the locals seem to take their currency quite seriously and wouldn‘t accept any other. The Canadians on tour started singing "Venice is Sinking," that great Spirit of the West track that quite literally had become the anthem for the evening. How many times can you say that art imitates life, and actually be there to witness it. We were more Sn n impressed with the v;:g BOB that the high tide lapj into the streets of the VRBANAC medieval city, than we were in doing laps around the city in a mobâ€"conâ€" trolled gondola Maybe that‘s where James Gandolfini from the Sopranos got his family name from? I took one step into the square to see the rallying point for our boat‘s deparâ€" ture had water all the way up to our knees. So instead of wading through the St. Mark‘s mess, we found another way around to the boat launch. We left early for some gelati and started to make our way to the famous St. Mark‘s square to meet up with the rest of our tour group. We should have known something was wrong when all the people coming out of the square had their pants rolled up to & a their knees while walking ) h * through the pigeonâ€" splatâ€" S I I'\X[( lf { l tered streets barefooted. Al K After getting lost in the maze that make up the side streets of the island state cast in a lagoon to ward off the barbarian hordes (and we don‘t mean all the foreign tourists), we settled in from some local dining while being serenaded by two of the stranded oarsmen. Like the time me and the "missus" were in Venice waiting for our muchâ€"anticipated gondola ride through the city. Unfortunately, the weather wasn‘t that coâ€"operaâ€" tive. After three major thunderstorms, with the rains coming down horizontally, the gondoliers were left rather soggy and our thoughts of romance on the canals of Venice was washed out. Travellers are those hardy souls that take someâ€" thing from every experience they‘ve had, good or bad, and figure it will make a great story to tell. Tourists will just find a way to complain about it. And we soon found out h&‘lfnlpo" ortan t a quesâ€" tion it was to answer as one encounters all the difâ€" ferent cultures, currencies and cuisine of the contiâ€" nent. Are you a traveller, or are you a tourist? That‘s the first question our tour manager Aaron asked us as we were about to embark on a 16â€"day tour of Europe that would take me and my new wife to destinations that included the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, France and back to England where we started. Venice is sinking VIEWPOINT True, it happened long ago and to people we didn‘t even know. True, the rivers of blood have long since chilled, but there isn‘t a moral statute of limitations on murder. There can‘t be one. The fact that we did not know the victims â€" or even of the victims â€" absolves us of Such units were the most horrendous parts of the Nazi killing machine. They slew men, women and children. While their emphasis was on Jews, all occupants of occuâ€" pied territories became their targets. Justice â€" Andrew _ MacKay oA found there was no evidence BA that Oberlander, now 77, was involved in war crimes. But the judge ruled out he had failed to disclose his role as an interpreter in a German Einsatzkommando. J know, instaad of washing _ off your drivewer, you should try putting some of that water on your lawn / â€" In case you don‘t remember, a court faulted Oberlander for failâ€" ing to disclose his role as an interpreter in a notorious killing unit in the Second World War. Ignorance absolves nothing in the meantime, on the Oberlander case, we‘ll have sheafs of petitions pro and con, and pleas galore that the war is more than a halfâ€"century past, and it‘s time to let bygones be bygones. One decision will affect a single life, the other decision will affect the lives of all Waterloo residents. Neither decision will come swiftly. A lot of us are apt to be gone when the verdicts are m rendered. Always a wait: Two fateful decisions are awaited in Waterloo: The final word on the possible deporatation of Helmut Oberlander, and the decision on the city‘s lawsuit on RIM By the way, if the drought continues, Kâ€"W will introduce a new way of celebrating Halloween. They‘re going to fill a tub with apples and bob for water. e thing that makes a heat wave I unbearable is the yahoo who chirps "Hot enough for you?" Yea verily, they should have a special hot seat for yobs like That tends to amuse some Kitchener resiâ€" dents once teased by the moversâ€"toâ€" Waterloo "because taxes are always lower". Why the surprise? Everyone knows that in a suit you name heaps of possibly relevant parâ€" ties just in case you miss one and . have to suffer from the oversight. DY Clarica a party? I‘m norts.sstil,:- RD prised at all. But I am surprised that just to be on the safe side, the City of Waterloo didn‘t name everybody in the Kitchenerâ€"Waterioo telephone book. Looking for an out: Laurier is scramâ€" bling to get its record crop of freshmen housed, but the pinch may offer some hope for householders fearful of the city‘s defeat in the RIM lawsuit. They may be able to take in boarders. Think not? They may not be saying much, but a lot of homeowners are worried. They figure they may face tax increases in the douâ€" ble digits. A Kitchener factory worker, now retired, can recall approaching a newcomer and askâ€" ing about the Jews. The chap leaned forward and said in a low voice, "I‘m 2l going to tell you this just once; )UBNL we made amistake. We didn‘tget TV RAU all of them." A solitary voice? By the way, let‘s hope that no antiâ€"Semitism came to Canada with the postwar fluvoi of folks from Germany. He strikes me as akin to the piano player who performed four years in the parlour of a brothel. When the joint was pinched, he stubbornly maintained he didn‘t know what went on upstairs. There‘s no evidence Oberlander took part in the killings, but he was a member of the notorious unit. nothing. They were human beings just as we are. Their lives were as precious to them and theirs as ours are to us. Please not us! That little old company Clarica seems shocked and chagrined that Waterloo would name it as an addedâ€" starter in its suit over the financâ€" ing of RIM Park. This is my lawn /