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WATERLOO CHRONICLE Publisher: Cal Bosveld 886â€"2830 Fax: 886â€"9383 Eâ€"mail: wehronicle@sentex.net 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 Regional Classified _ Classified 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. 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 The Waterioo 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 will be published. Submussions may be edited for length, so please be hnef Lopyright in letters and uther matenials submitted to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author, but the publisher and its licensees may freely reproduce them in print, electronic or other forms. Our mailing address is 75 King St S Suite 201, Waterloo N21 192. our eâ€" mail address is " wehronicle@sentex net, and our tax number is AB6â€"9383 Caralyn Anstev Circulation Manager Letters Policy Andrea Bailey Bob Vrbanac Reporter Sports Editor Cal Bosveld Deborah Crandall Jim Alexander Director of Advertising Audited circulation: 26,056 Lynin Bartol Manager > sm § 1SSN 0832â€"3410 Joanne Dicaire Laurie Ridgway Gerry Mattice Katen Dwyer Circulation Retail Sales Manager fter leaving city council last year, 1 became a Anczember of â€" Waterloo‘s 55+ Advisory munittee. As the name suggests, this is a committee whose mandate is to look at ways the city can provide services to Waterloo‘s growing senior population. In May of this year, Ross McKee, the chair of the 55+ Advisory Committee, made a presentation to city council as to the needs of Waterloo‘s seniors. Waterloo has many programs seniors can join, such as swimâ€" ming, walking, sports and art activities. But what is really needed is a facility seniors can call their own, similar to Kitchener‘s Rockway Centre and Breithaupt Senior Centre, or Cambridge‘s David Durward Centre. In Kitchener, seniors pay a membership fee, and then they run "their" centre with the help of city staff. This is what the 55+ committee would like to impleâ€" ment in Waterloo. Waterloo‘s current seniors‘ centre on King Street does a wonderful job for the frail elderty, but is not big enough to cater to active seniors, as well. That is the gist of what McKee told council in May. Council directed city staff to study the needs of seniors, workâ€" ing with the 55+ committee, and report back. Meetings fhore. have since been held d e between the committee, i gre city staff and Coun. Morty 4 Taylor, who is the commitâ€" tee‘s liaison with council. One thing that is clear, however, is that one more study isn‘t needed. Several studies of seniors‘ needs have been done over the MIKE past few years, and the 55+ CONNOL committee feels that anothâ€" er will only further delay muchâ€"needed action. There is a school becoming available in the city‘s core which could be just what is needed for a seniors‘ facility, and would also, because of its size, provide facilities for the city‘s arts and crafts community. The problem is the price being asked by the public school board. The property may be too rich for city council to swallow. Whatever happens, the seniors need a home they can run by and for themselves. The 55+ committee is appreciative of the support shown by city council to date, and hopes it will not be long before there is a ribâ€" bonâ€"cutting ceremony â€" somewhere. An alternative might be to create a seniors‘ club at the Wing 404/RCAFA Rotary Adult Centre on Dutton Drive, where some seniors‘ programs already take place. â€" â€" â€" 8 â€" On Sept. 11, Bob Pullen and I, as representatives of the 55+ committee, attended the Regional Transit Focus study group. This is a study dealing with issues of affordable transit, including free fares for seniors, disabled, and lowâ€"income people, and issues of physâ€" ical accessibility to transit services. It was a good meeting, wellâ€"run, and many sound suggestions were put forward by regional staff, who will be presenting their recommendations to regional council in November. As I write this article, my mind turns to the barâ€" baric terrorist attacks on America and the Free World. The events of Tuesday, Sept. 11 made us all realize how quickly we can lose the peaceful, democratic way of life we have in Canada unless we remain vigiâ€" lant and fight all forms of injustice. For those who are interested in putting forward their own suggestions, there will be a public meeting on Sept. 27 in the lobby of the regional headquarters, 150 Frederick St. in Kitchener, from 7â€"9 p.m. Let‘s hope regional staff‘s final recommendations include issuing free bus passes. I will keep you informed. The tragedy of that horrific day also makes me realize that all the things we argue about and nickel and dime about here in Waterloo region are very insignificant when viewed against real world probâ€" lems. We must remember to keep things in perspective and count our many blessings. We have so much to be thankful for. Respect and love your family, friends, and neighbours. Seniors need their own centre 0d COLUMNIST ] j 4 | l i Lâ€"_â€"â€"Mâ€"_‘ VIEWPOINT th the epic atrocities in the United WlStates. the Toronto film festival hasâ€" n‘t received its endless oolyâ€"drooly publicity. Without paying attention, I can still give you the big winners: Best direction, Great Britain; best spectacular, United States; best romance, Italy; mightiest military epic, Germany; and best popcorn, Canada. Terror Time: A relative handful of terrorâ€" ists wreaked incredible damage on the United States and the world last week. Thousands of deaths and skyscrapers twisted into rubble. Amazingly, the operation was lowâ€"tech, highâ€"concept. The technology involved such homely items as box cutters, plain old skyâ€" jackings and even jets which were anything but the last word in technology. The concept was high, high. It coâ€"ordinatâ€" ed the impossible with precision. They skyâ€" jacked four jets, all fresh from takeoffs, wideâ€" bodied and loaded with gas. The four â€" their passengers now expendable â€" became manned missiles which took out two towers that were 110â€"storey monuments to man‘s Dead in a twinkling were thousands of workers, including a surprising â€" numbers â€" of Canadians. And make no misâ€" take about it They all had promising jobs. These were the bravest and brightest. TV did a remarkable job of momentâ€"toâ€" moment coverage, but it could capture only a few drops of the oceans of tears shed by relatives and friends. And it could only hint at the families left without a parent. Or two parents. The tales of lastâ€"second OA phone conversations were so terâ€" BA ribly poignant. They were a reminder that in arising each mormning none of us knows what the day will bring. Or if indeed it‘ll bring the end of the day. Screen Test: Television has done a remarkable job of coverage. Still, there‘s one thing TV â€" predictably â€" has done, and it continues to bother me. These are days we will long remember It has shown again, again and again the planes swooping into the towers. It‘s bad enough to see it once, but to see it repeatedly stirs the stomach. These are days we will long remember. But would that we do not have new memories of a new and equally horrific bloodâ€"letting. There‘s speculation the New York cleanâ€"up SANDY BAIRD may take up to a year. It‘s not speculation to know that events of the past week will live with us as long as we live. Star Border: A fake Canadian passport is something no spy would travel without. They have provided an entree to even the most dubious of travellers. If any of the terrorists involved in the U.S. disaster proves to have entered via Canada with fake credentials, it should set enough of us Canadians to screaming for tighter conâ€" trols. Canadian documentation has been a laughingâ€"stock for far too long. Both the processes and the paper should get a long, hard look. Other countries could then take them seriously. It‘s bad enough that our currency now looks like Canadian Tire money, but our docâ€" uments should merit some respect. â€" Leave Aplenty? This is really going to be a glorious fall, we can already see three things turning yellow â€" the trees, the leaves, and investors. One other thing: The students were, withâ€" out exception, cleanâ€"cut, neatâ€"looking and well behaved. There wasn‘t a loser in the lot. Bear that in mind the next time you hear some leatherâ€"lunged critic howling about university students having enough dollars to soak up the suds without end. D I Newlyâ€"arrived students were there in hordes and were buying this and that. From what I saw, the male students were queued up for cell phones, among many other things. _ The females were taken by shoe stores and outlets like that there. In any case, the cash registers were ringing a merty tune. O True, there are exceptions. And that‘s exactly what they are â€" exceptions. It‘s maybe odd, eh, but stock market experts say that the terâ€" rorist tragedy will depress the market for a little while. That‘s all we needed. Say, a lot of stock is brought on the greater fool theory. You buy a stock and then look for a greater fool to take it off your hands. A lot of divorces are based on the same theory. Town and Gown: Anybody who â€" doubts the economic impact of Waterloo‘ s university students should have been at the Conestoga Mall last weekend.