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Group Sales Director â€" Retail Sales Manager Ext. 230 886â€"2830 Fax: 886â€"9383 editorial@waterloochronicle.ca sales@waterloochronicle.ca composing@waterloochronicle.ca WATERLOO CHRONICLE The Waterioo Chronicle welcomes letters to the Editor They should be signed with name. address and phone number and will be verified for accuracy No unsigned letters will be published Submissions may be edited for length. so please be brief Copyright in letters and other mate rials submitt=d to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author. but the publisher and its licensees may freely repro duce them in print. electronic or other forms. Our mailing address is 75 King St. S.. Suite 201, Waterioo N2] 1P2, our eâ€"mail address is editorial@waterloochronicle ca. and our fax number is BB6â€"9383 The Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group, a division of Southern Ontaric Community Newspapers Inc., a subsidiary of Osprey Media Group Inc Associate Publisher _ Editor, Ext.215 Regional Classified _ Classified Manager Sales, 23â€"66 1 7 The views of our columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 40050478 International Standard Serial Number ISSN 0832â€"3410 Reporter, Ext. 227. Sports Editor, Ext Deb Dufhield karen Dwwer Circulation Circulation Manager, Ext. 225 Assistant 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 Associate Publisher: Andrea Bailey Sales, Ext. 223 Sales. Ext. 222 Letters Policy Ken Bosveld Iynin Rartol OSPREY Ken Bosveld 905â€"523â€"5800, Ext. 239 Audited circulation: 27,538 Deborah Crandall aune Ridgwa Bob Vrhanac Fact is, Jesse Brouwer is the Africanâ€"Canadian boy â€" 1 wrote that he was the boy pictured on the left. but I meant to write that he was the boy pictured on the right (sorry Jesse) Racist? No Dyslexic? You bet. But racist? No That irate reader doesn‘t know it, but she actually did me a favour with her accusation. She reminded me that when I react to a situation, I‘m really reacting to my perception of the situation, not the situation itself. She reminded me that of the 217 times per day I fly off the handle over one thing or another, probably only 12 or so are truly legitimate fits of rage. The rest of the time I‘m just huffing and puffing, jumping from one conclusion to the next. left â€" the caucasian boy. The irate reader shouted ‘racism‘ because we only identified the caucasian boy â€" that we must have felt the Africanâ€"Canadian boy was unworthy of being mentioned by name. I asked him if he was suggesting that our photographers intentionally point their cameras in the opposite direction when a person of colour appears in the viewfinder, or that we seek out white faces at community events. Yes, he said. He was convinced of it. The phone call a couple of weeks was of a simiâ€" lar nature. But this complaint concerned a picture we published on page 3 of the Feb. 12 issue of The Chronicle. In the picture, two young boys â€" one caucasian, one Africanâ€"Canadian â€" were frolickâ€" ing on cross country skis during a family fun day hosted by the local Nordic Sports Club at Bechtel Park. Only one of the boys was identified by name in the cutline (newspaper talk for the caption under the photo) â€" the other skied away too fast for me to get his name. The cutline noted that eightâ€"yearâ€"old Jesse Brouwer was the boy on the left â€" the caucasian bov. I‘ll bet she walked around most of that day all twisted up inside â€" festering and furious at those bigots over at the Waterloo Chronicle. But she needn‘t have But the accusation by the phone caller a couple of weeks ago was far more offensive. Unfortunately, it wasn‘t the first time a reader has called us racist. A few years back, a reader accused us of racism because we never run pictures of people of colour. He insisted that the community is full of people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, yet The Chronicle‘s pages only feature caucasians. Well, it was a phone call from an irate reader a couple of weeks ago that set me off. I‘ve been letting it stew for a while, hoping I‘d calm down. And I guess I have. But I still have to get the matter off my chest. As a result of one Chronicle story or anothâ€" er, we‘ve been called a variety of nasty things â€" like Liberals, Tories and New Democrats,‘just to name a few. It was always sure to generate a laugh â€" or at least rolling of the eyes. But in my own silly way, I guess I was just suggesting that the way we view the world is all a matter of perspective. And since our perspectives differ, our opinions are bound to do the same. 1 know what you‘re thinking. "Deb, why so philosophical all of a sudden? It‘s not at all like you." Here at the Waterloo Chronicle we â€" the royal we, that is â€" are accused of all sorts. en I was a goofy teenager, I used to stave Wfi arguments by suggesting to potential opponents that they, "try looking at it this way." At which time I‘d tilt my head as upside down as was physically possible. Try looking at it this way VIEWPOINT X Marks the Spot: It looks as if they‘re going to have a jolly time in Kitchener Centre whenever Ontario goes to the polls. Let‘s see. Wayne Wettlaufer has held the riding, but an assistant left him and said he‘d contest the riding. But it turns out he can‘t because the PCs say no one can run against a successful candidate. Seriously, can‘t you just see a leader turnâ€" ing to his general staff and saying: "This could be the start of World War Four and the end of civilization as we know it." Then he cranks up his bow and fires the first arrow at the enemy. If the two sides get hung up and appreciate what the deadlock could do, perhaps they‘ll latch on to the Canadian proposal as a means of an out. After all, it‘s not the north ward softball title to be determined; it‘s whether or not of a war in which tens of thousands of folks could be killed. Say, the activists have finally I»Z adopted a positive approach. L=‘= Instead of banning atomic and bacterial weapons, they‘re trying to bring back poison gas. I suspect also that it‘s driven by concern that a drive to war would damage the UN perhaps fatally ns Although from the start there it was a good prospect the option ( )\( would go nowhere, it was worth l l(‘ while to give it a try. And it may uied still play a role S A Final Shot: At the moment, Canada seems to be playing a familiar role in the Iraq debacle: Playing a seeker striving to float a compromise. As might be expected, George Dubyah snarled a ‘not interested‘ and Germany said the same. But fear not, a Kâ€"W boy, Paul Heinbecker, is doing the armâ€"twisting at the UN. So don‘t count it as lost quite yet. Canada would set the final deadline as March 28. in expectation, I suspect, that someâ€" thingâ€"anythingâ€"would prevent the war And the soâ€"called experts are saying that winter wasn‘t supposed to be like this. Thanks to the warming that was allegedly coming, the winter was supposed to be balmier than Caracas at noon. It hasn‘t been. We have to do something about the cold weather. Something dramatic. Like weatherâ€"stripping the 50th Parallel. If winter comes, and spring is far behind. Naw, don‘t tell us that spring is on the way. Even the sometimesâ€"fans of winter are saying that it‘s gone on for far too long. This deep freeze has gone on too long HOW MANY STUDENTS CAN YOU ‘ HOW MANY STUDENTS CAnt yOU WulNTDATGLWDNC SQUEEZE InTO A CAmPUS SANDY The comments were unfortunate, and it‘s remarkable that they both came from women. Ah yes, some women are like watches. They have pretty hands and shining faces, but they‘re hard to regulate once they‘re wound Now a woman Liberal MP has stuck her foot in it by blurting that she hated Americans and adding that their parents areâ€"ahemâ€" !J Gosh, but Waterloo‘s universiâ€" ties have come a long way. I spent my first year at little DY Waterioo College, and most of us RD lived at home I don‘t know where the outâ€"ofâ€" towners lived but you could have put them in a hinkyâ€"dinky apartment, and maybe had a spare room left. _ Oh Not Again: A few weeks ago a Chretien aide had to quit because she was overheard calling George Dubyah a ‘moron.‘ That‘s Waterloo, which has the highest perâ€" centage of students to population in Ontario. A key to the Waterloo decision on it is a new height and density report which tells how apartments would be plunked on the landâ€" scape. Council reserved judgment for more information on it. The question, of course, is how the flats will be accommodated on Waterloo‘s limited space. A measure of how much interest there is was indicated by the 26 delegations who _, turned up to speak on the subâ€" ject Housing Jam: Waterloo has an issue that‘s apt to get warmer and warmer. It‘s the student housing problem, and the fact that high schools have graduated a double helping of students isn‘t making it easier. Any community with a university gets a studentâ€"housing pinch from time to time, but fancy a community with two steadilyâ€"growing universities. And so it goes. Ah yes, politics is a great field. If you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book. And, no, a politician doesn‘t expect to fool all the people all the time. Just during camâ€" paigns is enough. And, the critics fear, the propâ€" erties could eventually look a shambles in a landlord‘s hands And the whole neighbourhood deteriorates. Some owners are much disâ€" turbed. They fear a march on subdivisions with an eye to rounding up incomeâ€"producing properties.