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Unhealthy vending [ machines should be removed from schools ( :hildren are developing bad eating habits at an early age because of the overwhelming amount of Unhealthy snacks and soft drinks in elementary schools today. Snack and soft-drink vending machines are surrounding children and pressuring them to purchase unnecessary and harmful foods. The money to purchase these foods ultimately comes from their parents, and as a result parents too are being put into an undesirable pressured position. In removing unhealthy vending machines from schools, an improved learning environment would be created as well as a healthier surrounding. If parents want their kids to he able to eat the unhealthy snacks. there are various alternative ways in which they can do so. 1f the children would like to eat unhealthy foods, they still have the choice of bringing these snacks to school. If parents want to allow their children to make their own deci- "It originally began with a spread of crackers and cheese, a holdover from my time at home. - "e're almost to the end of another year. And Whis is the time where we seem to cling most closely to our traditions. I'm sure you have your own. _ At our house, Christmas Eve has always been a big deal. My mother dietfjust ether the first Christmas Diana and I had been married, and we continued the tradition in our own Mme. As each of the girls arrived, we added new favourites to the list, and now it includes oysters, shrimp, a salmon ball and very specific battered mozzarella cheese sticks for one child. It will morph again, I'm sure, as each ofthe girls move out on their own. ' Sevven or eight years ago, we revived another tradition from my childhood. My father died when I was just 17, and Christmas brings back one of the few enduring memories I have ofhim. He was. it best. elf-like in stature - short, and round, with a shiny bald head and a salt and pepper beard. _ He spent most ofhistime on the road I "El as a triwelling salesman. but every Christmas you would find him comfortably perched on a small folding stool in front ofthe tree. . My mother told me hi; lived for Christmas; the only time all year he had a few days to sit around with all of us. So there he would sit, playing Santa, handing out gifts one at a time and waiting, somewhat impatiently, for each one to be opened. As I said, it's one of the few enduring memories, Remember, this was the mid 1970s. I was a teenager. and my dad was a whole lot older than most fathers in those days. He was 62 when he died. NewYear's Day is nothing without chicken balls and fortune cookies We did not exactly have a close relationship; he LETTERS l sions about what they eat, this can had several traps set on mutually be done at a grocery store or in their shared trails. own home. -"-" Without notice of any kind there School is a place to learn. and at an early age children are only begin- ning to learn about healthy food choices; vending machines are encouraging children to develop bad choices which undermine the lessons taught in school. Unhealfhy vending machines should be eliminated completely from schools. At this young-age. children are not aware of the cpnsequences of unhealthy foods and, upon expo- sure, are unable to resist the temp- tation. s Conibear traps bring unnecessary tragedy ne year ago our lives were O':',i?iii/, when our beloved dog was caught and killed in a conibear trap while butside play- ing with my children. “It was the same type of trap that the University orwaterloo is now setting to kill beavers. Uriknown to us, our neighbour O TH] COMMENT Miranda Ranked Waterloo died too soon. And of course, I was 17, and too immersed in myself to figure out what was going Anyhow, he lives on because a few years ago my wife and daughters made me a Christmas stool where I get to sit every year and play the sync role. It's one of several 'tr'aditions bohowed from my family, including the one-by-one, long, drawn-out opening of presents. The whole experience ends soon enough, I a: always thought. without expediting it. know why. My wife says her family used to do it, but so.me of them can't really recall that. _ A _ But we don't airpear to be alone in that one; it seems to be a particular favourite with lots of peo- ple. _ . We've continued that tradition. even though one daughter's consumption is limited to chicken balls and fortune cookies. . Hear mom of Brian's thoughts on life with the KOOL Morning Crew every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on Waterloo radio station I 05.3 KOOL FM. To each their own, I guess. " one of those Christmas items which comes out and gives you a nice warm feeling. We have a number of those. One of them is a paper Santa made by one of our daughters in Grade 1, I think. Every year it is placed lovingly on the tree tPF much to the outrage of the other two, who decry (and I think they do protest too much) it as ugly. ihey're no better of course/they have their own special items which also have limited artistic value. Not everything has come from my side. On New Year's Day. we always go out for Chinese food. although I don't Without notice of any kind there was no way of knowing that this deadly danger existed. Daisy's killing was perfectly legal. l have read how the conibear is "humane." This word means little to Daisy struggled in fear and pain. She would have heard us calling for her. By the time we found her, her mouth was full of debris and the area around her body was rubbed clear of snow from her struggle. Neither my husband nor I had the knowledge or strength to release her. The conibear is not a quick-kill trap, and no animal should have to die this way. Since Daisy's death we have learned that the killing of domestic pets in conibear traps is common. There are precautions and alterna- tives. As a society we should demand that such precautions and alternatives are explored. 1 am sorry to be so graphic, but this last year of heartache has taught me that hiding these ugly truths will help no one. Nancy Hepdnstall Sunderland, Ont. My brother Marshall's column normally tills this space, but with he and my sister-in-law, Sylvia, busy piecing togeth- er Christmas for my two nieces, and with the newspaper busi- ness needing to meet light holiday deadlines, I offered to till this space for him this week, Given my own history as a newspaper columnist. it was not that onerous an offer. And given I wanted to send a message back to my hometown of Waterloo, there was considerable selrtsh intention barely veiled in that offer, For the past nine years, I've lived nearly three hours north, east of Waterloo __ I teach urban ecology at Fleming College's school of environmental and natural resource sciences in Lindsay. Ont. But for the first 40 years of my life I lived almost entirely in Waterloo region. The Final nine-year stint was a 10-minute walk from uptown Waterloo; otherwise known as a IO-minute walk from chicken wings at the local establishments -- a walk I convinced myself would wear off the fat content a double order of wings brings along for the ride. However, today's column is not intended to be an article about the Waterloo that I remember. Nor is it intended to be about the Waterloo that I perceive has evolved in my nine-year absence. I don't gdi backio Walérloo very often. averaging less than two trips a year, but I stil) think ofWaterloo a lot. My wish today is to share how oth ers view Waterloo, from afar. Because I work in the education industry. and given Waterloo is a town with two major universities of interna» tional repute, I come across a number of people who have had reason to live in or pass through Waterloo at some point in their lives. Some of the feedback I receive about their experiences comes from people who know of my history in Waterloo. but much does not. And it's these comments that arrive barely edited that interest me the most. Here are the big three, in ascending order from least to most often heard: How others see Waterloo Waterloo is a community for the elite. Many believe Water- loo is a community that neglects its less-fortunate residents in hope that this group will literally move down the road, to Kitchener. Outsiders like to comment on how few homeless people can be seen along King Street North to South in Waterloo com- pared to an excess of troubled souls along the east to west stretch of King Street only a couple of kilometres south. Many people I come in contact with see Waterloo as the most ecologically progressive community in Canada - the birthplace of the ecological and environmental advisory com- mittee (EEAC) concept four decades ago. An EEAC is a volun- teer committee consisting of environmental professionals whose role is to advise politicians on the ecological shortcom- ings resulting from council's choices. However, it has taken the efforts of many longsighted environmentally sensitive people -- professional and otherwise - to keep shortsighted dollar- driven politicians' and out-of-town developers' feet-to-the- fire. T Waterloo is seen as being blessed With an kbundance of these courageous. ecologically astute activists. People across the country read about Waterloo businesses competing, and winniqg, on g!opal and local stage alike. Aiut many see the Grits dt this economic grbwth on every street comer in town. "There is something magical going on in Waterloo," a clever Philippine-Canadian woman studying to be a geographic information systems specialist at Fleming told me the other day. "When I'm done (in Lindsay), I'm definitely going back to Waterloo to work." But most" of all, Waterloo is' seen as an incredibly strong eco- nomic hub. David Ward lives in the City ofKawarrha (aka - a backwa- ter community that literally prunes its street ms with a road grader. Comments are welcome at domKpftemingconaua. I too cant help but notice how affluent many Waterloo folk are compared to the people living in the community I now call home -- a community of hard-working decent people who, for whatever reasons, haven't had the economic success that many Waterloo residents have. I hope you know how good your world is, economically and ecologically. _ - A Ana I hope that over the holiday season you take care of those who don't have things quite so good.