Whltby Fiee Pfess, ~e dacier192Pg 7 PAGE EVN Living in an epideniic Of madness From the it-can't-be-happening-here department: Three times in the-past month, truckers.have been shot at in the Woodstock-Brantford area. . I the latest incident, a truck driver was. wounded in the shoulder while on the way to pick up his rig. The other two incidents involved broken windshields. This is the first such case to involve bodiiy harm. The incidents chiilingly resembie the first seven minutes of a made-for-TV movie. You could cail it 'Suiper on the Freeway' or "Four-oh-one Madman' or 'Death in the Fast Lane.' Sureiy you get the idea. . Meanwhile, police continue their search for the person or persons who abducted and kiiled Kristin French. You had te have been living on Mars- not te have heard about her abduction, the subsequent search for the 'driver of a Camaro believed te be involved. If the French caMe were the-oniy one of its kind, one could shrug. Bi4 the nuxuber chilis the spine: bodies encased -in concrete, bodies neyer found, bodies ,ismantled andý spread along the roadways of the Prov'ince, bodies stuffed- in trunks of cars, bodiesî bund and bodies. b uied., Ail within a ninety-minute drive of quiet, sedate Whitby. Some ofit in Whitby. * No matter how twisted your imagination might become, you cannot match the horror of incidents that have happened in recent months ini Southern Ontario. *a child is kidnapped from a shopping mal, kept prisoner, then sodomized and killed; *a woman is attacked by a man hiding in her car, forced te drive te a park i south Oshawa and sexuaily assaulted; ,@ a teenage girl. leaves home te visit a friend and is neyer seen again; e a man is mnurdered while sitting in his car. parked in his own driveway; *a young woman'.walking home from work in a quiet suburban area is stalked, attacked, raped and- killed; e a man in his, early twenties is taken from,a beverage room te, a private home, where he is beaten ove r a debt of a few hundred dollars. Hie is later tied te a tree off a'country road where he is left to die. Ample evidence points to the conclusion that we are living in an epidemic of madness. We are quietly going, insane. 11tk su ihti , Social scientists- willtk su ihti conclusion. They gather statistics from other realms and assert that. no, the *situation here resembles. the pattern painted elsewhere. This, they say, is the way human beings treat one another. Don't believe it. Insane is insane. Four thousand y'ears of written histery have, taught us that the hunian spirit is capable of anything. Place any hunian in any given situation and the behaviour will match.. .Yet those same four thousand years have not been one unbroken descent inte heU. Humans also compose prayers, write sonnets,, perform concertes,- write symphonies and live in harmony and joy. People will 'adapt te, any sitùation. But caliing something normal does not make it acceptable. Can we call our situation 'normal! when children, teenage girls and women are assaulted, beaten, abducted, raped, killed? When expressway drivers dodge bullets more often than speed traps? When convicted sex offenders are released on parole -- to offend again and sometimes kili? It is no longer a job of police, social workers, prisons, parole officers, officiais. We ha%ýve Mlet Gore d i fr to ong I i noAajo TURNING: SOD FOR BUENS'PRESBY IERAN CHURCBg ASBBUJfrNSEPT. 10,1967 Norman John Anderson, who was a member of the building conixittee, turned the sod for the new church to replace the -old building which burned on Feb. 12, 1967. Th'le new Burns' Church was dedicated and opened'on April 21, 1968. WhitUyArchvoe photo. 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, October 6, 1982 edition of the WHITBY FRiEE PRESS *Piekets at the Whitby Psychiatrie Hospital are protesting goveraiment restraints. - Reconstruction o? the Thickson Road-Hlighway 401 interchange will begin in October. * Whitby will have computerized trafflc lights by December. *The goal for the Oshawa-Whitby-Newcastle United Way will be $1.5 million this year. 35 YEARS AGO froin the Thursday, )ctober 10, 1957 edition of the WEMWEEIKLY NEWS e Town council will vote on whether or not to have g twoý-year termi, for the first time in Whitby's history. * A five-storey building may be constructed on the old post office site at Brock and Dundas Streets. e*%Whitby's water supply facilities are overloaded and require upgrading. *A flu epidernic has causecl 4b per centof the Wbitby Hligh School pupils to stay home. 100 YEARS AGO fromn the FiaOtbr79,1892 édition of the WH[BYCHRONICLE *AUl the latest nuagazines and newspapers are sold at, Mr. Aliins lioiotore. *Mrs. Robinson is sefling bread for 10 cents a bof. *Root beer is advertisedas adelicious temperance drink at WlL Newberry's. *Guy Brothers' Minstrels will performi at te Music Hall on Oct. 13.