OPINION

The jar Sun

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editorial co

Local plan needed

You can’t help but get the feeling that the CORE
debate is a little like a Rolling Stones concert tour.
Last Saturday the tour trucked into Castlegar where
several hundred people turned out to voice their
opposition to CORE Commissioner Stephen
Owen’s recommendati

ent

jons.
A few bm aed earlier the venue was Nakusp
700 people showed up to discuss the report’s
. Before that it was Cranbrook with
2,500 people converging on the East Kootenay
community.

This weekend the tour moves to Nelson where
environmentalists, upset with the *s recom-
mendation to set aside just 11.3 per cent of the
West Kootenay for parkland, will rally.

I is all part of the next stage in the CORE process,
where the various sides in the debate vie for the

opinion that will shape the final

That’s because Premier Harcourt and his New
De will be hing very close-
ly how the public views the ongoing debate and
will tailor its report to suit the majority opinion.

‘One of the pufalls with this method of decision-
making is that the result may not be palatable to

who sat at the
CORE table, has pointed out that the decision to
protect the White Grizzly Wild

So what's all the fuss?

If you have a problem with Power Rangers, turn it off

The Mighty Morphin Power
Rangers thing has gotten complete-
ly out of hand.

Not the show. The public reac-
tion to the show.

It all started when a TV watch-
dog group complained to the Cana-
dian * Association that

and not 1994, and makes decisions
that fly in the face of technology.

Kids can still watch Power
Rangers by tuning into the U.S.-
based Fox Network on

show where live-action teenagers
who are the 1990s version of
Archie, Betty and Jughead battle
monsters from outer space.

Thanks to

cable. Canada, by the
way, has highest per-

the show is too violent—but only

after the show had become a

megahit and its stars cult heroes
the pre-teen crowd.

Until that point it wasn’t much
more than another weird kids’
{about mutant mice. who wear eyc-
patches and ride Harleys) and
Dinosaurs a“ Coditiecs (about,
you gi d di and

age of cable sub-
scribers of any country
in the world. What
does that mean? that
most of us have access
to U.S. stations, so it
doesn’t really matter

The view }.
from here

Ron
Norman

3 my two
daughters,

Rangers to
last me a
lifetime.

what the Canadian sta-
tions do.
The CBA also conveniently

Cadillacs. That's : right—the cars)
and Superhuman Samurai Cyber
Squad (don’t ask).

The kind of show that for
some quirky, unexplained reason
grabs kids’ imaginations. Like
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a
few years back.

The

ve 1
that Power broke the private
broadcasters’ violence code and
ordered Toronto-based Global TV to
pull the show. YTV, which also aired
the show, decided to yank it as well

the views of a special interest group wasn’t
even at the table.

Mr. Owen, in an open letter to the West Koote-
nay-Boundary region last week, defends the White
Grizzly decision and others which did not reflect
the views of the groups that participated in the
CORE process.

“The final d d in the
CORE plan do not reflect the views of special
interest groups, but rather aim to balance the

A A
tion carries on as if it were 1954

topic wi
Murphy on CBC Radio's Cross-
country Check-up and Pamela
Wallin on Prime Time News.

Last week a St. Albert, Alta. cle-
mentary school outlawed Power
Rangers and any talk of Power
Rangers in the school yard.

Yikes. Talk about overkill.

And what's it all about? A TV

(Actually,
10 minutes was enough to last me
fwolietimes J =" 7
But that’s not the point. The
point is the show is no worse than
any other kids’ show like the ones
I listed above) and in many
instances, far better. And it is easily
better than the adult programming
that is broadcast at the same time.
Power Rangers actually has
some redeeming qualities, among
them its treatment of girls. Unlike
the Ninja Turtles, the girls in Power
Rangers are equals with the boys

And compare the in Power
Rangers with those siohoshe on
shows like the popular Fresh Prince
of Bel Air (where the teenage girl is
an airhead totally concerned with

Somehow it is alright to show
vacuous female teens, but not girls
who actually think for themselves.

Somehow it is alright to show
Oprah and Ricki Lake and Geral-
do, which feature topics like
teenage strippers, men who cheat
on their wives and anything about
the O.J. Simpson trial you can
think of.

But it's not alright to show five
teenagers dressed in brightly-col-
ored spandex unisex outfits who
stress teamwork.

True, these teens fight. But
WHO do they fight? Not other
teens, but intergalactic monsters
with names like “Goldar” (he's
made.out of gold) and who resem-

“bie Chiickeris’and pigs.

If you get the idea that Power
Rangers is not real it’s because IT’S
NOT REAL. But the only ones who
seem to get it are the kids. My
daughters know it's not real. No
one needs to tell them. It’s only the
adults who seem to have a problem
with reality here.

‘What amazes me about this issue
is that the same people who would
go to the wall over school boards
that ban Judy Blume want to see
Power Rangers taken off the air.

How is one form of censorship
not appropriate, but another is?

The point about books and televi-
sion and games is that parents need to
monitor what their children, read,
watch and play. If parents feel a TV
show isn’t appropriate, there's a sim-

sohution.
It’s called the OFF switch.

Now’s the chance

I never particularly liked gov-

interests and values of the sectors that p ‘ipat-
ed in the CORE p and to i
environmental, social and economic features of
the region.”

In effect, Mr. Owen said that while he listened to
the CORE participants, he didn’t listen to them alone.
His were also infl ed by

Piet sae os

‘ poe
resource inventories and impact analyses”, as well

And it is clear from the Tallies throughout the
h isn’t Peo-

While such a plan certainly won't please every:
one, neither will it be roundly condemned from all
sides as Mr. Owen’s plan has been.

Ron Norman

ERRORS:
‘The advertiser agrees that the publisher shall not be lable for

People, but

one little propaganda minion has

really to tick me off.
Government Information Ser-

Commission on Resources and
Environment (CORE).
“Even Hubert Beyer is luke-

to any impasse. Don't rely on hot-
heads from other parts of the

province who would have you
believe that the way to deal with the

to put things right

should be a democratic process.

Interestingly, Tait admitted that
after all that money and all that
interfe the final

might not be much different from
the origi CORE d:

tions. Then why spend the money
in the first place? Why try to wreck

to figure out where such a large
ly not from the working stiffs.

caf alt hs vie Tait was, in the
unsuccessful in
oatiiay tes Cuoo CORE peceer
off the rails. And boy, did he try.
He even bragged about writing
Protest letters, making them up as
he went along, and having forest
workers sign them and send them
to newspapers.
A cohort of Tait's, also involved
im the campaign against the Cariboo
CORE plan, was IWA-Canada vice-

We're talking big moncy,
ready and cager to » derail what

b

Harvey Arcand, who
referred to environmentalists as

“lying sleaze bags” and Owen as
being environmentally SO strict that
his shorts are “shit-green.”

It was all to no avail. After some
das as well as people like Tait and
Arcand had been exposed for what
they really were, the people of the
Cariboo, with the help of some skilled
mediators, reached a consensus.

I detail Tait’s and Arcand’s
involvement in the Cariboo CORE
Process to make sure people in the
Kootenays know that it might be
better to ignore them. Other than
inciting general unrest, they have
nothing to contribute.

Instead, the stakeholders in the
Kootenays should try to reach a
consensus by building on the
framework of the CORE land use

They should also consider that

some forest companies in the
Kootenays have had plans for some
time to close down mills. They
would eventually have done so any-
way. Now, they can use Owen as a
scapegoat.
For more than 60 years, there
have been warnings that unless
British Cotambia’s forest industry
4S put on a sustainable basis, we'll
eventually run out of trees. Now is
the chance to put things right.

Wednesday, December 7, 1994

The Castlegar Sun

Letters to the Editor

Right idea, but wrong place

I popes with much interest “Study planned
for $10m center” in the Nov. 30 edition of The

Castlegar Sun.

I, as a taxpayer in Castlegar, and an inter-
ested party in the development of the Twin
Rivers Park site for our community, felt that
some facts and observations should be made
public in light of the major positive impact

such a project would have on our

community.
But should it be situated on college land?

Should it be part of the Selkirk College cam-
pus? I say certainly not.

Unfortunately, the college is not our col-
lege. It is the college that is seldom accessible
to community activities—it has become an
institution answerable to itself. It is seldom
available to public initiated activities. It exists
for its own purpose and not for the communi-

Rivers Park. It would belong to the communi-

ty, it would enhance the development of the

the ii

would be accessible to all of the surrounding
area. It would not be another college asset
with limited public exposure.

We should encourage the establishment of

proposed park. It would be conspicuously sit-
uated in the heart of the i

but it

I believe that the centre should be located
as part of the city property known as Twin

centre in our
Hugo Smecher,
Castlegar

Discriminatory ad is not the Christian way

Dear Editor:
M. York recently placed an ad
in your

The error: The actual Bill
under consideration in the House

Christians and concerned citizens
everywhere to write the Prime

P ng the prop
for the inclusion of sexual orien-
tation into the Charter of Rights
in Canada it is called the
Charter of Human Rights and

)-
M. York also quoted pas-

of C (the Bill i
MP Roseanne Skoke to claim

I would hope and believe
Christians everywhere would
support a Bill that permits suit-

lity to be

ing and destroying our Canadian
values and Christian morality”)
is Bill C-41, a proposal to allow
judges more liberty in sentenc-
ing when a crime is motivated
by hate.

The specific proposal states:
“A should be i d.

ably p for bru-
tally beating a person because of
his or her race, religion, sex, age,
disability, or sexual orientation.

Is this asking too much from a
group who claims love and mercy
as guiding principles?

Instead, M. York unwittingly

sages of Scripture, incl
Leviticus 20:13, in defence of
his or her cause.

Unfortunately, M. York is in
error in one instance, and propos-
es the extermination of homosex-
uals in the other instance.

[if there is] evidence that the
offence was motivated by bias,
prejudice or hate based on the
race, nationality, color, religion,
sex, age, mental or physical dis-
ability or sexual orientation of the

prop the murder of homo-
sexuals! You don’t think so?
Read the remaining portion of
Leviticus 20:13 — “they shall
surely be put to death.”
Well, my Christian friends,
what are you going to do? Will

THE CASTLEGAR SUN
is YOUR CHOICE for
all the local news and:sports!

viL

VET, 7

-GRAYOLA ‘JEWELLERY
Rad Beads @ Giitter

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you begin the systematic mur-
der, in the name of God, of all
gays and lesbians as Leviticus

commands (what a test of faith);
or, will you begin living the
Gospel of love as taught by
Christ himself (an even greater
test of faith)?

I suggest you live the law of
love, “for with what judgement
ye judge, ye shall be j "

Lord knows, this world ‘could
use a little more love, compas-
sion, and understanding.

J. Carter,

Mary (Sam) & Pete Perverseff \
We are fortunate to have parents
who are “forever young”

You are not just our parents, (7
you are our best friends. »)
We love you,
Molly, Gayle & Harold

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