Saturday, November 21, 1992 PAGE?’ = = = Op Dave McCullough Publisher Scott David Harrison Editor Bob Proctor Marketing Manager Mickey Read Composing Room Foreman Warren Chernoff Accountant Mary Ann Fullerton Circulation Manager Burt Campbell Publisher Emeritus L.V. Campbeli Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 OurVWiEWS Roads to nowhere warning to all those citizens Acs will take the time to ontact city hall this winter to complain about the condition of our weather-beaten roads — don’t. Feel free to complain about city hall renovations, RCMP buildings, taxes or the lousy weather, but don’t you dare complain about the war-torn state of our fractured roads. Why, you ask? It’s simple. Some 11 months ago, city hall gave us a choice to repair our long- neglected roads but we voted not to. The 1991 paving referendum was defeated 461-397 on Dec. 14 of last year. Hardly an impressive count when you consider that 80 per cent of eligible voters failed to cast ballots on this important issue. The referendum would have seen Castlegar borrow $1.286 million from the provincial government to pay for the first two years of a five-year road rehabilitation project. The remaining funds would have come from Castlegar’s capital budget — thanks, of course, to that Golden Goose known as Celgar. Even after the defeat of the paving referendum, citizens complained openly that the city was turning its back on the needed repairs. Those charges were about as ridiculous as the defeat of the referendum itself. Despite what its detractors said, the 1991 referendum made economic and common sense. Perhaps we should remember that after every pothole we hit this winter. Street TALK SSS Dump non-instructiona days News item: Teachers defend professional development days. And well they should. I’m all for professional development. Especially in our education system. We are told time and again by those who know that education is the key to our country’s success in the economic marketplace. I also believe that education is vital in helping shape the “whole” person Comments from the Crossroads I don’t support the professional development days as they are now structured. My biggest complaint is that the five days set aside for professional development are held during the school year. Why? The school district office says the days are the same province-wide and are a tradition dating back years. But the argument Ron NORMAN through a love of learning. It only makes sense, then, that the people who are teaching in our schools keep current about the changes in education. A teacher who graduated 10, 15 or 20 years ago would be hopelessly out of date today if they weren’t familiar with advances in techniques and teaching aids (such as computers). That comes through professional development. But while I wholeheartedly support professional development for our educators, — in effect saying “that’s the way it has always been” — just isn’t good enough. In the news story referred to at the beginning of this column, Doug Pinkerton, the professional development chairperson for the Castlegar and District Teachers’ Association, indicated that he has never detected any negative feelings from parents about professional development days. please see NORMAN page 7 Betty Kanigan Castlegar “Yes. Without a union it’s hard to work.” Hugh Kirk Robson “No. It’s eroding away democracy.” Dwayne Pahl Ymir lines.” Question: Do you support the provincial government's new labor legislation? “I do. I don’t think it’s fair to cross picket Jodi Miller Castlegar “Yes. There should not be replacement workers.” Pete Kabatoff Ootischenia “Half of it I support, half I don’t.” @ Saturday, November 21, 1992 Other VIEWS! Please address all letters to: Letters to the ior Castlegar News P.O. Box 3007 Castlegar, B.C. V1N 3H4 or deliver them to 197 Columbia Ave. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not longer than 300 words. Letters MUST be signed and include the writer's first and last names, address and a telephone number at which the writer can be residence only will be published. Only in exceptional cases will letters be published anonymously. Even in those cases, the name, address and phone number of Letters tow E ED ITO a Where are the world’s ‘white knights’? Nov. 11 was Remembrance Day again — dark and dull and grey as usual. Once again I awaited that highly symbolic 11th hour to pay my due respects to the fallen. And again I dusted off that little portrait of the handsome uniformed lad who would have been my Uncle Arthur if he had not been killed 18 years before I was. born — killed in France in 1916, fighting that gruesome “war to end all wars”. That depressing, drawn-out war didn’t end all wars — nor did the equally tragic World War II or the endless parade of lesser wars since then. Again I wondered what he would have been like if he had been allowed to live out his life. Would he have been musical like his four brothers and six sisters? Who would have been his chosen wife and what other cousins would I have had the pleasure of knowing? But thanks to the concussion wave from a big exploding cannon shell he was snuffed out in the prime of life — like so many other Kootenay lads. I try to console myself into thinking that the human race is getting kinder year by year. But who would have believed we would be witnessing organized genocide in the 1990s? We dared to think we had turned the corner on that nauseating practice with the end of World War II. Where are the peace groups now? And what pathetic weak efforts we are seeing from our “white knight” — the United Nations — to end the ungodly conduct in the former Yugoslavia. Why are we western powers sitting on the fence as though ‘Where are the white knights of the U.S. and France and Britain now — those “smart war” kings who moved so swiftly to erase the indignity done to their oil barons in Kuwait?’ Who would have believed we would see little children and their grandmother gunned down in cold blood as they mourned for loved ones in a cemetery? Innocent people shot for bounty money — no more than crows or wolves to the heartless finger on the trigger. And what we see in Somalia is as bad or even worse. And the big cities of our land witness gruesome murders of mothers in front of their own children. watching some tragic drama staged for our entertainment? Why are we standing by while the so-called Christians stage a 1990 revival of the crusades to wipe out the Moslems once and for all? Even our respected Canadian generals are hedging around and saying that Canada should not get involved. Surely they know that if the allies had not joined forces 50 years ago to stop Adolf Hitler the Jewish race would now be extinct from planet Earth. And yet we make no serious effort to stop the daily genocide in Yugoslavia. What an irony that in the recent case of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait (where oil is king), the western powers took swift and massive military action to liberate the victimized country. Yet now they become pristinely ethical and say they can’t get involved in Yugoslavia. And all the while the murder and rape and genocide go on day after day — far worse than anything we saw in Kuwait. And those who aren’t dead or dying have the privilege of starving and freezing to death this winter. Where are the white knights of the U.S. and France and Britain now — those “smart war” kings who moved so swiftly to erase the indignity. done to their oil barons in Kuwait? Behind a haycock fast asleep — and all the while the rape and pillage and murder of decent people goes on apace day after day. H. F. Killough Castlegar Please indulge me by publishing this letter in your paper as in early December, I shall fly to Mexico in search of 12 hours of daily constant sunshine. It is not as though we don’t like Castlegar; in fact we love it and its gentle, caring friends and neighbors whom we’ve come to know. Further more, it is a cheap way of extending our Christmas greetings, avoiding the GST and tightening our belts at the same time. I would particularly congratulate Neil Rachynski for his excellent column (The News, Nov. 14) about the Glade waterusers and their fight to save their precious creek (watershed) from chain saws and bulldozers. The decision by the Ministry of Forests “to log the area” made over a decade ago was “cast in stone” and was made without consultation or knowledge of the concerned users most affected. Despite the overwhelming defeat of that gerecnaees under the slogan, “Time for a hange”, there is no evidence of change. Rachynski’s right — Glade folks in unfair fight People are questioning the other slogan, “Forests Forevever”. When the forests are gone and with them the watersheds, will the desperate unemployed loggers resort to denuding parks and cemeteries in their search for the “sacred” trees? It will be too late to say, “I told you so”. “Coming Events cast their shadows before.” Feliz Navidad. Pat Romaine Castlegar Norman continued from page 6 All I can say is that he ooo talk to the same people I 0. Some of those complaining the loudest are parents who are both working and single parents, who must arrange for babysitting for their children on professional development days. While I sympathize with these parents’ difficulties, I can’t say that I agree with them. Schools aren’t babysitters and shouldn't be viewed as such. However, parents wouldn't have anything to complain about if the professional development days were held outside the school year. I can’t think of another institution or business that shuts its doors while its employees are off upgrading. Can you imagine our hospital saying it is closing its doors for the day while its employees learn about a new treatment. Or Celgar shutting down production while everyone heads to a seminar? Why do we do it in our schools? There is also a sentiment among some that teachers already get enough time off — they don’t need more time off for professional development. (This year, for example, teachers will have a total of 13 weeks off: 10 weeks from June to September, two weeks at Christmas and a week at Spring Break). I disagree. Teachers need professional development time. They just don’t need to do it by shutting down the system. And it is already taking place. In addition to the five non-instructional days, teachers can also take other days throughout the school year for professional development. At those times they do it like every other business: a few go and are replaced by substitutes so the whole place can continue Pinkerton also touched on another issue when he said: “Parents may have the idea that we don’t do anything on these days.” How true. Many parents I’ve talked with think non- instructional days are pretty much a day off for teachers. That tells me that parents are concerned about accountability. Especially since one of the non- instructional days falls on the next-to-last day of the school year: June 29. Just how much professional development will be done that day? Is it any wonder parents have questions about non- instructional days? Professional development? You bet. Non-instructional days? They — go the way of the dodo