210 __ Saturda Februa 1 1992 8 Heritage Society receives John Charters siderable satisfaction with the sources and the British has been initiated with the The Castlegar and District support and co-operationthat Columbia Heritage Trust, all Trust with a view to holding a Heritage Society is $500 richer eh and members ofthe execu- of which strikes a positive note Project Community Pride thanks tothe generosity oftwo _ tive had received from the city | for the future of the society. workshop in Castlegar at an of its members, Doreen and_ staff, the NEC, Human Re- Negotiation, he continued, early date. These workshops Leonard Howes of South Slo- : - ~ can. The Howes, strong support- ers of the society for the past several years, donated $500 last year for the restoration of the rail station. This year, since the new ex- ecutive is emphasizing unit of purpose, the donation goes to , the society as a whole and rais- “es the Howes’ donations to $1,000. Since the Howes are both skilled caterers, they were in- vited and accepted a place on the society’s advisory board as it’s social conveners. Besides his other skills, Leonard Howes is also a poet and prose writer and has sev- eral works to his credit, the lat- est being, ‘Dawdling Time’ — Vol.. 5 of the series ‘Drolleries and Impertinences’ These ma: be obtained from local book stores or through the society office at the Castlegar Rail Station. During the business part of the meeting, society president John Coyle expressed his con- . = » Z News photo by John Charters The Castlegar and District Heritage Society is $500 richer. Accepting the donation from Leonard and Doreen Howes is the society’s treasurer Verna Keraiff (left). Castlegar Peace Group revisits on Gulf War @ The Mother of All Battles has been the Mother of Misery for war-torn Iraqi civilians Members of the Castlegar Peace Group, the nay Region Branch of the UN Association of Canada and the USCC met recently to reflect on the first anniversary of the Gulf War. Desert Storm was unleashed one year ago to drive the armed forces of Iraq from Kuwait. A coalition of forces under the aus- pices of the United Nations and led by the United States accomplished this ob- jective with speed and great technical skill. What Saddam Hussein predicted would be the Mother of All Battles has become the Mother of All Misery In a war that began on Jan. 16 and ended only 42 days later, the civilian in- frastructure of-Irag lay in ruins. Water systems, sewage treatment, factories and food processing plants were damaged or destroyed. The retreating Iraqi army torched the Kuwaiti oil fields leaving hundreds of wells spewing fire and oil. The US commander General Norman Schwartzkopf estimated the Iraqi mili- tary casualties at 100,000. The U.S De- fense Itelligence Agency has reported that up to 300,000 Iraqi soldiers were wounded in action. Hussein survived the war. His Ba'ath party still rules with the support of an e state security apparatus. The elite Republican Guard was nev- er committed to the fighting and remains intact. When the Kurds and Shi’a Moselms responded to President George Bush’s ‘ call to rise up against Hussein, they re- ceived no help and were mercifully slaughtered by the Republican Guard. It is reported that 30,000 to 50,000 have died so far and this tragedy is con- Professional journalism was another casualty of this war. Reporting degenerated into merely passing on press handouts and misinfor- mation manufactured by PR consul- tants. Hussein was the monster while the equally monstrous Assad of Syria was being welcomed into the tents of the coalition. One year later we survey our victory. Hussein remains com- fortably in power while the people and children of Iraq must pay the bitter price of defeat. Little was said about where the Iragi arms had come from, why a multi-billion dollar intelligence network had no knowledge of Iraq’s intention to invade Kuwait and certainly no questions about the inceompetence of highly paid experts who had presided over the this develop- ing debacle. Among the many . international groups that have visited Iraq in recent months is the Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers). One of the members of this group, Rick McCutcheon, visited Castlegar and escribed what he saw. Without medical supplies the hospi- tals are barely functioning. Close to a million children are mal- nourished with a 10th of these slowly starving to death. As well, common childhood diseases are on the rise. For children weakened by malnutri- tion and with hospitals lacking medicines these diseases are often fatal. Water supplies are ontaiminated, sewage leaks from broken pipes, food is scarce and there is no work in the bombed out factories. A member of a visting group of aca- demics, Magne on; said that some children were “like the living dead. They have lost all of their feelings and have no _joy in their lives.” One year later we survey c our victory. Hussein remains comfortably in pow- er while the people and children of Iraq must pay the bitter price of defeat. Our concern for these victims of the conflict is being expressed in several ways. USCC children are drawing posters and greeting cards to send a message of love and hope to the children of Iraq. We have drawn up a petition to the House of Commons urging the Govern- ment to enjoin the United Nations to re- lax sanctions sufficiently to allow food and medicine to reach the civilian popu- lation and to allow repairs to the water and sewage systems. expressing concern for the suf- ferings of the Iraqi people have been sent to the Canadian government. Donations are being collected and they will be turned over to the Canadi- an Friends Service Committee to assist in their humanitarian work beside Iraq. For further information on Soa our petition, the children’sa greeting card project or to make ad P call 365-6200 or 365-3613. needed donation which have been held through- out the province for the past two years are provincially funded and are aimed at rais- ing the awareness of commu- nities and community leaders to the benefits of heritage tourism within their commu- nities. Representatives to these workshops, which are spon- sored jointly by the local her- itage society and the city, nor- mally include members from the Chamber of Commerce, Development Board, ethnic groups and invitees from neighboring heritage societies. Plans are underway to hire staff to operate the station and the Chapel House for the 1992 season. Investigation is also - . being made into obtaining a co- ‘ordinator to oversee the great- ly administrative load of the | society. In this regard the executive once again went on record as being totally opposed to any further roads or access to Zuckerberg Island Heritage Park, the present suspension bridge and new Argo-Celgar causeway being deemed com- pletely adequate for the pur- | pose. Future of planet put to debate From Feb. 3to 7, British Columbians of all ages will participate in Internation- al Development Week. Schools, non-govern- mental organizations and community groups are or- ganizing a variety of activ- ities to bring the develop- ing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America closer to home. The theme this year is “One Planet,One Future”. The purpose of the week is to give all Canadians an opportunity to participate in activities that will help them better understand the importance of interna- tional development, global interdependence and the links between develop- ment and the environ- ment. area to contact for partici- pation are any Castlegar school, the Castlegar Pub- lic Library and Selkirk Col- lege. For further information. contact Audrey Gerein at 362-5522. The organizationsinthe | @ Saturday, February 1, 1992 Bec eT ee i UT 11s Understanding those * isms’ not at all easy “It’s broccoli, dear.” “I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with.” — Caption for cartoon by Carl Rose in the ‘New Yorker’, (Dec. 8, 1928). When was last teaching at the Monastery in Mission, Fa- ther Dunstan gave me the business cards of a Mr. E., with whom he had been corre- sponding. Mr. E. was a humanist and had on the back of his card the humanist credo. ° Statement 1. Humanism is a way of live and way of Response — This definition could apply to tse of a thou- ‘isms’ with no change and in effect says little. ¢ Statement 2. Humanists assert that human beings are a part of nature just as ani- mals and plans and our natu- ral environment. Response — To Saint Francis of Assisi, all creation, animate and inanimate was a manifes- tation of God, and therefore his brother and his sister. ° Statement 3. Being free from any belief in the super- natural. Reflections and Recollections John ror one contradiction. He made the only reasonable decision. around to see that no one was looking, he dropped the insect back on the sidewalk ground it to powder under his feet, and said triumphantly, “There i is no such insect.” Somewhere else, someone is “There is no God”, but it too, doesn’t * Statement 4. Humanists Response — The freedom of blinkers or a closed mind. It reminds me of a story of the entomologist who spent an entire lifetime classifying ev- ery possible kind of insect in the world. When he had put the final period to the final sentence of this gigantic work, he rose from his study chair and went for.a walk in his gar- den, congratulating himself. All at once he saw an insect on the sidewalk and, full of confidence, picked it up to clas- sify it in his encyclopedia clas- sification. To his horror, he couldn’t place it. It didn’t fit anywhere in his system. His magnum opus faced ruin in the face of this (a in the Selkirk Due to last week's incl YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCE AND Ba ON-THE-JOB TRAINING MAY BE WORTH UNIVERSITY CREDIT College/BCOU course has been extended. Now of A February, the portfolio course will guide di the p ion of a detailed summary of the skills acquired through work, life experience and any formal or informal education. This portfolio can then be assessed for academic credit which can | be applied towards the new collaborative her, the i ion deadline for this slated to begin the second week of academic credentials. This course planning. | Calese To learn more about the Portfolio Course or the Bachelor of Administrative Studies degree, contact either Gerry Ehman at the Open Learning Centre (365-5408) or George Mclvor of the College's Business Administration program (365-7292). Registration deadline is Friday, Feb. 7. Opening Learning Centre Castlegar, B.C. VIN 3K3 degree offered locally or toward other is also a valuable strategy for career 1410 Columbia Ave. 365-5408 aD TRAVEL BYEZ GUEST NIGHT BANQUET INFOCENTRES CASTLEGAR CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 1975-6th Ave. , 365-6313 Featuring: | By Terry Moon, Don Brown & Don Lust Special Singer: vocalist from New York and London Guest Speaker: x pro football player, now High School Coach from Washington, U.S.A. EVERYONE WELCOME Supper Cost: $7.00 Reservations: Judy Runion: 365-7607 Sally Schatz: 365-3886 are dedicated finding meaning and values in life, through rea- son, human experience and compassion. quoted as saying in his heart, ; world, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is only one of the many, yet it is universally ac- cepted and used. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity flew, in its time, in the face of reason. Was it, therefore, unreasonable, a non-fact? We see in part and prophesy (or reason) in part as Paul wisely observes. Reason is a gift — rich for some; scanty for others — but without the gifts of faith, (see above) reason based on experience (itslef a smokey and flawed mirror) is ‘Anyone who could hold so strongly to a so to- tally empty and so terrible a belief must have great courage.’ — St. Peter Response — Reason is a slip- pery slope. The bumble bee is, according to aerodynamic the- ory, incapable of flight. © most cursory study of the field of subatomic physics reveals a jungle of ‘unreason- able’ contradictions to the ob- served ‘facts’ of the ordinary _ totally circumscribe@ and earthbound. Compassion? One gets the impression that the humanists are laying an exclusive claim to this particular virtue. All of this reminds me of another story: The atheist died and went bene shee ae | CASTLE GLASS & WINDSHIELD LTD. OUR PRICES ARE to heaven (an oxymoron, but pertinent) and was met at the pearly gates by St. Peter, who asked who and what he was. “I am an atheist,” declared the new arrival, “and I believe that there is no heaven, and no earth and, in fact, no universe. Talone exist and all beyond my fingerprints are projections of my imagination.’ St. Peter considered this declaration, then made his de- cision. “Anyone,” he said, “who could hold so strongly to a so totally empty and so terrible a belief must have great courage. Anyone who could maintain it in the face of ob- served facts and present expe- rience must have a great faith - enter, therefore, into heav- Tut! Another oxymoron? A paradox? certainly, but what can you expect? - There is a lot of spinach go- ing around disguised as broc- coli, these days — or even Cae- sar salad. It is still a funda- mental fact of life however, that saying it is so doesn't make it so, despite the extrav- agant claims of 1001 ‘isms’. 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