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Can one

Ron
Jeffels
Syndicated
Columnist

exist without the other?

beat aggressive rubber stamps against
subservient paper pads, And yet, and
yet, nobody from the green chain
moved in their direction. Not one,

The Machine held them in thrall,

I was in and out of the bank like a
fiddter’s elbow. Lapsed time: two
minutes 10 seconds according to the

rs fed, wind R faced

I watched them in the bank the
other day. They stood in a file 10
deep, silent, in soldierly obedience, at
the chaste and discreet interval
demanded by courtesy. Or is it securi-
ty? I'm never sure.

The faces, all of them, were impas-
sive and inscrutable as they edged for-
ward slowly, slowly, almost
arthritically. They had come to pay
bomage, respect and obeisance to the
Machine and to genuflect in its pres-
ence. In this case, the Machine that
i i of course,

There is a nice bonus available to motorists passing
‘through a Spring CounterAttack roadcheck "sober and
belted.”

The "Come Clean” promotion offers a chance for the
law-abiding citizenry of the area a chance to win prizes.

It's p ly istic to expect any to con-
‘sciously make the decision not to drink and drive
| because of, literally, a freebie, but it does offer some
‘consolation to those who consider themselves inconve-
snienced by the war against drinking and driving.
‘| This Spring CounterAttack campaign has reached the
chalfway point and the number of impaired drivers
ed d during the paign's ion of 11 days has
‘already surpassed the total numbers of the Christmas
+ CounterAttack.
"The scary part is, is that there are probably no more
drinking drivers on the road now than there were during
the icy wintertime campaign.

The reason for this dramatic increase in numbers

<may very well be that the police have switched their
‘tactics,
«Instead of focussing on high visibility in obvious
‘locations with several i as a deter-
trent to drinking and driving, the local RCMP detach-
tment has scattered its forces and, averaging two
sroadchecks a

x

approach to the control of the problem of drinking and
driving.

Unless he/she is totally out of it, the average drinking
driver is still cunning enough to miss a deterrent-type
, Toad And it is this ing driver that has passed

the limit of legality that is dangerous and needs to be
taken off of the road.

Not now. Right now.

All's fair in love and war, they say.

Nobody loves a drinking driver.

what altinde does NASA

ON FPL EE POO

spenses green — pr
you have a balance in blue and a plas-
tic plate bearing cryptic codes and
hers,

At an adjacent counter, three sen-
tient with ing smiles

iP»
watch I still carry in the vest pocket.
T'll be damned if I'll give in to moder-
nity! The other line was a slow and
viscous sludge. It still hadn’t moved.
Suddenly it struck me, struck me
like a Tory tax — say that new one on
Poppies for Remembrance Day, Why
all this grovelling humility, this bent-
knee obedience, this selfish, forelock-

Within a single generation, the
‘machine has become an extension of
the flesh, part of the pulse and the beat

Of the blood in the body. And there

are no Luddites left to oppose this sin-
ister, this massive assault by the
Machine, Except me, And you per-
haps — if I can persuade you, some-
how, to throw clogs into the cogs and
Sneers into the gears,

Consider the modern executive
dressed for the day. Is be man or is he
machine? Hard to tell. On the left
wrist he carries the mandatory digital
quartz. If he knows how to set it~ he
doesn’t, nobody does — he can get the
phases of the moon in Taiwan, the day
according to the Julian calendar (with

tugging respect in the ofa
collection of nuts and bolts, chips and
blips, wires and washers! An aster-
isked, vowel-deleted MACHINE, for
heaven's sake! I have all the adjec-
tives in my bricfcase but I’d never get
them past Canada Customs.
The scientists and the

the G: of course),
even the time. :
In the right pocket t, be carries his

an object of veneration and worship, it
goes into the sanctuary of the
humanoid’s briefcase: too big for the
body. That's his sole, his only link
with reality,

Unless he's talking ceaselessly,
endlessly and at all times — in the car,
on the curb, at the coffee counter -
panic takes him by the neck and
throat. He might be left alone with his
own thoughts, dreams, and aspira-
tions: bricfly, just for a moment, cou-
ple of minutes only. Can't have that!

And I almost forgot the laptop
word processor. That gocs in next,
together with tbe portable fax and the
combination AM/FM radio cassette
player-recorder, with hi-fi, stereo and
that language tape for travelers bound
for France. You want French? C’est
pour rire, mon ami! C’est pour rire!
But I now see an ad for the Ultimate

ine: the personal, portable paper

i book, tele-
phone di ry and guide to

Stock Exch Must be

call this new master-slave relationship
— rather pompously, I think — “the
iosis of man and machine", The

(aka. tellers) stood at their wickets
unencumbered, with nothing to do but

two are inextricably linked together.
One can’t exist without the other,

the ethical practices of the Vancouver

wrong with the battery. Mr. Android
just pressed the button for the latter
reading and the screen went blank.
The cellular phone is a mandatory
extension of the flesh these days. Like

I approve. The world needs
it. To rid us of all those asterisked
words I can’t get past Canada Cus-
toms, y'know.

RR. Jeffels is a Richmond free-
lance writer and former principal of
The Open Learning Institute.

of
SS

YA
al

yy
q

——-

RNS

Hannaford

. Some of these characters

as prop this week by Solici
General Ivan Messmer seems sure to
attract the attention of those special
interest groups which focus on race,
immigration and human rights.

The problem is a relatively simple
one. In the wake of the fall of Saigon
in 1975, the ethnic Vieamese made
life intolerably tough for the ethnic
Chinese of that unfortunate country,
with the result that thousands entrusted
their lives to small boats in an effort to
flee the country. Those that survived
Piracy, foul weather and poor mainte-
nance ended up in refugee camps
establisbed in reluctant host countries

3 Columnist

‘There will be wails of protest.
It hasn't happened yet, granted, but

like ia, from which over a peri-
od of years, they were relocated to any
country which would take them. It was
the era of the boat-people.

The Vietnamese also took the
Opportunity to do a little house clean-
ing and emptied their prisons of dis-
without distinction as to

the issue of

Brian Mulroney's cabinet shuffle
may change the image of his govern-
ment. Bet it will take action by both

a4

Capitol hill

day and get to know each other.
in the name of Parliamentary
Reform, evening sittings were

the gr the to
improve the image of Parliament.

Some people say it began when
they allowed TV into the House of

ons,

Myself, I date the decline of parlia-
ment form the ending of night sittings.

Either way, public confidence in
their elected officials is at an all-time
low, and Parliamentarians have only
themselves to blame. -.

Until about ten years ago, the
House of,Commons sat late three
evening a:week. Those night sittings
gave MP's from ihe various parties —
and j —.a chance to sit

aPooserrac ts ore

around, talk about the issues of the

dropped, and so were some of the
informal rules that made the Com-
Mons a civilized place.

You see it’s more difficult to throw
cheap partisan shots at the person
across the floor, if during’the course
of an “informal chat” you've discov-
ered that the MP opposite you really is
@ good person, and shares many of
your own concems,

When you only talk to the people
in your own party, it is easy to forget
the MP’s in the other parties are
human too.

The unfortunate idea that every
issue is partisan, and that no shot is
too cheap to take, was brought home
again in two recent cases.

After nearly a year, and untold
Public embarrassment, former CTV
Journalist Bruce Phillips was finally
Confirmed by the Senate as Canada’s _
Privacy Commissioner, 3

Phillips was put through the
wringer by Liberal Senators because
after a distinguished career in newspa-
Pers and TV, he had worked for Brian

needs

made it to Canada as refugees, where
they re-established their criminal orga-
nizations - and have since actively
recruited from the children of other
refugees. Their ranks have also been
supplemented by more recent arrivals
from Hong Kong, which has a power-
ful criminal underworld with world-
wide connections. This has led directly
to the current youth gang situation in
‘Vancouver.

Now, when Canada generously
opens its doors to refugees, we the citi-
zens make the assumption that we are
getting decent people who have been
persecuted for their beliefs. We don’t
assume that they are all going to be
any more saintly than we are, but we
do assume that they are going to
regard Canadian citi: ip as a privi-

lege and abide by our laws. And most |

of them do. F
Common sense suggests, however,

that when they don't, they should be
shipped out. It was never the intention
of either the government's immigra-
tion policy or its refugee policy to
import trouble. It certainly is not the
wish of the electorate.

Mr Messmer deserves our support
for his intention to ensure that foreign-
ers who join gangs are sent home
without recourse to the current lengthy
federal appeal process. Some of us
may well wish to encourage him to be
a bit more pro-active, even, in sorting
out suitable candidates for deportation.

Above all, we must realize that his
critics will include church organiza-

Wednesday, April 24, 1991

Letters to the Editor

The.Castlegar Sun

Stand tak

To the Editor:

T would like to commend your
paper on the headline article,
“Grads Opt for Supervised Drink-
ing” in the April 17, 1991 edition,
also, the editorial in the same paper,
It is a relicf to read that the media
can take the initiative to present the
facts and the seriousness of under-
age drinking,

SHSS, the school board and
RCMP are as much to blame as
permissive parents — so much for
their CounterAttack program
which the district endorses, and the
RCMP prefer not to enforce.

There are approximately 20%
of the Grad 91 class that will not
be participating in the before-grad
and after-grad parties. It would be
nice to see that this “minority” be
given some credit for upholding
the law. They are showing far
more responsibility than the other
80%, including parents, teachers

inistration,

Enclosed is an article from
another newspaper which may be
of interest and which may open the
eyes of some permissive parents or
graduates, *

Thank you for taking a stand
against what could be a sad event
for our young people.

SHSS Grad 91 Parent

(Enclosure)
Letter from a policeman
I read the article, written by
Dale Martel of the Campbell River
RCMP marine division. It left a
very solid lump in my throat, in
part because I have three children
who are getting ever closer to the
age when alcohol and automobiles
will be an issue.
here's the piece; I shortened it
only slightly:
“This is an open letter to all par-
I

‘The girl thrown into the tree has
her neck broken, and although she
was voted queen of the senior
prom, she will now spend the next
60 years in a wheelchair, Unable to
do anything else, she will live and
relive that terrible moment over
again many times,

‘When I arrive, the car has come
to rest on its top, the broken wheels
have stopped spinning. Smoke and
steam pour out of the engine,
ripped from its mounting by a terri-
ble force, An eerie calm has settled
over the scene and it appears
deserted except for one lone trav-
eller who called it in. He is sick to
his stomach, leaning against his car
for support,

the driver is conscious but is
shock and unable to’ free himself
from under the bent steering col-
umn. His face will be forever

cannot be touched by the surgeon's
scalpel,

‘The third passenger has almost
stopped bleeding, the seat and his
clothing are covered in blood from
an artery cut in his arm. He is
unable to speak and his eyes,

ged and fixed on me pleadingly,
are the only communications that
his is terrified and wants my help.

He died soundlessly in my
arms, his pale blue eyes staring
vacantly, as if trying to see into the
future be will never have. i remem-
ber watching him play basketball
and wonder what will happen to
the scholarship he will never use.
Dully, my mind focuses on a loud
scream and I identify it as the girl
who was thrown from the vehicle.
I race to her with a blanket, but I
am afraid to move her,

Her head is tilted at an exagger-
ated angle. She seems unaware of

ents of young people cy 5
am writing in response to some of
the questions you ask me daily. I
am not one police officer, but I
represent every officer in every
city and town in Canada.

You may know me only as the
cop who gave you a ticket last
summer, but I am also the guy who
lives down the street from you. I
am the parent of three children and
I share with you the same“hopes,
ambitions and dreams that you
have for your children. I share with
you the feeling of guilt, shame or
disappointment when my boy or
girl gets into trouble,

The scene is a long stretch of
highway with a sharp curve at one
end. It had been raining and the
roads were slick. A car travelling
in excess of 126 km/h missed the
curve and plowed into an embank-
ment, where it became airborne
and struck a tree. At this point, tow
of the tree young persons were
hurled from the vehicle, on into the
roadway, where the car landed on
him, snuffing out his life like a dis-
carded cigarette.

my p there and whimp
for ber mother like a little child.

1 am sick with anger and frus-
tration with parents and leaders
who think a little bit of alcohol
won't burt anything.

1 am filled with contempt for
people who propose lowering the
drinking age because they will get
booze anyway, so why not make it
Is a omith tee5,
court rulings’ and r legal
maneuvering that restricts my abil-
ity to do my job, preventing this
kind of tragedy.

the ambulance begins the job of
scraping and removing the died
and injured, I stand by, watching as
hot tears mingle with rain and d rip
off my cheeks.

Yes Iam angry,and sick at heart
with trying to do my job and being
tagged the bad guy. I pray to God
that I might never have to face
another parent in the night and say
your daughter Susan, or your son
Bill, has just been killed in a car
accident.

You ask me, why did this hap-

Thanks volunteers!

To the Editor:

This is National Volunteer
Week! An opportunity for those of
us in the Canadian Cancer Society
Kootenay District Office, who are

tions, Bi
and self-appointed human rights
watchdogs with easy access to tht
media who will all find in this a suit-
able cause for alarm and dismay.

Don't be fooled by them: For once,
we've got a federal minister on the
ight track.

to change image

Mulroney!

Now I'll admit Bnuce is a friend.
But to see that band of Liberal hacks
taking sanctimoniously about “public
service” was enough to make you sic.

‘The final vote was 38 - 30. 19 Lib-
eral Senators didn't bother to show up.
If Phillips poses a threat to the nation
as Privacy Commissioner, where were
they? Perhaps they too were embar-

veiled attacks on Cloutier, the man
Pierre Trudean appointed as Canada’s
first Francophone Sergeant-at-Ams.
Boudria and Gauthier d. d
Cloutier with faint praise, in a story
alleging the Sergeant-at-Arms had not
followed proper hiring procedures.
But their weasel words couldn't hide
Ever wonder who asks the

rassed by the tactics of their

Maybe the missing 19 remember
that when Pierre Hine press pen
retary was put in charge of news
information programs at Radio Cana-
da, there was none of the partisan
hypocrisy seen in the public duty
‘ahead of any political consideration.

Another equally disgraceful exam-
ple of hypocrisy ‘involves the
Sergeant-at-Amms of the House of
Commons, Gen. Gus. Cloutier.

The House of Commons has been
Griticized for lax administration. Clouti-

«Two Ottawa area liberals, Don
Boudria and J.R: Cauthier soiled their
own reputations with their thinly

t-A to give their con-
Stituents jobs? Think about it. It isn't
MP’s from far-off Moose Jaw or
Egmont. It is MP's who represent
Ottawa-area ridings.

If MP's and Senators wonder why
they’re held in such low esteem by
Canadians, they should look in the
mirror and ask themselves if they're
Prood of the depths to which the pur-
Suit.of cheap partisan advantage has
taken them.

Tt is time to get politics out of the
Sutter. Time to bring civility back into
Parliament.

We could start by restoring
evening sittings and allowing MP's to
Bet to know each other, “

» Mike Duffy hosts Sunday Edition
onCTv, we

to work with volunteers
on a regular basis, to officially say
THANK YOU!

The Canadian Cancer Society
in the Kootenays is so very grate-
ful for the many hours our volun-
teers give throughout the year.
Their programs enhance the quali-
ty of life for cancer patients and
their families,

It is particularly appropriate
that National Volunteer Week
occurs in April when the Canadian
Cancer Society mounts its annual
fundraising campaign. We appre-
Giate the effort of these hundreds
of volunteers who go door to door
each year at this time. Your hours
of work do not go unnoticed.

To become a volunteer in this
very rewarding service in you
community please call the Koote-
nay District Office at 426-8916.
We will gladiy have a volunteer in
your community contact you.
‘There is an important job waiting

more letters
on page 9A

for you.
Once again, thank you.

Yours truly,
Sharone O’Brien,
District Coordinator
Donna Kipp,
Assistant

It happened because a young
Person, stoned out of his mind,
thought that he could handle two
tons of hurtling death at 128 km/h.

It happened because an adult,
trying to be a “good guy” bought
for, or sold to, some minor a case
of beer,

Tt happened because you as par-
ents weren't concerned enough
about your child to know where he
was and what he was doing: and
you were unconcerned about
minors and alcohol abuse and

en applauded by grad parent

would rather blame me for harass-
ing them when I was only trying to
Prevent this kind of tragedy.

It happened because, as people
Say, you believe this kind of thing
only happens to someone else.

For your sake I-hope it doesn't
happen to you, but if you continue
to regard alcohol abuse as part of
growing up, then please keep your

... Porch light on, because some cold,

rainy night, you will find me at
your doorstep, staring at my feet
with a message of death for you.”

Page 7A
————.

Castlegar & District Project Society
Notice of 3
Annual General Meeting
' Wednesday, May 1, 7:00 pm
Castlegar Community Complex

EVERYONE WELCOME!

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