OPINION

Wednesday, November 8, 1995

Dear Editor:

See Nancy Greene area means a

cate those who have never walked through the Silver

Page A7

lot

and ridges with solid rock brilliance. Of course to access this great place, you must walk from the highway up Hanna Creek subjecting you to those few pockets of true old growth forests lining Kirkup and Unnecessary (Plewman) Ridge. Or you may choose to wind your way up Murphy Creek through towering trees until you reach the brightly-colored flowers of Plewman Bowl—the only true alpine meadow in the area. At the c of Plewman Ridge, you will find the Silver Forest. The Silver Forest is a 400-year-old forest of standing dead. Turning silver with age, this majestic place now adds character and

atime when prospectors and miners of the lat 18008 burned these valleys to the ground, in search of valuable treasures to line their pockets.

If anyone who reads this wishes to, see this area this is an open invitation. IT will take anyone who has the initiative to go for a walk. This is in hopes you will see the beauty I do. You will also see the dam age done over a‘century ago and notice the tees themselves in all this time are only half the size of the trees that once lined these valleys years ago Don't burn this area again.

I don't know if outside people or government agents know how much this area means to people who live here. From what I understand, the Nancy Greene Recreation Area was created.many years ago so this di could be p . Along the south-central portion of British Columbia, there are few wilderness areas left untouched, That's what wilderness is: left alone so wild animals and wild people Can go to explore the majestic value of the land.

Forest or the alpine flowers of Plewman Bowl. I spend 2 large percentage of my leisure time through- out the year within the N.G, Rec. Area. I work at Red Mountain Resorts, so I am surrounded by the beauty of this wilderness at all times. I am an avid backcountry skier which is what attracted me to these mountains in the first place. I know of no other area with such accessible wilderness.

The couloirs on thé North side of Old Glory is one of those few outstanding areas within the park. The in itself stands alone as the highest peak

HEY, WERE STAYING. WE'VE STILL GOT WORK TODO IN OTTAWA...

Serving the 16,000 people of the Castlegar area, The Castlegar Sun is every by Lid, at 465 Columbia Ave. Castlegar, B.C. VIN 1G8, The Castlegar Sun is politi caly Independent and a member of te Storing Nowe Service, Cane dian C Pp ; Assocation, and the B.C. Press Council. Established 28, 1990, ions Mail 10420.

I am. writing this as my opinion and within the p park. This is to edu-

Alan Eaglet

PUBLISHER MARILYN STRONG TRENT BANCARZ CHRISTINE MOYER EDITOR PRODUCTION

KAREN KERKHOFF REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER JEFF GABERT

SPORTS REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER

MARGE LALONDE OFFICE/CIRCULATION MANAGER

editorial comment

Lessons were forgotten

It’s a humbling experience to talk with someone like Frank Harvey (see page B1).

‘What's most is how dinary a gly ordinary person was and still is when he had to be. Harvey is not unique in this regard. He seems to be cut from the same cloth as most Second World War veterans.

Harvey and other veterans pulled off some super human feats during six very dark years. But all seem very modest about it and it’s as if they don’t realize just how important the actions of 50 years ago were.

Harvey left a career as a bread salesman in England to selfless- ly serve both his country and free people around the globe. Others like him left their families, ts, farms and i to do the same.

Their worlds were turned upside. A war they never started would eventually kill loved ones and take other loved ones away for years at a time. Those left behind suffered the anxiety and uncertainty of not knowing where brothers, sisters. friends and sweethearts were or even if they were still alive

Put yourself in the shoes of people who lived 50 years ago. How would you react? What would you do?

The Frank Harveys of this world simply rolled up their sleeves and selflessly did whatever was required at a great personal price. Those left behind bravely accepted what was happening and did what they could to cope.

People made great sacrifices during those times without having much . The Great Depression had v millions in the cities while rural areas were still largely backward, unde- veloped wildernesses where frugal rewards came from enduring a lot of hard knocks. Maybe it’s why these people could make the sacrifices — they knew no other way.

Harvey and others like him came back and were reunited with sweethearts, families and friends. But things didn’t get a whole lot easier. There were adjustments to be made and many veterans and their families suffered the war's effects for years after. For some, the war never did go away.

Eventually, the Harveys and others of their generation built a society of unparalleled prosperity in North America during the next 30 years. And it was all built via hard work, sacrifice and overcoming hard knocks.

Subsequent generations reaped the rewards of prosperity, but total- ly forgot the other part. They became prosperous by taking, rather than giving, and that explains why we're in several pickles nowadays.

In today’s world, borrowed money has replaced sacrifice. Whining and demanding has replaced hard work. Government programs have replaced overcoming hard knocks.

What have been the results? A society which is financially and morally bankrupt and unable to roll up its sleeves when asked to do so.

Thankfully, we're not in a shooting war nowadays, but we're facing many battles of different kinds. The International Mone- tary Fund and other important financial institutions warn Cana- da’s credit will soon run out and the Canadian dollar is perilously close to becoming worthless. Trying to borrow our way back to prosperity neither has worked nor is any longer an option. Seems all that’s left is sacrifice now.

The above also applies to the whining and complaining — par- ticularly from ial inte: groups — we witness as one goodie after another is taken away by the new reality. Seems all that's left is hard work now.

The same is true of government programs, which are falling victim to the same causes. It appears hard knocks are what await us now.

While things seem gloomy, the solutions were provided by ordinary men and women roughly 50 years ago.

One hopes it doesn't take another shooting war for us to redis- cover values which never should have been tossed aside.

Saturday is Remembrance Day. While we should take a moment to honor the soldiers, we might want to take considerably longer to remember some other things — things which never should have been forgotten in the first place

TNB

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Dear Editor:

As the Fall Session of the Fed- eral Parliament resumes and the Quebec referendum forces all of us to focus on what it means to be a Canadian, a fresh threat to the essential nature of Canadian citi- zenship looms on the not-too-dis- tant horizon.

This. is the ill-conceived pro- ject by a few bureaucrats in the Ministry of Citizenship and

to strip the Queen from the oath taken by our new fellow Canadi- ans. They propose to replace it with a “poetic” declaration assert- ing some vague loyalty to the land and the Constitution.

The Monarchist League of Canada believes the Crown is the capacious, neutral tent under which all Canadians can unite and that the proposed new oath would deny our history, create

in the area, towering above the green carpeted peaks

Eliminating Queen anot

suggest an American-style repub- lic in our future.

We all need to be informed in order to speak to our MPs about this issue. Accordingly, the League’ has prepared a position paper which contains a series of questions and answers about the importance of the Oath of Citi- zenship. Members of the public, teachers, community groups and all concerned for our nation's

beauty to the area. The Silver Forest is a reminder of

Rosstai

er blow to our heritage

or more copies of this paper at no ped, self-add. d

cost by writing to The Monarchist would be appreciated, but is League of Canada, P.O. Box necessary.

1057, Oakville, Ont. L6J 5E9. A

BoHELP WANTED | The Summit is

pe not

John L. Aimérs, Dominion Chairman

The Monarchist League of Canadi

The Spirit ives On B.C. Summer Games Castiegar/Trall

Do you call this civilized?

I'm sick to death of opening a paper or turning on the radio only to be greeted by heart-wrenching and chilling tales of murder, mayhem and mutilation.

Let me be clear, I'm not complaining about the reports themselves, but rather about the incidents which generate the reports.

For a long time Canadians have sanctimo- niously looked down their noses at their southern neighbor, the U.S.A., and patted themselves on their backs for being more “civilized.”

With pride they said. “Thank God we live in Canada” or “that would never happen here.”

Think again! It IS happening here. The same sickness that has permeated the States has now crossed the border and begun infect- ing Canadians.

Its symptoms are much the same as the

American variety of the disease—women are the most common victims. Now young Cana- dian women and girls are being struck down needlessly. Mindy Tran, Kristen French, Tammy Homolka, Melanie Carpenter, Leslie Mahaffey, and most recently Tanya Smith - the 16-year-old Abbottsford teen who was bludgeoned to death - have all been unwilling victims of the dreaded disease that’s raging through our country like the plague.

What's worse is these women haven't been victims who died from your garden variety murder. Most were tortured or died a slow and painful death after being raped. No quick and merciful death for them!

As I sit in this newsroom, though, I’m not surprised at what's happening. One of my “beats” is protective services—in other words

the police file. Week after week I type up police briefs which end with “Police are unable+to release the name of the accused under the Young Offenders Act.” It makes me angry each and every time I have to type that phrase.

In effect, youths’ crimes remain anony- mous. But only in places like Canada and the U.S., the very places that seem to have the most criminal p In many civilizations, current and past, criminals were and are pun- ished by the ity. That punish included social shi i y the com- munity as a whole sent a clear message that illegal or unacceptable

INSIDE LOOK behavior was frowned upon

KAREN In extreme KERKHOFF cases, the

offender was exiled from the community. And there was always retribution; an eye-for-eye type of justice. Needless to say, criminal acts were few and far between. Peo- ple lived in harmony. Crime was an aberra- tion, not an everyday occurrence.

Nowadays, a young offender can pass you on. the street and you have no idea he or she has committed a crime.

Better yet, once the young offenders turn 18, their slates are wiped clean. With the odd exception, the incidents, no matter how hor- rendous or despicable, never happened according to the law.

AN

Now I know there are many who would say that’s only fair and everyone should be allowed to make mistakes. Or, “they're only kids.” Right!

I contend criminals shouldn't be allowed to hide behind their age. A criminal is a criminal is a criminal, pure and simple, regardless of his or her age.

The community has an undisputed right to know the young offender living next door has a record. In a court of law, the accused has the legal right to know who is his or her accuser. So why shouldn't a law-abiding citizen be allowed the same sort of privileges?

If we as a community send a message to our youth and other criminals that crime won't be tolerated, maybe, just maybe, the habit of breaking the law will be stopped before it's ever firmly entrenched.

Many hardened criminals will tell you their problems didn’t start AFTER they became of legal age. Instead, you will find their lengthy criminal history usually dates back to when they were young offenders.

We need to get tough with offenders, both young and old.

There are those who inadvertently protect criminals by avidly opposing the death sen- tence, saying we're a “civilized country” and should, therefore, eliminate the death penalty.

I say all you have to do is read the paper to recognize we're not civilized at all. Even ani- mals don’t kill their own for the pure, sick pleasure of it.

It’s time to get tough on criminals and end the carnage of women and ALL human beings. This craziness has to stop.

Letters Policy

Letters to the Editor are welcome on any topic of local or general interest. Letters should be double-spaced, ty pe’ ten, and no more than two pages if possible. Letters will be edited im the interests of brevity or taste if necessary. All letters must be signed, with address and telephone number, although names may be witheld from publication for valid reason by the approval of the editor. Send letters to: The Castlegar Sun, 465 Columbia Ave., Castlegar, B.C., VIN 1G8, or drop them off at the office. Poetry will not be published.

. or legibly h

Speaker’s Corner

Castlegar student Tamara Terry is pounding the pavement in search of answers to questions that correspond with news stories that have appeared in The Castlegar Sun. If you see Tamara, it could be your opportunity to appear in Speaker's Corner, which is published each week,

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