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Most disdainful of all, however, is the “learning experience" one‘ It is spouted so often and with such com- plete authority by board members that one sometimes gets the impression that It is an attempt to cover what the person using it can’t. or can‘t be bothered to put into words for himself and so resorts to a completely inapt but presumptuous phrase that gives his inadequacy the slight ring of credibility. A live-out experience. Just what the hell does that mean exactly? It means it’s the easy way of presenting something without giving any details of what it’s all about. An acceptable way of expressing one’s inarticulateness, because, the phrase can suggest anything you want it to. â€" still to be built â€" the members, whenever they felt they needed something hard-hitting to clinch their argument for signing, would stress the fact that all students needed a “liveâ€"out experience". We note a press release sent June 22 from Lorraine Kelly, publicity chief of Hillcrest Mall, i suppose that is comparable to “time-out situation”. Not quite the same as a “moonlight cruise," but explicit enough to grab mgsp of the tonedeaf people in sight. Maybe we’re all beginning to get a bit bored with the postal workers. Maybe it’s about time. Possibly now we can turn our attention to other methods of moving mail. There have been cases in Rich- mond Hill where mail has taken eight to 10 days to cross town. And that is the one that has every action ending up in an “experience”, most often used in the catch-all phrase “learning experience”. In spea'king' to the proposal to sign up for 1097days at Scanlon resources centre In that other realm of make believe â€" education â€" the educators have their own favorite but meaningless phrase, too, one which they love to lap away at, like Kojak at his lollipop. By JIM IRVING If you follow any of the various sporting events â€" hockey, football, parcheesi, etc., via TV or radio, you probably have noticed that the sport- scasters now insert the word “situation” at every opportunity. The word is completely meaningless as applied by the broadcasters, who, however, seem to find some security in the use of cliches indulged in by other members of the fraternity. Leafs are no longer faced with a penalty anymore, but a “penalty situation,” or a “timeout-situation,” or a “break-in-theâ€"action situation.” And no longer are Argos third and 50 behind their own goal-line, but are facing a “third and 50 situation.” If the postal workers are looking for public sympathy in this, or any other strike, they may as well forget it. The public is about at the end of its rope, coping with the inconveniences caused by this union. To list all the strikes, or threats of strikes, would create a book in itself. This particular strike, not likely to spread across the country because the heat wave is over, has had little impact on the daily press and has not caused that much inconvenience in Ottawa. Another postal strike was underway last week, and, as of yesterday, it was still on. V This time, 1,200 members of the Ottawa local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers walked out because it was too hot. Workers said they needed additional time off each hour because of the heat, and as a result, a backlog of work kept growing and growing. To alleviate that officials hired an additional 27 workers, all of them non-union. It was, no doubt, hotter on the pavement than in the building, but that's not the point here. That’s when the Ottawa local members hit the pavement. Bring, don’t mail, your information to the newspaper Larry Johns‘ Home dBIIVer ol The Lubetal IS 80 cents every low weeks; b'v mall $10.00 a year in Canada, 52000 a year outside ol Canada No local mail dehverv where carrier sewn» exists. CLASSIFIED - 8844105. 8813373 PUBUSHER ROBERT MAXWELL PAGE A4 The Liberal is published every Wednesday by Melrospan Community Newspapers Limixed Noflh Division, which also publishes The Banner in Aurora, Newmarkel, Th- Woodbridge Vaughan News, and the Bonn" Enterprise. Robert Maxwell » Geneml Manager John C. Fergus ~ Admng Director Ray Padlev Jr. - Field Sales Manage' Peter Line 7 Circulation Duecxov METROSPAN - NORTH DIVISION \ohnslon ~ News Ednlov, M: Ross Hodsoll ~ Circulation Exp E13: Eihcral The contents. both editona| and advemsung of The Liberal Richmond "in, are proxecled bv copy "gm and any unaumonzed use :5 prohibited. 10101 v'onge Street, Richmond Hill L4G 4Y6 Ontario x0101 Yonge Street. P.0. Box 390. L4G GYS. Ontario TELEPHONE - 854-8177. 8810373 lg: 'fi‘i Emu Markham ‘ Vaughan Eamon Second Class Maul Regusu week by Menospan Community Newspapers leiled. Thts newspaper :ommunixy Newspapel Association and me Audn Bureau a! chulanon. Manage VOLUME 100, NUMBER 5 A good, brisk jaunt from Elgin Mills to Centre Street won’t kill anyone, and it certainly won’t take a week for you to arrive. Otherwise, those students involved will no doubt start looking for some sort of permanent out situation. The board could do all those listening a great favor by dropping the phrase “learning experience” from its vocabulary. It could do reluctant students an even greater favor by dropping the proviso containing that same dubious phrase, from its ESL report. Once on one‘s own, however, when one gets a chance to see how the rest of the world operates, one might be only too happy to return to class and learn the conventional way again. For. if nothing else, it leaves them with the feeling they are brothers and sisters together, speaking not a pom- pous kind of jargon, but an intimate language necessary to the survival of people in vital roles, where time is of the essence. Nowhere is the‘use of this phrase more badly â€" and badly â€" used than in a recent board report on early school leaving. ESL, to use the abbreviated form, is a program authorized under the education act to allow students 14 or 15 to enter into a full-time or part-time alternative program to attending classes. But just what is the point of letting some kid, who obviously is a misfit where school is concerned, out of school at 14 if you’re going to insist that whatever he does from then on, fits into some stylistic category of academic learning? That his studies be books again and not necessarily life. 'If one quits school at' 14, then one wants out of any kind of academic responsibility for awhile. In the world of com- munications, we want to talk to you, face to face right now. Not by a letter when the post office feels A student is of compulsory school age until his 16th birthday, or June 30 of the year in which he turns 16, whichever occurs first. During the early school leaving program, however, the alternative, according to the board report, “whether it be paid employment or of a volunteer nature, should be a learning experience.” If you have mail for The Liberal office, bring it in. Letters to the editor.. press releases, notices of meetings, old photographs, family reunions, etc., etc., are more than welcome. And if you bring the information in when you want to, we can handle it right away, not a week and a half later, if that be the whim of the post office. like it. they live for the times they can spiel it off. Just what will the board decide fits into the category of “learning ex- perience”. No doubt it will require some certificate of proof. We‘d like to suggest that you deliver local mail personally. Take the car if you must, but try walking your letter to its destination. Now just what the expletive, ex- pletive kind of inane talk 'is that? As the costs go up, the service goes down. Now we pay 12 cents for a letter which could take as many as 12 days to get delivered. We’re not suggesting the workers at the Richmond Hill or Thomhill Post Offices aren’t doing their jobs. We understand they’re as frustrated as the rest of us, trying to live by a system dreamed up by a government which has no concept of how to run an efficient and profitable business. announcing an event June 28. It arrived at the Woodbridge- Vaughan News June 29, Just perhaps the government- run postal service isn’t as great as it would have us believe. A letter sent by the Town of Richmond Hill to a resident in this community’s east side took nine days to arrive. No. 0i90 CIRCULATION ~ 884â€"0981. 881-3378 EDITOR HAROLD BLAINE ASSOCIATE EDITOR RON WALLACE WEDNESDAY, JULY 27. 1977 I question why, and will not accept the reply “no one told us", because, as a community newspaper you should actively seek to cover those events which are a part of the daily lives of so many of the youngsters in your marketplace. Richmonmd Hill has several town teams and house leagues and yet, of their activities and achievements, you have made no mention in your SPORTS section. Richmond Hill, in particular, has a proud name in soccer, as reporter by the paper ‘Toronto Soccer News’ is soon to host a team from Mexico. I am aware that the latter is immensely popular and is, I believe, given excellent coverage by_ your paper. Soccer is also im- mensely popular, but received no coverage in this issue. With the exception of a short item relating to golf, all the other “SPORT” covered was baseball. I recognize that the front page carries six columns only, hence I say ‘possible‘ column inches. Of those inches, only 280 approximately were utilized to report on “SPORT” in the local communities you serve, the remainder fell under the heading “Classified”. There wére 16 pages of print allowing a possible 1890 column inches. This letter is one of criticism of a section of your newspaper and I would welcome your reaction. I specifically refer to the “SPORTS Classified” section of the paper dated Wednesday, July 20, 1977. There is a motorcycle in our garage. It was left there by a particularly preverse friend who put the keys on the window sill in the kitchen and told me to use it whenever I wanted to. But that is one habit I have kicked. The last bike left this house two years ago, and even on the first sunny day of spring, I feel not the slightest twinge of longing. Now, whenI see kids riding trail bikes, my face puckers in a sneer of disapproval and I wonder what their parents can be thinking. I give unprovoked lectures on The Stupidity of the Motorcycle as a Means of Transportation (Considering the Climate). I sit down in my library with the boys who are pouring over the latest copy of Cycle Canada and discuss the danger involved. I ignore the way their ears close up like seals’ nostrils. garage. The first day it was there, I was merely irritated because it was taking up the space usually reserved for the wheel barrow. The second day I went out and walked Letters For I have quit. And now, a motorcycle is sitting in our Classified overwhelmed sport - reader Sharon's sunshine So one day I called the humane society and explained my problem. It didn't do much good. The I can guarantee you your Duffy won’t be lonely all those long hours, since here are always dogs running free â€" day or night. Let me explain. Three years ago we moved to LL:_ .-!--- L _____ L- t..-A to protect us. That I found out when I complained three years ago. I was upset and defeated when I found on our front porch doglitter packed in a neat paper bag. ning. The same thing happened every time I left garbage in the garage. But soon I found out our privacy was ruined by all those neighborhood dogs wandering, rummaging through everybody's garbage, scaring children and polluting our flowerbushes. Although I put garbage bags in covered plastic cans, I found it all over the garage in the mar- Perhaps , too, because those youngsters and their parents buy your newspaper to see their team or personal name in print. Back to the inches. May Isuggest that, if the ratio is not imprlwed, this section of the newspaper be titled “CLASSIFIED Sports” as 85 per cent of the section in the subject issue was, in fact, taken up by print under the heading “classified”. The writer of this letter writes as an individual, as Dear Mrs. Harrison! If you don’t succeed with your petition to outlaw guns in the area, then move to our neigh- borhood, where dogs are free to do what dogs like to do. Let me explain. Three years ago we moved to this place hoping to find some peace and privacy. Dear editor The article by Elizabeth Harrison “Dog murderers shouldn’t be licensed” touched me so deeply, that I have to say to her a few comforting words. Free running dogs in her area Temptation is almost too much But Mrs. Harrison’s story made me speak out again. We have as much right to feel bitter as she has. Our fears are much greater â€" fear of a disease, if things don’t improve, fear of taking out our frustration on an innocent animal, if we catch it in action. And ifltake it out early Tuesday morning, it is usually all over the lawn by the time the garbage collector comes up the street. And there is nothing anyone can do. We don’t éven have law to protect us. That I found qut when I complained There was a silent message with it: We have the right to keep our dogs running free. We have ways to keep you quiet. That was three years ago. Nothing has changed. I’ve learned to live with it. I thought of the first bike we had, on which I occupied the sack-ofâ€"potatoes seat behind mv husband. Can you imagine having to keep stinky garbage in the house for the whole week on hot summer days? gears I stomped out of the garage. The fourth day, I went into the garage because it was cooler there than on the back lawn. only advice they had to offer was to keep the garbage inside the house. I thought about the stupidity of a govern- ment that would make seat belts compulsory in cars, and then allow defenseless fools to go racing along highways with nothing but $40 helmets between the pavement and their $40 heads. I thought of all the clothes bikers have to wear on even the hottest days, and how on summer nights the temperature drops 20 degrees in the valleys and you put the furnace on when you finally get home to try to thaw out. The third day, I checked the bike carefully and noticed the dent in the gas tank. I thought of the mess I had made of my bike and myself the day a pothole rose up and wrestled me and it to the ground. around it and thought about the money we had once was-tgd_op such a silly toy. The only place to sit was on the bike. I played with the accelerator and changed Perhaps what is needed â€"â€" as usual, for the tiny minority whose lack of understanding causes It is sad, however, that political measures are seen as the only way to promote responsible pet ownership. Municipalities can, of course, “encourage” dog owners to control their pets through leash bylaws and the like. And he looks toward town hall for solutions. For killing a person there would always be a polite word such as “crime of insanity” or “self defense”. Let me tell you again, Mrs. Harrison, the world wasn’t made just for you and your dog. Thank heaven for the law. Dear editor, Peter DeVita expresses concisely the ever- increasing problems posed by the rising dog population (Liberal, letters to the editor, July 13). Prob/ems expressed ’conCIlse/y’ But a person who kills a dog is simply a murderer. a parent, as a person proud to be part of Rich- mond Hill and as a soccer coach with real interest in a specific group of seven- year‘old soccer en- thusiasts. This letter should, in no way, be read as the of- But to protect us from The 0.H.S. spayed or neutered more than 1,800 dogs and cats at our veterinary facilities last year. All animals adopted from 0.H.S. shelters We practise what we preach. With a united com- mitment to pet control and widespread spaying and neutering of pets, we can stem the tide. If you care for him so much. you can even leave your job and keep your dog company. But don’t expect to gain sympathy For them, euthanasia awaits. problems for everyone â€" is a visit to an Ontario Humane Society shelter where unwanted and abandoned animals wait for new owners who, all too often. will never be found. dogowners like you, there are still too many loopholes. ficial viewpoint of the Richmond Hill Soccer Association, its officials or its coaching staff. Your dog is your responsibility â€" keep him in your office during the day or tie him to a chain. Take him for a walk and a swim after work. The fifth day, my nephew dropped by.. He was in a cast from shoulder to wrist. Fell off his trail bike. That day I stayed out of the garage. Today is the sixth day of a long week., It is warm and sunny and the bikes are buzzing through Thornhill like flies in a bottle. They aren’t going anywhere. They are just moving around, because days like this are the reason for motorcycles. I have called my friend and told him to come and get his bike out of the garage. He’d better be quick. I ran with motorcycle gangs. I thought about the students who would drop in to say that I really should have my clutch cable checked, and sure, they’d do it on their spare. The first day I rodé it to 'school, the secretary stared at me in disbelief. I soon realized the only way to live with a biker and see anything but the back of his head was to get a bike of my own. I painted it and washed it and loved it and ran i_t_dry 9f oil and seized up the engine. She had finally discovered why she had never liked me. TOM WATERHOUSE 163 Mill Street Richmond Hill I love dogs and I feel sorry for them. Please do something to ensure their safety and well being. MRS. CVETKA KOCJANCIC, 39 Oak Ave., Thomhill, Ont. by bringing him in your office. I am quite certain that the dog wasn’t killed the first time he set foot on the farmer’s property. But there is limit to how much one can take. Still, the Ontario Humane Society had to destroy more than 31,000 last year alone helpless animals that paid the price for the irresponsibility of a few. And for those municipalities seeking modem, comprehensive, enforceable and effective pet control regulations, the CBS. has prepared and encourages the enactment of a Model Animal Control bylaw. where vet services exist must first be spayed or neutered. argument. Tom is valid, and when you check the rest of your Liberal. you will see what we did to solve the problem. T. I. HUGHES Executive Vice- Praident Ontario Humane Society ED. NOTE: Your