"AA ~The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 7, 2000 TERRACE STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27. 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C, « V8G 5SR2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermode.net ee ee re Balance this .PREMIER UJJAL DOSANJH’S statement that ‘he'll introduce legislation requiring a balanced ‘budget is unfortunate. ' It’s unfortunate because he has to state the ob- : vious — nobody, particularly governments, can go ‘on in life by spending more than they earn with- tout a clear and believable plan to pay down a ‘debt. And by stating the obvious and by wanting : to enshrine a concept in legislation that should be ; common sense, Mr. Dosanjh appears to be a bil silly. ’ If Mr. Dosanjh thinks this is going to be some «sort of shining revelation to voters in hopes of re- . viving his party’s chances at the next election, he « is sadly mistaken. .. Mr. Dosanjh is the fourth premier of a party ‘elected to government twice which since 1991 "has failed to deliver on the issue of balanced bud- gets. Indeed, there is a substantial body of evi- .,dence which now suggests the NDP was handing aut sheet music containing one tune to the voters while playing another tune in private. _ For voters, it may not be so bad that we are in “debt. Some debt may be good if the end result is ..a betterment of society and there is a clear and consistent plan for an orderly payment of that “debt. » But in the case of the NDP, it borrowed money “and got us into debt by dubious spending deci- sions which do not have any economic sense or “reasoning. The fast ferry experiment is just one vexample of this. . IfMr. Dosanjh wants to set himself apart from the previous NDP premiers then he should at “léast try something bold and daring. And that -would be to consider the challenge of Don Hincks, the president of the Certified Manage- * ment Accountants of B.C. 7 * He suggests he could whack 10 per cent off of “health and education budgets without affecting “services. At this point in B.C.’s financial history, "Mr. Dosanjh has nothing left to lose. | + ‘ It's confusing SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, has to make sense of the Skeena Junior Secondary School replace- ment situation. | Is it going to be an independent school beside Caledonia Senior Secondary? Will Caledonia be expanded to create a monster Grade 8 to 12 insti- tution? Or will a new school go on the old school’s location? . It’s now four years since the provincial govern- ment first announced it was moving forward to _Teplace the aging structure. . Questions which should have been answered - back then remain hanging and with it any realistic . expectation of a solution in the foreseeable future. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach . 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MEMBER OF Cl ail C ; PAPERS " AND #*¥CNA B.C, PRESS COUNCIL Serving the Tarrace and Thornhid area, Publishad on Wednesday of aach weak at 3210 Clinton Streal, Terrace, British Columbla, YEG SA2, Stores, photographs, illustrations, designs and typastyles in the Terraca Standard are the property of the \ copyright haldars, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd., Its illustration repto services and advertising agencies. ‘ Aproduton In whole of In part, withoul writtan permission, is spacttically prohibited, “Authorized as sacond-class mail panding tha Post Office Deparment, for paymant of postage In cash. Special thanks fo all our contributors and correspondents for thelrtime andtalents . Our morality is in a perilous state VICTORIA - The other day, my son Gary said, "did you notice, dad, that you are be- coming more right-wing in your views?” I thought about it for a while and considered whether I am simply proof of the old saying that if you're 25 and not a socialist, you need your heart examined, and if you're 65 and still a socialist, you need your head examined. But no, it's not that [ am turning into a right-wing wacko. I still believe in all the things I used to - the right of everyone to make a decent living, the need for protection of society's most vulnerable, the need to curb capitalism's excesses and the correspond- ing need for trade unions, | still oppose the death penalty. No, I don't think I am be- coming more right-wing in my views. I am angry. I am angry . .because ali The great ‘ideals‘of"¥* what is generally knowit as": ’ liberalism have been betrayed. Or maybe they were doomed to failure from the start. We have advanced hu- mankind's knowledge beyond the wildest expectations of our grandparents. We have looked far enough into the universe to see what conditions prevailed near its birth. We have landed men on the moon and seen the won- ders of planets we only saw as twinkling lights in our child- hood. . And any day now, scientists will publish the results of the FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER Genome Project, and for the first ime, we will know every gene that makes up the sup- posed crown of creation. But we have achieved this exalted state in our evolution at a dear price: we have turned our backs on some sim- ple and eternal truths. We clamour for personal ‘liberty But 'feject*the résporsi-” ‘bilitiés“that mustatcompany _it. AS a society, we are moral- ly bankrupt. We have been taught and learned to accept that the miracle of birth is nothing but the reproductive domain of women who, as masters over their own bodies, may decided an unborn child's fate. Thus it is perfectly legal to end that life by inserting an instrument into the vagina, crushing the baby's head, pull- ing it out and discarding it like so much dead meat. It's done every day. You shouldn't have to be religious to see the horror of such disregard for life. And I can only admire the pope for being a thunderous and lonely voice to proclaim the sanctity of life. In the interest of not offend- ing the 10 per cent of Cana- dians of different faiths, we have banned any reference to the at least nominal faith of the other 90 per cent from our schools. In past generations, religion had a role in the rear- ing of children. Now we turn to shrinks. We do not contend our- selves with demanding toler- ance of homosexuality, which is essential, but present it as an alternative lifestyle, taking human rights from the ridicu- lous to the sublime. An ina cruel twist of show- ing just how caring a society we are, perpetrators of crime are given more resources, from paying’ fér ‘tégalsald lawyers: to, , “firaticing, often! futile rehabili- ‘tation programs, than the vic- tims. Ian Hunter, professor emeri- tus in the faculty of law at the University of Western Ontario, wrote about another manifesta- tion of the perilous path we have chosen to walk. Describing the majority of taday's youth, Hunter says, “this particular generation of the young is the most coddled and educated in history. Bene- ficiaries of the latest theories about parenting, child psycho- logy and development, sociali- zation and educational reform, they are supposed to be the pride of our loins, a sensitive, intelligent, caring generation that will audaciously carry the torch of progress into the 2ist century.” Instead, he says, “they emu- late the thuggery of their “superheroes” in the World Wrestling Federation; in fact, more and more they resemble the fictional predators of Wil- liam Golding’s Lord of the Flies. “Would a layman be out of line to suggest that perhaps it is time to give child psycholo- gists, curriculum consultants, ubiquitous grief counsellors, and the whole army of “experts” from the caring pro- fessions the Trudeau salute and turn our attention instead to the state of our morality?” As for the removal of reli- gion from he education of our children, Hunter had this to say: “with ,thealogy,. ance, the queen of..the academy, now discredited as a public lan- guage, we accept uncritically the presumptions of psychology as a neutral way of understand- ing the human personality.” “Ts it not possible that youth violence has less ta do with toilet training and more to do | with the moral vacuity of con- temporary society?” Hunter asks. It is indeed. Beyer can be reached at: E - m a i. 7? hubert@coolcom.com; Tel (250) 381-6900; Web http://www. hubertbeyer.com We badly need role models MAURICE (THE ROCKET) Richard picked a fine time to leave us, when students are about to graduate and sorely need a role model for the finer behaviours in life, Richard was memorable as a hockey player dedicated to the game and determined to always do his best. Unlike today’s millionaire players, he played only for one team, in one city, for one country, and was never entangled in a con- tract dispute. Still, in his en- lire career he was never paid what Gretzky got for a single season. A better role model for grads would be hard to find. And this week we truly need Richard, We learned that six people died and 1,000 became ill from E.-Coli contamination after authorities who knew about the contamination in Waterton’s drinking water sup- aN THE LAKE 7 ASUDDEN COLD’ SNAPAND WERE ALL STANDING OUT THROUGH BIFOCALS: CLAUDETTE SANDECKI ply failed to issue a boil-water announcement. We were told that six members of Canada’s armed fores intentionally spiked a warrant officer's coffee with naptha and antifreeze hoping to disable him so he would be relieved of command. A 30-year-old teacher SH-H-H! HERE IT ended her 12-year common law marriage and possibly her teaching career to co-habit with one of her students, 17 at the time their affair began. And in Abbotsford, as a grad prank, high school stu- dents used a chain saw to chop down a 35-foot tree and slice stairs to a portable classroom. The only future I see for these morally corrupt, warped thinking students is as provin- cial politicians. Maybe they can grasp medical funding po- licies. At a joint meeting of city council and the local com- munity health council, part of our hespital’s funding shortage was explained. The shortage began ten years ago when Mills was given the option of taking over the ophthalmology service for this region when the Hazelton eye doctor re- tired. The service’s annual budget then was $68,000. A deal was struck: the province would pay half, Mills the other half. But now, with the added hi- tech procedures our local eye surgeon can do, the annual cost of the service has risen to a quarter of a million dollars. Yet the province still only pays $32,000. “That was our deal,” the province says, When Mills complains of having to rob every other hos- pital department for the extra funds, the province says, “You took it on. Too bad.” If Mills drops the service, and our patients have to go to Vancouver, the Medical Ser- vices Plan will have bigger costs due to added transporta- tion for some patients. “But air ambulance costs come oul of a different budget,” the province says in a reply. 1 It would still cost taxpayers more, wouldn't it?