Pahe 2, THE HERALD, Monday, July 24, 1978

EDITORIAL

When one Vancouver pharmacy published a
list of 41 persons apprehended for alleged
shoplifting by a Victoria security company, last
week, it made front page headlines (‘Customers
consider suit over shoplifter list’) in Vancouver
gailies. The list was said to be typed’ in smail
print, and several feet from the window. ‘*...you,
can’t read it by looking through the window. But
Lunderstand ...it has caused a fuss and I do have
regrets about it now.” one of the store owners is
reported as saying.

Who are objecting? The husband of one woman
named on the list, who called it “persecution”.
“The embarrassment is enough to rehabilitate

yone, but now they are’ making it public.” he is

oted as saying. Another husband of a woman
ted claims having the list in the store says it
“smacks of Russia”. -

One woman who phoned in to a Vancouver
newspaper to protest called it a ‘violation of
civil liberties’ and accuses the store of
“disgustingly low, cheap tactics.” Another, that
“Posting people’s names and addresses for all to

is unfair.” Another, “That Victoria phar-
cy should be blackballed. No one should enter

e premises to purchase anything. As for Can-

Investigations Ltd., they should have their
cence revoked. This is absolutely incredible.”

Only two persons, apparently, approved the
idea of those who phoned in. One estimated the
lyss from shoplifting in Vancouver at $40 million

year. The other thought a similar practice of

ublishing names should apply to those who skip

t on their rent. He, apparently, had lost $1,200

om tenant skippers in the last year.

The day this appeared in the Vancouver

pers, I was in a Safeway store when I noticed a

umber of persons passing a cherry bin in the
esh fruit section, helping themselves to
erries as they strolled by. The cherries were
riced at 99 cents a Ib. in the Prince Rupert:
re. During the few minutes I stood there,

Caos ssan
LETTERS

‘The Shoplifter and The Sausage _

Icould see how this form of shoplifting could
knock out the profit for those cherries in a very
short time. .

Then, to my amazement, a very well dressed,
tall, attractive woman popped a couple of
cherries into her mouth, hardly stopping to slev
down as she did so, spat the cherry pits into her
right hand and chucked them into the display of
fresh grapes. To me it amounted to the same as
spitting on the grapes. Shaken up, I followed her
around the store to the checkout counter, where
she held up the line first whige she beetled off to
get-a sack of charcoal briqueftes, quibbled over
the price (another wait) off to get some
fire starter. ; % .

While following the “Woman, discreetly, I
noticed children stealing candy, while their
mothers ignored them, a woman poking her
finger into some T-bone steaks, and quite a bit of
packages damaged by persons opening them
then putting them back, or putting them on other
shelves, having changed their minds by the time
they neared the checkout counter - and so on.
One or two of these packages were frozen food
and would probably speil. ;

Now, I know - none of this will be news.
Supermarket shoppers who read this will be long
hardened to such practices, surely. The cost
though, to the stores - must be terrific. Super-
market chains, it seems, are regarded by much
of the public as “the government” - fair game for
being ripped off. Yet, let them get a- damaged
packet or a dented canor a spoiled steak or shop-
soiled anything, and hear them holler!

On the way home, my mind flew back (like it
always does!) to an instance a few years ago
when a woman who had been apprehended - and
fined for shoplifting came to see me to have her
name kept out of the papers. ;

The woman had a heavy European accent, She
was middle aged. She had been caught with a
package of a European type of sausage in her

te

purse, after she had. passed the checkout
counter.

The woman poured out her heart to me. She
told me how confused the modern supermarkets
made her, So many things to buy - you decide to
get one thing - then you see something better,
you put back the first thing and take the second
thing then you see one better still - and you get all
confused.

‘I would have noticed the sausage, anyway,
when I got home and opened my purse. I would
have brought it back Monday - but they wouldn’t
believe me.” she told me, her eyes red, her face

twisted with shame and embarrassment.

“If my name gets in the papers, my husband,
my family - what will they think? How can I ever

face them, or my friends again - ever. It would be .

better that God strike me down dead, or I am
killed in an accident, or die of a heart attack -
anything, but that I should be so disgraced.”

There was no question, whatever, the woman
had an argument. It had been my policy at the
newspaper never to make exceptions in repor-
ting the police news. But was I altogether
heartless, and without feeling?

Then I heard a baby cry and noticed a baby
stroller by the front desk. “That is my Antonio,
my bambino” said the woman. He cries for his
mother - the thief! Yet he does not know that
soon the whole world will know, if it gets in the

newspapers.”

_ Imust admit that by this time, I was beginning —

to waver. Suddenly the woman reached down
into a brown paper bag I had not noticed she had
with her, in addition to her hand tooled leather
shoulder purse. She reached in and pulled out a

yellowing studio photograph of a young girl of

about 10 or 11. “Look, Mister Editor,” she said,
thrusting in my face. ‘‘Does this look like a

icture of a shoplifter to you?” In the upper right |

d was inscribed her name and the date of -
obviously - her First Communion. It was her
Confirmation photo.

this good little immigrant woman to public

By the Vancouver Board of Trade

Everyone who
ability protests today. They want equal rights,
women’s liberation, gay liberation - or the exact
opposite, the right to work or the right to stzike.
One group, from which we might expect protest,
seems to have become strangely silent. We refer
to the teenage generation.

In the nineteen sixties, the then teenage
generation made its protest against the rules of
the establishment (and of society) by simply
‘dropping out' and ‘doing their own thing’. Now,
many of the sixties drop-outs have joined the
very establishment they opposed and may be
seen pushing their child-laden buggies through
thesupermarkets in approved suburban fashion.
Furthermore, they have been known to inflict
their newly espoused principles upon their
younger siblings!

Now, we do not want to be accused of inciting

happy to see change by evolution rather than
revolution. We only wonder, out loud, whether
the way that they are being treated in some
areas does not give them reason to protest, We
suggest that more thought be given to prevention
than to the cure.

. ~~ Jg it possible that we do not hear from young

Councilmen Spare Those Trees!

The Mayor established deciduous trees have plenty of shade tres, piece of property is now an
Municipal Office which ‘add greatly to the WouldCouncilbeabletogive eye sore. Had the trees been
3215 Eby atiractiveness of thatstretch the assurance ‘that these preserved, whata difference
Terrace, B.C. of road, frees will in fact be planted? this would have been to the
Dear Sir If the road has to be (The other drawing in the looks of this corner, not to
Now that the new Court widened, which I understand paper showed no trees, just mention the shade provided
house complex may be the case, wouldit be one vast parking lot) in the summer and there
is soon to be un- possible toincorporate these 1am also concerned about would have been no Joss of
derway, ] am anxious to into a boulevard? the preservation of the trees parking spa

know whether Council has In one of the architect's
drawings of the complex,
which recentl: ap red in
the Terrace Herald, it

showed the new landscape to

TERRACE/KITIMAT

daily herald

General Otiice - 635-4357
Circulation - 635-4157

made provision for the
preservation of the trees
along the Kalum Road side
of the property. These are

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PUBLISHER... Laurie Mallett
MANAGING EDITOR... Ernest Senlor
REPORTERS...Oonna Valileres (Terrace-Thornilll)

KITHMAT OFFICE...Pat Zelinsk! - 992-6809

a 6Published every weekday at 3212 Kalum St., Terrace,
B.C. A member of Varifled Circulation. Authorized as
second class mail, Registration number 1201. Postage
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NOTE OF COPYRIGHT

The Herald retains full, complete and sole copyright
fs advertisement produced and-or any editorial ar

otegraphic content published In the Herald.
production is not permitted without the written
rmission of the Publisher.

“

on tha new Cloverlawn
shopping centre site and
trust these will be kept.

At the time when Over-
waitea was built on its
present site on Lazelle and
Eby, there were most at-
tractive trees Ilning the edge
of the property. Un-
fortunately no one made any
recommendation or
provision for these to be
kept, with the result that that

Something Was Rotten

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. AP - Members of the
city council were a little suspicious when they
were invited to come over and have some drinks
out in John Sadowski’s yard.

Their would be host was wearing a gas mask
over his face when he appeared at Thursday
night’s council session to issue his invitation.
And after hearing why Sadowskl’s invited them,
the council members announced that they had
previous engagements. ;

S said he wore the mask to point up tie un-
pleasant odors coming from the clty’s 's' wage
treatment plant, near his ‘ome.

ce,
As a long time resident of
Terrace, I am concerned
about the preservation of
any attractive established
trees within the downtown
area, as these make all the
difference between an at-
tractlve town such as
‘Terrace still is and just
another ugly “new” concrete
block town. *
Yours t:

Mrs. F’. Susan M

people today because we have not taught them to
communicate? We read of students reaching
university entrance level without the ability to
express their thoughts in coherent and in-
telligible sentences. ‘‘Star Wars” Robot R2D2
may be able to communicate with squeaks and
groans but it is a talent denied to most ordinary
mortals

The Vancouver Board or of Trade is an
organization devoted to business. Itis natural for
-us to be concerned because the teaching of basic
economics is not mandatory in high schools. We
think that today’s young people are short-
changed if they are not leaving school equipped
witha range of basic skills for living. We thi
that in addition to the ability to communicate
with one another, these must include an un-
derstanding of the role and use of money and

t.
‘Credit is a fact of life. It should be explained

And I thought to myself, was I about to expose

= dncome*20

rae

the young people to protest. Far from it. We're .

ridicule and embarrassment by publishing her
name as 4 common shoplifter, fined $50 that she
obviously could ill afford, because - for one
reason or another, she had slipped a package of
her homeland sausage into her purse? Her black
stockings were threadbare, Her shawl, I could
see, had Imown better days. Her clothes were
handmade - no doubt she had sewn them herself.

Then, she took off her wedding ring. “Mister, -

If it would help..." and she held it out to me.

“Forget it,” I said, all choked up, and got up
from ‘my chair to lead her toward the door,
Before doing so; I opened my lower desk drawer
and took out a stuffed toy of a Disney character I
had bought to give to my new grandson. “Here,
give this to Antonio.” we

The woman’s face lit up, ina radiant glow that
spread to a generous, warm and loving smile.
She seized my hand, and pressed it to her lips,
Like something out of an old ‘‘mellerdrammer”’
movie she rattled on about praying for me to a
patron saint of Editors or something. I was more
than embarrassed, A couple of young reporters I

bad recently hired had overheard the whole

thing, and knew that I would be in for a ribbing
after the woman left. .

Releasing my hand, on which had fallen a
large wet tear from her swollen weeping eyes,
now aglow with.sudden happiness, she took the
stuffed toy and dropped it into her shoulder
handbag. ,

But not before I had caught a glance of - guess
what - a package of European sausage, there
among the usual assortment of things a woman
generally carries in her purse, including an
assortment of makeup, mascara pencils and a,
gold pen. .

And, when I got back to my office desk, after
seeing her on her way out the door, sure enough.

Missing from my desk top was my. gold
Sheaffer ball-point pen. Given to me, in-
cidentally, _ and-I-don't-expect-you-to-believe-
me, by a Confirmation class I had once

prepared,

“Short Changed” or Change

with all the care and attention giver to the
customary birds and bees lecture. The abuse of

’ credit has caused more misery than its

proponents ever dreamed. It is estimated, for
instance, that half of the broken marriages
founder on financial grounds, The Charles
Dickens’ character Mr. Micawber auld Annual
com ‘pounds. expe 3 Jess .~ result
happiness Annual: income 2p, poids, “ex.
penditure 20 ‘pounds and sixpence - result
misery.” It is far too easy to outgo. to exceed
income in this era of credit. We shortchange
tomorrow’s consumers if this is not completely
explained and understood.

The frightening statistic that the average
American child watches 7% hours of television
daily leads to some horrifying conclusions. Can a
child, whose communicative skills consist only of
watching and listening learn (very easily) the
skill of expressing himself? of producing words
in sound and written form? Corament of on the
content of the television watched by children
seems superfluous but it is most unlikely to ba all
of a highly educational or instructional value!

_ Jf this is the case in the United States, we

cannot believe that the picture is very different
in Canada. The continued use of television as a
baby sitter, or an escape hatch for their parents,
is a trend that could be arrested if children were
exposed to alternative forms of entertainment
and recreation. We might be able to rear
healthier and better educated children if com-
mercial motives were to take second place to
basic values. .

In schools today, vending machines sell what
is described as convenience foods: canned pop
and candy. To those suppliers with school board
contracts it may be a convenience but to the
students it is
troduction of apples and milk in one local school
met with great student approval. It should have

‘heen accompanied by protest at the doubtful

nutritional value of the items available before.
Young people, 13 - 24years old are estimated to
drink 823 cans of pop annually. Can concerned

parents shut their eyes to this statistic? -

Teaching proper nutritional values in our schools
would give young people an opportunity to
protect their own health.

We've listed a few brief examples of short-
changing our young people: giving them poor
communicative skills, too little understanding of
the use of money and insufficient appreciation of
nutrition. We do not look forward to protest - we

think that a greater sense of responsibility, on all -

out parts, could prevent any protest.

A Scheme to Feed South Asia

An ever-present nightmare in South Asia &nd Southeast
Asia is a dwindling supply of rice in the face of multiplying
populations. Now a body known as the Trilateral Com-
mission has put forward a plan to make the countries of this
region self-sufficent in rich within one and a half decades.
The scheme is not cheap. [t will cost an estimated $5 billion.

The Trilateral Commission—so called because it is com-
posed of an independent group of experts from the United
States, Western Europe and Japan-says the plan should-
work, With the co-operation of dozens of governments ani
international agencies, the plan aims to double rice
production in South and Southeast Asia to about 320 million
tons by 1993. This would satisfy the needs of the 1,7 billion
people who will be living in the area by the early 1990's.

The expansion of rice production can be attained by im-
proved irtigation, more help for smal] farmers and by en-
couraging independent technological development in the
countries of the region, according to members of the
Trilateral Commission. The scheme would require increased

aid to Asian countries from Western governments, world
food bodies, the private sector and Eastern European
nations. A large part of the needed finance hopefully will
come from oil-rich Arab natlons.

The future of humanily depends more than anything on the
adequate supply of food. Some agricultural experts may
consider the Trilateral Commission's plan too ambitious.
Other critics have attacked it as a capitalist plot to un-
dermine the Chinese model which urges all countries ta
depend on their ovn resources and not on ald, They see the
industrialized Western nations as merely seeking new
markets for agricultural equipment and fertilizer. But in
fact the Trilateral Commission is following a moral and not a
materiallstle aim,

Without a concerted altempt by nations to give all the
peoples of the world an adequate supply of food, we cannat
rest easily, And even with a $54 billion plan, most of the
resources for a doubling of rice production wovld come from
the nations of the regions. :

#

ten junk food, The recent in-