Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 17, 1996

“TERRACE

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (6(14) 638-7283 © FAX: (604) 638-8432
E-MAIL: terrace.standard@sasquat.com

MODEM: (604) 638-7247

Ooops, oops

SO THE NDP can’t add, subtract or do other
basic math. Well, who can? How many
businesses out there run a perfect set of books,
accurately track what goes out and what comes
in and make predictions that hold solid over the
course of time? How many householders spend
hours trying to balance chequebooks, juggling
credit card payments or stalling while waiting for
the next pay period?

The difference, though, is that the NDP isn’t
playing with its own money. It’s playing with
ours — those sweat-soaked, blood-enctrusted
droplets of taxes we forward faithfully to the
state in the expectation they will be treated with
honour, care and sober-minded prudence.

But how many more times can the NDP simply
say ‘oops’ when it comes to explanations of why
the last budget year ended in a deficit? How long
will it take this year before the NDP comes clean
and says the budget plan for this year won’t
result in a small surplus?

There’s no answer to the above questions. It is
simply a matter of politics. The game of politics
is to frantically dance on the head of a pin while
juggling a basket full of balls in the faint hope
that things won’t catch up and bring the circus
act to a grinding halt.

It’s a system we have bought into and support
in the simple hope our own pet projects and re-
quests will be granted first — and to blazes with
everybody else.

A local case in point is the $1 million com-
mitted this spring to the planning for a replace-
meant for Skeena Junior Secondary. Has anybody
protested that amount, saying it’s excessive? Has
anybody asked why,. in. heaven’s name, $1 .mil-
lion*is‘ needed? No:-That’s because regardless of
how ‘uch we tay tail against théNDP’s budget "
games, we al] want a piece of the action.

So before we can completely and cleanly con-
demn the NDP for its actions, we have to look
inside of ourselves first. Those who live in glass
houses shouldn’t be the ones throwing stones.

Zoned out

WANT TO live on the bench? You are welcome
but only if you can afford a Jot and have the
bucks for a big-time, single-family dwelling.

That was the message delivered recently by
council in approving a developer’s request to
rezone land near the college from multifamily so
that single family or duplexes could be built in-
stead. Equally as obvious was another message
— the bench is off limits to those of lesser in-
comes. They’re relegated to the flats, particularly
the area south of the tracks.

The situation has now changed. The developer
is holding off on. proceeding with the rezoning
because an earlier land-use contract permits
duplexes to be built on the land and the devel-
oper wants to keep his options open.

That’s a minor victory in the attempt to avoid
crealing income-based housing ghettos based on
zoning allocations. But citizens should be aware
that the current council must be put on notice
that a proper mix of housing is needed for the
city to achieve affordable and comfortable hous-
ing for all of its citizens,

PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Rick Passmore
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur
NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Dave Taylor
COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf
OFFICE MANAGER: Laurie Ritter
ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS:
Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Karen Dietrich & Cheri Reidy
ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Emma Law, Kelly Jean
TYPESETTING: Sylvana Broman
DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur
CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Karen Brunette
MEMBER OF B.C, PRESS COUNCIL
Serving the Tenace and Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week by Cariboo Prass (1969)
Lid, at4210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5A2.

Stores, photographs, illustrations, designs and typastyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the
copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd,, its illustration repro services and advertising

agories,
Reproduction In whole or in part, without written permission, is specifically prohibited,
Authorized as second-class mail pending the Post Office Departmant, for payment of postage In cash.

Special thanks to all our-contributors and correspondents
for their time and talents.

TRUST US
WE'RE ON YOU
WHICH SIDE IS YOUR WALLET ON,

R

FRIEND...

SIDE... BY THE WAY, ,..

)

agbaesr

Compassion rose to the top

VICTOREA — On the eve of
the opening day of the 11th an-
nual international AIDS con-
ference in Vancouver,
protesters disrupted an Amer-
ican = Medical = Association
briefing on AIDS, claiming
that politics remain the flash-
point of the disease.

About 50 members of ACT
UP, 4 group of militant ac-
tivists, briefly took over the
podium as the briefing began,
reading a slatement, chanting
and blowing whistles,

I wish the activists had been
in the B,C, Legislature the day
before. It would have dispelled
their notion that the body
politic is necessarily a
hindrance to finding a way of
successfully batting AIDS.

Had they been, present, they
_ would, in fact, have been, con-

vinced the political will to con-
quer the disease is alive and
well, at least in B.C,

The NDP’s Jan Pullinger led
off the discussion of AIDS and
the importance of the confer-
ence during Private Members’
Statements, a regular Friday
moming occurrence in the
legislature, She told the House
that sadly, society in dealing
with the threat of AIDS, still
engages in finger-pointing and

FROM THE-GAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

blame, when it should summon
compassion.

“The most inappropriate
response ] have scen, and the
most shameful —I thing we'd
all agree ~— is by those who
reat HIV and AIDS as a moral

issue rather than, the scrious

health issue it is, she said,

But while Pullinger’s com-
menls. were encouraging, it
was a rookie Liberal MLA
who raised the debate to a new
level,

April Sanders, Liberal MLA
for Okanagan-Vernon, spoke
of AIDS and HIV victims with
a depth of compassion and
commitment that belied the
gloomy outlook expressed a
day later by the protesters in

Vancouver.

Sanders is a doctor who has
had a wealth of personal expe-
rience in treating AIDS
patients. And far from inuring
her to the fears and horrors that
have those suffering from the
disease in their grip, Sanders
appears to have found not only
a deep-rooted professional
respect for the victims of the
disease, but a human commit-
ment to raisc sociely’s aware-
ness of it.

‘In 1985 the AIDS condition
at St. Paul’s (Vancouver) did
not hold much interest for me,
as il was my intention to prac-
tise in a small town, and I
thought HIV knowledge would
be unnecessary there. St
Paul’s had much more in store
forme than I had planned,

detithh cate

_ they, log, Have AIDS, I have -

“There, at St. Paul’s [ ob-

as Pree vere fat dn ay
served how medicine, culture,

ethics, politics and much more
became inextricably entwined
in this skein called AIDS, J
would spend my whole profes-
sional life trying to unravel
that skein. At that time, I
desperately wanted to see
AIDS only as a doctor, not as a
parent or a taxpayers, but the
disease mocked that
simplicity.”’

Over the years, Sanders said,

AIDS has changed her whole
outlook on life. It has refused
to allow her to be able to see
the world from one solitary
point of view and feel justified
and safe,

“In 12 years, I have seen this
insignificant disease become
epidemic, I have delivered
new-borns of HIV-positive
moms and mourned their fu-
ture, [ have scen pensioners
filled with hope after coronary-
artery bypass, only to find
themselves HIV-positive post-
op from inter-operative. blood
transfusions.

“I have told an 18-year-old
that she may need testing after
an HIV-positive heterosexual
conlact, I have seen drug
abusers get clean, only to find
Qul several years later that

mourmed them all.

“AIDS is a metaphor to
remind this House that the
need for good health care re-
search, for funding of ap-
propriate medication for HIV,
and for good health care must
be sustained,”’

Voters made a wise choice to
send Sanders to Victoria,

Beyer can be reached at Tet:
920-9300; Fax: 385-6783; E-
mail: huber{@coolcom.com

Camera sh

—

TO GET rid of cockroaches in
your kitchen, call an ex-
terminator. To keep crows
from your backyard cherry
tree, try a scarecrow. But to
make every sober adult dis-
appear from a family living
room, hold up a camera.

Despite photagraphy being
as painless as watching
scencry flash by while driving
down a highway, few adults
look forward to posing.

Partly we're reluctant to be
photographed because we've
had ta live down some iess-
than-fabulous photo taking in
the past when we were
snapped wilh our mouth agape
like a goldfish sucking fish-
food, or our eyes were closed
because we were blinking,

Partly we’re worried about

‘the camera catching us in a

teally awkward action such as
mid-chew in a table scene, or
with a stupid look on our face
because we were reacting to
someone’s storytelling.

IN THE NORTH IT'S SURVIVAL OF
THE FITTEST SkK00K! GOTTA BE ONE
STEP AHEAD OF THE COMPETITION
WITH My NEW BOBCAT AND TRAILER
ELl CORNER THE CONSTRUCTION
MARKET WW FT. DOGGERE LM!

Ay

THROUGH BIFOCALS.
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

I've got photos of mysclf
with a geranium sprouting
from my scalp like a Dr. Seuss
imaginary animal. I have an-
other with my face blended
into the pine cupboard I was
cowering against, And I have
another where my knees are
wide as Bailey bridges my
average Weight. Focus is
everything.

Mostly we're reluctant to be

WAIT TIL THE [oRTEIOART
GUYS AT THE
CAFE SEE THIS?

sieve

photographed because it’s an
indication of time passing. We
reach for the camera to record
mileposts in our lives — some-
one’s birthday, a leenager’s
graduation, a son’s wedding,
ora family reunion for parents’
40th anniversary.

For a brief weekend or a few
days we’re gathered together
to share a happy family mo-
ment. But loo soon we'll dis-
perse, perhaps not sec each
other for months, even years.
And the exact membership of
this clan get-together may
never be duplicated.

Kids grow up and go away to
school. Young couples raise
families and follow a job trail.
Old folks retire or pass on,

Typically, the family groups
for photos near the end of the
sojoum, This makes the
camera’s presence as final as
the raising of the trumpet at a
military funcral,

When aunts and uncies came
to our farm for summer visits,

y? Join the

crowd

after suitcases were stowed in -
the trunk, we'd be bunched in’

front of the caragana hedge
like cattle weathering a hail
stom while Uncle Gordon or’
Aunt Mil shuttered away watil
the in-box camera ran out of
film.

Months later we would
receive onc group photo, or
several if more pictures were
worth sharing. Inevitably one
person would be hidden by
someone taller. The person on
the end would be halved. The
toddler in front would be
scratching an ankle, long hair
hanging over her face. The six
footer would be headless. He
was the happy viewer.

I’ve never been a camera-
happy individual, cither as a
photographer or as a subject,
Until my husband bought a
Polaroid, I never owned a
camera, E would as soon have a
box of dynamite caps under
my bed,