Page A4 — Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 29, 1992

Rod Link

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___ EDITORIAL, |

‘

Plus ca change

“The NDP is playing exactly the same
game as the previous government.”’

So says Mike Barker, a Health
Employees Union member at Vancouver
General Hospital.

The charge he’s laying against Mike
Harcourt’s government is it’s using
labour legislation introduced by the
Socreds to deal with the health workers
strike — legislation the NDP was quick
to condemn when it was comfortably in
opposition. .

What particularly ticks off Barker and
his cohorts is the NDP told them it was
all going to be different when they took
over. so

So the HEU kicked more than a few
bucks into the New Democrat coffers, its
members went out there and worked

their buns off to make sure the new

order was swept into power and now

In the running for top prize in the
‘people who haven’t quite grasped the
concept’ contest are the Quebecois who,

; in response to a recent survey, indicated
, they thought they could have their cake
‘andjeatit tens; a o% PI Mar 4&4 ay itt

Specifically, a large number said they -

believed their province could become in-
dependent but they. would still be able to
retain their Canadian citizenship, Cana-
dian passports and use Canadian curren-
cy. co
"In short, they apparently believed in-
dependence, or sovereignty association,
or whatever it would end up being called,
would not really change anything.

It all sounds a bit like the kid who,
having achieved the: age of majority,

they’re mortified they’ve been stabbed in
the front. .

Okay, they may have a point, but let’s
get realistic, guys.

You should know pre-election pro-
mises are not and never have been real
promises, They’re just things politicians
say in front of a partisan crowd. when
there is no danger at that particular mo-
ment that they will have to carry out
what they say.

And when they get into power? Heck,
that's a whole new ball game. Unforseen
circumstances, cleaning up after the
previous administration, dealing with
the realities of the situation: the reasons
for the volte face are legion.

And completely predictable.

It may not be the way God planned it
but it’s certainly the way politicians,
whatever their stripe, behave.

loudly proclaims he is now his own boss
— but still wants to live at home rent-
free.

The concept is ludicrous, but it does
suggest there is Aiiawful lot’of bluff'in-

vey

“volved in ‘the’ so-called” constitutional
‘crisis.

The survey respondents seem to be in-

| dicating that, for all their apparent zeal

to be free, they still really want to be part
of Canada now and in the future. .
Whether the Quebecois know it or

not, most Canadians want them to stay

as well.

When push comes to shove, the only
thing we're all arguing about is whether
and how much the rest of the country is
prepared to pay them to stay.

Pooches

Animals — not advertising —

boost an upholsterer’s income. —
Rarely a week goes by that a
sheepish customer doesn’t drag

in the tattered rémains of some

sort of seat with fist-sized gaps
in its foam padding and its
upholstery fabric hanging’ in
shreds like a figure skaier’s
skirl. =.

When it comes to ripping
apart upholstery, dogs lead the
pack. Unlike cats, they don’t
settle for fraying a few threads
on a chair back or corner. No,
sir, Pooches mutilate.

_ They chew such big holes in
sofa seats Michelle Hendry
could drop a_ basketball
through, They chomp bike seats
down to bare metal. They
munch craters in: overstuffed
chair arms. And they reduce
snowmobile seats to sleek low
lines by yanking off . the
backrest hump.

Dogs and cats aren’t alone in
biting off more than they can
chew, Horses gnaw landau tops
off Cadillacs parked ‘in. their
paddock for a short spell. Cows

hone their incisors scraping .

foam from tractor seats. Even
geese chase monotony by pin-
ching spoon-shaped cunks out
of dirtbike seats.

In the woods, logging con-

tractors suffer porcupine chew-: -

ing up equipment seats, or
ravens perching on the seats and
plucking foam through vinyl
punctures: like a’. hairdresser
hooking wisps of a woman’s
hair through a foam cap before
applying frosting bleach.

Why is foam-as irresistible to..
animals as rum to-an alcoholic

when neither its flavour nor its

upholsterer’s pet

Through
Bifocals

odour resembles food? It has to
be foam’s tugability, its unique
resistant elasticity.

Cats purr with ecstasy as they
knead foam with their claws.
Dogs, too, revel at the rbound
of foam clamped in their teeth.
Ravens probably experience a
similar sensation through their
beaks.

Size and body weight don’t
determine an animal's destruc-
tive capability; persistence and
enthusiasm do, A 14-pound

goose with singular concentra-.

tion can do as much damage as
a hundred pound German
shepherd handicapped by a
short attention span. Only the
goose needs more time.
Domestic. pets seeking
revenge on us for imagined
stights know our soft spots.
with unerring instinct, they aim
Straight for foam-padded
seating, particularly seating en-
cased in vinyl,
- When-a. young woman bor-
rowed her. parents’ Pontiac,
then left her dog locked in the
Station, wagon: while she

- Christmas shopped, she return-

ed to find her obedience-trained
mutt had dined on seats, door
panels,’ and: dash. Quite a
Christmas gift.

. Because: vinly is ‘usually ap-
plied stretched «beyond

by Claudette Sandecki ff

‘seats,

reasonable limits, it’s as
vulnerable to puncture as a
politicians platform. But even
more inviting.

All foams are expensive,
Moulded foams, such as those
of snowmobile or motorcycle
are especially costly.
After foam has been ripped
apart, it's difficult to repair to
its original. smooth shape. So
for the sake of comfort. and
economy, it’s a good idea to
store upholstered. belongings
safe from fangs, beaks, and
claws of bored or perturbed
critters.

But no upholsterer would be
so crass as to tell a customer
that. ,

Or to clip to the bill a refund
coupon for Kibble.

e

beqging me

ea
Ki

Ee,

Bey
% VF:

’ CE
gee?

yh

Ikeep havina this recurring dream
Flizabeth Cull, stumbling Into
“Der head rity

Stuck in 4 fis
r help...

‘ont

eae

HK

tee

SN

No better way to
spend tax dollars —

VICTORIA — A few weeks
back, I wrote a column on the
desperate need to combat the
horrors of physical ‘and sexual

From.the |

abuse of women and children. »i Capita 7 |

' [concluded by saying that I
couldn't think of'a better use

of taxpayers’ money than far . '
programs to rid our society of -

this festering sore. ©

Happily, I’m not the only .
one advocating the allocation
of more financial resources, on
a massive scale if necessary, to
turn around the ugly tide of
family violence and abuse,

After nearly a year of in-
vestigating the problem, the
Task Force on Family Violence
has released its final report. It,
too, considers immediate and
substantial increases in funding
the number one priority.

The report entitled Is:
Anyone Listening? is a disturb-
ing document. It lights up a
repugnant and loathsome cor-
ner of contemporary society,
filled with terrible images of
pain, fear and humiliation.

The report is very specific in
its analysis of-abuse, blaming
the conditioning of society as a
whole rather than just the de-
viant actions of individuals.
Family violence, the report
says, is a matter of power.

“Women and children lack
power in our society, Family.
and sexual violence is an ex-
pression of the abuse of power
— violence by the powerful in
our society against the less
powerful.

“Tt is integrally bound up
with sexism, ageism, racism,
homophobia, discrimination
against people with disabilities
of violence as a way to assert
control,’”’

That’s a bitter pill to
swallow for anyone who
believes in the inherent good in
mankind, but denying that
some otherwise good people do
bad things means denying the
problem of physical and sexual
violence and abuse exists at alt.

by Hubert Beyer

And exist it does. Here are
some excerpts from the report.
A. woman remembering her

’ childhood: ‘‘At age three or

four, my father raped me. I
remember him choking.me, his
hands on my throat. I felt dif-
ferent growing up, different

’ from anyone else. I remember

running away at age seven,’’

A grade 7 girl: ‘‘] wanted to
go to the school dance. My
dad said only sleazy girls
would go, He said I'd become
a prostitute. He saw I was cry-

. ing so he hit and kicked me
because he thought I didn’t
understand,”

A battered woman quoting
her former husband: ‘‘Don’t
ever open your mouth to speak
to me, unless it’s really impor-
tant. You’re so stupid, I don’t
‘think you'll ever say anything
important.’

A woman about abuse at her
husband's hands: ‘'The only
freedom I has was when I went
to work. When FE was late com-
ing home, he had a bottle of
acid to throw at me.”

On wife abuse, the report
had this to say: ‘‘Traditionally,
the woman is seen as the one
who keeps the family together,
and who sets aside her own .
needs to do that, Our society
assumes that is she is being

. beaten, she must not be a

‘good wife’. If she stays with
her partner, she must either
enjoy the abuse or not see it as
a problem. Victim-blaming is a
deeply rooted facilitator of
viclence.’’

. Women who are battered,
the report goes on to say,
often see themselves as unwar-
thy, unloveable and incompe-

F2-jo

© D.vquiaee

<

tent, They may even feel they
deserve to be beaten. _

And then there are the
children who may not
themselves be beaten, but
witness physical abuse of their
mothers at the hands of their ©.
fathers. The effect, according .
to the report, is the same as if.
the children themselves are vic- .
tims of abuse.

“These children tend to suf-.
‘fer from more somatic,
psychological and behavioural -
dysfunctions than do children ©
who have not grown up
witnessing violence.

So, now that we have iden-_
tified the problem, how are we
going to solve it? :

First of all we have to
demonstrate a commitment to
want to solve the problem. -
Then, we have to be willing to
allocate whatever resources it
takes to solve it. That takes
money, probably more than __
even the experts can imagine.

We need more homes for
battered women, but housing
and protecting abused women |
and children alone isn’t —
enough. We must get at the -
symptoms of the disease.

The report stresses the need —-
for early intervention. That
means agencies dealing with
abuse must be able to detect
early signs of abuse.

And just as society did with ©
the problern of drunk driving, -
it must develop a collective
repulsion for abuse. We must -
shout it from the roof tops

‘that we’re no longer willing to”
look the other way. Only then -
will we be able to put abuse
behind us. |

DRIVING BACK NORTH
FROM THE CITY t!