Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 26, 2001. STERRACE ai STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, £988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 « FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermode.net Dialysis now THE ONE glaring gap in northwest health care services concerns kidney dialysis. As our popula- tion ages, the need for dialysis will grow. Yet for northwesterners, the closest centre for the life- giving treatment is in Prince George. And that means more and more northwester- ners are faced with uprooting their lives, homes and families to move there. About this time last year, a concerted effort began to plan for a dialysis unit in vacant space at Mills Memorial Hospital. Earlier this year, the news was rather cheerful. The need for a unit here was accepted and the next stage was to put toge- ther the costs and push for budgetary approval. Unfortunately, that effort was derailed because of the nurses’ job action. Now, it has been re- vived, albeit in a much different monetary climate given increasingly empty provincial coffers. In- quiries as to when the unit might be approved are met with guarded responses. This should not be the case. If you look at health care as an expense beyond actual treatment, the amount of money spent by people from here who need dialysis — not to mention the disruption in their tives to which no price tag can be applied — far outweighs the cost of operating a dialysis unit here to service the northwest. Kidney dialysis is not a one-off medical proce- dure in which a period of time away from home | for treatment and recuperation can be accepted in the normal course of events. It is a life-giving, continual necessity affecting . not just the patient, but the person’s home and fa- mily. We must push for the unit’s approval at Mills. After all, wé could be itext'ia line for the Wayh eek 2 ogee tin’ need for.dialysis. "°°" The real thing ERNIE COOMBS, fondly known to millions of Canadians as Mr. Dressup, died at the age of 73 last week. ) When he retired from the Mr. Dressup Show in 1996, after nearly 30 years, the CBC vowed to air the show in reruns indefinitely. You don’t mess with a hit. Big kids loved him, too: his Tales from the : Tickle Trunk tours of college and university cam- puses were proof of his enduring popularity. “T get lots of hugs,” he said of the college crowd the last time he was in Terrace, in the fall of 1998 when he crossed the country for a fare- well tour. At the time he said his lasting legacy might be that he made people smile, and taught them how to treat each other with respect. We Canadians are often considered a polite bunch. Those of us who grew up watching Mr. Dressup might have a former American named — Ernie Coombs to thank for that. 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Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and lypestylas In the Terraca Standard are the proparty of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1965) Ltd., Ita Itustialion repro services and advertising agencies. , 7 Rlaproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, Is spoctficelly prohibited, Authotlzed as second-class mall pending the Post Ctfiea Department, for payment of postage In cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time.and talents (We ; { MUN ™ VICTORIA — It seems almost frivolous to write about provin- cial politics so soon after the horrific events in New York and Washington. Allow me, therefore, to write another col- umn on the subject that is still on everyone’s mind, In the aftermath of the ter- rorist attacks, emotions ran high the world over. In my im- mediate circle of relatives, friends and acquaintances, they ran the gamut of “bomb the hell out of Afghanistan” to “give peace a chance.” One letter writer in my local daily suggested we “kill them with kindness, pointing out that violence only begets more violence.” Let me deal with the latter first. It seems pretty clear to me that the Afghan Taliban, which has been harbouring Osama bin Laden, the “prime suspect” behind the attacks, isn’t going to be very impres , sed by kindness. : architect of the terrorist -at- tacks, lie should be brought to justice by whatever means. No, let me rephrase that, by very specific means, means that do not involve massive bombing of civilian popula- . tions. When I speak of civilian population, [ am referring to Afghans, since Pakistan has apparently and’ wisely already come on board the U.S, retaliatory train. I am convinced that the U.S. can bomb Afghanistan until not a building is teft SIX WEEKS before terrorists caused all U.S. and Canadian flights to be grounded, I flew my first vacation trip in 20 years. That was luck. To have done it safely, now that [ learn of the gaps in security, was a miracle. Oddly, the first thing to catch my attention was a sign in the Terrace airport (and in every airport later). ‘Some Things Were Never Meant to Fly’, read the sign. It pictured revolvers, knives and other in-flight hazards. During the security check, the wand beeped crazily until my husband emptied his pock- ets of watch and nail clippers, and unfastened his four inch belt buckle. He was even "asked to remove his hat, In Vancouver, our security gazing off into the distance as our bags ducked under the x- ray barrier. Not in Lloydmins- ter. When we departed Lloyd- minster on an 18 passenger mm SO° 1S THE awe PERMAFROST fee MELTING? PyVly AOL ee fe otae If bin Laden was indeed the | person seemed disinterested, FROM. THE: CAPITAL- HUBERT BEYER standing, and bin Laden would not be among the dead, but tens of thousands, if not hun- dreds of thousands of Afghan civilians would be. To invade Afghanistan with ground trocps is probably un- wise. Just ask the Russians. They're still licking their wounds. Afghanistan isn't known as the graveyard of ammiesfor nothing. =: 4 “And the public,s for .a-prolonged.-war-in-which tens of thousands of soldiers would die, would soon wane, Which brings me to another point: there isn't,t a hell of a lot lefi in Afghanistan to bomb. The Russians beat us to it Tamim Ansary, an Afghan journalist in exile, said in an article lwo weekends ago that Afghans are “starved, exhaus- ted, hurt, incapacitated, suf- fering.” A few years ago, he said, the United Nations esti- mated that there are 500,000 disabled orphans in Afghani- THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECK] Beechcraft 1900D, security was stricter than at either Vancouver or Calgary. If asked, I’m sure the fellow who cleared us could have de- scribed us in detail for a sketch artist. Certainly, he could have itemized my belongings. About 50, an eager beaver, and obviously experienced in his work, he tugged on rubber gloves before sifting his way BUT LESS SNOW le YET ANOTHER TRADITION THREATENED BY GLOBAL WAR All out bombing simply won’‘t work stan ~ a country with no econ- omy, no food. “There are millions of wi- dows. And the Taliban has been burying these widows alive in mass graves. The soil is littered with land mines, the farms were all destroyed by the Soviets. These are a few of the reasons why the Afghan peaple have nat overthrown the Taliban.” We come now to the ques- tion of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care af it al- ready, Make the Afghans suf- fer? They're already suffering. Level] their houses? Done. Turn their schools into piles of rub- ble? Done. Eradicate their hospitals? Done. Destroy their infrastruc- ture? Cut them off from medi- cine and health care? Too late. Someone already did all that. It has also crossed my mind 3: + athatethe qin of architect, of the. appelite terror.acts was not just fo in- _ flict.damage but ta lure-Amer- , - ica into an all-out confronta- tion with Islam. Maybe I have been reading too much Tom Clancy, but if even half of what he writes, and is said to be in the know about U.S. matters military, it should be possible to extract bin Laden from whatever cave he is hiding in and bring him to justice. ; If early reports are to be be- lieved, the first contingent of Navy Seals has already arrived in Pakistan. Meanwhile, satel- lites have apparently been through the contents of our two bags. My dag harboured three weighty pieces of pottery, two mugs and a sugat bowl, indivi- dually wrapped in layers of newspaper, and stuffed with socks. These he expected to be hand grenades. This was after I had been shooed out of the room for fol- lowing my husband. i had mis- sed the sign: ‘One Person in the room at a Time’. All! last week ] kept hearing about “no mare curbside service.” As I understand it, after hearing Peter, a travel writer, giving tips on an Oprah rerun in July, it was possible to drive up to the front door of an American airline terminal, hand your bags to a skycap, and. for a $10 tip, have your baggage whisked straight to the conveyor belt loading your plane. - I thought after the Narita bombing, no bag was loaded unless it was attached ta a tracking bin Laden’s move- ments. He is now believed to be hiding out somewhere near Kandahar. And finally, when all this is over, perhaps the democracies of the world ought to rewrite their global policy manuals. For those who are not yet — aware of it, it should be poin- ted out that as Jong as the Rus- sians were mired in Afghani- stan, bin Laden was a welcome U.S. weapon in its cald-war ar- senal, along the tines of the old saw, “my enemy’s enemy is my friend.” American troops in Afghani- stan may well be attacked with weapons once provided by the US. That the U.S. will retaliate is a given, It is also a necess- ity. This terrorist act, the big- pest in history, cost more than §,000 lives, hitherto unthink- able, It is only a matter of time before some terrorists attack with biological. wéaporis “ard ultimately. with nuclear de- vices, in which case the num- ber of victims will would run in the millions and trigger an all- out holocaust from which man- kind might not recover. Alarmist? I don’t think so. Realistic is a better word. And that’s why we should ail hope that whatever means the U.S. uses to retaliate for the terrible attack on New York and Wash- ington, it will be effective but reasoned. Beyer can be reached at: E-mail: hubert@coolcom.com; Tel (250) 381-6900; A lesson for U.S. airoort security licket and a passenger. “Tell the skycap ‘I’m late. My plane is about to take off. — the skycap will ask, "Did you pack this bag?’ Say Yes and you’re on your way. No waiting in security line-ups.” Peter looked pleased. Well, 1 was flabbergasted, All the faney, expensive secur- ity possible won’t safeguard us from terrorists if it’s that simple to bypass. American airlines give as their excuse that their security is contracted out to the lowest bidder. Security personnel are paid little, inadequately trained and — lacking incentive - their turnover is high, limiting their experience. they could learn from the féllow in Lloydmins- ter. I don’t know what he’s paid but I know he enjoys his work and I'd be surprised if anything slips past him. And while he’s pawing through panties, T-shirts, and toiletries, his partner is memor- izing every wart and mole. - Hae CeNCAceD \V MEANS GemDIMEREASES FART PeaMArnen iene WIHCH WoOLP WILL FREEZE _f] FIRES REMOVING USC GETING CAUSE THAWING,..4 DEEPER... MoSS INSULATION AND WARMING SOILS MORE !