A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 12, 2006 .

i _ ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

- PUBLISHER: ROD LINK . ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. - V8G 5R2 . TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 - FAX: (250) 638-8432 WEB: www.terracestandard. com: , -EMAIL:. newsroom@terracestandard. com

Not fair at all

THERE’ S FURTHER evidence the northwest i is being: treated unfairly when it comes to paying for -natural.gas. 7

. This time it Concerns B. C. Hydro, the | massive crown corporation which generates electricity for use within the province and for export to the Unit- ed States. |

' First, a: quick recap. While we may pay the. “same. for the gas itself as other users in B.C. we _ pay, higher delivery rates to Pacific Northern Gas

. (PNG) because it, has relatively few users com-

_ pared-to other gas utilities. Now PNG wants to charge: more for delivery ‘because it has lost. its

one. big. customer, methanol Producer Methanex |

in Kitimat.

‘Unlike the sale and ‘distribution of alcohol, | “whereby ‘the provirice has established a system | that guarantees: a customer pays the. same amount from a government liquor store no matter where‘ it is bought while ensuring profits for both. the. state and liquor producers, that’s not the case with gas delivery. We. Pay more here compared to the -

-Lower Mainland. | - Now consider B. C. Hydro. From the onset,. the

- provincial government set a deliberate social and - economic policy that residential rates would not) _ differ Ao matter where the customer lived, similar

to the alcohol sale,example.

If not, a resident near a hydro dam in the. north- ;

“east, for exainple, might pay less because’ the ‘source is so-close. But that would mean the en- _ergy-hungry Lower Mainland. would pay more. _ And that would not do.

This rate equalization concept will apply i in the :

future as'B.C. ‘Hydro spends billions itself to mod- ‘ernize its infrastructure and as it invites private iproducers to join in with more ° power generating Schemes.

‘Power from these new sources will cost more

- than that generated by B.C. Hydro’s current dams. And that means customers will pay more.

But will some customers pay more, for example, depending upon where they live in retation to the

.new sources? Not likely.

._~ Instead, the costs of these new sources 5 will be. blended i in. with current rates, so that rates remain ° equal throughout the province. And the province

7 will be able to accomplish this blend of private - and public business while still guaranteeing a 7 healthy: rate of return for those private producers.

' So once again, if the province can equalize li- quor prices and make pots of money, and now hy- .. dro rates, it can spend a bit of time correcting the }|

gas delivery cost structure that is now hurting the northwest. - Those of us who live up here don’t ask for a lot. And we realize there is sometimes a price to pay for living here. But being treated unfairly isn’t one of them. ” :

PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link . _ ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur _ NEWS: Sarah A. Zimmerman . COMMUNITY: Dustin Quezada 7 ; NEWS/SPORTS: Margaret Speirs _ ‘FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping, Carolyn Anderson. CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Alanna Bentham ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS:

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Serving the Terrace and Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday of - pach week at 3270 Clinton Sweet, Terrace, British Columbia, VBG 5R2. Stories, phowographs, iflustrations, designs and iypesiyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the copy-. right noiders, including Back Press Ltd. its illustration repro services and advertising agencies. Reproduction in whole o- in part, without writen permission, is specifically prohibited.

Authorized as s20ond-class mail pending the Post Cifice Department, for payment of postage in cash,

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

wu

Black Press

“WHAT Is The Laramie Proje

ect? - In October 1998, a young

_ gay man-was discovered bound

to a fence on the outskirts of

Laramie, Wyoming, a town _ . -. not much bigger than Terrace.

‘Beaten and left to die in

an act of hatred and brutality, . ‘Matthew Shepard’s death has become a symbol. of intoler-

ance around the world.

In the aftermath, Moisés : Kaufman and fellow members. L

of the Tectonic Theater. Proj-

. ect made six trips to Laramie ‘over the course of a: year and

-. ahalf, and’conducted over 200 -

_ interviews with ‘people of the

- town. From the text of those

they. constructed...

interviews, a deeply moving theatrical experience that chronicles the life of the town following

- Shepard’s rhurder.

In the words of rural ranch-

, ers.to bartenders to university “professors, the play carefully

portrays all view points on ho-

_ Mosexuality, with the overrid-

ing message that intolerance, bullying and hate crimes hap-

_ pen in every town, and that we

can and should work together to: stop the violence, no matter what our divergent views. Because of its subject mat- ter; “The Laramie Project”

. is. shrouded in controversy, . with some productions banned |

before even getting off the ground, and others picketed

_ by groups unwilling to see be- yond the gay issue.

_ Ironically, the point of this play is to have us look beyond

-the issues that divide us, to

reach*a* common understand-

| ANNETTE MARTINDALE -

ing about the human condition.

. It’s not about gay hate crimes; it’s about all hate crimes. —

When Terrace Little Theatre

‘chose to produce The Laramie

Project, it was clear that this should be a broad community endeavor. This play embod- ies the essence of community theatre. It’s about how we can come together to tackle tough issues in the theatrical arena, as we did in recent years with the Ensler’s Vagina Monologues and Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive.

In a blended community of

different faiths, belief systems

and lifestyle choices, it’s not always easy to practice toler- ance and acceptance. What we’re really talking about here is the Golden Rule: “Do unto. others as you would have them do unto you”

It’s a very simple rule that even children should be able to follow - but that all too of- ten becomes twisted into “Do unto others as they do to you"

It Ss about more than tolerance —

which leads to “An eye for an > eye...

Zubaida Ula, a Muslim Uni- versity of Wyoming student, “says, “We need to own this crime, I ‘feel. Everyone needs

* to own it. We are like this.”

As the people of Laramie

were challenged by Zubaida to

“own this crime,” The Laramie Project challenges us to stand up and say “Yes. Intolerance,

bullying ‘and hate. crimes do

happen in Terrace.”

And not just by kids in school halls. And not just -

to gays and. visible minori- ties. When kids ostracize and . ridicule others for being over-

weight, shy or poorly dressed, | _ the same forces are at work: And the victims suffer much :

the same, often in isolation and silence.

The Laramie Project is a veiled gift. It is an opportunity

for us to come together-and say---

“No, Zubaida, we are not like that.” Together we can hope, touch some lives, and make a difference in ourtown. _ With the assistance of our major event sponsor, The Ter- race Standard, and generous community support, Terrace Little Theatre’ is able to offer free student admission to the “The Laramie Project” and - will donate the net proceeds to the Youth Safe House.

There are many great com-. munity causes to support, but ‘a- youth emergency shelter on

*the verge of reality, seems

the most fitting beneficiary of - -the Laramie’ message. Youth -

in crisis will end up on the

doorstep of the safe house for

_ seemingly: varied, “yer similar réasons, many the. victims of

»intolerance on the streets, at

school, and at home: _ Some have questioned the strong parental guidance warn-

' ing coupled with free student - admission. The Laramie Proj- .-

ect.has no official rating. Using ‘the unedited words

‘of the people- -of..Laramie,. it language, ~minor_ sexual references, and although the beating of Matt |

contains _ Coarse.

Shepard is not depicted; the graphic details are not spared. |

- It has often been produced by . : high schools, and with parental guidance, I believe children as

young as 10 will benefit from

seeing it. I will be accompany- .

ing my nine-year-old daugh-

_ ter. Please, use your discretion

— you know your child best. . The Laramie resident: that best exemplifies the lessons

learned by that town -is:Father © |

Roger Schmit, then” Catholic Priest at St: Paul’s Newman

Center. He led the candle light |

vigil, while Matthew struggled

for his life in hospital. Near.

the end of the film version of “The Laramie Project’, Father Schmit addresses the Rotary Club in Laramie, and someone ‘in the audience asks him about

the concept of tolerance. Father Schmit replies: “We. -

must move beyond tolerance because we’re capable of such a higher degree of love.”

That is the anthem of The Laramie Project. « ;

Annette Martindale is the producer and director for The . Laramie Project.

And last year ih

THE MARTHA Stewarts and Gloria’ Vanderbilts of high so-

ciety aren’t the only ones who .

keep a party journal in which they record details to help them

duplicate the successful parts.

of dining entertainment and

- avoid repeating any glitches. I

keep a dining journal, too.

_ My journal covers family gatherings for special occa- sions. Besides the Vanderbilt -

-idetails (replace wine with

- Pepsi) I also note arrival times.

This tells me when to begin boiling potatoes. Probably my farming back-

ground ‘shows in our seating ©

arrangement. Like cows in a barn, we always sit in the same arrangement, begun be-

fore the grandchildren arrived.

One at a time they sat next to Mon, first on the left, then on © * the right. And so we sit to-

day. Mom likes to be handy

to tighten up Grandma’s lax’

tules. I stick by only one rule: sitting on the feet-is allowed, to attain a comfortable height,

. so long as knees are below the

table. If I had grandsons, a second rule would be no hats on in the house.

Chairs, not seating, have been the sore point in our

THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

get-togethers..To raise them up when they were small, the grandchildren perched on steno chairs raised to their ut- most. That was fine until I re-

tired and one steno chair left. .

with the business. Now we

‘have to keep track of whose

turn it is.to sit on the padded chair. Thickens my journal considerably.

Through the years menus have been refined to weed out personal dislikes and substi- tute where necessary. One has a physical aversion to textures such as mashed potatoes. So I serve French fries or hash

s is what we ‘ate.

browns.

One can’t stand pie or over- ly sweet cakes. Consequently, McDonald’s has: nothing on us. Family know exactly what

will be on the menu — goose .

at Christmas and Thanksgiv-

ing, pizza with Pepsi for New

Year’s, ham and potato salad » for Easter.

Because I have trouble Te- membering everyone’ s prefer- ences for pizza, I detail those,

. too, to get the order done down to the size of each pizza and the side order of bread sticks, half with cheese, half without.

- From the first gift-exchange -

get-together I’ve itemized ev- _ ery gift exchanged. That helps

me to remember what they al-

ready have in the way of toys “or videos.

Knowing who got what, when also ‘helps to date pho- tographs if I fail to date a photo immediately. Undated,

unidentified photographs be- come orphans in every family album. The regret of that was evident at a family reunion. Unless we could find an elder- ' ly relative to name names, we had no idea whose photo we were studying. I came home from that reunion with a CD

of family photos I probably will never be able to properly label.

Secure in the belief no one else but me would bother to. read my. dining journal, I al-

ways admit to any problems ._

or culinary disasters. For some: meals, that entry alone takes

up most of a page. Goose un- derdone .

or overdone. Too few mashed potatoes. Runny

cranberry sauce. Eggnog still -

in the fridge untasted when everyone went home. An ice cream cake that wouldn’t fit

_ the fridge freezer stored tem-

porarily in the porch when the

outdoor temperature proved to

be too warm. I could go: on. Seating guests beside com-

patible souls is neither a prob-

lem nor an option. We are six; the table seats six. We must.get

‘along. Adults let the kids have -a turn adding their thoughts to any conversation, and the kids’ ‘good manners Jet me have the - last word. When the kids were ba:

bies, dinners lasted. about an hour. By then the kids had to be.taken home for a nap. Now the kids have to be taken home early so Grandma and Grand- pa can have their nap.