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

Rod Link

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Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for

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their time and talents.

___ EDITORIAL, |

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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.

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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-

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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!