re i u g 4 4 Hy # a ie aan et tne RIE ern A ARI I OO en LT vee wed Lene STON PO AAD IOS AEE A OO, at OEY A LN EON, iS REVEL THE PENINSULA’S COMMU en en NR LR Editor: Judy Reimche Phone: 656-1151 / Fax: 656-5526 A division of Island Publishers Ltd. 9726 First St., Sidney, B.C. V8L 309 Vol. 89 / No. 5 / Circulation: 13,796 EDITORIAL Treat the children well » esidents in the Orchard Neighborhood are to be ~ commended for their patience and their willing- A. %& ness to work with Town council and the RCMP to help solve the problems they've been experiencing for the past two years or more. Many times over that period they have sat across the table from council and police to ask for solutions to the persistent youth problems with which they’re faced. However, even after solutions seem to have been found, the problems appear to be getting worse. The neighbors are the first to lay the blame for their troubles on the real culprits: not on the skateboarders or the young people attending the youth centre to take part in the activities there, but on those hangers-on — _ who are hanging around those facilities because they ‘have nowhere they would rather be. Whether the pizza and hot chocolate, offered by the youth centre are the ~ appeal or if it’s simply because the area is attractive for other reasons is beside the point. They are there for no. — - good purpose and are giving all the kids a bad rap. ~ More policemen is not the answer to this dilemma. A ~ Clearer message to the youth of this area might be. On _ one hand, the facilities have been placed in one area and tell the youth: come here, this is a place for you.” On the other hand, we are telling them to get the hell out and have put up ugly barricades to.stress the point. - The latest suggestion to keep the peace is to erect a _ chain link fence on the Oakville Avenue side of the building. If that doesn’t say: this is a facility for young offenders — we don't know what does. The Sanscha Community & Cultural Centre Founda- tion has put aside $100,000 to puta roof over the youth - centre and food bank trailers, to make them appear as one entity and tie it into the new centre. Could that money be put into the new Sanscha Hall as an addi- {ional area for a youth centre? - It’s a question we've asked before, and the answer has been that the kids wanted a place of their own. The original intent by the F oundation was a good one, and it was based on feedback from the young people at- tending the youth centre at the time, But the current youth centre is no longer just for the kids, There are other groups meeting there, and the look and feel of the place has changed. ‘The food bank also needed a home —- but is linking it Lo the youth centre a good marriage? Why not put the whole works under one roof — Sanscha’s. These are all community-use re- sources. ae . = ~ Certainly, it's late in the game to make aehange. It seoms, though, as a town and as a larger communily, we have not made kids a priority. It was not the intent, but there is.a feeling that kids have been shunted to one side, and now we feel aneed to barricade our- selves against them, : | oe We're barricading ourselves against the wrong ones; “the kids causing problems are not those who want to belong to any group, These uninvolved kids, gencra: ‘tion after generation, will always be with us, But if the -youth centre is what is attracting (hem, move the cen- tre, Commit to kids, or don't, but make the message clear, And let's, collectively, not condemn the 99 per cent of the younger gencration who are good citizens, SNK Pili RSG ECE Oval Office. OPINION EER Review in retrospect nt Hn PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SIDNEY HISTORICAL MUSEUM The former home of the Sidney Review on Third Street, with an unidentified woman in front. The of- - fice was comprised of a building moved from the ai undergone enormous. change in the intervening dec rport. The building, like the newspaper itself, has ades. Going from typewriters and a hot lead print- ing process, the News Review has moved solidly into the technological age. The only typewriter in the office is displayed iike a museum piece, and on the desks in its piace are computers, used for the writing of the stories as well as page layout. Dark rooms are a thing of the past, and film itself is in danger of going the way of the dinosaur. In place of it are disks and digital cameras (which the ‘News Review has begun to use in a limited way). Telephones still play a huge role, but email and a re fs t's a daunting prospect: here we are, poised on. fl: the knife-edge of a new millennium fraught with - “peril. Russia is in full meltdown mode. The Mid- ~ dle East, as usual, is a steaming cauldron of violence ~ ‘and hate. India and Pakistan are wagging their nu- clear arsenals at each other. China is stirring. Africa is convulsing. bling idiot. I refer, of course, to Dubya. The smirking, Alfred E. Newmanish ex- underachieving Governor of Texas, dumped by an exceedingly dubious electoral screw up straight into the It's not like we haven't skidded on this banana skin before. Duyba’s Daddy (no beacon of brilliance him- self) chose one Danforth J. Quayle as his Vice President, For four.’ years the man who was. only a. heartbeat or an assassin's bullet away from the Presidency, served ; a j ’ fi \] 7. acre ee ee Sere at up such howlers as: “Hisn't pollution that's harming the environment, [t's the impurities in the air. and water that are doing it," a we do not suecved, then we run the risk of fail- ure.” . a “Wat awaste it is to lose one’s mind, Or not to have a mind is being wasteful, How true that is." We thought it couldi't get mueh dumber than that. We were wrong. Along came Dubya, who last year announced to an audience in New Hampshire: "This ig Preservation Month, Lappreeiate Preservation, 10s what you do when you run for president, You gotta. preserve” . Which may have been true = if irrelevant, Dubya was supposed (o be talking about Perseverance, not ~ Preservation Month, He has also opined in public that "we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun’y and “a tax - cut is really one of the aneedotes to,coming out of am economic illness”: and “we ought to make the pie ohigher’. ore poeta aarti ta Ege on Dubya has a particular talent for mangling metaphors. He told a group of reporters: "The senae ~ cians.” 2 Ceeenaneriererstnerttueie sot ne & 3 3 mal = = > new webpage (www.peninsulanewsreview.com) augment the communication process. Even our name has changed: from the Sidney Review, to the Peninsula News Review, reflecting our commit- -. ment to be the newspaper of choice for the entire region. Sask Eos pte seid gues oe: tor has got to understand if he’s going to have —he a ‘can’t have it both ways. He can't take the high horse — and then claim the low road.” oereae As befitting a frat boy with a predilection for gig- gling at fart jokes, Dubya’s grasp of international af- fairs is a little tenuous. He has referred in public to - the people of Timor as “East Timorians’; to residents And the most powerful man in the world is a bum-.” of Kosovo as “Kosovians” and to Greeks as “Gre- ’ Not that you have to go overseas to watch Dubya trip over his tongue. Ata press conference, he turned to New Jersey's secretary of state, the Hon. DeForest Soaries Jr., and intoned: “You might wanna comment on that, “Honorable.” , : I know, I know — it ill behooves a men] Canuck to make mock of leaders who Mm can't spit out a coherent sentence, ~~ After all, this country is led by a Prime Minister who answered a high school student’s question with: “LT intend to incline wit’ you,” He hastily assured the startled female student that he meant to say he was inclined to agree with her. This is the same guy who once answered a legal question al a press conference with “Well, Lam nota lawyer.” Actually, Jean, check your wallet, You are a lawyer, Have heen since 1958, is iva ‘Not that lawyers are necessarily brighter than, well, US presidents, There is the story of an aggres- sive prosecutor cross-examining a coroner, Lawyer: “And prior to declaring the victim dead, did you check his pulse?” 1 vias, Coroner: “Now we : Lawyer" “Well, did you perform CPRE Coroner: "NO," sare y Lawyer “Did you do ANYTHING to determine whether the vietim was still alive?" ~ Coroner; “Now. POR Lawyer: Then isn't it possible that the vietim may have been alive, and that your negligence, tn fact, ceased his death?" ‘ - Coroner: "Possible, | guess, Secing as his brain was in a jar on my desk, | suppose he could even have been practicing law.” ce ae E i : TE er eet iain) mrs RE Rea peeeareees ee ag ommerigteeaternen a: kg