Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 17, 1996

“TERRACE

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (6(14) 638-7283 © FAX: (604) 638-8432 E-MAIL: terrace.standard@sasquat.com

MODEM: (604) 638-7247

Ooops, oops

SO THE NDP can’t add, subtract or do other basic math. Well, who can? How many businesses out there run a perfect set of books, accurately track what goes out and what comes in and make predictions that hold solid over the course of time? How many householders spend hours trying to balance chequebooks, juggling credit card payments or stalling while waiting for the next pay period?

The difference, though, is that the NDP isn’t playing with its own money. It’s playing with ours — those sweat-soaked, blood-enctrusted droplets of taxes we forward faithfully to the state in the expectation they will be treated with honour, care and sober-minded prudence.

But how many more times can the NDP simply say ‘oops’ when it comes to explanations of why the last budget year ended in a deficit? How long will it take this year before the NDP comes clean and says the budget plan for this year won’t result in a small surplus?

There’s no answer to the above questions. It is simply a matter of politics. The game of politics is to frantically dance on the head of a pin while juggling a basket full of balls in the faint hope that things won’t catch up and bring the circus act to a grinding halt.

It’s a system we have bought into and support in the simple hope our own pet projects and re- quests will be granted first — and to blazes with everybody else.

A local case in point is the $1 million com- mitted this spring to the planning for a replace- meant for Skeena Junior Secondary. Has anybody protested that amount, saying it’s excessive? Has anybody asked why,. in. heaven’s name, $1 .mil- lion*is‘ needed? No:-That’s because regardless of how ‘uch we tay tail against théNDP’s budget " games, we al] want a piece of the action.

So before we can completely and cleanly con- demn the NDP for its actions, we have to look inside of ourselves first. Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t be the ones throwing stones.

Zoned out

WANT TO live on the bench? You are welcome but only if you can afford a Jot and have the bucks for a big-time, single-family dwelling.

That was the message delivered recently by council in approving a developer’s request to rezone land near the college from multifamily so that single family or duplexes could be built in- stead. Equally as obvious was another message — the bench is off limits to those of lesser in- comes. They’re relegated to the flats, particularly the area south of the tracks.

The situation has now changed. The developer is holding off on. proceeding with the rezoning because an earlier land-use contract permits duplexes to be built on the land and the devel- oper wants to keep his options open.

That’s a minor victory in the attempt to avoid crealing income-based housing ghettos based on zoning allocations. But citizens should be aware that the current council must be put on notice that a proper mix of housing is needed for the city to achieve affordable and comfortable hous- ing for all of its citizens,

PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Rick Passmore PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Dave Taylor COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf OFFICE MANAGER: Laurie Ritter ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Karen Dietrich & Cheri Reidy ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Emma Law, Kelly Jean TYPESETTING: Sylvana Broman DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Karen Brunette MEMBER OF B.C, PRESS COUNCIL Serving the Tenace and Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week by Cariboo Prass (1969) Lid, at4210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5A2.

Stores, photographs, illustrations, designs and typastyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd,, its illustration repro services and advertising

agories, Reproduction In whole or in part, without written permission, is specifically prohibited, Authorized as second-class mail pending the Post Office Departmant, for payment of postage In cash.

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

TRUST US WE'RE ON YOU WHICH SIDE IS YOUR WALLET ON,

R

FRIEND...

SIDE... BY THE WAY, ,..

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agbaesr

Compassion rose to the top

VICTOREA — On the eve of the opening day of the 11th an- nual international AIDS con- ference in Vancouver, protesters disrupted an Amer- ican = Medical = Association briefing on AIDS, claiming that politics remain the flash- point of the disease.

About 50 members of ACT UP, 4 group of militant ac- tivists, briefly took over the podium as the briefing began, reading a slatement, chanting and blowing whistles,

I wish the activists had been in the B,C, Legislature the day before. It would have dispelled their notion that the body politic is necessarily a hindrance to finding a way of successfully batting AIDS.

Had they been, present, they _ would, in fact, have been, con-

vinced the political will to con- quer the disease is alive and well, at least in B.C,

The NDP’s Jan Pullinger led off the discussion of AIDS and the importance of the confer- ence during Private Members’ Statements, a regular Friday moming occurrence in the legislature, She told the House that sadly, society in dealing with the threat of AIDS, still engages in finger-pointing and

FROM THE-GAPITAL HUBERT BEYER

blame, when it should summon compassion.

“The most inappropriate response ] have scen, and the most shameful —I thing we'd all agree ~— is by those who reat HIV and AIDS as a moral

issue rather than, the scrious

health issue it is, she said,

But while Pullinger’s com- menls. were encouraging, it was a rookie Liberal MLA who raised the debate to a new level,

April Sanders, Liberal MLA for Okanagan-Vernon, spoke of AIDS and HIV victims with a depth of compassion and commitment that belied the gloomy outlook expressed a day later by the protesters in

Vancouver.

Sanders is a doctor who has had a wealth of personal expe- rience in treating AIDS patients. And far from inuring her to the fears and horrors that have those suffering from the disease in their grip, Sanders appears to have found not only a deep-rooted professional respect for the victims of the disease, but a human commit- ment to raisc sociely’s aware- ness of it.

‘In 1985 the AIDS condition at St. Paul’s (Vancouver) did not hold much interest for me, as il was my intention to prac- tise in a small town, and I thought HIV knowledge would be unnecessary there. St Paul’s had much more in store forme than I had planned,

detithh cate

_ they, log, Have AIDS, I have -

“There, at St. Paul’s [ ob-

as Pree vere fat dn ay served how medicine, culture,

ethics, politics and much more became inextricably entwined in this skein called AIDS, J would spend my whole profes- sional life trying to unravel that skein. At that time, I desperately wanted to see AIDS only as a doctor, not as a parent or a taxpayers, but the disease mocked that simplicity.”’

Over the years, Sanders said,

AIDS has changed her whole outlook on life. It has refused to allow her to be able to see the world from one solitary point of view and feel justified and safe,

“In 12 years, I have seen this insignificant disease become epidemic, I have delivered new-borns of HIV-positive moms and mourned their fu- ture, [ have scen pensioners filled with hope after coronary- artery bypass, only to find themselves HIV-positive post- op from inter-operative. blood transfusions.

“I have told an 18-year-old that she may need testing after an HIV-positive heterosexual conlact, I have seen drug abusers get clean, only to find Qul several years later that

mourmed them all.

“AIDS is a metaphor to remind this House that the need for good health care re- search, for funding of ap- propriate medication for HIV, and for good health care must be sustained,”’

Voters made a wise choice to send Sanders to Victoria,

Beyer can be reached at Tet: 920-9300; Fax: 385-6783; E- mail: huber{@coolcom.com

Camera sh

—

TO GET rid of cockroaches in your kitchen, call an ex- terminator. To keep crows from your backyard cherry tree, try a scarecrow. But to make every sober adult dis- appear from a family living room, hold up a camera.

Despite photagraphy being as painless as watching scencry flash by while driving down a highway, few adults look forward to posing.

Partly we're reluctant to be photographed because we've had ta live down some iess- than-fabulous photo taking in the past when we were snapped wilh our mouth agape like a goldfish sucking fish- food, or our eyes were closed because we were blinking,

Partly we’re worried about

‘the camera catching us in a

teally awkward action such as mid-chew in a table scene, or with a stupid look on our face because we were reacting to someone’s storytelling.

IN THE NORTH IT'S SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST SkK00K! GOTTA BE ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE COMPETITION WITH My NEW BOBCAT AND TRAILER ELl CORNER THE CONSTRUCTION MARKET WW FT. DOGGERE LM!

Ay

THROUGH BIFOCALS. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

I've got photos of mysclf with a geranium sprouting from my scalp like a Dr. Seuss imaginary animal. I have an- other with my face blended into the pine cupboard I was cowering against, And I have another where my knees are wide as Bailey bridges my average Weight. Focus is everything.

Mostly we're reluctant to be

WAIT TIL THE [oRTEIOART GUYS AT THE CAFE SEE THIS?

sieve

photographed because it’s an indication of time passing. We reach for the camera to record mileposts in our lives — some- one’s birthday, a leenager’s graduation, a son’s wedding, ora family reunion for parents’ 40th anniversary.

For a brief weekend or a few days we’re gathered together to share a happy family mo- ment. But loo soon we'll dis- perse, perhaps not sec each other for months, even years. And the exact membership of this clan get-together may never be duplicated.

Kids grow up and go away to school. Young couples raise families and follow a job trail. Old folks retire or pass on,

Typically, the family groups for photos near the end of the sojoum, This makes the camera’s presence as final as the raising of the trumpet at a military funcral,

When aunts and uncies came to our farm for summer visits,

y? Join the

crowd

after suitcases were stowed in - the trunk, we'd be bunched in’

front of the caragana hedge like cattle weathering a hail stom while Uncle Gordon or’ Aunt Mil shuttered away watil the in-box camera ran out of film.

Months later we would receive onc group photo, or several if more pictures were worth sharing. Inevitably one person would be hidden by someone taller. The person on the end would be halved. The toddler in front would be scratching an ankle, long hair hanging over her face. The six footer would be headless. He was the happy viewer.

I’ve never been a camera- happy individual, cither as a photographer or as a subject, Until my husband bought a Polaroid, I never owned a camera, E would as soon have a box of dynamite caps under my bed,