NEWS VIEWPOINT HE DEATH of North Vancouver Tory MP Chuck: Cook on Tuesday marks the passing of. a_ politician one encounters ‘much too rarely in this day of the packaged and party subordinate. . Chuck Cook had rough edges. He didn’t jook that: good on |TV. He did not nutomatically « defer to; the party line. He often broke rank. ! ‘While most politicians spend a career perfecting the art of saying much but _ meaning nothing, Cook was always plain- spoken and refreshingly blunt. He was a dissident in a federal party ruled rigidly. © More impertantly, constituency first. ya That fact ig tellingly: brought home by | as an MP he put | valued politician how he measured his success as 2 Member of Parliament. In a News interview in December, Cook chose to point out concrete improvements that he had a hand in bringing about for the folks at home in North Vancouver: the Deep Cove Cultural Centre and the desig- nation of the Maplewood Flats area as a bird sanctuary. Cook called himself a “black and white person.”? Too few politicians possess the individual conviction necessary (to push beyond the grey morass of contemporary political culture. ; The North Shore political. spectrum turned a shade greyer this week with the passing of Mr. Cook. LETTER OF THE DAY New crossing. exacerbates problems Dear Editor: Why is the subject of building. a new bridge being entertained by the deputy engineer of the City of North Vancouver? “takes precedence over neighbor- hood livability and preservation. While the City of Vancouver and other areas are listening to residents and attempting to meet the new reality of people before remember that Lions Gate was not built to serve north shore residents and the ferry system. A more ecological and econom- ically responsible solution would be to decrease traffic usage by traffic, North blindly This is not even in his domain. He should concern himself with ‘significant local projects such as the unfinished Westview ‘inter- ship. change on the Upper Levels. I As a taxpayer in this city | find commuter traffic management would to do. He .. Peter Speck Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright Linda Stewart Doug Foot Publisher Lae Managing Editor Associate Editor. . Sales & Marketing Director Comptroller North Shore News, founded wo 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and quatitied under Schedule 111. Paragraph Ul of the Excise Taa Act, 16 published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Snore Fiee Press Lid. and distributed to every door on ihe North Shore Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. G067238 Ming rales available on request. Submugsions ate welcome dul we cannat aecapi fessaniibdity Jor unsolicued malernal including manuscripts and pictures which shouid be accompanied oy a stamped, addressed envelope Newsroont V7M 2H4 Vancouver earrics on giving vehicular waffic an outmoded level of wor- suggest’ Bridgman do the job he was hired would do Display Aavertising Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Cassified Advertising 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, Nori! Vancouver, B.C City .correcting the underlying causes. A new bridge would only ex- acerbate the north shore’s unad- dressed traffic problems. that Don : Viire Daniels well to North Vancouver 980-0511. Distribution 1337 on EN Subscriptions 986-1337 Printed oss 986-6222 Fax 985-3227 RH 10% recycled 985-2131 Administration 985-2131 PRR newsprint North Seore managed MEMBER ——~: <> SN 61,582 iaverage circulation Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) = Pen SDA DIVISION Entire contents ¢ 1993 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. ysitter EVERYWHERE TODAY the call is for crusades. Crusades to end racism, to save the environment, to establish women’s equality, to pay off the national debt, to conquer Third World starvation. You name it — we have a crusade that it’s your duty to join. But it has taken the murder of a two-year-old Liverpool toddler, allegedly by two !0-year-olds, to focus world attentiun on the one crusade that could climinate the need for many of the others, A massive crusade to have the coming generation raised once more by responsible parents in- stead of by Hollywood violence factories. . In a shocked Britain, reports Associated Press, newspapers are now depicting “a subculture of neglected, foul-mouthed youngsters, drunkenly roaming the country's low-income housing projects, mugging pensioners and joyriding in stolen cars.’ In North America make that schools with metal detectors to catch hidden weapons and increas- ingly patrolled by police. Schools where teachers are threatened or assaulted, where rival students regularly beat cach other up with baseball bats or knives and occas- sionally shoot or even kill one another with guns. Yet there’s no mystery (o how this sad and alarming situation PERRIN BEATTY... cut out the violence, or else...! has developed on both sides of the Atlantic. The only mystery is why ° so many normally intelligent peo- ple are still groping for its causes. If a child is left from a tender age for 20 to 30 hours a week with an electronic babysitter that shows it violent acts hour after hour — and if working parents are too tired to teach it anything to the contrary during their brief hours at home — the result is ob- vious. TV violence is seen as solving all problems. Just how violently individual youngsters, lacking any other guidance, actually copy it depends largely upon their physi- cal strength — or mental weakness. To sonie extent, of course, this is an over-simplification. There ARE, thank heavens, still a good many parents who successfully combat the TV-induced disease — parents with a firm behavior standards who, even when out all day at work, contrive to make the time and effort to instill their own code of living into their offspring. But just as one bad apple can ruin a whole box, it doesn’t take all that many teenage Rambos to wreak havoc in our schools and on society, And since their virus is Noe! Wright HITHER AND YON. contagious, today’s 10-year-old killers could well spawn tomor- - row’s five-year-old murderers. Last week brought one fresh ray of hope in Canada. Communica- tions Minister Perrin Beatty warn- ed TV producers to clean up on violence or have Ottawa clean up for them. However, as welcome as — this move against one half of the problem is, it does nothing for the other, more vital half —~ respon- sible parenting. Hence, society's new and: urgently needed crusade. For. parents at the end of tough | days ¢arning the family living, the |. hours and energy needed to keep on training young Johany or Jane how to resolve conflict-in civi- , ‘lized, non-violent ways are loo often in short supply. Such’ parents need all the outside sup- ‘port they can get to save the next ": generation from today’s young TV-bred monsters. Society can — and must — help in every way possible. But parents - themselves are still a kid’s : ultimate role models. Which is* why, in the end, only THEY. can complete the job. ve eeoc “TANLPIECES: Partying again Saturday evening, Feb.27, will be. our kilted ethnics, when the ». Moray, Nairn & Banff Society presents its Scots’ Nicht and, Clootie Dumpling Contest at the Scottish Cultural Centre, 8888 Hudson St. overtown — adinis- sion free, $3 entry fee for the | dumpling-maker contestants and music by Murray Skoelbraig and “The Barley Bree”’ band ... Earlier on Saturday, from 10 a.m, to 4 p.m., Scots, Sassenachs and all other ethnics can check’ their: blood pressure at the special screening clinic in Cap Matl North Corridor sponsored by the . RNABC North Shore and Heart Smart North Shore ... And all 1963 grads of Sir Charles Tupper Secondary in Vancouver are in- | vited to red-circle May 7 to 8in their calendars — the weekend of the Grand 30-Year Reunion — and call danice Klassen, 465-8062, for all the details (collect ‘calls ac- cepted). WRIGHT OR WRONG: Motiva- tion can jump-start you, but the — fuel that keeps you running is perseverance,