ein an OE AE Lane A HAD I LE ETP LI TPE ET EMT INE SEAT RT AAS NN ER Ka Bh A Um ner A7 -Sunda: lay News, August 17, 1980 yes Tearing the cloth of hatred Doris Orr: The Dear Editor: Nauseating. _Instructive, but nauseating. I refer to the double-barreled blunderbuss of conservative wattle- shaking which appeared on pages A6 and A7 of the Aug. 3 NEWS: your anti-metric editorial and Ms. Leitch’s anti-French letter. Side by side, there they were. Two finer examples of reactionary thinking could not be found north of Reagan Country. You may be somewhat discomfitted to have your measured sentiments lumped together with the ranting of Ms. Leitch, but I assure you, to the objective observer they are doubtless cut from the same cloth. This cloth is a simplistic weave of hatreds: hatred of the east, hatred of Trudeau, hatred of change, and hatred of positive and tolerant action. Any eleven-year-old can. tell you, Mr. Wright, that the English system of measurements can't go the way of the cubit soon enough. It is_ idiotically complex. For you _ to maintain that the English system has any advantages over the metric (leaving nostalgia aside) would be equally idiotic. In the English system there are dozens of different conversion constants to remember. In the metric there is only one. In the English, conversion between length, volume, temperature, and pressure is practically impossible. “But,” you say, “] have nothing against the existence of metric in Canada. It's just that I don’t want to have to use it. The government is being dictatorial in using the force of law to implement the metncation program.” These protests remind me a lot of the country that switched from driving on the left to driving on the mght in gradual stages so as not to upset anybody. The simple fact 1s that old habits die hard, particularily if it costs money to change them. Waiting for free will to do its stuff in this case would bear a striking resemblance to Waiting for Godot, without even the existen: tialist banter to enliven the proceedings. Canada must be a metric country sooer or later. My preference is for sooner, for two reasons. The first is that metrication costs money, as Mr. Huntington no doubt will attest. But it will cost even more money fifteen years from now, won't it? Secondly, the fact that many foes of metric are saying that we should wait for the U.S. to switch first is a perfect illustration in itself of the reason we should open up our European op- portunities by switching to metric as soon as possible. If we can diversify our markets then we don't have to wait for our policy to be dictated from Washington. Given that the change to metric must occur even- tually, surely it should occur in a direct and determined manner. Just as we don't wait for “free will” when we put up traffic lights and no smoking signs, the force of law must be applied to this orderly transition. Metric cannot be fought out in the market place, otherwise the decision will never be made. The force of law must be applied. Your shrill protests against this logic put me in mind of a dinosaur decrying the emergence of these funny hittle furry things called mammals. The switch to metric will occur within your lifetime. Mr. Wright. Ms. Leitch has written a letter tht somehow manages to sound more paranoiac than yours, Mr. Wnght. You content yourself with refermng to Pierre Trudeau as an emperor or mandann According to Ms. Leitch we are dealing with Fu Manchu. Somehow or other, our gentle philosopher prince of 1968 has metamorphosed into an evil magician who is capable of taking a 70% English country and turning it into a French one. Preposterous! The policy of bilingualism has but two goals. The first is to ensure that Canadians of both . cultures feel that Canada is their native land wherever they happen to be in this country. The other goal of bilingualism is to ensure that as many Canadians have the opportunity to become bilingual as possible. The only way that a true understanding can _ be reached between the French and the English in Canada is if a large number of ordinary English and French Canadians can speak together as bilingual equals. It was an iron-clad tenet of the English “public” school system that a man was not truly educated until he had more than one language. Of course, they were thinking of Latin and Greek, but surely the logical choice CLASSIFIED for British Columbians is French. You may sneer at my arguments as_ idealistic liberal drivel, but I would rather base my opinion on hope and reason than ‘on fear and distortion. There is no conspiracy, Ms. Leitch. No one is out to get you. Being a_ right-wing crusader seems to be “in” this year, just as being a left- wing crusader was in ten years ago. I suggest that such crusades have but one final result: to make the par- ticipants look foolish. The polemicist is the bane of the democratic society. He needs a good dose of scorn and common sense every once in a while to bring him down. David W. Martin West Vancouver An assortment of quality used and out of print titles in: CANADIAN & EUROPEAN HISTORY Pacific Books 1135 Lonsdale North Vancouver 980-2121 fight goes on Dear Editor: I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who sent me money for the legal fees I have had because of this Dog By-Law ordeal. Now I find I am being further persecuted by something called a Small Animal Act and I am hoping that the hundreds of people that I have helped through the years will come to my aid again for this. 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