6 ~ Wednesday, May 23, 1990 - North Shore News CAN SIM SUPPORT MEP... -ENENTVALLY. AFTER WE GET MARRIED, HELL STAY GN AS A UNTIL HE CAN GET a AIG SCHOOL. Socred scrap The provincial announced it will put out an ‘‘open and government recently HE BATTLE lines have been drawn over West Van- couver-Capilano, but it is a politi- cal scrap with a twist. Instead of Socred against New Demo- crat, the fight bas Socred against Socred. B.C. Environment Minister John Reynolds, who currently represents West Vancouver-Howe Sound, has said he will seek re-election in the new West Van- couver-Capilano riding. His challenger is another longtime Socred, Dianne Hartwick. It is a nomination scrap that is guaranteed to turn ugly. Hartwick and her mother Nan have already raised controversy within Socred ranks by criticizing the provincial gov- ernment for its handling of their bid to build a ski resort in the Powder Moun- tain/Callaghan Valley area near fair’’ cail for new proposals to develop the area, a move the Hartwicks call ‘‘immorai and illegal.’’ They argue their Powder Mountain Resorts legally won the right in 1985 to develop the area, and they have dragged Reynolds into the Powder Mountain mess by accusing him of hindering their development plans. The tensions between the two were surely raised by Dianne Hartwick’s May 6 full-page North Shore News ad, in which she enlists the support of well- known Reynolds basher Terry Jacks in her Socred nomination bid. When the dust settles after the May 28 West Vancouver-Capilano Socred nomination meeting, Reynolds will likely be the Socred’s choice, but both he and Hartwick will bear a few scars from Whistler. their battle to capture the riding. Doug is ‘an idiot’ READER EXERCISES RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH Dear Editor: In your May 9 issue, columnist Doug Collins expressed his con- cerns over the death of free speech and the possible creation of a ‘Ministry of Taste.’” Concerning the latter, the fact that Mr. Collins continues to have his ‘‘views’? published in your otherwise informative newspaper is certainly proof that no = such Publisher Managing Editor Timothy Rens Associate Editor Press Lia and distubuted to every door on tne Shore Second Class Mat Registration Number Subscnptions Norin ana West Vancouver, $25 per year Mashng rates avaiable on request Submissions ate cannot accept responsibiity tor wetcome Oul we Peter Speck Noel Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart North Shore News, tounced in 1969 as an indecencent suburban newspaper and qualitied under Schedule 111 Patagraph Wi of the Excise Taa Act. 1s published eacn Weonesday, Faday and Sunday by Norin Snore Free ministry exists. If it did exist, ’'m sure Mr. Collins would receive the death penaity. Concerning his seemingly endless battle to uphold the citi- zen’s right to free speech, I ap- plaud his efforts. I would now like to take this opportunity to exercise my right to free speech by saying Doug Collins is an idiot ... he is neither original nor unique ... just THE VONES OF MONTH AND WEST VANCOLWEH, haw SUNDAY © WEOQNESDAY - FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdate Avenue. North Vancouver, B.C V7M 2H4 59,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) Nortn 3885 unsoh¢tied maternal inciuding Manuscupts and orctures 2 whicn should be accompamed by a stantped. adar envelope essec SDA DIVISION Disolay Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Distribution Subscriptions Fax an idiot. The truly sad part of this situa- tion is that by continuing to desig- nate valuable newspaper space to his column rather than to some- thing of positive public interest (the environment, the arts, etc.), you frequently appear just as idiot- ic. Damn shame. Terry Lewis North Vancouver 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 MEMBER North Shore owned and managed Entire contents ©: 1990 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights seserved. parks? Try privatizing! A NEW word has entered into the lexicon: wilding. For those who have been in a bathyscape for the last few months, or on the dark side of the moon, wilding is what was done to a young woman jogger in New York’s Central Park. She was set upon by a pack of young men and repeatedly raped; not content with this heinous crime, the youthful thugs then beat her around the body and head with bricks, rocks and pipes, leaving her near death. The word may be new, but the activity described is, unfortu- nately, as old as the hills. But this case stands out like a sore thumb, even from a Jong line of similar events, if only for one thing: apart from ruthless brutality, the perpetrators were extremely young — some of the pack of a dozen or more were in their early teens. *“Why, oh why, has this hap- pened?"’ plaintively ask a whole host of do-gooding liberals. They cannot rely on their usual explana- tion — poverty, family breakdown — because these children came from stable, two parent homes in relatively prosperous cir- cumstances. Nor can they trot out that old standby, anti-black rac- ism; these young monsters hap- pened to be black, and their victim white. Society has only a few defenses against such barbaric behavior. First, there are internal moral con- straints. These are usually pro- mulgated by our religious and educational institutions. But many of the clergy have been far too busy flirting with Marxism and liberation theology to attend to their traditional duties. And the schools cannot even teach Johnny to read, let alone to behave himself. As a result, the word “‘evil,”’ the only accurate descrip- tion of the acts of these young “¢wilders,’’ has almost an archaic ring to it. Second, there are external restraints. If punishment is sure, swift and severe, this may yet muzzle those of us who cannot control ourselves. But to rely on this alternative is almost a joke. Our prisons are filled to the brim with the perpetrators of victimless crimes. We have made so many things illegal — marijuana, por- nography, prostitution, and white collar ‘‘crimes”’ such as insider trading, violating rent control and marketing board edicts, etc. — By WALTER BLOCK Guest Column that the police have not the time, nor our jails the space, to spare for the real criminals. There is a third option, but it, too, is not being pursued to the ex- tent it should be. Although privatization of public sector property has occurred at an agonizingly slow pace, it has not yet been applied to parks. The wilding took place in New York City’s Central Park. That facility is owned publicly. This means that the usual incentives of profit and loss were not allowed to come to the aid of the unfortunate young woman. Suppose that the ownership of Central Park was placed in the hands of the folks who bring us Disney World. Is it even within the realm of possibility that this wilding could have occurred while under such private ownership? Hardly. The Disney company would have unleashed such a veritable mass of Mickey Mouses, Donald Ducks, Bambi Deer and other denizens of its animal kingdom — to say nothing of armed guards — that no incident of this sort could have taken place. The management would know full well that any hint of rape, let alone a full-scale wilding, would serious- ly and negatively impact its bottom line. It is no accident that criminal activity is overrepresented on public property. When a crime takes place there, no one automatically loses any money, thereby. The mayor or the minister “responsible? may wax eloquent about the need to stem the tide of criminality, but since he suffers no personal financial loss, his incen- tives to do something about the problem are less intensive than they would otherwise be. Too bad, for the sake of this unhappy young jogger, that Cen- tra! Park and all other facilities of this sort are not privatized. Dr. Walter Block is Senior Economist of the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute, a free enterprise think tank. (obit “NEWS photo Stuart Davis MELANIE FLETT kisses great-grandmother Lily May Pettifer at Mrs. Pettifer’s 102nd birthday celebrated recently at Evergreen House in North Vancouver.