ee es . go we ’ 6 ~ Friday, August 22, 1986 — North Shore News ; . — News Viewpoint i Poisoned water HE TIDE of concern over Lower Mainland beaches is high once again. In what has become an annual call to arms, politicians, media and the public raily around various fecal coliform readings and bemoan the deteriorating condition of local beach waters. As a result, such North Shore beaches as Eagle Harbour and Paporama are closed with increasing summer regularity. But the main source of the outrage, sent ringing through media channels, is not the far-sighted fear of permanently poisoning city environments, but the short-sighted fear of offending prospective tourists. It is a ritual confined to summer and a scrutiny con- fined to beach waters. Beyond both is a problem that must be addressed rather than simply monitored and a scrutiny that must be hauled ashore. All those who point accusing fingers at rising col- iform counts should cast eyes around beach grounds and behold the discarded paper cups, the broken glass, the cigarette butts and the abandoned tubes of suntan salves that annually defile the sands and seaside en- vironments of Lower Mainland beaches. They should temporarily hold wagging tongues and listen for a moment to the musical din from ghetto blasters and high-pitched radios that bound the en- joyment of serenity from most focal beaches. Pollution does not rise and fall with publicity and does not stop on the shores of other people's concerns. N. SHORE ILLEGAL SUITES THE VOICT OF NOHTH AND WEST VANCOUVER . aad . ees 7 ‘north shore . ews SUNDAY . we DNS SDAY - PEIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 edie 57,656 Cree Getty te fatty “NF Seyi ey I 1 Display Advertising 980.0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 North Share Mews Publisher: Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Advertising Director Peter Speck Noel Weght Barrett Froper iinda Stewart Ente contents 1986 North Shore Fire Press Lid Alt eights reserved Writer’s statements Soviet Rambo intriguing Dear Editor: ‘smel] with racism’ Dear Editor: Being a single family homeowner in the District of North Vancouver, | would like to know who elected Mr. Jerome Irwin to respond to your News Viewpoint ‘‘on behalf of all the single family homeowners’’? | take offence to self-appointment. As much as the illegal suite situation requires a solution, his comment, published in your July [8 issue, stating that the North Shore may become “Canada’s version of Hong Kong'’, smells with rac- ism! . In the next line he talks of the Charter of Rights and Freedom, and about discrimination. What bigot- ry! It is as bad as the Nazi swastikas that were painted on the vandalized house at 1720 Hope Road in the OFr Lower Capilano neighborhood. It is my understanding that Mr. Irwin was forced to resign as president of the Lower Capilano Community Residents’ Association (LCCRA) over a controversial matter that some members of the present directorship of the LCCRA, in a cover up, did not inform the community. fs this the type of action that demonstrates “wisdom and vision’'? I, for one, (and hopefully those who agree), prefer to call it ‘stupid and self- serving.” Finally, | hope | do not have to ‘challenge the press’’ to have this response printed. Mineo Tanaka North Vancouver 1 have just learned of the release of the Soviet movie Solo Voyage, their version of Stallone’s Rambo. It sounds intriguing with such scenes as U.S. arms industrialists worry- ing about the effects of a possible disarmament deal with Moscow on their profits. I wonder now whether Gorbachov is considering taking to the screen in a sequel to Reagan's Bonzo Goes to Bitburg. The problem I foresee is whenever the media refers to Star Wars, how do we tell whether it’s in the skies or on the screen? Are there no bounds to the psychosis of arms escalation? ! wait and wonder what it is going to take for the general populous to rise up against the moral depravity of threatened global geno-suicide. One thing is for sure, our governments aren't going to do it — there's too much money in it. Maybe Solo Voyage will awaken people to the addiction of the capital- ization of fear: something has to. Dr. Ron Aspinall for the Green Party of British Columbia Vancouver who take pleasure in reading both Dear Editor: For a 19-year-old to write a [et- ter regarding events which took place more than a generation be- fore his time, a considerable amount of prudence must be exer- cised. However, in this case, I could not let the blatantly slanted opi- nion contained in F.W. Banks’ Ju- iy 25 letter regarding Japanese- Canadian Debt go unchallenged. By no means do | endeavor to belittle the price paid by in- numerable defenders of freedom during the Second World War, but to equate the guilt of a chauvinistic (as in ‘excessively patriotic’) regime with the benign intentions of a portion of the Canadian (and I stress ‘Canadian') public is utter- ty ludicrous. At. several points during the course of the letter, F.W. Banks inadvertently alludes to some sort of connection between sadistic Japanese prison guards and (generally) law-abiding, brown- skinned Canadian citizens. The two groups originate from the same group of islands, but the comparison pretty much ends there. Perhaps the illustrious Mr. Doug Collins could inform my humble self how many Canadians of Ger- man descent were detained ‘in the interests of North American secu- rity’ during the same period? Not one whole heck of a lot, if my knowledge of history serves ine correctly (and believe me, Doug, |! did my homework). Gosh, those German immigrants just looked too darned much like ‘Canadians’ to end up on the fi- nancial and racial chopping block! Besides, they constituted much less of a centralized, visible minority, now, didn’t they? So why not take their counter- parts’ land, homes, cars, and dreams and sell them for next to nothing? ‘Tit-for-tat’ cannot even remote- ly apply to the lousy hand received by the Japanese-Canadians, for the only things these unfortunate folks had in common with some overly militaristic people on the other side of an ocean were their deeply-en- trenched set of customs and a rather distinct skin tone. I do not claim to speak on anyone’s behalf—God knows, | have been spared the horrors of a war, and I may therefore be deem- ed naive as a newborn—but I have no trouble when it comes to sniff- ing out a witch hunt. Maybe F.W. Banks could let us in on the number of Japanese- Canadians who were indicted, much fess convicted, on espionage charges (hey, I earned my brownie points for research here, too!) Finally, to allow for a counter- point to the library of Banks- Collins, | suggest that those of us sides of the story should pick up a copy of Joy Kogawa’s Obasan, available at leading unbiased bookstores near you. My purpose for writing this let- ter is not to take a stand on the issue of compensation, for how can one place a price on such hu- miliation? { simply find it infuriating that after 40 years there remain members amongst our community who refuse to acquit the Japa- nese-Canadians for a crime they did not commit. M.D. Laycock North Vancouver