6 - Friday, February 10, 1989 - North Shore News INSIGHTS No future for Pro Life in rejecting realities TERMINATING A PREGNANCY under certain cir- cumstances is not, in my book, the ultimate, unforgivable sin. But I can also sincerely respect the Pro Life view. I just wish they’d respect mine. i, too, abhor the idea of abor- tion on demand as a simple substitute for condoms. But doc- tors and nurses | talk to dismiss that idea as pure legend. They assure me that no woman ever seeks an abortion lightheartedly and that many pay heavily in men- tal distress. Doctors and nurses should know. They work in the trenches. They counsel about alternatives. But in today’s fractured society the alternatives may seem to promise only misery — economic, social or mental — for child and mother alike. It SHOULDN'T be that way, of course, but it {S, and Pro THE NATURE OF THINGS...interpreted by West Van Life’s screams of ‘‘murder’’ won't change the fact. We're talking not only about life but about its quali- ty. So even if made illegal tomor- tow, abortion wouldn't stop. And, as once happened, kitchen-table operations by unqualified quacks would result not only in “‘murdered”’ fetuses but in a quota of dead and maimed mothers as well. Ask any doctor or nurse who's dealt with a botched under- cover abortion. Unquestionably, the fetus has rights, although MPs and probably a majority of caring citizens are still trying to figure out the precise point at which those rights may “Photo submitted artist Patricia Grokae. Her latest works are currently on exhibit at Sinciair Centre. Increase recycling HE VITAL message of waste recycling must be delivered forcefully to industry if it is to develop beyond being 2 smali-scale residential effort to being a full-scale way of preserving our dwindling resources and reducing our garbage piles and their accompanying threats to our environment. The financial viability of newspaper recycling com- panies, including North Vancouver’s international Paper Industries, is currently threatened by an interna- tional glut of oid newspaper that has cut its market price in half. The surplus results from the overwhelming success of municipal newspaper recycling programs and the overwhelming failure of industry to use recycled resources. Mejor pulp and paper mills in B.C. do not, for ex- ample, use any waste paper in their milis, choosing in- stead to use exclusively the forest resources of B.C. Gbviously recycling philosophies and their overall importance te good urban health are beginning to penctrate the public consciousness. But there is little point in educating the public to recycle if the net result is that the products are not reused by industry. Governments must turn up the volume in delivering the recycling message beyond Canadian households by providing financial incentive to industry to use recycled material and to penalize industries that do not. Recycting is a vital key to cleaning up our environ- ment end extending our natural resources for future generations, bni it needs cooperation from all segments of the production-consumption cycie to realize its full value. take precedence over the mother’s. But one thing is certain. The issue divides voters so deep- ly that no government would ever dare ban ALL abortions as “‘murder.’’ Any new law will be a compromise and, as such, will never satisfy Pro Life fanatics. So they have to face the simple fact that they CANNOT win — any more than radical ‘‘no-questions- asked’ Pro Choicers will win. It’s a thousand pities, therefore, that so many worthy, dedicated people may have to be jailed for defying the courts — and thus the whole basis of civilized society — because they blind themselves uselessly to the realities. If it accepted the realities, Pro Life could serve its cause far better by concentrating on legal activity in the POLITICAL field. By press- ing with all its force for an abor- tion law that at least meets as many of its concerns as possible, as well as for educational, economic and social changes that could reduce the need for abor- tions. But compromise is unknown to fanatics — which is why the histo- ty of democracy is littered with their graveyards. eet POSTSCRIPTS: Expressionist art lovers shouldn’t miss the solo cx- hibit of new works by well known West Van painter Patricla Grohne, currently on display until Feb. 18 in the lower mall of the Sinclair Centre, 757 West Hastings over- town. Mostly acrylics, but with a number of watercolors as well, it features seascapes, landscapes and interiors interpreted in the artist's unique and colorful abstract style ... Still on the art beat, the newly ‘Ab Vegas TOs (Guat launched Alumni Society of Emily Carr College of Art, planning an exciting 1989 program, invites all former students, faculty and other North Shore residents associated with the college since it opened in 1925 as the Vancouver School of Applied & Decorative Arts to re- establish contact by calling Judith O'Keeffe at 687-2345 ... Kiwanians may grow older but it seems they never lose their touch when it comes to fundraising for worthy causes. Thus, the Kiwanis Club of Cspilano — the seniors’ branch of the West Van Kiwanis — whose past president Bod Fulton recently presented $1,200 to Larry Watkins of KF Kompufind/Kidfinder Foundation, a 24-hour emergency identification registry for lost children, wandering Alzheimer’s victims and other special needs cases ... And timing being everything, North Van’s Claudette Beck and Kea Pratt, both recently of West Van, have been careful to pick the right date for the job. They'll tie the knot at the Park Royal Hotel next Tuesday, St. Valentine’s Day. wae WRIGHT OR WRONG: Success means getting up again just one more time than you fall down. eubmitied FUNDS TO HELP FINDERS...Kiwanian Bob Fulton presents his Club’s cheque to ‘‘Kidfinder’' Larry Watkins. I =~ 4 DEP Publisher Managing Editor Associate Editor subutben Newspaper and qualibeo under Schedule welcome but we cannot acre fesponsipiity envelope Peter Speck Barrett Fisher Noel Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewari North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent m1 Paragraph WWI of the Eacise Tas Aci, 1s published eacn Wednesday. Fray and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid and distbuted to every door on tne North Shore Second Class Mar Registration Number 3859. 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