INSIGHTS - YOU'D FEELTHS. WAY 100 PAL. IF YOUD JUST EATEN 1,553,050 COCKIES, AND DRUNK 1,310,000 GLASSES OF Mux... PEE AIL N ONE EVENING! af NEWS VIEWPOINT A day for joy what you have rather than what you might have received. Because wher all the wrapping paper has been cleared away and all the new gifts -have been admired and thankfully receiv- ed, life will have changed little. You wiil sti be faced with the same hopes and fears; you will likely be no richer financially. - But if you have taken the time to hear the real message of Christmas, you might be richer in spirit. , For the message is that life is so much E IS a day to consider the value of more than what is attained in the acquisi- . tion of material things. Life resides in living and sharing; hap- piness resides in appreciating what you have rather than what someone else has. Appreciate, then, that you have life; appreciate that you have people who love you; appreciate that you five in one of the best parts of the world; appreciate that you are the key to your own success and happiness. Appreciate that this is Christmas Day on the North Shore and that you are here to enjoy it. LETTER OF THE DAY Liberals far from narrow-minded Dear Editor: Thank you for- Doug Collins’ thoughtful analysis, ‘‘A racist in the eye of the beholder.”’ Indeed Doug Collins is right: freedom of speech is very precious. One of the dangers of suppressing it under the rretext of fighting racists, is that racism will thus be allowed to flourish un- challenged. Let us remember that racism is devastating regardless of whom it is directed against. Too many people are part blind in this direction, others take advantage of the assumption that it is ac- Publisher . .Peter Speck Managing Editor Associate Editor Advertising Director ... Linda Stewart Comptroller .. .., Doug Foot North Shore Aews, founded in 1969 4s an independent suburban newspaper and quaiified Noel Wright Timothy Renshaw ceptable to victimize Canadians of European descent. We are a race, too, and justly proud of it. Everyone must have the same right to air his/her views! I would like to take exception to one portion of the News View- point article, however. It is the concluding sentence, ‘‘Narrow- mindedness is acceptable if you are a liberal’! Surely that should have read bigot, not liberal. A real smail “1? liberal is far from narrow- minded. The people you are describing are racist demagogues, Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Fax Tie VORSE OF ORTH AND WEST WANCONWER Distribution Subscriptions Administration and bigots, without a tradition in the concepts of democracy. - It is this aspect of Canada’s immigration policy that is so dan- gerous: we take in about 200,000 people a year who have no tradi- tion in the basic concepts of dem- ocratic freedoms. It seems we do not do a very good job in teaching -them once they are here. How long before a majority of Canadians have no idea what democracy means? Eva Lyman Vacek West Vancouver 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 MEMBER North Share Solution to the perfectly easy! GRINCHES WHO moan about Christmas starting too early have got it all wrong. The merchants who unleash Santa the day after Halloween are on the right track. What Christmas needs is MORE time, not less. There’s far too much for ordi- nary mortals and their stomachs to cope with once Dec. 1 arrives — the date most of them finally start to take Christmas seriously. Too many invitations. Too many people owed hospitality. Too many ‘‘must go's’? — craft sales, school concerts, office parties, ho-ho-ho club nights, you- name-it. Plus cards to choose, scribble and mail. Three-page, once-a- year letter to write. The tree to collect and trim. Lights to put up. Food to plan. The turkey to agonize over. And 24 hectic BUY-BUY-BUY days in miserable driving weather with “Lot Full’? parking signs. Yet the solution stares us in the face, begging to be adopted. Stretch the Christmas festival from Nov. ! to Feb. 28. Yes, | heard you! But before you call the men in white coats to go to Wright’s place and pick him up, bear with me for a moment. The problem with Christmas, we all agree, is too much to do, too little time. Meanwhile, everyone hates January and Feb- ruary — eight dismal, empty, bill-laden weeks without a single holiday break. So what’s REALLY. so crazy about using them to enjoy the whole celebration at a much more leisurely, civilized pace? It’s not as if we need worry over exact dates. In the past 2,000 years the calendar has been mess- sd around far too often for any- ane today to be certain about thera. Anyhow, for old times’ sake we could still start with the turkey on Dec, 25. But just the turkey. New Year’s looks after itself. Then, we might trim the tree and, like the Spaniards, hand out gifts on Jan. 6 (Epiphany or Twelfth Night). Again, just SOME gifts — maybe only the kids’. How much more sensible than racing to buy and wrap everyone’s all at once. Christmas cards, too, could be mailed in batches of at most three per week. Insulted end-of- February recipients would then cross one another off their lists, saving time and money in future years. If you like to keep the religious note in Christmas, virtually every HITHER AND YON day in January and February is a saint's day, ideal for further gift handouts, festive meals and party- ing. Three of my favorites are St. Nathalan (Jan. 8) who grew corn out of sand, St. Filian (Jan. 9) who cured lunatics by dunking them in a pool and St. Agnes Qian. 21), the patron saint of virginity and girl scouts. Burns (Santa Rabbie?) Night is a natural as a major Christmas feast — together, of course, with St. Valentine’s (gift day at long last for spouses and signicant others?). And the grand Christmas climax every four years, of course, would be Feb. 29, when girls who can wait no longer are allowed to choose themselves a boy. ‘ In fact, there’s simply no end to the benefits of a four-month Christmas. It would be a boon to stores, Canada Post, blood - pressure sufferers and everyone's - digestive tracts. The only excep- -. tion being Santa himself, who’d naturally have to be on duty throughout. But then who else gets an cight-month vacation anyhow? By George, I think I’m really on to something. Excuse me a se- cond while I see what that loud knocking on the door is all about! eee WRIGHT OR WRONG: May this day and week bring you warm happy memories — and add new ones to treasure for all your Christmases to come. -- ‘north shore ors under Schedule 111, Paragraph lit of the Excise Tax Act, ts published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing tales available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept NEWS photo Cindy Goodma: WINE STEWARD MARK (as in Mayor Mark’Sager) serves guests at West Van Rotary Club’s annual Christmas turkey luncheon for SUNDAY + WEONESOAY - FRIDAY u 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 SDA DIVISION responsibility for unsolicited material including manuseripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stainped, addressed envelope. 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1991 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Alt rights reserved. seniors in Hugo Ray Park pavilion, where. they were also serenaded by the Argyle choir.