6 — Friday, April 24, 1998 - North Shore News north shore news VIEWPOINT Green way the face of the mounting evidence of environmental degradation around us. We clever monkeys have mastered. the sky, the cceans and most every speck of land between. On a species Jevel. we have won the struggle to exploit available resources. An out- come of this victory is a rapidly expanding population. ‘In. Canada, because of our wide open spaces, we tend not to feel the [: easy enough Friday anet Sunday by North Shore Free Press. Lid, and distributed to every doar on the North ‘Shore, Canada Post Canadian Pubbcatons Mait _ Sales Product Agreement tio. 0067238.” "Distribution Manager ° ; _ 588-1337 (124) : is not t enough. : these same neighbors fighting change in their area - 985-2131 (127) 61580 (ecg ches ee, Friday & Sunaay) WE interrupt the usual flow of _ weighty thought on parish-pump matters for some parish-pump thoughts on a weighty matter: Should Vancouver Grizzlies basketball star Blue Edwards cough up as ~ ‘much as $5,000 a month’ for child support payments. to the mother of their son ' Elijah, fathered (and moth- ~- ered) outside of marriage? A litde high, Supreme - Court Justice Linda Loo - ruled, reducing the figure to $3, 500. Edwards makes $3.2 million per year. Not too shabby, as they You fathers, you mothers, and most of “all you children growing or grown up in such an irregular-family situation — you know that it shapes your life. Pur aside matters of sin and infidelity. Last week CKNW’s Jon McComb and Philip Till debated the cours’s reduced set- tlement on their very listenable afternoon show, with McComb defending the mom, Kimberley Van De. Ferre: And then — here’s the wonderful immediacy of radio — Edwards himself ‘phoned in to challenge McComb’s opin- ton, And then Van De Perre phoned in. Compelling? Hell, Plato would have stopped philosophizing *o listen. Forget any stereotypes about big dumb (and let us not.forget overpaid) athletes, Edwards was intelligent, thoughtful and civil. The core of his position was that the support payments should be based on his son’s needs — not his (Edwards’) income. PETER SPECK” Publisher -- 985-2131 (101) 985-2131 (17) Torry ” Photography Manager 985-2131 (160) . Comptroller 985-2131 (133) Entire contents © 1997 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All tights reserved. “Van De Perre, a good- looking woman, said that far trom living comfortably an $5,000 a month — she’d been earning $1,200 as a hotel receptionist when they met — she was struggling to make ends meet, especially because . of her legal costs. .. Yeah, exactly. The guys in .-seven-piece suits don’t suffer from others’ suffer- ing. Folks, I am old and mel- Jow and as philosophic as Plato, gently able to see both sides in such mat- ters. But permit this memoir. Almost 40 years ago I went around a roughly similar mulberry bush, although with benefit of clergy instead of, as in the Edwards case, an“ extra-marital dalliance Today the fady and I get ‘along jokingly fine, between bouts of cold war, as only people can who knew cach other when — - when, in this case, she was 14’and I was 16 when we met. Every one of us has only ene youth to: - lose. And she and I lost ours together. We” share a language only two people can speak. The break-up was long ago, and long miles lie berween us. But when I heard Blue Edwards talk, I was astounded: All the bitterness of those distant days flowed back. ; You hear plenty abour deadbeat dads. Some truly are scoundrels. Put the arm on * them. But you hear almost nothing of the mother who makes the father’s access to the children difficult, or impossible, or so upsetting that dad knows the children are picking up the signal that his visits are ~ Not tO excuse * somehow undesira le. So he gives up, and. resentfully — though wrongly — drags his feet payin for children that he Never secs. a didn’ t. Some da.) Are those moms punished? Ha.. Recently an Ontario judge sent to ail an, mom who had defied doz Fc orders to let'dad see th That was the first time any. had been jailed: I didn’t see a single‘edito rial comment-about that. Yet thee multi-thousands of such moms. . This playing ficld is torally tilted, v dads ironically caught berween Victorian stereotypes of male honor (and ‘disho1 and the powerful feminism of recen women’s victimization, an that we women are faultless and my plistic way. Ask the second | ‘whom they know to be caring and respon sible and who were thwarted from their children by vindictive first wive often weak, self pi -pitying women ‘who let up on laying on the guilt. », lis the case of my own first. marriage, y youthful vanity, egotism and immaturity, | assess myself as 96% to blame for that breakup. But the other day I found my sym thies were hugely with Blue Fd yards Other sympathies: Recently: this pape ran a story on West. Vancouverite Judy. Stone’s Animal Advocates that | readers; might have found quite critical. For the record: I strongly support. Animal Advocates, Judy Stone, and the.’ work they-do. ins MAOREE or LETTERS [0 THE EDITOR Letters must include your name. full address & telephone number. VIA e-mail: trenshaw @ direci.ca Tenothy Renshaw Managing Editor 985-2131 (116) internet: httpy/fwne.nsnews.. com Michael Becker ~ News Editor: . : 985-2130 (M4) 7 Andiew McCredia - Sports/Community Editor: 985-2131 (147) t 1139 Lonsdale Avenue North Vancouver, 6.0.,.V7M 24: