6 - Friday, October 10, 1986 - North Shore News THE VUICE GF NORTH AND WEST VANCOUVER north shore ew: FeHIDAY Publisher: Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Advertising Director Poter Speck Noel Wright Barrell Fisher Linda Slewart Display Advertising 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 North Shore News, © ee tite ley t News Viewpoint oh BP Gt the Goat oF Boh ger yp Mabng rates, Sed eateetidt he aie, Matiatee ope + WEDNESDAY: 1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 $7,656 Giverage, Wednesday cean:| Fighting fire C ANADA has the worst record in the western Friday % Sundays man . . world for fire-related deaths. te ene’ led a a 4 Forty-nine per cent of all fires in Canada occur in the home, and of these residential fires,90 per cent claim lives. The statistics are grim, but with awareness everyone can work towards decreasing the dangers of residential fire. During Fire Prevention Week individuals and fami- lies were urged to practice a home fire drill. Local departments and McDonald’s Restaurants, from coast to coast, provided fire safety plans and a worksheet for the Plan to Get Out Alive Campaign. Locally, all three fire departments deserve recogni- tion for the preventative work they do on the North Shore. Representatives visit local schools on a regular basis to teach young children about fire safety. They’ve also worked hard to get the fire safety message to the children’s parents, and other adults in the community. SUNDAY Entre contents: 198E North Shore Free Press Lid All nghts reserved | WOULDNT MIND THEM SO MUCH IF THEY ACTUALLY If you did not take advantage of the national fire drill, held Thursday — the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire — there’s no time like the present. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 claimed more than 500 lives, left more than 100,000 homeless and caused property losses of more than $200 million. It's unlikely that a fire of that magnitude could happen today, thanks to improved technology of fire fighting techniques, but one life taken by fire is still too many. NUCLEAR-FREE ZONE CONCEPT NAIVE Vancouver to be nuked if World War ill breaks Dear Editor: In a recent Vancouver newspaper article, the North Shore's Frank Kennedy, president of End the A.rms Race, was quoted as saying, ‘‘The presence of warships in Vancouver means there is a threat to our health and lives because we then become a target in a possible nuclear exchange.’’? Mr. Kennedy was of course refer- ring to recent visits by American warships. Kennedy’s comment is far from being politically astute. In fact when you are given Kennedy’s position as president of End the Arms Race, his sincerity or his honesty must be closely scrutinized. The simple truth of Vancouver area residents’ real peril of nuclear war has got nothing to do with U.S. warships visiting the warm water port of Vancouver, and that fact should be known by the president of End the Arms Race. The factual, strategic, military reality is that Van- couver and the entire Lower Mainland is doomed if there is a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia — whether U.S. warships visit us or not. Vancouver, because of its military importance, is now and has been for years targeted by three to five, five to ten megaton Russian nuclear missiles. Why us and why now and at all times? In the event of war between the U.S. and Russia all U.S. port citics will be destroyed in a nuclear ex- change. What kind c. fool would believe that Russia will not destroy the only western Canadian warm water port capable of resupplying the American west coast with badly needed off shore supplies such as oil. Vancouver must be obliterated by Russia in the event of U.S./Russian nuclear war. Any such omis- sion would be military madness. Question — Has Russia ever made treaties with Canada to honor our civic unilateral declarations of being a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone? Of course they haven't and they never will unless we break all our present treaties and aid agreements with our American allies and enter into similar agreements with the Rus- sians. Now we have a hint of where Mr, Kennedy and his ik would have us head, straight to closing our ports to our historical allies so as to isolate them, and not in any way for our alleged health and safety. For argument’s sake Iet’s assume we did break all treaties with the Americans and signed equivalent ones with the Russians. In the event of nuclear war U.S. warships and commerce ships would still need a warm water open port to resupply themselves. So what would they do? Of course, they would invade and take control of our port city of Vancouver necessitating the nuclear destruction of the entire area by Russian weapons. Frank Kennedy is no fool. He knows that our worst fears can be preyed upon. Whit he obviously doesn’t realize is that some of us are fully aware of his goals to provide Moscow with international political points. Can you imagine the great ballyhoo it would generate if we refused American ships access to our harbor? Being socially responsible is being aware of those who are attempting to use and manipulate us. Knowledge provides us with the ability to know our enemy and how to deal with him. We, the residents of the entire Lower Maintand (in- cluding Mr. Kennedy and his family) will die unless both the Russians and our American allics agree to destroy their planct-killing weapons and agree to let the other live. Unilateral declarations of Weapons Free Zone is, presently, akin to declaring ourselves a Common Cold Free Zone; both are, given the factual reality, absur- dities. When we start asking ourselves the right questions and when we start demanding truthful answers, then and only then is there @ chance for our future sur- vival, Right now silly little signs all over the province declaring ourselves a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone should be subtitled Fools’ Paradise. Believing the banning of American warships from our waters is proof positive that we should be taken for the fools we are being played for. What are you, and where do you live? Your future and the future of your family will depend on whether we take control of the situation or whether we allow those who have cther political goals and realities to continue to manipulate us. Good Luck. L. Greg Richmond North Vancouver DEMONSTRATORS NOT ALWAYS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED. _ A brick hurled at a modcrately fast moving car impacts with sufficient force to shatter the windscreen and splatter the contents of the driver's skull across the interior hood lining. Passengers are generally too shocked or injured to react before the driverless car is wrecked. Having seen the gruesome results of such attacks and having had the experience of fighting off an attack on a lonely highway at 2 a.m. with my family asleep in the car, | become upset when international news reports tell of harsh police methods being used against the stonethrowing gangs of South Africa. Such people are certainly not political demonstrators. They are fully aware of the lethal nature of the attacks they mount on innocent passers-by. Looting is always a primary objective and attacks take no cognizance of the race or color of victims. Nor is the method of robbery and murder new, it has long been used as an insidious form of surprise attack on innocents with a total disregard for life and limb. The motorist is taken by complete surprise. There is no way of avoiding the deadly missiles as attackers run into the road and faunch them at point-blank range. To stop or surrender ts to invite the murder of everyone in the car. Provided he or she remains conscious, the driver is obliged to somehow control the still moving car and attempt to avoid the flying rocks, at any minute the fateful missile could arrive. There is no escaping a gang of stonethrowers, only the driver who stops suddenly and comes out shooting can hope to survive. Robbery alone rarely involves the incineration of the car and everyone in it. This action has become the hallmark of criminals who claim politi- cal motivation. In Maputo, capital city of Mozambique, | saw dozens of burned out car wrecks marking the sites where impromptu gangs of stone throwers had positioned themselves at roadsides at the time of independence. A local man told me that he had been present at the stonings and murders of travellers and in answering the questions [ put to him, he said that the cars had been stoned and burned because they'd refused to stop volun- tarily so the passengers could be easily robbed and murdered. 1 urge News readers to take careful note of international news reports. Tear gas, birdshot, and rubber bullets are accepted by police forces throughout the worid as riot control aids, they kill by accident and not by design. Time enough for concern if the excitable reporters are able to truthful- ly report the use of machine guns, aircraft, explosives, or poisoning techniques against unarmed citizens. Peter du Plessis North Vancouver