PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES SPEAKING FROM a nation where 100 citizens are killed by gunshot every day, author Dick J. Reavis of Dallas, Texas, perceives a monstrous sea of troubles ahead in Mexico, where one political candidate was shot and killed last weck, The American and Canadian press have done much doomsaying since the Colosio assassination, but Mr. Reavis takes the prize for pur- ple panic with a New York Times piece on March 26. “The shooting heralds the end of Mexico's modernizing, neoliberal epoch ... Carlos Salinas has carned a berth in history as Mexico's third radical modernizer, The first wo are giants in infamy.” Mr. Reavis identified the first wo giants of infamy as Conquistador Hernan Cortez and 1Oth-century dictator-president Porfirio Diaz. ‘This will surprise some students of Mexican history who thought that Benito Juarez, the most Hlustri- ous of all the presidents, qualified as a modernist. He was responsible lor the name La Reforma appearing in every Mexican history book and on the street signs of every city and town. Lazaro Cardenas, who seized the American oi! companies in the 1930s and left office’ us poor and honest as he entered if, would also qualify as a reformer to most of us and as one far from infamous, However, let us not quibble. As the author of a book titled Conversations with Monteztina, Ancient Shadows over Modern Life in Mexico, Mr. Reavis’ opinions deserve attention. He could be right, [1 is conceiv- able that the Mexicans, God help them, are in the carly stages of another revolution, even while the scars of the last tragic convulsion NV District council are unhealed. [tistorians bave long observed that revohiions do not occur when the people are most oppressed. They are born in rising expecta- tions when the standard of living and general social conditions are improving. That has been happen- ing in Mexico. Alas, it is hard to escape the itnpression that Mr. Reavis is an expert, from whom we all need to be protected, Experts know far too much to be trusted to make judg- mens. We non-experts might prefer to make out own assessments of the Mexican situation, taking Mr. Reavis’ words into consideration as well as the facts of history. An interesting historic fact is that since the end of the revalution, no Mexican president has been shot or shot al. In the United States the great president Franklin Delano Roosevelt was shot at; President John Kennedy, arguably the most popular up to his Gime, was shot and killed; and Ronald Reagan, arguably again the most popular up to his time, was shot and almost killed. The Attorney General of the United States, Bobby Kennedy, was shot and killed. Governor Wallace of Alabama was shot and perma- nently crippled. So was Martin lors pus for local drinking water forum SOME NORTH Vancouver District councillors believe the municipality should develop its ‘own position. on. Vancouver water quality and weigh into the ongoing public debate being organized by the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD). ' NORTH VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL ‘by Martin Millerchip And while councillors Ernie Crist and Janice Harris have not. yet: per- suaded the rest of council to make a . formal statement, there was almost total council. support last week for - the idea of a municipally-hosted public information meeting for dis- trict residents. “We. need our own North Vancouver forum because the GVRD staff seem somewhat biased towards the chloramine choice,” said Harris. “We can encourage our resi- dents to come forward with less of a bias against the GVRD. We could have a much more open forum.” Coun. Don Bell agreed that a dis- cussion with a North Vancouver perspective would be worthwhile. “There’s a perception that our water is fine and we, will be paying for users further down the line and that’s simply not true. There’s a question of filtration to be dealt with from both our watersheds, " said Bell. The/only dissenting opinion on the value of a district-hosted public meeting came from Mayor Murray Dykeman. “Creating an alternative forum could provide some confusion. | «question a parallel that may in some » way dilute the value of the regional program that is going on,” said Dykeman. “You are taking a lot for granted if you are suggesting that the GVRD will listen to the people. We should make a statement based on the input of the citizens of North Vancouver,” responded Crist. Crist and Harris later alleged that GVRD staff are deliberately foster- ing a public process designed to endorse chloramination. “When they permitted logging in the watershed they committed a crime. Now they are suggesting an even bigger one by suggesting a treatment that will cause cancer in humans,” Crist told the News. “The creeks they spilled chlo- tamine into two years ago are still completely dead. Everything was killed, not just the fish and they haven’t bounced back,” added Harris. Harris also charged that a GVRD newspaper insert distributed throughout the lower mainland at a cost of $40,000 was misleading and confusing, “They are making the choices so confusing that people will choose the cheapest solution,” she said. The GVRD will host its sixtn and final public meeting on the cost and planning of safe drinking water at the North Shore Winter Club on April 21 from 4 p.m. The district’s own forum is tenta- tively set for April 13 at district hall and will run, in conjunction with a newspaper questionnaire. “CINEMA 4 SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES ANGIE Nightly 7:00pm ROMEO !S BLEEDING Nightly 6:55pm Friday, April 1, 1994 - North Shore News - 9 SI Luther King. The list goes on and On, Why is it that on these occasions nobody asks whether the political fabric of the United States is unrav- elling? Nobody predicts the extinction of one or another political party. No one suggests a reversal of the nation’s course. The Americans grieve and then they go on with their lives just about as they did before. Let such a thing happen once in Mexico, a nation immensely older and more cohesive than the U.S.A, and we are told that people down there are far too excitable to with- stand such a shock to their nervous systems, That or other pompous pitch, The kidnapping of Mexican industrialists is trumpeted as dire proof of dire something, Those kidnappings are crimes, pure and simple, something with which all Americans have learned to co-exist rather handily. Apart from the hundred gunshot victims per day, mentioned earlier, we might consider that in New York City there are 2,000 murders it year, 10 or maybe 20 times the number killed in the Chiapas revolt. Compuarisons may be odious. Sometimes they are necessary. ess? If we made compurisons more often, there might not be that stri- Jent gringo criticism about the lack of human rights in Mexico. In the years which most living Americans well remember, there was a damnable lack af the most elementary of human rights among, black people in much of the United States. They were denied education, jobs and true equality before the law, They were treated as second- class citizens. No such discrimination was sanctioned in Mexico, and although its record of racial tolerance is not spotless — no country’s is — it was immensely better than that of America. Did the Mexicans publicly exco- tiate their northern neighbor and threaten trade sanctions? No. Mexicans minded their own business instead of other people’s. Far too often, we mind Mexicans’ business instead of our own. To paraphrase the old verse about our Indians in the last centu- ry: “There's good and bad in Mexican “There's good and bad in white, “But somehow they are always wrong “And we are always right.” come Celebrate Lord Stanley's SUNDAY APRIL 3,,1898 | EASTER. EG: HUNT | sere : Reservations mended 684. Se CINEMA 2 SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES ACE VENTURA PET DETECTIVE Nightly 6:55pm PHILADELPHIA Nightly 8:30pm = GWE BURINY: , AWARD WINNING ALL YOU CAN EAT: EASTER BRUNCH SPECIAL 3pm Aduits $16.95 e senlors mH 95 © Children $1.00 per yda 3 Every Scale “es Nght fet lard Sankey farous Ose Ba me : ty ENTERTAINMENT VALUE ___CINEMA3 " SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES THE SUMMERHOUSE Nightly 7:05 THE PIANO Nightly 8:35pm NO MATINEES