6 - Sunday, Augus North Shore News Bridge waits NYONE STUCK in traffic when the Second Narrows Bridge was closed due to fire Wednesday night had ample time to wonder why on earth they ever decided to live in this God-forsaken place, where a simple dash downtown will suddenly, through no fault of one’s own, becomes a three-hour marathon. it can happen at any time. A car accident on the Lions Gate at 8 a.m., a threatened suicide on the Second Narrows at 5:30 p.m., and vehi- cles are backed up for miles. It’s irritating enough for parents cooped up in a compact car with a load of hungry, bicker- ing kids, or for drivers without cellular phones who watch the minutes tick by and imagine the building anger of the business associates or friends they were on their way to meet. But as West Vancouver-Garibaldi indepen- dent MLA David Mitchell pointed out earlier this week, one of these times there may be far more tragic results. People in desperate need of medical attention may have to go without, and the consequences could be dire. To Mitchell’s credit, he has already brought the matter to the attention of the Ministry of Highways. He suggested that electronic bul- letin boards be erected on the roads ::pproach- ing the two bridges to advise drivers of delays and thereby provide them with enough time to turn back or re-think their route at either end of their journey. This would certainly ease the situation and would also alleviate somewhat the sense of helplessness frequently experienced by drivers on both sides of the inlet. it is also time for the government to come to some conclusion about the replacement fer the Lions Gate and get to work, , The interminable debate and the inter- minable waits may drive all of us crazy. “I¢ looks quite pristine on the surface, but I know that it’s not.” North Shore Healti’s Carol Finnie on poverty on the North Shore. (Froman Aug. 21 News story.) “The doctors told me if I hadn’t been wearing my heimet I would have been toast.”’ North Vancouver cyclist Brent Palmer on how he survived a bike ing it?” News colwnn.) Pubilsher............ Managing Editor. Associate Editor. Sales & Marketing Director Linda Stewart COMPTON OF .esscscecsses ssseeseees ... Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph 137 of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wadnesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Peter Speck .. Timothy Renshaw .aNoal Wright Newsroom Product Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing rales availabie on request. Submissions ara welcome but we cannot accept iesponsibility for unsoiicied material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. V7M 2H4 crash that has left him with no rec- olfection of what went wrong. (From an Aug. 24 News story) “Why do I have a pang that I’ve faltered as a parent by serv- News columnist Catherine Atyea on the anxicty-fraught world of Kraft Dinner. (From an Aug. 26 “Easked one of my peers if he Display Advartising Real Estate Advertising Classilied Advertising 1139 Lonsdale Avenue North Vancouver B.C. North Shore Managed thought there would be a signifi- cant drop in murders if there weren’t any guns on the street. He replied, ‘No, they would just use knives!’ It’s true that knives kill people, but have you ever heard of a drive-by knifing?” Argyle student Jeremy Jackson on the issue of gun control. (Fron an Aug. 26 News Youth Views piece.) 980-0511 Distribution 985-6982 Subscriptions 986-6222 Fax 985-2131 Administration 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 MEMBER cna SINS SEs. SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1994 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. ope VS. Pill battle to save planet SAD IS the thought that 21st century historians may lay major guilt for the imminent destruction of our planet Earth on one of modern his- tory’s best-loved figures. Yet that, alas, could be the lega- cy of Pope John Paul Il who is marshalling the vast power of the Vatican to wreck September's UN- sponsored International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo. Let’s first get the awesome numbers straight. Earth’s present population of 5.6 billion is regarded by many demog- raphers as being already twice the number that the planet’s current development and distribution of food and other resources can prop- erly sustain. The main reason, they say, lies in the excessive exploita- tion of resources by our industrial- ized 25% of the world. But it rapidly gets much worse. If globa) birth rates continue unchecked, today’s 5.6 billion pop- ulation threatens to grow to !0 bil- lion within about 20 years, or by as early as around 2015. The goal of next month’s ICPD is agreement by the participants — the great majority, of course, being developing nations — on how to stabilize the world population at 7.25 billion by 2050. The gap between this goal (near- 66 There’s no way an intelligence as keen as his is can fail to grasp what’s at stake. 99 ly 30% over today’s figure) and the terrifying reality if it fails to be achieved is obvious. The grim result for today’s twenty-some- things and their kids would be a world that had run out of room, resources and livable environment. Vital to the success of the con- ference is the education of Third World women in the use of contra- ceptives. now almost universally accepted in western countries, including among those who are nominally Catholic. And this, of course. is what His Holiness — having given up on the First World -— is determined to prevent in the Third World. Unhappily, he may accomplish just that. The success of confer- ences like the [CPD depend upon virtual consensus aniong afi ine governments attending, The weak Jink on this occasion consists of the Catholic-dominated Latin American nations. Itis those governments that the Vatican has been pressuring most heavily to reject any form of birth control except the notoriously inef- Karth HITHER AND YON " fective “rhythm method” — avoid- ing intercourse during the fertile period of a woman's monthly cycle. It needs only relatively few such governments to come on side with Rome in order to effectively kill any real progress by the confer- ence. Like many non-Catholics, I have much admiration for Pope John Paul Lf under most other headings. For two decades his tireless travels visiting humanity around the globe, his personal charisma and his fear- less proclamation of ancient truths have made him among the most widely known and respected of ail world leaders. Surveying the social ills that beset us today, how can one oppose his insistence on the ancient truth about the sanctity of the family and married love? And vet that same ideal now fuels his relentess.drive to torpedo UN efforts aimed at sav- ing an otherwise doomed planet through worldwide distribution of The Pill. There’s no way an intelligence as keen as his can fail to grasp what's at stake. So presumably what he’s telling us is that science alone can never save us anyhow, no matter how desperately we cling to it; that our only lasting hope is to listen again to God. With so little time left, that makes no sense to most of us. But nevertheless Pope John Paul still leaves us with a nagging question... see SCRATCHPAD: Applications are still being received for Lions Gate Christian Academy, North Van's new inter-denominational Christian school for kindergarten to Grade 3 opening next month — call 984- 8226 for info ... North Shore Light Opera is holding auditions for Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon at7 p.m. Aug. 30 and 31 in North Lonsdale United Church — phone 893-5775 for details ... One more week left to see the exhibition of paintings by Lucy Collings and Catherine Zatzkoy at West Van's Silk Purse Art Centre, 1570 Argyle ... Many happy returns of today. Aug. 28. to West Van Kiwanian Ted Schootman ... More of the same to former North Van. City Clerk Ron Gibbs ... And wish them yet again to former North Van Capilano MLA Angus Ree. WRIGHT OR WRONG: It's easy to be an angel when nobody ruffles your feathers.