4 - Friday, September 26, 1986 - North Shore News Bob Hunter © strictly personal ® MY IDEA of a great response to a column is the little pink message form left in my wire basket at the News of- fice, saying: ‘‘Anon commends you on your Sept. cle.”” Lova ya, anon! Perfect! Then there are the others: On BC Rail letterhead comes a brisk note from Barrie Wall, a fellow bon vivant whom I once travelled in Europe with, who signs himself Significant Poobah, The People’s Railway: “*A pox on you! The next time you write rotten lies about The People’s Railway I’! personally come out and castrate you with a blunt Swiss Army knife—or worse, I'll tell your missus about all those neat things you got up to in Germany. ‘We bloody well didn’t drop 11 ‘tank cars filled with liquified petroleum gas’ in West Van- couver. They were lumber and woodchip cars and there were on- ly 10. There were some LPG cars in the train, but they were empty and they stayed on track. “May The Bird of Varadise defecate in your corn flakes.”’ For God’s sake, don’: tell her! There, I printed yorr letter, didn’t 1? ; On a lighter note comes a heat-seeking missive from L. Greg Richmond who is unim- pressed by my efforts to put the Indian land claims question into fan other-than-redneck perspec- tive: By coincidence, it was the Sept. 5 item commended by anon, ;“{I must confess to being sad- dened that the News gives space to subjective has-been ‘Eco Freaks’ who are in no reasonable frame of mind to judge the validity of Indian Claims “Hunter claims we, the major- ity residents of B.C., do not have a ‘egal claim co B.C. because we didn’t win it in ‘an honest test of strength (meaning war).’ Equally absurd, Mr. Hunter, would be the question—did Nazi Germany own all of Europe be- fore the Invasion of Allied Troops on the beaches of Nor- mandy, or does Russia even now own ALL of East Germany, etc? When will Hunter and = our ‘native’ Indians come to unders- tand that all such drivel does is to cause some present white British Columbians to regret that their ancestors did not inflict a filthy, bloody war of genocide on In- dians in the first place. What a lovely climate for problem solv- ing Hunter generates—some would call it hate-mongering.”’ 5 arti- Come again? Me? From Bozena Spacek comes a complaint about a piece I did quite a while ago on how the quality of Sife in States has suffered under Reagan's guns-insiead-of-butter policies. I'm completely out to lunch about the number of people in America who have to go without lunch because ‘the ‘poverty’ definition is made up by people who are interested either politi- cally or professionally in making the picture as bad as possible. One analysis of welfare spending came up with the conclusion that out of every two dollars of welfare expenditures more than one dollar is spent on salaries, research grants, studies, etc. by the welfare bureaucracy and ‘ex- perts’ hired by it. Many of these cushiony jobs are endangered if the ‘war on poverty’ (which they are paid to wage) were won. ‘““As a consequence of the above, ‘poverty’ is defined so that an American ‘poor’ would count as ‘rich’ in most other countries. For instance, a farmer with a farm worth half a million dollars who can show a net tax- able income of only six thou- sand dollars is classified as ‘poor’ and receives welfare payments.”’ Some of this has a ring to it, indeed, I must admit. I quoted a quality-of-life survey that placed America in the 41st position as a good place to live. A more recent study, I notice, places the Yanks in 27th spot. In either case, though, they're not Number One by a jong shot. To listen to their rhetoric, you'd sure think they must be. Finally, a scribbled note from somebody named Shirley attach- ed to a slice of a column in which I stated that people whose children are all of the same sex “feel cheated"’ and that their ex- perience of parenthood is therefore ‘‘not fully realized.” Writes Shirley: “Bob, you blew many in- telligent remarks by the enclosed. You had me fooled, I’m sorry to say. Hoping my faith will be restored." Sometimes I can" believe the stupid remarks I make. That was one of the stupidest. I) try not to top it. Regrets, The Village Idiot. WV Council limits number of dogs A NEW dog bylaw limiting owners to two dogs was approved by West Vancouver District Council Monday. Anyone wishing to keep more than two dogs on his property must now obtain permission from all of his neighbors within a 100 metre radius. A “grandfather clause’’ permits those who already own more than two dogs to keep them. The new bylaw also extends the authority of the pound keeper to decide if a dog is incurably diseas- ed. This pertains to cases of dogs ex- hibiting vicious behavior. “Unfortunately we were unable to answer the concerns of many members of the community,"’ said Ald. Diana Hutchinson, who head- ed the committee that prepared the bylaw. ‘‘We must take this bylaw as a first step.” Many West Vancouverites would like to see the number of dogs per household limited to twa, outright, and kennels not permitted. “I hope council (members) will keep their minds open on this mat- ter.. and if further tightening ts needed, we should do it,"* Hutchin- son suggested. Ald. Mark Sager, who assisted Hutchinson, felt that all of those people who worked on the new bylaw should be acknowledged. “We did have an excellent com- mittee that worked very hard,’’ Hut- chinson agreed. the United § FIRE PREVENTION WEEK Plan to get out alive PLAN TO Get Out Alive is the name of the provincial and national firefighters’ campaign to increase public awareness on the danger of house fires. In Vancouver the message will be told in a 10- minute video, produced by the Greater Vancouver Fire Chiefs’ Association. Called the Great Escape, the video will be shown on the Knowledge Network, which is channel 18, Wed- nesday, Oct. 8 at 5:30 p.m. The video will also be available for purchase. Another special event during Fire Safety Week, Oct. 6-12, is the National Fire Drill. The drill takes place Oct. 9 at 7 pom. At this time homeowners are encouraged to practice their fire escape plan. For more information about Fire Safety Week call your local fire department. OCEAN PARK VILLAGE | THE FINEST IN RETIREMENT LIVING (Pictured outside the Clubhouse): ¢ G. Mooney © T. Foreman e W. Sellers eR. Foreman @ M. Askew e J. Mooney ® R. Sellers © Mr. & Mrs. W. Gills Join the other smart home buyers who have discovered the pleasures of sunny White Rock. ® no more lawns to cut ® unique design features @ beach, golf, tennis only minutes away ® convenient to everything WE HAVE IT ALL!! 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