a Yineta fines (gone f SCENIC FRINGE NEWS VIEWPOINT leavens above HEN the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s Y McDonald’s? ir you thought the rain ‘forests and oceans were the final battle grounds be- tween business and environmentalists, think again. ' An outfit in. Roswell, Georgia — omi- nously named Space Marketing inc. — has the technology. and a client with deep enough pockets to launch a space billboard by the year 1996. The proposed. ad —,McDonald’s Golden Arches logo — will appear as big us a full moon in-ihe night sky over the targeted urban market. “ This technology is the result of a U.S. government directive to NASA to develop more. commercial ventures from their iaboratories, Justification for the space billboards is quickly falling into the you-can’t-stop- technology category. But this scheme needs stoppiny. The heavens are the last bastion of our limited universe unsullied by the money- grubbing hand of man. The night sky is a place one lecks to for peace and solace in a world that at times seems to fave forgotten the meaning of both. Already the glow emanating from our cities blots out much of the night-time star show. The addition of blinking logos reminding us to Eat at Joe’s when we look skyward would be a celestial abomination. If space is indeed the final frontier, let’ s, keep it billbbard-free. Collins fanning the fires of prej judice Dear Editor: | J was pleased to see your Mailbox article April 9, highlighting the controversy over Doug Collins’ articles. I've been simmering myself the past few weeks after reading a couple of his more controversial pieces. But please read the letters you published one more time. They are not the “message of those screaming, on the fringes’’ you suggest. Rather, they are thoughtful and saddened reflections on the dangers of bigotry in general. I’m not one to write letters to the editor. However, this time feel 1 have a civic responsibility to speak up. Doug Collins is dangerous, as the letters you published so elo- quently document. } don’t believe you are protec- ting free speech and open com- munication; I think you’re behav- ing irresponsibly by fanning the fires of prejudice at a time when our community must come together to promote tolerance. Collins has to go. I think there is no other moral position. I'd urge you not to hide behind an uncritical claim of free speech and blind allegiance to ‘‘open communication’’ (what an easy, empty phrase). Listen to your readership and then have the courage to do what’s right. : Allon Best West Vancouver fail to gras TAX REVOLTERS are not having it all their own way, despite their impressive protest rallies. A minority an- doubted!y are property-rich and income-poor. Never- theless, the fat cat is hard to shake. Sure, the 4,000 who turned out at the recent Plaza of Nations ral- ly made a stirring picture. But one forgets that when it was the'so- called poor protesting Bil Ben- nett’s austerity drive in 1983, Sol- idarity put 10 times that number on to the streets of Vancouver. Not that they changed the course of history much, any more than will the cries of agony from old age pensioners struggling to put Geritol on the table in $600,000 pads they bought way back for one-twelfth of that amount. Too many similar and costlier pads are indeed owned by folks with very cosy incomes to match, thank you. But the real point that’s been missed so far in this soak-the-rich fuss over homeowner grants and property surtaxes is a subtly cam- ouflaged attack on the very foun- dation of the free enterprise system which socialists themselves depend on for money. Now, the cat has been let out of the bag by Maureen Maloney, just appointed deputy attorney general in the NDP government. An aca- demic paper she wrote when dean of law at the University of Vic- toria calls for an annual wealth tax based on a person’s net worth. ' There are only three ways a government can grab your money: by taxing what you earn (income tax); by taxing what you spend (sales tax, GST); and by taxing what you own (wealth tax). All three are obnoxious, but with the . first two at least you only pay , once. . A wealth tax means you pay many times over. In the simplest case — home ownership — your annual property tax is levied on the cash component (down pay- ment and monthly mortgage in- stalments) on which you've al- ready paid income tax. And each year it’s also levied on the unpaid balance of your mortgage plus paper increases in your equity as decided by a government assess- ment authority. Ms. Maloney would apply the same piracy to your total net worth each year —~ including taxes on investment capital as well as on investment income, along with taxing the value of your car, fur- niture and persona! possessions. The incentive of rewarding enterprise, hard work and risk- taking with personal capital and Wright HITHER AND YON property is the catalyst that. creates the world’s highest living’. standards. Kill that incentive with punitive taxation of private prop- - : erty -- whether monetary or ma-. terial — and a society’s wealth- creating engine sputters and even- tually dies. That's the real warning from | those revolting fat cats and their’ cash-strapped neighbors which our NDP ostriches fail to hear. WRAP-UP: Renowned Scottish folk singer Ronnie Browne — making his first solo tour of North America — performs at 8 © p.m. Tuesday, May 4, at the Scots tisk Cultural Centre, 8886 Hudson © overtown — for tickets call 980-,°". 0950. ... Honored recently by the -.” B.C, Paraplegic Association was’ the Optimist Club of the North Shore — recipient of a special award for its contribution to the new Stanley Noble Stronge Hous- ing Cooperative. ... Congratula- tions and warm wishes for the golden years ahead to retiring West Van fire chief Colin Evans. ... And many happy returns of tomorrow, April 29, to West Van Kiwanian Dudley Samuda. ; WRIGHT OR WRONG: An en- treprencur is a person who works {6 hours a day to avoid working cight hours a day for someone else. oe ae Ths newspaper Contains, tecycied fibre Display Advertising 980-0511 Distribution 986-1337 {ecka Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Subscriptions 986-1337 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax 985-3227 Newsroom 985-2131 Administration 985-2131 Publisher . Managing Editor Associate Editor. . Sales & Marketing Director Linda Stewart Comptrotier . Doug Foot North Shore News, lounded in 1969 as an~ independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press (id. and distributed to every door on the North Shore Canada Post.Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing rates available on request, Submissions are welcome but we Cannoli accept responsibility for unsolicited rmatetial including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. . Peter Speck . Timothy Renshaw . Noel Wright THE VOICA Oo WomTT ns arti Wi Phato submitted WHEELCHAIR’ MEMBERS Jeannette Anderson and Vickie Lowe of ‘the Stanley Noble Stronge Housing Co-op presenta special award to North Shore Cptimists president Bob Taschereau (right), ac- companied by past president Mansur Lalani (left). SUNDAY eONEED AT SPRY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1993 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved.