YGU ASK me to clarify
what is happening in Ver-
non, at its Jubilee Hospital.

By Brian Cwarbrick
Contribining Writer

Happy to oblige. The trustees
elected by the Hospital Society
have told the doctors they must
perform no abortions for any
reason whatsoever.

The doctors have objected,
arguing that a doctor knows
what’s best for his patient. In
fact, the two doctors who ran the
mdical staff resigned from their
jobs in protest. Which caused
somebody to take out very big ads
in the papers telling them that
they were not being ‘‘bioethical.”'

Well, most of the community
felt otherwise. A poll showed citi-
zens were 2-to-} in favor of the
doctors and against the no-abor-
tions decision of the trustees, And
that’s it.

Ah, that is not it, you say. You
wish to know how it all got
started. Well, that may take a
year or two. In the interim, while
you're deciding if you have the
time, let me offer you a fadle:

Once upon a time there was this
happy land, overflowing with a
miraculous bounty which had no
formal name, but which some of
the citizens called orderiy human
society.

it worked in many ways, but
always according to one simpte
tule: that each citizen's rights
stopped at the tip of each other
citizen’s nose. This was very pow-

Friday. August 23. 1997 - North Shore News - 7

IF. EVEN A GLIMPSE OF RIGHT

ON THE OTHER SIDE iS
ADMITTED, THE CAUSE FOR

DOUBTING ONE'S OWN
RIGHT 1S LAID.

erful stuff, but it was also very
fragile.

Humankind would no sooner
set up an orderly society than
some loony would come along and
kick it to pieces. No one could
every really figure out why. Pure
human orneriness, ! guess.

Anyway, this orderly human

YOU SAID [T!

THE NORTH SHORE NEWS
recently surveyed North Shore
residents about youth violence
and the Young Offenders Act.

We asked 496 people ‘“‘Have
you personally been affected
by youth violence on the North

Shore?”

Twenty-one of the respondents,
or 5.3% replied that they had.

Of the 496, 94.2%, or 371
answered that they had not been
affected by youth violence on the

North Shore.

The same group was asked
“Do you believe the Young
Offenders Act should have

provisions for

penalties?”

stricter

This time, 306 people, or a
whopping 77.7% responded

“Yes.”

To the same question, 21 people
(53%) answered that they did
not believe stricter penalties
were required and 67 (17%) did

not know.

society was kind of magic. It gave
everyone room to live their lives.
The people had all kinds of dif-
ferent faiths and beliefs to help
them do this, but most of them
thought that, whatever else they
believed, the nose rule was a good
one. So they lived by it.

But there was this one citizen
who had trouble living with it. He
(or it could have been she) found
that the rule was like tight
clothing. t was restrictive. It
bound him so tight he'd some-
times get very red in the face. It
was not an attractive sight.

Anyway, in spite of the fact
that everybody else seemed to
respect the tip of this citizen’s
nose (no matter how red it got) he
did not feel the same way about
everybody else’s nose. He wasn’t
happy unless he had somebody
right by the beak.

He lived his life according to

what he’d decided was the highest
moral code, and he felt everyone
else should do the same.

He was what we call a Right
Thinker. And he didn’t have to
look around much to see that he
was rubbing shoulders with a lot
of Wrong Thinkers. Wrong
Doers, too.

True, what they were doing had
no effect on his own life. They
might very well be minding their
own business and inviting him to
do the same. That wasn't the
point.

The point was that he didn't
approve of what they were doing.
His fingers itched to get at their
noses.

Nor was he alone. He found
there were a lot of other people
who couldn’t stand Wrong Doing,
either. They all wanted to get in
there and grab noses because they
were Right Thinkers which

MAILBOX

meant they all got very red in the
face (and sometimes the neck)
thinking how Not Right it was to
let Wrong Doers get away with it.

The trouble was, for every citi-
zen who was a Right Thinker
there were, as I said, two others
who were — well, not exactly
Wrong Thinkers, but who were
perfectly happy with the No
Touchee Nosee rule.

So the Right Thinkers worked
out a plan to get control. Then
they could grab noses and run
lives all they wanted. So that’s
what they did.

They began with abortion. (But
there were those among them who
saw the big picture; they had their
eye on homosexuals with AIDS,
people who favored mercy killing,
and a whole lot of other Wrong
Thinkers/Doers, too. Abortion
was just a Start.)

Anyway, suppose a woman
found she was pregnant. Suppose
she and her doctor came to the
conclusion that she shouldn't go
through with the pregnancy. Sup-
pose they decided on a medical
procedure to stop it.

Surely that wasn’t Right, said
the Right Thinkers to each other,
getting red in the face just think-
ing about it. The way they saw it,
there was no reason, no reason
under the sun — not social nor
physical nor domestic nor mental
nor psychological nor emotional
nor any of those other cheap
arguments —- why that woman
should not be forced to have that
baby.

She’d got herself into this
predicament, and she shouldn't be
allowed to get out of it. Didn't
matter if having the child was
life-threatening. (Pooh! How
often was having an unwanted
baby life-threatening?) Didn’r
matter if she’d been raped and
that’s how she got pregnant.
(Pooh again! Nice girls don’t get
raped.) Didn't matter if she was
only 13 years old and didn't know
her nose from her elbow about
being an adult, never mind being
a single mother. (Pooh...!)

Well, this little fable obviously
doesn’t give the whole picture.
But I can tell you this: in Yernon
at least, it’s a continuing story.

Lions Bay wants to assure safety

Dear Editor:

It was with interest that I read
your interview with Gordon
Prescott, Mayor of Lions Bay
(News, July 14).

He expressed the concerns of
many corridor dwellers along the
steep slopes of Howe Sound. The
removal of this area from the Soo
Timber Supply Area has not oc-
curred. But the Sea to Sky Local
Resource Use Plan (soon to be

ratified), created by a forestry
committee upon which I sit as a
representative of the Squamish-
Lillooet Regional Distzict, will
have a regulatory effect.

I successfully requested a
“retention”? status fir this area
due to the high slopes and scenic
views.

Watershed management is also
a concern for a growing com-
munity like Lions Bay and Mayor
Prescott is right to be vigilant

about varying and protecting his
water sources. The Ministry of
Environment has a watershed area
planning process which could
secure safe supplies. Proper atten-
tion to the drainage patterns in
the extreme topography along
Howe Sound will also contribute
to the safety of Highway 99.

Brian Giles
NDP candidate
West Vancouver-Garibaldi

New whale show is an improvement

Dear Editor:

The new killer whale show at
the Vancouver Aquarium is,
perhaps, now more exciting than
the previous one ever was.

Instead of the audience wat-
ching pre-scheduled, predictable
tricks exhibited by the whales and
their trainers, now we are allowed
to observe marine mammals’
spontaneous behaviors as they
happen naturally.

On a recent visit we felt privi-
leged to watch the whales interac-
ting with each other and their
trainers in a surprising show of
fascinating behavior. It was
enhanced by the enthusiastic
commentary of the knowledgeable
and articulate aquarium host.

Instead of the whales perform-
ing on command in_ feeding
schedules determined by the public
clock, now we are like scientists at

the exciting moment of discovery
catching unexpected insights into
whale life, in the animals’ own
time, according to their own
choice.

The whales’ interest in the new
philosophy seemed obvious, as
was their apparent delight at
new-found freedom and respect.

M. E. Baker
West Vancouver