| | The lr Shore Hows i published by North Shove Free Press Lif, Pubisher Pater Sports, CHAREST’S PLATFORM quotes of the week “It’s a hell of a way to get to know your neighbors.” Charlie Cowic, after his neigh- bors helped him chase down and - catch a suspected burglar. {From a March 28 News story.) 000 “We're under no illusions that citizens would rather look to parks and recreation than olice and fire. People would ra‘ " have firemen than tulips.” _ West Var.couver’s director of and recreation Kevin Pike, on : parks . the realities of budget cuts and |} © budget priorities in West : Vancouver. (From & Afarch 26 News — Jerry Heddinger, in a March 8 “fetter to West Vancouver council, on taxation and municipal ineffi- ‘ciencizs. (From a March 26 News story.) 00a “He’s er than Ill ever be (he’s) just been put in the ‘ blender t and put on high far too times. Randy Brendeland, who has started a campaign to raise funds to assist a 34-year-old single father and his family purchase 2 new van, on the father. (From a March 19 News story.) Qo09 “We'd like to see more of that —— more people taking responsi- bility for their community, more peorise taking care of their neigh- © way it used to be.” Harvest founder David Foster, on community spirit. (From a March 19 News story.) go00 “I’m a passionate believer in democracy and accountability.” Lawyer Peter Jensen, on taking on the case to represent David Stockell and Help B.C. (From a larch 16 Iwews story.) O00 | “I'm afraid the jobs just won't te here with a smoking ban. I don’t smoke, but as far as r know it is legal.” Terry Crown of the Queens Cross pub, on the impact of ban- ning smoking in restaurants and pubs. (From a March 5 News story.) O00 “Second hand smoke kills peo- ple — non-smokers — short ad simple. There is no debate.” Brian O’Connor, North Shore Health’s Medical Health Officer, on second hand smoke. (From a March 5 News story.) 000 camer” process i is like milking a are is facet Lebed aed and spit Oe orth Vancouver T District Mayor Don Bell, on the unpopularity o} politicians voting themselves a pay raise. (From a March 26 News story.) news viewpoint once eee en aientemenee eae tee aaard Oldtime answer to gay-bashing In our schools © TODAY’S uproar over tolerance for homosexuals — and whether to teach it in school — reminds one of that lady character in the Victorian novel, Asked about some unspeakable Victorian sin (f forget exactly which one), she calmly declared: “I don’t care what they do, so long as they don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses.” : That has always seemed to your scribe exactly the kind of social oil needed to lubricate tolerance — the essential working tool of democracy. Keep out of my hair and I'll keep out of yours. ; Coming back to the current verbal braw! over “introducing Gay ol into the public school curriculum, one is reminced of another Pro! lem tol-s erance has to battle at such times: facts are thé first casualty. : As I read it, the controversial Resolution 102 passed at the recent BC. Teachers Federation conference sim ly had the laudable goal of stopping : students being beaten up because o! their sexual orientation. Obvi that requires no added curricujun course. All it calls for is teaching o: znd ing young punks how to behave — with much tougher penalties r “the . slow learners among them. Le Another factual query: just how severe és the gay-baiting problem i in our.” schools? Does it vary significantly fom school to school? Is it, overall, rela- : tively mild — limited mostly to snide cracks with the odd physical assauit - being the exception, not the rule? Or is ir — as the gay lobby would have us believe — a raging battle of brutal daily vough-ups, physical and mental torment throughout the school system? And incidentally, just what is the percentage of By students? 25%2 10%? 1%? Does anyone out there know the truc picture? “ Aside from getting the facts straight, campaigns for tolerance face two other problems. One is the difference between sham tolerance (the most. frequent type) and true tolerance. The former says: Behave as you must; if. you know no better — provided you accept my way as the only right” way and try eventually to copy it. os True tolerance says: Let’s mutually respect and enjoy the pod } each other, and forget about the hopeless job of changing each other... ... The second problem is char true tolerance i is like a great wine. It needs long periods of time to mature. Consider — to take just a few random cases of discrimination finally - defeated — how many centuries it needed to stop burning witches at the stake; how many decades to give women the vote; to sccepz them in law, medicine, the church and other professions; to make divorce and « commoy law unions socially respectable; to decriminalize homosexuality itself. -- Instant tolerance, as the BCTF’s anti-discrimination zealots will quickly discover, is a contradiction in terms. But while waiting for.it‘to mature, there’s one helpful addition to the curriculum that they. can teach every day without fear of controversy. : It’s the simple lesson of the Victorian lady quoted above: At has the great advantage of easing many of life’s other problems as well. ay In those innocent days it was known merely as good manners. 000 A ONLY 1997 North Shore concert by the Vancouver Welsh: ‘Men's Choir under Robin Thomas takes place 8 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at-Rockridge School, West Van. Presented by St. Monica’s ican Church. Book tickets ($14, seniors/students $12) from the school or or Peter Buitenhnis 921-8296. 000 WRIGHT OR WRONG: Share joy and double it; share sorrow and halve es it. — The North Shore News believes serongly in freedom of speech and the’ . right of all sides in a debate to be heard. The columnists published in the ‘News ae present differing points of view, bus those views are not necessarily those of the Bee, newspaper itself. Sacred camels ST Vancouver’s taxing conun- drum is but one example of the testing times municipal book- keepers and politicians are finding them- selves in. North Vancouver District Mayor Don Bell offered a crude yet telling quote on the subject of tapping taxpayers’ wallets in recent debate within that municipality on the issue of a council pay increase: “The process is like milking a camel: you know you are going to get kicked and spit on.” West Vancouver's well-fed “camels” are traditionally considered supplied with an abundance of fresh milk. It’s the staff that makes thirsty politicians salivate with quenching anticipation. A Marktrend survey shows support for a 5% municipal tax increase — this from a municipality where residential taxpayers are saddled with the highest taxes by far when compared with other regional municipalities. The camel is conditioned to the milking, but with West Vancouver facing a $3-million budget shortfall, a tax hike in the order of 9.5% may be expected without cuts to services. Milk-addicted municipal staff and council should look closely at some of the ideas proposed by the West Vancouver Municipal Employees Association to trim the cost of municipal government. Hard _ decisions should be made. We-can do without the staff padding in areas like the municipality’s parks department.: We can’. find public washroom cleaning staff will- ing to work at less than $17.75 an hour. And please, council, don’t cop out and shift the the burden from raxes to user fees. You'll simply price certain civic amenities out of the reach of the less for- tunate. Coun. Russ Fraser has said “(there are) no sacred cows” in the search for sav- ings. He’s right. The “camels” are the sacred ones.