The Chilliwack Progress from Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada • Page 4

4 THE CHILLIWACK PROGRESS WEEKENDER, Friday, October 20, 1995 THE PROGRESS Published at Chllliwack by The Chilliwack Prog real Ltd. for Canwest Publisher Limited. aHoweRToXicwasre sire Tale of the beaver ijijjj j- 1 Tfcim I JL4 Mark Falkenberg Reporter's Notebook The devil is out there. Not the devil of superstition but the real devil the one that murders and maims innocent people. The one that snuffs out young lives with baseball bats and knives and guns.

As this paper goes to press, the twisted psychopath or psychopaths who battered Tanya Smith to death and left her friend Misty Cockerill for dead is still out there somewhere. Who can read about this, or about their killer's weird, movie-style taunting phone calls to police, and deny that the devil exists? The devil is out there; he's in Tanya's killer and in the psychopaths who raped and murdered Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy and Melanie Carpenter and countless other innocent victims. In the case of Mahaffy and French, it's been pointed out that while millions of words have been written about the trial of their killers, no one has even scratched the surface of the minds of their killers. No one has ever been able to understand how Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka could drift so far from the normal human race that they could commit their appalling crimes. The devil works that way; he doesn't leave a trail.

Just unanswerable questions. J. Edgar Hoover said there are a whole lot of things running around in the dark besides Santa Claus. This was a just a cute way of saying that evil exists; that while often hidden, it is a fact of existence. Trying to understand why this is so, why innocent people are brutally murdered, is futile.

You can try to blame television or movies or single-parent families or whatever but it won't wash. Perhaps someday some scientist will discover something, some rational explanation of how people become monsters. But the devil will still be out there, and young people's blood will still be tragically, senselessly shed. For now, we can only lock our doors and pretend to believe that it could never happen to us that the devil is someone else's problem. BIG CREEK As part of our great national mania to make everything in Canada either compulsory or forbidden, British Columbia has passed a lot of regulations about beavers.

It provides jobs for bureaucrats but problems for the people. What else is new? The immediate problem here is for a small rancher named Randy Saugstad. he, his wife Dee and their two little kids run a ranch on the old Willan Meadow Place. The cows don't bring in enough to Paul St. Pierre Wry and Ginger keep the family going.

Although you may not have detected this in supermarket prices in the city, beef prices have dropped by almost 33 per cent in the last couple of years. Randy adds to his income with big game guiding and, soon, with logging. They have no telephone at the ranch nor hydro power. Big Creek has no post office, no garage, no store and no school. The only thing that shines by night here are the stars, the moon and the Aurora Borealis.

The Saugstads cannot see a neighbor's house lights by night. Odd as it may seem to city people, they would be distressed if they could. They can't even see their front or back gates from their house. They are here pursuing the glorious illusion of independence where, by the sweat of their brows, they shall earn their bread and be beholden to no man. Illusions are fine.

They cause a great warm glow in the chest region. However, the Saugstads keep bumping their nose on the reality of the modern faceless, nameless, tyrannic superstate. Beavers are an example. Two roads lead to this ranch and one of them has been practically closed by beavers. That old government road snakes around some ponds near the Big Flat, See St.

Pierre 5 EHH3I CNA DIVISION Andrew Franklin Advertising Manager Kellee Taylor Circulauuo Manager Phooe 792-1931 Paul Bryson-Bucci Editor I SLA -S vs. ing is: Could the general attitude of this Chilliwack School Board still be suffering from its connection to Ray Williams? (ex superintendent of schools). Could it be there is still some 'clean up' work to be done in this School Board trustee group? (Come next election or sooner?) Can anyone forget that Ray Williams was very connected with some of these trustees still in office today? And even with the removal of Williams, does that mean that some of his roots or influence couldn't still exist at this time in the Chilliwack School District? Good honest leadership starts at the top and affects everyone positively with its good results all the way down from the top to the bottom. And what happens when the opposite leadership is the case? With false credentials, a lack of honesty, and no sound reasoning as to the terrible impact this would have on Chilliwack schools, is it all that surprising that there would still be some bad after effects? This type of leadership was the norm under the former superintendent and that wasn't all that long ago. And we taxpayers certainly got stuck holding the bag on that one.

Unfortunately, bad leadership affects everyone all the way down in one way or the other, right from teachers to principals and last down the line, the kids, who suffer the end result. How can the trust that was broken to taxpayers, be built up again from this school board? It's certainly not going to happen while bad decisions are made, such as the one to hire Williams (and others who much resemble him), who still remain in their positions in this school district today. Will taxpayers ever forget what 'they' dished out for Ray Williams? High pay and high expenses, and while doing this, it was based on his false credentials? And now the only return for taxpayers from this bad investment, is a similar 'questionable attitude' still being displayed from the Chilliwack School Board, towards parents who show an interest in their childrens' welfare and education. The time has come for this School Board to upgrade their education in the basics of human understanding and logic and try something new for a change, something they make the kids do: yes, why not 'try' cooperation? Especially with the parents, who, as "taxpayers," are paying the good 'wages' of this Chilliwack School District! And as taxpayers, in control of this school board, why let this antiquated district go on the way it is? It is in urgent need of upgrading to modern day standards as held by See Letters 5 The Progress encourages letters from its readers. Letters submitted will be edited for legality, length, spelling, and punctuation where necessary.

Letter writers are urged to make their point in about one page typewritten double-spaced and comment within the bounds of good taste. Readers are warned that statements in letters to the editor are not necessarily verified by this newspaper and publication of a letter does not constitute endorsement of the view stated. The Progress will not publish any letter without the identification of its writer. A phone number for verification of authorship is required. Whatdoyou have to lose? Editor, The Progress: In response to the reader who posed excellent reasoning questions in the Oct.

10, 1995 paper. The readers thought provoking questions, brought more questions to mind: Exactly why is this Chilliwack School Board so different? Especially the way it is 'dragging its heels' where positive directives 'for' children, are proposed? Another question a large group of Chilliwack taxpayers are ask Council. The Chilliwack Progress Published 45860 Spadiu Avenue, Chilliwack. B.C.. Canada.

V2P 6H9, phone 792-1931, every Friday by The Chilliwack Prog rest Lid. for CanweM Published Limited. Second Class Mail Registration Number 1191. Member Canadian Circulations Audit Board, Canadian Community Newspaper Association, British Columbia and Yukon Julian Galbecka Publisher Established 1891 Community Newspapers Association, and B.C. Press Kevin Hemery Ciiculatjon Manager.