To be clear, even though the Liberal loose manner approach to issues of serious needs in our society was not the tirade of focus in my article, in the Standard on April 5th, 2018. I can understand someone making the mistake, as it's difficult to separate perpetrators from issues. This may have been my own difficulty in the writing of the article. As far as tirades go, it was over the issues of substance abuse. But does anybody really believe a problem can be solved by just cleaning up the effects without eliminating at least one of the causes of it.

When ever a premise for a comment is being established, history is notorious for intertwining issues with the rationales of those who promoted them. This is probably profiling, but isn't this the way we all navigate life, and I mean this in the broadest sense of the word; don't want to touch another sensitivity of a 'I want what I want when I want it, damn the torpedoes full speed ahead liberal'. We all see repeated patterns and build a conclusion based on burden of evidence. It's not enough to look up some internet biased article, that comes up based on our search words, and feel we have done our due diligence. There are many self declared knowledgeable people out there.

As long as the evidence is collected in real life experience, like my own many years of drinking, of drug addiction, as a client in rehab, then counseling training, and eventually working in rehab facilities, plus over 30 years of counseling practice. Then I would, “only assume” that position would be well thought out, and it's effects on taxation and the impact on the problem in society, addiction wise, could possibly be better understood than most in denial. This is not to mention the accumulated and diagnostic knowledge of, associates and friends, throughout the years, in related fields of psychology, psychiatry and other crisis counseling facilities, who I am often in contact with.

So I guess it's not nonsense after all, and yes I do firmly believe it, but I have looked into it for at least 42 years through the lenses of both sides of the issue. For the record, my family on both sides, including my birth family, is riddled with alcoholics and other drug addicts, some struggling still, some in and some through recovery, so I came by it honestly.

I would “speculate” that if anyone was to take up the challenge and make the honest effort to really examine this issue in the sobering way those who have lived through the addictions, faced their denial, entered recovery and come out the other side have, they would come to understand it better. But many don't care enough to risk their lives in such a foolish manner just to help victims of this epidemic in our society.

In the recovery field the position is very much universal, it is abstinence (Oops! Stepped on those 'I want' toes again), anti drug, anti any possibly addicting substance, including alcohol, as they all can lead to a next step of something harder.

To the writer responding to my original article, I never said addiction was a given, just that these attitudes can increase the possibility of greater addictions. Beer was used as an example because I know it is viewed as a less likely scenario, yet I know people who drank beer for years and felt they were becoming addicted. But some; see the word some, just don't low ball the word, the percentages are higher than you may want to admit, some have moved to harder alcohol and become alcoholics, others have become alcoholics with just beer drinking.

So “perhaps”, my drink of choice is the informed cool clear full cup of water, or I'll give you this, maybe sometimes a decaf coffee or a tea, and hears something you should appreciate, now, it's sometimes Green.

Sincerely, as well,
Todd Green

I feel I have to push back against the “Just turn off the tap” blustery political tirade column in the Standard April 5, 2018 which was complete nonsense.

According to Todd Green (no relation), the government is “promoting the use of entry drugs”, and “legalizing recreational marijuana for children”, “are preparing to mop up the evidence”. He also believes pot is “one step closer to harder drugs”, and “will cost us in major tax increases”.

I can only assume he believes what he’s saying but he would be advised to do a few minutes of research into what the actual results are in places that have implemented similar laws & funding regarding cannabis.

Perhaps the most offensive of all: The assertion that beer is a gateway drink to harder alcohol. I speculate that Todd doesn’t drink alcohol on principle so he can’t fathom the enjoyment of a good drink but I also suspect he doesn’t understand alcohol as a drug that can lead to abuse & addiction.

Perhaps in his favorite echo chamber watering hole the libation of choice is a conservative fear cocktail which I would imagine has an effervescent start and a bitter finish but at least the glass is always half full.

Sincerely, Tim Green

Dear Editor

We would like to thank the community, for once again supporting our scrap metal fundraiser and bottle drive. We appreciate people saving up their scrap and bringing it to us.

Thanks to Port Perry Salvage for delivering and picking up the bins. Thanks to the youth, leaders, and parent volunteers that made it a successful day.

If you missed us and have scrap, please take it to Port Perry Salvage and ask them to put it on our account. All proceeds go to the up keep of the Scout Hall. Look for us again next year, on the first Saturday after Easter.

1st Port Perry Scout Group

Dear Editor

The Wallace, Samells, and Wescott families would like to thank the friends and family members who helped honour the life and legacy of George Samells, on Thursday, March 29th.

Our family wishes to convey our sincerest appreciation for your prayers and support during this time. We are blessed to have friends like you, and are thankful for all you’ve done.

Marilyn Wallace

A few weeks ago we celebrated Easter; it's interesting, this year Resurrection Sunday fell on April 1st, April Fools day. The irony of this did not pass me by, but rather struck a profound chord.

Here's why; those who don't have a personal revelation of Christ's purposes on the cross, struggle with the whole contrast of it all. It appears, to them, to be a fools errand that ended in the tragedy of a very compassionate man dying, with no more result than a footnote in history, commemorated by many who revel in the past. To get Sci-Fi-ish, it was timeless, in a moment of time-past, changing our futures. It was an act of insight and love that passes all knowledge.

You see, those who don't get this actually cannot see it, because the power of this revelation isn't residing in them. This is not their fault. It only comes from the entrance of Christ into the human heart. Once there, He imparts personal revelation of the meanings which reside in scripture, this is known as the illumination of God's word. It is not an intellectual capacity through digging things out; although there is still some limited benefit to doing this, but it is an appeal made to the heart of a human being by God's own Spirit due to reading scripture, and winds up occupying the thoughts as a result, but it resides deeper, where we pray from.

For those who don't believe 'God Is', it's no wonder they don't get proof. How many have heard, you have to be open to something before you can begin to see it. Like soil receiving a seed, a birth happens out of the interaction.

So, being open to something allows the life of the thing within a person. The next step is to work with that thing so it connects up with our deeper faculties, becoming an inner tangible experience, changing our ongoing thinking. It demonstrates itself by changed existence as an outflow to life around and is why a Christian's life is different, it's just mechanics, but operating on Spiritual fuel, God's word.

In Hebrews 11:6b it says, 'for whoever comes to God must [first of all] believe that He exists and that he rewards those who make an honest serious search for Him.' Paraphrase

So, “the 'proof' is in the pudding,” not just in the reading of the recipe, or the idea there is one.

Like most free thinkers, their ideas, concepts or beliefs are frequently berated by others. Because they are based on different ways of viewing things than the world is taught to think in, most often these people are treated as foolish, embarrassing or amounting to nothing. It's really a fear response to what is not known, but the burden of history shows, time and again, the alternate thinker is simply thinking alternately.

Further to this, when we are just dealing with life’s temporary conditions and the bigger picture is part of the here and now, alternate thinking is the only thing for it; we are now on the line of answers. It's dumbfounding when an answer shows up, like Jesus' sacrifice, while the problem isn't even known to exist.

I will risk appearing arrogant here and suggest, this is the way God responds to the needs of man. The way we view ourselves needs to be re-evaluated. We 'intelligent' people often choose to avoid confrontation with reality. Trying to dismiss a truth that doesn't line up with our assumption of life, we say things like, “That's ridiculous, or don't be foolish.”.

Some parts of life, intended for Spiritual experience, can only be understood by accepting them first, proof is interacted with internally, this can be real, tangible 'pudding', yet not provable to the one sitting beside you. Not based on 'outer' empirical evidence, God's ways are still true, even if they operate differently. The sad thing is, if a person chooses not to be open minded, they can never see how a thing would play out in their life.

So, to the reader who is struggling, thinking that Christians are out of the loop, just reflect on this, ideally, they have experienced the same world we all live in, with the same information, education, scientific 'progress', waning values and political flip flops. But think on this, because someone follows the Bible, it doesn't erase all that, if anything it changes the question. It illustrates the need in the heart personally. This can only happen when each person is willing to ask, “How can I find peace with my maker?” Jesus came as the answer to that question.

Scriptures says “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;” 1 Cor. 1:27a

Just a little before, it says “Even the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,” 1 Cor. 1:25a

Recently my son came across a site that had a series of pictures of signs. One stood out to him, very succinct, the sign had two statements. The first, Satan said, “Jesus is Dead!”, the second, Jesus said, “April Fools!” That brings it all to the point.

There is a saying that goes like this, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”

Jesus's sacrifice offers us eternal life, which is to be received while living now; there is still time. Just say, “Thank you Jesus for dying in place of my sinful life” where ever you are, and ask Him for His gift of eternal life. He will enter your spirit and give you His, you cannot lose!

Let's change April Fools and end up wiser than the wise.

In 1941, 'TGIF' first appeared in a dictionary of slang, defined as the abbreviation of 'Thank God, It's Friday'. Others who wanted to conscript it for there own use, tried to redefine it erroneously as meaning, 'Thank goodness it's Friday'. It came under further attack when used as the title of an irreverant musical during the late 1970's that never did so well at the box office. However, in our culture, this saying has still caught on in it's orginal form, and most use it today without thinking, as an expression of thankfulness to God. Most for relief from the hard work we all do during the week, looking forward to time together with family and friends, greater rest and looking toward the Sabbath rest.
As we are a culture that has sprung out of the Judeo/Christian heritage, all other forms of free worship owe there allegiance to the values fostered by it's structure. This is the value system that produced the rights to freedom of expression and worship, it was carried in the hearts of the people who championed it in our 'Charter of Rights and Freedoms', and it is foundationally Canadian and Christian. It is paramountly what the world looks to when they look to Canada.

Holding these values gives everyone the courage to voice who they are and what they believe, knowing it may not be agreed with but it cannot be stifled, and like other beliefs, that still goes for our freedom of expression over Christianity as well. The desire to express gratitude to God, even if we don't know who that is, is built in us, and we find ourselves in military fox-holes, after crises of various kinds, and in relief from the built-up stress of the week and it's obligations, naturally expressing gratefulness to God. This is a good thing, it's an unguarded, uncomplicated thing, and an act of our true selves.

This Friday we will be celebrating thankfulness to God as He came in the form of Jesus Christ and died for the freedom of each person, in order that they may be freed from the infection of sin. Not so much the actions of it, we can stop ourselves from acting wrong at times, but from the dominance of the nature that provides the impulse within. This is what we needed Christ to free us from.

Like our charter, God set things up so we can make the choice to accept the death of Christ on the cross as our substitute, while the judgement of God was unleashed upon the control of sin in our lives. This became a needful inoculation, due to the spreading dominance of sin over the will of human beings, the ultimate inoculation. But, just as the “Charter” is a document flowing from Christianity and the peoples culture it was founded upon, and it can protect us in regards to our individual civil rights, so is the act of God coming in the flesh to receive His own judgment on sin, in His own body, in our place. Both require a personal association to experience what flows through it.

Friday is a day of release from burdens. On Saturday, the Sabbath, the day of rest, Christ’s body rested in the tomb. But Sunday, God in the form of Christ, exploded from the grip of sin to put it's power over us to death. He himself was guiltless of the sin He carried for us, so it could not hold Him and He rose to new life, free from sin and death’s dominance. He now offers this life to us, if we will ask for Him to give it. A simple trade, our sin riddled life for His life impervious to the control of sin which leads to death. What liberty! What Fairness more than fairness! That's Grace! God completely understands our inablity to overcome sin by ourselves.

This gives us a free choice, to reject sin's infectious dominance, by asking Christ's Spirit to rule in our lives. God is the one who took the stand for us, the blows of sin's expression for us, He then offers this trade. The trade of the spirit we carry, with it's weakness, it's poor spiritual immune system, for His powerful Life-giving Spirit.

So, I'll say, this Friday, 'Thank GOD, it's Friday' and Sunday's coming. Happy Resurrection Weekend!

I am so happy to have deposited the last donation for this year's Heart and Stroke Campaign. We raised over $18,000.00 knocking on doors in this generous community, where there are so many ways to sponsor and support worthy causes. I'm sure the online contributions will be strong again this year, raising our total even higher.

Thank you to the eight Captains who made sure there was a canvasser on every street in their neighbourhood. Thank you to the sixty-three canvassers who knocked on your doors, and to the student who delivered brochures in an area with no canvassers.

I know there are many ways to support heart health in Scugog Township. Maybe I'll see a picture of you, in The Standard, on the Big Bike when it comes to town.

Thank you Epsom, Utica, Greenbank, Seagrave, Port Perry, Prince Albert, Blackstock, Caesarea, Nestleton, and Scugog Island for making this year's Heart and Stroke Campaign a success.

Judy Anderson
Zone Leader
Heart & Stroke Person to Person Campaign 2018

Age 16, is an age where many think they've had experience in life and come to know the way things work, but this is mostly based on a lack of real experience and therefore real knowledge, up to this point it's just information, not developed choice.

I am a personal counsellor of over 30 years, and have counseled youth and adults from all stripes of our culture.

To counsel this long, I believe there is enough 'pudding' to show 'proof' of credibility. So let me explain my previous comment.

Today, much of what one thinks, at or around this age; let's say two years earlier to four years older, has been informed or contrived by peers, or in media chat forums and various forms of information technology, which youth are drawn to today. Here, anonymity veils whether a person is really a peer or not.

The problem is, at this age, one barely has had time to distinguish between what is self determined and what is repetition of what they have been exposed to by others. Many have bought into interactive media as a kind of surrogate family or friendship circle. The illusion this is real relating, that when a person 'likes' or 'friends' someone these are genuine connections, is playing on the vulnerabilities of a socially underdeveloped psyche. Actual experience, in person is necessary in order to evaluate if a person is who they claim to be. This has always been frought with misrepresentation problems as well, but with time and careful assessment of what comes through someone this eventually reveals who a person is. The Bible puts it this way, “By their fruit you will recognize them.” Matt 7:16 NIV. This is part of the experience, or the process of coming to real knowledge around anything. This is why we do experiments in science classes or apprentice and internships, to come to some measure of actual knowledge through the experience. The rest is theory, and theory, any theory is NEVER knowledge it is only speculation and information, small parts of the recipe of knowing anything.

Our society is slowly being lulled to sleep, believing because they are informed that is enough. There are far fewer who have actual knowledge. and a kind of communication free from agenda is a huge error, leaving persons under the impression they have had an honest and open exchange. Many of these sites have personnel hired to moderate and gather information about peoples personal mentality, designed to target and influence their psychology in certain directions. Social-engineering is unethical but this approaches social-manipulation.

The idea that many young people subtly believe 'if it's on sites like facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, instagram, reddit, meetup, myspace, and many others' it must be safe and without an agenda is ridiculous. Many groups attempt to take advantage of the profiling opportunities afforded to them by these kind of social media networking sites.
Here's what I mean.

According to the search engine, DuckDuckGo, whose focus is to keep your privacy intact, Google has been reported to have trackers on 75% of websites, which gather info on you across over 2 million sites and apps, to develop ads targeting your thinking. They keep the info to be subpoenaed by lawyers in civil issues like divorce. Over 100,000 requests were granted last year alone.

Google and others can profile your thinking just from how you surf. How much the more can they gather from young people who give up their privacy by sharing online. Facebook claims whatever is posted on it's site as property of facebook. You lose you personal rights to your work once posted, it's part of the agreement to sign up. These sites are used without much discretion by young people and is how cyber-attacks are made simple. This shows extremely poor judgment. We want a publicly open society politically, but we do not want our vulnerabilities on display. Some teenagers have been dismantling our society through lack of knowledge, lack of any real world experience.
Albeit, there are exceptions to this.

That's why we deliberately write articles and celebrate the efforts of certain young people, calling attention to their responsible behaviour in hopes the majority will aspire in like manner, without a sense of entitlement. But many in the younger part of the 'Z' generation, approximately 14 to 18 years old, have no knowledge of adult life and as such are not prepared to fully engage it. So how are they to responsibly vote on future issues if they don't even know life now.

Nobody is saying they are not intelligent or won't get there, but it is ridiculous to expect them to vote knowledgeably when they aren't even accustom to self determined knowledge yet. Give them a few years to put real life into practice so they can handle finances, be involved in social programs and learn to relate to others over issues with little contention themselves, in the real moments of life. Then they may be equipped to vote clearly, without rushing into it with only the programming they've received from others.

The statements in March 4th’s letter to the editor signed by Mayor Rowett, in response to my letter about the public funds spent on three integrity commissioners, were largely extraneous to the issues I raised. While the efficiency savings made by staff are commendable and appropriate, they cannot be used to forgive wasted money.

Not all the facts surrounding the engagement of the integrity commissioners have been made known. For instance, the council code of conduct clearly required a supporting affidavit in support of a complaint, and there was none. The issue was not brought before council, nor has it been made known who authorized the integrity commissioners. The procurement bylaw imposes financial limits on unbudgeted items and requirements for council approval. An “appropriate process” was therefore not followed.

Previously in this newspaper, the mayor said “...you can never be too transparent...You have to give no reason for people to question the issues.”

At times it becomes necessary for people to question the issues through the free, independent and uncensored press, which is vital to our democracy.

I welcome further dialogue with the mayor in person. This would help achieve accountability and truth.

Sharon Dodgson-Smith

The 20th Annual Good Friday Ecumenical Walk will be held on March 30th. Everyone is invited to gather at the Gazebo in Palmer Park at 9:30am.

A Cross will be carried to seven locations throughout Port Perry where readings and prayer

will be offered and songs sung.

Many of the congregations of the Scugog and District Ministerial will be involved in this
devotional walk. We will conclude with a time of fellowship, coffee and hot cross buns at Port Perry United Church.

This walk is one way the Christian Churches will hold up and remember that our God is a God of Love and is an opportunity to hear again, the Christian message.

Please come and join us!