March 12, 2008 Vol. 33 No. 32

Column -

Locker room is man’s sacred sanctuary

By John Barlow
Editor

When professional athletes retire they all speak about the things they are going to miss when they leave the game.
Inevitably, one of the main things they say they will miss is hanging out with the boys in the locker room.
It is a sanctuary, a boys club, a haven where the guys can talk about whatever they want — women, cars, sports and politics.
I am going to reveal a sacred confidence right now — you do not have to be a professional athlete to embrace the hallowed ground of the locker room.
Ask any beer leaguer what he enjoys most about still playing the game and he will not say exercise (heart attack time!), the competition or the money.
However, he will somehow navigate the family mini-van down the treacherous Mazeppa Road during a winter blizzard just to sit in the frigid Blackie Arena to have a cold beer with his buddies.
Sure, you could go to the pub, but it is not the same.
You just went to war together, battled and conquered a common foe and there is something about sharing a cold one with your sweaty, smelly mates after sweet victory or painful defeat that cannot be duplicated at the local watering hole.
I would argue the beer league locker room is even more sacrosanct than any professional digs.
True, a pro dressing room boasts leather furniture, wall-to-wall carpet, big screen televisions and hot tubs.
But they are huge.
In Blackie, for example, the dressing rooms are barren and small, but at least the beer cooler is within easy reach.
No big screen TV, but the showers are hot, which is way more important that any leather couch.
Now, the wives will argue that hanging out for beers after hockey is just an excuse to stay out all night.
Not so. Well, not entirely the case.
Some of the most pressing global issues are discussed in the beer league dressing room.
One of the first questions I get in the room after a game is, “What is in the paper this week?”
Recently, there have been some hot discussions on the provincial election, town council’s pay raises and pending development in Okotoks.
Every now and then a topic will solicit so much colloquy it will dominate conversation until the rink attendant kicks us out or the beer cooler is empty.
For instance, last week there was an indepth parley on the history of sports entertainment.
There was an exhaustive syllabus on grappling from the beginnings of Stampede Wrestling to the peak of the World Wrestling Entertainment.
Some of the questions posed heeded much debate.
Who was scarier King Kong Bundy, Big John Studd, George the Animal Steele or Kamala the Ugandan Giant?
Who was the best tag team ever? The Road Warriors, Demolition, The British Bull Dogs or the Hart Foundation?
Who had the best schtick? Honky Tonk Man, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake or Roddy Roddy Piper?
Who was the best manager? Bobby Heenan, Captain Lou Albano, or Jimmy Hart?
What was more devastating Hogan’s leg drop, Macho Man’s flying elbow, Greg Valentine’s figure-four or Iron Sheik’s camel clutch?
These were deep questions and everyone threw out abstract names like Rick Rude, Koko B. Ware, Superfly Snuka and Ricky Steamboat to further add to the quarrel.
As you can see some of the world’s most bedeviling puzzles are answered in the beer leaguer’s locker room.
We could have solved The DaVinci Code and a Rubik’s Cube in the second intermission.
The locker room is a sanctuary where free men can speak openly without fear of retribution. Like what is the best method to wipe after an emergency No. 2 in the bush? Leaf or sock?
If anything, we have come to the conclusion beer makes men more intelligent and therefore should be banned as it is a performance enhancing drug.
This week I am eagerly looking forward to our impugning disputation on the best hair metal bands of the 80s. It should be roaring fun.
I will be home right after the game, honey. Promise.

Editorial-

Rink more bang for recreation buck

Okotoks town council should pull the plug on its $1.7 million spray park in favour of a more cost-effective $800,000 outdoor skating rink.
Although it is not on the top of its priority list, Okotoks town council is proceeding with plans to build the water park in two phases adjacent to the skateboard park at the Okotoks Recreation Centre.
An outdoor spray park would be an excellent activity in a community with so many young families, but $1.7 million is too frivolous for something that will be used only two months of the year.
In comparison, the Scott Seaman Outdoor Rink in Black Diamond provides an outstanding template for Okotoks to follow.
According to Calgary Flames alumnus Jim Peplinski, who helped develop the outdoor rink in Black Diamond, the facility could be built for between $800,000 and $1 million.
In the past outdoor rinks have been a flop in Okotoks because Alberta’s beloved Chinooks have wreaked havoc on the ice.
However, the template used in Black Diamond is to use artificial ice just like an indoor arena. The Scott Seaman rink is hooked up to the ice plant in Oilfields Arena meaning the outdoor ice will sustain temperatures of 10C.
The location in Okotoks would be a no-brainer. An outdoor, artificial skating surface could be constructed on the site of the existing Kinsmen skating rink and hook up to the ice plant used for the Murray and Piper arenas.
Unlike a spray park the rink could be used year-round. It could be used as a skating rink for more than six months a year and in the summer the cement pad could be used for lacrosse, street hockey, tennis, four-square or whatever young minds can dream up.
Not to mention the outdoor rink would address a frightening problem with Okotoks minor hockey which is contemplating capping registration due to a shortage of ice. What youth would not relish a practice or even an exhibition game on the outdoor ice on a sunny Saturday afternoon? What adult rec team would not like an opportunity to relive their youth and play outdoors now and again. One more ice surface would be most welcome for minor hockey and adults alike.
A second option would be to scale down the spray park and do just the first phase allowing the town to do both by committing $800,000 to each project. If families want the full meal deal for the spray park they could form a not-for-profit association and raise the extra funds themselves like what has been done in Claresholm to complete their spray park. Regardless, this is an opportunity for town council to have its cake and eat it too.

Letters to the Editor -

Police need to address speeding problem in Okotoks

Dear Editor,
I would like to address the issue of speeding through our town. I moved to Okotoks three years ago and it was a lovely safe town where I know that my son could play outside in relative safety.
With the rapid growth of this town people seem to think it’s now okay to speed right through. I can understand up to 10 km/h over the speed limit is okay as I am also no saint in this matter, but my family and I and many others have to cross Highway 2A at 338th Street on a regular basis and the speed limit was reduced to 60 km/h further up the highway to make this junction safer. I know that lights are being installed, but it won’t stop people from speeding. Cars come down that road at up to 120 km/h right up to Extra Foods and people still do in excess of up to 90km/h through town.
I have had a few close encounters myself. I have had a school bus pass me at about 90 km/h in bad snow conditions in the 60 km/h zone going north out of town.
I know the police are out by 338th Street often, but they only seem to be looking at people leaving town and never at people coming in. They also never seem to be there during rush hour which is the most dangerous time.
I thought it was time to speak up when this week I was doing the posted speed limit through town and had a police car behind me when he decided to pull out and rush past me then cut in front and turn off to the police station causing me to have to break hard. If this is the actions of the police in town what hope is there of anybody else complying to the speed limits?
I am not complaining for the sake of it, but I think there have already been too many accidents involving cars and pedestrians. If the police can’t manage to patrol the traffic enough then it is time to introduce speed cameras at all intersections through the town. The only people who will complain are the ones who speed, and maybe we can make this town safe again so our children can walk and ride bikes without us worrying anymore.
Mike Darbyshire
Okotoks

I'm staying in bed ’til spring Daylight savings caught me offguard this year with the new early start. I like it after work, but getting up in the dark again is a pain. I know, I’II stay in bed ’til it’s light! The good news is that the first day of spring is just around the corner. March 20 is the day. Should be past the minus 30 stuff, but lots of snow is still possible. • • • • • I see the Town of Okotoks just got delivery of their new fire truck. Pretty impressive. Does just about everything but drive itself. I figured it was worth about $250,000, but found out it was more like $550,000. I really am behind the times when it comes to the cost of things. No question it was needed to protect our property. • • • • • The price of oil almost hit $110 per barrel this morning. WOW where will it stop? Most analysts have been wrong in their predictions to date so maybe our guess is as good as the next guy’s. One thing for sure, we can expect the price at the pumps to be ugly this summer. Increased fuel costs to fly may be more than the original flight. • • • • • The Okotoks Oilers find themselves down 2-0 to Drumheller in the best of seven second round of the playoffs. The next couple of games are in Drumheller so it could be a tough road. • • • • • Talking hockey, Iginla has become the number one Flame for goals scored. Way to go Iggy. The Flames are also in a tight race to make the playoffs with about a dozen games remaining. Go Flames! • • • • • In a recent Ipsos Reid poll 61 per cent of Canadians would rather read an ad in a newspaper than watch it on TV; 66 per cent say they enjoy the ads and inserts in a newspaper; and 70 per cent say they often pick up the paper to find sales in their area. Nice. The article’s headline was “Newspaper ads trounce TV in Canada” but I wanted to come across more modest. • • • • • The Western Wheel is also introducing a new feature section in the paper which kicks off this week. We will highlight one topic rotating among Business, Environment, Real Estate and Health and Lifestyle. The new feature will appear in the back of Section II in the Real Estate section after Sports. Fittingly, the first features deal with Real Estate including a story on new mortgage options and the impact the mortgage crash in the United States will have on local homebuyers. If you have any story ideas for this new feature section or feedback call the newsroom at 938-6397 or email westernwheel@okotoks.greatwest.ca

Israel and Palestine: Nothing to Report

“Twenty-four hours a day of rolling news to fill,” lamented the senior producer of an all-news radio station recently, “and only two hours of actual news to fill it.”
But his problem is minor compared to that of people condemned to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where there is now almost nothing new to report at all.
There is plenty of incidents, of course. More than 200 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip against nearby Israeli towns in one week recently. Some were a new, longer-range version that reached Ashkelon, a large town that had never been hit before. One Israeli died, and several were injured.
Israel retaliated with massive raids on the northern Gaza Strip by land and air. Two Israeli soldiers were killed as well as about 120 Palestinians.
Israel says 90 per cent of the Palestinian casualties were fighters; Palestinian sources say half were civilians, including 22 children. Given the crowded living conditions of the Gaza Strip, the latter estimate is more plausible, although it would make no sense for Israeli forces to target civilians deliberately.
Then, on March 6, a Palestinian walked into Merkaz Harav religious school in Jerusalem and killed eight young Israelis before being shot down himself. All of these events were extensively covered in the rolling news, but in what sense was there anything new about them?
It was also the same old stories on the diplomatic level.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, whose influence only extends to those parts of the West Bank not directly controlled by Israeli soldiers or settlers, declared that he would not take part in further peace talks with the Israelis until they agreed a cease-fire that included the Gaza Strip.
The shaky coalition that governs Israel was undismayed by this, since any concessions to Palestinians in the peace talks, should they occur, would ignite internal quarrels that would bring down Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government. But U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in the region as part of her untiring quest to create a legacy for the Bush administration, insisted that both Olmert and Abbas show willingness.
So Olmert said that the Merkaz Harav killings would not make him break off talks with Abbas, and the latter said that he would resume talks —until Rice left town, after which he reverted to saying that there could be none until there was a cease fire in Gaza. But Abbas has no control over Gaza. Hamas, which does, said nothing but smiled quietly.
This is all so familiar that the media would not report it in any detail if there were something more exciting to hold the ads apart. Apart from the fact that the Palestinians are now split between a Fatah government in the West Bank and a Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, it could be a week of stories from the first intifada in the early 1990s, or from the second intifada at the beginning of this decade.
The Palestinian-Israeli quarrel has re-entered one of those lengthy phases when neither side can agree on what terms it would be willing to offer the other for a peace settlement.
In Israel, the split is embodied in the government itself, with various coalition parties drawing “red lines” about which concession or gesture would cause them to quit.
Among the Palestinians, it is now incarnated in a formal division of territory between Fatah and Hamas.
From Washington, it is possible to conjure up some flimsy optimism about the situation. “Ten months is a long time. There’s plenty of time to get a deal done,” said President Bush last week — but no deal is going to happen while Bush is still in office. Whether it might happen under another administration is another question, but not one that is likely to have a happier answer.
Unless there has been some sort of a political earthquake in the meantime, there will still be two rival Palestinian governments, one of which is formally committed to waging relentless war against Israel (even if the reality is a little more negotiable). Israelis will have every right to claim that there is nobody to negotiate with.
The two Palestinian authorities will still struggle to gain the upper hand in the internecine power struggle, which means that neither party can afford to make significant concessions to the Israelis. So nothing can happen until Fatah re-establishes control over the Gaza Strip (unlikely), or until Hamas dominates a reunified Palestinian authority that includes the West Bank.
Even if that happened, Hamas would still have to decide that it really wants to negotiate with Israel, and the Israelis would then have to decide that they were willing to talk to Hamas. Not only that, but to offer Hamas serious territorial concessions in return for a cease-fire or peace treaty.
None of that is at all likely. There will be no substantive peace talks this year, and there will be none next year either. It’s all just diplomatic posturing punctuated by killing. Both sides hate the phrase “cycle of violence” because it implies that both sides are responsible for it. But it is the correct phrase, and cycles aren’t news.

Letters to the Editor -

Child support falls short for self-employed

Dear Editor,
Federal and provincial governments need to review the Child Support Guidelines used for self-employed persons.
Injustice is happening to responsible access parents who are business and community members. This calculation mandates that all profit from the business is considered income to the owner and used to calculate the payment. It is calculated before corporate taxes, forces the owner to draw from the business personally and taxed again on that level. In small business the profit is not in actual dollars but equity in the business. Is it right that access parents are asked to pay child support on equity? Thousands of dollars spent in legal fees to resolve this does not help children.
Why does this calculation apply to access parents and not co-habitating parents? Why is there not accountability from the person receiving the payments? Is the money invested in the children or used to subsidize a parental lifestyle or habit?
The guidelines’ stated objectives are to establish “a fair standard of support for children that ensures that they continue to benefit from the financial means of both spouses after separation. . . and to reduce conflict and tension between spouses by making the calculation of child support orders more objective.”
There is a clear contradiction in the guidelines’ mandate and the guidelines’ objectives. The abuse of this calculation needs to be addressed. I urge you to contract your MLA, your MP and your federal and provincial Ministers of Justice with your concerns.
Susan Lovell
High River

Pound Rescue needs help

Dear Editor,
I strongly urge anyone who has ever adopted an animal, provided financial support, been provided with veterinary services from Pound Rescue, or involved in the spay and neuter programs promoted and paid for by Paid Rescue, attend the public hearing on March 17. Amendments to the bylaw may seriously impact this organization, so we need to stand up and be heard.
Amending the animal bylaw may solve the barking problem, but it is not the answer to overall issues of overpopulation, abandoned and helpless animals that need her help.
Instead of this council amending the animal bylaw, I would like to see them step up and create a long-term solution. There is obviously a need for the services that Pound Rescue provides and it needs to stay — this requires assistance from the town. If the current location does not work, then let’s find a solution that does.
I truly believe that if everyone was aware of the amazing work that has been done over all these years, that the residents of Okotoks would support a solution that benefits the animals and neighbours.
Please make the effort and attend — your support is needed.
Lyn Dean
Okotoks