Harry Stemp was born in Uxbridge in 1934. He started his career with the Uxbridge Times-Journal as an apprentice typesetter at age 14. He soon began writing sports for the Times-Journal and eventually owned 10 community newspapers in central Ontario including the Times-Journal. He started writing his award-winning Stemp’s Stew in 1965. The column came to an end shortly after he sold his newspaper chain in 1989, but was rejuvenated in 2006 when Harry became a regular contributor to The Cosmos.
Hard knocks
Wasn’t that long ago that educators, and other spectators, raised concerns that taking students into the Parliament Buildings to watch the government in session was setting a bad behavioural example. Anyone who sat through one of these sessions remembers the heckling and shouting matches when a member had the floor. The Speaker could rarely get order and one had to strain to figure out what was being said and the outcome of the discussion.
The members paid attention to the complaints and the heckling, although still there, has been toned down and spectators are returning to the gallery seats. Now they have a new problem to deal with – boxing matches or maybe even wrestling matches. Last week the fiery Peter Van Loan (Con.) took exception to remarks made by Nathan Cullen (NDP) and left his seat, walked across the floor, confronted Cullen and indicated that he was ready to duke it out. Other members left their seats and got between the two men and some kind of decorum was restored before any damage was done.
Maybe Van Loan has been reading too many history books because name calling and fist fights often broke out in Parliaments of old and I can imagine that John A. MacDonald, who was half tanked most of the time, enjoyed every minute of it. But I don’t think we should be too hard on Van Loan. After all we have no NHL hockey so far this year so maybe he was just doing Canadians a favour and bringing us ‘Fight Days in Ottawa’.
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Happiness for a grandfather in Florida is receiving an e-mail from granddaughter Mia letting me know that her brother Garrett was a real hockey hero on Saturday. Told me that Garrett scored five goals and led his team to an 8-3 victory. Even better to chat with Garrett later and get a blow-by-blow of the action and how proud he was when his coach presented him with the game score sheet and the team gave him a puck. For a proud grandfather who is a hockey nut, life doesn’t get a whole lot better than that.
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Interesting that just months after a teacher was fired for giving zeros to students who didn't complete their work, the Edmonton Public School Board is proposing making zeros part of their official policy. You will remember teacher Lynden Dorval made national headlines in the fall when he was fired for insubordination. He refused to follow the policy of his school, Ross Sheppard in Edmonton, which required students be given an ‘incomplete’ for assignments not handed in or for missed tests and not a zero. This week board chairwoman Sarah Hoffman said they have a draft policy that if approved, will see students receive marks from zero to 100. She says students will not be let off the hook for not doing their assignments and they would be expected to make it up.
Of course they won’t be holding any tag days for teacher Dorval. Right after his firing he was hired by a provincially accredited private school in Edmonton, where the headmaster said he would be free to hand out zeros. Do you suppose that we will now see some sanity in how we handle students who refuse to complete their assignments? Why, maybe the soccer people will look at this and rescind the ridiculous plan not to keep score in kid’s soccer games, as losing may hurt their personality development. Ugh! Methinks the problems some of our kids are having may be the result of the silly coddling they get from parents and other adults. Not a good way to prepare them for the ‘school’ they will enter when their school days are over. It’s always been known as the ‘school of hard knocks’ and I can assure you from experience they will find no coddling in that system.
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Since this will be the last `Stew` of 2012 I want to wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas season. May your days be filled with fun visits with family and friends, and that you receive everything you have asked Santa for, and you don`t suffer the results overindulging.
One thing that saddens me at this time of year is how happy everyone seems to be in our part of the world while there is so much fighting and killing going on in other parts of the world. Battles that seems to have no end to and all in the name of religion – which, the way I was raised was supposed to preach peace in all of the world. As we sit down with family and friends and enjoy more food than we could ever begin to eat, there are adults and children around the world living on bits and pieces of food they are able to find.
Is there an answer to all of this? I don`t know. But I wonder what kind of world we would have if everyone went about their daily lives being nice to everyone. Showing a big smile and indicating love to everyone they meet. Might be pie in the sky but it couldn`t hurt to try it in my opinion. The more we experience love the more we spread love to others. Expressing a positive feeling with a big smile is contagious. These feelings were expressed beautifully in a Chinese proverb that I came across recently……
`When there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. When there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. When there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.`
During this joyous season my Christmas wish is that there is love and peace in the hearts of everyone and during 2013 you demonstrate it to others at every opportunity. May all of your dreams come true and may good health and happiness lighten up every one of your days during 2013.
