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Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Government advertising; close encounters; and making the right choice….

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Let’s talk a little about government advertising this week. Let’s talk about our two school boards bashing each other’s brains out trying to attract students – and using taxpayer’s money to do it. Strange, but true. When I was a kid, if you were a Roman Catholic, you went to the closest Catholic school, and if you anything else, you went to the closest public school. Now this ain’t rocket science, so why the big time waste of our money? But I see it all the time. Right now, the government of Canada is spending a great many millions of dollars on advertising that tells us that Canada’s action plan to fight the recession is working. The provincial government is running huge numbers of tourism ads and anti drinking driving ads and on and on and on….This just really gets my goat. Likely the only time any government should run an advertisement is when there is a new law that people need to be informed about. Other than that, I don’t get it. It’s a colossal and immense waste of our money. Strangely, the only newspaper column I’ve written that’s ever been censored was on this very topic. ‘Way back at the beginning of my newspaper career, I wrote a piece similar to this for the Delhi News-Record. The publisher of the day pulled it. “We make too much money from the government,” he told me. “We can’t bite the hand that feeds us.” Well, I guess my opinion about government advertising hasn’t changed in 30 years. Still think it’s mostly a huge waste of money. And don’t think I’ll ever feel differently.

Saw an honest-to-goodness UFO over the weekend. Was driving along the highway from Tilbury when, suddenly, a flash of light raced across the sky, then vanished without a trace. It could have been anything – that’s why I’m calling it an Unidentified Flying Object. And within that description it could have been otherworldy. Luckily, my wife saw it too, or I’m not sure I’d tell anyone because of the sanity factor. But I know what I saw…..and it wasn’t a plane or a weather balloon. When we got home, my wife and I drew sketches of what we thought we had seen and these drawings were almost identical. Strange, but true. After I witnessed the object, I couldn’t stop smiling for about an hour….and I also couldn’t stop talking about it, which for some reason upset my wife. Why the feeling of immense happiness? Because I don’t want us to be alone in the universe. I want company. It means that there are others who have reached the stars and that means there is hope for us. I wish the encounter had lasted longer and been somehow more tangible…..because I know what you people are thinking. I’d certainly be interested in knowing if anyone else saw the UFO – about 6:15 on Saturday evening….let me know if you even hear anyone else telling weird stories like this. I joked with my daughter later Saturday night that my wife and I could be missing the next morning. “They know we saw them,” I said…”And they’ll come for us.” She laughed and so did I. But I did secretly wish for a nocturnal visit and a chance to meet someone or something to tell me for certain that we’re not alone – that there’s more to life that just the mess we’ve made of this planet.

Watched the three Godfather movies on the weekend – watching epic movies is a good thing to do while you wait for spring. Must say that the boys in the mob are a serious bunch and pretty violent, as well. These are great movies – no doubt about that – but the level of callous violence is really astonishing. And every time I see something like this, I’m amazed at how vicious we can be with each other. I mean, you don’t really have to look to the movies to see the violence – there’s lots of it going on in the real world. But I still don’t get it ¬– even after all these years. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve got a couple of choices each morning when you open your eyes. You can be a nice person, intent on getting along with the people you have to deal with – looking for compromise and peaceful solutions to problems. Or you can get up in the morning ready to make mayhem on the planet….and likely to yourself. To me, it’s a simple choice, and, as the world gets increasingly smaller, it’s an obvious one. We need to get along and stop arguing and fighting about really dumb stuff – like oil and religion. Where are the Ghandis of the world? Let’s hope we get it together before too long…..After all, this is the only chance we’ll get!

Out of time for another week and hoping you’re enjoying reading along. Really enjoy writing this piece and have written a column in one form or another for 33 years this year. Wow! That’s a long time! Remember….”Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may.”



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.