The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 52, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 23, 2004 Page: 2 of 48
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Hemphill County Area Newspapers and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Hemphill County Library.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
THURSDAY 23 DECEMBER 2004
THE CANADIAN RECORD
it's AMAZING.' you can completely
botch w lraqoco)WnON,TOKn3KE
PRISONERS, RiWCULE YOUR cwm
uhper-EQUtPPEJ? SOUWERS,
INSTINCTIVELY PASSTHE BUCK FOR
YOUR FNlDRES
WP NOV GET EVEN ASfiWKHf
^••TH^STME
awaori WNT-
ill
No room at the inn
By Laurie Ezzell Brown
"76e (^(UtudciUi,
RECORD
EST. 1893
INCORPORATED FEBRUARY 1938
SEN EZZELL
Editor & Publisher 1948-1993
NANCY EZZELL Publisher
LAURIE EZZELL BROWN Editor
editor@canadianrecard.cam
OLIVIA SIMS, HOLLY HENDERSON
Advertising
advertising@canadianrecard.cam
CATHY RICKETTS News/ftatures
news@canadianrecard.com
JENNY KLEIN News
news@canadianrecord.com
MARY SMITIIEE Office Manager
circuiation@canadianrecord.com
biliing@canadianrecord.com
DESIGN & PRODUCTION
Laurie Ezzell Brown
Cathy Ricketts
PHOTOGRAPHY
Laurie Ezzell Brown
Cathy Ricketts, Jenny Klein
USPS 087-960
PO Box 898, Canadian, TX 79014
Phone: 806.323.6461 or 5321
Eax: 806.323-5738
Periodicals postage paid at the
Post Office in Canadian (Hemphill
County), Texas. Published weekly
in Canadian by Nancy M. Ezzell
POSTMASTER: Send address
changes to The Canadian Record,
PO Box 898, Canadian, TX 79014
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
$25/$30/$3 5 Annually
AN EFFORT TO ADAPT Rotary Park for
use as a housing development went up in
flames Monday night when residents of that
neighborhood presented petitions and a few
well-reasoned arguments against the project
to the City Council. The Council responded
quickly, voting unanimously not to present the
option to re-designate Rotary Park to voters
in next spring's municipal elections.
That's all well and good, as far as it goes,
but it does not go nearly far enough. It is not
enough to say what we do not want, and to pat
ourselves on our backs and go home.
Home—and the need for it—is what this
was all about in the firstplace, and still is.
The housing committee that first floated
the Rotary Park idea was appointed by the
Economic Development Council and tasked
with identifying the specific needs for hous-
ing—who has it, who doesn't, and what can be
done to improve access to and availability of
that basic resource in Canadian.
The committee has managed to address
the first two points, compiling a list of homes
and properties that are eithervacant or aban-
doned. The inventory is a promising one, but
efforts to enlist those property owners in
Canadian's housing cause—either by offer-
ing their property for sale or making it avail-
able to renters—have met with only limited
success.
Beeause Canadian is to some extent land-
locked, the committee also sought to identify
publicly-owned land within the City which
might be used to develop housing, or to entice
private investors in a housing development
project. An inventory of City-owned prop-
erty was requested by Council members sev-
eral months ago, but never delivered by City
Manager Beth Briant, whose response to the
housing committee's efforts has been what
might generously be described as lukewarm,
or less generously, as obstructive.
Is there a need for housing in Canadian?
Yes.
— BY
Wtoem
When companies interested in relocating
or expanding their operations in this commu-
nity ehoose to go elsewhere because there is
no place for their employees to live, there is
a need.
When this community's largest apartment
complex has a waiting list a lifetime long, de-
spite its rundown appearance and the appar-
ent disinterest of its owners in improving the
property—there is a need.
When business owners complain that they
cannot maintain an adequate workforce be-
cause their employees are unable to find af-
fordable housing—there is a need.
When a family of five is forced to live in
one small bedroom of the single-family dwell-
ing they share with others—not because
they are unemployed and have no financial
resources to rent a home, but because there
are no homes or apartments to rent—there
is a need.
When tenants live in homes without ade-
quate heat, with substandard plumbing, with
holes in the floor and broken windows and
roofs that leak and landlords who collect their
monthly checks and care little about improv-
ing their property—there is a need to provide
humane alternatives.
If those residents who marshaled such im-
pressive forces in opposition to one tentative
housing development proposal would muster
the same kind of energy and conviction to find
solutions to this problem, there's no telling
what could be done.
It is not enough to say what we do not want.
It is time—well past time, really—to say what
we do want, to make a commitment to Cana-
dian's healthy future, and to offer whatever
resources are ours to get it done.
It is not enough to say there is no room at
the inn, and to turn our backs on those who—
as many of us did before them—hope to be
welcomed into this community, and to live
here with dignity.
SNOW COVERS THE GROUND this morning. I've been up for
hours, polished off most of a pot of coffee, read a bit of the news and re-
plenished the water under the angel-topped Scotch pine that glows in
one corner of my living room.
I was not really awake, though, until what must be the sun rose in
the still, gray sky. Only then did I became fully aware of the gift that
had been laid at my doorstep.
Snow jostles the long-dormant child inside of me. It is Wednes-
day, and the early newspaper deadline approaches. I can almost hear
the pressman's fingers drumming, wondering when these pages will
digitally reappear on his computer screen 45 miles away. Sending the
newspaper pages to the printer over our T-l line each week amounts
to our own small act of "performance capture," as director Robert
Zemeckis calls the technology used to create his new Christmas mov-
ie, "Polar Express"'
What I wish to do, what I would rather do, what I honestly believe
I should do this morning, is pull on my long johns and wool socks and
insulated boots and fleece jacket and gloves and head for the slopes—
not the ski slopes, mind you, but the sledding ones—with grandchil-
dren in tow.
I'll show you "performance capture," I'm thinking. I'll show you
animation. Give me five-year-old Lily and her buddy, Eli, and a flying
snow saueer. Give me a boot-full of snow, ice-numbed hands and a cup
of hot cocoa.
I defy the adult world. I reject it.
It is three days before Christmas, and the winter's first real snow
has fallen. There are packages to wrap, bird feeders to fill, cookies to
frost, snowball wars to be fought. Before the day is done, snow angels
must be made, icicles mustbe sampled, snowmen must be constructed
and garbed. I have things to do. Important things.
This yearning for childhood really began tickling at the remote
edges of my consciousness a few weeks ago when I Caught my first
viewing of "Polar Express." The movie is based on Chris Van Alls-
burg's wonderful story of a young boy's midnight journey to the
North Pole.
Some have called it a dark tale—too dark, I presume they are say-
ing, for the predictably feel-good Christmas stories we prefer to be
told. In a world of Federal Express Christmases, "Polar Express"
is underappreciated. Others have criticized the digital art used to
create the movie's storybook look and feel, saying Zemeckis failed
to make his character's eyes twinkle or their faces show real human
emotion.
And I say yes, and good, and what a wonderful movie all the same.
What Zemeckis does is give us the raw materials and ask us to imag-
ine—or better yet, to remember our childhood imaginings, which
Van Allsburg's book so vividly evoked. Zemeckis negotiates a giant
leap from actor to digital impulse to animated character, effectively
recreating the beautiful pastel drawings of Van Allsburg's Christ-
mas story.
And while he does so beautifully, it is somehow strangely reas-
suring to know that he failed—to realize that while we can digitally
remaster the human voice, and while we can turn an actor's perfor-
mance into data with digital characteristics, we still have not man-
aged to recreate the authentic human spirit or to capture an actor's
soul.
For that, we still require humans, willing to communicate what
they are feeling, and to share their life's experiences in a gesture, a
look, a response, a raised brow, a turn of the head. We still must be
children experiencing the wonder of Christmas before we can believe
and understand what a master technician so vividly recreates on-
screen. Reality, it seems, is in no danger of being replaced by virtual
reality anytime soon.
Now...to the slopes.
Merry Christmas to all.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 52, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 23, 2004, newspaper, December 23, 2004; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth220661/m1/2/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.