Opinion

I AM ANNOUNCING this week that I will not be seeking re-election to the office of Hemphill County judge. Hopefully, by making my decision at this early date, it will allow those that might be interested in seeking this office time to consider and decide if they are qualified and wish to file and run for election.

ON BEHALF OF our staff, boards, members, and patrons, the Canadian Community Center, Rachel’s Little House, and the River Valley Pioneer Museum would like to thank the Hemphill County Commissioners and Judge George Briant for providing us COVID relief funding available through the American Rescue Plan Act.

LEGENDARY NBC ANCHOR Tom Brokaw had just returned to work on Sept. 11, 2001, after taking the summer off.

REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN RECORD SEPTEMBER 13, 2001 THE STACK OF LAST WEEK’S newspapers is abandoned on my living room floor, unread during a long weekend away, and unreadable now as this day dawns. I suppose, eventually, I will throw them away, knowing that the news they report is not just old—it is at best, absurdly imprecise, and at its worst, simply no longer true.

WELL, NOW WE KNOW what it takes to remain employed at the Texas Office of the Attorney General. Almost a year ago, several top aides to Attorney General Ken Paxton accused him of using his official position to help a campaign donor, sparking an FBI investigation and attracting a number of viable candidates from both parties to line up for a challenge to the attorney general in the 2022 elections.

I WAS 10 YEARS OLD when I got my first paying job (and my introduction to journalism). A couple hours one evening a week at the local weekly newspaper, I “caught” pages coming off the printing press to even them up in a big box. Then I spent a couple hours the next afternoon “throwing” my paper route.

BACK TO SCHOOL TIME is always the busy season at the CCC. We have lots going on and lots to get planned for the fall. But I wanted to take a moment to say thanks to some of the fine folks helping us keep Canadian strong.

Silas House’s essay in The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic. com/ideas/archive/2021/08/some-americans-no-longer-believein-the-common-good/619856/) perfectly voiced my own sense of melancholy this morning, as I mourned the death of yet another Hemphill County citizen whom I have long admired, and whose ability to maintain her equilibrium and dignity, even in times of great turmoil, I have hoped to emulate. I’ve been searching for some time now for the words to express the sense of emotional distance from my hometown that has enveloped me, and this inescapable feeling of disappointment and despair in who we seem to have become—not only as a community, or as a state, but as a nation. House echoed at least some of what I have felt, harkening back to a generation that we are slowly losing, or have perhaps already lost, of citizens who still believed in the common good, and who were willing to sacrifice what little they had for that now-elusive concept. It must have struck a nerve with my friend and fellow journalist Al Cross, as well, because just a couple of hours after reading House’s words, Al summarized them in a piece in the online Rural Blog (irjci.blogspot. com). I share it here, too weary to write more. — LEB

BLAME IT ON THE RAIN. Blame it on indifference.

I’LL BE BRIEF. The events exploding in the Middle East have shocked many of us and stirred up bitter memories for others of us.