Opinion

THIS IS THE CALM before the storm. We are on Day 20 since the area’s first case of COVID-19. Our emergency department has been working diligently, attempting to get into a new routine. PAPRS and gowns... wear this mask today but not tomorrow...hold onto this mask for seven days...it’s airborne...it’s droplet...it needs a negative pressure room...a neutral pressure room is fine...did the patient travel recently?...travel no longer matters...did the patient have fever?...not everyone has fever...the list goes on and on.

DISASTERS ALWAYS TEST LEADERS, but a pandemic isn’t a hurricane or a tornado. It doesn’t come and go in a day or a week. It’s not confined to a geographic area. It’s invisible. It preys on the social ties that bind us into communities, cities, a state.

LAST WEEK’S COVER PHOTO, which featured the Palace Theatre sign announcing its temporary closing, pretty much encapsulated the bad news we have been covering for the last month, and which we continue to report in this edition.

JUNIOR HIGH AND PUBLIC MEETINGS—yes, they are related. Remember back in junior high when you didn’t get that invite to a party that you wanted to attend, and when the kids who were invited came to school the next day, it was all they could talk about?

TO OUR READERS: News of the coronavirus pandemic is evolving quickly—on the national, state, and local level. The Canadian Record is making every effort to inform the community of breaking news, and to alert Canadian and Hemphill County residents to the latest information, as it is released. We are also dedicated to sharing news that is specific to this community, such as business closings and changes in event schedules. If you have information you would like to share, please contact us at 806.323.6461, message us at 806.570.3033, or email us at news@canadianrecord. We are monitoring this situation throughout the day and night, and will share updates with the public as quickly as possible.

The Texas Open Meetings Act is a statute found in Chapter 551 of the Government Code. This law was established to make sure that the public has access to meetings of government bodies, and further that the public be given adequate notice of the time and place of meetings, and the subject matter to be discussed.

TEXANS HAVE SOMETHING to celebrate during Sunshine Week this year. But we also have more work to do to protect the public’s right to know about our government.

AS YOU ARE PROBABLY AWARE, Canadian ISD has initiated the process to consolidate with Higgins ISD, our Lipscomb County neighbor to the north. As is often the case when significant change occurs in a community, rumors and false information abound. My intention with this article is to provide some basic facts on this proposed consolidation.

“Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leave and blood at the root / Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze / Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”