The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 103, No. 49, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 9, 1993 Page: 2 of 32
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Congress goes home
Reprinted from The Washington Post National Weekly Edition
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' ■ NIE 103RD CONGRESS made two basic
JL decisions in the session just ended—to
tighten fiscal policy in part by raising taxes on
the rich and to support North America free trade.
The budget and trade votes were the bookends of
the session, and major victories for the new
Democratic president, who confounded his own
press notices by ending up with the most impres-
sive first-year legislative batting average of any
president in 40 years. But the votes continue to
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WITH THE CURRENT PREPONDERANCE of talk shows on
both radio and television, it may seem a curious irony that I long
for the art of good conversation. Plain talk...the kind that’s like
cutting into a loaf of hot, steaming, crusty homemade bread.
Words that take time to prepare...that cannot be rushed (so to
speak). Words that must rise and rest and be kneeded and
shaped, and which finally, after careful tending, take form and
substance and are presented with care and anticipation. Words
which not only fill us and feed us, but challenge our senses and
heighten our expectations, surprising and delighting, nourishing
and nurturing...satisfying words...words with texture and taste.
The connection between words and food is not an accidental
one for me. I grew up on meal-time conversation. In my large and
busy family, the dinner table was our collection point, around
which we assembled, and at which we shared our daily stories.
As we each waited to speak, there was ample time to listen as
well; and in listening, I found myself wanting to make my words
count...to make them worthy of the listening.
The only requirement of those food-fueled gatherings was
attendance. Friends who visited our home at dinner time were
often unprepared for what seemed the formality of the occasion:
the table was properly set, plates were served by my Dad, bless-
ings were said as we joined hands.
It was probably an unsettling experience for some. But it was
the very heart of our family life, and I left the house each day like
some hunter/gatherer, hoping for an experience or observation to
harvest and share around the table that night.
This hunger for conversation has been aggravated and aug-
mented by ventures into the world of word wars. Attendance at
the Weddington/Schlafly debate sponsored by Amarillo College a
few days ago only convinced me of the rarity of useful dialogue,
as words which have never crossed paths with thought fell upon
ears which heard what they fully expected to hear. At no point
was I surprised, and at no point in the debate did I have the sense
that any more than a reinforcement of already deeply entrenched
opinions was taking place.
I stumbled across an entry on a computer bulletin board the
other day which warned of three classes of on-line com-
municators: flamers, blatherers and spewers. These familiar
techno-characters translated easily for me from computer screen
to street corner.
be hard to assemble. Gridlock has given way, but
less to consensus and enthusiasm than to a kind
of government by grudging majority—and some
of the harder fights are yet to come. Most of the
record of the administration in this Congress
remains to be written
Health care reform is the main piece of busi-
ness barely begun. The president, to his great
credit, has sent up a bold proposal. With how
ambitious a bill of what kind will Congress
respond? The answer to that one dwarfs all
others, but there are others. In what direction
will Congress try to move post-Cold War defense
policy? What, if anything, will it do about the
destructive system by which congressional can-
didates finance their campaigns? How will it
respond if the president sends up a welfare
reform proposal or suggests, as he says he will,
an expansion of federal responsibility for the
structurally unemployed?
The year’s biggest battle was over the budget.
It took six months. But the bulk of the president’s
proposal was finally approved by all of two votes
in the House and a tie-breaker in the Senate. The
half-trillion dollars in deficit reduction over five
years was a larger step toward the necessary
restoration of fiscal discipline than critics in
either party have allowed. The main device will
be higher taxes on high incomes; the tax code will
regain a sharper edge.
The budget made social as well as fiscal policy.
It included a large down payment on welfare
reform as the president envisions it, in the form
of an increase in federal aid to the poor, the
working poor particularly. The income
notea
by laurie ezzell brown
*74e RECORD
______CANADIAN, HEMPHILL CO., TEXAS
THURSDAY 9 DECEMBER 1993
Flamers are known for their nasty, personal attacks on others.
In the immediacy and semi-anonymity of the netherworld of
computer networking, flamers erupt “rather than pausing and
reflecting on a message.” Their keyboard invective often leads to
what the writer refers to as “holy wars,” which can go on for weeks
or years, the length no doubt determined by the utter futility of
the argument.
Spewers, on the other hand, “assume that whatever they are
particularly concerned about really is of universal interest.” A
spewer can be easily identified by the frequency of his “posting"
to various network conferences, by the lack of any conceivable
connection between his pet topic and the issue at hand, and by a
failure to offer facts in support of the message.
Tn EVERY CHILD who is born, under no
JLmatter what circumstances, and of no
matter what parents, the potentiality of the
human race is born again. — JAMES AGEE
©■r^e'te
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RECORD
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BEN EZZELL Editor & Publisher
1948-1993
NANCY EZZELL Editor
LAURIE EZZELL BROWN
Associate Editor
ROB BROWN Photographer
TINA MOORE
Advertising Manager
Entered as second class matter December 20,
1945 at the Post Office at Canadian, Texas
under the act of March 3, 1879. Published
each Thursday afternoon at Canadian, Texas,
by Nancy M. Ezzell.
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THE CANADIAN RECORD. Box 898,
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Ezzell, Nancy & Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 103, No. 49, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 9, 1993, newspaper, December 9, 1993; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1285736/m1/2/: accessed June 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.