The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 48, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 25, 2004 Page: 3 of 32
thirty two pages : ill. ; page 13.5 x 11.33 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
THE CANADIAN RECORD
THURSDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2D04
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Winter: A special time
for donating blood
NOVEM BER 2ND SAW WHAT some say was an official record snow-
fall at Rick Husband International Airport, 8.4 inches. It didn't really
slow us down. We went to work pretty much as usual. We voted. Many
schools were delayed but most opened at some point that election day.
After all, it had been warm so the streets cleared quickly and a lot of us
in the Amarillo/Canyon area went about our normal business.
But at Coffee Memorial Blood Center, "our business" was seriously
cut back. Even as the snow stopped falling the next morning, only sev-
en people came to our main facility on Coulter Drive to donate blood.
Twenty-three people donated at community blood drives the day the
snow started, but we were forced to cancel all our drives the next day
and the following morning due to safety concerns for our staff, and an
expected low turnout.
Do you suppose that the need for blood for patients throughout the
Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles declined during those first few days
of November? No. If anything, the need was greater, as is often the case
when the weather is bad.
I'm told by "old timers" that one predictor of harsh winter weather,
especially a winter accompanied by lots of snow, is the height sunflow-
ers reach during the preceding summer. Based on the one my wife trea-
sures in her garden, carefully transplanted from a roadside stop a few
years ago, we're in for a long, hard winter.
What are we at Coffee Blood Center to do?
Every winter there are days like we had early this month—bad
weather and too few blood donors. And yet, more than 100 pints of blood
from more than 100 different blood donors will be needed each of these
days for patients whose lives can only be sustained through the trans-
fusion of donated blood products. They are your family members and
loved ones, the fellow next door, the child born prematurely, the patients
undergoing cancer treatment. They are those who did not plan to be in
a traffic accident that day or people for whom a new liver or kidney has
just become available to be transplanted immediately.
We fire:, unfortunately, losing ground in our efforts to collect enough
blood for patients in our service area. Over the past two years, blood
tx-ansfusions in local hospitals have increased dramatically (more than
17 percent), while blood donations have risen only slightly (2.2 percent).
Here :on the High Plains, we pride ourselves on our friendliness,
our care and concern for others—for longtime residents, newcomers
and visitors alike. What could be better evidence of these values than
to make certain, absolutely certain, that blood is always there when it's
needed?
One out of every three of us will, at some point in our lives, need a
blood transfusion. So, if you qualify as a blood donor, please make an ap-
pointment and donate this winter—as frequently as your schedule and
our rules permit. If you are part of the half of the population who can-
not donate, please encourage those in the community where you live and
work, those with whom you go to school and church, to donate blood, es-
pecially when the weather is bad and we need it most desperately.
The life you save may, in fact, be your own, or someone you care deep-
ly about, or someone you will never know.
JAMES T. RUTLEDGE, Ph.D., President and CEO
Coffee Memorial Blood Center
LETTERS Til THE EDITOR POLICY
Letters to the editors of the Canadian Record are always
welcome, and will be published if they are signed and cannot
be considered libelous. We will not publish anonymous letters
under any circumstances.
We ask that all letters be accompanied by a home or work
phone number so that we can verify the letter writer's identity
if necessary. Letters may be edited for excessive length.
Each letter should be clearly marked "Letter to the
Editor," and should be received in our office no later than
Wednesday noon for publication in that week's newspaper.
Please mail letters to: The Canadian Record, P.O. Box 898,
Canadian, TX 79014, or by fax to (806)323-5738, or by e-mail
to lrbrown@well.com.
pro tec tion rack et, n.,
compulsion of compensation
under threat of dire harm.
NICE YOU'VE GOT
HERE" WTO06MMF IT
JUST-WSAWW-"
OKAyftOUOSVMN<E
wv&ajno-mt^PeiA/
LEGAL WFEHSE FUUt>* r
OFFICE on
tDNGPKSMAfl
ITWADW-El
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Changing the rules
TXDOT...CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
less effective, but we do plan to use barriers on
this project where they make sense.
The other part of our meeting included a
presentation on our environmental work to
date. We have completed historical and bio-
logical surveys which we summarized for the
group. We have since sent copies of these sur-
veys to each member and they are available to
anyone who is interested. The rest of the en-
vironmental document is still being prepared.
When it's finished, we'll make it available as
well.
The purpose of the committee is to afford
the maximum amount of public involvement
possible. Since it's practically impossible to
take detailed input from thousands of people,
we've asked this appointed group to share the
concerns of their communities. We plan to
ON NOVEMBER 17TH, 2004, by voice vote, the House Republican Conference decided that a
party committee of several dozen members would review any felony indictment of a party lead-
er and recommend at that time whether the leader should step aside. The current party rule in
this area requires House Republican leaders and the heads of the various committees to relin-
quish their positions if indicted for a crime that could bring a prison term of at least two years.
It makes no distinction between a federal and state indictment.
Three of DeLay's political associates already have been indicted by that Texas grand jury.
Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, said that under the change embraced Wednesday, the House Re-
publican Steering Committee would have 30 legislative days to review a felony indictment and
recommend to all House Republicans whether a lawmaker who is charged could remain as a
committee chairman or leader.
Expect more of the same from the Texaslawmaker and his cronies. "Who cares? "some say.
"It's only a rule. Rules were made to be broken."
But this rule wasn't broken. DeLay hasn't been indicted yet. The rules were changed in or-
der to be prepared for DeLay to get indicted.
I believe we can expe,et DeLay, Inc. to attempt to change the laws of our nation to suit them-
selves just as they change the rules of their own Party to suit the circumstances. Of course
DeLay is respected—his cronies happily report that he wasn't in the room when the rules
changed.
ALFRED BROCK, Cambridge, MI
continue meeting with this group to develop a
new project concept which we'll later take to a
general public meeting for further comment on
that concept.
We'll continue listening to public input and
will be as responsive as possible. Our goal is
to strike a balance between improving safety
and preserving as many trees as we can. We
know trees are important. Human lives are
important also. The drivers we talk about are
not numbers. They're people with families who
care about them Just like that insurance policy
we dorf t really want but buy anyway, we have to
act responsibly. This project can save lives and
keep a pretty roadside.
Come to think of it, maybe I won't mind
writing those insurance cheeks so much next
year. It sure is nice: to have it when you need it.
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. 48, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 25, 2004, newspaper, November 25, 2004; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth220657/m1/3/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.