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By Mac McKinnon
This has been a really busy holiday season and I'm glad it's over.
Don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed it, but I'm "give out" and ready to
start a new year. I tried to get some rest over the New Year holiday,
but with football and all the parades, it was a little difficult.
It appears that everybody has had the same experience of being real
busy. It just seems that December flew by. I don't know it that's
because Thanksgiving came so late, or if it is because Christmas and New
Year's came in the middle of the week, but everything went by in a flash.
I was on the road quite a bit. As I've mentioned in some previous
columns, I made trips to Carlsbad and Odessa for special Christmas
ceremonies and displays. Before that I was on the road to see my mother,
in-laws and friends for Thanksgiving at which time I viewed a number of
spectacular displays, including those in Burnet, Marble Falls and Llano.
Then for five days the weekend before and during Christmas I repeated
that trip. My mother lives in Dublin, and that town has some really neat
displays, as do all towns. One in particular is a favorite of Kelsey, my
7-year-old daughter.
That one has Winnie-The-Pooh and a bunch of various decorations. This
year, there was a live Santa Claus in the driveway to talk to kids. The
house belongs to Lydia Hughes.
Another favorite we have in Dublin is one that has a number of trains
and circus displays, but for some reason it wasn't on put out this year.
Many cities have spectacular displays for Christmas and other holidays
as well.
As most people probably know by now, the Downtown Pecos Lions Club has
started a fund drive to help raise funds to renovate existing Pecos
lighting and buy new light fixtures. The cost is estimated to be about
$11,000, but more would be very helpful.
The Lions Club has donated $1,000 to the fund, and that has been
matched by the Pecos Rotary Club. All other service organizations are
being challenged to match that amount or at least contribute what they
can.
Businesses who have a light on a pole around their establishments are
being asked to buy at least one or more fixtures. Each fixture costs
about $250.
There is one in front of the Pecos Enterprise, and we plan to donate
$250 for that fixture.
I believe it is important for our town to present a good image, not
only to those who come through our town, but for ourselves. We need to
enjoy our town and be proud of it.
Some of the things my family does during the holidays is take an almost
nightly drive around looking at lights and enjoying the festive mood of
the season. There are some really beautiful displays, and everyone who
takes part should be thanked and congratulated for their efforts to
light up the season.
Let's all have a great 1997 and make Pecos an ever better place to live.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Mac McKinnon is editor and publisher of the Pecos
Enterprise. His column appears on Friday.
Japan is one of Peru's biggest aid donors, but there are probably not
many Japanese who know much about Peru beyond the fact that its
president is an ethnic Japanese and that it is a nation with roots in
the Inca civilization.
The guerrilla attack on Ambassador Aoki's residence must not be allowed
to make Peru even more remote. It is important that more Japanese people
come to consider just how Japanese aid to Peru can be made more
meaningful for the poor people of that Latin American nation, and on how
Japanese companies doing business there can better accomodate the needs
of the Peruvian people. ...
... Because many of the hostages are foreigners, Japan has a duty to
the international community to play a major role in resolving the
situation. Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto has urged the government of
Peru to put the safety of the hostages first. (Peruvian President
Alberto) Fujimori must make an extremely difficult decision in
determining which priority - protecting the lives of the hostages or his
own uncompromising stance on terrorism - will prevail.
-- Asahi, Tokyo
The long-standing reservations of the British towards a
``bureaucratic'' Europe administrated from Brussels is now shared by the
banking community. The projected monetary union - and its resultant
single European currency - is now imminent. But a single European
currency will require a single issuing bank, a central bank of Europe.
Will it be possible to create a central bank of Europe which lacks a
central government to administrate it?
Every central bank - the Bank of Italy, the Bank of France, the Bank of
England - functions as part of a state furnished with a democratically
elected executive and parliament.
The British, with their innate political acuity, note that a central
bank of Europe without a central government of Europe administrating it
would be a monster. It would have excessive powers, and it would itself
become a kind of central government capable of interfering in the lives
of Europeans without their consent, while preoccupying itself solely
with monetary stability and the containment of inflation: in essence, an
enlarged Bundesbank.
A single European currency is only acceptable with the creation of a
United States of Europe, with a single European federal government
elected democratically. Only in this way can we get rid of the
dictatorship of the Brussels bureaucrats. Instead of becoming obsessed
with the Maastrich requirements, the European member countries must
begin to resolve its ramifications. While a completely federal Europe
may be a Utopia, we must continue to pave the way towards ever
increasing dialogue and collaboration between the European states.
La Repubblica, Rome
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