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Editorials no place for the practice of fairness and balance "And I‘m still blown away with this community‘s ability to change direction, especially when they don‘t like the way things are being run at city hall. "That‘s a sign of a healthy democracy, and a local political scene that is also a lot of fun to cover. n Bob Vrbanac‘s column last week Ihe stated: "In my 10 years with the Chronicle, with my official anniversary coming up in Novemâ€" ber, I‘ve covered four mayors and four different councils. "Change is the constant, so it‘s something I‘ve gotten used to as 1 take over the reins of this newspaâ€" I am always astonished at the optimism I see in others. One person sees a dynamic example of democâ€" racy where I see lacklustre leaderâ€" ship and instability. The people of Waterloo have been consistently disappointed by city hall. It might be fun to cover, but it sure ain‘t fun to live in. Vrbanac writes: "The thing we‘ve R:ghx off the top let me say 1 really hope Jim Balâ€" sillie gets his hockey team. If you haven‘t heard, the RIM executive has made an offer to purchase the Nashville Predators. Last fall, of course, he made a deal for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but that fell apart when the NHL got all wonky putting conditions on the sale. It seems though, that Balsillie stayed on good enough terms with the league to wait for another team to come available. The deal which put the Predators in Nashwville apparently has a fairly reachâ€" able out clause. The team can be moved if it drops below a certain level of atten dance. It‘s already failed to achieve that, since hockey, in Nashville, is somewhere below dog fighting on the popularity scale. That has led. of course, to the preâ€" dictable fuss over whether or not Balsillie will move the team to southern Ontario. Hamilton perhaps? Or maybe even Camâ€" bridge? Good on him. Like I said, I hope that _ lE====== all happens But if it does come to pass that an NHL team in the area is a possibility. I do hope local politicians can get past their giddiness over the concept â€" and be very careful about the use of the public purse Which is a smart business move on the NHL‘s part. 1 don‘t know a fot about business, but 1 do know it‘s never a good idea to alienate people with a bithon dollars Anyhow, 1 hope Balsithe gets his team and 1 even hope he moves it to Waterioo . [fi region ) In other words. if Jim Balsillie wants to buy some land, and build himself an arena, that‘s great. But if there‘s any talk about a large municipal â€" or regionâ€" al â€" contribution to the idea, then I begin to lose a fair amount of interest Local levels of government can help out. by streamlining the applications process, and perhaps But like I‘m going that NHL hockey shouldn‘t expect local handouts the National Hockey League, to put some conditions on always stressed around here is doing it in a fair and balanced way. The editorials are no place for the practice of fairness and balance. Society spoiling our children too much "We don‘t try to make the news at the Chronicle. We try to cover it." fforts to explain the Virgina E'l ech massacre will stretch over decades and beyond, and conâ€" sume millions of words as pundits turn over every stone from the perâ€" petrator‘s past seeking the proverbial smoking gun. Man needs to know how one of his own could do such a horrible thing. Obvious explanations abound, ranging from easy access to guns, media violence that has breached all boundaries of decency, to mental illâ€" ness that should have precluded Cho Seungâ€"Hui from obtaining a firearm. He stalked fellow students, wantâ€" ed friends desperately, but made no effort to get them and generally BRIAN BOURKE COMMENT assisting in providing some infrastructure â€" roads etc â€" which will provide some general benefit, but I don‘t think a straightâ€"out cash contribution is a good idea at all. Anyone remember the SkyDome? Not that anyone is suggesting it at this point, but the history of the North American sports business certainly can point in that direction. And I wouldn‘t blame Mr. Balsillie for asking. After all.it‘s a busiâ€" ness and you‘ve got to get the best deal possible You will likely hear the arguments. that such a venture would pay off in terms of other develop ments around the area of the arena. But that argu ment is full of hotes. There have been plenty of stud ies suggesting the spinoff effect of sports franchises is negligible at best Can it work here? Perhaps. 1 don‘t think there‘s much of an issue with selling out the arena. There are enough people within an hour‘s drive here to fill a place with 18,000 seats. 1 don‘t think that was the case in Winnipeg, or Quebec City, where franchises floun dered "f‘ The bigger question might be the financial strength of an arena itself. There are only 40 home games for any team. What, exactly, will happen with that building the other 320 days of the year? Concerts? Maybe, but with the John Labbatt Centre in London, Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, and the Air AN Canada Centre in Toronto, convincing RKE big name acts to stop here â€" rather than add another night in Toronto, might not be that casy. I‘m not sure we all want to throw our money into a place which might just be empty for threeâ€"quarâ€" ters of the year I‘m sure Mr. Balsillie will get some interest from several cities which are desperate for a franchise (Portland, Ore., and Kansas City are often menâ€" tioned). And he‘d be foolish to not listen to those offers. Just as we would be foolish to try to compete, at least on a government money basis, with them Good luck! Scott J. Abrams Waterloo The term spoiled has become a dinosaur, no longer spoken, for it has become the rule rather than the exception. Growing into adulthood requires that we act for the greater good. Those who break that code confirm by their acts that they are in fact the centre of the universe. behaved like a loner. However, there is one untried explanation that may bring this tragedy and other mass killings into focus, a notion that supposed kindâ€" ness is killing us literally and figuraâ€" tively. Symptoms are everywhere, from the father who ungrudgingly pays his daughter‘s monthly cellphone bill of $800 to parents exhausting their plastic so little Johnny and Jane can have all their little hearts desire. They‘re even anticipating their wants before they‘re voiced, leaving the offâ€" spring only to wait for the windfall. The problem arises when the babyâ€"turnedâ€"child continues to view itself as the focus of attention worthy to be served, and not just one of six billion inhabiting this planet. En Jim Newton New Dundee "It was after seeing Big Sugar at Wilfrid Laurier in the midâ€" ‘90s that I recognized a sort of template for how to bring reggae into rock music," said Hagerman. "I loved the rawness of Gordie Johnson‘s approach to the guitar and his ability to break into live dubbedâ€"out versions of his songs. I had never heard reggae like that before â€" where the guitar was mean and brash â€" and I absolutely fell in love with it." § And with the recent release of The Jolly Llamas‘ second album, Dread City Rockers, I have rediscovered the love I have for classic reggae with its highly rhythmic style, slow tempo bassâ€"driven beats, and intensely political folk music sensibiliâ€" ties. Brent Hagerman, frontman of The Jolly LJamas, is currently working on his PhD at Wilfrid Laurier University in the religion and culture department. The program is called religious diversiâ€" ty in North America, and his area of research is reggae and Rastafari. Like Hagerman, I too discovered the music of Big Sugar in the midâ€"‘90s, seeing them live more than 20 times in the following years at local venues like Club Abstract, The Volcano and Waterâ€" loo‘s Sounds of Summer Music Festiâ€" val. "We often use live dub techniques instead of guitar solos, whereby instruments drop out or wash away in echoes and every musician improvises their parts and feeds off each other," says Hagerman. "Live dub can be very experimental and rewarding, or it can sink like a stone â€" it‘s kind of dangerous that way. The music is great to dance to." Hagerman jokes, "Plus, when you have four goodâ€"looking guys like us on stage, how can the night not be a blast?" The folly Liamas CD release concert is Thursday, June 7 at the Starlight in Waterloo. Guelph roots reggae band Well Charged will be opening the show. Doors open at 9 p.m. and music will get underway between 9:30 and 10. Tickets are $8 or $15 for entrance and a CD. first discovered Jamaican music in my early teens after inherâ€" Iiling Bob Marley‘s 1979 album Survival from my older brothâ€" er‘s record collection. With its catchy hooks and militant lyrics, I was stung by the sweet sounds of 19708 reggae and dub for many years to come. We recently spoke about The Jolly Llamas, and the incorpo ration of reggae into his own music. With their heavy rootsâ€"rockâ€"reggae hk WA’I"‘I')““‘ sound and marathon threeâ€"hour sets, 1 remember grooving to live dub jam versions of Jimi Hendrix‘s I‘m a Man, and John Lee Hooker‘s Crawling Kingsnake. Big Sugar struck me as something comâ€" pletely different, and 1 found their live performances nothing less than astonishing. Hagerman agreed, "Here was a band that was into vintage rock and blues tones yet applied them to reggae music. And the fact that they had authentic reggae credibility with Gary Lowe and later Mojah just made them all the more appealing to me." Though born in New Brunswick, Hagerman moved to Bermuda in 1980 at the age of eight, one year before Bob Marley died. Tracks like Ease Up and Dub City off the new album were influenced by Caribbean culture, and the era in which he grew up "(Dub City) is named after a record store in Hamilton, Bermuda." explained Hagerman. "It was always an education to hang out there and soak up the music, the incense. and the vibes. You could buy 90â€"minute mixed tapes of all the latest reg gae there for $10 and the coolest thing about it was that it was a multicultural, multigenerational blend of the uptown and downtown crowds â€" private school teenagers standing next to 40â€"yearâ€"old dreads." The Jolly LIamas new album reflects that same diversity, with its eclectic mix of not only epic riffâ€"based reggaeâ€"rockers, but lesser amounts of ska and rocksteady as well. For their upcomâ€" ing CD release concert at the Starlight, Hagerman says that on stage, the music of The Jolly Llamas is taken to a whole other realm. "Reggae has a kind of floating and trance quality which lends itself to being expanded more than a lot of other music." . 0 Marshall Ward is a visual artist and independent filmmaker Email is welcome at mward@wlu.ca. We be jammin‘ WATERLOO CHRONICLE * Wednesday, May 30, 2007 +9 MARSHALL â€" Bill Laswell