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Contributing to the vision
When we began this newspaper some six and three quarter years ago, one of our principal objectives was to give an opportunity for many different voices to be heard, and many different visions to be seen. You might not have guessed that from the first few issues, when the editor wrote almost everything, and took most of the pictures, too. But gradually, week by week, month by month, more and more writers and photographers came on board, to the point where we now have four regular photographers, three cartoonists, five opinion/editorial columnists (op-ed for short), and more than two dozen specialty columnists on a dizzying variety of topics. This is in addition to those who regularly contribute articles about their organization’s events, and the dozens of readers who write letters every year, commenting on the efforts of the rest of us.
Nowadays, our editor writes very little except for what goes in this space (and even this he occasionally palms off on Mr. Varley), and the odd piece under his byline beside Mr. Barris (except for when he gets a pony to write it). He very rarely takes out his camera except to fuel the “Viewpoints” contest. No, he mostly just sits back and watches his e-mail inbox for the marvellous material to roll in, almost always on time.
Many of our most devoted contributors are not represented in this issue, so we hope they will not take umbrage when we use this week’s writers and picture-makers as examples of the wonderful artists who’ve been drawn to the Cosmos. To go from front to back: Stuart Blower (who also creates many of our ads) can always be counted on to take super pictures at the last minute; we gave him two hours notice for this one. And Renee Leahy has a keen eye for mother nature, giving us a nice backlog of great shots for the bottom of page one.
On page three, Roger Varley came to us almost immediately upon retiring from his other job in ‘05, and is a quadruple threat, covering Council, the Bruins, getting things Wrong, and sipping coffee with an endless stream of fascinating Uxbridgers. On this page, Sean Fife is typical of the outspoken and very eloquent readers who we’re always happy to hear from. And the cartoons of John Wood are always a delightful surprise. On page 5, Ted Barris is our rock, the only person who’s contributed to every issue, as well as being one of our founding shareholders. Roger Pires has been with us almost as long, and is evidence that Udora is the funniest community in the Township. On page 6, Carol Johnson (on behalf of the Historical Society) represents the many busy volunteers who make writing for us one of their happy duties.
Kim Mortson on page 8 is one of our excellent specialty columnists. She only writes once a month, but if she wasn’t a professional trainer, we know she could make a living with her pen. On page 10, Maggie and Gareth Anderson are in their first of four years as our USS correspondents. Their work is already so creative and professional, we can hardly wait to see what they do in Grade 12. On page 13, Helen Harrison is the epitome of what a community columnist should be, thorough and thoughtful.
On page 15, John Cavers is probably the most regular of our non-”staff” photographers. We don’t give him assignments, he just sends us pictures he enjoys. If we use them, great, if not, no problem at all. Since early this spring, he’s been sending us his kayaking pictures, taken while paddling the marshes and rivers of northern Uxbridge township. We never told him we’d use them, but he probably figured we’d be saving them for a layout just like this. We’re sure you’ll agree he has a gifted eye, as any Superman should have.
So thank you to all these men and women, and the others you’ll see next week or the week after. We treasure what they give to us, and to you. They are the Cosmos.
July 14, 2011
