5 minute read
Voices
DON’T TAKE THE ‘BEST DAY OF THE YEAR’ FOR GRANTED
Dr. Seuss teaches us that the Grinch can’t stop Christmas.
Advertisement
We’ll need to find reassurance from somewhere else that neither a shooter (nor a referendum) can steal our July Fourth celebrations away. I was driving home from Goar Park after spending Independence
WILLIAM TAYLOR Day morning working at People Newspapers’ booth when I heard a report about paradegoers gunned down in a Highland Park.
Should I feel guilty for feeling relieved to realize it was the one in Illinois?
A date that Park Cities People’s founder and former parade planner Kirk Dooley calls the “single best day of the year in the Park Cities” had become the worst of days somewhere else.
That other park city is not quite as far away as we like to think.
A northern Illinois native, Sarah Oliai is familiar with the suburb 25 miles north of Chicago.
She led the Rotary Club of Park Cities parade committee and got the shocking notification on her phone while helping with the festivities in University Park.
“I think everybody who attended a parade that day thought about it,” Oliai told my colleague Rachel Snyder. “Particularly (in Highland Park, Texas), the names are very similar. Same name, different state.”
By July 5, a reader had tagged Rotary and the newspaper on social media with a photo of a Humvee equipped with two rifles and asked questions about its appropriateness after recent shootings like the one in Uvalde: “Can you agree we could have a ‘no guns’ parade?”
Military vehicles have long participated in the parade, but Oliai said planners would discuss the issue and safety. “There’s a special street they line up on, and we have a lot of veterans in our community who enjoy (seeing them),” she said. “With the news that happened later, I can certainly understand why (some of the military vehicles) would cause great concern.”
How concerned should we be about other recent news with July Fourth implications?
Used to be that modern secession talk was either Texas bravado or the purview of kooks. Now it’s discussed during platform meetings held by the state’s ruling party. I am not one who aspires to retire outside the United States, but if I did, I’d want it to be because I changed my mind, not because the ground beneath me suddenly became its own country. We recite the Pledge of Allegiance at weekly Rotary meetings and sing the Star Spangled Banner. The biggest project each year is the Park Cities Fourth of July Parade.
It’s hard to fathom our Legislature putting a secession referendum on the ballot as soon as November 2023 (or ever).
And when I think about the American flag-waving, parade-loving neighbors of the Park Cities, I can’t envision even the most conservative of them voting in favor.
Surely, I’m right?
David Dowler served six years on the Highland Park Town Council, the past two as
mayor pro tem. (PHOTO: COURTESY TOWN OF HIGHLAND PARK)
Terms Limited, Not Love For Town
To my fellow citizens of Highland Park: On May 17, 2022, I served my last day on
DAVID DOWLER our Town Council as a member, the previous two as mayor pro tem. I have reached the quite appropriate term limit of six years.
It has been a privilege to be part of our governing body in this remarkable community. I have had the distinct pleasure of serving two dedicated mayors: during 2016-18, Joel Williams, and during 2018-2022, Margo Goodwin. From 2008 through 2016, I also served on the Zoning Commission.
Every mayor works long hours with the experienced and skilled town staff, led admirably by Bill Lindley, and each mayor develops a good understanding of the town’s operations and issues. The five council members, on the other hand, are tasked with asking the right questions of our staff and probing (politely) the mayor’s approach to each issue in order to guide decisions and policy. I hope I asked the right questions over the years and that our collective, constructive dialogue helped steer the governmental ship through calm waters. My votes on issues were guided by thoughtful analysis and with an ear to all of you who live here, many of whom contacted me over the years.
My affection for Highland Park is deep-seated. A young boy at Bradfield cannot understand how his environment shapes him until years after the fact, and then appreciation swells, especially as he recalls that defining question posed by his education-minded parents when moving from St. Louis in 1953: What is the best public school system in Dallas? A home on Belclaire was duly purchased. Years later, when attending HPHS, a traditional rite of passage also involved Highland Park – my first job. During the mayoral tenure of Bill Seay Sr., conveniently our next-door neighbor, I was hired at 17 in the summer of 1965 to water our beautiful parks (pre-automatic sprinklers). Forty-four hours a week for $1.10 per hour, good suntan included! With this history, you can understand my pleasure during my time in office with being involved in the restoration and upgrades of both Fairfax Park and Douglas Park. Enjoy these wonderful places. Lastly, I must smile upon the irony of driving to the “dump” while a teenage employee of HP to empty trash to the present era when the town sold this property located in the industrial district for many millions of dollars to a respected real estate developer while I was on the council. An unexpected but fitting denouement!
Respectfully, David Dowler
• Daniel Drabinski, whose volunteer work with the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas earned a 2022 Platinum Community Service Award from the MassMutual Foundation. The prize comes with a $25,000 grant for the Moody Family YMCA. • Melissa Rieman, University Park’s 2022 Citizen of the Year. The 2022 La Fiesta de las Seis Banderas gala chair has a long resume of volunteering, including serving as president of the Friends of the University Park Public Library and her son’s Young Men’s Service League group.
• And Hilda Galvan, a 2023 Dallas Business Hall of Fame inductee by Junior Achievement of Dallas. The lawyer from University Park works as partner-in-charge at Jones Day’s Dallas office. Other 2023 inductees include former Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings; G. Brint Ryan, of Ryan LLC; and Kneeland Youngblood, of Pharos Capital Group.
