Lögberg-Heimskringla - 18.02.1994, Blaðsíða 2

2 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 18. febrúar 1994
EDITORIAL
Let’s take a hard look at things
That headline may be a little
misleading because we are not
really going to take a hard look
at things today. Rather we are going to
talk about doing it. Partly that is
because it easier to talk about things
than it is too actually do them, and
partly because we are hoping to move
back in time, to the great tradition of
Lögberg and Heimskringla when the
arguments in the papers and between
the papers were fast and furiöus, hot
with passion and cold with logic and
avidly read by the subscribers.
I don’t want to start any particular
arguments here today. I do, however,
want to start a lot of arguments in gen-
eral, between you and me, between
you and your neighbors, among us all
as individuals and as groups involved
in the Icelandic community in North
America. It is my hope to devote this
page of the paper to that cause on a
regular basis and since I can be a fairly
tiresome person if you have to deal
with me on a regular basis, it would be
better if your views appeared more
often than mine in this space.
You are all, or almost all of you if
you are reading this paper, of
Icelandic descent. If you are not, you
are still included in this invitation - in
fact, it is extended to you with particu-
lar warmth because it is useful (it can
even be humbling) for Western
Icelanders to know what others think
of them and their concems and prides
and obsessions.
One of the most important roles
that Lögberg-Heimslcringla can play is
to offer the forum in which we can
discuss the issues that concem us as a
community in Canada, the United
States and in Iceland itself. These can
be anything from the proper way to
make Vínarterta - prunes or dates,
how many layers etc. - to the use of
the term Westem Icelander (a subject
which generated considerable debate
last year) to the fundamental issues
and questions about the organizations
that underpin the existence of the
community itself.
For example, in this issue of L-H
there is an ad from the Icelandic
National League urging readers to
support Icelandic culture and heritage
by joining their local chapter of the
INL. Good advice. The INL is poten-
tially one of the most important instm-
ments available to us in preserving
our heritage. Is it fulfilling that poten-
tial? What should it be doing that it is
not? What is it doing that it should
not be doing? How can it expand its
membership base to become more
representative of the entire North
American Icelandic community?
Should it try to represent the entire
community or remain as locally based,
loosely knit chapters?
Then there is the Festival
Committee, in charge of staging
íslendingadagurinn, the annual cele-
bration in Gimli. What do you think
of íslendingadagurinn? Is it, as so
many of us like to think, the most
important celebration affirming our
identity in North America? Or is it, as
some critics claim, simply the dreariest
and most boring summer fair held
anywhere in Manitoba? What do you
Letter to the Editor
Calling all Stamp Collectors
Iam a stamp collector and would
like to trade stamps with someone
in Canada or Iceland. That is, I
could send the person Canadian
stamps in retum for Icelandic stamps.
I’ve tried to find someone in
Manitoba or Iceland who could send
me stamps and in turn I could send
Canadian stamps. The stamps could be
unused or good stamps. That is stamps
in good condition.
I would not mind exchanging
stamps with someone in Iceland if I
could get a good address.
I trust you will advertise in your
paper or if someone knows of a
Icelandic collector I could trade with.
Anyone interested can contact me
at the address below. I look forward to
hearing from them.
I am responsible and a retired med-
ical doctor.
Yours tmly
Murray R. Hodgson
P.O. Box 610
Pincher Creek, Alberta TOK1W0

I nnhi

president: Neil Bardal vice presidenT: Don Bjornson trfasurer. Gordon Thorvaldson
gSECRETARY: Barbara Sigurdson editor: Tom Oleson icelandic editorS: Birgir Brynjolfsson & Gunnur Isfeld:
assistant editor: Laurie Oleson advertising Director: Fred Isford
recording secretary: Rosemarie Isford office manager: Laurie Oleson
board memberS: Robert Oleson, Linda Collette, Sigurlin Roed, Brian Petursson,
Gordon Peterson, Bea Sharpe, Oli Narfason, Hal Bjornson,
Dennis Stefanson, Baldur Schaldemose
representative in iceland: Þjóðræknisfélag (slendinga
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y. :
Subscription - $39.90 per year (indudes GST & PST) in Manitoba, $37.45 per year (indudes GST) in Canada,
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think; what are your suggestions.?
Then there is the Canada-Iceland
Foundation: is it fulfilling its mandate;
do we givé it the support it deserves;
what does the future hold for it and
the efforts it supports on our behalf?
The Department of Icelandic at the
University of Manitoba should be
another area of concem. Universities
across North America are enduring
even worse times financially than
society in general, confronted by large
cutbacks in funding and demands that
they change their traditional role. The
chair of Icelandic studies at the U of M
is the jewel in the crown of the North
American Icelandic community,
founded and funded by people who,
when the project began, gave more
than they could afford to ensure the
Icelandic heritage, culture and lan-
guage would survive in North
America. What does the future hold
for it and what should we be doing to
ensure its continuing survival and all
that it represents to us?
And then, of course, there is
Lögberg-Heimskringla itself. What
role does it have to play these days in
the grand scheme of things? How does
it reach out to new subscribers so that
it can be more representative of the
community at large? What’s wrong
with it now and can it be improved?
What’s right with it now, if anything?
We know that you have strong opin-
ions about the paper because we hear
them either directly from you or indi-
rectly through the grapevine. Set us
straight, help us out by writing them
out for this page.
Those are only a few of the things
that we should be talking about. I’ll be
discussing them now and again, which
you can regard as either a waming or a
threat. In fact, maybe you should
regard it as a threat, and if you don’t
want to have to endure my tiresome
ramblings, then fill the space yourself:
that’s what it’s here for.
—Tom Oleson
(Editorials express the opinions of the
author and do not necessarily reflect the
views of the board of directors or the staff of
Lögberg-Heimskringla)
Donations to
Lögberg-Heimskringla Inc.
In memory of Evelya Thordarsoa, of
Mozart, Sask. from thc Vatnabyggð
Icelandic Club of Sask............$10.
E.G. Westman, Blain WA..............$10.
Jonina Eamon, Edmonton, AB........$25.10
Robert Stevenson, Summerland, BC..$12.55
Bjossijonasson, Arborg, MB........$20.10
vJUa.*tJe^auJ

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