Opinions

January 28, 2008
Laura Kelsey

drsexysex@yahoo.ca

 

 

Heath Ledger: A Tragic Life

Laura
Kelsey

_ opinions editor

   
 

 

Dans the summer of ’97, I became
obsessed with a television program (a
rarity for me to care for TV). The show
was called Roar, an epic drama that took
place around 400 AD
in Ireland. There were
only 13 episodes, but
during its short run,
many North American
viewers got their first
glimpse at the young,

“He leaves
behind a two-year
old daughter who

better things in his career—although it
certainly had its ups and downs.

In 2000, he starred alongside Mel
Gibson in the American war drama The
Patriot. The movie won several awards
and brought Ledger praise from critics.
But from there on, despite having a role
in acclaimed film Monster's Ball, Ledger
starred in a slew of slumps, including A
Knight's Tale and The Order.

That all changed with the
fabulous wonder that was Brokeback
Mountain. Ledger went from little known
Aussie to big-star hottie overnight, and
his career looked on
track and promising.
But some thought he
played a lost soul a
little too accurately.
The fact that his body
was found on Tuesday,

handsome leader of will never get to January 22, attests to
the clan and star of the the parallels between
show: Heath Ledger. know the real the character he played
The show h ° ” on Brokeback and
was incredibly cheesy, im. his real life—not as
which probably a gay man, but a man
explained its quick that hurt so deep he
cancellation. Ledger played Conor, couldn’t even act his way out of it.

a Celtic hero who was always too
honourable for his own good; and he was
the only in the cast to go on to bigger and

Ledger was high school dropout,
and supposedly struggled with different
sorts of drugs for a long time. Watching

him on-screen, it
was sometimes hard
to find his characters
believable because
something else was
going on inside his
head while he was
acting. Whether it
was his eyes or his
subtle movements,
Ledger had the aura
of someone who had
been broken and
was having trouble
rebuilding.

So, he is
dead now. Gone the
way of many stars:
Monroe, Dean,
Joplin. And he
leaves behind a two-
year old daughter
who will never get
to know the real
him. She will only
know him as we, the
fans, do. She will see him in his movies
and wish she could meet him, just like I
did when I saw him in Roar.

In a way, all celebrities are
already dead to their fans. Fans know
them through the roles they play,

 

and will never really know their true
personalities; they are unattainable to us,
just as the dead are to everyone. Good-
bye to a man I never met, and good luck
to his daughter, Matilda, who just left
Hollywood and entered reality.

 

Deal With Deadly Ivy Before
Replanting Stanley Park

Laura Kelsey, Opinions Editor

 

O, December 15,

2006, an intense windstorm
swept through the jewel of
Vancouver, Stanley Park. The
storm knocked down over ten
thousand trees and left the
# park in utter disrepair. But
§ why?

Trees can live a
long time; they boast being
some of the oldest living
F organisms on the planet.
Trees stand patiently through
colonization and all sorts of
weather conditions. The fact
that thousands of trees fell
because of one storm should
speak to the public in more
ways than one: If trees that
have lived through many past
storms are now falling during
one night, the cause must be
| epic—or us.

Global warming has
been touted as one cause
of ever-increasing storm-
strength. And the storm on
© that night in December was
particularly ruthless, throwing

120 km winds at Vancouver. So, if the
storm was caused by climate change,
then we have ourselves to blame. But is
that the only reason why this park was
destroyed?

In 2004, the Stanley Park
Ecology Society (SPEC) and _ the
Vancouver Park Board started an
environmental initiative called Ivy
Busters. They realized the park had been
inundated with English ivy, a plant not
native to North America.

Alien or introduced species
of plants are much more common than
people realize, and many gardeners
cultivate and contribute to the problem
in their own backyards. Invasive plants,
like ivy, replace the natural vegetation of
a forest, which can have major negative
impact on the ecosystem: Yet another
problem humans can blame themselves
for.

SPEC states on its website
that English ivy also “can prevent the
regeneration of understory trees and
shrubs, and as it climbs trees, the weight
of ivy will increase the likelihood of
blow-down.”

There is still a significant ivy
problem in Stanley Park, and obviously

there is a correlation between trees
falling and ivy growth. So why is
replanting going forward before the ivy
problem is dealt with? Not only could
this happen again during a storm, but the
young, replanted trees will be hindered
by the copious masses of ivy along the
forest floor.

Eventually all trees will fall,
whether from wind or saws, but it is
becoming apparent that ivy plays a
significant role in destroying our British
Columbian woods. The forest along
the shores of the Coquitam River is
an excellent example of the wreckage
caused by these green invaders. The
foreign ivy is weakening our native land,
and it needs to be dealt with.

There are a few local groups
devoted to stopping alien plants from
taking over, including the Coastal
Invasive Plant Committee (CIPC) and
the Incasive Plant Council of B.C.
(IPCBC).

Next month, the replanting of
Stanley Park will begin again in full-
force. The public can only hope the
Vancouver Park Board has taken battling
aliens into their strategy, as well.