Reunion Arena may have collapsed into pile of twisted steel with no curb appeal this week, but that doesn't mean we won't remember the good times. In 1986, a Final Four and an NBA All-Star Game. The Mavs beating the hated Lakers in Game 6 of the 1988 NBA Western Finals. The Stars beating the hated Avs in Game 7 of the 1999 NHL Western Finals. ("Eddie's better!") World Championship Tennis. Pink Floyd, Garth Brooks, U2, McCartney, Springsteen and ZZ Top. Tatu and the Sidekicks. (Indoor soccer? Hey, you had to be there.) Reagan in 1984, Bush in 2006 and Obama in 2008, not to mention the Katrina refugees. Sure, the downtown arena was only state of the art until it opened and everyone else built luxury suites, but it was the home for so many memories if you were around here in the '80s and '90s. May the old barn rest in peace.

The recession has taken a toll on funding for literacy programs, but one stalwart in the reading battle is the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. This week, the foundation joined with the Dallas Children's Theater and students from St. Philip's School and Community Center in an essay contest, and it held a literacy fundraiser at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. Since its inception, the former first lady's foundation has provided $34 million in grants to 773 family literacy programs, including more than $6.5 million to 195 programs in Texas. The foundation has promoted and supported an essential pathway to success.

An important seed was planted along Woodall Rodgers Freeway this week, one that should grow into a major draw for visitors to the center city. Groundbreaking for the Perot Museum of Nature & Science means there will be a three-year wait for completion of the $185 million eye-popper of a building. Success will be measured in the excitement of young people who will show up to learn and be inspired by a true magnet for the mind.

Producer Tom Jennings and the National Geographic Channel have compiled hours of original footage from local TV and radio stations to tell the story of the Kennedy assassination in a compelling new way. For more than 50 years, some of this footage has been collecting dust as millions of Americans have pored over a select few frames from a select few cameras on the scene that day. But The Lost JFK Tapes: The Assassination tells the more complete story as it happened, in real time. The documentary has been featured at The Sixth Floor Museum, and it will be broadcast on the cable channel Monday at 8 p.m. This dark chapter in Dallas history should be remembered in its full context, and the filmmakers involved have helped make that possible.

Plano residents have been spoiled. Over the past two decades, some communities have seen a parade of empty suits head to Austin to represent them in the Texas House. But not Collin County; it has had Brian McCall. His announcement this week hat he's leaving office will leave a big leadership void, not only in Plano, but in the state Capitol. McCall has distinguished himself in innovative legislative ideas, like helping create the first DNA registry. He never stopped trying to instill a sense of evenhandedness in the House.

With so many people searching for swine flu vaccines, Dallas County health officials are making the right call to distribute 16,000 doses of the still-scarce H1N1 vaccine through several local pharmacies. Each store is receiving at least 100 doses to be administered to people whose health conditions put them at serious risk of complications from the swine flu.

Adults – and lawyers, in particular – have a Grinch-like way of taking the fun out of even the most joyful holiday tradition. Just ask residents of North Pole, Alaska. (Yes, there is such a place.) They just learned that volunteers in their small town would no longer be allowed to answer children's letters to Santa. Postal officials axed the project because a sex offender last year volunteered for the Operation Santa program. Good grief! Instead of jettisoning a 55-year-old tradition, how about screening participants and shielding personal information from the volunteers?

When Barack Obama bowed to Japan's emperor, former Vice President Dick Cheney led a chorus of critics who lambasted the president's gesture as a sign of weakness and shame. Stop the psychobabble, and accept the gesture as it was intended – a sincere show of respect, not a compromise of national security.