DW: How did a California boy like yourself wind up in New York just as the hardcore music scene was taking off?
PK: I was born in Whittier, California and played punk rock around the state from 1976 to 1983. Then I heard about a punk rock explosion in New York called hardcore, so I went to New York to investigate it. I was playing music, showed up at CBGB’s to a hardcore show and I was shocked at the energy level created by the roughly 30 people in attendance. Even though there were just 30 people, it felt important whereas the California scene just felt commercial. I felt something’s going on here—the music and an art scene were starting to bubble.

DW: Was the feel and sound of hardcore music influencing the look and aesthetic of the art being created or were they pretty independent of each other?
PK: It was sort of all mixed together. The East Village was all ready to explode because at that time the rents were very cheap in New York. If you were an artist, or a burgeoning art dealer opening up a space, you could do it on a shoestring budget. In 1984 alone, 175 galleries opened in the East Village, which meant there was room for 10 artists per gallery; you multiply that by all the artists jockeying for wall space and you can imagine how volatile, yet vibrant the scene was back then. All the artists had bands too. I had Youth Gone Mad, Jean- Michel Basquiat had The Grey and L.A. artist Michael Kelly had a band as well. It was a really exciting time, that ’83–’86 period in Manhattan and the East Village.

DW: That period in the early ‘80s seems like it was a very fertile time creatively in New York City, as styles and sounds transitioned away from the ‘60s and ‘70s influences into a new era. What was it like being on ground zero for all of that?
PK: I did miss that whole Max’s Kansas City scene and the early days of CBGB’s but sounds were transitioning from garage and punk to something heavier, faster, and wilder-hardcore. It was the evolution of punk rock music, speeding it up to the point of almost a speed-metal type of sound. The music was high energy but I was already used to the violence in California and was trying to escape it. New York had a similar violent hardcore scene but much smaller.

DW: How did the zeitgeist of that time—all those creative things happening all around you—influence your evolution as an artist? What was your style at the time? What medium were you working in?
PK: I came from the cartoon world and was doing line-styled drawings; by that point, however, I was working with whatever I could get. My favorite medium at the time was oil stick because it was an extension of the crayon. I also used crayons and spray paint. I did a lot of spray paint and stencil work for band logos. So I’d be spray painting band names on sides of buildings, which is sort of street art today. Back then it was usually called vandalism.

DW: Later in the decade you became friends with and hung around Dee Dee Ramone—what was that like?
PK: Dee Dee was into doing art when I met him in ’89. He had just quit the Ramones because he was sick of playing in front of no one. Dee Dee just felt like the band was dead. So he and I started hanging out; making art together. He kept playing music solo, but it was difficult. No one wants a solo artist; they just want what the original was. It was frustrating for him. The audience just wanted him to play Ramones covers, but he didn’t want to do that. It made it difficult for him to work on music, so instead we worked on art together. It was interesting. We were great friends.

DW: So let’s fast forward to today, what’s the East Village specifically, and New York City in general currently like?
PK:  Well, New York today compared to 20 or 25 years ago, to me, is more like a transplant city. If you came to New York in the ‘80s, and lived there for a year, you couldn’t really wear the stripes of being called a “New Yorker.” Then in the ‘90s, New York became a little more accepting of transplants to the point that, after 2-4 years of living here you were considered a New Yorker. Today, however, you can move to New York in one week and pretty much learn the ins and outs. When a band or an artist moves to New York today they consider themselves a “New Yorker” right away. It’s become gentrified as a lot of the individual characteristics of the specific areas have become lost. Because in the digital age, you can just dial in and any web channel you be on Avenue A. So the exotic nature of the city is sort of gone. We’re still probably the greatest city in the world but it really should be called “The City” instead of “New York City.”

DW: How did a long-time New York City artist like yourself find out about our art scene here? Have you been to Williamsport before? Do you have previous connections here?
PK: It’s interesting how I wound up here actually. There was an artist in New York, Luke Yocum, he contacted me a couple of years ago about doing a show in Chelsea, at the Chelsea Hotel; he asked me to be in a show there, which I said yes to, but unfortunately it never materialized. We stayed in contact after that. He told me about the success of his shows in Williamsport; it piqued my interest, so Luke introduced me to Casey (Gleghorn) of Grey Art Gallery. I was impressed by Casey’s enthusiasm and agreed to do a show in Williamsport.

DW: What do you think of Williamsport?
PK: I like it. I especially like Casey and his energy, as well as his enthusiasm, about everything. It creates a really good, happy energy, not unlike the galleries up in the East Village. That combined with the presence of talented New York artists who have relocated here like Luke and Todd Lim reminds me of the early East Village scene. So I feel a strong connection to the area.

DW: Williamsport has this interesting dichotomy going on. You have downtown, which is developed and is cool. But then you have the Pajama Factory which is like its own creative subculture away from downtown. It’s really something to experience the similarities as well as differences of both sides. I’m sure as an outsider coming in you wouldn’t expect such a varied and vibrant arts and music scene in a town this size.
PK: I’m very curious about this Pajama Factory space. I’ve heard that there’s an investment group out of the Tribeca area of New York involved. I’ve heard so much about it (the Pajama Factory). The way it’s been described reminds me of a place called “The Brewery” in Los Angeles, where they’ve done the same kind of thing. It took about twenty years to do it there. But “The Brewery” is a fabulous place and I’d imagine the Pajama Factory is as well.     

DW: Tell me a bit about the band you’re bringing to town?
PK: Yeah, Damn Kids. We’re almost like folk punk rock and we’re very storyboard oriented. What we’re bringing tonight is our own kind of punk rock. We’re influenced by things like the Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, and early punk rock like the Sex Pistols. Our sound is also diverse enough that some of our songs have a tone not unlike the Allman Brothers.

DW: What do you have planned coming up after this with you art as well as your music?
PK: I’ll be traveling to Europe first and then in the summer back in New York working on art. In June I have 3 concerts in Italy with my brother Mark and Tony Esposito along with a museum style show of paintings. I am also working on an album with singer Martin Royle from New Orleans, it promises to be a beautiful indie-pop album.

James, who started working on the film festival idea back in 2009 after experiencing the 2008 Governor’s Arts Awards, says that he wants the festival to be apolitical. There is no agenda to be pushed except to bring independent films to Williamsport. He acknowledges that the recent controversy regarding contraception, state-mandated ultrasound examinations and women’s health rights has brought the Billtown Festival into the local spotlight, but the theme had been in the works for a year. “Innocuous and innocent everyday words like ‘women’ and ‘environment’ have become buzzwords,” James says. He wants to avoid controversy.

While the festival places emphasis on women artists and filmmakers, men are not excluded. The criteria for film selection were loosely based on the theme. If a film covered one of the subjects in the theme–or any combination thereof–it met the requirements. James said that some films were rejected because they didn’t meet the criteria. “What the audiences will see will be a diverse assortment of feature films and short films that touch on many subjects, yet are still under the banner of ‘Art, Women and the Environment.’”

The Billtown Film Festival will be raising money for the Williamsport YWCA and The Breast Cancer Fund through a special program provided by Lunafest, a national traveling film festival. In other words, it will be a film festival within a film festival. James has reached out to women’s organizations across the region to support this effort. “My motives are not entirely altruistic; by helping the YWCA, the Billtown Film Festival gains in recognition and stature within our community,” James said.

Lunafest is a national film festival that features short films by, for and about women. Lunafest was established in 2000 by LUNA, makers of the Whole Nutrition Bar for Women, to simultaneously promote women filmmakers, raise awareness for women’s issues and support worthy women’s nonprofit organizations. LUNA is proud of its ten-year partnership with the Breast Cancer Fund, a pioneering organization whose mission is to identify and eliminate the environmental causes of the disease. Since partnering with the Breast Cancer Fund, LUNA has raised over three million dollars for the organization.

Tickets for the festival will be $5.00 per night at the door. The proceeds from the opening night, featuring the Lunafest program, will be split up as follows: 85% will go to the Williamsport YWCA and 15% (or $250.00) will go to Lunafest for the Breast Cancer Fund. Ticket sales on the subsequent nights (April 20 and 21) will be used to pay for festival expenses and to build for the future. James urges the community to come out and have a good time in downtown Williamsport. “We think the price is reasonable and the cause is worthwhile,” James said.

Some of the films to be shown are John Yogodzinski’s “Never Let Your Guard Down,” Lynn Estomin’s “Out of Step” and Lorena Beniquez’s “stART” (formerly Williamsport Art Attack). James says, “Lorena has re-edited the film especially for the film festival audience and will be a guest speaker!” There will be selections from internationally based filmmakers too. James likes the film “Island” by Sophie Windsor Clive and Liberty Smith, two women living in London. “It’s incredibly beautiful!” James says.

James and the BFF executive committee have also arranged to have local visual artists and photographers exhibit their works in the CAC lobby during the festival. It will be a multimedia event.

Event: Billtown Film Festival

When: Thursday, April 19, Friday April 20 and Saturday April 21, 2012 (proceeds from April 19th show to benefit Williamsport YWCA and the Breast Cancer Fund)

Where: The Community Arts Center, 220 West Fourth Street, Williamsport

Times: Shows start at 7pm. Doors open at 6:30pm (each show lasts about 2 hours)

Contact: richard@billtownfilmfestival.com

Website: www.billtownfilmfestival.com

Billtown Film Festival is on Facebook.

Unless you play Bejeweled.

If you haven’t yet been sucked into this addictive little video puzzle game yet, allow me to explain the basics: there is a sea of jewels on your television (or computer, or iPhone, or iPod) screen. It’s a grid of white spheres, purple triangles, blue diamonds, purple triangles, and … and red squares.

You shuffle the jewels around, exchanging each one with neighboring jewels, with this goal: align three jewels in a row. When you do, they disappear and you’ll accumulate valuable points.

I’ve been playing for hours at a time. But back to the parking lot: three red cars in a row.

Before my brain even had the opportunity to simply accept the fact that three Rite Aid shoppers owned red vehicles and just happened to park in a neat line, Bejeweled took over my mind: I paused, briefly, and wondered why all three cars hadn’t disappeared when the Prism pulled in next to both SUV’s.

Perhaps this goes without saying: I have been playing far too much Bejeweled.

There’s a name for this phenomenon: the Tetris Effect. It describes the sensation you get after playing a repetitive game like Tetris or Bejeweled—the impulse to organize your real-life world according to the game’s rules. The impulse to arrange your junk drawer to remove the white space (Tetris) or to rearrange cars to set the entire parking lot up for a high-scoring Hypercube (Bejeweled).

And it is a tiring impulse.

Modern technology spills out into our daily lives. And we, clumsy folks that we are, are usually the ones coordinating all the spillage. Remember when a desktop computer was a loud and rumbling behemoth that sat stationary on a desk in our living room? Most of us have ditched that setup for portability: laptop, iPad, iPhone, iWhatever. We don’t confine a computer to one room in the house. We watch Netflix in bed. We check our email in the kitchen. We text in the bathroom (and don’t dare tell me you’ve never done it).

We graciously accepted these portable devices. We invited them out for a trial run—a date or two, maybe—and now, like full-fledged stalkers, they won’t leave us alone. They even distract us from the two of the greatest joys in life: eating and sleeping. Haven’t we all been too busy taking a digital picture of our lunch to actually taste what we’re eating? And surely I’m not the only one who’s woken up (and responded to) a 2 a.m. text.

It’s time to hide from our electronic gadgetry—if only for a single week.

Think you can do it? Think you can peel yourself away from Farmville or Bejeweled? How about Facebook and Twitter? Pinterest? Reddit? Huffpost? Netflix?

Call it a battle against information overload. Call it a return to our natural world.

Actually, call it Screen-Free Week. Because, well, that’s what it’s called, according to the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. Each year, they challenge people across the globe  to disconnect from computers, video games, Smartphones, and television.

For only a week.

Really—it’s not that long. You can do it.

Join me in celebrating an all-out digital detox during the week of April 30th through May 6th, 2012. It’ll be one screen-free week that re-acquaints you with your family, your neighborhood, and your community.

And, perhaps your sense of self. And your emotional well-being. And your natural sleep cycle.

Pick up a book. Pick up a printed newspaper. Heck, pick up a date & enjoy some dinner (without the movie, of course). Real-life social experiences are a treat.

I’m going to miss Bejeweled and Facebook and the warm hum of my laptop fan, but the internet isn’t going anywhere. Neither is your cable lineup or your copy of Mass Effect 3 that’s spinning along inside your PS3.

Everything will be there when we return from our vacation from the digital landscape.

Take pause, see what non-digital delights await you in our natural world, and allow yourself to let go of technology’s burden. Meditate. Ride a bicycle. Take a drive up the mountain. See what’s lurking beneath your bed.

Pull out your bead and button collection and start crafting. Grab some coffee at Alabaster. Throw a quarter or two in a few expired meters so your neighbors don’t get parking tickets.

Eat slowly. Walk mindfully.

And allow your eyes to adjust from pixels to particles.

For more information on Screen-Free Week, visit screenfree.org.

We also had a very successful fundraising dinner at The Herdic House; 64 people came out to support The Williamsport Guardian and WXPI radio. They enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by Herdic House executive chef and founding editor of The Williamsport Guardian, Liz Miele. The event raised over $2000, which is great, but even more important to me were all the people who came together to share their passion for progressive media. The conversations we had and the connections we made were the most important part of the evening, and made me want to create more opportunities to get together face to face with our readers.

I am therefore starting a new tradition: a new issue release party held shortly after each issue hits the streets. These will be informal gatherings at a local restaurant or watering hole where Guardian readers, writers and editors can gather to chew the fat (and other tasty tidbits). We hope that ideas will be exchanged and that some of those ideas may find their way into future pages of The Williamsport Guardian. We also hope to get to know more of our readers and to introduce our readers to each other. The first party will be held at The Family Wok in Montoursville (309 Broad St.) on Tuesday, April 3, at 7 pm. The Family Wok has great sushi along with their Chinese food menu. We’ll order some food to share and take up a collection to cover the cost. You are welcome to come and share food, order your own or skip the food and just enjoy the conversation.

One of the highlights of our fundraising dinner was the announcement that WXPI is finally streaming online. If you haven’t been able to listen to the station because of reception problems, you can now listen to it anywhere you can get an internet connection. Just go to www.wxpiradio.org and click on Tune In Online. WXPI airs the news programs, Democracy Now!, Pacifica News and The Rick Smith show, as well as a mix of music programing that includes jazz, big band, oldies, soul, R&B, hip hop and more. The schedule is evolving, so tune in often to see what’s new.

We are dismayed to report in this issue that Pennsylvania is now the 16th state to enact voter ID legislation. Voting lockstep in favor were all Northcentral Pennsylvania Republican senators: Gene Yaw, Joseph Scarnati, Lisa Baker and Jake Corman. Lone regional Democrat John Wozniak voted against. The same pattern held true in the House, with Rick Mirabito voting against and Garth Everett, Matt Baker and all other Republicans voting for. Why are Republicans hell-bent on passing this law? They cry “voter fraud,” even though state election officials have found no evidence of voter impersonation fraud. But what about all those 2008 horror stories of ACORN employees turning in fraudulent voter registration cards with names like Mickey Mouse? Yes, that apparently happened in Arizona, but no one claiming to be Mickey Mouse actually showed up on Election Day. So the big hype about supposedly massive voter fraud was actually a story about voter registration fraud, committed by a handful of employees trying to boost their numbers and make themselves look good. Stupid and unethical, but not voter fraud. And not a single instance was found in Pennsylvania, according to the PA Department of State.

Why would Republicans want to put an additional obstacle in the path of voters? Voting rates have been in a fairly steady decline for the past 50 years. Apparently Republican politicians want to make sure the decline continues. Those likely to be disproportionately affected by the new requirements include the elderly, young people, the disabled, the poor and minorities, according to the PA Council of Churches, which vigorously opposed the law. The new law will cost an estimated $11 million to implement, with additional costs at every election—at the same time as education and social programs face massive cuts.

Meanwhile our state government is giving away the house with Act 13 (see page 8). All the more reason why we need to protect our right to vote so we can send a strong message to the politicians who are responsible for passing both these bills.

My 50th high school reunion was last August. My husband and high school classmate, Richard Allen, and I were excited about the prospect. It would be great to see old friends and celebrate 50 years. It was Williamsport High School Class of 1961. School reunions, especially big ones like 50 years, are an invitation to reflect. Sort of like each December, when you can’t help but conjure up the memories of “Christmases Past.”

Those were the “good old days” in Williamsport. We had L. L. Stearns, Brozman’s, Carroll House, and Lynn Hayes for those with a little more money. We had three dime stores in a row, drug stores with soda fountains, and many specialty shops. We had the gracious Lycoming Hotel and the quaint Village Tea Room. In our minds, we had no crime, children played happily outdoors, and we were all safe.

Reflecting back, I think that perceived “safety” was really insulation from some harsh realities of the time. The invitation for the 50th came six months in advance. I give my heartfelt thanks to the organizers. They worked hard and made it happen. Richard and I filled out our profile sheets and sent in our money. The big reunion dinner was to be held at the Williamsport Country Club.

My mind raced back in time. It had been several years since I had been to the Country Club.  Neither Richard nor my family were members in 1961, but we had been there for dances and our families might have been members. The families of our Jewish and black classmates, however, were barred from membership. I knew that then, but that was just “the way it was.” A few years later, Richard’s family helped start the Grampian Hills Club, which was open to Jews.

Richard and I were on a track to succeed—he was elected the boy “most likely to succeed”; I was the “most studious” girl. He was the business manager of La Memoire, our yearbook. I was the assistant editor of the school newspaper, The Billtown Banner. (Yes, the editor was a boy.)  We were both going off to private liberal arts colleges. It took many, many years for me to fully realize how very privileged we were.

It was only lately that I learned that blacks at that time could not stay at the Lycoming Hotel. Nor were blacks welcome at our quaint little café, Gordon Ade’s Village Tea Room. Nor were they welcome, I am sure, at dozens and dozens of other places that this little white girl never thought about.

Although Gordon Ade, owner of the Tea Room, was clearly gay, no one said it out loud. If we had, we probably would have called him a “fruit,” “fag,” “fairy” or some other not so nice word. It seemed so strange when l learned, a few years ago, that the gracious gay man would not serve those delicious sticky buns to blacks.

Richard actually had the program from our graduation in June 1961. We looked at who had gotten the honors and the prizes. I was surprised to see that there was a prize reserved for “the highest ranking Negro boy and the highest ranking Negro girl of the graduating class.”  The honors went to Jack Evans and Marilyn Fairfax. The wording of that prize popped right out at me now, whereas I did not give it a second thought 50 years ago. The prize was $10.

Again, years later, I heard stories about our guidance counselors—counselors who suggested that Italian students not even consider college, but get jobs where they could work with their hands, because “they” were good at that.

Richard and I recalled a classmate who became pregnant our senior year. She could not attend classes at Williamsport High School once it was known. The teenaged father could. It would be at least 10 more years until a pregnant girl was allowed in class. There was no legal abortion then, and most likely the girl went to live out of town with an “aunt” or went to the Florence Crittenton Home and “gave away” her baby.

Ten or so years before that at Williamsport High School, each student had to pass a swimming test to graduate. There was no pool at the school, so the test was at the YW. Black girls were not allowed to swim in the Young Women’s Christian Association pool, so the late Dr. Mamie Diggs, noted local historian, took her swimming test in Lycoming Creek.

For the members of the class of 1961 at WHS, being “out” if you were gay or lesbian was definitely not an option. Richard and I wondered how many of those smiling faces in the yearbook photos were hiding secrets—maybe even from themselves. Richard recalled that one of our classmates was outed. Local people viciously attacked his house.

Our class members were required to “pray” every day in homeroom. I was in Mr. Singley’s homeroom. The prayer was the Lord’s Prayer and, as a Catholic, I learned to be silent for the last part, which was the “Protestant” part. Every day one student was chosen to read a verse from the Bible—maybe that was a nod to our Jewish classmates who read from the Old Testament, but what about classmates of other faiths or no faith?

In my Williamsport High School experience, advanced math classes were restricted to boys—not by rule, of course, but by the taunting that any girl in the class received. I was one of those and dropped math for journalism. I had one of the highest math SATs in the graduating class.

Where our classmates’ families were allowed to live in Lycoming County was a matter of their race and ethnicity, although that really did not occur to me then. There were no blacks or Italians in Montoursville and few, if any, in South Williamsport. If you lived in Loyalsock Township, the deed to your house most likely stipulated that you could not sell to a Negro or an Italian. Most blacks, then, lived in Williamsport, but where one could live was circumscribed. High Street was the northern boundary of where a black family could get a mortgage. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I fully realized that—when I attended a program at the Lycoming County Historical Society and African Americans in the audience began to talk about growing up in Williamsport. I guess it was just the way it was in those “good old days.”

I heard more stories about prejudice and discrimination against Catholics. Were there restrictions on me, a Catholic who went to elementary school at St. Boniface, that I never even realized?

The reunion was lots of fun. We met old friends and made some new ones and remembered the “old times.” Yes, there were many fond memories, but, wow, the things I did not know—and I am sure what I know now is only the tip of the iceberg. And, yes, I am very happy to be living in the Williamsport of today.

But, more importantly, the whole experience makes me wonder what hidden barriers there are today that I do not see.

The “Penn State Report,” as it came to be known, established the gas industry’s compact with the state. It created a shell within which the industry would not be taxed heavily and not taxed at all on the gas it extracted. In return the state was promised taxes, jobs, and economic development from the “multiplier effect” of the drilling activity and from the expected investment of lease holders’ bonuses and royalties. Except for state leases on forest land, no income would come directly from gas production.

Essentially, the state was persuaded to give up a finite commonwealth asset, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, in return for unsubstantiated promises of jobs and taxes from drilling service industries. Only a small portion of the promised “multiplier” benefits have materialized. A study by Penn State Extension and Pennsylvania College of Technology looked at how lessees in Bradford and Tioga Counties spent their bonuses and royalty money in 2009. Only 15.3% of how they used this income would have added jobs in the state.

Gas corporations compete fiercely to lease acreage, leases which are time sensitive and require active exploitation within a few years. That, and satisfying investors with production, has caused a rush to drill. The state, to get its promised rewards, became a partner in expediting drilling. The industry quickly overproduced its market, which has caused the price of gas to plummet.

Shale gas is expensive to exploit. A 2008 Bank of America NYMEX analysis put the average break-even point for drillers at $8 per thousand cubic feet, which is more than three times its current market value. With gas value decoupled from its high production cost, gas companies are experiencing large negative cash flows, 6 billion dollars for Chesapeake Energy alone last year. There is a distinction between technically recoverable and economically recoverable natural gas. At the moment, it is likely that none of the gas in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale is economically recoverable.

Unable to make money from selling gas, corporations rely on their investors and the sale of assets to carry them through. Investors count on in-ground reserves to underpin their confidence, which is problematic because estimates vary wildly and there is suspicion of hype by corporations. Arthur Berman, a geologist and investment analyst, has been warning that some of these investments are already under water.

The need to book in-ground reserves has created a commodity market for shale acreage independent of the price of natural gas. Selling in-ground assets to other corporations has often become the core business. Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake Energy’s CEO, bragged that flipping acreage is much more profitable than selling gas. Foreign companies, some state owned, helped drive this market, investing 56.4 billion dollars last year. Sven Del Pozzo, a senior equity analyst at IHS Inc., worries that this market, which is fetching around $15,000 per acre, has become a bubble.

Drilling rigs are beginning to leave the “dry gas” region of northeast PA in flight to “wet gas” regions. They won’t all go because of the need to secure leases and show production to anchor stock prices. Gas production will continue and even increase in the short term, as already drilled wells are connected to the distribution network.

Small business owners who have invested in providing services to the drilling industry believed in the decades of prosperity that their government, their university, and their business leaders promised. Now, just two and a half years later, they are in great danger of being hurt.

Jon Bogle is a sculptor and Professor Emeritus at Lycoming College. A founding member and first president of the Responsible Drilling Alliance in Williamsport, he has testified before state legislative committees on shale gas economics and environmental issues.

The Friends of the JV Brown Library Annual Spring Book Sale
Pine Street U.M. Church, 441 Pine Street, Williamsport
April 19, 20 and 21
As has been the tradition in past sales, Thursday evening (April 19) will be a preview night for Friends’ Members to make early selections. Memberships will be sold at the door to anyone who would like to join the Friends so as to participate in the pre-sale from 5pm to 9pm. The public sale will be on Friday, April 20, from 9am until 7pm, and Saturday, April 21, from 9am until 3pm. The usual array of tens of thousands of books will be for sale, from toddler board books through informative nonfiction and fiction to lovely coffee table books of fine art and photography. It will be a sale that avid readers won’t want to miss. Books will be sold individually or by the bag at very reasonable prices, with a bag special concluding the sale on Saturday.

Lewisburg Arts Festival
April 27, 2012 – May 12, 2012
The festivities begin Friday evening, April 27, with three exhibits. The Indoor Art Exhibit, a juried show for adult artists and the Scholastic Arts Exhibit, with artists from over twenty high schools, will be held at the Packwood House Museum, 15 N. Water St. The Photography Exhibit, a juried show of amateur photographers, will take place at the Lewisburg Studio, 425 Market St.
Market Street Arts Show, Saturday, April 28. Over 100 juried artists in all mediums, plus musical acts, dancers and more. There will also be food vendors and children’s activities. Shuttle bus transportation will be available all day from the old Wal-Mart parking lot to downtown.
The Arts Festival continues for two weeks with four, varied arts workshops,  and Lewisburg Live!, live bands in venues throughout downtown Lewisburg on Saturday, May 12.
For more information: http://www.lewisburgartscouncil.com or call 570-524-5221

BilltownLIVE one of our favorite local events calendars is about to return after a long hiatus. According to their web site they have secured office space at The Community Arts Center and plan a relaunch in early April. Check them out at www.BilltownLIVE.com.

Martin Luther King Blvd. Dedication                                                                                                                                                                                                                              April 15 at 3 pm                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Campbell Street Family, Youth, and Community Center, 600 Campbell St., Williamsport                                                                                                        An observance ceremony of the renaming of Memorial Avenue in Williamsport to Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard. Notable guest speakers, public officials and civic leaders will be in attendance. The local community raised money for the 15 signs needed. The idea whose time has come is the brainchild of Frederick (Red) Richardson.

What is a Comic Con?

Historically, a comic con (con is short for convention) was an event in which fans, creators, and marketers of comics came together. Industry secrets, new characters, and new story lines were unveiled, artists and writers were available for autographs, people went around in costume and entered contests and parades (the term for this is cosplay, short for costume play), and the main comics engines and personalities were there, like DC and Marvel and Stan Lee.

The popular perception was that comic cons were for geeks and fans of comics—not for serious people.  

DC and Marvel are comic book producers. Their model is different from the newer, digital or trade-published version of comics and graphic novels. DC and Marvel owned the characters, or concepts. They hired artists and writers to do more stories about the concepts they owned, and these were released as serials.

The traditional type of comic con still exists. Big ones are hosted across the country each year in cities like New York and San Diego, but they’re changing, too. They’re making room for the indie comics whose influence has been on a steady incline.  

An example of the prevalence of indie comics is the website DeviantArt.com. DeviantArt is an online forum for artists and storytellers to come together and create worlds. DeviantArt hosts 197 million pieces of art and has twenty million registered artists, creators, and fans.  

New Breed of Con

But with the steady de-centralization of content and content’s gatekeepers holding less and less power, and the ever-more-sophisticated digital media for both creating and publishing comics, comics are in a renaissance of sorts.

They’re not just for fan boys any more.

Wildcat Comic Con is part of a new breed of comic book convention, and one of the first half dozen or so of its kind in the country over the last few years.  

This comic con is for fans, yes, and creators, too, but it’s also for educators and librarians. The WCC collects voices from influential segments of the educational, library science, graphic, and film worlds. And there will be a bunch of heavy hitters there, trailblazers in their fields, nationally-known scholars.

Conversations with Some of the Presenters

The Guardian asked John Meier, a science librarian at Penn State’s Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library, about his professional interest in comics, and he said, “There’s an emerging number of science comics and graphic novels, nonfiction, that are tough to find, but coming out more frequently. You used to be able to count on one hand the number there are, but now there are all sorts. There are stories that tell the lives of human scientists. But there are also modern explanations of evolution and biology for the college level.”  

John Meier will be sitting on a panel about developing graphic novel collections for academic libraries. He is also responsible for instituting Penn State’s Lynd Ward prize for the graphic novel, which is the first non-industry literary award in the field.

Dr. Michael Bitz will deliver the opening remarks for the Wild Cat Comic Con. Bitz founded the Center for Educational Pathways and its Comic Book Project. The Comic Book Project is an initiative that guides students through creating a comic book. This activity will aid in developing literacy and reinforce it. Bitz said, “The thing that really strikes me is the creative ability, which is different from the ability to draw. It’s more about the quality of the story, the quality of the characters, and how the art is intertwined.”

In addition to opening the con, Dr. Bitz will sit on a number of panels about comics in education at the Wildcat Comic Con.

Maureen Bakis runs a website called “Graphic Novels in High School English”, which is a collection of resources for high school English teachers who are interested in teaching graphic novels. Bakis is also working on her doctorate in education. She said her dissertation will likely focus on “mobile technologies, like the iPad, in the classroom, and how they will hopefully change teacher-centered learning into student-centered learning.”

Finally, Dr. John Weaver, a high school English teacher at Williamsport’s own WAHS, will be sitting on a number of panels that address components of education using graphic text. He said, “Comics are good to talk about, they are valuable for students, and you can think intellectually and rigorously about them.”

“It’s definitely terrifying to start your own business, but also very exciting,” says Lara of giving up their jobs as farm managers. Most recently she and James managed Rendezvous Farm, a small organic vegetable and livestock operation in Western Colorado that sells almost exclusively to high-end restaurants in the chic ski town of Aspen. “We learned a lot, but ultimately it wasn’t where we wanted to be focusing our energy,” says James. Leaving a stable job to start your own business may seem a little crazy in the current economy, but it felt like the logical next step for Lara and James.  Once they started planning a family of their own, the couple felt drawn back to the Nippenose Valley.  

While working with the chefs at high-end restaurants helped them to cultivate a perfectionist’s attitude toward quality, marketing to ultra-high-end customers isn’t part of the young couple’s plan. “It’s more in line with our goals as growers and also as a family to grow food for people in our own community,” James says. “Good food should be available to everyone.”

Their focus on quality, along with a commitment to responsible, sustainable agriculture, forms their basic approach to farming. They stick to the time-tested practices of using crop rotations and cover cropping to manage pests and weeds. They carefully monitor soil health. And they are quick to assert that these are not newfangled practices. “It’s not like what we’re doing is some recent development in agriculture,” James explains. “People have been farming like this for ages.”
Though a little bit of snow still lingers outside, things have already gotten under way in their small heated greenhouse. Work tables are filled with neatly formed blocks of soil, already sprouting hundreds of onions, leeks and artichokes that will be harvested this season. These are just a few of the crops that they will grow this year, along with tomatoes, greens, brassicas and various root crops. In addition to all the veggies, they will still be offering lamb as well as fresh-cut flowers.

Walnut Run Farm is offering CSA shares for the 2012 season. They can be contacted at walnutrunproduce@gmail.com .

There’s a large, custom sign announcing the restaurant both on and off the highway. On my approach, I thought for a moment that I should turn away, for it was obviously fine dining: my hunger giving the mirage effect, a diner shimmering on the horizon.

Still, I made a counterproductive, irresponsible money choice, as I am wont to do when broke, and I decided to go for it either way.

There’s a long, covered ramp that leads up to the front door. There are wooden placards with homey phrases on them for sale along the way, and a real, recently used boot brush, too.

I was relieved to be greeted by the requisite friendly host, who didn’t know the soups of the day, and overjoyed when the menu’s maximum price was $8.95 for a steak. My heart stuttered when the surly server uttered the smallest possible number of words at me in order to retrieve my order. I much prefer this archetype of diner server to the one who calls me “hon” and is too friendly.

My only warning about Restless Oaks Restaurant is that it would be tricky to have anything more exciting than fries and chunky applesauce as a vegetarian. Vegans, forget it. When the straits are dire, I go fish. I always make fun of the notion that people can call themselves vegetarian and still eat fish. I ask, “So fish is a vegetable?” But I’m not political about it, so … to the Cod platter! $7.95 for 5 ounces of cod, French fries, coleslaw and tartar sauce, but lo! The server said, in her longest line, “The special today is Cod with Macaroni and Cheese and applesauce or coleslaw.”

“Sold.”

“Applesauce or coleslaw?”

“Applesauce.” I hate coleslaw. I try it every time it lands in front of me, but it is never satisfying.  It, like the green pea, is a thing I am always trying to like.

The server is unceremoniously gone, and I crack my fresh issue of “Writer’s Digest.”

Half an article later, the food arrives, piping hot with never-disappointing, church-supper Mac and Cheese, bloated noodles in the broken cheese sauce, unsalted so as to make the table shaker relevant. Bland, but comforting.

The Cod is clearly hand-breaded, and crispy and hot, if too generously floured under the batter. The specials white board, I noticed on the way out, purports it to be beer batter, but it seems more like a fine cornmeal batter to me.

The applesauce is this incredibly delicious commercial invention, I think. It’s chunky, but pulpy-chunky as if it was made with canned apples. Too sweet, but dusted with cinnamon, and ice cold. It is refreshing and homey and gives me a somewhat more sophisticated feeling than regular applesauce.

The place is rustic inside, like a well-lit hunting lodge. There are black-and-white photographs from Appalachia on the walls; Abraham Lincoln’s portrait; a big, handmade, wooden plaque that says, “Liars Table” just above a topographical map of Pennsylvania. When I arrived, seated at the Liars Table were 9 police officers. I snicker at this.

The place smells like wood smoke because they’ve got a fireplace, and deep fry grease because it’s a diner. It’s an authentic Cracker Barrel, but much more Americana.  

So for quintessential, hands-off (but efficient) diner service, I award 5 capers. For relative-to-the-region diner food served fast, hot and comfort style, I award 4 capers, and another 5 for atmosphere.  4.67 Capers for Restless Oaks Restaurant.  None too shabby, I say.

April Line is a freelance writer who lives in Williamsport with her daughter and domestic partner.  Visit her online at www.AprilLineWriting.com. She likes Zumba, good books and thoughtful lunch dates.

Then the Sandra Fluke controversy happened—look it up if you somehow missed it; I’m not rehashing. And not only did I pay attention, I freaked.

Limbaugh’s comments shed vicious light on a very volatile issue. Not religious freedom. Not the pro-life/pro-choice debate. The idea that women share equal space with men. On the earth.

Seriously? This is something I worry about in Somalia. Iran. Saudi Arabia. The fact that Limbaugh’s “slut” comments have dominated the news cycle while other very alarming things are happening in the world just … blows my mind. I can’t even articulate how it makes me feel. It just blows my mind. That’s it. I’m done.

Not really.

When is it ever okay to use sexual language to attack, degrade, or outright abuse women? It’s not right in private, much less in public! To professionals! As a matter of civic discourse!

It’s not just Fluke, either. Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michele Bachmann have been subject to the worst kinds of verbal abuse. I’m no fan of those last two—I can’t believe I’ve been put in a position to defend them, to be honest—but this is my point: I may find Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann ignorant and awful. I may even think they are the most horrible people alive (though I don’t. That prize still goes to Snooki, and possibly Bashir al-Assad, though I’m probably leaving some people out).

But that does not give me the right to call them “slut,” “whore,” “dumb tw*t,” or “c*nt.” Those are comments by Rush Limbaugh and Bill Maher, by the way. It’s bipartisan misogyny.

Oh, venom and willful ignorance make for the worst kinds of bedfellows. Plus it’s totally possible to insult people without resorting to gender signifiers. How is this even happening?

Of course, it has been happening, and for a very long time. It’s just that Limbaugh, that horror of a human being (see? Insult, but no gender signifiers!), pressed the issue by attacking not only a woman, but every woman. And I think that’s what finally did it.

One could argue that Bill Maher is attacking a platform, that Palin or whoever deserves to be called nasty things merely for being so insanely shameless and craven when it comes to fame. Some would argue she merits a word as satisfying as “tw*t” (which, let’s face it, I’m a writer, I recognize it: it’s a great word that one rarely gets to employ). But that’s an evasion.

Misogyny is misogyny. Period.

Tying language to something as intrinsic to a person as gender, something they have little control over and, more important, whose associations they have little control over in a gender-constructed patriarchal society, is very different from criticizing a person’s worldview.

Rush Limbaugh was not attacking Sandra Fluke’s opinions. Let’s get that straight right now. He didn’t even know what she was talking about. He didn’t even know how birth control works. He thought it worked like his insurance-covered Viagra. He was attacking her because she is an articulate, independent woman who was trying to be a responsible member of society. Who was trying to speak out on behalf of a friend who suffered grave medical consequences from not having access to birth control (to treat ovarian cysts), and on behalf of women everywhere who cannot afford medication that would place them, sexually and medically, on an equal footing with men.

Women still pay a price for that. It’s absolutely absurd, given that it’s 2012, but they do.

This infuriates me. You know what else infuriates me? That some people are going to think I’m a promiscuous ho-bag just for making this argument.

I’m not, by the way. I’m what you’d call a relationship girl. Per Kelly Clarkson, I do not hook up. Some might say I’m an intelligent, self-respecting, and discerning young woman. Others might say I’m an inhibited commitment-phobe who’s convinced that random sleeping around can only result in my ending up a diseased incubator of some kind. Both are accurate. The point is, I don’t sleep around. My choice.

But the real point is, if I wanted to sleep around I would be judged for it. And I would be judged for it because I am a woman. Because I live in a culture that values “man-whores” and “players” but not “easy sluts.” It’s an ancient argument. I’m not saying anything new. But it is still just as outrageous as it was the first time this argument was made.

Which, by the way, goes all the way back to Aristophanes. Look it up.

Going back almost as far, in health care terms, Limbaugh suggested that, as a cheaper method of birth control, we ladies just keep aspirin between our knees. Keep aspirin between our knees? Why don’t you take that aspirin and shove it up your johnson, you anus? (see? No gender signifiers! Everybody has an anus!) I’m sure that will have the required effect, since we women can’t be trusted to make our own reproductive decisions.

Besides, Bayer’s not foolproof. As my friend Suz pointed out, “You can still totally get pregnant with aspirin between your knees. Don’t be silly.” Let the men deal with the aspirin if they’re so worried about it. Best to be on the safe side, after all.

In the meantime, some myth-busting:

Like, since when does wanting to use birth control mean women want to go out into the world and be Slutty Feminazi McSlutterslut?

In general, women who use birth control are simply—drumroll, please—being responsible. Birth control isn’t a morality statement. It’s preventive care. Women who use it aren’t telling the government, “Hey, stay out of my womb, but pay for its upkeep.” First of all, the government wouldn’t do that, employers and insurance companies would, but that’s beside the point. Secondly, I have a whole birth control–gun control philosophical analogy. It just didn’t make the word count.

Also, sometimes? It’s expensive. Birth control is not one-size-fits-all. Not everybody is going to have the option of being prescribed a generic you can pick up at Wal-Mart.

It’s also not just for singles. Married and committed women take it, too. And in this economy, not every couple can afford another kid. Birth control reduces pregnancies (obviously), and it also reduces abortions. This is an everybody-wins situation, guys. You’re not going to get everyone to stop having sex on the basis of a religious argument, no matter how sincere, because not everybody believes the same things and lots of people just disregard them anyway.

Plus, people shouldn’t all believe the same things. Wasn’t this, in the beginning, about religious freedom? Why aren’t we having that conversation?

Bottom line: giving Rush Limbaugh Viagra while not giving women birth control is just plain irresponsible. I don’t know who would ever want to procreate with that lump of foul deformity (see? No gender signifiers! Also? Shakespeare!) but for the love of God, the last thing we need is little Limbaughs running around. And with that visual, my ovaries just recoiled into my throat.

Now that’s birth control.

The conversation centered specifically around the recently passed Act 13, and what effect, if any, the new legislation would have on the gas industry, the environment, and local Pennsylvanians. A broad topic to be sure and, as anyone who has had occasion to peruse the eighty-plus pages of the bill would attest, one not likely to be sussed out over the course of a midday nosh.

To summarize some of the key components of the bill, Act 13 establishes an “impact fee” meant to offset the ecological impacts on local communities in PA.

The act creates a number of restrictions and regulations with regard to placement of new wells so as to mitigate potential ecological impact, increases fines for those who do not follow these regulations, and sets aside money for environmental organizations.

Individual counties have the opportunity to opt in to the fee, and if a county chooses not to opt in, municipalities within the county have the ability to impose the fee anyway, provided the majority of the municipalities within a county choose to opt in.

According to a fact sheet distributed by the House Democratic Committee on Appropriations, Lycoming County can expect to gain about $175,000 from implementation of the fee in the first year.

This subject matter is divisive. Stalwarts exist on both extremes of the ideological spectrum. Some insist that the gas industry is a much needed economic infusion for our region and one that ought not be burdened with taxes, fees, or regulations. It is hard enough to do business in this state, they say.

Others maintain that the long-term cost to our air, water, forests and health is too high. These companies should not be trusted with our future, they say, their track record is poor and their interests are limited to short term profit.   

It is a pleasure to report that neither Representative presented himself as such a caricature so as to strictly adhere to either of the one-dimensional viewpoints above, though these are the sorts of rhetorical arguments that is easy to find oneself getting sucked into. They are easy. They do not require much critical thought, analysis or support.

Both men concede that each of these perspectives has some merit, but both men also realize that the issue is not as simple as one option or the other and that middle ground must inevitably be sought. If you voted for either of these men, you can be proud. They are, or at least seemed that day to be, genuinely passionate regarding the best interests of their constituents. Though their personal approaches to the issue diverged quite a bit on a number of points, they were not ashamed to admit common ground.

What really blew me away about this small gathering of concerned individuals was the real, living sense of taking part in something important. It was not a forum for decision making, but it was clear that personal opinions were formed and solidified among those in attendance: not easy opinions, made when one is faced with such polarized issues, simply picking a side, but hard-to-come-to opinions tempered by discourse and folded through with the knowledge that one’s own opinion is not the only valid opinion.

What drew my attention time and again while I listened to the back and forth and the inevitable jostling over who was speaking and who was rebutting and which facts were facts and which were misrepresentations, I found myself repeatedly recalling the old protest chant, “This is what Democracy looks like.” And it is.  

Despite the contentiousness of the issue, and one person occasionally talking over another out of excitement to be heard, there was no hint of disrespect. There was a real feeling of camaraderie.

We the people have a persistent tendency to become overly occupied with the national stage. We forget sometimes that what is going on nationally is going on locally on a smaller scale.

Right now we Pennsylvanians have the advantage of perspective. The Marcellus Shale is in the public spotlight. At present, as happens all too infrequently, we have the real opportunity to take part in events formative of our collective future.

Most people may be sitting this one out. But don’t—too much is at stake. When I volunteered to write this, I had heard of fewer than half of these people. I decided to approach it with the “I-Search” method, starting with the name and following the trail.

Read on and you will see that many candidates are in “lala land.” Have they ever spoken with anyone except their handlers and friends? Isn’t it amazing that they believe we Americans will never have to suck it up, lower our expectations, sacrifice anything? Have they ever realized what a wonderful country we have and how many of our problems could actually be solved if only we would approach them realistically?

US SENATE

For the Democrats, the incumbent, Bob Casey, Jr. is running on his record. He favors creating financial security for PA families by supporting a tax credit for employers who hire workers, extending unemployment insurance, and helping small businesses by providing tax cuts and access to capital. He supports Obama’s health care plan, stating that all people, especially children, have a fundamental right to proper health care. He serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is committed to maintaining our safety and fostering respect for America so our children can grow up in a peaceful world. He supports environmental regulations that restrict hydraulic fracturing in a way that protects the health of all people and also allows for the natural gas industry to move forward so we are less dependent on foreign oil.

His opponent, Joseph John Vodvarka, a small business owner who has never held public office, is another story. He opposes corporate bailouts, wants to repeal Obamacare, and feels just having jobs will solve every single one of our country’s problems. He also wants to make English the national language, protect the Second Amendment, build a complete fence on our southern border, drill for more oil, have no inheritance taxes, and make schools teach the Constitution. “As a Senator I would serve one term in office and go back to making springs at my shop and fish more often!”

On the Republican side, the field is more crowded. Five men, who would all find a friend in the Democrat J. J. Vodvarka, are challenging Bob Casey. All echo the war cry, “Let’s restore freedom and opportunity to America!” All, with some slight variations, are conservatives who seek to “safeguard the American Dream,” allow the free market to create jobs, oppose tax hikes, cut spending, support gas exploration, repeal Obamacare, oppose any attempt to limit the Second Amendment, secure our borders, institute term limits, and prohibit abortion under any circumstances.

Tom Smith, a farmer from Armstrong County
Sam Rohrer, a nine-term representative in the PA House from Berks County
David Alan Christian, a Vietnam veteran from Doylestown
Steven D. Welch, an entrepreneur in the tech industry from Malvern
Marc D. Scaringi, a lawyer from Camp Hill

US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

No choices here. In the 5th District, Glenn Thompson is unopposed on the Republican side as is Charles Dumas for the Democrats. In the 10th district, the Republican Thomas Marino and the Democrat Philip Scollo are both unopposed.

PA STATE OFFICES

Attorney General

The Republican candidate, David Reed, has no challengers. Two Democrats are running. Kathleen G. Kane from Clark’s Summit is an Assistant Attorney for Lackawanna County. As an experienced prosecutor, she has handled all kinds of cases, concentrating on the most vulnerable, children and the elderly. She is an advocate for prevention, not just prosecution, and has helped establish programs like the County’s Mental Health Court to solve problems through collaboration with other groups.

Another democrat, Patrick J. Murphy of Bristol, a former police officer who volunteered for combat in Iraq after 9/11, is now a partner in a Philadelphia law firm. In Bosnia and Iraq he had experience both as a soldier and a prosecutor trying criminal cases in the military court. He feels the Attorney General should, rather than just being the top state lawyer, be a leader in reestablishing faith in our government by enforcing laws fairly and working to make communities safe.

Auditor General
The Democrat, Eugene A. Depasquale, has no challengers, but two Republicans are running. Both are last-minute entries, so not much information is available. John Maher, the Republican Representative to the PA House from Alleghany County, is a CPA who has been in the legislature since 1997. He chairs the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. Frank A. Pinto, from Dauphin County, has a variety of job experiences in academia, real estate, and small business. A holder of numerous offices in Harrisburg and the Republican Party, he supports Rick Santorum for President.

STATE SENATE

In Senate District 23, the Democrat, Luana Cleveland of Williamsport, has no primary challenger. She is concerned about two issues: the recently signed Act 13 which strips self- governing rights from local communities, and the Republican determination to undermine public education in favor of private and cyber schools.

On the Republican side, the incumbent, Gene Yaw, is up for reelection. According to Project Vote Smart, a public information website, “Gene Yaw repeatedly refused to provide any responses to citizens on the issues.” He does have a monthly e-newsletter about state and local issues which he sends to constituents registered on his website. The February 17 issue deals with legislative updates, the governor’s budget address, a DCNR conservation program,  a road project in Montrose, tax rebates for eligible persons, the Manure Management Plan, and his visit to Albright Life Center.

His opponent David A Huffman, Jr., has made numerous runs for public office. He was a member of the Williamsport Area School Board for one term, during which he voted “no” to almost every measure except, perhaps, the motion to adjourn the meeting. He has run for State Representative and lost, then for City Prothonotary and lost, and now is trying to become a State Senator. Perhaps his name is so familiar that the usual sources of information are unnecessary. No information about his positions is available.

STATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

In District 83 the Democrat Rick Mirabito is unopposed in the primary. As the incumbent, he has an excellent record representing the diverse viewpoints of people in the district.

On the Republican ballot, two men are running. The Republican, Christopher Bain, is an Iraqi veteran who wants to send the message that “Pennsylvania is open for business.” To do this, he would lower the corporate income tax. He would also change the state pension plans for legislators, enable wounded veterans to get cheaper health care, eliminate school taxes by increasing the state sales tax, expand Head Start programs for children, bring state money back to local police departments, and support Second Amendment rights. He does not address how these costly improvements would happen with less tax money. Perhaps by cutting the welfare costs. He states: “Another issue is Welfare Abuse. Bain believes in a hand up not hand out and supports the mandatory random drug tests for Welfare recipients.”

Harry J. Rogers, Jr., from Duboistown is the Intensive Supervised Bail/Release Program Coordinator at the Lycoming County Prison. He wants to see a balanced budget that supports quality education and environmental concerns for all Pennsylvanians. He also wants government to be accountable and to see that we here in Central PA get our share.

In District 84, Republican Garth D. Everett is unopposed.

There it is, and for those of you who want more information, do as the candidates told me to do—go to their websites. Just Google the name and the PA office. For the latest listing of the ballot and all other information to do with elections, the League of Women Voters of PA Citizens Education Fund does an excellent job at:    http://www.smartvoter.org/2012/04/24/pa/ly/ballot.html

Pennsylvania, where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were signed and where the U.S. coal, oil, and nuclear industries began, has adopted what may be the most anti-democratic, anti-environmental law in the country, giving gas companies the right to drill anywhere, overturn local zoning laws, seize private property, and muzzle physicians from disclosing specific health impacts on patients from drilling fluids. 

The draconian new law, known as Act 13, revises the state’s oil and gas statutes to allow oil companies to drill for natural gas using the controversial process known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking, where large volumes of water and toxic chemicals are pumped into vertical wells with lateral bores to shatter the rock and release the hydrocarbons. The law strips rights from communities and individuals while imposing new statewide drilling rules.
 
“It’s absolutely crushing of local self-government,” said Ben Price, project director for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which has helped a handful of local communities—including the city of Pittsburgh—adopt community rights ordinances that elevate the rights of nature and people to block the drilling. “The state has surrendered over 2,000 municipalities to the industry. It’s a complete capitulation of the rights of the people and their right to self-government. They are handing it over to the industry to let them govern us. It is the corporate state. That is how we look at it.”
 
“Now I know what it feels like to live in Nigeria,” said recently retired Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields. “You’re basically a resource colony for multi-national corporations to take your natural resources, take them back to wherever they are at, add value to them, and then sell them back to you.”
 
Needless to say, Pennsylvania’s top political leadership—Republican Gov. Tom Corbett and Republican-controlled legislature—see Act 13 as a pro-business, clean-energy bill creating jobs and revenue and improving environmental laws surrounding drilling. That the 174-page bill was essentially rammed through the legislature over objections from local officials, environmentalists, and a handful of legislators who said it not only turned “300 years of local zoning upside down” but exposed the state to liability from wells was irrelevant. “This growing industry will provide new career opportunities that will give our children a reason to stay here in Pennsylvania,” Corbett said when signing the bill into law on February 14. It will take effect 60 days later.
 
“A lot of local officials, Republicans and Democrats, have begun to drill into this bill and … are really coming to the conclusion that in their zeal to carry the water for the gas and oil industry people, that they really overreached,” said Shields, who predicted that it was only a matter of weeks before the first legal challenges were filed. “This is really wrangling them. Maybe they are all for oil and gas drilling. And maybe they don’t care about the environment. But they sure as heck care about their power.”
 
Money Talks, Republicans Walk
 
Pennsylvania’s history has been filled with energy booms, busts, and boondoggles. The nation’s first large coal mines were there. The first oil wells were drilled in Pennsylvania in 1859. The nation’s first nuclear power plant opened there in 1957. The nation’s worst commercial nuclear accident occurred there in 1979. In between these cycles, this largely mountainous and farming state has struggled economically. This is especially true in the rural areas where upwards of 200,000 wells remain from decades of drilling and mining. 
 
The oil and gas industry has always known that almost all of Pennsylvania except for its southeast corner sat above three formations of shale, known as the Marcellus, Devonian, and Utica, which contain some of the world’s largest natural gas reserves. (These same formations extend into eastern Ohio and western New York.) A decade ago, the U.S. Geological Survey released estimates of these reserves, suggesting that a sizable portion of America’s natural gas needs could be met if they were tapped. Pennsylvanians saw the prospect of millions in investment capital pouring into their beleaguered state.
 
The USGS announcement prompted a major restructuring by American gas producers, who saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Texas-based firms such as Range Resources began dumping thousands of acres of other drilling leases and came into the state with a multi-prong strategy to make new fortunes. Initially the industry started approaching property owners to lease their land for long-term drilling. Then it targeted the legislature to rewrite the state’s oil and gas laws.
 
The industry needed the legislature to rewrite those laws because a 2009 decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld municipal rights to write zoning laws that excluded oil and gas drilling if it did not fit the community’s “character” and “special nature.” The oil and gas industry did not want to file a suit every time it wanted to drill. By late last year, private companies such as Range Resources had acquired 125,000 acres of leases in Washington County, its executives reported in a recent conference call to Wall Street analysts. In total, the firm has 790,000 acres under lease, mostly in Pennsylvania. 
 
In that call to analysts, Range Resources’ executives described the enormous financial stakes in Pennsylvania—which have driven the state’s current political response. 
 
The return on investment on some Marcellus wells was “73% to 99%,” senior managers boasted. The fracking wells cost about $4 million each. In contrast, Act 13’s new impact fee, which the state is charging to offset costs such as wear on roads and bridges, is about $50,000 per well, apart from other state-required bonds. The firm’s officers, who sold other gas holdings to focus on Pennsylvania, predicted, “in 2012, our organic growth target is expected to be 30% to 35%” and “if we chose to live within cash flow, we can still grow at 15% to 20% a year.” 
 
These profit margins are among the largest of any major American industry, even if they have been inflated to lure investors. The firm is worth “more than $10 billion,” the executives said. Yet it is only one of the large gas companies that have come into the state, where, as of January 12, the Department of Environmental Protection has issued 5,751 permits and 2,891 wells have been drilled. 
 
Pennsylvania’s Republican leaders did not need to be pushed to comprehensively rewrite its oil and gas laws in nearly 30 years. Working with the industry, they drafted a 174-page bill they touted as moving Pennsylvania toward energy independence while protecting the environment. Their legislation was presented to legislators in January, quickly passed largely on party lines, and was signed within weeks. The bill’s critics were ignored. Democrats said they could not muster the votes to stop it. 
 
“This was all done in the backroom—and it was written by the oil and gas industry,” Shields said, pointing to fine print such as the confidentiality strictures for doctors who treat any patient who might be exposed to drilling fluids. “Where the hell does physician confidentiality come from? There isn’t a legislator up there who would ever have thought of that. But a good corporate lawyer will figure that out because they don’t want that to affect them in lawsuits. They know we will be coming because they know we will have spills and accidents and people are going to get hurt. They don’t want to give them a leg up.”    
 
Creating Corporate Rights
 
Act 13 does many things to elevate the rights of gas companies above the civil rights of people and communities. To start, it revokes local zoning authority to discourage oil and gas development, stating, “this section pre-empts and supersedes the local regulation of oil and gas operations” (page 162). Municipalities can adopt some rules on how drilling is to be done, but they cannot say no to drilling. Moreover, the law tells municipalities that they must revise their local ordinances to allow drilling if they want to receive payment under the new per-well impact fee. 
 
But pre-empting local zoning is only the start of Act 13’s heavy-handed approach. The law empowers the state’s Public Utilities Commission—a body of appointed, not elected officials—to overturn local zoning and to determine whether a community is eligible to share in impact fee revenues. Moreover, if a gas company or any individual does not like a local law that affects drilling, that “aggrieved” party can go to the PUC and the board will be required to “determine whether it violates” the new state oil and gas law (page 167).
 
In other words, the PUC will use state authority to help the industry achieve its aims.
 
“What they are saying is if you don’t allow us to do what we want in your communities that you won’t share in the benefit monetarily—so it is almost like a bribe,” said Steve Karas, Forest Hills Borough vice-president, whose community, like nearby Pittsburgh, recently adopted a local ordinance asserting environmental and community rights. “We are not against natural gas. We are not against drilling. We are against the imposition of something that we feel has not been proven safe yet. We talk about public safety all the time in meetings … Part of the public safety is not allowing toxic chemicals to A, poison our water supply, and B, not be treated correctly.”  
 
The law also gives the industry the power to seize private property for any part of a drilling operation. On page 65, it states, “a corporation empowered to transport, sell or store natural gas or manufactured gas in the Commonwealth may appropriate an interest in real property” for “injection, storage and removal” of hydrocarbons. However, it does not require the industry to notify any town government of leases it has acquired or of a future interest in using any property—for, say, a pipeline or processing facility. Neither homeowners nor other businessmen seeking to develop property are protected if the gas industry intends to use their land. 
 
“That’s what really concerns them,” Shields said. “Let’s say I have a developer who wants to put a shopping plaza or strip mall in my township. Say one party owns the surface—and it is a split estate and someone else owns the mineral rights. You don’t have any notice of what’s going on with leasing activity. No one is sending you a copy of the lease or the deeds. And you are moving down the road with your developer and then all of a sudden the oil and gas company comes in and says, ‘Oh, you can’t do that. We’re gonna drill here,’ or, ‘We’re gonna put two pipelines through that land.’ And you have nothing to say about it any more as a local official.”  
 
Late last year, before it became law, the legislation’s critics included David Sanko, executive director of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, who said in December, “We oppose the total elimination of local control, including land use. Instead, we support the maximum possible retention of local decision-making authority to provide for the reasonable development of natural resources consistent with law.” 
 
However, by early February and an approaching statehouse vote, Sanko’s organization had changed its tune. He wrote to legislators saying, “We are equally pleased to have been able to thwart the ‘nuclear-like’ attack on local land-use decision making which would have resulted in a statewide, one size fits all total pre-emption of local decisions.” A call asking Santos to explain this reversal and interpretation of the law went unanswered. 
 
The law also prevents heath professionals from discussing medical impacts. On page 99 it requires oil and gas companies to tell medical professionals what chemicals are used in drilling fluids—but only after they sign “a statement of need and a confidentiality agreement.” However, those details—the chemicals in drilling fluid and medical significance—it states a page later, are secret and “shall not be a public record.” 
 
“I know exactly why that is in there,” said Shields. “That makes it extremely difficult to bring a civil suit if the information is locked away behind confidentiality agreements. A physician can’t release information during discovery. They can’t even tell another patient that they are dealing with the same thing. They can’t go to a public health official and disclose it—this lady has benzene in her blood, or methyl-whatever. He can’t do it.”  
 
Constitutional Overreach?
 
These controversial aspects raise many constitutional issues that could become avenues for legal challenges, Shields and others have said. For example, empowering the PUC to override laws created by local officials raises serious jurisdictional issues. Additionally, giving eminent domain power to one industry raises constitutional questions about equal treatment under law, just as the confidentiality rules for physicians may violate their speech rights as an unconstitutional prior restraint.    
 
The law takes effect April 14. But before then it is almost certain that not only environmental groups but aggrieved municipalities will sue to challenge sections of it and try to keep it from taking effect, Shields said. And while the law is seen as a pro-industry “model” for other states, CELDF’s Price predicted there would be a growing backlash once more Pennsylvanians learned how their civil rights have been subordinated to industry.
 
“The tables are turned,” Price said. “Americans aren’t used to being treated like they are the indigenous people being colonized. But that’s what’s happening.”
 
Meanwhile, the industry sees few obstacles to drilling anywhere in the Keystone State. 
 
“As you know, Pennsylvania recently passed legislation which adopts an impact fee, better regulatory uniformity, and enhanced environmental protection and safety regulations, all of which we believe are positive for the communities where we operate and for continued development of our acreage in Pennsylvania,” Jeffrey Ventura, Range Resources CEO, told Wall Street analysts in the February 22 call. Those were the briefing’s only remarks about the state’s politics. 
 
The industry and state’s GOP leaders are assuming that the legal and political questions have been dealt with. But they are wrong. Though it is a long shot, a handful of towns and cities have been adopting community civil rights ordinances to keep drilling out of their locales. These are not the same as zoning laws—and they also say Pennsylvania’s state constitution is on their side.  
 
“Pittsburgh is going to be the Gettysburg in this fight,” Shields predicted. “This will be the place where it will all go down.”

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on March 7 at www.alternet.com and is the first of two articles about Pennsylvania’s Act 13 and the effort to stop it from taking effect.
 
Steven Rosenfeld covers democracy issues for AlterNet and is the author of “Count My Vote: A Citizen’s Guide to Voting” (AlterNet Books, 2008).

Polls are open on Election Day from 7 am continuously until 8 pm. Pennsylvania has what is called a Closed Primary, which allows only Republicans and Democrats to vote for candidates. If there is a referendum on the ballot, all registered voters may vote for the referendum regardless of party affiliation.

The offices on the ballot in the 2012 Primary Election are President of the United States, United States Senator, Attorney General, Auditor General, State Treasurer, Representative Congress 10th District, Senator in the General Assembly 23rd District, Representative General Assembly 83rd District, or Representative General Assembly 84th District, Delegate to the National Convention, and Alternate Delegate to the National Convention.
 
Tuesday, April 17, at 5 pm is the deadline to apply for a civilian absentee ballot before the Primary Election. If you will be out of your municipality during the hours the polling places are open on Election Day or if you have an illness or physical disability that prohibits you from going to your polling place, then you may vote by absentee. If an emergency occurs after the deadline to apply for an absentee ballot, contact the Voter Services office for the procedure to follow to apply for an emergency absentee ballot.

If you need an absentee ballot application you can

• Download an application by going to the Lycoming County website www.lyco.org and clicking on “Voter Services”
• Stop in at Lycoming County Voter Services in Williamsport for an application: 330 Pine Street, Executive Plaza, 1st Floor, Room 101
• Call Voter Services at 327-2267

Sample ballots will be available upon request in the Voter Services office starting Monday, April 9.

The Polling Place list will be updated by April 5. The Board of Elections may be moving two polling places prior to the Primary Election.

• Certificate of U.S. Citizenship
• Certificate of Naturalization
• Valid U.S. Passport
• Birth Certificate with a raised seal

College Students can use their room assignment paperwork and a bill, bank statement or paystub with their dorm room address on it as proof of residence. Individuals who don’t have any bills, leases, etc. in their name may bring the person with whom they are living along with their Driver’s License or Photo ID to a driver license center as one proof of residence.
The ID card fee is $13.50, but that will be waived if you fill out an Oath/Affirmation Voter ID Card.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania is preparing a legal challenge. If you or anyone you know will be hindered from voting because of the difficulty in obtaining a photo ID, call 238-ACLU(2258) or email voterid@aclupa.org.

Did you see the signs? They were everywhere. Most people ignored them. Some people said it only applied to the “fags and homos.” Others said “not here.” Welcome to Williamsport … in 2012.

During the week of January 9, AIDS Resource Alliance’s Executive Director, Kirsten Burkhart, placed signs throughout the community that read “HIV Lives Here.” While she was working to bring continued awareness to the fact that this disease is in our community, people drove by shouting profanities out of their open car and truck windows. One person threw oranges at Burkhart’s head. And it was all captured by a documentary film crew, led by Academy Award-winning director Cynthia Wade. Wade is in Williamsport chronicling the struggles faced by people battling the HIV pandemic in cities throughout the United States. But this article is not about Wade, or even Burkhart. It is about our community.

On January 12 a small group of men and women (myself and my husband included) stood somberly outside of the towering gray beauty of City Hall on a rainy, cold afternoon. We wore signs that again told the truth that “HIV Lives Here.” We watched people come to the windows of the buildings that surrounded our gathering. Even the publisher of the Sun-Gazette came out to see what we were doing.

We were expecting people to shout profanities or make outdated claims, and some did. Most drivers ambivalently averted their gaze. But some people smiled. They waved, they honked, they gave us the thumbs-up sign. People put down their windows as they waited at the red light on the corner of West Fourth and Hepburn Streets to ask about our mission. People walking by would stop and ask questions. Quite a few said “Thank you.”

To me, though, the most moving experience was seeing the person who came quietly to the demonstration and stayed only for a short time. I did not know this person but will remember their face for the rest of my life. They simply said “Thank you.” They explained that AIDS Resource “helped me when no one else would. I would not be here if it was not for them.” I watched the faces of the women around me who work with HIV+ people every day. It was clear how moved they all were by this person’s bravery. To come to this rally as an HIV+ person and talk on camera about their status … it was astounding.

We could focus on the bad reactions, on the bigotry and prejudice. But instead we choose to think about the people who voiced their support for the cause. We choose to focus on the men and women who stood in the rain. They work every day to prevent the further spread of the virus. They provide compassion and support to those living with HIV. We will continue to focus on supporting them, as well as our community. We will work so that those affected by this virus know they are not alone. We are here. We can introduce you to other people, like Burkhart and Wade, who can support you as well. Our love and care will eventually silence the hate. And eventually, we will find a cure.

Breon is the Client Care Coordinator at Comfort Keepers. She has worked with the senior population for the past decade, first as a caregiver while in college, and then as the volunteer coordinator at a performing arts center. She is also active in several local senior organizations.

Sagamore Hill. Most people have never heard of the place, but history buffs know it to be the home of Teddy Roosevelt on the north shore of Long Island, overlooking Oyster Bay. It was the place where Roosevelt, as President of the United States, greeted the “great white fleet,” which others criticized as America’s version of colonialism. When I was a kid my father regularly took us to Sagamore Hill for picnics and tours of Teddy Roosevelt’s over-sized cabin and White House retreat, the way other kids went to amusement parks. The ride along the north shore of Long Island took us past the estates and mansions of the Fitzgeralds, the Lehmans, and other greats whose impregnable stamp upon the American psyche is not generally known but nonetheless remains part of the American DNA. At Sagamore Hill we enjoyed looking at the rolling hills and walking the lovely grounds, but the highlight was my father’s unrestrained enthusiasm for the interior of the Roosevelts’ home. The dark wood walls featured heads of animals, antlers, tusks, and horns of every imaginable beast that roamed the earth. The rugs were flattened lions, tigers, and bears, whose toothy grins were almost frightening to a child. My father could have been a tour guide, as he explained the large north room where the President entertained such notables as the future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and the legendary Eliyahu Root.

It did not take me long to realize that long before my father came to idolize Ronald Reagan, his hero was the man for whom the Teddy bear was named. Roosevelt came from money. He was from an elite and, some would say, bourgeois family. Nevertheless, Roosevelt rebelled against the excesses of the industrial revolution and the rise of the corporation as a competitor to government.

Roosevelt was a lawyer, having gone to Harvard undergraduate and Columbia Law School. He understood well the legal significance of corporations being treated as individuals.  An individual has rights under the Constitution. An individual has the right to make campaign contributions to politicians. An individual has the right to lobby and exert influence over the political process.  Roosevelt believed that corporations were capital created by individuals and therefore were not entitled to any life of their own. If our current Supreme Court believed in the values of Teddy Roosevelt, they would not have held unconstitutional campaign finance laws that sought to reel in the excessive power of the money created by multinational corporations.

Was Roosevelt a progressive or a conservative? The Republican party, in 1910, was split between those two factions. Roosevelt considered himself the true heir to Republican conservatism, with his emphasis on individual rights and liberties. A true conservative, Roosevelt understood, extols and protects each citizen’s contribution to the common good. A good conservative creates a level playing field, as the more modern conservative economic economist Milton Friedman explained. The purpose of government is to assure that those who create capital through their work, their energy, and their dedication are not repressed by those who exist merely to accumulate power. The rise of the large national corporation was viewed by Roosevelt and his followers as the rise of an unelected form of government. To the extent that corporate money was permitted to infest the electoral or lobbying process, the United States would go the way of ancient Greece, where senators were regularly bought and sold.

Today, is it Ron Paul who ensconces the values of Teddy Roosevelt? Paul talks more about his suspicion of government and international isolationism than about righting the balance of power in the United States. No one is talking about making sure the electoral process is fair and that working people are protected from the intrusion of unelected power centers. It seems unfashionable today, and even quaint, to compliment the values of a Roosevelt or a Truman. We give lip service to the accomplishments of these great men, but we look little at what they stood for.

Truman Democrats and Roosevelt Republicans are in retreat. Their souls have been purchased by the highest bidder, and the voters seem uninterested in the threats to liberty that result. Americans might wake up, pay attention, and even vote if the electoral process were about the role of the citizen in our national mosaic. We have come to embrace and even encourage bigness as a substitute for government. President Obama wanted a so-called government option in the National Health Care bill. Republicans regularly suggested that the salvation for national unemployment was to give business free reign. Big government and big business are not the answer and never have been. Giants like Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Truman understood and were not afraid to speak out against the view that we must turn our national conscience over to those who are the most well connected.

We can only hope that out of one of the political parties will emerge a true progressive, not one who is synonymous with the current fad of the “conservative” or the “liberal.” Rather, we must go back to the original definition of the term “progressivism” to find politicians whose emphasis is on the individual worker, rather than power centers based on financial acumen. However, so long as our campaign finance laws and electoral system reward those with the most money and count votes in terms of dollars, we have no chance of going back to the principles of Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman. The day will come, perhaps after we find that some major public official has been bribed, when the public will demand that conservatives and liberals be true progressives, supporting the rights of citizens to determine their own destiny. A corporation is not a citizen, although the law has come to define it as such.  Power and connections are not citizens. Citizens are people who work every day to support their families and their country. Citizens are those who cannot necessarily make a $25,000 contribution to their favorite candidate but nevertheless will vote on Election Day. It is time that we refuse to accept that it is permissible for money to influence candidates and determine elections. It is only when we are willing to take on the basic structure of the current American electoral system that we will see the kind of change that newspaper editors and other “progressive” thinkers really have in mind.

Cliff Rieders, who practices law in Williamsport, is Past President of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association and a member of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority. None of the opinions expressed necessarily represent the views of these organizations.

Dateline: Williamsport, Pennsylvania, a.k.a. “Billtown.” Writer April Line has embarked on a mission to raise the profile of literature with Billtown Blue Lit. I recently caught up with April to talk about her progress with getting a reading series off the ground—and her dream of starting a writers’ retreat, scholarship fund, and online literary journal under the Billtown Blue Lit banner.

Marc Schuster: What is the project?

April Line: The project is Billtown Blue Lit. We are an organization whose primary mission is to increase visibility and publicity for Literature. In so doing, we will also promote local business and foster writers.

MS: What inspired this project?

AL: My chronic desire to make my life look like it did when I was in college, where I read literary fiction all the time, got to go hear good writers read, and wrote. Now that I’m a grownup, I also want to write about books, to give a bigger voice and more venues to good fiction.

I was looking around this great town I’m lucky to have landed in, and all of its visual art, music, theater, and community activism, and I thought, “I want to contribute!” I’m a writer and editor, and I have some contacts in the literary world, so the idea for a reading series was pretty organic.

MS: Are there others like it that you can compare it to?

AL: There are all kinds of things that are sort of like this. I’ve borrowed bits of other organizations I know about, like Tin House’s writers’ retreat, and Attic Institute, and Light House Writers Workshop. And SCSU, my alma mater, hosts a reading series. I’ll emulate that for the events. These organizations aspire to foster writers. The biggest difference between these and Billtown Blue Lit is that Blue Lit wants to work toward a bigger readership for the fostered writers.

MS: How does your location play into the project?

AL: I talk a little bit about how awesome Williamsport is over at the Start Some Good Project. This town is unlike any other place I’ve lived in that it has the small-town, blue-collar sensibility with which I grew up, but it also has this incredible and diverse cultural presence. We still have a locally owned book shop. We have no fewer than three visual-arts-centered businesses downtown. We have The Pajama Factory. We have all kinds of musical organizations, like the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, the Williamsport Civic Chorus, the Uptown Music Collective. We have two theaters, the Community Theater League and the Community Arts Center. Grey Gallery has started a spoken word/open mic night for poetry, and I want to bring great fiction writers.

Because of the general excellence of Williamsport (and Northcentral PA generally), one of the guiding principles for the Blue Lit project will be that we interface with regional business as exclusively as possible. I want to form partnerships with regional businesses and organizations that do good in the community and that make Williamsport what it is: a thriving small town with an identity. Sure, we have big-box retailers and chain restaurants, but we are still distinct. I want to preserve that distinctness.

MS:  What are your long-term goals?

AL: A writers’ retreat, like Tin House’s. A scholarship fund for deserving young writers who are children of single moms. An online literary journal. Building a community of voices through the blog: readers, writers, authors, publishing industry professionals. These are just a few. I hope more people will join Billtown Blue Lit and have other ideas and energy for realizing them.

MS: Your short-term goals?

AL: We’re trying to raise money so that we can host two bigger, well-marketed events. I want the authors who come to read to get paid. It’ll cost about $2500 to host a single event, not counting marketing, so we’re trying to raise that for one event, plus marketing, plus some money to make rewards for our donors (T-shirts, MP3s, DVDs, and books) and buy time so that we can write some grants and forage partnerships with other businesses and organizations.

Some of the businesses that are already on board and supporting us are the James V. Brown Library, Otto Book Store, Wilcox Development Solutions, Gustonian Gifts, and Grey Art Gallery.

If we get funded, we will become a 501(c)3 by the end of 2012.

MS: What events do you have planned for the coming year?

AL: Just today I confirmed the venue for the pilot event. Peter Damian Bellis will read from his newest project on January 20 or 21 in the evening at Grey Gallery. The success of the fundraising campaign will dictate whether we can host additional events. But Tim Parrish has agreed to read at some future, unnamed point, and you have, too, Marc, and I have some other authors in mind.

MS: What challenges have you faced so far?

AL: This is a huge project, and it’s spreading me pretty thin. My main challenge has been making the time to get everything done. So far, it’s rocking and rolling. It’s also challenging to find folks who will volunteer their time to help, folks who are passionate about the project and its cause.

MS: What have you learned?

AL: That people and businesses in Williamsport, strangers who’ve come on board, and my personal friends are even more enthusiastic and supportive than I thought they would be (and I had a pretty high estimation of their enthusiasm). I have also learned that asking people for donations of time, money, and resources for a nonprofit venture is a TON easier emotionally, and with a much, much higher success rate, than selling things, which is what I spent about four years doing. I stopped a bit under a year ago, but that skill set and ability to differentiate myself from my cause (or product) is massively helpful.

MS:  How can people get involved or contribute?

AL: Visit www.billtownbluelit.wordpress.com, or go to the StartSomeGood campaign. If they have ideas or have written books and would like to come read, or if they want to contribute to the blog, or if they are interested in a marketing internship, they can also email me at AprilLineWriting@gmail.com

Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared on Marc Schuster’s Blog, www.marcschuster.wordpress.com. Marc Schuster is the author of “The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl” and lives near Philadelphia, where he is a professor.

James Washington is part of Williamsport’s history as the Hero of the Sawdust Wars of 1872. He stands out as a physically strong yet congenial man who was well liked and respected in the local community, showing no signs of the stressful, demeaning servitude that marked most of his young life.

Born a slave in West Virginia, Jim married and had children. If ever there was a great American story, his is that story. He rose from slavery in the south to the level of hero in the north. According to Annette English, a historical writer in 1976 for the Lycoming County Bicentennial Committee of the Lycoming County Historical Society, Jim fathered four children (though it may have been three, two sons and one daughter). His wife and their children were owned by Samuel L. Strider, the white man who captured the legendary John Brown and a different master from Jim’s own. Strider sold Jim’s wife and children to a man in Baltimore in 1854. According to English, Jim was reunited with his son—his namesake—many years later, but never saw his wife or two other children again. The son, James II, was separated from his mother and siblings soon after the move to Baltimore, having been resold.

At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Jim Washington still worked as a slave but at that time was on a Louisiana plantation. Union soldiers came through the state and commissioned his help in rebuilding a burned-out bridge. Jim enlisted in the Union Army and went with the soldiers to New Orleans, leaving the life of a slave behind. He continued serving in the Army until February 22, 1866. Having heard his family was in Virginia, he went there in a vain attempt to find his wife and children.  

Jim did, however, discover where his own father was, and from Virginia he joyfully headed for Williamsport. It is noted in several sources that he went by way of the Underground Railroad to escape slavery; however, having left the Army in 1866, after the Civil War, I think it’s unlikely he needed to escape, though he may indeed have taken the route that went along Freedom Road, then named the “N word” Hollow Road. He was discovered on that road by John Walker Hayes, who befriended him and offered him a job in his tin shop, located inside a building that later became the Lucasi Building in downtown Williamsport.

Jim and his father were reunited, and although I am only speculating that this is the same man, I believe he and his dad took out the following ad in the African Methodist Church’s publication The Christian Recorder on July 14, 1866. Under the section headed “Notices for Lost Family Members in the Christian Recorder,” the ad states:

Information Wanted – Of my children, two sons and one daughter, James and Stephen Washington, and Edlina Roberson. I last heard from them about six years ago. They were then at Fort Alabama, Dales County, Va. Also, my two grandsons, Robert and Stephen. Their mother’s name was Lucinda Roberson. Their father and grandfather, who are anxious to hear from them, or see them, reside in Mill Street, Williamsport, Lycoming Co., Pa. Please address James Washington, Williamsport, Penna.  (excerpt from www.yale.edu/glc/missing/060.htm)

Jim Washington was considered exceptionally powerful and is said to have been able to lift 400 pounds. He joined Williamsport’s Taylor Guard—a small black militia group—and became 1st Sergeant. His life in Williamsport was now stable, with financial security. By age forty-four he was well respected, as was his father, and admired as the strongest man in Williamsport.

Jim became a bigger part of history. On April 14, 1868, the Pennsylvania Legislature enacted the ten-hour work day, and on May 6, 1872, the right for workers to organize. On May 7, 1872, sawmill workers, incensed about the thirteen-hour work day in the Lumber Capitol known as Williamsport, picketed. Mayor Starkweather, also a sawmill owner, overreacted to the protesting and on July 22 called on the entire police force and special deputies to quell the uprising. According to a Now and Then magazine article of October 1953, the police chief, another police officer, and several striking workers were injured. The mayor asked the governor, John W. Geary, to enforce martial law and send the National Guard to Williamsport. Instead, the wise governor called in local militia—the Williamsport Grays and the Taylor Guard. In formation, the Taylor Guard, under Washington’s direction, marched toward the strikers on Pine Street with bayonets shining brightly, forcing the rioters to scatter by sheer intimidation like “chaff before the wind.” There was no bloodshed and the protesters retreated. Much of the town was relieved that no one was hurt. From that point forward, Jim Washington was known as a hero.

In later years Jim drove the Hayes family Herdic carriage (invented by Peter Herdic), as well as the Hepburn Hotel bus. His job was to pick up wealthy families at the train station and deliver them to the Hepburn, later the Updegraff, Hotel. This building later became the Center City building. Jim remained employed by his friend John Walker Hayes until the end of his life and was always regarded as a respected and honorable member of the community. He was never known to have remarried or had any other children.

Written by Constance Robinson, Administrator of the Juneteenth Celebration Association of North Central PA.  Ms. Robinson is also a writer on local African-American history.

Sources: New York Times, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Wikipedia, Hightower Lowdown

The theatrical performance of “Max & Ruby: Bunny Party” came to Williamsport. I freelance for Showcase on the Arts and Nightlife, and in covering the show I got to interview Rosemary Wells.  I was beside myself.

I hoped maybe some success juju would eke through the phone. I was eager to look inside the mind that had penned Ruby, a character who I—as the oldest sister of four—find to be especially sympathetic.

I’m also the mom of a struggling reader and writer. My daughter is 6, in first grade, and she’s barely reading at grade level. Watching her write is painful. I want to share my love of books and writing with her, but she’d really rather play. Outside. In the mud. Or watch action-based TV shows. Like “Adventure Time” and “Avatar: the Last Airbender.”

I want her to be who she is, not who I am. So I read to her, and help her with her homework, and ask her to do the work of learning to read, but I encourage her to pursue her own interests. Like this: she will soon be taking karate classes.

By the time I was her age I would come in from school every day, lie on the couch, and read book after book. I was so eager to put words together that I practiced my penmanship. I chose books over TV early on.

Which brings me to Wells.

Here’s an unedited quotation after I asked her if she’d ever imagined Max & Ruby would be on TV and in theater:

“I’m one of those people who doesn’t have TV for kids. I don’t believe in TV for kids. I never once thought that it would be on television. I don’t think in television, I think in books. And I think that books (and live theater, by the way) are the basis for children’s brain development and their spiritual development and their imagination and powers of critical thinking. Very, very little of it comes from computers and computer games and television and movies. I emphasize this because we are fast entering a world where there is just so much screen time for kids. None of this has really been examined over the years—whether parents really are making a good decision to allow so much screen time, and whether it’s just a progress in the technology, or if kids are just falling into it because it’s there. I’m a conservative in this way, in that I think we should always do what we know works, and allow a little bit of the new stuff in, and only when it’s appropriate for children. And I must say that the Max & Ruby TV show is perfectly appropriate for children. They’ve done a really nice job.”

The interview went on with lots of little speeches like that, with which my writer half was in agreement and my mother half was feeling generalized and persecuted.  

I agree that people (not just kids) should read more. That TV watching should be kept at a reasonable level. That there is a scary dearth of critical thinking ability all around me, every day.

But we are also increasingly digitizing media. Printed books are going the way of the woolly mammoth, so according them total responsibility for a child’s brain and spiritual development seems to be problematic.  

The publishing industry is changing with such speed that even its executors can’t keep track. Before my first grader is a fifth grader, we will choose from the library of books on her eReader for bedtime literature.  

Tablet technology is getting less and less expensive, and computer classes begin in kindergarten. iPads are being used as teaching tools all over the world. This stuff, these screens are her medium. They will shape an ever-larger portion of her world, like it or not.

And she has absurdly easy access to so much information; this can’t be a bad thing.

As the interview progressed, I felt the need to defend myself. “I read to my daughter!” I said, almost defensively, as Wells made a blanket statement about parents not reading to their kids.  

Wells didn’t even seem to hear me.

“I do voices and everything!” I said.

“You have to,” she said.

In the wake of feeling belittled as a mom and affirmed as a writer and reader, I wondered: What does the digital media revolution mean for children’s books? For children’s literacy? Are we heading down a slippery slope of oatmeal-minded buffoonery as a culture? Is Rosemary Wells just a curmudgeon? How do I navigate this transition as a mom? Do I go out and buy an iPad or a Kindle Fire? Boycott Wells? Cling desperately to my printed books and start buying up copies of all my favorites?

Not Answers

I think I landed somewhere between a self-scrutinizing panic and contempt for Wells’s arcane argument.

In the usually less than an hour a day my kid spends in front of the boob tube, she’s watching higher quality narratives than I had access to in Avatar: The Last Airbender, with smarter writing in Adventure Time, and a massive variety of animation styles. And Netflix gives me the option to exclude commercials.  

I am as excited to see how research happens for my child as I am sad that she won’t spend hours in the dusty stacks, jotting notes on recycled card catalogue leaves and learning the Dewey Decimal system.  

More than being concerned that my sweet kid will think too little, learn too little, read too little, I’m thrilled that she has access to so much. Now is historical nirvana for writers and readers and critical thinkers. And it’s my job as a mom to show my kid how to take advantage of it, regardless of medium.

Editor’s Note: This essay originally appeared on Jane Friedman’s blog: www.janefriedman.com.

If the first-year gross anatomy students at Penn State Hershey medical school need spare body parts to study, they can visit the cloakroom of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. That’s where most of the legislators left their spines.

On December 13 the House voted 124–69 to send an animal welfare bill back to committee, in this case the Gaming Oversight Committee. The bill, SB71, would have banned simulcasting of greyhound races from other states. Pennsylvania banned greyhound racing in 2004. Among several of the current bill’s amendments were ones that would also have banned the sale of cat and dog meat, increased penalties for releasing exotic animals, and stopped the cruelty of live pigeon shoots.

It’s the pigeon shoot amendment, sponsored by Rep. John Maher (R-Allegheny), that caused legislators to hide beneath their desks, apparently in fear of the poop from the NRA, which lobbied extensively against ending pigeon shoots. The unrelenting NRA message irrationally claimed that banning pigeon shoots is the first step to banning guns. The NRA even called the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) a radical animal rights group. The House action leaves Pennsylvania as the only state where pretend hunters, most of them from New Jersey and surrounding states where pigeon shoots are illegal, can come to kill caged birds launched in front of spectators and the shooters.

Most pigeon shoots are held in Berks County in southeastern Pennsylvania, with one in the nearby suburban Philadelphia area. Scared and undernourished birds are placed into small cages and then released about 20 yards in front of people with 12-gauge shotguns. Most birds, as many as 5,000 at an all-day shoot, are hit still standing on their cages or on the ground or flying erratically just a few feet from the people who pretend to be sportsmen. Even standing only feet from their kill, the shooters aren’t as good as they think they are. About 70 percent of all birds are wounded, according to Heidi Prescott, HSUS senior vice-president, who for about 25 years has been documenting and leading the effort to pass legislation to finally end pigeon shoots in the state.

Birds that fall outside the shooting club’s property are left to die long and horrible deaths. If the birds are wounded on the killing fields, trapper boys and girls, most in their early teens, some of them younger, grab the birds, wring their necks, stomp on their bodies, or throw them live into barrels to suffocate. A pigeon killed at one of the shoots has no food or commercial value.

The lure of pigeon shoots, in addition to what the participants must think is a wanton sense of fulfillment, is gambling. Although such gambling is illegal under Pennsylvania law, the law is not enforced by the Pennsylvania State Police.

The International Olympic Committee banned the so-called sport after the 1900 Olympics because of its cruelty to animals. Most hunters, as well as the Pennsylvania Game Commission, say that pigeon shoots aren’t “fair chase hunting.” Almost every daily newspaper in the state and dozens of organizations, from the Council of Churches to the Pennsylvania Bar Association, oppose this form of animal cruelty.

On the floor of the House, Rep. Rosita C. Youngblood (D-Philadelphia), usually a supporter of animal rights issues, spoke out against voting on the bill, and asked other Democrats to go along with her. Youngblood is minority chair of the Gaming Oversight committee.

Youngblood’s chief of staff, Bill Thomas, emphasizes that Youngblood’s only concern was to protect the integrity of the legislative process. Although some members truly believed they voted to recommit the bill for procedural reasons, most members were simply afraid to vote on the bill. Voting to recommit the bill were 52 Democrats, many of them opposed to pigeon shoots; 35 voted to keep it on the floor for debate. Among Republicans, the vote was 72–34 to send the bill to committee.

The Arguments

Germaneness. The Republican leadership had determined that all amendments to bills in the current legislative session must be germane to the bill. “You can’t hijack a bill,” many in the House, including key Democrats, claimed as the major reason they voted against SB71.

However, the Republicans, with a majority in the House and able to block any bill in committee that didn’t meet their strict political agenda, raised “germaneness” to a level never before seen in the House. For decades, Democrats and Republicans attached completely unrelated amendments to bills. Even during this session the Republicans, in violation of their own “rules,” attached amendments to allow school vouchers onto several bills that had nothing to do with education. But the greyhound racing bill was considered under both gambling and animal cruelty concerns. Thus, the amendment to ban pigeon shoots could also be considered to be an animal cruelty amendment and not subject to the Judiciary Committee, where it was likely to die. 

Separate bill. Several legislators believed the attempt to stop pigeon shoots should have been its own bill, not tacked onto another bill.

However, only twice have bills about pigeon shoots come to the floor of the House. Most proposed legislation was buried in committees or blocked by House leadership, both Democrat and Republican, most of whom received support and funding from the NRA, gun owner groups and their political action committees (PACs). In 1989 the Pennsylvania House defeated a bill to ban pigeon shoots, 66–126. By 1994, three years after the first large-scale protest, the House voted 99–93 in favor of an amendment to ban pigeon shoots but fell short of the 102 votes needed for passage.

The bill would duplicate or repeal a recently-signed law. Rep. Curt Schroeder (R-Chester Co.), chair of the Gaming Oversight committee, sponsored the House version of the Senate’s bill. If it were truly an unnecessary bill, he or the leadership could have sent it to committee for reworking or killed it. According to sources close to the leadership, despite his concern for animal welfare, Schroeder was not pleased about the amendments tacked onto his bill.

Short time to accomplish much. Several Democrats believed that if they spent an extraordinary amount of time on the bill, necessary legislation would not be brought to the floor and the Republicans could then blame the Democrats for blocking key legislation.

However, both parties already knew how they would vote on redistricting (the Republicans had gerrymandered the state to protect certain districts), school vouchers, and other proposed legislation. Further, the Republican leadership could have blocked putting the greyhound bill on the agenda or placed it at the end of other bills. Even on the floor of the House, the leadership could have shut down debate at any time. Thus, the Democrats’ argument about “only four days left” is blunted by the Republicans’ own actions. During 2011 the House met on only 54 days when the vote on SB71 was taken. If the House was so concerned about having only four days left in the year to discuss and vote upon critical issues, it could have added days to the work week or increased hours while in session. Speaker Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny), to his credit, wanted a vote, although he personally opposed the pigeon shoot amendment. “Let’s put this issue to rest,” he told the members. Taking the time to debate the bill, says Bill Thomas, “wasted taxpayer money and time.” However, “the amount of time spent avoiding the bill,” counters Prescott, “wastes far more time and resources than voting on it.”

No matter what the arguments, sending the bill to committee was a good way to avoid having to deal with a highly controversial issue. It allowed many legislators to pretend to their constituents that they still believe in animal welfare while avoiding blow-back from the NRA or its supporters. Conversely, it allowed many of those who wanted to keep pigeon shoots to avoid a debate and subsequent vote, allowing continued support from pro-gun constituents who accept the NRA non-logic, while not offending constituents who believe in animal welfare.

Whatever their reasons, the failure of many of the state’s representatives to stand up for their convictions probably caused legislation to ban this form of animal cruelty to be as dead during this session as the pigeons whose necks are wrung by teenagers who finish the kill initiated by people who think they’re sportsmen but are little more than juveniles disguised in the bodies of adults.

Walter Brasch is an award-winning syndicated social issues columnist, former newspaper and magazine reporter and editor, whose specialties included public affairs/investigative reporting. He is professor emeritus of journalism. Dr. Brasch’s latest novel is Before the First Snow, a story of the counterculture and set in rural Pennsylvania.

But it hasn’t been easy. Frankly each issue of The Guardian that hits the streets is a miracle. A miracle sustained by a revolving cast of extremely dedicated volunteers who donate their time and energy to pulling each issue together. The most important part of my job as editor is coordinating all this effort and the fact of the matter is there are always too few people doing too much work. This particular issue would not exist without the continued dedication of Barbara Andreassen who did the layout but so much more and with the fresh energy of April Line who volunteered to take on the editorial heavy lifting on this issue while I was otherwise distracted.

Lately I’ve started to ask myself: “Is The Williamsport Guardian worth all the effort?” Does this community really need a bi-monthly, volunteer-run, alternative newspaper? Should we go digital? Should we bother to publish at all? The answer to this question lies in the hands of the people willing to support it. The Guardian will only continue to exist if enough of the people who read it value it enough to support it, and if we continue to attract a core of volunteers willing to do the heavy lifting necessary to get each issue to press.

Do you value The Guardian? Do you want to see it continue? Then you need to do at least one of the following on a regular basis.

-Let us know you are reading The Guardian. Tell us what you think about the latest issue, what you liked, what you didn’t like. Let us know that someone is reading what we work so hard to get into print.  Let us know what you’d like to see in the next issue of The Guardian, send us letters to the editor, information about upcoming events, articles, ideas for articles, photos, drawings.
-Share The Williamsport Guardian with other people. You don’t have to be part of our distribution team to help distribute the The Guardian. You can help distribute it by giving copies to friends and neighbors, buying a subscription for someone who has moved away but still cares about this area, leaving copies of The Guardian in your favorite coffee shop, waiting room, et cetera.
-Support us financially. Buy a subscription and get The Guardian delivered to your door. Place an advertisement in The Guardian. You don’t have to own a business to advertise in The Guardian. Consider supporting two causes you love by placing an ad for a local non-profit organization in The Guardian.
-Attend our fund raising event in March. On Thursday, March 22, we’ll be holding a special dinner at The Herdic House. By attending you’ll be making a financial donation to The Guardian but you’ll be doing so much more. You’ll be coming together with a community of people who care about the mission of The Guardian and I am looking forward the exchange of ideas that will come from that gathering.

If every one who reads and values The Williamsport Guardian did at least one of these things it will help sustain the continuation of The Williamsport Guardian, but I need to be honest and tell you that it’s going to take more to keep The Guardian rolling off the presses 6 times a year.
We also need volunteers willing to commit to donating their time and energy to doing the work it takes to get a paper to press. Here’s what we need.

Graphic Designers. We need individuals who know how to use InDesign to do page layout and ad design work.

Photographers. We need photographers willing to take photos on assignment.

Writers. We need writers willing to do articles on assignment. We get plenty of writers who will write about subjects they are interested in and we really value their submissions, but if we are going be a serious alternative news source, we need writers who are willing to pursue stories that our local media will not.

Section Editors. We need writers willing to commit to compiling specific sections of the paper such as Take Action, Events, By The Numbers, Music, Arts, etc. We also need guest editors, individuals willing to provide assistance with a specific issue.

Distribution. We need volunteers to deliver the paper to our distribution points.

If you are interested in being part of the team that creates the next issue of The Williamsport Guardian please get in touch with me at williamsportguardian@yahoo.com. The future of The Guardian is in your hands.

I am not a mall person. I avoid Lycoming Mall Drive in Muncy on Saturday and Sunday, so when my partner suggested dining at Fox’s Family Restaurant on a Saturday morning, I initially said, “No way!”

But I’d recently been scandalized by having looked up the nutrition information for the breakfasts at Perkins, which was our usual pre-grocery-shopping, weekend-morning haunt—purely out of convenience, I assure you—so I conceded and we hopped in the car and trekked out to Fox’s.

I am also not a buffet person. I wrestle with my weight, and buffets seem irresponsible because I have to remind myself to stop eating when I am full. I’m a plate-cleaner, and the bounty of buffets makes me feel obliged to eat too much. Plus I dislike the spongy or rubbery, generally over-warmed state of food on buffets. Buffet bacon? The worst. I’d rather eat salted rubber bands.

The first time we went to Fox’s it was a hot summer morning—the worst time of the year to work in a restaurant kitchen, I assure you. There was a swarm of folks at the buffet. The kid who ran the food out from the kitchen was replenishing scrambled eggs like they were water for the dehydrated. He was soaked in sweat from nose to waist.

Maybe the buffet is what I’m missing about Fox’s. But I really don’t get it.  

I read some customer reviews online and they were these gushy, hyperbolic portraits of remarkable service and food that will serve itself to you on a solid gold breakfast plate while massaging your atrophied muscles and reducing acne scars.    

We’ve been there about five times since summer. I order something different every time, and so does my partner. So far, with the exception of the sticky -un French toast, we’ve shrugged at each other afterwards and said, “Meh.”  We’ve tried the blueberry pancakes, the grits, the eggs, omelets, French toast, fruit cup, toast, bacon, potatoes, and corned beef hash.  

The blueberry pancakes taste as if they’re made from a box mix. The eggs are fine, but I’ve had eggs from gas station diners that were fine, too. My daughter loves the French toast. The fruit cup was lackluster. I ordered cottage cheese once, but they were out. I haven’t tried the bacon or corned beef hash personally, but my partner—a meat connoisseur—was unmoved.  

Truly, the mark of an excellent diner is its relationship with breakfast potatoes. The best breakfast potatoes I’ve ever had were in a tiny place in Newville, PA, between two row houses in an alley, with a handwritten sign. Those potatoes were buttery and crunchy and filled with delicious, caramelized onions, and not too salty, but salty enough.

Most of the time, however, diners get the potatoes wrong. They’re either undercooked or under-seasoned or uninspired. Fox’s potatoes are a bit starchy, and—unless you ask for them well done—never crunchy at all.

It’s not bad. I’m not saying that. It’s just not good. The corned beef hash comes from a can. The grits are always hot, which I like, but anybody can make grits; they store well on a steam table, and they stand up to any accoutrement. The bread, which I understand they bake there, is fine, but it’s not artisan bread, it’s like bread-machine bread: adequate, doughy, good because it’s bread.  

The place is decorated Country Living style, and the food servers wear those strange, severe nurse-type dresses that button up the front, like Nurse Ratched’s in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The hosts and buspeople wear black slacks or skirts and a white shirt of any type. It must be a swell place to work, because it’s always the same people.

There’s one server who’s really ebullient and friendly. But the one we’ve had more often doesn’t smile so much as press her thin lips together into an expression of tolerance, and though she is speedy and efficient, she does not make me feel as if she’s glad to have me to wait on or that she especially wants to wait on me.  

There are lots of tables on limited floor space, so getting to and from your table is sometimes a chore, and since it’s so busy you have to be on the lookout for traveling pots of coffee before attempting to leave your chair.  

And as often as not, we’ve picked up a little pastry on the way out to share later. We got a rhubarb muffin once that was both very small for the price and utterly unremarkable. Another time we got a fritter. It was a touch better than average.

Another time we ordered peach popovers, but instead they gave us the thing that was next to them, these funny, flat peach dumplings, which we decided to have for dessert after dinner, only to discover that they were moldy under their crust.       

I’m going to rate this place with some caveats: since I’ve only ever been there before eleven a.m., the following only applies to breakfast off the menu and the weekend morning dining experience.

Food: 2.5 capers, adequate. Atmosphere: 3.5 capers, clean and not stinky. Service: 3.5 capers, not bad, it’s just not the kind of service I expect from a small, local, family-owned family restaurant. So on a 5-caper scale, Fox’s Family Restaurant earns 3.17 capers.  

State Rep. Rick Mirabito (D-Lycoming) is urging municipalities and nonprofit organizations planning to rehabilitate existing park and recreation facilities, develop trail projects, and close gaps in statewide greenways to apply for state grants.

“Applications are now available for Community Conservation Partnerships Program grants, otherwise known as C2P2 grants,” Mirabito said. “In addition, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will hold a free workshop to help applicants prepare a successful grant application.”

The workshop will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, March 8, at the Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke. Registration for the workshop must be completed online at www.dcnr.state.pa.us/Calendar/list.asp.

“The deadline to apply is April 4,” Mirabito said. “C2P2 combines several state and federal funding sources into one program and awards grants to municipalities and authorized nonprofit organizations to plan, acquire, and develop recreation, park, and trail facilities and conserve open space.”

Funding priorities for 2012 include

·    the rehabilitation of existing park and recreation facilities;

·    trail projects that close gaps in major statewide greenways and regionally significant trails;

·    implementation of Rivers Conservation Plans, including enhancing water trails and public river access;

·    helping park and recreation areas become greener;

·    land conservation for critical habitat;

·    expansion of existing park and recreation areas and establishment of new community parks; and

·    projects identified as regional partnerships.

Additional information can be found on DCNR’s website: www.dcnr.state.pa.us.

CONTACT: Barb Fellencer

House Democratic Communications Office

Phone: 717-787-7895

Email: bfellenc@pahouse.net

It wasn’t just that environmental concerns about the underground drilling process finally struck a mainstream chord—after three years of reporting and more than 125 stories. For the first time, independent scientific investigations linked the drilling technique with water pollution, and a variety of federal and state agencies responded to the growing apprehension about water contamination with more studies and more regulation.

The most important development—and perhaps a crucial turning point—was in December. In a landmark finding, the Environmental Protection Agency concluded that hydraulic fracturing was the likely culprit in a spate of groundwater contamination that had forced residents to stop using their water in dozens of homes in central Wyoming. The agency had been investigating since 2008.

Earlier in the year, a study published through the National Academy of Sciences determined that in Pennsylvania, private water wells in close proximity to fracked gas wells were 17 times more likely to be contaminated with methane gas.

Those studies are separate from a national research project the EPA has undertaken to assess the risks fracking poses to water resources. The agency is examining five case studies across the country and is now estimating that some of its report will be complete by the original 2012 deadline and the rest will continue into 2014.

The study is meant to help Congress and regulators determine whether fracking should be regulated like other similar processes under the Safe Drinking Water Act and whether companies that frack should be forced to disclose the details about the chemicals they use.
Last winter, the Obama administration—which has repeatedly referred to natural gas as a bridge fuel and encouraged its development—urged the Department of Energy to conduct its own assessment of fracking’s safety on a quicker timeline than the EPA.

In a matter of months a DOE panel determined that the environmental risks were substantial and needed to be addressed in order to safely develop more natural gas resources. The panel raised concerns that pollution could have serious health consequences for those who live close to drilling operations.

Indeed, a report published by ProPublica in September found that residents in drilling areas across the country complained of serious health symptoms ranging from skin lesions to tumors, and that health and science organizations had yet to develop any comprehensive system for studying such problems.

While water pollution is one concern, many of the health effects reported are believed to be related to air pollution and emissions released in the natural gas development and drilling process.

Earlier in the year a ProPublica investigation found that the EPA had grossly underestimated the amount of methane that seeps out of pipelines and drill rigs as gas is produced, and reported that the agency was doubling its calculations. Our analysis of the new emissions levels showed that they threaten to offset the relative advantages presented by cleaner-burning natural gas over oil and carbon in combating climate change and reducing carbon emissions.

In some cases government officials didn’t just debate fracking and call for additional study. They enacted real changes in how drilling is overseen.

The EPA announced that the drilling industry would have to comply with tough new industrial emissions standards. Then it said that it would issue new rules governing how waste water from fracking is disposed of; this addressed concerns first raised by ProPublica in 2009 that in eastern drilling areas, where one cannot inject waste into underground wells the way the industry does in the west, chemical-laden waste is winding up in river systems, and then drinking water. In December Colorado implemented the toughest law yet requiring comprehensive disclosure of frack fluids, following similar but weaker laws in Texas and Wyoming.

This was also the year fracking went global. While France banned fracking outright and South Africa enacted a temporary moratorium, multi-national energy companies began exploring shale reserves in Poland, Argentina, and China.

Closer to home, New York state officials continued to inch closer to allowing drilling to take place in the coveted Marcellus Shale. After a multi-year process and its own temporary moratorium on some fracking activity, New York finished up the latest version of its environmental review and has signaled that it intends to begin permitting more drilling early next year.

According to the state’s environmental assessment, no fracking will be allowed on state lands, and the process will be severely limited within the New York City watershed.

Still, the state’s chief environmental regulator, Joe Martens, told ProPublica he is confident that drilling can proceed safely and that he does not expect there will be much to learn from the EPA’s research into the issue. New York’s draft plan is in its final stage of public review and is expected to be completed on Jan. 11, 2012.

Propublica staff reporter Nicholas Kusnetz contributed to this report.

Thankfully, I first came across the article via one of its rebuttals, which is a good thing, because I’m otherwise far too much like Catch-22’s Yossarian for comfort, and my reaction would’ve mirrored the bafflement and outrage felt by so much of the yoga community. The rebuttal gave me an instant out, a way to rein in my reaction with a cranky nose-wrinkle: “Now yoga is trying to kill me? Great,” I thought. “I practice to deal with anxiety. What are you trying to do to me, Grey Lady?”

Then I actually read the article, and took a breath, and sighed. “Oh, New York Times,” I said, to nobody in particular. “I love you. But I thought this article was going to be about yoga. Did you mean Cirque du Soleil?”

Seriously. The article, written by William J. Broad, is garish. There are ribs popping out of joint, discs rupturing, strokes! Strokes! It didn’t help that the article featured inexplicable photography of the cast of Broadway’s Godspell, the relevance of which still eludes me, contorted into several quasi-yoga poses, looking as if they really are trying to either kill themselves or join the circus. I saw those photos and I wanted to have a stroke, so yeah, actually: Broad’s right. A yoga-related stroke? It could happen.

But out of all of Broad’s examples, this is, by far, my favorite: “In one case, a male college student, after more than a year of doing yoga, decided to intensify his practice,” Broad writes. “He would sit upright on his heels in a kneeling position known as vajrasana for hours a day, chanting for world peace. Soon he was experiencing difficulty walking, running and climbing stairs.”

No kidding.

Here’s the thing: The fact that there’s a spiritual aspect to yoga should not suggest the discipline is immune to morons. The fact that some college kid thought world peace was attainable by chanting while literally sitting on his heels is proof enough of that. It’s as if he listened too closely to the John Mayer song “Waiting on the World to Change,” a tune I find supremely irritating, because unless you’re waiting for the bus to take you to the rally, what, exactly, are you accomplishing by doing nothing but waiting? The world’s not going to change itself, John Mayer. Yes, this sentiment may run contrary to yoga’s Zen-like goals and reputation, but I’m going to go with Che Guevara on this one: “The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.”

Wow, I just quoted Che, and did so in total seriousness. Did I just jump the shark?

    But I digress. The examples in the Times article are generally as extreme as that college student’s idealism and Guevara’s reputation. I mean, I played soccer when I was 11, but you didn’t see me trying to do some kind of flying bicycle kick at my first practice. I was still trying to muster up the courage to head the ball.  Or a more current example: I love horseback riding, but I’ve never tried to jump a five-foot fence. Why? Because I’m not an Olympian. And neither is any horse I’ve ever ridden. Unlike people, they’re not lunatics. If I asked a horse to do that, I know exactly what it would say: “You can go over that fence if you want to, Carolyn. But you’re going over it without me.”

Of course I would get hurt.

And of course you can get hurt practicing yoga. I’ve pulled muscles and aggravated early-onset carpal tunnel by too enthusiastically balancing in Crane pose. I’ve also stoved fingers and sprained ankles playing basketball and broken bones—OK, fingers, but they still count—working with horses. And guess what? I broke two toes during a spontaneous and ill-advised shaving cream battle in the dorms during my freshman year of college. I also fall down sometimes. Stuff happens.

The point is to keep things in perspective. Out of all the rebuttals I’ve seen, my favorite is still the first, by Sarah Miller for The Awl: “[The Times article] finds subjects with genuine, perfectly reasonable things to say and a few suspect anecdotes and by the time a little Science [said in Thomas Dolby voice] is thrown in (some of this science is from 1972!) everyone has run away screaming at the top of their lungs: ‘Yoga, noooo! I’d be better off smoking crack and turning tricks outside Benito’s.’”

What the Times article misses is the purpose of yoga, and that purpose, intrinsic to the discipline, is the through-line that’s essential to its healing nature.Yoga, at its core, is about breathing. It’s about your relationship with yourself and your progress in relation to your own personal goals, both physical and emotional. It’s not about who’s the best.  It’s not about competition with others. I think that’s why I like it—when it comes to anything but writing, I’m pretty much the antithesis of competitive. And yoga is more about searching within yourself to find the best you can do in the moment. It’s about celebrating your strengths and accepting your failures—knowing what you can and can’t do in the moment. At its most ideal, yoga is about wisdom—when to push yourself and when to let the challenge remain a challenge for another day.

Also? It’s not rocket science. There are some pretty simple things that you can do to practice yoga safely. Make sure your instructor is certified, for example. Don’t push yourself too hard. Drop the ego. Respect your boundaries and be aware of your comfort zone. Remember that yoga is about breathing, not about who’s the better pretzel (the answer probably involves dough, salt and cheese anyway). Basically, if it hurts, don’t do it. It’s as simple—and as difficult—as that. And don’t freakin wait for the world to change on its own. Stay centered, but for God’s sake, do something about it.

Om shanti. Namaste.

C.A. Keller just really wants to write, travel, and study Shakespeare.  She is currently pursuing her teacheing certification while she serves lots of coffee.

You grew up, moved out, and started a family of your own. You visit when you can and keep in touch by talking on the phone and emailing pictures of grandchildren, and possibly great-grandchildren, on a regular basis. 

As your parents and grandparents grow older, though, they may require more help than they used to in terms of both physical and emotional support.  If you are in that “sandwich generation” where you are still raising your own children and are worrying about your parents, grandparents, or in-laws, it can be hard to provide the type of support and care they need.  Not only is this frustrating for you; it can also become frustrating to your loved ones. 

If you are attempting to care for a loved one while working full-time and/or raising your own family, rest assured you are not alone.  Here is a simple yet important list of ways to make this time as easy as possible.

• Communicate. Realize that Mom and Dad may not want to worry you with their problems or health issues. Discuss this with them and make them understand how important it is that they be completely open and honest with you about their lives. Also, call them often!  You do not need to discuss important issues with them every time. Just call to chat and keep each other in the loop. Talking often about day-to-day events fosters a closeness that you will treasure and also makes it easier to discuss critical matters as they arise.

• Ask for help. You may need assistance taking care of aging parents.There are companies and individuals in virtually every community offering a wide variety of services that can help parents like yours. From grocery shopping and preparing meals to cleaning their house and taking them to the doctor’s office, professional caregivers can assist your parents with many tasks, as well as provide company and companionship when you can’t be there because of work or other family commitments.

• Keep track of the specifics. It is important for you to know things like social security numbers, who their doctor is, the name of their attorney, and other important information. Also, knowing their dates and places of birth, who their creditors are, what assets and investments they hold, etc., can help you navigate matters that may arise, especially if they grow senile or become victims of fraud or if you end up having to help your parents manage their money.

• Make friends with your parents’ friends. Doing so allows you to feel comfortable picking up the phone to contact them in case of an emergency or just to check to see how your parents seem to be faring from another person’s perspective.

• Introduce yourself to your parents’ health care providers. It can make a difference for these professionals to know your parents have strong family support and involvement. Make sure your parents list you as a person who is allowed to discuss their health issues. 

Caregiving can be emotionally draining and incredibly fulfilling at the same time. Use this list as a basic blueprint of ways you can help, and add to this list other things that may help your unique situation. Instead of feeling guilty that you cannot be with them at all times, concentrate your energy in the more positive direction of doing what you can to the best of your ability. Make the time you are with them quality time. Facing challenges with a positive and pro-active approach makes caregiving easier for all involved.

Lara Breon is the Client Care Coordinator at Comfort Keepers. She has worked with the senior population for the past decade, first as a caregiver while in college, and then as the volunteer coordinator at a performing arts center. She is also active in several local senior organizations.

I’ve heard people say that psychiatrists have a tendency to be crazy themselves, but I didn’t understand the full extent of this phenomenon until I saw A Dangerous Method.

The “based on a true story” film follows Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) as they build a friendship and debate the ideas that will eventually become the foundation of modern psychiatry. Oh, and there’s a girl, too.

Keira Knightley plays the girl, Sabina Spielrein, and boy, does she ever bring the crazy. And it’s not a cute or sexy crazy, or even strange neighbor lady who wears eccentric purple hats with ostrich feathers crazy. The movie opens with a scene of her acting so nuts you may never again think of Knightley as that pretty girl from all those period movies. I spent several minutes debating whether director David Cronenberg (who is best known for his horror movies) used some kind of computer graphics to make her jaw contort the way it does.

I eventually decided not, but one of the pluses (or probably, for some viewers, minuses) of this film is that it gives you plenty of time to fully contemplate such questions. In other words, not much happens.

The film starts with Spielrein being committed to the asylum where Jung works. He’s pretty excited about that because she seems like a promising candidate for the experimental “talk therapy” which he’s read about this guy Freud inventing. So they give it a try, and we get to witness one of history’s first therapy sessions (apparently the couch came later—she gets only a hard wooden chair).

Conveniently enough, what’s making Spielrein nuts turns out to be sex, which fits in well with Freud’s belief that sex is what’s making everyone nuts. Jung is not quite so convinced, in part because he still believes in religion, but Spielrein is the proof in the pudding for talk therapy.

A montage of therapy sessions, and an internship to keep her busy, and all of a sudden she’s a brilliant medical student instead of a raving lunatic with a lizard jaw. If this movie weren’t alleged to be historical, I would complain about its use of the “all a crazy person needs is love” trope. (See As Good As It Gets for an example. Except, don’t, because I really hate that movie.)

But if this were that kind of movie, everything would end happily right there. It’s not, and it doesn’t. Turns out there’s plenty more crazy where Spielrein’s came from, just as Freud would have predicted. Right when things seem to be going smoothly, along comes Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel), another crazy psychiatrist, who needs Jung’s help to stop being a sex fiend. He and Jung have some great therapy sessions except that they seem to work backwards and make Jung crazier instead of Gross saner.

At this point everyone in the film (except for Jung’s long-suffering, child-birthing wife) is a sex-crazed maniac. Naturally, complications ensue. Not as many or as dramatic as you might expect—mostly what ensue are more heated conversations. They are pretty interesting conversations, though, especially for anyone who is enough of a history/psychiatry buff to enjoy watching Freud and Jung analyze each other’s dreams.

Personally, I might have voted for an hour and a half of just those two guys going at it: Did the ancient Egyptians have Daddy issues? Does Jung have a telepathic relationship with the bookcase? What does it mean that Jung seems to be the only non-Jewish psychoanalyst around? Viggo Mortensen makes a terrific Freud, spouting theory and witticisms and chomping cigars (so incessantly that one has to wonder if a cigar is ever really just a cigar).

But in the actual film we also get a lot of extended scenic shots of the Swiss landscape (it is quite pretty), some kinky but not-very-hot sex scenes, and way too much of Spielrein and her contagious craziness.

So when you see A Dangerous Method (as I do recommend that you do), think of those portions as your opportunity to ponder the mysteries of the human psyche and Knightley’s anatomy or refill your popcorn. Just be sure to get back in your seat in time to see Freud and Jung debate the sexual perversions of their patients during family dinner.

Stacey Butterfield lives in Philadelphia, and when not reviewing movies, she works as an associate editor for the American College of Physicians and blogs at speeddating-girl.wordpress.com.

Kay Tyberg, who has been a tireless advocate for the needs of hearing impaired individuals in this area, has been active in the Central PA chapter, based in State College, but felt that Williamsport needed its own group. The group meets on the second Thursday of each month at The Center for Independent Living Building, 24 E. Third St., Williamsport. For more information contact Kay Tyberg, HLALC, PO Box 3252, Williamsport, PA 17701 or Tybergkay7376@yahoo.com or 866-950-1294 (Video Relay System-VRS).

The indelible effects of the gas drilling and related activity and its impacts on the local citizens must be honestly assessed. Unfortunately, to a great extent, one of the consequences with the most impact is being ignored and has not been fully appreciated. As many of you may have noticed, the price for renting any type of dwelling has skyrocketed over the last two years. The reason for this is the influx of workers hired by firms related to natural gas drilling. The jobs pay well for that sector of the employed, and since many of them have come from outside the area they immediately put a strain on the rental market, increasing demand and monthly rental fees. This is not a situation unique to Clinton County. It has been observed in communities throughout the country where gas drilling has occurred.

For those who are otherwise employed, wages have not drastically changed, and many I have had conversations with have either had their rent raised or been forced out so a worker employed by a natural gas-related company could move in at a higher rate. A scenario is arising whereby we may see working-homeless families and individuals who have jobs but can no longer afford housing.

With the current state of the overall economy and the increasing cost of basic needs like energy and food, this added burden on the poor and lower middle class in Clinton County is more than unwelcome; it is, in so many cases, the straw breaking the proverbial camel’s back.

The recent news that one of the largest employers in our region, First Quality, will be laying off some of its employees only serves to highlight the effect higher living costs will have on those who find themselves out of a job or dispossessed by a struggling economy.

This is not to say that the drilling activity has not improved the lives of some. Some local businesses have capitalized on new clientele, flush with cash. There are also the handful of local individuals who have been hired to work in the gas industry and have profited from it. However, it is undeniable to any person with even moderate observational skills that a large portion of the work force for the gas industry is imported from elsewhere.

It is an uncomfortable point to interject, that the source of prosperity for some is placing an unrequited burden upon others in the community, but it is necessary to honestly broach the topic before the disparity widens and further polarizes the citizenry.

Our state Constitution says that the Commonwealth “shall conserve and maintain” our public natural resources “for the benefit of all the people.” In a county where most of the drilling is occurring on public land and so many are forced to live with the impacts on infrastructure, housing costs, and other numerous inconveniences without any individual return, it can assuredly be purported that the current situation is not benefiting all citizens and is, in fact, going a step further and causing actual harm to a large number of persons.

This argument is the basis for a severance tax or an impact fee on the gas industry. It is not right for some to profit at the expense of their neighbors’ quality of life. Indeed, it is not only irresponsible to ignore the current situation, but collectively immoral for any of us to tolerate it.

But have we really looked around us lately? In a growing number of places Pennsylvania is being transformed. The long-term impact of unplanned and unregulated transformation is a legacy the Commonwealth knows all too well; our history is ripe with environmental disasters, economic booms and busts, rapid loss of farmland, incredible urban sprawl not at all related to population growth. We see this transformation every day, whether in the building of the new, the destruction of the old, or the abandonment of the economically unusable, yet communities still fail to understand that these negative impacts can be mitigated, but first there has to be an understanding that they will occur.

Planning may seem to be a boring, bureaucratic topic, but in many ways it is the linchpin of our community. Planning shapes the rules and regulations under which development occurs. A grass roots comprehensive planning process has enormous potential to preserve, protect and vastly improve our communities. Sustainable economic growth is best encouraged by designating areas where development serves the public good and where it does not. Flexible regulations and streamlined permitting processes should be established to encourage development in proper areas.

These “designated growth” areas should be large enough to accommodate all predicted commercial, residential and industrial development for the next thirty years, with a safety margin of 50 percent. Proposed development within these designated growth areas should be encouraged by a swift review and approval process. Development outside these boundaries, except for low-density housing, rural commercial or industrial development, agriculture and forestry, should be reviewed by the appropriate municipal, county and regional agencies for the appropriateness of the proposed use for the neighborhood. We have the opportunity to plan for a new sense of community, of a more mixed and multiple use pattern of development in response to new conditions. A good plan promotes lofty goals, high objectives and specific policy recommendations to achieve a shared community vision of what we want our locality to be. People fundamentally want places which are humane and livable, a shared sense of community, and a sense of stewardship of the land.

A new vision for a community emerges in this planning—a process that utilizes the techniques of consensus building at the grassroots level, one that redefines our community, using the best of the past and the technological and ecological advances of the present to create a more positive and secure future for everyone. The residents of Pennsylvania’s cities, towns and villages must activate this new vision. Remember that almost everything that is built is approved under some kind of regulation. Participation in the process, establishing a shared vision, and actually implementing the plan can activate this common vision of our community.

Almost fifty years ago, Pennsylvania voters ratified a measure that added Article I, Section 27 to the State Constitution of 1968. The constitutional amendment states:

“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustees of these resources the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”

The Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code has been amended several times to enhance and encourage local governments to address valuable natural and cultural resources such as agricultural lands, wetlands, floodplains, historic and water supply resources. Regarding land use and its impact on the environment, The Atlas of Pennsylvania notes:

“Many activities–industrial, commercial, housing development, mineral extraction, farming, forestry, or waste disposal–are bound to affect the environment. Pennsylvania’s environmental programs and laws, including local land development ordinances, promote the recognition and the mitigation or avoidance of environmental effects. In fact, the Commonwealth’s ability to encourage environmental stewardship is quite broad, at both the state and the local levels.”

The citizens of Pennsylvania do have the tools available to them that permit them to create the kind of communities they want to live in, all they need to do is force their locally elected officials to use those tools. Those who fail to plan are planning to fail.

Now that a jury has determined that Rep. Feese employed that same tenacity, skill and leadership to illegally divert millions of taxpayer dollars to a project to develop high-tech campaign tools to help GOP candidates, mightn’t it be time for Penn College to rethink that message? Leadership implies followers, and surely Penn College does not want to encourage its students to follow in the path of Rep. Feese, who was just convicted of 38 counts of theft, conspiracy, and conflict of interest. And although the steering of taxpayer dollars to Penn College was indeed of benefit to the college and to the broader community, that seems insufficient; the charities that made substantial profits from investments with Bernie Madoff in the early years are no longer thanking him now.

Like members of the Occupy Movement in New York, the Penn College students want to demonstrate that the movement’s focus should be not just income inequality but also educational inequality. Our schools are a more sympathetic target than corporate CEOs, but for many Americans they are a larger cause of economic injustice. Most occupants have similar views, but many of them have different methods of expressing their thoughts. As occupier Logan Hinkley pointed out with a famous quote from George S. Patton, “If everyone is thinking alike, then someone is not thinking.”
What is the definition of educational inequality? When it comes to giving Americans an equal opportunity, our school systems are failing at the task. Here is the income-based gap: only 8% of low-income students get a college degree by the time they are 24, while 75% of affluent students do. This does not relate to big banks or corporations, but the students explain that the Occupy Movement, along with other worldwide movements, must open the eyes of the blind and demand change in a positive direction. The organizer of this Occupy Movement, Doug Bittner, explains, “Our movement shows that education is a universal right and should not be a competition between parents and kids for which they should go so deep into debt.” Another enthusiastic occupier, John Halford, states, “I plan on transferring to another college next year, and as I continue my search for a new school I must focus mainly on tuition, and it shouldn’t be this way.”

Professors are also getting involved in the action. Several are very fearful of what the future will be for their students and just want the best for them. Some instructors from Penn College have attended Occupy Wall Street because they believe it is a learning opportunity for college students. They believe they can teach students how to be civilly engaged in a protest, fight for what they believe in, and do what it is their responsibility to do: TEACH!

Josh Maurer is studying General Education at Penn College and is planning on transferring out of Pennsylvania next year to study English. When he’s not studying for school, he enjoys listening to live music of any kind.

Yet each gives the appearance of a spontaneous popular movement breaking out of everyday channels of political participation and action. Appearances can be deceiving.

The Tea Party clearly has substantial and passionate mass support: polls indicate between 15 and 20 percent of the total electorate, and of course a much higher proportion of the Republican electorate. It brings together the most militantly conservative elements of the Republican coalition. But we now know that the initiative for the Tea Party Movement came not from the grass roots but from the highest reaches of the conservative establishment: the Koch brothers and such long-time conservative leaders as former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (now Chairman of the conservative organization FreedomWorks).

Regardless of its origins, though, the Tea Party has had a massive impact on the political system, electing a new Republican—and much more conservative—House majority in Washington, as well as several governors and new state legislative majorities. Even more important, the Tea Party has changed the agenda in the country, from how to spend more money to get out of the recession to how to cut more spending. Decades of quasi- Keynesian economic consensus are gone; the ideal of balanced federal budgets and a drastically reduced government role is the new conventional wisdom. The Tea Party is a big deal.

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a much newer movement, just weeks old, so no meaningful comparison can be made with what the Tea Party has accomplished. But its goals are similar: in particular, OWS seeks to change the debate, to call attention to the fact that a tiny, rich minority is monopolizing all the benefits of our economy while the rest of us are either stagnating or falling behind. And the initial public demonstrations in New York and around the country (and in many other countries, too) have succeeded in finally getting that message across in ways that countless columns by Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, and others have been unable to do. They have begun, as the Tea Party did before, to change the agenda, to put the issues of economic justice back on the table.

OWS, like the Tea Party, did not spring fully formed from the bosom of the people: various progressive organizations such as Democracy for America had a great deal to do with pulling together like-minded people and providing strategic support. But the scale of such organizational backing is dwarfed by the Right Wing midwifing of the Tea Party.

Now, OWS faces the task of achieving enough coherence and coordination to become a lasting force on the national scene. Too much national leadership will suck the life out of a spontaneous movement, but too little will allow its energy to dissipate like a wave breaking on the rocks. Occupy Wall Street has an opportunity here to develop the kind of clout that the Tea Party has, but to do it they will have to be every bit as hard-nosed and disciplined.

Politics in its highest sense is about doing what is best for the country, but it is also about getting the power to define what is best. The Tea Party understands that; does OWS?

The park fills a small city block in the downtown Financial District, at the bottom of a canyon surrounded by tall buildings. Nearby is the constant hammering of construction on the site of the World Trade Center. On the east side is Broadway with its constant stream of cars, trucks and tour buses. On the west side is Church Street with almost as much traffic. The Occupy Wall Street movement began here on September 17.

What’s going on in Zuccotti Park? On the day I visited in mid-October, it was mostly talking. Some of the occupiers had gone uptown to a demonstration in Harlem. Drummers crowded at one end of the park, playing a variety of objects that emitted a sound when banged, from real drums to metal banisters. Other musicians played elsewhere.

The people cramming the interior of the park were men and women, young and old, all races and colors, dressed in anything from suits to surplus to goth to rags. The place was packed. It took me ten minutes just to walk the couple of hundred feet from one end to the other. People were standing or sitting on stone benches and folding chairs; some were in sleeping bags, dead to the world despite all that was happening around them. People stood around the perimeter holding signs they had made, some proclaiming complicated philosophies, others just inviting conversation.

In one corner was the library with books in plastic bins. In the center was the kitchen, constantly busy; next to that was the clothing depot. On one side was the medical tent, staffed by a couple of RNs definitely not in uniform standing behind a table full of Tylenol, antacids and various herbal remedies. Everyone I met was friendly and happy to talk.

The occupiers appeared to be outnumbered by tourists and journalists. Cameras, video cameras and microphones were everywhere. Anyone who started speaking in a loud voice was immediately surrounded, filmed and recorded.

What I found myself talking about mostly with the people I met was how this movement compared to the 1960s. I suppose this would be natural with someone my age, eh? The comparison wasn’t simple, especially as today’s movement is in its early stages. I also asked a lot of questions to try to help me understand the challenges faced by younger people today who are trying to make the world a better place, as opposed to what it was like 4 or 5 decades ago. There was a lot of uncertainty, people speculating about what’s next.

The park was surrounded by police. Most looked relaxed. A weird-looking apparatus like an armored cherry picker was parked nearby, constantly moving up and down. Some kind of surveillance, I suppose. The city authorities seemed to have given up on trying to break up the occupation, considering the bad press they got when they attempted to do so.

I was told that at 4:00 a.m. on the morning that Brookfield Properties said they wanted to disperse the demonstrators in order to “clean the park,” thousands of people came from all over the city and packed the block so tightly that it would have been hopeless to try to move them without major violence.

Then one day the police sought to make the demonstrators dismantle their medical tent, and Jesse Jackson just happened to show up. He said, “Everyone link hands around the tent.” The tent stayed up.

Many writers have tried to analyze Occupy Wall Street and make wise pronouncements about it. I think it is not just one simple thing, and it changes from day to day. It is a gathering of many people who believe our present system is unfair, that it favors a small, privileged minority, and that this ought to change to favor the majority. One thing they have in common is that they are all willing to put themselves on the line for their beliefs.

Just as I was leaving, a dozen members of the Columbia University Band marched into the park, in full uniforms, playing “Stars and Stripes Forever.” It’s hard to make generalizations about this movement. If you have a chance, go down and see for yourself.

[Since this article was written, a lot has happened. The occupiers of Zuccotti Park were evicted in a 1 a.m. police raid on November 15. The order came from New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire reckoned to be the 14th richest man in the world. Since the eviction, the Occupy Wall Street movement has regrouped and held demonstrations in many parts of the city and there have been hundreds of arrests of nonviolent protesters. The situation remains fluid, to say the least.]

Arno Vosk was active in the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. He worked as an E.R. physician for three decades and taught at Pennsylvania College of Technology before retiring a few years ago. He is currently on the board of Health Care for All Pennsylvania, advocating a state single payer medical system, is a past member of the working group of Williamsport’s Responsible Drilling Alliance, and was recently elected to the Penn sylvania state board of the American Civil Liberties Union. He lives in Limestone Township with his wife, Cynthia, three cats and a dog.

Architectural drawing of Pajama Factory revitalization plan by Filson and Rohrbacher

The creative, cultural entrepreneurs and explorers who pioneered new lifestyles in dilapidated urban neighborhoods are identified as the “creative class,” a term coined by Richard Florida in his 2004 ground-breaking book The Rise of the Creative Class. Florida traces the fundamental theme that runs through a host of seemingly unrelated changes in American society: the growing role of creativity in our economy. Just as William Whyte’s 1956 classic The Organization Man showed how the organizational ethos of that age permeated every aspect of life, Florida describes a society in which the creative ethos is increasingly dominant. Millions of us are beginning to work and live much as creative types like artists and scientists always have. Our values and tastes, our personal relationships, our choices of where to live, and even our sense and use of time are changing. Leading this transformation are the 40 million Americans—over one-third of our national workforce—who create for a living. This “creative class” is found in a variety of fields, from engineering to theater, biotech to education, architecture to small business. Their choices have already had a huge economic impact. In the future they will determine how the workplace is organized, what companies will prosper or go bankrupt, and even which cities will thrive or wither.

The creative class is responsible for transforming the New York City neighborhoods of Soho and Tribeca in Manhattan and more recently Dumbo, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. In 1984 my wife and I moved into a mostly abandoned warehouse district in New York City, and over the years we witnessed the regenerative power of the creative class movement firsthand. The population of our neighborhood expanded as more and more people discovered its charms. The previously abandoned warehouse buildings were slowly repurposed, renovated with loft spaces for working and living. As these spaces are generally larger than typical city apartments, young families stayed in the city to raise their families rather than move to the suburbs. Small parks were constructed to give the young children a place to play. New schools were built to meet the increasing demand for classrooms. Empty ground floors were converted into stores and restaurants. The new schools then attracted a wider crosssection of people and families, and now, after 25 or 30 years, the neighborhood, known as Tribeca, has been completely transformed into one of the most desirable places to live in New York City.

While investments were made by the city government for the parks and schools, they were generally made after the growing community developed the need. I think this is an important point to note: the investments were made to solve community problems. The improved services and infrastructure then allowed the community to continue growing. This was NOT a “build it and they will come” approach to economic development. The community was not created with government-sponsored master plans and development money; the growth was organic and homespun. The economic development bubbled up from the collective efforts of the individuals who moved to the once nearly abandoned neighborhood.

This creative class is also transforming many other smaller towns and cities such as Hudson, New York, and Paducah, Kentucky. In the year 2000 the city officials of Paducah, a town of 25,000 that had been de-populating for decades, recognized the advantages of attracting artists and creative entrepreneurs to their town. An arts district was designated with new mixed-use zoning rules that allowed live/work spaces in what was previously an exclusively residential neighborhood. Economic incentives were then offered to artists who chose to relocate to Paducah. These incentives include grants for moving assistance, start-up business costs, business marketing, rehab costs, property acquisition assistance, and even specific assistance for restaurants. Now, twelve years into the program, the town is a thriving destination for artists and tourists alike. The program has become a national model for using the arts for economic development. While the Paducah program is managed from the “top” through the town’s economic and community development offices, the incentives consist of direct assistance to many individual artists and small businesses. It is really individuals’ investments in time and money that are fueling the renaissance of Paducah.

Williamsport has the seeds of an arts district of its own in and around the former Weldon’s factory located on the west side of town. The eight-building complex, more recently known as Raytowne, covers two city blocks and has been bought and renamed the Pajama Factory by my wife and me, with the goal of developing it into “a place to make things.”

If the Pajama Factory could be successful in becoming a workplace that is attractive to creatives, it would also be a small-business incubator that would be regenerative not only for the Pajama Factory itself but also for a wider “arts district” that would naturally surround the factory. And even though it is recognized that things are a little rough around the edges, the Pajama Factory’s neighborhood is filled with a kind of quality and integrity that is rapidly disappearing in America. It can be imagined that the revitalized and energized neighborhood would one day be filled with restaurants, shops, and micro-manufacturers.

Having spent years as architects working in and around and repurposing century-old manufacturing buildings, we knew how to build attractive and inexpensive workspaces. But was it possible to willfully build a cool and hip community from scratch? Could life blossom in a place where there was just a weak pulse at the time? When we bought the building the Paducah experiment was getting some note, but its success was far from assured. Besides, Paducah had the direct support of the city government, including a litany of financial incentives for people to relocate to the town backed up by a sizable marketing budget—advantages that were nonexistent in Williamsport.

Now, four and a half years after the purchase of the original Keds sneaker factory, the renamed Pajama Factory is becoming known in national and even international circles. A diverse mix of nearly 60 tenants have filled virtually all of the improved and subdivided spaces that have been built, and even some of the unimproved space. There is a waiting list for studio spaces that has over 100 names on it. Artists and artisans are spending their days (and nights) making the brilliant and the beautiful within the building. The tenants are collaborating among themselves; communal shop spaces for photography, clay, printing, and woodworking have been started. Church groups, political rallies, and Sunday potluck dinners happen at regular intervals under the Pajama Factory roof. In short, the Pajama Factory community is thriving.

And the surrounding neighborhood is showing improvements as well. Just one block away a large church edifice was renovated into a number of higher-end apartments. Three new restaurants have opened, and the bowling alley across the street is under new management and has been completely refurbished. And Pajama Factory tenants have purchased at least two homes in the neighborhood. These are small steps, but they point to a bright future as long as the momentum of growth can continue.

So oddly, the hardest part, establishing the creative community, seems to have been accomplished here in Williamsport. Now the challenge will be to maintain the current momentum so that the gains made to date will be multiplied and become selfsustaining. This will require a substantial capital stream to feed ongoing renovation efforts that are necessary to restore the 300,000-square-foot historic complex and meet the demand for additional studio spaces. Traditionally, this capital would have been provided by a combination of state, federal, bank and private funding sources, but these post financial-crisis times are particularly challenging. It remains to be seen where the next round of required funds will come from, and the Pajama Factory revitalization project will stall without further financial support from any of these entities.

A historical note on the PJ Factory by Alison Hirsch
The Pajama Factory was once, yes, a pajama factory, Weldon’s Manufacturing Company, which claimed to be the largest pajama factory in the world in the 1950s. But the buildings began as something else altogether. From 1882, the complex served as the factory of the Lycoming Rubber Company, which manufactured rubber boots, shoes, and soles on the site for fi fty years, from 1882 to 1932. At its height, the company employed 600 workers here, about half men and half women, who produced the fi rst mass-marketed athletic shoes, Keds sneakers, in 1917.