Let’s get one thing straight: burlesque is all about sex. It’s the thing that distinguishes it from other performing arts. While other artistic media may communicate using sexiness as an accent, with burlesque, sex is the language itself. Even if that sexuality is being expressed ever so subtly, burlesque is all about the adult version of fun, where sex is a natural, normal, and often very provocative thing.  

I think this is a big reason so many women initially get involved with burlesque, to learn to feel more comfortable with that side of themselves and stop seeing it as “wrong.” In a society that still generally makes a woman choose between being publicly naked and sexy in a strip club (but limiting her power to that arena) or being publicly demure and therefore respected (but sexually powerless), there is a deep desire in women to merge these two options: to be overtly sexual and powerful and still respected, maybe even revered. In the same vein, men wouldn’t frequent strip clubs, raptly looking up at these women on stage, if there weren’t a similar desire in them to freely admit how powerful the female form is.  

The problem is the strip club setup still pushes men to assert their dominance by making the women effectively “beg” for dollar bills. What ensues is a power struggle to see who can make the other do or give more and who has the last word. This all points to a desire on the parts of both men and women to resurrect the divine feminine, to recreate a time when women’s bodies and sexuality were a source of devotion and were seen as pure and healing, rather than simply dirty and tempting. I sincerely believe that burlesque is a step in this direction and helps bridge the desires of women to feel empowered in their sexuality and the desires of men to freely gaze upon, and maybe even adore, beautiful and sexy women.

Often the desire in women to perform in burlesque is a need to heal body issues and quite literally feel more comfortable in their skin. The constant exposure to the projection of feminine perfection, which for most women is highly unrealistic, tends to make them feel very bad about themselves, their bodies, and their sexiness. Add to this the fact that most men do not actually want the “projected feminine perfection” but rather the beautiful woman who is their girlfriend or wife, and things get even more confusing. To top it all off, women are told that men want them to look like that girl, but then hear them call her a slut or a whore, and it makes it very hard to determine just what they want women to do. Everyone is repeating and doing what they think they are supposed to rather than what they really feel. With burlesque, women have the option of showing how they really feel about themselves, sexiness and all.

Stripping burlesque-style isn’t about trying to get as many ones as you can from the guy salivating at your feet. Instead, burlesque is all about channeling sex in a way that is unique to you and you alone, feeling so completely and utterly sexy in the moment that the beauty of it all radiates out and touches your entire audience. In other words, the focus is all about how you feel and letting that shine with pride, not how much money you make.

One big question people usually have about burlesque is what makes it different from stripping – i.e., strip club stripping? Other than the fact that a burlesque performer wouldn’t strip down past pasties and a G-string (or perhaps a merkin), the main difference is this: a stripper in a strip club is probably trying to be the audience’s (i.e., men’s) version of sexy, because it is her job to make the men believe this is all just for them, whereas a burlesque performer is displaying her version of sexy, whatever it may be, and the audience can either take it or leave it.

Of course sometimes the art of burlesque is to convince the audience that something that they might not have expected is sexy. This is the burlesque performer’s job. Revealing this authentic sexuality, as opposed to just putting on the costume of sexiness, is that much more terrifying and vulnerable, but the rewards are equally greater. When you have truly revealed yourself, flaws and all, with a sense of pride to a roomful of strangers, what else is there to be afraid of? When this act of bravery is rewarded with uproarious applause, what better reward? Often people who openly display their nudity and/or sexuality to the public are deemed pathetic and promiscuous, but in my humble opinion, I believe it is an incredible act of courage, especially in a medium like burlesque, where that expression is authentic. Doing this for any extended period of time only increases the confidence and ease with which a woman expresses herself as well as the degree of genuine love and appreciation she feels for herself and her body, no matter what state it is in.

Getting to the point of first revealing this most intimate of sides to the audience, even if it is just an audience of one, is another matter, however. Personal experience and observation suggest that so many women seem to come to burlesque to heal old sexual wounds and feel empowered in their sexuality, not necessarily in a way that dominates or subjugates another, but rather in a way that is completely devoid of guilt and shame. While performing itself can be and generally is its own therapy, it’s a good idea for anyone who wants to literally reveal herself in front of others to exorcise some of those demons before she first steps on stage. This is where my personal love, belly dance, can be of tremendous help. Since it focuses directly on the pelvic area, it naturally churns up any energy residing there and helps it to circulate to the areas one’s body may have been cutting off.  If there’s no fire left in the belly, belly dance will get it started again.

If, on the other hand, the fire in this domain is raging out of control and leaving undesirable consequences in its wake, belly dance will help to get it back under control. In addition, burlesque itself began as an imitation of belly dance, and the moves practiced are very similar to those that both exotic dancers and burlesque performers use (only maybe a little more refined and controlled), because the movements are innately feminine in their curviness. Belly dance uses these circular movements, shimmies, and undulations to create an art form evocative of the Goddess herself, and it was originally used as a devotional practice to this divine life force. It is the perfect dance form to get a woman in touch with her truest sexuality, because it is a dance that she can choose to perform for herself alone, allowing her sensual nature to express itself naturally rather than artificially. Once these feminine movements have become ingrained in the body, grinding away all of the blockages that have held it hostage and only allowed it to move in constrained and restricted ways, they can then be allowed to flow out in whatever style feels right in the moment, whether that’s a demure and lyrical belly dance or an all out, in-your-face striptease.

Both belly dance and burlesque are passions of mine, and so I have fused them into a dance style I call Bellesque, which was just the way my own body chose to express itself from the very beginning. Essentially it’s the technique of belly dance with the bawdiness of burlesque. I teach these classes at my Bawdy and Soul Studio, because I hope that slowly I can convince every woman to get in touch with this most special side of herself and help stop the shame cycle that is being perpetuated by our society. If you’d like to join me in my personal New Year’s Revolution, feel free to contact me at robyn@ravynous.com and let me know your thoughts. May this year lead you to finally recognizing the divine female that dwells within you.

Ravyn Lunatique
www.ravynlunatique.com
robyn@ravynous.com
]]> http://www.williamsportguardian.com/2013/02/08/sexual-healing/feed/ 0 http://www.williamsportguardian.com/2013/02/04/whats-love-without-a-little-beheading/ http://www.williamsportguardian.com/2013/02/04/whats-love-without-a-little-beheading/#comments Tue, 05 Feb 2013 03:10:59 +0000 C.A. Keller http://www.williamsportguardian.com/?p=1758

I’ve never been a fan of Valentine’s Day. Even when I have a boyfriend I totally adore—and I actually do—I’ve never been able to thaw my January-frozen heart enough to warm up to a holiday known for its overpriced roses and empty-headed sentiment.

Now perhaps, you say, Carolyn is simply bitter that little slips of paper filled with superheroes and Disney princesses and signed in childhood’s emblematic scrawl no longer show up in her life on February 14. Perhaps Carolyn misses construction-papered, heart-shaped art projects to give to people who are important in her eight-year-old life. Maybe Carolyn just misses the simplicity of mass-fabricated lollipops!

This is probably part of it.

Once tax policy is set on things like deductions, subsidies, loopholes and credits, and taxes are actually collected, the money is always redistributed. All taxes. It does not make any difference what kind of taxes: income taxes, payroll taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, real estate taxes, value added taxes, you name it. It makes no difference if they are progressive, regressive or flat. In any kind of society with a tax system, including capitalist societies, all taxes are redistributed. The only way to avoid this fact is to have no taxes at all.

As Ezra Klein once pointed out, through the mortgage deduction, renters redistribute to homeowners. People who buy health insurance on their own redistribute to employers who get a tax deduction to provide health insurance to their employees. A company that borrows money redistributes to companies that get reductions on their interest when they rely on equity funding. All of us redistribute to defense contractors. People without children of school age redistribute their school taxes to people who have children in school. Citizens in blue states, which pay the highest income taxes, redistribute to ten red states with the highest percentage of filers who pay no income tax at all.

The question is not whether taxes will be redistributed. The question is to whom and how much. Ezra Klein says that under President Obama, redistribution would go more from the rich to the poor and from the healthy to the sick. Under all currently proposed Republican plans, redistribution would go from the poor and middle class to the rich, from all taxpayers to defense contractors, and – if the Republicans carry out their threats to cut to benefits to Medicare beneficiaries – from the young to the old.

Redistribution is and always has been as American as apple pie, even though it is as Russian as vodka and borscht and as Chinese as sticky cake and jiu. Redistribution is indeed “Red.” It is also “red, white and blue.”

Today, there’s a parking lot. And a church, a former bus station, an empty grass square… There’s nothing remarkable about the corner of Third and Mulberry. You’ve driven through this intersection and barely registered the space. Which is okay. Attention is precious and you’ve got other things to think about. Maybe you were consciously ignoring your environs: this is one of the city’s more desolate corners. Nobody’s around. There’s something sad about the deserted bus station, with its weather-worn façade, its cliché murmurs of desperation and escape. It’s a place where nothing happens, where human action seems to have stalled. But two hundred years ago, something did happen here. A few powerful men conspired to get what they wanted—and succeeded. Had their plot failed, Williamsport as such might never have existed at all.

Today there’s a parking lot, but in the late 18th century the Russell Tavern stood here. I don’t know much about the Russell Tavern (sometimes called the Russell Inn or the Affie Dumm House), and neither do you. We do have some facts: It’s thought to be the first house built in Williamsport. William Russell, for whom the city may or may not have been named, was born there—the first native Williamsport birth on record. The Inn served variously as a courthouse, a saloon, a shop. It burned down in 1871. We know these things. But we don’t and can’t know what it was like to step inside its walls—we can’t experience the smells, the voices, the way the light fell across the rooms. Standing there now, it’s difficult to conjure. We’re cut off, more than a century removed from first-hand experience of the place, the bustle and sweat of the people, long dead, for whom it was a center of life. But it did exist, and, through one deceitful act, it’s where the city was born.

Before the dikes were erected, Williamsport used to flood. A lot. Much of the downtown area occupies lowland that graciously accepted the river’s bloated contents in times of heavy rain. If it seems like an unusual—a stupid—place to build a city, that’s because it is. And even two hundred years ago, important people recognized that there were better-suited locations. Jaysburg, a village that stood where Newberry does now, was situated on higher ground, protected from the Susquehanna’s temperaments. There was also Dunnstown, in present-day Clinton County, a fine choice for civilization. As the commonwealth was taking shape—as Philadelphia legislators were imprinting the abstract but consequential county lines on this mostly empty terrain—a question arose: Where would the county seat be located? The aforementioned villages had reasonable claims to this distinction. They were safer and, at least at the time, more developed communities. What they didn’t have were William Hepburn and Michael Ross, a state senator and the founder of Williamsport, respectively. These landowners wanted Williamsport to be the county seat, presumably for financial and political reasons (and, maybe, because of hometown pride). Securing the seat would mean securing Williamsport’s future—prosperity, population, perpetuity­­—and occasional flooding wouldn’t stop them.

        Because the trek from Philly to Williamsport was a real pain 200 years ago, the people charged with making this decision couldn’t inspect the candidate lands for themselves. Understanding this, the leaders of Jaysburg produced an affidavit from a Northumberland expert who claimed that Williamsport was dangerously flood-prone and therefore an unsuitable choice. If this document had been delivered to Philadelphia, its effects likely would have been disastrous for Hepburn and Ross. So, rather than argue with the affidavit’s conclusions—which they must have known were unimpeachable—they instead arranged for it to disappear en route to the capitol.

The definition of “energy independence” is evolving.  Until recently, it meant the United States producing enough oil domestically to no longer be dependent on other nations for any of our energy needs.  But now we’re in a world of interdependence, especially for oil. Oil markets know no national allegiance. Globalization and profit motive are altering a once-patriotic concept into “Producing enough oil and gas so that we can export more to our trading partners than we import.”  While this new energy independence framework may help some companies’ profits, it stands to hurt many Americans’ pocketbooks, water supply, and perhaps health.

The recent advent of the ability to extract gas from shale formations—high-pressure, high-volume, slick water hydraulic fracturing in combination with horizontal drilling—has caused the domestic price of natural gas to go so low, producers are looking to foreign markets—particularly Europe, Japan, and other points east—to boost profit margins.  Companies are rushing to use this new definition of energy independence to justify exploitation of shale resource reserves in the U.S. Before we embrace this notion, perhaps we need to examine more closely its potential to cause rising energy costs for both consumers and manufacturers in our American economy.

What does the pursuit of this new definition of energy independence mean for everyday Americans?

It means continued use of billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and the water resources necessary to extract them. It means potentially devastating impacts on local economies and resources from wellfield development, in the form of more air and water pollution, plus possibly multiplying public health and infrastructure costs. It may also mean priming the pump of climate change more than we’ve already managed, as is apparent in our weather patterns of late.

The train wreck emerging in this business-as-usual approach is the competition between energy, agriculture, manufacturing, and other basic human needs for our scarce water resources. We must carefully balance the demand for our nation’s limited water supplies to ensure that all our needs are met. Our current energy system—from all sources, not just natural gas—is extremely water intensive and wasteful, pulling water away from competing interests.

Rather than merrily proceeding down this road and assuming industry will look out for us, perhaps we should pursue policies that address the energy challenges before us in a financially sound, effective manner.  The American Clean Energy Agenda (ACEA), proposed by over 100 organizations with a total of more than two million members, provides such a framework.

The ACEA envisions an electric generation mix composed of technologies that

Are affordable and have the greatest potential to come down in cost;

Use and consume the least amount of water;

Generate the least pollution;

Effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and

Maintain grid reliability.

These criteria take into account not only up-front costs, but also the hidden costs of electric generation technology, such as the public health costs of fossil fuels and disaster relief costs of climate change. These hidden costs can be severe and, if ignored, can exact significant damage to our economy and well being over time.

Applying these criteria will result in a diversified and decentralized electric grid that is much more efficient, clean, and affordable than our current system. Decentralization, through technology such as rooftop solar panels, moves us toward achieving our other priority: energy system resilience. We can move toward a much healthier population, with homegrown industries supplying our needs and the world’s needs, if we prioritize and incentivize carbon-free renewables, storage and energy conservation technologies. Most importantly, we would drastically reduce or eliminate the tradeoffs between competing interests for scarce water resources. And the United States would become a world leader in meeting the challenge of climate change—a goal and policy of utmost national importance to many of us.

Calls for energy independence appeal to Americans’ deeply held values of freedom and security. It is time for a forthright public discussion about what energy independence means and how to enact an energy policy that will free us from foreign entanglements and safeguard our health, water and environment.

Dear Chico, I have a lot to say, but little time to say it. I hope that you are well, but I fear that you are not. Please don’t be offended at my sharp tone, but I feel the time has come to be clear and to the point.

Are you still a drug addict?

Julianne died. Who was she? I suppose in matters concerning the world she was a “nobody”. She had no particular claim to fame, no accomplishments worth mentioning in the eyes of the world. Just a piece of black flesh that lived, loved and wanted to be loved in an anti-black society.

Julianne died. Who was she? She was the mother of two little girls. She was a young woman that could not cope. She herself was barely a child surviving in New York City. She was a person that never, never got a decent chance in life.

Julianne is dead. Cold. Unmoving. Who was she? A crack addict? Yes. A prostitute? Perhaps, no one really wants to know. Who was she? She was my wife’s cousin. She was a slender attractive woman that had simple wants. She was a woman with milk chocolate skin and tight curly hair. She was a misplaced African beauty that no one would dance with. She was a person with whom I shared belly laughs and quiet smiles.

Forgive my flair for the dramatic. I am crying.

I loved Julianne the way I love all my people. My love of Black people is a deep love and within that love is anger and rage. (Anger against injustice. Rage against racism.) Within my love for Black people is fear and suspicion. (Fear of our future. Suspicion of our motives.) Within my love for Black people is hope and pride. (Hope for our children. And pride in our accomplishments.)

I LOVE YOU.

Are you still a drug addict?

The last time I saw Julianne, she was already dead. Yes, she walked and talked but the sparkle of life was dim in her eyes, like a flashlight with used up batteries. Perhaps she knew it and needed to visit her cousins in Philly before passing on. When we greeted her we stood silent, in shock, gazing at a young woman who had been transformed into an old lifeless wretch. We hugged her and pretended that nothing was wrong. But everyone knew that the specter of Death had its hand on Julianne’s shoulder.

I can see that odious white skull of death standing behind you. It waits. It grins that eternal death mask grin and waits! It waits for your next destructive decision.

And it is your decision, your responsibility. Only you, and no one else, can know what is best for you. No one else resides in your skin. Life or Death, the ultimate choice is yours and yours alone.

Wait! That’s not true. There is another entity that dwells within. It is that part of you that you choose to ignore. It speaks a strong and steady message you don’t want to hear. It speaks, yet you choose not to hear the messenger’s silent voice. Julianne chose not to hear the message. And she is dead.

Are you still a drug addict?

What is the message? I don’t know. (I believe the message is different for each of us. I believe that every person has a message inside them whispering gently.) But, what I do know is this: I know that the message celebrates life with all of its wondrous possibilities.

Who speaks the message? The Speaker is known by many names. But don’t get hung up on who or what it is, just be satisfied in knowing that the “Message Giver” lives within your soul. You are a part of it and it is a part of you. We all have this entity within us. It is in the gleam of a baby’s eye. It is in the passion of young lovers. It is in the wisdom of our elders.

You must decide. If you choose to continue your walk with death, I will be sad. If you take the path of life, I will give thanks and rejoice.

Again, the choice is yours.

In any case, I will love you—no matter what. I can say this without reservation because I hear my own message within. It tells me that love is the greatest power in the universe. The death triad of drug addiction, poverty and racism is no match against this power.

The real tragedy is that Julianne sought love and acceptance from outside sources. The greatest love she already possessed. It was there, inside her, all the time.

But she could not hear the message. Will you? Get still. Be quiet and listen with your heart and not your ears.

Your loving brother,

Richard

Although the letter was never mailed, Chico got the message. He reduced his drinking considerably, cut out the crack cocaine, and began to fight his HIV/AIDS.

At 1 am, on Wednesday morning, July 25, 2007, Chico’s life came to a close. For another 20 years after I wrote this letter, he continued to live and struggle, and he died clean.
Rest In Peace, brother. I am proud of you.
]]> http://www.williamsportguardian.com/2013/02/02/letter-to-a-brother/feed/ 0 http://www.williamsportguardian.com/2013/02/02/date-hike-at-jacobi-falls/ http://www.williamsportguardian.com/2013/02/02/date-hike-at-jacobi-falls/#comments Sat, 02 Feb 2013 20:49:58 +0000 Jeff Mitchell http://www.williamsportguardian.com/?p=1732 If you are tired of dinner and a movie after your first or twentieth date, consider a hike to beautiful Jacoby Falls. The falls are located in the Loyalsock State Forest, and the parking area is off Wallis Run Road, north of Montoursville.

This is a 1.6-mile linear trail, so you will have to return the same way after seeing the falls. The trail is fairly easy, with no big climbs or descents, but the trail is rocky and uneven, so you must watch your step. The trail is marked with yellow paint blazes and is well established. The trail was formerly blazed blue. From the parking area, the trail crosses a boardwalk over a wet meadow and enters a pine forest. It bends right into a hemlock and hardwood forest with views of Jacoby Run. The trail then begins to enter a glen and becomes more rocky. Small streams and springs descend from the left, and if you hike here after a rain, you will hear another waterfall cascading off a cliff higher up on the slope of the glen.

The trail encounters a narrow, grassy pipeline swath and continues up the glen along the small stream. The swath veers to the right, but the trail stays left of the creek and becomes more rocky again as it gradually climbs up to the falls. Jacoby Falls soon comes into view as it leaps about 25 feet from a cliff. Countless springs flow and tumble from a grotto of moss-covered cliffs that surround the falls. The setting is beautiful. The base of the falls is a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the sounds of the creek and the dancing spray. These are some of the few falls in the region where a person can walk behind the curtain of cascading water, creating some great photographic opportunities. In winter, the ice flows at the falls and grotto are impressive. During dry periods in the summer, the falls are reduced to a trickle. You can also follow the previously mentioned swath and climb above the falls, where there are smaller cascades and large rocks and ledges.

The Loyalsock State Forest encompasses some of the most scenic places in the state, and Jacoby Falls is just one of many waterfalls in the state forest waiting to be discovered on future dates.

Jeff Mitchell is the author of Hiking the Endless Mountains, Backpacking Pennsylvania, Hiking the Allegheny National Forest, and Paddling Pennsylvania. He is the District Attorney of Wyoming County.

More info:
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/ucmprd2/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_002942.pdf

Directed by David O. Russell

With Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro

Silver Linings Playbook is a feel-good movie that goes beyond the usual film of that sort; it offers a view of Philadelphia generally seen only by the City of Brotherly Love’s residents themselves. Robert De Niro has more of a New York accent in the movie, but he expertly grasps the spirit of Philadelphia sports fans.

The movie follows a young man as he tries to navigate his world after being released from a psychiatric institution. Bradley Cooper shows his guns and his range in this role and does a great job of displaying what it means to be back in a world that appears to be uncomplicated but is in reality just the opposite. Instead of looking down on this world in which people have lived for generations in the same neighborhood, the filmmakers celebrate their existence and appear to be even a bit envious of the locals with their inside jokes.

The fact that the film has been nominated for so many awards comes as a happy surprise, since award givers often seem to favor films that make us feel bad or help us contemplate life’s deep questions. Silver Linings Playbook is feel-good in the best way: there’s irony where there should be grief and happiness at unforeseen moments. Maybe it’s a sign of the times: American society at large is in need of more movies that help us remember what’s good about us, regardless of predictions of doom and gloom for our economy.

Silver Linings Playbook helps moviegoers remember that there are many more levels to the economy than just finance. The economy of family permeates the film and offers proof that staying true to those we care about and those who care for us produces a strong bond that can overcome financial loss. Even though much of the film revolves around a sports bet, that bet is symbolic of much more than just the amount of money being wagered.

The movie is based on a book of the same title and appears to follow the book’s storyline well. From the beginning of the film, Cooper brings us into his character’s world and we never leave it. Even when the film ends, we feel a part of it. More movies should stay with you the way Silver Linings Playbook does and help you laugh at life’s ups and downs instead of making you feel at fault for the cards dealt to you.

Perhaps if films could offer this perspective more often, they could serve as a mirror, rather than the shards of glass so often produced by the film industry. Often we are told how to be and how to look by Hollywood. It’s great for once to be shown that we’re actually doing just fine by doing our best. The characters in Silver Linings Playbook are unique in that they think they’re just muddling along doing what they can when in actuality they’re doing much more.

It was written during when the majority of the world lived in countries ruled by potentates and despots. Whole populations were subject to the whims of those rulers; people could be hauled off the street and into jail for nothing more than the ruler wanting those people out of circulation.

The Founding Fathers of this nation were mortals, but they were on a mission. Flawed though they were, they met at Philadelphia to “create a more perfect union,” improving on the Articles of Confederation under which the nation had fought for and won independence from King George, III of England.

The nation was in danger of collapsing. There were challenges all around: restless Indians; the British in Canada; the French in the midsection of the continent; the Spanish in Florida and territories to the southwest. These problems could have caused the delegates to come up with a different set of rules, but they didn’t succumb to fear. They struck boldly at the world outside of the East Coast of North America and declared that this time things would be different. This time, at least some of the people would have a say in the kind of government they would live under. At a time when the idea of individual rights was unheard-of, the framers decided that our Constitution would make it clear that men of good conscience and clear minds could and ought to govern themselves and that individuals were capable of self-government by means of a form of government later to be called representative democracy which would be the touchstone of what it meant to be the American nation, and what it meant to be an American.

The Constitution provides for a system of checks and balances that place limits on the power of each branch. It reminds me of the Chinese “three scorpions in a bottle” story: put one scorpion in a bottle, and it will commit suicide; put two scorpions in a bottle, and they will fight to the death; put three scorpions in a bottle, and they will seek neutral territories to occupy.

It’s a wonderful document, but it’s incomplete. In order to sell the idea of representative democracy to the states, the Bill of Rights was created to insure that government would have limits.

The concept of government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” had not been tried before. The English had taken a stab at it with the Magna Carta and Parliament, but the power of the Crown was still nearly absolute when George III was on the throne. What we see today when we look across “the pond” is different from what existed in the second half of the 18th Century. Our Bill of Rights—among them the Second Amendment—places significant restrictions on government, allowing free men and women to say and do pretty much anything that comes to mind. The old saying, “Your rights end at the tip of my nose,” is a good rule of thumb when thinking about how the Bill of Rights operates.

Under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, it is self-evident that no right—none—is “absolute.” Along with rights come limits. One may not yell, “Fire!” in a crowded theatre. Propositions put forth and tested in the marketplace of ideas tend to “winnow out” those that are nonsensical, impractical, or just plain foolish. What one says can come back to haunt one, even in public. All rights are limited, either by pressure from the public or by action of the government. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” One simple sentence, so much controversy.

The authors of “The Political Guide” point out that the Second Amendment, like all rights, is limited. Three significant pieces of legislation have been enacted since 1990 dealing with the second amendment. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act established a background check for anyone seeking to purchase a firearm, and prevented the sale of firearms to anyone who was a felon or fit into a number of other categories. This legislation was the result of the attack on President Reagan’s life. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act established a ban on “assault weapons” which lasted from 1994 to 2004. The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act ensures that gun manufacturers are not sued because someone committs a crime with a legally manufactured and sold weapon.

There have been two major Supreme Court decisions involving the Second Amendment in recent years. In DC vs. Heller, the Supreme Court ruled that the DC gun ban was unconstitutional. In Chicago vs. McDonald the court ruled that the restrictions on gun ownership were not legal.

The history of the concept of the right to keep and bear arms is long and bloody. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, times were not good in “jolly old England,” Ireland, Wales and Scotland. The English were brutal to the populations of Scotland and Ireland. Several wars had been fought against the Scots. English forces confiscated weapons, outlawed wearing of the kilt, and made it a crime to play the bagpipes. Scots were even expelled from the land of their birth and forcibly resettled in Ireland in hopes of “civilizing” the Irish. Resentment of English policies with respect to their Gaelic-speaking subjects ran deep in the hearts and minds of Scottish and Irish settlers in the New World. The notion that, in America, one should be able to keep and bear arms without fear of retribution by the government came naturally to the Scots-Irish settlers of the southeast. Without the Second Amendment, the whole Constitution might not have been accepted by the citizens of Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia.

The Second Amendment has kept state and federal state governments from denying specified populations of their rights. First Nations people were rounded up under the authority of President Andrew Jackson, stripped of their weaponry and forcibly resettled in what was to eventually become Oklahoma. To this day, there are places (Cherokee, NC, among them) where the $20 bill is not welcomed, not used, and frequently not honored. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. once applied for a “pistol toter’s permit,” but was denied by Alabama authorities. This event may have sparked Rev. King to greatness; after he was denied a permit to carry a firearm, he publicly eschewed violence of any type and transformed his philosophy to one of nonviolence. When Black Panthers marched (in the form of a “well-regulated militia”) into the California State House in the state capital, Sacramento, rifles in hand, then-governor (and future president) Ronald Reagan forced through an act that outlawed the carrying of any loaded weapon in public, thereby effectively disarming the Black Panthers and neutering the movement. Sometimes, the right to keep and bear arms is granted selectively, depending upon whom it is that wishes to “keep and bear arms.”

Although the frequency of gun violence in this country has gone down since the end of the Vietnam War, the issue of violence in society continues to plague the nation. Mass murder by firearm has been in the forefront of the public consciousness for many years. The near-fatal shooting of President Reagan led to the Brady Bill and the Brady Initiative, and President Reagan had a significant change of heart with respect to guns in this country after taking a bullet in the chest.

Eventually, under the leadership of President Clinton, “assault weapons” (loosely defined) were outlawed. The incidence of mass shootings dipped significantly as a consequence of this act, until the law expired. President George W. Bush, possibly as a consequence of the World Trade Center disaster on Sept. 11, 2001, made no effort to renew it. Gun violence rose in urban areas. Precious little research was directed toward understanding what was behind the surge in gun-related crime because of the interference of the NRA.

More recently, a rash of mass murders (a massacre in a theater in Aurora, CO, and the Sandy Hook Elementary School disaster in Newtown, CT, among them) has focused the nation’s attention on the issue of gun crime in many new ways. How was it that these crimes happened? What leads a disturbed individual to commit such an act? How do criminals who are also mentally ill obtain the weapons used? Is there anything that can be done to stop this sort of thing before it happens? What is it about American society that leads a small number of deranged and/or “just plain dangerous” people to commit acts of public mayhem by firearm?

A generation ago, Timothy Leary urged people to “Tune In, Turn On, and Drop Out” of society via the use of hallucinogenic drugs; in the final months of his life, Dr. Leary declared that playing video games provided one the opportunity to “Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out” without having to resort to drug use. Some of today’s video games, however, allow one to enter a virtual world in which one spends as much time as one wishes killing virtual humans, over and over again. In a statement released by the American Psychiatric Association, the issue of gun violence was highlighted:

“Paul Appelbaum, MD, represented APA at a meeting of the Vice President’s Task Force on Gun Violence at the White House. Dr. Appelbaum, Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine & Law at Columbia University, is past APA President & current chair of APA’s Committee on Judicial Action.” “Research suggests that individuals with mental illness who engage in regular treatment are considerably less likely to commit violent acts than those in need of, but not engaged in, appropriate mental health treatment. Yet funding for mental health services has been cut in recent years—public sector appropriations alone have dropped by $4 billion dollars over the last 4 years,” Dr. Appelbaum said. Guns in America have become troublesome. No one approach to the issue will bring it to an end, and it is abundantly clear that, even if we do everything we can think of to stop those who wish to commit gun crimes, gun crimes will not cease to be an issue that we must, as a civilized society, confront head-on. As President Obama said recently, “…if just one life can be saved, we have an obligation to try.”

Some days ago, the president issued 23 executive orders directing departments of the government to work together to address the issue of gun violence. A minority of Americans were dismayed by the action undertaken by the president, but if gun crime is so difficult to control in this nation, don’t we “have an obligation to try” to find out what causes it and what can be done about it? President Obama has proposed legislation that will close the gun show loophole and require anyone wishing to buy a firearm to undergo a background check. Other proposals would make it harder for straw buyers to purchase firearms for those who cannot pass background checks, limit the size of magazines to 10 rounds and, direct several government departments to conduct research into the phenomenon of gun violence.

Despite having the best knowledge-base on the planet, Americans have scarcely reviewed the phenomenon of gun violence in our society. We are, far and away, the one nation whose citizens are most likely to be killed by firearms. Statistics show that it is more dangerous to walk the streets of Chicago, IL, than it is to traipse down the donkey paths of Afghanistan, even today. Why? After the tragic events in Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado and Connecticut, we finally have the impetus and, I hope, the desire to look into the issue of gun violence, find its causes, and pull those factors up by their roots as we transform our culture from a violent one into a peaceful one. Some of our best minds are willing to get to work on this issue. Let’s not waste this opportunity.

As I said at the outset of this article, I support the Second Amendment. I grew up around guns. I understand the responsibilities that come with gun ownership. I’m a pretty good shot with a .22. Nowhere in the proposals President Obama made some days ago do I find anything that would seek to take guns away from responsible gun owners. Criminals? The mentally ill? Those people should never have access to firearms, and it’s time we did something to get guns out of the hands of felons and the insane, and secure them in the hands of law-abiding, conscientious and courteous citizens, where they belong.

      I’d like to consider myself a frugal fashionista, the queen of clearance, and a thrift store connoisseur. As a college student who used to find herself in the conundrum of food vs. fashion, I adopted the mantra of shopping smart, and it has livened up my closet and put less stress on my wallet.

    Quality over quantity is the rule of thumb for shopping affordably. The key to a diverse wardrobe is having staple pieces that can be constantly interchanged to create different looks. There are ten core pieces one should have in her closet: a great pair of jeans, a crisp white shirt, a tank top, a blazer, a button-up shirt, a nice pair of dress pants, a great-fitting dress, a sweater, a knee-length skirt, and a pair of tights. With just these options, the possibilities are wide open. You’ll be able to take a look from casual to professional, day to night, and anything in between with a few additions or subtractions.

        What I love about small-town life in Williamsport necessarily involves what I do not like. Every coin has two sides. Every glass at some time is half empty and half full. There is no pleasure without pain, and no rollercoaster without ups and downs. Life is a continuum and, like a river, sometimes flows smoothly and other times bounces over the rapids.    

        I was born on Second Avenue in New York City, and I was raised in Great Neck, New York, only 18 miles from the great metropolis. I went to college in New York City and law school in Washington DC. I know something about big cities.

        When I was growing up in Great Neck, it was bucolic and there were even a few farms nearby. I used to walk to second grade past a horse farm. My mother spent the first 15 years of her life in a tiny upstate New York town where her parents owned a dairy farm. My father, on the other hand, was a third generation born in New York City kind of guy. The marriage of my parents was a perfect blend between city and country. My mother loved to refer to my father as a “big-wheel city slicker,” and my father responded by noting my mother’s “peasant” roots. If truth be known, however, they each admired what the other had to offer. My mother grew to tremendously love attending opera and enjoying the advantages of the big city. My father, on the other hand, always wanted to buy a farm in the country and was delighted to learn that I was moving to Williamsport.

        Based upon this past, I love the combination of city life and small-town country features which Williamsport offers. I go home to my acre of land within the city limits and can open the windows at night, hearing nothing but the birds. When I get up in the morning, I drive 10 minutes and I am at my office, which is a high-level big city type of practice. We are fortunate in this city to have the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, live theater companies, performances by virtue of the Community Concert Association and the Community Arts Center, and a host of other opportunities. When I review with big-city friends the entertainment we have seen in Williamsport, they are always surprised and impressed.

        Williamsport is close enough to outdoor passions that enliven the spirit. For me, those are biking and cross-country skiing. I am also an avid walker, thanks to ownership of an American Standard Labrador retriever. I have walked hundreds of miles with the big boy over the last 7 years of his life. We walk at least twice a day, sometimes jogging and usually covering 5 or 6 miles. Biking is a bit less fun than it used to be because of rude drivers, but the hills and valleys still provide tremendous challenges to those of us who love road bikes. I would wish for more permanent snow in the winter, but Crystal Lake is a rare jewel of an opportunity for cross-country skiers. Thank you to Michael Gross for helping me discover that terrific sport and the opportunities which Crystal Lake has to offer.

        What is the other side of this most important coin? At times I am surprised by the parochialism, mistrust of outsiders, and rank bigotry that I see in our community. Some of this is understandable and endemic to any homogenous group. For a very long time, Williamsport was pretty much isolated from the outside and people of a different skin color or nonmajority religion were looked upon with great suspicion. I remember a number of incidents when I first came to Williamsport which were flat out anti-Semitic. One of them actually occurred in the courtroom in Lycoming County. The positive side of that coin is that virtually all of the people involved in those incidents have since asked for my forgiveness, which I was all too eager to grant.

        Nevertheless, I still am surprised by comments, remarks, and opinions that people hold of those who think differently. The political extremism sometimes voiced in this community is disappointing. Perhaps this goes on all over and I have just lived too long in Williamsport to recollect what goes on in other communities. Perhaps I expect more of a warm, friendly, low-key area such as this. When I read some of the opinions expressed in the newspaper or just talk with fellow residents of this area, I am often nonplussed by the judgmental views. Sometimes I am even pigeonholed. I have had many people say to me, “Oh, you’re such a liberal, I know who you are going to vote for,” without having the slightest idea of my opinions. We could all do well in this community to learn how to listen to others and to stop believing that the Lord has personally imparted to each one of us ultimate truth and wisdom. I have a feeling that as Northcentral Pennsylvania becomes more cosmopolitan, some of these attitudes may change. In this respect, the gas drilling industry may be good for the area. Some of the people who are coming in from the outside do not have the negative attitudes and limited experience that typify some of our indigenous residents.

        On the other hand, there are people like my in-laws, who are the most open, wonderful, and fair-minded people I know. They are basically a farm family, who have been around the area for many generations. Without getting into their personal business, the family has faced many challenges through their established way of life, including doubtless from me.  Nonetheless, this beautiful group of people treats others with respect at every opportunity. To categorize local residents in a uniform way would certainly be unfair and hypocritical.

        I love Northcentral Pennsylvania and the Williamsport area because of what it has to offer, but more importantly because of its potential. All people and communities are in the process of “becoming,” as noted by the great philosopher Franz Rosenzweig. Our community will not stay the same and should not stay the same. As Williamsport and the surrounding communities grow, I hope to love them even more than I do now.

Our new shows, beginning April 1:

Art Party
Hosted by Brian Spies, this program will have a varying format, depending on the guests who appear each week. Local artists will talk about their work, their techniques, current and upcoming exhibitions, what inspires them and much more. It’s your standing invitation to take an intimate look into the artist’s world.

In Concert
Get ready to get down. Each week, enjoy a live concert by one of your favorite artists, including Toto; Earth, Wind and Fire; Pat Metheny and others. Listeners will be invited to call in or visit our website to request the musicians they would like to hear on the show.

Jazz Workshop at the Bullfrog Brewery
Join us as we listen to live jazz music by Burgess, Mitchell and Seal, joined by notable musicians from this area and around the world. We’ll also be talking with many of the people who are attending this weekly event. It will be an hour filled with fun and great music; we’ll be on the air from noon to 4:00 p.m.

The Legal Hour
Join attorneys and other legal professionals as they discuss the legal questions that concern and affect you. They and their guests will talk about Social Security, taxes, foreclosures and more.
 
The Locals
Enjoy an hour of music from your favorite local bands and solo artists. Musicians hailing from central Pennsylvania—Doug McMinn, Joel Vincent, Steve Mitchell, Shawn Farley and many more—will be your hosts every weekday.

The Medical Hour
The world of medicine is constantly evolving, with research being conducted and information being released on a daily basis. People need this vital news. The Medical Hour will be hosted by medical professionals, including health care providers from our region and around the world. Your prescription: Tune in and stay up-to-date.

Meet the Artist
WXPI is proud to present interviews, conducted by local artists, with the region’s up-and-coming musicians, artists, poets, publishers and other creative types. They will be discussing their projects and venues. Listeners are invited to become involved and informed about all that’s happening with each guest.

Real News
Join Alison Hirsch and others as they keep you informed and updated on issues affecting residents of Lycoming County. This news and opinion broadcast will take an informed and passionate approach to reporting and commenting. You’ll also hear weather reports and other important local information. This is Real News, just the way you like it.

Sounds for the Soul
This inspirational Sunday-morning gospel program, hosted by Sharon J., will lift your spirits and fill the airwaves with such artists as Fred Hammond, Kirk Franklin, Shirley Caesar, and J. Moss. Join Sharon in vibrant praise on Sunday mornings.

Speak Out
Like every area, our region faces problems that concern local residents. Speak Out is a new, live show that gives people the opportunity to voice their opinions about these problems and to hear what their neighbors have to say. Join the conversation as we discuss current affairs and search for solutions to the challenges we face.

The Story
Hosted by The Conjureman (Peter Damian Bellis), this hour-long program for discerning adult listeners will inspire your imagination. The show is filled with stories, conversation and insights into the human condition. The segments of this show include Thought for the Day, Radio Play, New Books, New Openings and Voodoo Vibe. Put your thinking caps on and tune in to the discourse.

Uptown Music Collective
A shining gem in Williamsport’s creative kaleidoscope, this exciting group of talented, and mostly young, musicians work hard to hone their skills and styles under the direction of Dave Brumbaugh. Be inspired as they share their experiences and their music on their journey toward stardom.

Our Current Local Shows

The Academia
Hosted by students from The Academia charter school, this show is unique in that it is produced entirely by some great kids.

DJ 220
Electronic music for our late-night listeners is put together by Jeremiah Johnson.

Loon Radio
Host Nomad plays his favorite music and tells the stories behind the tunes.

Mix-Up
A youth-oriented Top-40 (and more) music program will air in the afterschool hour.

Ready for the Radio
Soullone (Vincent Young) features the best in hip-hop and R&B for fans of all ages.

Retro Classic Showcase
Hosted by Steve Mendez with a focus on  R&B and soul music.

Soulf!r3
The latest in EDM (electronic dance music) is presented by Josh Smeal.

The U.S. has the world’s most expensive health care system, yet the World Health Organization ranks us 37th among nations in overall health statistics. Federal health reform will not change the fundamentals of our system and will actually increase cost. Health insurance will continue to be ridiculously expensive and for many people will provide poor coverage. Pennsylvania is among the states whose legislatures are considering their own single-payer systems: comprehensive Medicare-type systems that would provide high-quality health care for all residents at reasonable cost.

Some Background

We in the United States currently spend 18% of our gross national product on our health system. That figure will grow, possibly double, over the next decade. Our own CIA ranks the U.S. 51st in the world for life expectancy, 50th for infant mortality. France, number one in WHO’s statistics, spends 11% of its GNP on its medical system. Since the 1970’s our national health figures have been declining relative to those of other industrialized countries.

We pay more and get less. Why?

First—despite having excellent hospitals, doctors, nurses, medical technology—we distribute benefits unevenly. People with money, good jobs and good insurance have access to top-quality care. People at the other end of the economic scale can’t afford good care and their health suffers accordingly. The American Public Health Association estimates that 45,000 Americans die annually due to lack of health insurance or underinsurance.

Second, we spend about a third of our medical dollars on administrative expenses, meaning things that have little or nothing to do with actually taking care of people. Our health care institutions are administratively top-heavy; providers must spend huge amounts of money and time dealing with a fiendishly complicated reimbursement system in order to get paid for caring for their patients.

Our insurance system depends for survival on its customers believing a lie: that it exists to provide service. In fact, the purpose of private insurance corporations is to make money for shareholders and executives. To accomplish this they need to take in as much as possible in premiums and pay out as little as possible for benefits. It’s not complicated.

Health insurance companies retain for themselves 15–30% of the premium dollars they collect, paying out only enough to stay competitive in the market. The term they use internally for every payment for service for their clients is “medical loss.” The image of caring companies whose sole purpose is to help us in time of need is maintained with millions of (our) dollars spent annually on advertising and public relations. Wendell Potter, a former executive at CIGNA, one of the nation’s biggest health insurance corporations, spelled out the details in his book Deadly Spin.

Finally, we waste a lot of money because there are no effective controls on medical system spending. Of course, what one person calls waste is income to someone else. It’s always the other guy who’s wasting the money. We pay inflated prices for prescription drugs. Services that are well reimbursed are often overused. Wall Street corporations own hospitals and doctors’ practices and manage them for profit. Profit-seeking corporations own patents on life-saving devices and even genes.

Federal Health Care Reform

In 2010, after years of debate, Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or ACA, also called Obamacare). Several attempts have been made to repeal it; it has been before the Supreme Court; the Romney camp threatened to do away with it once and for all. With Barack Obama re-elected it seems likely that the legislation will finally go into effect. But what is it, exactly?

The Affordable Care Act is a 906-page behemoth written by a team of 20 Senate staffers headed by a lawyer, Elizabeth Fowler. Fowler’s qualifications for her pivotal role as chief counsel for the Senate Finance Committee include years working for Hogan and Hartson, a big Washington law firm with close ties to the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries, and a stint as vice president and chief lobbyist at Wellpoint, the nation’s largest for-profit health insurance company. The chairman of the committee, Max Baucus of Montana, had received over $3 million in campaign contributions from health insurers and the drug industry. Other members have received millions more.

Beginning to see a pattern? Indeed, most of the changes to be brought about by ACA will benefit the insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital industries. This isn’t to say there will be no benefit at all for average Americans, but the biggest winners are the biggest lobbyists.

Here are some of ACA’s major provisions, to be implemented between now and 2017:

If they are not covered at work, millions of Americans will be required to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

A big problem for the insurance industry is that many healthy younger people choose to live without health insurance, gambling on their expectation of good health. These are the very customers the companies need most: they pay premiums, but require little service. Now these people will be mandated to become clients.

Many low- and middle-income people will receive subsidies to help them buy health insurance.

This is beneficial for low-income consumers, but it also means that federal dollars will guarantee that insurance companies receive the premiums they expect from their hugely expanded market.

Medicaid will be expanded.
Also a genuine benefit for low-income people, although the 2012 Supreme Court decision made this optional for states. It’s also good for medical institutions because it guarantees they’ll be paid when they care for people who can’t pay their bills.
Businesses with 50 or more employees must offer health insurance to their workers or pay a penalty. Businesses with over 200 will be required to automatically enroll their employees in health insurance plans.

Kierah, age 9—The Academia

I would like to tell you about who we are and where we go to school each day.  We go to The Academia, which is in Newberry.  We’re at school all day long.  My brothers and I get there at 8:00 in the morning and our mom picks us up at 5:30.  The Academia is so fun.  We go on field trips and swimming classes at the YMCA and we play.  I like my school work because they help me.  We do cyber school, which means we do school work on our computer.  I have my own computer.  It’s so cool!  We have a school dog.  His name is Skeet.  He is our therapy dog.  My friend, Sarah, trains him.  We also do bell choir.  I play the low C.  We have had two concerts—one at St. Matthew Lutheran Church and the other at Redeemer Lutheran Church.  We also do lots of other things like cooking class and languages and art.

Taisaan, age 9—Our friend, Bill, from Liberia

Do you know where Liberia is?  Bill comes from Liberia, and I got to meet him.  He came to visit our school and teach us about his country, which was really nice of him.  He shared lots of information about his country.  He lives in the capital city, Monrovia.  I liked the way he spoke.  I didn’t think I would be able to understand him because he comes from Africa, but I was surprised when he spoke English.  I didn’t think people spoke English in Africa.  I also learned that Liberia has a woman for a president.  It was cool!

Sarah, age 12—Radio Show

Did you know that there’s a kids’ radio show on WXPI?  It’s true!  You can hear The Academia’s show every Sunday.  We record the radio show each Monday.  We record on different subjects depending on the season or the holiday or what’s going on in the world.  We write up our own reports and record them.  If the topic is on something we don’t know about, we look it up and research it on the Internet.  We tell fun facts when we record it.  And we choose our own songs, too.  We find songs that match what we’re talking about.  You should listen to our show.  It’s on every Sunday at 2:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon.

Skylar, 9—Help Other School Kids

After we had our visitor from Liberia come to speak to us, all of the kids here at our school decided that we want to help the kids of Liberia.  So, we’re starting a sister-school program with Action Faith Institute.  They’re a newer program, like us, and they need everything—paper, glue, scissors, books, etc.  So, if you have any of this stuff or other school supplies at home that you’re not using, ask your mom or dad to bring it over to our school and once we have enough stuff, we’ll mail out some big boxes to them.  We’re in the top floor of St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 2233 Linn Street in Newberry.

Spencer, age 9—Super-Cool Websites for Us  

I’m a big fan of cool websites, so I would like to tell you about one of my favorites.  I really like Cartoon Network’s website, which is www.cartoonnetwork.com.  There are fun games from cool shows like Teen Titans and Regular Show.  They have cool videos from classic shows like Dexter’s Laboratory and from Power Puff Girls.  They have stuff about the newer shows like Adventure Time, Mad, and Super Mountain Fort Awesome.  And there’s also a Hall of Games Awards show where famous sports stars, like Shaquille O’Neal, host a big game sports show with awesome categories.  

Ask the Future

Now that President Obama has started his second term, what would you like for him to do?

Kyle, age 4—I would like him to play Party Rock with me.

Sarah, age 12—I would like him to let me and other kids into the White House.

Kierah, age 9—I want him to give all animals the right to vote.

Spencer, age 9—I want him to think about what the people want to do and not do what businesses want him to.

Davonte, age 8—I would like for him to give all the children a toy.

Ronnmir, age 6—I want him to make sure everyone has something to drink and eat.

Makayla, age 19—I would like him to start putting more money towards mental health services and facilities, especially ones that help children.

Sara, age 16—I would like him to fix the economy because it’s really bad.

Damiyr, age 8—I would ask him to make school optional for kids.

That, at least, is what Richard Hanauer thinks. And, who is Richard Hanauer?  Well, he happens to be a Seattle-based billionaire venture capitalist and entrepreneur.  Recently, he made his case in no uncertain terms at TED (Technology, Education, Development), a nonprofit organization devoted to “ideas worth spreading.” Evidently not this one, though. You see, TED refused to air the talk with all the other programs on its webcast because it was “too politically controversial.”  They were right, even though Hanauer got a standing ovation.  But as luck would have it… you can still see the entire speech on YouTube.

Here is a summary of Hanauer’s censored remarks:

Sometimes a single idea becomes such a matter of faith that it drives the direction of a country’s public policies.  It is an absolute “no-no” to challenge it. One such idea is that “if taxes on the rich go up, job creation will go down.”

Despite their popularity, sometimes the ideas we are so dead certain about are dead wrong. Long after Copernicus disproved the belief that the earth was the center of the universe in the 16th century, people made life and death decisions based on this certitude. In the same way, today, we continue to make bad tax laws based on the premise that the rich are job creators. And as we are doing so in one massive instance of group-think, many right-of-center Americans applaud.

Billionaires like Hanauer and many hard-working, ordinary people with little or no money started businesses. When they did, they hired people, sometimes lots of people. But if consumers did not want their products or services, or could not afford to buy them, their businesses suffered or went under and people lost their jobs.

That’s why Hanauer says, “I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small.” Only when customers demand products and services and can pay for them do companies hire people to make a product or provide a service. Only paying customers start the cycle of buying and hiring. That is why it is accurate to say that “an ordinary middle-class consumer is is far more of a job creator than a capitalist like me.”

“So, when business people take credit for creating jobs, it’s a little like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution.  In fact, it’s the other way around.”

Businesspeople don’t really want to hire more people. In fact, if we/ are honest about it, “hiring more people is a capitalist’s course of last resort.” Business folks hire more people only when they are forced to by increased customer demand. When business people call themselves job creators, they are just kidding themselves.  They are roosters taking credit for the sunrise.

Still, astoundingly, the idea of the rich as “job creators” shapes much of our public policy, most especially our current tax policy. “When you have a tax system in which most of the exemptions and the lowest rates benefit the richest, all in the name of job creation, all that happens is that the rich get richer.”

Our current tax laws have got it all wrong. Since 1980, the share of income for the richest Americans has more than tripled while effective tax rates have declined by close to 50%. “If it were true that lower tax rates and more wealth for the wealthy would lead to more job creation, then today we would be drowning in jobs.  And yet, unemployment and under-employment are at record highs.”  Still today, there are folks who want to double down on the mistake.

Consumer demand, and not tax cuts to the rich, spurs business investment and job creation. The purchases of the rich, however extravagant, are nowhere near enough to power an economy with high levels of good-paying jobs. Even though truly wealthy people may earn 100 or 1,000 times more than the average person, they do not purchase 100 or 1,000 times more stuff.

Today, many average Americans are literally having to do more with less to survive.  Their living costs spiral but their real income plummets. “If the typical American family still got today the same share of income they earned in 1980, they would earn about 25% more and have an astounding $13,000 more a year. Where would the economy be if that were the case?

We use a special language and special metaphors to justify the exploding income of the rich, contrasted with the frighteningly insecure status of the average American. We call rich people “job creators.” We did not accidentally choose this language.  It is a small step from “job creator” to “The Creator.” It is only honest to admit that calling oneself a “job creator” is both an assertion about how economics works and a claim on status and privileges.

Hanauer summarizes his thesis this way: “We’ve had it backward for the last 30 years. Rich businesspeople don’t create jobs. The demand of middle-class customers does. When middle-class folks do well, businesses thrive and hire, and owners profit. That’s why the extraordinary differential between a 15% tax rate on capital gains, dividends, and carried interest for capitalists and the 35% top marginal rate on work for ordinary Americans is a privilege that is hard to justify without just a touch of deification.”

So what’s this billionaire’s prescription for the future? “In a capitalist economy, the true job creators are consumers, the middle class. Consequently, taxing the rich to make investments that grow the middle class is the smartest thing we can do for the middle class, the poor and the rich.”

Whatever your take on Richard Hanauer’s views, there is one thing about which you can be sure: You won’t be seeing him soon at any event sponsored by any Chamber of Commerce or manufacturer’s association near you. But you will be hearing from many invited guests who will help you with an intractable Republican article of faith: The rich create jobs.

I was seething with frustration as I watched the second scene of Promised Land. Already the film was revealing Hollywood’s inaccurate understanding of central Pennsylvania, I thought.

In the film, which is based on a story by Dave Eggers, Matt Damon plays a gas company employee, and as the action starts, he’s traveling to a small Pennsylvania town to convince the residents to sign gas leases … on a bus! “A bus,” I muttered to my movie-going companion. “How’s he going to get anybody in the country to take him seriously without a car? How’s he even going to get to their houses?” Everybody—except apparently movie producers—knows gas guys drive giant pickups.

But I had underestimated the wiles of the character and the film. This gas guy knows how to fit in, so much so that he buys a new wardrobe and vehicle in each town his company enters, which is why he had to arrive by bus. He doesn’t roll in with a shiny F450 with Texas plates for locals to resent; instead, he visits their farms in a beat-up old truck with a manual transmission.

In one of the movie’s many amusing and humanizing touches, Damon’s character doesn’t know how to drive stick. So his able and very funny assistant, played by Frances McDormand, has to take the wheel. As the film opens, the two of them have been on a hot streak, getting country folk to sign gas leases faster and for lower prices than any of their competitors. As Damon explains to one of his corporate overlords, it’s because he understands these people, having grown up in a dying agricultural/industrial town himself.

But it seems he may have spoken too soon. The locals, at first, show the expected excitement over the coming windfall. Then, at a community meeting which Damon expected to be a formality, one crabby environmentalist high school teacher (played by Hal Holbrook) stirs up enough fuss that the town agrees to schedule a vote on whether to allow or forbid fracking.

(This may be a point where the film does diverge from realism. What are the chances that all these farms are actually incorporated into a town? And that a group of the townspeople could raise a fuss at a community meeting and set a public vote, just like that?)
It’s a cool idea, anyway, that a town has to collectively decide its own future in such a democratic way, free of outside influence. Oh, except for Matt Damon’s charming lobbying. And that of his competitor, an environmentalist played by John Krasinski, who turns up in town with some damning evidence against the gas company.

The usually quiet local diner is suddenly filled with debate: Will fracking destroy the water supply or be the town’s only hope for financial survival? Even an average guy working on his tractor is ready with a moving speech about foreign policy and natural resources (which, yeah, might be a little bit more like a screenwriter’s optimistic imaginings of the boonies than reality, but if they want to make us look really eloquent, who are we to complain?).

Lest you find all this debate about fracking too dry (hard to imagine for any reader of this paper), the film’s got a few cute romantic subplots, as well as some fun bar action. And while I’ve never met a gas guy who looks and acts like Matt Damon, otherwise the bar life rings pretty true. There’s good and bad Karaoke (note to aspiring lobbyists: public singing skills will serve you well), drunk dudes in Carhartt’s looking for a fight, and one ill-advised purchase of a Corvette.

The last of these serves as part of a wake-up call to Damon that his job might be a little more ethically fraught than he’s ever noticed before (apparently the routine bribing of public officials did not trouble his mind so). And I can’t tell you what happens next or I’d spoil the film, but this rethinking begins the only part of the film that I didn’t buy.

Of course, the film has to have a climax and some twists, but the first hour and 20 minutes is so much better than the conclusion, I’m tempted to tell you to leave early. Except then you’d miss the chance to make your own judgment about whether the movie’s final twists make sense. You’ll probably want to judge the movie’s position on fracking, too, which is both a little more black and white and a little more nuanced than you might expect.

Our news staples include Democracy Now! (hard-hitting national and international news) and The Rick Smith Show, “Where Working People Come to Talk,” out of Carlisle, PA. We also will be airing other independent news shows from the Pacifica Network, including the new Occupy Wall Street Radio. We welcome suggestions: What news programs would you like to hear that other stations in the area don’t play? 

We’re eager to add more programs with local DJs, so if you’d like to get on the air, let us know. We welcome people of all ages and backgrounds, no experience necessary. Volunteer meetings are usually on Tuesday night in our office at the Pajama Factory, studio #14. DJs generally create their shows in podcast format and send them to us. If you’re unfamiliar with that process, we can show you how. By early next year, if fundraising goes as expected, we should be able to create shows in our studio and do some live broadcasting. 

We are now a streaming online radio station, sending our podcasts and live broadcasts over the internet in addition to the air waves, so tune into 88.5 on your FM dial or listen on our website at www. wxpiradio.org. For more information about programming, volunteering or donating to the station, email us atwxpiradio@gmail. com or leave a voicemail message at 570- 398-0318. To become a member of the station, eligible to vote on programming choices, sign up online at www.wxpiradio. com or mail your check for the annual $25 fee to WXPI, 1307 Park Ave., Box 7, Williamsport PA 17701. 

TAURUS—You will become obsessed with Vikings and will waste many hours looking for monasteries to plunder. No one will be amused and most will lose all patience with you except for a cute little Scorpio, a bit of good luck and much fun. 

GEMINI—Finally you will give up playing air accordion and progress to the air viola. You will be the hit of the office holiday party. That is almost too sad to contemplate. Drink anything that anyone offers you this month. Same for next month. 

PISCES—Beware of eating fruitcake; not that you would ever think of eating fruitcake, but you will receive one this year with whiskey sauce that will look especially tempting. Do what you usually do with fruitcake: re-gift. CANCER—You will lose a piece of jewelry in a restroom along the turnpike when you are flung against the wall after putting your hands under one of those new power hand dryers. Avoid snorkeling after the new year. 

LEO—Do not, under any circumstances, toast anything in your toaster above level 3. It’s too complicated to explain now but involves a wormhole in the time/space continuum. In January you will need to avoid the “Regular/Heavy” cycle on the dryer. Inconvenient, but it beats the chaos of a multi-dimensional anomaly. 

SAGITTARIUS—You will have a lot to celebrate this month, and you can get through it all safely if you remember not to skip backwards, wink at strangers in tuxedos or get near a beer bong. In the new year, steer clear of homecoming queens. 

VIRGO— The new year will bring more opportunities for demonstrating back flips. Wear a helmet. In the new year, steer clear of homecoming queens. If you must go to that high school football game, wear an Abraham Lincoln mask. 

LIBRA—I know you are real proud of your design and sewing skills, but do not wear the elf outfit anywhere this holiday season. It didn’t even look that good on Will Farrell. On the plus side, the fudge will be especially rich this year. 

SCORPIO—You could greatly improve your financial situation if you could find someone to bet big money on a game of “pick up sticks.” You might also earn some extra cash copyrighting clever protest signs, but be careful to keep them away from the opposition. 

CAPRICORN—You will not get the video game you wanted for Christmas this year. You will receive lots of that plastic bubble wrap in various sizes, which is almost as entertaining and will keep you busy well into January. 

AQUARIUS—In stark contrast to your usual Grinchiness, this winter you will become possessed by Christmas spirit and will decorate, buy and wrap presents, sing and spread cheer wherever you go. Unfortunately this won’t start until January fifth. 

“The power of this [Obama get out the vote] operation stunned Mr. Romney’s aides on election night, as they saw voters they never even knew existed turn out in places like Osceola County, Fla.”—New York Times 

And, I might add, in Lycoming and Tioga Counties, Pa. 

The media pundits have had a lot to say since the election about how Obama won and why the final vote wasn’t nearly as close as some polls had predicted. In fact, the race was never all that close, according to the most reliable polls, and the Obama campaign knew exactly what it had to do to win. Organizers in all the battleground states methodically went about doing exactly what they needed to do. 

As the Obama field organizer for the campaign here in Lycoming and Tioga Counties, I had a good view of the ground game, though it’s only in hindsight that I can see how our local campaign fit into a winning statewide and national campaign strategy. 

In the first months of the year, we held some preliminary meetings to form neighborhood teams, which began by making phone calls to volunteers from previous campaigns. The first objective was to gather the 2,000 signatures required to get the President on the ballot in the state’s primary election. Over a three-week period, volunteers across the state collected more than 35,000 signatures. The number was less important than the use of the petition drive as an organizing tool, which mobilized volunteers across the state. 

At first we operated locally out of homes and a friendly law office, but in June we opened our campaign office, conve n i e n t l y across the street from the County Voter Services office. Eventually, we would deliver more than 1,000 registrations there, for first-time voters age 18 as well as older residents who had never voted before or had recently moved here. I still remember one middle-aged white man who came into the office and said sheepishly, “This is a little embarrassing, but I’ve never voted before, and I really have to vote this year.” 

The state’s voter ID law brought many people into our office, both people who needed to get ID, but also people who were motivated to vote for the first time or change their party registration by the efforts to suppress the vote. 

By the time of the election on November 6, we had five neighborhood teams for Lycoming County with staging locations at our Williamsport office, at a business in South Williamsport, at homes in Jersey Shore and Hughesville, and at a union hall in Montoursville. The idea behind the teams was that neighbors talking to neighbors is the most effective way to communicate with people, and an added benefit of the staging locations was that canvassers would not have far to go to get from the meeting place to their “turf.” 

In Pennsylvania, the campaign had to get more voters out for Barack Obama than Democrats had gotten out in the 2010 midterm elections. That year’s election was disastrous for Democrats in Pennsylvania, as it was in several other states, since all three branches of state government came to be controlled by Republicans, plus Democrats lost a U.S. Senate seat and two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives — all this in spite of having a million-voter advantage on the voter registration rolls. Clearly in 2010 Democrats simply didn’t get out to vote. 

So in Pennsylvania, the main Democratic campaign goal was “turnout”: registering lots of new voters and then turning them out to vote. But in some parts of the state – like Lycoming and Tioga counties, where Republicans and Independents outnumber Democrats by nearly 2 to 1 – our primary goal through the summer and fall was “persuasion,” persuading undecided and independent voters to support the President’s reelection. By the time Election Day rolled around, we had a list of all those voters who might need an extra reminder to get out and vote for Barack Obama, and we posted “Vote” stickers on their doors and door-hangers that gave their polling places. 

The campaign was metric-driven, meaning that we counted numbers obsessively: number of calls made, number of doors knocked, number of volunteers scheduled. But it was also people-driven, and it’s the people I will remember most from the campaign. Just a few: 

Layla, who came into the office to register to vote one day, and then stayed to become the “data queen” day after day; Tori, president of the Lycoming College Democrats, who brought stacks of voter registrations in from Lycoming College every week like clockwork; and Warren, who stopped into the Williamsport office after leaving Career Link next door, and then became a fulltime team leader until he started a new job. 

Melissa, who came into the office every week, brought her kids in on school holidays, and then went canvassing with her whole family during GOTV; Adrian and Kate, who came from California and New York to volunteer for months as Obama Organizing Fellows, as did Sophia, our star local phone banker, at age 14; and Maggie, who was so proud at age 75 to serve as a poll watcher for the first time. 

Morgan and Marte, who moved from Baltimore a year ago and got busy organizing phone banks and canvasses in Williamsport; Deb and Steve Muthler, retired schoolteachers, who stepped up to head the Jersey Shore neighborhood team; Emily and Bill, retirees, who organized the Tioga County team with a shuttle to take hundreds of newly registered Mansfield University students to the polls; Alison from Hughesville who led the East Lycoming Team for more than a year before the election. 

Lois and Dennis, Janice and John, Bill and Joan, and Jean who opened their homes as staging locations for non-stop canvassing and phone banking during GOTV; and Jan, who faithfully drove people every Saturday to PennDot to get their ID cards. 

And so many others: team leaders, phone bankers, canvassers, office workers, food captains, poll watchers, and drivers—a great group of people who organized their communities in ways never seen before. 

On Election Day, Obama volunteers knocked on one million doors in Pennsylvania, and Lycoming and Tioga Counties did their part with at least 110 volunteers on the doors and even more on the phones. 

The Obama teams are now starting to discuss what they can do locally to help support President Obama’s initiatives, for instance on the budget and on healthcare? Are there volunteers who want to run for public office in 2013 – Democratic committee, school board, city or borough council, township supervisor? What can Democrats do to prepare for 2014 elections, to defeat Governor Corbett, to elect more Democrats to local, state and federal offices? 

Lackawanna, Philadelphia and Delaware Counties were the only counties in PA to go more blue in 2012 than in 2008. All the other counties in the state, including Lycoming and Tioga, went more Republican than they did in 2012, but not by much. Every single county in the state went more Democratic than in 2010 in the race for governor and U.S. Senate, both won by Republicans – and that was what the Obama campaign needed to do to win. It remains to be seen if 2014 will be a repeat of 2010 or if Democrats can continue the momentum from this year. 

In the meantime, Organizing for America is encouraging volunteers to sign up with The Action—www. TheAction.org—a new grassroots movement working to encourage citizens to keep taking action to tell Congress to fight for what will make lives better. The Action will launch on December 1 with a campaign to urge Congress to end the Bush-era tax breaks for the richest 2 percent –those making more than $250,000 a year—in order to protect critical investments in communities and jobs. 

Alison Hirsch has lived in Williamsport since 2000 and served as local field organizer for the Obama campaign in 

2008 and 2012.

Millheim, PA 

December 7: 5-10:30 pm 

December 8: 10 am-10 pm 

December 9: 1-6 pm 

Shop Locally, Buy Unique: In its second annual holiday celebration, “Merry Millheim” returns with even more shopping, more live music, and more children’s activities than before. Highlights include a handmade holiday market at the Bremen Town Ballroom, live music at the Elk Creek Cafe, and Christmas tree ornament-making at Green Drake Gallery. For more information contact ecovents@gmail.com 

Saints and Sinners 

Converge Gallery 

Open through December 22 

“Saints & Sinners” is inspired by the holiday season. During this time our inner saints and sinners are exposed. The show features new work by artists Mark Kostabi, Paul Kostabi, Rick Prol, Mark May, Roger Shipley, Samuel Stabler, Ted Walke, Jeremiah Johnson, Liz Parrish, Danielle Charette, Misako Oba, Joanne Landis, Tim Allen Miller, and Josh Dannin in what will be their latest exhibition in Williamsport. 

Tioga Central Railroad’s Santa Express 

Trains depart from PA-287 and Muck Road, Wellsboro 

December 23-25, 30: Fridays 5 pm & 7 pm, 

Saturdays and Sundays 3 pm, 5 pm & 7 pm 

Warm up with hot chocolate and take a journey to the “North Pole” to pick up Santa. Children are welcome to wear pajamas on this magical journey. The fun begins aboard the Santa Express this season. Reservations recommended. Call 570-724-0990 or go to www. tiogacentral.com 

Sunbury Ice Skating 

Sunbury Community Center 

Enclosed Ice Rink at The Sunbury Community Center with locker rooms, skate rentals and refreshment stand. For more information about hours, admission fees, season passes, hockey leagues, figure skating lessons, and private rink rentals, call the rink at 570-286-1441 or go to www.cityofsunbury.com/Pages/City Hall/ParksandPublicProperty.aspx 

SPOKEN WORD: CONVERGE GALLERY 

On the Second Friday of Each Month 

December 14, 7-9 pm, January 11, 7-9 pm 

(please arrive at 6:30 if you’d like to read) 

Spoken Word has a simple setup: Converge Gallery turns on the mic and welcomes readings in poetry, prose, free style verse, stand up comedy and more. Speakers are asked to keep their readings under 5 minutes. The event is open to the public and all are welcome whether you want to listen or actively participate. Coffee will be provided by Alabaster Coffee for $1 per cup.

It’s difficult to parse out director Lars Von Trier’s motives in giving away the ending of his own film, but the effect is an unsettling one: midway through the movie, when Melancholia (the not-so-subtle name he gives to the destroyer planet) misses the Earth just barely, we know that the relief the characters feel is unwarranted, that soon it will swing back for a direct collision. Unsettling, but powerful: Isn’t this an illustration of our species’s existential predicament? We can’t be certain when or how, but one day it will end, and deep down we know that all the 

only serve to stave off temporarily humanity’s inevitable fate. 

Von Trier probably intended this film to be a meditation on depression: he himself has struggled with it throughout his adult life, and it’s clear that Justine’s character (played impressively by Kirsten Dunst) is afflicted as well (hence the title). But let’s ignore authorial (or directorial) intent here. Consciously or not, Von Trier’s film is an expression of two epidemics at once: the record prevalence of depression, and the recent spread of apocalyptic thinking. In many cases these two phenomena share, I think, a root cause: the vague, ineffable sense that something is not right. A sense of unease that has no clear external locus. So it seems like a fitting, timely choice to explore a private, personal dilemma by employing doomsday imagery. Still fresh into the 21st century, we are apparently more poised than ever to speculate on the end of the world. Theories concerning humanity’s imminent demise are flourishing, some of which are more scientifically endorsed than others (the more endorsed ideas being global warming, the rise of super bacteria, etc.). Most pervasive—you might even call it viral—is the conviction that something cataclysmic will occur on December 21, 2012 (it apparently involves Mayan calendars, or geomagnetic reversals, or black holes, or Nostradamus, or Earth’s collision with Niburi, or something— as of this writing, the 2012 soothsayers have yet to be finally vindicated or discredited, although we’ll have our answer soon). To be sure, fantasies about The End are as old as human culture itself—every religious tradition seems to have its own set of eschatological prophecies. But recently these visions have been garnering more serious attention from the nominally secular world, and, more importantly, they feel right—if not in their details, which are largely ludicrous, then at least in their general diagnosis: that the world is approaching an impasse; that soon everything will spin out of control, and our time on the planet will culminate in a spectacular moment of ruin. 

Why do we harbor these dark suspicions? It would be presumptuous to offer a single, definitive explanation. But it’s fun to speculate. Some explanations are obvious: it’s argued that the events of 9/11 shattered the sense of invulnerability that Americans had grown accustomed to in the preceding decades, when, yes, there was often the threat of annihilation (in the form of a hail of Soviet missiles), but never any truly devastating, man-made disasters on U.S. soil, especially in the largely tranquil and prosperous 90s. This uncomfortable realization—that America is not in fact preternaturally immune to large-scale tragedy—may be responsible for this sort of thinking, the kind that anticipates the worst. There’s also, of course, 2008’s global economic crisis, still threatening to break capitalism’s back, and all the attendant political turmoil and real-world suffering. There’s also the fact that no one seems to be offering any viable solutions to these problems—all the old ideologies have more or less evaporated. In this climate it’s easy to imagine that there’s only one direction for the future, and it’s decidedly bleak. And, worse, the events and crises described above might be seen as symptoms of a larger trend: the world’s growing complexity. As a system becomes more complex, the opportunities for catastrophic failure increase exponentially. Hammers work almost all the time; computers crash with maddening frequency. Maybe this is why we’re so quick to assume a devastating breakdown is certainly on its way: the odds heavily favor it. Actually, we wonder, how have we managed to make it this far? 

But that’s all just speculation. Maybe we’ve always been this fascinated with contemplating our own extinction, and the only difference now is that we’re being a little more honest about it. In Melancholia, Justine’s crippling depression fades only with the massive planet’s approach, when the world seems moribund, everything lost. We see her lying naked by a stream, basking in Melancholia’s eerie blue glow, finally seeming at peace, almost luminescent. Maybe Freud was right when he posited the existence of a universal death drive, an innate force that compels us to almost wish for our own obliteration. But there’s another important character in Melancholia, one that might lead us to a wildly different conclusion: Justine’s sister, Claire. 

Melancholia is interesting for another of its choices. Most apocalyptic movies revel in showing us the collapse of society, the looting and violence, the perfunctory presidential statements urging calm and resilience, the toppling skyscrapers and burning monuments. Von Trier resists this urge—the film is set entirely on an isolated country estate. Aside from the extended wedding scene at the beginning of the movie, we spend the whole film with only four or five characters (and their horses) as they wait out whatever fate will befall them in this cloistered, privileged and oddly serene environment. In a way, this approach is the more disturbing one. By now, hundreds of films have desensitized us to images of disaster and chaos. When it happens, the main characters flee in whatever way they can, narrowly escaping danger every five minutes, and usually make it out alive and somehow stronger for the ordeal. What we’re emphatically not used to is witnessing the intimate moments of collapse and terror—characters sitting around and waiting, helpless, with nowhere to run. This is what, in Melancholia, we see happen to Claire (the always-brilliant Charlotte Gainsbourg). She is the opposite of Justine: at the beginning of the film Claire is strong and composed (perhaps the only sane member of her family), but as Melancholia’s course becomes increasingly harder to dispute, and the future 

becomes obvious, she crumbles, refusing to believe that her life—and everything in it—is almost over, and reeling, thrashing, when she can’t avoid this reality anymore. The agonizing, destroyed expression on Charlotte Gainsbourg’s face in the final moments of the film—as Melancholia is about to slam into Earth, and she and her sister and son wait for death in a protective “magic tent” made of twigs, erected by the women to comfort the young boy—is so powerful it’s almost dizzying, and has never been matched in any disaster film before this one. 

So which sister is the more compelling symbol for us? It’s likely that the answer to that question is hopelessly subjective and personal, but in the end Claire’s is the face you can’t look away from, the one that seems to express the actual horror of the big blue planet bearing down on them, the one that begs for empathy. 

So then, maybe Melancholia serves an unintended purpose. Other recent films, like 2012, exploit for commercial gain our reignited fascination with forecasting disaster, and do so via the standard Hollywood tropes. In more realistically portraying the way the end of the world would probably be experienced by each of us as weak and scared individuals, Melancholia describes just what we’d actually be dealing with if our nightmares came true, and goes a long way to erase the perverse thrill we secretly feel when imagining the end of it all. 

Alex Kuzio is a freelance writer, bookseller and student living in Williamsport. He can be found at www.AlexKuzio.com (coming soon), and sincerely hopes that the end of the world is not nigh. 

Uninsured citizens: Rank among the world’s developed nations, 2012…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..1 

Healthcare costs: Rank among the world’s developed nations, 2012……………………………………………………………………………………………….1 

American life expectancy 

Rank among the world’s developed nations, 1987……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7 

Rank among the world’s developed nations, 2012……………………………………………………………………………………………………………21 

American homicide rate compared to Japan’s homicide rate…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..10 times higher 

Ratio of citizens in jail in Louisiana to citizens in jail in Iran……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………11:1 

Ratio of citizens in jail in Louisiana to citizens in jail in China…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….16:1 

Executions in South Dakota, 1913 – September 2012……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..2 

Executions in South Dakota, October 2012…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2 

Degrees above average 20th century temperature for the summer of 2012…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..2.3 

Number of people who signed a petition for Texas to secede after the 2012 election……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….77,000 

Amount of money added to the national debt by the George W Bush administration………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….6.1 trillion 

Amount of money added to the national debt by the Barak Obama administration………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2.4 trillion 

Percent of best-educated states that voted for Obama…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….100 

Percent of worst-educated states that voted for Romney…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………90 

Well, Bloomberg recently analyzed Department of Agriculture data and concluded that 70% of the counties throughout the country with the greatest growth in food stamp aid are Republican voting counties. In addition, the states with people who pay the least in federal income taxes and receive more in federal dollars than they pay in taxes are all red states, specifically Idaho and nine states from the deep South. 

People in states that get less back from the federal government than they pay in probably do not begrudge this generosity to their less fortunate fellow citizens, but it must seem a bit much for them to have to listen to the recipients of their beneficence call them “Moochers.” 

Nom, who is the inspiration for the Dos Equips Beer commercial featuring the “Most Interesting Man in the World”, is a semi-retired, debonair heartthrob who lives with his pet boa constrictor in an exclusive section of Newberry. He has accumulated a huge fortune writing occasional articles for The Guardian and other top selling national and international publications. Nom was the first man to swim the back stroke around the earth with his hands tied behind his back. Later, as an astronaut, he made a solo roundtrip flight to Neptune. By-passing medical school, Nom perfected a successful technique for head transplantation which he first performed on himself in collaboration with a participant from the Jerry Springer Show. After having been jilted by his beautiful fiancé,’ who went on to an affair with Peewee Herman, Nom joined the French Foreign Legion, where he contracted Legionnaire’s disease for which he found a cure. Nom plans to throw his hat into the ring as a no-compromise, immoderate nominee Tea Party candidate for king in 2016. 

Worlds End State Park is one of the finest parks in the state. As you drive PA 154 from Forksville, the canyon closes in as the road follows the beautiful Loyalsock Creek. It is a special place, capturing a natural wildness as the creek roars with its powerful current, waterfalls tumble over ledges, and the mountains rise overhead, adorned with towering white pine trees. It feels like a place set apart. 

I’ve visited Worlds End countless times and every visit feels special. The premier way to explore the park is along its numerous hiking trails, including the famed Loyalsock Trail. If you’re looking for a challenging day hike, consider a 4–5 mile loop that follows the Double Run Nature Trail, Link Trail, Worlds End Trail, and Loyalsock Trail. Along the way you will pass waterfalls, vistas, big rocks, and scenic streams. 

Begin at the parking area for the Double Run Nature Trail along PA 154. Follow the trail until you reach the juncture of the two branches of Double Run. Then turn left and follow the Link Trail up to Canyon Vista; the trail to the right follows the other branch of Double Run up to Cottonwood Falls, a small falls with an impressive pool and a grotto of spring-slicked cliffs. 

Continue on the Link Trail as it follows the creek with many waterslides and cascades. The climb up to Can

yon Vista is not steep, but the trail is narrow. The reward is an impressive panorama across the mountains and gorges of the park. From the vista, continue counterclockwise on the blue-blazed Canyon Vista Trail as it follows the rim of the canyon, meanders between massive boulders and cliffs that feature ice flows in winter, and descends steeply to PA 154. The trail continues to impress as it follows the Loyalsock Creek, offering views of the rapids and pools. The Worlds End Trail crosses PA 154 and then climbs up to the Loyalsock Trail, on which you turn right. Rocky terrain 

under hemlocks follows as the trail descends back to Double Run. Turn right onto Double Run Nature Trail and hike back down to PA 154 and your car. 

Worlds End State Park and the surrounding Loyalsock State Forest feature an extensive trail system that explores some of the most beautiful places in the state. While it may no longer be the end of the world, Worlds End can be the beginning of some incredible outdoor experiences.

Jeff Mitchell is the District Attorney of Wyoming County and is the author of Backpacking Pennsylvania, Hiking the Endless Mountains, Hiking the Allegheny National Forest, and Paddling Pennsylvania. 

Rock of ages, 

strip mined 

of what’s stuck beneath 

the surface. 

All this runoff 

just so I could, 

baring it all 

and laying it to waste. 

A cold coal 

carbon-copy 

of once-living 

matter 

stratified plants, 

and these dinosaur’s bones 

as layer 

upon stinking layer, 

the fecal fecundity 

of fickle feelings 

fossilized: 

compacted 

impacted 

though it seems 

as if it doesn’t 

matter. 

The hardness, 

burning hot and dirty 

so close to beauty 

can’t see 

for buried too deep. 

Time and pressure, 

like Superman, 

taken in his hands 

to make a diamond 

out of me. 

By David Foster Wallace 

548 pages. Little, Brown & Company. $27.99. 

The elephant in the room of every The Pale King review is, of course, that Wallace hanged himself before completing it. Some critics interpret The Pale King solely in light of this incompleteness and neglect to treat the work as intelligible unto itself. They draw from Wallace’s established canon and conflate The Pale King’s mission with more stylistically self-conscious and cerebral works like Infinite Jest. The fact is, The Pale King can and does stand alone as an effectively complete work, even if it is not Wallace as the Oz-like lexical savant we knew in Infinite Jest. 

The story takes place in 1985, at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois. It’s composed primarily of disjointed vignettes that deal with subjects like sebaceous acne, the U.S. tax code, phantoms, stonerism, and ESP. The Pale King has no plot per se, but it coheres in its dogged pursuit of a single idea: what lies beneath mankind’s avoidance of boredom? 

Reading The Pale King is rather like standing in front of a photo mosaic: it’s easy to get lost in a tiny portion of the image and forget how it relates to the larger picture. But in his microscopic attention to detail Wallace portrays a big-picture theme: how to harness psychic pain for spiritual development. 

Of course, Wallace is a different sort of metaphysician than a J. Krishnamurti or an Alan Watts. His style is wry, grotesque, and invested in spectacle. But like most spiritual teachers (and Wallace’s mission is spiritual here), the author uses parables to convey meaning. Each vignette is a more or less self-contained story that plays with the reader’s root assumptions of time, space, and consciousness. 

Take Claude Sylvanshine, for instance. Sylvanshine is a tax examiner who involuntarily gleans excruciatingly irrelevant facts: 

The population of Brunei. The difference between mucus and sputum. How long a piece of gum has resided on the underside of the third-row fourth-from-left-seat of the Virginia Theater, Cranston, RI, but not who put it there or why. Impossible to predict what facts will intrude. Constant headaches. 

The parable in the Sylvanshine vignette is that an undirected waterfall of data can crush the spirit. Sylvanshine’s fact-psychic abilities psychologically exhaust and isolate him. Likewise, the IRS examiners regularly deal in soul-deadening minutiae: strangers’ income levels, marital statuses, number of dependents. Wallace’s readers are likely to struggle with their own brand of daily tedium, too. 

The implicit question seems to be, how should one cope with the never-ending onslaught of useless data? The text offers a simple answer: 

It turns out that bliss…lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (tax returns, televised golf), and, in waves, a boredom like you’ve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out and it’s like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Constant bliss in every atom. 

In a very real sense, The Pale King is trying to pull a splinter from America’s emotional skin. Why this constant need for diversion? What deeper psychic pain are we hiding from? The Pale King wants to nudge its readers into a state of introspection. It’s not always easy reading, but it’s always worth the try. 

It turns out that bliss lies on the other side of crushing,crushing boredom.

Scientists claim to be able to tell us what the universe was like 1/10,000 of a second after the Big Bang, but they cannot be sure of the weather tomorrow. Whether science can respond to the inquiry as to whether this is the beginning or the end of the world depends upon each person’s perspective. Einstein famously wrote that “G-d doesn’t play dice with the universe,” meaning that certain inimitable laws of physics control our material world. Yet at the end of his life, Einstein wrote in a way that showed little trust in the concept of divine intellect. The greatest mind, perhaps of all time, did not know if we were at the end or the beginning, but I would wager a few beers that he viewed man’s search as only in the initial stages of development. The story is well known of the father who had two sons. The sons were extremely privileged, but one was an optimist and one was a pessimist. No matter what toys or new possessions the father bought his pessimistic son, the son was capable of seeing the negative side. As an experiment, the father bought the optimistic son a pile of horse dung. The boy was full of glee, saying “With this much horse dung, there must be a pony around somewhere.”

My wife is fond of saying to me, “Attitude is everything.” I have come to the conclusion that while “attitude” may not be everything, it is about 99% of life’s secret. The rest of life is about control over time. Time is the only real commodity that we have, and with it we can start the world or end it. An old Jewish adage has it that the Messiah will only return to the world once it has been perfected:

“The Messiah will walk the path which is paved with the good deeds of others.” 

This is in contradistinction to the view of some Evangelical Christians that the Messiah will only return when the world is in such a dilapidated state that salvation is the only answer.

Needless to say, I subscribe to the former tradition. I was raised in the belief that good will triumph and the righteous will prevail so long as there are people working earnestly. I doubt that message virtually every day when I read the newspapers and talk to all of the glum people around me.

The threat of nuclear proliferation, the gap between rich and poor, and the state of the world in constant warfare are enough to turn anyone into a pessimist. The glass certainly seems half empty at the current time. Yet, dismay and discouragement will only make our situation worse.

The beginning of the world will only be initiated by one small mitzvah at a time. The Jewish notion of mitzvoth is not about “good deeds” as is often thought to be the case, but rather the obligation to perform certain acts or refrain from others, the fulfillment of which enhances our status as children of Hashem. The Chassaidic masters teach that the world is a vessel that has been broken. The job of each human being is to gather the sparks and put them back into a new vessel of our own creation. The vessel of creation will be different for each of us. For some it may be making music, and for others raising children. Regardless of what vessel we build for ourselves, the individual effort in gathering the sparks is bound to light the world, or at least some small dark corner of this planet. The whole of my culture and being teaches that even under the most arduous of circumstances, we have an obligation to gather those glowing embers that, in reality, surround us.

My theme is not whether the world is at the beginning or the end, or whether it is even possible to answer such a patently absurd question in the first place. The question is whether we can move down the continuum from the beginning to a later point on the spectrum of time in a way that is positive and inspirational.

I once confessed to a friend of mine who had lost a loved one how inadequate I believed myself to be with respect to a showing of nurturing and emotion over the loss that my friend had suffered. He explained to me that even a word or a pat on the back was meaningful: “The very fact that people say something or do something, no matter how minor, shows an interest that people who have suffered a loss thirst to hear and to feel.” While the spark may be small, providing that sort of support is important beyond simple explanation.

Although I protest the irrelevancy of the question concerning whether this is the beginning or the end of the world, I nevertheless expect to continue to be as productive as I can while exploring that often dark and foreboding corridor that leads to the next chamber. I do not know if at the end of the hallway there will be a beginning or an end, but I do believe that an effort to be productive on behalf of others is worthwhile. 

My old friend Rabbi Maklouf Portal used to tell an interesting story. Rabbi Portal was born in Morocco in the Jewish ghetto of Marrakesh. He lived with Muslims before he ever knew a Christian, and suffered a bloody skull one day for refusing to utter the words “Allah is great.” So grateful was Rabbi Portal when he came to the United States that before he even knew our culture or language he enlisted in the United States Army, where he served abroad in Germany. Rabbi Portal told a story of twins inside a mother’s womb. The one twin said that it would be terrible when they came out. “We do not get all of this food, lest we make a tremendous effort; we will be hot or cold and we will have to cry for attention.” The other twin said, “I think it is going to be terrific. We will get to be independent and we will be surrounded by love and joy as we grow.” Both twins were anxious about what faced them, and both could have been right depending upon the circumstances into which they were born and the DNA with which they were created. 

I often think of Rabbi Portal’s story when trying to predict the future. Sometimes matters turn out very differently than we plan. “Man plans and G-d laughs” goes the old Yiddish saying. 

Beginnings or endings are unimportant. It is, after all, the journey and not the destination which counts. According to the diary that Judge Muir bought for me when I left the clerkship in federal court, “Happiness is not a state you arrive at, But a manner of traveling.” How true, and it is for that reason that the question of beginnings or endings makes so little difference.

Mr. Rieders practices law in Williamsport.. He graduated from New York University and received his JD from Georgetown University. 

an’ made nes t s out t a tha socket s . 

At ’s why ah cain’t see s t raight . 

Wel l , tha t , a n’ tha p ig t ai l s 

you been pul l in’ 

an’ t akin’ o f f yer k iddie gloves , 

no punches, nei ther. 

We cont inue 

to play this game 

cowboys an’ injuns 

wrangl ing me 

f rom the safet y 

of my tee -pee 

saving me 

f rom whichever gods 

I hold dear. 

Square dancin’ 

line dancin’ 

doin’ the Texas S tar 

al l over mah fe e lings . 

Of fer in’ u p this here whi t e f lag 

mah handkerchief 

symbologizin’ sur render 

and you give me no quar ter. 

Jared A. Conti is an enigma even to himself. Having, after 15 years, finally graduated in English in 2011 from Lock Haven University, he continues to reside there, managing Avenue 209 Coffee House. 

An accomplished whistler sporting an epic beard, Jared owes his exact combination of talents to the grace of God. He maintains a semblance of stability as a poet, musician, writer and blogger, and he reviews book and literature for the local newspaper. 

Amid dabbling in an array of creative projects (often at the same time), Jared has self-published two chapbooks of poetry: Back in the Saddle: My Love/Hate Relationship with the Space Cowboy and Least of These. He is hard at work on a series of post-apocalyptic novels set in and around central Pennsylvania. 

SJM: We are in a period when an evolutionary drive of overwhelming power is pushing us through the worst of times. Like a super storm or major weather event, we will be facing super-challenges, super-charged events, which must be met on a personal as well as global level. Around the world there has been an ongoing struggle for justice, democracy, freedom and human rights as well as for basic survival from Mother Nature’s unprecedented fury. 

Expect shifts on every level. The astrology of our times speaks to these events very clearly. The planets show the possibilities of events occurring; the free will of people shows the responses to these possibilities. The challenging aspects of Pluto and Uranus, slow-moving planets representing transformation and change on a grand scale, are influencing the times we are living in. These two planets relate to collective breakdowns and awakenings. Breakdowns and large-scale crises will herald a rebirth of what will follow. 

I think this is what the “end times” mean–we are at the end of time and life as we have known it. It doesn’t mean end of days, just the end of days as we have known life to be. Change is frightening but necessary, and when we prefer to think that things would be better if they just stayed the way they are, then inevitably change is forced on us. I like the metaphor of hoisting our sails and being willing to go wherever we can do the most good. 

Uranus and Pluto signal both the best and worst expressions of human nature and earthly experience. If we are prepared for profound, radical alteration that can be both brutal and transformative, then this is the time to plan for a lot of unexpected and unimaginable change. 

With Saturn transiting through Scorpio for the next two years, we will see issues of power and control confronting us at every turn. This is a time of reckoning. Scorpio deals with shared resources and power. We must make choices that will determine our future in relation to the limited resources we have, both personally and collectively. 

What kind of future can we see for ourselves? How do we value our resources: clean water, safe food, healthy children? What and to whom are we indebted? Are we prepared to share the responsibilities for preserving our limited resources? Can we emerge from the storms without being willing and able to help one another? Our decisions will have great impact in the coming days of our lives on this planet. We live in times of far-reaching changes. Which do we have the will to achieve? 2012 is a time of evolution and revolution. By the winter solstice, December 21, the time of the ending of the Mayan calendar, we will surely be at an evolutionary turning point. 

Do you have any words of caution or advice for those of us trying to live in harmony with astrological forces? 

SJM: Harmony is not exactly what the energies of the planetary aspects speak to right now. We are in a period of such global change that I think there will more upheaval than harmony. It’s time to transcend our limitations and accept that we have socially outgrown the need to just stuff our faces, our houses and our planet with junk. It is time to find new ways to feed our fundamental needs–our need for basic resources and most importantly, our need to give and receive love, releasing fear as a motivating factor, enabling everyone to have something rather than some having everything. Let’s start with loving our children. Let’s protect them from an uncertain future and be healthy role models, replacing adults acting so defectively. 

What can we expect from 2013 in general? What about January 2013 in particular? 

SJM: I think we can expect the good that comes from past wrongs to surface. The issues which may come to light may be around sexual predators getting their due, medical breakthroughs with drugs, as well as mysterious poisons which may be devastating, punishment for corruption, particularly in the financial and medical sectors, and dark secrets of officials being revealed to public. The power to heal will be in the collective consciousness. It may seem like a dark tunnel with a light at the end of it showing us a brighter path out of what seems like the worst of times. 

What personally interests you most about the coming planetary state of play? 

SJM: The limitless possibilities of what the collective can achieve when inequality, injustice, war and poverty are traded in for cooperation, kindness, and awareness of the needs of everyone rather than the few privileged ones. A focus on natural healing vs. “health” care, a return to choosing real food and farming over chemicals disguised as foods with corporations creating the things people are eating. Most importantly, reverence for each other and the mother earth casting our overwhelming vote for survival. Every year offers new opportunities to enhance and expand our awareness, and some years just scream “make this the best one yet!” I feel as if 2013 could be one of those if we want it to be! 

Anything else you’d like to share? 

SJM: Yes, I hope we can find the collective will to manifest a peaceful, healthy and uncorrupted world for ourselves, our children and future generations. Why wouldn’t we choose health over sickness, peace over war, equality over poverty, love over hatred and delicious food over garbage? It seems like a no brainer to me! 

Sue is the owner and creator of Sue’s Salves, a business she started in 2002 crafting healing skin care products with plants grown organically in her garden in Mill Hall. Sue combined her interest in astrology, natural healing and organic gardening when she started Sue’s Salves. Her website is www.suesalves.com 

Sue J. Morris has had a lifelong interest in the planetary influences on human behavior and finds that astrology is an amazing tool for self discovery and for understanding the nature of world events. A self-taught astrologer since the age of 19, Sue also studied astrology in London during the 1980s. Sue publishes the “Living and Planting by the Moon” calendar, a biodynamic calendar for cosmic gardeners! Sue is a well-known speaker on Planting by the Moon as well as Plant- Based Healing. She has been a featured speaker at The Mother Earth News Fair, The Pennsylvania Herb Festival, and garden clubs around New York and 

Pennsylvania. Her 2013 lunar calendar is available at www.plantingbythemoon.net 

He wasn’t the only priest who used the pulpit to attack the President. Bishop David Lauren of Green Bay, Wisconsin, told his congregations that voting for Obama and other candidates who were pro-choice or who believed in embryonic stem cell research or gay marriage could put their “soul in jeopardy.” Others, primarily from evangelical Protestant faiths, were even more adamant in their religious intolerance, declaring that voting for Obama would definitely condemn their souls to Hell. 

Southern Baptist evangelist Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham, said President Obama was “waving his fist before God” by supporting same-sex marriage and women’s abortion rights. In full-page newspaper ads shortly before the election, the 94-year-old Billy Graham, whose words may have been written by his son, declared that Americans should vote for “candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles.” Those principles, according to the ad, include opposition to same-sex marriage. A spokesman for the Grahams said that neither person endorses candidates. However, Billy Graham reportedly told Romney he would do “all I can to help you,” and removed Mormonism from a list of cults on one of their web pages. In February, Franklin Graham, who earns about $600,000 a year as head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, declared that Obama had plans to create “a new nation without God or perhaps under many gods.” 

The re-election of President Obama didn’t stop the attacks. The Rev. Jerry Priscano, a Catholic priest from Erie, Pennsylvania, said Obama was the anti-Christ. On his Facebook page, he declared, “It will only be a matter of time before our nation is completely destroyed,” and that Hurricane Sandy, apparently a sign from God to the liberal northeast, “was only the beginning.” 

A Pew Forum study of the 2012 vote showed that while Catholics favored Romney (59%–40%), Hispanic Catholics overwhelming supported Obama (75–21). Romney also had the evangelical Christians (79–20) and other Protestants (57–42). Although Romney pandered to Jewish voters, claiming that he would be Israel’s best friend and that Obama couldn’t be trusted, Jews went for Obama (69–30). The Pew exit poll measured only persons who identified themselves as Jews or Christians. 

Factoring into the vote against Barack Obama is religious bigotry that drips with the hatred of anything not Christian. About one-fourth of all white evangelical Protestants believe he is a Muslim, although the President goes to a Protestant church and has never held Muslim values or beliefs. In one of the great leaps of faith, evangelicals also believe Obama is a “godless socialist Muslim,” something much rarer than a Klan leader voting for a Black Jew for president. Overall, about one-sixth of Americans believe he is Muslim, according to a poll by Public Religion Research Institute. Ironically, most evangelical Protestants also believe Mormonism is a non- Christian cult and refused to support Mitt Romney in the primaries. Faced by a “Muslim” and a Mormon in the general election, the evangelicals supported the Mormon, who had flip-flopped from moderate to conservative to get the nomination and then tried tacking slightly to the center for the general election. 

The right wing believe that America is a Christian nation and should elect only like-minded Christians to office. Even many Christian religions, such as Unitarianism, are suspect in the eyes of those who absolutely believe they know God’s intent, and everyone else is wrong. They support Israel, far closer to being a socialist nation than the U.S. ever will be, as a biblical necessity, but would be conflicted if a Jew should ever become a major party candidate for president. 

The religious bigots claim the U.S. was founded by Christians and is a Christian nation—or, reluctantly, say it is a Judeo- Christian nation. But, no matter how much they screech, the facts don’t support their beliefs. George Washington declared, “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” John Adams and the Senate later ratified a treaty with those exact words. 

Most of the Founding Fathers were primarily deists, not Christians, and specifically rejected many Christian beliefs, including the virgin birth, the resurrection of Jesus, and that the Bible was written by God. They also believed that God, having given mankind the power of reason, then stayed out of the lives of His people. Among the deists were Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and Monroe. But they and the other Founding Fathers were explicit in their declaration, embedded into the First Amendment, that established the principle that all people had a right to their own religious beliefs. 

Several distinguished historians (including Drs. James McGregor Burns and Richard Hofstadter, each of whom won the Pulitzer Prize for history) have pointed out that in 1776 and much of the 19th century, as much as 90 percent of the population did not identify with the Christian church. 

There is another aspect to the First Amendment, often overlooked by those who don’t know history or constitutional law, yet believe they do. Jefferson, in his first year as president, in a letter to a Baptist congregation, referred to the intent of one of the five parts of the First Amendment as “building a wall of separation between church and state.” Numerous times, the Founding Fathers reaffirmed this separation, creating what became known as the “establishment clause” in 1787. Several rulings by the Supreme Court reaffirmed this doctrine. 

However, 28 percent of Americans, according to a Nate Silver poll in February, don’t believe there is a constitutional separation of church and state. The constitutionally ignorant have established religious tests for persons seeking political office. It should make no difference if Mitt Romney is a Mormon. It should also make no difference if Barack Obama is or is not a Muslim, Protestant, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, Pagan, Vodun, Vodouist, or even an atheist. 

But it may be a Hindu, Gandhi, who has the last word. Discussing his experience with missionaries in South Africa, he said, “I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” He was specific in his dislike for some, but not all, Christians. He had never met the extreme right-wing.

Walter Brasch is an award-winning syndicated social issues columnist and author of 17 books. His most recent book is the critically acclaimed Before the First Snow: Stories From the Revolution. He is a former newspaper and magazine reporter and editor, and multimedia production writer-producer. 

There has been only one Christian. They caught him and crucified him–early. - Mark Twain 

The people would just be doing their days, whatever was normal in their time, while around them in the background is the landscape, which keeps changing as time goes on, gradually and steadily-the felling of trees, the disappearance of hedge rows, the gradual heaping up of old tires–all of these “little” changes unfolding in the background, largely without comment, just happening without much notice until the viewer feels like screaming at the people, “Good god, don’t you see what’s happening?” 

The sound track would be a slow transition from the natural sounds of birds and bobcats and the hundred languages spoken by the leaves of different trees, to the whack of axes and the sound of the smithy’s hammer resounding from the village, to the beginnings of mechanized hustle–tractors and combines, the slow increase in car traffic in the lane out front, the steadily rising volume of highway rumble till at last it’s so ceaseless and surrounding the people go a little crazy and start to wish for civilization’s collapse.

to my mother’s favorite hill, 

just off Little Plum Run Road. 

Once, a cascading glade, 

the kind you’d see 

in those old movies, 

couples, bounding 

endless love in 

slow motion. 

Science and Progress 

mounting 

their noble steeds 

in the name of domestic independence 

these star-crossed lovers 

lost, the flames from the rigs 

blotting out the night, 

targets of this endless 

economic war. 

Taken up arms 

taking aim 

as we, our protest signs 

our faltering flags 

the white fields of surrender 

choked 

with the soot 

of a cleaner, 

more “natural” gas. 

Fracking 900 ft 

beneath the surface, 

much too far 

to do any harm. 

Besides, these are safe 

chemicals, 

parts per million. 

Enjoying the view 

from their ivory towers 

as they dig our graves 

one well at a time. 

A mock-up of the new Danville Riverfront Park 

The Susquehanna Greenway Partnership has partnered with the DCNR to award $60,000 in mini-grants to community partners along the Susquehanna. The purpose of the mini-grant program is to advance public and private efforts to connect people with the natural and cultural resources of the Susquehanna and promote a sustainable and healthy environment. 

A total of fourteen grants are being awarded ranging from $500 to $8,000. The projectpartners are leveraging the $60,000 in awards with an additional $203,000 in cash and in-kind contributions. 

The projects that will receive grants are 

Armstrong Township Greenway, Recreation and Open Space Plan: $5,000 to define an open space network, with potential for conservation development and recreation areas for the Sylvan Dell area that will connect residents with the River Walk, South Williamsport Recreation Area, the West Branch Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Ridge. 

Berwick Test Track Trail Enhancement Project: $7,000, for picnic tables, trail improvements and mile markers along the North Branch Susquehanna River. 

Buffalo Creek Water Trail Map: $500 for development of a map to promote the new water trail connecting with the West Branch Susquehanna River. 

Buffalo Valley Rail Trail Conceptual Design to Connect Trail to West Branch 

Susquehanna River: $5,000 for developing a conceptual plan for the remaining portion of the trail through Lewisburg east of 5th Street to the West Branch, including the railroad bridge. 

Curwensville – Irvin Park Enhancements: $2,000 for new picnic tables and benches along the West Branch Susquehanna River. 

Danville River Town Signage Implementation Plan: $2,500 for creating a sign implementation plan in Danville. Identify sign types needed, map sign locations and create 

design templates for levee trail signage, sidewalk trail signage and point of interest signage within the Borough of Danville using the Susquehanna Greenway Sign Design Guidelines. 

Danville Riverfront Trail Kiosk: $2,500 for implementation of the Danville Riverfront Plan for Creating an Active and Connected Community. The kiosk will consist of three panels: 

1) A trail orientation map showing the trail route, trail heads and trail access points in relation to the immediate region and the proposed North Branch Canal Trail 

2) a self-guided walking tour map of Danville’s National Historic District 

3) a map showing the Danville business district, public building and services. 

Millersburg River Bank Protection Study: $2,500 for a feasibility study to be completed by a professional engineer to examine the erosion problems in Riverfront Park caused by the Susquehanna River and identify alternatives to protect the river bank and the park. 

Montgomery Gateway Tree Plantings: $5,000 for tree plantings within the floodplain of the West Branch Susquehanna River and at gateways into the community and along pedestrian walkways that connect downtown to the River. 

Muncy Heritage Park & Nature Trail: $5,000 for designing and constructing the last section of the Nature Trail to connect the tow path with Muncy’s residential area to provide residents access to the Heritage Park and the West Branch Susquehanna River. 

Ned Smith Center Trails Erosion Control Improvements: $6,000 for redesign and reconstruction of ADA-accessible trails to prevent erosion and sediment loads to Wiconisco Creek near its confluence with the Susquehanna River. 

Pineknotter Park Signage: $2,500 for a park entrance sign using the Susquehanna 

Greenway Sign Design Guidelines. 

Tozer’s Landing Riverfront Trail Improvement Project: $8,000 for implementing Bradford County Open Space, Greenways, and Outdoor Recreation Plan. This project will improve public access to the Chemung River at its confluence with the North Branch Susquehanna River near the communities of Athens, Sayre and South Waverly. 

Wilkes-Barre Bike Share Brochure: $1,500 for promoting the free bike share program managed by the Gennetti Hotel in downtown Wilkes-Barre, and to provide people with information about the Susquehanna River Levee Trail and the larger Susquehanna River Greenway by enhancing and reprinting the Bike Share brochure. 

For more information about the Susquehanna Greenway program, visit www. susquehannagreenway.org 

Submit your community announcements and news to williamsportguardian@ gmail.com

Please keep your eyes peeled for the student art featured throughout this issue of The Guardian. 

Jodi Sharar, Grade 12 

“The Beginning and End of the World: 

Animals and Banners.” 

Eliza Whyman, Grade 12 

“The End of the Beginning of the World: 

An hourglass symbolizing the beginning of the world as we know it, and the end of the Earth’s prehistoric era.” 

A recent editorial cartoon asked “Which is the most powerful place in America?” There were four choices: The White House, The Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol or the voting booth. The most powerful place in America was not an answer option. The real seat of power is in the corporate headquarters of huge multinational companies. 

We just voted, but what were our choices and sources of information? Will this election really change anything? Our choices are largely limited to candidates who have access to lots of money, the mother’s milk of politics. If a candidate can’t raise enough money, he or she can’t even get in the game. Most of this money comes from corporations and their plutocratic insiders and friends. 

While President Obama may not be quite the friend to corporations that Mitt Romney is, he will not in any serious way confront corporate power. Look at “Obamacare.” Rather than a single payer system, we have a system which keeps control of medical care in the hands of the powerful for-profit health insurance corporations. The right claims that “ Obamacare” is government control of healthcare, but they have blinded themselves to the truth. 

A few huge media conglomerates control most of the flow of information in America. How much real news is actually presented during a network newscast? While the right complains about “lame stream” media, news outlets such as Fox are busily supporting corporate power. Can you recall any network stories challenging the takeover of our government by corporations? 

Corporate money influences public perception and debate through advertising, so-called think tanks, corporate-sponsored “studies” and scientists with strong political agendas. Tobacco companies knew in the 1950’s that their product caused cancer. Because of a campaign of disinformation and doubt, it took decades to protect the general public from the hazards of second-hand smoke. 

Oil, gas, and coal companies use the same tactics to cloud the near-certain knowledge that climate disruption is here and its consequences for our children and grandchildren will be catastrophic. Why was this impending crisis not a topic of the presidential debates? Why aren’t third party candidates part of debates? They would raise issues that would make the major party candidates and their corporate sponsors uncomfortable. 

Corporations are amoral legal fictions whose only purpose is to make a profit. They want candidates on both sides of the aisle to increase their profits. They want weak environmental laws so they can dump their poisonous wastes into our air and water. They want lower taxes and the creation of more tax loopholes. They want to exploit workers with low pay and few benefits while CEO salaries skyrocket. 

There must be some very real change in the relationship between government and the corporate structure, or our society and planet are in serious jeopardy. Good laws and regulations protecting us from corporate greed must be implemented and enforced. We have to stop the revolving door that sends people back and forth from government regulatory agencies to the corporate boardroom. Too often the foxes are in charge of the chicken house. 

We need constitutional amendments to rein in corporations. Too many Supreme Court decisions are highly ideological, and justices come from the corporate world. We must have an amendment that corporations are not “people” and do not have the rights that individuals have. We need to jail corporate leaders for company crimes. How many leaders of the big bank fraud/20008 economic meltdown are imprisoned? 

We need new political parties and leaders who are not in corporate pockets. We need public financing of elections. Corporations should be prevented from making political contributions. Their lobbying abilities should be limited. Political campaigns should be shortened. 

Change will be difficult. The rich and powerful will not give up their political and economic power easily. It is time for “angry white men” who blame the poor, immigrants, the disabled and minorities for their problems to look at the real source. We need to end the economic system which creates disadvantages for the average citizen so it can benefit those who already have more than their share. We again have to become a government of “we the people” and not we the corporations. 

Jack D. Miller 

Middleburg, PA

The Williamsport Guardian welcomes your submissions: articles, letters to the editor, poetry, photographs, art, etc. Send submissions, ideas, suggestions, and questions to williamsportguardian@ yahoo.com. If you are interested in volunteering with us, please get in touch. We are looking for designers, artists, writers, photographers, and layout artists with knowledge of InDesign & Photoshop. 

~GUARDIAN STAFF 

When you enter into this other world, your senses seem to perk up, as if they were just awakening after a long sleep. You feel the wind blowing past your cheek, hear the birds chirping in the distance, and smell the wood and crisp dirt. 

You keep climbing, climbing, climbing. It’s all you can do. As you go up, up, up, you begin to see the blue sky opening before you and getting larger with each step. Before you realize it, you are standing at the edge of the great mountain. With the land stretching out around you, you can see all that the Earth has to offer: the streams running through the valleys, little houses alongside the roads, and cars running, going to places. But you are here, in this magical place. 

You continue on with your journey, hiking, hiking, hiking. Up you go, further and further into the wilderness, never sure what you will stumble upon. You think that you can see the top. It’s just out of reach. As you trudge on, the tip seems to be disappearing, almost getting too far into the distance. But you keep going, willing to reach the top. It’s a goal you must reach. 

As you continue to climb on your hands and knees up the steep incline, it’s all you can do to keep moving. Your legs ache, your arms are becoming stiff, and your back is burning. But you remember that feeling of satisfaction when you reach the top. That feeling of accomplishment, that you’ve done something. So you push on, moving swiftly through the trees. 

Yes! The top! You can see it now. As you take the final steps, you breathe with relief and pride. Stopping at the top of the incredible monster. The air is crisp and refreshing. You smile to yourself, knowing you’ve completed your goal. You made it. There’s no other feeling in the world like that feeling that you’ve pushed yourself to the limit and you’ve reached it, all on your own. You’ve done it. 

Rachael Owens is an aspiring author and fourteen-year-old ninth grader at Central Mountain High School. She first found her love of writing in seventh grade when she chose a creative writing class for an elective. Her teacher gave the class diverse topics to write about and challenged them to be as imaginative as they could be. Rachael fell in love with creating her own stories, characters, and plots. 

Now, as a ninth grader, Rachael is pushing herself to see just how well she can write. Though right now short stories are her main focus, she would like to expand her genre as she gets older, moving on to romance, science fiction, and maybe even mystery. She would love to one day become an editor or an author, doing what she loves. 

First a bit of history: 

-Two little black girls who wanted to join the Girl Scouts were refused by the YWCA in 1916. 

-In 1918, the YWCA set up a separate black branch of the YWCA in an old house on Walnut Street. 

-The building that currently houses the YWCA was built before the crash of 1929 at a cost of nearly half a million dollars. The YWCA abandoned its black branch, as it was too costly to maintain. Negroes in the community decided to continue operating the facility. 

- The Bethune-Douglass Center was born in 1930. The small black community depended on the larger white community for its funding. 

In 1938, the old Emery Elementary School closed. P. D. Mitchell took the job of Executive Director of Bethune- Douglass in 1943. 

One year later, in 1944, the Bethune- Douglass Center moved into the old Emery School building on Park Ave. 

On November 18, 1976, the city leased land to the county on which to establish a community center. 

- In 1977, ground was broken for a new community center building, at a cost of $780,000. The building was named the Bethune-Douglass Community Center in 1979. Owned by Lycoming County, the building was rented to the Bethune- Douglass Community Center organization for $1 per year. 

- During the 1990s, the Bethune-Douglass Center experienced financial problems. According to court papers, by October 5, 1995, the Bethune-Douglass Community Center had become a dormant corporation and had vacated the premises. In the late 1990s, a new nonprofit organization was formed: the Campbell Street Family Youth and Community Association Inc. The county leased the facility to STEP until the new nonprofit could assume control. 

In December 1999, the county assigned all of its rights to the Lycoming Housing Authority. At some point, the Williamsport Housing Authority assumed ownership and began acting as landlord. The premises were still to be used as a recreation center. 

In 2005, the Williamsport Housing Authority was dissolved into the Lycoming Housing Authority. 

Now the Lycoming Housing Authority has to unload the facility, and the nonprofit organization Campbell Street Family Youth and Community Association has to scramble to look for new digs. LHA cites federal guidelines as the villain in this tragedy. It has to sell the building. But who will buy it and what will the new owner do with it? 

There are a flood of rumors regarding the brand new YMCA that will be built just a few blocks away, on the expansive Susquehanna Health Campus. Some of the services would be duplicated, and so the Center might become unnecessary and obsolete. Problem is, the extremely poor cannot afford the Y’s membership fees. 

The black community could buy the building! I have proposed an idea to raise over one million dollars within two years. Williamsport’s population is just under 30,000 people. About 13.5% are black. That’s approximately 4,050 people. If each black person gave just $10 a month, in one month The Center could amass $40,500.00! In two months it would have 81,000 dollars! In 24 months, the amount would be 972,000 dollars! If Williamsport’s African-American community came together, we could accomplish the worthy goal of raising a million dollars all by ourselves. But that’s a big “IF.” 

I think that most of us see ourselves as poor, uneducated or undereducated, lacking the skills or resources to achieve the American Dream. I have heard stories about how black teenage girls scheme to have babies just to get a welfare check! I have heard of able-bodied people scamming disability insurance to get money. These people think the system is rigged against them. They fight for survival the best way they know how. Many of us have forgotten how to dream. Many of us don’t believe in ourselves. 

Then there is the seemingly insurmountable division within the black community. The ongoing struggle between the “original” blacks and the “influx” blacks needs to come to an end. Black families have lived in Williamsport since before the Civil War. They have deep roots in the community, but their numbers were relatively small: 

1 to 2% of Williamsport’s population. 

Starting in the 1960s and through to the 1990s, migrant black workers from the South and blacks from the large cities came to Williamsport. The black population swelled to 13.5%. 

There is a culture clash between the two groups. Each despises the other. 

The situation reminds me of the two brothers who go fishing in a rowboat. One brother wants to go to the left, and the other wants to go to the right. They argue and fight and call each other names. Meanwhile they forget that they are in the same boat, and the river’s current takes them haphazardly downstream. The brothers could easily end up crashing into the rocks. They must understand that they have the power to control their own destiny. They must cooperate and row together. 

Imagine what we could do with a million dollars. We could build a new recreation center or new housing, or we could form a bank and issue micro-loans to teach our young women to be entrepreneurs. 

Yes, we could do all these things and more … if we only had the will and the courage to hit the reset button. When will we come together to make our community a better place to live? If not now, when? Where do we start to build bridges among ourselves? When will we end the prejudice within our own ranks? 

Raise a million dollars? Yes, it is possible … technically. The numbers say it is possible. It is a question of will and commitment. As long as the black community perennially has its hand out, asking others to solve its problems, it will never be considered an equal. 

Ben Franklin said, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” Without UNITY there is no commUNITY. 

The current crisis surrounding The Center is really a blessing in disguise. Now is the time to empower ourselves. 

Richard James is a retired graphic artist, amateur photographer and filmmaker, and writes for the Williamsport Guardian occasionally. 

Politics aside, the real glue holding this issue together is the art. Student artwork is featured throughout the issue, and as you can see from their grinning faces on the cover, Williamsport Area High School students had fun interpreting the theme: “The End or the Beginning.” 

Inspired by Mayan apocalypse predictions and spurred by my somewhat morbid tendencies, I originally chose “The End of the World” for the December/January 2013 theme. The Board rightly pointed out that that was too much of a bummer for the holiday season, so we tweaked it. 

Next came the business of filling the issue. Not counting myself, I knew exactly two local writers: Ruth Steck (p. 9) and Jared Conti (pp. 8, 11, 14). Surely that wouldn’t be enough to fill 24 pages. I scratched my chin and asked myself, “Where is there talent waiting to be tapped?” Then it hit me: high schools! 

I called my former English teacher at Central Mountain, Kelly Baker. She said that one student in particular stood out in her mind: Rachael Owens (p. 5). Listening to Mrs. Baker describe this student was like listening to a description of me at that age: head in a book, pen near at hand, notebook toted everywhere. Call me a narcissist, but I’m especially excited to be publishing this young me-like writer. 

Rounding out the issue are an article on the closing of the Campbell Street Center (p. 4), an essay about how attitude affects experience (p. 13), and a piece about hiking Worlds End State Park by trail master Jeff Mitchell (p. 15). And yes, there’s also something about the 2012/2013 astrological shift (p. 12). 

Before I finish, please take a look at the masthead to the left. Each person in that column has given untold time and energy to creating this paper. Ralph Kisberg and I clash horns like billy goats, but if not for him I wouldn’t have met the folks at The Guardian. Michael Gross and the rest of the Editorial Staff gave feedback on copy, and Sally Lifland Butterfield tirelessly proofread. Curtis Musheno calmed me during several production-related freakouts (his personality is like the sound of ocean waves), Dan Mason and Bill Mauro taught me how to do layout, and some of the design elements are Barb Andreassen’s. Cynthia Staiman Vosk and her distribution team get the paper from the printer to your hands, and Helen Gould and Lois Cohen are the reason we can print at all: they handle the money, honey. 

The Williamsport Guardian is a community effort from start to finish. We strive to fill the niche that local mainstream media outlets do not. We specialize in art and awareness. If you have poems, essays, drawings or other creative works that have never seen the light of day, please send them to us. Our contact information is to the immediate left. 

My earnest gratitude goes out to all of those who contributed to this issue of The Williamsport Guardian. I’d also like to acknowledge the contributions of The Guardian’s late editor Anna Alford, whom I never met but whose legacy remains throughout this community. Hers are big shoes to fill, and in humility and gratitude I step forward. 

I knew her for a bit more than a year. When we met, it was in a cafe in summer. She wore a long, bright blue dress, and her hair in twin plaits. She struck me then as a real self. Somebody who knew what she wanted, how to define herself, and was at ease in her skin.

She owned a B&B, and we talked this past winter about the perils of self employment when I helped her with editing the January/February issue of The Williamsport Guardian. She was the volunteer editor. She also held a law degree and a teaching certificate.

I was introduced to her through a mutual acquaintance because I wanted to write for the paper.  We chatted over coffee and she had a bagel. We were easy together, it did not feel like an audition or an interview, though it was. We laughed and talked about religion. I do not discuss religion or politics on a first meeting, but Anna was one of those rare humans who accepted everyone for precisely who she was, without a whisper of assessment.

She was a Christian Scientist. I had a grandmother who was a Christian Scientist. Anna told me a bit about it; I was always interested, but my parents are rigidly a peculiar sort of Christian, and they do not traverse in other forms of Christianity. I was and am interested in using spirituality and thought to overcome illness.

I was only just forming a more personal connection with Anna. She knew of an unlikely but good Thai restaurant tucked away in the hills near where we live. There is an exceptional hike nearby.  We were going to go on an Adventure and Meal hike this summer. Anna invented the concept of “Adventure and a Meal” to write a column for the paper which she never got around to doing.  She was a huge Neil Gaiman fan, and urged me to follow him and Amanda Palmer on twitter so as to observe their sweet, newlywed banter; I am glad I did.

When we spoke on the phone last week, she did not acknowledge that it could be the last time we did, though there was something in her voice that told me it may be. Just a couple of weeks before, we’d talked about our hike; Anna was full of excitement. When I mentioned it on the phone, a promise of her return, there was strained wistfulness under her audibly forced smile when she said, “yeah, sure.”

I am so sad for Anna’s family.

I am going to spend today being mindful of a friendship cut too short, of self and ambition, and thinking about how to be myself with conviction, as Anna was.

Please, if you read this today–or any day–take a moment to wish Anna’s family and friends peace. And to remember that now is a gift. Choose an action or behavior you want to change and do it. That’s how Anna lived. Not in hesitation, but with temerity.