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

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

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

We were expecting people to shout profanities or make outdated claims, and some did.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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marc Schuster: What is the project?

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

MS: What inspired this project?

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

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

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

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

MS: How does your location play into the project?

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

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

MS:  What are your long-term goals?

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

MS: Your short-term goals?

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

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

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

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

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

MS: What challenges have you faced so far?

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

MS: What have you learned?

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

MS:  How can people get involved or contribute?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which brings me to Wells.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wells didn’t even seem to hear me.

“I do voices and everything!” I said.

“You have to,” she said.

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

Not Answers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Arguments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Funding priorities for 2012 include

·    the rehabilitation of existing park and recreation facilities;

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

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

·    helping park and recreation areas become greener;

·    land conservation for critical habitat;

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

·    projects identified as regional partnerships.

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

CONTACT: Barb Fellencer

House Democratic Communications Office

Phone: 717-787-7895

Email: bfellenc@pahouse.net

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Propublica staff reporter Nicholas Kusnetz contributed to this report.

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

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

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

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

No kidding.

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

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

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

Of course I would get hurt.

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

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

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

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

Om shanti. Namaste.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Architectural drawing of Pajama Factory revitalization plan by Filson and Rohrbacher

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Recently, the nation has been captivated by an unbelievable tragedy that has been brought to light at Penn State University. I’ll spare you the details of what is alleged (you can read the grand jury report or visit ESPN if you need to catch yourself up), but the bottom line is this:

An eyewitness saw a young boy being sodomized by an adult associated with the university, and at least five people with knowledge of it did nothing to actively protect the child:

• The Penn State quarterback-turned graduate assistant (allegedly) whose gut told him to run away when confronted with the sight of his former coach raping a child, rather than do anything to rescue the boy. (Recent developments suggest that this may not be accurate, and that the grad assistant did intervene.)

• The legendary coach who, when confronted with the news that his friend and protege had committed unspeakable acts, decided that the only thing he could do was pass the information along to his boss, rather than wield the authority he held as the most powerful man on campus to resolve the situation, so a known predator was left unchecked.

• The two Penn State officials who had the eyewitness account reported to them and felt that a slap on the wrist (forbidding the accused from bringing children on campus anymore) was a sufficient punishment for someone who now had multiple accusations of sexual abuse levied against him, essentially giving him permission to carry on with the abuse, as long as it wasn’t on campus.

• The president of one of the most influential universities in the world, tasked with making decisions that are in the best interests of the students of Penn State and the university, who approved the handling of the matter and the continued active presence of a known predator on his campus.

Let me be clear: Joe Paterno is one of my heroes. I believe that Joe Paterno is a good man who has done a lot of great things to make the world around him a better place. I believe the same of Graham Spanier, whom I have always admired as the president of my university and who has done much for the advancement of higher education. I believe that each of the five men involved in the grand jury report is likely a good man.

But they dropped the ball. They decided to remain neutral. Their silence became permission.

Not only did they allow a sexual predator to remain free, they enabled him to continue running an organization that put him in direct contact with young boys every day. And tonight there are multiple young men (nine have come forward, but there’s no telling how many more are out there) who wake up to nightmares of what happened to them. These are young men whose lives are forever changed because of the actions of Jerry Sandusky, and the inactions of those with the knowledge to stop him.

Desmond Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

And that’s the point.

Many people don’t understand why this scandal necessitates the accountability of someone like Joe Paterno (thousands of students rioted on PSU’s campus in support of him, and many more have posted their support across social media). By any legal definition, Paterno did what protocol told him he was supposed to do. The other men involved in the grand jury report likely acted in what they believed was the correct way to handle accusations. I think when we speak of Paterno, Spanier and the rest, we’re truly talking about good men. They’re not the ones being accused of multiple counts of sexual abuse against children—Jerry Sandusky is, a fact that can be lost in the outrage over what has happened.

But by choosing to stand on the sidelines, they unintentionally supported Sandusky when they should have done whatever it took to protect children.

Before I’m accused of finger pointing or casting judgment that is not mine to make, this entire situation has forced me to ask myself the question, How many times have I chosen inaction? How many victims have I ignored? If I’m honest with myself, I’m certainly not innocent in this by any means. I think each of us could point to a moment (or more) where we’ve erred in judgment and perhaps unintentionally let wrongs go unchecked. We’re human and we make mistakes.

Paterno acknowledged the weight of his own mistake in his attempted resignation statement, saying:

“This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.”

But unfortunately, there is no benefit of hindsight in this situation. Not to the victims, who will live the rest of their lives with the physical, emotional and psychological horror of what happened to them. This is no doubt a case about the alleged actions of Jerry Sandusky, but in a larger sense, this story is about systematic sexual abuse and how inaction equals permission.

When good people do nothing to help victims, we allow the oppressor to triumph. Everything is wrong about that.

This was originally written as a blog post [http://spencersweeting.tumblr.com/post/12590239932/when-good-men-donothing] previous to the announced firing of Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier, and was in response to the Grand Jury Report and subsequent outrage over what the allegations against Sandusky had to do with Paterno and the other men involved in the Grand Jury Report. I want to emphasize that my goal is not to condemn anyone, but rather to bring attention to how inaction is a societal problem involving all of us, and this scandal at Penn State is just shedding light on the larger problem as a whole.

Spencer Sweeting is a graduate of Penn State University and the Director of Student Ministry at First Church Williamsport.

Winners were chosen by a panel of judges including Grammy Award-winning singer Dionne Warwick, actor Wilson Cruz, movie director Dustin Lance Black, humanitarian and author Malaak Compton-Rock, and HIV advocacy leader David Munar. Essays were submitted by either winners or someone in their community.

For more than 10 years Kirsten has been Executive Director at AIDS Resource, a nonprofit organization that provides critical education, prevention, and outreach programs to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in the greater Williamsport area.

When Kirsten took over in 2001, the nonprofit was deep in debt and in serious danger of closing. Kirsten stabilized the agency financially within one year. According to Kirsten:

“The work that we do at AIDS Resource is especially important, because we are the only organization providing HIV education and care in our community. As our clients continually battle stigma and discrimination, we provide a safe, non-judgmental environment where they are embraced with open arms and can get the care they so desperately need but are unable to get elsewhere. While this is unquestionably the most challenging job I’ve ever had, I truly love the work that I do, the staff I do it with and the clients we do it for.” Pennsylvania ranks as one of the top 10 states with the highest number of reported cases of HIV.

Kirsten says that winning this recognition “was overwhelming. When I think of all of the people who are doing so much for people infected with or affected by HIV nationwide, it’s really remarkable that I was even considered. I am extremely lucky to be able to do something that I love so much; I certainly wasn’t expecting to receive an award for something that is so inherently rewarding.”

You can support the work of AIDS Resource by purchasing holiday centerpieces or wreaths. They are also one of the many nonprofi ts that can be supported by shopping through Goodshop. For more information go to www.aidsresource. com or call 570-322-8448.

Today the organization has grown and developed into three prominent programs, each of which attends to different and specific needs of our diverse community. YWCA’s Wise Options is a unique program that deals specifically with victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and other violent crimes. The services of Wise Options include access to PFAs (Protection from Abuse Orders); direct victim services such as counseling and legal advocacy; workshops for students, employers, employees and others; and emergency shelter for survivors.

Wise Options deals with abuse of all kinds daily. Often it can be difficult to conceptualize what abuse is. The typical understanding of abuse is abuse of a physical nature, but a victim may experience various types of abuse. Very rarely is vlolence a “one time” incident. Many women experience extreme cases of verbal and emotional assault often coupled with physical and sexual abuse. The combination of these heinous acts makes a situation extremely difficult to handle alone.

The question “Why don’t they just leave?” often arises when speaking of abuse and assault, and what Wise Options provides through workshops is a better understanding of the complexity of these crimes. Many times victims do not know what to do or where to go. When so much of their life has been spent with a partner, the idea of independence can be jarring and scary. There are also the threats that come along with leaving; in many cases if children are involved, the threats extend beyond the women, to the children as well.

Abuse of all types, whether it is mental, physical, economic or sexual, is about control. It is easy to believe that abusers have a certain appearance, but unfortunately it is not that simple. These types of crimes know no race, gender or socioeconomic status. A victim or abuser could easily be a neighbor or coworker. In the majority of rape cases reported, the perpetrators are people we know and trust, which makes abuse so unpredictable.

The hard lesson that our community is now learning is that abuse is not a distant concept, but right in front of us. The Penn State story has brought to light the pervasive nature of child abuse and sexual assault, and knowing all this, it is time for us to work together toward prevention and responsibility. Victims of rape often suffer in silence and do not reach out for support until years have gone by. We have a responsibility as community members, friends, neighbors and family to provide everyone with a safe, respectful way to report rape and abuse.

When the Penn State case begins to fade from the headlines, abuse and assault of all kinds will still be happening in our community. It is important that we not let these issues go unrecognized, and that we hold those who are responsible accountable for their actions. Both rape and abuse are serial crimes, and where there is one victim, more often than not, there are others. A conversation has been started, and we as a community have the responsibility to continue it.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault and/or other violent crimes, the YWCA’s Wise Options program is here to help. The name Wise Options is intentional, offering victims options and knowledge to make the right choices for themselves. Wise Options provides Legal and Victim Advocacy; Emergency Shelter for Victims; Adult & Child Counseling; Education and Awareness Outreach for ages 3 and up (programs tailored to audiences of all ages); and a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week Crisis Hotline.

The YWCA of Northcentral PA is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. For more information on Wise Options or any of its programs, please contact call 570-322-4637 or visit www.ywcawilliamsport.org. The YWCA is a partner program of the Lycoming County United Way.

Mallory Weymer is the Communication and Development Manager for the YWCA Northcentral PA.

CRISIS HOTLINE:
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On the surface, no pun intended, compulsory pooling flies against the instincts of most of us. My property, my rock, my gas, my consent or we have a problem. But, as always, there are lawyers, legislators and corporations lurking about. Back in 1935 Congress approved the Oil and Gas Conservation Compact. Pennsylvania signed on in 1941. According to a paper co-written by Bradford County’s Brigid Landy, a 3rd-year law student at Temple University who is with us here today, “The purpose of this Compact is to conserve oil and gas by prevention of physical waste thereof.” Ms. Landy argues, by signing the Compact, “member states agreed to work toward this common purpose through the exercise of their police powers to pass conservation legislation in their state … .” I will argue here that true conservation is better served by not passing pooling legislation.

Whether you agree that compulsory pooling is necessary to accomplish “conservation” or not, let’s assume the compact’s mission derives from an attempt to provide the greatest good to the greatest number of Americans.

Most of us consider President Theodore Roosevelt to have been our nation’s foremost conservationist. In 1916 Roosevelt wrote, “The ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ applies to the number within the womb of time.” That interesting early-20th-century phrase refers to, of course, those who follow us, not just those of us here now. “Our duty to the whole, including unborn generations, bids us to restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations,” Roosevelt argued. His definition of “conservation,” preservation of a resource for the future, is just as valid as one that interprets “wasting” as meaning leaving the resource in the ground, un-extracted. In fact, the Roosevelt defi nition better serves the public good. What it doesn’t serve as well are the operator’s profits.

Allowing property owners to exercise their own judgment when it comes to leasing their land is in the best interest, allows for the greatest good, for a larger number of us over the “womb of time.” It is extremely short sighted and generationally greedy of us today to force those of us here now not to strand any gas recoverable by current technology, to require the most gas it is economically possible to extract from each and every unit an operator designates be removed for consumption in the nearer future. It is as if gas is not a finite resource, as if we now can see into the future and determine its value, it is to say gas we are sure we know how to extract will have no utility to society in the further future than the time the well operator decides best suits them, not the rights owner or society.

In his presentation Dr. Engelder will show you a slide of a hypothetical gas production unit that has a double pitchfork pattern. The standard 3-tine pitchfork pattern goes out from a central pad in one direction, but there are only 2 tines going in the other direction, due to a holdout property. The holdout, by preventing the drilling of a 6th well, causes the whole unit to lose 1/6th, or about 16%, of the total revenue that unit would have produced had every property inside it been included. By not having drilled a 6th horizontal well, the operator and the others in the unit lose out, but the greater good is that the gas is conserved for a future time, for a more informed decision than the well operator’s utility.

By leaving the decision to lease open, the heirs of that holdout property may decide when to exploit it. The current rights owner may change his or her mind. Maybe he or she is waiting for the price of NG to suddenly triple before allowing extraction? For a supply crunch? Maybe he has moral reasons, is against adding more greenhouse gases from any fossil fuel into the atmosphere, or maybe she is afraid of blowouts, spills or methane or chemical migration. Maybe someone in her family has respiratory problems. Or maybe he is simply a conscientious objector to gas development, but whatever the reason, by allowing choice, by not forcing someone into a pool now, we are preserving gas that we are assured we have the technology to recover for the future. Provided the gas is not allowed to be stolen. Which is another issue for another night.

Retail jobs at Williamsport Kohl’s … 130
Personal pay “earned” by NY hedge fund profiteer John Paulson last year by suckering investors & betting that the U.S. real estate market would collapse … $5 billion
Number of high-paying jobs John Paulson claimed to have created … 100
Loan guarantee the federal government gave to energy innovation company Solyandra to build a new plant … $535 million
Construction workers employed by Solyandra to build the new plant … about 3,000
Year the Solyandra loan guarantee was conditionally approved under the Bush Administration … 2007
Taxpayer bailout received by Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs so that it could provide capital to job-creating enterprises … $10 billion+
Record profits Goldman Sachs is hoarding this year … $2.7 billion
U.S. jobs cut this year by Goldman Sachs … 1,000
New hires in Singapore by Goldman Sachs this year … 1,000
Decreases expected in Wall Street executive bonuses this year … 20-30%
Average annual income of top 500 CEOs in the U.S. … $11 million
Percentage of Americans making under $26,000 a year … 50%
“Donation” given by Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, to NYPD Foundation a few months before NYPD prevented Occupy Wall Street
from demonstrating in Chase Plaza … $4.6 million
Price of an ostrich omelet for brunch at the trendy Ajna Bar in New York City’s Meatpacking District … $2,500
Amount of hourly raise secured by SEIU for home care workers in Williamsport as part of their new contract … 25 & 35¢
Top hourly wages for those home care workers in Williamsport … $11
Annual health insurance premiums/deductible for a Wal-Mart “associate” & her son under the company’s new reductions in health care coverage … $468 / $5,000
Annual salary of the same sales associate … $19,000
Maximum percentage of income this employee will pay in 2014 for health care coverage under the new health care law … 9.5%, or $1,805
Congressional Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicare … $165 billion
Cost of Congressional Republicans’ proposed subsidies for big oil companies, tax breaks for companies that keep their profi ts offshore, and tax breaks for millionaires … $172 billion
Amount the Koch brother-funded Federalist Society paid Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife Ginny, 2003-2007 … $686,000
Amount Texas right-wing billionaire paid Ginny Thomas last year to start a Tea Party group that lobbies on issues coming up before the Supreme Court … $500,000

SOURCES: Williamsport Sun Gazette, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, Hightower Lowdown

For the past three months I had the privilege of serving on the Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission, which hosted five hearings across Pennsylvania to give citizens a voice on Marcellus Shale gas drilling. More than 400 citizens attended and dozens testified, eager to have their voices heard. Last week, the Commission released its final report, which included more than 100 recommendations to better protect citizens and the environment. At hearings, citizens on all sides of this issue voiced frustration with the fast pace of drilling and the failure of regulatory agencies to protect the public interest. Citizens take their right to clean water and air seriously, as they should, and want more rigorous environmental protection, more attention to health impacts and an end to preferential treatment of gas companies.

The General Assembly will vote on Marcellus Shale legislation in the coming weeks, but current proposals don’t go far enough to protect the environment or fairly tax the industry.

Without a comprehensive review of the cumulative impacts, the designation of fragile areas that are off limits to drilling, protections for drinking water supplies, comprehensive permitting, pipeline oversight and a meaningful drilling tax, gas drilling cannot occur in a responsible manner. The current proposals by the legislature will lead to more corporate profits by socializing the cost to the taxpayer. The people of Pennsylvania deserve better protection.

You can read the full report at http://citizensmarcellusshale.com/final-report/ and add your voice to the debate.

Sincerely,
John A. Trallo, Sonestown, PA

As a Pennsylvania resident, business owner and employer of 75, I have very serious concerns about the pace of the development of Hydraulic Fracturing in Pennsylvania. As a property owner in Sullivan County, PA, I have firsthand knowledge of the Gas Industry and the high pressure tactics that the energy companies are using to get mineral rights owners to sign gas leases. With the promise of quick cash, many people in this region are all too willing to believe the industry’s powerful PR machine as to the “safety” and “minimal negative impact” of the gas industry. While Hydraulic Fracturing has been used successfully in many places in the US, I do not believe the long-term effects of the industry’s Fracking infrastructure and supply chain have been established for the unique ecology and geology of North Central PA.

Regardless, the gas industry, special interests and our government are driving development in North Central PA at a frenetic pace. In the short span of two years the “Pennsylvania Wilds” are rapidly becoming an industrial zone accompanied by 7x24x365 heavy truck traffic. The Commonwealth of PA has desperately and recklessly leased half of its pristine forests and state game lands for gas development. Our forests and rivers are being soiled and our property rights are being threatened with eminent domain and the possibility of forced pooling for those who do not sign gas leases.

I took the accompanying picture this summer (right), which inspired me to write this post. It is of a water pipeline in Sullivan County put in place to service the needs of a Fracking operation. This picture speaks for itself as to the industry’s real priorities with regard to profits vis-à-vis the health and safety of our children and families. I encourage you to get involved, write your elected officials and let them know that you want to slow the development of Fracking and that you want to protect North Central PA for our families today as well as for future generations. ~ Shaun Antram

Steve Jobs changed my life by thinking differently. In the mid 80s I walked into a computer shop with my fiancé. We were two kids in our early 20s who looked as if we didn’t have two dimes to rub together, so no one in the shop gave us the time of day. When we sat down in front of the new Macintosh computer we didn’t need anyone to show us how it worked; it was intuitive and we knew we had to have one. We pooled our resources—I had a student loan, he had a job—and we shared custody of this marvelous machine. Steve Jobs had the vision to create a tool that ordinary people could use to do extraordinary things, and in 1985 I grabbed hold of that tool and never looked back, and my life has been the richer for it. But Steve Jobs isn’t my hero because he made a succession of gadgets that are fun to use, look cool, and help me be productive. He’s my hero because he had vision. Before Steve Jobs, computers were for geeks and engineers. Steve envisioned the potential that the power of computers could have in the hands of artists.

Joan Baez’s impact on my life starts earlier than that. I don’t remember when I first heard Joan Baez sing. Her career began the year I was born, and her songs were part of the soundtrack of my life, but I think it was in college that she became one of my heroes. It was in college that I began to develop an awareness of political causes and began to get involved in the issues of the day. Joan was not just singing about those issues; she was also taking action. It was one of Joan’s albums, “Carry It On,” that got me thinking about the definition of a hero. One of the cuts contains a monologue by her husband, David Harris (who was serving jail time for draft evasion), entitled “Idols and Heroes,” where he explains that “A hero is someone who teaches people what they can be. A hero is really an available model . . . that exists of the embodiment of what everybody could be.” He contrasts this with idols who “live beyond the people . . . who do their living for them . . . teaches them what they can’t be, and that exists as a negation of the people who worship it.”

A word of clarification here. I don’t aspire to design computers or go on tour singing. Steve Jobs and Joan Baez are my heroes not because I want to do what they did but because I want to embody the qualities in my own unique way that I admire in them. I’ve seen this really clearly as I have been pondering why I’m so attracted to one of my newest heroes, Amanda Palmer, a singer/songwriter who performs on stage in her underwear and who uses the F-word more times in one day than I probably will in my entire life. Is it because she is a fearlessly original performer; because she has an apartment in the fabulous artist collective in Boston known as the Cloud Club; because she rejected the traditional label-based model for building her career and chose instead to develop a close relationship with her fans by using social media? It’s all of those things, plus the fact that she’s made a point of visiting Occupy sites wherever she travels. It also helps that she has a great blog where she writes things like this:
“could you honestly imagine a different kind of country, where business and government run without corruption, where the wealth of the land is fairly shared, where people actively took responsibility to take care of each other instead of just trampling their way to the top as an accepted way of life? or does that sound stupid, naïve, an impossible hippie-dream? what if everyone who thought that was actually a pretty good idea stood up in solidarity and forced a change? would you stand up? if occupy does nothing else, it’s made people wonder that.” http://blog.amandapalmer.net/

But what happens when our heroes do something we don’t admire? Spencer Sweeting faces the failings of one of his heroes in When Good Men Do Nothing [see p. 8]. Spencer doesn’t just point a finger at his hero but also holds up the mirror to himself and asks the question, “How many times have I chosen inaction? How many victims have I ignored?” Heroes aren’t perfect people, but heroes are good mirrors. They help us take a look at ourselves because ultimately they aren’t our heroes because of who they are but because of what we admire about them, and that says more about us than it does about them; so when our heroes stumble, it gives us a chance to do some soul searching about the choices we are making in our own lives.

I always assumed I was a romantic, at least when it came to my taste in movies. My list of all-time favorite films includes The Parent Trap (the original, of course, not Lindsay Lohan’s remake), Dirty Dancing, Bridget Jones’ Diary, and Love Actually. Not exactly a dark and cynical assortment.

But unlike Sundance attendees (who gave the film the Grand Jury prize), I left Like Crazy grumbling like a cranky old man. Let me tell you all about it, kids.

The premise of the film is that an American boy and an English girl fall in love while attending college together in Los Angeles. We watch their cute but awkward first date. They don’t really talk much, except to agree on their mutual love for Paul Simon’s “Graceland” (cranky-old-man disclosure: I have hated that album since childhood). The date is full of coy, longing glances that lead into a montage indicating that the rest of their dates go well.

Admittedly, that’s a pretty standard technique for building a relationship on film, but if I’m going to have to believe in this love beyond all reason for the next hour, I need a little more. The first test of the relationship— and our credulity—occurs when the couple graduates. Her student visa is about to expire, so she has to go home and visit her family for the summer before she can come back to her American lover. She’s packed and ready to go, but then at the last minute she decides she just can’t bear to leave him, so she blows off her flight and her visa and they spend the summer in bed together (cue another montage).

If you, like me, have been to an airport since 2001, or seen one of many movies dealing with this subject (Babel, The Visitor), you probably know it’s a really bad idea to screw with U.S. immigration laws. The government takes them, like, kinda seriously. Our heroine, however, is shocked to discover that she can’t get back into the U.S. after she finally goes home to Britain to visit her family at the end of the summer.

Okay, so I can almost go along with the premise that, as a besotted 22-year-old, she doesn’t think through the consequences of her actions, but what is up with her parents? They’re heavily involved in her life through the rest of the movie, and apparently even have a close friend who is an immigration lawyer. My parents would have blown their tops if I’d wasted a thousand-dollar plane ticket and failed to show up on time, let alone violated a visa. What if she had ended up in jail instead of being put politely back on the plane to England? (Come to think of it, that would have made a more exciting movie— Like Crazy in Guantanamo Bay.)

Anyway, her immigration problems and her boyfriend’s lack of the funds and/or desire to move to London comprise the main plot of the film. They’re passionate about each other, but also fickle. Sometimes they have heartfelt phone calls, sometimes they don’t respond to each other’s texts.

And while immigration issues are dealt with off-screen by the family friend, being movie-star-gorgeous young people, they date other people, too. It was in the treatment of these other characters that the film finally lost me. As a viewer you have to be really, really invested in a relationship to go along with the main character treating other lovers, who seem like perfectly nice (probably nicer, actually) people, like total crap.

For example—and this is a bit of a spoiler, so close your eyes if I haven’t already talked you out of seeing the film—you should really tell your live-in boyfriend about how you’re married to a foreigner and are just waiting for your visa to come through so you can move overseas before he PROPOSES to you.

We never see that character again, but I bet he’s cranky and cynical now, too. He’ll never buy another girl a ridiculously significant chair (the film is also a little heavyhanded with the symbolism).

I see only one way for all of us to recover from Like Crazy and bring love and happiness back into the world. Go rent an actually romantic movie—several of which have been helpfully listed for you at the start of this review.

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

WG: How do you combine your writing with your art? How do they flow together or contrast? So you don’t have to be one or the other, yet it’s challenging … how do you meet those challenges?

MP: Writing and art are different kinds of creativity. There are different moments when I’m really inspired by the stories I’m writing and I’m really inspired by the drawings. There are times when the drawings aren’t coming as fast, sometimes the articles are a little slower to come. But it’s nice to have that interaction. It’s not just the art and writing, it’s the German speaking as well. I like having these multiple things. If you put everything into one and then it fails, that crushes you. So if you’re just an artist or just a writer putting everything into one direction and someone walks up to your painting and goes “eh,” then it’s like, “Oh my god, he freakin’ kills me, he kills me.” And of course I know it’s an unrealistic aim, but I want everyone to love everything that I do. A hundred people could walk by saying “That’s amazing,” but that one person who doesn’t like it or is underwhelmed crushes you. But this way, with art, writing, and German, allows me to be different people if I want, or if I don’t like how my art’s going I can say, “Well, I’m just the arts and entertainment editor at the newspaper.”

WG: You were a literature major in school, now you’re the editor of Arts and Entertainment in the paper—is that something you always aspired to as well?

MP: No, not really. In fact, in high school I wrote one article; it was supposed to be brief and it turned into this long Edgar Allen Poe type story that didn’t go over too well with the woman in charge of the school paper. I love writing and editing for the Sun. I have to get things done intuitively with deadlines. I get it, give it my best shot and then it’s done. I constantly have this endless flow which is really cool. I get to meet a lot of interesting people, hear a lot of great stories and write for a living. How lucky am I to do that? It’s amazing.

WG: What brought your interest in German and Germany?

MP: I moved to Williamsport and I was unemployed, with a lot of time on my hands. Everyone says they want to learn a foreign language; well, I actually wanted to do it. Then it was a functional thing; it was like, “O.K., how can I learn a foreign language?” My wife, Liz, had studied some German at Lyco; she had taken a couple of courses and knew the professor there, so she could help me at the beginning. If I said something that sounded really off to her, she could and would help me correct it.

WG: So there was no interest in German/ Germany before then?

MP: No, and then I find out that my great grandfather was Hungarian and spoke German and had a German prayer book that he carried around with him, and my grandfather gave it to me. That’s my prized possession. Now I read a lot of things about religion in German. My faith and religion are very important. I pray twice a day, searching for connection to the divine— philosophers—the infinity of space and time is beyond us. It’s a more spiritual thing than anything, inspiring connection to everything. I feel connected to divine energies, spirituality, an evolved view of it, via intellectual and artistic pursuits.

WG: You recently began listening to opera; what is it about opera that you like?

MP: Anytime I listen to opera it’s so epic that you just feel that you’re great no matter what you’re doing when you listen to opera. These people are pushing themselves to the extent of their physicality. I mean, you watch these opera singers and they are shaking. Their entire body and energy is going towards that sound. That just inspires you. It feels like they are pushing the extent of their humanity. Their existence in this sphere is vibrating with the sound they’re making.

WG: What are your favorite operas?

MP: My appreciation of opera is relatively new over the last few years, but my favorite one is “The Valkyrie.” I saw it, they broadcast it live from the Met at Great Escape outside the mall. It ran six hours and it was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. I would love to go see more. It’s really cool; they do it on Saturdays here in the fall. They interview people during the breaks. It’s wonderful. But besides opera, the Delta Blues right now are what I’m really into, and it’s amazing how cyclical and searching the guitar playing of those slide guitarists like Furry Lewis, Blind Willie Johnson is—it’s almost more Velvet Undergroundy than the Velvet Underground.

WG: Speaking of music, if you had to choose 3 CDs to take on whatever trip you’re going on, what would they be?

MP: Neil Young’s “Greatest Hits”—it’s amazing. It was picked from his sales—the most albums he’s sold, the most digital copies he’s sold and ones the fans voted on. The selections are very heavy on songs from the front side of his career, which most musicians are hesitant to do. These were his best songs. Of course hard-core fans might argue with that, but in terms of the balance between popular and best it’s very strong. Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Airplane over the Sea” from 1997—a brilliant record. It’s kind of like NiN, just one guy. His voice cracks in this beautiful way. Again, it’s the vulnerability of the voice. The voice just feels very fragile, like he could break down at any moment. Kurt Cobain was kind of like that too. It’s so rebellious at the same time. He, in this one song, just starts singing, “I love you Jesus Christ,” and cool artsy musicians aren’t supposed to be into that. It made it feel like an almost outsider record, like he’s just doing what he’s doing and it’s brilliant. Then he ran away. Stopped making music and went across the world to fi nd himself, in that very clichéd way. Joanna Newsome’s “Had One on Me”—I think she’s the most brilliant musician of the 2000s, especially in terms of progression. The progression from her first CD, “Milk Eyed Mender,” to the second one, “Yeesh,” to this one is the best progression of a musician I’ve ever heard. The first one was folky and quirky—they called it freak folk … the short potent pop songs; she has a classical music background. Then her second one is full of epic, winding folk songs—an EP with like 9-, 10-minute songs on it. This one is a 3-CD set. She has amazing hooks, but they don’t immediately reveal themselves in the newer stuff. You’ve got to sit with it, be with it, and I don’t understand how you write music like that. Because rock ‘n’ roll music just comes out right. This stuff just comes out and you don’t get it at first. It has the most surprises, and there are so many things that you find later on as you listen to it. Those are the three I’d pick.

WG: If you were to look at where you want to be in the next 18 months, where do you see yourself?

MP: In terms of art, I just hope to have enough for a solo show in the next year. But I just see myself as continually progressing at what I’m doing. Hopefully, I’m a better artist, better writer, better German speaker. My marriage is so great that it’s not really an issue. My wife and I just draw together. I’m amazingly lucky to have found her because I can’t imagine a person I’d get along with better. I consider myself very, very lucky.

WXPI program schedule for October-November 2011

The Academia: a local show of, by and for kids

Aljazeera English: international news from the first English-language news organization headquartered in the Middle East

Collective Perspective: philosophical conversations among friends from across North America in a spirit of mutual respect, hosted by Isaac Conner

Democracy Now!: national, independent, award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, with people and perspectives rarely heard on U.S. corporateowned media

DJ 220: techno music with DJ Jeremiah Johnson Earth Sky: award-winning science show based in Austin, Texas

Free Speech Radio News: progressive U.S. radio newscast owned and managed by news reporters

Free Thought Radio: Madison, Wisconsin-based radio show for atheists, agnostics, doubters and skeptics, featuring discussions on the separation of church and state, among other topics

Hard Knock Radio News: hip hop talk show from San Francisco, offering “news, views, breaks, and beats”

Hear the Evidence: hip hop with local DJ Jonathan McJunkin

Izzo Pod: eclectic music and a bit of talk from the iPod of station manager Isaac Conner

Loon Radio: music and social commentary from Mansfi eld journalism prof Dan Mason

Meet the Artist Monday: interviews with local musicians plus a sampling of their tunes, with Isaac Conner, Caleb Banas and David Whitman (more interviewers welcome)

Pacifica Archives: historic broadcasts from the Pacifica Radio Archives

Pulse of the Port: music by local musicians, plus some out-of-town musicians who’ve appeared locally

Pure Riddem: reggae (needs a DJ)

The Rick Smith Show: Progressive news and commentary for working stiffs from a Teamster with a sense of humor, based in Carlisle, PA

Sierra Club Radio News: news from the Sierra Club with indepth interviews on nature and the environment

Ska: musical genre from Jamaica (needs a DJ)

The Song Parlor: acoustic and eclectic music with a folk orientation, from John Patterson, founder of the Susquehanna Folk Music Society

Strats & Bars: blues (DJ needed)

The Big Takeover: garage, punk and underground, with DJ Jack Stewart

Top 40: top tunes with DJ Jeremy Hiserman

The Union Edge: labor’s talk radio from Pittsburgh, with commentary on issues that are important to all working families

Voices of Williamsport: interviews with local community leaders and notables

[See table on page 23]

C.

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

TAURUS—Th ese cool, dark mornings have you feeling tired and sluggish. Turn on “Fox and Friends” fi rst thing; that’ll get your blood pressure up and heart rate up and get you going. Wear a red hat when the temperature dips below 40.

GEMINI—It says something about you that you can furnish complete Halloween costumes for yourself and six of your friends from just your closet. Perhaps you have a fashion disorder or you buy clothes for all of your personalities. Th ere is no cure in sight, but you could try just buying diff erent hats; it would be cheaper.

CANCER—It’s not you; the worst drivers in the world are in the area. They come here from all over and try to drive in front of you. They lie in wait for you to get in your car. They know where you work, they know where you shop. Be very, very careful.

LEO—You will be thrilled when the neighbor who played hip-hop at extreme volume moves out and your new neighbor plays Wagner operas. You will be less than thrilled with his “1,001 Polka Favorites.” Wear a hat pulled over your ears; it’ll help.

VIRGO—You are hyperorganized and efficient as ever, but if you put up your Christmas decorations before Halloween your neighbors will rise up against you. They are already really miff ed about the rodent problem caused by the pumpkins you put out in August. Slow down. Virgos are such pains in the ass.

LIBRA—Your stock expression, “the Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise,” is not as quaint and cute as it used to be. You’ll have to find something else. Eat more cumin this month and wear a striped hand-crocheted hat.

SCORPIO—You didn’t buy an air conditioner and we had some very hot weather. You didn’t buy a new lawn mower and the grass grew like crazy this summer. You didn’t buy a sump pump or a dehumidifi er and, well, look what happened. For the love of God, buy a snow blower and save us all.

SAGITTARIUS—Some rules you need to learn: Avoid drinks with more than four kinds of alcohol and that are served in buckets. Don’t ever drink anything blue. Don’t drink and drive. And if you puke in a cab, leave a big tip.\

CAPRICORN—You’re one of those fools who are happy summer is over and just love the cool weather. For some reason this year you will be much less tolerant of the cold, perhaps because you are losing your hair. You will have to buy more hats; a colorful handcrocheted one would look nice.

AQUARIUS—Although you usually dread fall because of the coming winter, this fall you will be inexplicably happy and carefree and productive. You will actually sing in the mornings, and dance through the day. I don’t know, it could be some exotic disease, or you are channeling someone from “High School Musical.”

PISCES—The downturn in the economy has hit you hard. You have cut your budget to the bone and now you are looking for a way to make more money. Have you thought about making hats?

That spark caught fire when we received a generous gift from the old Elijah Skateshop and $40,000 from Sally Lifl and Butterfield in honor of her mother, the late Fay Lifl and. With some money in place and a secure location for Lifl and Skatepark in the Elm Park area of West Fourth Street, things seemed to be going our way. After more meetings, we met with a few more snags. The City’s insurance company required that an 8-foot fence be erected around the facility and would not allow BMX bikes. Being actively involved in both skateboarding and BMX, I wasn’t going to stand for a park that only catered to skateboarders. This would have also involved me disappointing nearly half of the kids who showed up for our first public meetings. Plus, the price of the fence, even with free installation and at cost, would still be nearly $10,000, leaving us with only enough money for a concrete pad and a few measly modular ramps, which the kids don’t seem to like. The skatepark in Montgomery is the perfect example of money unwisely spent and, thus, an unskated park.

Skateparks being built in Oregon, Colorado and California are examples of what we are trying to build in Williamsport—parks that are featured in skateboard magazines, in video games and on television, and attract skaters from all over the country and the world. Following a suggestion from the kind folks at Larson Design Group, we found out about a volunteer effort happening in Danville, where a group of skaters were building just such a place for a mere $16,000. After a talk with the lead builder, Chad Gorby of Blue Seal Concrete, we were able to secure his company to build Williamsport’s Lifl and Skatepark for $12,000, not including materials.

Our board has since found a more reasonable insurance policy from a company that specializes in skatepark insurance. The policy will allow for BMX bikes and does not require a fence. We are hoping that the City of Williamsport will cover the $3,000 annually, but our board will hold a yearly skate/music event that should raise enough money to cover maintenance, plus the insurance if need be.

At long last, we are ready to build. The project has been approved unanimously by both the Recreation Commission and City Council, the City’s Parks and Recreation team is clearing and leveling the land as I write, and our 501(c)(3) tax-deductible determination has been applied for.

Cast all doubts aside. Dreams can come true in this town if you’re willing to go out on a limb, can take the good with the bad and have the right people behind you. I may have been skeptical at first, but I’ve learned that the great people of the Williamsport area are dreamers, just like me, and with their encouragement, generous gifts and overflowing spirit, current and future generations of our kids can look forward to a very smooth ride indeed.

Lifl and Skatepark is accepting tax-deductible donations of cash, clean fill, cinderblock, concrete, rebar, tie-wire, plywood, 2x4s, masonite, luan, screws, mortar and excavator usage. For donations, questions and comments or if you’d like to volunteer, please call Lonnie Wilcox at 570.777.2665 or email him at williamsportskatepark@gmail.com

I lived in New England for the best part of my 20s, and New England diners are excellent. I have been seeking an equivalent in Central PA, a search that has, so far, been mostly unfruitful.

The thing about New England diners is that they’re owned, most often, by people from Turkey, Greece, or Italy. So they have wonderful, homey ethnic things on their menus like Pastitcio, Spanikopita, Souvlaki and Gyros, Spaghetti with homemade sauce, homemade bread, real Eggplant Parmesan, and so on.

This is not to say, however, that Peg & Bill’s Diner II is lacking in some way. It’s not.

I’ve recently gone vegetarian. I live with a highly carnivorous man who eats meat three meals a day most days. I didn’t eat much meat for most of my 20s, and my body felt burdened, so I have formally been a vegetarian for about 3 months now.

As a result, my options at Peg & Bill’s were limited. They’ve got meat on almost everything on the menu. Even the entrée salads are all meaty. So, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the place for vegetarians. Still, if the quality of their meaty food matches the quality of the things I tried, I would recommend it for anybody else.

I had a mushroom and swiss omelet that was, legitimately, one of the best omelets I’ve ever had, and I have had a ton of omelets. Omelets are my go-to for breakfasts out, and I almost never hate them, though they are sometimes very disappointing.

There are two main schools of omelet preparation. The sauté pan school involves a thicker, halved disk of egg-milk mixture filled with hot toppings. Sometimes some of the toppings are mixed in with the egg, and others are added on top, and this is my preferred omelet school.

The griddle school involves a thin dermis of egg that is wrapped around toppings that have been fried next to the egg, burrito style. This omelet method is much trickier to do well, and I have almost never had a satisfactory omelet prepared in this style.

Peg and Bill’s is of the sautè pan school. The eggs were fluffy, and the omelet was served so hot I burned my mouth. The mushrooms were the canned variety, perfect for diner omelets, and the portion of cheese was generous, present in every bite. The omelet didn’t have enough salt, but I liked that too.

I skipped the home fries because it was lunch time. I ordered seasoned waffle fries instead, because fries are a weakness, seasoned ones especially. I made a bold move and ordered them “with cheese,” a $.70 up-charge. This was a bold move because, though I was craving it a bit, I expected the cheese to be canned, yellow, nacho cheese sauce. It is hard to taste anything through that stuff.

But I was pleased when they arrived with shredded, mild cheddar. They were crispy and flavorful, and the thick parts were not too starchy. Divine. Also, they brought me a really giant glass of water, and their unsweetened tea was both fresh and refreshing.

The atmosphere at Peg & Bill’s Diner is a little bit below average. The walls are painted ’60s teal with strange, red diamonds that are stenciled in a row, two-thirds of the way between floor and ceiling, about a foot apart, throughout the dining room. The place is very narrow and contains a cluttered-looking number of artificial plants. Still, the place seemed reasonably clean and didn’t smell bad.

The pricing is scandalously low. Nothing on the menu costs more than $6, and I’d be willing to bet my index finger that you get several pounds of food for that $6.

So, in my caper-rating system that seems a little pretentious for Peg & Bill’s Diner II, I’m awarding an almost-perfect four-out-of-five caper rating on the strength of the quality of the food, the location, and the extremely fair pricing.

April Line is a professional writer and editor. She lives in Williamsport with her groovy child and her domestic partner. She has a special fondness for Woody Allen’s films, and can be reached at AprilLineWriting@gmail.com.

Ned is just a laid-back hippie dude who is remarkably unaware of normal human behavior, especially normal human misbehavior. He’s not a total goody-two-shoes, since the first scene of the film involves him being busted for dealing marijuana. But he sells drugs in such an innocent, goodhearted way (to a uniformed cop, no less) that even the fiercest DARE supporter would have difficulty not being charmed.

The film picks up Ned’s story as he ambles out of jail, paroled after his several-month reign as “Most Cooperative Inmate.” If you’re wondering how he could pass through the U.S. justice system with his innocence unscathed, you’re thinking too hard about this movie and Ned’s existence.

Ned may not have encountered much hard reality in his life, but his sisters have. They, unlike him, are types you’ve seen on screen before—the hard-nosed career girl (Elizabeth Banks), the crazy bisexual artist (Zooey Deschanel), and the housewife (Emily Mortimer) who’s given up on herself to focus entirely too much attention on her child. Even their problems are awfully familiar— an ethical dilemma at work, fear of commitment, and a jerky husband.

But these stock characters have never had to deal with Ned before. Dumped by his angry pacifist hippie farmer girlfriend (yeah, she’s a pretty unique character, too), Ned brings his backpack of belongings and his thoughtless honesty into each of his sisters’ homes and lives. Naturally, complications ensue. Ned may not be an idiot, but he does have a remarkable unawareness of how the things he says will affect the people listening to him. At one point, another character asks the question we’ve all been thinking: “Dude, do you have Tourette’s?”

No, actually, it’s the normal people who are diseased, or at least I think that’s what we’re supposed to conclude. If only they shared, or at least appreciated, Ned’s childlike honesty, they would be so much happier. Except that Ned’s interventions pretty well screw up their lives, and his own, in a number of major ways. It’s actually the sisters, rather than Ned, who have to figure out how to put everything back together again, after they’ve come to appreciate him. (I don’t want to give away a key plot point, but when the sisters do finally come up with a solution to Ned’s biggest problem, I was really waiting for one of them to pull out a wallet, proving that sometimes the grown-up approach is the most effective.)

What the film lacked in philosophical clarity, however, it made up for in entertaining vignettes. Whether Ned’s being tucked into his childhood bed by Mom (yes, I neglected her in my review, but the movie does the same), analyzing his trip to bed with a bisexual couple, or mistaking his parole officer (played with a great poker face and frighteningly white teeth by Sterling K. Brown) for an analyst, he’s always good for a laugh.

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

But as the mother of a young daughter, I worry that she might see me looking at these celebrities and misinterpret my interest in them. I worry that, despite my best efforts, she will look to these women who have trainers, chefs, and plastic surgeons and see them as normal, when in fact they are anything but. I worry that she will aim to look more like an overly Photoshopped image than a real woman.

But even more, I worry that when she looks at me and sees my stretch marks and crow’s feet, she will not see ME. I worry that she will be embarrassed by having a “fat mommy.” And the last thing I want to do is be a source of embarrassment because of my weight. I would much prefer to embarrass her in other, more hysterical ways, ways that will illicit mortified cries of “Mo-om, stop it!” Like wearing fanny pack … But I am getting off topic.

As a woman, I find meaning in each mark or line on my body. It marks a memory or a time that brought me to the point where I am today. The stretch marks on my doughy belly are from carrying two babies in two years. I see the waxy zigzags and don’t think about the years when I had a flat(ter) stomach; I think about the two miracles that grew inside me and light up my life every single day (even when I am considering selling them to the gypsies). I think about the first time each one of them moved inside me and the miracle of life that I carried.

I see laugh lines and crow’s feet and think about how lucky I am to have friends who love to laugh as much as I do. And my friends are funny—not knock-knock-joke funny, but smart, sarcastic, intelligent people. I love laughing with them and would not trade those wrinkles for anything, even looking like Halle Berry.

Is there a tiny part of me who misses the 18-year-old me, with perky boobs and creamy, perfect skin? Sure. I did not appreciate it when I had it, I know that. But this body, with its scars, wrinkles, and all, has carried me on a pretty amazing journey so far. It has created life, traveled the world, and experienced life. All without the benefit of Photoshop. And I think it looks damn good.

Lara Collins Breon is an HIV Prevention Specialist, as well as a vocal supporter of LGTB rights. She is a mom of two crazy kids and one furry Chow Chow. Breon enjoys craft beers and dancing to classic Madonna tunes.

Williamsport Guardian (WG): When did you become interested in art?

Matt Parrish (MP): I’ve drawn most of my life. It all began with drawing professional wrestlers, superheroes, and things like that, growing up. My art teachers always got mad at me in high school because they said I wasn’t working up to my potential. They thought that if I put more work into it, I could really be something. Then in college, I met a really good professor, Howard Tran, at Lycoming. He kind of took me under his wing— he encouraged me and helped me out. Then I really started focusing on art, even though I was a literature major. It was funny because people would be, like, “Why are you hanging out in the art room? You’re a literature major and you’re a senior—what are you doing?”

WG: Are you planning on an art show at

Lycoming?

MP: I’m part of a juried alumni show. I have one artwork in there. I sent them three pieces, and they picked an older piece. I was kind of disappointed because I’m always interested in the new. But it’s an honor to be part of the show.

WG: What’s the title?

MP: I don’t know, I put “Untitled.” I don’t like to title my work because I don’t like to predetermine what people think of it.

WG: So you never title your work?

MP: No, because, first of all, with most artworks I don’t like how the artists title them. In many cases, I think they give a name associated with the work but it doesn’t necessarily go with the whole narrative of the work, so I just prefer to leave it up to the viewer. A piece should be defined by whatever it is to the viewer. If I think, as the artist, that the piece I’ve made looks like rocks and I call it “Rock,” then that’s immediately what everyone will see instead of coming to their own conclusions—especially since my stuff is kind of like a Rorschach test. Everyone sees what they see. I just want to leave it open. I mean, if it were a little girl holding a doll with a cross above her, that’s different. It has an obvious narrative. But since my art is abstract, it’s really better to let it be interpreted by people in their own way.

WG: You also have some works currently showing at the Grey Gallery. How did that come about?

MP: Casey [Gleghorn] at the Grey Gallery saw these pieces on my Facebook page. He said that these have to be in the show, calling them “next level shit”—high praise from Casey. He was excited about those works and I was as well. This is the first show I’ve been a part of, because I don’t usually try to promote my work. But I feel this show is a turning point for my art; it’s really re-igniting my fire to make stuff, and I have so many ideas coming out of me that my hands can’t move fast enough. I don’t like to call them ideas; they’re branches—branches of associations that are kind of like popping up. I want to explore all of them. Sometimes I feel like I need about three lives to do this.

WG: What do you have showing at the Grey Gallery?

MP: Abstract drawings, ink on Bristol pa-per. These drawings have evolved from a mark-making process which started as a group of tiny marks and dashes that became squiggles and then turned into circles. These creations are the culmination of years in my mark-making evolution. When I look at these works, I’m really proud of them. They’ve encouraged me to make more.

WG: Are you working on any drawings now?

MP: Yeah, I’m working on drawings that are being inspired by cells. I noticed that my drawings look like cells and cells look like my drawings. So then I explored some more scientific illustrations. That’s why I brought this book on Zoology along. I found this guy’s stash of German books at an antique store in Lewisburg. So I got it for the German, and then I opened it up and there are illustrations that look like my drawings but they’re old drawings of cells. That was amazing to see and it’s what I’m being inspired by right now—cells.

WG: Are cells something you’re fascinated by?

MP: Absolutely. I’m just fascinated by evolution. In fact, I started a drawing that looked like a cell—it was based on a cell—and ended up looking like a planet. I’m just taken by the connections of circle-like images and how many places they’re replicated, such as in the eye. There are just so many places that you see that. It’s just the perfect shape. Cells are like that.

WG: Is that something you are also attracted to: the imperfection of things?

MP: No, I wouldn’t say that is what attracts me about it. I’d say it has naturally evolved that way. What attracts me about it is that the cell is an organic form trying to be perfect. Or that’s just the way it most efficiently

functions.

WG: If you were to look at where you wanted to be in the next 18 months, where would you see yourself?

MP: In terms of art, I just hope to have enough for a solo show in the next year. But I just see myself as continually progressing at what I’m doing.