Letter to Editor: Let’s Keep it God’s Country
To the Editor:
The topic of the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center (FASTC) has dominated our lives and our household for three months now and rightfully so. I can’t remember the last time I or my husband got a good night’s sleep. Our daughter moved out on her own recently and we hardly see her. Our son is a senior in high school this year and while dinner conversation should revolve around caps & gowns, graduation parties and college plans, it speaks more of bomb explosions and gun fire. Through all this turmoil; however, I have found two wonderful outcomes. (I am always the one to find the silver lining.).
The first is the wonderful friends we have made recently. They have been blessings from God and I can guarantee that these relationships will remain steadfast. It is rare that you find someone who is willing to drop everything to come to your aid and is willing to stand toe to toe with you through the most vicious of storms (and this facility ranks high on the Fujita and Richter scales), let alone a group of hundreds. These individuals, too numerous to name, don’t put money above the welfare of those in their community. They are the TRUE meaning of community.
The second is that I see the area, really see the area, I have taken for granted. My husband LOVES the outdoors- hiking, fishing, camping, hunting, kayaking, you name it. Me, my idea of roughing it is a two-star hotel. Opposites; but today and this weekend I saw it for the first time….the exquisite beauty of this area.
There had to be at least 200 people visiting and utilizing Tuckahoe State Park this weekend. All walks of life fishing, catching perch, bass and all manners of aquatic life. Then there were the young families playing at the playground and enjoying their first picnic of the year. Walking and biking trails were filled with young and old alike. EVERY ONE of these individuals was so upset at the thought of the HARD SKILLS facility. I remember thinking to myself, Wow! What a tragedy it would be for this to change.
Today we went for a drive around the perimeter of the site and my breath was actually taken away as I was able to shoot several pictures of a majestic bald eagle “having breakfast” within three feet of our position. He looked up at us but allowed us to stay. As we watched in wonder, I noticed the total peace of the area and realized what I had taken for granted. I tried to picture the same scene with bombs exploding and the sound of screeching tires – the smell of exhaust…I felt a lump in my throat.
We left the bald eagle to enjoy and continued down the road maybe less than a minute away and saw a farm with an open field where there were what looked like swans enjoying the beauty of the day. Swans in the middle of a field?! The rain and the melted snow had caused the field to “flood” but the geese and a few swans did not seem to care. Again I got out the camera to capture the moment.
How can anyone even consider putting a HARD SKILLS facility among all this beauty that God has created? We are so blessed here on the Eastern Shore to have all of this right here. Let’s face it, it would NEVER be the same. The thought of not having this anymore for my future grandchildren to experience and enjoy is heart-breaking.
Though I may not have seen it before, my eyes are open now. God has given us these precious gifts and we will protect them with all that we have. We will continue to fight for the wildlife that call this their home; for the elderly who aren’t on time schedules and can stroll peacefully and at their leisure; for the fishermen, hikers and bikers who find and/or make time for a little rest and relaxation; and for the children who are our future and are entitled to all that God has to give. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, this is God’s country and we need to keep it that way.
Sherry Adam
Ruthsburg, MD
Spy Op-Ed: Sykesville Vs Ruthsburg – Similar? by Sherry Adam
As the cold rain falls at 7:45 in the morning and the frigid air blows mercilessly in the Ruthsburg Community center parking lot, we wait for the GSA/Dept of State people to arrive to take us on what is supposed to be a tour of a ’similar’ facility to the proposed FASTC – The MD Public Safety Education and Training Center (PSETC) in Sykesville, Md. Before we leave the parking lot we are told that there will be NO explosions demonstrated today and handed yet another white, glossy, embossed folder with premium pages of “info” about the Sykesville Academy. Yet another waste of taxpayer’s dollars.
As the bus we are on climbs the huge hill to get there, you can hear the engine lugging and I laugh as I think of The Little Engine That Could. We pull in and my first thought is this is nothing like Ruthsburg. The hills, valleys and natural terrain are so far from that of home – similar?
We get off the bus and go into a classroom where two instructors give us a rundown of what they do there as far as training and tell us that they receive few phone calls in reference to the noise. We ask questions and find that they set off maybe two explosions per year less than 3 pounds, there are NO armored vehicles, there is NO mock urban warfare zone and they have maybe 18 employees – similar?
The lead “instructor”, Mr. Liebno, is to be our tour guide today and we board the bus again to see the facility. First are the driving tracks. As you look around you see lots of paved roads with intersections, stop signs, arrows, etc. just like anywhere you drive pretty much, but you don’t see any cars. I thought we were here to get an idea of what will be going on at the FASTC driving tracks, not see a ghost town – NO CARS!? We ask if they can put someone on the track for us, and our tour guide says “sure.”
After a few minutes of standing in the cold at the side of the “high speed” track, two police cars fly by us at about 70 mph on the straight-away then circle around and come back up the hill to stop in front of us. Our thoughts; we can see that on 50/301 anytime. There were no screeching tires, no brakes …. Hmmm – similar? We asked Mr. Liebno about this and he tells us that it is quite costly to go through all that rubber and wear and tear on the car and adds that the smell from those maneuvers makes him sick to his stomach. What a colossal disappointment. We were not impressed.
The only thing left is their firing range since there is no mock urban warfare zone and no explosives – not even flash bangs. These are 25 yard and 50 yard ranges that have concrete flooring with 3 concrete walls and what looks like waffling aluminum roofing. There are 3 men shooting 9mm pistols and one 12 gauge shot gun. We are told that we cannot get off the bus without ear protection. Guns blazing on the 50 yard range made it impossible to hold a conversation even with the person sitting next to you on the bus.
We wanted to hear it from outside so they took us uphill 300 feet from the range and we got off the bus. After a moment or two they started firing the pistols and the sound was horrendous! The 9mm pistols blasted away and we were devastated to think we would be hearing this all day long not to mention it was only three guys NOT the 20 – 30 students proposed for the FASTC. Some actually jumped at the blast of the 12 gauge. These were not even the larger weaponry; I.e., 45 cal machine guns – again, similar? Totally unacceptable!!
So to summarize:
PSETC FASTC
Mountainous terrain Flat terrain
18 employees (only saw 4) 400 employees
NO students 450 students
Pistols and 12 gauge 45 cal machine guns, etc.
2 police cars 100’s of cars including armored vehicles
NO mock urban warfare 3 Mock urban warfare zones
NO rifle range Indoor/Outdoor rifle range
Explosive detonations 2/yr Explosive detonations 3,323/yr
Similar???
I went, I saw, I wasted an entire day. I am sure that when Senator Mikulski suggested this, she actually meant it should be a site that was actually similar to the Ruthsburg proposal so we could get a feel for what it will really be like at the FASTC.
They had weeks to prepare for this, months even. I, and I am sure the others, expected tires squealing, cars racing around, braking, circling on the skid pads – lots of action; dozens of shooters blasting 45 caliber machine guns NOT pistols; explosions/flash bangs; even a hostage situation at the mock urban warfare zone. What we got……..yet another COLOSSAL government disappointment.
Sherry Adam
1636 Ruthsburg Rd
Ruthsburg MD
Still More Snow? Ask Weatherdog
About all anybody talks about these days, except the meatloaf at Lulu’s, yum, and the Beer League going dry, yow, is the weather. It got me recalling what Mark Twain supposedly said: “Everybody’s always talking about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” Now that’s not quite true, even the quote, which somebody else may have said first and somewhat differently. And folks here have been doing plenty about the weather, with shovels. What Twain did say — “Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get” — is not very helpful. To find out what’s coming our way, and what we can do about it, I had to find another source with a long record of being right on an assortment of matters, involving pig spleens, goose bones, persimmon seeds, wooly bear caterpillers and, consequently, the weather.
Yep, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, it being the trusty stand-by of the Eastern Shore, which probably has the earth’s greatest concentration of old farmers. And they tell me the Almanac was right on the money about two of the blizzards that whomped us and is calling for “the mother of all snowtorms here” on Sunday, March 7. Now, when I go to the Almanac’s website, I find it does call for rain and snow then, but even more of it and “unseasonable cold,” too, around March 10-18.
The Almanac boasts its predictions are 80 percent right. How does it do that? Well you can do it too – starting with the wooly bears. Proof goes back to the fall of 1948 when Dr. C.H. Curran counted the reddish-brown segments on these caterpillers and decided that the more bands there are predict a milder winter and narrower than normal bands anticipate a harsher one. Scientists today say the brown hairs may, in fact, have something to do with the woolly bear’s age and what it’s been through, but the thing is, they’re indicating events of the previous year. But The Old Farmer’s Almanac has other ways to prognosticate.
Just cut open a persimmon seed. If the kernel inside is knife-shaped, cutting winds are coming your way. If spoon-shaped, lots of heavy wet snow. If fork-shaped, expect light snow and a mild winter. Also, before there was a National Weather Service, there was the famous goose-bone method. You cut away all the meat and let the breastbone dry. White bone indicates a mild winter. Bluish bone predicts a real bad winter. Purple tips are “a sure sign” of a cold spring.
Of course, many prefer the system of no less an expert than Gus Wickstrom of Tompkins, Saskatchewan, which I understand is the other side of Cecil County. Gus divides the spleen into six areas, each representing one month. The part closest to the pig’s head is January, and if it’s a half inch thick, it’s going to be cold. Not much doubt about that one. Go down a couple segments, and if it’s ¾ of an inch thick March will have “some snow, wind, possibly rain.” That sounds right, too. Get to the bottom, and if you find it’s one inch thick, expect that June to have “rain, maybe thunder and lightening” and “a hot summer is on the way.” Is Gus good, or what?
The one drawback to this sure-fire predicting is that the pig must be slaughtered in the fall, so, if you didn’t take that precaution, you’re squat out of luck this winter. Sure, some might scoff at these antique insights, but when it comes down to when the snow meets the roads, who are you going to trust — one of those chuckling TV baritones, or a weathered Old Farmer?
A Tribute to Coach Athey By Bryan Matthews
Coach Ed Athey embodied Washington College athletics for the entire second half of the 20th century. Coach, with his six-decade mutual love affair with the college, was a man who represents the best of what graduates of that time remember about their alma mater.
When I was a student at Washington College in the early 1970s, Coach Athey was the Director of Athletics as well as the head soccer and baseball coach. I remember thinking that Coach was old then, as he was over thirty.
In fact he was in his fifties at the time, was in great shape, and still a competitive athlete. Whenever we passed through Cain Gym and happened upon the noontime badminton matches between Coach Athey and Coach Don Chattellier, we dropped everything to watch, as these were spectator events of extraordinary athleticism, and not to be missed.
Coach was still the basketball pick-up player of choice (along with Coach Tom Finnegan), but the special treat was when he would show us his two-hand set shot from mid-court. Making these shots straight-up was routine for Coach.
The interesting shot was when he would call it “through the rafters and nothing but net.” Somehow he would weave the ball up through the metal rafters and find the way down through the net, without it touching anything. This seemingly impossible shot was twenty years before the famous Larry Bird ad on TV, and was real. Coach would make more of these than he missed, and when I stand at mid-court today I still can’t see how he did it.
Coach Athey was my first real boss. How lucky was I? As a twenty-five-year-old head coach at Washington College, I was fortunate enough to work under him as the Athletic Director. Needless to say, I was spoiled for life.
As challenging and emotionally taxing as coaching can be, especially for a (too) young head coach, it is indescribable how fortunate I was to have had a mentor with the wisdom, compassion, perspective and love for people and life that Coach Athey had. His spirit has always been truly infectious.
Athey’s Field is a wonderful collection of many of the stories of Washington College heroes, history and traditions that Coach Athey was a part of. A set of stories is framed around the coaches, teams and athletes that, like Coach Athey, chose to make this College their home. His mentors: Tom Kibler and Charley Clark; his friends and peers: Don Chatellier and Don Kelly; his coaches: Tom Finnegan, Penny Fall, Fred Wyman and Holly Bramble; and the countless athletes who loved him because they were fortunate enough to play for him and those who loved him only because they knew him.
For any who experienced Washington College between the late 1940s and the late 1980s, it is all still Athey’s Field. Some of us are just lucky enough to be keeping his seat warm.
Over the last fifty years no man has managed to touch and inspire more members of the Washington College family.
And, next time you are in Cain Gym, go to mid-court and see if you can figure out how he made those shots.
[By Bryan L. Matthews, Washington College Director of Athletics, Excerpted from Athey’s Field, from Literary House Press]
Letter to Editor: Last Chance for Health Insurance Reform
Music to my ears! “Seeing no prospect of a bipartisan agreement on health care, congressional Democrats say they will make another effort to pass sweeping health care legislation on their own.” (N.Y. Times Feb. 27)
Obama, Pelosi, and Reid realize that (1) the U.S. electorate—by a wide margin—delivered the White House and substantial majorities in both houses to Democratic candidates who said they’d reform health insurance; and (2) it’s time to deliver.
Even Steny Hoyer has found his missing backbone: “The No. 2 Republican in the House, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, asked the House Democratic leader, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, to renounce use of the budget reconciliation procedure for health care. But in an exchange on the House floor on [Feb. 26], Mr. Hoyer refused to do so. Use of the procedure is ‘in the Republican tradition,’ Mr. Hoyer said. In any event, he said, Senate rules requiring a 60-vote majority to cut off a filibuster ‘are impeding the work of the American people.’” (Ibid)
Either South Carolina’s Sen. Jim DeMint was right, that health insurance reform “will be Obama’s Waterloo,” or he wasn’t.
Can we assume that Rep. Frank Kratovil—blue dog morphing into lame duck—will do something right to remember him by and vote for health insurance reform now?
Gren Whitman
Letter to Editor: Taxes will go up with FASTC
Several weeks ago, Clayton A Mitchell, an attorney from Stevensville, placed an op-ed in the Spy supporting the proposed FASTC Hard Skills Training Center. Two thirds of the letter was spent in explaining how this proposed facility was vital to national defense, and “Queen Anne’s County must ‘step up to the plate’…. with overwhelming support.” Never in any discussion have I heard any person opposed to the facility in QAC say that personnel should not be adequately trained. They simply say that Ruthsburg is a poor choice of location for a military training facility, and also extremely expensive, particularly when the government already owns so much land that could be used for the facility. The last third of the letter describes how life on the Eastern Shore will decay without the facility and “lead to certain…higher tax rates.”
Mr. Mitchell’s economic projections are not supported by any data. In fact, the FASTC team trying to sell the program says that no economic studies have been made, that they are underway, and it will be several weeks before they are complete, and they are unable to say what economic benefit, if any, will come to the County if the Hard Skills facility is installed until these studies are complete.
The proposed hard skills facility hits the county with a triple-whammy for a tax increase. Not only are we taking away 2000 acres of tax positive farmland, we are substituting for it a business which pays zero taxes, and takes even more land for tax negative residential use for employees of that business which pays no taxes. I don’t believe anyone could study the numbers involved without predicting a tax increase for the County. The American Farmland Trust has run over 100 studies of counties and areas like ours, and every single one of them has shown that residential land use cost the county more than it collected in taxes on that land and its improvements. Only by taxing other sectors of the community (industrial, commercial, farmland and open space and forests) more than the cost of services provided to them, is the county able to maintain a balanced budget.
Let’s look at the study made for our neighbor, Kent County Maryland
This proposed training center brings us traffic, noise, pollution, and damage to our agricultural base. This study indicated that it would also bring tax increases to us.
The two studies that support these figures can be found at the following websites:
http://www.farmland.org/programs/states/documents
www.farmlandinfo.org/documents
Bob Simmons
Reed Creek Farm
Centreville, MD
To the Editor: A Chestertown Fire by Trams Hollingsworth
It hadn’t been my best week. I was spinning my wheels. Literally and figuratively. My long country lane was almost impassible with deep ruts of slush and mud. The first days of the week I’d spent caring for my elderly mother. She had gotten, and then generously shared with other family and friends, a virulent norovirus. This bug had landed one of my mom’s caretakers in the hospital. It landed me, purged and exhausted, on the bathroom floor. But I woke up Friday morning feeling better and with an odd, for this week, attitude of optimism. This, I thought, will be a better day. And that’s when a neighbor called to tell me that my house on Kent Street was on fire.
I was numb with fear as I slid down my lane and sped toward town. I love the purple house in inverse proportion to it’s size. It might be the smallest house in Chestertown. It began as a log-and-chink cabin, a slave house or an outside kitchen (we’ve heard both) that was long ago transported from a country estate to Kent St. I was imagining, as I drove, all the happy history of my little purple house up in smoke. But mostly I was scared for our tenants who are also our friends. I’d been told they were not home. But I knew that much of their family history was stored inside this happy house. My friend had proudly pointed out the furniture she’d recently inherited from her mother. But her most valuable possessions, like mine, were the boxes of photographs and letters that we all plan to sort through one day. I imagined these boxes in flames and I was consumed by sadness on my short drive to town.
In the few minutes it took me to reach the site, the Chestertown Volunteer Fire Company had already blocked the street. At some point when I was able to focus I counted six fire trucks in front of my house. But I wasn’t focusing at first. All I registered were firemen, a few at a time, entering and exiting my house through a tunnel of black smoke. A score of other firemen standing ready in the street. I knew the tenants were not inside but…
“There’s a cat inside!” I started screaming as I ran into their midst.
Everyone stopped what they were doing in attention. Then those brave firemen designated to respond to this emergency went back through the axe-broken front door. In less time that it took to be terrified, a cat who had always been the color of smoke came scooting out of the house and into the yard. And everybody, the throng of careful neighbors, the local insurance agent already on the scene, and a brigade of canvas-bundled firemen started clapping and cheering. Grey Kitty, the neighborhood’s once-feral now community-spoiled cat was safe.
Photo by Anne Briggs
Next I stood in my neighbors’ side yard and watched our fire company at work. Soon there was a big hole in the side of my house. I could see firemen with crowbars prying boards from inside and throwing these flaming javelins through the hole into the snowy yard where they were extinguished. The smoke, once floor to ceiling, was clearing. But flaming missiles kept flying through the hole into a high pile of char. It would be much later when I realized that the many water hoses held ready in the street were never turned on inside the house. It would be only hypothetical by the time I wondered how much water it would have taken to dissolve a two-hundred year old log and chink historic cabin.
Photo by Anne Briggs
Then, as I looked through the hole into my house, I was surprised to see my tenant. He had been working in Galena when he got the call that his house was on fire. I recalled the terror of my two-minute drive and wondered how he’d managed his twenty minutes of not knowing. But there he was waving me inside to where he stood with the firemen. He was dazed I’m sure. I’m also sure he had this weird grin.
“It’s funny what you think about,” he told me later. “I wouldn’t allow myself to hope that the old wooden house would be standing.”
Where his irrational brain had taken him on his terrible drive to town were the recent days he’d spent here trying to get his income taxes in order. The hours he’d spent finding and organizing all the papers he needed to compile this report. And how he’d piled them on the dining room table. Somehow his sense of emotional self-preservation had not allowed him to think of the boxes of family photos but had focused him on these piles of tax papers. “Look,” he said pointing to the dining room table now framed by the charred studs of what had been the wall of our house. And there, a little sooty but there, were his neat piles of tax papers. We both looked incredulously at the firemen still milling about who had made this crazy relief a reality.
This is how a big black hole in your little purple house can make you feel very, very lucky. Lucky that you live in Chestertown. Where a neighbor smells smoke and goes looking for its source. Where another neighbor pushing a stroller calls 911. Where firemen arrive almost instantly. Where they go bravely into your smoking, burning house and make the careful assessment that they will try to save it from the easier but devastating dousing. Where more neighbors and friends have gathered to offer support for the owners and temporary residence for the tenants. And best of all for the community of all who cheered so loudly when the once-feral, now-cuddled cat comes scooting into the crowd.
There is a lot to be thankful for when you live in this careful town. Firemen and friends are at the top of my list as I finish this story. Thank you.
Sincerely.
Trams Hollingsworth
Owner of the Little Purple House
Still standing on Kent Street
Tallulah: Heck on Earth
Unfortunately, just as February began, I was forced to leave Chestertown, where there’s always something to do and everybody knows your name, and go away to a strange land where every day’s the same. I have landed on an island where the most interesting thing to do is watch whales have sex. It’s the end of their breeding season in Maui but the brutes are still at it. It’s just disgusting, as you would imagine. They roll and thrash all around, huffing and puffing huge sprays, flippers and flukes spanking the surface, rising their big heads way up to see if anybody’s looking (well of course they are). There’s so little else to do here that people pay $29 each to line the rails of ships and watch the shameless spectacle, or go by the hundreds to points of land where they stare at it through binoculars.
I really can’t blame folks for becoming voyeurs in a place where even the weather reports are boring. There’s a Maui weather channel, presented with no sense of irony at all, which gives a seven-day forecast, every week, that goes like this: Sunny and 80, Sunny and 80, Sunny and 80, Sunny and 80, Sunny and 81, Partly Sunny and 79, Sunny and 80. That day the temperature plummeted from 81 to 78, I saw people had bundled up in windbreakers. Nighttime lows also can be a trial for the unprepared, varying wildly from 63 to 60, when you have to sleep under a heavy sheet.
Occasionally Maui weathermen do shift to the mainland, and we learn that Hawaii is the only state in the Union that doesn’t have snow on the ground. So everybody here has been avidly focusing on the more interesting times in Kent and Queen Anne’s and whatever surrounds them. It’s either Weather Channel, or drag yourself to the beaches where it’s just horny whales, enormous turtles, colored fish and young women tanning in string bikinis, day after day.
Now, don’t for a minute think life’s without hardship here, so far from home. There’s mosquitoes, centipedes, snails and Hawaiian music. The very first day my nose pinked. Already it’s peeling. And today’s just like yesterday and tomorrow. Y’know, when theologians talk about a paradise, they never dwell on its possibility of everlasting sameness. I’m here to tell you, when you’ve seen one whale sporting or one hottie tanning, you’d best keep checking. For something to do.
When I get home, what am I going to talk about? Not only did I miss all the excitement there, I bet nobody’ll want to hear one word about the troubles I’ve known.
Spy Op-Ed: In the People’s Service? by Rachel Carter Goss
To say that I am confused by the activities and relationships of the FASTC Opposition groups is an understatement. Queen Anne’s Conservation Association, Inc. (“QACA”) is an established organization. Citizens for Greater Centreville (“CGC”) is a separate “group” – it has a blog and posts on many different Centreville issues. When I first happened upon the CGC I thought I would become a member, since my family home is in Centreville. I was confused that the suggested membership donation would be made to QACA. Why? I thought maybe QACA controlled the site but then researched and saw that CGC has its own President and Vice President. If CGC has its own leadership/administration then why would the donations go to QACA? Oh, well –I just chose not to join and now I just respond on their blog.
Then, I read a few letters – boycott letters in particular – that were signed by Citizens for Ruthsburg. These letters referred to their website, CGC. Even stranger, I thought, was that the address used by this group was a home address. When I inquired about the CFR on the Facebook page, Discuss & Stay Informed: Proposed Security Training Center in Ruthsburg, MD, I was told that the Facebook page was the closest thing the group had to its own website. I found this odd because I hadn’t seen any indication that a group was running the page. The person who responded to my inquiry wrote that he had made a donation to CFR and that check went through – wasn’t that enough for me to believe that the group was legitimate. No, I thought – it is not. I checked to see if the CFR had filed for 501 (c)(3) status – it hadn’t and it wasn’t even an established LLC – so how could it take donations? I was left with more confusion…CGC = QACA = CFR = CGC…?
So, why would CFR (aka Friends of Ruthsburg) need money? There is clear reference to the CGC website. It is already established so that shouldn’t cost any money. The man who lives at the home address used in the boycott letters has mentioned that he has over 2,000 pages of documentation ‘against’ the FASTC – well, I thought…maybe the donation money is paying for paper and printer ink. Some of the people in Ruth burg mentioned they were going to make yard signs. I don’t know if they did, but maybe the money would be used for the signage? I was still confused.
Then, I heard that there was going to be a private meeting to be held at the Ruthsburg Community Center and a video was to be presented. I also heard that copies of the video/DVD had been made and would be distributed. So, maybe that’s why the CFR needs money – to burn DVDs. The day after the meeting I asked about the DVD – I was promptly told that it was copyrighted, but I could make a donation to the CFR or FOR of $5 for the DVD – the $5 covers cost of production and shipping. Hmmm. How could a non-501 (c)(3) take donations? And, once it was announced that the DVD would be available in a few local shops/businesses, I thought – well, shouldn’t the cost be less than $5 because there wouldn’t be a shipping cost incurred. I was still confused.
If the CFR is neither a 5013c nor an LLC how can they take $5 in any way? Shouldn’t they charge sales tax if they are selling a product? Well, I later read that QACA would take the $5 as a tax-deductible donation and give the $5 to CFR and they would send me the DVD. I suppose that is allowed…
With our economy as it is right now, $5 is $5. QACA is an influential group and, according to past tax returns, they have pretty deep pockets. So, if everyone involved with CFR/FOR/CGC/QACA is so dedicated to the people of Ruthsburg, why didn’t QACA just pay for the production costs of the DVD along with any expenses accrued for travel, lodging, food… and let people make a tax-deductible donation, if they choose straight, to QACA? But, since that doesn’t seem to be the case, I am still confused how a non-501(c)(3) group can take donations and/or why they aren’t charging sales tax. Maybe the $5 covers production, shipping and sales tax – but what if it’s not shipped to the buyer – I have a headache.
If anyone can clarify…, I would really appreciate it.
Rachel Carter Goss
To the Editor: Cedar Run Farm Still Causing Problems for Chester River
To The Editor:
In 2008, the Chester River Association received a complaint from a concerned citizen about cattle being pastured near a Queen Anne’s County stream. CRA investigated and found high levels of ammonia and phosphorus entering the stream through a shallow drainage swale. Those nutrients — components of animal waste — ultimately drain into the Chester River, where they affect water quality.
CRA presented our findings to the property’s owner, Lew Dodd, of Cedar Run Cattle Company. Mr. Dodd is well known locally as a seller of beef and as a merchant at Chestertown’s Farmers’ Market.
Mr. Dodd questioned the validity of CRA’s findings. So we investigated further.
That investigation showed that the high levels of ammonia and phosphorus were indeed coming from Cedar Run. We then turned to the Maryland Department of Agriculture and the Queen Anne’s County Soil Conservation District. Through SCD’s efforts, Cedar Run and Mr. Dodd were accepted as recipients for funding to fence the cattle away from the drainage swale, so as to keep nutrients from cattle waste away from the river.
Yet, almost a year later, no fence has been erected. The cattle continue feeding and generating waste where they had earlier.
CRA is baffled, disappointed and unhappy. Our mission is to protect the Chester River’s health, and we take it seriously.
At this point, the situation at Cedar Run has been turned over to the Maryland Department of the Environment for possible action.
CRA did not wish this result. CRA’s preference, when pollution problems are identified, has always been to try to be helpful in seeking solutions. But that result doesn’t always occur.
We still hope that Cedar Run will correct its problems, on its own. But if not, we hope MDE will tell Cedar Run that it MUST correct the problems – quickly.
Sincerely,
Tom Leigh
Chester Riverkeeper
Check Out the Census
Opening the mail is always fun around home – for the groans, curses and lamentations of Old John at his desk. I got to hear all that the other day when he opened an envelope marked “Census” and picked up pen to dutifully answer all the questions, as a good citizen does. The first question: “Do you generally identify yourself as a [ ] Conservative Republican [ ] Independent Voter who leans Republican [ ] Moderate Republican [ ] Liberal Republican [ ] Other.”
“Huh?” Hadn’t the U.S. Census heard of Democrats? Now they’re “Other?”
Then came, “How much does it concern you that the Democrats have total control of the federal government.” And, “Do you think the record trillion dollar federal deficit the Democrats are creating with their out-of-control spending is going to have disastrous consequences for our nation?” And, “Do you believe the Obama Administration is right in dramatically scaling back our nation’s military?”
From the mutterings I gathered there was some measure of doubt as to whether these were all completely neutral questions. Such as, “Do you believe the Republican Party should continue to embrace social issues?” Might there be a slight slant? And why is the Census Bureau asking that? We were right puzzled until happening on a signature at the bottom of an enclosed letter, signed by Michael Steele, RNC Chairman. He’d become census director? Easy to be misled on that, from all the officialese markings on the questionnaire: “Census Document” and “2010 Congressional District Census” and “Census Tracking Code.” But no, this was an invitation to contribute $25, $50 “or even $500” to elect more Republicans.
Old John went looking for his checkbook, or Advil, or something, leaving it to me to complete the survey. It was some fun. Now there’s one thing the various Republicans and the “Others,” too, might all agree on: that Michael Steele sure knows how to get some attention.
Spy Op-Ed: The Kids Come First by Bob Kramer
I believe it is quite evident from the public hearings that the parents and citizens of the County of Kent care very much about our public education system. It should also be quite evident that our elected Board of Education (BOE), Superintendent Barbara Wheeler and the Central Office staff have done an in-depth analysis that has presented the public with four proposals regarding the school consolidation issue.
While I think each of the four proposals are well thought out and offer many advantages including substantial savings, I believe choosing one of them (or Proposal #5 – do nothing or Frank B. Rhodes ingenious Proposal #6) is the easy way out. And that’s why I’m offering Proposal #7, the hard choice, but the better one for the long run and will transform our public school system into an economic asset for the county. And here are some supporting thoughts…
A. A community school adds 10-25% to local property values. It’s difficult to say that eliminating a community school would reduce property values in Rock Hall, Millington or Galena by 25%, but even at 10% reduction in any of these communities would result in losses of property tax revenue by about $75,000 + or – within three years.
B. Many parents are considering home schooling and private school alternatives, if their local schools are affected. IF just 50 students depart the Kent County Public School System (KCPS), that results in an incremental loss of almost $300,000 annually in state funding. And depending where these departures come from, it might make further changes necessary.
C. Eventually the economy will rebound and parents will be looking at the County of Kent as a possible new location. IF the State Department does build its facility in Ruthsburg, then there might even more parents looking for schools for their kids. Hopefully, KCPS would be one of their choices. Will the changes in Proposals #1-7 make us more or less competitive with the other counties?
The potential dollar losses in A. and B. above seem to cover any savings in all the proposals except for #4, which seems too extreme to be considered a viable solution. And we’re still left with big future revenue opportunities in C. above and that’s why we should make these changes in stages as I have proposed in #7 (and I understand the logistics problems associated with the K-5 change). We cannot afford to exacerbate the student defections that we’ve been facing in recent years. And I’m not sure the founding families of the Charter School initiative will be engaged enough to consider moving their kids to KCPS… and that’s more lost incremental income.
I’m uncomfortable with putting price tags on school kids’ heads, but that’s what education in Maryland has come down to for a small county like ours. We have to do something, but we have to get it perfect the first time. We just don’t have any margin for errors.
I’m a newcomer to our slice of paradise, but what I’ve learned in ten short years is that there is a tremendous community spirit in our county. This may be a common trait for all rural counties, but I really think we’re more than a bit unique. In any case, don’t our kids come first?
Proposal #7
Keep all schools open.
Extend all elementary schools to K through 5th grade.
Move the Alternative School to the High School (or Chestertown Middle School)
Relocate the Central Office to Chestertown Middle School (or the High School). Invest the proceeds from the sale of the 215 Washington Avenue building into one time educational opportunities so as to not create any tag along operational expenses in future years. There also should be an opportunity to move several Central Office positions to other schools that would create an embedded co-joined sense of involvement in the day to day operations of the individual schools.
Create a strategic Blue Ribbon panel to include parents, educators and citizens (as representatives of the taxpayers) to review:
A. The state school funding formula. It’s not enough to keep saying that this formula is unfair to our small system. We should present what we feel are the necessary changes that would include a base allocation of funds for every system that would eliminate the economy of scale discrepancies between the large and small systems.
B. Evaluate the budget prospects for the next three fiscal years and what operational changes would need to be made to operate within those confines.
C. Delineate what would need to be done to meet all state curriculum requirements within the next three years.
D. Review all school consolidation possibilities.
E. Recommend a permanent location for the central office.
F. Invent the future of KCPS based on a thorough analysis of how the dynamics of STEM, 21st Century, Charter School and Magnet School initiatives can synergized.
G. Provide a continuous feedback at each BOE meeting… with a final report and recommendations due at the January or February 2011 BOE meeting
Spy Op-Ed: The Lipstick on The Collar by John Lang
There’s a story of a man coming in his front door at dawn who tells his wife he worked late and didn’t want to disturb her so he slept in the hammock in the backyard. She advises there’s lipstick on his collar and, besides, she gave away that hammock last month. And he says, “Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
John Colmers, secretary of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, could have heard that line. He’s sticking to his story: “There is a community mental health infrastructure on the Eastern Shore.”
Never mind that mental health professionals have testified that such “infrastructure” is negligible. At present, Upper Shore has 40 beds for psychiatric care — and they are full. When its doors are locked, where will those people go? The nearest such public center is in Cambridge, and its beds are already just as full. The only other nearby option is Union Hospital, a private facility in Elkton with just five beds for mental care. The Chester River Hospital Center here doesn’t have a psychiatric unit.
Yet even today Colmers argues otherwise in a belated reply to an email sent to Gov. Martin O’Malley a couple months ago by a Chestertown resident urging that Upper Shore Community Mental Health Center be kept open.
He does acknowledge, “There are areas that need to be enhanced.” But he does not specify what those enhancements need to be.
It is only fair to the mentally ill that facilities like Upper Shore be closed, Colmers contends.
As he explains it, Maryland’s health care system has resulted in persons receiving care regardless of ability to pay, adding, “The exception to this has been the way mental health has been handled on the Eastern Shore.”
Colmers points out that an individual who has insurance is treated in the private system. But here, one who is uninsured gets referred to a state hospital for in-patient services.
“This is unacceptable,” Colmers writes. “Our plan is to fix this inequity.”
And therefore the Upper Shore Center will close on March 1. After that, the plan is, if you are uninsured and admitted to an emergency room, you will be admitted to the inpatient unit at that hospital, or be transferred to a general hospital with an in- patient psychiatric unit.
“All Maryland citizens should have access to the same care regardless of ability to pay,” Colmers concludes.
It’s a rendering of real world equity that brings to mind the bon mot of Anatole France: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to beg in the streets, steal bread, or sleep under a bridge.”
What if the local hospital, such as Chestertown’s, doesn’t have a psychiatric unit? What if the nearest hospital that does is several counties away, or even in another state, like Delaware? Where do the crazed and indigent go, who have no other place for rest? Except beneath a bridge?
Colmers doesn’t address any of that, but he’s sticking to his story, “There is a community mental health infrastructure on the Eastern Shore.”
Which sounds like a man in need of a hammock.
Spy Op-Ed: Delay School Plans by Tom McHugh
The Rock Hall meeting to hear the proposals for Kent County school closings was another example of the spirit and commitment of the Rock Hall community to our local schools.
As a retired educator, trainer of teachers, and Professor of Educational Studies, I would argue strongly for a delay in any attempt to reorganize our county school system. The proposals from the school administration reek of bad planning and a headlong rush to what could be a terrible decision. At the very least, Proposition #5 should be the choice, at least for now.
Even a cursory exploration on the web of “best school practices” regarding school closures shows you that the first recommendation is the formation of a task force of community leaders, to include:
- business people
- community workers
- parents
- teachers
- religious leaders
- civic organizations
- land owners/ and brokers
This task force would take on the role of gathering facts. Often this process is a year long sequence…not a few weeks. Working with such a group, the county school leaders might work toward consensus and avoid antagonistic confrontation. Transparency would be assured.
I have worked with public schools in several states over my 40 year career. In every case drastic moves like school closures are motivated by the real pressures of finances and state mandates. Both pressures are present in this current situation. But we must firmly emphasize to our leaders that Rock Hall has a system which works. Parents whose kids have gone through our schools know that our two schools emphasize the real qualities of a good eduation: caring teachers and administrators, amazingly strong parental involvement, broad community support and academic achievement by the students. Words like “family” and “fun” and “neighborhood” and “helping” are expressive of what we do here. Good writing, reading, and math/technology skills flow from those characteristics…not from ipods,or twitters, or technology “integrators”.
Let me close with a quote from the California Department of Education…” The decision to close a school is anguishing. It profoundly affects parents, neighborhoods, communities, district personnel, and, of course, students. It affects relationships, routines, and cherished territorialities. In short, it alters not only district operations but also lives.”
The Kent County school administration and the Kent County school board owe us a period of time…for study and for careful thought. They should not ignore Rock Hall’s call for a stop to their actions. The meeting at Rock Hall Middle School last night would be the envy of most public school systems in this country…we had retired people, teachers, kids, politicians, watermen, parents…all there for one reason: to fight to maintain schools that work.
Thomas F. McHugh,Ph.D
Professor Emeritus, Education
Vassar College
Spy Op-Ed: Let’s Support Training Center by Clayton A. Mitchell
President Andrew Jackson once said, “Eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.” If today’s date was September 11, 2001, and the federal government asked the citizens of Queen Anne’s County for its assistance in fighting the War on Terror, no one among us would have refused the government’s request. We would have stood in line to volunteer to do anything and everything we could, just as we stood in line to donate blood and enlist in the armed forces in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.
Today, the war continues to rage on many fronts. From Iraq and Afghanistan to India and Yemen, as well as a hundred other flashpoints around the globe, our soldiers and intelligence officers are on patrol and ever vigilant. For those Queen Anne’s countians who may have forgotten the horror we all experienced on that infamous September day, our country was recently sent a grim reminder by a suicidal fanatic (who was hell-bent on giving our nation a death-laden present by airmail over the skies of Detroit on Christmas Day) that terrorists are ever present. The enemy that sought our destruction over eight years ago is focused and determined to kill as many of Americans as it can and to disrupt our liberties and way of life.
The United States State Department recently announced its plans to place a Foreign Affairs Security Training Center on the Hunt-Ray Farm in Queen Anne’s County. The State Department’s existing security training infrastructure is not sufficient to meet its current and projected training needs. The training is currently conducted at 15 locations throughout the United States. Consolidating security training operations in Queen Anne’s County (and in close proximity to Washington, D.C.) will make training more efficient, save taxpayers’ dollars, and create much-needed jobs for our deteriorating local economy.
At the recent public informational meetings in Centreville, it was disheartening to hear friends and neighbors criticize the State Department officials. Many acted as if the proposed project was for a Wal-Mart or another 1000 home cookie-cutter development. However, this proposed federal training center has a higher purpose and a noble mission. In these times of war (and we are at war), Queen Anne’s County must “step up to the plate” and support the training facility with overwhelming support – the same way we would have on September 11, 2001. If communities across the nation had the same mind-set the opponents of this project have, our nation’s defenders would be deprived of the finest and most efficient locations at which to train for their missions.
I do not suggest that the neighboring property owners do not have legitimate concerns. These citizens’ concerns have been artfully expressed in articulate statements and emotional pleas to various public officials. The federal government, however, appears ready, willing and able to fully address the concerns of those most affected, work with the neighbors and make them as comfortable as possible with the design, mission and activities of the proposed facility. The well-founded and heartfelt concerns of a few, however, must not operate to dissolve this opportunity for our county as a whole.
In addition to promoting and advancing our country’s security needs, the training facility will give a much needed boost to our local economy. Many temporary and permanent jobs will be created. An ensuing “ripple effect” of economic activity would stimulate local businesses, accelerate job opportunities for our friends without work, and promote and preserve the prosperous way of life we have come to enjoy on the Eastern Shore. The newly-created jobs and the economic activity spurred by new employment would go elsewhere if the facility was not built in Queen Anne’s County.
Citizens of Queen Anne’s County: the County Commissioners have no “Plan B” for meaningful economic development for our local economy. Without these new jobs, the local economy will continue to slowly “circle the drain”; local businesses will have fewer customers with fewer dollars to purchase goods and services; the local housing market will continue its decline; more small locally-owned businesses will close their doors; property assessments will continue to fall with resulting tax revenues declining. This will lead to certain higher unemployment, deflated housing values, and higher property tax rates. We will have to sponsor a lot of chicken dinners and bake sales to raise money for our emergency response services when budget cuts become necessarily routine.
Let’s help each other prosper during this tough economic time while doing something in furtherance of our national security. Join me in supporting the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center on the Hunt-Ray Farm.
Bird-Dogging the Bird Dumpers
As a naturally gifted birder, one who likes nothing better than to find a field where geese have been feeding and then roll in their leavings, as no doubt you do too, I am troubled by something really stupid. Somebody is shooting ducks and geese and then dumping their carcasses on roadsides in Queen Anne’s County. How widespread this practice is I can’t be sure. But I’ve overheard Harry Sears of Grasslands Plantation telling of seeing this on maybe four occasions roads in his neighborhood, on Kibler and Roundtop, in particular.
“On two occasions in the last two days, my wife saw it and started objecting to it,” says Sears. “Some people who live around here have seen it before, too. I don’t think it’s happening only around us. People are shooting birds but instead of taking them to get them plucked, they’re just dumping them on the side of the road. Today it was four ducks and two geese, lying in the same area I picked up carcasses just a couple days ago.”
Nancy Taylor Robson says she found four geese on the side of a road near Rt. 301 outside Galena a couple weeks ago and assumed it might have been hunters who over-shot limits and were about to get caught by DNR. “The idea that they would be shot by someone who just wanted to kill something (and not even a farmer worried about their crops) amazes and horrifies me.”
What sort of hunter would do this? Says Sears, “I’m a bird shooter. But that sport, the hunting fraternity, attracts a wide spectrum of people. Maybe somebody shot too many. Or their wives don’t like to cook them. Or they don’t want to go home and bother to pluck ‘em themselves.” It’s a question, Sears suggests, for the Department of Natural Resources.
And Peter Jayne, associate director for game management with DNR’s Wildlife and Heritage Service, says, “It’s a problem.” But he doesn’t think it’s a big regional one or even a wide practice in Queen Anne’s or Kent counties. “I don’t think it’s frequent. I think it’s localized. I don’t have information on how widespread it is, but I think maybe one or two people tend to do it.” Jayne explains, “Many times those birds have been breasted out, with people taking the edible meat. But it’s still inappropriate to dump them on the side of the road. In fact, it’s illegal.” Jayne says there are no natural resources laws against doing that, but it does violate littering law.
It violates good sense, too, and I speak as one who can find infinite pleasure in a fresh carcass, or even a very old one, just ask my groomer, Bert Lindauer of Splash ‘n Dash. But some are so ignorant. Again and again, feckless folks are wasting fine opportunity. I am, as usual, appalled.
Editorial: Representative Kratovil’s Freshman Year
For those watching politics on the Eastern Shore in 2008, the election of Democrat Frank Kratovil was an entirely unanticipated event at the beginning of the year. The 1st District had been solidly Republican in voting pattern and mindset for well over two decades, and its incumbent, Wayne Gilchrest, was a respected and independent-minded five term congressman. And yet despite all that, Mr. Kratovil, a relatively unknown district attorney from Queen Anne’s County, emerged to be the first Democrat to capture the seat in eighteen years.
One explanation for this surprising twist was that local Republicans started to play the new and popular GOP party game called political cannibalism. The object of the game is for the party faithful to “eat their own” by having extreme right candidates challenge moderate Republicans during the primary season and stage ideological hissy fits to encourage church-based conservatives to throw out (banish might be the better word) all but the certifiably right wing.
In the case of the 1st District, Congressman Wayne Gilchrest was an irresistible target. Over his years in office, Mr. Gilchrest had infuriated party leadership time and time again with his unpredictable votes and intellectual stubbornness. And it didn’t help that the National Journal had ranked him the country’s most liberal Republican in 2008. The Eastern Shore right wing was so livid with the former schoolteacher from Kennedyville that when the party primary took place, Mr. Gilchrest actually had four “conservative conservatives” running against him. After the fog lifted, the last man standing was State Senator Andy Harris, perhaps at the most extreme in his political ideology.
So Frank Kratovil’s victory, while remarkable in many ways, was more the result of good timing than anything the candidate said prior to the election. The strategy of “I’m not Andy Harris” was far more successful than promoting Mr. Kratovil’s talent or philosophy on any particular issue. While the campaign plan clearly worked, there remained in the minds of many more questions than answers on who their new representative was, and what he stood for.
Now after Mr. Kratovil’s first year in Congress, the voters have much more information to answer some of those questions. While twelve months doesn’t yield empirical evidence on how Representative Kratovil will eventually end his first term, his record so far suggests that the First District has elected someone who has shown a level of independence and thoughtfulness that should make his predecessor proud.
Following in the tradition of Wayne Gilchrest, who had succeeded for years in driving his party leadership insane with his strong environmental record and concerns about Iraq, Mr. Kratovil seems capable of similar behavior, with the latest example being his vote against the Democrat-sponsored health care bill in the House late last year.
While Congressman Kratovil’s unwillingness to vote with his party to pass the House’s version of national health care was a blow to health reform advocates, his reasons for voting against the bill where reasonable and measured. He did not offer any tirades on the dangers of medical socialism, death panels, or federal government bashing. His vote was unpopular with many, including this newspaper, and seriously jeopardized his standing with many liberals, but it was clear he had done his homework and voted accordingly.
The rest of Mr. Kratovil’s record in 2009 shows he has been steadfast in his election commitment to support small businesses, protect consumers, and improve Chesapeake Bay protection efforts. Equally reassuring was his vote in support for the Obama’s administration’s Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus bill), hate crime legislation, support of carbon cap and trade, and financial regulatory reform. It is quite unlikely that Mr. Harris would have had a similar voting history.
This year will offer Mr. Kratovil more opportunities to further define himself. And there will be certain political dangers, some potentially terminal, ahead of him. Nonetheless, the District should feel relief that its freshman congressman seems to have successfully navigated his first year in Congress while holding on to his principles. That sounds like the kind of representative the First District has had in the past and deserves for the future.
DW
To the Editor: Need for some Up Town Correction
Unlike most of the Town Council I remember when Downtown Chestertown was quite a bustling little town. We had two furniture stores, several clothing stores, affordable restaurants, a store that sold fabric and most any sewing item a person might need as well as other popular stores, wonder what happened? All we hear now is shop downtown, well, why not have some stores that sell “everyday” kinda needs and wants. Other then the drug stores and an occasional visit to the book store there is nothing down there that I want or could afford. Somebody better start paying some attention to Up Town or we won’t have anywhere but DE to shop. Never heard a word mentioned when Hallmark closed. I understand there is another store getting ready to close and one on a seesaw. Has anyone noticed how many empty store fronts there are at both shopping centers? Does anyone care? Oh, that’s right, we must get the Rails to Trails up and running, duh, for WHO???? What happened to the park that was to be made up off Rt291 that the town bought property for all those years ago, oops, we don’t have any money for that. There are a whole lot of us folks from Flatland Road to out on Rt. 213 that are suppose to be a part of Chestertown that would like to think we count for something. Guess one day when Chestertown becomes Chestertownburg all those folks running the show will be very happy with themselves, hope they are satisfied!
Billie Beck
Chestertown, MD
Spy Op-Ed: Will the Church be Relevant in 21st Century by David LaMotte, Jr.
The Chestertown Spy sponsored a forum on November 7th that brought together the rectors of five local Episcopal Church parishes and the question posed was “will the Protestant Episcopal Church exist in the 21st Century, and if so, why would it be relevant to believers?”
As a follow-up I would like to offer some thoughts on a broader question, will THE Church be relevant to spiritual growth in the 21st Century? Or perhaps put another way, will Christianity become less or more relevant to spiritual growth in the 21st Century, and what can the Church do to be relevant in the future? As ludicrous as these questions may initially seem, I think they are worth asking to bring about thought and dialog.
I read recently that there are more than 38,000 Christian denominations around the world. These are churches or groups of churches, like the sizeable Episcopal Church, that differ from each other in some way, be it their worship service or their interpretation of scripture or in some other way. Within each of these denominations there are numerous differences in beliefs that often cause great struggles, such as the dramatic divisions presently taking place in the Episcopal Church. And within each individual parish there are broad ranges of beliefs that are sufficient for constant debate and parishioner change.
What about the rest of the world’s population, the majority of the souls sharing this planet who participate in other organized religions or none? I venture to say there are no two people, be they siblings or strangers, who share all of the same beliefs. And why should we? It seems to me every individual has his or her own treasure chest of experiences. Cultures and educations vary dramatically, and so do individuals’ experiences, no matter how close genetically or environmentally two people may be.
Hopefully, at some point an individual recognizes there is more to life than survival, than seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Each person’s search for meaning is paramount, whether it leads to a concept of or even a relationship with God, with the Universe, and it needs to be respected. Is it really so important that everyone’s beliefs and search be the same as yours and mine? Surely not, but clearly the core of what we believe does matter, it matters for our own growth, for assisting others in their growth and for mankind’s positive evolution.
It is so incredibly simple and so incredibly complicated. It is painfully elusive to mankind but a part of every human’s life, no matter his or her circumstances. In its fullness it is beyond human comprehension yet the opportunity to experience it and gain some understanding of it is available to everyone all the time. It is what so many who die and are resuscitated emphatically stress that It’s all about when they say “what I thought was important in life really isn’t, how did I not know?” It is what we are so easily distracted from in our churches and synagogues and temples as we gravitate toward all the things we disagree about, but it is the core of every Christian denomination and every organized religion. And it is what Christ tried to tell us and what the Church has tried to capture and communicate but so often failed miserably in its countless interpretations.
Will the Church be relevant in the 21st Century? How can the Church stay true to its critical mission? How can it better avoid the distractions that divide us from each other within the Church and divide us from the rest of the planet’s souls? How will the Church evolve as man’s consciousness grows, as man seeks the truth in light of his ever expanding scientific understanding of our universe, albeit quite miniscule, and as he becomes less satisfied with religious dogma and less content to accept the Church’s explanations based upon scripture selected by the early Church, or at least the Church’s interpretation of this limited selection of ancient scripture?
The Church will most certainly be relevant in the 21st Century because like other religious institutions it is built upon Love, love of an all-knowing and all-loving creator or God, love for all persons and love for all of creation, our world and the universe. This is Christ’s overwhelming and overarching message, and it is the fundamental truth on which the world’s other recognized religions are based. It is focusing on this truth, measuring all choices against this truth and avoiding being mislead by all other lesser beliefs, which detract from this simple but infinitely misunderstood truth, that will enable the Church and other institutions, which are vehicles for helping us comprehend and create love, to be vitally relevant forever.
The Church will continue to be relevant with its countless denominations and parishes appealing to the broad spectrum of individuals in their unique, conscious or subconscious, quests for meaning and for support in their relations with God and the Universe. But it will need to be vigilant in focusing on what Christ was trying to help us understand and internalize about Love. It must be careful not to limit its interpretation of Christ’s message of Love and not to portray itself as the exclusive religious source of Love and of relationship with the Creator and the Universe.
Oh leaders of our churches, gone must be the days of dwelling on sin and endless debate of who Jesus was and what the ancient texts were saying or not saying. The Church is carrier of the greatest messages of Love the world has known yet continues to trip all over itself. The world is still starving for Love and is so filled with fear, seemingly unaware that we are eternal and only temporarily here, trying to survive and enjoy this brief life, but mostly here to learn, experience, show and teach Love.
It seems the veil between our dimensions of this life and the next is thinning and man’s awareness of multiple dimensions is growing with the frequency of related experiences and with science’s new theories and discoveries. As Christ’s message of Love becomes more clear, more universal and poignant through these experiences and this knowledge, the Church must evolve with its fundamental yet very dynamic truth. And I would venture to bet Christ is counting on the Church doing just that.
Godspeed Church of the 21st Century!
WoooOOOOoooOOOOooo
Every so often somebody who’s just bought a nice house on Water or Queen Street – and whose realtor somehow failed to mention the firehouse siren – will call up Town Hall and want to know why something shouldn’t be done about that sound. This person immediately becomes known (but not to him-or-herself) as The Chair of The Committee to Do Something About The Siren. This unofficial appointment lasts only until the next person calls to protest that infernal noise. At least, that used to be so. Don’t ask me how I know this, but I’ve got my sources. So, I’m thinking about doing a little piece that makes some sport of folks in fine neighborhoods and the Fire Department, too, when I go to bed the other night. I won’t say it’s the last thought in my mind, but it’s rattling around in there among things to do real soon, as I fall asleep.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-FIRE-FIRE-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-FIRE. . .
Huh? Whatthe? Fire? Fire! There’s smoke everywhere. I can hardly see, I can hardly breathe. So naturally I go to the back door and wait to be let out. Takes Old John forever to hear the smoke-alarm but he finally does, lets me out and stumbles around, muttering. He sees it’s the wood stove that’s clogged somehow and the smoke is backdrafting. And now — figuring we’re out of immediate danger, he hesitates to call the fire department. Get this: he’s embarrassed about the attention it will bring; he’s worried it will wake the neighbors. His dithering lasts just a moment and he dials 9-1-1.
Right away, from every direction, we start hearing sirens. Soon there are 10 trucks parked up and down the street, motors rumbling, lights flashing and, yes, waking the neighbors. I look around and start counting, one. . .well counting’s not my strong suit, but Im told later there were a couple dozen volunteer firemen swarming around our house. It’s a half hour past a cold and windy midnight — and all these guys have been called out of bed to save us – and they’re volunteers – and they’re not being paid one thin dime for this — and I was about to write something making fun of Chestertown’s siren?
So they unclog the chimney, clean the coals out of the woodstove, open windows, clear the house of smoke (but not the stink) and they leave. Fire’s out, nothing to sign, nobody owed, no goodbyes, no thanks necessary.
Next morning though, we call the Chestertown Volunteer Fire Department to express our gratitude and happen to get Deputy Chief Phil Russum. He was at my house, he says, “and my son was up on your roof.” Chief Bruce Neal was there, too. In fact there were volunteer firemen from four companies — Chestertown, Church Hill, Crumpton and the rescue squad as well. And as far as they’re concerned, what they did for us is routine. The Chestertown company, for example, answered over 600 calls last year, and my house was number 507 for this year.
Russum has been turning out for fires going on 40 years, was a junior volunteer when he was 14 years old. His father did it before him. His son does it now and will after. There are some answering fire calls here who are fourth generation volunteers. Fire-fighting is very much, and almost exclusively, a family tradition. It’s the same way with Galena, Rock Hall, Crumpton, Church Hill, with every company everywhere. Russum says it is very hard to recruit new members who don’t have it in their ancestry. It’s curious, but true.
I don’t have the nerve to tell Russum I was about to write a spoof about the siren on top of the Chestertown Fire House, but I do ask him about it, kind of sly. And guess what? “It’s dead,” he says. “It was put up in ’63, but it broke last year, and we can’t find parts for it. The one folks hear, that’s up by the college. It goes off — if the fuse doesn’t blow. Now, we’re relying on pagers, mostly. The old siren, we can’t get it fixed. And people who live around the fire house are probably thankful.”
Probably some are. Me? Not so much, anymore. Once your house is about to go up in smoke, and maybe you in it, you’ll find there’s something to be said for whatever traditions it takes that brings these folks out on fiery nights. You hear that wailing, you know they’re on their way, it’s a comfort.
