A Community Built from Steel: The Legacy of Frank and Julia Buhl

The Shenango Valley sits on the western edge of Pennsylvania, where the Shenango River flows southward toward the Ohio.   It includes 8 communities in Pennsylvania and, on the valley’s western heights, in Ohio.  Nestled in the river valley is the city of Sharon. At the top of the east hill is Hermitage.  When I was a boy, it was just Hickory Township.   In those days, the real economic center of the region was the Valley.  Sharon sat on either side of the river, while up and down the river were the steel mills, the fabricating plants, Westinghouse, a railroad tank care manufacturing center, and other industries.  Sharon was a mill town.  At one time it was a major steel producing area, based on the easy availability of a fuel that left no residue.  Today, much of that is gone, but there remains a powerful and positive legacy of a family who, at the height of the industrial revolution, ran the mills and, in their later years, contributed greatly to the quality of life in the community.   As a youngster, I took their gifts for granted.  Today, I am amazed.  Decades after the Shenango Valley became part of the rust belt, its residents continue to benefit from gifts to the community provided by the Buhl family as these communities seek a new role in a new age.  This is the story of their legacy.

The Buhl Family

Frank Buhl was the grandson of immigrants.  His grandfather, Christian Buhl, was a hat maker who emigrated from Bavaria in 1804 and settled in Zelionople in Butler County.  Frank’s father, Christian H. Buhl, was born in Butler in 1812 and learned the hatter’s trade.  With his brother, Fred, he moved to the Detroit area where they ran a successful fur trading company.  In 1855, Christian H. left the fur trade and became an industrialist, developing connections with a variety of banks, railroads, and several ironworks.  He served as Mayor of Detroit from 1860-61.  

            In 1862, Christian H. turned his attention to the Shenango Valley.   From the beginning, the Valley was attractive to iron makers.  It was one of a very few sources of “block coal”—a kind of coal that contained no sulfur and burned without leaving behind ashes (Mercer County, p. 71).  As early as 1850, Joel Curtis, a local coal mine operator, decided to take the next step and use some of his coal to smelt iron.  Curtis established the Sharon Iron Company, which occupied several blocks along the flats on the east side of the Shenango River.  The company included a coal railroad, two mines, and ten industrial buildings, including a furnace and rolling mill.  It also owned several company houses for employees.  Christian H. Buhl invested in the plant in 1865.  

            FrankH. Buhl was born in Detroit in 1848.  After graduating from Yale University, he moved to Sharon in 1867 to work for the Sharon Iron Company.   He later became plant manager and then superintendent.   He left the area in 1878 to take charge of his father’s copper and brass rolling mill in Detroit, returning to Sharon in 1887 to oversee operations at the Sharon plant.  By 1888, it was the largest plant in Mercer County, employing 700 workers .  Frank Buhl went on to acquire and lead other mills in the region, including the Sharon Steel Castings Company, the first steel manufacturing facility in the Valley and in Mercer County.  He also owned and operated several coal mines in the region.  

            Shortly after returning to Sharon, Buhl met and married Julia A. Forker.  Julia was born in Mercer.  Her parents, Henry and Selina Forker, brought her to Sharon as a young child.  Her father, a coal mine owner, died in a railroad accident in 1885.  The couple built a stone mansion on Sharon’s east hill, within easy walking distance of downtown Sharon.  The mansion remains today, restored and operating as a bed and breakfast.  The Buhls lived in Sharon for the remainder of their lives, where they were actively involved in the social life of the community. Frank died in 1918; Julia survived until 1936.

Commitment to Community

The Buhls were childless and, after Buhl sold his operations in the early 1900s, they devoted the rest of their lives to community service.  For example, they continued funding for the Christian H. Buhl Hospital—forerunner of today’s Sharon Regional Hospital—that Frank’s father had helped to get started.  One of their first investments was in the Buhl Independent Rifles (BIR), an independent military and civic organization that had grown out of a national call for volunteers during Spanish-American War.  Buhl made the first donation to the BIR and was a frequent contributor; he also loaned BIR funds (later cancelling the loan) to build an armory that housed the weekly BIR drills and a wide range of social and civic events, annual banquets, dances, and meetings.  In turn, the BIR supported other organizations, including the local chapter of the Sunshine Society and a community basketball team (Mercer County, p. 183).

The F.H. Buhl Club

            In 1901, the Buhls began work on the F.H. Buhl Club, setting aside funds for:

The maintenance of a club for social enjoyment by means of games, such as billiards, pool, bowling, checkers, chess or other innocent amusements, including also facilities for gymnastics exercises, swimming, and other athletic sports; the maintenance of a library and reading room for the use of its members and the encouragement of education; and the erection, furnishing and equipment of a building for the use of said club, with a hall for public and private purposes. (Buhlbullet) 

A new building was constructed on East State Street, a short walk from the Buhl mansion, to house the club.  It was completed in 1903.  The ground floor included bowling alleys, a small auditorium, locker and shower rooms, and general rooms; the second floor included offices, the library stacks, a reading and reference rooms, as well as a billiard room and gym.  A music room and several meeting and classrooms were on the third floor.  

            The library faced State Street and featured marble floors and a two-story semi-circular stacks for books with hardwood shelves, a large reading/reference room, and a children’s library.  Initially, the library was available only to Buhl Club members, but in the 1920s, voters approved a levy to support the library, which became the Sharon Free Public Library in 1923.   It attracted nearly 2,000 members in the first year and continued to grow, expanding children’s branches to five local elementary schools.  By the late 1960s, the library was over-crowded, forcing a move to a new facility a block away from its original Buhl Club home.

Julia Buhl and the Buhl Girls Club

            After Frank Buhl died in 1918, Julia continued his community service work.  One of her many projects was the Mercer County branch of the International Sunshine Society.  This group supported under-privileged children, arranging summer vacations on local farm and providing medical and dental care, eyeglasses, shoes and clothing, and hot lunches for school children.   In the 1930s, she remodeled the Boys’ Club, and, in 1936, expanded the club’s basic mission by opening a girls’ club on the site of the old Buhl Independent Rifles Armory.   Memberships were given to female students who maintained good grades in school.  Over the years, it served as a recreation center for girls and as a venue for dances and other social events.  The Club continued operations until 1987, when its services were consolidated with the F.H. Buhl Club. 

Buhl Community Recreation Center

            Today, the Buhl Community Recreation Center operates out of the original F.H. Buhl building on East State Street.    Recent youth programs included academic tutoring, piano, guitar, and voice lessons, and instruction on crocheting and German.  A mother/child “Fun Time Gym” program focuses on developing gross motor skills, while a “Prince Party” introduced young girls to ballet and the social graces.   Dance classes were offered for pre-school youngsters through teenagers.  Youth gymnastics training was offered for beginner through advanced.  Adult programs included yoga, volleyball, guitar, painting, voice, crocheting, sewing, piano, and German.  In addition, members and guests have access to an indoor swimming pool and handball and racquetball courts, ping pong, pool, air hockey and other games.  A new service introduced in 2013 was a Building Blocks Child Center in the site of the original Children’s Library.  In addition, the Center hosted an arts and crafts show and a community sing.

            A focal point for many Center fitness programs is the Henry and Catherine EvansFitness Center.  Recently, Fitness Center has been enhanced with the addition of $100,000 in new cardio and strength training equipment.  

            The vision of the Center is  “to provide individuals & families a positive, accepting environment, enabling them to achieve excellence in their leisure, education, physical fitness & life.”  Center Director Tony Rogers notes, “There’s hardly a person here who won’t tell you how being a member has changed his life, who found a mentor or got advice, who was touched in a positive way.” 

Buhl Farm Park  

In 1907, Buhl began to acquire land in Hickory Township (now Hermitage, Pa.), bordering Sharon, for the purpose of creating a park “for the benefit and enjoyment of the public.”   By 1911, he had acquired 300 acres, which he began to develop.  The “Buhl Farm” (a term he used to avoid confusion with an amusement park) initially included four miles of roadways, seven wells for drinking water, an 11-acre artificial lake (today called Lake Julia) and a lakeside building—the Casino—that was used by swimmers and for dances and other social events.  

            Buhl Farm opened in 1914, with the goal, according to Frank Buhl, that it be “used as a playground and a place of cultural enhancement for the public in general and especially the residents of the community."   It included a picnic grove with a shelter building.  There were also tennis courts, an athletic field with seating for 1,000 spectators, a children’s playground and a golf course.  For many years, Lake Julia was a popular ice skating site in winter months; a professional ice skating rink was creating when the Lake no longer was appropriate.  Lake Julia was recently re-dredged and re-opened.

            Over the years, other features were added to Buhl Farm, including a swimming pool and pool house adjacent to the Casino, a Farm House that today is the home of the Avalon Golf and Country Club, an Activities Building housing child care and a Summer Youth Program, a memorial garden in memory of Julia Buhl, a baseball field, a driving range, a fitness trail, and a gazebo.  In 2001, an arboretum project was begun that today features more than six hundred trees.

            The park itself is free and open to the public.  Anyone can use it for jogging picnics, playing tennis or using the other facilities.  The swimming pool has a small fee, but it is kept low.  The park is a popular site for family and school reunions, wedding receptions, and other events.

            An important part of the original park was a free nine-hole golf course —still the only free golf course in the United States.   Called “Dum Dum” by locals, the free course has several simple rules that reflect Buhl’s commitment to free public access:

·      Each golfer must have a bag, a minimum of four clubs, and a putter.

·      No children under seven are permitted on the course.

·      Children aged seven to eleven are permitted to play if they are accompanied by an adult and have completed a formal golf instruction course.

·      Shirts are required; “short-shorts” are not permitted.

·      No alcoholic beverages are permitted.

·      Play is limited to groups of four members or fewer.

            Dum Dum introduced many Valley youngsters to the game of golf.  Joe Thiel, owner of Joe Thiel Golf Schools, wrote in 2008

“ . . . like most children growing up in our blue collar city I could not afford the expensive game of golf, but through Mr. Buhl’s generous gift this 9-hole course was free for all youngsters like me as it still is today, and I wore out my welcome.  With old Sam Sneed signature hand-me-down gold clubs, I would be there from 5:30 am in the morning when the sun was just perfect on summer days and did not return until the church bills rang at their 5:30 daily time.  From the time I was 10 years old I knew . . . that I would at all costs become a gold professional.”

            “We have been blessed with an asset that very few Communities will ever have,” observed Buhl Park Corporation President Phil Marrie in a December 2013 Facebook message.  He noted some of the many services that the Park provides to the Shenango Valley community today: 

Free public concerts during the summers that brings the residents of the Communities together to appreciate what was given to us and to enjoy relationships that we have developed over the years. A swimming pool that is operated to allow all residents of the Shenango Valley have a community pool that benefits all. A fantastic place to walk and run and be with friends and enjoy the beauty of the Farm. Many activities that allow our youth to understand environmental needs....Fishing in Lake Julia.....Programs during the year to teach students of the Valley, about the environment.

 Conclusion

            It was not unusual for companies to provide recreational facilities to their workers in the heady days of the Industrial Revolution.  In the Shenango Valley, for instance, Westinghouse Corporation also created a small public park that included tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and a picnic area.  What made Buhl Park, the Buhl Clubs, and the library unusual is that, often, they were created after—in some cases decades after—the Buhls sold their interest in the local steel mills.  The Buhl facilities were, upon reflection, more of a personal contribution to a community that had been good to them than an investment in worker satisfaction.

            It is worth noting that Frank Buhl also lent his name to the town of Buhl, Idaho, which was founded in 1906.  Buhl had been a major investor in a large-scale irrigation project in the area, which is now known as the Trout Capitol of the World.  Yet, as Steve Cump noted in the Magicvalley.com news service, “Our man Frank gets no respect hereabouts.”   The Buhls contributed not to their own name or business interests, but to the community where they spent their adult lives.

            The challenge, today, is that it is harder to define community.  Wendell Berry defined “community” as a local interdependence:  “ . . .a community is a locally understood interdependence of local people, local culture, local economy and local nature.” (Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community, p. 120).   In today’s global economy, when supply chains, production, and value chains are distributed globally, it is sometimes harder to see how we are interdependent on a local scale.  Part of the legacy of Frank and Julia Buhl is the vision that one invests in ways that help create community.

References

Berry, Wendell.  Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community.  Pantheon Books, 1992.

Mercer County Historical Society.  Mercer County Pennsylvania:Pictorial History 1800-2000.  Donnnig Company Publishers, 2001.

           

Let the Mystery Be?

Iris Dement sings that, while everyone wants to know where we came from and where we are going, she is happy to “let the mystery be.”  I tend to agree with her at one level, but at another I am just too curious, I guess.  I am at an age where the curiosity is becoming more immediate.  It is one thing to wonder in June what Santa Claus will bring; it is another to be listening for reindeer hooves on Christmas Eve!

We have many different creation myths around the world.  I don’t take any of them literally.  They are all attempts by people to understand their world and, especially, that part of their world that they cannot experience through the five senses.  Today, of course, we know that there is much more out there than we can know through the five senses.   We know that there are three—maybe four if time really is one—dimensions; but what if there are four more that we cannot quite sense?  We can experience matter, but science tells us that there is an equal amount of anti-matter all around us and in and out of us.  Is there one universe or do we live in a small corner of a multi-verse?  

Increasingly, I feel like a caterpillar just about to start making its cocoon.  Does a caterpillar know, when he is making the cocoon, that he will transform into a butterfly?  Perhaps this life of ours is just the cocoon-building part of things, and we will wake one day into a new dimension or into an anti-matter world.  Or not.  It is more than a bit humbling to know that we can't perceive the totality of this vast reality of ours. 

Regardless, it is just a bit more fun to explore the mystery—even if we can’t know the truth—than to simply let the mystery be.

Climate Change: The Future is Now

In the opening pages of her book Field Notes from a Catastrophe (New York: Bloomsbury Press), Elizabeth Kolbert addresses head-on the big question:  Are we causing climate change?  Her answer: absolutely.  She notes, as early as page ten, that “The National Academy of Sciences undertook its first major study of global warming in 1979.”  Their results alarmed President Carter, who called together an ad hoc committee who looked for flaws in published climate studies pointing toward a human cause, but found none.  Their conclusion was that human activity that added carbon dioxide to the atmosphere would throw the planet out of “energy balance” and that the only way for the planet to respond was to heat up. “If carbon dioxide continues to increase,” Kolbert quotes the report, “the study group finds no reason to doubt that climate changes will result and no reason to believe that these changes will be negligible.”  Alarmingly, the report also noted, “We may not be given a warning until the CO2 loading is such that an appreciable climate change is inevitable.”

Kolbert was writing 25 years after that report was given to President Carter.  Furthermore, she was writing in 2006, making it now 33 years since we were warned.   Weather.com reports that 13 of the 14 hottest years on record happened in the 21^st century.  Just to be clear:  every year of this century has been one of the 14 hottest years in recorded history. 

We can take that as the kind of warning that President Carter’s study group predicted back in 1979—a generation ago.  

In 2007, Kolbert was interviewed for the PBS series POV.  When asked about the prospects for major climate change, here is what she said:

It's very hard to say what life will be like in 2050. In part that's because we don't know whether any action will be taken to reduce emissions, and in part it's because regional climate predictions are hard to make. Definitely, we know the world as a whole will be warmer and sea levels will be higher. In many places, it will probably also be much drier. Drought is probably the first really dangerous global warming impact that many people will experience.

I have young grandchildren.  In 2050, they will be in their early 40s, probably with children of their own.  I fear for what may lie ahead for them.  By the way, I checked: California is now in its second year of drought; 2013 was the driest year in California for 119 years. 

So, why do people continue to disbelieve the evidence before them?   Often, religion is given as a reason.  Too many people, it is argued, take the Judeo-Christian-Islamic creation myth so literally that they cannot accept scientific evidence.  Behind that desire to believe, though, lies another reason:  the fossil fuel industry—and the web of companies and individuals who profit from it one way or the other—does not want to be restricted in any way and has consistently—and successfully—tried to shape public opinion.  Too many politicians seem to owe their allegiance to the corporations that give them money than to the citizens whose interests they have sworn to protect.   Corporations are not citizens, regardless of what this Supreme Court has said—at least not in the same sense that we, the people are citizens. 

Greed and religion, then, are two reasons why we are not doing enough to slow down the climate change that is already underway.   What can be done?   It may be too late for a truly bottom-up solution to work in time to stop the worse effects of climate change—the changes in heat, drought, and rising oceans that will wreak havoc on our children and their children.  We need quicker top-down solutions that may hurt us a bit—that may restrict how we travel or make ourselves comfortable in the world—but that will reduce the problem for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  It is time for us to begin problem-solving for them, to make a few sacrifices so that they can live in a reasonably safe world.  For us, if we care about our grandchildren, the future is now.

"You've Got Mail" -- A Boomer Classic

The other night I was treated to a surprise airing of what I suspect is my favorite movie, You’ve Got Mail.  That same day, I had been to Schlow Library here in State College and had borrowed Delia Ephron’s book, SisterMotherHusbandDog, which begins with a chapter about her sister, Nora Ephron, who directed the film and co-wrote it with Delia.  It stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan—both of whom are at the top of their game in this film.  Jean Stapleton, who played Edith Bunker on All in the Family, has an important supporting role.  

 You’ve Got Mail will, I believe, stand as a classic film--perhaps the defining romantic comedy of its generation--and is certainly in contention for Best Romantic Comedy Ever Made.  The story is not new.  The script is an update of a 1930s play, Parfumerie, by Miklos Lazslo, that was first adapted for the screen as The Shop Around the Corner in 1940 and remade as a musical, In the Good Old Summer Time, in 1949.   You’ve Got Mail was made in 1998 and is still fresh 15 years later.  While everyone contributed to it, Nora Ephron deserves the greatest credit for pulling it all together and adding two most important elements:  the neighborhoods of New York City and, most important of all, the great soundtrack.  Harry Nillson’s “Remember” and “I Guess the Lord Must Live in New York City”—along with the Cranberries “Dreams”—set the emotional stage for the action.  Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” and Randy Newman’s “Lonely at the Top” punctuate the plot with great energy and humor.

Nora Ephron gave us a lot of memorable films over the years, including another Hanks/Ryan hit Sleepless in Seattle and her last film, Julie and Julia (2009).   Delia Ephron’s memoir of her sister comes as a wonderful and compassionate reminder of a great artist whose work will be with us for many years.  Thanks to both of them, especially, for You’ve Got Mail.

Delia Ephron on Writing

Here is what Delia Ephron says about writing in her new book, Sister Mother Husband Dog:

Our job as writers, as we begin that journey, is to figure out what we can do.  Only do what you can do.  It’s a rule I live by.  Among other things, it means I can have novels heavier on dialog than description.  But more important, if you only do what you can do, you never have to worry that someone else is doing it.  It keeps you from competing.  It keeps you looking inside for what’s true rather than outside for what’s popular.  Ideally.  Your writing is your fingerprint.”  She adds in the next paragraph, “It’s our job in life to come to some understanding of our own identity, and being a writer makes that easier.” (p. 13).

             I read it on a beautiful morning, as I struggled with some of my own writing.  “Only do what you can do” is a good writing mantra.  Write to become yourself, not to imitate someone else. 

            Thanks, Delia.

President Obama's Four-Pronged Foreign Policy

Last week, President Obama used a commencement address at West Point to summarize his administration’s approach to foreign policy issues. He told the future military leaders, “The question we face . . . is not whether America will lead but how we will lead, not just to secure our peace and prosperity but also to extend peace and prosperity around the globe.”

            President Obama described three aspects of foreign policy:

1.            When a global issue does not pose a direct threat to the United States, he argues that our policy should be to “mobilize allies and partners to take collective action.”

2.            When terrorism is the threat, the goal should be to “more effectively partner with countries where terrorist networks seek a foothold” and use a strategy that “expands our reach without sending forces that stretch our military too thin or stir up local resentments.”

3.            When the goal is to strengthen and enforce international order, “it has been our willingness to work through multilateral channels that kept the world on our side.”   This kind of leadership, he argued, is American strength in action.

The speech was attacked as pulling America back from the global leadership role it has had since the end of World War I.  In a country weary of war, the fear seems to be that this approach will be seen as a sign of weakness by leaders in places like China and Russia, which remain ideological and political competitors.  His argument, in return, is that “what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it is our willingness to affirm them through our actions.” 

            Finally, he notes, “America does not simply stand for stability or the absence of conflict no matter what the cost”—which could be seen as weaknesses by international foes.  Instead, he asserts, “we stand for the more lasting peace that can only come through opportunity and freedom for people everywhere.”   In this context, he argues for a fourth element of foreign policy:  “Our willingness to act on behalf of human dignity”—which is a real national security interest in a global society.  “Democracies,” he says, are our closest friends and are far less likely to go to war.  Economies based on free and open markets perform better and become markets for our goods.  Respect for human rights is an antidote to instability and the grievances that fuel violence and terror.”

            The speech was roundly attacked by those who fear that, in a war-weary country, America will back away from military confrontation and be unwilling to act in its own best interests.  However, President Obama noted that, in the 21^st century—a century defined by global communications and international interdependencies—“American isolationism is not an option.  We don’t have a choice to ignore what happens beyond our borders.” 

            The point of his speech, it seems to me, is that we need to have multiple strategies at hand and be prepared to use them as the situation demands.   This is not a new idea.   Historian Stephen Ambrose, in his historian’s memoir To America, quoted two thought leaders of the 1960s whose ideas remain powerful today.  He quotes Walter Lippman “American can exert its greatest influence in the outer world by demonstrating at home that the latest and most complex modern society can solve the problems of modernity. . . . Example, and not intervention and firepower, has been the historic instrument of American influence on mankind, and never has it been more necessary and more urgent to realize this truth once more.”  And, William Fullbright: “The world has no need, in this age of nationalism and nuclear weapons, for a new imperial power, but there is a great need of moral leadership—by which I mean the leadership of decent example.”

            President Obama’s foreign policy is an attempt to expand America’s foreign policy toolkit so that we can better respond to the challenges and demands of a rapidly changing world and retain true world leadership in the face of resurgent Russian nationalism, expanding Chinese monolithic approach to capitalism, and the ideological frenzy of Islamic jihadism.  It is the right policy for our times.

GM's $35 Million Fine: The Right Punishment?

General Motors received the largest fine that the federal government could levy as a result of corporate lawbreaking that resulted in more than 30 deaths of U.S. citizens.  The amount sounds large, but it is a pittance against GM multi-billion-dollar annual revenue and it certainly is not enough to compensate the families of the dead.
     I wonder:  The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that corporations, like General Motors, are considered as "people"--associations of individuals--for the purposes of being able to invest in political campaigns.  Perhaps, then, they should be considered as"people" when they commit crimes.  In this case, this particular association of individuals has been responsible, thus far, with the deaths of more than 30 other individual citizens through recklessness and purposeful hiding of information about the danger their product represented.  Perhaps, in a case like this, individuals responsible should be charged with criminal negligence resulting in 30+ deaths.
     Corporations should not have it both ways.



G.M. Is Fined Over Safety and Called a Lawbreaker - NYTimes.com

TIme to De-Politicize the Climate Debate

The latest report on global warming--summarized in today's Washington Post-- is that the impact of climate change is already being felt.  It is time for us to de-politicize this issue.  We cannot allow corporate interests--like the Koch brothers and other one-percenters who use their oil money to control politicians and sway public thinking--to continue to keep us from addressing these issues.   This is not about preserving wealth in the oil industry.  It is about everyone.



U.S. climate report says global warming impact already severe - The Washington Post

Investing Journalistic Resources

It has been hard not to notice, over the past few weeks, the incredible amount of energy—and human resources—that CNN has invested in the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 307.   Their coverage of other tragedies pales by comparison.

This was brought home today when a six-year-old boy brought a 45mm handgun to school in the same district where my grandson goes to kindergarten.  It reminded me of all the school shootings that have made the headlines on CNN and elsewhere over the years, from Columbine to the knifings in the Murrysville, Pa., high school earlier this month.  The Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December 2012 gained a fair amount of coverage, but that, too, became old news after a few weeks. 

Wouldn’t it be nice if CNN—or MSNBC or CBS or Fox—decided to stay with these stories, keeping them in the public consciousness (and conscience) and exploring the implications.  I am not suggesting a continuing rant on gun control (Piers Morgan tried that, to his detriment), but follow-up investigation about the impact of this and other massacres on the individuals and communities involved.  How have the families of the murdered children fared in the 18 months since Sandy Hook?  What new policies are schools around the nation implementing to avoid a similar disaster?  How has the family of the perpetrator responded?  What new laws, if any, are being considered?  What kinds of counseling services were implemented?  How has the event affected home sales or business start-ups in the community?  In other words, how has the Sandy Hook massacre affected, long-term, life in that community?  What can other communities learn from the experience? 

Since Sandy Hook in December 2012, there have been at least 58 additional school shootings—at both public schools and higher education—in the United States.  This does not include the knifings in Murrysville, just shootings.  Given how common this sort of thing is in the U.S., perhaps it would even be good to compare events and look for commonalities that might help us better predict and, perhaps, avoid future killings.

It seems to me that this would be much more in the community interest than a continuing story line about a lost airplane.   Responsible news agencies, one could argue, should invest their resources in stories that have a true public impact.   The continued violence in our culture is worth at least as much attention.

Voter Rights: The New Civil Rights Movement

It has occurred to me recently that the Tea Party folks missed the point somewhat when they chose their name.  The Boston Tea Party was not a protest about taxes.  It was a protest about being taxed without representation.  The Bostonians were complaining that the British oligarchs had imposed a tea tax on the colonies without colonists having any valid representation in Parliament, so that their needs would be considered in the process of making laws that affected them.

I was reminded of this important distinction as we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.   These remarkable laws enfranchised millions of Americans to fully participate in our society by allowing them to fully participate in the election process.   Half a century later, I fear we have already taken big steps backward to disenfranchise our citizens.  In the process, we run the risk of creating a new oligarchy at a scale and rate that will destroy American democracy.   Three examples illustrate the problem:

1.            Gerrymandering.   I live in Central Pennsylvania, where my university town has been divided up so that it is part of several conservative, rural state assembly districts, essentially nullifying any liberal tendencies of the university community.   This idea—of re-engineering district borders in order to ensure conservative majorities—has been a national conservative strategy for years. 

2.            Voter  Disenfranchisement.    Throughout the Obama administration, we have seen states attempting to limit access to the poor and racial minorities by requiring visual ID, limiting voting hours, etc.  The impact here is to disenfranchise specific classes of individual voters entirely.  This year, for instance, the Huffington Post reported that Ohio reduced early voting and decided that voting places will close at 5 p.m. on Election Day.  The result is to effectively block access for many working-class citizens, minorities, and seniors.

3.             The Influence of Special Interests.   The Citizens United and, most recently, McCutcheon rulings give corporations and other “associations of individuals” the ability to give huge amounts of money to political candidates.   The impact is to essentially compromise our elected officials, leaving individual citizens with no real power as citizens and no real representation in government.  This is today’s equivalent of the tea tax that led to the Boston tea party.

The result is that, 50 years after the passage of the Voter Rights Act, many American citizens no longer have full access to representation.  Some have been denied the opportunity through redistricting that puts them in a permanent minority position; others have been denied access to the voting booth.  And, regardless of who wins, many candidates are compromised by the huge amounts of money invested in their elections by corporations and other special interests, leaving individual citizens with no practical representation.

What we need is not a Tea Party focused on eliminating government services for citizens, but a new Civil Rights movement that is committed to ensuring that all Citizens have equal and effective access to representation at the State and Federal levels.  

Leonard Pittts, Jr. and Arizona

Leonard Pitts Jr.: Boycott Arizona | Leonard Pitts Jr. | CentreDaily.com

Leonard Pitts, Jr., has written what I think is an important column about the pending Arizona law that would allow people to discriminate based on their religious beliefs.

We are a nation of immigrants.  The fundamental fact about Americans is that we all come from different places, with different cultures, different traditions, etc.  What we share in common is that we are Americans and honor the principles of equality on which our nation was created.  As we become Americans, we tend to create two cultures.  One is the private culture of our family traditions.  The other is the public culture of being an American in a great democracy.  Tolerance for the beliefs of others is what makes it possible for all of us to honor our personal/familial/cultural traditions while maintaining a free society.  The democracy of a nation of immigrants cannot survive if each of us is to put our private beliefs above our public commitment to equality.

This is not a freedom of religion issue, as much as the Arizona legislature wants to call it that.  It is a license for intolerance.

Thanks to the Beatles on their 50th Anniversary in the US

Tonight marks the 50^th anniversary of the Beatles’ premiere on American television—The Ed Sullivan Show—back in 1964. 

I was working at Little Italy, a family-owned restaurant in Hermitage, at the time.  The owners, Mr. and Mrs. Bishop, brought in a TV and we watched it there.   

I saw the Beatles in 1966.  They were playing at the Cleveland baseball stadium.  That was the year I graduated from high school.  I was working at the local Arby’s, and a group of us drove up to Cleveland for the concert.  We parked outside the city and took a trolley into town.  We had lunch and then went over to the hotel where the Beatles were staying.  Saw nothing, but enjoyed the crowd.

In those days, the amplification systems were not yet powerful enough for full-stadium concerts, so the stage was set on second base and the seating went around from first base to third base.  Our seats were close to first base.  The Beatles were great.  But, when the opening guitar riff for “Day Tripper” started, the crowd went wild and kids stormed the stage.  Police had set up snow fence around the track and tried to hold back the crowd, but to no avail.  The Beatles retreated to a trailer set behind the stage until things got settled down and then came out and finished their set.  On the trolley back to our car, we saw several people who carried souvenirs of the concert.  One had one the first (or third) base bag.  Another had the neck of a guitar.

The Beatles—along with Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and a few others—continued to provide social markers for us through college.  I remember the day the White Album came out, for instance, and we gathered in a friend’s apartment to listen to it for the first time.  Many thanks to them all for giving a soundtrack to our generation.

National Service and the Declaration of Independence

E.J. Dionne Jr.: A call for national service - The Washington Post

In this opinion piece, published in the Post's July 4 issue, Dionne reminds us that the founding vision of the United States is of a community in which citizens care for each other.  National service--not necessarily military service, but an environment in which young people spend a year helping to improve their community through many avenues of service--is a way to realize that vision.

The August 2013 issue of Harper's includes a transcript of a speech given by Mark Kingwell in which he states:

You can either use a pillow or a gun to kill a person, but people with guns kill more people than do people with pillows.  Marshall McLuhan was correct:  the medium really is the message.

 What is the message?  It is not complicated.  If you own a handgun or, certainly a semi-automatic rifle, the message you are sending is that you are willing to kill another human being at your own discretion.  That is the only reason to own such a weapon.  One can make the case that the message is that the gun owner will protect him/herself at any cost, but the end result is the same.  Gun owners tell us:  I will kill you if I feel personally justified in doing so.

The amazing thing is that millions of Americans send that message every day.

Letter from Bill and Melinda Gates - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

 Letter from Bill and Melinda Gates - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation



The annual letter from the Gates Foundation focuses less on what the Foundation has done over the past year and more on three myths that we need to overcome in order to realize the full potential for growth around the globe.

The myth that resonates most with me is the idea that poor countries are doomed to stay poor.  Adherence to that myth contributes to the idea that the U.S. is falling behind in the world when, perhaps, a better analysis might be that we are all becoming more equal.  As Fareed Zakaria wrote, we are witnessing "the rise of the rest."

Americans need to become comfortable with the idea of global equality as a goal.  Robert Reich has a movie entitled "Inequality for All."  In fact, inequality for anyone IS inequality for all.  We need to work toward global equality just as we did in the 1960s for equality among Americans.  This is not a goal where war can help.  It is a goal that is best pursued through compassion and a willingness to see ourselves as part of a larger family.

Living versus Touring

We are just back from what is becoming our annual vacation trip to Ogunquit, Maine.   We went the first time on our honeymoon in June 1972.  We had stopped in Boston to visit friends (who treated us to a memorable Bloomsday tour of Boston and surrounds) and then started for what we thought would be a trip up the coast of Maine.  Our first stop was Ogunquit, where we found a nice bed and breakfast for the night.  The next day, we decided to stay the week.  On our last night, our host introduced us to another honeymoon couple from Quebec and sent us out for dinner and a show.  While they spoke only French and we mostly English, we had a great time.  It was a memorable stay.  We had not been back since then, but in 2011 we drove up for another June visit and then went back again in September. We missed last year because we had just moved into our new house, but we couldn't wait to get back this past week.  Ogunquit has grown, but it has kept the spirit of an artists' retreat and high-end resort town.  But the real draw is the ocean, the Marginal Way path along the rocky coast, and the little restaurants, galleries, and museums that dot it and the surrounding area--the Yorks, Wells, and Kennebunkport.  No sooner had we returned than we booked another four nights in September.  I am sure we will do it again every year as long as we can handle the 9-hour drive.

Of course, we've already heard the complaint:  Why do you always go back to the same places?  There is a big world out there. Why not try something new?  It is a question worth exploring a bit.

Sure, the world is big.  But what is better, to skim the surface of many places or to get to know a few places that speak to you and, at whatever level you can, become a part of them and find within them whatever reflection they may have of the universal?  I've been to a lot of places over the years--every continent except Antarctica--and while I have enjoyed new sights and sounds, I much prefer when I can to linger, to get to know a place, to become familiar with it and to enjoy its essence.  Touring is interesting, but not satisfying.

This is true in other areas of life.  For instance, I've pretty much stayed with one area in my career--changing with technology, but keeping to the vision of how we use technology to connect people and ideas.  As a result, I think--or at the very least, I hope--that I've been able to make a greater contribution because I came, over time and by dealing with change within the field, to understand the underlying realities of the field.  I also became part of an ongoing and vibrant professional community and developed both professional relationships and friendships with colleagues from many places around the world who are connected by our shared commitment to the profession.

The world is a big place.  While we need to be reminded of its diversity, we also need to understand what holds us together.  We can best understand it, perhaps, not by trying to see it all, but by trying to experience a few parts of it as deeply as possible.