June 14, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Opinion

Don’t forget Father’s Day, June 17.

Reading material

It wasn’t long after I was first hired here at the Chestnut Hill Local that I began to advocate for a fiction/poetry edition.

Like most English majors, I was an amateur poet. My poetry career peaked in ’98 when the only submission I ever made was published in a small ‘zine called Alphabeat Soup. Since then I have never had time again to devote to the art.

No one has had more enthusiasm for this special issue than Jimmy J. Pack Jr, who has long been with the Local as a designer/photographer/writer. Unlike me, Jimmy has managed to do all that for the Local and pursue an amateur fiction career that has landed his short stories in Berkley Fiction Review, Pangolin Papers, Route 66 Magazine, Howling Dog and Just a Moment.

He and I both felt the Local could and should periodically support like-minded amateurs (or professionals) who still manage to find the time to put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard. And so, at long last, this issue marks the first of what we would like to see become an annual exercise: The Chestnut Hill Local Fiction and Poetry edition.

First a word about process: We received numerous submissions from readers from across the “greater Northwest” corner of the city and suburbs. Jimmy and I read every piece and then consulted about making our selections. As we read, we selected pieces we thought were worthy of publication. We ended up with a sizeable number of submissions, the majority of which we realized would never fit in one edition of the paper. It was clear that one of our greatest obstacles would be finding the space for all that we would like to print. From there we narrowed down our favorites pile to a handful of bests that we felt were clearly superior.

For fiction, we both agreed immediately that Lee W. Doty’s “Beauregard” was the standout. This funny and touching tale recalls the death of a beloved family dog and the surprising impact that the passing has for the family’s father. We also found a lot to like about the vivid and compelling “Guanahani” by Germantown Friends School 11th grader and Chestnut Hill resident Blair Thornburgh.

If we had more room, we would have definitely included “Second-Story Man” by Stephen Shoff, and “The Locket” by Maureen Benzing. We have published both on our Web site, www.chestnuthilllocal.com and urge you to look them up and give them a read.

With poetry our task was more difficult. We received far more poetry than fiction, with more that 50 individuals submitting their work for consideration. Herein we endeavored to achieve the same goal: We printed the standouts and have placed that which we did not have room for on our Web site.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who submitted to the Fiction and Poetry Edition and encourage you, even if you weren’t included this time, to try again next year.

Enjoy the read.

Pete Mazzaccaro

Opinion: Building a vision for Chestnut Hill’s main streets
A series of lectures this fall will build on studies that have already been made of how to continue improving Chestnut Hill’s main streets, Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike.
by CHRIS LANE

I read with interest Jeff Meade’s guest editorial, “Quality of life after Wawa.” [June 7] Meade’s arguments had at their core what he saw as the crucial issue: that “there is no plan, no thought at all about what we want the Avenue to be, or to become,” and he suggested a solution of having the community decide “Just what do you want?”

I must take exception to Meade’s assertion that there is no plan and that no thought has been given to the issues of just what it is we want in Chestnut Hill. In recent years there have been, in fact, a number of panels and committees, sponsored by a variety of community-based organizations, established specifically to address this topic, including a community-wide retreat in 2002 sponsored by the Chestnut Hill Business Association. There have also been a surprising number of plans and studies on Chestnut Hill’s future done over the years, by among others the Chestnut Hill Community Association, the Chestnut Hill Historical Society and the Chestnut Hill Business Association.

I do agree, however, with Meade that the community as a whole has not articulated just what we want from Chestnut Hill. The studies, panels and committees have been organized by various groups with necessarily limited focus, and the results have not always been widely publicized or discussed. The desires of the different constituencies within the community have also made it less than a simple matter to implement the recommendations of these groups, where, for instance, the desire for additional restaurants can come into conflict with the desire to limit traffic and noise. It is apparent that, as Meade suggests, community-wide involvement in the planning process is crucial to articulate what we want Chestnut Hill to be, so we can then act in a coherent manner to address the various issues (Meade’s broken windows) that we are faced with on a regular basis.

In March this year, the Chestnut Hill Historical Society sponsored a panel discussion on “How we can build on Chestnut Hill’s Architectural Heritage: an Interactive Discussion about Our Future.” This lively and well-attended meeting showed how many members of our community wanted to discuss issues such as Meade has raised. In response to this, beginning in the autumn, the Chestnut Hill Historical Society will join with the Chestnut Hill District to sponsor a series of monthly panel discussions for the community about Chestnut Hill’s future.

The discussions will be titled “Vision for Chestnut Hill’s Main Streets” and they will focus on just what it is we want from our main streets, primarily Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike. Our main streets fill a lot of different roles in our community: they are a shopping area, a transportation nexus, a parking area, a residential neighborhood, public space, a social center, and the heart of our community’s unique historical and aesthetic character. Our programs will look at all these different aspects, asking for each just what it is we want from our main street in this role.

The first meeting will be held on Sept. 26 at the Chestnut Hill Library and its focus will be what it is we want from our main streets in terms of being a shopping area. The second meeting, to be held Oct. 24, will focus on what it is we want from our main streets in terms of being a transportation nexus and parking area. Further monthly meetings will follow on other topics and we hope that by the end of this series of programs, the Chestnut Hill community will have a better understanding of what vision it is we share of Chestnut Hill’s future so that we can fix our broken windows in a coherent manner and even make improvements before any windows get broken.

Chris Lane is a board member of both the Chestnut Hill Historical Society and the Chestnut Hill District.

Opinion: Local politicians continue funding failure
by JIM FOSTER

Massive regulatory failure and its effects on those who were served was the subject of a Philadelphia Inquirer headline two-part series with front page placement on May 30. The expose of Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services and the local Germantown Settlement as one of those failed providers is a must-read for area residents. John Sullivan’s compelling story of failure to provide quality care and contracted services by the recipients was only matched by the failures of those with delegated oversight responsibility.

Renewing contracts year after year with the same failed providers, missing records with excuses that parallel “the dog ate my homework”, apparent fraud on the part of social workers, and little or no follow-up on critical cases that may have led to premature deaths are only a part of the story told here with frightening detail. None of this is new to those of us who have been active in this community, for similar patterns of failure and non-natural deaths in state licensed and regulated Personal Care Homes have been exposed by citizens, not the agencies themselves.

For those of us in the larger community, that would be the 8th Councilmanic District, the prime example of failure exposed in this article, the Germantown Settlement, should not be a surprise. This organization and its multiple affiliates, both non-profit and for-profit, have long been consumers of millions and millions of taxpayer and private grant dollars channeled there by councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and her predecessors in a relationship that needs much more exposure. But this is no secret to the informed, particularly in Germantown.

Complaints about substandard care in “Settlement” controlled facilities have been ongoing. Massive tax delinquencies make the “worst offenders” list year after fiscal year. Required Federal Tax reports go unfiled. License and Inspection violations in owned and controlled enterprises are manifold, yet nothing changes and the money continues to roll in, all controlled by our local political leaders. Don’t expect to find any published listing of how much money and who received it. Outrage would be the only reaction one could have to the statistic in the Inquirer article where a panel formed to study these issues concluded that in the area of child care, more is spent per individual child in this city than in an other city in the nation and yet the results are substandard.

The Charter School operated by the Settlement fails in an environment where almost no one fails at a charter school. Multi-million dollar renewal projects such as Freedom Square go insolvent, are posted for sheriff’s sale, and mysteriously get refinanced under the radar. With continuous non-performance under its belt, Settlement gets city funding to purchase the Woman’s Y building when no private lenders would touch them. All this happens after Mayor Street, Donna Reed Miller and Herb Wetzel of the Redevelopment Authority take a walk through the building, we are told in press reports. According to the Inquirer article, contracts are renewed with Settlement agencies despite documented failures and recommendations to the contrary. Should not someone, at some level, ask why?

Not in this city. Our District Attorney stated on the record in the last election that she “does not investigate municipal corruption.” I think the last Comptroller to challenge a city contract may have been Alex Hemphill in the 1959-1967 period. The City Solicitor’s Office record in prosecuting criminal activity regarding violations of many statutes is laughable at best and most informed folks consider it a political arm, not an investigative one.

Then we have the court of last resort, our political leaders. These are the ones who can, if they ever care to, stop all that process, energize oversight activity, demand accountability, and, most important of all, cut off funding — ARE YOU KIDDING! They do the exact opposite. They force feed and continue funding many agencies despite complaints and recorded failure. On top of the million-plus that Settlement got from the City to buy the Women’s Y, through Miller’s office, the State is giving Settlement another million-plus for renovations through the efforts of State Representatives John Myers, and Dwight Evans, chair of the Appropriations Committee. (What is particularly interesting here is that the Women’s Y building being financed is not in Rep. Myers district — no matter — this is Philadelphia).

Residents and voters of the 8th District in particular take notice. The laughable results of the just-completed primary election are putting the same local machine in power for another four years thanks to shortsighted challengers who delivered the power back to Miller with only about 30 percent of the vote. The general election is six months away. There will be other options and from what we have seen so far, I would bet on more investigations.

We have to do more than hope.

Bring us your huddled masses yearning to be yoked
by HUGH GILMORE

Since we’re almost half way through the year, a restatement of this column’s genesis might be in order. Every year for the past 10 years I’ve aspired to read 100 books and failed because of “The Enemies of Reading.” The number 100 was chosen randomly, but seemed grandiose enough to strive for, like hitting .300 in baseball or averaging 20 points a game in basketball. I’ve read that “many” people do read a hundred books (or more) a year, but except for one woman I met through this column, I don’t personally know any of them.

Despite my good intentions in the past, I averaged about 65 books a year, a little more than one a week. Then I got the idea to try publicly aspiring to read 100 books. I’d write about my efforts and the enemies I met along the way. This column would put me in a public spotlight and thus oblige me to live up to my intentions.

Why bother?

The most important personal thing I do each day is read at least 50 pages of a book. No day feels complete if I don’t. Before I can let go and submit to the need to sleep, I must read. And it must be from a book.

Only books put us in touch with the highest intellectual attainments of the human mind and spirit. Books gives us access to the thoughts and experiences of some very wise people who do not sit and waste their lives like the rest of us. They think, they act, they study and they research the most intricate, subtle, interesting and morally confounding behavior humanity is capable of.

Spending time with an insightful writer is the equivalent of ten thousand trips to the holy man of the mountain. If the writer is observant, honesty, and insightful, it doesn’t matter what kind of book you read. Even if, for example, what you read is “only” a biography, your life will be enriched.

The wisdom comes one word at a time and without such distractions as soundtracks, or scenery, or fellow audience members. Just you and your book.

Unquestionably, many wonderful newspapers, magazines and blogs also need your attention. You should read them. Read them all. But save time for books. The ideas and information of the lesser media have been written under deadline and constrained by space limits. They are superficial compared to books. Books are expansive.

They also consume lots of time, the most precious commodity we have in our brief lifetimes. To survive at any level, we’re forced by necessity to sell units of our scarce time in exchange for money. Any extra dough purchases our leisure.

Books may cost more time than other pleasures, but it’s of a kind that allows us to get distanced from the crassness of modern culture. In today’s world, reading an entire book is an accomplishment. Those in the habit of reading might chortle at that notion, but the majority of people in America do not read books. I tried Googling for some juicy statistics that would buff up this point, but the Internet is aswarm with them and none seemed worth pinpointing. Suffice it to say, most studies state that the majority of Americans never read a book again after high school or college. And to the dismay of aspiring novelists everywhere: the less-than-half who do read do not read fiction.

It seems contradictory, doesn’t it, that in order to purchase a book at Borders or Barnes and Noble you usually have to wait in line. Books seem to be so popular. But book buying and book reading are different pursuits. I’d be willing to bet that 65 percent of all new books sold on any given day are never read by the purchaser. Their sale is a tribute to good intentions and great cover designs. Once home they sit as idly as a donut-eater’s treadmill — reminders of pathways to the finer, better selves we’ll get around to being someday.

Naming names

Time to name the so-called “Enemies of Reading.” Obviously, the number one culprit is that great flat-screen thief of time, television. “Chewing gum for the eye.” “The Vast Wasteland.”

Silver cup goes to the Internet. Absolutely fascinating, infinitely rich and diverse, intoxicating. Time-consuming too, unfortunately.

Rented movies have to fit somewhere on this list. Movies are probably the world’s favorite art form — or, if that’s too highbrow: the planet’s favorite medium of entertainment. By favorite, I mean dear to the heart, not necessarily the most time-consuming. Seeing movies costs money, more every year, while watching television (if you can’t afford cable) remains free (unless you count destroyed brain cells as a cost). But a TV addict will not spend fewer life-hours in front of the plasma just because he doesn’t have 188 cable stations. Regular TVs eight or so will waste a life just as well.

I guess, strictly speaking, that gardening, running, lifting weights, bird watching, swimming, surfing, etc. are also “enemies of reading.” So are games, talking, people watching, listening to music or playing Frisbee with your dog. They all compete for the limited, precious free time we’ve earned after work.

But none of them is pernicious in the way that television watching is. Television has been designed by geniuses who know how to manipulate our weaknesses. They know how to get us thirsty and then slip compliance drugs in our drinks. These very crafty people want to steal every hour of our lives so they can steal our wallets.

Like fast food, like dog food, like lite beer, TV has managed to fool the taste buds — indeed, create cravings — in order to bloat us with its product. Thus do we spend the days of our lives.

Field Report

As of June 10, I have read 47 books this year. I was knocking off slightly more than 10 a month when the cold winds were blowing. With the arrival of spring, I’ve slowed down in order to enjoy the sights and sounds I missed back when we had the doors and windows closed.

Contact Hugh Gilmore at gilmorebooks@yahoo.com.