There will be no fresh content today on THE PLANET (at least today and perhaps longer). We received terrible news on Saturday. Our brother Peter died suddenly at home on Friday. I ask for your kind indulgence in the interim.

Thanks for your understanding. I thank all those who have contacted me, on this site or in some other fashion, with condolences. They mean more than you realize.

My brother Pete was the oldest of three boys, six years older than me and three years ahead of Mike. Pete provided us with a great example of how to be a boy then, later, how to be a man. There is a hole now, an empty part, but I hold it true that we rise on the “stepping stones of our dead selves to higher things … Let Love clasp Grief lest both be drowned.” These are the comforting words of Alfred Tennyson, from his epic poem, “In Memorium.” It’s the alarm clock that wakes me from a nightmare.

I hope to find it in me to write a proper tribute to Peter, but that must come of its own choosing.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

DAN VALENTI

JUNE 17, 2013

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 2013) — THE PLANET has learned that on Thursday, June 6, Boring Broadsheet (a newspaper formerly known as The Berkshire Eagle) editor Tim Farkas was “marched out of the building.” Farkas had been terminated.

It’s not clear if he was fired, left under duress, or resigned. We have not learned the reason for his sudden dissolution, but we should note that at the end of March, Andy Mick stepped down as publisher. Kevin Corrado took his place. Corrado came to the BB by way of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. It’s not uncommon for the new boss to make changes once that person feels he or she has a lay of the land.

Newsroom sources said they were not surprised by the change; neither is THE PLANET. Farkas didn’t exactly recall Horace Greeley or James Gordon Bennett (two legendary editors from yesteryear, for those who don’t know). We met with him once, over lunch, shortly after he took over the BB newsroom. He struck us as a nice enough chap, but in the news business, you judge an editor’s worth by his work. Under his watch, the newsroom declined, morale sank, and many talented workers toiled with and under an ineffective leader. Farkas never gave compelling evidence that he knew Berkshire County, and that will be one of Corrado’s greatest challenges. He must learn the community.

A good editor doesn’t back away from stories. A great editor is fearless. Farkas was neither. Newspapers should question everything, especially those in charge. Newspapers should have a strong investigative reporting team. Farkas did not build one. In fact, he silently presided over the marginalization of both Jack Dew and later Conor Barry, two good ones who were too smart and too good to retreat back into the safe, mediocre, colorless coverage for which the BB has become known. Farkas used the budget cuts that hit the newsroom as his excuse for producing middling, lackluster, forgettable coverage. Leaders don’t use this crutch. They find ways around it, turn loose their reporters, and encourage enterprise.

A good newspaper acts with courage. A great newspaper does that to serve the community, acting as a watchdog — The Fourth Estate — over democracy. The latter, so much in peril from so many assaults on numerous fronts, cannot afford a shrinking press presence, and yet, since the now-bankrupt (and in receivership) Media News Group purchased The Berkshire Eagle only to turn it into The Boring Broadsheet, that’s what the newspaper has given Berkshire County and especially the county seat, Pittsfield. We’ve seen the result, especially with the rise of the GOB and the demise of responsible representation from elected and appointed officials.

THE PLANET has spent the better part of the past score of years exposing what we can, exerting a full effort not to be “objective” but to publish the truth. We have served as a constructive critic of social and communal ills, provoking thought and encouraging a free marketplace of ideas. That accounts for the stellar rise in this website, from day one with no readers to today’s burgeoning online presence, all by word of mouth and compelling stories.

Farkas never connected with the local community. He came in as top newsroom executive after leaving his job as sports editor of the Times Union in Albany. There’s a world of difference between running the sports department (called “the toy store” of a newspaper) and the newsroom, and Farkas didn’t have the elusive “it.”

We hope this signals a change in the newsroom. We hope that under a new editor, the BB can become, once again, The Berkshire Eagle. To do so, Farkas’ replacement will need to revitalize morale, drive excellence through the example of his or her leadership, and install a culture of accuracy, audaciousness, integrity, and undaunted responsibility not to the GOB, not to the Status Quo, not to the Usual Suspects, not to the Chosen Ones, and not to the Special Interests, but to Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski — We The People.

———————————————————————

In its deliberations last night on the Pittsfield School Department budget, the city council was meeting as a whole. Boil it all down, the votes that it took were strictly advisory, having no bearing upon policy. The meeting was little more than a public information session, the purpose of which was to give councilors information and the ability to question department heads on their fiscal requests.

The purpose of votes — to send messages to the mayor, up, down, equal, or indifferent. Last night, our Right Honorable Good Friends voted to do nothing to curb the out-of-control school department spending — all but Barry Clairmont, that is. Clairmont dissected the numbers, laid out a reasonable case for fiscal responsibility, and presented it in a dispassionate way, led by the data. His fellow councilors went with emotion, however, too scared to risk upsetting the powers that be within the schools. It’s election season, you know.

Clairmont had this to say to THE PLANET:

Councilor Mazzeo also sends her children out of district, which is every parents right. It’s a personal decision. [Here, he's responding to a point made earlier by one of our readers]

However, she mentioned that she wanted a level funded school budget, which would have been a 1.9 million dollar cut. Yet she didn’t support my 1.5 million dollar cut and said I was on a witch hunt. Go figure.

Then she asked questions that she didn’t go to them ahead of time to ask. I don’t understand why I was wrong and it was okay for her.

All but councilorLothrop, Krol and Capitanio agreed with one of my points. Yet none proposed a single cut, just like last year. I can respect those that disagree with me on a matter of principle, but not when they agree with my points and don’t propose a single cut.

The council and mayor still can deal with the school department budget in favor of taxpayers and The Children, but you know, we know, and the man in the moon knows that they won’t.

And so the farce continues.

——————————————————————————–

SEX, SEX, and MORE SEX

Pittsfield may be near the bottom of the barrel in jobs creation, but it doubles the state average in teen pregnancies.

“It’s a whole lot of teen moms and a whole lot of babies,” Kristine Hazard, United Way director, told the Pittsfield Gazette.

Indeed it is, and the answer? Spend more taxpayer dollars. Coordinate with social agencies. Give more money to the public schools. Anne Marie Carpenter, head of the public schools’ psychologists, and the school administration want to adopt a national program “to promote family dialogue.” Kids in grammar school learn about sex. Kids in middle school learn about sex. Kids in high school learn about sex. All God’s chillen learn about sex!

Back in THE PLANET’s day, we had our fathers’ National Geographics, the dictionary, and 15-year-old Roarback Cusava (who claimed to have, you know, “done it,” for our sex education). Oh, and we also had two parents in the home, a clear understanding of right and wrong, and girls who said “no.” Oh, did they ever say no! We made out OK. Today, our little darlings have Learning About Myself and Others (LAMO), 9th and 10th grade “health courses,” free contraception advice and devices handed out in the high schools like M&Ms at Trick or Treat (in this case, it’s Trick and Treat), and the topper of all sex education devices, the Internet, which puts an adult bookstore into the palms of every kid.

Kids wake up with sex over them, under them, around them, and through them. They digest it from the movies, in video games, on TV, on the computer, in magazines, and in every medium under the sun. The Pittsfield School Department, though, wants more taxpayer money to create more programs.

Talk about your cold shower.

——————————————————————————

MAMA, LEAVE YOUR KIDS AT HOME

Finally, this report from the wires, speaking of the Little Darlins’.

A new sushi restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia, has caused a stir by insisting that it’s for adults only. In fact, it’s gone so far as toban kids completely.

Also on Shine: Restaurant Bans Kids Under 6. Discrimination or Smart Move?

“Welcome,” reads the black-and-white sign on the door of The Sushi Bar. “This is an adults-only environment. No children under 18 please.”

Also on Shine: Is the No-Kids-Allowed Movement Spreading?

Some outraged parents have promised to boycott the upscale eatery, which opened just last weekend in the Del Ray area.

“Great way to keep me out of your spot,” griped one commenter on the Sushi Bar’s Facebook page. “As a single parent, thanks… we will dine at another sushi bar!”

“In case anyone is wondering, no, I won’t be patronizing this establishment if I’m ever again in the area,” added another commenter.

But the restaurant owners say that they had always planned to make the eatery a child-free zone.

“It’s going to be smaller, more upscale,” co-owner Mike Anderson told The DelRay Patch in April.”No kids under 18. … Adults have said they need a place, too.” He has three kids of his own, he told Today.com, only two of whom would be old enough to eat at his new place.

“We by no means hate children or think they don’t belong in restaurants,” co-owner Bill Blackburntold told WUSA-TV. “They just don’t belong in this particular one.”

Outside of the local community, the movement to ban kids from certain places — planes and restaurants, mostly — has caused widespread debate. Some restaurants, like McDain’s in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, ban younger kids, usually under the age of 6. Even kid-friendly Disneybanned children younger than 10 from some of its Florida resort’s restaurants. And some airlinesare responding to consumers who  feel that the skies might be a friendlier place to fly if kids weren’t allowed on planes.

In this upscale Alexandria sushi restaurant, though, diners don’t seem to think that the no-child policy is that much of a problem.  Largely, the response to ban on the restaurant’s Facebook page has been positive, with commenters applauding the restaurant for the move. “This is a great idea, and I have two children!” writes one enthusiastic commenter.  According to WUSA-TV, the policy has been a boon for the business—the restaurant’s been packed every night.

“They’ve gotten a lot of press over the whole no-kids thing, but I don’t really know why,” wrote “Dennis B” on Yelp.com this week. He gave the restaurant a five-star review. “Just walking into the place you see that it’s not really a place to bring your little ones, even if they didn’t have the policy.  It’s small and intimate, with big comfy couches taking up half the restaurant.  The kind of place that you want to sit back and relax – almost like having sushi served to you in your living room.”

And even patrons who are parents say they can see the point. One mother, who opted not to share her name, told WUSA-TV: “I understand why they would do that. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“I have three children and I would love to go to a kid-free restaurant,” commented Carl Harper onFacebook. A chance to eat a meal in peace. I have gone to different places to enjoy a meal away from the kids just to be bothered by other people’s screaming children. Also to be bothered by the children who run around acting like it’s Chuck E. Cheese’s.”

“I’m a mom, and I have no problem with that,” added Gretchen Sher via Facebook. “There are plenty of places for my kids to go with my husband and I that welcome families, and we can always get a sitter if we want to go to an adult-only place.”

Others feel that 18 is too old of a cut-off for kids.

“Our son loves sushi and is very well behaved,” wrote a Patch reader in response to the news. “He’s been to several 3 star, upscale restaurants. At 12 years old he’s way beyond the shrieking phase.”

Anderson and his business partners also own the restaurants on either side of The Sushi Bar – Pork Barrel BBQ and Holy Cow, both of which are more family friendly. For families in the area, that means they’ve still got options—even if sushi isn’t one of them.

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

“I am not here [in Hong Kong] to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality” — Edward Snowden

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013) — There is no overstating the implications of Edward Snowden‘s heroic revelations, at great personal cost, of the massive spying the U.S. government has been doing for the past seven years on its citizens. For years, the government has denied the very thing that Snowden has exposed and a red-faced Obama Administration has been forced to admit.

Beyond the fact that the case offers proof that the America we all once knew and loved no longer exists lies the irreducible granite block of veracity — We cannot believe what our government tells us. You are no longer on the grassy knoll to assert that U.S. officials are harvesting megadata on every U.S. citizen who uses a phone or a computer. At last, there’s proof.

Concerning  Snowden’s  expose, the argument has been made that “if you’re innocent you’ve nothing to fear.” This false premise then produce a valid conclusion but one that is not true: “Therefore, they can collect information on me, because I’m doing nothing wrong.” Forget the slippery slope. This is an ice-glazed downhill 80-degree decline.

It’s incredible that any serious, intelligent person would reason in this sloppy, haphazard way on so critical an issue. The simple counterpoint to this, of course, is to point out that even if you are innocent, the U.S. government still collects massive amounts of data on you. It even has a program, as Snowden revealed, to organize the information — yes, there is a file on you in the government’s hands. You could be as pure as Ivory Snow and as innocent as Little Miss Muffet, and you’ve still been thrown into the same category as “Suspected Terrorist.”

Once the data becomes part of the government’s clutches, neither you, Timmy the Bartender, nor your Aunt Emma’s pet poodle will have any control over how it is used. That’s the key. Remember, as much as intelligence, counterintelligence, and surveillance remain a necessary evil in this high-tech, networked world of ours, the information harvested will become tainted by politics. Remember that Snowden revealed that “Any analyst at any time can get anyone.” They can and they will.

Snowden, a contract employee for the federal government, was a low-to-mid-level analyst for the National Security Agency‘s Hawaiian office. He said that from his computer, he could focus in on any person contained in the megadata collection. He had the autonomy to do it, he said, and that there were and are many other analysts who had and have such power. Analysts are human. They have ups and downs in life, make friends and enemies, have relationships, break up, get into messes, and all the rest of what goes on in the human experience. In other words, they can use personal grudges to abuse their power.

It is an easy thing, for example, for a government analyst to access, review, and make use of information against someone whose politics he finds disagreeable. We won’t list the nearly infinite ways in which this information can be used to turn the lives of American citizens into something from the gulag. The fact is, the government has this information on you, and at any point, it can be used against you, for any purpose and at little or no provocation.

Snowden revealed just three aspects of the government’s information harvesting. There are more.

— A sealed court order forcing Verizon to turn over millions of phone records. Snowden leaked this document.

— PRISM, a program that gathers communications from customers of Internet companies such as Apple,  Facebook, Yahoo!, and Google. PRISM provides the feds “direct access” to the servers of Internet providers. Prior to Snowden’s leaking, these companies as well as the federal government have denied such a program exists. Well, it does. Been on line today? The government knows all about it.

— A program with the chilling name, “Boundless Informant.” BI tracks, collects, catalogs, and maps the sources of data the government collects through PRISM and other domestic spying. It creates files on individuals.

As these revelations show, the U.S. government has unilaterally and secretively granted itself the power to break its own laws. This unlimited power exists beyond the realm of the three branches of government (yes, even the executive branch, since President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act into law and Barack Obama built up its provisions into a Death Star opposing freedom).

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is no longer America.

—————————————————————————-

LEFTOVERS FROM A CITY HALL VISIT & COUNCIL MEETING

On Tuesday night, our Right Honorable Good Friends on the city council conducted their regular meeting (Tonight at 6 p.m. in the council chambers, it will host another Committee of the Whole gathering to take up the Pittsfield School Department Budget). Earlier that day, THE PLANET paid a visit to city hall. Our traipse included tea and crumpets in the city clerk’s office, the mayor’s office, and other assorted stops that we shall keep to ourselves. We present, in no particular fashion, some random observations:

* Thus far, it’s been a slow Campaign ’13. Most of the incumbent councilors have taken out papers. There’s been little new blood, except in Ward 1. The only candidate for mayor to take out papers is the current office holder, Dan Bianchi.

* Kathleen Amuso has taken out papers to run for council at large. She has yet to take papers for re-election to the school committee. A person can take out papers for multiple offices, but he or she can only turn in the documents for one of them. From this move, it appears Amuso has had it with the school committee. One cannot blame her.

* The rumor mill has Donna Todd Rivers considering a run either for at large or mayor. THE PLANET visited Rivers to get a comment. She said she’s considering “running for office” but didn’t know which one. Rivers, as you may know, has announced the closing of her bead business on North Street. That would seem to be an effort at clearing the decks. Apropos to little, she said to us, “You hate my radio show.” THE PLANET’s reply: “No, we don’t.” How could we? We have never listened to it.

* The medical marijuana issue moved forward. Once this gets approved, watch how many phantom back injuries start cropping up in Pittsfield. A rash of hangnails also is expected, except for middle and high schoolers. They already know how, when, and where to easily get pot. Ask any 15 year old. Zero tolerance, schmolerance.

* THE PLANET visited the mayor’s office earlier in the day. Bianchi was huddled behind closed doors with Mary McGinnis, his chief of staff, and “not available.” THE PLANET also noticed that the window shades to the corner office were pulled way down. No peeking inside. Later, when we arrived for the council meeting, the mayor hadn’t arrived yet. He entered the room just before the meeting began and left early. We locked eyes, once. THE PLANET detected a faint chill, but we weren’t sure if it was from the mayor or from the temperature. For some reason (probably to keep everyone from falling asleep) they keep the room temperature in council chambers to a comfortable -11 degrees F.

* To keep ourselves occupied, THE PLANET sketched of the councilors during the meeting. Barry Clairmont wasn’t present. He missed his chance at immortality, getting drawn (though not quartered) by THE PLANET. We felt like a court artist, rendering the mugs of clueless defendants. Norman Rockwell, we are not, but our caricature came out pretty darn good. Perhaps we should get the drawing framed to be hung in city hall.

——————————————————————–

 ”Good-bye, proud world! I’m going home: / Thou art not my friend, and I’m not thine.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, from “Good-bye.”

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” – Ben Franklin 1759

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2013) — We temporarily leave aside racial profiling (Doreen Wade spoke at the city council’s open mic session; she revealed nothing dramatic, issuing a call for a more just treatment of blacks within the city), budgetary madness, Beloved Lake Guzzo, and other assorted local topics to take up one with more far-reaching consequences, one that affects every person in Berkshire County and, literally, everyone who has made a phone call or received a phone call within the United States within the past seven years.

What do we want America to be? Do we place greater value freedom or security? Those are the questions.

Granted, the questions are not either/or. Nonetheless, in consideration of NSA informant Edward Snowden‘s shocking release of key documents pertaining to the government’s secret domestic electronic spying programs, either/or, though presenting a false choice, should force citizens to declare one in favor of the other — As a country, we must have this discussion before it’s too late.

In THE PLANET‘s books, Snowden is a hero, and we put him in the same category at Daniel Ellsberg of The Pentagon Papers fame and Julian Assange of Wikileaks. These are men who have risked all on behalf of freedom loving people worldwide, on behalf of freedom itself.  Make no mistake about it: Freedom finds itself under its most serious attack since the Founding Fathers decided 237 years ago against Big Government, Divine Right of Kings, and Religious Rule in favor of personal freedom and a government packed with checks and balances.

Snowden’s defenders have rushed to brand him a hero, comparing him to Ellsberg. Ellsberg himself told the Daily Beast that “I think there has not been a more significant or helpful leak or unauthorized disclosure in American history ever … and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers.” Former Justice Department lawyer Jesselyn Radack argues that Snowden should be protected by a federal whistle-blower statute, since he “said very clearly … that he was doing this to serve a public purpose.”

Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2013/06/10/edward-snowden-a-modern-day-daniel-ellsberg-except-for-one-key-difference/#ixzz2W0WGiZj7

ACLU Suit Offers a Glimmer of Hope

Since the the adoption of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978 and particularly as the debris field and dust settled on the morning after Sept. 11, 2001, the federal government has used a nebulous “War on Terror” as the rationale to check the checks and unbalance the balances. Fortunately, there are still forces in America who are willing to follow in the tradition of Ellsburg, Assange, and Snowden. The American Civil Liberties Union is one of them.

As a Verizon customer, the ACLU filed suit yesterday in federal district court, southern district of New York, naming as defendants Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency (NSA) director Keith Alexander, Defense Secretary Charles Hagel, AG Eric Holder, and FBI Director Robert Mueller III. Regardless of the effectiveness of this suit, the fact that an entity can sue members of the federal government without being sent to a gulag offers a ray of hope.

The ACLU’s complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief does not name Snowden. The organization is technically suing on its own behalf, as a customer of Verizon; in an extended sense, of course, the ACLU is going to bat for all of us, in the same manner as Ellsberg, Assange, and Snowden. Keep in mind that Snowden, in what appears to be an act of high moral action, has put it all on the line. He left a job paying him $200,000. He left his family and loved ones. He’s hiding out in Hong Kong with no guarantees that he’ll ever see the US again as a free man — or even live to see tomorrow.

The ACLU complaint observes how “[g]overnment officials have indicated that the [Verizon] order is part of a program that has been in place for seven years,” one “that collects records of all telecommunications of every customer of [any] major phone company, including Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint.”

“All records of every customer or any phone company” = These are absolute terms that allow no exceptions. It means that if you ever use a phone, you are considered a suspect, potentially guilty until proven innocent, of terrorism and treason. For seven years, the government has been collecting information “about every phone call made or received by residents of the United States.

The lawsuit is courageously challenging “the government’s dragnet acquisition” of phone records. The feds have cited Section 215 of the draconian Patriot Act to harvest this “metadata.” The ACLU contends that Sec. 215 does not authorize the government’s action.

ACLU Cites Three Causes for Action

In its “Causes for Action” (the section of the legal filing wherein the ACLU lists the reasons for seeking relief, the ACLU makes three points:

1. The harvesting of this information “exceeds the authority granted by” Sec. 215 of the Patriot Act.

2. It violates the First Amendment of the Constitution (free speech).

3. It violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. The 14th basically defines what it means to be a citizen of the US. Its due-process and equal-protection clauses are often cited as the means by which the Bill of Rights can and must apply to state and local governments.

The ACLU is asking the court to exercise its jurisdiction, declare the federal government in violation of the Patriot Act and the Constitution, order an immediate cessation of the program, order the feds to purge all records from government databases, and award “fees and costs.”

Here is a link to a 12 and a half minute interview with Snowden. We highly recommend it. The film gives you a sense of the man, his motivations, his methods, and the meanings he intends to affect. NOTE: The link is not hot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yB3n9fu-rM

Meanwhile, CNN reports the following:

(CNN) – Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, knows something about secrets and what happens when they’re exposed.

He has some advice for Edward Snowden, who recently leaked information about the extent of U.S. electronic surveillance programs.

“I would strongly advise him to go to Latin America,” Assange told CNN’s AC360 Monday night. “Latin America has shown in the past 10 years that it is really pushing forward in human rights. There’s a long tradition of asylum.”

Assange spoke from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been holed up for almost a year.

Notable leakers and whistle-blowers

Ecuador’s government granted him asylum in August, but British authorities have said they will arrest him if he leaves the premises.

Assange had kind words for Snowden, whom he described as heroic, and harsh words for the programs he helped to expose.

Snowden, 29, told the British newspaper the Guardian that he left behind his family and a six-figure job in Hawaii to reveal the extent of the NSA’s collection of telephone and Internet data, which he called “an existential threat to democracy.”

NSA leaker ignites global debate: Hero or traitor?

He worked for computer consultant Booz Allen Hamilton, a contractor for the U.S. electronic intelligence agency.

Snowden took off for Hong Kong before the stories were published and had been holed up in a hotel there, the Guardian reported.

He checked out of his hotel Monday but remains in the semiautonomous Chinese territory, said Ewen MacAskill, the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief.

“The oversight of this process is done in secret. The policy is secret,” Assange said.

“It’s not a case of looking at a particular suspect and deciding to apply surveillance to them as we once did in the past, but rather, just bulk, arbitrary, driftnet fishing across, not just Americans, but essentially the whole of the human race.”

In some cases, where there is sufficient evidence, it is right to watch some people for some amount of time, Assange said.

Chinese Internet users back Snowden

But, he argued, there is no justification for keeping such programs a secret.

“No one accepted and gave (U.S. President Barack) Obama the mandate to engage in a worldwide surveillance program on nearly every person.”

Assange fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he raped one woman and sexually molested another.

He has said he fears Sweden will transfer him to the United States, where he could face the death penalty for the work of WikiLeaks if he were charged and convicted of a crime.

He has repeatedly said the allegations in Sweden are politically motivated and tied to the work of his website, which facilitates the publication of secret documents.

Assange has not been charged in the United States, though Assange and his supporters say a U.S. grand jury has been empanelled to consider charges against him.

Petition for the White House

There is an online petition circulating that will find its way to the White House. It reads:

“Edward Snowden is a national hero and should be immediately issued a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs.”

As the White House faces questions about secret Internet and telephone surveillance programs, investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill says, “There’s a chill that’s been sent through the national security reporting community.”

Scahill, who investigated the United States’ covert operations in the war against terrorism in a new documentary, “Dirty Wars,” told Top Line in an interview recorded prior to the most recent NSA leaks that sources inside the government have grown fearful of talking to the media.

“Many sources that I used to be able to talk to through encrypted e-mail or with chats using OTR, off the record software, they won’t do it anymore,” Scahill said. “It’s either in person or nothing. … There’s a real fear on the part of whistleblowers and sources that the Espionage Act is going to come knocking on their door one day under the Noble Peace Prize-winning, Constitutional law professor, Democratic president.”

In his documentary, Scahill makes the case that the Obama administration has overstepped its stated goals of “targeted killings” of terrorists in places like Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia.

Asked if he thinks the U.S. is creating more terrorists than it is killing, Scahill responded: “I think we’re creating more enemies than we are killing terrorists. When I was in Yemen, people were saying, ‘You consider al Qaeda terrorism. We consider the drones terrorism.’”

He told the story of investigating the United States’ first authorized attack in Yemen, which occurred in 2009.

“When I went there to investigate this cruise missile strike, multiple people had cell phone videos of the aftermath,” Scahill recalled. “And the U.S. had claimed that they had wiped out an al Qaeda camp, but their cell phone videos showed bodies of infants being pulled out of rubble, giving lie to the pronouncements that it was just an al Qaeda camp that was hit and civilians didn’t die in it.”

Scahill said that drones have made it easier for the United States to engage in this sort of warfare. But he argued that it’s not so much the technology, but the motivation, that concerns him about drone attacks.

“Focusing too much on the technology misses the broader point that assassination is becoming not just a central part of U.S. national security policy, but is sort of being legitimized by President Obama,” he said.

For more of the interview with Scahill and to hear what questions he thinks the Washington press corps has failed to ask the president, check out this episode of “Top Line.”

ABC’s Eric Wray, Alexandra Dukakis, Betsy Klein, Jon Kessler, and Gary Rosenberg contributed to this report.

As the government continues its pell-mell assault on freedom, standing by silently or having no opinion cannot be an option worthy of respect. For our part, THE PLANET condemns this abuse of surveillance and falls on the side of freedom. Freedom first, freedom second, and freedom third … then let’s talk “national security.” If we cannot hold liberty in that rarefied pose, let’s then be honest about where this all leads: A fake “republican democracy” that will find a way to crush political pluralism, the prohibition of any activity deemed to be “anti-government,” and legal (though immoral) constraints on liberty through an executive power that will get progressively ill-defined (and therefore elusive) as time goes on.

In a word, Authoritarianism.

It cannot be allowed to come to pass.

———————————————————————-

 ”You there, impotent, loose in the knees, / Open your scarfed chops till I blow grit within you, / Spread your palms and lift the flaps of your pockets, / I am not to be denied.” — Walt Whitman, from “Leaves of Grass,” Sec. 40.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2013) — In our dissection of the school department budget process [see Friday's PLANET], we presented this quote from and THE PLANET‘s analysis of Pittsfield’s outgoing interim school supt. Gordon Noseworthy:

Noseworthy spoke the usual inane bromides in discussing the budget: “We need a vision of excellence with a long-term approach to education.”

What does that babble mean? The school department “needs” “a vision of excellence?” It “needs” “a long-term approach?” I thought those were already in place? Read your own school propaganda, Mr. Super, and you’ll see lots of talk from previous years about “vision” and “excellence” and lots of other buzz words that mean crap and have an equal redolence. Your statement contradicts what your department contends.

The quote reveals volumes in exposing the rhetorical dead-man’s float school department officials use to justify their annual gouging of taxpayers. Note what The Nose says about “vision, excellence, and a long-term approach to education.” He says, “We [the school department and the city] need them.”

“We need them.” That can only mean the city doesn’t presently have them. Amazing, given the nearly bone billion dollars given to the school department in the past 15 years. The Nose’s admission, inadvertent as is might have been, proves that the school department has, these hundreds of millions of dollars later, still no clue on a direction (“vision”) or strategy strategy (“long-term approach”).

If the Nose had the chance to take these words back, we guess he would. Unfortunately, there is no “rewind” button on the reel-to-reel tape of his ersatz uttering. He said it, and there it is. The words amount to an actual admission that most everything up to now in that department has been [PICK ANY OF  THE FOLLOWING YOU THINK MAY APPLY]:

* False

* Fake

* Fraudulent

* Forged

* Feigned

* Spurious

* Counterfeit

* Pseudo

* Sham

* Pretended

* Pretensed

* Contrived

* Affected

* Insincere

* Inauthentic

* A put-on

* All of the above

* None of the above

The Nose also proves THE PLANET’s prescience, since that has been our overall message ever since it became clear that Ed Reform in the state has been all about rewarding the special interests, cheating “The Children,” and robbing taxpayers. We wonder how or if this comment will come into play on Wednesday or Thursday of this week in City Council chambers.

On Wednesday at 6 p.m. in chambers, the school committee takes up the school budget. On Thursday, it’s the city council’s chance. Keep your eyes on Our Right Honorable Good Friend, councilor Clairmont. Got that, Lady Behnke?

————————————————————————————

HANDING OFF TO McSUPER, A.K.A., “JAKE LITE”

Meanwhile, in the great relay-race to the taxpayer’s wallet, The Nose will be handing off the baton to Jason P. McCandless, ex super of the Lee School Department. Wouldn’t you know it, that McCandless’ nickname is “Jake.” Just a coincidence or another sign that The End Times are nigh?

When Pittsfield finally got rid of the previous Jake, Jake Eberwein III, who landed on his feet at MCLA in what we guess had to be a pre-arranged deal engineered by school prez Dr. Mary Grant, it took the Pittsfield school committee two tries, a lotta money, and a bunch of candidates before picking … another Jake. By the way, you remember Mary Grant. More likely, you don’t. She won herself a prestigious spot on that most do-nothing of boards, the PEDA board, where for the length of her tenure, she attended only one meeting. She was more rarely present in PEDA meetings seen than palm trees in the Antarctic. She got her name on the letterhead, though, and a new line for her resume.

THE PLANET can’t imagine why the PSD hired another “Jake.” Let’s guess. Rhymes with “fake,” perhaps? We can also choose from “ache, bake, Blake (maybe he was an English major), break, cake, crake, drake, flake, lake, make, quake, rake, sake, shake (as in “down”), slake, snake, spake, stake, steak, take, wake, awake, backache, bespake, betake, cornflake, daybreak, keepsake, earache, earthquake, forsake, heartbreak, mandrake, mistake, namesake, opaque, outbreak, partake, retake, snowflake, sweepstake, toothache, bellyache, johnnycake, overtake, patty-cake, and undertake.

With each new super or mayor for that matter, the proper thing is to say, “Let’s give him a chance.” The city, however, has been burned so many times by that approach that now THE PLANET proposes for Jake Lite (or McSuper) a  ”Guilty until proven innocent” stance. Let’s assume the guy’s going to come in having already had the secret-handshakes, the masonic rites, and the “talking to” (in tongues, of course) by the GOB. In other words, let’s assume he’s going to come in with the mission of first perpetuating the status quo and second adding to the Money Grab (bottom line, that means he will grow the school budget, add to staff, and look the other way when the next $9,000 theft of prom money occurs).

Should this approach be incorrect, we shall be pleasantly surprised.

—————————————————————————

SUNS OPEN UP SEASON TWO

THE PLANET wishes great success to the Pittsfield Suns of the collegiate Futures League. The organization looks to build off the success of last’s years initial campaign. The team managed to squeeze seven soaked innings in for Opening Night this Thursday of last week, a game that ended in a 3-3 tie.

Earlier in the day, we stopped by Beloved Wahconah Park, and as usual, the city maintenance crew had the field in wonderful shape. There’s something about a well-groomed ball field sitting under an early June sun that speaks of a mystery to be.

We gazed at the reddish-brown dirt of the infield, a form of clay, and saw a plane of smoothness begging for a pair of spikes to leaves its tracks, marking that A Ballplayer had been there. We went back in memory to our own playing days, of countless innings enjoyed on lazy summer afternoons, when at Deming Park we would at times actually have to wait to get a field on which to play. We hears echoes of our first major league game, a 1958 doubleheader at Yankee Stadium with our dad, brothers, and Uncle Joe. We remember looking down on the infield from our perch in the first-base-side grandstand, the diamond in a blue haze that seemed to announce the importance of the play.

Generations of the playing fix the stands’ dissolving hold, even now, in our memory.

————————————————————————–

“Thus I pacified psyche and kissed her, / And tempted her out of her gloom — / And conquered her scruples and gloom.” — Edgar Allan Poe, from “Ulalume: A Ballad”

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2013) — If you are lucky enough to have a job, do you routinely go to your boss every year, demand raises between 4 and 10%, expect to get it, and then threaten dire consequences if you don’t? Likely not.

If you work in the Dreaded Private Sector, this approach to your personal finances gets you a boot in the rump and out on the streets in two seconds flat. If you are the Pittsfield School Department, however, you get your raise. This approach has worked for the schools virtually every single year, at least since (ahem) “Education Reform” became state law in 1993, and probably for a few years prior. That’s at least 20 consecutive years of raises, by our estimation, even though performance by any number of measures has gone down — graduation rates, test scores, attendance, and most importantly what we hear from the colleges and businesses who take our graduates after they get out of high school.

A System that Rewards Failure

In Pittsfield, and to some extent in the country, public education — having been hijacked by teachers’ unions out for every taxpayer buck they can get and school administrators making huge salaries just as long as they keep from rocking the boat — has been a system that rewards failure. The worse your school performs, the more money you say you need. It’s the perfect gig. To make it work to perfection, The System relies on compliant politicians and public officials to do their bidding by giving this money grab  the official stamp of approval, “making it all nice and legal, like.”

The PSD passion play plays out every election cycle. The unions scare the politicians. The politicians scare the parents. The parents scare the school administrators. It’s what they call a zero-sum game, except the sum in Pittsfield’s case will cost taxpayers anywhere between $90 and $100 million dollars. Ah, like everything else, the cost of ineptitude isn’t what it used to be.

Presently, the city spends more than $90 million on its public schools. That is roughly four times as much as it spent prior to 1993, even though the city population has dropped by nearly 20,000 and there are half the number of students now as compared to then. To teach this student population that has dropped by 100% over the years, the taxpayers have been forced to hire twice as many teachers as then and three times as many administrators (again, estimates). Where we once had one superintendent, we now have four (the Super, the Deputy Super, the Associate Super, and the Assistant Super), each making on average well over $100,000 a year not counting benefits and not counting this year’s inevitable pay hikes.

Will Someone Out There Stand to End this Madness?

Like fools, once again we hope and pray that someone, somewhere, somehow steps up, speaks out, and ignites a spark that sets off the building discontent from bedraggled taxpayers, who year after year must shell out for the shakedown. The irony is that the vast majority of them have no children in the Pittsfield Public School system, yet pay they must.

We The People, the owners of government, are angry and ready to ignite, and in this condition, when the spark yet again doesn’t come to pass, the anger resolves itself into an even worse condition: apathy. Disgusted with slime-ball politics and an equally moist, slug-trailed school department, they stay away. They don’t attend meetings. They don’t ride their representatives. Worse, they don’t vote. Consequently, the budget savagery comes full circle, and the perfect fiscal storm being run in the name of public education perpetuates another, more expensive version of itself, until the next year, when the cycle repeats.

We detail the art of the crime:

(1) It begins with the school department falsely stating the numbers of its budget. When Asst. Supt. Kristen Behnke presented the proposed school department budget to the school committee, she presented the august figure of $57,472,984 (don’t you just love how she left the last $16 off at the end, to avoid kicking over the for lsat four digits on the right!). That figure represents a 5% increase over last year’s total. But you say, “Gee, PLANET, I thought you said it was more than $90 million?” True, but as the school department always does, it conveniently leaves out a.) the cost of health insurance, pension, and other benefits of school department employees, b.) the cost of running the school maintenance department, and c.) the cost of running the school bus system. Those are every bit school department expenses as teacher salaries, yet the total never makes it on the school spreadsheets. This figure (estimated at more than $40 million) gets buried on the city side accounts. Cute, eh?

2.) The school committee, if it does what it has done in the past, essentially rubber stamps the school department request.

3.) That figure then becomes official at the school committee budget hearing, which this year will be held on June 12 at 6 p.m. at city hall in council chambers. It’s a key meeting that the public will largely ignore and the school department will stack with plenty of teachers, parents, and, of course, The Children, who will be used as human shields against any unwise committee member who might actually, uh, question the numbers and say they need reduction.

3a.) This year, the mayor, as CEO of the city, as as an ex-officio member of the school committee, will “express concern” about the size of the budget increase for which interim Supt. Gordon Noseworthy is asking. Noseworthy, as interim super with a term set to expire on the last day of June, will have no interest in the mayor’s words. As of July 1, The Nose leaves town with a bundle of cash he made as interim, in which he did his job, that is, he did not rock the boat.

4.) But, watch, to show how “reasonable” the administration is, he and Behnke will propose a compromise. Thus, instead of getting the 5% first asked for, the school department “sacrifices” and “settles” for 2.5%. It then boo-hoos about how it took a 100% budget hit for the sake of taxpayers and, of course, The Children. What they mean is that the rate of increase they pretended to want was “reduced” to the increase they actually wanted in the first place.

5.) After the June 12 meeting, Bianchi, as mayor, will recommend an agreed-upon budget (agreed-upon by everyone except Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, that is), to our Right Honorable Good Friends on the city council. Incidentally, the mayor can change that number. He could unilaterally take the negotiated proposed budget and slash 10% across the board. The message to the school department would be: “Trim the fat and decide between keeping jobs or reducing costs. If you can’t figure out how, I will on your behalf.” That’s how a mayor could become a hero of taxpayers everywhere and in the process actually force the school system to get smarter, leaner, and more productive. If Bianchi did that, we would personally commission and erect his statue for Park Square (all paid in Monopoly money).

6.) The council takes up the school budget. There will be some token opposition to the spending, but once again, our Right Honorable Good Friends will cave in to pressure from the teachers’ union. They will pass the budget, and it will become the taxpayers’ burden.

As Fat as It Is, It’s Not as Fat as It Gets

It’s funny how well-run companies in the Dreaded Private Sector have responded to the tough economy. They reduce cost, increase productivity, and insist on performance. The Pittsfield School Department, year after year, asks for more money, more employees, and doesn’t give a hoot about productivity (sure, it says it does, but in actuality it doesn’t).

Noseworthy spoke the usual inane bromides in discussing the budget: “We need a vision of excellence with a long-term approach to education.”

What does that babble mean? The school department “needs” “a vision of excellence?” It “needs” “a long-term approach?” I thought those were already in place? Read your own school propaganda, Mr. Super, and you’ll see lots of talk from previous years about “vision” and “excellence” and lots of other buzz words that mean crap and have an equal redolence. Your statement contradicts what your department contends.

Among the “highlights” The Nose wants to install in the PSD before he leaves:

* $453,000 toward a bus fleet upgrade.

* $100,000 for “a phase-technology plan,” whatever the heck that is.

* He wants to add the following staff positions (add, mind you, not cut):

* one teacher at Crosby

* two paraprofessionals at Egremont

* two technology teachers for middle school

* an English language teacher for non-English speakers

* three new high school teacher

* a reading “interventionist” (you gotta love that; anyone know what that means?)

* an additional “Float” nurse

* additional volleyball coaches (yes, what the PSD needs is more volleyball coaches! Brilliant!)

* A web manager

Lady Behnke Talks of ‘Surplus’ — Great, only it’s Millions Short of Honesty

Lady Behnke boasted that the school department expects to end FY13 with a surplus of $21,956! Well whoop-de-friggin’-do!! Bring out the dancing girls. Pop the champagne corks!! Call the roller of fat cigars!!

That paltry surplus means the schools budgeted this past FY with an astonishing accuracy rate of 0.00024%. Amazing … and also impossible. No one can budget that accurately with such large sums. What she’s not saying is that the department is hiding millions of dollars on its books, all legal of course, but moral? That’s another question. THE PLANET cannot detail the process here, but trust us, we believe from what we’ve been told that there are millions (our guesstimate: about $3 million) being hidden, legally, in the budget.

First time around with these numbers, our Right Honorable Good Friend, at large council Barry Clairmont, pursued an intriguing line of analysis with the initial school numbers. Clairmont, an account by trade, used his sophisticated expertise to analyze the budget. His conclusion? He found almost $1.5 million squirreled away in the books. Lady Behnke rose to that occasion a few months ago with a lot of doubletalk, essentially fending off the initiative. We wonder, though? Will there be more revelations to come? We have come to know Clairmont as the dogged type, one who won’t give up on a quest where he believes he’s in the right. It will prove to be interesting on June 12, council chambers, 6 p.m.

Stay tuned, and meanwhile, stay thirsty, my friends.

———————————————————————————-

“how could tasting touching hearing seeing / breathing any — lifted from the no / of all nothing — human merely being / doubt unimaginable You?” — e.e. cummings, stanza 3, “I Thank You God for this Most Amazing”

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013) — We finally step away from Wadegate to bring you this head puzzler, in the form of a photo. We ask: What’s wrong with this picture?

KEEP OFF THE FIELD! Want to enjoy the park? Want to play ball? Want to see your tax dollars hard at work? Forget it. The lock at Springside Park, Benedict Road, says it all. (Photo by ES)

This photo was sent to us by one of our correspondents under the title “Wouldn’t Bossidy Be Thrilled.” The reference, of course, is to Pittsfield native son Larry Bossidy, who more than 10 years ago gave Pittsfield $1 million with the specification that it be used on the playing fields of the city. This was and is a man actually for, you know, The Children.

Pittsfield spent most of the ensuing years doing two things with The Bossidy Bucks: (1) It spent it on everything BUT the playing fields, and (2) when certain among us questioned why, it launched into a futile and utterly pointless bureaucratic discussion about what Bossidy “intended” for his gift. Thus, the city did a great disservice to the generosity of one of its greatest sons, all in the process of slapping residents in the face by the way it ignored Mr. B’s desires.

Our correspondent wrote that the picture gives evidence that “Baseball has become an elitist sport in Pittsfield. I know at different times, I have found the West LL field (where I played) locked, Springside LL field locked, and now Benedict Rd. I assume the fields are only unlocked by ‘league officials.’ No chance for a pickup game anymore. Real  baseball. No parents. No coaches. Just baseball.”

We share in this lament, as I’m sure Mr. Bossidy does.

Children can’t do anything on their own without helicopter parents hovering somewhere nearby. Which leads us to our next story: Proms.

—————————————————————————–

POP CULTURE CHEAPENS THAT GREAT AMERICAN RITES DE PASSAGE, THE PROM; BACKLASH BUILDING IN SOME SCHOOLS

Since when did a high school prom turn into a sick display of faux celebrity that more and more parents,  grandparents, and otherwise “normal” family members use to “show off” before the community? When did it become an event that now must mimic the tinny tawdriness of Hollywood instead of subtle stylishness of a more local nature?

Years ago, and not all that long ago, parents were content to take a few photos in the backyard, wish the kids well, and let them have a night of pretending to be adults in their gowns and tuxedos. Not any more.

Today, the prom has to be A Production, one that reflects the shallowness of pop culture, shrunk to skin-deep triviality by parental guilt and high school administrators who wouldn’t know class if it took them by the arm and cha-cha’d around the auditorium for the lead dance. The limos, the red carpet, the lines of photo takers, the gawkers, the Oprah-like audiences, the embarrassing screams and cheers — from the adults, mind you — It’s all too much to witness, especially when one realizes how these human cattle have turned off both their critical faculties and individuality, unquestioningly following trendy dictates that they don’t know how to question.

The locked baseball fields that preclude sandlot games … the lunacy of prom night — they illustrate the prevailing belief that unless an adult is there to officiate and verify, the kids will somehow feel shortchanged.

Perhaps this explains the gaudy, cheapened nature of The Prom in 2013. More and more, kids eschew attending the prom with a date and think it’s OK to arrive in gangs or groups. More and more, girls show up dressed more like hookers and whores. Needless to say, The Children have been gypped again. It’s obvious that parents feel lots of guilt these days with the way they have turned a once simple and lovely childhood rites de passage into a two-dimensional cut-out frivolity.

It won’t happen in Pittsfield, where the schools are out of control, but fortunately, some schools are beginning to fight back. Here’s an article about just that:

SOME SCHOOLS TRYING TO BRING BACK DIGNITY TO PROM NIGHT

By LAURA HANSEN

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

1. No strapless dresses

And she wondered why the school said “No!”

Girls at the Readington Middle School in New Jersey no longer have a right to bare arms… at school dances. A new ban instituted by the principal prohibits students from wearing strapless dresses at this year’s 8th grade dinner dance. The reason? Shoulder-baring formal wear was considered too much of a distraction for the boys. Lucky for any strapless-loving tween, most of the town’s parents are up in arms about the rule, with some calling it offensive. A group of parents plans to protest the ban and request that it be suspended. And this New Jersey school isn’t alone: Schools in Jacksonville, N.C., Boston, Mass., and Sparks, Nev., have reportedly also banned strapless dresses.

2. No tuxedos (for girls)
For tomboys or Diane Keaton fans at Sultana High School in Hesperia County, Calif., this prom season may be a cruel one. School administrators have banned female students from wearing tuxedos, while requiring that guys wear them. The rule, critics say, reflects a larger problem of homophobia at the school. “All students should feel safe and free to be themselves at school. I’m hopeful the administration does the right thing and creates a safe environment where we can be ourselves without fear of being harassed,” said the president of the school’s Gay Straight Alliance. Other critics note that you don’t have to be gay to want to opt out of wearing a constricting or skin-revealing dress. “Maybe it’s because it’s hard to find a prom dress that doesn’t make you look like a cast member of The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” says Jeanne Sager at The Stir. “Or, and this is just as likely, it’s because not every girl actually feels comfy in a dress!”

3. No dirty dancing
School officials around the country are growing increasingly uncomfortable with the way kids are getting down on the dance floor. The Port Angeles High School in Washington state is just the latest to ban suggestive dancing, otherwise referred to as “freak dancing,” “grinding,” and “dirty dancing.” But the rule may have backfired: Attendance at these functions, which help fund all student activities, has reportedly plummeted. “It was kind of like asking them to quit cold turkey, so that really upset a lot of students,” said a student government officer. Students say it’s just another example of adults being out of touch. “Square dancing and all those things, those were fun back in the day, but we’re a new generation and we do things a little differently,” said student Terrance Stevenson.

4. No AXE Body Spray
While this is a ban most of us can get behind, teenage boys might think otherwise. Starting in March, students at the Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Penn., were asked to lay off the AXE body spray — not because it was making boys irresistible to the girls, but because it was making at least one student physically ill. The teen reportedly had such an extreme reaction to the fragrance that he required medical attention. Prom-goers looking for an aromatic boost this season will have to rely on a hearty shower and a smear of Speed Stick instead, which, trust us, is a much better idea anyway.

5. No limos
Principal Laura Gauld was sick of witnessing the financial extremes students would go to for prom. So, in 2007, her first year as principal of the Hyde School in Woodstock, Conn., Gauld banned limousines from campus. Instead, all the seniors would come together on a chartered bus. While some students protested the idea, most came around eventually, saying the group transportation fostered a tighter sense of community.

6. No dyed hair
Prom is often a time when teenagers show off their unique personalities. Perhaps they do so on the dance floor, or with a pastel-hued tux, or with a fun hairstyle. But students in Hurricane, Utah, may want to take heed of Rylee MacKay’s experience and refrain from dyeing their hair. Earlier this year, the 15-year-old was banned from school for dyeing her hair a reddish-brown. Yep. It wasn’t electric blue or bright pink, and Rylee’s shade was subtle enough to pass as her own. However, the school claimed her hair “didn’t fit on the spectrum of natural color” and so sent her home. But Rylee’s mom stood up for her daughter’s choice, saying the school should focus on more important issues than penalizing students who stand out. “At this age, these kids are going through so much with peer pressure and trying to find themselves — look at the depression and teen suicide rates — and all we’re doing is stifling them more,” she said. “They have no leeway in how to become themselves. We don’t let them do a lot of things for their own safety, but there’s got to be some give. We’re making little clones.”

Just another night at the Prom.

7. No skimpy dresses
In 2012, a high school in Southern, Conn., put the kibosh on revealing dresses. The school rule barred plunging necklines, high slits, bare feet, and midriff-baring cut-out dresses. The principal said the school wasn’t trying to stifle the students’ sense of style, but was rather reining in the daring looks of previous years. “It’s not a dance club, it’s not a beach, it’s not that kind of a scene,” he said. And the dudes better watch out as well: You’ll have to keep that shirt on no matter how worked up you get on the dance floor.

8. No popular music
In 2009, the Women’s Health and Issues Club at Arcadia High School in Los Angeles noticed that some of the most popular songs on the radio have a common theme — they were degrading to women. It was actually such a banner year for tunes that glorified prostitution and casual sex, or just generally objectified women, that the group was able to compile a list of 300 songs that qualified as degrading. Sick of hearing tunes like Akon’s ”Smack That” or Lil’ John’s “Get Low” in heavy rotation on the radio, the group asked that these songs not be played at the prom. And so, the school complied and banned not only those two booty-shaking numbers, but also 18 others.

9. No porn stars
Recently there’s been a rash of teenagers asking celebrities to their proms, with some requests being more endearing than others. But students at Tartan High School in Oakdale, Minn., will now have to keep those aspirational dates G-rated. In 2012, Mike Stone fired off several celebrity date requests and actually got one acceptance in return. Megan Piper, a porn star, said she’d be happy to come so long as Stone paid for her plane ticket from California. But when the small town got wind of Stone’s steamy escort, school officials said, “Absolutely not.” Stone said he wasn’t heartbroken, though, because he didn’t really think it would work out. “I was just doing it to see what would actually happen,” he said.

(This article was first published in The Week, April 25, 2013.)

Here’s another article, from Gawker.com:

And what, apart from nature/hormones/the way Aaron looks with his hair pushed back (sexy) is compelling teens to dress so revealingly? According to the experts and just about any person you might ask off the street: Hollywood.

Specifically, old-ass Hollywood. The Journal singles out Jennifer Lopez (age 42), the casts of the various Real Housewives franchises (most of whom appear to be in at least their late-sixties), and teen-favorite television program Dancing With The Stars (my Nana loves it but she doesn’t know who anyone is) as major inspirations behind sexy teens’ less-is-more sartorial aesthetic.

Now, in order to get the message across to students they are not allowed to emulate their favorite premenopausal celebrities’ sexed up style of dress, administrators are putting together image-heavy PowerPoint presentations and throwing up posters illustrating banned looks.

While it might, at first, seem counter-productive to plaster the hallways with photos of beautiful models in skimpy formalwear, decorating the school with the precisely the kind of lustful imagery administrators are hoping to avoid on prom night, you can’t argue that these kids are dumb dumb dumb, dumb as doornails, dumb as their number one fashion icon Alexis from theReal Housewives of Orange County, dumber in fact, because she has an elegant line of non-couture couture acrylic dresses and they are putting a strip of duct tape over their nips and calling it “chic, prom-appropriate fashion.” And, unfortunately, these dum-dums only respond to pixxx.

As one Algebra teacher and “junior class co-sponsor” (?) from Oklahoma City put it to the paper:

“Words don’t mean much to [the students.] They had to see the pictures.”

In actuality, the rules these schools are peddling aren’t all that absurd: no fabric cut-outs below the bust line (“flesh touching flesh below the bust” to use the administrators’ own, vaguely erotic, wording), no hemlines higher than three inches above the knee, no boob-baring deep-Vs in front, no ass-baring deep-Us in back. Pretty standard stuff.

The oddest item on any of the guidelines available on the Journal’s website comes, as surely a great many odd things must, from Sunnyvale, Texas, where the local high school has also instituted a prom-wide ban on “cosmetic contact lenses of a color not natural to a person, or patterned lenses (unless prescribed by a doctor).”

Meaning that Texas’ most popular teens have only a few short weeks to sweet-talk a doctor into writing them a prescription for some tight flame-pattern contacts.

Aside from that: cover your bits for an hour and have fun at the clothing-optional after prom parties, kids.

[Image via Shutterstock]

————————————————————————————

“Factory windows are always broken. / Other windows are left alone. / No one throws through the chapel window / The bitter, snarling derisive stone.” — Vachel Lindsay, stanza 2, “Factory Windows are Always Broken”

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2013) — Doreen Wade, the black Medford businesswoman who, after meeting twice with Pittsfield Mayor Dan Bianchi (April 3 and 29) accused the mayor of racism, tells THE PLANET she intends to speak before the city council on Tuesday, June 11.

THE PLANET asked our Right Honorable Good Friend City Council President Kevin Sherman if Wade had contacted him, asking to speak or be put on the agenda.

“I have not received any such request from Ms. Wade via email or by telephone,” Sherman replied.  Unless there is a letter in my City Hall mailbox, I have not received any request to speak from Ms. Wade.”

This concludes the correspondence between Smith and Wade as far as we know. We do not know if Wade has contacted the Pittsfield Police about Smith. THE PLANET can add, though, that we have not seen any behavior, words aside, that would lead us to believe that either party is in any danger from the other. This has been a spirited discussion that has boiled over at times but that fits well within both THE PLANET’s proscriptions for proper debate as well as Constitution’s. Both encourage people to be free. To be and feel this way, people “must feel free to say things that are controversial and to say things that are wrong, to have the opportunity to correct their statements, to assert views and to change their views. They must feel free to say things that offend and to regret it; to agree and disagree. They must feel free to wrestle with language — to be angry, moving, ironic, kind, and bitter; to be both inelegant and elegant; to grunt and pontificate; and to use words of however many letters in a vigorous engagement on the battlefield of meaning and understanding. Our ears, hearts, and minds must be toughened up to hear it all. We must be prepared to receive strange sounds before we can have a conversation. We must permit our tongues and those of others to be unruly, if for no other reason so that our hands will be ruled. … Civility is overrated. … We can encourage hardiness in our discourse” (Susan Cole, March 17, 1995, The Chronicle of Higher Education).

Meanwhile, the next days to watch will be Monday and Tuesday — the first for a possible press conference that Wade may either hold or participate in, the second for Wade’s possible appearance before the city council. Stay tuned.

———————————————————————————–

“Factory windows are always broken. / Someone’s always throwing bricks, / Somebody’s always heaving cinders, / playing ugly Yahoo tricks.” — Vachel Lindsay, opening to “Factory Windows are Always Broken”

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2013) — Wadegate, the racially sensitive and explosive “she-said/he-said” involving black Medford businesswoman Doreen Wade and Pittsfield Mayor Dan Bianchi has still many unexplored subthemes.

First, however, let’s clear the air on one thing: THE PLANET does not for one second think Dan Bianchi is a “racist.” That’s not been our experience with him, one that goes back a long ways.  True, we have never seen Bianchi interact privately with the black community. We have seen him publicly and in a campaign mode. In our private and public dealings with Dan Bianchi, we have found him to be invariably appropriate, honorable, and gentlemanly. We consider him a friend, though as we have seen, friendship cannot be allowed to dictate our coverage. It never has, and it never will. A businesswoman of color made a serious charge. We went with it, and we were right in that call.

Unless we see hard evidence to the contrary, we will take Wade’s claims as evidence not of “racism” on the mayor’s part but misunderstandings in their communication. We would ask Wade if she intends to step forward, publicly, and repeat these charges, offering more than an allegation.

We also wonder if the local NAACP will stand with Wade in full support of her claims. Up to now, the NAACP, through director Will Singleton, has been extremely cautious and guarded in its comments. It hasn’t supported Wade, nor has it disowned her comments and contentions. THE NAACP has not a word of Wadegate on its FB page. It has not issued a public statement since we have brought attention to the case. The silence is hard on the ears. THE PLANET asks: Will Singleton be willing to appear, with or without Wade, before the press and support or condemn what she is saying?

Until then, benefit of the doubt shifts back to Mayor Bianchi.

THE MEDIA ANGLE

One of the more interesting tributaries to this story is the matter of a free and functioning press. Wade operates The New England Informer, a web-based newsmagazine that describes itself this way: “NEI disseminates thought-provoking and high-quality information. It prides itself as a constant resource offering up-to-date information and current articles.” Its “mission is to disseminate information to empower Black Americans while building partnerships between African American/Latin American and non communities of color.” The first blurb stands out for its vagueness. What exactly does it mean? The second practically hangs a sign saying, “Whites need not apply.”

The Informer appears to have relatively little fresh content. Instead, it acts more as a reprint service for articles it sees as relevant to its mission. Without looking for them, we did notice many typos, grammatical errors, and other indications of haste and the abusive bending of the king’s English that would offer counter evidence to its claim of “high quality.” Much of the house writing is poor.

As for typos and some grammar issues, THE PLANET knows all too well, as do our loyal readers, how these “weeds” can pop up in the garden of prose, particularly in a daily blog. We wage this daily (and largely winning) fight, aiming for Don Larsen perfection each and every time out, full knowing we can’t get it and that, with the final pitch, Yogi Berra likely won’t be leaping into our arms as Dale Mitchell walks from the batter’s box, having just taken a called third strike. But then again, we are a one-man band (or as Berkshire Magazine calls us, “a one-man mob scene”).

THE PLANET doesn’t list an art editor, a promotion manager, an editor, an associate editor, a sales manager, an assistant to the publisher, and a publisher in addition to ourselves, as Wade does on the mast of the Informer. With all those sets of eyes, no one caught, for example, the loud typo in the headline congratulating Wade on her nomination as SBA Person of the Year (more on that claim later): “… From The Samll [sic] Business Administration.”

We also point out that we are writing anywhere between 1,000 and 3,000 words of fresh original content almost every day, a furious pace of that caused Berkshire Magazine to call us “Berkshire County’s most prolific journalist.” The Informer shows nothing close to this original, daily output.

Media Fear? We Doubt It

The theory has been floated that perhaps the mayor doesn’t want another media outlet operating in town. THE PLANET can’t answer to that, but, however sensitive Bianchi has proven when it comes to tough, independent coverage, we find it a stretch to think that he would be threatened by Wade’s news product. It’s difficult to assess, since we haven’t seen how or if she would change her editorial focus if her business moved to Pittsfield. Judging by the current Informer product, Bianchi would have little to fear. The politics seem compatible with liberal bias, up to and including the Far Left. As a political bent, it would find a cozy home within the Democratic power structure that rules Pittsfield.

True, we often laugh at the kid-glove treatment public officials receive in the Berkshires. Say one little “boo!,” and the next thing you know, your subject is off in a corner, pouting, and saying the nastiest things about you. If they got a tiny taste of what happens in the  bigger media, on bigger stages, they’d come out of their coffins, offer an ink libation to the ghost of Horace Greeley, and learn to engage more productivity with the press, especially the independent press.

THE PLANET doesn’t know anything about Wade’s business model. As we noted above, she lists a sales director on the staff. She has internships available in editorial and design positions and currently has a house ad looking for a person to work in a commissioned sales job. This indicates she’s looking for advertising.

THE PLANET Remains Independent and Privately Financed

THE PLANET, as most of you know, is totally independent and privately financed. In any business we have ever run in the private sector, including THE PLANET, The Media Services Group, Planet Media Books, Dan Valenti Communications, and Europolis Management, we have never asked for or accepted a dime of public money. We have used private capital, 100%, without exception, enjoying our profits and writing off our losses as they come. We believe that is what Wade should do with The Informer if she moves it to Pittsfield. Believe in the idea; see if the marketplace will reward that belief. Don’t look for public money.

THE PLANET has worked in commercial media all our professional lives (both print and broadcast), and in every editorial job we’ve had, we’ve run up against “interference” coming from the business side of the operation. This editorial-business tension cannot be avoided, of course. In such cases, you pray you have a boss — usually an editor or a station owner — who understands the press’ role in a free society and is committed to maintaining and fighting for its role as The Fourth Estate, serving as a watchdog over all three branches of government. You pray you have an editor who will fight the publisher and run interference when you get a memo “suggesting” that you back off a story. In broadcast, you hope you have a program director who will tell the station owner the facts of journalistic life.

The press, though, must always maintain a fierce independence. It must be fearless in its coverage of public events. It must represent, if anyone and before anyone else, We The People, against every other interest. Without a free and unflinching press, The Little Guy has no chance. Government, bureaucracy, and every other office of public life will crush him and her every single time. That’s we we have placed THE PLANET in its fit, looking out for the interests of the owners of government and public life — The Citizens. As other media back off from this responsibility, so Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski have an even greater need for a crusader to carry the lance on their behalf.

THE PLANET has in our nearly three years of publication covered and broken many stories, some small and some large, and not all of them have been popular with the “powers that be.” So be it, and more power to us. We have never had to worry about answering to a publisher or an owner to “lessen up the heat” because some advertiser got worried. We are, as we like to say, unbought and unbossed.

THE PUBLIC SERVICE ANGLE

Wadegate once again shows how important it is to have a responsive, open, and communicative media. THE PLANET, alone, has, through our coverage, spurred on a vigorous and heated community debate on the topic of race. In Pittsfield, it’s been long overdue. If we hadn’t stepped into this story and gone underneath the cursory job done by other local media (including the complete whiff by the Berkshire Eagle and local radio news), the community wouldn’t have found out about this incident.

In a real sense, this type of discussion is precisely why THE PLANET exists and why we offer it, free of charge, to the citizens of Pittsfield, Berkshire County, the state, and nation, and the world. We offer what can truly be called “a free marketplace of ideas.” Though we occasionally use the work of other writers, including paid free-lancers, we have no employees other than Dan Valenti. We maintain a wide network of spies, informants, gumshoes, Z-agents, and sources of all kinds in most every public office, and they act as the extension of our senses. We produce and gather all of the content, and we put our name on every piece we write. We do it with the intention of stimulating thought and encouraging participation. We have resisted the temptation to sell ads, and have fended off the calls of ad reps looking to make deals on behalf of clients.

Provocateur? To that we plead guilty. Our formula has proven popular beyond what we had imagined.

On most other local websites purporting to offer news and commentary, you’ll see a story and it might get a few comments. Often, there are NO responses. The Berkshire Beacon‘s online coverage of Wadegate, for instance, produced exactly one (1) comment. On THE PLANET, we typically get 20, 30, or 40. Wadegate got well over 100 comments and an unusually heavy amount of hits. These commentators were people who were moved by the piece to offer their contribution. We are pleased to say that, more of less, the debate — though often non-flinching and rigorous — didn’t descend to a Topix-like gutter.

———————————————————————— 

STORM WATCHERS GET WHAT THEY WANT: THE PERFECT STORM

Finally, to change the topic, we share the news that reality TV  ”Storm Chasers” star Tim Samaras, 55, his 24-year-old son, Paul, and a 45-year-old colleague were among those killed when powerful storms, including several tornadoes, tore through Oklahoma on Friday.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Tim Samaras, his son Paul and their colleague Carl Young,” the Discovery Channel said in a statement released Sunday. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families.”

The men died while chasing an F-3 tornado in El Reno, Okla., near Oklahoma City. At least nine people, including a mother and her baby were killed during Friday’s storms, officials said.

While, like John Donne, every man’s death diminishes me, I respond to this with: “There. Good! Great! You happy now? You got an outcome you apparently were willing to receive.”

“Storm Chasers” is an example of the extreme behavior being glorified by the cesspool that passes for popular culture (and the idiotic cable channels). Good to see the going around coming around. As for us, give us “Dick Van Dyke Show” reruns.

————————————————————————————

“No wonder then so many die of grief, / So many are so lonely as they die; / No one has yet believed or liked a lie, / Another time has other lives to live.” — W.H. Auden, “Another Time.”

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE!”

LOVE TO ALL.

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, JUNE 3, 2013) — Typically, the weekend lull works its way onto THE PLANET, because readers know that, in all likelihood, there will be no fresh content. Oh, a breaking story or a news flash will get us writing on the weekend, but more often than not, we are content to watch Friday’s story playing out like the fade of a long-playing record. The long piano chord that marks the final audible sound of The Beatles‘ “Sgt. Pepper” album (there’s a dog whistle after that) comes to mind.

In the case of Doreen Wade vs. Dan Bianchi, however, nearly regular traffic found its way here over the weekend. This tells us that Wade’s story has hit a nerve. The story of her contentions of “racist” treatment in the corner office from Pittsfield Mayor Dan Bianchi has acted like a dentist’s probe. It struck a cavity — the nature of which isn’t clear. Was there an over-reaction because an assertive woman of color came into town to challenge  a long-simmering understanding that blacks shall forever be second-class citizens in Shire City? Is that it? Do we dare disturb the universe or eat a peach?

Have Wade and Bianchi Forced Pittsfield to Have a Long Overdue Discussion of Race?

Blacks comprise about 7% of the city’s population, roughly half the percentage of African-Americans nationwide (roughly just under or at 3,000 in a city population of a little more than 40,000). There’s no question in Pittsfield that people of color tend to be the Invisible Man types that Ralph Ellison wrote about so brilliantly in the novel of that name.  The question is why?

Wade’s contentious public introduction to the city has, if nothing else, forced discussion of that very question. Have Doreen Wade and Dan Bianchi inadvertently moved Pittsfield to confront a racial attitude that would, from a Caucasian standpoint, appear more safe and comfortable set in 1953 as opposed to 2013? Is that a possible silver lining here?

Also, would it not make sense for these two to make a joint public appearance, discuss the case, and see if rapproachment can be found. 

When she indirectly put the question to Bianchi in the form of her aspirations to move her website and business, The New England Informer, to Pittsfield, Wade not only didn’t like the answers. They flat out shocked her. Local mainstream media (read: “Old and tired” daily newspaper and radio) whiffed completely on the story. The Berkshire Eagle hasn’t said a peep about it, and what passes for news at the toothless local radio stations followed suit.

The Pittsfield Gazette published a small digest of Wadegate on May 16, burying it on page 7. On that same date, The Berkshire Beacon ran a much longer story, the accuracy of which Wade has questioned, particularly the Beacon‘s portrayal of Bianchi. Both papers at least ran something rather than nothing, however, and THE PLANET credits them for that. The fact remains, though, that only THE PLANET has dared to more fully investigate this disagreeable case, listening carefully and with interest in Wade’s version. We have given Bianchi the same opportunity, but he has declined comment, leaving us to get “his side” in an alternate way.

In THE PLANET’s coverage of this story, we have well served the public at large, as the vibrant discussion on Wadegate on this website illustrates.

—————————————————————————————–

 WADE OFFERS COMMENTARY OF PLANET’S COVERAGE AND SOME OF THE RESPONSES

[EDITOR'S NOTE: THE PLANET has three times tried to solicit comment from Mayor Dan Bianchi, who has yet to respond. We shall, of course, be glad to meet with the mayor at any time or give him his free use of THE PLANET's space for us to publish his side of the events at issue in Wadegate].

MEDFORD BUSINESSWOMAN SAYS SHE ENCOUNTERED ‘RACIST STATEMENTS, INSULTING COMMENTS TOWARD BLACKS’ FROM MAYOR BIANCHI

Editorial Commentary
Doreen Wade

June 3, 2013

My story begins. Since I have already worked with different Mayors in the state (Springfield, Boston, Medford) when I wanted to begin to work in the Pittsfield area, I followed suit. Why did I chose Pittsfield? Well I had already started connecting with business people and leaders in Springfield, and since I was going to bring my mother back to her hometown, I thought it would be nice to work with the Mayor of Pittsfield. I wanted him to be a part of my business.

I did not know the Mayor nor have I had any dealings with him, but working with leaders has always been an accomplishment of my business, The New England Informer (NEI). I contacted Mayor Bianchi, set up an appointment, met with him, and encountered racist statements, anger, insulting comments toward blacks in Pittsfield, degrading images of blacks in Pittsfield ,and a rejection of my business coming specifically to Pittsfield — also no funding or assistance for a black-owned business relocating to Pittsfield, as there is for other businesses who have relocated there.

So I spoke out. After I spoke out, here is what I have encountered from certain self-proclaimed representatives of Pittsfield. These comments came following from an article written about me on a blog called PLANET VALENTI. See below:

[EDITOR'S NOTE: WADE THEN PICKS SEVERAL OF THE COMMENTS OFFERED ON THE PLANET AFTER OUR STORY]

 —– 00 —–

Pittsfield Response:

In the know

May 31, 2013 at 10:01 am #

Sorry Dan this story sounds totally fake. I’m no Bianchi fan but it sounds like she’s looking for some cash to make this go away.

Pittsfield Response:

Joe Blow

May 31, 2013 at 10:38 am #

I agree why would you need to talk to the mayor to move a blog? Sounds like she went looking for money and was turned away. So the race card gets thrown and in comes the NAACP. A lawsuit will soon follow.

Pittsfield Response:

Still wondering

May 31, 2013 at 10:14 am #

Somehow the word “shakedown” comes to mind.

Pittsfield Response:

Mark Smith

May 31, 2013 at 10:49 am #

Dan,

I am very disappointed in your story. This story sounds entirely bogus. If I were the mayor and your story accused me of racism, I wouldn’t respond to you either.

Do some homework, Dan. Here is how Ms. Wade treated members of the Medford City Council a few years ago. It seems that she was on the city TV board and the council called the board before them because of an explicit show run on public tv.

This woman seems to be out looking for fights.

Pitttsfield Response:  

Scott

May 31, 2013 at 4:10 pm #

Well she want’s to move to be closer to family and all that is fine and dandy but it does seem she wants to do it on someone else s dime but got turned down. A white politician in the Berkshires with politically incorrect terminology not understanding why “we ain’t got no affirmative action lady blacks are uneducated (I mean why would they be anything but in an environment like PPS) generally speaking we have no need for your kind” no way not here in the Berkshires!

Pittsfield Response:

Mark Smith

May 31, 2013 at 4:38 pm # 

Sorry Dan,

I think you are wrong. It sounds to me that if Ms. Wade doesn’t get her way, she will play any card to her advantage. 

In my opinion, you are furthering her agenda, whatever it may be.

Once again, if I were the mayor and saw your posting, I would not respond.

Pittsfield Response:

Wilson

May 31, 2013 at 10:56 am #

Don’t think this issue has much play in an area without a lot of victim blacks or white elitists who make a show of pitying unfortunates. She should have said that he groped her.

Pittsfield Response:

Sal Bando

May 31, 2013 at 11:19 am #

Dan, perhaps your sleuthing should include an admission of not knowing Ms. Wade and your not having investigated her previous claims in other locals rather than posting hurtful assumptions about someone you know and grew up with.

Pittsfield Response:

FPR

May 31, 2013 at 5:50 pm #

I dunno, maybe if Al Sharpton is not too busy he can take a ride over from Albany with his megaphone and stand on the steps of the old post office in Ms. Wade’s behalf.

Making it a high profile case should substantially increase the settlement where he can then skim off 50% of the booty.

Pittsfield Response

tito

May 31, 2013 at 6:43 pm #

Anita Hill, where are you?

—– 00 —–

[EDITOR's NOTE: WADE NOW ADDRESSES SOME OF THE COMMENTS]

Now I do not consider myself a genius, but one thing I do know is my situation is not like Anita Hill. I did not bring up anything having to do with sexual harassment. Which brings me to the person who said “She should have said he groped her.” So are these people saying that lying is the way?   I should lower myself to stoop to lying about some type of sexual incidents? Is that what goes on in the City of Pittsfield?

And then we have the voice who said I should go to Al Sharpton. Is Mr. Sharpton the only recognized speaker for the black community? Why would anyone in Pittsfield want to make a suggestion to have someone come in to their city? And then to bring in money and a lawsuit.

Many of the good people of Pittsfield seem to think that this is about taking money and running. Is this how these individuals get their money and glory? I don’t know. I have been working for free for so may years on various community boards and with my volunteering in the community. I didn’t know that caring for your family, friends, and your neighbors was based on the almighty dollar. I thought the only thing almighty was GOD.

And since so many people want to talk about the fight, let’s look at the one brought up by one individual in Pittsfield who heard about my fight while I served on the Medford Board of TV 3. This person neglected to get the story right. I fought my own members of the Medford Board , thereby protecting the community of Medford. My life was threatened and my home was terrorized by Board Members, because I would not agree with what they did. I stood before the City Council, which is on tape, and spoke for the Community. The Mayor of Medford had to get the City’s legal department to defend and protect me. The Mayor became involved when he found Board members put up on the Internet racial and threatening words of death and the use of the “N” and the “B” word. But I guess the person who brought this out forgot to talk about that part. And there is a record of it in the Mayor’s office in Medford.

When did standing up and putting your life on the line for the Community become a bad thing?  And is this person saying that he approves of what TV 3 Board members did and the other things they did by harassing the gay community, having over 20-50 court cases against them, having to have people in the community put out restraining orders, having the City Council of Medford hire a judge to investigate them. And at no time was I involved. Maybe it isn’t my values that need to be questioned if people can use these types of people to discredit me.

If these are the opinions of people in the Pittsfield Community, maybe it is time for a racial communication and discussion. Maybe people want me to shut up and look bad, so they can keep it business as usual. And what business is that?

What are people afraid of in Pittsfield? Could it be when you walk through the City Hall, you do not see a single black employee? Could it be because there is an Affirmative Action policy that is not implemented? You tell me how long it has been sitting? Is it because when blacks go for teaching jobs, they cannot get one? These are not my rantings, as people want to say; these are the cold hard facts, seen when you visit and walk up and down the streets of Pittsfield. Look at the facts — there are more black people getting put in prison in Pittsfield than graduating. When back in the Oprah days she said on national television and stated, the best place to get drugs is Pittsfield MA (*Note:  that is not a myth, it is a fact).  If you go through the Pittsfield Cemetery there are so many black people buried from the years of drug usage. Walk through the streets. You see more blacks are unemployed at an astonishing rate. Where your Mayor publicly announces he doesn’t know if there is an Affirmative Action Policy. Well how does he set programs and policies for blacks, gays, Veterans, disabled persons, minorities, women, and so many more who fall under this category?

But what is worse, I hold my head up high and speak out openly while many of those who have written their opinions hide behind false names on blogs. Is it because they cannot stand by what they say, or they are ashamed to speak out in the open? I know I can. I am proud of who I am and I make no excuses or hide from what I say or who I say it about.

I was put in a bad situation by comments that were not befitting a political leader [Bianchi], and I believe I have the right as a woman, a black, a person, and a human being to protect those who cannot protect theirselves. And I would like to meet one person of any other race, nationality or faith who if they walked into a black political leader’s office and he began to degrade, defame and insult racially, religiously, economically or any other way about a Community they loved and believed in, would turn their head to a blind eye and not fight those ugly words.

And if any one of these people who wrote these interesting and anonymous comments through the veil of a blog, would have not fought for their families, their friends, their neighbors and their community, then there must be something wrong with me.

I have to continue on and hold my head up high, because I know it is going to get worse. However, as Ghandi said:

First they ignore you,

Then they laugh at you.

Then they fight you,

Then you win

Well here I am in the middle of the fight and the win. But the understanding that many people are missing is not that I, Doreen Wade, will win anything, but that the people of Pittsfield will win because the struggle will be for the good, it will open people’s eyes, minds and hearts and together we will make a “CHANGE”.

 ——— 00000 ———

That concludes Wade’s editorials.

As always, we invite your comments.

————————————————————————————-

“I never spoke with God / Nor visited in heaven. / Yet certain am I of the spot / As if the checks were given.” — Emily Dickinson

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.