What are we doing?

With utter dismay I see that people are being maimed and killed by people again - now in Boston, at an event that should be a celebration of our humanity.

The sequence of events that I expect to see unfold has already begun and that scares me more than the bombs and the guns.

First, on social media, we see our initial reactions to the tragedy. We respond with horror and disbelief. We tell the victims that our hearts go out to them, that we are praying for them, that we are so sorry for what they've had to endure.

In a few days will come the candlelight vigils, prayer meetings, and gifts.

Then we'll have fundraisers so we can send them money.

We may even have a law or two enacted that deals with some aspect of the disaster - maybe they will outlaw waste receptacles on public streets because bombs can be hidden in them.

While I don't doubt, for even a second, the sincerity of our responses, I have to ask - what are we doing? Is this our best effort? Are we doing these things to make the victims feel better or to make ourselves feel better?

What if this had happened in Derby on our own Greenway during an event? What would you want to see happen afterwards?

There is a place for kindness and support, and resources are required to help those that have been subjected to such horrible damage, but that is not the solution to the problem. We must do more. We have to do more. Frankly, I'm frightened, aren't you?

Clearly Not

The 2013 municipal elections seem to be starting extra early in Derby - it's going to be a long year.

Judy Szewczyk (aka me) is the campaign manager for Mayor Staffieri who will be running in November for his 5th term. Judy Szewczyk (aka me) is also the creator/admin of Clearly Derby.

Clearly Derby will not get involved in the election or endorse any candidate(s). Clearly Derby does not have a side.

Judy Szewczyk (aka me) does have a very definite side and will be very involved in the campaign. I will fight for my candidate in every possible legal and moral way. I will sometimes be sarcastic and snide but I won't lie or cheat - not for the Mayor or anyone else.

I hope my wonderful peeps - who represent all sides of the political spectrum - will be understanding and patient for the next 11 months. I will try my best to do right by you and right by Derby and not drag Clearly Derby into the political mud.

Regarding the election - may the best man or woman win!

They Will Kill

Caleb Grotberg is being sought by Portland, Oregon police in connection with the attempted murder of his girlfriend. He tried to strangle her with one of his dreadlocks. This is a great example of why guns are not our only problem.

Too many people believe that gun control is the most effective way to safeguard our precious children. I believe that the people who pin all of their hopes on gun control are naive.

We've all been so angry at some point that we've wanted to kill someone but of course we didn't carry it out. We have something inside us, let's call it humanity, that stops us. We may scream, curse, and throw things, but we stop short of killing.

Killers obviously don't have that something inside them, that humanity. They are out of control or mentally ill. They will kill. They don't need to be given an opportunity or a handy weapon. They will kill.

The only way one can stop a person, who is intent on killing, is by either locking them up, medicating them, or killing them first.

What scares me is that we are wasting a lot of time and effort fighting over gun control, which is already heavily legislated, when we should be concentrating on the detection and management of persons who will kill. They are killers. They will kill.

The Experiment is Over

That's right - CD (Clearly Derby) is done with government. When CD was started 1 year ago our purpose was to test the following hypothesis: If citizens are provided with easier access to local government then they will participate more in local government.

My answer to the above question is NO. Granted CD was small and we only did this for a year but I still failed to see any correlation between availability and interest. There were a few flickers, here and there, but not enough to warrant another year of testing IMO.

However, I do see a lot of interest on the part of Derbyites, and others in the Valley, to socialize and help each other out. I love doing my facebook page, and I've grown very fond of all the peeps, so I am going to convert Clearly Derby, using the same name, into something different. I've looked at everything else out there and feel that there is already plenty of coverage for the news and general social interactions such as charity events and parades. We also have many talented photographers that provide us with beautiful images of our Valley, all the time.

So, I'm picking people! I'm going to model CD after People magazine and I will thoroughly 'examine' the people of Derby - all of them - the good and the bad, old and young, native and newcomer, alive and dead, Italian, Polish, Irish, and Latino.

This will be generally fact-based but I will be throwing in some innuendo and a little gossip here and there too.

Oh, and we'll still have our games and our prizes. In fact, I'm going to be adding some new ones too.

From now until January 1st I'm going to be a slouch. I'll do the contest on Monday and do the occasional post - but not the whole enchilada yet. I need a break!

Love you all!

Bread and Honey

Emotionally, holidays are a difficult, weird time for people - yet they make us whole.

I really enjoy performing the ritual tasks of getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas - shopping, and cleaning, and cooking; they make me feel grounded.

Each year I send my husband out on Thanksgiving morning to buy bread for our big meal. He can never remember which bread to get. So yesterday when I did my shopping I found the bread that I like and I took a picture of it with my iPhone. Voila - it's this bread, dear! That should make the Day go a little smoother.

But just as I'm feeling all perky and ready to kick some housecleaning butt ... I get a call from our doctor's receptionist. She yells into the phone at me ... "Barbara, honey, you have an appointment tomorrow at 9:45!!!!". I swear she sounds just like Wolowitz's mother on Big Bang Theory.

I take a deep breath and explain that I'm not Barbara, I'm definitely not her honey, and I have no appointment tomorrow. This doesn't faze her at all ... "Honey, I have you down for tomorrow". I see that I need to be a little more direct. "NO!!!". Now I get, "Honey, calm down!". I finally am able to get her to check her calendar and see that I'm not Barbara and my husband has an appointment tomorrow, not me.

I'm going to go mop the kitchen floor.

The Ghost Towers in Our Hearts

When I visited Franklin Court in Philadelphia, several years ago, I was struck by the power a silhouette can have over us.

Benjamin Franklin's home was destroyed by fire in 1812. In 1976, for our nation's bicentennial, they wanted to reconstruct the house in honor of Franklin but they only knew that it was a 3-story, 10-room building, its approximate size, and where it once stood. So the renowned architect, Robert Venturi, designed a "Ghost Structure" to stand where the house had been and to represent it. It is truly beautiful and powerful.

Since 9/11 there have been many things to represent our extreme sadness and horror surrounding that terrible day. We have many wonderful pictures of the ruins right after the attack and the brave men and women working there. We've had the beautiful beams of light shooting up where the towers once stood - in their own right a stirring silhouette. Now we have the new memorial.

They say if you lose your true love then your heart is changed, forever. For those of us who were alive on 9/11 and were paying attention, our hearts have been changed forever too - we now have a Ghost Structure - 2 towers - superimposed on our hearts. I think that is the way it should be.

What I said.

I was recently quoted in the article, "Valley tax scandals in spotlight; thefts, improprieties in towns breed mistrust", that was published in the New Haven Register on Sept 2. The Register quoted me correctly and used my quote appropriately but I still felt a pang because the need for editing, by any newspaper, waters down one's thoughts. Below are the 4 questions from the New Haven Register together with my unedited answers:

Q1. What do you think can be done to prevent anything like this from happening again?

Ans: For prevention we need to review our outstanding audit findings (and every city and town has outstanding findings) and shore up any holes.

Q2. How have these scandals affected the reputation of your town/city?

Ans: I don’t think it has affected any single town’s reputation but it has eroded trust, even more, in the local government system, deserved or not.

Q3. As a taxpayer, do you feel betrayed by these events, and have you lost faith in the people entrusted to handle your taxes?

Ans: I don’t feel betrayed and I haven’t lost the faith because I know that the people entrusted to handle our taxes are, for the most part, hardworking honest people.

Q4. How rare do you think something like is, espcecially effecting three (actually, four Valley towns with Oxford) almost hitting at the same time?

Ans: It’s not a coincidence that it hit us all at the same time. Oxford’s problem came out first with their Tax Collector and that caused all of the other towns, and some of the local newspapers, to take a closer look at their own operations, and so the dominoes started to fall. It’s human nature ... we get complacent, things start going awry, we notice it, we look around and find other related issues, we fix it, and we start all over again.

Who do you listen to - who do you trust?

I don't use TV or print newspapers for my news - I find everything I need online. However for the national political conventions I prefer to find a good TV channel, leave it on all evening, and check in periodically.

But I couldn't find a good channel last week!

Some channels have a liberal bias and I don't trust what they say or like their style of reporting. It doesn't work for me.

Some are too conservative and I'm afraid they'll just tell me what I want to hear. That's not good for me either.

Some claim to be fair and unbiased. I think that's very hard to achieve so I tend to question everything they say too. It makes me uncomfortable.

I ended up channel surfing and came away from the whole GOP convention process highly unsatisfied. I'm trying to think of a different way to approach the Democrat convention this week.

Truth isn't that easy to find.

Don't Make Fun of Derby!

Bad things [and good things] happen everywhere. Derby doesn’t have any corner on scandal, crime, or strange happenings. We are just a small town with problems much like everyone else.

I ran through the last month’s stories on the Valley Indy to get an idea of how “badness” seems to be distributing itself amongst the Valley towns that VIS covers. Let’s see:

Derby:
- Bombs found on several lawns (and not just in Derby, by the way).
- $2.7 Million owed because of a housing discrimination suit that was lost.
- Irregularities with money handling are being sorted out in the Tax
Collector’s office.

Ansonia:
- A drug clinic wants $500k+ from the city claiming that there was illegal
language used in the law that kept them from opening their doors in Ansonia.
- The Tax Collector’s office is under criminal investigation because of
irregularities found there.
- Nolan field ripped up by vandals.

Shelton:
- State police are investigating the alleged theft of hundreds of thousands of
dollars dating back to at least 2009 from the Shelton finance department.

Seymour:
- Vandals go after above-ground swimming pools.

Oxford:
- The former Tax Collector pleads guilty to [significant] embezzlement charges .

Naugatuck:
- High School football coach resigns amid investigation into possible CIAC
rule violations.

So, give us a break!

Is That a Fact?

Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."

Ronald Reagan said, "Facts are stubborn things."

When it comes to our children we are often guided by our feelings and opinions rather than the facts. When confronted with the dilemma of how to fund education in a horrible economy, we use emotional arguments such as "we can't afford to put a price tag on education" or "we have to fully fund education - it's for our children".

What are the facts here in the Valley?

> All of our towns spend more than half of their tax revenue on education and when they have to cut back on their budgets, other services, not education, are the usual targets.

> The average taxpayer does not want their taxes to go up.

> Public education is not meeting our standards or goals, i.e. we aren't doing a great job.

> A clear correlation between dollars spent and educational quality has not been shown.

Those are the stubborn, unique facts surrounding education today - in the Valley and elsewhere across the Nation.

Time to Try Something New?

We're looking for a new Superintendent of Schools (Supt) in Derby, our fourth one in a decade.

For our hiring process first we decide on what we are looking for in a Supt. The Board of Ed has the most say in this regard. Then we hire a professional search team to find some good candidates. Finally we look those candidates over carefully and make an offer.

So why do our Supts keep leaving before making the improvements they promise us and that we so dearly desire?

Are we looking for the wrong attributes? We always stress experience and someone who will "enjoy" working in a smaller, more challenging school district. So we end up with middle-aged individuals with lots of experience and who are artful in their response to the "Don't you just love little Derby"? question.

Fair enough. What kind of experience are we getting though? Are they good educators? Absolutely. Nice people? Yes. However, their experience (and age) lead them to follow the same patterns they've followed before - get settled in, see what needs fixing, try to get more money from the city to fix it.

This recipe is doomed to fail because Derby ain't rich! And, Derby isn't a stable, white-collar community (like the new Supt has usually come from). So when the new Supt realizes after a few years that he/she can't possibly succeed given the problems/funding in Derby ... they leave.

So, let's change our parameters! Let's hire a superintendent who is young, who has a fire in him/her to affect reform, who is local and knows the Valley, who will want to dig in and make this work. Someone who is pro online learning and not afraid to battle for regionalization.

Let's not hire the "same" Supt again or history will just repeat itself.

Is One Enough?

You've probably heard this story before, but it's a good one. The original is attributed to Loren C. Eiseley and is called "Star Thrower". The following is my version:

A young boy walks along a beach littered with hundreds of starfish. They've been washed in on the tide and stranded. Exposed to the growing heat of the day they'll soon die.

The boy sees an old man further down the beach. The man is stooping to pick up starfish and then tossing them, one at a time, back into the ocean. When the boy reaches the man he asks him why he is throwing them back.

"They'll die here on the beach", the man answers. "I'm trying to save them".

"But, there are so many", says the boy, "You can't save most of them!".

The man bends over and picks another one up. He tosses it into the waves. "There", he says, "I saved that one".

This story is about making a difference, even a small one. If Clearly Derby reaches just one person and makes them think about how the government belongs to them and how they can have a voice, then that will be my little contribution - and it's enough for me.

Who Is Lonely?

As the internet and social media become more integrated with our lives, are we becoming more or less lonely?

Many of us who enjoy cyberspace tend to stay at home more and increasingly our children sit with their iPads while the swings and slides stand silent in the backyard.

Yet, our network of friends expands via social media, and as we become more aware, through online media, of what's happening in our own neighborhoods and towns, many of us venture out more than we used to.

And now, as the internet becomes more and more mobile, will we just resume our old ways and bring the internet with us?

I think human nature will have its say; extroverts will always find a way to socialize and introverts can always find a place to hide.

Is Culture the Right Path?

At one of the Derby Concerts on the Green recently, I commented to a friend that I was uncertain about which things to share on Clearly Derby. I'd been feeling like I was covering too many cultural events instead of concentrating on the workings of local government.

He asked me why I was including these things then. This was an easy question to answer - because people love the cultural stuff - the music, the art, the contests, the humor - all of that. Most enjoy it more than the politics.

My friend added that he's always felt, as an artist, that the path to peoples' political conscience is through their culture. First you have to find out what's important to their hearts - then you can talk to their heads!

I felt better after this conversation - I think I'm on the right track.

Are We Obsolete?

To hold a public meeting we must post an announcement of the meeting on the outside door of City Hall 24 hours before the meeting is to take place. Why, and does this make sense anymore?

What if we said, to hold a public meeting we must post an announcement on that door AND the person calling the meeting, e.g. the chairman, must publish the agenda online or in a local paper (or preferably both), including a brief description of how any matters coming up for a vote, in that particular meeting, might affect the citizens?

And (let's just go crazy here) what if we video taped the meetings and made them available online or on public access or at the library (or all of the above)? Then one could watch the meeting when they have time, if they are so inclined. Ken Hughes looked into this when he first took office and found the price tag too high. I wonder what the public thinks?

Just sayin ...

Who is Responsible?

We are so busy - we have more to do to keep up and make ends meet than ever before. Most people have fallen into the habit of either not voting or else voting without knowing who or what they are voting for. They then feel like they've done their government/political homework and they can move on to more important things.

This works pretty well, locally and nationally, when not much is going on. When there are big problems though and we aren't paying attention - then we probably aren't going to be happy with the results.

So, who's minding the political store for us? Do we need citizen watchdog groups? Can we get more citizens involved in the political process? The clergy is unhappy when people just show up on Easter Sunday. We elected officials are unhappy when people just show up for the annual education budget.

In Derby we're reeling from the tax and sewer usage increases this year. What happened? Did the system of local government fail us? Or were we just not paying attention?

It would be great if we could start a dialogue about this.

Five Fairy Failures

We all have unreasonable expectations at times about certain things and we seem to believe that our needs will be magically met. It's as if we believe in fairies and we hope that they'll show up in the cover of night and fix our problems.

One of my favorites is the Diet Coke Fairy: just drink diet coke with whatever you eat and you will somehow stay slim. Failure.

One of my least favorites is the Whining Fairy: don't take any reasonable action, just whine and hope someone will accommodate you. Failure.

We also have a Valley Fairy: we don't have to be responsible for our shortcomings because ... we live in the Valley. Failure.

One very dangerous character is the Right-Fighter Fairy: I don't have to contribute to a solution, or ever go with the flow. I just have to always be right. Failure.

The scariest fairy of all, to me, is the Someone Else will Pay Fairy: Are you broke? Get the City to pay for it. Is the City broke? Get the State to pay for it. Is the State broke? Get the Feds to pay for it. Somehow the Fairy will fill these institutions' pockets with money to solve our problems. Nevermind that the money is coming from us all the time. Big Failure.

So be careful next time you wish on a star - your dreams may not come true.

The Choices We Make

Today is our 12th anniversary, Tony and I. What a great choice I made! I think a truly outstanding partner has to always have one's back, be loyal to a fault, and be one's cheerleader for life. I am truly blessed to have found these qualities, and so much more, in this man that I adore.

And what, you might ask, does this have to do with local government? Ha, everything. It's the choices we make, you know.

On Our Honor

I was taught, as a child, to honor my parents, my country and my country's flag. I've found others to honor along life's way - but only those that were deserving of that respect.

I believe that Tony Staffieri, our Mayor, the hardworking leader of our community, is deserving of our respect and I think that those who dishonored him with their insinuations that he was lying about the Domurad affair - or worse, that he had forged documents - owe him an apology.

I have tried to keep quiet during this legal process because I believed that the courts needed to sort it out. There may be a cost to the City for this but I ask you, what price should one put on honor?

If Derby is to move forward and become stronger it must take more care in how it treats those who are trying to make Derby better. This is the way we can honor Derby.

Thoughts on Money

In Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, there is a quote I love: "Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver."

Last night, at the Tax Board meeting, there were many opinions voiced, some for giving the schools more money [because it's the only option] and some for taking away the money [because our seniors can't afford higher taxes].

There was only one, lonely dissenting voice who said something like ... don't give the schools more money because it will just encourage them to continue on the same failing educational path ... take away the money and let us learn to be more resourceful, let the community realize that we have to share resources with other towns. Thank you Emre Akter for providing that voice, but I'm not sure that anyone heard you. Emre, by the way, is a well-educated teacher who isn't afraid to speak up.

We have some very talented, devoted teachers and administrators, but they are spending our money, not their money. When are our school officials going to start driving the education bus instead of being passengers on the money train?

I looked at the audience last night. I saw hardworking folks that more than likely grew up without a lot of extra money. I looked at the audience and saw the heart of Derby - good, honest people from a beautiful city whose roots are buried in a blue-collar, industrial past. I saw people who understand the value of money and know that money is only a tool.

I love it that so many people came out last night and voiced their opinion. Let's do it again, real soon!