 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||
|
|||
Downstreet.net Is on Summer Hiatus
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Celebrating Sojourner
Bright Sunshine, Historical Sparkle,
Next up, the David Ruggles Center
By Edward Shanahan
Sparkling location, upbeat event, a fine day for celebrating.
The sun was bright and the weather perfect for the fifth anniversary commemoration Sunday of the installation of the always evocative statue of Sojourner Truth at the intersection of Pine and Park Streets in Florence.
The bronze Sojourner, bathed in sunlight, seemed to literally glow as the afternoon unfolded and her virtues and accomplishments were extolled right beside her commanding presence.
Sisters of the Drum got the proceedings off with a bang — continuous bangs in fact — and the amazingly spirited Dance Theater Ensemble from Amherst Regional High School draw loud applause as did the exuberant musicians who made up the group Higher Help.
State Rep. Ellen Story, Democrat of Amherst, had come across the river to provide a concise history lesson of the life and impact of Sojourner, wondering where Sojourner, who could neither read nor write, had found the inner strength to advance the cause of Abolition and the rights of women.
As is the case each year, two high school students were recipients of scholarships from the Sojourner Truth Memorial Statue Committee, providing another Amherst connection on this day. Awards went to Matteo Ramos-Mucci and Remy Fernandez OíBrien, both students from Amherst.
In addition to Rep. Story's informative talk, another important history lesson and blueprint for a significant new Florence undertaking was offered by Steve Strimer, who is dogged in researching and writing about the pivotal role played by 19th Century African-American residents in the Florence community.
I yield the rest of this space to the indefatigible Steve Strimer, who delivered the following remarks about a program he envisions for Florence to showcase the contributions of its early black citizens. Read Steve Strimer's remarks....
____________________________________________________________
Watching and Waiting for the Denouement
The 2008 Democratic Primary as Spectacle:
A Political Addiction Takes Over Our Lives
By Edward Shanahan
Do you know where your spouse is at 5 p.m.? Mine is watching Chris Matthews’ “Hardball” on cable channel MSNBC seeking the latest skinny on the heart-pounding Clinton-Obama political struggle.
For the last several months, it has become ritual, no, its an addiction, and it does not take much encouragement for me to slip in and out of the room, upstairs or down, to check in nightly with the rotating chorus of pundits, radio talk gabbers, political 
strategists and know-it-all columnists.
We have not been this fixated on presidential politics since John F. Kennedy energized us at ages 24 in 1960, lifting our spirits and raising our expectations.
It forged in us a serious commitment to the expressed principles of the Democratic Party and the
positive, even idealistic, role that government could have in the lives of Americans.
With the assassination death of JFK and the collapse of LBJ’s Great Society initiatives under the weight of the disastrous Vietnam War, and the urban riots, optimism gave way to discouragement. Except for the single four-year term of Jimmy Carter, there has been little reason to be excited by the state of the Democratic Party, which had been all but dismantled in the wake of GOP presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and the administrations of Bush One and Bush Two.
This Obama-Clinton obsession of ours is played out in our careful reading of on-the-ground reporting in the New York Times, visits to Obama’s website, and various media websites, including the Washington Post “Trail” postings.
But, when we hunger for more, we turn to the relentless 24 -hour cable world of news coverage that whipsaws us with a rich diet of political news, analysis, information, misrepresentation, repetition, agitation, negative commentary, baseless spin, some hope and as much despair, all in the course of a single news cycle. Read the rest of the story....
________________________________________________________________________________________
Controlling the Cruise: An Exercise in Slow(er) Motion
By Edward Shanahan
A little experiment in cruise control.
Angry about gasoline prices? Can’t fight Big Oil? Can’t prod oil-producing countries like Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Mexico to ship us more product? Can’t get automakers to build more fuel-efficient vehicles? Can’t prevent India and China from developing modern economies and consuming the oil we insist we so rightly deserve instead? Can’t stop the whipsawing of the oil markets by global speculators?
Not many ways to fight back are there?
Oh, you drive less and rely more on unreliable mass transit where it exists at all.
But have you ever noticed that those who probably crybaby most about what they are paying for gasoline are continuing to drive their cars at reckless speeds - 70, 75, 80 miles on the interstates? They don’t get it.
While oil prices are high and on track to climb into the stratosphere, we have a choice over which we do have total control. Drive slower. It’s a known way to cut down on gasoline consumption.
Last weekend on a trip to New York City to attend a play involving two grandchildren, I tried to see what easing up on the gas pedal over a long stretch could actually accomplish.
We don’t have the most efficient vehicle, a 2006 Honda CRV, sort of a junior SUV, but its performance depends somewhat on how you drive it.
So between Northampton and New York City, a distance of about 150-plus miles, I locked in the cruise control at between 57 and 59 miles an hour for much of the trip.
As a result by the time I reached the Merritt Parkway in New York State I was averaging for the trip 34.8 miles per gallon of gasoline, according to my Honda high-tech instrument panel.
At that speed I was able after the tunnel outside New Haven to pass only a single car – a red Cadillac with a Florida license plate and driven by a geezer about my age.
By the time I hit New York City my average gas mileage had slipped to 34.1 and by the time we pulled up at 350 Cabrini Blvd. In Washington Heights the gauge read 33.9 mpg. Pretty good. All it required was restraint, patience, lots of small talk and constant monitoring of the instrument panel.
The next day the trip home was no more eventful, although I did pass a second car and on the approach to Springfield I crept past a small white truck, I had to be more restrained in my driving on the return trip because a small amount of New York City driving had reduced my mpg figure to 30.1. Thus, I had to cut my cruising speed to 55 mph, which is the posted speed on the Merritt and Wilbur Ross parkways. Meanwhile, cars sped by us at bewildering, even dangerous, speeds and in the process priceless gasoline was wasted.
I was able to recover some of the lost mileage gains on the Wilbur Cross and then in I-91, so that when we arrived back in Florence at 9 Greeley Ave., I had the mpg figure up to 31.6. The total miles driven were 326.7.
That required 10.33 gallons of gasoline and at $3.53 a gallon the trip cost $36.36.
But, of course, the pleasure of seeing Benjamin and Ellie performing magically, in our view, at the Pied Piper Theater was worth it at any price.
_____________________________________________
Obama’s Army Occupies
Northampton’s Downtown
Several hundred partisans of Sen. Barack Obama’s quest for the Democratic nomination to run for President clogged the downtown intersection of Main, Pleasant and King Streets on Saturday April 19, the actual date on which Patriots’ Day was traditionally celebrated in the Commonwealth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EDITOR'S NOTE:
Go to our archives to read recent stories about a weekend of celebration, politics and opera, the victim of a housing squeeze, the decoupling of news and paper, and the Northampton CPA's debut disbursements.
Or, you may read all of our previous commentary—a rumination on the Pleasant Street Theater vs. the Academy of Music, an update on Forbes Library privacy issues and other notes and comments from the downstreet.net editor—in the archives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 downstreet.net©2001.
All rights reserved.
|