Connecticut

Post posts about what is happening in the State of Connecticut.

Joy and Sadness, Isabella and Monique

Yesterday, the news came out that Isabella Oleschuk, the thirteen year old girl that disappeared in Orange, CT on Sunday morning had been found. She was safely hiding in an old farm stand about three miles from her house, living off a stash of granola bars and pop-tarts.

The initial reaction was one of great joy and relief, but now people are starting to wonder what led her to run away from home. The newspaper reports are that she was stressed about the Connecticut Mastery Tests that had been administered the previous week in school. Other reports say that she had been bullied. One newspaper article went after Isabella for running away. They are partly correct. She hasn’t yet learned how to deal as effectively as possible with some of the stress and abuse of this messed up world, but she’s also only thirteen, a time when these lessons are being learned and the stress can seem overwhelming.

So, instead of going after Isabella, perhaps we need to look a little more closely at ourselves. How are we failing our children when it comes to teaching these important lessons? Are we failing to deal properly with bullying in our schools? Are we placing too much emphasis on tests like the CMTs?

Isabella isn’t the only thirteen year old Connecticut girl in the news right now. Yesterday, in the Middletown Press, there was a letter from Alexa M McClain about her granddaughter, Monique McClain.

The letter talks about when Monique testified before the Middletown Board of Education. She opened her statement with, “My name is Monique McClain. I am the one being bullied.”

The responses to the letter were abhorrent. “Here's an idea...Teach your kid how to have a backbone!!” and “How about teaching these kids to defend themselves. I was bullied as a kid. I finally punched him in the nose and the problem stopped.”

I have added my comment there:

I applaud Monique for having the courage, backbone and strength to stand up and publicly testify in front of the BOE. She has more courage and has fought a better fight than the people here who are afraid to use their real names when they suggest she fights back or grows a backbone.

Some of us in the Constitution State recognize that our government was formed on the basis of establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility, providing for the common defence, promoting the general Welfare, and securing the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.

Personally, I have to wonder if members of the Board of Education and the Superintendent's office are meeting their obligations to the people of Middletown.

At a recent meeting about bullying, a friend jokingly asked me if I was there as on behalf of the bully, or the person bullied. I said I was there as on behalf of bystanders that need help in dealing with bullying when it is happening around them.

This isn’t about the bullies and the bullied, it is about all of us learning to act with dignity and show respect to the people around us. My prayers go out to Isabella and Monique. They go out to the bullies. The bullies and the bullied aren’t really that much different. They both need help in learning how to properly deal with the stress in their lives. And the rest of us? We need to learn how to provide that help.

Which Connecticut Cities Kill the Most Dogs Now?

This afternoon, a friend sent me a message about an article in the Valley Independent Sentinel, High Kill Rate Triggers Change At Derby Dog Pound. I wrote about this nearly in year ago in my blog post, Does Your Town Kill Dogs?.

I spoke with folks at the Valley Independent Sentinel, as well as various animal activists, and I’m glad to see that the Valley Independent Sentinel has finally published an article on the topic. What is even more important to me is that they article goes on to say:

They said former police Chief Eugene Mascolo instituted a policy requiring that dogs kept more than 16 days at the pound would be taken to a vet and euthanized.

...

Current police brass and City Hall officials said they did not know Derby was killing so many animals. Derby police officials said the policy ended in January.

On my todo list is to get updated monthly animal control officer reports from the Department of Agriculture to see how the statistics have changed since I first started looking at this.

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Gov Malloy and Healthcare

I am at a conference, so I don’t have as much time to write about this as I would like, but I want to highlight two recent articles about Gov. Malloy’s meeting with hospital executives, CTNewsJunkie and CT Mirror.

"I want to say at the outset that I would trade my deficit for any one of yours today," Malloy told hospital executives and trustees at the Connecticut Hospital Association headquarters in Wallingford.

The CT Mirror article goes on to say

"I think there are hospitals represented in this room that need to rethink their relationships with community health centers," he said

As the social media manager for Community Health Center, Inc., I want to make two comments. First, I am speaking on my own behalf, and not on behalf of the health center.

That said, I think Gov. Malloy is on the mark on this. We need to stop spending so much time on arguing about which services should be cut or where new revenues should be sought, and focus more on increasing efficiency. To the extent that hospitals can encourage patients to establish a relationship with a primary care provider and get regular routine treatment at a health center, hospitals, health centers, and the government all benefit by people being healthier at less expense.

Update: During break, I spent time talking with a woman from St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, CT about social media and health care in Connecticut. We're starting the sort of discussions Gov. Malloy recommends.

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Hebron Maple Fest

This weekend is the Hebron Maple Fest. It is another one of those Connecticut events we try to get to every year. This year was a little more difficult than other years. I am leaving on a business trip on Sunday so we really need to go to the festival today.

However, Fiona had play practice in the morning. Kim was supposed to go to a political event, but was sick. I walked Wesley while Fiona was at practice, ran some errands, and then picked up Fiona.

Finally, around noon, we got on the road. We stopped in Middletown, where we picked up Orlando, a friend of mine from work. The three of us then proceeded to the festival.

It was about the same as other years. We parked about the same place we usually do, walked down to the Democrat’s booth where Fiona had a grilled cheese sandwich and I had a maple cured ham, egg and cheese sandwich. On the way, we ran into Congressman Joe Courtney and State Senator Edith Prague. I chatted with both of them for a little while.

Rep. Courtney and State Sen. Prague

There were various dogs around, but we had decided not to bring Wesley. That would be just too complicated. Other years a greyhound rescue group has been there. This year there were lots of greyhounds, but I don’t know if any of them were available for adoption.

Farmer's Cow

The Farmer’s Cow was there, giving away miniature ice cream sundaes. It was right next to the building with the quilts and Fiona, who had just finished her grilled cheese sandwich wanted to see them. She and Orlando went inside, and I hung out outside holding Fiona’s food. Later, I went inside and looked at the quilts and took some pictures.

Quilt

Finally, we made it up to the Volunteer Fire Department. That was where we picked up the sugar on snow and maple cotton candy. Orlando had never had sugar on snow before and wasn’t sure what to expect. He doesn’t have a big sweet tooth, but enjoyed it anyway. However, I couldn’t convince him to have pickles with the sugar on snow.

After this we drove to a couple sugar houses. We ended of at Wenzel’s sugar house. They usually have a cow, and sometimes have a calf there. This year, there was a ten day old calf. Fiona greatly enjoyed being with the calf and even got a chance to feed it a little.

Fiona and the Calf

We picked up a half gallon of extra dark maple syrup. Most people like the light maple syrup, but we like it dark. The dark maple syrup is especially good in hard cider.

Finally, we headed back home. Kim was still sick in bed. I did a bit more laundry and started preparing for the trip tomorrow. It was a good day, tiring but good. I just hope Kim feels better soon.

(P.S. Pictures are up in my 2011 Hebron Maple Fest Set on Flickr.)

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Party With A Purpose

Monday evening, I went to a birthday party for Mark Masselli and Jennifer Alexander. Mark is the president and CEO of Community Health Center, Inc, where I work, and his wife Jennifer is a co-founder of Kid City in Middletown. They billed the event as their 105th birthday party, combining the age of the two of them.

The event took place at Eli Cannon’s in Middletown and was well attended by friends from work, various political figures that I knew and numerous other people whom I didn’t know or whom I was meeting for the first time.

In many ways, it was not really all that different from so many big birthday parties that I’ve attended. However, there was one thing in particular that set the event apart. Not only did they encourage attendees to donate to local non-profit organizations, but they pledge to match the gifts with a donation of their own to a local non-profit.

One of the nonprofits that benefited from this is Oddfellows Playhouse which lost 36 years worth of props and costumes when the building they were stored in collapsed earlier this year.

Another nonprofit benefitting from the support is The Buttonwood Tree. This is the music venue where I went to see Harpeth Rising during their Connecticut tour.

All in all, it was a great event, and hopefully others will be inspired to have similar parties with a purpose.

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