Connecticut
Post posts about what is happening in the State of Connecticut.
Covering the Board of Education
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 06/09/2009 - 21:48I’ve been at plenty of conferences where people talk about what happens when the watchdog, the local media, is asleep, but they all seem to be too theoretical. So I was pleased when I had the opportunity to speak with Massachusetts Democratic Activists at a session at the end of their state convention about citizen journalism. If we want better government, one of the first things we need to do is get more people informed about what is going on.
For me, this has included going to the monthly meetings of my local board of education, tweeting the meetings and writing up blog posts afterwards. I wish more people would do this, and I tried to give attendees to the workshop at the convention enough hints and motivation to get started.
There are many issues that this raises. When bloggers and citizen journalists start covering local meetings, what sort of training should they get? What would be helpful for them to know? What ethical standards apply? I always encourage people to be upfront about how they are, I detest pseudonyms, except in special cases, and talk about any possible conflicts they might have. I encourage people to read the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics and check out the Investigative Reporters and Editors website for tips on being a better reporter.
Another thing that always annoys me about all those conference where people talk about the future of journalism is that people go for the simple story, casting it as a battle between the traditional journalists, trained at journalism schools and in danger of losing their jobs and the new bloggers, untrained, unethical, and working for free.
It seems as if the real story is about how interconnected the media ecology is. Today provided a good illustration of this. Rick Green wrote a column for the Hartford Courant entitled Websites Battle For Woodstock's Hearts, Minds. I’ve butted heads with Rick in the past, because he often seems all too willing to jump into tired old story of professionals versus bloggers in a manner that I do not believe does anyone any good. However, this column was noteworthy for taking a more nuanced look at what is going on in the media ecology.
I should note that I am ‘friends’ with Rick on Facebook, and it was through Facebook that I found his column. There is an important lesson here. Traditional media outlets are well advised to use sites like Facebook and Twitter to promote their content and draw in readers.
Beyond that, Rick explored in interesting issue in Woodstock, CT. Today, they had a referendum that would cut the terms of Board of Education members from six years to four years. It would cut the number of members of the Woodstock Board of Education from nine to seven, and the terms of all current Board of Education members would end this November.
Ostensibly, this would make the school board more responsive. Here in Woodbridge, we have four year terms, and I think it would be a good idea for Woodstock to also have four year terms. The Woodbridge Board of Education has nine members, and that seems like an appropriate number of members for the Board of Education. I don’t really see a value in cutting it back to seven members. More importantly, I think that prematurely terminating the terms of the current Board of Education members is a bad idea.
Digging deeper, it appears as if there are a handful of people that have had long standing battles with the Board of Education, and this is just the latest in a long history of skirmishes. Reading blog posts and local newspaper stories, it is possible to draw a more complete view of the issues surrounding legal costs and tuition costs.
What is especially interesting is that The Hartford Courant, still the paper of record for the State of Connecticut commented on the election. In Mr. Green’s column, he pointed to two websites, The Woodstock Café and Woodstock Truth. There has been an ongoing battle between these two websites about the board of education. As Mr. Green notes, the battles aren’t always pretty, but it is good to see people more engaged.
I should also note that the Woodstock Villager has provided good coverage of issues around the local board of education as well. All of this points, I believe to the importance of the state paper of record, the local papers, and the blogs, all providing different perspectives about the events in our state. While I wouldn’t wish the drama of Woodstock on other towns in our state, I do wish that other towns had people as interested in the board of education as it appears people in Woodstock are.
As a final note, according to the Woodstock Café, the referendum failed 61% TO 39%
Judiciary Committee Co-Chairmen Ask Governor for Proposal to Fix Death Penalty
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 11:24As a general rule, I believe that bloggers should read press releases, analyze them, and provide context and insight. However, I've been in DC for the past few days, will be in New York today and in Springfield on Saturday, so I don't have the time or energy to give the following letter from Sen. Andrew McDonald and Rep. Mike Lawlor to Gov. Jodi Rell the attention it deserves.
So, below the fold, you will find the letter, as it is. Hopefully others will have time for reflection and comments.
Ice Cream Blogging
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 10:23Last night, after dinner, my eldest daughter asked if we could go out for ice cream. She has just gotten home from college and it seemed like an appropriate celebration, so we set off towards one of my favorite ice cream shops here in Connecticut.
First, we stopped at the community gardens, where we have a small plot and the corn and watermelons have come up. Then we stopped by a local reservoir to look at a guardrail put up because of civic engagement. Then, we finally made it to the ice cream shop.
Our family is very serious about all the food we eat, and try to seek out the best places we can. Rich Farm Ice Cream Shop in Oxford, CT clearly has earned its place on this list. It is fresh ice cream made on the farm. I had ‘Razzmataz’, or something like that. Essentially, it was vanilla ice cream with a raspberry swirl and chucks of fudge. It was very good.
My eldest daughter had peaches and cream and run raisin and my youngest had cookie dough. My wife had been working late so we brought home a pint of German Chocolate Cake ice cream for her.
As we sat outside on the farm, eating our ice cream, I suggested that my daughters might enjoy helping me research a comprehensive study of ice cream shops in Connecticut. People don’t often think about ice cream as one of the great products of our state, but they should.
The Connecticut Farm Bureau has a website encouraging people to get involved in politics to Save Dairy in Connecticut. While I applaud their efforts, in this case, a more hands on approach of finding the best local ice cream shops in the state and encouraging folks to visit them regularly is a much more enjoyable form of civic action.
So, if you care about the State of Connecticut, or if you care about ice cream, please join me in enjoying ice cream the farms of Connecticut, especially Rich Farm Ice Cream Shop in Oxford, some of the Best of Connecticut.
(Cross posted at Roxy's Best of ... Connecticut.)
Tinkering with Students’ Lives
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 17:49
In December 1965, a thirteen year old student wore a black armband to school to protest the Vietnam war. It was a small act, and did not lead to any immediate de-escalation of the conflict in Vietnam. She probably didn’t expect her arm band to end the war, but she also probably didn’t expect it to change her life, and the life of others that way it did.
Four years later, the Supreme Court ruled that the school violated Ms. Tinker’s First Amendment Freedom of Speech when they sent her home for wearing that armband.
Last night, she spoke at the ACLU of Connecticut’s Milton Sorokin Symposium, “Students and Schools Pushing the Limits of Free Speech”. The evening started off with Justice Richard N. Palmer presenting the 2009 First Amendment Essay Contest winners. These students had written essays on the topic, “In what circumstance should a school be able to punish students for their speech off campus?”
The evening was moderated by Laurie Perez of Fox 61 News who has written about the Doninger case and noted that this case is the most searched item on the Fox 61 News website.
Many lawyers seemed star struck to be in the presence of a plaintiff of such an important Supreme Court case. What sort of message would Ms. Tinker deliver? How had the event changed her life? What were the influences that led her to wearing the arm band on that fateful day, and what had her life turned out to be like forty years later?
Ms. Tinker spoke about her father being a Methodist minister and how she had been brought up with the exhortation to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. She spoke about moving out of one town because of her father’s involvement in the Civil Rights movement and dinner time discussions about her parents’ experiences going to register voters in the south in 1964.
She commented that “That’s the sort of person I want to be, to stand up for what is right”, and spoke about the importance of telling stories not only about Cinderella, but also about brave people who stood up for what they believed in.
Clearly, her parents’ simple acts of courage had a hand in shaping her life, as did her experiences with the famous lawsuit. She became a nurse and works mostly with trauma patients; gunshots, knifings, and accidents. She spends her free time going from one event to another, trying to help students find their voices, to stand up for themselves, and to lead the way to a better world.
She spoke as a nurse, recognizing that one of the most important things a student can do for their long term health is graduate from high school. She spoke about advocating for ‘democratic schools’ and noted that a punitive approach to education, especially regarding what happens beyond the school yard gate drives students away from schools. She talked about the problems with the school to prison pipeline.
In many ways, her talk could be summed up in the simple words she often tells students, “You are going to make history with your small actions or inactions”. As she spoke, I thought of a different quote from Robert Kennedy:
"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Her parents sent forth a tiny ripple of hope, it crossed the ripple of hope she and her fellow students sent out, it now crosses the ripples of hope sent out by the students whose lives she has touched as she goes around the country encouraging students to speak up.
After she spoke, Patrice McCarthy, Deputy Director and General Counsel for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education spoke. It must be following such a powerful speaker, but Ms. McCarthy held her own and her remarks and the question and answer period deserve their own post.
So, I put up my blog posts and wonder what sort of effect my small actions might make. I wonder about the actions of other bloggers I visit online. We may never see the effect of our actions the way Ms. Tinker has, but we should all keep to our little actions and our hopes for a better world.
What Kind of State Are We?
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 17:00Hartford – Thursday afternoon, the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association held a press conference with Sister Helen Prejean, author of the book Dead Man Walking, and Randy Steidl, the 123rd Death Row Exoneree. Many of the standard points about what is wrong with the Death Penalty were raised. It doesn’t work. It risks the lives of innocent people. It is not an effective deterrent. It is too expensive. It is unevenly applied. There is racial, economic and geographic disparities in how it is applied. It is applied with impermissible arbitrariness. Yet the real question is, what kind of a State are we?
Mr. Steidl talked about how less than one per cent of murderers are given the death penalty and how it is nothing but revenge. Revenge is a hate crime, and we have laws against hate crimes in our country. He called on Americans to wake up. This isn’t Russia, China, or Afghanistan. This is the United States of America. We are better than that.
Sister Helen Prejean brought the message even more closely home. She lives in Louisiana. She noted that 80% of the executions in the United States come from former slave states, but that Connecticut isn’t a state driven by vengeance and hatred. She applauded the wisdom of our legislators and challenged the Governor to embrace the same wisdom.
