In loco parentis?

by M. Stewart
Today’s Morning Journal story about a Southern Local girl left in a South Carolina jail has a whole lot of strange twists and turns, but who was it that called the cops in the first place? Because our local papers block links from this site, you’ll have to find the story on your own.

The way I understand it, a 17-year-old girl on a senior trip was caught with some marijuana during a search for some missing money by a teacher. Apparently someone called police and had her arrested. Then the district superintendent decided to leave the girl behind in a Myrtle Beach jail. Once the girl got out on bond, a released male prisoner escorted her to some sort of tent city for homeless people. Long story short, somehow she managed to get back home alive.

After all this, the board of education’s concern was whether the girl would be permitted to walk with her class at graduation? Did I miss something?

I know a lot of you are going to say that the girl got what she deserved for having the marijuana, but foolish American drug policy is an issue for another time. What I don’t understand is why anyone would call the cops in this situation?

If it was one of the teacher chaperones, the school district needs to revisit its hiring policy and start screening for morons. Apparently the phrase in loco parentis no longer has meaning in our public schools. What sort of "educator" would call the cops on a 17-year-old girl and leave her in a South Carolina jail?

National health coverage?

Today East Palestine writer Melody Gustafson, managing editor of Kent State East Liverpool's Eastern Flash, returns to ORL with a piece on national health care.

by Melody Gustafson
It is insane to force a country of 290 million people to pay for a national health care bureaucracy to provide care for less than 50 million people who lack health coverage.

An approximation of the numbers shows that a mere 16 percent of the population of the United States comprises the group for which an entire system overhaul has been proposed. While it is unfortunate that so many of us has to pay cash for health care, revamping an entire system at a higher cost to taxpayers, while requiring a sacrifice of the citizen access to quality health care, is ludicrous.

The biggest problem with the national health care proposal, besides the inflated taxes, is the inevitable loss of quality of care, and this will happen in a couple ways.

First of all, bureaucracies are headed by non-elected administrators who don’t answer to the public at the polls. These non-elected heads launch policies regularly that may be questionable to the public. When life and health are on the line, is it wise to eliminate accountability and competition in the midst of a few people whose main role in the process is to reconcile the financial existence of the country’s health care? Cost-cutting policies will effectually marginalize the standards of quality care of more people than will benefit from the overhaul.

Dick Morris, political consultant and author, issued an article May 18 that outlined some of the loss-of-quality concerns by comparing the U.S. private system with what the Canadians have done with their country.

Morris writes: “As in Canada, the best way to cut medical costs is to refrain from using the best drugs to treat cancer and other illnesses, thereby economizing at the expense of patients’ lives...death rates from cancer are 16 percent higher in Canada.” It doesn’t make sense to limit the resources of those who already have adequate health care now so a diminutive minority of Americans can benefit from a costly handout.

Morris also addresses the issue of the shortfall of medical personnel. Congress is considering saving on Medicare fees by regulating the amount doctors can charge for services. Without an incentive to enter the profession and compete with others, the amount of good doctors and nurses will decrease. One can only imagine how many times Congress would, with their backs against the wall, have to “reduce costs” at the expense of what the professionals earn. The result will be a country with an increasing population and less and less doctors to care for them.

According to Morris, “Canadian experience indicates that when government – or its satellite private insurance providers – ration health care, they cut preventative care first. In Canada, colonoscopies are so rationed that the colon cancer rate is 25 percent higher than in the United States.”

Morris does try to look at the bright side, and reason that the “other radical changes Obama is bringing about in our country can always be reversed. That which is nationalized can be privatized.” This columnist disagrees. Our country has a history of helping the disadvantaged, but as future lawmakers face the proposition of repeal in four or eight years, the propagandist mantra of the national health-care advocates will be accusation of inhumane deprivation of care for the 16 percent instead of simple “privatization.”

California Hollow

Here is a photo of Dresden Avenue looking north towards St. Clair Township. This used to be called California Hollow. Click to enlarge. From Artwork of East Liverpool and Vicinity, 1895. (KSU East Liverpool Digital Archive Project)

Golden Star

Some of you will remember Golden Star Dairlyland at the corner of Fifth and Market in downtown Liverpool. Click to enlarge.

Trombetta at OVTC

Dr. Nick Trombetta spoke Thursday evening at the Ohio Valley Technology Council's quarterly dinner meeting. I hope you enjoy these excerpts. The sold-out dinner was held at Crockery City Cafe in downtown East Liverpool.

Exposing the rat

by M. Stewart
Jo Ann Bobby-Gilbert has a good story in the Morning Journal today. Missing documentation, unaccounted for money, a threat from a councilman, a vow from the mayor to out the rat—hardcore Wellsville, a real follow-the-money whodunit.

Based on the aggressive posturing at Tuesday’s council meeting, it looks like someone on the inside turned in Mayor Joe Surace & friends; now the state wants its money back. Naturally, U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson will run interference for Wellsville. The paper trail already has disappeared, so everyone can deny everything. This definitely is a story worth watching.

Meahwhile, in Liverpool . . .

I got a call last night from an old family friend who wanted to know what would happen to the Riverview Florist building on Parkway. She said the structure is part of the Bosco property under purchase agreement with the city, and she fears the city will tear it down.

This information may be incorrect. Does anybody know if the Bosco property includes the old Riverview Florist? I do know that the business has moved down to the old Buckman building, and they must have done that for a reason.

Follow the yellow brick road

by M. Stewart
I see in today’s Review that East Liverpool City Council discussed the pothole problem Monday night. Questioned about the efficiency of the street department by Councilman Brian Kerr, Mayor Jim Swoger defended the department’s apparent slow response, citing a lack of traffic control personnel.

Our streets are in such bad shape because we can’t find enough people to stand there and wave flags.

Go back as far as you want in history, and you’ll discover that East Liverpool streets have always been a problem. For whatever reason, our city has never produced political leadership that thinks of streets as a priority. Dangerous potholes are a fact of life here, and because no one at city hall will entertain the idea of reclaiming and maintaining our hidden brick-street infrastructure, the problem is not likely to go away.

Myself, I think about driving in Liverpool as kind of a game in which you lose points by hitting potholes. To win—that is, to get to your destination with minimal car damage—you must use both sides of the street and be willing to drive off-road when necessary. It’s a dangerous game, but one has no choice but to play.

Back to bricks . . .

Brick streets do not develop potholes, and they will last indefinitely if properly maintained. The problem with brick streets is that construction and maintenance cannot be done by machine; it’s all hand work, and we may not have enough people left in this area willing to do physical labor. Asphalt is nice, but winter weather, thoughtless drainage schemes, and constant water department openings destroy asphalt surfaces within a year or two. So more often than not, asphalt is a waste of money.

It’s really a matter of how best to spend limited public funds. Do we want a long-term fix, or do we want constant problems? Because city hall does nothing to fight the growth of CMHA-sponsored poverty, Liverpool is doomed to constant budget shortfalls and the continued proliferation of a lazy citizenry, which sucks up the tax base without contributing to it.

Lacking the political will to break the grip of poverty profiteers, government must find alternate ways of managing services. One way is to uncover our brick streets, repair them, and develop a summer maintenance program that employs student workers. The street department crew can run traffic control.

This is by no means an answer to all our street problems, but it’s a start, and that’s more than we have now.

Relay for Life dodge ball tournament

Saturday's "Relay for Life" dodge ball tournament at East Liverpool High School was a great success. Teams were made up of KSU-EL and ELHS students (and one KSU faculty!) At left are event organizers David Estell, Shane Reed. In the background are Megan Partezana and Bill Berger. The sweaty bunch below is KSU's "Artful Dodgers" team, which took fourth place. Pictured are: (front) Callen Owens and Kim Schneider; (back) Ian Smith (UPMC), Shelly Short, Matt Stewart, Luke Stewart, and Ryan Milan. Not pictured: Cody Culp. (Photos by Kara Lockhart-Milan)

It's journalism, not newspapers

As the saga of the dying newspaper industry continues, everyone is trying to figure out how to put the Internet genie back in the bottle, but it won't work. What we should be concerned about isn't newspapers, but journalism, which is not tied to a particular medium. In fact, there is no better medium for journalism than the Internet.

Check out this interesting commentary by Michael Wolff, Oh, for God’s Sake, Newspapers Should Go out of Business.

Unless a workable online advertising model can be developed (which doesn't seem likely), it's a no-brainer that newsgathering services are going to have to start charging for their product. Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch already has promised to start charging for online news content, and many more are finally coming around. See 54 newspapers to charge for content.

Don't get the idea that paying for content will mean no advertisements. It should, but it won't. You pay through the nose for cable TV, and it still has ads--and plenty of them. As such, newspapers should look to cable TV for a functional revenue model. After all, when you order the cable, you don't buy individual stations. Instead, you order a package of stations. The more you pay, the broader the package. Online news organizations may very well prosper in a similar environment.

But if consumers are going to pay directly for news, they'll expect a good product. No matter what the medium, journalism itself will not improve until the media companies decide to give their skilled workers more of the pie. These days, talented people aren't going to spend four years in college and go into debt for decades just so they can live in poverty. There are too many other fields that offer reasonable wages to educated people.

It's hard to feel sorry for the plight of journalists when so many jump to defend the very companies that exploit them, but I'm thinking of the future. As in all things, you get what you pay for, and that isn't likely to change. The good news is that with the passing of newspapers, the door is wide open for a total redesign of the news industry. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

Obama sells out

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The surgeon's cabinet

Jesus in jeans

by M. Stewart
Former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin seem to be everywhere in the news these days. Cheney is playing the role of postmortem spin doctor in an effort to alter the widespread perception that the Bush Jr. presidency was a complete failure. Good luck, Dick. You’re gonna need it.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, remains a tabloid darling. We can only assume that her efforts have something to do with running for president. The way things are going, Palin and Rush Limbaugh may be the only two people left willing to admit they are Republicans in 2012.

Check out this story from the UK’s Daily Telegraph. Who would have thought it would be the British who would finally reduce Jesus of Nazareth to a complete joke. According to the newspaper, Father David Buckley unveiled a seven-foot statue of a dancing Jesus at his church in Uckfield this week. In presenting his hipster prophet, Father Buckley is reported to have said, "You are always looking for new ways to enrich people in the experience of Christianity and it is good people can be open-minded to appreciate it.”

Open-mindedness? Exactly how does turning Jesus into a modern urban hipster “enrich people in the experience of Christianity”? One might have expected a stunt like this from a bunch of American evangelicals, but the Catholic Church? I know the Catholics love their idols, but this goes too far. Or maybe it doesn’t go far enough.

Perhaps evangelicals in America will want to one-up the British Papists by coming up with a modern Jesus of their own. Recent polling data suggest that evangelicals—that is, Christians led by self-proclaimed preachers—are much more likely to support government-sponsored torture than other types of Christians.

So let me suggest the creation of a gigantic mural depicting scenes of Jesus dressed up in a Nazi SS uniform torturing Jews. No wait, Arabs. We’ll call it “Mengele Jesus” or “The Gitmo Savior.” It really doesn’t matter what we call it. It’s the thought that counts.

Begging for restoration

This historic Third Street home once sat on the hill above downtown East Liverpool. Due to the highway, this view is no longer available. My understanding is that this place is for sale. The photo is from Artwork of East Liverpool and Vicinity. 1895. Click to enlarge.

What would Jesus do?

by M. Stewart
According to the newspaper, some area Christians got together yesterday at the East Liverpool Motor Lodge and in front of city hall to pray. Similar gatherings were organized throughout the country in observance of the so-called National Day of Prayer.

Mind you, I have nothing against prayer. There is little doubt that prayer satisfies vital psychological and spiritual needs for a great many people. So before all you paranoid, angry evangelicals start putting words in my mouth, let it be known that I wholeheartedly support private prayer and people’s right to pray to the god of their choice.

Nevertheless, I am very skeptical of events like the National Day of Prayer. I assume the pretense is that if enough people pray at one time, Yahweh will hear them and grant their prayers. In truth, the NDP is an organized media event. The purpose is to get all the newspapers and television stations to take video and pictures of people holding hands and praying in public places.

Those who accept the authority of the New Testament would never take part in such a garish public display of faith. They know that Jesus disapproved of public prayer. In the sixth chapter of the book of Matthew (KJV), Jesus makes his position on the issue very clear:

"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

I mention this not to accuse people of hypocrisy, but only to begin a dialogue on the issue. Do keep in mind that the argument isn’t with me, but with Jesus.

Jump to Flash

If you're wondering what's happening with the Smith Auto building at East Fourth and Broadway, check out this update by Melody Gustafson at Eastern Flash.

Windows 7 release candidate

by M. Stewart
Congratulations to all those East Liverpool City Council members who won in yesterday's primary election. Turnout was very low, but I suspect most people were not aware that there even was an election on Tuesday. No matter.

To change the subject, I downloaded the Windows 7 release candidate operating system yesterday. Although I have never been on the hate-Vista bandwagon, I can't say that I ever like it. Basically, the Vista OS was too slow, which is something Microsoft has addressed in the new release.

I don't recommend downloading Windows 7 to those of you without a geek streak. First of all, the conversion takes a long time, and should you have any problems, you're on your own. One problem I had was that Windows 7 is not compatible with Microsoft's own virus software--Windows Live OneCare, which I use. Go figure. Anyhow, I ended up downloading a free virus package called Panda. It's too early to say how well it works.

Vista users won't notice a great difference in the look of Windows 7, but the interface is definitely streamlined and more appealing, at least to my eye. The major obvious difference is the redesigned start menu. Unless you're just opposed to change, my guess is that you'll enjoy the added flexibility there.

I'll have more to say about the OS once I've had more of a chance to get into it. Anyone else out there download the Win7 release candidate? If so, what do you think?

Poems of Sue L. McBeth

by M. Stewart
In the East Liverpool Carnegie Library’s history room is a small, black ring-binder holding 60 leaves of 5 x 8.5-inch paper filled with the typed poetry of Sue L. McBeth. Beyond the poems themselves, there is no information about McBeth included with the volume. Whoever took the time to transcribe these poems into type (presumably from a manuscript), must have done so out of a desire to preserve them.

Some poems have headings that offer dates ranging from 1853 to 1859. It’s not clear whether these are composition dates, but if they are, Sue Law McBeth (1830-1893) would have been in her twenties when she wrote the poems.

McBeth came from a family of Scottish Presbyterian immigrants that settled in or near Wellsville, about two miles downriver from East Liverpool, Ohio. The family eventually produced two sisters, Kate and Sue, who spent most of their adult lives in the Indian Territories teaching Native Americans and attempting to convert them to Christianity.

Atop one poem is a title (or note) that reads, “Steubenville F.S. Sept. 20 1853,” referring to the Steubenville Female Seminary, founded in 1829 by Dr. Charles Clinton Beatty. Sue attended the school in the 1850s. The seminary “closed in 1898 after educating about 5,000 women” (Public Library of Steubenville).

Beyond the Carnegie Library’s possession of the typescript poetry collection, I have learned nothing as yet to connect Sue McBeth directly to East Liverpool. A reliable source of information on the missionary sisters is Kate and Sue McBeth: Missionary Teachers to the Nez Perce, a Web site sponsored by Idaho Humanities Council, the University of Idaho Library, and the John C. Smith Memorial Fund.

The Oklahoma Historical Society Web site offers a biographical sketch along with a few of Sue McBeth’s diary entries from 1860 and 1861.

The Kent State East Liverpool Digital Archive Project and Carnegie Library are working together to produce an e-book version of Poems written by Miss Sue L. McBeth. The page scan at left is a poem titled "Hypocracy," from the fourth page of Poems. The pages in the binder are not numbered, but with a few notable exceptions, they are placed in a rational sequence. (Click to enlarge.)

The poems are doors into the mind of an extraordinary woman. Most are standard devotional verses marking important occasions--marriages, deaths, holidays, illness. It's what people did before Hallmark. Many are written to or about specific friends, living and dead--for example, "A New Years Greeting to Adelin from Sue" and "To Miss Sallie E. Eldrige (dead) From Sue." To Miss M. Wallace, one of her seminary teachers, McBeth writes:

I would not wake one jarring note
To mingle with the tones that swell
From out the past.
But if the memory grieves thee not --
Remember one who passing well
Has learned to love thee -- and who oft
Will wander back to scenes where thou --
With placid brow -- and eye of thought --
With glad the picture even as now.

But within the conventional forms she observes, the young poet also throws knives, as in these lines to her married friend Jeannie Pacy:

A giddy thoughtless merry minx--
Is Jeannie--artless tease--
She never studies--never thinks--
But weaves a chain of endless links
Of music bells and pleasures pinks,
Her own dear self to please.

Then you run into poems like "Fragment of an incident in the life of Lord Byron," and "Address of Poetry to the Priestess of Science," or the angry "Hypocracy." Through the literary pretense and 19th-century poetic diction, there is an active young mind at work, thinking in poetry. Some of McBeth's poems have an edge that cuts across the centuries, as in this expression of spiritual depression and despair:

In this wide world alone -- alone --
No Mother, brother, sister none,
No friend to cheer my saddened soul,
And soothe the wounded spirit whole.

Long since (ah dark and dismal hour,
Even yet I feel thy icy power)
They bore my Father to the tomb --
Consigned his body to its gloom.

McBeth is no Emily Dickinson, but the poets did live at the same time, both born in 1830. Scholarly interest in McBeth's life among the Indians already is apparent, but these poems are from her formative years in the Ohio Valley, and they deserve further study.

__________________________________________________________

Fig. 1. Steubenville Female Seminary: David Rumsey Map Collection
Fig. 2. Sue McBeth: Kate and Sue McBeth: Missionary Teachers to the Nez Perce

Gaston farm

The residence of Samuel Gaston of St. Clair Township in the 1880s. Click to enlarge. (Kent State East Liverpool Digital Archive Project)