What’s really going on

First off, I’m as befuddled as the next gal at the New Albany City Council’s decision to make now the time to address workplace smoking hazards. Not that now isn’t the right time (it is). But where in the world did council president Jeff Gahan get the idea that this was the most necessary legislation for the council to take up?

On this holiday weekend, an amateur drama is being rehearsed. The curtain will rise for the public and the mainstream media on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. But those who’ve seen the previews have informed my understanding of the game that is afoot.

Mayor England has painted himself into a corner with his pledge that Sept. 2, 2008 will not become a memorable day in New Albany’s almost 200-year history. He has promised far too many people that he intends to veto the workplace smoking ban, passed 11 days ago by a 5-4 city council vote. It is beyond credible to think that England will agree to the comprehensive ordinance.

I believe the mayor is trying to leverage this issue in exchange for support for some of his initiatives. Some of those are initiatives that I favor. Some are ones I’m suspicious of. And to pretend that politics is not “political” is naive.

But it’s the why that I can’t figure out. I can’t figure the angles.

Apparently, the mayor is willing to sign a watered-down smoking ordinance. A person close to the mayor hinted at this immediately after final passage of the ordinance. The mayor himself told me he was going to veto it. Until now, I had not published that fact, but any inclinations I had to keep that in confidence while the mayor pondered his decision were blown away by the dozens of people who have told me the mayor said the same thing to them.

So long as the mayor was maintaining his options by playing coy with the mainstream media (TV and newspapers), I was willing to leave him room to change his mind. While he still has that room and I hope he will carefully weigh this opportunity to move the city forward, it’s simply ridiculous to pretend that the public shouldn’t (or doesn’t) know his intentions.

With an early-morning news conference scheduled on the first day after the holiday, the opportunity to lobby the mayor pro or con has been severely limited. I’m quite sure the mayor’s office intended it to be that way. Theoretically, the mayor’s ten days expire on Tuesday, two short days before the council would have its only opportunity to override the veto with a sixth “aye” vote.

But, on the off chance that His Honor or his minions are still trying to decide the point, I want to discuss the political landscape, setting aside briefly, but again, the dozens of important issues that should be on the council agenda.

Scuttlebutt has it that the mayor would be willing to sign a watered-down ordinance and wants to parley with the council to find five votes for such a piece of legislation. It really doesn’t matter how watered-down the ordinance is. Fill in your own blanks.

I believe that this is not a measure that can be dealt with incrementally. Council member Jack Messer talked with me about stabilizing things, particularly downtown, while arguing, like the mayor, that this is “too fast.” OK, Jack. OK, Mayor. If you both truly agree that a comprehensive ordinance is inevitable, then extend the deadline for compliance to Jan. 1, 2009. Or 2010. That gives existing businesses, workers, and patrons the time to accommodate the future. Make it so that businesses that haven’t hired employees by the end of this year must comply with the ordinance starting March 9, 2009, and grandfather the existing businesses for an additional 9 or 21 months.

That gives existing businesses time to come to grips with reality while giving new businesses predictability and recent businesses some of the “stability” you believe to be so important.

And Mr. Mayor, let’s consider the lay of the land for a moment. If you veto this comprehensive ordinance, but offer to help the council craft an ordinance that is less than comprehensive, isn’t it true that the very same people will be upset with you? The opponents of the ordinance will be equally strident in opposition to any ordinance. So what do you gain by vetoing this one, but offering to sign one that is discriminatory toward certain businesses?

How do you recruit new businesses – the types of businesses critical to the city’s future – while denying the science of second-hand smoke? Will the Purdue tech center be able to incubate technology firms when their owners and employees have to go to Louisville for a smoke-free environment? Will other companies see New Albany as a place with a future, with possibilities, when its mayor has declared that the world is moving “too fast.”

Finally, let me get personal for a moment. Tomorrow night, my Tennessee Vols will be playing their season opener at the Rose Bowl against UCLA. The game is televised, but only on cable. I don’t have cable. Can you tell me where I can go in New Albany (I believe in supporting New Albany businesses whenever possible) to watch this game? I’d like to have a drink. I’ll certainly have a bite to eat, if not a meal. Which sports bar in New Albany is smoke-free?

And if I want to speak to you after hours in an informal setting, or if I want to have a discussion with a city council member over a drink, which smoke-free bar can I find you or them at? We all know that much has been accomplished between citizens and their representatives meeting after city council meetings. It’s groundwork. It’s information sharing. But it has great value to the city. Are all of those people who don’t smoke and can’t handle it to be excluded from these productive get-togethers where intelligence is exchanged and public policy is developed?

John Dominic Crossan

Crossan

In certain circles, John Dominic Crossan is vilified as an agent of the devil. A founder of The Jesus Seminar, his efforts at textual criticism, particularly of the Gospels, have drawn fire from the fundamentalist elements of American Christianity while revealing the historical Jesus as an iconoclast and preacher of a social gospel.

In an upcoming edition of New Albany Now, we’ll be talking to Crossan about his writings and his views. Joining me will be a coterie of local pastors who will be able to engage the theologian at a higher (and one hopes more interesting) level than could I. I’ll be sure to clue you in when our broadcast schedule is firm.

In the meantime, as our panel prepares for this opportunity, I thought I’d share what research I’ve gathered about the Rev. Crossan.

I’m a bookseller, so his published books will be the anchor for this discussion. What I can tell you from personal experience is that his books sell well. They are invariably provocative, appealing to co-religionists of the intellectual strain. As a refugee from a captured denomination that has historically looked with suspicion on anything that could arguably be called “intellectual,” I’ve found Crossan’s writings to be most stimulating.

[As an aside, I'm a strong believer that there is no such thing as a dangerous book. There is no idea that is as dangerous as ignorance. ® I believe this particularly strongly when it comes to matters of faith. Christian believers are by Peter to "always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you..." It is simply impossible to learn what you believe unless you measure it against what others believe.]

From Crossan’s official Web site: John Dominic Crossan was born in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, in 1934. He was educated in Ireland and the United States, received a Doctorate of Divinity from Maynooth College, Ireland, in 1959, and did post-doctoral research at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome from 195 to 1961 and at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem from 1965 to 1967. He was a member of a thirteenth-century Roman Catholic order, the Servites (Ordo Servorum Mariae) from 1950 to 1969 and an ordained priest fro 1957 to 1969. He joined DePaul University, Chicago, in 1969 and remained there until 1995. He is now Professor Emeritus in its Department of Religious Studies.

He was Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar from 1985 to 1996 as it met in twice-annual meetings to debate the historicity of the life of Jesus in the gospels. He was Chair of the Parables Seminar in 1972-76, Editor of Semeia. An Experimental Journal for Biblical Criticism in 1980-86, and Chair of the Historical Jesus Section in 1993-1998, within the Society of Biblical Literature, an international scholarly association for biblical study based in the United States.

He has received awards for scholarly excellence from the American Academy of Religion in 1989, DePaul University in 1991 and 1995, and an honorary doctorate from Stetson University, DeLand, FL, in 2003.

In the last forty years he has written twenty-three books on the historical Jesus, earliest Christianity, and the historical Paul. Five of them have been national religious bestsellers for a combined total of twenty-four months. The scholarly core of his work is the trilogy from The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (1991) through The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus (1998), to In Search of Paul: How Jesus’s Apostle Opposed Rome’s Empire with God’s Kingdom, co-authored with the archaeologist Jonathan L. Reed (2004). His latest book, God & Empire, Jesus Against Rome Then and Now, was published by HarperSanFrancisco in March 2007. His work has also been translated into eleven foreign languages, including Korean, Chinese, and Japanese.

He and Marcus Borg are co-authoring a series of books of which two have already been published:  The Last Week: A Day by Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem (HarperSanFrancisco, 2006) and The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About the Birth of Jesus (HarperOne, 2007).

He has lectured to lay and scholarly audiences across the United States as well as in Ireland and England, Scandinavia and Finland, Australia and New Zealand, Brazil, Japan, and South Africa. He has been interviewed on 200 radio stations, including four times on NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross. He has also been interviewed on television networks such as ABC’s PrimeTime, Peter Jennings Reporting, and Nightline, CBS’ Early Show and 48 Hours, NBC’s Dateline, and Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, and on cable programs such as A&E, History, Discovery, and the National Geographic Channel.

To put Crossan’s beliefs in a nutshell is unfair, but it is fair to say that he believes that the historical Jesus was a nonviolent revolutionary whose teachings about distributive justice do not rely on a claim of divinity; that the canonical Gospels are not, and weren’t intended to be historical documents; that many earlier documents from the early CE offer greater insights into the historical truth of Jesus; and that Jesus, though he may have been executed (probably for treason), he not only was not bodily resurrected but that his body was extremely unlikely to have even been entombed.

God and Empire

Crossan’s latest book, God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now, surveys the Bible from Genesis to Apocalypse, or the Book of Revelation, and discovers a hopeful message that cannot be ignored in these turbulent times. The first-century Pax Romana, Crossan points out, was in fact a “peace” won through violent military action. Jesus preached a different kind of peace—a peace that surpasses all understanding—and a kingdom not of Caesar but of God.

The Romans executed Jesus because he preached this Kingdom of God, a kingdom based on peace and justice, over the empire of Rome, which ruled by violence and force. For Jesus and Paul, Crossan explains, peace cannot be won the Roman way, through military victory, but only through justice and fair and equal treatment of all people.

Confirmed members of our panel include: Rev. Polk Culpepper, pastor of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and Rev. John Manzo, pastor of St. Mark’s UCC Church, both in New Albany.

Crossan will be lecturing in Louisville on Nov. 7-8. Tune in to New Albany Now for more details.

A travel project

Many of you will be traveling this holiday weekend. Please take a moment during your travels to survey the streets you drive and tread upon. Report back to me with your observations.

Are there any other cities where the public streets need to be mowed as they do in New Albany?

I realize we’re rapidly becoming a jungle environment due to our heedless policies toward global warming. But there’s no excuse for streets to be so degraded that the cracks collect soil and grow plants. And this is a town where we pay an enormous amount of money to sweep the streets. Unless and until we fix our streets, why not park the sweeper?

The annual “let’s pretend everything’s pretty” exercise is coming up. That’s when the city crews are diverted to pretty up the parade route, ignoring all the other sidewalks made impassable by trash, crumbling sidewalks, overhanging limbs and collapsing walls. As along as we spray-wash the parade route, no one will be the wiser.

The right directions

If you’re reading this, you’re probably just as Web-savvy as me or the next person. You have your own favorite sites for travel, news, search, reference, and maps.

I was recently made aware of an enhancement to Google’s maps tool (maps.google.com). I walk to work. No big deal. I’ll bet a lot of you wish you could, too. But part of NewAlbanism is to make public policy coincide with a greener attitude toward our city. Google has added, in its “directions” utility, the option of getting walking directions.

In a city where archaic one-way streets continue to inconvenience and confuse (not to mention the harm to our economy and environment), we can use all the help we can get.

In the same spirit, I hope you’ll join us Sunday evening on New Albany’s waterfront when Greenpeace will showcase its innovative solar truck by screening the film Happy Feet, the animated comedy about global warming. Penguins, anyone? Starts at 7:30. For more details, visit the event site here. And to try Google Maps’ walking directions, see below. 
View Larger Map

What a difference a river makes

A friend drew my attention to a reinstituted feature in Wednesday’s edition of LEO Weekly. Considering that this city is (finally) considering the institution of residential rental registration, a subsequent rental inspection program with incentives for responsible landlords, and an ultimate tenants’ rights ordinance, the “Eyesore” item drew a dramatic distinction between New Albany and our dominant regional partner to the south (that’s Louisville, Steve).

Here’s the gist: EYESORE: 1242-1244 S. First St., Louisville – A fire last October destroyed 1246 S. First St., neighbor to these two dumps. The house at 1244 was purchased by Kimberly McQueen and is being rehabilitated. Its neighbor, however, shows little promise. Its owner, Karen Faulkner, has done jail time for ignoring numerous code violations. Before the fire, Faulkner owned all three houses.

Go figure. Louisville is jailing offenders. New Albany frets over the mere possibility of offending offenders.

Spelling snob

Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling

I confess. I’m a spelling snob.

I’ve been thinking about this lately while reading David Wolman’s Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling. Click on the cover photo for more information.

 

Wolman “suffered” the tyranny of difficulty with spelling as a child, and still carries scars from a quizmistress mother and spelling-segregated classrooms.

 

During the writing of this book, Wolman visited with a diagnostician, Dr. Uta Frith, who appraised him, tentatively, as a classic case of compensated dyslexia. Frith is the opposite of a bad speller, but “[s]he’s adamant that spelling skill has nothing to do with being gifted. ‘It’s a waste of [mental] resources to learn all that spelling if you don’t need it,’ she said. ‘The fact is you can’t help being good or bad at this.’”

 

According to the author, “The evolution of written symbols, words, and prose is far too recent in human history to be coded into our genes. Instead, the brain has retooled itself for reading and writing, applying, for instance, visual processing powers that evolved for other tasks…the reading system is more tenuous than many of us realize…Reading may be a favorite form of leisure, but for the brain it’s no walk in the park.”

 

And yet, society as a whole uses the ability to spell as a shorthand for intellect, or at least for education. Wolman tells the story of an 18th-century ”man of quality, who never recovered from the ridicule of having spelled wholesome without the w.”

“Spelling as a measure of manners, we know. Spelling as a sign of intelligence, we infer. Think about the last time you read a formal letter with misspellings in it and the unfavorable impression it left behind, not just of carelessness, but also lack of smarts. ‘Spelling,’ David Crystal told [the author], ‘has become the main diagnostic feature for determining whether someone has been educated in English.’”

 

So, I’m a spelling snob. I’ve always been good at it. I attribute that to the importance I place on being thought of as “smart.” I was “rewarded” for being smart, and spelling was where I excelled, so naturally it became important to me. Today, I cringe when I see misspellings and grammatical groaners like “they was.” You can imagine my internal pain during a typical city council meeting!

 

But, I don’t consider myself the spelling police. I groan inwardly. When I think it will be both helpful, and taken as helpful, I’ll drop a note to a friend to “help” them over a word they’ve written that is not orthographically correct.

 

Much of the book is taken up by recitals of the efforts of spelling reformers, those “valiant exterminators of dialectical vermin,” from Samuel Johnson to Noah Webster to Melville Dewey (father of the Dewey Decimal System, who went so far as to change his name to Melvil Dui).

 

As an end note, consider this anecdote that may explain why I was nurtured to be a good speller. My mother was a tremendous speller. For instance, she could throw a newspaper page down on the kitchen table and within seconds spot the typos without consciously reading a word. My father could sit on the front porch and point out four-leaf clovers from 20 and 30 feet away in the midst of a lawn full of thick grass…not just clovers, but four-leaf clovers. But he couldn’t spell a lick. And for the most part, never worried too much about it.

 

As a girl in school, my mom was dismissed from a spelling bee after spelling catalogue. The judges said oh, no. It’s catalog. Period. This despite the fact that almost everything my mother had read spelled it with the -ue ending. Know who was responsible for that little change? Mr. Melvil Dui.

What’s up with the show?

Our new Internet radio show, New Albany Now, is on a brief hiatus. As was intended, the city council managed to divert everyone’s attention toward the vicious fight over a workplace smoking ban, and frankly, I was just too tired of the quality of the debate, not to mention the volume (loudness) to fight the trend.

The show will be back, probably in mid-September or as the need arises. We just haven’t settled on a time, day, and frequency. In addition, we hope to have three shows: a local issues show (New Albany Now), another that discusses books and publishing with author interviews, and a third that will consist of open-mic poetry. If all goes as planned, between the three shows, we’ll be broadcasting the local issues show three times a week. Add to that the taped coverage of city council meetings and post-council reports, and it could get pretty busy.

We are still adding sponsors for the local show. If you want a targeted, measured market penetration and don’t want to pay for phantom listeners, the cost is hard to beat. For 2.5 cents per ear, you can deliver your message to a motivated listenership that consists mainly of local people. It’s manageable for local businesses who don’t traditionally advertise, and affordable for community groups seeking to promote a specific event.

Call me at the store (944-5116) if you’d like to be a sponsor.

In the news…

…whatever its faults, The Tribune is the true source for local news. We bloggers supplement, prod, and sometimes suggest stories by being the first to write (or in my case, broadcast) the stories, but it’s fair to say that if it’s not in The Tribune, it may as well have not happened.

Today’s issue is Example One. Unless and until there is a “master” blog that maintains a standard of accuracy, synthesis, and completeness, you won’t read how NA-FC teachers withheld their unpaid time during Mt. Tabor Elementary’s open house. Working without a contract, the teachers’ union has elected stop giving their free time to non-academic pursuits.

In one sense, the school board has decided to “tax” the teachers. They have decided that we taxpayers can’t be bothered to match the union’s work condition and pay requests, so they’re holding firm. They know the teachers can’t strike, so the idea of “working without a contract” doesn’t really bother the school board.

If the school board, as it has in the past, expects teachers to cut out time from their families to perform work that would, in a rational world, require payment, they won’t any longer. I think what the teachers are doing is perfectly right. They’re saying “if you won’t negotiate with us, if you intend to take us for granted, here’s our answer.”

Principal Tony Duffy says “Kids are No. 1. We will continue to have those things we’ve always had,” implying that teachers don’t agree with that. I know it’s the company (administration) line, but it’s still pretty disingenuous. If kids ARE number one, why does the school board think the teachers, instead of the taxpayers, should be the ones putting the meat on the bones of that policy?

In city news, the independent office of the city clerk, in the person of Marcey Wisman, shed the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back in the face of a city proposal to waive payment on hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid parking fines. Wisman is usually pretty accommodating when other city units increase the burdens on her office, even when they do it without increasing the appropriations for operations and salaries. But not this time.

The England administration has proposed an annual residential parking pass for residents of downtown. It would, purportedly, allow people living in the designated area to park wherever they wish for as long as they wish, in exchange for a $100 per vehicle fee. In conjunction with that plan, the Board of Public Works and Safety proposes to expunge all pre-existng citations given for parking violations downtown.

Wisman objects…strenuously. She’s got a point. There may well be inconsistencies in WHO gets cited and the traffic division may be, shall we say, overzealous, but the amnesty program, says Wisman, will NOT pass muster under state financial rules. For more on the issue, I refer you to the linked story.

Finally, the county youth shelter is again in the news. A feared shortfall in revenues has caused county officials to defer construction on a replacement shelter, leading to much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Those crazy preservationists who proposed a cheaper, better, greener alternative – renovating the existing facility – are looking pretty smart right now.

An open letter to Mayor Doug England

Dear Mayor England,

Everyone is in a tizzy over whether or not you will sign the ordinance banning indoor smoking in the workplace, passed last week by the New Albany City Council.

I don’t want to restate the scientific argument against workplace smoking and the effects of second-hand smoke on the health of New Albanians and visitors to our fair city. But as I have studied the facts, I confess that I’ve rarely seen a more open-and-shut case for banning smoking in the workplace. The arguments against it have been completely unpersuasive.

Those members of the public who oppose the ordinance really, really don’t like it. But I find their arguments to be less than compelling. Many of those arguments are little more than speculation about future events. For example, the predictions that food and dining establishments will “go under” when the ordinance takes effect are not borne out by the actual results in jurisdictions around the country (and around the world) where similar laws went into effect.

I’ve heard it said that you openly stated that this ordinance is “too far, too much, too fast.” Maybe you said that, maybe you didn’t. But if you did, it seems evident that you agree that passing the ordinance was the right thing, but not just yet. Then when?

If it’s the right thing to do, and I believe it is, then it’s the right thing to do TODAY. People talk about potential economic damage. But in city after city, failing to ban workplace smoking is doing immeasurable damage. As you try to recruit new businesses to New Albany you will certainly find that without such a law, and the attendant improvement in public health, New Albany is at a competitive disadvantage. Relocating companies simply won’t consider cities where the public environment is filled with unnecessary health hazards.

Imagine, if you will, that failure to affix your signature to this bill means that New Albany is the last city in America to ban workplace smoking. The economic damage would be incalculable. Being the last is an extreme, of course. But as civilized society moves inexorably toward such a state, why would an avowedly progressive mayor decline to join that march toward better public health? Why would you want to be the mayor that kept New Albany bringing up the rear?

Frankly, I don’t see any downside to you, Mayor. A majority of the council has expressed the will of the people of New Albany. No one argues that the ordinance doesn’t enjoy public support and praise of landslide proportions. A vocal but declining minority, most of whom are hopelessly addicted to that form of nicotine delivery or who have fallen for the propaganda that their incomes will suffer, shouldn’t be able to run roughshod over the clear evidence of science.

You don’t deny the effects of global warming, do you? So why would you align yourself with the deniers of the science on indoor smoking in the workplace?

I urge you to sign the ordinance. Most of your constituents do, too.

Now that’s what a council member’s for

You might have noticed the rainbow in the skies Monday night. That’s when two of the three New Albany City Council members who represent the area served by SIlver Street Elementary School stepped up to the lectern and did their jobs.

Pat McLaughlin, representing the city’s old 4th District, and Diane McCartin Benedetti, who represents the old 5th District, gave differing but valuable support to the Friends of Silver Street Elementary (FOSSE).

With the fate of SSE up in the air, at long last these two came out in support of the interests of their constituents concerned about the school.

The third council member, Steve Price of the old 3rd District, has thus far declined to enter the fray.

McLaughlin challenged the idea being put forward by the School Board’s “Resources for Results” committee to close Silver Street Elementary after almost 100 years. Ironically, SSE was recognized later that evening for having again achieved “Exemplary” status under state guidelines. You can read Pat’s comments here.

Here’s Tara Hettinger’s reporting: “Pat McLaughlin — who represents District 4 on the council — told the board the importance of keeping the school open. He said closing it would have a negative effect on area home values and the same success achieved at Silver Street is not guaranteed elsewhere. He also pointed out the walkability of the area saves money in transportation…”

Benedetti was less specific, sympathizing with the toughness of the decision, but reaffirming her belief that SSE is “a wonderful school.”

Some might question why a city council member or mayor would weigh in on a schools corporation issue. Not me. Anything that might have a deleterious impact on the community falls under the responsibility of city officials. The fact that the school board is, itself, heavily weighted toward the less urban parts of Floyd County makes it even more important for city representatives to put forward the NewAlbanist vision.

Congratulations to FOSSE for wrangling support from two of its three representatives. Good job.

And isn’t it nice to see a council rep using the word “walkability?”