The Suffield Observer (https://thesuffieldobserver.com/category/opinion/editorial/page/10/)
Connecticut has one of the nation’s highest rates of vaccination for the measles virus. Many of our State’s legislators, including Governor Lamont, have expressed serious concern with our State’s compliance rate. Both of these contradictory statements are true. The discrepancy arises from the latest State vaccination report. Past data disclosed only state averages for school vaccination rates, perhaps creating a false sense of security.
In last month’s issue, the Observer reached out to the community looking for people to write. For some time, finding people to get involved and commit time and effort has been an ongoing concern for this organization – as it has for many others in town. The Observer came to life in the spring of 1999. A significant number of residents were enthused about this grand endeavor of providing news of all the activities going on in Suffield that the city papers failed to notice. They reasoned that an informed town would lead to better public participation and better transparency.
Volunteering should be simple, shouldn’t it? Building off my Co-Editor’s May Observer editorial draft, with a shared desire to improve our community, I am dedicating this editorial to providing information and perspective about how and why to volunteer.
My family and I moved to Suffield in late 1984. By the time we arrived in town, residents had attended many town meetings and participated in many discussions regarding installing sewer lines on the East side of town. At one time, the federal government would have paid 80% of the installation costs. Ultimately the taxpayers had to pay 80% of the costs rather than the Feds. This decision cost the town considerable dollars and prevented us from being able to afford future bonding.
One Saturday evening this past March, I sang with the other 80 members of the Springfield Symphony Chorus (SSC) in Springfield’s beautiful Symphony Hall. It was a concert filled with well-known music from 16 Broadway classics including Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Chorus Line, and Phantom of the Opera. The hall was filled with appreciative Broadway music fans entertained by Springfield Symphony’s (SSO) amazingly talented orchestra directed by Maestro Keven Rhodes and the SSC. The SSC tends to sing primarily classical music (our Mahler concert is in the spring), but the Chorus has been invited to sing in a variety of non-classical concerts over the past few years, which, as a diverse music lover, has been a hoot! In 2017, I was lucky enough to be part of a group of 30 SSC singers who got to work with the SSO to sing “background music” as part of a Video Games Live concert, which is dedicated solely to music from video games.
I have a Google alert set up for my last name. I seldom see alerts, either because there are not a lot of Colstons around, or because they are not doing anything newsworthy. The last big flurry of alerts led me to follow the football career of Marquis Colston (maybe a relative)? Last year I started to see alerts for “Countering Colston.” It’s a nonprofit organization in England, dedicated to decolonizing the city of Bristol, and specifically campaigning against the celebration of Edward Colston (definitely a relative). My dad, who died when I was eight, told me stories about the amazing Edward Colston, and all the wonderful things he did to benefit the people of Bristol.
One of the interesting tools I use when writing or evaluating other people’s writing is software that measures readability. If writing is too complex, say college level, it may be too difficult for middle or high school students to read. If it’s too simple, then adults may not think the content is for them. The major ingredients of difficult writing are long words, sentences and paragraphs. In general, writing should be at the ninth grade level to reach 50 percent of adults.
Having grown up in Hungary Hill in Springfield, I developed great pride in my Irish heritage. Hungary Hill was named because of the immigrants who came from the west coast of Ireland during the great potato famine. Not long after the famine, an epidemic of tuberculosis struck the same area causing more immigration to the United States. Many of the new settlers found their way from County Kerry to the Hill which was fondly called “Home of the Irish.”
The pride that the Irish have in their country is overwhelming. Many countries have invaded Ireland but the Irish always fought back and succeeded.
Most of us are traveling on a highway once in a while, especially on a holiday, and stopping at a rest stop. Have you ever really looked at someone pushing a mop around on the floor or cleaning a restroom? Well, there they are in a thankless job for a probably minimum wage with no future promotion. And no tip jar. Many others get tips like a waitress or hairdresser and in other service jobs.
It is easy to think that there is not much kindness in our very divided world. I looked up a simple definition of “kind” in Merriam Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary, which is meant for use by new English language learners. Their definition is “… showing a gentle nature and desire to help others….wanting to do good things and to bring happiness to others.”
About two months ago, I was surprised when a gentleman ahead of me in the checkout line of a dollar store, swept my few items into his pile and said “I got this”. Not expecting his kindness, I first reacted with “Oh, those are mine.” Then I realized he meant to pay for my items. I felt really touched and also had the desire to “pay it forward,” so I paid for the few items the woman behind me was buying. She too was surprised and repeatedly thanked me, telling me the items were to decorate her classroom for special needs students.