The Suffield Observer (https://thesuffieldobserver.com/category/opinion/page/19/)
Bienvenido a los Estados Unidos. Welcome. Wrote Emma Lazarus, “Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” With the image of caged children seared in our brains, it’s time to reflect. We are a restless species and every one of us, or our ancestors, came here from somewhere else.
True creative output comes from within and cannot be squeezed out by force. No school assignment could set off the same eruption of raw creative passion that I experience through accepting my sporadic impulse to write; to allow my ideas to surface and to watch them climb into the vessel of articulated language. I am not arguing against the utility of external prompting, far from it. But for one’s product to be genuine and pure, their response must be completely voluntary. When one seeks to fulfill others’ demands for their creativity, true success requires that they be intrinsically motivated to create.
With the incoming school year commencing August 29, Suffield High School students will be forced to make some financial adjustments. That is, if they want to continue and/or take up playing a sport. This year, the high school has brought on the seemingly sudden change of enforcing a pay-to-play rule, where students must pay a fee of $75 each time they enroll in a sport, with a cap of $225 per year. This fee does not include the gear that is required to play sports, such as padding, shoes, and helmets, all of which the players pay for out of their own (or their parents’) pockets. Indeed, the ability to pay for helmets can make all the difference in a player’s safety.
As a former 12-year member and Chair of the Suffield Board of Education during difficult economic times, I faced more than my fair share of difficult budget fights. Class sizes soared, building maintenance and desperately needed capital projects were put off, (to the town’s ultimate detriment I might add), administration was reduced, and extracurricular activities at the high school especially were eliminated. The high school was threatened with loss of accreditation due to the insufficient per pupil expenditure. In all that time, however, although it was discussed, the then Board of Ed did not institute a pay for play in the sports program. The reason was simple and equally applicable now.
When someone places a sign on the Town Green or along a roadside, I assume that they want the public to know something. Usually the main message is in large, readable letters. However, the rest of the important information is in letters so small that it cannot be read from your car. Now we all know that Suffield is not exactly a walking town, so most of the info cannot be seen by a passing motorist. What to do?
As a volunteer and occasional coeditor at the Observer, I take exception to certain comments in First Selectman Melissa Mack’s column about the paper. In a discussion with Suffield Middle School students about her job, she chose to take a cheap shot at the Observer due to her distress over an article written about the Suffield Police Department. Referring to the paper as the Obscurer, a term the Observer staff themselves coined in a satirical issue created in jest many years ago, Ms. Mack takes the volunteer staff to task for not living up to “the most basic of journalistic standards” and cites the article “SPD Review Causes Stir” as evidence that the Observer lacks a “devotion to impartiality.” To the contrary the Observer goes to great lengths to ensure that the reporting is accurate and unbiased, often spending many hours attending town and commission meetings, reviewing documents, reports, agendas and minutes and talking to those involved in the issue being reported. Likewise, if there has been an error in reporting and it is brought to the Observer’s attention, a correction is printed. Moreover, the Observer clearly states that editorials and opinions are those of the writer and not of the Observer.
Dear Editors,
The Board of Education has just imposed pay to play and parking fees on high school students in Suffield. To quote the Yankee Institute’s recent review of the State Legislature’s budget diversion of public transportation funds to create a crisis requiring tolls: “Creating a crisis to justify the imposition of unpopular and unnecessary measures is an offensive way to conduct public policy.”
I hope the citizens of Suffield will see through this maneuver of Chairman Davis and the rest of the Board for what it is, offensive to say the least.
I always love coming back to Suffield. It is such an incredibly beautiful town – both in its landscape and its people. I was recently in town for the annual Suffield PMC Kids Ride, which had a record number of riders (208 children) and raised over $55,000 for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. An event like that does not come together without a dedicated group of volunteers and families willing to actively participate. The sense of community spirit was very strong on that beautiful Saturday in May.
