VOICESOF CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA

Thoughtful. Fearless. Free.

Flexibility- the key to happiness • State College police- training to get it right • Weather apps- so wrong most of the time • A Personal Memoir of a Civil Rights Activist • The abCs of healthy skin • Small business 101: Starting successfully • VOICES Choices • Middle East: Rising population & problem • BOOK REVIEW: Reasons to Kill • BIRDWATCH: White-throated Sparrow • Live and die by the way of the road (salt) • Immigration executive action- about time • The end is nigh: The LAGuide to downsizing • Whitey Blue • Sudoku • Artist Profile

February 2015 Issue #213

Rock salt - good for us, bad for the environment

pg. 18

Book reviewpg. 15

How ready are we in the face of conflict?In light of recent protests around the country, we look into how ready our own local law

enforcement officers are when it comes to confrontations and riots.

Pg. 3

POLICE PREPARATION

Voices Choicespg. 16

The abCs of healthy skinpg. 10

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In This Issue...

2 — PAGE TWO: Flexibility-the key to happiness

3 — State College police - training to get it right

5 — A Personal Memoir of a Civil Rights Activist

7 — Weather apps - so wrong most of the time

9 — Creating long term community stability

10 — NATURAL LIFE: The abCs of healthy skin

12 — Middle East: Rising population & problems

14 — Small business 101: Starting successfully

15 — BOOK REVIEW: Reasons to Kill

16 — VOICES CHOICES

18 — Live and die by the way of the road (salt)

19 — The end is nigh: The L.A. guide to downsizing

19 — SUDOKU

20 — Immigration executive action - about time

21 — White-throated Sparrows: Birding from home

22 — Voices Profile: Interview with Jason Crane

23 — Whitey Blue on re-zoning

24 — Call it home, it’s not just a Stepping Stone

EDITORIAL BOARDEDITOR IN CHIEF

Marilyn Jones

editor@voicesweb.org

LAYOUT CHIEF

Amanda Dash

arts@voicesweb.org

OPERATIONS

Advertising Manager

Jon Vickers-Jones

advertising@voicesweb.org

Circulation Manager

Kevin Handwerk

circulation@voicesweb.org

Webmaster

Bill Eichman

bill@voicesweb.org

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President

Elaine Meder-Wilgus

Vice President

Arthur Goldschmidt Jr.

Secretary

Chip Mefford

Treasurers

Peter Morris & Jesse Barlow

2 | PAGE TWO

Thoughtful. Fearless. Free. © 2015 Voices of Central Pennsylvania Inc.

February 2015, Issue #213

Happy New Year! Although it is a month into the new year already, February is the beginning of the Voices new year. I hope it will be a productive year for all of us, a year in which we strive to help others, to improve our community, to be socially aware and active, and to receive what comes our way with open arms.

I need to begin this new year with an apology. There were several printing mistakes in the December/January issue and it was very disappointing. We have hashed through the problems, figured out how and why they occurred, and have set new systems in place to hopefully avoid these situations in the

future. What I like most about our Voices’ team is how we work together positively and effectively to solve problems and move forward quickly.

One of the problems that occurred was that only half of Art Goldschmidt’s Middle East article was printed, so we are reprinting it in full this month. Sorry about the blunder, Art.

Something that I have been pondering over the months is how to determine the length of an article. Although I have certain lengths in mind, when I receive something that is longer, I carefully consider whether or not it is in the reader’s best interest to print the entire text as I receive it,

or whether to edit it to a shorter, more palatable size. I have done both. Thus, we have had some rather meaty submissions that simply should not be edited, and some shorter writings that create an impact with a sparser text and descriptive pictures. In other words, I judge the length according to the article, not according to a predetermined, never-to-be-changed set of rules.

With this in mind we no longer have sections that need to be filled each month. Rather, we have articles that need to be printed in a readable,

meaningful format. We are still looking

for op-ed pieces and letters to the editor, as well as someone to create a crossword puzzle and someone to draw comics. We are open to new writers and well-researched pieces. We also need end-of-the-month print proofreaders to edit the paper with a fine-tooth comb. If you are interested in doing any of these things, please contact me at editor@voicesweb.org.

Here’s to another great year of producing and sharing in the production of a free newspaper that listens to your voice. ■

Page Two: Flexibility- the key to happiness

MARILYN JONESEditor in Chief

| 3 February 2015

State College police - training to get it right

The State College Police Department (SCPD) follows a prescribed set of practices regarding whom it hires and how they are trained. In order to qualify as a police officer, applicants have to go through preliminary testing, background checks, and intensive training at a police academy, which, after being hired, are followed up by close supervision, a probationary period, field training, many evaluations, and on-going training programs throughout the year, according to Lieutenant Fishel of the SCPD.

“Your first year, which is typically a probationary year for a police officer, the minimum of the first three and a half months you’re going to have somebody with you,” Fishel said.

An officer accompanies a new police officer and evaluates performance and training according to expected standards.

“At the end of those three months, there is a two-week period where you have somebody with you that does not intervene; they merely evaluate you. It’s like you’re out there by yourself, but you have somebody critiquing you the entire time. Based on the three and a half month time period, we decide whether or not the person can continue on their own for the rest of the probationary period that year or they may be extended to receive more training.”

According to Fishel there is a lot of oversight for new officers, who can be cut after the first year if they do not meet requirements.

After completing the field-training program, the officer is sent on solo patrol, where he or she is evaluated every two months. After the first year, a new officer is considered a regular employee and then participates in ongoing training and career development programs.

“Annually we will train on less lethal training, we will train on lethal force, we will train on first aid, we will train on hazmat, and then we will have state-mandated training that we have to do,” Fishel said.

Fishel said that officers train around 100 hours a year, and that those with specialties could train as much as 300 hours or more.

Aside from evaluations, officers can face consequences for complaints against them from civilians. According to State College Police Chief Thomas King, the SCPD has an Internal Affairs

division that handles officer complaints. After a complaint is made, a lieutenant has thirty days to investigate the problem. Then another lieutenant, sergeant, and two officers hear the complaint, with the assistant chief chairing the hearing, but only voting in the result of a tie. After the lieutenant in charge of the investigation presents his or her results, this group decides if the officer violated policy,

and then determines what the appropriate action will be. The penalties could range from demotion to suspension to termination.

Because there are sometimes large gatherings in State College that can get out of hand, the SCPD

trains for riots. Every two years they train with other police departments in the surrounding areas, such as Patton, Ferguson, Spring Townships, and the Penn State Police, and they also train on their own.

In the event of a riot or large gathering downtown, police shut down the roads and try to find and remove instigators from the situation and then cite them for disorderly conduct. During large riots, officers give a dispersal order. Then everyone has to leave the area or they, too, can be cited. Sometimes, when the crowds become too unruly and people are getting hurt or property is being damaged, they have to use tear gas or pepper spray to stem the violence.

Typically an officer is issued a pistol, handcuffs, pepper spray, and baton -known as “impact tools”- and extra ammo when an officer is patrolling. In their car they have a rifle, a shotgun, and a special shotgun specifically designed for beanbags and breaching -which is “less lethal” ammunition. These impact tools are used when someone is not using deadly force, but is escalating the situation. “You have to use a level of force that makes sense based on the circumstances,” Fishel said.

The levels move from police presence to verbal commands to hands-on to impact weapons to, in severely threatening and violent situations, deadly force. According to King, Tasers are not currently

In light of recent protests around the country against the actions of a few police officers and the resultant lack of convictions for their actions, we have interviewed our local police department about the kind of training they receive,

their level of preparedness to handle sudden confrontations and riots, and their process for responding to civilian complaints.

By CHRIS DORNBLASERczd5134@psu.edu

Photo courtesy of The Independent Review

Body cameras, as pictured above, would allow video footage of police officer’s actions. Under the current Pennsylvania Law, recording audio with these would not be allowed when an officer enters a citizen’s residence. Although these are not presently being utilized in local police departments, State College Police Chief King has proposed a pilot program for body cameras in 2015.

Typically an officer is issued a pistol, handcuffs, pepper spray, and baton -

known as “impact tools”- and extra ammo when an officer is patrolling. In their car

they have a rifle, a shotgun, and a special shotgun specifically designed for beanbags

and breaching -which is “less lethal” ammunition.

see police, pg. 4

4 | February 2015

being used by the State College Police, but they have been ordered and officers will be trained in their use and assigned them this year.

Using confidential informants to catch drug dealers is another technique for combating crime that the SCPD uses. King said that although informants’ safety is not guaranteed when agreeing to work with the police, there have been few problems. He said that there is not just a focus on big dealers, but small ones as well.

With the recent use of body cameras on officers elsewhere becoming more prevalent, King spoke positively of the idea. He said that the cameras

would be of “great value” and that there is a

proposed pilot program for body cameras this year. Right now, however, King said that the privacy laws in Pennsylvania do not allow the full use of body cameras, and that any time an officer enters a civilian house, the audio would have to be turned off. There would have to be changes in the law in order to use the cameras to its full effect.

Currently, the State College Police Department has seven female officers out of a total of 63 officers. Of the 63 officers, only one is African-American. King said that the lack of diversity within the department is representative of their applicant pool. The goal is to have a more diverse workplace. One of their biggest challenges is getting minorities to apply for tests for the department. In 2008 and 2010, the SCPD began making tests available in Bucks County, n e a r

Philadelphia,

and Monroeville, near Pittsburgh, in an attempt to reach more diverse applicants. They have also been attending recruitment fairs in those areas and have developed a recruitment video through social media.

Further information about the workings of the police department can be found at: http://www.statecollegepa.us/index.aspx?NID=27. ■

Photo by Matt Rourke // APA State College police officer herds a crowd

during the 2011 riot that ensued after the firing of Joe Paterno

from police, pg. 3

Chris Dornblaser is a senior at Penn State majoring in print journalism and minoring in Spanish.

| 5 February 2015

Personal Memoir of a Civil Rights ActivistPart 3 - THE 1964 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

NEW DAY: For those of us who spent most of the Summer working on the Freedom Project, leaving rural Mississippi was like entering a brave new world filled with strange people and ideas.

In the sixties the prevailing influence was the cold war, a conflict between the United States, and the Soviet Union (Russia) and Communist China. The US and Soviets had been allies during World War II (WWII) but afterwards the two countries became engaged in a struggle for political and economic dominance. Both had a bounty of nuclear weapons, which they threatened to use if attacked. Both recognized that a real military confrontation would most likely result in the annihilation of all human life on the planet. During that era every political event was framed in cold war terms, including the Civil Rights Movement. Condemnations of being communist were hurled against the Movement and its leaders, even Dr. King. J. Edgar Hoover, the long time director of the FBI, was so convinced that the Movement had been infiltrated by communists, he spent large amounts of the government’s resources investigating civil rights leaders while often ignoring the white terrorist organizations, which were instigating and promulgating violence against civil rights workers.

During this period America was also experiencing a period of great prosperity. The ravages of WWII had destroyed the production apparatus of the major European and Asian industrial powers. The US was the only country, which emerged with its industry intact. In fact, the US took on the task of helping to finance

and rebuild European and Asian manufacturing capabilities through programs like the Marshall Plan.

Though it was a time of unprecedented economic growth, the fruits of that prosperity were not distributed equally throughout our population. Certainly, the middle class grew, and the super rich began to accumulate a greater share of the country’s resources, but the poor were stuck in a quagmire of despondency, depression and diminished

prospects. African-Americans were d i spropor t ionately represented among the poorest class of Americans. President Johnson initiated a War on Poverty in an attempt to address these disparities. Martin Luther King, at the end of his life, also begun to focus his efforts on enabling the poor. He was assassinated in 1968 while supporting a sanitation workers strike in Memphis.

Yet another after- effect of WWII was a period of worldwide national liberation and anticolonial struggle. Before WWII most of the world had been divided up into European colonial empires. After WWII the Europeans didn’t have the resources to maintain those empires. This created an atmosphere for struggles for independence. Some were peaceful such as Ghana. Others were violent such as Kenya, India and Viet-Nam. Often the powers-that-be in America identified these struggles as communist insurrections supported by the Soviet Union.

The liberation struggles of the world’s peoples, particularly African people, had a profound effect on the struggles of African-American people for social equality in the United States. There was a great cross-fertilization of ideas, if not resources. King was

inspired by the beliefs and strategy of Gandhi in India. American scholars and leaders including WEB DuBois, Kwame Toure, Maya Angelou, and Malcolm X lived on the Continent and were inspired by African liberation leaders. While Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Jomo Kenyatta and others took lessons from the American movement.

THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION: The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) leadership, at the August 6 Convention, decided to go to the National Democratic Party Convention to petition the National Party to seat the MFDP instead of the regular Democratic delegates. It was an ambitious plan, but we were hopeful. After all, the regular delegates had been elected in violation of the rules of the Party. Blacks had been systematically excluded from voting in the primary elections and participating in any of the caucuses or the state convention. There was not a single Black delegate among the regulars. The head of the regulars, Governor Ross Barnett said that “ Blacks were unqualified to vote. We don’t believe in having ignorant people elect our officials.” The MFDP had complied with the Party rules. Registration had been open to all, regardless of race.

The site of the Convention, Atlantic City, had long passed its prime as “America’s Playground.” The Miss America competition was still being held there and the Beatles had performed, but people were seeking other entertainment

outlets. Gambling casinos were still in the future. Atlantic City was a poor, working class community stranded on the Jersey shore.

We arrived a few days before the start of the Convention on August 24. As foot soldiers we did not travel with the MFDP delegates or the leadership of COFO. Our job was to provide support, which meant we had to pay our way. There were a couple of hundred of us from the summer. A bunch of us found accommodations in a poor section of town, which became our Freedom House. We paid the rent and fed ourselves by finding day work.

Some were wait staff, others short order cooks. I lacked those skills so I was a cart pusher. I pushed tourists around the Boardwalk for tips. Our primary tasks were to maintain the picket line outside the Convention Hall, to pass out leaflets, and sing freedom songs. Once the delegates arrived I usually found myself pushing a cart filled with two or three bigwigs from the Party. Some of the conversations I overheard were quite enlightening. It was clear that most of the non-

Southern delegates were sympathetic to our cause. A year after the March on Washington, the pursuit of civil rights for the Negro in the South was still seen as a worthy cause by most people in the country. Our ship was also floating on the blood of martyrs. Most of us thought that the National

CHARLES DUMASTheater Professor, PSU

By CHARLES DUMAScxd28@psu.edu

see memoir, pg. 6

Once the delegates arrived I usually found myself pushing a cart filled with two or three

bigwigs from the Party. Some of the conversations

I overheard were quite enlightening. It was clear that

most of the non-Southern delegates were sympathetic to our cause. A year after the March on Washington,

the pursuit of civil rights for the Negro in the South was still seen as a worthy

cause by most people in the country.

This is a four-part series chronicling my personal journey as a civil rights activist from the summer of 1963 to the fall of 1964. Nineteen sixty-three to sixty eight was a crucial period in the American Civil Rights Movement and American history. During that period some of the most important civil rights legislation was passed: The 1964 Civil Rights Bill and The 1965 Voting Rights Bill.

The “Movement “ changed our lives; our world was transformed. I was one of the “foot soldiers”, as Dr. King called us in the Civil Rights Struggle. I was at the March on Washington in 1963, a project director during Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964, and at the 1964 Democratic Party’s National Convention in Atlantic City. I was blessed to be at the fiftieth reunion at Tougaloo College in Jackson in 2014. This article is based on my best recollection of those times.

6 | February 2015

Democratic Committee would probably split the 80 or so seats between the regulars and the MFDP. But we believed that the regulars would never accept that kind of compromise. The idea of sharing even symbolic power with Black people was inconceivable to the Mississippi white power structure. “We don’t believe in having ignorant people elect our officials.” If that became the compromise, we thought the regulars would walk out, and MFDP would be Mississippi’s sole representative. We were not the only ones who saw things that way.

Sitting President, Lyndon Johnson, had been in office only nine months. He was running against a conservative Republican, Senator Barry Goldwater. Johnson believed that if he was perceived as being too soft on civil rights, the backlash would lose him, the South, and possibly the general election. But Johnson could not lose the election. He had been there to pull the country together after JFK’s assassination. The country would not forget. Johnson, being the politician that he was, didn’t want to take any chances.

CREDENTIALS: The first step was a hearing before the Credentials Committee. After listening to testimony from both sides, the Committee would decide which delegation to seat at the Convention. The leadership of the MFDP spoke to the point of how 80,000 people had been registered. None spoke more eloquently than Fannie Lou Hamer, the Vice Chair of the MFDP. She had been the youngest of 20 children, a cotton picker, a farm worker and a civil rights activist. She had been arrested many times in the cause and beaten to within an inch of her life, but she continued on in the struggle. She once said, “I guess if I’d had any sense, I’d have been a little scared - but what was the point of being scared? The only thing they could do was kill me, and it kinda seemed like they’d been trying to do that a little bit at a time since I could remember.”

President Johnson was intimidated by Fannie Lou Hamer. When it came time for her to address the Credentials Committee, he intentionally scheduled a press conference at the White House so that the networks (there were no 24 hour cable news stations at the time) would have to pre-empt her live testimony. Of course we were all there in person cheering her on. The network news shows played her statements on the late news. So the country heard her. In fact the TV stations and the Committee received thousands of messages of support.

She talked about her experience as a Black woman worker in the South saying, “All of this is on account of - we want to register, to become first-class citizens, and if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of

the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings - in America?”

Johnson sent word that the MFDP should be offered a different compromise. The regular delegates would be seated and the MFDP would be offered two honorary non-voting seats. We all felt that the gesture was an insult. John Lewis, head of SNCC said, “We had played by the rules, done

everything we were suppose to do, had arrived at the doorstep and found the door slammed in our face.”

For the last three days of the Convention we stayed on the picket lines. Sometimes a friendly delegate would give us tickets to go inside the Convention Hall. I was inside crying when Robert Kennedy, accompanied by a film, gave a most moving eulogy for his fallen brother. For a few brief moments, all of us were united in our grief. For many of us, our tears weren’t just for JFK, but Jimmy, Andy, Mickey, and many, too many others, who had fallen in the struggle.

On the last day we managed to get enough tickets for the entire MFDP delegation and many of the rest of us to get

in. The regular Mississippi delegation and most of the other Southern delegates, being angry at the civil rights platform of the Party, refused to sign a pledge supporting Johnson and walked out of the Convention. For a brief moment, the MFDP delegates took their seats in the hall. Then someone called security. We were escorted out of the Hall while we sang, “Fighting for our freedom, we shall not be moved.”

AFTERMATH: Johnson won the election with sixty percent of the vote and the largest electoral margin seen since Roosevelt. He didn’t carry Mississippi or any of the other Deep South states. With this mandate he began the War on Poverty to deal with the disparities in America’s class system. He also followed up on his promise to bring about voter registration reform. After the events in Selma, the Voting Rights Act was passed the next summer. The right to vote was secured. In fact, today there are more Black elected officials in Mississippi than in any other state.

A few months after the Convention Dr. King won

the Nobel Peace Prize. Most of the white volunteers continued their activism in the antiwar movement or in protests on college campuses. Among Black activists, the Movement began to break into factions. Malcolm was assassinated in 1965. Stokely took over the leadership of the SNCC and began to articulate the principles of Black Power. Among the Black poor working classes of the North, our Southern strategy was ineffective. No leadership arose which could communicate to the powers-that-be their frustrations or suggest solutions. The War on Poverty might have been effective in dealing with some of those anxieties, but it had been economically sabotaged by the escalating war in Viet Nam. The people’s pent-up oppression exploded in urban upheavals, beginning with the Watts riots in 1965. By the next Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968, both Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated. Dozens of American cities had burned. The Movement, as we had known it, was over. ■

COMING NEXT MONTH

Fifty Years Later - part four of four articles by Charles Dumas, professor in the School

of Theatre at Penn State, concerning his experiences in the civil rights movement

from memoir, pg. 5

Sometimes a friendly delegate would give us tickets to go inside the Convention Hall. I was inside

crying when Robert Kennedy, accompanied by a film, gave a

most moving eulogy for his fallen brother. For a few brief moments, all of us were united in our grief. For many of us, our tears weren’t

just for JFK, but Jimmy, Andy, Mickey, and many, too many others, who had fallen in the

struggle.Photo by uhurunews//

FlickrFannie Loui Hammer

walking out of the 1964 Democratic

Convention

Charles Dumas, a Fulbright Fellow, is a theatre professor at Penn State, a professional actor, director and writer, and the artistic director and co-founder of The Loaves and Fish Traveling Rep Company.

| 7 February 2015

I have been talking to a lot of people about weather apps for their “smart phones,” and yes, I have one on my phone. They often come free with the phone, or you can download them for free as well. There are literally hundreds of weather apps (Figure 1), or at least “weather app wannabe’s...”

The reason why so many folks talk to me about them is because they are frequently incorrect with their predictions, sometimes showing rain and clouds when it is nice and sunny outside, or the opposite. A few folks even tell me how complicated they are and how many “buttons” they have to push just to find out what to expect in the next few days, or the next few hours.

Then there are the ads and infomercials on them, not to mention the tracking. Quite a few of these apps monitor what you are doing with your phone. In order to get the app to work for you, it requires access to information on your phone. Why is it like this? Two reasons. One, so the app can be adjusted to give you an immediate forecast for where you are, and two, so they can sell your information. Yes, that free app is not so free after all.

The companies that back these apps are usually national or international businesses that specialize at forecasting the weather for large areas and large numbers of people, so they must make things as simple as possible to cover everyone and to keep their staffs small enough to turn a decent profit from their products and services. That is basic business 101.

In the forecasting world there are two common ways of creating predictions, the first of which involves lots of man-hours from highly trained and skilled “weather geeks.” These folks live and breathe weather. I fit this description very well. One thing all these folks have in common is that they have been chasing the weather and telling people about it since they were knee high. “Look – look - it’s snowing!” we would shout running into the living room interrupting the evening show of - The Love Boat - or - CHIPs…oops, I just gave away my age (watch out here, my five-year-old loves these shows).

These folks look at pages and pages of maps, model output, graphical and text. It all shows us in laid out fashion the 3-D presence and state of the atmosphere. They also project what is going to happen in the future as we time step ahead through physical laws that the atmosphere must follow (see example in Figure 2 on page 8).

A forecaster with a passion for the weather very quickly develops a gut instinct as to what is right and wrong with this output and most of us will beat the models hands down. There is an ability in human interpretation of weather data that has not been absorbed by the science and put back into their computational make up. Yet, Artificial intelligence is making progress…SCARY.

The other mode of forecasting the weather is taking what the models say is going to happen and

running with it. The models also create what is called Model Output Statistics…or MOS for short.

This MOS data is very easy to plug into computers to have “them” populate the forecasts products (nice pictures and graphics, too) that go out to the apps. It is also much cheaper and more efficient to do that. The MOS contains high and low temperatures, probability of precipitation or POPS - you know, 30% chance of rain - that type of thing, except your app will give the exact percentage - 8% chance of snow today, while a meteorologist might mention flurries in this situation.

Rather than pay hundreds and hundreds of forecasters a decent living to create detailed forecasts

Weather apps - so wrong most of the timeBy JAY SEARLES

jay@weatherranger.com

Photo courtesy of Google images

Photo is an image showing the numerous varieties and brands of weather apps on smart phones. Some are just very attractive, while others have tons of information depending on what you need for your weather information.

see weather, pg. 8

Photo by uhurunews// Flickr

Fannie Loui Hammer walking out of the 1964 Democratic

Convention

8 | February 2015

for all the cities and locations around the world, app makers hire just a few to “adjust” that MOS data. They stare at the computer monitors at odd times of the day, like at two a.m., and move lines with their mouse. These lines are turned into numbers, which then get transmitted to the apps. Some combine data from the various models, which can be a little better. Many do not even go this far though; you just get the straight output from one model. So there is little to no gut instinct and personalization that goes into the products. The result is often inaccurate. It is all about creating a popular product, usually by creating a clever name, which leads to sales elsewhere.

It is not my intention to put down these apps or the companies involved, but to point out the facts behind why they are so frequently in error. As much as they try to personalize your weather experience, they often come up short. ■

from weather, pg. 7

Photo courtesy of NOAA

Figure 2 is model output from the American GFS model. This is run by NOAA on some pretty snazzy computers (your taxes pay for it). They also run several other types of models all based on physical laws with different considerations of how to do calculations. They are initiated every six hours and put out ‘tons’ of data and the GFS forecast goes beyond two weeks with what is happening every six hours in that time frame. The four panels show different levels of the atmosphere and plotted data for one time. Upper left corner is 500 mb heights, the black lines, and vorticity in the red and purple areas. Below that is 700 mb heights and relative humidity in orange to green. Upper right is surface pressure and lower right is areas of precipitation.

Jay Searles has an MS in meteorology, experience at forecasting the weather for over 25 years from research projects, government service (NWS), television and radio, and writing the forecast pages for The New York Times. He has also been teaching meteorology for just as long.

Cartoon by Andy Winters

| 9 February 2015

On November 8, 2011, State College voters became the first municipal community in America to adopt a Community Bill of Rights charter amendment by popular vote. Among other provisions, the amendment affirms our community’s Right to Self-Government.

“…All residents of State College Borough possess the fundamental and inalienable right to a form of governance where they live which recognizes that all power is inherent in the people, that all free governments are founded on the people’s authority and consent, and that corporate entities and their directors and managers shall not enjoy special privileges or powers under the law which make community majorities subordinate to them…” (State College Borough Charter, 41.2-205)

The charter amendment emerged from a local campaign to push back against growing momentum for natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania – Groundswell. It was supported by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), which confronts environmental threats by restoring usurped local self-governing power instead of working through the demonstrably ineffectual regulatory system.

CELDF’s organizing model derives from a historical analysis of American law. “In 1819 in Dartmouth College v. Woodward, the U.S. Supreme Court introduced a distinction between the rights of a public corporation and a private one. The U.S. Constitution’s contract clause did not protect the political powers granted in the charter of a public corporation such as a municipality. State legislatures could, therefore, unilaterally amend or revoke municipal charters and strip a city of authority without the municipality’s consent. But the charter of a private corporation, such as a business enterprise or a privately endowed college, was an inviolate grant of property rights guaranteed by the nation’s Constitution.” (Jon Teaford, Municipal Charters)

By the mid-19th century, there was still some

high-profile debate about power-sharing among citizens, local governments, corporations and state legislatures. In 1868, Judge John Forrest Dillon wrote: “Municipal corporations owe their origin to, and derive their powers and rights wholly from, the legislature…As it creates, so may it destroy…” In contrast, Judge Thomas Cooley upheld an inherent human right to local self-determination, writing in 1871: “Local government is a matter of absolute right; and the state cannot take it away.”

Dillon’s view won. State legislatures defined charters between the State and private corporations as contracts between legal equals, but charters between the State and municipal corporations as non-contracts, between a superior (the State) and an inferior (the municipality), relegating citizens to the status of mere “tenants.” Stripped of power, citizens are currently subject to preemptive codes drafted by corporations, adopted by state legislatures, and enforced at the local level by – in our case – the Borough Council and Borough Solicitor Terry Williams.

Many communities’ supervisors have adopted self-governance ordinances in recent years as an antidote to that “virtual citizenship:” the list includes more right-leaning farming and small-business communities than left-leaning college towns.

It’s always an uphill struggle. In a July 2009 conference call, CELDF organizers discussed how corporations manipulate local governments by playing on volunteer officials’ lack of legal knowledge and deference to municipal solicitors and preemptive state laws, summarizing: “municipal officials have no confidence.” (Notes by Gail Darrell, CELDF organizer.)

In most communities, the local laws have been enacted after the environmental eruption, by supervisors in panic mode. State College, in contrast, had our Community Bill of Rights in place before the 2013 Columbia Gas/Penn State pipeline controversy erupted. The controversy became a test of the tool’s strength and potential uses.

Going into the fray, Columbia Gas and Penn State regarded the Borough Council members and

citizens as subservient, not as political equals. But when citizens spoke out against the pipeline project, uncovered a few lies and misrepresentations in the pipeline plan, and turned out in large numbers at an April 2013 public hearing, Borough Council members lost some faith in the corporate dominance framework, and had an alternative legal framework to fall back on. Emboldened by those two factors – the Community Bill of Rights tool and citizen encouragement to use it – Council and Borough Manager Tom Fountaine acted decisively to protect community health, safety and welfare.

Penn State’s corporate hierarchy – and state legislators for that matter – may look at a continuing rights-inspired rebellion on State College Borough Council as an irritating confrontation by misguided subordinates. But during these next few decades of constrained energy and collapsing debt-based financial systems – the end of exponential growth on a finite planet – more people will become aware of the tragic mismatch between existing social institutions and current physical circumstances. Large, brittle, change-resistant systems that thrive in times of abundance are already facing a terrible loss of legitimacy and a new struggle for homeostasis.

Strategic planning for the past several generations has been aimed at growing the overall size of the economic “pie” for a given system. Economic planning for the next several generations will be aimed at living on an economic pie whose area is decreasing, by increasing the relative size of the locally produced and consumed “slice.”

From that perspective, the 2011 popular adoption of the Community Bill of Rights and the 2013 test of the rights-based governing framework – become the start of an essential negative feedback loop pushing large institutions to right-size and right-shape themselves for better environmental fit and more long-term community stability. ■

Creating long-term community stabilityBy KATHERINE WATT

katherine_watt@hotmail.com

Needed: Social media Intern to Develop a voices Presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social media, and to keep our

webmaster informed of updates and changes. E-Mail Marilyn Jones at: editor@voicesweb.org.

Katherine Watt is a State College writer and community organizer.

10 | February 2015

NATURAL LIFE: The abCs of healthy skin

Centuries ago British sailors discovered that the key to avoiding scurvy was vitamin C. You probably grew up being told to take your daily vitamin C to ward off colds and other ailments, but now the word is out that vitamin C may not play as big a role in staving off the sniffles as we thought. However, it does play a vital role in maintaining the health of your skin.

Throughout history, women have always found ways to enjoy the anti-aging effects of vitamin C on their skin. In Tibet during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), women who wanted to fight the outward signs of premature aging would rub Sea buckthorn, Hypophea rhamnoids, on their face and hands. The Sea buckthorn plant, a small shrubby bush, originated in the Himalayas and grows throughout Asia and Europe. It has been used in Middle Eastern Indian medicine, Chinese formularies and ancient Greek mythology, and is renowned in Ayurvedic medicine as far back as 5,000 B.C.

Sea buckthorn, although not from the sea at all, has been used for cough relief, digestion, and pain relief for centuries. Today it is well-known for its healing power and rejuvenation effects on the skin. It is a great exfoliant, and cleanser, and can heal burns, cuts, wounds, sunburn, rashes and other types of skin damage. Using Sea buckthorn oil can slow down signs of aging, and nourish the skin tissues. The oil is pressed from both the golden-orange berries and the seed. The secret of the sea buckhorn plant’s deep-colored oil is that it is a major source of vitamin C, but because of the deep color of the oil, it can give the skin an orange appearance. This can be avoided by diluting it with an organic carrier oil that is light in color, such as jojoba, sweet almond oil, or olive oil.

Native Americans also realized early on that some plants had an amazing effect on skin appearance and health. They made a vitamin C rich paste out of rose petals to moisten and heal their skin. Rose hips contain about 20 times more vitamin C then an orange. It is precisely this high level of vitamin C that gives rose hips and Sea buckthorn their

potent skin-rejuvenating powers. In fact, cold cream was originally known as “ointment of rose water” because of its two main ingredients: roses and rose water.

Today, practitioners of modern medicine have come to realize why these herbal remedies were so trusted by ancient civilizations. Not getting enough fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet can cause bleeding under the skin, ulcers and joint weakness. That’s because vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is key to the production of collagen, a protein that aids in the growth of cells and blood vessels and gives skin its firmness and strength. Collagen is just one of thousands of different proteins in the body. Most proteins occur only in small amounts, but by far the most abundant protein is collagen. In fact, collagen constitutes more than a third of all protein in the body, and about 75% of the protein of the skin. From our bones and teeth to blood vessels and cartilage, collagen is the main connective tissue that holds us together. The tensile strength of collagen is greater than steel wire of the same weight. Understandably, the making of such a complex structure as collagen can only be accomplished in

several steps, and vitamin C is involved in every one of them.

Collagen also works hand-in-hand with elastin to support the skin. Elastin adds to collagen’s foundation of form, firmness, and strength by adding flexibility. It visibly tightens saggy areas, and diminishes the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. As the production of new collagen slows down, topical vitamin C is one of the most effective ways to boost collagen production and slow its degradation. While oral supplements of vitamin C are important for maintaining one’s overall health, it is not very effective at increasing skin concentrations of vitamin C because its absorption is limited and used by the time it reaches the skin. Therefore, the most effective method for replenishing vitamin C in the skin is to go straight to the source and apply it directly to the skin. Applying vitamin C daily can produce optimal levels in the skin, and once the topical antioxidant is absorbed into the skin, it cannot be washed or rubbed off. So

By LINDA MEEKstonepondfarm@hotmail.com

Photo by ANNE ELLIOTT // Flickr

Sea buckthorn is a shrubby plant that originated in the Himalayas and grows throughout Asia and Europe. It has been used for centuries in Ayurvedic medicine and is well known for its healing and rejuvenating powers. Its deep orange colored oil is a major source of vitamin C.

Although Sea buckthorn has its roots in ancient medicine, modern medicine has discovered this herbal medicine to be of great value. Its nutrient rich vitamin C is key in the production of collagen. Collagen constitutes more then one third of all protein in the body. Collagen is responsible for aiding the growth of cells, and gives skin its firmness and strength.

see vitamin C, pg. 11

Vitamin C is more than a nutrient in your breakfast

drink. Over the years there have been new ways to get

the vitamin and utilize its benefits.

| 11 February 2015

even after stopping application, significant amounts of vitamin C will remain in the skin for many days. Rejuvenating the skin by consistently replenishing vitamin C stores helps to maintain healthy, younger-looking skin, especially as we get older.

When topically applied, properties of vitamin C improve collagen production that slows with aging, limiting damage from free radicals.

Free-radicals are unstable molecules that damage collagen and cause dry skin, fine lines, and wrinkles. They develop when your skin is exposed to tobacco smoke, sun radiation, and environmental toxins. Over time, the buildup of free-radicals is largely responsible for the aging process, and may play a role in cancer, heart disease, and conditions like arthritis. Free-radical molecules often attack nearby chemical compounds. These chemical compounds can be those involved in important enzyme reactions, or even a part of a DNA molecule. As a result, the damage left behind can cause disaster throughout the body, such as damaging heart muscle cells, nerve cells, and skin. Unfortunately, free radicals are an environmental hazard that is unavoidable. Vitamin C is an excellent free radical scavenger. Research shows that ascorbic acid 2-phosphate, a derivative of vitamin C, not only neutralizes free radicals, but also reverses DNA damage (University of Leicester). Topically applying antioxidant vitamin C is a very effective way to boost the skin’s natural protection against age-causing free radicals. Vitamin C has shown to help prevent the consequences of long-term sun exposure, which can lead to skin cancer. This doesn’t mean you can take a vitamin C supplement or apply topical vitamin C and then bask freely in the sun, but you can help keep your skin healthy and supple by making sure you

get enough of this antioxidant vitamin (University of Maryland Medical Center). Vitamin C not only improves the brightness, tone, and texture of your skin, it has also been shown to benefit patients with acne, both helping to prevent and reduce acne lesions. In addition to all this, topical vitamin C can reverse yet another aspect of skin aging: age spots or lentigines. These dark areas are where UV-induced oxidation causes pigment to pool in the upper layers of the skin. Topically applying vitamin C to the skin can improve the brightness, tone, and texture of your skin.

Vitamin C is a great moisturizer, meaning it helps your skin to retain more water, so it stays smoother and younger looking for a much longer period of time. Here is an easy and effective way to make a moisturizing vitamin C toner for the face with natural ingredients:

Mix portions of ½ tsp. vitamin C powder with 1 tbsp. of distilled water,

mixing only the portions that can be used in a two-week period.

Dissolve the powder in the water completely. Have a dark colored container with a sprayer ready to store your mixture (vitamin C oxidizes easily). Keep in a cool place.

For a more powerful anti-aging punch, combine with a few drops of organic Sea buckthorn oil, shaking each time before use.

Use as a spray toner after cleansing, and before your moisturizer.

Store for up to two weeks or longer in the refrigerator.

Apply topical vitamin C once a day, ideally after you’ve exfoliated in the morning, to utilize vitamin C’s sun-protecting properties.

On occasion, topical vitamin C can cause some mild dryness or flaking. Counteract this side effect by diluting the mixture and applying your moisturizer after the toner.

This topical nutrient is safe to combine with all your other skin care products and even works synergistically with other antioxidants.

Topical vitamin C is sold in a wide range of products from serum to lotions. Look for products that contain between 3% and 10% of vitamin C and include the active ingredient ascorbic acid or L-ascorbic acid. Always look for and avoid chemical ingredients, and pay extra attention to the packaging – all antioxidants, including vitamin C, are vulnerable to deterioration in the presence of air and light. Unless the product is in an airtight and opaque package, don’t buy it! ■

VOICES AD: 5” X 5-1/2”

Home of the 9-to-5No-Repeat Workday

Linda Meek is the owner and operator of Stone Pond Farm.

This doesn’t mean you can take a vitamin C supplement or apply topical vitamin C and then bask freely in the sun, but you can help keep your skin healthy and supple by

making sure you get enough of this antioxidant vitamin.

see vitamin C, pg. 11

from vitamin C, pg. 10

12 | February 2015

Military and political events dominate the headlines for Middle Eastern news these days, whether about Iraq or Iran, ISIS or Sisi, OPEC or AIPAC. We find it hard to keep up with the names of leaders, places, and even countries, let alone what all of them are doing. Now, with several thousand US troops heading to Iraq as “advisers” to its government, which is fighting the Islamic State, the American people need even more to understand what is happening in this turbulent region—and why.

Historians often say that political events are best explained in the context of social and economic trends. How have the peoples and countries of the Middle East experienced changes in their social organization, life-styles, and ways of making their living during, say, the past century?

One hundred years ago, the Ottoman Empire, then the nominal ruler of lands from Egypt in the west to Kuwait in the east, from Adrianople in the north to Yemen in the south, openly entered World War I on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Its main foe was Czarist Russia, which the Ottomans thought had incited the Balkan peoples against their Turkish rulers. But now the Ottomans were also fighting France and Britain. The three countries each ruled over more Muslims in 1914 than the Ottoman sultan, who was Sunni. The only other Muslim state still nominally independent was Persia, which was Shiite.

These two Muslim states suffered from the fighting on their territory during World War I. The Ottoman Empire, with 21.3 million inhabitants as of 1914, lost a total of 3 million soldiers and civilians as a result of the fighting, war-related starvation, disease, and the Armenian deportations. Even Persia (which we now call Iran), though not a belligerent, lost several hundred thousand subjects due to fighting on its soil by Russians, British Empire forces, and Germans. The US, with 92 million citizens in 1914, lost about

117 thousand troops during World War I, whereas the Ottoman Empire, with a population of 21.3 million, lost more than two million lives from battles, famine, and disease. America’s wounded numbered 204 thousand; estimates of Ottoman soldiers injured in battle range from 400 to 764 thousand.

A foreign traveler in the Middle East a century ago would see vast empty spaces, mainly mountains,

deserts, and a few salt marshes. In some areas, the majority of the locals were nomads who herded camels, sheep, and goats. For most of the region, subsistence agriculture predominated, carried out by unschooled peasants, using tools and methods little changed since Biblical times. Cities were few.

Middle East: Rising population & problemsBy ART GOLDSCHMIDT

axg2@psu.edu

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

(Above): Image of Cairo, Egypt in 1920, which then was (and still is) the largest city in the Middle East with a little less than 800,000 people, according to the 1917 Egyptian census. In the early 1900s large Middle Eastern cities were not commonplace.

Photo by cilla//Flickr(Below): Cairo’s Midan Tahrir, translated to Liberation Square, in modern times. Currently Cairo has a population of nine million, 17 million if you count Giza and other places accessible by Cairo public transportation. Overpopulation in countries such as Egypt is becoming a problem for the Middle East with water scarcity and food concerns now becoming major problems for growing cities.

With populations rising in the Middle East, overpopulation

is beginning to put a strain on nation’s resources as water

and food become more scare for these growing countries.

see middle east, pg. 13

| 13 February 2015

The largest was Cairo, which had 787,461 inhabitants according to the 1917 Egyptian census. It now has over nine million, or 17 million if you count Giza and all other places accessible by Cairo public transportation.

Iraq had about three million people when the British Empire troops took it from the Ottomans; now it has 35 million. Baghdad has grown from 200 thousand to seven million. Syria had 2.2 million when France took control of the country in 1920; its population just before its civil war began in 2011 was slightly over 20 million. Its largest city, Aleppo, had 200 thousand people in 1920 and more than 2.3 million in 2011.

The same story can be told for other Middle Eastern countries, especially the ones in which oil has been found and developed. There are now fewer empty spaces and many more people. Despite heroic efforts to increase lands under cultivation by building new dams on the Nile, Euphrates, and Tigris rivers, the amount of arable land has hardly increased at all. Countries that once exported grain now import most of their basic foodstuffs. Potable water is scarce. Overpopulation is a grave problem for most countries.

There are few nomads left. The peasants no longer make up more than half the population of most Middle Eastern countries. The people

have become much more urbanized. M a nu f a c t u r i n g has grown, but the real growth areas have been in the military, the bureaucracy, and the professions. Outside of g o v e r n m e n t , landowners and Muslim scholars used to be the leading classes; now business owners and labor leaders vie for dominance.

State-supported schooling is now available to both boys and girls, so a much higher percentage of the people are literate. Many young people feel that their governments do not give them the jobs or the chances for advancement that they feel they deserve as a result of their many years of education. This feeling contributed to the revolutions that convulsed the Arab countries in 2011—and Iran in 2009 and Turkey in 2012. Social mobility is stalled, at least for civilians.

Highly trained and urbanized men and women are likely to move to places where they can find suitable jobs. During the past forty years, this usually meant the Arab emirates and sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf, but now jobs there have become scarce because more Saudis, Kuwaitis, and Emiratis (citizens of the United Arab Emirates) have become educated or

trained for work in their modernizing economies. Not surprisingly, many now want to migrate to Western Europe or to North America.

Regrettably, the growth of large-scale manufacturing in the Arab countries, Turkey, and Iran has not reached the level of Japan, China, or the “Little Tigers” of Southeast Asia. Nor have they developed a Middle Eastern version of Silicon Valley, as Israel has been doing. More investment is needed in libraries and laboratories that would facilitate large scale industrialization and technical training, but the funds that might develop them are spent instead on guns, tanks, and fighter jets.

Many Middle Eastern countries are caught in a vicious circle. Civil wars, dissident movements, strikes, and demonstrations abound because economic and social conditions are bad. But as long as there are wars and internal disorder, they cannot improve those conditions, even as their populations continue to rise and

become steadily and more urbanized, more schooled, and more ambitious.

There is little that the European Union or the United States can do to alleviate these problems beyond what they are doing already. The rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria does not augur well for the future of the Middle East, but defeating it militarily will be extremely costly and protracted. If I could advise Obama, I would tell him to use his rhetorical skills to articulate a vision for the future of the Middle East, a goal toward which Israelis, Arabs, Turks, Kurds, and Iranians might strive.

The vision that I would propose is that all people will feel secure about their own lives and property, the future of their children, their basic rights and freedoms, and a world at peace. ■

Many Middle Eastern countries are caught in a vicious circle. Civil wars, dissident movements, strikes, and demonstrations abound because economic

and social conditions are bad. But as long as there are wars and internal disorder, they cannot improve those conditions, even as their populations

continue to rise and become steadily and more urbanized, more schooled, and more ambitious.

from middle east, pg. 12

Arthur Goldschmidt is Professor Emeritus of Middle East History at Penn State University where he taught from 1965 to 2000.

deserts, and a few salt marshes. In some areas, the majority of the locals were nomads who herded camels, sheep, and goats. For most of the region, subsistence agriculture predominated, carried out by unschooled peasants, using tools and methods little changed since Biblical times. Cities were few.

Middle East: Rising population & problems

see middle east, pg. 13

14 | February 2015

Thinking about starting a small business? Please do. Small businesses are the backbone of America, and dreams like yours are what makes small businesses happen.

In Pennsylvania, there are about 1,000,000 small businesses with over 2,400,000 employees. Just over half of them are home based. Coming out of the recent recession, small businesses have created 67% of all net new jobs.

Stating a small business is easier than you might think. Being successful requires a good idea, a sound plan, hard work, and commitment.

You can start a small business slowly from your home, apartment, or dorm room. No need to quit your day job or wait until everything is just right. Chances are your passion can be turned into a small business or revenue generating non-profit that will benefit the local community.

So let’s get started. No time like the present.

Organize Your Idea:Select a business idea,

product or service that you will sell. It should be focused but not too limiting. This may sound like an easy step, but think hard about what exactly you can do well and if there is a market for it.

Research and Planning:Research your target industry.What will you sell? Is it legal? Who

will buy it? Is there repeat business?Are you so knowledgeable and

passionate about your product or service that you can convince people to pay money for it?

Who are the competitors? What are their strengths? Weaknesses?

Financially, you have to do better than breaking even or your business will not survive. What will your product or service cost to produce, market, sell, and deliver? Can you make a profit? Are there compliance issues you need to address?

Write a Business Plan:Some of you may want to skip

this step; however, this step is important and can help you in the long run. Funding sources and

potential partners want to see a business plan. Many free resources regarding business plans are available online. Remember a business plan is a dynamic and ever changing tool.

Make sure the business plan includes your management, marketing, production and financial strategies.

Committing your ideas to paper and organizing them is critical and will greatly increase your chances of success.

Brick-and-Mortar Presence:I am not a fan

of new businesses i m m e d i a t e l y renting space. This often requires you to quit your current job. It drastically increases your costs. There are many creative ways to give the impression of a brick-and-mortar presence. If your idea requires retail sales, create a nice website, try catalog sales, eBay, Amazon, art fairs, booths at community festivals, etc. Prove your plan

is viable and improve it before you commit to spending tens of thousands of dollars.

Choose Your Business Structure:Learn more about the differences

in business structure and determine the best one for your venture. The most common choices are: sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation. If you can get away with it, use a sole proprietorship in the beginning. It is the easiest and lowest cost option.

Register with the Proper Authorities:

The Online Business Registration Interview (OBRI) is a step-by-step wizard that guides users through the process of registering an enterprise with the Departments of Labor & Industry, Revenue, and State using the PA-100 form.

Is your product or service subject to sales tax? You must research this and,

if needed, apply for a sales tax license. You can download the Retailers Information Guide (REV-717) for free.

Stay on top of paying the various wage, sales, and other taxes. Ongoing problems relating to paying these taxes is a sign that you need to raise prices or make other major changes to the business.

You need to register for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) through the IRS by phone (800) 829-4933, mail (complete SS-4 form), or online.

Once you have employees:Register with the PA Department of

Labor and Industry at OBRI.Find out about worker’s

compensation.Get tax information on withholding

taxes.Get information on hiring

independent contractors.If you have Intellectual Property,

register or reserve your federal trademark/servicemark, register copyrights, apply for a patent if you will be marketing an invention, and order any required notices of your intent to do business in the community by advertising the fictitious name.

Running the Business:Install a phone line and PO Box/

street address.Get adequate business insurance

or a business rider to a homeowner’s policy.

Square away financial and tax issues. Get tax information such as recordkeeping requirements, facts about estimating taxes, forms of organizations, etc.

You may want to take a small business or accounting class from a local community college or adult education.

Once you have revenue, open a bank account for the business.

Purchase equipment and/or supplies.

Marketing and Branding:Establish a marketing presence and

visual identity.Have business cards and stationery

printed.Get an e-mail address (a

yourbusiness.com addresses is more professional than gmail).

You should create a web site as soon as you can. Be sure to register the domain name. Many domain registry services will perform name searches for free.

Find a web hosting company and have your webite designed and launched. If you want to be taken seriously, you need a professional web presence. Whenever possible, hire someone talented or use a service.

Determine whether you need sales literature (brochures, flyers, etc) created and printed.

Research how to advertise your business for free with online services such as Google Places, Bing Business, Yahoo! Local or the Yellow Pages. Consider establishing a presence on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

A Few Local Resources:The Penn State Small Business

Development Center (SBDC) provides education and no-cost consulting services. They have an office at 200 Innovation Blvd. near the Penn Stater Hotel.

SCORE has over 11,000 consultants who volunteer at 320 chapters with locations in State College and Altoona. SCORE volunteers donate over one million hours of their time each year to support their communities.

Once you have started your business, joining your local chamber of commerce is a great investment. I am an active member of the Chamber of Business & Industry of Centre County. They are the largest and most comprehensive chamber in Centre County with over 1000 members.

Free and low cost resources:www.pabizonline.com, www.

pasbdc.org, www.score.org, www.cbicc.org ■

Small business 101: Starting successfullyBy MARK HIGGINS

higgins3279@hotmail.com

MARK HIGGINSVOICES columnist

Mark Higgins is a managed services specialist and has thirty years of experience in business turnarounds

Financially, you have to do better than breaking even or your business will not survive. What will your product or service cost to produce,

market, sell, and deliver? Can you make a profit? Are there compliance issues you need to address?

| 15 February 2015

~ VOICES BOOK REVIEW ~

I have suffered through the traumas of two wars and so I was intrigued by the title of this book by Richard E. Rubenstein - Reasons to Kill: Why Americans Choose War. My first question, of course, was why would anyone choose war?

Rubenstein’s intriguing and well-written book covers almost all the major wars that America has been involved in, from 1812 to today’s war in Afghanistan. He does not dwell too much o n why we go to war, but rather tries to answer why the general populace allows or follows the hawks into battle. He says that most people don’t want war and that they have to be manipulated or coerced into agreeing with it. From day one, he says, the arguments, used to do this are, for the most part, outright lies and deception.

Though this book was written in 2010, it is, obviously, very relevant to current situations around the globe today.

Rubenstein gives us the facts. His research shows that before any declaration of war at least forty-five, and sometimes more than fifty percent of any population does not want to go to war for any reason. So why does it happen? Rubenstein claims that they have to be persuaded by any means necessary, even if that requires lying or deception, to make that decision, or alternatively, at the very least, to agree that their country needs to go to war.

According to Rubenstein, since 1831 when Alexis de Tocqueville wrote his book, Democracy in America, the United States has fought ten major wars, conducted eighteen extended campaigns against Native American nations and intervened abroad militarily more than twenty-five times. He goes on to say that if one was to count minor interventions, covert actions, assassinations, joint military actions, and proxy wars, the numbers explode, amounting to more than 150 seriously violent episodes since World War II.

Rubenstein delves into the ways that politicians and leaders of the country have manipulated the populace to agree to war. He starts of by talking about the first great conflict that America had, The War of 1812, and the way the public was duped into

agreeing to it. He details many examples of when false

statements, forged plans and drawings, or news stories all became the method of, as he calls it, the innocent dupe hypothesis. (I was immediately taken back to when Colin Powel was induced to describe to the United Nations the so-called weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein was going to use against the United States.) So, are we dupes, Rubenstein asks? He answers that in some ways we are and uses the story of Billy Budd, written by Herman Melville, as an example of this. He considers that most of us, in an optimistic

view of human nature, are in fact Billy Budds who are unable to recognize the malice in other people.

At one point, when talking about terroristic threats against America, he points out that originally most of the terrorist groups in the world, including Al-Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, the Filipino Abu Sayyaf, and the Columbian FARC, actually had made war on their own governments and rival organizations, but had seldom attacked U.S armed forces or American civilians.

Reading about this skullduggery gave me the feeling that not only was his assertion true, but that I had known it for some time but was not willing to admit it. Convincingly Rubenstein shows us that the twisting of facts and the manipulation of reality are

the main reasons people are duped into going to war. All of this is revealed in the first two chapters.

His last sentence of chapter two reads, “We need to discover more effective and humane ways of dealing with genuine threats to American lives and values.” This line alone makes one want to read on and see what arguments he is going to put forward in the next four chapters.

He does a good job of detailing the information given to the public and presents well documented evidence as to how the American people were convinced that they should say yes to being involved

in each conflict.Unfortunately, Rubenstein does

not present a good remedy to the problem, a good method of effectively standing up against the lies to convince people not to go to war.

I was also not satisfied with his arguments about ways to prevent getting involved in a war, not because they were unworthy or

trite, but because they were impractical, impractical from the point of view that the instigators and hawks of war would never submit to the suggestions he made.

His chapter headings were intriguing: Humanitarian Intervention, Moral Crusades,

Beat the Devil, Dissenters and Pariahs (anti-war movements before Vietnam),

Beyond Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and its implications. Inside each heading there is interesting reading, and facts are again

produced which most of us probably never knew, but some of us surely have suspected.

Regardless of its weaknesses, I highly recommend this book because I

think that it clearly shows the depths of fabrication and outright lying some parties will go to achieve what they want.

Unfortunately, as is often true, the people who most need to read this book, probably won’t.

The author of this book, Richard E, Rubenstein, is University Professor of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs at George Mason University. He is the author of seven books, including Rebels in Eden: Mass Political Violence in the United States, Alchemists of Revolution: Terrorism in the modern World and Left Turn: Origins of the next American Revolution. ■

By JON VICKERS-JONEScastletale@yahoo.com

Small business 101: Starting successfully

Jon Vickers-Jones is a storyteller, writer and artist.

16 | February 2015

VOICES CHOICESVOICES CHOICES

Poets of the Month ~ Alicia LaiState College native Alicia Lai is the Founder and Editor-in-chief of The Postscript Journal, an international, in-print literary magazine. She is a 2014

YoungArts National Winner in Writing and a 2014 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. She has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has been published in The Kenyon Review, National Poetry Quarterly, Curio Poetry, among others, and she has spoken at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian Institute. Alicia is currently attending Princeton University.

Monastery (first published in The Lasacaux Review)Once I entered into a symbiotic relationship with a praying mantis, wings folded at our altar of Queen Anne’s lace. There is wine on the table—father, please don’t let the calf bleed on me. I have seen the insides of heifers as rugged as the grainof our wooden table where I slice tomatoes and you bring in half the vineyard. You know girls the way you pretend to get drunk in the monastery of your body. When two people kiss, they look like diving birds returning for air. When two people look like almond halves, they rise buoyant on the crusts of bread. Once I believed you could slit a cow’s throat and wipe your hands on your jeans. Once, we scythed the barley. Once, we drank wineon the altar and for a summer, our mouths turned as plump as grapes.

Local Whiskey, the fairly new addition to the world of downtown State College bars, is an unexpected location for a delightful dinner or after-hours dining experience.

Although Local Whiskey is an affiliate of the infamous basement bar, The Phyrst, the two establishments could not be any more different in terms of service, products, and clientele. While both fit the theme of a bar with an Irish flair, Local Whiskey puts its own spin on the classic Shenanigan’s-style pub.

First of all, its ambience is beyond compare for a college retreat. In the center of the room is a large, U-shaped bar, behind which are cabinets where more than 150 varieties of whiskey are kept. Around the perimeter of the room are black, leather booths that give the room elegance. Along the back wall is one long table, complemented by my personal favorite feature of the décor, four fantastical portraits by local artist, Emily Burns. The surreal depictions of women with caribou heads posing or playing the violin speak to the pub’s devotion to artistry.

This artistry carries over to the long list of libations and craft beers on tap, as well as domestics for the more conservative. The extensive cocktails list features everything from the classics, such as Moscow mules and mint juleps, to “I’ll Think of Sumthin’” (red wine, Dubonnet, rouge, simple syrup, Amarena syrup, and strawberries) which you can also get in a pitcher to share with friends. They also periodically feature a new cocktail to go along with the season. It’s a fantastic breath of fresh air from the standard Long Island iced teas and trash cans.

Last, but certainly not least, Local Whiskey boasts exceptionally delicious food. All of the food comes from Ernie’s kitchen next door, but the menu is not limited to the simple tray of fries, or the Susie Wong egg roll. Of course, these things are available, but you can also order something more substantial, such as calamari with chili sauce as an appetizer, Guinness pot roast, or even a colossal Reuben sandwich to please any corned beef fan.

Local Whiskey is a cut above the rest when it comes to drink selection, food quality, and environment. With its air of elegance and attention to detail, it may be the perfect place to have a sit down dinner, or simply to go out on the town and have a drink.

Restaurant of the Month ~ Local WhiskeyBy HANNAH GENOVESE

hrg5049@psu.edu

107 E Beaver Ave.State College, Pa. 16801

| 17 February 2015

VOICES CHOICES

Todd Davis lives near Tipton, where he hunts and fishes and picks all kinds of berries and other wild edibles. He teaches environmental studies and creative writing at Penn State Altoona and is the author of four books of poetry, most recently In the Kingdom of the Ditch (Michigan State University Press, 2013).

Davis says so many things inspire him to write poetry. “Art inspires art. Often a poem or a line from a poem will be the impetus.” he said. He also loves visual art, especially photography and painting. “Of course, human relationships and the natural world are catalysts, too. But ultimately I suppose the reason I write poems is to say something back to the world, to explore the mystery and complexity of its beauty, its suffering, its miraculous and sacred nature, to hopefully take a step toward a reader and share something that has moved me.”

He also absolutely thinks poetry has a place in the modern world. “There are always doomsayers who pronounce the death of poetry (or at least the doomsayer’s limited perception of what a poem might be),” he said. “I think poetry is flourishing and will continue to do so. As long as we have humans on this planet, we’ll be playing with language and images and narratives, singing verses back to each other and the world itself. And those verses will offer opportunities for celebration and praise, for grieving, for protest, for shouting or whispering a word in a vast universe.”

Davis’s poems have won the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, the Chautauqua Editor’s Prize, and have been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize. More than 300 of his poems have appeared in such noted journals and magazines as American Poetry Review, Iowa Review, Ecotone, and North American Review.

Poets of the Month ~ Todd Davis

Psalm Written the Last Week of December

“These motions everywhere in nature must be the circulations of God.”

—Henry David Thoreau, 29 December 1841

Praise the ice storm, the world glistening and undone.Praise the ridge, the freeze and thaw split the stone.Praise the sound of such undoing, the scarves of bodiesadrift and swaying. Praise the boards and roof that hold. Praise beauty for loss, for what we make from what we lack. Praise swamp, cardinal’s wing on alder branch. Praise raven’s song and chickadee’s lisp. Praise pickerel and perch beneath the flow. Praise fox’s trail, a sounding line through the household of water, moon, and snow.

By SAMANTHA KREBSsjk5296@psu.edu

18 | February 2015

Live and die by the way of the road (salt)

Though it’s no longer the Polar Vortex, winters in Central Pennsylvania are still a chilly, dark, slushy, and often icy mess. To combat this, road salt is spread on highways, most smaller streets, and sidewalks. About 137 pounds per person of road salt used to melt ice is spread each year in the United States (Smithsonian Magazine).

According to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, road salt, often referred to as rock salt, is composed of 40 percent sodium ions and 60 percent chloride ions (NaCl). However, the mixes on the road are more than just table salt – they also can include ferrocyanide to prevent caking and phosphorus or iron. Besides creating stains on floors when trekked inside, road salt has a significant environmental impact on roadside plants.

When the road salt dissolves, its runoff can pollute bodies of water and waterways, as well as groundwater and soil. Chloride in groundwater can be tapped for drinking, affecting the taste of water in some areas, and creating a hazard for those who need to limit the amount of salt in their diets, as in cases of high blood pressure. In some situations, the salt chloride levels in drinking water comes close to or exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency’s Secondary Drinking Water Regulations. These contaminants do not present health issues for most people, so aren’t considered unsafe, but can cause an odd taste or smell. The EPA does not enforce these levels, but provides them for local water systems operators to know at what levels the chemicals are noticeable. The Secondary Maximum Contaminant Level for chloride is 250m/L, the threshold at which humans notice it in their water (Environmental Protection Agency). Higher levels of chloride in bodies of water near roadways can kill, or at the very least, harm aquatic animals like fish, crustaceans, and amphibians.

Joseph Stromberg, author of “What Happens to All the Salt We Dump On the Roads?” for Smithsonian.com, explains, “On a broader scale, elevated salt concentrations can reduce water circulation in lakes and ponds (because salt affects water’s density), preventing oxygen from reaching bottom layers of water. It can also interfere with a body of water’s

natural chemistry, reducing the overall nutrient load.”

Additionally, road salt can have a damaging impact on roadside plants. Rutgers University’s Plant and Pest Advisory published a list of how salt injures vegetation: increasing water stress (“in the root zone, water molecules are held very tightly by salt ions, making it difficult for roots to absorb sufficient quantities of water”) which can hinder growth and yield; worsening soil quality by displacing potassium and phosphorus, which makes soil more compact and dense and reduces aeration and drainage, resulting in poor growth and mineral deficiency; and toxic levels of chloride due to long amounts of exposure over time, which causes leaf burn and twig die-back.

Finally, salt can harm animals like deer and birds – birds mistake the salt as seeds and eat it, which poisons and kills them, and deer are drawn to the salt near the roads (like how they enjoy salt licks to replenish minerals), which causes higher amounts of roadkill. House pets have also been injured or killed from ingesting it.

With all these issues caused by road salt, there are recently emerging alternatives that are also food-based. Instead of the more traditional alternatives of ashes, kitty litter, or sand, many towns are turning to more eco-friendly options like beet juice, molasses, cheese brine, and garlic salt. In Wisconsin, c h e e s e c omp a ny F & A Dairy

Products mixes cheese brine, a byproduct of producing mozzarella and provolone, with salt or sand and uses it on icy roads. It saves money for both the government, cutting down on salt costs, and the company, for disposing of their waste, and it has a lower freezing point of -21 degrees Fahrenheit than regular salt brine, according to The Guardian. Beet juice can be mixed with calcium chloride or salt brine to create a de-icer that should be put down before large storms, and de-sugared molasses can be mixed with salt brine or cheese brine to form a goo that keeps roads clear for three to four days. A suburb of Des Moines, Iowa spread garlic salt (garlic powder and salt) on roads to eliminate ice and fill the town with a garlicky scent. (CBC News).

Though these can’t completely stop the use of road salt, they can cut down on its use, and therefore the environmental and financial costs. ■

By KASSIA JANESCHkaj5227@psu.edu

Kassia Janesch is a senior at Penn State studying English and Environmental Inquiry.

| 19 February 2015

The end is nigh: The Less-intelligent-than-average-American Guide to downsizing

My Cousin Marvin called last night from California to tell me his life was ruined. You have met Marvin before, as I often use him as an example of someone who has genuine goodness. Marvin is soft-spoken, level headed and a pleasure to be around. His wife, Mildred, is cut from the same cloth. Unfortunately, neither Marvin nor Mildred pay much attention to time zones, so although it was just after 11 p.m. out in Palo Alto, it was just after 2 a.m. here when he called.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me this was happening,” he asked? I could tell he was very upset as his voice had risen to just above a murmur - louder than I had ever heard it before. “Everyone we know is doing it and we had no idea.”

“Doing what,” I asked reasonably? “Downsizing and preparing to move on,” he said with a groan. Marvin and Mildred had finally gotten around to reading The New York Times article entitled, “Easing Into Leisure, One Step at a Time,” by Robert Strauss, which talks about pre-retirement people downsizing and moving to smaller places as they age.

It turns out they had talked about the article at their local bridge club yesterday and not only had the people there read it, all the club members over the age of fifty were doing it. “We often wondered about the people who were clamoring about our neighbor’s house at all hours,” Mildred said, “But it would have been rude of us to ask.” It turns out they have been planning their downsizing for the past two years with a “reduction consultant.” The people in and out of their house had been the consultant’s group and people with skills as varied as museum curators, librarians and thrift store operators. “You’ve seen our house,” Marvin quietly wailed. “What do we do now?”

I have seen their place, and the one thing apparent to me as I hung up the phone was that it was much like our place. Sure, at one time we had six bedrooms, a two and a half car garage, a walk up attic and a walk down basement, both the size of the house. But we haven’t been able to force our way into the basement or the attic in years, as they are loaded with stuff. We have no room for the car in the garage and two of the six bedrooms are impassable. What are we going to do if we choose to downsize and move on?

A good question? Certainly. And that is the reason, we at Stevieslaw, have published, “The end is nigh,” The LAguide to downsizing. In the guide, you will learn to:

1. Change your worldview about possessions: Consider that over the past 30 or 40 years you have moved a truly incredible number of things into your home. In fact, if you look at your possession over a lens of 40 years, you will easily come to realize that the things you have acquired are more or less a completely arbitrary bunch of stuff. With that in mind, you must rid your house of stuff with the same great care you have used to acquire it. Each time you and your significant other are about to leave the house, you must close your eyes, grab one item, and carry it to the trash. Remember the cardinal rule - what leaves the house can never return.

2. Have a serious conversation with your heirs: My wife and I once mentioned to our son that we wished to sell a piece of oak furniture, who replied that it was his legacy. Of course, you don’t want to toss out your heir’s potential legacy, but a realistic conversation is in order. It might go something like: “Little Suzie, What things do you want us to save for you that will fit in your 156 square foot apartment near the Bowery in New York City?” She might leave with a snack bag full.

3. Charge for storage: Anyone with an accessible basement, garage or attic has, over the years, been called upon to store “priceless” items for friends and relatives. The plan is to store it until…hell freezes over? At which point they will be over to get it…no later than forever? Listen, your Uncle Eddie is never going to willingly come by and retrieve that hideous dining room set with twelve chairs from your attic - unless, you start charging him for storage. In the guide, we suggest that you look up self-storage rates in your local area and then charge your freeloading friends and relatives at twice the rate. You

don’t need the money. You need to unload.4. Have a continuous garage sale: Advertise a

downsizing – everything-must-go-sale, and take your pricing model from the highly successful dollar stores. Make everything a dollar! Then make it known that you are willing to bargain, bargain, bargain. Make me an offer and move it on out.

5. Have an open house: No, not that kind of open house. We mean that you must leave your house unlocked and tell everyone that this has always been your habit. Make a few dozen door keys and leave them (with an address) at the bus and train stations and the local pubs. Take a month long vacation and advertise it daily in your local newspaper. For example, “The Smiths are still away, the security cameras are disabled, and the doors and windows are wide open.”

Buy the guide and have some downsizing fun. Or better yet, pick up the guide at our house - the door is always open and there is never anyone home. ■

By STEVE DEUTSCHVOICES Satirist

sdeutsch22@gmail.com

STEVE DEUTSCHVOICES Satirist

Steve Deutsch, a long-long time resident of State College, is relieved to hear that Mitt Romney’s battery has been replaced and he is up and running again.

Live and die by the way of the road (salt)

20 | February 2015

On November 20, 2014, President Obama announced his “immigration accountability executive actions,” which outlined steps to reform issues within our nation’s immigration system. The executive actions are considered “prosecutorial discretion,” a term relating to the executive branch’s ability to choose how to enforce the law. One example of prosecutorial discretion in the immigration law context is “deferred action,” which provides a temporary lawful status for those who qualify. While touted as an unconstitutional act by some members of the Republican Party, in reality, prosecutorial discretion in our nation’s immigration history has been undertaken by previous Presidents, most notably Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

President Obama’s executive actions cover critical pieces in our immigration system, including enforcement at the border, deportation priorities, efficiency in keeping and recruiting immigrant investors and employees, allowing immigrant families to remain intact, and expansion of lawful status for those living here unlawfully. Two of the biggest programs within the executive actions were the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the introduction of the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program.

DACA was initially introduced by the Obama Administration in 2012 as a response to the failure of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minor’s (DREAM) Act to pass in Congress. As referenced in the name, DACA allowed individuals who arrived in the United States as children to remain and work here legally. Individuals who had been present in the United States for at least five years, who arrived before they turned 16-years-old and who were under 31-years-old, and who were currently in school or had received a degree from school, could apply for deferred action. While not granting permanent status, DACA allowed many individuals to apply for a social security number, obtain employment authorization, and be protected from deportation for at least two years. Since its inception, over 500,000 individuals have received deferred action under DACA.

The Obama Administration expanded the DACA program by removing the age cap requirements and allowing those who have been present since January 1, 2010 to qualify. Additionally, DACA grantees will have deferred action and work authorization for three years instead of two years. It is estimated that an additional 330,000 individuals will be eligible under the new criteria. Applications under the new DACA program are expected to be available by February 18, 2015.

While DACA was a real first step in addressing the

needs of those living without status in the United States, there were still challenges and deficiencies to overcome. Although DACA provided work authorization and the ability for young adults to “step out of the shadows,” many other young immigrants still feared for their parents and other family members who did not qualify for DACA and who lived in unlawful status. In recognition of the need to keep families intact, President Obama created the DAPA program.

DAPA applies to individuals who have U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (“green card”) sons or daughters, who have been present in the U.S. since January 1, 2010, and who are not considered an enforcement priority. DAPA grantees obtain deferred action for three years, which includes work authorization and a social security number.

Applications are expected to be ready by May 20, 2015. It is estimated that as many as 3.7 million immigrants could be eligible for lawful status under the DAPA program.

DACA and DAPA provide temporary relief. It is not a grant of permanent status or U.S. citizenship. Only Congress has the ability to determine who is eligible for lawful permanent residence or who can become a U.S. citizen. While threats of defunding the DACA and DAPA programs have been alluded to in talking points, and even included in a bill that passed the House on January 14, in reality, the programs pay for themselves

through a $465 filing fee and are not subject to Congress’ appropriations.

In addition to the DACA expansion and the creation of DAPA, President Obama outlined other changes to immigration benefits, processing, and enforcement. Some additional benefits include longer periods for Optional Practical Training for foreign students who graduate from U.S. schools, review of the Department of Labor’s certification process for foreign labor, and increased opportunities for foreign investors, researchers, and start-ups to create jobs in the United States. The President also wants to improve the current visa system, which is rife with delays and high processing times. For example, under our visa system currently, adult children of U.S. citizen parents will be waiting almost eight years until they are eligible to enter the United States and reunite with their family. For adult sons and daughters from the Philippines, their wait

is over 10 years. Even spouses and children of green card holders are waiting almost two years until they become eligible to enter the United States.

President Obama has increased and refined his immigration enforcement policies in the executive actions as well. First, President Obama outlined new enforcement priorities, divided into three tiers. The highest priority relates to individuals with felonies and aggravated felonies; the second priority applies to those with “significant misdemeanors” or multiple misdemeanors in their background or are recent border-crossers; and the last priority relates to individuals ordered removed after January 1, 2014. While the crimes sound serious (and many are), under immigration law, a single conviction for a driving under the influence (DUI) charge is considered a significant misdemeanor and would place someone in the second priority tier.

President Obama is also removing the controversial Secure Communities program, which encouraged state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration laws. Under the Secure Communities program, the Department of Homeland Security could request that state or local jails hold immigrants longer than is constitutionally allowed so that they could be transferred to immigration custody. Many Governors, law enforcement agencies, and mayors, including Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, rejected participation in the program. In place of Secure Communities, the Obama administration is creating the Priority Enforcement Program, which would not use unlawful detainers and will only seek out those immigrants who have actually been convicted of crimes, rather than simply arrested or held for alleged crimes. And finally, President Obama is allocating more resources to secure the southern border.

Some of the President’s proposed changes have already taken place, while others need more time to be evaluated or begin. While this is a hopeful first step in reforming our immigration system, Congress still must act to ensure that a comprehensive solution, rather than piecemeal changes, is put in place. Our nation built by immigrants deserves no less. ■

Immigration executive action - about timeBy SHARON BARNEY

sharonbarney@sharonbarneylaw.comBy JOE VERICA

joeverica@gmail.com

SHARON BARNEYState College Attorney

Sharon Barney is an attorney in State College who practices immigration law, family law, employment law, and victim rights law.

Some of the President’s proposed changes have already taken place, while others need more time to be evaluated or begin. While this is a hopeful first step in reforming our immigration

system, Congress still must act to ensure that a comprehensive solution, rather than piecemeal changes, is put in place. Our

nation built by immigrants deserves no less.

| 21 February 2015

Immigration executive action - about time White-throated Sparrows: Birding from home

Winter is typically a down-time for birders. The colorful birds that frequented our backyards and filled out woodlands with song in the summer have headed to warmer climes for the winter. Migrating waterfowl temporarily took up residence here in early fall, but as temperatures continued to drop, lakes and ponds have frozen over, forcing the birds south to seek open water.

With so many songbirds and waterfowl playing ex-pat for the winter, what’s the obsessed birder to do? Read a book? Clean out the attic? Fortunately, sparrows have moved in to fill the void. For reasons that are unfathomable to me, many people are not excited by sparrows. Admittedly, they may look similar at first glance; however, to those with a keen eye trained to appreciate the finer details of avian plumages, sparrows are distinctly patterned and quite handsome birds.

There is also the issue of weather that prevents some from experiencing the joys of studying winter sparrows. The idea of trekking outside in sub-zero temperatures, hoping to catch of glimpse of a sparrow, is not most people’s idea of a leisurely recreational activity. For me, weather is rarely a valid excuse for remaining indoors. On the contrary, I have had some of my most rewarding birding experiences on otherwise inclement days. As the Scandanavian proverb eloquently states, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.”

That being said, I do recognize that weather may indeed be a factor for some people, but as providence would have it, one need not venture outside to see sparrows. With the appropriate habitat and a sprinkling of

bird seed, one can host several species of winter sparrow right in their own backyard. One of the more common and visually striking sparrows to visit Central Pa. during the winter is the White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis).

As sparrows go, White-throated Sparrows are relatively large, slightly bigger than the familiar Song Sparrow. The White-throated Sparrow has brown upper parts with bold black streaks on the back. The wings and tail are imbued with chestnut brown overtones. As their name suggests, the sparrows have a bold white throat that sharply contrasts with the surrounding gray on the sides of the face and upper breast.

The most prominent features of the White-throated Sparrow are the stripes on its head. They come in two

distinct varieties, a White-striped and a Tan-striped morph. Both morphs have a black crown and a black line extending through the eye to the back of the head. The White-striped morph has a thin white line running down the center of the crown and a bold white supercilium (stripe above the eye). The lores (area between the eye and the bill) are bright yellow. The Tan-striped form has a tan crown stripe and a tan supercilium, and the lores are faintly shaded in yellow. In addition, Tan-striped birds also have blurred streaking along the flanks of the breast that White-striped birds lack. The differences between the two morphs are genetically determined, and both occur in roughly equal proportions throughout the population.

White-throated Sparrows are woodland sparrows. They breed across subarctic North America from British Columbia to Newfoundland. In the United States, the southern limit of its breeding range extends from northern Minnesota to northern Pennsylvania. Mated pairs typically contain a White-striped and a Tan-striped bird.

In early fall, White-throated Sparrows begin heading south to their winter quarters, which extend from southeastern Canada and the eastern Plains states in the north, to Arizona, the Gulf Coast and northern Florida in the south. Here in Central Pa., White-throated Sparrows start showing up

around the end of September. Their preferred winter habitat consists of dense brushy areas near water, but they seem fairly content in parks and backyards where protective accommodations are available.

During winter months, the sparrows forage in flocks consisting of a dozen or more birds. Their diet consists largely of fruits gleaned from trees and shrubs, as well as seeds they find by scratching in the leaf litter. White-throated Sparrows are also known to sing throughout the winter. Their song consists of a series of whistled notes that are commonly transliterated as “Poor Sam Peabody Peabody”.

If you wish to find White-throated Sparrows this winter, you can find them in just about any wooded area with a brushy understory. Millbrook Marsh, Lederer Park, Toftrees Gamelands and Bald Eagle State Parks are good places to go. You can also attract them to your backyard by scattering millet or black oil sunflower seeds on the ground. Just be sure to spread them near adequate cover, as Sharp-shinned and Copper’s Hawks will be surveilling the local circuit of bird feeders in search of unwitting birds. ■

By JOE VERICAjoeverica@gmail.com

Photo by SIMON BARRETTE// Creative Commons

The White-throated Sparrow comes in two varieties, the White-striped and the Tan-striped morph. Pictured above, the White-striped morph, shares the black crown and black line extending throgh the eye to the back of the head with the Tan-striped morph, but this variety has a thin white line running down the center of the crown and a bold white supercilium (stripe above the eye).

Joseph Verica is a vice-president of State College Bird Club. He writes a monthly column for Voices about local avian life.

22 | February 2015

Jason Crane - poet, musician, interviewer, talk-show host, writer, union organizer, bookstore manager and father of two always said that the last place he wanted to live was in State College, which, as his old friend used to say, “is conveniently located three and a half hours from nowhere.”

Now, though, Jason calls it his home (at least until his boys have graduated from high school). “I never thought I would be looking down the barrel of a whole decade in one place before,” he said. But now he is – taking a job as the store manager of Webster’s Bookstore and Café and becoming an intricate part of the local creative community.

Having taken the road less travelled, Jason has decades of artistic knowledge and experience behind him. He is currently the host and producer of The Jazz Session, an online jazz interview podcast with national and international jazz musicians, a show that has had more than 2.5 million downloads since its inception in 2007 (http://thejazzsession.com), and the host of a music-only radio show on WKPS, The Lion, at 90.7 FM. A year ago he organized the ever growing-in-popularity Open Mike Poetry series at Webster’s, just one more example of the artistic richness he brings to the area.

His tie to poetry started out like most kids, he said, writing “horrible poetry in high school” in upstate New York, for which he is glad that “all of those notebooks were lost in a flood years ago.” And like many young people, this was the last of his writing for a while.

Then he got kicked out of his parent’s house in Canandaigua and “the only job I could find was a bank teller, so I started writing poetry because I needed some kind of outlet.” He became part of the local poetry scene in his new home nearby in Rochester, writing mostly funny poems and love poems. He said it was his “first experience with sustained writing and working on the poems.”

Then he left Rochester and poetry behind again, and became a musician.

(He had played clarinet in middle school, then saxophone later on. He says he didn’t really have any lessons). He played Latin and Salsa on the saxophone and played percussion and sang in bands mostly based in Tucson, Arizona, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and Japan (he speaks

Japanese).H e

d i d n ’ t w r i t e p o e t r y again for “at least ten years. I don’t know why I started

again except that I had things I wanted to say and poetry gave me a vehicle to say those things.”

A few years later, in 2007, working for a labor union, he got transferred from Rochester to Albany, New York which had “the best poetry scene of any place I had ever lived. There I found both mentor figures and an amazing bookstore called Dove & Hudson. So for the first time in my life I started

actively reading poetry, which I had never really done. Reading poetry changed everything for me. Once you read other poets, you realize how much more possibilities exist than you could have thought of on your own.”

In 2010 Jason did something bold. He sent a collection of his poems to several poets he admired and asked for feedback, never really expecting to get it. Surprisingly, Jason said, “I got really good feedback, and one person, John Roche, handed the collection to his publisher and his publisher asked to publish it, so my first book, Unexpected Sunlight, came out on FootHills Publishing.

“So all of a sudden I had this object [the book] and I started going to readings as a featured writer.” He traveled all around upstate New York with other poets and sold, he said, “a decent amount of books.”

Then, due to some personal changes, Jason decided to really take his act on the road. Applying both his interests in jazz and jazz musicians and his affinity for poetry, he packed up his things, got on the Greyhound bus, called his trip “The Jazz or Bust

Tour,” and set out to produce a podcast by interviewing all the jazz musicians he could find. In between interviews, wherever there was an appropriate venue, he read his poems.

He travelled for seven months, staying at people’s homes, carrying only a backpack filled with a few changes of clothes and his audio equipment. People were supporting the show, so he could have travelled indefinitely, he said, but he was getting tired and lonely. “It wasn’t making me any richer than I had been. I wasn’t creating an ending for myself. I didn’t know what I was going to do next.”

He decided to apply to the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico to work and study in the chaplaincy program (He’s an atheist and a Buddhist), but weaving his way down from Ottawa, he stopped in Auburn, Alabama where he had some friends. There, the owner of a bookstore where he had previously read his poetry offered him a management job. He cancelled the Zen Center plans. He

Voices Profile: Interview with Jason CraneBy MARILYN JONESVOICES Editor in Chiefeditor@voicesweb.org

(Above) Photo by KATE HOFFMAN

(Right) Photo by SUDESHNA RAY DASGUPTA

Local poet and manager of Webster’s, Jason Crane, reading one of his poems at one of the Open Poetry Nights that Webster’s holds on the first Wednesday of every month. Crane, a published poet, has had a varied path leading to position he’s in now, ranging from producing a jazz musician podcast to starting a poetry series in Auburn, Alabama.

see crane, pg. 23

“I try to be funny, to welcome everyone, to know something about everyone who reads. We’ve really

built a community of poets.”-Jason Crane

| 23 February 2015

Liturgy, by Jason Crane, January 10, 2015

we are the rain washing down the sloping streets to the seawe are carrying with us the half-remembered dreams of the middle-agedwe are thin bubbles of air on the smudged surface of a puddlewe are shifting washes of color reflecting the dirty late-afternoon sunwe are the low note made by the wind through the uneven sidingwe are the song sung by the creaking floorboards in the small hourswe are sloshing clockwise around the cracked porcelain basinwe are the soggy blockage of leaves in the gutters above the doorwe are blackened snow like over-roasted marshmallowswe are the tips of incense sticks that the fire did not reachwe are dog-eared pages of mildewed books left too long in the barnwe are unopened packets of sugar found in the glove compartmentwe are the slow steady clockwork drip of the faucet in the kitchenwe are the indentations in the fake leather seats of a cheap muscle carwe are carrying with us the half-remembered dreams of the middle-agedwe are the rain washing down the sloping streets to the sea

Tour,” and set out to produce a podcast by interviewing all the jazz musicians he could find. In between interviews, wherever there was an appropriate venue, he read his poems.

He travelled for seven months, staying at people’s homes, carrying only a backpack filled with a few changes of clothes and his audio equipment. People were supporting the show, so he could have travelled indefinitely, he said, but he was getting tired and lonely. “It wasn’t making me any richer than I had been. I wasn’t creating an ending for myself. I didn’t know what I was going to do next.”

He decided to apply to the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico to work and study in the chaplaincy program (He’s an atheist and a Buddhist), but weaving his way down from Ottawa, he stopped in Auburn, Alabama where he had some friends. There, the owner of a bookstore where he had previously read his poetry offered him a management job. He cancelled the Zen Center plans. He

I was talking the other day to Whitey Blue, longtime Centre Area resident and hard- nose. Whitey, I think we may have discussed this before, but do you have any thoughts on the re-zoning of property in the State College area from single-family and student housing to add office and day-care use?

“As I’ve said before, nothing should

stand in the way of opening businesses in any part of the borough or surrounding townships.” But doesn’t that infringe on the privacy rights of people to maintain their area as a residential neighborhood?

“If people who now live in the State College area want to be exclusive and shut out the rest of the world, they should move out into the boondocks somewhere!” ■

Whitey Blue on re-zoningBy DAVID SILVERMAN

VOICES Satiristsilver1922@earthlink.net

stayed only for a year, but is very proud of the poetry series he started at the store, which is still going strong today.

During this time Jason did not see his children often and was not very happy about it. In the fall of 2013 he decided to return to New York where he would be closer to his boys. He stopped to visit them in State College (where his former wife of 16 years grew up) and decided to stay.

Having moved 37 times throughout his life, he

is committed to remaining here until his children (in third and seventh grades) graduate from high school. In November of 2013 a friend introduced him to the owner of Webster’s (which eventually led to his management position) and he started the Open Poetry Night, which is held on the first Wednesday of every month at seven p.m. in Webster’s Café. It is growing every month and usually attracts between 35 and 45 people a night, with about 20 to 25 readers. People sign up to read and may only read one poem, no more than two pages long, and with no long introductions, so “people at the end still get

an audience.”Jason said, “I try to be funny, to welcome

everyone, to know something about everyone who reads. We’ve really built a community of poets.”

And that seems to be what Jason’s life is about, whether traveling the world or staying put in one place: creating art, sharing art, interviewing artists, archiving art, and helping to create and be a part of a strong community of fellow artists wherever he goes. ■

see crane, pg. 23

from crane, pg. 22

Marilyn Jones is the editor of Voices, a freelance writer, and a retired teacher.

David Silverman (a.k.a. the G.O.F.).

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Call it home, it’s not just a Stepping Stone

They come to this house from all over Centre County. Some are homeless. Some are out of school, out of work and out of money. Many have been living in dangerous situations. All are young adults, often without a warm, safe place to sleep.

Too many have had little or no communication with their parents. Others are the children of mothers who are too young to care for them, or come from families facing challenges with which they are unable to cope. Often, the kids come without personal, educational or health histories. They have no bank accounts, no school records. They sometimes arrive on their own or on the recommendation of counselors. And, some arrive through court mandates. “Sometimes, they don’t want to be here,” said Vanessa Baronner, Program Director of the Burrowes Street Youth Haven & Stepping Stone Long Term Transitional Living Program.

The residence, which was once home to a family of eight during WWI, through The Great Depression, and, in the 1960s was home to Penn State graduate students from around the world, now is home to young men and women ages 16 to 21. It is an important

component of the multi-faceted Centre County Youth Service Bureau, which provides many community-based programs, like Big Brothers/Big Sisters; family programs, that include parenting education and varied workshops and activities; and residential programs, as well as group homes for boys and girls in the community.

Residents who come to live at Stepping Stone can remain in the program for up to 18 months. They live communally in the house, which accommodates up to eight residents. There are also two off site, two-bedroom apartments for older residents. There is a staff on duty around the clock, and scores of committed volunteers from the community lending their expertise, their time and their considerable personal and professional experience to work and play with the residents.

“We ask, ‘how can their strengths help them?’” said Theresa Kieffer, Program Director of the Girls’ Group Home. One way is for residents to share their knowledge with each other, like, how to play the guitar or what they know about politics or relationships or any other subject. They share their talents and support one another; they protect each other. They share chores and all of the responsibilities of running a household like cleaning,

shopping for dinner, and cooking. Then, after dinner, they sit around the communal dining table and talk about their day.

The staff works with all the residents on “hard and soft” life skills: how to find jobs or get back into school, how to manage their time, their work, and their classes. They also help to improve the resident’s social and psychological well-being. The staff, a committed group of community volunteers, and the residents themselves contribute to the group by sharing responsibilities, life skills, communications skills, and human values. “These kids are extremely resourceful. They have struggled in their lives. They have been in the wild,” said Vanessa Baronner.

After completing their time on South Burrowes, the residents transition to their own apartments, to colleges or

trade schools, or are able to move back into their family homes. Members of the staff remain available to all former residents who need help for as long as they require.

Though they all eventually move on, the young men and women of Stepping Stone often remain in touch, and on occasion the doorbell rings on South Burrowes Street and a former resident comes home to visit with old and new members of his or her family.

For more information on the YSB and its activities, and for information on how to contribute your time, resources, skills, and gifts to the organization, go to: ccysb.com. ■

By MARYLOUISE MARKLEmlouisemarkle@gmail.com

Marylouise Markle is a cultural and political writer who lives in State College.