By Brian Fleming

Note: This article first ran as a letter to the editor of The Warwick Advertiser.

I went to a Christmas party in Warwick and like many other Americans I spent most of the time discussing gun control in America with friends. The evil incident in Connecticut has sparked a debate that will not die. My entire adult life I have been a registered Republican and I have almost always argued from the right. However, when it comes to the subject of handguns possessed and carried by non-law enforcement civilians I just cannot agree with my friends on the right.

I feel that I am as qualified to speak on the subject as anyone else; after all I have legally owned and carried handguns in New York State for 26 years. I grew up in New York City, I joined the NYPD at the age of 20 and I have stared down the barrel of a gun several times. I have been shot at and I have also fired my gun in self-defense, but in the line of duty. I now carry an Orange County Carry Pistol Permit as a retired law enforcement officer. I know what it’s like to carry a gun and not to carry a gun. I have heard arguments and stories of legal gun owners successfully defending their property and their lives, but I have also heard of more tragic stories.

Adam Lanza was able to access his mother’s legally owned guns and commit this heinous act. That is the bottom line. Every legally possessed gun in America cannot be properly secured. There will be guns accessed by children.

I feel that we have to take an honest look at the laws in this country for the sake of our children. Many people want to own and carry guns because it gives them a feeling of power. Most will not admit this, but it’s true. When someone is carrying a gun, they act differently. They face a situation, sometimes escalating it, instead of avoiding it. When I fired my gun in 1992 in self defense, I was off duty. It was after I ran down two thugs who had just robbed a store in Queens. They turned and tried to shoot me. If I did not have my gun that day, I would have never run after them and they would have gotten away. No one would have fired any guns that day. On February 26, 2012 Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla. No matter what you believe happened that night, if Zimmerman did not have a gun, Trayvon Martin would be alive today.

As a Father, who was heartbroken after hearing about the Connecticut killing of those innocent children, I feel I have to be honest about how I feel, even if it means disagreeing with friends.

By Nadia Allen

Mental Health Association in Orange County joins Americans in mourning the loss of those killed in the tragic shootings in Newtown, Conn. Our thoughts and sincere prayers are with the families of the victims and everyone who is affected by this horrific event. Additionally, we express our hope for the full recovery of those who were injured.

At this point, we do not know the motivation behind this senseless act. We do know that events like this will impact families, the Newtown community and the nation. Many may feel at risk and may experience feelings of anxiety and fear. Parents may be groping with how to discuss these and similar events with their children.

Mental Health America has developed guidelines to help Americans respond and cope with tragic events, which can be found at www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go/information/get-info/coping-with-disaster. To guide discussions about the shooting, MHA offers the following suggestions for parents as they communicate with young people in the area and across the nation:

• Children sense the anxiety and tension in adults around them. Furthermore, like adults, children experience the same feelings of helplessness and lack of control that tragedy-related stress can bring about. Conversely, unlike adults, children have little experience to help them place their current situation into perspective.

• Each child responds differently to tragedy, depending on his or her understanding and maturity, but it’s easy to see how an event of this magnitude can create a great deal of anxiety in children of all ages. Most likely, they will interpret the tragedy as a personal danger to themselves and those they care about.

• Whatever the child’s age or relationship to the damage caused by tragedy, it’s important that you be open about the consequences for your family, and that you encourage him or her to talk about it.

• Talk honestly about the incident, without graphic detail, and share some of your own feelings about it.

• Encourage young people to talk about their concerns and to express their feelings, and validate the young person’s feelings and concerns.

• Limit television viewing. It can be difficult to process the images and messages in news reports.

• Recognize what may be behind a young person’s behavior. They may minimize their concerns outwardly, but may become argumentative, withdrawn or allow their school performance to decline.

• Keep the dialogue going even after media coverage subsides. Continue to talk about feelings and discuss actions being taken to make schools and communities safer.

• Seek help when necessary. If you are worried about a young person’s reaction or have ongoing concerns about his/her behavior or emotions, contact a mental health professional at their school or at your community mental health center.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives and everyone who is affected by these shocking events. And we join in applauding the brave actions of individuals who prevented greater harm.

It will likely take many days to understand the reasons and motivations behind this national tragedy. Many have pointed to mental health as an issue. It must first be emphasized that people with mental health conditions are no more likely to be violent than the rest of the population. Furthermore, we have science-based methods to successfully treat persons with even the most severe mental illnesses. A very small group of individuals with a specific type of mental health symptoms are at greater risk for violence if their symptoms are untreated.

It is also important that, as a community, we assist persons with signs and symptoms of mental illnesses to seek treatment. Although rare, when a person becomes so ill that he/she is a danger to themselves or others state laws provide a way to provide them help even if they don’t believe that they need it. The best strategy, however, is to have an accessible system of care that is easy to use, well funded and provides effective services.

Science has not developed tools to predict reliably individuals at risk for violence. But we can reduce the small risk of violence in those with certain mental health conditions by investing in proven intensive, coordinated community-based mental health services and making certain that they can access these services.

We do not know if the mental health system failed in this situation or if there were missed opportunities or if effective treatment might have averted this tragedy. It’s our sincere hope that we can find answers and create solutions that prevent this tragedy from ever happening again.

If you are worried about a young person’s reaction or have ongoing concerns about his/her behavior or emotions, contact a mental health professional at their school or at your community mental health center. We encourage you to call MHA’s 24/7 Helpline @ 1-800-832-1200 and/or text MHA’s TEXT 4 TEENS @ 845-391-1000 for information, referrals, or to simply talk or text with a trained listener.

Nadia Allen is executive director of Mental Health Association in Orange County. MHA is a private, not-for-profit agency seeking to promote the positive mental health and emotional well-being of Orange County residents, working towards reducing the stigma of mental illness, developmental disabilities, and providing support to victims of sexual assault and other crimes. 

By Russ Layne

A beer and a hot-blowing blues band could be the best antidote to … the blues. If you have a hankering for this uniquely American jazz form, think of the Hudson Valley, which is, in fact, a blues hotbed.

So what are the blues? Very briefly, they’re the melancholy music we associate with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, and which originated as an amalgamation of African music and slave spirituals mixed with the purely American 12-bar sound.

It got its start in the Mississippi Delta region and fought its way north, first to St. Louis, then west to Kansas City and finally landed back east in Chicago, its American home.

Such blues luminaries as Billie Holiday, Lester Young and Janis Joplin are long gone, succeeded by performers such as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, and B.B. King. Their generation, in turn, paved the way for some younger blues performers, many of whom live and perform here in the valley and have been instrumental in maintaining an interest in the blues.

Developing that interest isn’t difficult. It just takes three or four chords on a guitar and two or three shots of a favored drink and anyone can sing the blues though not necessarily become the next Bill Perry, Ted Horowitz. David Keyes, Slam Allen and others now rooted in the valley.

The late Bill Perry was born in Goshen on Christmas 1957 in Goshen, led his own band and played guitar for Richie Havens. Perry was a big hit in Europe playing for large, enthusiastic audiences. He was 49 when he died in Sugar Loaf in 2007.

Among contemporary players is Ted Horowitz of Monroe, known in jazz and blues clubs as Popa Chubby, a nice – sometimes not so nice – kid from the Bronx. Popa, like Perry before him, records for major blues labels and has a big following in Europe.

Several years ago, after playing a blues assembly program for the students at Warwick Valley High School, Popa was approached by a shy but precocious drum student, Chris Redden. A few years later, after more training, Redden toured with the Popa Chubby Blues Band. Popa’s sometimes tempestuous side doesn’t always make him easy to work for. So from time to time, Chris and his brother John take a break from Popa and perform as the Redden Brothers Band.

David Keyes, a blues piano/vocalist who lives in Sloatsburg, has performed with Gladys Knight, Chuck Berry and the late Bo Diddley and Odetta. He also has appeared in such Broadway fare as “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” “Lennon,” and “Urban Cowboy.” Keyes doesn’t forget his hometown roots, and several times a year, when he’s not on the road, he plays at Rhodes Tavern or Sunnyside’s with no cover and no minimum. He also plays the Turning Point in Piermont for which there’s a small fee.

Then there’s Slam Allen of Sullivan County who spent eight years performing with the great blues harmonica player James Cotton.

Attend a Slam Allen show and you never know when he’ll walk off the stage with his guitar, sit right down next to you, and finish the song. He’ll have you grinning, laughing and wondering what’s so blue about the blues. Recently at Brian’s Backyard BBQ in Middletown, in the middle of a set, he handed his guitar over to a 14-year old kid in the audience. Surprise. The kid was hotter than Brian’s hot sauce.

Here are some Hudson Valley clubs to keep an eye on for blues shows:

–Brian’s Backyard BBQ on Route 211 between Middletown and Montgomery.

–Sunnyside’s on Route 17 in Sloatsburg has been around since 1928, long enough to have fed such people as Bing Crosby, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Jimmy Durante.

–The always packed Rhodes Tavern on Route 17 in Sloatsburg.

–The Turning Point in Piermont occasionally presents such nationally known players as Marcia Ball, the Nighthawks, and the Robert Ross Band.

Russ Layne is executive director of the Sugar Loaf Music Series, which he founded 29 years ago.

By Randolph Hurst
Despite never-ending extremist attacks, President Obama displays brilliance, grace and humility. In the face of Republican animosity and obstructionism, he has remained poised and steadfast, calmly arguing the case for the American people. It is a kindness to suggest that the GOP’s behavior is based on ideology.

It does not become a president to call them out about their conduct. But most of us know that the attacks against this president are more about resentment of a man of bi-racial heritage who has demonstrated the acumen, leadership and bravery to do what none of his foes have the will or backbone to do. That is, to champion peace, justice, integrity, ingenuity, environmental stewardship, harmony in our diversity, and a reasonable quality of life for all Americans.

But there is more. Their conduct is grossly influenced by corporate money and manipulation of government officials through unbridled campaign and political action committee (PAC) activities. Controls on these ended after the Supreme Court ruled in the Citizens United case of 2010 that corporations have the same free speech rights as individuals. The court’s decision could easily be called the Koch Decision, for the gas and oil billionaire brothers who invest millions to gain political control of our nation and to ensure their own wealth.

It is no longer of the people, by the people, and for the people. It is of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation. Lincoln would be aghast.

Why is it that McConnell, Boehner, Cantor, and Republican presidential candidates attack and reject every initiative President Obama proposes even when to do so is contrary to positions they have taken previously? It defies common sense, and disgraces our country. The answers are fear, greed, power and envy; envy that a black man just might succeed in doing what they would not.

These politicos are empty suits and empty skirts behaving as members of a corporate goon platoon. As long as they toe the party line, they will have access to millions of campaign dollars and the marketing resources to denigrate opponents and cover their own agendas. And all this is predicated on the misguided and insulting assumption that the American people are gullible, uninformed and easy marks; that the disenfranchised are so disillusioned they will not vote, and that party loyalty, deceptive rhetoric and prejudice will trump intuition, sound judgment and the American spirit.

President Obama is betting on the American people. He has more confidence in us than we have in each other, and it is going to be a long and arduous battle to November and thereafter should he succeed, and depending on who takes the House and Senate.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama laid out a common sense vision that encompasses many noble initiatives, all articulated in a clear and forthright manner. He made an overt attempt to persuade his “Republican friends” and fellow Democrats to follow the good example of our armed forces; men and women putting differences aside, selflessly watching each others’ backs, working together to the achieve their mission for the good of our country. In his way he extended an olive branch to his “colleagues.”

Yet, after listening to the Republican response by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and others, it is evident the president’s words fell on deaf ears. Corporate money and special interests will drive this historic election and turn it into a circus. Romney, Gingrich, Santorum or maybe Paul will carry the corporate banner and it will get even uglier than their own campaign for the Republican nomination. Are they really the best the conservative establishment has to offer?

The campaign will be a crapshoot. Will Americans go to the polls and vote? Will bigotry and racism be major factors? Will we vote with our heads, our hearts and our conscience, or will the clever, dishonest and deceptive marketing that caters to baser attitudes win the day?

Randolph Hurst, a guest writer, is a Vietnam War era veteran, green technology advocate, and a member of the 99 percent. He lives in Orange County.

Send comments to jeffrey@zestoforange.com

By Jean Webster
One day sometime in the 1970’s, I sat on the doorstep of Inez Gridley’s house on a hillside in Grahamsville, and shared with her a story I’d been writing, looking for advice.

The next time we met she invited me to a meeting of the Alchemy Club, a poetry group which by then had existed for about 40 years and is still going strong after 80. Inez was one of its founders.

“You’ll get feedback there,” she said.

The idea for the club was hatched by Inez George Gridley in her farmhouse around 1930. A writer since childhood, she wanted someone else to hear and respond to her poems. For that, she sought out two good friends, Mabel Hill and her daughter, Evelyn Hill Huntsberger, both poets.

The three were the first members of what was to become known as the Alchemy Club. Homemakers, and teachers in one-room schoolhouses, they managed to write and meet regularly, reading their poems to each other, evaluating and revising their work.

In the early 1940’s they took a correspondence course from Clement Wood, a versatile and prolific poet and writer in New York City. He critiqued their work, and challenged them to try new forms. I remember them quoting Wood’s lessons. They even attributed their personal success to his courses. His “Complete Rhyming Dictionary and Poet’s Craft Book,” published in 1936, is still available.

Inez told us that when she was short on funds, Wood assured her, “Don’t worry if you can’t pay this month. Send it when you publish your first poem.”

Those words were prophetic. In addition to her poetry in The Alchemist (the club’s quadrennial anthology), she published collections, including Journey from Red Hill, Potatoes and Puddingstones, and, when she was 92, Pitfalls & Promises. Several are available through the Ramapo-Catskill Library System. Her work also appeared in popular magazines and The New York Times. Here’s an example, titled “Growing Old”:

I want to milk this old cow dry.
When the last sweet stream pings in the pail
and she grows tired of my pulling and fumbling
she will kick me over
and send me flying head over heels.
I’d like to go out the way I came in
Kicking and squalling.

Inez also wrote about local history, contributing to Time and the Valley, a book about the villages submerged by the Rondout Reservoir.

As the group grew, members adopted the name “The Alchemy Club,” because as poets they took everyday events and turned them into gold.

After resisting for a time, I took Inez’s advice, joined the club, worked and learned to write poetry. Writing and reading poems has taught me to see the world differently: to home in on the small things, whether in prose or poetry; to be more direct; to listen and look. I believe composing poetry has helped me to be a better writer.

The Alchemy Club meets monthly at the Daniel Pierce Library in Grahamsville. There are no dues. “Just bring a poem,” they say, “with copies for everyone.”

Each person reads her/his poem, and listens to comments. Then, the poems are mailed around to the group for people to re-read and make written comments. I found these remarks to be more direct and helpful, perhaps because we had more time to consider what we’d read.

Publication of The Alchemist began in the 1960’s. It appears about every four years, and everyone in the group can contribute poems and the funds to produce the chapbook, now about 80 pages.

I was one of two editors of the 1995 anthology, which was dedicated to Inez and Evelyn. Both were still active members more than 60 years after they and Mabel Hill had dedicated themselves to making golden the ordinary and extraordinary events of life. Evelyn passed away in 2004 at the age of 94, Inez one year later at 97.

Today, the newly named Alchemy Writers’ Workshop isn’t only about poetry though it is still the focus. The Workshop is always open to new members – the next generation of writers turning everyday events into gold.

Jean Webster, a poet and freelance writer formerly of Grahamsville, lives in coastal Maine.

Kayvan Sabeghi

(Note: A second Iraq War veteran was seriously injured last week in Oakland after a run-in with police using tear gas and other riot control measures in connection with Occupy Oakland.  What follows is a first-hand account of the man’s treatment in an Oakland jail.)

By Max Gaydos

He had been making phone calls, trying to post bail and it seemed like he’d be out soon. They told him his bail would post in four to six hours and he slouched into a sitting/sleeping spot on a bench like the 20 or so rest of us occupying the cell.  Some of us were awake and talked with him about what his charges were. He told us he was charged with assault on an officer and how the police actually just beat him

Some time later, I noticed how sweaty and clammy he was, with his arms clenching his stomach. He stumbled to the window and pleaded for medical help. He was disregarded. Those of us in the cell witnessing this naturally wanted to help. How one can ignore such obvious pain and need for help is sickening. One kid banged on the cell door until the on-duty officer came around to open the door and tell him to stop making so much noise. Clearly skeptical of the many pleas for medical assistance coming from the cell, the officer made it clear he felt we were wasting his time.

By this point, Kayvan had collapsed to the floor at the officer’s feet and was saying things like, “I can’t breathe,” “my whole f…ng stomach,” “Dude, I’m passing out, I’m passing out, I’m just passing out.”

I don’t know if he ever did pass out, but it was enough for the officer to ask him what his name was. Speech was coming with difficultly for Kayvan, but he managed to answer. He then began throwing up what looked like stomach acid. The officer asked for someone to bring over a garbage pail. A nurse did so and asked other rudimentary questions, though Kayvan was still not getting the amount of attention he surely seemed to need.

Lying on the floor, hovering around his puddles of puke, he answered all the questions. Then they shut the cell door and he crawled down the corridor out of sight. A janitor pushing a mop bucket rattled down the hallway.

Later, the officer came back to talk to those in our cell. He told us to let him do his job and to not make it harder for him. He asked if any of us had any kind of medical degree to qualify us to handle or even comment on how he handled the situation. A resounding silence he understood to mean no. But we all had taken Kayvan at his word.

* * *

Here is a link to an initial report on Kayvan Sabeghi by The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/04/occupy-oakland-second-veteran-injured?fb=optOut&fb_source=message

Later reports in the San Francisco Chronicle said Sabeghi, 32, “told members of Iraq Veterans Against the War that he was beaten with nightsticks on his hands, shoulders, ribs and back by police or Alameda County sheriff’s deputies. He suffered internal injuries, including a lacerated spleen, he told the group. Emily Yates, a member of the group, said Sabeghi was awake and alert when she visited him at the hospital Friday. Sabeghi identified himself as a veteran, Yates said.”

Max Gaydos, a native of Scotchtown, is an art student on leave from SUNY Purchase, currently living in Oakland.

By Jean Webster
Honeybees the world over are in danger, from commercial beekeepers with 30 to 40,000 hives whose honeybees pollinate farmers’ crops, to backyard beekeepers with one or more hives. Blame has been placed on pesticides, used on agri-farms, that can kill a hive within a few years as well as mites and diseases that cause deformed and weakened bees.

Five years ago, we started with one beehive in the backyard of our home near the ocean in mid-coast Maine. It had more to do with a retirement occupation than the plight of the bees. Since then we’ve become champions of honeybees, like the thousands of backyard beekeepers in small towns and even in cities like New York and Chicago. It’s not about the honey. It’s about the bees.

All went well our first year. We joined a regional club, learned a little, and got about six pounds of honey. Sweet! How little we really knew.

The following year we learned firsthand about swarms – when nearly half the 60,000-plus bees in the hive take a new queen and abandon the colony. Why? No one is sure. It could be crowded quarters or an aging queen. We learned that “swarms” can happen frequently.

Our bees swarmed one Sunday morning while we were enjoying coffee and the newspaper on our front porch. We heard the swarm before we saw it, and immediately went into action. Houses here are practically within arms distance. We had to move fast.

The bee club has a “swarm chain,” a list of people looking for bees to populate a hive. We already had a second hive in the woods near my brother-in-law’s house. So we contacted Linda who lives about five miles away and who was in the market for bees for another hive.

Linda had recently rescued a swarm, so we followed her instructions. Fortunately, the swarm (which looks like a giant’s beard, with all the bees clustered together, keeping the queen safe in the center) was in a low bush. But, it was in our neighbors’ yard. Understandably, they weren’t happy, but we assured them we just needed time and space.

It took less than half an hour to coax the swarm – 30,000 bees – into the wooden box Linda would use to transport them home. Our remaining bees could get on with their work, bringing in nectar and pollen for the hive.

Two weeks later our honeybees swarmed again. This time, I was on my own. I’d ignored a few bees in our dining room skylight on Saturday. That was the clue. Now, there were about a dozen. And, when I walked outside for the paper, I saw the telltale “beard” on a flowering bush by our driveway – about five feet high.

Checking the “swarm chain,” I contacted Ken, a longtime beekeeper who was delighted to claim the swarm, and “rescue” the stranded bees in my skylights.

We both wore protective gear: a lightweight one-piece suit, long gloves and a pith helmet with netting over it. This outfit made it difficult for a rebellious bee to sting us.

Using clippers, Ken cut the bee-covered branch off the bush and shook the bees into the bucket I held. I quickly whisked the screened cover onto the bucket, and our second swarm was ready for transport.

Now for the bees in the skylights. They’d probably arrived the day before the swarm to scout for a new home. Our old cottage has many entrances for honeybees. They were simply trying it out.

For this rescue, we used a ladder and two yogurt containers with covers. “I haven’t done this since I was a kid,” Ken said, thrilled to be renewing this odd pastime.

One at a time we liberated the dozen or so bees in my skylights by scooping each into a container. I hurried each one outside, hoping she’d return to our much-decimated hive. And that’s how we rescued those scouts, mostly without harm.

There were no more swarms that summer, but also no honey for us. Beekeepers have to leave enough honey in the hive for the bees to survive the winter.

However, the 2011 season rewarded us with nearly 125 pounds of honey. This “gold” came from three hives at three locations. The flavor of the honey is a combination of plants and flowers in each neighborhood.

How beekeepers harvest the honey is another story.

Jean Webster is a poet, freelance writer and candy shop proprietor in Maine.

By Russ Layne
3 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 6. 43 degrees. I had been preparing myself emotionally. But did I really want to make the trip to Wall Street? Especially on a weekday, when I’d have to grapple with rush-hour traffic? Don’t misunderstand: Under certain circumstances I enjoy being among the throngs – at music festivals and peace demonstrations, for example. But I had been following what was transpiring down in the Financial District and felt the tug.

The day before, I went to the local health food store to buy a case of chocolate bars for the folks who had already been sleeping and living in Zuccotti Park, two blocks from Wall Street. There were no chocolate bars so the owner recommended tasty new protein bars. I revealed that the protein bars were not for me, but were headed to Wall Street. Not for the bankers but for the folks who could not get jobs, who perhaps had lost their homes. These bars were for the people camping out in the cold, committed to a more equitable economic system, I told her.

“Here, another box on me as my contribution,” she said. There you go, I said to myself. This movement is impacting a lot more people than I thought. Her single action alone gave more purpose to my mission.

I beat the rush-hour traffic and parked at the PATH station in Harrison, N.J. By 4:30 a.m. I was climbing the long staircase out of the World Trade Center station. Chilly. Forty-eight degrees. Yet there were more people out and about than I was likely to find in downtown Warwick, but by Manhattan standards, it was quiet, serene.

At Zuccotti Park, I saw hundreds of people wrapped in sleeping bags on the pavement, some covered with tarps, but no tents. Virtually everyone was asleep save for a few individuals holding down the information desk and the kitchen. In an adjoining area, some people were working the electronic communications systems. On the street, for at least one entire block, mainstream media trucks were parked bumper to bumper. And, surrounding the park were lots of unsmiling patrolmen who looked bored.

As I delivered the protein bars, I had a spirited conversation with a member of the kitchen help. He talked about the inspiring march and rally the previous day that drew thousands of participants. It helped re-fuel the impetus to “stay the course.” We had a good laugh over his choice of words, recalling that President George W. Bush was wont to use them. I was impressed with his ability to clearly articulate his assessment of the economic crisis. I wish Fox or CNN would have interviewed him.

With time to spare before participating in a planned noon march, I went back to the information desk and made a monetary contribution and became engaged in another sobering conversation. The person to whom I handed my money was a recent graduate from a New Jersey university who had expected to be a school teacher. Our conversation started with how our country’s wealth was totally lopsided. “Sixty percent of the wealth to 1 percent of the population; the rest for the other 99 percent,” he said. We chuckled when he mentioned trickle-down economics.

On a more serious note, there’s no joy among young adults such as himself, who can’t find work. “I applied to 42 school districts,” he said.

I winced. I’m a recent retiree from the Paterson, N.J. school system and despite chronic labor unrest during my 36-year tenure, I always had work. My research indicates that last year, New Jersey lost more than 6,000 teaching positions, ranking it fifth among all states in public education job losses.

Meanwhile, many of the organizational meetings were scheduled for 11 a.m. in Zuccotti Park. So to escape the now bustling streets of the Financial District, I sought refuge in the timeworn cemetery of Trinity Church two blocks away. There I came across the grave of Alexander Hamilton, the founder of Paterson. I paused and reflected on the conversation I’d had with the aspiring teacher. Had it not been for the financial meltdown, caused by institutions that now surrounded me, that young educator might very well be gainfully employed.

Later in the day, I was filled with the hope and optimism that once again – as had happened during the Vietnam War – it would be the young people to wake us to our feelings of powerlessness and become the real catalysts for change in America.

by Sam Ferri

A native of Orange County, Sam Ferri lives, writes and draws for several newspapers and magazines in Brooklyn. He frequently returns to Orange to visit his parents’ home in Middletown. His work has appeared regularly in Time Out New York and has also been featured in the NY Press, NY Post, Jerusalem Post, Brooklyn Rail, The Brooklyn Paper, Funny Times and other publications.