By Michael Kaufman

Sometimes the headline tells you all you need to know:  HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR, for example, or FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD. Tuesday there was one in the Times Herald-Record but you may have missed it because it was positioned at the bottom of a page in the business section:  “BofA will ax 30,000 jobs to calm investors.” This is the same Bank of America that benefited from the massive Wall Street bailout funded by the tax-paying citizens of this country in 2008.

According to the article, “the nation’s largest bank…is facing huge liabilities over soured mortgage investments and concerns over whether it has enough capital to withstand more financial shocks.”  Couldn’t they have thought of a better way to allay the anxiety of shareholders before firing 10 percent of the workforce?  Not according to the bank:  “The bank said it hopes the cuts and other measures will result in $5 billion in annual savings by 2014. The bank has already cut 6,000 jobs this year. The bank also said it would look for cost savings at its other businesses in a six-month review that will begin next month.”  In other words, people who work at those “other businesses” are also in danger of losing their jobs soon in order to “calm investors.”  

What’s wrong with this picture?

In an email sent last Friday to members of the Orange County Democratic Alliance (DA), Michael Sussman wrote, “This is our time to start reaching out and discussing the inequities of our economic system and who is being injured.” Sussman will be one of the featured speakers Sunday, September 18, at a Rally for Economic Justice in New Canaan, Connecticut. Major organizer of the rally is Bennett Weiss of Newburgh, who mentioned the idea on a frigid Sunday afternoon in January—the day Nan Hayworth celebrated her election to Congress at an inauguration in Middletown.  As Hayworth spoke inside about “reining in government” and repealing health care reform, Sussman, Weiss, and other DA members protested outside.  

Later, within the warm confines of the Colonial Diner, Weiss explained why he chose New Canaan as the site for a projected rally for economic justice. He noted that New Canaan is home to many of the beneficiaries of the recently extended “Bush tax cuts” on the wealthy….you know, the ones who are supposedly creating new jobs thanks to the cuts. The median price of a home listed for sale in New Canaan is over $2 million.

At the time of the last census the racial makeup of the town was 95 percent white, one percent African American, two percent Asian, and less than two percent Hispanic or Latino of any race. Among the notables who live in New Canaan are Glenn Beck, right-wing broadcaster, Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, and David Neeleman, founder of Jet Blue Airways. As of November 4, 2008, there were 12,813 active voters in New Canaan:  6,341 Republicans, 2,732 Democrats, 3,716 unaffiliated voters, and 24 voters registered with other parties.  

Weiss. tongue ensconced firmly in cheek, calls on Orange County residents to “make the hajj (schlep) to the lush leafy hills of that enclave for the complacent rich” on Sunday.  New Canaan, he says, “will be transformed into a Mecca for us, the outraged, unwashed and mansion-less horde… the lower 98 percent if you will.”

Speakers at the rally will “connect the dots between extreme disparity of wealth and our most pressing challenges.” In addition to Sussman, speakers include Richard Duffee and Ralph Maurer of  the Connecticut Green Party,  Chuck Bell of No War Westchester, Trudy Goldberg of the National Jobs for All Coalition, Hector Lopez of the Puerto Rico Independence Committee, Juanita Lewis of Community Voices Heard, and Chris Hutchinson of the American Socialist Party. Interspersed throughout the program will be “some brilliant topical poetry and songs,” says Weiss, who adds that the rally will be followed by a march and a picnic “at beautiful Mead Park.”

“It’s a big trip and great hassle to get there,” admits Weiss, but he is hoping a few “Pilgrims” from Orange County will find the effort worthwhile.  I wish him luck. We need headlines about jobs saved and jobs created, not about jobs lost to “calm investors.”  

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Michael Kaufman

I don’t remember precisely how this aging Baby Boomer found his way to the music of Amy Winehouse. Maybe my daughter Molly suggested I listen (like she did with Ani DeFranco and Tracy Chapman).  I always pay attention when my kids tell me about music they like because—as I learned from my own father—it works both ways.  I still remember the Father’s Day when pop agreed to listen to Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father”…. and I opened my ears to his favorite Beethoven symphony. 

After opening my ears to Winehouse I bought her CDs and had been expectantly awaiting a new release said to be coming soon. Now there will be only the obligatory memorial album and perhaps a “best of” or two with some previously unreleased material thrown in to boost sales.

But the thing that bothers me most about her death at age 27 is that everybody in the world could see it coming.  It was impossible not to see. Video clips of her stumbling, pathetic, incoherent performances in Jamaica and Belgrade were all over the internet. It was just a matter of time before she would self destruct. 

My question is why was it allowed to happen?

Of course she had famously sung a resounding “no” to rehab. But how can someone who has a substance-abuse problem make a rational decision about entering rehab? Shouldn’t they first go through detoxification and then decide?  Am I missing something or isn’t this a “Catch-22” situation? Was there nothing her parents and others who loved her dearly could do? (Whatever happened to having someone committed?)

Maybe Bob Gaydos, my colleague at Zest who often writes excellent articles about addiction and recovery, can shed some light on this.  And perhaps among our readers there are professionals who would like to comment. Please do, either in the space below or via email. And of course feel free to add your thoughts even if you are no more informed than I am.

Meanwhile, for any fellow Boomers who may be wondering what I heard in Winehouse, here are links to a few of my favorites. The first two are her own edgy compositions (and please note that they include language some may find offensive). The last is a lovely–and now even more poignant–rendition of “Someone to Watch Over Me.”

And in case you were wondering, Pop’s favorite Beethoven symphony (and now mine too) was the Ninth.

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Michael Kaufman

“Yes,” write Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan this week in their syndicated weekly column, “Murdoch is sorry —that he got caught.” Their column sometimes runs in the op-ed pages of the Times Herald-Record.… but not this week. As the Record dutifully notes in its articles covering the scandal involving Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp global media empire, “News Corp. owns NewsCore and Dow Jones Local Media Group, of which the Times Herald-Record is a unit.”

Goodman and Moynihan, colleagues on the Democracy Now! radio and television broadcasts, make some telling points in the column titled, “The questions hanging over Murdoch, USA.”

They note how the “contagion affecting News Corp” has spread rapidly in the U.S., as indicated by the FBI  investigation of potential criminal hacking of the voicemails of victims of the 9/11 attacks and calls by lawmakers and grassroots groups for an investigation into whether the bribing of police was a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. “As News Corp is a U.S. corporation, registered in the business-friendly state of Delaware, even bribery abroad could lead to felony charges in the U.S.”

If News of the World employees engaged in illegal attempts to access voicemails and the FBI investigation leads to indictments, however, “the most likely outcome would be extradition requests against the alleged offenders, which could drag on for years,” they explain.

“Meanwhile, Murdoch runs his media empire in the U.S. as an unvarnished political operation. Fox News Channel, run by career Republican operative Roger Ailes, is home to the most consistently vitriolic critics of Barack Obama. Leaked memos and emails from Fox vice-president of News, John Moody, and Washington managing editor Bill Sammon allegedly offer evidence of top-down directives to control the message throughout the news day, from linking Obama to Marxism and socialism, to denigrating a public option in the U.S. healthcare debate, to promoting skepticism about climate change.”

Goodman and Moynihan also recount acts of violence that may have been influenced in part by the exhortations of some Fox hosts. “In July 2010, Byron Williams loaded his car in Northern California with a small arsenal, donned body armor, and set off for San Francisco, intending to massacre people at two of [Glenn] Beck’s regular targets, the Tides Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union. When police tried to pull him over for speeding, Williams started firing and was arrested.” Williams later told a reporter, “I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn’t for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he exposed that blew my mind.”

Similarly, Fox host Bill O’Reilly repeatedly castigated Dr. George Tiller, one of the only medical doctors in Kansas who performed abortions, referring to him as “Tiller the Baby Killer” on at least 29 occasions. “In 2009 Tiller was shot in the head at point-blank range, while attending church, by an anti-abortion extremist.”

Aside from the enormous direct influence of his media properties, say Goodman and Moynihan, “Murdoch doles out political contributions. Prior to the 2010 Republican landslide Murdoch gave $1million of News Corp cash to the Republican Governors Association, the group that helped push far-right candidates to executive office around the U.S., notably Scott Walker, who provoked massive labor protests in Wisconsin, and former Fox commentator John Kasich in Ohio.”

Needless to say, Goodman and Moynihan are not impressed by News Corp’s announcement that it is conducting its own internal investigation: “Board members Joel Klein and Viet Dinh….are taking active roles managing the crisis. Dinh was assistant attorney-general under George W. Bush and a principal author of the Patriot Act, the law that, among other things, prompted an unprecedented expansion of government eavesdropping.” Moreover, according to recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Dinh and other directors sold off stock options (with Dinh netting about $25,000) as the scandal broke.

“Klein, a former justice department attorney and chancellor of the New York City school system, joined the board recently to focus on its digital learning business. The New York Daily News reports that a business News Corp acquired just after Klein joined the board is now facing scrutiny, since it deals with schoolchildren’s personal data. New York State awarded Wireless Generation a no-bid, $27 million contract. Now parents are questioning whether News Corp should have such access.

“Perhaps,” say Goodman and Moynihan, “the greatest threat to Murdoch will come from grassroots organizations. The activist group Color of Change has already mounted a protest outside Murdoch’s New York Central Park apartment.” That group was co-founded by Van Jones, appointed by Obama to promote creation of “green” jobs but forced to resign after a withering assault by Beck and other Fox commentators. According to Goodman and Moynihan, an advertising boycott campaign mounted by the group “is largely credited with forcing Beck off the network.”

Murdoch’s hacks at Fox derided Jones and other Obama appointees as “czars” while ignoring the one person who deserves that appellation perhaps more than anyone since Nicholas II, Rupert Murdoch.

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Michael Kaufman

In the aftermath of allegations by six former Newburgh Free Academy basketball players that they received preferential treatment from administrators and the head basketball coach, some folks are beginning to point fingers at the parents of the players.  Attendance records show that the players from school’s 2009-2010 championship team cut nearly 1,200 classes over a period of approximately 135 school days. Administrators and coaches are said to have turned a blind eye despite pleas from concerned teachers and a formal complaint by the teachers’ union at NFA. Four of the six failed to graduate.

Kevin Gleason of the Times Herald-Record, which broke the story three months ago, brought up the role of parents in a recent article. “When will it end?” he wrote. “The answer is only loosely related to the length and outcome of the investigation…. It will end when parents instill a healthy value system in their children, setting a good example, teaching them right from wrong, holding them accountable for their mistakes.

“It will end when parents demand to know what’s going on in their child’s life, what he’s doing in school, who he’s hanging out with, where he’s going, how he’s acting, what he’s feeling….Yes, folks must be held accountable for allowing so many kids to cut so many classes with minimal consequences. But district accountability is a short-term solution. The long-term solution involves producing kids who can thrive in any scholastic environment.”

In the days that followed publication of Gleason’s article, the paper published several letters to the editor harshly criticizing the boys’ parents for their presumed lack of awareness of the class cutting by their sons. I have no idea how aware the parents were and neither do those holier-than-thou letter writers. From my reading of the news articles on the subject it seems as though at least some parents had expressed concern.

Family life in this country has changed a great deal since the 1950s, when the majority of married women in “middle class” families did not have to work to contribute to the financial support of their families. Today we often hear of couples who work two jobs, of children being raised by grandparents, and there are more single-parent families now than at any time in our country’s history. More than ever, families must rely on the schools to assume the parental role during school hours and after-school activities. The Latin words for this are in loco parentis and the concept has been around since the late 1800s. Until the 1960s, when it was challenged by the Free Speech Movement at the University of California campus in Berkeley, it was also the norm at colleges and universities.

In any case I am wary of the tendency to blame parents for someone else’s wrongdoing. An article in the June issue of Psychology Today goes so far as to suggest that Bernie Madoff’s mother may be to blame for his swindling ways. The article, titled “6 Clues to Character,” quotes Susan Engel, a psychologist at Williams College. “Goodness comes from somewhere and so does badness. People model themselves on those around them.” Bernie wasn’t the only cheat in his family, says Engel. Guess who had her own financial brokerage firm when little Bernie was growing up and who was investigated by the SEC for failing to file financial reports? But before they could revoke her registration, notes Engel, she withdrew it. “She might have been defrauding customers, sneaking past the regulatory commission, or cheating the government, and if so, there would be a good chance it was rubbing off on Bernie.”

Of course a psychology magazine would have an article that blames “zee mother.” I am surprised they never came out with one about the mother of Osama bin Laden. Perhaps she was too overbearing during toilet training or teased him about his height when he was growing up. Personally, I’m with Einstein on this question…..not Albert, although I tend to agree with his opinions. I mean Charles Einstein, author of How to Coach, Manage, and Play Little League Baseball; A Commonsense Instructional Manual.

The book, published in 1969, was an invaluable resource when I coached my son’s Little League team years ago. Einstein mentions some of the obnoxious ways that parents can behave and how their behavior influences that of their kids. But he also says there are just some times when the parents are great….and the kid turns out to be a bum anyway.

The NFA players are not bums and neither are their parents. They are the victims here. Worthy of praise are those teachers who tried to fulfill their role in loco parentis and were ignored by the powers that be. Like some of their counterparts at colleges and universities, they placed more value on winning an athletic championship than on providing a quality education to their student-athletes. The blame is theirs.

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Michael Kaufman

The June issue of Car & Travel, published by the New York branch of the American Automobile Association (AAA) arrived this week featuring an article titled “Our State’s Three Dream Drives.” Listed among the top three “attractive escapes … . within reach of a fill-up or two” is Orange County’s own Pulaski Highway. The article by author/photographer Jeff Heilman is accompanied by a full-page photo of a Black Dirt farm in Pine Island.

The magazine reaches tens of thousands of readers in the five boroughs of New York City, as well as Westchester, Long Island, Sullivan, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Chenango, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie and Herkimer counties, and parts of Lewis, Madison and Oneida counties.  However, the article clearly targets those who reside in the New York metropolitan area.

“For a remarkable country experience some 55 miles from midtown Manhattan, head to Warwick …. and sample the beauty of the surrounding Black Dirt Region,” begins Heilman.  He describes an “agricultural Eden, backed by twin mountains Adam and Eve …” I hadn’t expected to learn anything from the article but I never knew the mountains’ names before.

I love the next sentence: “Stretching out either side of the Pulaski Hwy. (Rte. 6), this deep sea of millennia-old organic decay, redolent with the smell of onions and other crops, including pick-your-own sweet corn and strawberries, intoxicates the senses while whetting the appetite.” Yes, and I would add that the sweet corn at Scheuermann’s Farm  on Little York Road is about as good as it gets anywhere. (Tip for first-time visitors: It is simply pronounced “Sherman.”)

“A host of local purveyors is happy to oblige,” continues Heilman, “such as the Quaker Creek store in tiny Pine Island, a third-generation Polish family-run cured meats and charcuterie emporium beginning life in 1947.” In case you were wondering, charcuterie (pronounced “shar-koo-tuh-rie”) is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork. I doubt that Bobby Matuszewski and his family think of their world-class kielbasy, beef jerky (try the muscle one), liverwurst, Sobkowiak original sausage and other home-made delights at Quaker Creek as charcuterie …. but it will get the point across to sophisticated Manhattanites used to shopping at Balducci’s: This stuff is good! (Also be sure to take home some home-made pierogi …. and the stuffed mushrooms are to die for.)

“Slake your thirst on varietals and ciders, cordials and liqueurs hand-crafted from local apples, pears and other fruit at the Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery, with live music and fruit picking also on the menu,” advises Heilman. (Yes: Doc’s Apple Cider is a treat and the Black Dirt Red is always a reliable table wine.) “Looped by Rte. 94, historic Warwick, nearby Florida and artsy Sugar Loaf are appealing stops for strolling and casual fare, with Applewood Orchards & Winery another welcoming spot for tastings and apple picking.”

To Heilman’s list of thirst-slaking welcoming spots I would add the Demarest Hill Winery on Pine Island Turnpike (aka Grand Street) in Warwick. Owner/ winemaker Francesco Ciummo cheerfully offers generous tastings of a wide array of eminently drinkable if not outstanding red and white wines, sparkling wines, and distilled beverages (including a grappa to delight the stout-hearted).

Heilman concludes, “Following 17A back, don’t miss Bellvale Creamery atop Mt. Peter for delicious ice cream and great views.”  No argument there: I just hope the Noteboom/Buckbee family doesn’t decide to sell to some big corporation. (I still remember when there was one Friendly’s shop in Massachusetts and it had the best home-made ice cream around.)  My favorite new flavors at Bellvale are the Meadow Muffins and Blueberry Cheesecake.

Say, this post is making me hungry. I think I’m about ready to take a dream drive.  But I’ll have to do it later. I have to leave for an appointment in Manhattan now.

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Michael Kaufman

I cast my vote Tuesday with mixed feelings.  I have always voted in favor of the local school budgets and did so again even though we no longer have kids in the Warwick school system. I understand the importance of providing a good education to the children of our community and am aware of the harm that can be caused if we fail to do so.

And so I voted “yes” for the budget and “yes” for the purchase of new school buses. Then I voted for two of the three incumbent members of the board of education and for one of the two new candidates who had fought so hard and in vain to prevent the closing of the Pine Island Elementary School. It doesn’t matter which of the incumbents I voted for. All three won re-election. But I felt the people who tried so hard to save their local elementary school deserve to have their voice heard too.

“The fact that our three incumbents were re-elected I think speaks to the community’s belief that there were tough choices to make,” said Ray Bryant, Warwick superintendent of schools (and no relation to the great jazz pianist of the same name). “It’s time to work on healing the district and moving forward.”

I’m glad he at least intimated that the district is ill. It has been for a while. For too long our top school officials have swept problems like drugs, alcohol abuse, bullying, and suicide under the rug to preserve the myth that all is well.  But Bryant seems to be suggesting that the people in Pine Island who opposed the closing of their elementary school are the ones who have made healing necessary. I don’t agree. 

He is right about one thing: There were tough choices to make. On Tuesday we had a choice of voting for a budget that would slightly increase taxes while cutting back on staff and educational programs, or rejecting the budget and having even more devastating cuts.  Talk about voting for the  lesser evil. And until there is a change in the way we fund public education, all future school budget elections will probably be the same.

Everyone seems to agree that the system needs to be changed, but beyond that generality are some serious differences. Some blame the teachers’ unions and seek to roll back the healthcare benefits, pensions, and job security they have achieved for their members. Others perceive an excess of high-salaried administrators. Some would scrap physical education and team sports as a way of saving money. Some would cut the arts.

All these miss the point. Public education should be funded by the general tax fund and not by property taxes. It is simply unfair for older citizens who live on fixed incomes to be subjected to tax increases they cannot afford.  It is also unfair to our children to scrimp on either physical education or the arts. The Roman poet Juvenal had it right when he wished for mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body). 

I hope that in the next election this issue will be addressed by the candidates. I would like to be able to cast my vote for someone who will stand with parents and teachers in our community and beyond to effect meaningful change in school funding.  I am tired of voting for the lesser evil.

Now I’m going to listen to a little Ray Bryant music. 

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Michael Kaufman

(Note:  I was honored to be invited to read this tribute to my  father, originally published in the Summer 2010 issue of Jewish Currents, at the Second Annual Community of Jewish Writers event on Wednesday, May 11, in Schenectady.)

My father’s game was handball, basic. Not the three- or four-wall kind they have at the fancy gyms. Jack Kaufman played his handball outside on a cement court with a single wall. That was the gritty game he played as a kid in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and that’s how he still played when our family moved to the suburbs of Nassau County, and later, after he retired and moved with my mother to Miami Beach. For years she begged him to stop for fear he would drop dead of a heart attack in the middle of a game, but he never listened.

Had it not been for the Parkinson’s, he probably would have continued  playing into his eighties like his hero, Vic Hershkowitz.

The name Hershkowitz was as well known in our house as those of other great athletes my father admired: Sugar Ray Robinson (“pound-for-pound the greatest fighter of all time”), Joe Louis (“His best punch was his jab”), and Jackie Robinson (“I want you to remember this,” pointing to Robinson the first time he took me to Ebbets Field to see the Dodgers play. “This man is very special”).

And there was Hershkowitz. When he died in 2008, the United States Handball Association called him “the greatest all-around player in handball history.” From the early 1940s to the early 1960s, Hershkowitz won twenty-three national amateur handball titles. In his later years he won twelve Masters events. He was stocky and strong like my father, around 5’ 8” and 180 pounds. And like my father, he began playing handball in Brooklyn during the Depression.

“We couldn’t afford the other sports,” Hershkowitz told an interviewer. “It kept us off the streets.” My father said that too.

Once, when we were living in Oceanside, my father took my older brother Gene and me to the handball courts behind the high school and challenged us to a game. He was in his late forties then and my mother had already begun pleading with him to stop playing. Gene and I were decent enough players ourselves and we thought we’d have an unfair advantage playing him two-against-one. But he insisted and before long it was clear we were in over our heads.

He had us running all over the court chasing his bullet-like shots as he positioned himself perfectly to return our feeble responses. I don’t think we managed to score a single point. We were out of breath at the end while he had barely broken a sweat.

A scene like this can be ugly in a family . . . a father showing off his prowess and humiliating his sons. But Gene and  I loved every second of it, laughing as we staggered around the court in futile pursuit.

He was our Hershkowitz.

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Michael Kaufman

It seems almost like role reversal as 321 correction officers and other employees of the Mid-Orange Correctional Facility in Warwick wait on pins and needles for a decision by the governor. Will their workplace receive clemency and their jobs be spared? Or will Governor Cuomo impose a harsh sentence when he announces which of the state’s 67 prisons will be shut down to satisfy the cuts mandated by the budget passed nearly two months ago by the state Legislature?

Mid-Orange is one of eight state prisons that together employ nearly 5,000 people in Orange, Ulster, Sullivan, and Dutchess counties.

Since moving to Warwick some 10 years ago our family has become friendly with more than a few people who work there or at one of the other facilities within commuting distance. This has helped dispel some of my preconceived notions: As a child I was horrified by the sight of chain gangs we passed as we drove south over winter vacation to visit my Aunt Isabelle and Uncle Stanley in Florida.  Black prisoners in striped suits, linked by chains attached to their legs, a weighted black ball attached at the ankle, were forced to labor in the hot sun under the watchful eyes of unsmiling, rifle-toting, uniformed white men.  My father would usually mutter “Gestapo” when we drove past the guards.

Our friends and neighbors who work at the local prisons bear little resemblance to those chain-gang guards. They are among the hard-working public employees whose pensions, healthcare benefits–even their very jobs—are under attack as if they are to blame for the poor economic conditions in our state and across the country. Often their “generous” salaries and pensions are not nearly enough to support their families so they take on additional work. Some mow lawns or do excavating; others supplement their incomes doing carpentry, painting or odd jobs.

The one thing they have in common with those southern chain-gang guards is that they are white and many of the prisoners they guard are black (and/or Latino).  Of course there are some non-white guards and white prisoners as well, but not enough to offset the disturbing fact that “more African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began,” according to Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

Growing crime rates over the past 30 years don’t explain the skyrocketing numbers of black—and increasingly brown—men caught in America’s prison system, according to Alexander, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun after attending Stanford Law School. “In fact, crime rates have fluctuated over the years and are now at historical lows,” she pointed out in a recent lecture.

She attributes the increase in imprisonment of black men to the fact that the so-called war on drugs “is waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color” even though studies have shown that whites use and sell illegal drugs at rates equal to or above blacks. In some black inner-city communities, four of five black youth can expect to be caught up in the criminal justice system during their lifetimes.

As a consequence, many black men are disenfranchised says Alexander, prevented by their felony convictions from voting, from living in public housing, discriminated against in hiring, excluded from juries, and denied educational opportunities. Thus it should come as no surprise that 70 percent return to prison within two years.

But here is the rub: If prison population levels were returned to 1970, before the war on drugs began, “more than a million people working  in the system would see their jobs disappear,” says Alexander. (Ironically, the decline in inmate numbers used to justify the impending cuts in New York State is attributable in part to recent reform of the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws: As a result, low-level drug offenders now receive lighter sentences.)

Meanwhile, mass incarceration continues to be seen as a boon to the communities in which the prisons are located. Aside from providing jobs, Mid-Orange supports a sewer district in Warwick, which lowers the maintenance cost for other customers, according to Town Supervisor Michael Sweeton, who calls the prison “a real asset.”

Contradictions abound.  But as Lani Guinier, author and professor at Harvard Law School has observed, Alexander “paints a haunting picture in which dreary felon garb, post-prison joblessness, and loss of voting rights now do the stigmatizing work once done by colored-only water fountains and legally segregated schools…[and] we all pay the cost of the new Jim Crow.“

Adds Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project and author of Race to Incarcerate, “We need to pay attention to Michelle Alexander’s contention that mass imprisonment in the U.S. constitutes a racial caste system.”

Yes, we need to pay attention and the system needs to be changed. Meanwhile, the 321 employees at Mid-Orange are still waiting for a call from the governor.

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Michael Kaufman

Some modern conveniences I can do without.  For example, I don’t like sensor-activated toilets and urinals that flush automatically. For me the timing always seems a little off and it makes me wonder if I am doing something wrong.  Even worse are the automatic faucets. I can’t tell you how many times I have stood at a sink, waving my hands around in a futile attempt to get water to come out, only to discover that I picked one that is out of order.

Sunday morning, during a break in an Empire State College program at the FDR museum site in Hyde Park, I couldn’t get the automatic paper towel dispenser to work. Fortunately, a fellow student more adept at dealing with modern technology showed me where the sensor is located. I had been waving my dripping hands around in the wrong spaces. 

Call me old fashioned but I would rather get lost driving than be told where to turn by a computer-generated voice. And please don’t get me started on all the other computerized gizmos and LCD (or is it LED) displays that clutter the dashboards of today’s new cars. I once heard a guy complain that his new car broke down and the mechanic told him he needed a new “mother board.”

All these things came to mind when I saw the headline over a News Brief in Monday’s newspaper: “Drive-thru casket viewing offers last look on wheels.” The article reported that the Robert L. Adams Mortuary in Compton, California is now offering “the ultimate in drive-thru convenience: drive-thru casket viewing.” Thus, “it is possible to view the deceased resting in a display window while cruising past in your car.” Thankfully this item did not appear in the “My Ride” section.

“You can come by after work, you don’t need to deal with parking, you can sign the book outside and the family knows that you paid your respects,” said owner Peggy Scott Adams. “It’s a convenience thing.”

 I admit I don’t know much about casket-viewing customs but this seems to me like a pretty disrespectful way to pay respects. Why not make it even more convenient by putting the casket on webcam so you can view it on line….after which you can Tweet your respects? Imagine….you won’t even have to get into your car to go to the drive-thru! 

The story mentioned that we are already accustomed to “drive-thru burger joints and drive-thru banks.” This led to some interesting speculation among our family members about additional potential uses of drive-thru convenience. We thought of drive-thru museums and botanical gardens, drive-thru psychotherapy, and drive thru haircuts. “How about drive-thru breakups?” our 19-year-old daughter suggested.

Readers are invited to suggest additional drive-thru ideas and/or other examples of conveniences you would be happy to live without. 

Meanwhile, for those who are celebrating Passover this week and anyone of any denomination who would just like to have a good laugh, have I got a link for you! Here is a high-tech version of the Passover story that may one day replace the traditional Haggadah because, you know, it’s a convenience thing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIxToZmJwdI 

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Michael Kaufman

Mike Pelfrey, ace-by-default pitcher for the New York Mets, deserves to be congratulated for his candor in discussing his relationship with the late sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman. According to reports in the New York sports pages, Pelfrey was devastated when he learned of Dorfman’s passing on Feb. 28. No longer would he hear Dorfman’s words of inspiration on those dark mornings the day after a rough start. If Pelfrey’s early-season outings are any indication, Mets fans can expect many of those this season.

As noted by baseball writer Steve Popper in Tuesday’s editions, “Pelfrey was anointed as the Mets’ No. 1 starter this winter with Johan Santana sidelined for at least the first half of the season and if the pressure might have gotten to the nervous right-hander he then went out on opening day and struggled badly. He followed that up with another bad performance in Philadelphia. Monday he was improved, if still far from where he wants to be and where the Mets need him to be.”

Pelfrey says that when he spoke with Dorfman, “I laid it all out. It wasn’t just baseball. I talked to Harvey about my wife, about being a father, about past girlfriends….I talked to him about everything in life. Obviously that relationship is gone.” He says he hopes to establish a similar relationship with the new therapist recommended by his agent Scott Boras.

Pelfrey’s openness is a far cry from the secrecy that surrounded Babe Ruth’s therapy sessions with Hans Krumholz, a psychoanalyst who spoke of the Yankee slugger as “George R.” in a letter to Sigmund Freud seeking advice. A copy of the letter was forwarded to Zest of Orange by Ralph Krumholz of Warwick, a great grandson of the little-known therapist.

“I never knew much about my great grandfather other than that he had been a psychoanalyst and that our family has kept an envelope addressed to him by Freud…and that it has a letter in it,” Ralph explained. “I looked at it once a long time ago and I was disappointed: Freud had simply returned a letter my great grandfather had written to him with a brief note at the top saying, ‘I’m sorry but your name doesn’t ring a bell.’

“I didn’t bother to read further and only recently took the time to read what my great grandfather wrote to Freud. I was stunned when I realized that he had once been Babe Ruth’s secret therapist.”

“Dear Dr. Freud,” began the letter from Hans Krumholz. “You may remember me because I was your patient when I was a little boy. Back then I had a phobia about horses. Today I have a lucrative psychotherapy practice of my own in a suburb not far from Vienna. I am writing to ask your advice regarding a patient referred to me by an acquaintance, the team doctor of a professional sports club in America. The doctor is concerned about the patient’s habitual abuse of alcohol (which he says the patient thinks enhances his performance). The patient, George R, is apparently one of the best practitioners in the sport of baseball, about which I knew very little prior to this case.

“I am now familiar enough with the game to appreciate that it is fraught with homoerotic implications. The teams take turns at bat using large wooden phallic symbols to attempt to hit a ball thrown by an opposing player. The hitter stands at “home” and this is also the place where points (or “runs” as they are called) are scored. There are a number of ways in which the bat wielders can help their team score runs. The most dramatic is the hitting of a “home run” and it is in this aspect of the game that George R. excels.

“A large and I daresay overweight man compared to the image one might expect of a great athlete, George uses the thickest and heaviest bat of all the players on his team. Unlike many other batters he grips the bat firmly at the base of the shaft rather than “choke up” on it to get more but less powerful or significant hits. In this manner he hits many home runs, which makes him a huge favorite among the game’s aficionados.

“Yet despite his great success, George R. has an extremely weak and fragile ego. In one of our first sessions he confided that he has small feet for a man of his size and that as a result he thinks he looks ‘funny’ when he runs or trots around the bases after hitting a home run and other players make fun of him. I would hazard to guess he has similar fears regarding the size of his widdler. This seems an area worthy of further exploration in therapy.

“Also worthy of exploration is the symbolism of “home” in his chosen sport. George R. was sent away from his own home at age 7 after becoming “too much of a handful” for his busy parents. Young as he was, he was often found wandering the dockyards, drinking, chewing tobacco, and taunting the local constabulary. His beleaguered parents sent him to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, a Catholic orphanage and reformatory that became his home for the next 12 years.

“While at the orphanage, young George particularly looked up to a monk named Brother Mathias, who he says became a father figure to him.  Mathias and several other monks introduced him to baseball. By the time he was 19, his baseball skills had caught the attention of Jack Dunn, owner of a minor league team. Because George was still too young to sign a professional contract without an adult guardian, Dunn became his legal guardian. This led teammates to jokingly call him “Dunn’s new babe.” The joke stuck, and George quickly earned the nickname ‘Babe.’ At least that is George’s explanation. I have a feeling there may be more here than meets the eye.

“George mentioned that he is sometimes so comfortable standing at home and awaiting a pitch that he can actually visualize where he will hit the ball for a home run. I suggested that it would be a good boost to his ego if he pointed to the spot before the pitch so everyone in attendance could see for themselves. I was delighted when he followed my advice….but he told me later that he will never do it again. When I asked why he grumbled, ‘because the pitchers would use my head for target practice.’  I wonder what he meant by that. 

“He also rejected my suggestion to remain at home plate for a few moments to watch the flight of any ball he thinks will be a home run. ‘Nobody will ever get away with that in baseball,’ he said flatly. Finally, he grew angry and uttered a vulgar term referring to female anatomy when I suggested that he pump his fists and raise his arms while trotting around the bases after a home run: ‘Bush!’ 

 “I would be most grateful if you can help me understand why George would say such a thing. I would also welcome any suggestions you may have as to the appropriate avenue to pursue next with him. Do you think this would be a good time for us to talk about his widdler?”

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com