Civility in our town hall meetings

I was in Fort Covington last night for a town meeting about the recent dam removal on the Salmon River.

More about the substance of that debate on Monday morning's newscast.

But I wanted to make a comment or two about the tone of last night's meeting.

Local government has always been a rough-and-tumble business. Small town folks take their politics seriously.

The intimate private relationships in our North Country villages can make for complicated and tangled public debates.

But my sense is that the tone and civility of these meetings is on the decline -- and that's both sad and unacceptable.

At last night's meeting, people used profanity, they shouted each other down, and there was a fair amount of mockery.

When someone scored a particularly nasty point, there was sometimes cheering and clapping.

Not everyone joined in. Kudos to the folks who tried to keep the meeting neighborly.

But the uglier aspects of last night's session aren't unique.

I've been to a number of local government meetings in the last year that had a similar tone -- in Peru, for example, and Fort Edward.

For more evidence of North Country locals behaving badly, check out this Youtube video recorded in Cape Vincent.

At a time when town hall meetings on healthcare have turned into confrontational spectacles, this is a trend that we in the North Country should resist.

I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't be passionate. There are times when anger is appropriate.

But in communities where our children share the same classrooms and we see each other in the grocery aisle and the pews of our churches, the angry rhetoric of cable-TV news is a poor fit.

The person you shout down today is the person who will be volunteering on the fire squad that comes to your home tomorrow.

The "enemy" that you mock in public will be the teacher caring for your kid, or the nurse caring for your parents.

Frankly, I think we should be setting the tone for the national debate.

We should prove in our small towns that it's possible to argue and debate and find good solutions to problems, without tearing each other down.

Malone's Flanagan Hotel on the stimulus list

This morning, when we reported that some North Country communities would get shares of $153 million dollars of federal stimulus money under the state Restore new York Initiative, we left out an important project. An alert listener tells us Malone will receive $2.1 million to restore the Flanagan Hotel, long in decline after being the grand anchor of the village downtown.

"Our" astronmer in the NY Times today

This just in, from SLU physicist Aileen O'Donoghue. She's been on sabbatical this year, but has been a semi-regular during the 8 O'clock Hour for years:

Hi,
When I was observing at the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in March, George Johnson spent an evening with us and his article is in tomorrow's NY Times Science section.
Cheers,
Aileen

Actually, now TODAY's NYT. Here's a nice quote from Aileen:

“It’s the real sky that matters,” she says. She describes how she makes her undergraduate students go outside and look at the Big Dipper at different times of the night. “They come back and say, ‘It moves!’ ” — words Galileo legendarily muttered after he was forced to recant. “You can tell students that the Earth rotates, but until they see that with their eyeballs, they’re not doing science,” she said. “You might as well be teaching theology and Scripture.”

And the Times gives Aileen's memoir, “The Sky Is Not a Ceiling: An Astronomer’s Faith,” a nice plug too. As do we here in The Inbox.

Looking for Seaway testimonials

The St. Lawrence Seaway officially turns 50 in a couple weeks. The agencies that runs it, and the communities that host it - are planning myriad festivities on both sides of the border. Check out this site and this one for details.

The Seaway is in the eye of the beholder. It's brought us Alcoa, Reynolds, and General Motors (jobs), the zebra mussel (invasive species), PCBs (from aforementioned factories), Lost Villages (flooded behind the dam), the Moses-Saunders power dam (cheap electricity), oil spills (the Slick of '76), and the always fascinating sight of huge freighters slipping through the American narrows. I'm sure there's lots more.

I'm interested in talking with people who have first-hand accounts of the birth of this engineering marvel that forever changed the North Country. Did you or a family member work on its construction? Was your home relocated? Did you house or serve food to the workers? Did you go watch the construction on the weekends?

Send me an e-mail at david-at-ncpr-dot-org. Thanks!

Amnesty Sides With Mohawks in Border Dispute

Amnesty International has waded into the stand-off between Akwesasne Mohawks and the Canadian customs agency over the arming of customs officers at the border post on Cornwall Island. The crossing's been closed for three weeks now. Here's Amnesty's letter supporting the Mohawks:

Amnesty%20International%20Letter%20of%20Support.pdf

Mohawk chief lays out argument for bridge stand-off

This editorial, signed by Chief Howard Iothore Thompson, was sent around today. It lays out the Mohawk community's current arguments about the stand-off at the Seaway International Bridge.

Peace - First on Akwesasne's Mind

The Mohawk community of Akwesasne has remained vigil and peaceful since the border crossing on our traditional territory was closed more than two weeks ago. Since then, our community has kept Six Peace Fires near the Canadian Customs Port of Entry on Kawehnoke (Cornwall Island). Our community maintains the Peace Fires and continues to seek a peaceful=
resolution to the bridge closure.

The border has been closed since June 1st, when Canada's Customs Officers
walked off the job and abandoned their post. It triggered the closure of
this international crossing by the U.S. border agency and Cornwall Police.
It was a direct result of Canada Custom's failure to listen to the Akwesasne community's vigorous and peaceable objection to the planned arming of Customs Officers.

Trouble at this border crossing started a few years ago when border guards became aggressive and began intimidating our people. They focused much of their abuse on our youth; but our elders, women and children also suffered. The thought of arming these aggressive border guards causes much fear in the Akwesasne community, but we will not respond in the same manner. It is the reason why we seek a non-violent solution and remain vigil at the peace fires.

Old and young gather around the peace fires and at the tent next to the Customs facility. Our young play the ancient game of lacrosse on the lawn. Elders sit around the fires and share wisdom gained through years of experience. Women prepare food and feed all those who come to keep vigil. And, men chosen by our clanmothers are keeping the peace.

The Peace Fires are kept burning around the clock. They are called "Peace Fires" by the community and they chose "six" for the Six Nations Iroquois, the ancient Confederacy of Nations of which the Akwesasne Community belongs. Prayers for peace are said every morning. Wood and sacred tobacco is given to flames that long for peace.

Ernest Kanientaronkwen Benedict, is a 91 year old elder and resident who says that it is the Akwesasne community's true belief that peaceful and direct talks between leaders are the key to resolving difficult situations. It is an act of diplomacy that our people are well versed in and have practiced since the founding of the Confederacy. It is a legacy of peace.

This is the protocol we use for a friendly first meeting with our neighbors or visitors to our territory. We give words of peace to our guests in a special welcoming ceremony, where we clear grief and unclear thinking from their minds.

At Akwesasne, we all urge the Minister of Public Safety to display clear thinking and be willing to talk to Akwesasne leaders. The pursuit of peace is often a long process, but as we take this journey we can look to our proud Mohawk identity and traditions to help guide our way.

Chief Howard Iothore Thompson
of Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs

A glimmer of good news for Corning

It's been a bruising couple of years for the Corning plant in Canton. The facility has had to cut its workforce more or less in half and endure several shutdowns.

There's some good news today. The plant successfully lured a new line of Polarcor glass from a soon-to-be-shuttered plant in Virginia, according to the Watertown Daily Times. Good news for Cantonians; bad news for Virginians.

The new line will only create 8 new jobs or so. But as St. Lawrence County economic development chief Ray Fountain told the paper, just keeping jobs in today's economy is a major achievement. Gaining any jobs is a bonus.