Do the ends justify the means?

Feb. 26, 2009

By Edwin Cooney

I’m not much of a television watcher or moviegoer. Even as something of an old time radio listener, my thoughts and feelings about Jerry Lewis — actor, comedian and Labor Day Weekend host raising funds to conquer muscular dystrophy — are ambiguous to say the least. Believe it or not, I’ve lived weeks and months at a time without giving Jerry Lewis a single thought. In fact, I’ve probably thought more about the rock singer Jerry Lee Lewis than I have about that other guy.

Then, last week, someone sent me the following petition:

To: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

This petition has been launched to object to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ announcement that it will give Jerry Lewis its Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscar Awards ceremony on February 22, 2009. During his decades of hosting the Labor Day Telethon, Jerry Lewis has helped to perpetuate negative, stereotypical attitudes toward people with muscular dystrophy and other disabilities. Jerry Lewis and the Telethon actively promote pity as a fundraising strategy. Disabled people want RESPECT and RIGHTS, not pity and charity. In 1990, Lewis wrote that if he had muscular dystrophy and had to use a wheelchair, he would “just have to learn to try to be good at being a half a person.” During the 1992 Telethon, he said that people with MD, whom he always insists on calling “my kids,” “cannot go into the workplace. There’s nothing they can do.” Comments like these have led disability activists and our allies to protest against Jerry Lewis. We’ve argued that he uses the Telethon to promote pity, a counterproductive emotion which undermines our social equality. Here’s how Lewis responded to the Telethon protesters during a 2001 television interview: “Pity? You don’t want to be pitied because you’re a cripple in a wheelchair? Stay in your house!” Jerry Lewis has also made derogatory comments about women and gay men. His outdated attitudes and crude remarks are dehumanizing, not humanitarian. Therefore, we the undersigned support the actions and arguments of the coalition group The Trouble with Jerry. We protest the Academy’s characterization of Jerry Lewis as a “humanitarian.” And we ask that the Academy cancel its plans to give Lewis the Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

The petition is sponsored by the “Trouble With Jerry” Committee and the chief petitioner is Laura Hershey. Ms. Hershey is right, of course, but the tone of her petition makes her sound as intolerant and as arrogant as her target. Even the name of her Web site might be objectionable to some: [email protected] I don’t object to the word at all, but some do object to the word “crippled.” I think there are a lot of people who will tell you their bodies are crippled and their eyes are blind. What they rightfully object to is being called crippled, blind or deaf and yet, that’s how people identify them. Chalk one up for Jerry.

Ms. Hershey, right as she is, obviously has other fish to fry. She doesn’t like Jerry Lewis’ type of outdated thinking on a host of socio and political issues. Okay! Fair enough, but as I understand it, the Jean Hersholt award is an achievement award and not about attitude. Even more, her position begs a crucial question.

If medical science finds a cure for muscular dystrophy with some of the dollars Jerry Lewis has raised, should mothers or fathers or future patients not take that medicine or vaccine because the funds raised were raised through pity? My guess is that Ms. Hershey would gladly swallow the pills or take the shots regardless of the method used to raise the funds to stamp out MD. We don’t avoid going into the White House or Capitol Building in D.C. because they were constructed with slave labor, do we? Should we?

Many years ago, I was told by people who worked at the office that handles celebrities as they fly in and out of Chicago that singer Robert Goulet and actor Jerry Lewis were the most impossible people they had to work with, while Muhammad Ali and Elvis Presley were the nicest.

No, I don’t much care for Jerry Lewis, but the time and the effort he’s dedicated to finding a cure for muscular dystrophy is a hell of an achievement unless I miss my guess! Also, it should be kept in mind that Jean Hersholt was honored for his establishment of a relief fund to provide medical aid to movie industry employees who otherwise couldn’t afford medical care. Fundraising, after all, is exactly what Lewis has been largely about since 1966. Have any of us, who don’t work in the medical profession, done more about finding a cure for MD than has Jerry Lewis? If Jerry has exploited a negative reality to achieve a good, shouldn’t society be big enough to say, “Thank you, Jerry?”

Even if it hurts a bit to acknowledge that arrogant so and so, I think we’re poorer if we sign Ms. Hershey’s petition. Whether we like him or not, Jerry Lewis deserves this award.

Edwin Cooney is a national political and historical columnist.

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Feb. 26, 2009

Last week’s Observer provided incorrect information about the birth of Silvia Kate Walker in the “Milestones” section. Silvia Kate was born to Ronald and Maria Walker of Bloomington, Ind., and was not born at Fletcher Allen Health Care. Grandparents are Louis and Carol Izzo of Williston.

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Feb. 26, 2009

By Tim Simard

Observer staff

Residents entering the planning and zoning office will notice some changes in the coming weeks.

In an effort to expand the office and make it easier for the public to research plans, a new reception area is being created, Planning  Director Ken Belliveau said. The renovations aim to make the office more accessible to the public, he added.

The office, located on the first floor of the Town Hall Annex, used to house the Williston Police Department. Now, the former police reception area will become the planning office’s reception area. Planning Technician Carol Daigle will move her desk into the new, refurbished room, which will be the first office someone sees upon entering the building.

Belliveau said if it worked for the police, it could work for the Planning Department.

“Why not have our reception over here,” Belliveau said.

To connect the new reception area with the rest of the office, town workers this weekend blasted a new door through a wall that had been built up with granite and brick. The workers are actually creating a door where one used to exist. Much of the planning office is located in a building extension from the 1950s, Public Works Director Neil Boyden said. When the extension was built, the old door was boarded up.

“It was a door, then it wasn’t a door, and now it’s a door again,” Boyden said.

Daigle’s former desk, in what used to be the reception room for the planning office, will hold one to two desks for the public, developers and paralegals to do research on the town’s development projects.

Belliveau said the public currently only has a few places, including a large conference room, to review documents and plans in the office. When that room is in use, there is hardly any space for the public, he said.

Belliveau said the existing entrance to the Planning Office will soon be locked and closed off, making Daigle’s reception area the only way to get into the office.

Belliveau said there is $20,000 available for the project in a construction fund that became available this year. Boyden said the cost of the renovations would most likely be $6,000 to $7,00 — a high estimate, in his opinion.

Boyden said there are also plans to create another office near the main conference room, but that won’t happen right away.

“We don’t really have the need for it yet, but it does give us the flexibility for an office,” Boyden said.

Belliveau also wants the office’s windows replaced in the near future to maximize energy efficiency in the building.

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Wants other school projects completed first

Feb. 26, 2009

By Tim Simard

Observer staff

The Development Review Board denied a pre-application permit for a proposed recreation park that would be built adjacent to Allen Brook School.

In the 4-1 decision, issued at Tuesday night’s meeting, the board said it needed more details from the school administration in regards to its master plan for the school’s temporary classrooms. A permit allowing the classrooms expires next year.

Recreation Director Kevin Finnegan said Wednesday he was “very surprised” by the board’s decision. He said his department had planned to begin working on the fields by spring or summer, but now that the pre-application had been denied — and subsequently, the Act 250 environmental permitting process can’t go forward — plans are again uncertain.

“They’re not going to allow us to move until the school gets nailed down with what it’s doing,” Finnegan said.

The town’s Recreation Department and school system are listed as co-applicants for the project, since some of the park would be located on school property. Members of the town staff and recreation committee, including Finnegan and Public Works Director Neil Boyden, attended Tuesday’s meeting, along with the park’s engineer, Doug Henson of architectural firm Lamoureux-Dickinson. No school officials were present.

The school administration is putting together a master plan to decide what to do with Allen Brook’s modular classrooms; a temporary building permit for the trailers expires in February 2010. At a Development Review Board meeting in January, the School Board and administration said they could make the modular rooms a permanent structure, but the board questioned the best location. Also, school officials have hinted that funding for an expansion of Allen Brook School could come from federal stimulus money.

Development Review Board Chairman Kevin McDermott said at Tuesday’s meeting the school was already late in submitting its master plan, and he wanted the plan finalized before moving forward with other projects, including the park. He also said the classrooms were more important than new recreation fields at this time.

“It seems strange to approve the least important piece,” McDermott said. “It’s approving the icing on the cake before approving the cake, so to speak.”

District Principal Walter Nardelli said Wednesday the administration was working with architects on plans to either make the modular classrooms permanent or build a smaller extension than what is currently designed. He said he has not received an update about the stimulus money.

“We’re actually moving in two different directions to see what would be cost-effective,” Nardelli said, adding officials would return to the Development Review Board this summer with a more detailed master plan.

Finnegan said the park plans accommodate the possible movement of the Allen Brook trailers or the possibility of a school expansion. He said he didn’t fully understand the board’s decision, unless it wanted to send a message to the school.

“Whatever they (the school) come up with in their master plan, our plans aren’t going to change,” Finnegan said after the meeting.

Sorting out parking

Plans for the park include new recreation, baseball, soccer and lacrosse fields, as well as new basketball and tennis courts. A road, with limited parking spaces alongside it, would access the fields. Finnegan said the new fields were necessary to reduce strain on the recreation fields at Williston Community Park.

In denying the pre-application, the Development Review Board also expressed concern over parking.

“What are you guys doing with 20 spaces?” board member Scott Rieley asked. “You’ll need 200. You’re not even close.”

Henson and Boyden told the board there was ample parking at Allen Brook School and that conditions of the property’s use limit impervious surfaces such as pavement. People would be able to park at the school and walk to fields, they said.

Rieley and McDermott said the parking situation at the community park, adjacent to Williston Central School, should be seen as an example of too few spaces. McDermott said cars routinely park all over the grass near Williston Central School during busy times, and he could foresee the same thing happening at Allen Brook.

“I want to see this get done,” Rieley said. “We need it. But you’re setting this up to fail the way it’s drawn.”

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Feb. 26, 2009

By Tim Simard

Observer staff

Cable customers in the Champlain Valley will continue to receive broadcasts of School Board meetings and other educational coverage on channel 16 for the short term, although an unresolved contract dispute leaves an uncertain future for the station.

The Regional Educational Technology Network, known as RETN, has been at odds with Comcast — the nation’s largest cable television provider — over RETN’s bookkeeping practices and financial reports. In November 2007, Comcast did not renew its contract with RETN South and has since asked Vermont’s Public Service Board to suspend its contract with RETN North.

The two parties met with the board on Monday in Montpelier for a pre-hearing on how litigation might develop.

RETN South comprises Charlotte, Ferrisburgh, Hinesburg, Shelburne and Vergennes, while RETN North covers Burlington, Essex Junction, Essex Town, South Burlington, St. George, Williston, Winooski and a small part of Colchester.

Monday’s meeting with the Vermont Public Service Board was a pre-hearing regarding the contract disputes between Comcast and RETN, but also served as a time for both parties to agree on an interim funding agreement that will allow channel 16 to continue operating. Comcast funds much of RETN’s programming, paid for through cable subscriptions. By law, Comcast has to allocate some of its programming for local content. The company is still paying RETN South based on its old contract.

The interim agreement would have Comcast pay half of the $500,000 it had allotted for RETN for 2009, with the rest of the money coming in quarterly payments later in the year pending the results of an audit. With approval from RETN, Comcast is scheduling and paying for an audit of the station’s capital budget and business expenses.

“The agreement is a temporary solution while the audit is going on,” Comcast’s Community and Public Relations Senior Director Kristen Roberts said Tuesday.

Comcast saw this as a step in the right direction in regards to the dispute.

“We’re very encouraged to see positive steps being taken, and the audit will continue along that path,” said Comcast’s lawyer, William Dodge of Burlington-based Downs Rachlin Martin.

RETN’s representatives, which included the station’s executive director Scott Campitelli, public relations associate Doug Dunbebin and lawyer Doug Marden of Burlington-based Little & Cicchetti, were not pleased with some of the interim measures, but agreed to them on the principle they would be temporary. Of particular concern were demands that RETN must seek Comcast’s approval for any capital expenditure over $4,000 and must provide bank statements and monthly reports in a timely fashion.

Dunbebin said after the hearing that any decisions on capital expenditures should be signed off with RETN’s Board of Directors, not Comcast. He said these changes usurped the authority of the board, which consists of residents from the towns served by RETN.

“They’re an outside organization and should not approve or disapprove a capital expenditure,” Dunbebin said. “However, we have agreed to these significant, but temporary concessions to ensure the important services we provide the community continue uninterrupted while this process moves forward.”

The interim agreement was scheduled to be submitted to the Public Service Board by Friday, after a few minor changes were made.

The pre-hearing came about after Comcast filed its petition with the Public Service Board to suspend the contract with RETN North. Comcast charged that RETN had inconsistent and incomplete accounting reports and was frequently late with documents requested by the cable company. The questionable accounting practices breached the RETN North agreement with Comcast, the cable company said in its petition. The contract ends in 2011.

RETN countered that it had worked with Comcast and improved its accounting and bookkeeping procedures starting last year. The local station also denied many of Comcast’s claims about incomplete and inconsistent reports. It also said staff members did not receive detailed instructions on what Comcast wanted to see for financial restructuring.

“The measures proposed/requested by Comcast are draconian, expensive and unnecessary,” RETN’s counter-statement reads.

Marden told the Public Service Board that RETN would be filing its own petition against Comcast in regards to a breach of contract, although Dodge and members of the board believed it would be best to wait until the results of the audit were completed.

“We want to keep pressure on Comcast to get the contract negotiations going,” Marden explained.

Dodge said the audit would likely be completed by May, when a status conference could be scheduled with the Public Service Board. Dodge said the outcome of the audit would determine if RETN has other financial issues about which Comcast should know.

“Until the audit, we don’t know what our next step will be,” Roberts said.

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