Little is made of the date
Sept. 5. This year it’s Labor Day, but most people are unaware of the date’s
historic significance beyond this particular coincidence.
It was on that date in 1670 that
a group of jurors in London made manifest their power to invalidate an unjust
law.
We can draw a direct link
between several of our First Amendment guarantees to jurors deciding that
certain laws are no good and that they would not convict defendants prosecuted
under such laws. Today we call it jury nullification. Just as states may
nullify federal laws, jurors can nullify laws as well. Some jurors risked their
own freedom to secure and preserve that right.
In 1670, William Penn was
arrested for preaching the Quaker faith to “an unlawful assembly.” The facts of
the case were clear. He did violate the law as written, but four of the 12
jurors voted to acquit. The judge threw them in jail and tried to starve them
into changing their vote. Within four days of that incarceration, three of the
jurors caved in and paid their fines, but juror William Bushell held out,
eventually getting his case to the Court of Common Pleas. The chief justice
ruled in favor of Bushell, saying jurors could not be punished for their votes.
The concept of nullification
crossed the Atlantic with the English and was used by American colonists in the
case against John Peter Zenger. In 1735, Zenger was accused of seditious libel
for his editorials attacking the royal governor of New York. The law was clear.
It was illegal to publish anything critical of a government official, even if
the criticism was true, and Zenger did publish critical remarks. The jury
acquitted Zenger in spite of the judge’s charge that truth was no defense and
they were only to judge whether the material had been published.
Nullification was used later in
our history to help overturn the Fugitive Slave Laws in the mid 1800s. In 1852 Lysander
Spooner, a Massachusetts lawyer wrote: “the Fugitive Slave Law… was so
obnoxious to a large portion of the people, as to render a conviction under it
hopeless.”
It’s also been argued that
women’s suffrage could have come about as soon as 1873 had the judge in the
Susan B. Anthony case informed the jurors of their rights or allowed Anthony’s
lawyer to introduce the concept. Anthony was on trial for illegally registering
to vote in a federal election. It was illegal for a woman to vote, even
register to vote at the time. As it was, the judge directed a guilty verdict and
the jury acquiesced.
John Jay,
the country’s first chief justice, routinely told jurors: “You have a
right to take upon yourselves to judge [both the facts and law].”
Several
states, including Pennsylvania and Delaware, include such provisions in their
constitutions. Yet, by the late 1800s, judges had stopped informing jurors of
their rights and, today, people are thrown in jail for handing out leaflets
telling people about nullification.
So while we can connect our
freedoms of speech, press and religion to nullification, that seminal concept
is in jeopardy. What will go next?
New school year begins with new school superintendent
The new school year might have
begun a day later than planned because of Hurricane Irene, but optimism is
high. There is a tentative contract agreement with teachers and a new
superintendent for the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District.
While the district awaits a
vote by teachers on the proposed contract — possibly next week — the new
superintendent has nothing but praise for the district, his predecessor and
love of his chosen profession.
John Sanville said he’s well
aware of the past controversies in the district regarding reconfiguration, the
high school renovation project and the sometimes faltering negotiations over
the teachers’ contract.
How does he plan to deal with
that history as the new superintendent?
“It all
comes down to trust,” he said. “It’s my ability and the district’s ability to
work with the community and all stakeholder groups so there’s a mutual trust
and understanding. Trust is one of those things that takes time to build but
can be broken in an instant. Once it’s broken, you have to start all over
again. Over time, we’re going to work with stakeholder groups. We’re going to
try to be true to not only our students in the district but to the community.”
He said
the school program would reflect the will of the community.
Sanville,
in an interview a day before the tentative labor agreement was announced, said
he wouldn’t call the situation with the teachers a controversy.
“I
wouldn’t characterize that way…Having been in all the buildings, having seen
the entire staff, [no one] would know in any way, shape or form that the
teachers don’t have a contract. They are approaching this year with a really
great spirit, with a high level of morale that is startling to me.”
He said
his goals represent no big change from those of his predecessor, Sharon Parker.
“[She]
has really been a fantastic superintendent for the school district…I don’t see
major changes in the direction that we’re heading. We’ll refine things, [but]
the key for us is to keep us on top.”
Sanville
credits all of the district employees, not just Parker, as being instrumental
in making the district one of the best in the state.
“I don’t
see us changing drastically our direction, but…the paradigm around us is
changing,” he said.
That
paradigm change centers around the need to adapt to economic realities to stay
ahead of the curve to remain on top.
He was emphatic on one point:
“I want what’s best for all of our students. I want to make sure we meet everyone’s
needs and meet them where they are. That’s the most important work that we do.
I want every parent, every community member and every student and staff member
to know that.”
Sanville
— who’s been the district’s curriculum director for the middle and high schools,
and a principal at Marple Newtown High School — said he brings a lot to the
table that will enable him to do the job.
“I bring
a wealth of experiences. I’m a first generation American, born of World War II
heroes, courageous people. I was taught that it was better to do the right
thing than talk about it. I’ve held almost every position in education from
custodian to superintendent. I have an understanding of those positions in
their worth and importance that everyone in the organization has in making sure
that students are welcomed into a safe, welcoming environment so that they can
succeed.”
He said
he’s adept at building relationships and trust and thinks he can help heal old
wounds.
Sanville’s
parents were British. His father was a pilot for the Royal Navy during the war
and was involved in the sinking of the German battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz.
His mother was bilingual and was parachuted into Nazi occupied France to work
with the French resistance.
“I always wanted to be a
teacher,” he said, though he had some inspiration from one of his own teachers.
“Going back to elementary school I had a teacher who convinced me that going
into teaching was the right thing, that I should be a math teacher.”
His career didn’t quite follow
that track. Sanville wound up as a seventh-grade history teacher — after
beginning his career as a security guard. His job was to break up fights.
“I worked in a building that
had more assaults, student on student and student on staff than any other
school in Virginia. It was a crazy place and I did that job so well … that they
hired me as a social studies teacher.”
From the classroom he became a
guidance counselor before getting into administration. He always had a desire
to develop and build himself professionally, he said, and the counseling gave
him an opportunity to work with students in different ways.
“That really opened my eyes to
the troubles that kids face outside the walls of a school,” Sanville said.
Those experiences also allowed
him to observe other administrators, seeing what they did right and what, he
thought, they did wrong. Sanville said it was the experiences he had with
leaders who were lacking in the area of building relationships that led him to
getting into administration.
“I saw what a difference an administrator makes, not only in
the lives of the students but in the lives of the faculty and staff. I made the
transition from counseling to administration because I felt I could make a
difference in education that way…Based on certain principals and administrators
I’ve worked with over the years I became very clued into school climate.”
Sanville offered an example of
what that means with a story about a snowy day in Virginia.
Eleven inches of snow fell on a
November day when no snow was expected. Students were kept late because there
was no way they could get home. A nearby military installation was ready to use
tanks to bring cots in case the kids had to remain at the school overnight.
School buses finally arrived at 11 p.m. The next day was a teachers’ workday.
After getting the kids out
after 11, the principal got on the public address system to remind teachers
they had to be on time the next morning.
“It just struck me that wasn’t
the best way to manage people,” he said. “…There was a different way to
handle that situation. I look to leaders and their emotional intelligence in
how they build relationships and how they work with people. Everything is about
relationships, especially in education.”
The new superintendent is
originally from Doyelstown, but received his degrees from schools in the
District of Columbia and Virginia. He earned his bachelor’s from George
Washington University, his masters’ from Virginia Tech and his doctorate from
the University of Virginia.
He went to high School at Central Bucks West, as did Chadds Ford Elementary School Principal Mark Ransford. Ransford was a year behind Sanville, but said, “We’re in good hands.”
Sanville, 46, is married for 16
years with no kids.
“We have dogs, though,” he
said.
His wife, who is also an
educator, runs an animal rescue.
“We’re always trying to find
homes for abandoned dogs,” Sanville said.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
New book explores industrial revolution in Chester County
Gene Pisasale is a man who dots
his i’s and crosses his t’s. He also plays connect the dots. Those dots are
historical facts and the connections are flights of his own imagination.
Pisasale is a local author of
historical fiction taking today’s readers through a treasure hunt of
yesterdays. His latest effort is “Abandoned Address, The Secret of Frick’s
Lock.” His last work was “Lafayette’s Gold-The Lost Brandywine Treasure.”
Both stories are set in the
present, but mysteries send the author’s protagonists digging through history.
“Abandoned Address” deals with
a mystery behind, and the history of, the town of Frick’s Lock, a real
abandoned town in the shadows of the cooling towers of the nuclear plant at
Limerick.
The tale is a travel through
the town and Pennhurst Asylum, linking Chester County with parts of the
industrial revolution and inventors Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers and
Henry Ford.
His protagonists, Jim and
Natale, are exploring the off-limits town of Frick’s Lock when Natale makes a
discovery.
Frick’s Lock was part of the
Schuylkill Canal and an element of the story has an inventor as a resident of
the town.
“He left behind some very
interesting things that were in a box that were found by our protagonist,”
Pisasale said.
The artifacts in the box date
back 100 to 140 years and are related to the development of the country. One of
which, he said, has “enormous significance,” something that was never thought
to exist.
Pisasale said there is a link
between Pennhurst Asylum and what his protagonists find in the box.
“I weave in commentary about
how the Industrial Revolution has actually changed the way we perceive our
world, how we interact with others in our world today. Our world has been
forever changed by the Industrial Revolution and the current Industrial
Revolution — the Internet — is changing us even faster than we know how to deal
with at the moment.”
If the plot seems circuitous,
consider Pisasale’s working life. He has a master’s degree in petroleum geology
and worked as a petroleum geologist going out to find oil and gas. He then went
to work in the investment industry as a portfolio manager and energy analyst
for 20 years before getting into his writing career, fusing his desire to write
with a fascination for history.
He said he knew he had a book
inside of him for many years, but it wasn’t until 2008 when he and his wife
were on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, that the first book began percolating to
the surface.
They were at the Harbor Side
Inn and fog was rolling in when he grabbed a pen and note pad and started
writing.
“In September 2008, literally
as the financial markets were collapsing, I started my first book, “Vineyard
Days,” a murder mystery about murder and crime on Martha’s Vineyard,” he said.
“It’s a hybrid murder mystery wrapped around a travelogue of a beautiful site.”
In 2009, he visited Brandywine
Battlefield Park in Chadds Ford and learned about the state’s financial
problems and its need to stop funding the park. That experience led to his
writing “Lafayette’s Gold,” his first historical novel.
“In a way it was a catharsis…in
terms of my love of history,” he said.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
• Hurricane Irene blew through
the region causing less damage than anticipated, though several thousand homes
in Chadds Ford, Birmingham, Pennsbury and Concord townships lost power over the
weekend and into Monday morning. Some places were still without power
Wednesday. Several trees came down on Heyburn and Creek Roads in Chadds Ford
Township, and at least one came down on Creek Road in Birmingham Township just
north of Country Club Road. Two trees down on South Creek Road keopt that street c;losed through Wednesday afternoon. Another tree — along the Brandywine Creek — broke
several windows at the Brandywine River Museum.
Flooding and road closures from the storm delayed by one day the opening of
schools in the area.
• The Chadds Ford Democratic
Party is looking for donations as it gears up for a series of elections on the
local and national level. The most immediate election campaign is for the
Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board. An e-mail from the party Chairman Rob
Porter said in part, “…our Republican-controlled school board faces a severe
budget crisis, is in openly hostile negotiations with the district’s teachers
and has refused to raise the full amount of revenue that state law allows.”
Porter said those actions are what caused Sharon Parker to resign as school
superintendent. He is urging the election of Democrats Gregg Lindner and Kathy
Do in the November general election.
• Brandywine Valley Quilters’
Guild monthly meeting will be Tuesday, Sept. 13 at Bethlehem Methodist Church,
4 Westtown Road in Thornton at 7 p.m. The guest speaker will be Frieda
Anderson, a contemporary quilter whose quilts are nature inspired using hand
dyed cottons and silks. Guests are welcomed. Cost $5. Visit www.brandywinevlyquilters.org
for more information.
Winona is a spayed female domestic short hair adult cat that
is currently available for adoption at the Chester County SPCA. She was brought
to the shelter as a stray in May. Winona had been on her finder’s property
having kittens for a few years before they decided to bring her here for a
better life. Winona is a very sweet cat who loves attention and is a well
rounded cat that is just looking for someone to love. When you walk by Winona’s
cage you must stop and say hello because she loves to talk to you. Winona is eligible for our Eagles
Purrfect Play for Cats adoption incentive program. This special program, made
possible through a gift from the Philadelphia Eagles Treating Animals With
Kindness (TAWK) program, allows us to offer a discounted adoption fee of only
$25! If you are able to provide Winona
a home, visit the Chester County SPCA at 1212 Phoenixville Pike in West Goshen
or call 610-692-6113. Winona’s registration number is 96804032. To meet some of
our other adoptable animals, visit the shelter or log onto www.ccspca.org.
• The Unionville-Chadds Ford
School District sent out an e-mail on Aug. 31 reporting there was an incident that
morning on school grounds with a former student who, the release said, was
trespassing. East Marlborough police were called and the responding officer subdued
the individual, the message said. No injuries were reported.
• State police from Troop K,
Media, arrested a 21-year-old from Aston on theft charges following an incident
at the Home Depot in Concord Township. The suspect is identified as Michael
Joseph Maloney, of Crum Lynne. According to a police report, Maloney entered
the store on Aug. 29, took some wire and concealed it in his book bag. The
report said a loss prevention officer at the store caught Maloney. Maloney did
not deny the charges, the report said.
The wire is valued at $104.64.
• Police are charging a
20-year-old from Glen Mills with DUI after the man was stopped at the
intersection of Schoolhouse and Park lanes in Concord Township on Aug. 28 at
10:35 p.m. The police report did not identify the suspect, but said the trooper
on the scene determined the man was under the influence of alcohol or a
controlled substance. A controlled substance —unidentified in the report — was
found in the driver’s possession, the report said.
• Troopers from Troop J,
Avondale, arrested a 24-year-old from Elizabethtown on DUI and careless driving
charges after he was stopped on Route 52 in Pocopson Township on Aug. 21 at
3:04 a.m. A report identified the man as Pierre Ingo Walter.
• State police are
investigating the theft of a generator valued at $2,000 from a location near
the intersection of routes 1 and 202. The theft happened sometime between 4:30
and 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 30. No other information was available.
Just because you’re eating ice
cream in the sunshine doesn’t mean the hurricane didn’t wreak its wrath. And
just because a person sits outside and looks homeless yet holding a cell phone
should not be judged negatively (think of it, if he’s lucky, perhaps he keeps
it charged in the car, that has become his sole possession and abode).
It is easy to judge others
quickly from a self-centered solipsism. Solipsism, say the philosophers, is the
belief that “I am the center of my personal universe.”
Driving home from a Red Cross
shelter where I volunteered in response to Hurricane Irene’s flooding, I
pondered these things. Here, I leave a shelter where people have been displaced
due to flooding to find, in the Sunday twilight, people strolling the sidewalks
of West Chester.
Goodnight, Irene! Perhaps some
were out to enjoy the clean feel of the air after all the wind and rain;
perhaps some were glad to leave houses that had lost power to seek a restaurant
or a movie to bide their time.
There is a painting by Pieter
Bruegel the Elder, a Flemish artist of the 1500s, called The Fall of Icarus.
Here it is that Icarus is a wee figure in the corner, falling from the sky into
the sea. Meanwhile, what is most notable is the large figure of a farmer
plowing his field. Life goes on, despite the dramas and the traumas occurring.
My drive home was sort of like the painting. On one road, I see the everyday
activity of people shopping, dining out, walking, jogging. On the next road,
all is dark, no power, then take a turn—ah, this road is closed, and no wonder:
the blackness shines as though it were a placid lake, the water high enough to
hide road to meadow to meet the Brandywine.
So many different worlds all at
once and if I am solipsistically in one world, I may forget the reality of the
other. There are many realities hidden to us.
Working at the shelter, I
discovered several people who had been living out of their cars. The flooding
and the wind drove them inward. Telling this to another, I discover more: that
this person found that a full time employee of her institution had been living
out of her car with her children. The employee disclosed her secret when she
decided to move from the area.
These stories make the woman I
witnessed in China, in 2007, standing in front of her “house” (basically a tiny
storage unit with a rollup corrugated door) look positively wealthy.
We quickly judge others for why
they are where they are. We project that the other is less than we are simply
because they have less. This is false. The converse is also untrue: those who
have more are not better than we are either.
I don’t think it is off-point
to mention that while some of us have weathered the storm better than others in
our own locality, we also need not minimize the power of this storm in general.
Even though it took an unusual path, sparing coastlines, Irene walloped
Vermont. Surely the people of Vermont are not saying that this hurricane’s
impact was hyped. Again, the solipsism—“I’m okay so therefore it can’t be that
bad.” Another word for solipsism may be denial of a reality larger than
oneself.
Reading about the horrendous
devastation in Vermont, I came across a quote from George Schenk, the owner of
the American Flatbread Company whose famous pizzeria and farm inn were
destroyed. After seven feet of water swept through his buildings, he noted the
volunteers that came to help. Schenk said, “It’s really been an exceptional
outpouring of support and it kind of humbles you. … It reminds us all, we don’t
live alone, as much as we might think about living in isolation.”
No solipsism there—and that is
our hope!
The story associated with
Schenk’s quote can be found at VTDigger.org,
“Mad River Valley Bears Brunt of Irene Damage in Central Vermont,” by Sylvia
Fagan, 8/30/2011.
* Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and
is in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments atMindMatters@DrGajdos.com or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted towww.drgajdos.com.
Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.
