News Briefs 12.24.02

The bells, THE BELLS!

Mistletoe, bells, the scent of pine, bells, snow, bells,
lists of who’s been naughty and nice, and the ringing of bells all around as you shop this holiday season. And these bells
have been ringing in front of red kettles in Rochester since 1900.

            “The whole
red kettle concept started with the Salvation Army in San Francisco in the late
1800s, for Thanksgiving meals,” says the Salvation Army’s Director Of
Operations and Communications, Scott Benjamin. “Somewhere along the line,
somebody added the bell to attract attention, and it went from there.

            Though the
bell is the signature cry at over 80 locations throughout Rochester, it’s not
the only thing you’ll hear. Church choirs, string quartets, brass bands,
carolers, guys with harmonicas, even girls with violins man the kettles for
charity.

            The
Salvation Army begins the drive in early November. “As we get closer to
Thanksgiving,” says Benjamin, “that’s when we’re at all the malls and major
stores.” Last year was a banner year, with the Salvation Army raising $520,000
— “the highest we’d ever raised,” according to Benjamin.

            “The money
is used for three things,” he says. “Thanksgiving meals, Christmas assistance
(toys and warm clothing for kids, food for the entire family), and our winter
relief program, which consists of emergency food, medicine, shelter, and
clothes. So this money really goes beyond the holidays.”

            The
bell-ringers, violinists, choirs, jugglers, etc., are a combination of
volunteers and seasonal workers in the Salvation Army’s job-training program.

            Debbie
Benedict and her co-workers from Chase Construction volunteer their time at
Greece-Ridge Mall, where she’s rung the bell so hard, she’s actually dropped it
a time or two.

            Seasonal
worker Terry Harris (pictured) is a mover and shaker, greeting everyone with a
cheery smile and opening doors.

            “I put in
the extra effort, open the door, and make ’em feel better about giving,” he
says. Harris rings the bell Monday through Saturday at Greece-Ridge, and his
ears aren’t ringing yet. “But I find myself talking about the pot when I go to
sleep,” he laughs.

— Frank De Blase

Back to the future

Interim Superintendent Manny
Rivera is working on a plan to dump the Rochester School District’s middle-school, high-school structure
and put most of its seventh through twelfth-graders into combined junior-senior
high schools.

            The goal,
says School Board President Joanne
Giuffrida, is to tackle two major problems: low achievement and
overcrowding in the middle schools.

            Rivera
hasn’t fleshed out the plan yet; he’s expected to give the board a formal
proposal in about a month. But the concept raises a question: Is the district
trying to solve serious problems by simply moving the deck chairs?

            Board
members say nobody’s looking at the plan as a quick fix. “It’s one prong of a
multi-pronged approach,” says Giuffrida.

            The new structure
will put 6th graders back into elementary school. That in itself will help
relieve overcrowding in the upper schools. And, says Giuffrida, 6th graders
need the smaller schools, closer connection with individual adults, and more
stable day of an elementary school.

            Some
Rochester 6th graders already attend elementary school rather than middle
school, and Giuffrida says there’s some indication that they’re doing better
than those in middle schools. That could be due to demographics: In general,
middle and upper-income children in the district have higher achievement rates
than do poor children. The district hasn’t yet analyzed whether that’s a factor
in the elementary-school, middle-school difference.

            Rivera’s
plan would reverse the district’s 1988 restructuring, which split junior-senior
highs into separate middle schools and high schools and moved many 6th graders
out of elementary schools and into middle schools. District officials said then
that to boost achievement, young adolescents needed facilities, programs, and
services designed especially for them.

            District
officials say now that little happened beyond the physical separation of the
age groups. “Budget problems came along,” says School Board member Rob Brown,
and the rest of the plan wasn’t implemented.

            Rivera
hasn’t presented a full-blown proposal, and he hasn’t talked about cost. If
it’s extremely expensive, Brown speculates, “I don’t think you could adopt the
plan.”

            But both he
and Giuffrida stress that undoing middle schools on its own won’t work
miracles. It will have to be accompanied by academic programs and other efforts
that address achievement. “I don’t think there’s any reason to do it unless it
raises achievement,” says Brown.

            “And,” says
Brown, “we need to couple any of our changes with a very clear explanation of
the kind of resources they’re going to take. The important thing is to have the
resources to implement the plan.”

            That may be
one of Rivera’s biggest challenges. The district already faces budget problems,
as do its major funding sources: the city, county, and state.

Pasty like me

A day after being elected to chair the Monroe County
Democratic Party, Molly Clifford held a news conference questioning whether County Executive Jack Doyle is a racist.

            In an
interview with the Democrat and Chronicle
published December 16, Doyle, referring to the City of Rochester, was
quoted as saying “If there was a mayor who looked like me, it would be a whole
different landscape.” Some community members and political leaders,
particularly African-American Democrats, questioned whether Doyle’s statement
was made in reference to the fact Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson is black and
Doyle himself a markedly lighter hue.

            In
a brief appearance after Clifford’s news conference, Doyle dismissed
allegations his remark was literal — and, thus, racial — saying his was
speaking figuratively, in political terms, about how he feels the city needs a
Republican mayor with his style of governing. He called Clifford and company’s
allegations a “crass political effort” and “partisan politics at their very
worst.”

            “It
should be the responsibility of the media to make inquiry in to [sic] what Jack
meant,” Clifford was quoted as saying in a press release announcing the news
conference. “Certainly that should clear up any misunderstandings that his
comments have generated.”

            In
fact, the media had already inquired into what Doyle meant — during the
actual interview, right after he made the comment — at which time he had
given a similar explanation.

            Clifford
says she didn’t speak with the reporter who conducted the interview before
going public with her concerns, but says someone she knows, “I don’t even
remember who it was,” spoke with him. Though she says she doesn’t think Doyle
is a racist, she called the statement “curious,” “kind of concerning,” and
“alarming.” As for Doyle’s explanation, she says. “I don’t think that
explanation really says much. It says, ‘Well, I meant Republican.’ Does that
mean Republicans ought to look like him, too?”

            Asked if
she thought raising such a charged question would do more harm than good by
stoking racial tensions unnecessarily, Clifford says that after talking with
people of a variety of colors, “there was enough concern there that I was not
concerned so much about polarization.”

Homophobes beware

On December 17, the State Senate passed the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA) by a vote of 34-26. The measure, signed by Gov. George Pataki soon
after its passage, adds the words “sexual orientation” to the state’s Human
Right Law, which already protects people based on their race, sex, religion,
national origin, disability, age, and marital status. As a result, it will soon
be illegal in New York to deny housing, employment, education, credit, or a
hotel room to someone simply because you know or suspect them to be sleeping
with someone of the same sex.

            Our
region’s Republican senators — Jim Alesi, George Maziarz, and Michael
Nozzolio — all voted against extending those civil rights to gays and
lesbians. Democrat Rick Dollinger, in his last day as a senator, voted in favor
of the bill.

            Duffy
Palmer, upstate board co-chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda — the gay
right organization at the forefront of the fight for SONDA — was particularly
thankful for Dollinger’s support of the measure. As for our other senators’
failure to protect homosexuals from discrimination, Palmer was baffled.

            Palmer says
that based on a past conversation with Alesi, he was under the impression the
Perinton senator would support SONDA. “I don’t know why he did this,” Palmer
says of Alesi. “It’s very disappointing that an elected official couldn’t vote
to give someone civil rights. It’d be interesting to hear him give some
reason.”

            Indeed, it
would. But Alesi did not return calls from City
seeking comment.

            Palmer says
the new statewide law has “real teeth,” as compared to the City of Rochester’s
2001 ordinance barring discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender
identity. That’s because it allows victims of discrimination to take their
claim to the state’s Human Right Commission. Victims can also seek justice and
damages in court.

            Employers
who fail to implement the law face a $50,000 fine, Palmer says, and “they can
be fined even more if anti-gay discrimination is found to be egregious.”

            Of course,
the battle to protect homosexuals from discrimination is far from over. Palmer
says the movement’s next goals in New York include covering transgendered
individuals under the Human Rights Law, specifically protecting gay youth from
harassment, and giving gay and lesbian couples official recognition as
families, with equal rights in matters such as adoption.

This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2002.