Jane Doe No More founder Donna Palomba of Woodbury is the subject of a seven-minute law enforcement training video being made by Quinnipiac University students. Photo by Mara Lavitt/Register

By Ann DeMatteo, Register

Since this column began almost two years ago, it has been a vehicle for discussion and education about how people who have overcome cancer and other personal challenges have helped and inspired others.

Today, I want to talk to you about Donna Palomba, a woman who has blown the doors off the secrecy and shame of sexual assault.

She is Jane Doe No More.

The purpose of the national organization she began by the same name is to improve the way society responds to victims of sexual assault. She travels the country talking about her story and the need for change and breaking stigmas.

“No more blame, no more shame and no more fear,” she says.

“My story is just one of hundreds of thousands. When you keep it to yourself, it’s detrimental. It manifests itself in other ways. The first step to healing is talking about it,” she said.

Less than 40 percent of rapes get reported, according to Donna. Most victims are between 16 and 24 years old, and 70 percent know their attacker.

In Donna’s case, she and her husband, John, had known her attacker since they were young children growing up in Waterbury. But his identity wasn’t unmasked until 11 years later.

And what the Palombas had to go through to get to that point was almost more nightmarish than the attack in her home early on Sept. 11, 1993.

John was out of state. Their children, 5 and 7, were sleeping in their bedrooms. Donna was sleeping in her bed and heard footsteps.

She didn’t have time to react before she saw a shadowy figure in her room. The man who wore a mask and disguised his voice then jumped her, wrapped nylons around her eyes and mouth, bound her hands behind her back and put a pillowcase over her head. He shoved a gun through the pillowcase and into her mouth and threatened to kill her. Worried that her children would find her dead in the morning, she told the man that she wouldn’t tell a soul and wouldn’t call police.

Her life flashed before her, and she asked God for forgiveness. He raped her and went out the front door.

Because her phone cords had been cut, she ran to a neighbor’s house for help.

A month later, Donna was attacked for a second time. Much to her surprise, the police were accusing her of making a false complaint, and threatening to arrest her. They were relying on an “informant” who said she was having an affair, something that was a lie. John and Donna could not believe this was happening. “I honestly never, from the minute I was attacked, never thought I was going to be looked at that I was lying or doing something wrong,” she said. “To have been attacked is bad enough, but then to have people look at you like you did something wrong is a double hit. It’s very traumatizing,”

Donna said she was thrown into a world she knew nothing about, but was able to maneuver through the police corruption because of the wonderful support from her husband and family.

They sued. A civil trial began in January 2001, a month after Donna was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer.

The Palombas won their case and received $190,000 in damages. Donna always felt it was not about the money, but about justice.

While many in the Waterbury Police Department did not believe her throughout the horrible ordeal, one detective who later became chief, Neil O’Leary, stuck his neck out, and eventually solved the case. In the summer of 2004, the man had once again attacked. The DNA from that case matched the DNA that had been taken from Donna the night of her attack. Much to the Palombas’ surprise, the attacker was John Regan, a man from a well-known Waterbury family. He was charged with kidnapping in Donna’s case because the statute of limitations had passed. Following his arrest in yet another attack in New York, he received a 15-year jail sentence.

Donna made it through her storm and now is helping others. With the help of Quinnipiac University communications professor Rebecca Abbott and students Michael Billera, Curtis Conroy, Tara Gordon and Farrell Henneberry, a seven-minute law enforcement training video has been produced. Directed by Richard and Didi Dobbs of Easton, it will be shown in October in Orlando, Fla. at the International Chiefs of Police Association conference, and later will become a documentary.

“I really believe that you learn from your greatest challenges,” Donna said. “It caused me to take risks and made me more determined. After the attack, after having a gun to your head, you realize how precious life is, and I want to make the most of it.”

For more information about Donna and her story, visit www.janedoenomore.org.

Contact Ann DeMatteo at adematteo@newhavenregister.com or 203-789-5716.

Trisha Cervero of Branford shows a few items that epitomize summer to readers: Fourth of July fireworks, beach sand and dandelion wine. VM Williams/Register photo illustration

NOTE: Some of the New Haven Register’s Facebook friends added to this story. ‘Like’ us on Facebook to help expand upon future stories. Or follow us on Twitter.

By Jim Shelton, Register Staff
jshelton@newhavenregister.com

Milagros Bonilla of New Haven is taking summer into her own two hands.

It’s quite a pair of fistfuls. She’s got some beach sand in there, some charbroiled food off the grill and even a festive sparkler.

“The best part of summer that I wish I could hold in my hands (and) have in my heart, is the Fourth of July,” Bonilla writes, via Facebook. “The fireworks, beach, grilling hot dogs and hamburgers, but most of all how almost the whole United States kicks their shoes off and celebrates in one big and united family.”

Bonilla is just one of the Register readers who responded to a call for their own, personal “Handful of Summer.” There were voice mails, e-mails, Facebook responses and hand-written letters.

The idea was to capture the essence of summer and hold it up for all the world to see.

“If I could hold summer in my hands, it would be a jar of lightning bugs, which my six young grandchildren would call fireflies,” writes Alice McQuade of Branford.

“When I was a kid growing up in New Haven, my sisters and I would poke air holes in the lid of a glass jar and capture lightning bugs and bring them to the bedroom we shared to watch them glow before we released them,” McQuade recalls. “I still take great delight in watching the dance of the lightning bugs in my Branford yard. What joy!”

For some readers, the ideal image of summer is a specific time and place from the past. They use it as a warm-weather touchstone, conjuring up fond memories.

Herb Galewitz of Orange, for example, has an iconic beach from childhood in mind.

“I would have to go back to the 1930s when I went to Coney Island with my mother and her packed lunch, swimming, spending nickels for ice cream and root beer and at the end of the day searching for discarded Dixie cup lids showing screen cowboys (no actresses),” Galewitz explains, via e-mail. “And on the way out sometimes a ten cent pony ride!”

For Lynn, a local woman who works in New Haven and asks that her last name not be used, summer resides in 1974:

“Without question, the best part of summer was always my boyfriend’s hand in mine,” she writes in an e-mail. “We held hands, back then, through everything. We ran, we walked, we sat, we talked, we went fishing. We went hand in hand across beaches, fields, our own driveways and yards.”

Lynn goes on the explain that she and her boyfriend eventually married, had a child together and divorced. They are in other relationships now, but recently “reconnected via that nightmare called Facebook.”

She adds, “Our telephone conversations are long, heartfelt and many. We have agreed to move slowly. We have agreed to let the current relationships in which we are both embroiled, live or die on their own with no interference from either of us. And once that happens, we will meet each other halfway and we’ll have lunch. What do we want? After all these years? We want to lay back in the grass and watch the stars. And hold each other’s hand.”

Another recurring summer theme is nature.

In West Haven, Carolyn Stanley e-mails this ode to lush plant life and gurgling waters:

“If I could hold summer in the palm of my hand, it would be my backyard with its small fishpond covered with lily pads that regularly gift me with yellow, pink and white blossoms,” she writes.

“Flashes of gold and silver attest to the presence of fish feeding beneath. And, on the hillside behind the pond is my rather wild perennial garden. Echinacea, purple and red bee balm, emerald green spikes of the Lucifer plants with its long orange fronds of blossoms, yarrow in orange, red, yellow, pink and purple, and orange, yellow and pink lilies form a tapestry of color and texture,” she adds. “Just sitting in my backyard, feeling the caressing breezes, being calmed by the splash of the pond’s waterfall, and feasting on the eye candy on the hill provide me with pleasure of which I can never get enough.”

Stanley also e-mails a photo of her garden, as does New Haven’s City Point watchdog, Christopher Schaefer.

“I spend all winter waiting for it to come alive,” Schaefer says. “I order new plants, start seedlings, start planning the neighborhood garden party. And then in the summer, most of my time is spent in the garden.”

His garden includes Queen Elizabeth roses, hollies trained in a style known as espalier, water plants and an array of perennials.

Meanwhile, reader Lisa McLeod, who grew up in Milford and lives in Middletown, heads north for her handful of summer.

She describes it as “a perfect summer Friday night after a long week at work, listening to a free concert, sharing a picnic dinner with a friend and all of this while viewing the Connecticut River.

“This was my experience last Friday at the Hartford Pops concert at Great River Park in East Hartford,” she continues. “Perfect weather, perfect view, perfect music, perfect picnic food (new chicken salad recipe). Summer gets no better than that.”

And Catherine Kirkwood of New Haven has just the summer beverage to go with it.

“Ray Bradbury, in his semi-biographical novel, ‘Dandelion Wine,’ describes his grandfather’s wine as all the joys of summer in a single bottle,” she writes, via e-mail.

Now, THAT’S a handful of summer.

Contact Jim Shelton at (203) 789-5664.

We are very proud of today’s Sunday newspaper and website — let me tell you why.

Today’s Register and this special edition of our website (nhr.jrcbenfranklin.com) — are special for two reasons.

First, the newspaper and website were put together almost entirely using free computer tools on the Internet. Applications we had barely heard of a few short weeks ago — Scribus, Gimp, Seashore, etc. — were used to gather the news, photos, videos and graphics for today’s publication.

Why? We’re sending a message that in this fast-changing online world, there are tools available that we and others in our business can use in place of more expensive products that we’ve all used in the past.

The second reason today’s newspaper and website are special is that we turned to you, our audience, to help create the content. Sure, our skilled reporters covered stories, but as you read through every section of today’s paper and click through the website, you will see stories you helped us cover by commenting on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and the Ben Franklin Project blog.

So, happy Fourth of July — and we hope you enjoy this new experience.

If you have a comment on today’s publication, please feel free to e-mail me at jkramer@newhavenregister.com.

–Jack Kramer, Editor

>>about the Ben Franklin Project

>>going beyond the Ben Franklin Project

Betsy Driebeek said:
If there was a fee, probably be happy (to get free time back and have less pressure to respond – which is innate for me) and quit. If it closed, I’d also be very happy for the very same reason, however, something else will pop up to take its place in to time. There is obviously a demand.

Brett Savageau said:
Well, I wouldn’t pay for any social networking site. Period. If it closed I suppose I would be disappointed, but I’d probably just start a Twitter or photobucket account.

Amy D Scholvin said:
I’d like to say I’d stop using facebook but in the end I would probably pay. All my friends and family are either in Chicago and military.

Ginny Rainbow said:
I would be willing to pay no more than $40/year – But only if it gave me ad free pages and offered 2 for 1 facebook credits.

WE ASKED: Are you addicted to Facebook?

Jamila Jones said:
Its the first thing I do when I wake at 4 am, when I come in the house from work or where ever I went that day. While I’m cooking, after I eat. While I’m out and about via my blackberry…I’m ALWAYS on it. I have to make sure my crops and animals are harvested on my farm.

Cathy-Ann DeMayo said:
YES I AM , does farmville , zoo , 2-3 islands , vineyard etc …………. COUNT !!!! LOL ♥♥♥♥ from 5 am through out day (all most all day ) till very late @ NITE

Chania Chaisson-Fortin, 9, of Milford discusses her favorite ways to use social networking site Facebook. Though the site began as a tool only for college students, users now range from children to grandparents.

NOTE: Some of the New Haven Register’s Facebook friends added to this story. ‘Like’ us on Facebook to help expand upon future stories. Or follow us on Twitter.

By Susan Misur, Register Staff
smisur@newhavenregister.com

Life before Facebook — do any of the website’s users even remember what that was like?

You know, the days when you couldn’t tell your 465 “friends” with a few keystrokes and one click that you love the new Lady Gaga song or that you had to pull off the highway for a bathroom stop in the bushes.

Or the times when you couldn’t yet read in your friend’s sister’s life status update that her boyfriend is a cheater, or that a former classmate you never actually talked to got a new job and can pay the bills this month.

“We’ve all become our own gossip magazines on Facebook. We all want people to know a little hint of scandal about us,” says Richard Hanley, assistant professor of journalism and graduate director of journalism and interactive communications at Quinnipiac University.

Society now seems addicted to Facebook — the obsession with the social networking site is obvious. But an exact reason for it is more elusive and depends on who you ask: Are we all, deep down, just gossip hounds, stalking other people’s profiles out of boredom or jealousy? And why do we feel the need to broadcast to everyone we know (and some we don’t) the everyday minutiae of our lives?

>> READERS RESPOND: Click here to see what our readers, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers had to say when we asked them about their Facebook habits.

“I think there’s a lot of people who really want to know the answer to that question because they want to (make) the next Facebook,” said Alexander Halavais, associate professor of communications at Quinnipiac University. “A lot of the reason Facebook succeeds is because it’s already succeeded. You don’t want to be absent from a place where 80 percent of your friends already are.”

Facebook is a must for many because it’s an outlet for discussing difficult subjects, seeking support and connecting with other people who might be going through a similar situation, Waterbury resident Katie Roberts said in a Facebook message. Hanley also says humans are social animals who like to keep in touch and stay in the know.

But users say they’ll continue logging on only if Facebook remains free, claiming that even if a nominal fee is charged, they’ll either quit social networking sites cold turkey or find another one that’s free.

Until that day comes, college and high school students, parents, grandparents, coworkers and the crazy relatives you avoid “friending” said they will continue sharing their lives on the Internet through photos, wall posts, status updates, profile pictures and lists of their favorite movies, interests and books.

Facebook is “digital crack,” New Haven resident Brett Savageau posted on the website in response to a question the New Haven Register asked.

Hamden resident Betsy Driebeek, who also typed a response to the Register’s question, said she always leaves the Facebook homepage up on her computer, checking it throughout the day. She joined in 2008 because she heard about conversations friends were having on the site and wanted to be included.

“I’m addicted in a certain way because I want to know what happens from the last time I was here and make sure I didn’t miss anything,” she said.

“I used to say, ‘Oh, I don’t have time for this,’ but here I am sitting here. It takes up time, but it also makes things quicker.”

Driebeek and others said Facebook is a one-stop shop for their friends’ personal developments, as well as the daily news. They read articles and breaking news tidbits others post, and, in one quick scroll down the site’s “newsfeed,” can also see which local gas station has the lowest prices or what their friends are doing this weekend.

“All of a sudden a few weeks ago, someone said a BP (gas station) was selling gas for $1.99, so I drove right over and got in line,” Driebeek said. “If it wasn’t for Facebook, I wouldn’t have known anything about it.”

Just the other day, Roberts, 31, posted on her profile that her divorce was finalized, though, as she noted, that information is usually private. But her friends offered positive comments and support when they commented on her news.

Facebook is also a way to spread the word through status updates or memorial pages about which celebrity or local resident has died. And it helps some through the grieving process — many will post on the profile of friends who have died soon after their passing or on the anniversary of the death.

“People announce it (deaths) and say R.I.P. or something for regular and famous people,” Driebeek said. “Some people need help, and it’s a great booster, I hope, when people say, ‘I’m sorry, call me,’ if you’re that close to the person, or, ‘I hope things get better.’”

Based on the popularity of Facebook, individuals’ personal news is becoming as important as the nation’s news, Hanley said. And though people won’t call up every family member about something going on in their lives, they’re happy to post it on Facebook for all to see.

“I’m going to be in a bike race this weekend, but I wouldn’t call them all up and tell them. But on Facebook, I’ll say, ‘Wish me luck’ or ‘Glad I finished,’ that sort of thing,” Hanley explained. “I think its ease of use makes it very convenient to keep in touch with family members who have scattered than it was previously. And the fact it’s free works.”

Some Facebook users admit to being closer with friends and relatives who also log on than with those who don’t. Because it’s so easy to comment on someone’s wall, status update, photo or news article link, users can constantly engage in a dialog about what’s going on in their lives.

Lori Chaisson of Milford said in a Facebook message that she’s reconnected with friends from grammar and high school and family members through Facebook, and in the process has become closer to those who use the site. This is because they share birthday wishes, pictures and news with each other on the site, play its games like Farmville together, and use the chat feature to talk in instant messages, she says.

Chaisson joined the site in September because her older daughter was a member, and now she spends about 10 hours a day on it.

Even youngsters have hopped on the Facebook bandwagon. Chaisson’s 9-year-old daughter, Chania Chaisson-Fortin, said she joined the site because she spent so much time playing games like Farmville on her mother’s Facebook account. Chaisson gave her daughter permission fib about her age to start a profile, and Chania said she especially likes using the chat function to keep in touch with friends from school over summer vacation.

Though some worry Facebook’s popularity will deter people from talking to each other in person, Halavais said that just the opposite is true.

“Studies show that people who are highly sociable online and spend a lot of time on Facebook and Twitter are also highly sociable face to face. They tend to go hand in hand; they’re social online and offline as well,” he explained.

“They’re like the same people who come into work and spend the first hour visiting other people’s cubicles, but they do it much more effectively on Facebook.”

As long as it remains a free Internet tool, the site will continue attracting more followers, Hanley says.

“You log on, see what other people are saying and doing or what music videos they’re posting,” he says. “It is an enchantress. It draws you in.”

Call Susan Misur at 203-789-5742.

By Mary E. O’Leary, Register Topics Editor
moleary@newhavenregister.com

From war to walk signs to perceived swollen bureaucracies, area taxpayers have different perspectives on what they consider waste in government.

Asked to weigh in with their concerns to the New Haven Register, some honed in on the bigger picture, criticizing the $1.01 trillion spent since 2001 on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, while others were riled up by something as ubiquitous as pedestrian crossing signs.

Photo by Brad Horrigan/Register

Given the economic downturn, the state’s 9 percent unemployment rate and Connecticut’s historically slow recovery rate from recessions, people were primed to report concerns.

School system expenditures were a favorite target, particularly the number of administrators.

“In my mind, the greatest waste of money year after year is the top-heavy and swollen bureaucracy (dictionary definition: a system of administration marked by officialism, red tape and proliferation) in the public school system,” wrote John Hedden.

“I think the teachers deserve every dime they make, but once you reach the level of principal and up, the salaries are too high, and there are just too any of them!” he added.

An analysis by Christine Bishop, who described herself as a concerned citizen, using the city’s 2010 budget document, found school enrollment decreased 7 percent from 2005 to 2009, while the number of administrators increased by 12 percent in the same period from 117 to 131.

Bishop and others recommended the school board absorb the $3 million cut to its budget proposal for 2010-11, by going back to the 117 administrative positions listed in 2005 and then cutting more to account for the drop in the number of students, for a loss of 22 positions.

The New Haven Board of Aldermen, which imposed budget cuts that will keep tax increases to 4 percent, down from the 8.8 percent proposed by the administration, recommended the schools cut administrative staff, rather than summer school programs and the Talented and Gifted Program, to balance its budget.

But Will Clark, chief operating officer for the New Haven public schools, said the figures in the city’s budget, which he said were compiled for a bonding document, are inaccurate. School’s spokeswoman Michelle Wade said it’s unclear which staff members it refers to, while Clark said some totals seem to contain vacancies.

Ultimately however, Wade agreed with a higher figure listed by the state Department of Education for 2007, its latest published statistic on administrators, which showed 147 people in this category compared to the 130 in the city’s document.

Clark said the enrollments in the city tabulation appear to be counted at different points in the year, rather than a consistent comparison. He said enrollment for 2005 to 2009 started at 20,273 and dropped 415 to 19,858, or 2.5 percent over that period, not 7 percent, which agrees with the state Department of Education.

The school’s budget chief said from 2000 to 2009 the number of schools went from 42 to 46, while there are several additional programs, such as Urban Youth, Riverside and Cross Connecticut Scholars that need administrators to run them.

“As a practical matter, we haven’t increased as dramatically as people think,” Clark said.

With about 20,000 students, 46 schools and additional programs, “it doesn’t strike me that we have an overabundance of administrators,” Clark said.

The state’s K-12 education website, as of October 2007, showed New Haven’s 147 administrators compared to 102 in Bridgeport and 128 for Hartford. Wade did not take issue with the 147 number, which was higher than the 130 listed in the bonding document.

“The staff file system was not then nor is it now designed to be able to accept a vacant position,” said Thomas Murphy, spokesman for the state Department of Education, when told that Clark thought the state may have been including vacant positions in its statistics.

Murphy added that the differences between the three large urban systems is understandable. “I believe that it is important to point out that New Haven operates more schools than both Hartford and Bridgeport, so it is not surprising that they have more administrators,” he said.

Clark didn’t quarrel with the 2007 state figure that put the number of administrators in the schools at 109, but took issue with the 38 central office staffers. However, Wade didn’t question a spreadsheet that listed all 147 administrators by name.

Wade said for 2010, right now the number of administrators is 146, with 14 vacancies, which will be scrutinized as they look for savings. The job of overseeing the school building program has already been added to Clark’s duties, with at least half for principals and assistant principals. Of the 146 positions, 105 are part of the general fund with the rest covered by other sources.

Clark said New Haven’s nationally recognized teachers’ contract, which will offer a support system and a detailed evaluation process for struggling teachers, should add considerably to tasks that fall to principals come September.

“We need more administrators to do all the things we have to do,” he said.

Clark said, in his opinion, the emphasis on positions that arose out of the aldermanic budget process is the wrong discussion. “We can all throw numbers around, but are we going to look at this from an educational perspective?” he asked. “We’re not engaging in the relevant debate.”

New Haven Alderman Roland Lemar, D-9, was one of several lawmakers who voted for performance-based budgeting and monthly discussions to make sure the city stays on track, something he wants the school board to emulate. He agreed with Clark that “we need broader discussions on educational priorities.”

But Lemar was frustrated with the lack of communication between the school board and the aldermen. “We can’t just be dumping money into our school system just because we all agree on the goals … We are very proud of what has been accomplished, but numbers matter,” he said. The alderman said he shouldn’t be expected to “gloss over inaccuracies,” referring to the different calculations on administrators.

“It makes you wonder what else is incorrect,” Bishop said.

Wade, spokeswoman for the school system, said the average administrator is paid $110,000, which is necessary in order to compete in a market where administrators are in short supply. She did confirm that Wilbur Cross High School, the city’s largest with 1,334 students, has eight assistant principals. Clark said one of them is a systemwide supervisor, while the rest are necessary given the diversity and needs of the school.

Clark also pointed out that local taxpayers support 33 percent of the school budget with the rest covered by the state and special funds. While the city picks up the medical costs for school personnel, it is later reimbursed for those covered by special funds. The city also covers workers’ compensation.

At the state level, a worker complained that repeated early-retirement plans to cut costs leave a smaller workforce to deal with the same agenda, while the number of managers seem to stay in place.

“When government becomes too big or too expensive and cutbacks are required, it it almost unheard of that the upper echelon volunteers to be reduced; instead management usually gives back a few of the pawns that they used to build their kingdoms,” he wrote.

Jeffrey Beckham, spokesman for the state Office of Policy and Management, said 347 managers opted to take the most recent retirement incentive program, which is about 15 percent of their numbers. This didn’t include appointed managers in the judicial branch, higher education units, the legislative branch or quasi-public agencies.

With 3,500 nonmanagers retiring out of some 50,000 workers, Beckham said the nonmanagement rate was closer to 7 percent. He added however, that the state refilled 127 of the manager vacancies, or 37 percent, “which was in line with our target.”

Asked if the ranks of managers are automatically reduced as staff disappears, Beckham said it is up to department heads to make sure that “appropriate staff ratios are in place.”

Matt O’Connor, spokesperson for SEBAC (the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition,) said it has opposed some retirement incentive programs and approved of others, but generally they negotiate the best of bad options.

He agreed “the re-hiring decisions that are made aren’t always the wisest,” with large numbers of workers brought back once the budget crisis passes. “It would be smarter to have a longer term plan,” O’Connor said.

He said the “first casualty” in these incentive programs is the frontline workers left to deliver services. O’Connor said programs like the birth to three program, which provides services to special needs children, are often hit hard.

David Carmody of North Haven targeted another area where he feels the government should rein in spending. “All levels of government waste money by allowing ‘public service’ employees to retire after 20 years of ‘service’ with cost of living adjustments. Private sector employees can look forward to perhaps getting Social Security at age 67. Public service employment is effectively guaranteed, private sector employees are nearly certain to have to find new employment as their employees move, are swalllowed up or go out of business,” he said.

North Haven First Selectman Michael J. Freda, who has been in office for six months, said these pensions are the byproduct of decades of collective bargaining agreements. He said going forward, as new workers are hired he hoped the town can negotiate replacing the current pensions with 401K or 457 plans, that is a defined contribution plans, versus a defined benefit pension.

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., said he has instituted defined contribution plans for non-union staff. “Where we have discretion, we have done that,” he said. He said changes are needed in the collective bargaining rules, but the state legislature fails to tackle this because it does not have to deal with the consequences – towns have to.

Municipal workers now don’t contribute to Social Security, but in the future, DeStefano sees city workers having a hybrid retirement package that includes a market-driven investment vehicle with Social Security.

Carmody also complained that teacher tenure should be eliminated. “Being a good teacher should be all the job security required. Tenure protects terrible teachers,” he asserted.

Dave Cicarella, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, said teacher tenure is essentially “a due process policy. It doesn’t entitle us to a job, but to a policy for fair dismissal” that is defined by state statute.

A new evaluation system due to start in New Haven in September lays out “real assistance” for teachers who are struggling with defined time limits during which improvements have to take place. After that, administrators could push for termination.

On those walk signs, “Spike” wrote to the Register that the eight Walk/Don’t Walk signs at each downtown intersections wastes “taxpayers’ dough. They are universally either A. ignored or B. not comprehended.”

Michael Piscitelli, head of the city’s transportation department, said the city’s policy is to encourage more walking and biking as alternatives to motor vehicles and part of its safe streets program is an extensive effort to educate people on sharing the road.

Those walk signs are not only needed, they are required by the American Disabilities Act, Piscitelli said.

Finally, Dori Ahern of West Haven, directed her complaints to the federal level and one of the country’s biggest budgetary commitments.

“It costs $1 million per year, for each soldier kept occupying other people’s countries, who never invited us to intervene,” she said, extrapolating from the $1.01 trillion spent since 2001 on Iraq and Afghanistan. The data was provided by the Greater New Haven Peace Council.

Ahern said the $26 billion sent by Connecticut taxpayers to Washington could cover the health costs of 580,000 low income residents for 10 years or four years of college for 31,000 Connecticut high school graduates for a decade.

Lemar had to agree that freeing up that kind of money would jumpstart a much different budget conversation in U.S. cities.

Call Mary E. O’Leary at 203-789-5731.

Nancy L. Carrington, Chief Executive Officer, Connecticut Food Bank, via e-mail:

The news media, specifically the traditional hometown daily newspapers and local affiliates of the television networks, needs to return to its roots and build on the formula that weekly newspapers and hyper-local news websites are now using: offering more local news, including neighborhood and community events.

Local news is the single commodity that only local news media can offer. It’s not available through the regional, national or international media outlets, unless it is some catastrophic event, like the recent power plant explosion in Middletown, or a story that has statewide—if not national or international consequences—such the arrest of Faisal Shahzad in connection with the Times Square car bomb plot.

Local news coverage should extend beyond municipal, police and court coverage. Although coverage of those topics is important, readers and news consumers would also like to know what business will be coming to their town or cities, what planned events they can attend in their community, and the services offered by local educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and government agencies.

It’s news about our neighborhoods in our towns and cities that people want because that’s the news that will impact their daily lives the most.

The concept of a free press is extremely important to me because I rely on the media to inform me objectively of the news and events of the day and its impact on my life and my community. I hope the press will stand for me in government halls where the public’s business is being conducted; and I hope the press will shine a light on the injustices in our communities and recognize those people who make our society better. In order for that to happen, the press has to be an independent entity, beholden to no one but to the public it serves.

I strongly believe we must continue to strive for a free press because as Benjamin Franklin said: “This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.”

Jeff Clark of Meriden, via Facebook:

A free press is all we have left… hell, do you know the cost (big $s )to buy a congressman from their corporate owners…

Edward F. Lazarus, president, Branford Chamber of Commerce, via Facebook:

I would ask you in return. Is it more important to report the news then create it?

Wow, how to expand on those thought!? I suspect I could write pages. But I will just put a few bullet items. Clearly I am not saying anything the whole world is asking.

1. Where news comes from. What is reliable, what is real.

2. What was the big summer story before 9-11? Before Gary Condit’s disappearing intern, it was the summer of the Shark Attack. That was manufactured news, there was no big items so one was created.

3. Cable and tabloid news. Manufacturing news. MSNBC vs. FOX Reporting on their own biases.

4. Take an AP story. Look at the headline—-how different is it based on the paper. Or where it is placed.

5. News vs. Entertainment vs. Commentary. How can you believe what you are hearing is true or being created for the sole purpose of creating a story.

6. I love John Stewart, but now the most trusted man in America? Where do kids get their news from. The Daily Show.

I could go on forever. But unless you are living in another dimension, the news has become more about entertainment than hard facts. Sadly, when there are hard facts, you never really know if it is true or not. The industry is changing beyond simply being replaced slowly by the internet and everyone suddenly becoming a “credentialed reporter.”

Jayme of East Haven, via Facebook:

Free press and INDEPENDENT media is SO important to citizens of this country. What scares me is that small news sources are being gobbled up by the larger corporations whose leaders have specific agendas and thereby influence the content published in order to satisfy their means. This in itself is censorship and affects the general public from learning the unbiased truth.

Marybeth Smith Bean of New Haven, via Facebook:

“A free press is vital to our country and to me, but it gets harder and harder to find. Bias isn’t always conscious either, and there is so much blurring of the line between entertainment and reporting the news. I worry about what our kids will have to look to for news. But if nothing else, our attempt at having a free press, and the legal support for a free press that we enjoy is an incredible legacy that our children need to carry forward. And the desire for a free press is alive all over the world. Think about all of the twittering that came during the Iranian protests recently. People wanted the truth to be known, and if the government put a muzzle on official sources, the people got the word out. That gives me hope.”

Anna Manzo, Register copy editor, via e-mail:

I think an independent free press is important to make sure we have informed citizens and a true democracy. The founding fathers knew that the market couldn’t support journalism and unfortunately, as we’re seeing today, the Internet is steering those advertising revenues away from print newspapers. Major media have been shedding their reporting staff at the rate of 1,000 reporters monthly. Original, investigative reporting has been reduced over the past decade, according to a recent Pew Research Center study.

For the first 75 years after American was founded, the government had U.S. postal subsidies for the distribution of newspapers. If there was ever a time for the U.S. government to subsidize American journalism and treat media like a public good like public education or defense spending, the time is now. Our democratic contemporaries in Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland each spend between $8 billion and $40 billion on public media and journalism subsidies. The U.S. only spends about $400 million.

One example of how a free press fulfilled the principles of a democracy: Many of the publishers of small newspapers were actually abolitionists, such as William Lloyd Garrison, who started the very first issue of his anti-slavery newspaper, the Liberator in 1831.For three decades, until after the end of the Civil War in 1865 when the last issue was published, Garrison spoke out against slavery and for the rights of America’s black inhabitants.

Duo Dickinson of Madison, via Facebook:

News is ceasing to be a distinct input, like eating. News is becoming an effortless integration that has little sense of process or medium, like breathing.

Absent pollution or perfume we are blissfully unsaware that our lungs expand and accept air as long as we are sentient. Information availability is becoming indistinct from work, entertainment, life as the electronic atmosphere that surrounds us becomes so pervasive as to lose our ability to perceive it.

With each e-mail, Facebook post, CNN website newsblast or Kindle novel purchase we are lightly bathed in stories, news and trivia — all without sound, texture or tangibility other than its ephemeral glow beside everything else on the screen.

We’ve begun to breathe information, but it is neither sustaining nor nourishing — it makes its own space for a few seconds and when the screen is refreshed there is no replay, no yesterday’s paper in a pile, not even memory of its sound.

News is now instant, zipless and creates addiction when absent.

Hank Silverberg, WTOP, Washington, radio reporter, via Facebook:

A thought: The Press..or the media as we refer to it today is the only specific commercial enterprise our founding fathers thought was necessary to protect directly in the Constitution.

The words of the First Amendment are perhaps the most important ever written in the history of mankind. (Yes … I know about the Bible … in all its variations … but without the First Amendment there is no gaurantee you’d be able to read one.)

Think about all the versions of the Bible. Which one is right? Are any of them right? Who knows? But in some countries only one version of the Bible is allowed to be printed. Under some communist regimes none were printed except by underground press. In the United States, thanks to the First Amendment, they can all be printed and we can all spend years discussing them and printing articles on our own interpretation. The right of a free press reinforces the right to assembly and the right to practice the religion of our choice or to practice none at all.

The same appies to any political publication to the left, right or in the center, but the Bible is the best example.

It implies that we have the right to information, and the right to discern for ourselves what that information means. It isn’t the easiest path either. It takes effort to work through all the info that is exploding around us, so I suppose that is the responsibility that comes with the right: making the effort to get to the “truth,” even as each of us has our own view of “the truth.” I’m proud to say that librarians are a big part of defending our right to know. Definitely messy, this freedom, but we’re so blessed to have it. Thanks founding fathers (and mothers)!

Elizabeth Duenkel of New Haven, via e-mail:

If this country were in danger I think ham radios and small presses might be the only way to get “the truth” out. I have lately felt that if you want to hurt the U.S., one way would be to knock out all of the satellites and shut down all communication. Without TV (analogue is not available) and radio, the paper would be one of the only ways to get information out to the people. I think it was William S Burroughs who said that you could put all of the politicians into a ship and sent them into space the world we know would continue. But if you put communications on that ship our daily lives would change dramatically and quickly.

Bruce Altman of New Haven, via e-mail:

I read a daily paper — a powerful, calming experience — in L.A. The New York Times was delivered by 1 a.m. and in Europe there’s the Herald Tribune to connect to.

News evolution is a topic for someone else- the “paper” itself — whichever paper one reads, carries resonance of comfort, friendship and community.

Gail Novaco of Naugatuck, via e-mail:

Technology has outpaced traditional print media. So in order to survive, print news must evolve, too. I hope there will always be a demand for in-depth stories and coverage that quick radio and TV sound bites just don’t have time for. But to be viable, daily newspapers and weekly/monthly magazines must appear fresh to appeal to 400 million (and counting) Facebook users. By being flexible in offering choices of hard copy news as well as sites for in-depth electronic news, users can “pick their poison” as to the “how” of hearing about the news. Exercisers will want easy accessibility to podcasts or other archived audio AND video pieces (instant uploaded reporters’ stories using Flip cameras, e.g.). Stay-at-home types will want to be able to dial in any story any time from anywhere. A free press is critical to society. It must find a way to use old-school reporting (where the human brain is paramount over any quick or flashy news-gathering techniques), yet still be able to survive by delivering that news in lightning fashion AND make a profit. It’s a balancing act, that’s for sure.

Veronica Soell of Guilford, via e-mail:

A free press is the only way we, as citizens, can be sure to learn what is really going on locally, nationally and internationally.

Professional journalists employed by responsible news media (newspapers, TV, radio and Internet) can objectively explore, investigate, examine and report at length on matters that may otherwise be covered up, dismissed or distorted by special interests. They can tell us about new scientific and medical advances, about life in other parts of the world that have come to prominence for one reason or another, about injustices in our own country, about legal and political issues, about education, about possible threats to our safety, and many other interesting and important topics. Professional journalists generate comprehensive information; websites that offer news and information usually acquire and combine it from material originated by these professional journalists.

I don’t know where the free press is going, but definitely hope it’s not going away!

Rabbi Herbert Brockman, Congregation Mishkan Israel, Hamden, via e-mail:

Some random thoughts: We are entering a period of tremendous flux in the world of journalism. Everyone seems to have a desire to report and comment on events of the day and with the internet, one’s opinion can be spread far and wide. While this may seemingly expand our world of information,, our limited ability to evaluate the imformation may not improve our knowledge at all. What we see happening is the rise of “opinion news” and most people seem to choose to get their news from people whose opnions they already agree with. And yet, journalism, getting objective information, is at the heart of any democracy. As any autocrat/dictator knows, to seize and hold power, one of the first things you must do is take control of the news media. Only then can you control the people. Should newspapers and TV journalism succumb to the increasing pressure for profits or to the power of government, we may very well lose a fundamental pillar of a free society. As citizens then, we have a vested interest in securing, supporting and promoting objective journalism in all forms, free and unfettered from economic and political constraints.

Jefferson Freeman, Guilford, via e-mail:

For those long accustomed (as Landa and I are), I can’t imagine how we’ll get through breakfast or post-dinnertime without a printed version to browse, flip back and forth, share sections.

On the other hand, 30 years ago I couldn’t imagine communicating with other than written letters or phone calls — telegrams and faxes being poor substitutes. Today, I wouldn’t dream of sending this back to you other than via e-mail. Who knows what will come next? This is way more than a tweet, and way too much to text.

I hope e-versions of news media become add-ons to the entire news package, not replacements — that’s how I use e-versions of Economist, New York Times, other journals. Finding, retrieving, e-mailing copies of previously seen articles has high value to me. Accessing midday to check on evolving stories, e.g., McChrystal firing, is also important

(News is) increasingly important, as a counterweight to blogdung (or is it blowdung?) that is more invasive than kudzu weed. I don’t have time to sort through more than the tiniest bit of this stuff. Having access to trusted objective sources that dig out and report on matters that I want to know about and/or ought to know about, and that make a clear distinction between reporting and opining — critical to a functioning society.

Free press is the most important antidote (maybe only antidote) to H. L. Mencken’s “No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” We can’t be made to drink the water, but a free press leads us to it. The degree to which free press does its job effectively helps keep Mencken’s observation from becoming reality.

Ron Spiegelhalter of Milford, via e-mail:

I see the evolution of American news media happening in terms of speed of delivery, and in media type. The elimination of paper news being replaced by visual multimedia news reporting is in process now. I see that part of the challenge of good news reporting is that it is at times too immediate, too “now.” This provides the public with a false sense that they have a right to know immediately everything that is happening with real way to make sense of it all regardless of the news analysis of the reporter. The result can and has been that what we just saw isn’t really what has happened. I am reminded of the battlefield during wartime where bullets and explosions are going on and everything is utter chaos and horror. Yet in a battle there are several structures of preparation and deployment in place that are occurring that can only be seen once the battle is over. Attempting to report within the midst of battle is futile and often counter-productive. I think good news reporting needs that kind of time to reflect, but the speed of technology seems to take that away.

A free press is vital to the future of America and advanced countries around the world. A free press for all its faults in public pandering and bias provide an indispensible service of informing the public, alerting us to events and issues of common concern.

One area I am not very concerned about is the accuracy of reportage and news bias. 18th and 19th century news has seen extreme bias, public manipulation, blatant character assassination and over the top reporting. With some exceptions in my lifetime, this hasn’t changed. Having said that, I do think that news reporters believe in their duty to report the news and have remained faithful to that duty to their best ability. Hype, bias, junk news are a part of the world of news, unfortunately. My hope is that reflective analytical reporting of events with a delay of time to provide better perspective on these events remains an important aspect of the news profession.

Walt Dembiczak of West Haven, via e-mail:

I see the news media evolving with the times.

Electronics makes the speed of communication almost as fast as the speed of light.

The good side is the public SHOULD have access to information from anywhere around the globe, whether it be good news (peace treaties, charitable events, people-oriented events, etc.) and bad news (nature’s violence, killings, war news, oil spills, etc.).

I think the public is made aware of those news items that someone, with the authority to do so, decides for us what we should see or read. Unfortunately, this is usually the bad news. I can switch from channel to channel, or go from newspaper to newspaper and see mostly “bad news.”

I think that there are so many things happening worldwide during the course of a day that it is impossible to report everything. There is just not enough space or time.

I do not have an answer for this.

Freedom of the press is very important to me. It should not be open to interpretation. It is one of the amendments of our Constitution and is one item that makes us “free.” I see and hear too much about how the Second Amendment is being re-interpreted and I see how some of our freedoms can be lost. I would not want that to happen to “freedom of the press” or any other constitutional amendments for that matter.

My parents sponsored several people from “iron curtain” countries. One of them was as jumpy as a jackrabbit. He had been exposed to a way of life that made him afraid to speak his mind. The other was an angry person, angry at most anyone with authority because he was told what to do and when to do it.

In both cases, the common denominator was “not given the opportunity to think for themselves.” What a pity it would be if that were to happen in this country, the wonderful United States of America.

Deborah Moore of Woodbridge, via e-mail:

In my senior year of high school, I took a class called Modern World History. It was a fantastic class for a multitude of reasons. At the time I loved our Friday class. It was first period, making it insanely early in the life of an 17-year-old. The teacher had arranged for us to have the New York Times delivered to the class. The first 20 minutes we read several articles (in the front section), some she suggested and we would pick something of interest for the other. Up until that time the newspaper was something the Dads read on the train, or the funnies on Sunday, or searched through for grocery sales for Mom. I never considered it something for me. This class changed that for me permanently. Dr. Miner taught us how to read the paper, and I became an informed news consumer, a vital skill in modern times.

Boyd Griffin of New Haven, via e-mail:

I don’t follow this closely, at least not in a professional way, as many do but here are my responses to your questions:

The last 20 years have been more of a revolution than an evolution; with the development of the WWW and broader bandwidth news cycles have become shorter and shorter — almost instantaneous. The very term “newspaper” has become an anachronism, and just in recent months/years, electronic reading technology has gotten better and more powerful (examples: Apple’s iPad, Amazon’s Kindle), not to mention “smartphones” or, the better term, “personal digital assistants” (PDAs). So the news media will continue to evolve in an increasingly competitive, digital arena and the news organizations that survive (the “fittest” as Darwin might have put it) will be those who adapt and are able to move away from their traditional business model, which relied so heavily on classified and space advertising.

With all the new sources of news and the digital delivery possibilities mentioned above, the fundamental, constitutional provisions relating to free speech are more important than ever. Also, the value of good editors and responsible publishers who strive to give their readers the truth and correct facts is to be more appreciated than ever. For the traditional news organizations that survive, the respect for their “brand” and a reputation for accurate reporting will be among their most important strengths in protecting and gaining market share. So, regardless of the number of news sources and the media technologies involved in the delivery of their articles, the essential foundation is a FREE PRESS. To see what it would be like if the USA were ever to lose its free press, look to China where an article about religious practice (Falun Gong) or an important historical event (Tiananmen Square) can land you in jail or worse.

Murry Harrison of Meriden, via e-mail:

The urgency of a free press (and broadcast media) to the continued viability of our nation and our life as a free people cannot be over-emphasized. Without the guaranteed and protected free flow of information, our democratic and republican political system cannot long remain viable and indeed, so it would seem, it now gravely “hangs by a thread” on “life-support.”

Over the past decade, we seem to have become dislodged/entangled in our national psyche with an uneasy sense of having somehow “lost our moorings,” adrift in a flotsam of national/governing policies that do not “add up” in our collective “gut.” Although manipulation/distortion by the media and popularized “opinion makers” is a practice well-honed over the course of the last century, I believe the extent of the problem we are presently experiencing is attributable to the intentional subrogation of the mainstream media (MSM) into an organ of deliberately orchestrated, assaultive corporate-state propaganda/intentional public manipulation.

Rather than impartially convey vital information to a discerning citizenry, the “news” content of what is now being purveyed by the MSM for public consumption is at best incomplete and “spun”/”sanitized” to reflect an elitist agenda that does not prioritize or value maintaining the freedom, economic and political sovereignty of the American people and nation. (I find it “interesting,” for example, that in terms of all the issues being propounded across the print/broadcast media with regard to Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court nomination, very little concern or attention has been given to addressing her apparent support for expanded executive authority, which in my opinion, is a “core” constitutional issue!)

In addition to certain “muckraking” magazines and book publishers, what appears to have thus far “’preserved’ the day” (or has at least served as a “stumbling block” to the pressing elitist agenda) has been the phenomenon of alternate Internet media that in noteworthy “Ben Franklin tradition” has made key information available to the citizenry that the MSM has (deliberately) either distorted or simply chosen to ignore. Even more ominously, it now appears that in the name of “protecting” the public from the potential “threat” of so-called “cyber-terrorism,” there are serious efforts under way by certain “authorities” to eventually corral the public’s open access to the web!

What could perhaps (and only under the sovereign, merciful hand of Divine Providence) help turn this around — particularly if an internet shutdown/restriction were to actually occur — would be for the local media outlets to courageously again act in the tradition and capacity as “’sentries’ for the public interest,” much as they did during those journalistically “freewheeling” days of Benjamin Franklin, and perhaps somehow “partner” with the Internet bloggers so as to continue imparting critical information to the public.

VM Williams/Register

By Ed Stannard, Register Metro Editor
estannard@newhavenregister.com

Ben Franklin might steam up his bifocals at the ways people get their news today, but the New Haven Register — and, for that matter, “The Daily Show” and Fox News — owe their existence to the freedoms he and his fellow newspaper publishers fought for 250 years ago.

Defining a “newspaper” isn’t all that easy either. These days, stories break on newhavenregister.com, get updated, then are fleshed out more for the next day’s paper.

>>READERS RESPOND: Click here to see what our readers, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers all had to say when we asked them about the state and evolution of news media.

And while the Register and most news media outlets strive for objectivity and fairness, that wasn’t the case in the days when America was starting to feel its oats as a colony that wanted to be a country.

“Very often, they got so annoyed at the political opposition that they went out and formed their own newspapers,” said Professor Jon Purmont, who teaches early American history at Southern Connecticut State University.

“In those days, they really went after each other and the newspaper was the vehicle for expressing your views.”

That’s not what most people want from the New Haven Register and other news media nowadays, judging by those who responded to our request for comment. We asked you on Facebook and Twitter how you see newspapers evolving and whether newspapers are important, and I sent out a lot of e-mails asking the same thing.

To be honest, a lot of the people who replied are people I know: friends of mine, members of my church or people I’ve met on the job. Of course most of them would think newspapers are important (many of them have the Register home-delivered!), but many are critical of the media today. You can read all the comments at newhavenregister.com.

Here’s what Hank Silverberg, a reporter for WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., had to say. Silverberg has been my friend for almost 50 years, since first grade. We disagree about a lot, but I love how he put this:

“The Press, or the media as we refer to it today, is the only specific commercial enterprise our founding fathers thought was necessary to protect directly in the Constitution,” he wrote on my Facebook wall. “The words of the First Amendment are perhaps the most important ever written in the history of mankind. (Yes … I know about the Bible … but without the First Amendment there is no guarantee you’d be able to read one.)”

Jayme of East Haven (who I don’t know) is worried about the fate of newspapers. She replied on the Register’s Facebook page: “Free press and INDEPENDENT media is SO important to citizens of this country. What scares me is that small news sources are being gobbled up by the larger corporations whose leaders have specific agendas and thereby influence the content published in order to satisfy their means. This in itself is censorship and affects the general public from learning the unbiased truth.”

According to the 2009 report by the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, only 27 percent of Americans agree that the news media try to report without bias, although 71 percent believe a free press is important to act as a government watchdog. You can read the report at our website.

Meanwhile, according to Editor & Publisher, we have more daily newspapers now (902 in 2008) than we did in 1984 (783), although circulation has fallen since then, from 63.34 million to 48.6 million.

But while publishers are fighting for circulation and advertising revenue now, back in Franklin’s day they were fighting to stay out of jail.

John Peter Zenger’s name isn’t well known today. The Zenger Award, given by the Arizona Newspapers Association, doesn’t have the cache of the Pulitzer Prize. But Zenger and his wife, Anna, did as much as anyone to establish a free press in this country.

“The John Peter Zenger case is definitely one of the first cases that we see freedom of the press being challenged in the Colonial period, and that case set the standard for a new way of looking at journalism,” said Peter Goduti, a history professor at Quinnipiac University.

Under English law, publishers could be tried for “seditious libel,” or criticizing the government, even if it was true. Zenger, who began printing the New York Weekly Journal on Nov. 5, 1733, was jailed for nine months because his paper criticized the corrupt governor of New York, William Crosby. (His wife continued publishing the paper, missing only one issue.)

The jury’s verdict on Aug. 4, 1735, is generally regarded as establishing the American principle that the press — and all Americans — have a right to speak out against their leaders.

While the law was clear, Zenger’s lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, argued that the jury had the opportunity to establish “a right to liberty of both exposing and opposing arbitrary power (in these parts of the world at least) by speaking and writing truth.”

In other words, if it’s true, it’s not libel, and the government can’t muzzle the press.

Goduti said the importance of the Zenger case can’t be minimized. “Without newspapers, we don’t have a Revolution,” he said.

“You have Paul Revere’s famous etching of the Boston Massacre and that was published in newspapers down to Virginia. … It had a far-reaching impact,” Goduti said.

While American newspapers started by reporting news from London, Purmont said that over time, as they became a source of information about the 13 colonies, they became one of the ways the colonists started to think of themselves as Americans.

Many of our readers agree that the free press still matters. As Veronica Soell of Guilford wrote, “A free press is the only way we, as citizens, can be sure to learn what is really going on locally, nationally, and internationally.

“Professional journalists employed by responsible news media (newspapers, TV, radio, and Internet) can objectively explore, investigate, examine, and report at length on matters that may otherwise be covered up, dismissed or distorted by special interests. They can tell us about new scientific and medical advances, about life in other parts of the world that have come to prominence for one reason or another, about injustices in our own country, about legal and political issues, about education, about possible threats to our safety, and many other interesting and important topics.”

In the 18th century, newspapers were central to daily life. “Newspapers were the primary channel for information to be passed from section to section” of Colonial America, Purmont said. “In those days people read newspapers in the local taverns and coffee houses … and it became the center of community.”

So now that Americans have a multitude of ways to get their information and find their identity, is objective news gathering still important? Jefferson Freeman of Guilford believes they are “increasingly important, as a counterweight to blogdung (or is it blowdung?) that is more invasive than kudzu weed.

“I don’t have time to sort through more than the tiniest bit of this stuff. Having access to trusted objective sources that dig out and report on matters that I want to know about and/or ought to know about, and that make a clear distinction between reporting and opining (is) critical to a functioning society.”

Call Ed Stannard at 203-789-5743.

In the midst of a recent heavy downpour that included treacherous lightning and dangerous winds, the American flag flying near Superior Court in Milford was blown onto the ground.

Inside the courthouse, witnesses wondered if anyone would run out in the downpour and rescue the flag. One man said, “It almost bothers me enough to go out and get it.” Then another man said, “It does bother me enough.” He darted out and grabbed the flag, and ran back inside while proudly holding the Stars and Stripes.

The man furled the flag around the staff and carefully placed it in the corner. He said “Too many have died for this, to let (the flag) sit out there like that.” He left without ever saying his name, but one onlooker remarked, “There is a patriot.”

This was one example of someone who could be called a patriot. But for most people, describing who they feel is a “living patriot” is a very personal matter. Readers gave us their suggestions.

For former Milford Mayor Joel Baldwin, the choice is very clear, and the honor falls to his friend, Alan Jepson, who served in the Navy during World War II, and was also honored in 2002 for 30 years of volunteer service in the Coast Guard Auxiliary, including assisting on numerous safety patrols. Jepson is also a former three-term mayor and recently retired as Milford city clerk after 22 years.

“Alan’s given everything to the community, his service in the military in World War II, his service as mayor and city clerk,” Baldwin said. “He’s a person you want in your community.”

Former Milford Mayor Alberta Jagoe said Jepson, 84, “just cares about the city and devoted his life to serving people.”

Milford Historian Richard Platt said Jepson helped oversee the design of the city’s flag, and passed out lapels with the city’s seal on it.

“He went well beyond keeping records as city clerk,” Platt said. “He was so loved and respected that he was cross-endorsed by both parties. That is the essence of patriotism, which is serving your country and community above and beyond what normal people do.”

Jepson said he is “very honored” to have people think so highly of him.

“I tried to do what I thought was right,” said Jepson, who was a signalman on destroyers in the Pacific.

Steve Spignesi, of Cheshire, submitted John White as a local living patriot via e-mail to the Register. He wrote that White, of Cheshire, is a retired Navy submarine nuclear officer who has a book coming out about the Star-Spangled Banner and the Pledge of Allegiance.

“He is heavily involved with Veterans’ Affairs, is head of a VFW branch, and writes extensively about veteran issues,” Spignesi wrote. “He lectures ceaselessly on the Constitution and patriotism to civic groups and schools. He handles setting up military funerals for deceased vets. He’s involved in getting a bill passed in Connecticut that would post the constitution and Declaration of Independence in every school in Connecticut.

Genevieve Chase of Milford submitted Thomas Acri, a Milford school teacher, as an example of a local living patriot.

“Tom is one of a kind … a true educator and patriot,” Chase wrote. “He instills in his students a love of country and the blessings of the land we live in.”

She said each year, Acri chooses a class to raise money for a veteran-related cause, and has raised thousands of dollars for homeless veterans, Vietnam vets and local memorials.

Larry Festa, who sells the quintessential Fourth of July food, hotdogs, at a Jack’s food cart on Church Street in New Haven said his 79-year-old mother, Mary, is a living patriot for persevering from her birth during the Great Depression to live the American dream.

“She raised six kids, she went through the Depression, she buried her husband, pays her taxes, she votes and she’s 79 years old,” Festa said. “That’s a patriot to me.”

For Sam X, of New Haven, Louis Farrakhan, the head of the Nation of Islam, is a modern-day patriot.

“He’s a patriot because he wakes up a lot of African-American men and women,” Sam X said. “To me, he’s the strongest black leader. He challenges the government.”

Jagoe also named as a patriot Disabled American Veterans Chapter 15 Commander William Donahue of Milford, who each year places wreaths on the city’s monuments commemorating wars.

“He’s definitely a patriot,” Jagoe said.

Jerry Patton of Milford named Joseph Pouliot, a retired general in the National Guard, who has dedicated his life to serving veterans and speaking out for their causes.

“Joe is very proud of our country,” Patton said. “Joe is very patriotic.”

Platt said Milford Aldermanic Chairman Gregory Smith should also be mentioned as an example of a local living patriot.

“He left his position on the Board of Aldermen when he was called up to active reserves,” Platt said.

Smith has a total of 22 years experience in the Navy, Navy Reserve and Army National Guard. He is a veteran of Beruit, Grenada and other foreign conflicts.

Photo by Peter Hvizdak/Register Alex Danka and his daughter, Melanie, 12, use their cellphones. The Dankas debated the proper age to get cellphones for their daughters. Melanie's 10-year-old sister has a cellphone, but must follow guidelines set by her parents.

Photo by Mara Lavitt/Register Erik Simon, 13, of Westbrook received his cellphone in fifth grade.

By Lauren Garrison
Register Staff

For students at Dag Hammarskjold Middle School in Wallingford, lunchtime provides not only a break from academics and a time to socialize with friends, but also a chance to use their beloved cellphones.

The school prohibits cellphone use during the school day, except for in the cafeteria at lunchtime. And Principal Enrico Buccilli said students certainly take advantage of this.

“As soon as they get into the cafeteria, out come the cellphones,” he said.

Buccilli, like many other area middle school principals interviewed, said just about every student in the school, which houses grades six through eight, has a cellphone now. Over just the past few years, there’s been a boom in the number of students carrying cellphones, the principals say.

“I would say that 90 percent of the kids have a cellphone,” said North Haven Middle School Principal Philip Piazza. “Each year, it’s grown more and more. By next year, it’ll probably be close to 100 percent.”

Parents in Wallingford, North Haven and just about everywhere else have accepted the inevitable: Their child will most likely have a cell phone. But the proper age is still up for debate. Is age 10 too young? Is 13 too unreasonable? Readers told the Register they consider numerous factors when deciding what age is appropriate.

In a September 2009 Teens and Mobile Phones study conducted by the Pew Research Center as part of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 66 percent of parents reported first getting their child a cellphone at age 13 or younger. Nine percent of parents first gave their child a phone at age 10 or younger, according to the study.

Schools are strict about requiring students to keep cellphones packed away, often in a locker, during the school day. If a teacher sees a cellphone being used during the school day, many schools have a policy that the phone will be confiscated, and often returned only to a parent.

“We don’t want them to distract the educational process, and they easily can if kids are texting or answering calls,” said Frank Henderson, principal at Walter C. Polson Middle School in Madison.

He added, “It’s a bit of an obsession. We see kids walking out of the building and the first thing they want to do is grab their cellphone and text and talk.”

Though cellphones can be a distraction, educators say they’ve come to accept that parents want their children to have them.

“With a lot of families being two working parents, parents just want to know where their kids are at all times. It’s more of a safety net so they can always have a tab on where their kids are,” said Piazza. “They’re involved in so many after-school activities and the parents might not get home until 4 or 5 o’clock.”

Barbara Haglund of North Branford said she likes the comfort of being able to reach her 11-year-old daughter on her cellphone when she is staying over at a friend’s house.

“It’s not always easy to reach the adults that she is with. I know when I need to check on her, she will answer her phone or text right away… that makes me very comfortable knowing my responsible 11-year-old is better with a phone than some people,” she said.

Trisha Danka of Seymour said she and her husband decided to get their youngest daughter, who is 10, a cellphone this year “due to her being extremely active with activities after school while we are at work.”

“We would have liked to have held out; however, payphones are not readily found anymore, and we want her to have easy and immediate access to us, and us to her. She does not need fancy features, particularly due to her age, so she does not have web access, the ability to send or receive pictures, etc.,” Danka said. She said her daughter’s phone calls to friends must be done in the home under parental supervision.

Marcia Simon of Westbrook first got her son, Erik, now 13, a cellphone when he entered middle school in fifth grade. As a working mother, she wanted a way to stay in touch with him.

Now, Simon said, she realizes the power of cellphones to teach her son about technology, which will be crucial to his future.

“There’s so much technology built into these phones today. A smart phone or a PDA, they just do so much. He just understands it. And I think whether it’s he needs a calculator or he wants to pick up an application to look at celestial navigation and the stars, it’s just right there. I think if he knows how to use it and it becomes natural to him and a habit, it’s going to be helpful to him” in the future, she said. Simon said she thinks kids don’t learn enough about technology in school, and owning a cellphone can help.

Some educators said there’s even a place for cellphones within the school day.

Jeff Solan, principal of Dodd Middle School in Cheshire, said, “For example, when we were on our Washington, D.C., trip, and they’re great on the way home. Students are able to call their parents, tell them when to meet them and where.”

In the future, Solan could also see the possibility of using cellphones in the classroom for educational purposes, as the price of them drops and they become even more ubiquitous.

“We do look at everything, including cellphones, as a potential way to help kids learn and process and seek out information,” he said.

When it come to the proper age for a child’s first cellphone, Christine Taylor of Cheshire said it depends on the child.

“At 10, my daughter is always on the vicinity of adults, so she doesn’t need a cellphone,” she said. “As soon as she’s hanging out with friends, without adults around, then she’ll get one. I’m guessing sixth grade.”

Katie Barrows of Waterbury said, “My son will have one when he is old enough to do things on his own. It will have GPS tracking. He better not lie to me…”

Glen Noll of New Haven believes children should get their first cellphone “when they can afford to buy it and pay for the service contract.”

Neil Cavallaro, West Haven superintendent of schools and father of three, said he got his 7-year-old son a cellphone two years ago. His daughter, who is in college, texts her younger brother on his cellphone to keep in touch.

“He really doesn’t do anything with it,” Cavallaro said. But since he already had a family cellphone plan, it was easy to add a line for his son for an extra $10 a month.

Cavallaro joked that his wife often loses her cellphone, so if he wants to get in touch with her, he calls his son.

Alan Kazdin, Yale University professor of psychology and child psychiatry and director of the Yale Parenting Center, said parents generally give their children cellphones out of concern for their safety. He noted that GPS functions on some cell phones allow parents to track their child’s cellphone. He said cell phones also offer a great opportunity for parents to teach their children responsibility.

“Make it so that the child is clearly seeing that the use of this (cellphone) is a privilege and his or her use of it depends on continuing to meet the conditions” set out by parents at the beginning, he said. Some parents may want to draw up a written contract with their child.

Kazdin recommended that parents gradually allow their child more freedom with the phone as they demonstrate responsible use. For example, start with a pre-paid plan, and if the child shows he can keep within the allotted minutes, then move to a contract.

Still, some parents try to hold out.

Doug Newman of Guilford said he objected to getting his two sons, ages 10 and 12, cellphones, despite the fact that most of their friends have them already.

“I don’t see any real purpose to them. They’re just an instant gratifying, distracting tool. They need to look outside and figure out how to do things on their own. They can’t always be connected to some kind of screen or machine or computer. I think it’s just getting to be too much,” he said.

Newman added, “I’ve seen plenty of kids where they’re with their parents at the ice cream shop, and they’re just sitting there zoning out, playing with the text. It’s kind of like, are you with your family or are you not?”

But a couple weeks ago, Newman’s wife promised his older son Jacob a cellphone for his 12th birthday.

“We kind of caved in to a little bit of the social pressure,” Newman admitted.

He said Jacob’s new cell phone came with a set of rules: It doesn’t go in his bedroom, it gets charged downstairs, and it gets turned off after 8 p.m. And so far, Jacob barely uses it.

Call Lauren Garrison at 203-789-5614.