Category Archives: civic commentary

city life; local color;

ERIE, PA.

October 13, 2016civic commentary, classical music, commentary, dance, drama, Uncategorizedart meccas, art museums, artists and poets, city planning, dance meccas, ecological preserves, Erie PA, food oases, investing in American cities, Jazz musicians, music meccas, nature centers, peninsulas, saving distressed American citiesruth ann scanzillo

Erie, PA is an anomaly. You should visit.

Located in the northwest corner of the Commonwealth, well away from the rest of the populace, we are a perfect hub between Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo.

And, when I say “perfect”, I mean it.

We are a vacation destination. We have incredible beauty of nature, here. Our Presque Isle peninsula has eleven public beaches, with walking and biking trails, lagoons for canoes and paddleboats, a campground, warblers, coyote, fox, owl……and, on the lakefront, (“Bayfront”) at the foot of the central artery, its magnificent view blocked by a huge hotel and convention center and not nearly enough of anything else except two restaurants and a tower, there are, nevertheless: sailboat races.

We have the magnificent Erie Art Museum, the leader for Gallery Night at least twice per year for all 14 art galleries to strut their stuff. We have 5 dramatic theater companies (just saw AUGUST: Osage County, and ALL MY SONS, just three blocks from my house – both Broadway quality), 20 dance studios, 2 professional symphony orchestras (Erie Phil/Erie Chamber), the best a cappella choir on the east coast (Erie Renaissance Singers – go listen, at YouTube), and even film societies. Even live poetry readings! The best Jazz anywhere, endless rock bands. A casino and racetrack. An indoor water slide paradise. A huge amusement park. And, hundreds of restaurants, many of them privately owned featuring master chefs.

Yet, we are a distressed city. Go figure.

28% poverty rate. Among 100,000 total population, 4700 vacant housing units, 1900 abandoned (data revealed at a development symposium, attended last evening.) We used to be a thriving manufacturing center; yet, General Electric is dumping jobs like waste and the paper mill has long been gone, leaving behind toxic nickel plating and bronzing, and tool and die, and now three plastics plants likely pouring their poisons into the air and water (thankfully, not near me).

I have an air cleaner, and a filter on my heating system, and a radon mitigation sub slab system, and I never drink or cook with the tap water because we have as much lead (and, toluene) as Flint, MI.

But – we can buy the sweetest spring water. In 32 count bottles, it comes from NY state, sold at the local Tops market. And, everything we ever need is within a ten minute drive, or a twenty minute WALK. I’m serious.

So, if you are a visionary, come.

If you are a city planner, come.

If you are an environmentalist, come.

If you are an investor, please come.

Yes. Come visit.

We need you.

littlebarefeetblog.com

Cyber “School”.

October 10, 2016arts education, civic commentary, commentary, Deep Questions, Uncategorizedruth ann scanzillo

Today is Monday.

For a majority of Americans, this particular Monday used to be called a holiday.

Yes; Columbus Day. Banks were closed. Post Offices were, too. And, all public school students and teachers had the day off.

Given any number of geo-social arguments that have ensued in the past couple decades, Christopher Columbus has become relegated to a lesser ran hero of American history.

Meantime, let’s ask a more important question: How many students will be going to school, today, and how many will be staying home….for school?

The first cyber school students I met were from the Southwest. Their parents had moved to the area to study osteopathic medicine at the local college. Brother and sister, they were the most outstanding students in their entire class of music students, singing in the mixed chorus, playing in the ensemble, and acting in the school drama production. They only attended public school for these sessions, because cyber education offered them no interactive, musically creative experiences.

Many friends of mine from childhood, women, mothers all, have chosen to home school their children. I trust each and every one of them to both follow their manual instructions to the letter, and complete all the requirements with implicit honesty. And, that is neither a pandering nor condescending statement.

But, what of the loopholes in these fledgling systems, designed to break public education and feed those whose first motive is protection of their children from the evils of “bad teachers” and “bad neighborhoods”?

How many, parents or children, have figured out how to game them?

I wonder.

Christopher Columbus, explorer, trader. He didn’t get here first, but he ended up with the largest chunk of historical credit, to date.

Here’s hoping we don’t lose yet another chunk of our history to educational fraud.

Happy Columbus Day.

littlebarefeetblog.com

I SEE COLOR!

October 7, 2016civic commentary, human behavior, relationships, social commentary, sociology, thoughts, Uncategorizedbigotry in America, preserving heritage, racism in America, seeing color, THE HUFFINGTON POSTruth ann scanzillo

“How did you learn to draw like that?”

That was the [ unanswerable ] question.

Ever since the first Crayon was [ likely snatched ] by my pudgy little infant hand, I have been among those whom society calls “artists”. The mystery that continues to baffle most of us: where does the propensity, let alone the compulsion, to draw come from? This is not a disclaimer; it’s just the truth.

[*Aside: Haters, just go someplace else and do your thing, because we all have something to say.]

From my earliest memory, what could be seen by the human eye utterly fascinated me. Never a casual viewer, I looked at everything – every shape, line, and detail, and every hue.

To this day well, yeah…still the looker, a watcher (go ahead; catch the staring) – voyeur to life itself.

To an artist, every magnificent human being reveals:

form of figure, shape of frame;
stance, and gait;
countenance, and expression;
profile;
volume, length, and texture of hair;
features of face;

Yes.

And, color of skin.

In America, we have a veritable banquet for the lens. When I look at a “white” person, I see:

short, wiry, ruddy or freckled, auburn Irish, Scot or Welsh; tall, regal, fair, platinum Nordic and stocky Swede; broad, strong raven haired Serb, or blonde German and Netherlander; lean, long limbed, sandy haired English; curvy, bronze, brown haired Latin; petite, wavy haired Sicilian, or olive skinned, acquiline French, Italian, Greek, Macedonian, and bronzed Arab; straight nosed, blue eyed, chestnut haired Russian or Ukrainian; muscular, green eyed, curly haired Polish and Jew;

When I look at a “black” person in America, I see:

licorice skinned, curved forehead Sudanese; tall, straight, reedy Maasai of Kenya; broad grinned Nigerian; mahogany, black eyed Somalian; golden, robed Ethiopian; wiry, dark, short muscled Pygmy; bronzed, almond eyed Egyptian; freckled, red haired, copper toned Creole; and, a majority of the above, also carrying the deep gaze and strong cheekbone of the Native American.

When I look at what used to be called “yellow” skin, I see Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Malaysian, Thai, Filipino, Samoan, Mongolian, Polynesian, and those representing countries yet to be known to me.

If we were to meet, for the first time, you might find me staring keenly at your face. I might even ask questions, like: “Are you possibly of Russian heritage, with some Irish?” or, “Are you from West Africa, maybe the Ivory Coast? ” I do not do this to pigeon hole you; I do it because you captivate me.

Racism is a scourge. In our country, it has reached embarrassing and increasingly life threatening proportions. Distinguishing merely “black” and “white”, or “Latino” is literally small minded, vastly uninformed, and hopelessly restricting. In fact, we are a multitude, spanning the spectrum of the living, and if we shift our gaze to what makes us representative of culture and its heritage, what colors our vision will be radiant and illuminating.

littlebarefeetblog.com