chronogram - june 2008

16/08 CHRONOGRAM

2 CHRONOGRAM 6/08

Come Visit Ours! Heres your invitation to visit ourLindal Cedar Homes Display Model

in Cold Spring, New York in the beautiful Hudson Valley.

Atlantic Custom Homes Open Houses Saturday - June 14, and July 12, 2008 10AM 5PM

Home Building Seminar: Saturday, July 19, 2008 11AM 1PM (Reservations are needed)

Call 888-558-2636 today for information and directions.

36/08 CHRONOGRAM

Tickets available at BethelWoodsCenter.org | by phone 845.454.3388Bethel Woods Box Office | Ticketmaster.com or Outlets and LiveNation.com

Group sales 845.295.2521 | Info at 1.866.781.2922Bethel, New York | Exit 104 off Route 17 at the site of the 1969 Woodstock festival

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CONCERT SERIES ON TWO NEW STAGES INCLUDE:

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JULY 13 - STEVE MILLER BAND & JOE COCKER

JULY 19 - TONY BENNETT

JULY 27 - RASCAL FLATTS & TAYLOR SWIFT

AUG 2 - NY DOO WOPP SHOW

AUG 3 - HIPPIEFEST

AUG 12 - ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND

AUG 13 - MAROON 5, COUNTING CROWS, SARA BAREILLES

AUG 14 - JONAS BROTHERS

AUG 22 - BOSTON POPS

AUG 30 - JOURNEY, HEART & CHEAP TRICK

FULL SCHEDULE AT BETHELWOODSCENTER.ORG

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ADD A MUSEUM ADMISSION TO YOUR CONCERT TICKET ORDER TODAY!

OPENS JUNE 2

SATURDAY

JUNE 14

SUNDAY

JUNE 29

SATURDAY

JUNE 21

FRIDAY

JUNE 20

SATURDAY

JUNE 28

Bramwell Tovey, conductingJoyce Yang, soloist

Get full concert schedule at BethelWoodsCenter.org

Arts Under the Stars at the TERRACE STAGE

Music in The Museum at the EVENTS GALLERY

THURSDAY

JULY 10

1.800.882.CATS www.scva.net

4 CHRONOGRAM 6/08

For complete performance roster and schedule of activities go to www.ClearwaterFestival.org

OFFICIAL AIRLINE

For more info, call 800-67-SLOOP

Buy Tickets Online & SAVE!

www.ClearwaterFestival.org

Featuring

Skatalites The Felice Brothers Pete Seeger Alix Olson Cheryl WheelerDavid Amram Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams Happy and Artie Traum

Kevin So & Midnight Snack Pamela Means MacTalla Mr R.Carlos Nakai Magpie EntrainStrangelings Pistolera Arm of the Sea Theater The Bluerunners

56/08 CHRONOGRAM

Call 845.876.WOODwww.williamslumber.com

Build outside the block.

6 CHRONOGRAM 6/08

CONTENTS 6/08

NEWS AND POLITICS27 WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

The gist of what you may have missed in the back pages of the global media maelstrom: corporate organic brands, voter ID laws, and T. Rex relatives.

30 COMING TO AMERICA Jim Motovalli examines the myths and realities of immigration, the

environment, and growing population numbers in the US and elsewhere.

36 BEINHARTS BODY POLITICLarry Beinhart takes aim at how the old myths of the Great Republican Disaster are being recast as new truths in the run-up to the presidential election this fall.

COMMUNITY NOTEBOOK38 A CURTAIN CALL FOR THE HYDE PARK PLAYHOUSE

Hyde Park Playhouse alumnus Bob Sommer tells the story of the summer stock theater that ran from the 1950s through the 1980s, attracting top-notch talent.

GREEN LIVING GUIDE77 SEEING GREEN Teal Hutton talks with local sustainability experts about the easiest practical

steps we can take to create a greener life at home and work.

WHOLE LIVING GUIDE90 RELAXING WITH THE RAYS

Aimee Hughes explains how to enjoy the sun this season while saving your skinthe bodys largest organfor years to come.

BUSINESS SERVICES70 TASTINGS A directory of whats cooking and where to get it. 82 BUSINESS DIRECTORY A compendium of advertiser services. 95 WHOLE LIVING DIRECTORY For the positive lifestyle.

46 Jonah Meyer, Plyoneer,10x10x15, wood, 2006LUCID DREAMING

76/08 CHRONOGRAM

We are proud to present the premier exhibition of this outstanding body of work depicting Italian architecture and culture from the hand of a contemporary realist.

May 31 through June 30, 2008

Marian DioguardiHanging Out in Venice

The Bachelors Laundry, Burano, Venice 24 x 20 oil on cradled panel

Rose Gallery Fine Art444 Warren Street, Hudson, NY 12534 ~ 518-671-6128 ~ www.rosegalleryfineart.com

Hours: Thursday through Monday 11:00 - 5:00 and by appointment

Representing distinctive contemporary artists since 1989.

CONTENTS 6/08

ARTS & CULTURE44 PORTFOLIO

The photographs of John Dugdale.

46 LUCID DREAMINGBeth E. Wilson reviews shows at the Livingroom in Kingston, Kerhonkson General in Kerhonkson, and Spire Studios in Beacon.

48 GALLERY & MUSEUM GUIDE

56 MUSIC Peter Aaron profi les Woodstock-based quietists Ida.Nightlife Highlights by DJ Wavy Davy and CD reviews of: The Barefoot Boys Sweetwater Passage reviewed by Nina Shengold.NCM Escape from Myopia Reviewed by Jeremy Schwartz.Pauline Oliveros/Miya Masaoka Accordion Koto Reviewed by Erik Lawrence.

60 BOOKSNina Shengold profi les playwright and screenwriter Frank D. Gilroy.

62 BOOK REVIEWS Pauline Uchmanowicz reviews Washington: The Making of the American Capital by Fergus Bordewich. Anne Pyburn reviews Anybody Any Minute by Julie Mars.

80 POETRYPoems by Roberta Allen, Alisha Bell, Andrew Brenza, Gary Bloom, Nichole Boisvert, Cathy Furlani, Lucas Gallo, Olga Kronmeyer, Emma McCann, Robert Milby, Forrest Schoenberger, Donna Sherman, Sparrow, and Steven Wheat.

68 FOOD & DRINK Brian K. Mahoney talks with wine importer Neal Rosenthal, author of Refl ections of a Wine Merchant, about terroir at his home in the Shekomeko Valley.

136 PARTING SHOT Hollywood Premier, a photograph by Weegee, part of the Facebook exhibition

at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College.

THE FORECAST105 DAILY CALENDAR

Comprehensive listings of local events. (Daily updates of calendar listings are posted at Chronogram.com.)

PREVIEWS109 Sparrow previews Remove the Landmark, an exhibition of photos by

Aaron Yassin and Cannon Hersey this month at Gallery 384 in Catskill. 111 Mary Gauthier talks with Robert Burke Warren prior to her June 6 gig in Rosendale. 112 Jay Blotcher previews a bevy of summer festivals across the region, from music at Bethel

Woods, to theater at Powerhouse in Poughkeepsie, and art at Storm King. 121 Billie Holiday sound-alike Madeleine Peyroux performs at the Bardavon on June 27.123 David Soman exhibits drawings at Mill Street Loft in Poughkeepsie this month

from his New York Times best-selling kids book, Ladybug Girl.

PLANET WAVES130 THE SHAPE OF TIME

Eric Francis Coppolino examines our cultural model of time, and how technology gives us a false sense of it. Plus horoscopes.

68 Wine importer Neal Rosenthal in the dining room of his Pine Plains home.FOOD & DRINK

Jenn

ifer M

ay

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OperaOpera Double Bill:

(The Shepherd)

KingRoger

Harnasie

Dance

Theater

Bard Music Festival

Musical Theater

Special Events

Film Festival

1930

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SUMMER

SCAP

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PROKOFIEVAND HIS WORLD

FROM EAST TO WEST THE FAUSTIAN PACT

10 CHRONOGRAM 6/08

ON THE COVER

Blue in Utahedie nadelhaft | oil on canvas |

I think the most interesting thing about painting is the paint itself, says Manhattan-based artist Edie Nadelhaft. I fi nd the actual substance, the sort of beauty of paint itself and the act of painting, the physical expression, have a profound potency that resonates for me.

Having previously gone to school to study art history, humanities, and paint-ing, Nadelhaft returned to school again in the `90s. I felt I still had stuff to learn, she says. I believe you always have stuff to learn. She went to the Mas-sachusetts School of Art to study web design. It was a better idea than I knew at the time, says Nadelhaft. She has been able to support herself as a web designer crafting logos online and designing websites for diverse array of clients, from pharmaceutical companies to indie rock bands. Its very quick and dirty, she says of web design. What you see is what you get. She took up web design as a creative part-time gig for money so she could continue with her fi rst love, paint-ing. I do [my art] for me, says Nadelhaft. But there is no guarantee someone will pay you for that.

Cows caught her eye while visiting her in-laws dairy farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Nadelhaft ended up really close to the cows and admired the curiosity of the animal. I went inside the barn, she says. Ill tell you, if youve never been two inches from a cow, its quite an experience. She enjoys taking something common, an overfamiliar image or representation, and placing it in a diff erent setting. Im always very excited about the second impression, says Nadelhaft, using a cow as an example. If you look past your fi rst response to it, its like wow, that sort of wonder. Taking something out of its expected context and seeing it new for the fi rst time. She has been painting cows for a few years now, in part because she fi nds them to be so funny. Humor plays a big role in Nadelhafts art, and her show at Pearldaddy in Beacon this month features many odd and off beat images of fl ies, pills (Th e Best Medicine II, an eight-foot-high replica of a prescription pill inscribed with Sweet! on its face is at once guff aw-inducing and a caustic critique), teeth biting into cherries, and of course, many pensive bovine portraits.

As part of her artistic process, Nadelhaft takes motorcycle trips to farms in the Hudson Valley to photograph cows. She employs no found images in her work, only photographs she has taken. While vacationing in Las Vegas a few years ago, Nadelhaft took a motorcycle ride to Monument Valley, where she shot the picture for Blue in Utah. Th e color grid in the bottom corner is a web color palette, an example of her commercial work infl uencing her fi ne art.

The Best Medicine: Paintings and Sculptures by Edie Nadelhaft will be exhibited at Pearldaddy on 183 Main Street in Beacon through July 6. (845) 765-0169; www.pearldaddy.net. Portfolio: www.edienadelhaft.com.

Tara Quealy

116/08 CHRONOGRAM

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12 CHRONOGRAM 6/08

EDITORIALEDITORIAL DIRECTOR Brian K. Mahoney [email protected]

CREATIVE DIRECTOR David Perry [email protected]

SENIOR EDITOR Lorna Tychostup [email protected]

BOOKS EDITOR Nina Shengold [email protected]

HEALTH & WELLNESS EDITOR Lorrie Klosterman [email protected]

POETRY EDITOR Phillip Levine [email protected]

MUSIC EDITOR Peter Aaron [email protected]

VISUAL ARTS EDITOR Beth E. Wilson [email protected]

EDITORIAL INTERN Tara Quealy [email protected]

PROOFREADER Laura McLaughlin

CONTRIBUTORSRoberta Allen, Emil Alzamora, Alisha Bell, Larry Beinhart,

Jay Blotcher, Gary Bloom, Nichole Boisvert, Andrew Brenza, Eric Francis Coppolino, Cathy Furlani, Lucas Gallo, Aimee Hughes,

Teal Hutton, Annie Dwyer Internicola, Elias Isquith, Olga Kronmeyer, Erik Lawrence, Steve Lewis, Jennifer May, Emma McCann, Robert Milby,

Edie Nadelhaft, Anne Pyburn, Fionn Reilly, Forrest Schoenberger, Jeremy Schwartz, Donna Sherman, Robert Sommer,

Sparrow, Pauline Uchmanowicz, Steven Wheat, Beth E. Wilson

PUBLISHINGFOUNDERS Jason Stern & Amara Projansky

PUBLISHER Jason Stern [email protected]

ADVERTISING SALESTalisa Faulks [email protected]; (518) 334-8600x106France Menk [email protected]; (845) 334-8600x106Eva Tenuto [email protected]; (845) 334-8600x123

Shirley Stone [email protected]; (845) 876-2194

ADMINISTRATIVECHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Amara Projansky

[email protected]; (845) 334-8600x121

BUSINESS MANAGER Ruth [email protected]; (845) 334-8600x120

PRODUCTIONPRODUCTION DIRECTOR Jacky [email protected]; (845) 334-8600x108

PRODUCTION DESIGNERS Mary Maguire, Sabrina Gilmore

PRODUCTION INTERN Eileen Carpenter

OFFICE314 Wall Street, Kingston, NY 12401(845) 334-8600; fax (845) 334-8610

MISSIONChronogram is a regional magazine dedicated to stimulating and supporting

the creative and cultural life of the Hudson Valley.

All contents Luminary Publishing 2008

SUBMISSIONSCALENDAR: To submit calendar listings, e-mail: [email protected]

Fax: (845) 334-8610. Mail: 314 Wall Street, Kingston, NY 12401

Deadline: June 15

POETRY Submissions of up to three poems at a time can be sent to [email protected] or our street address. See above.

FICTION/NONFICTION: Fiction: Submissions can be sent to fi [email protected]. Nonfi ction: Succinct queries about stories of regional

interest can be sent to [email protected].

136/08 CHRONOGRAM

THE COMPLETE OFFERING TERMS ARE IN AN OFFERING PLAN AVAILABLE FROM SPONSOR. FILE NO. C-050013

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14 CHRONOGRAM 6/08

Sante Cites StinkerTo the Editor:I was startled to read Caitlin McDonnell alleging that I praised Russell Bankss Th e Reserve in the Times Book Review. I did no such thing. I thought the book was the worst kind of guest-room pap, presumably written under duress if not actual torture by a writer who has done much, much betterand said as much. I normally wouldnt care so much about being misrepresented, but I sure dont want to be responsible for any readers subjecting themselves to that stinker.

Luc Sante, Accord

Chronogram Book Editor Nina Shengold responds:Dear Luc,As the editor who deleted Caitlin McDonnells pull quote from your New York Times review and replaced it with praised, Im prepared to take it on the chin. When I read your review, I had the impression that youd found Th e Reserve an overheated but nonetheless enjoyable romp by an author whod earned the right to a Hollywood paycheck. On rereading it, with the unambiguous stinker now lodged in my ear, I realize that your summation of it as a ripping yarn was not intended as praise. Apologies for my irony-defi cient editing.

Safety FirstTo the Editor:I enjoyed your article on Bike Month [Easy Like Monday Morning, 5/08], thanks for getting the word out. Your readers should know that there are safe cycling rides on the last Friday of every month in Kingston. Th e more local cyclists who get involved, the better!http://groups.yahoo.com/group/safecyclingkingstonwww.fatsinthecats.comBill Baird, Ulster

LETTERS

156/08 CHRONOGRAM

16 CHRONOGRAM 6/08

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Th e Writing on the Slanted WallFrom the cluttered, dusty corner of my seasonally frigid/muggy attic, I would lean back in the creaky chair and imagine each mother clasping her well-Oiled of Olay hands and cooing over her teenagers creative writ-ing assignment. Th en each father peering up over the top of his newspa-per: Send that to Uncle Steve, hes a professional writer, you know.

Which was presumably how in the later 80s I would occasionally fi nd in my battered mailbox white envelopes stuff ed with poorly folded short stories written by my sisters son Pete, my brothers son Jake, and my sister-in-laws daughter Isabel.

Scanning those typewritten pages speckled with whiteout, I happily assumed the pose of the kindly uncle professional writer, pointing out moments of real resonanceand, by the by, off hand, ever so gently, mak-ing one or two standard-issue suggestions about showing, not telling.

I would then drive to the post offi ce imagining their mothers peering breathlessly over their childrens thin shoulders: Oh my, see? Uncle Steves a professional writerand he knows what hes talking about!

Whereupon having fallen prey to my own fi ction, I would return to my attic racked with guilt for posing as a real writer. Th e truth at the time: Aside from a few chapbooks of poetry, one from New Erections Press (Madison, Wisconsin, 1969, of course) and a textbook on emergency care (another story, another time), my so-called career as a writer meant supplementing my crummy wages in academia by making a few bucks off the backs of my four, fi ve, then six, then seven (!) kids; i.e., writing pieces on fatherhood for such austere publications as Seattles Child, LA Parent, and Baby Talk (which, by the way, was given away free with diaper service deliveries).

On those dark mornings I would try to beat back my self-editing self by taking some small measure of comfort in the reasonable assumption that my young relatives would not be harmed by my charade. Th ey would go to college, get real jobs outside the heartbreaking publishing industry, and never again write another story in their lives. Nor would they learn the truth about their Uncle Steve, semiprofessional writer.

Now imagine, just glancing over the top of the magazine in your hands, time passing the way it always does, one gray hair drifting in the wind into another gray hair and another and another and suddenly but certainly not suddenly, a whole head of hair has mostly turned silveror fallen outand its a new millennium and tall, funny Pete is now Peter Steinfeld (LA screenwriterDrowning Mona, Analyze Th at, Be Cool); beautiful, sultry Isabel is Isabel Burton (deputy editor at Cosmopolitan); and sweet, thoughtful Jake is Jacob Lewis (managing editor of the New Yorker). Big enchiladas.

And Uncle Steve? Small potatoes. Still in the same creaky chair in the same seasonally frigid/muggy, dusty/dusty attic. Still teaching. A mid-list writer still hustling up columns and articles, small and large. Still writing books, large print and small. Still eking out small paydays andwhat is smaller?

Well, that old guilt, for one. In the years after overlooking the grit and resonance behind the immature voices in those youthful stories, I have learned well the wordless, capricious ways that one arrives at the dawn of each writing day. And so I have occasionally marveled at how I, despite all humbling evidence to the contrary, the writing on the slanted wall, as it were, was an unintended agent of the remarkable successes of my niece and nephews. However misguided. However absurd the claim.

From this hot/cold, dusty/dusty attic I have traced and retraced my own path as a writer, stumbling backward from New Paltz through Milwau-kee and Madison, scuttling across the fl oor of the inland sea all the way to high school on Long Island and a English teacher at Wheatley High, white-haired Dr. Harold Wells, long gone from this life.

And so I occasionally imagine as well the old man sitting at his desk reading something I wrote on the bus and, overcoming once again all good sense, telling this lazy, thoughtless boy that he was a good writer.

Sometimes thats all it takes. Steve Lewis

FIRST IMPRESSION

Route 28, Kingston, NY 12401

845-340-0552.

More on the web at www.kingstonkayakfestival.info

WORK & PLAY OUTFITTER

Get the Most of the Outdoors with Kenco. Summers the favorite season for many of our customers. Our region has so many great places to see and so much to do. And while youre out there, why not be comfortable and look good?

Kenco offers the areas best selection of

outdoor clothing, footwear, toys and gear for the land, water or hanging out.

Get around on your own power, and save on gas, hiking, boating, or walking. Take the family camping in style in the amazing Mobile Adventure campers. Announcing the 2008 Kingston Kayak Festival. Saturday, June 14 at Kingston Point Beach, on

Delaware Avenue, 10 AM 4 PM. For novices to the experienced. Learn, try and check out the gear, with manufacturers on hand to demo and answer questions. Get a great price on a kayak, canoe or accessories.

Admission is $7.00 in advance (at Kenco), or $10.00 at the beach. All ticket proceeds go to the Forsyth Nature Center.

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KAYAK FESTIVAL

2008

18 CHRONOGRAM 6/08

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CHRONOGRAM SEEN

The events we sponsor, the people who make a difference,the Chronogram community. Here's some of what we saw in May:

CAFE CHRONOGRAM AT THE KINGSTON MUDDY CUP (5/17)

RONDOUT WATERFRONT FESTIVAL (5/10)

CHRONOGRAM SPONSORS IN JUNE:Woodstock Farm Festival (Wednesdays), HV Green Drinks (6/10),

Amma Sri Karunamayi (6/10-12),Bruce Schenker Memorial Run (6/14), Cafe Chronogram (6/21),High Falls Wonderland (6/28), Readings at Maple Grove (6/29)

Top: Uncle Moon performing at Cafe Chronogram on May 17 at the Muddy Cup in Kingston.

Bottom: Arm-of-the-Sea Theater parade at the Rondout Waterfrton Festival in Kingston on May 10.

EILE

EN

CA

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EN

TER

Quality Dental CareNEW PALTZ, NY

MARLIN SCHWARTZ, DDS845 255 2902www.schwartzqualitydental.com

In fi nding a dentist its important to make the best choice. Dr. Schwartz is a knowledgeable, caring and experienced professional. He LISTENS to your concerns and does a thorough diagnosis of any problems. Then we DISCUSS options and COMMUNICATE with you until you are satisfi ed with any plan of treatment or maintenance.

We are a small offi ce in a small town. But we offer a level of treatment that you would expect in a large city. Dr. Schwartz is a graduate of NYU College of Dentistry. He continues to pursue additional training at dental education centers across the nation in such subjects as periodontics, orthodontics, implantology, and surgery. Dr. Schwartz has been at this location for eleven years. You will see the same dentist every time. You will notice that the dentist spends more time with you and takes more of a personal interest in your care than just about any other health professional youve ever met!

We provide general dentistry including family care, implants, artistic cosmetic dentistry, surgical and non-surgical periodontics, extractions, root canal and other services.

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20 CHRONOGRAM 6/08

LIVE PERFORMANCES, FILM, THEATER, DEBATE

Erin McKeown presented in part by CDGLCC/Progressions Concert Series.Dancing on the Air made possible by Tech Valley Communications.

Media Sponsorship of CRUMBS Nite Out at The Linda by Exit 97.7 WEXT.Music programming supported by the New York State Music Fund, established by

the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.Film programming is made possible with public funds from the New York State

Council on the Arts, a state agency.

TICKETS & INFORMATION ONLINE AT THELINDA.ORG

OR CALL 518-465-5233 Ex 4.

ITS ALL HAPPENING AT THE LINDA!

FEATURINGRob Jonas

Ben Karis-NixFire FliesJun/26 7pm

Live at The Linda!Hear broadcasts of past live performances at The Linda, Wednesdays at 8pm on WAMC Northeast Public Radio

90.3FM or 1400AM on your radio dial.

6/11 - Dancing on the Air

6/18 - Terry Adams Rock & Roll Quartet

7/2 - Gandalf Murphy and theSlambovian Circus of Dreams

Jun/21 8pm

Garry Higgins

Jun/23 8pm

Dan HicksAnd The Hot Licks

Jun/27 8pm

Erin McKeown

Jun/27 11pm

Jun/12 8pm

Dancing on the Air

Jun/11 8pm

FeaturingErica Seguine

Young Composers

8pm show

Graham Parker& Mike Gent

Meet the Composers

Jul/19 8pm

Annie &The Hedonists

FEATURE FILM

Jun/28 7pm

Girls Rock!

Panel with D

irector

FEATURE FILM

Jun/20 7pm

Taxi to the Dark Side

Q&A with Dir

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Jul/18 5pm workshopJul/29 8pm

Asylum StreetSpankers

216/08 CHRONOGRAM

Esteemed Reader

Now my loving is running toward my life shouting,What a bargain, lets buy it.

Rumi

Esteemed Reader of Our Magazine:As I write it is a chilly day in May. I am looking across the Wallkill Valley toward the Shawangunk Ridge. Heavy, sculpted clouds fi ll much of the sky and the sun beams in at a dramatic angledarkness above, brightness belowthe true chiaroscuro that artists emulate. It is rife with contrast, as though the canopy is shouting Yes! and No! with the same breath.

It reminds me of an early springtime memoryI was four or fi vestanding on a hill looking across a hayfi eld at to the opposite ridge. Th e sky was so gray it was almost black. Th e fi eld and a hill of trees on the other side of the valley were awash with bright orange light as the sun set behind me. Th e image of light and dark interacting with such power and grace made me gasp then, as it does now.

Strong contrasts are everywhere in springtime. It is a season of fertile confl ict. Warmth collides with cold in the air and frozen earth, awakening dormant seeds and spurring trees to sprout new leaves. Th e confl uence beckons the birds to come home, and the otherwise graceful fox to bark noisily in the night, as much in pride as protection for her cubs in the den.

Earlier this spring a fi nch built a nest on a many-pointed star lantern that hangs from the roof of our porch. It is a hostile place for a home, balancing on sharp metal tips, swinging in the wind. Watching momma fi nch carry leaves and twigs and fl uff to her new construction I thought when the wind blows, the cradle will rock.And sure enough we came home one evening to fi nd the completed nest upturned on the ground surrounded by violet egg shells and smeared yolk. It had the same eff ect as blood on our three-year old. Th ats very sad, he said.

But that was early enough for momma fi nch to get back to work and build another nest in the same place, apparently having learned from her design errors. As of this writing there are four furry fi nch chicks in the nest on the star, which appears to have become more stable with the accretion of speckled fi nch poop.

My own mother taught me something about eggs and challenge when I was a childabout the time I fi rst felt the beauty and power of chiaroscuro, light and dark intertwined. Again it was springtime and we were hatching chicken eggs in an incubator. We had candled them and seen the growing chick fetuses inside, and carefully turned the eggs like a mother hen would, twice a day for a couple of weeks. And then we heard them starting to tap-tap-tap at the inside of the shells, and little holes appeared. We watched them work to widen the opening and break through. Th ey worked and then restedthe periods of rest growing longer, the longer it took for the chicks to emergetheir little wet bird bodies exhausted, panting. Th e urge to reach in and tear off the shell was irresistible. Dont do it, my mother admonished, if you help them, they will die. Th ey must do it themselves.

For me this has been a particularly vivid spring. I noticed the intensity and fullness of each stage of transition from winter more than usualthe fi rst whiff of fresh, living air in February; the so-subtle green aura of buds on trees in March; the fulfi lling thunderstorms and rain that are a cleansing ablution for the land and atmosphere in April; and the coming to verdant fullness in May.

Th e liberating eff ect of spring took me by surprise. More light, the smell of sweet air, its warmth on my skinwoke me up from an hibernation I didnt realize I was in. To wake up in this way, by surprise, and to feel the parabolic meaning of the signs and events of spring, is a taste of unexpected abundance, like winning a cosmic lottery.

It is, at times, diffi cult to remember the wealth and abundance and happiness that is always already here. Th e crimes and controversies that are rampant in every area of life; the wars fought incessantly in ourselves and by extension in our homes, towns, nation, world; the greed for power, wealth, egoic aggran-dizementare compelling attractors of our attention. But there is a force that beckons wakefulness like it pulls the sap out of the roots and into the trunk of the maple in spring. If we relax our gaze, and allow the sap to fl ow, we become engaged with a world that is rich with life and meaning, and is happy.

Jason Stern

22 CHRONOGRAM 6/08

236/08 CHRONOGRAM

(Parking in back of Blockbuster)

Ramps Festival

May 3 4

Rondout Valley Farm Tour

July 26 27

Pick Our Valley. . . and Our Brains!

July 26 27

Farm Feast

August 2

Corn and Tomato Festival

August 27

Putting it Up Preservingthe Harvest

September 7

8th Annual SusquehannaValley Garlic Festival

September 20

Fall for the Arts

September 21

6th Annual Caulifl owerFestival

September 27

Little Farmers Day

October 4

Winter Festival

December 6

Holiday MarketSullivan County

December 6 7

For more information,

visit www.buypurecatskills.com.

24 CHRONOGRAM 6/08

Comfort and Style.Organic Chocolates. Mario Battali Cookware. Furniture. Kites. Hand-crafted Kaleidoscopes.

Dr. Hauschka Skin Care. Masters Collection by The Culinary Institute of America. Homemade pastries. Local products. International crafts.

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ali Cookware. Furniture. Kites. Hand-crafted Kaleidoscopes.

256/08 CHRONOGRAM

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Meet the farmers who put the local in locally grown

July 26 & 27, 2008July 26 & 27, 2008

Enjoy spectacular scenery, sample farm-grown products, and watch demonstrations of sustainable agriculture, beekeeping,corn harvesting and more while learning about the rich agriculturalheritage of this special region.

The self-guiding tour will feature classes or demonstrations all weekend long at:

Gill Corn Farms Experience a corn harvesting demonstrationfrom a haywagon pulled alongside an operating corn harvester.

Five Springs Farm An up-close demonstration of bees and beekeeping.

Davenport Farms Take a tour of this full scale vegetableoperation to learn what goes into raising vegetables from farm to fork.

Farm & Granary A walking tour and class on SustainableAgriculture in the Rondout Valley.

Stone Ridge Orchard A hands-on demonstration on severaltechniques of plant propagation useful for any backyard orchardist.

Rusty Plough Farm Learn about their unique CSA/buyingclub model, as well as how to grow healthy plants via healthy soilsand management of the surrounding habitat.

Duchess Farm This horse facilitys manure management program creates composted manure mixed with topsoil for gardenand landscaping use.

Country Flowers A greenhouse tour and demonstration ofbedding plant propagation.

Catskill Native Nursery Learn what it means to becomean ecological gardener and turn your property into a beautiful, bio-diverse haven for birds, butterflies, beneficial insects and small mammals.

Hasbrouck Farms A tour of a large selection of antique farming equipment and hand tools along with the RVGAs walk-through historical farming exhibit.

Farm Tour participants receive a map, coupons for local businesses, restaurants,B&Bs, & farm products.Experience the culinary pleasures of good, wholesomelocally grown food. Aroma Thyme Bistro, DePuy Canal House,Friends and Family ll Hillside Restaurant, High Falls Caf,Northern Spy Cafe, and Oscar Restaurant will use Rondout Valleyproducts as part of their menu and offer discounts to all tour participants.

Stay with us the whole weekend and receive discounts at participating bed & breakfasts: Bakers Bed & Breakfast, The LockTenders House, The SheeleyHouse Bed & Breakfast, Sparrow Hawk Bed & Breakfast, and 1712 House.

For more information visitwww.rondoutvalleygrowers.org

or email [email protected]

The Farm Tour was made possible by grants from The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, Watershed Agricultural Council and NYC DEP.

All monies raised from this event go directly to support the Rondout Valley Growers Association

276/08 CHRONOGRAM

Eating organic food doesnt mean youre not eating corporate food. Many of the countrys largest food corporations are behind popular organic brands. Kraft, the number one food processor in the country, produces Boca Foods (makers of Boca Burgers) and Back to Nature. Odwalla juice is produced by Coca-Cola. Heinz, the 27th-largest food company, produces the most organic foods, including Earths Best, Tofutown, and Health Valley brands.

A study published in the April issue of Science found that the closest living relatives of the Tyrannosaurus rex are modern birds. T. Rexes are more closely related to ostriches and chickens than living reptiles.

Cott Corp., maker of private-label sodas, is bringing the health and wellness craze to canines, producing a line of vitamin-infused beverages for dogs. The company does have some competition with retailer Pet Smart, which is producing a nutrition tablet that can be added to dog water. The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association expects Americans to spend about $43.4 billion on their pets in 2008.

In a six-to-three vote, the Supreme Court upheld Indianas voter identifi cation law on April 28. Indianas Democratic Party and community groups had sued the state, claiming the law placed thousands of eligible voters who did not have drivers licenses at a disadvantage. The onus of the Indiana law is illegiti-mate just because it correlates with no state interest so well as it does with the object of deterring poorer residents from exercising the franchise, wrote Justice David H. Souter in a dissenting opinion. Many voting experts be-lieve the law will lead to more litigation, legislation, and complications.

Fifty American service members were killed in Iraq in April, a seven-month high. The Iraqi government reported that civilian casualties reached a high of 969 that month. Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group says the in-crease in the number of deaths is due to fi ghting between Shiite militiamen and US forces in Sadr City. Violence has been steadily increasing since January, according to US military fi gures.

Members of the House of Representatives can lease a car at taxpayers ex-pense. With few restrictions on what kind of cars members can choose, there is no limit on how much they can spend. Gas, insurance, general mainte-nance, registration fees, and excess mileage all get paid for by taxpayers. About 125 members of the House take advantage of this benefi t, which has been in place since the 1980s. The Senate does not allow its members to lease cars with public money.

One in fi ve vehicles sold in the US was a compact or subcompact car during the month of April. Sales of pick up trucks, sport utility vehicles, and vehicles with six-cylinder engines have sharply declined.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved 2,370 warrants to spy on suspected terrorists last year. The fi gure is a nine-percent increase from 2006. A recent study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University found that the number of terrorism and national security prosecutions initiated by the Justice Department in 2007 was more than 50 percent below 2002 levels.

Black men are nearly 12 times as likely to be imprisoned for drug convic-tions as adult white men, according to a Human Rights Watch report. The report, as well as one done by the Sentencing Project in Washington, shows that there was an overwhelming focus of law enforcement on drug use in low-income urban areas, which could be linked to the disproportionate rates.

Sources: Good Magazine, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Times

Tara Quealy

28 CHRONOGRAM 6/08

WE ARE DIGITALThe Peekskill Extension Center (27 N. Division St.) is Westchester Community Colleges flagship post-production facility. This tremendous resource is dedicated to the fostering of digital arts education. Explore web design to digital video-making, and audio recording.

Visit www.sunywcc.edu/peekskill, email [email protected] or call 914-606-7300.

po

296/08 CHRONOGRAM

Call it six degrees of Chronogram. For those whose minds dont immediately snap to the reference: There was a ubiquitous party game from late last century called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Essentially a way for cinephiles with capacious memories to show off , the object was to choose an actorany actorand then connect back to prolifi c big-screen thespian Bacon in six moves or less. Take Gone With the Wind star Olivia de Havilland. Late in her career, De Havil-land lent her talents to the `70s disaster-genre disaster The Swarm, also starring Richard Chamberlain. Chamberlain played a supporting role in the Kather-ine Hepburn vehicle The Madwoman of Chaillot, as did Donald Pleasance. In Halloween, Pleasance starred as the psychiatrist trying to fi nd asylum escapee Michael Myers before he kills the babysitter, Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis and Bacon both appeared in the early `90s Big Chill rip-off Queens Logic. From the antebellum south to the Brat Pack in four moves. (When I was tending bar in Tribeca in the early 90s, I met a struggling comedian/actor who told me he had developed a game exactly similar to the one described abovenote that this was two or three years before the advent of Six Degrees of Kevin Baconbut he called his version Back to Bacon.)

Radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi was the fi rst to state the idea of six de-grees of separation in his Nobel speech of 1909, suggesting that it would take six radio relay stations to send a message around the world. This started futur-ists on a tear of thinking about the small world phenomenon that has given us, among other things, the Internet, as well as the charming ethnocentrism of the Disneyworld ride Its a Small World After All.

The six degrees concept came into the public consciousness in the mid-90s with the cinematic adaptation of John Guares play Six Degrees of Sepa-ration. The title of the play refers to the idea that if each of us is one degree away from each person we know, and two degrees away from people who are known to people we know, then we are all an average of six degrees removed from any person on earth.

A simple way of saying this: Were all connected. And this is where semantics enters, for the quality of connection is im-

portant. As a newspaper reader, I can say that I am connected to the recent catastrophic events in Burma and China. But this connection is limited to non-engaged intellectualism. I know the meteorologic and geologic causes of cyclones and earthquakes, and how many tens of thousands of dead are being reported on any given day. But my connection to the events extends no further than this, aside from a momentarily heightened empathy for the suff ering of others and a thought to send a check to the Red Cross. My connection to these events is weak. In contrast, one of these reasons we all feel so connected to 9/11, especially those of us who live in New York, is that we are likely physi-cally connected to people directly aff ected, or at most, one degree removed.

The events of 9/11 were much on the minds of those I heard speak at

the Omega Institutes Being Fearless conference in April. This makes perfect sense, as 9/11 is the current touchstone for our existential dread. And the re-sidual fear from 9/11 is, in one sense, fear of the other; fear of those we are not connected to and who seem unwilling to connect to us. (NB: Im not sure we can connect with everyone. Religious fundamentalistsof all stripesseem concerned with connecting in only one particular way, abjuring human rela-tions in favor of tethering themselves to the supposed goals of a higher power. How do we as humanists connect to that?)

At the conference, Omega cofounder Stephan Rechstaff en reminded the audience of the origin of the institutes name. Its taken from a term coined by a French Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, to a describe a rather complex theory about the evolution of consciousness. The Omega Point, which Rech-staff en thankfully explained in simple terms, is the point at which consciousness recognizes it own interdependency. In the context of Being Fearless, Rechstaff ens message was that it was time for the New Age to engage with the world. Its not enough, anymore, to retreat into the interior. We need to use the inner resources we have been developing lo these many yearsthrough the various disciplines that Omega has been fosteringto make a change in the world.

And I dont think Rechstaff en was talking about sending a check to Red Cross, either. The connection he was calling for was deeper than that. As Caro-line Myss noted in her keynote speech at Being Fearless, You cannot have an intellectual experience of God. (By God, I take Myss to mean the greater consciousness suggested by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.)

One way I saw this engagement in action recently was in the work of Omega itself, through its community outreach. At a recent Hudson Valley Green Drinks event, I was introduced to Joan Henry, who directs empower-ment programs at Mill Street Loft for inner-city girls in Poughkeepsie. Henry explained how she had been contacted in the fall of 2006 by Traci Childress, a program coordinator at Omega, about the possibility of sponsoring a group of girls for Arts Week, Omegas annual feast of interdisciplinary creativity. Working with Childress and two other instructors, Lesley Hawley and Jeri Van Blaricom, Henry crafted an experience for 14 urban, at-risk girlssome of whom had never eaten vegetarian food before (the food served on the Omega campus being strictly vegetarian)to connect to themselves, to con-nect with their potential, and, as Childress pointed out, it was an opportunity for everyone at Omega to connect with the fi erce energy of these girls, a group not typical of Omegas demographic. Since the unqualifi ed success of Arts Week, Omega has forged a connection with Mill Street Loft that has extended to scholarships to some of its conferences, like Women and Power, and the organizations are looking to collaborate again on Arts Week in the future.

And how did Omegas Traci Childress connect with Mill Street Lofts pro-grams? Reading Chronogram.

Back to Bacon, as they say.Brian K. Mahoney

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Brian K. Mahoney Editors NoteConnectivity

Get your weekly dose of Chronogram on Monday mornings at 8:15 with Brian and Greg Gattine on The Morning Show with Gattine and Franz. WDST 100.1FM.

30 NEWS & POLITICS CHRONOGRAM 6/08

Coming to

AMERICAImmigration, the Environment and Big Population Numbersby Jim Motavalli

NEWS & POLITICSWorld, Nation, & Region

In 2006, USA Today ran a lengthy story titled How Will the USA Cope With Unprecedented Growth? The countrys population had just crossed the 300 million mark, up from 200 million in just 39 years. Writer Haya El Nasser listed the many environmental problems made worse by rapid population growth, from traffi c congestion to dwindling open space. But El Nassers story left one question unanswered: Why is the US virtually the only industrialized country with a rapidly growing population? The key word is immigration, but El Nasser never uses it.

Its a pretty big target to miss. More than a million immigrants achieve permanent resident status every year (twice the estimated number of un-documented arrivals). Seven hundred thousand people a year become US citizens, and half a million receive work visas. These immigration numbers are unprecedented in our history: For most of our nations more than 200 years, fewer than 500,000 immigrants were admitted annually and usually less than 300,000.

That pattern has been radically altered. A 2008 Pew Research Center re-port attributes 82 percent of US population growth to immigration, noting that the foreign-born population will pass its historic 19th-century peak of 15 percent within two decades. Largely because of immigration, the US Cen-sus Bureau estimates that from 303 million today well grow to 400 million people as early as 2040, and 420 million by 2050. While some parts of the world, including Western Europe and Japan, are experiencing birth dearth with below replacement-level fertility, the US is growing so fast we now have the third-largest population in the world, after only India and China.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, if we legally admitted just 300,000 people a year, by 2060 the population would be 80 million less than its likely to be on our current course.

Fifty-three percent of the 100 million people we just added were recent immigrants or their descendants, says the Pew Hispanic Center. According to the authoritative Population Reference Bureau (PRB), at least a third of US population growth between 1990 and 2000 was due to immigrants, and fi rst- and second-generation Americans will constitute a third of our citizenry by 2025the highest number ever.

Obviously, our numbers are swelling as a result of both legal and illegal immigration. PRBs estimates are probably considerably understated, because of the diffi culty of quantifying just how many illegal immigrants are currently in the country. (The most popular number is 12 million, but other estimates are much higher.)

Tom Barry, a senior analyst with the Center for International Policy (CIP), admits that theres no question that most population growth is from immi-grants and the eff ects of chain migration [the policy of family reunifi cation that gives priorities to extended family members of current residents]. Barrys own proposals for immigration reform not only include a path to legalization but also restrict family reunifi cation to the immigrants spouse and children, an idea that he admits is controversial.

Indeed it is. The New York Immigration Coalition, for instance, says that any immigration bill that includes cuts in family immigration is a profound betrayal of the family values and basic fairness that all Americans cherish. Chung-Wha Hong, the groups executive director, calls for a broad and simple legalization for immigrants; a future worker program with full rights and a clear path to citizenship; family unity; and strong protections for due process and civil rights. Under such a plan, illegal immigrants would have nearly the same rights as legal immigrants.

There are push factors that cause people around the world to seek better lives for themselves. And there is an environmental impact to our projected growtha virtually taboo subject for many of the larger green groups, and for much of the media, too. It seems nearly impossible to have a sane and unbiased discussion of this hot-button issue, one that avoids racism and just looks at the numbers.

THE I WORD There is no more agonizing issue on the American political agenda than im-migration. America is, as were frequently reminded, a nation of immigrants. We absorbed 25 million people between 1860 and 1920, and most observers believe we are a stronger nation because of it.

But Americas current circumstances are vastly diff erent than they were at

316/08 CHRONOGRAM NEWS & POLITICS

the turn of the century. In 1900, there were 25.6 Americans per square mile in the US; now it is 83 per square mile, a more than 300 percent increase. Further, immigrants are concentrated in certain states, with California being a prime destination. The state has 36 million people today (with a relatively dense 230 people per square mile). The population has doubled since 1960, but it could nearly double again, to an astonishing 60 million, by as early as 2050.

California stands out in the immigration debate. Every hour, it adds 60 people. Between 1990 and 2000, California grew from 29.8 to 34 million people, an increase greater than the increase in all the northeastern states from Maine to Virginia in the same period. The rapid growth is fueled by the fact that, as the PRB reports, Foreign-born couples tend to have more children than US-born couples. Foreign-born residents are in their prime childbearing years, and immigrants often come from countries with larger families. Census data shows that Hispanics have an average of 2.9 children per woman, com-pared to 1.8 for non-Hispanic whites. This is a factor in the recent increase in the US fertility rate to a replacement level of 2.1, a 35-year high higher than that of any industrialized country.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL ARGUMENT Why is immigration an environmental concern? The fact is that Americas rapid growth makes it nearly impossible to achieve sustainability. According to Population-Environment Balance (PEB), 93 percent of US increases in energy use since 1970 can be attributed to population growth. To house our growing numbers, we pave over an area the size of Delaware every year, the group says. Our population growth is a big factor in the endangered or threatened status of as many as 700 species of plants and animals. Another 9,000 species are at risk. And every day, we remove 3.2 billion gallons of water from aquifers that are not replenished by natural processes.

Although increased population has many other environmental eff ects (urban sprawl and the loss of open space, to name two), energy and climate eff ects are

central and little understood. Any effi ciency gains we make are being swamped by rapid population increases and their attendant increased energy demand.

The wasteful American lifestyle is one major culprit. With just 5 percent of the worlds population, the US is the top consumer of 11 of the worlds top-20 traded commodities. We use a quarter of the worlds fossil fuel. We have more private cars than drivers with licenses, and, at least until recently, more than half of those sold were gas-guzzling SUVs and pickup trucks. Between 1975 and 2002, the average American home grew 38 percent, even though house-hold size declined. We have an impact disproportionate to our population, but the growth of that population exacerbates the problem.

US population growth explains the preponderance of growth in our na-tional energy consumption, says Leon Kolankiewicz in a report for Numbers USA, which advocates lower immigration rates. In 1970, he points out, with the US population at just 200 million, a US awash in cheap electricity and driv-ing huge gas-guzzling, ineffi cient vehicles used 67 quadrillion BTUs (quads) of energy and 14.7 million barrels of oil a day. In 2006, with 300 million people and after many energy-effi ciency improvements, we used 100 quads of energy and 20 million barrels of oil a day. And the increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the US, which rose 13 percent between 1990 and 2000, closely mirrors the just-over-13-percent population increase.

PUSH AND PULL Its hardly surprising that so many people want to come to America from the overpopulated developing world, and the push factors that cause them to seek a new life in the US are compelling. Who can blame a family mired in poverty for wanting a better future? According to Population Connection, the swelling numbers abroad create pressures leading to increased poverty, hunger, land degradation, a lack of health services and limited social and economic mobility. These problems motivate people to leave their homeland in search of greater opportunities. And what better place to go than the affl uent, welcoming US,

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PEOPLE FLOCK OVER THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE DURING A MASSIVE POWER OUTAGE IN NEW YORK ON AUGUST 14, 2003.

THE US HAS THE WORLDS THIRD-LARGEST POPULATION, WHICH IS EXPECTED TO GROW BY 100 MILLION PEOPLE, TO 400 MILLION, IN THE NEXT 30 YEARS.


the destination for 20 percent of the worlds international migrants? How do mainstream groups address these emigration pressures without

calling for taboo mandatory caps on US immigration? Population Connection wants to combine action at home (ensuring contraceptive availability, defend-ing reproductive rights) with foreign aid and diplomacy abroad. If our neigh-bors to the South see real hope for better lives at home, they will feel much less pressure to emigrate, the group says.

Such views have many supporters. What would stop the illegal migration? asks G. Jeff erson Price III, a former Baltimore Sun foreign correspondent, now with Catholic Relief Services. A reversal in the trends that have devastated the economies of the countries whose people feel they have no alternative but to leave. We are spending a lot of energy and wealth to keep immigrants out of the US. If we and the governments of the countries they are coming from were to devote as much to improving their standard of living at home, they might not feel the need to come to America.

As Price points out, the options for the desperate immigrant are staying home and nearly starving in appalling economic conditions or trying to cross into the US, where if they can evade the Border Patrol, their prospects will immediately improve. Its hardly surprising that up to 30 million people have

made that trip successfully, and many others have failed yet keep on trying. Betsy Hartmann, director of the population and development program at

Hampshire College, says, If were going to have a big population because of immigration, then we should take it as a chance to reduce individual consump-tion and carbon footprints. Instead of a one-child policy, we should encourage a one-car policy.

Hartmann claims that sprawl is caused largely by poor zoning, planning, transport, and taxation policies. She supports a massive US investment in green technology. Hartmann also hopes that India and Chinaboth of which are increasing their per capita global warming emissionscan leapfrog over the Wests oil obsession and go directly to cleaner energy sources. Thats obvi-ously a worthy goal, but when profi t is the key motivation, the investment often goes elsewhere.

The obstacle is to get countries around the world to focus on eradicating hunger, infant mortality and poverty. A major hurdle would be limiting births through universal access to family planning and maternal health programs. In 1994, 179 countries met in Cairo, Egypt, for the International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD), with the goal of forging an interna-tional commitment. The conference issued a 20-year plan known as the Cairo Agenda that included:

Universal access to reproductive services and family planning programs by 2015;

Full participation of women in political and public life; A consensus target of .7 percent of Gross National Product per donor

country for international development assistance.

This agenda has languished. The 1994 call was for $17 billion annual com-mitment for population and reproductive health programs by 2000, and $21 billion by 2015. By 2004, less than $10 billion per year was committed, and the Bush Administrationwhich opposes abortion and, in many cases, family planninghas failed to meet the need. By contrast, the administrations Iraq War has already cost American taxpayers more than $500 billion, and bills are now running $275 million per day. The same funds strategically applied could have gone a long way toward ending world poverty.

According to Zonny Woods, an international consultant on reproductive health issues, The Bush Administrations reinstatement of the Global Gag rule [which prohibits U.S. funds from going to groups that in any way aid abortion] has had a severe impact on organizations that have rejected it. Not only are they no longer able to receive USAID funds, they are unable to receive much-needed USAID-donated contraceptives.

Nevertheless, Thoraya Ahmed, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), says that the ICPD process off ers the best hope for reducing migration pressures. To address migration, the growing pov-erty and demographic divide between rich and poor countries must be ad-dressed, she says.

Echoing this theme is Tom Barry of CIP. A comprehensive US immigra-tion policy should support job creation and development programs, he says. That, unfortunately, is not happening, because the economic policies of coun-tries like Mexico are complicated by economic liberalization programs like NAFTA, which support US interests and are not connected to job creation. The status quo shortchanges Mexicans looking for work.

TAUGHT BY TV More family planning clinics may not be the answer. Bill Ryerson, president of the Vermont-based Population Media Center (PMC), analyzed 50 demo-graphic and health surveys carried out in the last few decades and found that the predominant reasons women in developing countries give for not using birth control are: 1) fear of side eff ects; 2) male opposition; 3) religious op-position or the belief that family planning is not morally appropriate; and 4) fatalismits up to God. Lack of access to services is cited by less than two percent of respondents; in many countries it is less than one percent, Ryerson says. The evidence suggests that family planning education is as important as opening clinics.

What clearly does work is changing hearts and minds about family size and the use of birth control, a decidedly grassroots phenomenon. And thats exactly what PMC does by creating popular soap opera-type radio shows. The model is Mexico, where Miguel Sabido, vice president of the major TV network Tele-visa, created a series of telenovelas with family planning themes. From 1977 to 1986, when these programs were on the air, Mexico experienced a 34 percent decline in population growth and, in 1986, won the United Nations Population Prize. In 1975, the average woman had 3.5 children; by 1985, it was 2.4.

A spokesperson for US Aid for International Development, speaking on background, calls Mexico a graduated country. The agency stopped working there in 1999, after handing its family planning programs over to the Mexican government. Thats one of our success stories, the spokesperson said. As in Turkey, Indonesia, and Morocco, the government became an active partner with us and the result was a signifi cant drop in fertility rates.

The drop in Mexican fertility ratesto just over replacement levelwould seem to be an interesting talking point in the current immigration debate, but it is rarely mentioned. One imagines it would turn our elected representatives into enthusiastic supporters of production aid to family planning soap operas, but that hasnt happened.

When PMC launched it Sabido-type soap opera program in Ethiopia, the country had a fi ve-year supply of oral contraceptives gathering dust in a ware-house. Only six percent of the population used any modern method of birth con-trol and the birth rate was 5.4. Now birth control is in demand and, in the most populous Amhara region, fertility has dropped a full child, from 5.4 to 4.3.

A TV soap opera broadcast in India in the early 1980s, Hum Log, had very high ratings and a similar success story. A study showed that 71 percent of view-ers learned from watching the show that family size should be limited. A second

LARGELY BECAUSE OF IMMIGRA-TION, THE US CENSUS BUREAU

ESTIMATES THAT FROM 303 MIL-LION TODAY WELL GROW TO 400

MILLION PEOPLE AS EARLY AS 204O, AND 420 MILLION BY 2050. THE US HAS THE THIRD-LARGEST

POPULATION IN THE WORLD.


The question people ask me most frequently as a professional life coach (PCC) is - How can you help me get what I want?My answer is that working with me allows clients to figure things out for themselves. That may not be what they want to hear but its the truth. You discover your own path and answers. What you choose yourself, you own. And what you own empowers you to get what you want.

What is coaching? Coaching is a conversation. I listen to clients in a way that creates a unique kind of conversation, unlike any other you have ever had. It is confidential and powerful.

Does it really work? Coaching is designed to have an immediate impact on your life. My goal is to have you achieve your goals in one to three months. Of course some clients get so much value that they choose to stay on. Coaching quickly shakes you out of your automatic patterns and habitual way of being. You begin to change the way you see things, gain new learning about yourself and that allows you to change your behavior. Together we design a plan, make commitments and get into action. The coachs job is to hold you accountable to your plan. It works.

Can coaching help me find a new career? Improved relationship? Grow my business? In a word, yes and more. Many clients use me to improve their business or work. Any area of your life can be addressed successfully by coaching. I hold the vision of your bigger self. When you are more you it impacts on everything in your life.

Can it be that easy? Yes and noit takes some work. Most clients who come to coaching are already successful but want something more. People on their own tend to stay stuck in familiar circumstances rather than take on the risk of change. As coach I will challenge and support

my clients to grow. The path to growth is through change and willingness to confront the risk of being uncomfortable. Thats why my motto is change is inevitablegrowth is optional. With risk comes reward and the rewards can be plentiful.

What do people say they get out of coaching? Here are comments from a few of my clients:

He prods you to lead yourself from self-doubt to self realization. David is the best investment Ive made in my practice. Charles LaBarre - Acupuncturist

David helps me separate the essential from the inessential and supports me in fulfilling my objectives. He is my ally and coach, and with his support I know that I am not alone as I face the challenges of life. Jason Stern - Publisher

David has enabled me to be confident in my abilities, in my judgments, and in my decisions. Ilene Tanen - President TDA Advertising

Do you offer a free consultation? Yes. It is important for people to find out for themselves what coaching is like and if they have the right chemistry with their coach. All my coaching work is on the phone so it is easy and convenient to set up a free coaching session to find out for yourself. I invite you to contact me today for a free session and see if it is for you.

David Basch, Professional Certified Coach 845.626.0444 | www.dwbcoaching.com

Conversations with a Life Coach

Do you have unfulfilled goals and dreams or are you just stuck?


TV soap show, Humraahi, became the top-rated program on Indian television, with 230 million viewers. Again, surveys showed changing attitudes on such questions as the proper age for marriage and women in the workforce.

The same approach, in cooperation with Save the Children, has also worked well in reducing AIDS incidence among Indian truck drivers. PMC has spread its TV-driven message around the world, and works in 15 countries with of-fi ces in Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, the Philippines, Rwanda, and Sudan. Government cooperation varies, but the government of Ethiopia has provided funding and Sudan off ered free airtime on state-controlled TV.

REVERSE IMMIGRATION Other factors not recognized in the heat of an election year are also slowing immigration-related population growth. In Bridgeport, Connecticut, music clubs fi ll up on weekends with Brazilian customers intent on dancing to the music of one of their favorite bandsPink Floyd. There were only an esti-mated 35 Brazilian families in Bridgeport in the early 1980s, but now there are many thousands. Brazilians have opened restaurants, painting businesses, and travel agencies, and their arrival has added spice to the citys beat.

But immigration and naturalization offi cials noticed a signifi cant drop in new Brazilian arrivals after 1992, dovetailing with an economic downturn in the US. Now that pattern may be repeating, as Brazilians (especially illegal immigrants) face stronger enforcement and a recession that makes it harder to fi nd work. Some cant renew drivers licenses, making it a challenge to keep a job in a battered economy.

Brazilians in strongholds such as Newark, Danbury, and Boston say theyre pulling up stakes and making the reverse trek back to their homeland. The Boston-based Brazilian Immigrant Center estimates that 5,000 returning Bra-zilians left Massachusetts in 2007.

Arizona (where one in 10 workers is a Hispanic immigrant) passed a tough new law that went into eff ect January 1, slapping businesses that knowingly employ the undocumented with business license suspensions of up to 10 days. Second-time off enders lose their licenses entirely. The law is considered so draconian by illegal Mexican immigrants in Arizona (some with long-held employment) that many are reportedly self-deporting back to Mexico.

The number returning to Mexico is diffi cult to calculate, but there is no question that many families are leaving, according to Mexican government offi cials, local community leaders, and immigrants themselves, reports the Arizona Republic. In 2007, the Mexican consulate processed 16,500 applica-tions for passports, which nationals will need when they return to Mexico.

FILLING ECONOMIC GAPS But theres another side to the immigration debate. Supporters of maintain-ing current high levels say that a constant infl ux is necessary to keep the US economically competitive. Without immigrants picking onions in California or cleaning gutters in Connecticut, they say, those jobs would go begging.

Our immigration system is broken and the government must act in a com-prehensive way to fi x it, says Randel Johnson, US Chamber of Commerce vice president for labor, immigration, and employee benefi ts. Our immigra-tion and visa policy must ensure employers are able to fi ll jobs critical to our economy when American workers are not available. Some labor unions have backed this plan, too, making a rather unusual coalition.

And liberals use remarkably similar reasoning in endorsing Bushs goals for amnesty and guest worker programs. Comprehensive immigration reform would protect our security, allow our economy to grow, protect the wages of US workers, honor our value of rewarding hard work, restore the rule of law, and respect Americas traditional embrace of immigrants, says the Center for American Progress.

President Bush said his failed plan to create a temporary worker program (admitting 400,000 people annually) would meet the legitimate needs of American employers. The Chamber has argued, in Congressional testimony, that because the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the number of those in the work force between the ages of 25 and 34 to grow by only three million

between 2002 and 2012, and says the aging work force will erode American competitiveness. It adds that the US fertility rate will decline to 1.91 between 2015 and 2020, below replacement level. Meanwhile, by 2010, 77 million baby boomers will retire. By 2030, one in fi ve Americans is projected to be a senior citizen, the Chamber says.

But selectively quoting the fertility rate is highly misleading, because it ignores the population growth fueled by immigration. Without the constant infl ux, the US would indeed have a shrinking population similar to Western Europe. But with immigration, it is slated to take a giant leap forward. The Census Bureau estimates the US population will reach an incredible 419 mil-lion by 2050. With numbers like that, an American birth dearth aff ecting competitiveness is not only unlikely, but its also well nigh impossible.

Obviously, the employment issue has as many facets as a diamond; for every immigrant who takes a US job, theres another one being shipped overseas by the same companies that encourage high immigration rates. And new factories abroad encourage people to stay home and not emigrate.

COSTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS Immigrants contribute much to American society, and its important not to scapegoat them. According to Sebastian Mallaby, director of the Coun-cil on Foreign Relations Center for Geoeconomic Studies, in California in 2004 an impressive 94 percent of undocumented men ages 18 to 64 were in the workforce, compared with 82 percent of native-born men. The Pew Hispanic Center reports that approximately 7.2 million undocumented im-migrants are working in the US today, comprising some 4.9 percent of the overall workforce.

Far from being part of a shiftless underclass, the act of coming to the Unit-ed States makes immigrants among the most upwardly mobile groups in the nation, only a bit behind hedge-fund managers, Mallaby says.

And there is confl icting information about illegal immigrants burden on social services. They pay no income taxes but do pay sales and payroll taxes. They visit hospital emergency rooms and attend schools, but are ineligible for welfare, food stamps, and Medicaid. According to Gordon Hanson of the University of California, San Diego, the net eff ect of undocumented workers on native-born Americans is roughly zero. A 1997 RAND Corporation study had similar fi ndings.

But Hansons numbers are far from defi nitive. Robert Rector of the conser-vative Heritage Foundation comes to much diff erent conclusions. He says the 4.5 million low-skilled immigrant households circa 2004 produced an average net fi scal defi cit of $19,588, or $89.1 billion in total. Over the next 10 years, he wrote last year, the net cost (benefi ts minus taxes) to the taxpayer of low-skill immigrant households will approach $1 trillion.

Another study, by Donald Huddle of Rice University, estimates that im-migration to the US since 1970 (both legal and illegal) has cost taxpayers a net $68 billion (after subtracting the taxes legal immigrants pay).

But its not all about money; the immigration debate also has moral di-mensions. Comprehensive immigration reform is a great moral debate, says Jim Wallis, president and executive director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal. Who would Jesus deport? is a fair question.

Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Aff airs, says, How we treat the 12 million undocumented who are here in many ways colors who we are as Jews. How we react to those who want to enter our borders and become part of our country says a lot about how well we remember our own stories when we were immigrants looking for a safe haven, a place to rest and live and prosper.

Some environmentalists argue passionately that its not fair to simply tell aspiring Americanssome of whom risk their lives and their entire life savings in an eff ort to cross the border for a better lifethat they should simply stay away.

Given the current, highly charged debate, its unlikely that well achieve na-tional consensus on immigration anytime soon. But we need to focus here. How big a country do we want to be? What is our countrys carrying capacity, and did we exceed it many years ago? Why do people choose to emigrate, and what can we do to ease conditions in their countries? Thats a debate worth having.


NATURAL PHOTOGRAPHY845.489.8038 WWW.LORNATYCHOSTUP.COM

T his month, the center of SHV attention is a scary-exciting new project just launched: the Kingston Green Trail. Extending from Uptown to the waterfront along Broad-way, uniting the citys neighborhoods, the Green Trail is an image of possibilities that could be created as the citizens and leaders of Kingston work together with many small projects aimed at uniting and transforming this corridor into an environmentally and economically advanced dis-trict. Renewable energy installations, community gardens and tree plantings, bicycle lanes and racks, building faade improvements and more are part of the vision, which can only be fully developed through a communitywide conver-sation. That is whats scary: unleashing the latent creativity and energy in this city by drawing a line and inviting direct, positive action along its length. This is a Kingston effort, but every community could do likewise.

The Green Trail has seed funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and from the Fund for Environment and Urban Life, includ-ing a challenge grant which must be matched by community contributions of money or materials. Matches might include installation of bike racks by businesses, tree plantings and facade improvements by residents or businesses, local food donations for grassroots fundraisers.

Co-sponsored by Sustainable Hudson Valley, Mid-Hudson Energy$mart Communities and the Forsythe Nature Center, spring and summer projects and activities will range from work

parties to fundraisers to celebrations. Each month will focus on a theme and specific results: May is garden and tree plant-ing month. Well establish sites and get stuff into the ground. Watch www.sustainhv.org for dates of planting parties.

June is bike-friendly city month. Well hold a workshop on getting your bike and body in tune for summer, and an-other on creating a bike-friendly city. Well join in the Tour de Kingston family ride too.

July celebrates Interdependence Day with facade beau-tification work parties and a forum on the Eco-City move-ment. Well make and fly kites and encourage the city to use ecofriendly fireworks augmented by kites, candles and other people-powered tributes.

August is Energy Independence Month. Well make a float for the Artists Soap Box Derby and also hold a workshop on energy-efficiency for owners of big energy-hog buildings.

September is SHVs annual conference, Cool Com-munities/ Living Economies, where we explore the state of the art of climate action and green development through people power, and report on the accom-plishments of the summer cam-paign. The venue and program will be announced soon, and may be an exciting surprise

For details on projects and events described above,

visit www.sustainhv.org.

A public interest message courtesy of Chronogram

by Melissa Everett, Executive DirectorSustainable Hudson Valley - SHV


Larry Beinharts Body Politic

OLD MYTHS/NEW TRUTHS

DIO

N O

GU

STCommentary

The Great Republican Disaster, from Reagan to Bush the Lesser, has been the Time of the Unreal. (Yes, people possessed by the unreal are very much like the undead. Theyre mindless, lethal, they infect others, theyre very hard to stop, and their existence is a complete surprise to people who live in the real world.)

Those forces of darkness derive their power from their Great Myths.No matter how powerful a myth is, if it is essentially false, reality has certain

methods fi ghting back. It uses Failure. If Failure fails, it moves on, through Fiasco, to Disaster.

Recently, there have been signs of hope. Yes, hope means Obama. He speaks of reality, whether its about race or a gas tax holiday.

Lo and behold, people actually have heard, listened, and agreed.Let us seize the time and create New Truths, based on reality, to replace the

Old Myths, based on bullshit.

Old Myth: 9/11 was an act of war.New Truth: 9/11 was a criminal act.Osama bin Laden was not a head of state or an agent of a state. He was a religion-crazed gangster with a relatively small gang. His acts were crimes. To elevate them to acts of war was to elevate him. Worse, it created the wrong response. So wrong, hes still out there. Proof that you can commit a mass murder against the United States and get away with it. Only when we redefi ne 9/11 will we be able to fi gure out a sane response to replace the current insanity. Old Myth: The War on Terror.New Truth: The War on Terror is bogus.There is no War on Terror. It was a PR ploy to invade a country that annoyed George Bush and Dick Cheney, to transfer mad amounts of money to the military-industrial complex, to win elections, and to allow George to play dress-up. Old Myth: The war in Iraq was not a war of choice.New Truth: The war in Iraq was a war of choice.Even if someone actually believed that Saddam Hussein was a dangerous man with weapons of mass destruction, the problem was solved the moment that the weapons inspectors got full access to all sites in Iraq. At that point, going to war was like the police going into a mans house to look for guns, then shoot-ing him while he is sitting on the couch because they couldnt fi nd them and were tired of looking. Old Myth: The war in Iraq can be won.New Truth: The war in Iraq was lost years ago.It was lost through belief in stupid mythologies and the failure to heed reality. It was lost through poor planning and worse execution. The administration does not have a plan, the means, or the will to win in Iraq. Their only plan, their only goal, is to pass the problem on, so they can blame the next president for their failure. Old Myth: If we leave Iraq, chaos will ensue.New Truth: Iraq is in chaos now.George Bush, and his gang, created the chaos. They applied everything they believed inforce as foreign policy, that the whole world wants to be like us,

free marketeering, no government, crony appointmentsto Iraq. It demon-strates the bankruptcy of their entire theology. Old Myth: Free markets are the best solution to everything.New Truth: Markets are good for cheap consumer goods but bad for health.Theyre bad for individual health, for health care systems, for the health of our workforce, for the health of the environment. Unchecked and unbalanced, theyre bad for the health of our economy. Old Myth: All regulation is bad. Remove regulation and the free markets will make everything better.New Truth: An economy without regulations is like a baseball game without umpires.The cheaters take over and chaos ensues. Old Myth: Tax cuts stimulate the economyNew Truth: The wrong tax cuts can ruin the economy.The truth is that the American economy has often thrived with high tax rates. Since World War II, it has never done as badly as it has under Bush, with the most cuts and lowest rates. Old Myth: Reagan won the Cold War.New Truth: The hippies won the Cold War.Reagan told Gorbachev, Tear down this wall. But Gorbachev didnt. Reagan built up the military, but that didnt change anything. The people who tore down the Berlin Wall did so because they wanted to wear jeans and listen to rock n roll and say rude things about their government. Like the hippies. Old Myth: The media lost the war in Vietnam.New Truth (A restatement of an Old Truth): The war in Vietnam was a stupid, useless mistake.Bad politics, bad military strategy, and bad tactics made it worse. Americas leaders and Americas generals lost the war in Vietnam. This is important, be-cause after Bush leaves offi ce, someone else will have to get us out of Iraq. The myth makers will rush in to say that Bush policies could have won and that his successor lost the war.

Old Myth: It was George Bush who got it wrong.New Truth: The Republican agenda has been revealed as bankrupt.George Bush acted out an agenda. Enthusiastically backed by a Republican Congress. And acquiesced to by Democrats like Hillary Clinton, who were terrifi ed by the Republicans Big, Bad Myths.

Old Myth: Religious faith is a good way to judge a leader.New Truth: The way people deal with reality, is the Way to Judge a Leader.The spectacle of our candidates groveling on TV over how religious they are is appalling. If there is one thing for which we stand in this country, it is for complete religious freedom, and it is an emphatic negation of this right to cross-examine a man on his religion before being willing to support him for offi ce.Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) Old Myth: Being intelligent is elitist. New Truth: Lord, oh Lord, were tired of stupid leaders who cant do anything right.


Did you know that home and garden pesticide use can increase the risk of childhood leukemia by almost seven times? Or that even at relatively low levels, pesticides may increase an individuals risk of developing Parkinsons disease by 70%?

19 of the 30 commonly used lawn-pesticides are linked to cancer, 13 to birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 15 with neurotoxicity, 26 with liver or kidney damage, 27 are sensitizers and/or irritants, and 11 have the potential to disrupt the endocrine system.

Studies also link pesticides with childhood asthma, hyperactivity, developmental delays, behavioral disorders, and motor dysfunction. Source: Beyond Pesticides.

Visit www.myspace.com/banpesticides for more information on what you can do to help ban pesticides in Ulster County and other counties.

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38 COMMUNITY NOTEBOOK CHRONOGRAM 6/08

COMMUNITY NOTEBOOK

A Curtain Call for the Hyde Park Playhouseby Bob Sommer

An old playbill from the Hyde Park Playhouse features the grainy and bejeweled image of Marjorie Gateson on the front cover, then appearing in Pride and Joy, a new play by John OHare. Gatesons was a recognizable face to audiences in 1954, the playbills date. Her career began in 1931 and included over 100 fi lms. Often cast in matronly supporting roles in movies like Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940) and The Skys the Limit (1943), she appeared with Mae West, Mickey Rooney, Olivia de Haviland, Fred Astaire, and many other big stars. By the early `50s, her prime fi lm years were behind her, but she had revitalized her career in TV soap operas and was still certain to draw patrons to the Play-house. Sprinkled throughout the black and white playbill are ads for businesses in Hyde ParkArbuckles Tavern (Where Friends Meet After the Show), the Hyde Park Diner (Just Good Foodand air-conditioning!), and W. Crispell & Sons, where you could buy Reynolds Do-It-Yourself Aluminum.

Summer stock at the playhouse was a presence in the cultural life of the Hudson Valley for over three decades, until April 28, 1987, when the theater burned down in a confl agration of unknown cause that brought fi re compa-nies from across the region. Owners and producers came and went in those years, and by the late 1970s, the theater had fallen into disuse until actor Biff McGuire bought and revived it as The Hyde Park Festival Theater. The prop-ertys current owner, Patricia Graf, had just purchased the Playhouse when fi re destroyed it. She only saw one play there, Berthold Brechts A Mans a Man, in 1986, with Bill Murray and Stockard Channing, but she lives on the grounds now. At the center of the courtyard, the stone base of the once-familiar clock tower now resembles a massive, ivy-covered tree stump, while behind it the lawn gives way to woods where the theater once stood.

Like Marjorie Gateson, the Playhouse has faded into history.

THE PLACE IS THE THINGUnlike many of the classic barn theaters on the straw-hat circuit, a network of summer stock theaters that fl ourished in the Northeast from the 1940s through the 1960s, the Hyde Park Playhouse was more than a single building. It was an entire complex, an environment, a stunning piece of architecture.

Once known as the Vanderbilt Farm, it had been the barn and stables for the Frederick Vanderbilt estate, maintaining upwards of 100 cows, 50,000 chick-ens, and as many as 20 Belgian workhorses when it was in full operation. A 1954 Life magazine article wrongly attributes the building design to Stanford White. According to Tara McGill of the National Park Service, it was designed by architect Alfred Hopkins (1870-1941) and constructed in about fi ve months in 1901 by the fi rm of Creegan & Collins of Morristown, New Jersey. An un-dated ground plan from that period places the cow barn in what later became the theater lobby, a machinery shed where a bookstore later opened, wagon and horse stables in the scenery storage rooms, and a bull pen in the green room and dressing rooms. The theater itself was simply listed as a hay barn.

A set of large double doors opened onto the cow and wagon yards, then separated

chronogram - june 2008

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