<4 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, February 24, 1999 LT 3 J Teens prove, we really can just all get along For many young teenagers, nothing is SO important as being “cool.” They can earn that designation by having the latest fashions from the Gap, standing out in a sport, fitting in with the “cool” crowd or playing the latest video games. But some Dallas Middle School students have found an even better way tobe “cool,” and it has more to do with giving than having. They belong to the “Cool Club,” a group of teenagers who take time out of their busy lives and give it to kids of similar age who are developmentally disabled. The club meets monthly, sporisofed by the Deutsch Institute at College Misericordia. After getting a dose of sensitivity training, the students have taken part in activities that are fun for all teens, disabled or not. And, says Rachel Loefflad, who directs the program, the teens all blend together for a few hours of fun, with help graciously offered and happily accepted when necessary. Perhaps these young people have a thing or two to teach their elders when it comes to getting along with other people. Older generations still tend to shy away from disable people, often because they simply have never really known anyone with a disability well enough to get over their discomfort. Not so for this group of teens. “I got an overwhelming response from the students,” when the program started, Loefflad said. Teens aren't the only ones helping out; members of the Misericordia swimming teams have joined in, and Loeffler emphasizes that anyone who cares to participate is welcome. As much progress as Americans have made toward the goal of wiping out discrimination — whether by race, creed or handicap — there's much more to be done. We hope programs like the Cool Club will help us become more comfortable with all of our neighbors, and to see the human qualities that unite us, rather than the superficial ones that divide us. Publisher's notebook | Ron Bartizek I knew it would happen, it was just a question of when. After the Circus in the Senate was over, someone said “Our national nightmare is over.” Excuse me, what national nightmare? How -about “regional bad dream,” blackening the skies in about a 10 mile radius from the White House, and not a whole lot else. You want a national nightmare? Try 10 years of economic depres- sion, or five years of war with hundreds of thousands of casualties. The Civil War was a nightmare, World Wars I and II were nightmares, the Great Depression, Korea and Vietnam ~ were nightmares. The Clinton impeachment hearings and trial “were a brief sleep disturbance, a bump in the night, by "comparison. Hard line “conservatives” have had a difficult time with this, “and still do. They can’t figure out why the rest of the populace “isn’t as outraged as they are at the President's behavior and his lies to cover it up. I think there are lots of explanations, not least of which is that some of the accusers don't exactly have “spotless records of virtue, or of candor. Remember Henry “Hyde's “youthful indiscretions” explanation of his affair at age 42? Try that one on your spouse. And I don’t buy the argument that Clinton got a pass because the economy's in good shape. There's a better chance people ‘were unmoved by this sordid episode because they already ‘knew he was a slimeball, but liked a lot of what he said. Perhaps just as likely, most of us feel Clinton really isn’t that important “to our daily lives, and therefore logically didn’t find either his * behavior or the prospect of impeachment all that frightful. STF BUR BE AC a : : rd za.) SOY INK Member FUsiisners Association - Disgusting, reprehensible, yes, scary, no. If that’s the case, ‘conservatives — who constantly warn of the dangers of big government — should be pleased, not annoyed. Did anyone notice that while the Congress and President were hog-tied in impeachment, the country motored along just fine. At bottom, I think most of us are tired of being preached at by politicians of any stripe. Or maybe we're just tired, period, of people who spend the majority of their time begging for money and making deals to protect their little fiefdoms, then try to convince us they're doing it all for the good of the country, and for us. That's a believable as a Clinton promise. About letters, columns and editorials The Dallas Post attempts to publish opinions on a variety of topics in many forms. Editorials, which are the opinion of the anagient of The Post appear on the editorial page and are written by the editor unless otherwise indicated. Any artwork represents the opinion of the cartoonist, and columns are the opinion of the author. Letters to the editor are welcome and will be published, subject to the following guidelines: * Letters should not exceed 500 words. » No writer may have more than one letter published during a 30- day period, except as a reply to another letter. * Letters must be signed and include the writer's home town and a ~ telephone number for verification. * Names will be withheld only if there exists a clear threat to the writer. » The Post retains the right to accept or reject any letter, and to edit letters for grammar and spelling, as well as to eliminate any libel, slander or objectionable wording. In addition to letters, we welcome longer pieces that may run as columns. The author or subject's relevance to the Back Mountain will be the prime consideration when selecting material for publication. The Dallas Post Published Weekly By Bartsen Media, Inc. P.O. Box 366, Dallas PA 18612 717-675-5211 Charlotte E. Bartizek ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER OFFICE MANAGER Ronald A. Bartizek PUBLISHER Jessica Appolo : ADVERTISING ACCT. EXEC Kylie Shafferkoetter REPORTER Olga Kostrobala CLASSIFIED/TYPESETTING Ruth Proietto PRODUCTION MANAGER EDITORIALS : Buddy Walter removes snow from a barn door on W. Center Hill Rd., Dallas. Photo by Charlotte Bartizek. A Case for Alene N. Case My dog, Ebony, and I go out- side almost every morning before seven o'clock. Shaver Hill is usu- ally between us and the rising sun so I don't get to see much of a show. However, on Tuesday, Feb- ruary 9th, we walked out the door as usual, and when I looked up there were all these wonderful pink clouds. In a few minutes, the pink color covered half the sky. Then, it quickly began to fade. But, as Isat writing at my kitchen table, I looked up to see the gold- finches eating from our thistle bell and the background was still a lovely pale pink at 7:10 A. M. 1 wanted everyone to wake up and drink it in. . In recent months, several people have asked me for advice on how to make their homes more “environmental.” I have tried to give some learned answer outlin- ing several of the more obvious Library news oe INET (108 NGF A311 Td ETS The Book Club of the Back Mountain Memorial Library held a luncheon meeting at Pickett’s Charge in Dallas on February 15. The secretary noted the January meeting was cancelled due to in- clement weather. Treasurer reported the 1999 membership has reached 160. The January book bill of $152.85 was paid which leaves a balance in the treasury of $1,221.04 for the further purchase of books. The next meeting of the Book Club will be Monday, March 15, in the community room at the library beginning at 1:30. Mem- bers and guests are invited to attend. The session will begin with a light lunch at noon fol- Did you see the sunrise? ways to conserve energy and to reduce pollution from lawns and gardens. And, I have insisted that all of our efforts - large and small - will help. However, though I still feel that these are important points, I am more and more con- vinced that in order to relate to “environmental” concerns we must give ourselves opportuni- ties to connect with the rest of nature. So, next time someone wants my advice, I am going to say, “Take your kids on a picnic.” If we watch a pair of mallards glide across a pond while the snow is falling all around, we somehow become more than observer. The Pennsylvania artist Barbara Woods says it this way: “Nature itself is a beautiful, creative, ever changing work of art. We are all part of this picture, and should take care of this masterpiece so it will continue to delight our hearts now and for the future.” Masterpiece! Now there's area- son to get involved in conserva- tion issues! Maybe if we all looked at the world that way, conserva- tion would be our way of life — not something we thought of as diffi- cult or burdensome. G. K. Chesterton expressed it another way: “The world will never starve for wonders; but only for want of wonder.” Or consider the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson in “Wood-Notes”: “Go where he will, the wise man is at home, His hearth the earth, - his hall the azure dome.” Come to think of it, if nineteenth century folks had listened to the great writers of the time, would they have messed up the earth so badly in the name of Progress? Where was it written “Thou shalt cut down every living tree?” No, I think that the so- called Nature Writers were put off to the side in the headlong quest for power and money - not be- cause they were early versions of “airheads.” One Christmas my son Alex painted a beautiful picture for me. It shows a swollen stream with lavender petals floating on it. And, inscribed in bold letters are the words of the poem “Rhodora” by Emerson. Let me close with four lines of that poem: “Rhodora! Ifthe sages ask thee why This charm is white on the earth and sky, Tellthem, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.” Library to sponsor second book discussion group lowed by dessert. The March des- sert will be a surprise brought by Elda and Jean. Members are asked to report on a recent book they have read and present their version of it and ask for group discussion on the book. The new list was read by Mary. The library will sponsor a sec- ond book discussion group, which will meet on Monday evenings, once a month, in March, April, May and September. There is a $20 registration fee, which will be applied to the cost of books. Interested, stop by the library to register. The group is limited to 20. The committee for the 53rd annual library auction will meet on Thursday, Feb. 25, in the com- munity room. John and Susan Oswalt are joint chairs and are busy getting the rest of the vari- ous chairmen organized. The library will accept dona- tions for the auction ‘whenever the library is open. The dates of the auction are July 8, 9, 10 and 11, Thursday through Sunday. Order forms are available at the library for the American Can- cer Society's Daffodil Days. The orders must be received before March 4 and should be ready for pick up during the week of March 15. The cost is $5 for an indi- vidual bunch of 10 daffodils. The “Murder Mystery Mania” now going on in the bookshop will continue until March 13. The next special bookshop subject will be “Gardening”, which will begin on March 15. The bookshop has a special area called “Odds and Ends”. They have available for sale jigsaw puzzles and stuffed animals. There are some nice items for the ‘young and the young at heart’. The book shop hours are Mon- day and Wednesday from 1-8 p.m. and Saturdays from 10-5 p.m. Q: Where do you find the most Back Mountain news, week after week? A: Only in The Dallas Post, the Back Mountain's newspaper since 1889. ONLY YESTERDAY 70 Years Ago - Feb. 23, 1929 LOCAL BANK BEGINS TO CHARGE FOR CHECKS The local bank has joined a large number of other banking institutions in, requiring a fee of 50 cents per month on all check- ing accounts which fall short of $100. Due to the great amount of time and labor consumed this seéms reasonable and fair. Atameeting of council recently, Chief of Police was instructed to notify property holders of .town who are negligent or thoughtless about their icy sidewalks that the ordinance providing for cleaning of all walks would be enforced. 60 Years Ago - Feb. 24,1939 WILKES-BARRE NEWSPAPER STRIKES CONTINUE Efforts of American Newspaper Guildsmen and representatives of Wilkes-Barre's three suspended newspapers to reach a settlement of their five month old strike dragged on this week without agreement on most of the major issues. Conferences were held each morning and evening in Ho- tel Sterling. Seven men were injured When a Dallas-bound street car struck a WPA truck at Fernbrook shortly after four Wednesday afternoon. Six of the men were treated at Nesbitt Memorial Hospital in Kingston and discharged. A'sev- enth was admitted. : 50 Years Ago - Feb. 25, 1949 SHAVERTOWN FIRE CO. BUYS 1100-GALLON BOOSTER... In order to meet the fire fighting requirements of a community-that has no fire hydrants, Shavertown Volunteer Fire Co. has purchased an 1100-gallon booster tank truck for delivery April 1. The equip- ment is mounted on a Federal chassis and has a 200 gallon per minute midship mount centrifu- gal pump. Chief Woolbert said the company is undecided how to finance the purchase. We. have two alternatives. You could get - Porters steak, 59¢ 1b.; rib roast, 49¢ Ib.; yams, 3 Ibs., 29¢; rutabagas, 4¢ lb.; green peppers, 15¢ 1b.; Ideal Coffee, 1 1Ib., can, 51¢. 40 Years Ago - Feb. 19, 1959 BMT BASEBALL BONDS ON THE RISE, PASSED $1,000 The sale of bonds for Back Mountain Little League's new baseball field passed the $1,000 mark over the weekend and was headed well toward the $1,500 mark Monday evening. - League officials hope to raise a large part of the estimated $8,000 that will be needed to equip the new field from the sale of these bonds. The old field at Shavertown had to be abandoned when Dallas School District had to take it over for drainage purposes. Dallas Engineers are erecting a new 50 x 80 foot prefabricated warehouse on the space between their main plant and the Hillside- Huntsville Road in Trucksville. The warehouse will permit the firm to use more of its space for the manufacture of boilers. 30 Years Ago - Feb. 27, 1969 AMBULANCE ASSOC. WANTS HOSPITAL IN BACK MT. Dallas Community Ambulance Association went on record last week as backing any effort to es- tablish a hospital in the Back Mountain Area. The Association would also agree to set up a first aid center at the proposed hospi- tal and render any assistance in any way possible. : For the second time in two weeks, a costly mercury vapor light has been destroyed on Cen- ter Hill Road. Vandals also threw eggs on an empty house-in that area. 20 Years Ago - Feb. 22,:1979.-: PLANS FOR MEADOWS = PRESENTED TO TOWNSHIP. - Ecumenical Interfaith Associa- tion (EIA) presented Dallas Town- ship Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission with a plan for a geriatric development to be located on Old Lake Road, across from College Misericordia. At the Monday evening session of the local boards Ray Condo, execu- tive director of EIA stated the pur- pose of announcing the plan was to familiarize the local township of the project and to seek writen approval when applying for a grant. Approximately 12 aeres of land owned by the Sisters of Mercy has been approved for the project. ¢ © v @ @
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers