All tagged 2020/08

Cory Long: Making a Change in Chester

Cory Long: Making a Change in Chester

Rachel Carp

Inspired by his then 9-year-old daughter, and undergoing a spiritual awakening, Cory Long founded Team MAC — a grassroots mentoring program — in 2004. MAC stands for “making a change,” and over the last 16 years the program has evolved into an effective and far-reaching nonprofit, now called Making a Change Group (MAC Group). Its goal is to mitigate the challenges of growing up in a city with high rates of crime, poverty, unemployment, and underemployment. Through mentoring sessions that focus primarily on social and emotional learning, Long and his team aim to prove to Chester’s youth that they are more than a reflection of the troubled city where they’re growing up.

Lisa Palmer, the WSSD School Board,* and Our Civic Leaders Are Failing Us

Lisa Palmer, the WSSD School Board,* and Our Civic Leaders Are Failing Us

Todd Strine, Robert Borgstrom, and Gregory Hoy
WSSD School Board, Publishers' Comment

As September looms, we find ourselves on the verge of a new public crisis. The Wallingford-Swarthmore School District and its superintendent, Lisa Palmer, are sacrificing our kids’ educational and psychosocial wellbeing under the guise of keeping our community safer. The school board’s recent decision to start school virtually – a state of affairs that looks likely to continue indefinitely even if Delaware County’s case count data remains steady — will have adverse consequences for a generation of children. Specifically, it will worsen inequalities in ways that may reverberate for decades.

The Barber of the Ville

The Barber of the Ville

Rachel Pastan
Local Business

The first Sal’s Barber Shop opened in Plymouth Meeting ten years ago. Pretty soon, owner Sal Giannone opened two more. He has repeatedly won Best Barbershop and Best Children’s Haircut in Montgomery County, as well as Entrepreneur of the Year. With clients coming from as far away as Delaware for cuts, he decided to open a fourth shop in Delco at 415 Dartmouth Ave.

Unscientific Survey: Pandemic Follow Up

Unscientific Survey: Pandemic Follow Up

Ben Yagoda
Survey, Unscientific Surveys

Big-time pollsters repeat the same question from survey to survey in order to see how opinions change over time. So with this Unscientific Survey we decided to do the same. Back in April, we asked readers, first, how long they predicted it would be till the pandemic-influenced changes receded and things returned to a state of relative normalcy, and, second, once that did happen, how life would be compared to before the virus hit.

Remembering Gus Kaffes (1929-2020) and the Village Restaurant (1962-2007)

Remembering Gus Kaffes (1929-2020) and the Village Restaurant (1962-2007)

Beth Gross
People of Swarthmore

Most people of a certain age knew Gus Kaffes of Swarthmore as the gregarious proprietor of the family-owned Village Restaurant, where he was also the cook. The restaurant was located in the space where Aria now stands and the old Co-op building stood. What they probably didn’t know about Gus, who died August 8 of natural causes at 90: he was voted best dancer by his Eddystone high school class, served as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force (where he earned two medals), and his real first name was Constantine.

Myth-Busting Women’s Suffrage

Myth-Busting Women’s Suffrage

Rebecca Davis

The 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment’s ratification provides an occasion to reflect on the history of women’s voting rights in the United States. But rather than celebrate, we should commemorate the event by reflecting on a process that is far more complicated — and incomplete — than popular mythology about suffrage suggests. Here are some myths and realities about women’s suffrage.

Road (Trip) to Women’s Suffrage

Road (Trip) to Women’s Suffrage

Virginia Thompson

The Finger Lakes region of New York is a great vacation spot, with scenery, wineries, and a relaxed vibe. The area also played a critical role in women’s history, specifically women’s suffrage, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. In July 1993, I traveled to Seneca Falls with my husband, Tom Shaffer, and my mom, Florence Thompson, to participate in the opening of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park Visitors Center.

Pop-up Bookshop

Pop-up Bookshop

Guest User
Local Business

Named in honor of Harriet Tubman, Harriett’s Bookshop in Philadelphia celebrates women authors and artists. But the shop’s owner, writer and activist Jeannine Cook, does more than just sell books. Cook is deeply embedded in her community. She organized a book drive for essential workers during the pandemic and curated material for local educators. During the George Floyd protests, she gave away books about anti-racism to marchers. On Saturday, August 22, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Swarthmore resident (and Swarthmorean associate editor) Satya Nelms will host a sidewalk sale for Harriett’s in Swarthmore.

Wildlife Observations: Summer Doldrums

Wildlife Observations: Summer Doldrums

Robert Scott
Wildlife

This column last ran on July 3, under the headline “Solstice Stillness” and bemoaned the relative lack of wildlife activity — or at least any observations beyond the usual suspects (robins, gray squirrels, sparrows, etc.) during the hot months. The reduced number of observation submissions to the Swarthmorean in July bore this out. But over the last week, two submissions arrived with first-time critter sightings: a snapping turtle and an American eel! Let’s hope this marks a continuing upturn as we slowly but surely approach the fall migration.

Haircut: A Hero’s Journey

Haircut: A Hero’s Journey

Jon Cohen
Humor

The evidence is incontrovertible – I’m unreliable, faint-hearted, inept. My wife, Mary, on the other hand, is exceptional. Her superb qualities are myriad, but I will linger over just three – her brainpower, her beatific nature, and her good hair. And it is here, where – against all odds – I become the hero of this little photo-essay.

Citing Rising Risk, Board Votes to Keep Buildings Shut for Now

Citing Rising Risk, Board Votes to Keep Buildings Shut for Now

Rachel Pastan
WSSD School Board

All-virtual school until October. That recommendation from Wallingford-Swarthmore School Superintendent Lisa Palmer was accepted by the school board at a special meeting on Monday night. The vote was 7-1, with Chapin Cimino abstaining. Board member Jennifer Lentz voted against the proposal. Three weeks earlier, on July 20, the board voted to give families the option of attending school two days a week (“the cohort model”) or having all virtual instruction (“the online academy”). 73% of high school students and 67% of middle and elementary school students had opted to return to school buildings when the school year begins on August 31. But COVID-19 numbers have increased in Delaware County since July.

HRC Mulls Accessibility, Accountability

HRC Mulls Accessibility, Accountability

Rachel Pastan
Borough Council

Swarthmore architect Samina Iqbal attended the Swarthmore Human Relations Commission (HRC) meeting on August 6 to raise the commission’s awareness of accessibility issues in the borough. Iqbal described the slow history of increasing accessibility in the United States, and the disabled community’s frustrations with how little progress has been made in the 30 years since the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act. She described her family’s challenges navigating the public world with her husband, Tony Denninger, in a wheelchair.

Marooned in Vermont

Marooned in Vermont

Beth Gross
Essay

Sometimes I remember our Queen Anne, built on a corner in Swarthmore in the 1890s. But now that I’ve been in Hartland, Vermont, for nearly five months, marooned by COVID-19, I often forget all about the house.

August, COVID Summer

August, COVID Summer

Rachel Pastan
Editorial

As we slog through this dark time, there are also moments of light: the cardinal in the tree, the child’s chalk drawing on the sidewalk, the sight of my neighbor — hospitalized for over a month with COVID-19 — walking swiftly around the block. The rare face-to-face talk with a friend, with six feet of grass between us.

Black Lives Matter Gets Pushback in Ridley

Black Lives Matter Gets Pushback in Ridley

Stefan Roots

The price Black folks pay for living in an all-Black community is underfunded education, poor housing stock, a lot of Dollar Stores, pollution, and receivership. Yet folks would rather put up with all that than to live beside neighbors who don’t want them there. That type of neighbor gathered up their motorcycles, pickup trucks, confederate flags, and surely their guns, to harass a Black Lives Matter march going through Ridley Township earlier this month.

A Couple of Psychologists Preach What They Practice

A Couple of Psychologists Preach What They Practice

Swarthmorean Staff
People of Swarthmore

“One day, about seven years ago, we found ourselves looking at each other in frustration in our too-quiet house.” That’s how Swarthmoreans Julie Mayer and Barry Jacobs, both clinical psychologists, begin their new book, “Love and Meaning After 50: The 10 Challenges to Great Relationships — and How to Overcome Them.” After their children left for college, Mayer and Jacobs found themselves “feeling older and unsure about what should come next.” They began to reassess their marriage and find new ways to connect. This book, they say, is their attempt to help others do the same.

Zoom Group Weighs the Future of Policing

Zoom Group Weighs the Future of Policing

Rachel Pastan
Criminal Justice

“The demand of Black Americans is clear: ‘Stop killing us.’” This assertion by state senator and Swarthmore resident Tim Kearney (D-26) framed a July 28 Zoom discussion on ending systemic racism and reimagining public safety. Attended by about 80 people, the conversation was part of a “racial equity tour” sponsored by the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic caucus and co-hosted by Kearney and State Senator Anthony Williams (D-8). Swarthmore resident and civil rights lawyer Jonathan Feinberg and Swarthmorean contributor Stefan Roots, among others, also participated.

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