By David Fortier
Come Sunday morning, the heat continues to be oppressive. I had managed to avoid it for Thursday and Friday, since I was away at a conference at Foxwoods. The Connecticut Education Association (CEA), of which I am a member and serve as the building representative for the high school in my district, held its summer conference there.
Foxwoods can be described as a place onto itself—in a bubble. There is never a need to leave, at least from what I experienced. And if you do want to get outside, you don’t have to travel far for some form of entertainment and relief from the heat–there is a pool and ziplining, neither of which I experienced.
Saturday was another workday on the home project: the bow window in the living room is back together, including pulleys, weights and rope; doors have knobs that work. Fixtures for the windows will go in sometime early this coming week. The goal on Sunday is to get the windows back together in the bedroom and to install a window air conditioner in the living room.
Going to have to see how that goes.
On Wednesday, we had our city-wide Community Conversation, the third in as many years, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The speaker was terrific, Kamora Le’Ella Herrington, who has Bristol connections through the Floyd family, and who was able to get audience participation on several levels—from individuals willing to speak into a microphone as well as in small groups.
One of her points is that to make progress in society, people need to do the work. Part of that work is recognizing where each other is coming from, beginning with the ways we are shaped by society, our heritage, our experiences. Another part is listening to each other in spaces that we create specifically for that purpose. Another is direct action. None of these is easy, but each can be managed.
Overall, avoiding the work, trying to get around it, under or over it, including ignoring it, i.e., not confronting it, simply leads to more trouble. For instance, it was inevitable that the topic of the distribution of white supremacist leaflets would come up. And over an extended conversation, in the context of the threat to different people in the community and the city’s response, the answer, silence in the face of such activity is complicity.
For Bristol, this conversation is part of a bigger project, and it will be interesting to see how people respond. As for direct action, Herrington broke things down to the basics. Find out what people are doing in schools, city meetings, organizations, and get out there to see for yourself. If a school is putting on a play, go see it. If there is a meeting, attend. Get to know each other and your community.
Reading and listening this week was mostly listening to podcasts while I was working around the house and driving back and forth to Foxwoods. A new one for me is the podcast called “The Next Chapter,” with its episode featuring the organizational psychologist Adam Grant on “How Non-Conformists Move the World.” Click here.
This essay caught my eye. It is a piece by Malcolm Gladwell on how to fix high school sports. Click here. Gladwell relies on his own experience as a runner, he was a miler at Columbia, to map out a critique of how sports is structured to lessen rather than increase involvement and to suggest a solution.
This coming week we have primaries for state-wide offices and U.S. Senate. Bristol Republicans will be choosing between Joe Hoxha and Aileen Abrams for a candidate to fill retiring incumbent Whit Betts’s seat in state house district 78. Check to see if your district has been affected by the new voting lines.
And, of course, this is an important contest because there is no Democratic challenger. In other words, the winner will become the Connecticut house representative in the 78th House District.
Check Ballotpedia here for other primaries. Click here.
The general election for governor and other state-wide offices, Connecticut state house and state senate, and Congressional seats will be on Nov. 8.
Also, this week the Bristol City Council and Charter Review Commission will have a special meeting to vote on the commission’s final report, to have it finalized for the November ballot. That will be on Wednesday, Aug. 10, the last day ballot information can be submitted.
“Come Sunday morning” is intended to be a weekly review, a recounting of the past week and an anticipation of week to come. Among its features will be reviews of old and new books, sharing of favorite podcasts, some family news, Bristol events and happenings and issues surrounding education, work and community journalism. He can be reached at dfortier@bristoledition.org.
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