Hand-Me-Downs

A milestone birthday approaches. In the midst of the apprehension of reaching an age that once seemed so very far away and so very, very old, I've been helping to clear out my mother's little yellow house while settling her in a new, much-smaller space.

That intimate task brings to the surface a fact I cannot ignore. I am becoming my mother.

It's not just the times when my children will say "Yes, Grandma Barb" when her sage advice comes from my mouth. It's a whole collection of things - literally - that I have made my own. 

It's the colorful assortment of used twist ties in a kitchen drawer. It's the rinsed-out plastic bags and bread wrappers stored away for another use. It's the way I wash the kitchen towels and dishcloths and cloth napkins in a load by themselves, with hot water and every-so-often bleach. It's the perfectly-good jelly and mayonnaise jars with lids on the pantry shelf.

It's the boxes of photos sorted yet another time, one-by-one from one stack to another as the waste basket moved in front of the couch to receive the discards remains empty.

And this morning, pulling a load of work clothes (you know the ones - the patched ones, the stained ones, the ones with ripped seams and missing buttons) from the dryer, I decided that wonderful old soft blue t-shirt (a castoff from my then-teenage daughter) was just too immodest even for garden work.

I cut away the seams to make this pile of rags - so like those in the carefully-labeled bag I found in the back of  my mother's pantry just last week.

How The Community Feels

Coudersport Area School District Superintendent Drew Kyle said he wanted to know how the community "feels" at the September 13 meeting of the School Board. The meeting was the first scheduled after the Pennsylvania Department of Health issued a mandate to public schools that facial coverings would be required across the state beginning September 7. 

A school board member used his social media account to share the following with the public before the meeting: "To all the parents of students and faculty at CASD against the mask mandate. Now is not the time to sit back and hope someone fights this battle for you ... The only thing that matters now is that we convince my fellow board members that we will not mandate masks on our children, PERIOD.... There has been a clear line drawn in the sand. It's now US vs THEM. We cannot afford to be the silent majority any longer."

So there were lots of people filling the seats in the auditorium as the Board and Superintendent sat at the back of  the shadowy stage, some wearing the face masks as mandated by the Department of Health and some not.

Two local police officers monitored
the crowd filing into the auditorium

After the requisite Pledge of Allegiance came Mr. Kyle's mini lecture about respecting and appreciating the thoughts and opinions of those gathered and some vague comments about hands being tied by the Governor when the local decision makers were focused on "doing the right thing for our students, faculty and staff." "This meeting is not about public debate," he cautioned.

But then began the very public debate, complete with raucous applause and catcalls. It seems that most of those gathered were feeling that they're the public health experts.

The fellow who first stepped to the microphone: "Thank you for keeping masks optional. I would just pray that ..." He was the first of many who made reference to prayer and God in sharing their feelings.

"After a beautiful start of the new school year ... shameful," said a teacher, "... nothing to do with keeping others safe. No one is wearing them correctly." "Masks prohibit the immune system from doing its job," she boldy stated. 

Another citizen: "Masks violate our God-given rights. Covid is a genetically engineered bioweapon ... sold our souls to the devil. We must protect our health freedom."

Clad in a tank top and athletic shorts, another woman brought with her a letter from a State Senator, whose name I did not catch. "Parents want to control what is best for their child. This is misguided mandate." She mentioned supporting Senate Bill 846. "Let your voice be heard," she proclaimed.

A former school nurse thanked the Board for making mask wearing optional, saying that masks suppress our immune systems. "Why force them? Covid's here to stay," she stated.

Another teacher, armed with what he called 59 links to "studies" indicating masking was an ineffective infection control measure, cited an article from The Wall Street Journal that he claimed validated his opinions about the virus. 

And yet another teacher  cautioned that there would be "an exodus out of the schools" if the mandate was enforced. "Somebody has to step up and say no!"

Some used the old Trump/Fox News line "it's been widely reported" to express to the Board their feelings. There were those who spoke of "cancel culture" and others who had feelings about the highly effective and safe treatments that are being kept from us in order to enslave us or our children. Then we heard how masks are dehumanizing to our young children and the undisclosed ingredients in the vaccine that " 'they' are trying to hide." I even heard someone say "your body, their choice."

There were a handful of people who stepped to the microphone to encourage the Board to consider that the state mandate might be the best tactic to prevent transmission of the virus while keeping the students in school. Another presented a petition supporting the masking mandate, signed by over 70 Coudersport taxpayers. These folks were met with disapproval from much of the audience.

The September 13 meeting of the School Board was its regularly-scheduled monthly meeting. Board members were silent during the public comments, as the majority decision had been made to not require face coverings in the schools.

 Now a special meeting has been set for Monday, September 27 at 5:30 in the auditorium to discuss COVID protocols, according to a post on the school's Facebook page.

Could it be that Covid-19 is roaring through the school, striking both teachers and students? Could it be true that t0day more than 200 students are currently not in school because of quarantine or illness? Could it be that the administrators and school board members do not want to assume the personal liability for their decisions about public health and safety after ignoring a Department of Health mandate? Could it be that school funding is threatened?

Insular

A couple of weeks ago, I enjoyed a typical summer Friday afternoon here at home in Potter County. At the downtown Farmer's Market in Coudersport, vendors greeted me from their tables set up under the oak trees that circle the square. I picked up my weekly supply of eggs from Netra Baker who tempted me with her baked goods, artfully arranged on a patchwork quilt.

I selected a carefully crafted bouquet of flowers from a teenage neighbor who had often visited our farm with her father to pick up fresh vegetables when she was just a tot. She and her aunt have launched a business selling colorful blooms.

Next door at the funeral home, folks were gathered to honor the life of a schoolmate of my older brother, a history buff who could be counted on to set the record straight when those less knowledgable chimed in on social media sites.

Later at the grocery store, a former co-worker and her out-of-town grownup daughter were shopping for picnic supplies and we stopped in the aisle to chat. Other shoppers smiled a greeting as they steered their carts around us.

Does my experience sound like a page from the tourist promotion literature? 

"a friendly setting ... our small towns throughout the region will welcome you" 

It was a far different experience for a young woman I joined later that afternoon. She, too, had visited Coudersport on the same summer Friday afternoon. She stopped in town on her way to a nearby camp in the woods. But she had not been welcomed with friendly smiles at the grocery store. Rather she was greeted with glares and inpatient clucking of tongues and sighing as she slowly navigated the unfamiliar aisles to find needed supplies.

"It felt really uncomfortable. Unfriendly. People were staring at us and nobody smiled. All I wanted was to get out of there as soon as possible," she related. "My daughter and I were wearing masks because she isn't vaccinated and I am aware of your low vaccination rate. Do you think it's because we were wearing the masks? "

But I didn't have  to say what I was thinking because another companion did. "My husband won't go to the grocery store here anymore and it's not because he's wearing a mask - it's all about his skin color." And my friend looked over her shoulder to locate her dark-skinned, dark-haired little girl, swinging on the branches of a maple tree.

Ugly. Ugly. It was all I could say. I could not find other words.

There was another time when I couldn't - or didn't - find the words. It was a time when I made my living at the local hospital.

Recruitment of physicians to this rural area, always a challenge , led the recruiter and medical staff and board and hospital administration to make special efforts to find and encourage skilled doctors to practice medicine here. On this Sunday morning, a physician and his wife were wrapping up what had seemed to be a successful visit. They had met members of the medical staff, had toured the facilities and the young doctor with impeccable credentials seemed ready to make a commitment to sign a contract. But then his wife, wearing a hijab, stopped in the local grocery that day to pick up some diapers for their infant. It was while she was standing in the baby supply aisle that a person walked up to her and spit in her face. 

I don't often recount this story from my days working as Public Relations Director at my hometown hospital.  Mostly it's because of the loud sounds of silence that accompanied this unforgivable ugliness. And I was part of that silence. Of course, at the time we told ourselves we were being considerate of the wishes of the physician and his shattered wife who simply couldn't bear the thought having any spotlight shown on her. But now I wonder if openly talking about this incident would have given our community an opportunity to examine and call out this kind of prejudice. To perhaps have opened conversations, to perhaps have sparked outrage that this happened here. To perhaps have led to a greater understanding.

But instead, here we are all these years later and I must face again that this insular community is not only unwelcoming, it's racist.

And a postscript: My friend from away is a runner and planned to drive into Coudersport the next morning for a run. "I'll park my car in a place where no one will see my Black Lives Matter bumper sticker.