Bright Future From the Fading Past

Fear, outrage, anger and sadness at the closing of Meagher Elementary School have been quelled by the quiet successes of the first day of school.  The headline was subdued, but The Kingston Daily Freeman’s story in last Wednesday’s paper praised the events of the day.

The pressure that built up to the opener was relieved. The anxiety caused by forecasts of failure was replaced by optimism.   Because people worked together to make the transition run smoothly, it did.

John F. Kennedy Elementary School Students arrive under the watch of parents and staff.
KingstonBarn photo

Success, in this case, can be measured at least as much by what did not happen as what did.  There were no screaming protesters hurling invective outside the school.  Parents did not keep their children home in defiance of the school change.  Teachers did not walk out in solidarity with their now jobless colleagues.

We could give credit to the administrators and members of the Board of Education, and they are due some for taking the steps necessary to see the plan through in the face of strong opposition.  They did their part, and continue to.  JFK Principal Clark Waters says that a day does not go by without real physical help and presence from the Crown Street administrators. ” They come, they carry lunch trays, open juice boxes, help with the books, whatever is needed.”

Waters credits Superintendent Paul Padalino with coming to the school every day, working, always asking, “What can I do for you?”  “Assistant Superintendents are helping,” he added, ‘John Voerg was here this week, Sandy Miller was here, and Marystephanie (Corsones) is coming.”

Principal Clark Waters as the sun rises on a new day at JFK – KingstonBarn photo edited by Quentin Champ-Doran

“We are the pilot for next year.  We are finding out what’s working.”

Teachers, of course, welcomed the new students as they have in the past, with a personal professionalism, even as classroom numbers grew.  They are all to be thanked for making a go of a different circumstance.  Waters knows it’s work, but it’s not that complicated.  “We’re educators, they’re students; they want to learn,” he said.  “If you interest them, if you challenge them, they’ll learn.”

The real heroes, the ones that saved this day and the days since, are the families that did the right thing from both  John F. Kennedy and the late Meagher Schools.  The families of Meagher sent their children with the confidence of a familiar mid-year setting, and the families already attending JFK went on as if this had been the plan all along.

As a community, let’s applaud this accomplishment by the teachers, administrators, and employees of the district, and let’s really give recognition to the backbone of our schools, the families that make the choices to do the work to make it happen.  Former Meagher parents could have told their children that their time at JFK would be rough, so expect the worst.  Longer-term JFK parents could have complained about the increasing class sizes, and told their kids that they didn’t stand a chance anymore.  But they didn’t.  Their decision is clear.

You have all answered the call with distinction, and I, for one, am proud.  All of you could have allowed a longing for the past to bog you down in the mire.  Instead, you’ve move on with hope and determination to make the future work.

Sooner than seems fair, we will face the same choices over and over.  Big change has come, and even bigger changes are heading our way.  Beyond that, more are waiting that we have not yet contemplated.  Do we choose to carry on with quiet conviction that we can make these changes work, or do we fall apart and complain and guarantee failure with self-fulfilling prophecies of nay saying doom?  Do we work to help our children take the reins of their futures, or do we let our longing for a past that never really was drag them down a dead-end road?

When I was a kid, nostalgia was better.

When we moved here, we encountered a neighbor that said he just didn’t like change.  He lived next door to the same family for most of his life, and he liked it that way.  But, we moved in, as did other families, another neighbor moved on, and even he moved to another town, closer to his work.  Kids are growing up, other neighbors have died, and still others raise another generation to succeed them.  Neighborhood businesses come in to replace some that have gone out.  And yes, schools and hospitals close.

Nostalgia is, by definition, steeped in the sepia we paint it.  The future can only be seen by the light we turn on it.  Next year, let’s apply the lessons of Meagher to Sophie Finn, Zena, and Anna Devine.

-Andrew Champ-Doran

 

Emergency One

Kingston’s HealthAlliance is in dire straits.  We have two hospitals.  We can support one.  Some are looking to the the Church for support on this front, but substantial help is not forthcoming.

There is no question that the Catholic Church does a great deal of good work.  But, as an internet commentator to today’s story in the Kingston Daily Freeman points out, if they really wanted to keep Benedictine open and operating as a Catholic hospital, it is well within their ability.  The problem here is that it is not within their will.  If it was, we would not be having this discussion.

KingstonBarn Photo

The Church has always had the choice to financially support Benedictine.  Before the Kingston HealthAlliance merger, the number of Religious Order employees working there had been reduced to 4 Sisters.  Since the merger, they have had ample warning and opportunity to bridge the budget gap.  Instead, they forced the Hospital Alliance to fund, build, and maintain a physically separate ambulatory surgery facility, all to salve the collective conscience of a religious organization.  Otherwise, why would Timothy Cardinal Dolan say, “We will continue to attempt, at least temporarily, to keep the Foxhall Ambulatory Surgery Center where it is presently located.”  Why would it matter where abortions are performed?  A better response would be, ‘we will do everything within our power to keep your Catholic institutions solvent, and allow the people of Kingston and Ulster County the Benedictine option if their consciences and choices lead them there”.

We now have yet another opportunity for the Church, by a large infusion of cash, to save two hospitals, a large number of jobs, and minister to a great number of people of all faiths that otherwise will go without.  They can, but, for whatever reason, will not.  This is a business decision taken by the Church authorities, they have plainly said so, and anti-abortion activists, at least those that follow the Church, might follow the lead of their officials and just accept that this newly secular institution will comply with the laws of New York and the United States of America.  The Church’s inaction has spoken louder than their words.

I am not anti-Catholic.  I attended Catholic schools from grade 1 through undergrad.  My degree is from a Catholic university.   My bride and I celebrated our beautiful wedding in a New Year’s Eve mass.  My children were baptized into the Church, and attended Religious Education.  From childhood through my adult life, I have been the grateful recipient of good and charitable works of institutions and people of the Catholic Church, Benedictine Hospital and its Sisters included.

Quentin Champ-Doran photo

I have read that some plan to go to Rhinebeck’s Northern Dutchess.  I have been there.  It’s fine.  But, it’s also at least 20 minutes away by car.  Vassar Brothers and Saint Francis in Poughkeepsie are even further.  Many people don’t have that luxury, either in time, economics, or transportation.  And, believe me, the wait time in Kingston’s emergency rooms are nothing at all when compared to Poughkeepsie.  But, those issues are red herrings, when we consider the stakes

Here we are, at the crossroads of what we want and what we do.  What are we going to do, now that the plan is set.  All indicators point to a done deal, no matter what we feel.  Both hospitals will officially close, and the Benedictine campus will reemerge as the only one in this part of the county.  But, we will still have choices.  Do we abandon Kingston, or do we use our remaining resouces?  Are we going to stop begging the Church to save us?  Can we stop blaming the HealthAlliance board for troubles we had before they came?  Or, do we start to make some positive changes ourselves?  Now is the time for creative thought and action, not wishing, whingeing, and whining.

The alternative to one secular hospital is no hospital at all.  Mayor Gallo’s bold attempts to lure a medical college to the closing Kingston Hospital will certainly turn to dust if there is no where to practice and learn.  Private practices will become even scarcer.  Nursing students will have fewer options, locals will lose their jobs, and this part of Ulster county will become far less attractive to potential residents.  Our home values will fall dramatically.

What if we throw our financial support behind whatever hospital results from this process?  We can still go to our doctors here.  They maintain privileges at the local hospital.  We can patronize the hospital here, the one that employs so many of our friends and neighbors.  If they get enough business, they can hire more.  We have the opportunity to vote with our dollars, and say that we want and need a viable, active, full-service hospital here.

Maybe in this case, people of Kingston and Ulster County can stop worrying about who performs what procedure and where, and start ministering to the people in this area, and try to make whatever hospital results from this process the best hospital we can manage.  How you participate is up to you.

KingstonBarn photo

-Andrew Champ-Doran.