Editorial

A Scott Brown Foundation for Child Abuse Victims

Scott Brown's Opportunity
A chance to put child abuse on the national agenda

The February release of Senator Scott Brown's autobiography and his appearance on 60 Minutes drew considerable attention to his role as a child abuse victim - emotional abuse by some of the men in his mother's life and sexual abuse at the hands of a pedophile Christian camp counselor.  Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian has credited the Senator's abuse disclosure with starting the ball rolling on the Camp Good News scandal that continues to unfold.  Garabedian has told the media that he believes Brown's revelation gave other alleged victims of abuse at CGN the courage to contact his office for help.

Much has been written here as well as other places about Brown's abuse story.  Any account of his book includes mention of his summer camp victimization and virtually every Camp Good News story includes Brown's name somewhere in the article.  Whether Senator Brown likes it or not, his name is inextricably linked with Camp Good News and the sexual abuse of innocent children.  We're sure he never thought this would happen when he added to his book the account of his abuse at a Christian camp on Cape Cod.

Will Senator Brown be called as a witness in any of the civil or criminal matters likely to move forward regarding Camp Good News?  While he may not want to name his attacker, his testimony might help Garabedian and criminal prosecutors establish a long term pattern of behavior at the camp. When the day comes that he's subpoenaed to appear in one of these cases, we hope Senator Brown will surprise us all by embracing a truly splendid opportunity to do a lot of good.

Rather than fleeing from the CGN story, we urge Senator Brown to become a role model and spokesman for sexually abused children everywhere.

How one politician did it.

Do you remember the "It Gets Better" media campaign to help gay/lesbian youth who were bullied by their peers?  Last fall there seemed to be a virtual epidemic of young people taking their own lives over anti-gay bullying.  There evolved a series of media spots by the It Gets Better project.  At the same time Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns recorded a truly moving statement at a public meeting last year relating his own experiences.

Wouldn't it be powerful if Senator Brown turned his considerable charisma to the victims of pedophiles? 

There is no sin lower than the sexual abuse of a child.  Scott Brown stands in a place right now where he can make a huge difference for victims like him.

A Scott Brown Foundation for Child Abuse Victims

We propose that Senator Brown establish the Scott Brown Foundation for Child Abuse Victims and turn his considerable fund-raising prowess to funding that new organization.  The Scott Brown Foundation could provide indispensible funding to organizations like the local Children's Cove right in Hyannis. The Brown Foundation could also provide funding for a media campaign similar to that of the It Gets Better Project.  It could fund the development of a D.A.R.E.-like curriculum for elementary schools to give our children the tools to step up and report abuse.

Imagine a nation-wide media campaign featuring Senator Brown - the abused child who grew up to be a powerful Senator put abuse prevention on the national agenda.

Imagine a nation-wide media campaign featuring Senator Brown - the abused child who grew up to be a powerful Senator that smote his abuser, nuked an alleged pedophiles' playground and put abuse prevention on the national agenda.  For a young child abuse victim, this would be the equivalent of a super hero swooping in to the rescue.

As we said above, we're sure Senator Brown never expected the laser focus on his victimization when he included his abuse at summer camp in his autobiography.  That genie is out of the bottle now.  Rather than try to flee from that genie, we encourage Brown to embrace it.

Senator Brown has the ability to raise millions of dollars in a short time.  If he were to take even a month to focus on a Scott Brown Foundation we're sure he could raise $5 million or more.  Who wouldn't get behind such a project, regardless of their political affiliation?

Every six minutes an American child is sexually abused.  Scott Brown has an historic opportunity to protect generations of innocent children from predators like the one who molested him.  Protecting those children will be a far greater legacy than even the greatest Senator could accomplish in a lifetime.

"Conduct Unbecoming" in Falmouth

Memorial to a hero does not cheapen a library's lawn

"We're not Disneyland, we want to maintain the dignity within and without the building. With all due respect to Mr. Baker, he deserves to be honored but he deserves to be honored elsewhere."

Those were the words of Falmouth Library Trustee Marilyn Zacks speaking a week ago Monday at a Falmouth Selectman's meeting as reported by the Falmouth Bulletin.

Ms. Zacks was one of the library trustees who spoke against the Falmouth Veterans Council's proposal to place a granite bench in memory of Navy veteran Richard Baker on the front lawn of the library campus.

The Falmouth Enterprise further reported Ms. Zacks as saying that there is a sense of dignity surrounding libraries that she did not want to cheapen with displays on the library lawn.

The coldest, most unpatriotic remark by a elected official this year

Those remarks by Library Trustee Zacks ought to be memorialized as some of the coldest, most unpatriotic remarks uttered by an elected official on Cape Cod this year.

Memorial Day is just five weeks away. While Ms. Zacks perhaps honors Memorial Day as the start of Falmouth's infamous traffic jams, some of us still pause on that day to remember our nation's fallen heroes - generations of men and women who laid down their lives so Ms. Zacks can share her views on contemporary ignorance at a selectman's meeting.

The people of Falmouth paid for that campus with their hard-earned money and Falmouth's veterans paid for it with their blood.

We understand that there are personalities and politics involved in the acrimony between the Falmouth Library Trustees and the Veterans Council. We also believe that every square inch of the library campus belongs to the people of Falmouth. The people of Falmouth paid for that campus with their hard-earned money and Falmouth's veterans paid for it with their blood.

According to published reports, the proposed memorial bench is to be placed on the corner of the library lawn closest to Main Street and Shore Street Extension. That hardly sounds like "clutter" or anything that would interfere with functions held on the lawn throughout the summer.

How much better a granite bench than the tattered, disrespectful & neglected phony patriotism on Route 6.

Heaven forbid, someone might actually borrow a book from the moldering library collection and sit on that bench to read it. Would that offend the dignity of the library trustees?

As irrelevant as libraries have become in the twenty-first century, we find most public libraries on the Cape to be open, inviting places. Indeed, one of the readers who commented on The Enterprise's article mentioned how she loved to use the front lawn of the library to read and access the free wifi whenever she was visiting Falmouth.

We find this turf war all the more unbecoming when we hear the library trustees present themselves as worried about the unchecked erection of statues and monuments on the lawn. Sounds like someone has a bad case of priapism.

As far as we're concerned, there is nothing more dignified for a library's front lawn than a memorial to veterans. With the large number of young children that make up a library's clientele, such monuments are a wonderful way for them to learn more about what it means to be a citizen of our great nation.

Moreover, a granite bench is a far more fitting memorial than these makeshift roadside tributes that have been popping up all over the Cape lately. While many of the roadside displays become faded and tattered as folks move on to other projects, the Falmouth Veterans Council has maintained its monuments and preserved their dignity - and the particular veteran they hope to honor did most of that maintenance for decades.

Cape Cod towns have done a wonderful job maintaining their war memorials over the centuries. Our guess is that the proposed grant bench honoring Richard Baker will be there in pristine condition long after the Falmouth Library has succumbed to the mating sounds of dinosaurs and been consigned to the dustbin of history.

Ironic that he fought agaist the book-burners in World War Two

Have the Falmouth Library Trustees turned book-burning into bench-burning?

Ironically, the Navy veteran to be honored by the proposed bench is of a generation that fought against the Nazi's in World War II. You remember that Nazi's, those goose-stepping Neanderthals who loved to pillage libraries and burn books? It is even more ironic that too many of our young people right now are giving their lives in Afghanistan to fight the book burners of the Taliban. Meanwhile, the Falmouth Library Trustees don't want veteran memorials turning the library campus into a Disney resort. How despicable is that?

We encourage the good people of Falmouth to contact their selectmen in support of the Veterans Council's placement of memorials on the library campus. All of the selectmen's email addresses are included on the linked page.

We encourage Marilyn Zacks, Otis Porter, Jr. and any of the other Falmouth Library Trustees who agree with them to spend some time getting in touch with their inner patriot - right after they submit their resignations. Anyone who considers veteran memorials reminiscent of "Disneyland" is unfit to serve in elected office.

                                                                               - See our previous Editorials here.

Nauset Regional's opaque contract

A Nauseating Lack of Transparency
Open to public scrutiny or a Three-card Monte shuffle?

For the past several days we have seen daily newspaper reports of the new, three-year contract for teachers in the Nauset Regional school system. These accounts all laud the contract, reached after five months of negotiation, for its zero cost-of-living increase in year one, followed by a 2% increase in year two and 2.5% raise in year three.

As with so many things, the devil's in the details.

"Step increase" is a nice euphemism for pay raise.

Now You See It

After reading recent press accounts, many will applaud Superintendent Hoffmann's negotiation of a contract that doesn't include salary increases in the first year.

Just a danged minute!

Teachers who are due "step increases" will still receive those raises. "Step increase" is a nice euphemism for pay raise or maybe even "entitlement". If it walks and quacks like a duck, it is not a piping plover. You can read the 2012 budget here.

Did Nauset negotiate some early retirement incentives to get those capped-out salaries off the payroll?

Hoffman reports that 70% of the teachers in his district are "senior teachers" who are at the top step in the pay scale and are only entitled to cost of living increases. Nowhere have we seen how much the pay increases for the other 30% will impact the district's budget in the next three years.

Meanwhile, with 70% of the payroll comprised of senior teachers, did Nauset negotiate some early retirement incentives to get those capped-out salaries off the payroll?

Now You Don't

Superintendent Hoffmann has reported a modest $25,000 increase in the training budget and an expansion of the sick leave policy that allows employees to use ten days of their accrued sick leave to care for family members. What is the net cost to the district of that benefit?

What is Nauset paying for teacher medical benefits?

Worse yet, not a word has been released about health care costs. What is Nauset paying for teacher medical benefits? Did the new contract bring any changes in the health care plan benefits or employee premium contribution? What percentage of the premium do Nauset teachers pay?

In a year where many Cape Cod businesses have been forced to chose between 20% premium increases or higher deductibles/lower benefits for health care, what concessions did Superintendent Hoffmann extract from the Nauset Education Association?

Did Nauset hire a superintendent or a master Three-card Monte dealer?

A Call for Transparency

Hoffman was imported from Ashland two years ago upon the retirement of well-respected Superintendent Michael Gradone. In hiring Superintendent Richard Hoffman the Nauset school board just might have found itself a true master of Three-card Monte.

All of the headlines on this story have touted the "no increase" aspect of the contract. A couple of stories touched on the step increases in passing but offered no numbers. Nobody has said a word about the health insurance, which must be quite the elephant in the room in a district the size of Nauset.

We are not disputing teachers' receiving fair compensation for their work. The Nauset superintendent's sleight of hand with the media diminishes what might be an equitable, fair teacher contract. Dr. Hoffmann has simply not shared enough with the public for us to know how good or bad this contract is.

Dr. Hoffman, Cape Codders require a bit more transparency, especially when you're digging around in our wallets. We would like to see that now, please.

We have emailed Superintendent Hoffmann offering our Op Ed space for a rebuttal.
You can add your comments below or email Superintendent Hoffmann directly at hoffmannr@nausetschools.org.

You can?t run nobody

You got to run somebody against Scott Brown to take back the Kennedy seat

The citizens of the Commonwealth elected him to run the state. The Democrats elected him to run the party. By virtue of being the popularly elected Governor in a 2^nd term, Deval Patrick has the right, as well as the obligation, to take control the single most important election in Massachusetts next year. 

As titular head of the Democratic Party in Massachusetts, the Governor has the right to choose and get behind the Democratic candidate for US Senate.  If he cannot, as head of the party, find a credible candidate to run against Scott Brown, then he has to do it himself.

This is not as difficult as it sounds. While Scott Brown enjoys the support of the state's independents, so does Deval Patrick. While Brown can raise $10 million for the race, he has to do it outside of Massachusetts.  Patrick can raise $10 million inside of Massachusetts alone. And with the President's help, he can raise another $10 million out of state too.  He is the only candidate on the horizon who can do this.

President Obama is going to win re-election with or without Deval Patrick campaigning for him. Massachusetts is a foregone conclusion for the President. Even though the PAC the Governor recently created allows him to raise money and travel to other states to campaign for Barack Obama, the PAC could easily be used to allow Patrick to travel to other states to help his own election to the US Senate.

Governor Patrick can best help President Obama by running for and getting elected to the US Senate.   The inheritor of the Kennedy legacy is best served if the next guy carrying the torch from Massachusetts is not Scott Brown. 

How does the President come to Massachusetts  next year to campaign with Deval Patrick for his own re-election while ignoring the fact that no one is running against Scott Brown? Not to mention the fact that the President will be here raising and taking millions of Democratic dollars out of the state so he can win somewhere else.

You can argue that both the Governor and the President are at fault for Scott Brown's election in the first place. Both won their own historic elections.  Both are Kennedy stalwarts. Yet both were oblivious to the politics in the race last year, both taking a hands-off approach to the Democratic primary that resulted in the nomination of a weak candidate.

Neither wanted to spend their own political capital to get a Democrat elected to the Kennedy seat. Well it's time to spend some of the political capital that Kenndy left them.

Both the Governor and the President will be committing political malpractice if they shirk their responsibility to defeat Scott Brown now.

Both the Governor and the President will be committing political malpractice if they shirk their responsibility to defeat Scott Brown now.  The Governor should get together with the President on this, and decide to run for the US Senate. Otherwise, the Governor's re-election and the President's likely re-election will be Pyrrhic victories.

Barack Obama is already in Washington. The Governor will likely be joining him before the end of his 2^nd term.  And Scott Brown will still be there. Is the Governor Patrick satisfied that Scott Brown will end up serving in Washington long after President Obama leaves office? Instead of treating Scott Brown's election as an aberration, the Governor and the President are accepting it with conformity.

Time is against the Democrats. The Governor has to decide what to do before the Democrats gather on June 4th. Can he seriously come to the Convention in Lowell with no candidate for US Senate in hand, and no offer to carry the flag himself? 

This is the hand dealt the Governor.  He cannot fold. He has to go all in.

The Democrats need someone to run against Scott Brown. Should that be Deval Patrick, Massachusetts could see a Teutonic clash between two titanic figures of their respective parties, in an election riveting the whole country next year.

Now that would be a historic.

Eastham?s 'Jurassic Library' Proposal

A $9.2 million “Taj Mahal” library will be a mausoleum like it's namesake

In recent days we have read of yet another Cape town’s misguided proposal to build a large library addition.  Eastham’s library trustees this week proposed a $9.2 million, 16,800 square foot library featuring a 135 seat meeting space that could accommodate large gatherings and performances.

Each book circulates 2.35 times in a year.  For that, the library proponents want the town to borrow $4.5 million with the state picking up the balance of the $9.2 million to build a museum to hold a collection that sees most of its books sit idle year upon year.

What are they smoking at the Eastham Library?  Common sense recently prevailed in Sandwich, after the selectmen rejected a $15.2 million library upgrade.  Other towns are cutting back on library services as fiscal exigencies dictate municipal cutbacks.

The real issue here is that libraries as currently envisioned are on the verge of obsolescence. A 2006 op-ed piece in Kansas’ Lawrence Journal World explained the concept quite well – and set off a firestorm of controversy in that city. 

In that piece, author Mark Hirschey hit the nail on the head – today people seek fast, convenience access to up-to-date information. For most of us that means the Internet.  As Hirshey continues, “Modern information technology involves two-way communication between providers and users of information technology. With instant messaging, blogs, message boards, and email, the Internet fosters information sharing among virtually unlimited numbers of information providers. Computers are communication devices that bring communities together.”

The plans call for a 16,800 square foot library with a 135 seat meeting space costing $9.2 million.

Capturing the future

In 1996 we started CapeCodToday.com to target the news appetite of the generation then coming of age.  That generation has now started families and moved into the mainstream of local society. 

The media consumption of this demographic is all about Kindle/Nook e-readers, getting news content over the Internet, NetFlix and more.  A quick look at the business news tells the tale quite well: 

• Borders in bankruptcy,
  
• Dish Network purchasing the remains of Blockbuster video,
  
• print newspapers closing and
  
• independent book sellers on the rocks. 
  

Even our oldest readers have embraced the e-book and the concept of on-line news sites as their primary source of local and national news.

At $9.2 million and 49,000 books, that's $188 per book.
Kindles cost $139 each for access to 810,000 books.

A recent story about the proposed Eastham library boasted that book circulation has grown to 115,000 books annually.  The library’s collection has grown to 49,000 volumes.

This means that, on the average, each book circulates 2.35 times in a year.  For that, the library proponents want the town to borrow $4.5 million with the state picking up the balance of the $9.2 million estimated cost.  $9.2 million to build a museum to hold a collection that sees most of its books sit idle year upon year.

Oh wait, there’s the 135 seat meeting and performance space!  Why on earth should the taxpayers pay to build that space when there are two beautiful schools in town, a town hall, the Sheraton Four Points conference center, the Elks hall and numerous church venues.  If the library tribe wants performance and meeting space, why not use existing town facilities or support local businesses?

We also haven’t seen any numbers yet on how much it will cost to staff and operate the new “Taj Mahal” library.  The name choice, by the way, was deliberate since the Taj Mahal is after all a very opulent mausoleum.

Instead buy a color e-reader for everyone in Eastham for $1.4m

When is the last time you went to the library?  A fifty-year-old colleague of ours told us that he just picked up his first library card in over twenty-five years.  Why, you ask?  Because he wanted to be able to use the CLAMS system to borrow e-books on his Barnes and Noble Nook.  He visited the library to get the card and he said he will likely never set foot in there again.

Make the present Eastham Library 41 times larger for $14,500

Now there’s an idea!  Perhaps the library should invest in 100 or so Kindles and/or Nooks, and let folks rent them for a dollar a month to borrow e-books through CLAMS.  Fifty Kindles and fifty Nooks would cost $14,500 a full retail price. That's less than 1 percent of what the proposed libray would cost, and so much more 21st century for the town.

The Town of Eastham web site lists the population as 5,646.  The Barnes & Noble Nook Color sells at retail for $249.  They could buy a Nook Color for every single person in town for $1.4 million, which is a lot less than spending $9.2 million on a mausoleum.  The library could spend another $150,000 to purchase 10,000 Nook book titles for lending to its 5,646 new Nook patrons.

The good people of Eastham are respected across the Cape for their common sense.  We trust this noble virtue will once again rise up to reject the Jurassic Library at Town Meeting on May 2nd and, necessary, in the May 17th town election.

Scott Brown's Nightmare

Questions Senator Brown must answer now or on the witness stand later
What did DA O'Keefe know, and when did he know it?

The tragic events of April 6th at Camp Good News mark the latest development in a story that has unfolded since Scott Brown's book "Against All Odds" was released on February 21st. As our readers will recall, Senator Brown revealed in his book that he was molested when he was a ten-year-old camper at a religious summer camp on Cape Cod. It was later revealed that he attended Camp Good News in Sandwich the summer he says he was abused.

His compass needs some serious adjustments.

Charles R. Devita, 43, apparently killed himself at the camp yesterday following this week's filing of a complaint about sex abuse alleged to have occurred many years ago. Apparently three more people came forward with allegations that they were abused at Camp Good News following yesterday's events. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian is representing the former campers. Readers will remember Garabedian as working with many of the victims in the child sex abuse scandal that plagued the Archdiocese of Boston and led to the downfall of Bernard Cardinal Law whom he finally got on the witness stand for the world to witness his waffling excuses for allowing young lives to be destroyed during his watch.

The child molestation account in Scott Brown's book created a firestorm of controversy here on Cape Cod. Many of our readers believed that Brown had cynically chosen this particular time to reveal his molestation in order to get ahead of the story about his licentious behavior during his years as a Cosmopolitan centerfold and male model during New York City's disco era which might be remembered during his re-election campaign by other at the club.

Neither Left nor Right, simply ethics and morality

Others believed Brown's account was a fabrication. Those on both the left and right who were concerned with the welfare of children wondered why Brown wouldn't name his abuser and worried that the pedophile might still be plying his trade with innocent victims some 40 years after he molested young Scott Brown. How could this prominent, powerful man - this officer of the court, a one-time Army Judge Advocate, a member of the Massachusetts Senate and now a United States Senator , a man sworn to uphold the law and honor-bound to protect the innocent - withhold the name of the man who abused him and who knows how many other innocent children?

Now this week we learned that other victims have started to come forward, some accusing the late Mr. Devita of abusing them when they attended Camp Good News. Clearly, Mr. Devita is not the right age to have victimized Scott Brown, but Devita is the correct age to have been abused by the same pedophile during his own childhood attendance of Camp Good News.

So now we wonder... Was there a serial child molester plying his trade at Camp Good News, passing on his legacy to another generation and sending at least one of those victims on to abuse countless more children? Mr. Devita is deceased so neither the District Attorney nor the victims will ever get a chance to question him.

When this story first evolved we scorned Senator Brown for lobbing a literary grenade at Camp Good News with no way for them to redeem their reputation. We heard rumors that there might have been more abuse at the camp, though nothing beyond the whispers of anonymous sources.

All of this changed Monday when Mitchell Garabedian went public with the first complaint he filed on behalf of a Camp Good News alumnus. If anyone in New England is skilled at vetting child molestation accusers it would be Mr. Garabedian. His extensive experience with the Arch Diocese scandal brings tremendous credibility to his clients' allegations.

This week's revelation of pornography found on a computer in 2002 brought the matter to a head, apparently ultimately resulting in this morning's suicide.

What a nightmare for Senator Brown! If one can write a textbook on how a politician's biography might backfire, it will be written on the wreckage of Scott Brown's political career. Even one of our most conservative readers told us today that she couldn't imagine how she ever again could vote for Scott Brown "with his broken moral compass."

What if Brown had talked to others rather than his book publisher?

Today we wonder if Senator Brown had made his first report of molestation to anyone other than his editor at Harper, perhaps things would have played out differently. Brown had his entire adult life to do something about what appears to be a disturbing pattern at Camp Good News but failed to do so.

Had Brown acted sooner, perhaps Mr. Devita would be alive and in custody, ready to answer the many questions that the alleged victims want to ask. Perhaps those victims would be able to get some form of closure from a criminal or civil trial. Perhaps the good Christian families who send their kids to summer camp would know if it is at all safe to send their children to Camp Good News.

The simplest answer is best:
Perhaps the reason Brown is unwilling to name his abuser is because he wasn't abused.

Senator Brown is alive. He is capable of telling our District Attorney absolutely everything he knows about what went on at camp that awful summer. This might lead to other victims who could fill in more parts of the story. If he has any moral courage in his heart, he simply must do that today! If he cannot, then he is not fit to represent this state in Washington.

The simplest answer is always the best: Maybe the reason Brown is unwilling to name his abuser is because he wasn't abused. All the young boys at Camp Good News knew what was happening there, and perhaps Brown just used his knowledge to get worldwide press attention with his book.

Meanwhile, we are left with the incredibly naïve statements from those associated with Camp Good News. One spokesperson described Mr. Devita to the Cape Cod Times as "...willing to do just about anything" and wondered how he got any sleep? Meanwhile, referring to the pornography allegations of 2002, an official with the Sandwich Community School revealed that they had to terminate Mr. Devita's employment because "we can't take any chances with that stuff." Apparently Camp Good News decided to roll the dice with "that stuff" and lost spectacularly if Mr. Garabedian's clients are successful in their claims.

Meanwhile, our readers have some questions that merit answers:

• Did District Attorney O'Keefe's investigation of Camp Good News start before or after the claims initiated by Attorney Garabedian?
• Did Senator Brown ask District Attorney O'Keefe not to investigate his own molestation or the camp in general?
• How many other alleged molesters from Camp Good News are under investigation?
• How many alleged victims have approached the Cape & Islands District Attorney's office?
• Will Camp Good News be shut down by the authorities pending further investigation?
• Can Mr. Garabedian or other lawyers in the civil actions subpoena Senator Brown and compel him to testify about his own experiences at Camp Good News?

Whatever one may believe about our Junior Senator's revelations, his personal integrity or his "moral compass", this week's developments at Camp Good News clearly comprise Scott Brown's worst nightmare come true.

Body memory

"I remember better when I paint"

By Robert Whitcomb, The Providence Journal

Last spring, I visited Chicago, on assignment by the nonprofit Miller-McCune magazine, to look into some newish ways of treating patients with Alzheimer’s disease. I did this after seeing a movie called “I Remember Better When I Paint,’’ put together by a friend of mine called Berna Huebner and the French director Eric Ellena.

"I Remember Better When I Paint."

The film is about using the arts to connect with patients suffering mostly from Alzheimer’s but from other dementias, too.

The idea came from Mrs. Huebner’s experience with her mother, Hilda Gorenstein.

Mrs. Gorenstein, after a distinguished career as a painter, had, in her 80s, developed Alzheimer’s and stopped painting. She was moved into a nursing home and withdrew into a silent, unhappy and sometimes agitated state.

There seemed to be no way of pulling her out of her condition. But then one day Berna asked her mother if she’d like to begin painting again. Mrs. Gorenstein surprisingly responded: “I remember better when I paint.

Several art students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago were recruited to work with her, encouraged by her daughter and a neurologist.

Listen to Bob's "I Believe" here. The piece orginated at WRNI, the NPR station in Providence.

It was tough sledding for a while, but finally Mrs. Gorenstein started to improve as she painted, becoming less withdrawn and agitated. From time to time, she got deeply involved in doing her pictures, and would chat and make quirky observations, with some of her trademark sardonic humor. In short, when she was working with the students, she was often engaged, and much calmer than she had been.

Perhaps she was exercising a bit of what some neurologists call "body memory,’’ something different from what we usually think of as as expressed in our thoughts.

Increasingly, professionals dealing with dementia are finding that the arts — painting, sculpture, music, dance and so on — are powerful ways to connect with Alzheimer's patients.

I believe (or hope!) that as I head deeper into the autumn of my years, that the plasticity of the brain will continue to astound. There are different sorts of memory and not all of them are what we might traditionally call intelligence.

But beyond that, isn’t the big lesson here for all of us to live more in the moment, however good or bad our memory? I must try it myself some day soon while I still know I’m doing it!

Robert Whitcomb is vice president and editorial-page editor of The Providence Journal. Before joining The Journal, he was the financial editor of the International Herald Tribune; an editor and writer for The Wall Street Journal; and a writer for The Boston Herald Traveler and the News Journal, in Wilmington, Del.Hre is also the co:author of "Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound" with Wendy Williams.

Let?s Halt the Decline of Route 132

There once was a thriving crossroad of commerce at the Gateway to Hyannis

But that was yesterday, and these stores and more have left town.

A few ideas about how to turn it around

In Monday’s edition of Extra we learned that TGI Friday’s had joined the exodus of businesses from the Route 132 area of Hyannis.  With Borders poised to close, Old Country Buffet eaten away, and the former Filene’s Basement growing dank and cold – Route 132 is starting to look like a ghost town. 

Vacant storefronts abound at the Festival mall – Old Country Buffet, Blockbuster and Coldstone Creamery plus several other spaces are available.  At Southwind Plaza (site of Stop & Shop, Home Depot and Old Navy) the 25,000 square foot Borders will soon go dark – leaving the gateway to that plaza abandoned.  Over at the Airport Shopping Plaza the 40,000 square foot Filene’s Basement remains vacant and the storefronts where the Airport Cinema’s once thrived stand dark. 

Before that Chili's left, and the town in its wisdom turned that property into an anti-pedestrian park - just try to get there alive.

Then we come to the 23,000 square foot store that Berkshire Development constructed for Circuit City just in time for them to back out as the company struggled for survival. 

The long term vacancies of Filene’s Basement and the Circuit City building attest to the difficulties of filling spaces of that particular size and configuration.  Fortunately, both Wal-Mart and Target recently unveiled future expansion plans that include stores in the 20,000 to 30,000 square foot range.

And the retreat goes on

Barnstable once again demonstrates its hostility towards business development in the blighted Main Street area.
   A developer is going to bring 300 jobs and $500,000 in tax revenue to Barnstable, but they want to charge for "mitigation"?
   Talk about quid pro quo - you can build this but you have to agree to buy things for the town in order to get permission to build.
   Meanwhile downtown Hyannis looks more and more like another slum. Mr. Doe mentioned that he drove through Hyannis the other day and found 36 realtor or "for lease" signs.
   So much for the downtown redevelopment.
   Read the Barnstable Patriot story here.

In October Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced plans for 30 to 40 of its planned 185 to 205 new U.S. stores to be of a smaller format.  Some of these new Wal-Mart’s will be of less than 30,000 square feet and focused on smaller, more densely-populated communities.

When Wal-Mart occupied the former Bradlee’s in Falmouth a decade ago the chain may have mis-gauged the geography of Cape Cod.  Any Cape Codder knows that few people from the Lower Cape will go to Falmouth for anything including a Wal-Mart.  It’s often difficult to get them past Hyannis. Indeed, folks from Falmouth aren’t likely to sojourn to Orleans to shop at TJ Maxx, either.  While the Wal-Mart in Falmouth is a success, the chain would find fertile ground on Route 132 in Hyannis.

Similarly, the traditional Target store runs between 125,000 and 200,000 square feet.  In September Target announced its City Target concept for small-format stores in urban and densely populated areas. 

Another big consumer draw right now would be an Apple retail store.  With the nearest Apple store in Hingham, perhaps the Cape is ready to buy their iPhone, iPods and iPad’s right from the source at long last.  According to ifo.applestore.com the typical Apple retail store is in the 3,000 to 6,000 square foot range, with some growing as large as 20,000 square feet. 

While the national chains enjoy infamous difficulty in attempting to build new stores on Cape Cod, it would be quite difficult to prevent them from occupying a pre-existing retail space, especially in the case of the brand new, regulator-vetted Circuit City building.

Perhaps the future of Route 132 lies in these national brands.  A Wal-Mart “Neighborhood Market” would fit very well in the Circuit City building.  Target could do a lot worse than the spaces at the Airport Shopping Plaza or the Festival.  Half of the Borders store would make a very attractive Apple store, perhaps with the half where the café was located serving as a “Royal Discount” type of bargain bookstore, selling remainders and other discounted books – anything, please God, but another art/craft supply store. 

VOTE in our POLL:

What is stopping the economic growth on Cape Cod?

O The Cape Cod Commission.
O The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.
O Wasteful spending by our Pols.
O The current recession.
O The first three above.
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Lest we forget, downtown Hyannis still boasts the vacant Puritan Pontiac building that was originally constructed for the Mars Bargainland discount chain and boasts some 50,000 square feet of space.  At one time that part of downtown featured Mars Bargainland, First National, Stop & Shop, W.T. Grant and the very first Zayre store.

Regardless of what some at the Cape Cod Commission, Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and other scallywags may believe Cape Cod needs national retailers.  Since the demise of Bradlees’ what is more inconvenient than trying to buy a toaster on the Lower Cape on a Sunday in March?  One can pay full retail at a hardware store, see if the Christmas Tree Shop happens to have toasters that week or trek off to Hyannis.  You can’t even buy a $12 toaster for double that at Snows because they’re closed on Sunday in winter.

Hyannis must maintain a solid base of national retailers that Cape Codders want to patronize, lest more drive right past Hyannis and on to Wareham or Plymouth.  Without continued cultivation, Route 132 will become just as hopeless as downtown Hyannis.

Hyannis already has two strikes against it with a surge in violent crime and degradation of its retail base on Route 132.  Soon the Cape will likely face competition from a destination resort casino somewhere in southeastern Massachusetts. 

If Route 132 does not soon restore itself as an attractive retail center, Cape tourism will continue to suffer from the decline and fall of Hyannis.