News & Notes, September 2021

IN MEMORY OF William (Bill) Jones

The Gettysburg DFA family is mourning the passing of Dr. William (“Bill”) Jones. He was a longtime member of Gettysburg DFA and was the husband for 60 years of our founder and longtime leader, Elaine Jones.

Bill and Elaine were Adams County residents for more than 50 years and were a formidable political couple. Bill opened the Gettysburg College Counseling Office and taught classes and counseled students, faculty, and staff until his retirement a few years ago.

He was a steady presence at DFA meetings for many years. His common sense and optimism guided many discussions in the group. We will all miss him.

News and Notes From Gettysburg DFA

DFA will be resuming a regular schedule of meetups this fall. In view of the selfish and irresponsible behavior of too many of our fellow citizens and the resultant low vaccination rates and growing infection rates, we will reluctantly be holding these meetings via Zoom, at least for the next few months. Stay tuned to our Facebook page news on this plan.

The letters to the editor section of the Gettysburg Timesis an underutilized way to communicate with a broad segment of the public. We’re encouraging all our members to write a letter to the editor. It’s very easy to get published and people read them. It’s only 400 words, max, and we can work with you. The list of potential topics is limitless. Some that tie in with our current activities include threats to our democracy, the recent demand of our Republican legislators for personal information for every registered voter, proposed election law changes and Republican efforts to rig elections, candidate endorsements in upcoming elections, the need for transparency in use of pandemic relief funding, calling Republican politicians and voters to task for continuing to promote the Big Lie, the need for safe school operations, curriculum reform and the growing achievement gap, etc. Contact leonsreed@gmail.com if you want suggestions.

We will be starting a Facebook Live feature entitled “Community Conversations.” This will be a series of Facebook Live conversations with interesting members of our community. Our first conversation will be with longtime DFA member Bill Gilmartin. There’s so much to talk about: his days as a Capitol Hill staffer and his “then and now” comments, his years as a Gettysburg business owner, and of course, his thoughts on the state of the affordable housing market in Adams County. We look to have our first discussion the last week of September. Stay tuned to our Facebook page for more information.

DFA Government Accountability Task Force. Government Accountability is focusing on democracy and voting rights. Current areas of focus include Republican-led election law changes, the so-called “forensic audit” of the 2020 elections, the redistricting process, and anti-democratic parts of the political process such as the filibuster and electoral college.

Jeff Colvin recently wrote an op-ed on the electoral college.

DFA Education Task Force. The Education task force is examining school reopening and safety policies, transparency, and the achievement gap.

Andrew Robinson of the school system wrote on the effects of the pandemic on at risk students.

Healthcare Task Force. The Healthcare Task Force has continued to focus on political engagement to save our democracy, while supporting President Biden’s COVID-relief package and other healthcare reform efforts, especially those related to the social determinants of health and the need to expand and improve public health measures. We have had published several op ed pieces in the Gettysburg Times about Pennie (Pennsylvania's own healthcare insurance exchange for the Affordable Care Act), and Biden initiatives as part of the American Rescue Plan that have made healthcare much more affordable during the pandemic. We are closely following legislative action in the U.S. Congress to make these improvements permanent.

We are concerned about the continuing political nature of both vaccination and mask wearing, and through letters to the editor and op-eds are encouraging the public to follow science. Guided by the Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN)NHAHAN, we try to engage with the public and our state and Federal representatives to get important bi-partisan legislation on lowering drug costs and surprise medical bills. Our most recent op eds are posted under our task force on the DFA website.

Recent op-ed’s include:

News and Notes from Other Organizations

Gettysburg for Gun Sense. Judy Young wrote an op-ed in the Times, “Speaking out against John Lott” documenting some of the inaccuracies in the “research” of this leading gun apologist.

Gettysburg Rising. “Although it’s no longer in the news every day, there is still a crisis at the border. Thousands of asylum seekers remain in Mexico or are turned away at the border, which is only admitting unaccompanied minors and some families at this time. RAICES is one of the organizations on the ground making sure that their rights are protected.

Afghan refugees, who are in the news daily, are expected to settle in area locales such as Lancaster and Baltimore. Donations can be directed to Church World Services in Lancaster or Asylee Women Enterprise in Baltimore.

What is needed is comprehensive immigration reform, and aid directed at alleviating the root causes of migration in Central America, Haiti, Africa, and other sources of migrants. Educate yourself on these issues and encourage your elected officials to take sorely needed action."

Transparency and achievement gap in education. An informal group under the umbrella of Gettysburg Rising has been organizing to promote transparency and safety and to raise concerns about the growing achievement gap. Primarily concerned with GASD, the group is advocating for safe school operations in a time of renewed concern about the pandemic; more transparency about the curriculum, about plans for spending funds under the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER) program, and about disparities in student achievement and growth. The group has been attending school board meetings to raise these concerns.

Green Gettysburg. The Green Gettysburg Book Club meets every Friday at 9:00 AM on Zoom, and right now as we move into the fall season and begin a new book we are especially eager to invite new members to join us. If you are interested, or simply have questions about the book club, please send an email to wlane@gettysburg.edu.

Next up for us is The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California by Mark Arax. Arax, an author and journalist, is from a family of farmers in California’s Central Valley with deep ties to the land. His book, as its jacket states, tells “a tale of politics and hubris in the arid west” with a lot of attention to local cultures impacted by struggles over water from the late 1700s onward. It blends memoir, history and solid reporting to create a “riveting account” of the damage done by the “agricultural empires” and others that “drink so much of the water” in California and elsewhere in the West. We expect that its account of struggles over water in California will provide us with insights into our own water issues here in southcentral Pennsylvania. Our book club began on Valentine’s Day in 2020 and met in person for about six weeks. With the coming of the pandemic, we shifted online and have met regularly on Zoom since then. From the beginning we had two complementary goals.

First, to train ourselves to be more effective advocates for action on environmental issues. This means not only becoming better informed on the science and relevant practical details but also gaining a better understanding of the dynamics of climate change denial and other ways of avoiding accountability for environmental damage.

Secondly, we see ourselves as participating, right here in our home county, in a major cultural shift in the way we think about our relationship with the natural world, helping to move from a model of domination and exploitation to a recognition of our interdependence with the natural systems that sustain us. Along with the science, we are committed to exploring alternative ways of understanding nature and our relationship with other living things.

During 2021 we have engaged a variety of books including Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy; Half-Earth by E.O. Wilson; Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold; How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Imbue; and The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. But all our meeting also include a time for reports on current environmental issues from members, many of whom are involved in environmental activism in the community.

Fair Districts reports that a public hearing will be held on October 13 at York College to allow input on the congressional district maps. More information on this process is available at http://paredistricting.com/schearing

Draw the Lines PA published the Pennsylvania Citizens Map, a first of its kind effort that tabulates the inputs on congressional district lines that it has received from citizens. https://drawthelinespa.org/pa-citizens-map

Project Gettysburg Leon. Project Gettysburg/León was extremely happy for a visit Sept. 13-14 by Greg Bowles, PGL's In-Country Coordinator, who traveled from León, Nicaragua for visits to a number of places in the U.S. While the monthly meeting Sept. 12 was held on Zoom, which meant that Greg could not meet people in person, he was hosted the following afternoon for a casual meet-and-greet time, after which he visited the Painted Turtle Farm, whose work is related to PGL’s intercultural interests, and Tuesday he held several appointments related to PGL’s activities. During the Zoom meeting the sad announcement was made that the annual "Salsa on the Square“ celebration has been cancelled due to concerns about COVID 19. The closely gathered crowd in the first block of Carlisle Street was the concern. Meanwhile, PGL’s projects in and around León continue, including new possibilities on the agenda, even with reductions due to the pandemic.


Leon Reed