News From An Acorn

Five Hundred Friends and Funerals

Can anyone really have "five-hundred friends" on Face Book of all places?

I use the popular social networking site as a way of communicating and staying in touch with young people I work with professionally, and with their parents. I also use Face Book a lot with many folks, young and not so young, within my faith community of Quakers. (I like to joke with New England Quakers by teasing our elders, saying, that before long, it will be a prerequisite of membership for aspiring Friends (Quakers) to have a Face Book account! But that's a story for another day.) In any case, just having these two main groups of people in my life can easily account for the numbers.

When it comes to computer use and online organization, I'm a categorizing and folders kind of guy, so it may come as no surprise to know that I also use the categorizing feature on FB to group my friend lists. (What? You didn't know that I initially added you to a category? Sorry. You're in my best best friends list...of course!) Anyway, recently I noticed that my total number of Face Book Friends was nearing five hundred, and I thought about awarding my 500th friend with some kind of a special, silly award, like an old keyboard dipped in chocolate or a 1992 bound, four-pound beginners manual of how to use AOL.

Now I'm sure someone might ask, is this guy

Five O'clock Hour

(An Open Letter recently sent via US Post to members of the Dartmouth Select Board and Dartmouth Finance Committee.)

Five O’clock Hour

"Andrew" (not his real name) called me Thursday afternoon and asked, "Kevin. You there? Can I stop by or are you meeting with some one else right now?" "I'm here," I said, "And waiting to talk with you if you want to stop by." "Okay," Andrew said,  "...be there in five minutes!" And that's the way these visits go with this sixteen-year old boy. Andrew has been stopping in to "say hi" now on and off for almost three years and not once has he ever made a real in-the-book- appointment. It's just his style, which I've come to enjoy, actually.

Andrew first came to our weekly teen support group called "Teen Zone" three years ago. He came to the group just once preferring to speak with me individually from that day forward. Andrew started seeking support from school counselors and advocates who work with teens after telling his dad that he was gay in the seventh grade. His parents split when he was very young, but he had always maintained a fairly decent relationship with his father...until the day he came out. Andrew's mom has been supportive 100%, but dad, well that's another story.

So Andrew pops by every now and then to chat, especially when he's upset or angry about something. He talks about his fears, about being gay and we explore ways of helping him feel more confident about himself and his future. And on a recent Thursday around five in the afternoon, Andrew, like many other teens I work with recently, expressed his frustration regarding the future of my position. But this time, Andrew said something that was very difficult for me to answer. "Well," he said, "I'll still be able to see you and talk with you, won't I, even if they kick you out?" (Love his choice of words...) And I said, "Andrew, I'd like that, but I'd have to get another job and I just wouldn't be able to be present for you like I am now."

He said, "That really sucks." "Yes it does," I said, hoping to move our discussion onto something else for now. But Andrew was on this topic like a laser beam and quickly replied, "When will we know?" "Maybe not until June, actually," I said. 

This is some of the work that I do. Sometimes it isn't tidy, and doesn't fit into spread sheets very well. My challenge (always) is convincing those who count the "beans" into categories "one-to-four," and those who practice looking good in politics to understand why this work and service to the youth of Dartmouth is worthy of the price.

I have come to terms long ago with the reality that filling potholes and hauling trash away rates higher as a priority then the work I do with children. But these are our community's children, and you represent them, also. They have neither voice nor power. They do have names and faces though, and real issues that I witness to every day. I realize that your service to the town is demanding, but,  if your committee does not have time to consider the work of the Dartmouth Youth Commission then I must somehow bring  our work closer to you, instead.

So who will this boy talk to in the future on Thursday afternoons? Any volunteers? My hope....no, my expectation, really, is that our Town officials will do the right thing and keep the doors open for this teen, and others like him.

Kevin Lee, Youth Advocate
508-910-1855 – Office
508-2X7-9XO6 - cell (anytime)
dartmouthyouth@gmail.com  

PS: The FinCom and Select Board comprise fourteen persons combined. With the exception of Mr. Carney and Mrs. Dias, the rest of you have never, not once, sat down with me and discussed the work that goes on in Room 118, Town Hall. How come?

Kevin Lee
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The Price of (dirty) Politics

Many of you who read my blog, or whom I've had the privilege of working with around town or within the wider Quaker community, have been very supportive of me recently as I slog my way through the mire and mud of local politics. ( See previous posts or Story in Standard Times) Words here cannot adequately express how grateful I remain to all of you! In the last 8 days I have received 98 emails, all positive (the ones that came to me anyway!) and this doesn't include the blog posting on the local  rag's online forum at the Standard Times. There's been a few times when I was about to respond to this or that posted item and before I could find the time and clear my head to compose something, I'd receive an email from one of you who had already fired off a letter and sent me a copy! Check, done, amazing!

I've received copies of letters that friends, Quakers, colleagues, rowing buddies, family members, religious leaders and even clients [have]sent in every direction that seemed effective. One friend, Julie, carried on a "stimulating" and pointed email exchange (okay, it was war...but very polite!) with one town official (and as an elected official should have acted more responsibly) from across the Atlantic Ocean in England! All I had to do is stand back and "watch!" (Such a gift!) I received cell calls from Florida and California and an email from someone I know in Canada. Lord knows how my Canadian friend head about all this, but he did. And then there was the Face Book force, where close to 300 people from all over (but mostly students at Dartmouth High) had joined the group "Save our Youth Advocate, which produced more letters and supportive notes to me as well.  Last Monday night I sat home and watched the weekly Dartmouth Select Board Meeting on local cable TV as some thirty silent vigil supporters of me walked in wearing hand prints that said, "stop the witch hunt," "stop the smear," "we support Kevin." After 20 minutes they got up and silently walked out. Talk about the power of sheer presence! Gandhi would have been proud.

The "Naked Truth!"

     PLEASE READ THIS IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR MY PHOTOS!

(Note: I wrote this post as the ridiculous drama was unfolding on Feb 19, 2009, just after I took the links to my online photo albums off this site....for now.)

I am supposing that some of you who are visiting my personal photo site right now are doing so because of the recent newspaper piece in the Standard Times. (And if you're reading this as one of subscribers to my post...thank you, and I want you to know about this part of my life as well.) Let me say outright, to anyone who cares to listen, that I take my joy and passion for photography seriously, and delight in sharing it opening with anyone who is interested for the sake of photography, and not scandal.

Unfortunately, a small band of narrow-minded and mean spirited townspeople have decided to make this an issue, which seems on the surface rather silly to me. However, when one works in a public setting, and on top of that works directly with the youth of our community, as I do as the Town’s Youth Advocate, It’s all too easy for those who do not support our services to find ways to attempt to intimidate and attack my character and professional reputation.

Well, that tactic simply will not work with me. I am proud of my professional reputation and good standing in the community, and I refuse to be bullied or harassed by a few noisy and far-right wing individuals whose primary mission, if they are honest about it, is use this "photo flap" as a way to discredit me and avert attention away from the fact that many residents want the services of the Youth Advocate to continue, and not be eliminated, as three of the current Select Board members would like to have happen. However, as most people who know me realize, I have nothing to hide, with my photography or anything else in my life for that matter, and so access to my photo site remains available to all.

Do know, however, that I did remove one photo that one person apparently found objectionable, which, had that person contacted me directly, I would have been happy to do anyway. And what was thatphoto, you may ask? It was a pic of two of my grandsons, barely two years old (two years ago now!) playing peek-a-boo around a trash can at Round Hill Beach two summers ago. One had a diaper on, the other boy, was naked, engrossed in the moment of play and unaware that grampa, (me) was fifty-feet away snapping a photo. That photo, along with several others taken on that day and over the same summer, comprise a series of photos that most rational people would call an online family photo album. That’s it my friends. That’s the big deal!

SOME BACKGROUND

I first learned about this invented hoopla on Wednesday, February 11th, when Chief Pacheco called me saying that he had just finished a conversation on the phone with a resident who was apparently complaining about my photos. The caller, as I later learned from others, has been making noise about this for several months (who knew?) and stated that he or she planned to make a "really big stink about." Apparently this little drama has been floating about in the rumor mill since this past fall. And if this is true, one wonders,"Why is it coming out now and not sooner?" And if there was anything to all this, how come it was not brought to my attention sooner than right now? Oh wait....I can answer that! Why? Because the ruling majority on the Select Board want to eliminate the Youth Advocate's position. It is my hope that eventually the public will come to know just who the principal "mud-slinger" is in all this. And when they do find out, the pieces will all come together, hopefully before the April Town elections!

BACK TO MY PHOTOGRAPHY

Ironically, if you scroll down to the article that I wrote just before this post some weeks ago, (before this little "photo-flap" unfolded) it pretty much sums up my focus and passion of photography, so I don't have to prove anything to anyone. However, it still saddens me that a few people cannot seem to appreciate, or perhaps don't know how to value, photography as it is, in it's given setting and natural form. So after you have satisfied yourself by viewing my photo albums, I hope that you might come back here, read some of my posts, and perhaps gain a better understanding of me as a person, and how the joy of writing and photography come together as art and nothing more.

Thanks for hearing me out on this. I realize that many who are following the news threads of this issue also want to see the albums themselves, and up until today that was possible. However, because some people are now viewing the photos due solely to the recent publicity, and not for the purpose and value for which they were intended, the spirit of their initial intent has been compromised, so I have password protected all albums until further notice. But here's the link if you still want to visit.

 Kevin Lee Photography.

Barack Obama, President-Elect

 

I voted for hope, intelligence
and change today. I also prayed.
It seemed too easy.

I voted for a man today,
a two-fer in a race on race that
few would name.

And somewhere between polls closing and Obama's victory speech the weight of
Jim Crow,Selma, and Memphis shifted.

Did you feel it? Rosa felt it too. And she's
still riding, this time to Inauguration Day
in Washington,

  

with a one-way ticket.

 

 

 

News, Nuggets and Whimsy: July 17, '08

News, Nuggets and Whimsy is a new category that I am developing that pulls together a few off-beat and humorous news items that come from various sources. Offerings will come periodically, sometimes every week and other times just twice monthly. Every effort will be made on my part to site the source and author.

• Why it's not a good idea to break into police cars
• What to do with a dead moose
• And some good-spirited poking fun at Barack Obama

Check it out...it's a hoot!