Thoroughly Modern Millie Review

When Millie with her two cheap suitcases arrive in prohibitionist-era New York, she brings her irrepressible modern attitude with her. Thoroughly Modern Millie is based on a book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlon and is playing at the Pennsylvania Playhouse through April 1. Director Will Erwin brings a wonderful, fast-paced musical to life with some of the Lehigh Valley’s best dancers and singers. Gorgeous and immensely talented Casey Elizabeth Gill is completely charming and perfectly cast in the title role of Millie. The naïve girl from Kansas meets handsome but apparently penniless Jimmy Smith played by Doug Ace, but she keeps her hat set for a wealthy husband. Gill has great comedic timing augmented by a repertoire of smiles, eye raises and saucy poses. Millie’s best friend, roommate and apparent romantic rival is Miss Dorothy Brown played by strikingly beautiful Kimberly Tassinaro who claims to be a wealthy orphan who wants to experience life as a poor person. The part showcases her singing range and acting skills. Millie and Dorothy lead a talented troupe of singing dancers through Gwen Swanson’s beautifully choreographed numbers. Their duet, “How the Other Half Lives” is charming to see and to hear. The dramatic lighting by Ryan William Kloss is tremendous, especially when it suddenly captures and visually isolates Dorothy Brown and Millie’s boss and hoped for husband, Trevor Graydon (played by Brian Vigorito) as the two first meet and are smitten. The biggest laugh getter is Ted Williams as Mrs. Meers, the cross-dressing Chinese owner of the cheap hotel for single women where he and his henchmen do a thriving side business kidnapping any orphan woman who checks in, selling them into white slavery. When Mrs. Meers sets out to Shanghai Dorothy, his bungling henchmen, Ching Ho (Peter Sikalias) and Bun Foo (Nathan Chipman), sympathize with the pretty girl. Sikalias and Chipman are standouts in that their dialog is mostly in Chinese, helped along by sub-titles for the benefit of the packed house. Sikalias, who has a seemingly hopeless crush on the patrician Dorothy, charms the audience with his broken English and good-hearted nature. The minimalist but effective set design by Colleen Shea provides plenty of room for the energetic “Moderns” led by talented dance captain and eye-catching Morgan Reilly. Muzzy Van Hossmere, a wealthy socialite is, played with laugh-getting charm by Kirsten Rani Almeida. Redheaded Miss Flannery, played by Mary-Catherine Bracali, keeps the comedy moving as the crusty floor supervisor who tries to keep effervescent Millie grounded in work a day reality. Though unseen in this production, the orchestra, led by Lucile DeMasi Kincaid, is wonderful. Director Erwin also gets credit as the Costume Designer and with the assistance of the multi-talented Tassinaro, dresses the cast in striking costumes evoking the Roaring Twenties’ style.

“It wasn’t her red Slurpee—it was her own blood!”

“It wasn’t her red Slurpee—it was her own blood!” said Ce-Ce Gerlach describing how a childhood friend had been killed in a drive-by shooting in Washington D. C. Gerlach, an Allentown School District School Board member, was talking to about forty people gathered near Rep. Charlie Dent’s office on Hamilton Street August 21 to urge the Republican Congressman to co-sponsor H. R. 1565 which supports background checks for people purchasing guns. The outdoor, lunch-time meeting was sponsored by the Lehigh Chapter of Organizing for Action (OFA) in an effort to bring pressure on Dent to support the House of Representatives bill which is sponsored by Rep. Pete King (R-NY) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA). The bill, H. R. 1565 is described on Thompson’s website as “Legislation to Keep Guns Out of the Hands of Criminals, [and] Dangerously Mentally Ill.” Rep. King introduced the bill on April 15, 2003. OFA, the organizer of the short meeting, claimed that Dent had “assured local activists” that “he would vote for a background checks bill if it arrived on the House floor.” It seems unlikely that the bill will make it out of the Judiciary Committee during this 113th Congress without overwhelming support in the House of Representatives. The Committee has 23 Republicans and 17 Democrats. Failure to act on a bill is equivalent to killing it. Bills in the House can only be released from committee without a proper committee vote by a discharge petition signed by a majority of the House membership. That’s why the political activism group wants Dent to do more than promise to support the bill when it gets to the floor; it wants him to also co-sponsor the bill. There are now 184 co-sponsors of the bill who presumably would vote for sign a discharge petition according to the website congress.gov. Proponents need a majority—218. OFA’s Gloria McVeigh put it this way: “That means we want the bill to bypass efforts by GOP House Judiciary Committee members to stall until this Congressional session ends, requiring the re-introduction of the bill--and all that requires--in both the House and Senate after the next session begins in January, 2014. At a later Town Hall meeting in Allentown after the OFA gathering dissolved, responded to a question from Justine Wesner from Schnecksville wether he would support HR 1565. According to Wesner, Dent said while he supports Toomey’s effort he would not be a co-sponsor of the bill until he has seen the final version. “This is not a divisive issue,” said OFA’s Fritz Walker who pointed out that Republican Senator Pat Toomey supports the bill. Toomey when on the news show “Face the Nation” April 14, 2013 made the case for background checks. “There is not a single word in this legislation that in any way infringes on the Second Amendment rights of a law-abiding citizen, but we think the laws that make it illegal now for a criminal or a potentially violent, dangerously mentally ill person to have a weapon -- that's the law of the land -- we think that makes sense, said Toomey. “And we think a background check to help increase the likelihood that we'll be successful in keeping guns out of the hands of very dangerous people, it just makes sense. It's common sense. And so I think when people see the bill, they're going to support it.” Allentown School District teacher Beverly Rickles attended the gathering. “I’m here because I strongly believe it’s time for us to lay down our guns.” Rickles said she was concerned that “you can buy a gun at a gun show and walk out without a background check.” Two church ministers attended the meeting and offered prayer referencing the pending legislation. “We acknowledge that there are rare moments in life when we must defend ourselves or our loved ones, but reject the idea that the best way to do this is by assuring the easy and unimpeded access to firearms to everyone without regard to criminal history or mental status,” said Rev. Don Garrett of the Universalist Church of the Lehigh Valley. Rev. Elizabeth Goudy of the Metropolitan Community Church of the Lehigh Valley led the group in a minute of silence at 12:30 p. m. and the men, women and children present held hands. The gesture was in solidarity with other groups across PA who organizers said were holding similar rallies. “We must be fearless in approaching political leaders for changes in policy,” said Goudy. “We must be fearless in the face of well-funded gun lobby …too often our opinion is drowned out by those with money, money, money and more money.” Rev. Garrett challenged the idea that there’s no point to a law restricting gun ownership because criminals will get guns anyway. “That’s like saying there should be no law against murder because no law will prevent death by firearms,” said Garrett.

It’s important to step back and understand what happened and to discover how you can make it better.

Members of the Bethlehem and Allentown Chapters of the NAACP traveled to Washington D. C. this past weekend to observe the 50th anniversary of March on Washington when Dr. Martin Luther King gave his history-changing “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. According to Dan Bosket, the President of the Allentown Chapter of the NAACP, 108 people booked seats on the two buses that left the parking lot at Redner’s market on Airport Road early Saturday morning. Artie Ravitz of Easton was at the March on Washington 50 years ago. “I sat on the edge of the Reflecting Pool with my feet dangling in the water as I listened to Dr. King’s speech,” said Ravitz who said that as a young man he was a devoted follower of the civil rights movement. Asked Friday why he is attending this 50th anniversary ceremony, he said that working for civil rights is still important. “It’s more important than the first time because the Supreme Court is nullifying parts of the Voting Rights Act,” said Ravitz. “The Supreme Court doesn’t care about the rights of black people and brown people.” The August 28, 1963 march was part of a larger civil rights movement. 1963 was also the 100th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Earlier that year, President John F. Kennedy announced that he would push for a Civil Rights Act. Kennedy was assassinated Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas and didn’t live to see the Act signed into law by his successor President Lyndon Johnson. The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. The 1963 March on Washington was a major factor in these two laws being passed. Esther Lee, President of the Bethlehem Chapter of the NAACP, said commemoration of the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” August 28, 1963, is important so that people of this generation will remember the struggle that African-Americans have made. She also decried in a recent interview what she calls a “genocide of our [black] youth.” She said the future of African-American families is at stake. She said children from “neighborhoods in economic strife” who then “don’t do well in school” become “candidates for jail.” This “pipeline,” according to Lee, disrupts families. Approximately 12%-13% of the American population is African-American, but they make up 40.1% of the almost 2.1 million male inmates in jail or prison as of 2009 according to the U.S. Department of Justice. “I fear that there will not be a family in the future,” said Lee when talking about the effect of having so many black men in jail or prison. The march on Washington 50 years ago challenged the morality of “Jim Crow” laws that pervaded life in most southern states. Jim Crow was systematic legal discrimination designed to keep African-Americans in a second-class citizen status. Included in its many injustices were laws that effectively restricted or denied voting rights to African-Americans. This, according to some civil rights advocates, is an issue that has resurfaced today in the form of various “voter ID” laws passed by Republican dominated state legislatures. Fredrick Montgomery, an educator with the Allentown School District, attended last weekend’s event in Washington D. C. He said that commemoration of the March on Washington is important to do today’s generation. Montgomery’s trip to Washington on a “jam-packed” bus resulted in what he called a “grand time, a memorable experience.” “Emotions were running high,” said Montgomery in an interview after his trip. “There were people from every walk of life there.” He said it was an example of how people from different races and cultures “can love each other.” He said he was pleased to see a significant number of young people go on the trip. “As an educator it’s important to me to see us learn to listen, bridge cultural gaps and be able to work things out,” said Montgomery. “We have no alternative except to work with diversity.” “Important history has occurred,” said Montgomery. “Tears, sweat and blood were shed by those that fought against oppression. But, repression still occurs for whatever reason.” “Many people put their lives on the line--white, black, Jews, gentile, young and old,” said Montgomery. “It’s important to step back and understand what happened and to discover how you can make it better.”

Is Black Carbon Good for Kids? No.

Broughal Middle School students would be exposed to a lot less air-born “black carbon” if they avoid Broadway for their walk to and from school, according to a survey of South Bethlehem’s air quality by scientists at Lehigh University. About 250 local business and government leaders attending the annual Lehigh Valley Research Consortium’s annual presentation Thursday June 28 heard this and other statistics about the quality of life in the Lehigh Valley. The meeting was at Iacocca Hall on the mountain-top campus of Lehigh University. Black carbon is part of the air pollution in the Lehigh Valley and is associated with emissions from airplanes, train locomotives and diesel engines. It’s not gas…it’s solid microscopic particles. “Diesel [fueled] vehicles such as trucks, buses and heavy equipment are a primary source of black carbon pollution in the region,” said the report accompanying Holland’s findings. The particles are too small to be filtered by the human body’s natural systems. Black carbon particles are part of a larger family of harmful chemicals generally referred to as “fine particulate matter.” The EPA refers to this collection of air-born contaminates as “PM,” meaning particulate matter. They are tiny pieces of solid or liquid matter suspended in the atmosphere as an aerosol. They are microscopic air-born particles which often measure 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter or small enough to go straight into the lungs when breathed. A million micrometers are in one meter. The researchers, supervised by Dr. Breena Holland, a political science professor at Lehigh U., measured three spikes of near 30 micrograms of black carbon in each cubic meter (μg/m3) of air along Broadway, a route back and forth from home to school favored by a student participating in the experiment. These three spikes measured from 2:45 p. m. to 4:00 p. m. on an Oct. school day in 2011 contrast sharply with the results of a second set of measurements taken along an alternate route that avoided Broadway. The second set of measurements during the same time but on an alternative route from school to home that avoided Broadway as much as possible showed that exposure ranged from zero to three micrograms of black carbon exposure. The EPA’s daily maximum per day for exposure to PM2.5 (which includes black carbon) is 35 micrograms per day. However, Holland caution, there is no “safe” level of exposure. In the spikes measured, people were getting near the maximum that is legally allowed. Is black carbon good for kids? No, according to Holland. “In my personal opinion, black carbon in south Bethlehem poses a threat to both the elderly and the young. The young have developing respiratory systems and are therefore more vulnerable, while older adults have weaker immune systems. South Bethlehem has a lot of traffic running through it and the Valley is already non-compliant with the Clean Air Act that establishes safety standards.” Other scientists, as reported in a 2009 article on www.Time.com, say that sooty air is bad for the climate. “Black carbon may be responsible for as much as 18 percent of the planet's warming, making it the No. 2 contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide, which accounts for 40 percent,” said Bryan Walsh, writing for the website’s Science and Space column. “The world could think that we just cut CO2 and the problem is solved and we all go home, but it's not," says Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a climatologist from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and an expert on black carbon. A paper by Thomas J. Grahame of the U. S. Department of Energy presented to the Pittsburgh Coal Conference on Oct. 18, 2012 said that “highway proximity studies” show increased health risks to people living close to a major road. According to Grahame, these residents have a “significantly increased” risk of death from breathing PM2.5 particulates. He defined close proximity as being within 100 meters of a major highway or within 50 meters of a major urban road. Grahame’s paper also concluded that “oxidative stress” as caused by breathing black carbon and related particulates hastens the “shortening of telomeres, the end caps of chromosomes. This, in turn, increases biological ageing. Grahame reported that studies in Beijing, China show that wearing facemasks reduce the negative health effects of airborne particulates generated by fuel-burning vehicles. The DOE scientist, Grahame, cites a 2012 report from the World Health Organization which claims that black carbon “may operate as a universal carrier of a wide variety of …toxicity” to lungs, defense cells and, possibly blood circulation.” The general neighborhood of “Five-Points,” the area around the intersections of Wyandotte Street, Dakotah Street and Broadway in South Bethlehem, registered even higher air pollution levels for black carbon. Measurements taken over rush hour or 3 p. m. to 5 p. m. on a day in Oct. 2010 showed an average of about 375microns per cubic meter of black carbon in the air with several spikes exceeding 500. Local studies cited by the report say that the primary sources of PM2.5 pollution are “industrial processes, dust, mobile sources, and fuel combustion.” According to the research consortium, burning fuel and industrial processes “produce the largest quantity of particle pollution in Lehigh County and Northampton County.” Lehigh Valley daily average PM2.5 concentration measured in June 2011, documented exposure levels at a daily average of about 25 micrograms per cubic meter of air. Spikes to 60 μg/m3 are evident in the graph supporting the study. The lowest pollution levels recorded never dropped below 10 μg/m3. However, having your kids take the less polluted route to and from school may not be as easy as it sounds. Holland said students walk on the trafficked routes partly because they are populated by people and therefore the routes seem safer. “Addressing the pollution exposure problem will therefore, require making sure that alternative routes are also ‘safe’ for children,” said Holland in an email. And, they might want to consider face masks. Dr. Melissa Rodriquez, a naturopathic doctor living with her family in Beijing writing on www.Beijing-kids.com said, “If you must go outside on a heavily polluted day, wear a facemask. The adverse effects of air pollution on the heart have been shown to be a result of fine particles in the air, which come from vehicle exhaust and industrial sources. Wearing a facemask with a high quality filter prevents people from inhaling these potentially harmful particles.”

“We like M&Ms."

Troi Pitt has her name in lights---really. The 15-year old math whiz’s name is literally in lights at the corner of Easton Ave. and E. Elizabeth Ave. where Liberty High School’s digital message machine trumpets successes and important events to passersby. Pitt recently won a Bronze Medal in Houston, TX when she placed in the ACT-SO math competition sponsored by the NAACP. The LHS sophomore was one of four girls that the Bethlehem Chapter of the NAACP sent to the national competition. According to her mother, Pitt maintains a 3.9 GPA and is an honor student. She credits Northeast Middle School math teacher Linda Shive and LHS 9th grade honors algebra teacher Marietta Zweifel as being inspirational teachers in her daughter’s academic success. ACT-SO is the Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics, according to www.actso.org. It is a youth program sponsored by the NAACP encouraging academic and cultural achievement among underserved minority high school students. Community volunteers and business leaders serve as mentors and coaches in promoting academic and artistic excellence among African-American and Hispanic students, according to the website. In an interview, Pitt said her love of M&Ms lead to the winner math project where she demonstrated the probability of finding brown M&Ms in any given package of the popular candy. She said there are six colors of M&Ms and that her project demonstrated that statistically there will be 10 brown ones in a batch of 100. The other colors are red, blue, green, yellow and orange, according to an internet search. Pitt plans to be a pharmacist and wants to attend the University of Maryland after high school. She is the daughter of Jennifer Harris of Bethlehem and Christopher Pitt of VA. She said her mother suggested the idea and she worked out the math that impressed local then national judges with her mastery of statistics. Pitt said she and her mom ate the M&Ms after the project was completed—that would be two 12-ounce bags. “We like M&Ms,” said Troi’s mom.

Invisible Wounds and the Veteran's Administration

The Department of Veterans Affairs is increasing its staff of mental health professionals to support the growing number of veterans needing mental health care. The VA is planning to hire about 35 new psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, nurses assistants and administrative support personnel according to Margaret B. Caplan, the for the VA Medical Center in Wilkes Barre, PA. Vincent L. Riccardo, Jr., the Staff Assistant to the Director and Public Affairs Officer for the Medical Center in Wilkes Barre in a recent interview was not able to say how many of these positions will be assigned to the Allentown, VA Outpatient Clinic on Hamilton Street though he said that some were definitely slated for Allentown. Caplan said the new hires are part of national effort to meet increasing mental health needs of veterans. “We have all heard of the high rates of post traumatic stress ,” said Major General Gerald Still, a retired U. S. Air Force general and currently the President of the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council. Stills was speaking at a recent meeting of Lehigh Valley health care professional working in cooperation with the VA to standardize the way information is collected and disseminated when a veteran is seen by one of the many hospitals, clinics and outreach programs in the Valley. Mental health for veterans is getting national attention. In a recent National Public Radio report, Erin Toner of WUWM in Milwaukee reported that this is part of an effort by the VA to recruit 1,600 mental health professionals for the country’s veterans. Toner reported that the Department of Veterans Affairs will be aggressive in recruiting candidates for the new mental health positions and hopes to have most on board within six months. According to Caplan, last year the VA provided specialty mental health services to more than 1.3 million veterans. She said in addition to the 1,600 mental health professionals being hired by the VA, about 300 support staff will be added and about five of those will be assigned to the Wilkes Barre VA Medical Center, which is the parent organization of the Allentown VA Clinic. According to Caplan, the VA has increased its mental health care budget by 39 percent since 2009 and the number of mental health professionals by 41 percent since 2007. According to the Veteran Administration’s web site, veterans who have seen combat may have been on missions that exposed them to horrible, life-threatening experiences such as being shot at, seeing a buddy shot, or seen death. “These are types of events that can lead to (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) PTSD,” according to the website. The site lists statistics describing the prevalence of PTSD among veterans: 11- 12 percent of Iraqi and Afghanistan Wars (Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom) have PTSD…or 11 to 20 veterans out of 100. Of Gulf War (Desert Storm) veterans, about 10 percent have PTSD and of Vietnam War veterans, about 30 percent have PTSD. The VA cites sexual assault and harassment as contributing to PTSD among women veterans. Among veterans using VA health care, about 23 percent of the women reported sexual assault while in the military. In addition, among the veterans using VA health care, 55 percent of the women and 38 percent of the men have reported sexual harassment when in the military. Over half of all veterans with military sexual trauma are men. “Sexual harassment can happen when drill instructors address recruits using sexually oriented language,” said Liz Bradbury, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Diversity Network, in an interview designed to put this statistic in perspective. She said that any remark by a supervisor to a subordinate or by a co-worker referring to sexual body parts or sexual activity can be considered sexual harassment. “Since October 2001, approximately 1.64 million U.S. troops have been deployed for Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq,” according to a Rand Corporation report, “Invisible Wounds,” by Benjamin R. Karney and others. According to Karney and his colleagues, these deployments have come with a disproportionately high “psychological toll” when compared to combat related injuries. Three conditions have received the most research; post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and traumatic brain injury. They report an increased risk of suicide, substance abuse, and cardiovascular disease and the associated “mental health conditions among veterans are also associated with reduced work productivity and future job prospects and may be a precursor to homelessness.”

“He believed in God, family and country.”

“He was very hard working and very loving,” said Eric Stevenson, grandson of George R. Karabin. Karabin was a church and community leader who died Feb. 9 in Bethlehem, his hometown. Stevenson and about 40 other relatives and friends gathered in the gymnasium on the campus of St. Anne Catholic Church May 12 where Father Anthony Mongiello led a ceremony naming the gym after the man who all have credited with being the leading force for its construction in 2001. “We spent a lot of time together,” reminisced Karabin’s grandson, the son of Debbie, Karabin’s daughter. “We worked on his land. We would work hard and would be sweating. He taught me to take pride in what I do.” “George was a leader in getting support for the gym,” said Fr. Mongiello in remarks to the gathering seated in the wooden bleachers of the gym. “He was a leader in the fundraising. It’s very appropriate to dedicate this gym after George.” Fred DeBellis remembered the night that Karabin got the ball rolling on the gym project. “He was the president of the Catholic Youth Organization. He got up in a meeting and made an impassioned plea for a gym,” said DeBellis. “He saw the project through to completion.” Karabin spent his life in the service of others, especially in the service of young people. He initiated sports programs for the Catholic Youth Organization; he served as the president of the Bethlehem Catholic Booster Club and was treasurer of the Northeast Little League. While church life was integral to his world, he found time to serve his country during World War II, serve his city as Bethlehem City Councilman, and serve the Bethlehem Area School District on the Board of Education. “He was one of the kindest, nicest guys I ever met,” said Jim Broughal in an interview when asked about his friend. Broughal said he first knew Karabin when they both served on the Bethlehem Area School District Board of Education. “He was a very giving guy; he always served his community.” “He would visit people when they were sick,” remember one friend. “Dad always loved to see kids play sports,” said Drew Karabin, his youngest son. “He was just a good guy.” After the brief ceremony in the gym, Fr. Mongiello led the group to the entry vestibule where a young man removed a curtain over a plaque naming the building after George Karabin. “He was a kind-hearted, decent person of great integrity,” said Robert Donchez in a recent interview. Donchez is a past president and current member of the Bethlehem City Council. “He was a person of deep faith and conviction. He was very active in CYO and church, city government, and Bethlehem Catholic High School. “He believed in God, family and country,” said Donchez.