Accepting The Unacceptable

The sad chapter at the end of Coach Joe Paterno's remarkable life and career was totally avoidable.   Even the paragons of virtue can enable terrible things to happen by not speaking up or acting decisively when power is used wrongly.   I am fortunate to be removed from that situation now, but recent events serve to remind me that it can happen to the best of us.   We can't control everything around us, but there may come a time when we are associated with people whose words or actions are simply unacceptable.   Whether you call it illegal, immoral or grossly unfair, you know when the line has been crossed to the point where you want no part of it.   To openly support the injustice with the promise of short term gain wins nobody's respect.   The idea that resistance is futile can be the height of cynicism.    History is full of principled and honorable people who questioned authority and produced sweeping changes for the better.   It also has its share of good people who looked the other way and found themselves on the hotseat next.   Sometimes it helps to say, "It is what it is" and "just roll with it"... but not always.

A Week to Remember

Dr. Mel - WTNH

A lot has happened since the last time I updated my blog. The Patriots and Giants face off in the Super Bowl, with Connecticut right in the middle. Newt Gingrich continues to get attention with an impressive South Carolina primary win. We lost a football legend whose career came to a sad close just months earlier as Joe Paterno died of lung cancer. On a regional level, the loss of meteorologist Doctor Mel Goldstein was felt by many who have watched him over the years. I had the pleasure of knowing Mel going back to when he gave the forecast on WWYZ in the late seventies. The station's program director said all air personalities could take a lesson from Dr. Mel because he "interprets the weather." He presented it in a way that was relevant to the audience. Dr. Mel got his early start on TV at WATR Channel 20 before his long run at WTNH News 8 in the eighties. I got to work more directly with Mel as program director at WLAD in Danbury, the station where he started. Whenever we needed someone who could fill in on the local talk show, Mel was there and callers loved him. Danbury is the same town where his weather center at Western Connecticut State University was based. So many aspiring meteorologists can point to Dr. Mel as their mentor. He beat the odds against multiple myeloma cancer for many years. We never actually get to know the real deal about many media personalities.   With Dr. Mel, I can gladly say we did.

Is It Safe?

Amston Lake

Can I use my tap water or not?   Talk about mishandled details.   Last Friday I received a text on my smartphone from one of the local TV stations informing me that residents in the Amston Lake area should not drink their tap water.   The area included Hebron, Lebanon and my town Colchester, but didn't say how widespread it was.   I live barely a couple of miles from Amston Lake.   Should I be concerned?   Tuning in the six o'clock TV news revealed little.   By ten o'clock, it had been made clear that 181 homes were affected, and boiling water with four times the safe rate of copper only made it worse.   I took that to mean the densely populated area immediately around the lake, but it was still unclear how much of Colchester had been included in this warning.   The next night only muddied the waters, as one unnamed local station showed a map of all three towns with no numbers given, making it sound like everyone in the three towns were being warned.   I will give credit to WTNH Channel 8 for being specific at eleven.   How many households in Colchester were under the water emergency?   Two!   I hope all the folks who live around this beautiful lake get back to normal conditions soon, but it wasn't a shining moment for local media - some of them, anyway.