The Patriot Newspaper is pleased to publish the first in a series of guest essays called the Purple Patriot Project. The Project encourages citizens to participate, to engage in conversation, and to find solutions.

by Christine Anderson

Our president is taking his second term message on the road.

In A People's History of the United States, activist and historian Howard Zinn wrote about the courage and convictions of average people that changed our country’s story.

Our president and this election have done that in many ways.

But if we want to be patriots, it’s time we evaluate our allegiances and ask Congress to do the same.

What does he need from us?

If you voted in the presidential election, you might think, as I did, that “my job is done.” We’ve been in the trenches of this recession: the loss of equity in our homes, joblessness, and the repayment of student loans –you know the list.

But after the Inaugural Address and the State of the Union speech, did you get the feeling that you were asked to contribute something more? maybe get some work done? make things better?

When John F. Kennedy asked what we could do for our country and beyond (Peace Corps)—or when military drafts have been answered, or a volunteer Army fulfilled, people of all ages met those challenges. I believe we are also asked to respond now with greater citizenship: to be more engaged and informed—and to think and express ourselves better. Just as we need to educate ourselves through schooling and training for better jobs—maybe we also need to attend boot camp to become more than simply voters. 

We can’t individually solve our country’s thorny issues. But we can take responsibility for what we think—and how we say it—to become citizens who will be heard. Discussion that can go the distance requires educated foot soldiers who can tell our representatives in Washington what we expect from them: less sniping and more willing debate. And results.

Sound like a lot of work? Maybe. But it could be a whole lot of fun. And the Internet allows all of us to become better informed, depending on how we use it.

First. Take your own patriotic pulse: Ask yourself: Am I an individual first and a citizen second? Am I conservative, liberal, in between? Do I regard self-reliance, community, or both as my core values? In school, what teacher inspired me? In what was I encouraged by a relative or friend? You might start right there. What did they teach you? What matters most? Make the list.

Tune in:
Sit quietly with these questions: What are my passions, and what are my biases? If I could support or create something, what would it be? Jobs? A push for tax reform? A small business or non-profit? If I own a gun or guns, can I give up my position on gun control in favor of discussion about gun safety? Will I use those words?

Tune out. Try a media fast. Reduce the frenzy of too much information. Re-introduce clarity. Watch news that discusses issues fully. Seek opinions and their opposites. Avoid sensationalized reporting. Search for the most trusted reporting on the web.

Talk nice. Your senators and reps are inundated too with news and Twitter feeds, emails and spam 24 hours a day. My suggestion? Don’t rant. Being polite however, they and their staff suggest the following: Email or write your concerns and sign your name. If you do forward something, however, carefully consider its source so that it is representing your true position and add your ID/identifier. And most important, if you send letters which require answers, be sure you are writing to the person who actually represents you.

Put your boots on.
Get educated about today’s issues. Join us in the conversation. Suggest solutions. Become engaged. Because to be better citizens—and new patriots—we need to kick things up a notch.

By Steev Riccardo

WORCESTER – Hello from courtside at the Clark Tournament!

When it comes to high school sports, it really is hard to beat the Clark Tournament, which is now in its 74^th year! The gym is always packed, the crowd is always fired up, and the high school basketball is at a premium level and that was the case in the opening game of this year’s tournament, featuring the Oxford Pirates and the Maynard Tigers, which, justly so, went down to the wire (52-51 Oxford).

By Ginger Costen

Generally when I sit down to write my column I know what I am going to say and why I want to say it. However, sometimes what comes across to the key board is not always what was on my mind. Today is one of those days.

I had planned to offer a hypothetical interview between Presidents Washington and Lincoln asking them if our country had met their individual expectations since leaving office.  Without fully understanding the directions my thought processes travel, I am forced to relinquish the battle of will power and give in to what seems to be the more important topic of the day. Here is what developed along the way…

I was asked several times this past week how the dieting was going and if I was any closer to making my decision about having the Bariatric surgery.  So in keeping with the myth of George Washington cutting down the cherry tree (by the way, he didn’t cut down the tree) and not telling a lie, I will not lie and admit my commitment to the program has lost some of its focus or importance in my life.

Perhaps it was the changing seasons from fall to winter since gardening is my favorite form of exercise as well as relaxation. When I’m knee deep in dirt and alive with the anticipation of how a plant of flowerbed will look, I could care less about eating. It’s easier to become bored and feel a sense of despondency when the world outside my window is covered with snow and the temperature is a warm and toasty two degrees.

Maybe it was the holidays with all the good food, friends and memories of a simpler life and times when children weren’t murdered for any other reason but that they were innocently sitting in their classrooms listening to their teacher. 

So I’m embarrassed to admit that in the past three months I’ve gained back 12 pounds. I’m still attending my monthly group sessions and found the January meeting amusingly predictable when the size of the class tripled from all of the New Year’s dieting resolutions. Of course by the February meeting several of the participants had slipped back into the darkness of obesity.

I’ve continued with therapy and have learned that my obsession with food began as a small child right after we moved from the Los Angeles area to a small town in Eastern California along the Nevada border in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Bridgeport, California, had a huge population of 350 people and was supported by seasonal summer camping, fishing or hunting visitors. Funny though, as I mention the cold and snow in Massachusetts, I remembered  walking to our one-room school house in January, 1956, with ten foot snow plow pilings along the edge of the road. We were the 7^th snowiest location in America that winter. 

To this day I struggle with not having enough food stored in my pantry or having more than enough to feed our guests. I’m ashamed to admit to the amount of food that is wasted in our home by my fear that anyone will go away from my house hungry. This fear became a career driven passion while working for the American Red Cross and providing emergency food supplies or meals during a disaster.

Talk about grocery shopping! Once I left a market in Gilbert, Arizona, with 18 shopping carts filled to the top. I’ve had 35 eighteen-wheelers parked in an empty car lot serving as my food pantry in Santa Cruz, California.  My food order was delivered by barges to the island of Kauai, Hawaii.  Although the stories are numerous, the end result was always the same. No one ever left hungry from a Red Cross shelter or meal truck.

So where am I in this decision? I have decided this morning to call my doctor and tell them I am ready for surgery and to schedule me for a pre-op visit. I can’t do it by myself and need a permanent solution to help remind me that sensible eating and making healthy choices isn’t just a necessity, it’s a  way of life that I need to follow even when my mind can’t seem to stay connected to what my hands are doing.

My second decision is to add another aspect to this weight loss journey. I am admitting that I have a food addiction and so want to attend Overeaters Anonymous meetings for help.

It’s not that I don’t have will power; it’s my won’t power that is my problem!   I won’t stop buying chocolate peanut butter cups and Dr. Pepper.  

 Oh, having read numerous articles on both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, I feel a a column wouldn’t do justice to these interesting and influential Americans and would like to offer a more in- depth article next President’s Day.

The Rev. Janice Ford
The Church of the Reconciliation (Episcopal)

5 North Main Street, Webster, MA www.reconciliationweb.org

Last week Christians everywhere celebrated Ash Wednesday, the official beginning of the church season of Lent which lasts forty days and ends with Easter.  When I was a child, I was told that I should give up something I enjoyed during Lent.  This was the way I could show God that I was truly sorry for my sins, and that I was willing to make some sacrifice to God for them.  As I got older I recall thinking that God probably didn’t care whether I gave up candy or gum for forty days as much as my dentist did.  As my faith grew, I began to realize that God was calling me—and everyone—to observe Lent a bit differently, and that is what I share with you now.

The Pope quit and the Sutton football team isn’t going to play Oxford on Thanksgiving Day as reported here a few weeks ago. Let me get this straight. Pope Benny is done. The Pope can’t quit. He has to go to heaven to give up his earthly title. The last time a Pope quit was in 400 A.D. This has been a tough time and I have to tell you, they are trying to shake my faith.

First, the Oxford-Auburn Thanksgiving Day game is dissolved after 41 years of tradition and now Pope Ben decides he has had enough. You just can’t quit being the Pope and quit playing Thanksgiving Day football games after 41 years. The only straight forward answers are coming out of Auburn. They are saying they do not have a Thanksgiving Day opponent for 2013 and are looking for a two year commitment from any school within a reasonable travel distance. The borders of Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut are all in the mix along with any Massachusetts school. Sutton got cold feet after the announcement that they would play Oxford on Thanksgiving Day 2013. Sutton is rethinking their situation. It’s a real tangled web between Sutton and Oxford in athletics. I am hearing Blackstone Valley Tech and Blackstone-Millville as possibilities for Sutton on turkey day. Oxford seems to be overly concerned about the number of football players in grades 9-12. Oxford dropped Auburn for this reason and maintains that lack of numbers is the sole reason and concern for ending the Auburn holiday contest. I have a feeling that Oxford is taking a long hard look at their football program numbers at the present moment and are cautiously inching forward this winter. The Pirates have to persevere through this time of anguish. They have a new coach who has one year under his belt and the Oxford athlete is competing in basketball and baseball at consistent post season standards over the last half decade. The baseball team won the District E Division 3 title last spring and the Pirate basketball team is having another great season. Look for black smoke out of the Vatican and Oxford on a new Pope and Thanksgiving Day opponent.

It’s great to see all 3 local boys’ high school basketball teams earn their way into the 74th Clark Tournament.Please remember, our fourth local boys’ team, Bay Path, is not a participant of the Clark because of their Vocational school status. Bay Path is heading into the post season tournament in C Mass as their 11-5 record indicates that the Minutemen are having a fantastic season.

Now for the Clark Tournament. The Clark Tournament is 74 years old this year. The Oxford Pirates will open up the Clark at 1 p.m. this coming Sunday against Maynard in the small schools division. Oxford (number 3 seed) is the "darkhorse" for the rest of 2013 as they are closing out the regular season very strong, i.e. a win over Northbridge on Sunday. Bartlett will open the doors at Clark on Monday, Presidents’ Day, against up and coming Auburn. Bartlett lost to Auburn two weeks ago. Bartlett’s running style in the huge Clark gym should benefit the Indians. The Indians need a head count before they get on the bus to Worcester. They need to show up for this important game and run Auburn out of the Kneller Center and into Park Avenue. Bartlett is the number 3 seed in the large schools division.Shepherd Hill plays defending large school champ Quabbin at 6 p.m. on Monday. The Rams are the fourth seed in the large shools division. The Rams already beat Quabbin in a regular season game over a month ago.

The Oxford Insurance Agency will be at the Clark Tournament this year and will be part of the WGFP AM 940 broadcasting of all the local games mentioned above. Matt Morway and Pete Geanis will provide the play by play for all the local listeners and the Oxford Insurance Agency is the proud sponsor of the Clark Tournament pre-game show on WGFP. The pre-game show will get you ready for the upcoming game as well as all the action from the Kneller Center on the campus of Clark University.

The Oxford Insurance Agency pre-game show will begin 20 minutes from tip off. Please join Matt Morway and Pete Geanis from Clark University on WGFP AM 940.

Since it’s vacation week next week, please call or stop by the Oxford Insurance Agency and check out their low rates. They specialize in newly licensed drivers and family packages that can save you a lot of money.

Bartlett will also be covered by the Webster access cable network with veteran announcers Ted Avlas and Ed Kunkel Jr. making the calls from the half court sideline. The Clark Tournament really brings out everybody from South County. Bartlett makes their 43rd appearance at the Clark this year and Shepherd Hill has been a consistent participant since 1974. Good Luck to all the local teams.

A huge tip of the hat goes out to the Oxford Unified Basketball Team. This team strikes the heart in a great way. Oxford, under the leadership of Patty Ross and Coach Kevin Wells, gives kids with a disability a chance to participte in organized sports. Unified sports is an initiative of the special olympics.The Unified team works their skills in a team concept where they compete in an organized environment. Promoting physical fitness and having fun are what the Unified basketball team of Oxford have been working at with the assistance of Oxford high school students. Senior Andrew St. Germain has been a big help in assisting the Oxford Unified Team. What a great story and here’s hoping the best for this group.

by Attorney Henry J. Lane
Lane & Hamer P.C.

 Recent media coverage of the aggressive efforts of Webster's code enforcement officials to bring property into compliance with local building and zoning regulations, dovetailed nicely with the latest episode in the saga of the Route 395 billboard.

On January 10, 2013, the Worcester Superior Court concluded its hearings on motions for summary judgment in the ongoing dispute concerning the billboard along Route 395 on the Long Subaru property.  The focus of the legal argument is the question of whether or not the Town is prevented from attempting to enforce the height restriction in its zoning by-laws in view of the fact that the issue was not raised when the Building Inspector originally questioned the construction of the billboard. At that time, the Building Inspector questioned whether or not the billboard was located in a commercial area as required by the zoning by-laws.  The matter was presented to the Zoning Board of Appeals which concluded that the billboard was located in a commercial area and complied with local requirements

"Say it ain’t so." The Oxford-Auburn Thanksgiving Day football game is over. The holiday football tradition between the two neighboring schools is over after 41 years of turkey, cranberry sauce, Drury Square, and the Yankee Doodle Dandies.

The Oxford Pirates told Auburn bon voyage last Friday as WGFP’s Matt Morway became the first responder of this untimely death of a one sided football series. "It’s always hard to see a long tradition end. By the numbers, Oxford athletic director John Doldooorian did what he thought was best for the kids at Oxford.

My biggest hope now is that the Auburn kids get a Thanksgiving Day opponent. They deserve one. Auburn athletic director Bill Garneau is a very good man. He is always good to me. He will find someone for his student athletes to compete with. "I wish both sets of kids much success," said the radio voice of high school sports in the South County over the past 27 years. Oxford based their decision and hung their hat on the safety issue of their athletes (low numbers on the roster) who competed on the most important day in high school sports. Oxford is very thin on the number of participants who play football according to Doldoorian.

Thanksgiving Day, my friends, is all about pomp and circumstance and most of all pride and tradition. Scores and series standings do not count on Thanksgiving Day. "Throw the records out on turkey day," they say. However, safety is the key element that will keep Oxford off the hook on this decision as they keep pointing at the scores over the past 41 years. The safety card that Oxford will play throughout this untimely controversial move is correct in the big picture. However, the flashlight of common sense and ethics is shining on both Oxford and Sutton today. Both schools should have made Auburn part of their decision. You cannot argue with the safety issue with kids. End of story. I don’t care what the series standings are in this rivalry because I looked at the scores over the 41 years these rivals played. Auburn leads the series 33-8, but 15 of those games won by Auburn were by a touchdown or less. If Oxford won 10 of those games, the series would stand in favor of Auburn 23-18. Now that’s a pretty good rivalry. That’s why scores and series standings never tell the whole story. Safety trumps everything. Always does and always did. Safety first.

Since we established safety as the priority for dropping this series, let’s get to the timing of these 41 years. Paul "the Bear" Brissette started this series when he became the very first football coach at Oxford High in 1968. The Pirates played a junior varsity schedule in 1968, 1969, and 1970 before they became a varsity team in 1971 and played Auburn on Thanksgiving Day 1971 for the first time and lost 10-6. Oxford athletic director Ernie Boss was also instrumental in starting the series. 41 years have come and gone and Oxford made the decision to severe its ties with Auburn and schedule Sutton as their holiday date for 2013. Sutton has never played a football game ever. They never warmed up in the endzone. Please remember the safety issue of a first year team trying to play on the varsity level.Oxford has 41 years of football under their belts and went through 36 serious months before they made the leap to varsity football. That’s 44 years of football. Now for etiquette, Sutton doesn’t skate through this as an innocent bystander. The Sammies needed to communicate with Auburn in the spirit of sportsmanship. The Sammies did the end around on Auburn. How did Sutton get talked into this football triangle? Did Sutton make a courtesy call to Auburn and ask them if all was on the up and up with Oxford regarding their 41 year relationship on Thanksgiving Day? Sutton doesn’t seem too concerned about safety issues in the same regard as Oxford. Maybe Sutton has the remakings of the "four horsemen" up there on Central Turnpike and are confident they will be playoff bound in their first year of football in 2013.

41 is not a lucky number for Auburn. Shepherd Hill stopped Auburn’s state record winning streak at 41 games in 2012 and now Oxford drops them after 41 years for a team that has never kicked off or moved the chains for a first down. The timing issue fascinates me on how fast Sutton said "yes" to Oxford’s invite. Oxford played the Dandies for a lot of years and now they get to play the Sammies. I can’t make these thing up. My curiosity is peaked by the fact that Auburn said no to two possible Thanksgiving Day opponents two years ago because Oxford would be left without a Thanksgiving Day partner. Auburn considered Oxford’s position before closing out the 41 year rivalry and took a wait and see approach. Auburn feels Oxford should have shown the same courtesy before they signed a contract with Sutton. This whole situation has a very uneasy feeling to it.

By the way, I always said that Oxford’s football schedule never gave the program a chance to rebuild or reload. Auburn was not the villain on Oxford’s schedule over the past 10 years. The MIAA threw Oxford to the wolves. The Pirates were behind the eight ball constantly. They were always over-scheduled the past 10 years. Auburn is only one tenth of the problem, but the Oxford kids liked playing Auburn. It was a tradition. Auburn was very sensitive and paid attention to Oxford’s football woes over the past 10 years. Auburn was never malicious and was an outstanding rival on Thanksgiving morning. Let’s tip our hats to Auburn for having the wisdom and the awareness of Oxford’s situation.

I find it hard to believe that this really happened without 3 way conference calls with the 3 schools involved. Auburn got penalized on this one because of their recent history. I have taken shots at Auburn in the past, but I can honestly say they were left out in the cold on this decision. Should the Oxford-Auburn football series end because of the directions that both schools are taking? Maybe. Lack of communication and punishing Auburn for running a first class program over the last decade has no place in the spirit of competition. The solution to this unfortunate mishap is for the powers at the 3 schools to get together and have Sutton and Oxford play the week before Thanksgiving until Auburn finds an opponent to take Oxford’s place on Thanksgiving Day. As they say in the Nike ad, "Just do it!"

Text and photos by Steev Riccardo

Webster – Greetings sports fans!

Just when you think you have seen and heard it all in regards to Emily “The Sweet Assassin” Dawidczyk, the Oxford senior soccer and track star’s story gets better and better.

Breaking two more records at the SWCL championship last week was just part of her normal routine; fielding calls from Division 1 powers such as St. Johns, Stanford University, and Michigan State University may not be so ordinary around these parts, unless your last name is Dawidczyk.

by Barbara Van Reed

I’ve known Phil Smith for more than ten years, but it wasn’t until he came over to my house one sunny summer day a couple of years ago with camera in hand to take some pictures of my flowers, that I learned he’s a photographer at heart. And not an environmental engineer, as I had thought.  Later, after seeing many of his pictures, it became clear that he’s both: an environmental photographer as well as an environmental engineer.

Phil’s photographs were on exhibit at Booklovers’ Gourmet in Webster last month and he visited  there one Saturday afternoon to talk about them. His themes are “pretty much anything under the sun,” he said, “literally and figuratively.”  A recurring theme, though, is moving water. “It’s challenging to take an artistic shot of rivers and streams,“ he explained, pointing to a photo of sun-splashed water finding its way down the rocks in the Douglas State Forest. “It’s peaceful,” he continued. “I try to bring a little of the outside, inside. But you never know until later if you’ve captured it.”

“My dad gave me his old Minolta SRT1 camera when I was a teenager, back in 1980, and I was hooked. I still have that camera. I have to give him credit; he saw that I was interested in taking pictures, and he never asked for it back.” And Phil never stopped looking around his environment for scenes to photograph.

Phil’s childhood years were spent in Seekonk, Mass., and upstate New York. College brought him to Bridgewater State, then  it was on to grad school at the University of Toledo (Ohio), where he earned his master’s degree in geology. His working career started in Chicago and moved him back to Massachusetts in 1999 and to Douglas in 2002.  He worked for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection from 2006 to 2009 and today does environmental consulting in the private sector.

“I took some photography courses in Chicago, and tried to push to a career. But you know what they say about not quitting your day job. So I thought about photography as being my retirement gig.

“In the meantime, it’s been my creative outlet. I’m not really sure why I enjoy doing it. I like to create images that I can enjoy and that other people can enjoy. If I could make a living doing photography, I’d leave the consulting work in a heartbeat.”

Most of Phil’s photographs are of outside places. They include cityscapes, skylines, buildings, and harbors as well as the forests and falls. Lately he’s also been doing some studio work. as it provides a more controlled environment. A photographer in Milford gave him the studio equipment, and Phil set it up in his garage.  One of the photographs on display at the bookstore was a triple picture of a flower in progression from budding to blooming to drooping, against a black background. “To do that outside would be tough,” he said.

The studio also allows him to experiment with portrait photography, something he would like to do now professionally as a sideline career.  

Phil uses a Nikon digital camera ninety percent of the time. He does do some work with film, and wouldn't part with his film camera, but calls the quality of digital “awesome.”

Photography has taken up a lot of Phil’s spare time the last few years, and he’s trying to get his name out there now. I asked him how he priced his pictures. “I’m still feeling my way through that,” he said. “I look at the marketplace, for one. The price is also a function of how much work went into making the image, plus the matting and the framing.” One of the photographs on display at the store was a geranium against a black background, priced at $40.

I liked a photo he had of the John Brown house in Providence in winter because the skeletal trees around it gave it a spare but grand feel. Another was a contrast between old and new: the old Worcester City Hall with a new modern taller building behind it.

Joanne LaLiberte of Webster was also at Booklovers’ looking at the photographs. She pointed to one of a storm over Vineyard Sound, and saw in its furious clouds the face of a wild creature with hair flowing and arms extended outward. I could see it too, once she pointed it out. Phil was astonished. “I never saw that before,” he admitted, surprised by the image.

It shows that just as with painted art, photography can evoke impressions unique to the viewer.

Phil’s photos are on display and available for purchase at Fresh Air Flowers in Douglas, and you can check out some of his galleries on his website at www.philsmithimages.com.

Old meets new in Worcester, MA

John Brown House, Providence, RI