If just 5,000 committed people in each one of the 535 Congressional districts nationwide mobilized behind universal health care, America could have a single payer system, consumer advocate Ralph Nader said Friday night.

 

Nader appeared at Real Art Ways Friday night, March 30, in support of the Connecticut Premiere of An Unreasonable Man, the new documentary about his life. (Disclosure - the Nader folks paid me to promote the movie.) Click here to hear Colin McEnroe interview Ralph Thursday, which has similar talking points to what he said Friday night.

 

About 400 people showed up at Real Art Ways to see the movie - from former gubernatorial candidate Bill Curry to CCAG executive director Tom Swann to Manchester Journal-Inquirer managing editor Chris Powell.

 

It was a record-breaking crowd according to RAW staff, as no film in RAW history had ever drawn that many people for an opening.

 

The RAW theatre only seats 153 people (not including standing room). So while 50 people went away, 175 stayed in the main gallery to listen to Nader speak while the two hour, two minute long documentary rolled. An Unreasonable Man shows at RAW through April 5.

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Nothing like a solid P&Z meeting to get your blood flowing. Or at least a healthy dose of city Planning Director Roger O'Brien.

 

Normally, local Planning and Zoning meeting are snoozers, where volunteer citizen commissioners plow through the minutia of land use policy and application. But like all flawed human institutions, occasionally, a controversy arises.

 

The bi-weekly Hartford Planning and Zoning Commission's get-together Tuesday, March 27 at the conference center at 260 Constitution Plaza was one of those thrilling democratic dust-ups, worth as much play-by-play as I'm about to do.

 

First off, there weren't enough agendas to go around. I showed up for the zoning change at 1400 Main Street (from Firestone to McDonald's? - more on that in the future), but that was postponed. I quickly realized the main event on the evening's scorecard was the approval of city's 10-year Capital Improvement Plan.

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Riding my bicycle through Hartford, I sometimes spy litterbugs in action. If I can, I confront the perpetrator with the potato chip bag (or worse). This crusade may result in my untimely demise, but I hate litter.

Recently, I spotted a hand tossing a cigarette butt out a red pick-up truck stopped at the intersection of Main and Buckingham. I pedaled up to the culprit at the wheel, a hard-hat worker. Our interaction went something like this:

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At the risk of damaging my personal freelance writing career, but for my property tax pride, I can’t let this one sit. This is one place where Mayor Eddie Perez and I agree.

 

Perez and I bumped into each other Saturday in front of City Hall at the St. Patrick’s Day parade. He was jovial (everyone is friends on St. Patrick’s Day), putting his arm around me, squeezing me tight, asking me why I never write anything positive about the city.

 

I disagreed with him. I write positive things about the city – I publish hopeful visions, offer solutions, seek accountability and provide constructive criticism.

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UPDATE 3-30-07: Dan D'Ambrosio is no rookie, who sources tell me is a seasoned environmental reporter. D'Ambrosio apparently spent time in the hallowed Waterbury train station, aka the Republican, where I cut my teeth as a cub reportern.

D'Ambrosio followed up this week with a strong effort about the MDC's sewage project. It's worth a read, and the lead really puts 1 billion gallons of raw flushes into perspective.

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The 15-year-old African-American prisoner sat outside his cell reading intently, taking advantage of quiet time, as he was the only prisoner in the cell block of building three at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown.

 

The guard at the security console in the sterile main hall of the cell block sat quietly, too, but the 14 of us Quinnipiac University School of Law students taking a tour on Friday, February 23, with our two guides, were noisy, talking through the educational experience of visiting such a facility.

 

We were alone in the living quarters, which almost felt like a dorm but for the prison accoutrements. The other prisoners who lived there were playing basketball or hanging out over at the Boys Club on campus.

 

While some law students mingled in front of the guard station, and others tried to comprehend teenaged life in the tiny cells, I wandered over and said hello to the prisoner.

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Anger is an energy, Johnny Lydon howls. Your anger, is a gift, screams Zach de la Rocha. Anger is clarity, the therapist says.

 

Back on Dec. 14, my anger boiled over after watching a movie made by New Haven-based Youth Rights Media, called "CJTS: At What Cost?"

 

YRM documentarians took a tour of the $57 million prison camp boondoggle known as the Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown and made a film.

 

The film features security camera footage of February 2004 beatings CJTS guards administered to young prisoners into solitary holding cells (posted above). Child advocate Jeanne Milstein obtained the footage through pre-trial discovery in a lawsuit to hold DCF accountable for living conditions.

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So I lock my bicycle around a light pole near the state capital Saturday morning, March 24. It's a gorgeous day for the rescheduled St. Patty's Day parade, postponed because of late snow. Everyone is in their Irish finery.

 

I'm there to hand out flyers to the assembled throngs for An Unreasonable Man, the new documentary about Ralph Nader opening at Real Art Ways, Friday, March 30.

 

I'm walking to the head of the parade, minding my own business, soaking in the life teeming around me, when I hear someone call my name. I look up, and who is it? Why, it's Connecticut's first citizen herself, Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

 

"Would you like to take my picture?" she asks with a grin.

 

But shoot, my camera is at home. As if on cue, John Murphy of CCAG, with his unmistakeable white hair creeping from below a baseball cap, is standing right there with a Nikon.

 

I've been laughing about this for the past 24 hours. If this isn't a cosmic giggle, I just don't know what is.

 

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On the mall in Washington, D.C. last Saturday, thousands of peace protesters gathered to march to the Pentagon. Across the street, under the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, hundreds of Vietnam War veterans crowded to hurl hate at the hippies.

 

Apparently, somewhere on the blogosphere, some anonymous "peace" poster suggested that someone would defile and spray paint the Wall, the Vietnam War Memorial.

 

Conservative bloggers like Michelle Malkin began prepping us for this counter-demonstration backing late February. Funny thing, I didn't even hear about it until I was actually on the bus ride down to D.C. But word spread and the battle was on.

 

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