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Jul 6, 2021

Christine Flowers: Free speech extends to students, too - pressherald.com

Tinker. Until, that is, this past week, when an eight-justice majority ruled in Mahanoy School District v. B.L. that a disappointed cheerleader at a Pennsylvania high school who dropped a bunch of “F” bombs on social media should not have been suspended because it violated her First Amendment right to expression. There are some significant differences between the Tinker decision and Mahanoy. The most obvious one is that the student in Tinker wore her armband and expressed herself on school grounds, while Brandy Levy, the “B.L” in the latest ruling, “expressed” herself at the mall. The other one that I noted was that Mary Beth Tinker was protesting an unpopular war in a quiet and dignified way, while Ms. Levy was protesting her inability to swing some Pom Poms with a tirade that would make foul-mouthed Sarah Silverman proud. And yet, the principle is the same: Children do not lose their rights to free speech every and any time an adult or an administration is offended by that speech. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority, noted that while a school may very well have an interest in student speech (as the court in Tinker acknowledged) it can’t suppress pure speech with which it disagrees except in very specific, narrowly drawn situations. The fact that Brandi Levy’s language would have gotten a bar of soap stuffed in her mouth in most decent families was irrelevant to whether that speech was entitled to constitutional (if not grammatical or pedagogical) respect. The majority also held that if speech could be considered threatening, bullying or otherwise dangerous and disruptive, it could be subject to punishment even if uttered off campus. The point that Breyer made was that parents are the ones who should be monitoring their children’s behavior, and the fact that the Levy parents were so obviously unsuccessful in raising a dignified and respectful child did not mean that it was the school’s place to do so in loco parentis. Justice Clarence Thomas was the sole dissenter. He wrote that Levy’s speech was automatically treated as “off campus” by the majo...

Apr 4, 2021

The Perseverance of New York City’s Wildflowers - The New York Times

Lenape people from their ancestral land of Lenapehoking, which encompasses New Jersey, Delaware and parts of Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New York State. The Lenape knew spring by another bloom: white tufts of flowers from the serviceberry tree, which powder its branches like snow in April. Today, serviceberries still bloom in Brooklyn, in both Prospect Park and John Paul Jones Park.A wildflower can refer to any flowering plant that was not cultivated, intentionally planted or given human aid, yet it still managed to grow and bloom. This is one of several definitions offered by the plant ecologist Donald J. Leopold in Andrew Garn’s new photo book “Wildflowers of New York City,” and one that feels particularly suited to the city and its many transplants.Scarlet bee balm.Yellow wood sorrel growing by the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and Battery Weed fort, in Staten Island, N.Y.Hedge bindweed and rose of Sharon by the ConEd plant on Avenue D, in Manhattan.Butterfly weed.Mr. Garn did not intend for “Wildflowers of New York City” to be a traditional field guide for identifying flowers. Rather, his reverent portraits invite us to delight in the beauty of flowers that we more often encounter in a sidewalk crack than in a bouquet. “They all share a beauty of form and function that offers testimony to the glory of survival in the big city,” Mr. Garn writes. He asks us to stop and consider the sprouts we might pass every day and appreciate them not just for their beauty, but also for their ability to thrive.More than 2,000 species of plants are found in New York City, more than half of which are naturalized, Mr. Garn writes. Some were imported for their beauty; ornate shrubs such as the buttercup winterhazel, star magnolia and peegee hydrangea all reached North America for the first time in a single shipment to the Parsons & Sons Nursery in Flushing in 1862.Others came as stowaways, as the writer Allison C. Meier notes in the book’s introduction. In the 19th century, the botanist Addison Brown scoured the heaps of discarded ballast — earth and stones that weighed down ships — by city docks for unfamiliar blossoms, as he noted in an 1880 issue of the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. During one July jaunt to Gowanus in Brooklyn, Mr. Brown noted purple sprouts of sticky nightshade...

Dec 10, 2020

Karen Hannis Meinhart Obituary - Mt. Holly Springs, PA | Cumberlink Sentinel - Legacy.com

December 2020 with her family by her side after a courageous battle against pancreatic cancer. Karen was born on 25 September 1953 in Allentown, Pennsylvania to the late Bridget and Rollin Hannis. Karen graduated from Central Catholic High School in Allentown in 1971. She met her future husband, Richard, at a dance while he was a student at a nearby university. They married in 1975, and together they traveled the world with the US Air Force, living in Arkansas, the Azores, Delaware, Texas, Germany, Rhode Island, and Virginia. They settled in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where they built a warm and welcoming home in which to grow old together and filled it with art from their family's adventures together. Karen worked as an administrator and human resources professional with the US Government and retired from federal service in 2016. She is survived and lovingly remembered by her husband of 45 years, Richard Meinhart of Carlisle; her daughter, Lauren Meinhart of Oslo, Norway; her son, David Meinhart, of Philadelphia; and five siblings: Jeanine Johnson of Emmaus, Sheila Mangano of Clifton, Virginia, Steven Hannis of Easton, Brian Hannis of Naples, Florida, and Kelly Cuetara of Downingtown. She was preceded in death by her brother, Michael Hannis, of...

Oct 15, 2020

Florists 'bomb' Philly mailboxes for 2020 election ballots - WHYY

Her inspiration for United By Blooms came from several forces converging: the U.S. Postal service faces possible cuts (which were recently blocked), Pennsylvania is allowing anyone who wishes to vote by mail in a presidential election for the first time, and the end of the growing season puts a period on a very difficult year for the local flower industry. “Florists and designers and farmers have had a tough year. They had to completely retool their businesses. I didn’t think people would jump at this opportunity,” said Carpenter. She was surprised by how many florists signed on to United By Blooms, and how quickly. The call went out only six weeks ago. “The community of designers, florists and flower farmers is really strong,” said Carpenter. Florist Kate Carpenter launched the United by Blooms project because she wanted to do something positive for her community and encourage people to vote. She decorated a mailbox at the corner of Carpenter Lane and Greene Street in Mount Airy. (Emma Lee/WHYY) One of the participants is Jennie Love, owner of Love ‘N Fresh Flowers. She created an autumn-colored rainbow of flowers arching about six feet high and plunging toward the slot of a postal box at the corner of Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike in Chestnut Hill. The arch starts at the bottom with deep copper-colored amaranth tassels, moves through a gradient of orange and dark yellow hues, and ends with a spear of bright golds and buttery yellows pointing toward the mailbox. “We have lots of dahlias. It’s prime dahlia season in October,” said Love. “They start deep and rich at the bottom of the arch, then it gets the bright happiness close to the mailbox. That’s the goal: be bright and happy at the mailbox.” Love is both a farmer and florist. She grows everything she uses on a five-acre, certified natural farm in Roxborough. The bread and butter of her business had been weddings, but that dried up this year. Last April, her prospects were dire. Over the summer she launched a flower delivery service where people can pre-order a box of flowers and have it delivered weekly to their door. Called Porch Petals, Love keeps the delivery radius tight – she only services Philadelphia’s Northwest neighborhoods near her farm. To her surprise, it worked. Porch Petals caught on and saved her business. Floral designer Diane Floss (left) and Jennie Love of Love and Fresh Flowers decorated the mailbox at Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike ...

Aug 3, 2020

Marilyn Lee Ward, 97, practiced organic gardening long before it became fashionable - Williamsburg Yorktown Daily

She is survived by six grandchildren, Jim Miller of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, Mary Muntz of Greensburg, Kansas, Dave Ward of Warrington, Pennsylvania, Sarah Ward of Virginia Beach, Margaret Madrone of El Prado, New Mexico, and Duncan Ward of Hyattsville. She had 11 great-grandchildren. Marilyn began losing her memory during her mid 1980s, and her life became lighter as the past fogged in her mind. She forgot to miss the loved ones she had lost, forgot to be self-conscious or worry about how others perceived her, becoming childlike in many ways. Each day offered new perspectives and adventures, even as she re-visited once familiar places and ideas. Marilyn forgot she had arthritis. She forgot she was old. She forgot she had heart failure. For the first time in her life she began to truly relax, rest and play. As a U.S. Navy wife, Marilyn had moved some 23 times. But thanks to the help she received from her family, as well as from her gardening friend, Trish Hann, and the Westminster Canterbury Hospice at Home team, she was able to live out the last 50 years of her life in her home. Marilyn was buried Wednesday, July 29, in Princess Ann Memorial Park, Virginia Beach. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations may be made to the Nature Conservancy, the Gary Sinise Foundation or Operation Blessing. Share online condolences with the family at Altmeyer Funeral Homes & Crematory. Always be informed. Click here to get the latest news and information delivered to your inbox...