Thursday, September 12, 2002

A father’s heartbreak on sending his son into battle

Published in the Current

Patriotism is a less certain thing for Kevin Sweeney now. Since Sept. 11, 2001, he has been engaged in internal conflict between what he sees in the world and what it means for his son, Brendan.

Brendan is a specialist in the 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, N.C. His unit is one of the first to head into harm’s way.

Sweeney, a New York native who received the coveted “New Yorker for New York” award in 1986, grew up, so he said, “watching the Twin Towers go up.” He lived in a working-class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens and spent most of his life in the city, working to better his block and his neighborhood.

An Army veteran, who is not shy about expressing his pride in his son, Sweeney wonders and worries about the world his son – and all 20-year-olds – are living in.

Brendan called last Sept. 11 to say he and his fellow soldiers were in their combat gear, getting set to move. They didn’t go anywhere that day, but have been prepared to depart at a moment’s notice for a year.

“There is no sense of security in what Brendan will be doing from day to day,” Sweeney said.

There is a sense of relief when Brendan or his wife calls to say other units have been deployed, because it means at least six months before another unit
rotates overseas to replace it.

But, Sweeney said, with “war drums” beating like they are, it might not be six months, and could be far less.

Brendan is now slated to head to Germany in January for two weeks, and then on to a location officially undisclosed, but more than likely Afghanistan or Iraq, Sweeney said.

“It’s almost a relief to know he’s going in January,” Sweeney said. At least there’s a date to dread, though he knows departure could happen tomorrow.

Sweeney takes some comfort in knowing that he will get a call to say Brendan has gone overseas, because Brendan’s wife will let the family know. Other soldiers, ordered to pack up and get on airplanes double-quick, may not get a chance to let their families know they are leaving until much later, if at all.

It is not what Sweeney envisioned when Brendan graduated from Cape Elizabeth High School two years ago. At that time, Brendan had little interest in college and no concrete plans. Sweeney encouraged him to join the Army, knowing Brendan was interested in law enforcement and needed some training.

Back then, long before Sept. 11, Sweeney said he saw the Army as a way to get young men like Brendan shaped up, with opportunities for future educational scholarships, chances to get paid for training, and even management and supervisory roles.

Now that has changed. He thinks of Brendan, and all soldiers, differently.

“We have had to talk about things that no father should ever have to discuss with his son,” Sweeney said, his voice breaking. He has helped Brendan with a will and a power of attorney in case his son can’t act on his own behalf.

Some of the father-son time has been more sinister. “You shouldn’t have to go out with your son and buy personal sidearms,” Sweeney said. But that is what they did, when Brendan was home recently.

Sweeney, a self-described curmudgeon, is near tears when talking about Brendan. His depth of emotion springs from both pride and fear.

Proud to serve
“I’m damn proud of him,” Sweeney said. He expands that to the other “kids,” as he calls them, in Brendan’s unit and throughout the Army. “It makes you think,” he said, about all the families across the country, all worried about their own kids.

But he knows Brendan is special, one of the elite fighters the Army spends thousands to train and equip.

“Brendan is one of the few who is in combat arms,” Sweeney said. “They go in harm’s way just training.”

To show his support for his son, Sweeney flies an Airborne flag in front of his house, and wears Airborne jump wings – the symbol of a qualified Army paratrooper – on his lapel.

Sometimes, for variety, he substitutes a pin version of the 82nd Airborne division patch.

But Sweeney also harbors fears for Brendan.

During the Vietnam War, Sweeney said, “people took out their frustration on the individual service member. That bothers me a lot, and I don’t want that to happen again,” he said.

He worries about a lack of popular support for an attack on Iraq. President George W. Bush and his administration are talking about invading Iraq, though national opinion polls indicate the public is about roughly split on the issue.

Former national security advisers and a number of top generals don’t want to go to war either.

Sweeney recalled a statement by Gen. Anthony Zinni, a U.S. envoy to help negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians: “The people who seem to be most inclined to go to war are the ones who have never been there,” he said.

If Brendan – or any American soldier – dies in Iraq, Sweeney said he will want strong proof that Saddam Hussein does have weapons of mass destruction, as the Bush administration alleges. Sweeney vowed to hold the administration to account for any missteps.

“I want the United States to be aware of the implications,” Sweeney said.

Putting a face on war
He doesn’t challenge the government out of enmity for the U.S. Rather, it is the opposite. “If there’s anything I do that’s patriotic, it’s playing devil’s advocate and asking the questions,” Sweeney said.

He is scared that with John Ashcroft and others in the administration making policy changes to “improve security” by taking away civil rights, what the terrorists had hoped to achieve with their attacks, “they have, in fact, accomplished to some degree.”

He reminded Brendan that he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, and he reminds himself of others who fought to defend American freedom, and what they believed in. Today’s leaders, he said, are different.

“There are people who think that in order to protect those same liberties, we have to take them away,” Sweeney said. But rather than give up his rights and follow along blindly, Sweeney has a simple question: “Why is it so important to go to war?”

He also wants people to understand the true cost of war.

There are about 400,000 soldiers out of nearly 300 million U.S. citizens. “Most people don’t know a real soldier,” Sweeney said. Those who serve in the armed forces are people, too. He wants the politicians to remember that. “These soldiers have moms, dads, brothers, sisters, wives and kids,” he said.

War is a big decision, and the distance between soldiers and Washington policymakers can be dangerous, he said.

“It’s easy to send somebody else’s kid,” Sweeney said. The solution? “Make them faces. They’re people, and for the most part they’re kids,” he said.

He said even the national media has gotten carried away, encouraging war and not questioning government officials enough. Sweeney said he recently wanted to call up the war-hawk TV talk show “Fox and Friends,” to say, “You’re talking about killing my son.”

He has worked to help Cape Elizabeth’s members of the armed forces stay in the minds of town residents, especially the children. Last year, classes in the middle school adopted service people, writing them letters and sending them reminders of home.

The activity is one way Sweeney can avoid being overcome by fear. In a phone conversation from North Carolina, Brendan once said he was scared. Sweeney reminded him that fear is normal.

“Courage is not an absence of fear, it’s perseverance in the presence of fear,” Sweeney told his son.

The father’s heartbreak is still palpable, though, as Sweeney begins to cry, thinking about the last time he saw Brendan.

“I can’t say goodbye to him without being in tears,” Sweeney said, “because I don’t know if I’m ever going to see him again.”

Thursday, September 5, 2002

Rabid animal attacks cats in Cape

Published in the Current

Cape Elizabeth police are warning residents to keep an eye on their pet cats, in the wake of three recent encounters between cats and rabid animals. Two of the incidents involved raccoons and the third was with a skunk, according to Animal Control Officer Bob Leeman.

The most recent encounter, on the night of Sept. 4, was on Ocean House Road between Mitchell Road and Spurwink Avenue. The cat in that encounter was put down because its rabies shots were not up-to-date, and because there were children and other pets in the home.

“I know I’ve got cats out there that aren’t up to date on shots,” Leeman said. “That’s scary. ”

He said cat owners who discover unexplained injuries on their animals should have them taken to the veterinarian for an examination. He said cats might not even show signs of a fight or animal bite, but could bring rabies into the house unnoticed. If humans are exposed to the virus and do not receive rapid treatment, the disease is fatal.

If an animal is suspected of having encountered a rabid animal, Leeman said, the vet will administer a rabies booster shot and the animal will be quarantined for 45 days to be sure it is rabies-free. Leeman said most quarantined animals are kept in their homes under closer supervision than normal.

Rabid animals wander around town, Leeman said, meaning there is no way to specify that one area of town is riskier than others. “It’s everywhere out here,” he said.

Another encounter was between a black cat and a raccoon in the Brentwood area. Both the raccoon and the cat ran off before being captured, Leeman said, so he is not sure what happened to the animals. He did contact residents in the area whom he knew had black cats, but failed to find the animal.

“It worries me because there are so many cats in town,” Leeman said.

New Cape deputy fire chief

Published in the Current

Mark Stults, a 10-year veteran of the Cape Fire Department and current captain of Engine 2, has been selected to fill a deputy fire chief position made vacant by the death of Jimmy Murray in June.

Murray’s official radio call sign, “Car Two,” will transfer to Deputy Fire Chief Peter Gleason, and Stults will pick up Gleason’s old call sign as “Car Three.” Fire Chief Philip McGouldrick is “Car One.”

Stults spent 11 years as a firefighter in Falmouth, where he also served as an engine company captain. He works full time for the Town of Scarborough as a firefighter-paramedic on duty with the ambulance at Dunstan Station, and will be able to keep his job there.

“I’m excited,” Stults said. “I’m very pleased to feel the energy that everyone has.”

He took office Sept. 1, so not a lot has happened yet, but he is working with McGouldrick and Gleason to keep things running smoothly at the fire department.

The biggest issue facing the department, he said, is pressure to keep enough on-call firefighters available, and reduce or eliminate the need for full-time paid firefighters.

Full-timers are more expensive than on-call crews, Stults said.

“We’ve got a great group of people on board now,” he said. He expects to continue to focus on keeping a strong pool of volunteers, including paying attention to young people in town who are interested in the fire service.

Most sex offenders still not registered

Published in the Current

Of the 3,300 sex offenders required to register with the state’s sex offender registry, only a couple hundred showed up by the Sept. 1 deadline, according to the state police. Officials are taking a wait-and-see approach pending a decision on further action.

“We were hoping for a far greater response to voluntary compliance,” said Maine State Police spokesman, Steve McCausland.

He understands why there is a problem. “The sex offender list is the last place most people want their names to appear,” he said. Some of the offenses took place as long ago as 10 years, he said, so people may “take their chances” and effectively make the police go looking for them.

Starting June 30, 1992, people convicted of gross sexual assault of minors were required by state law to register with state and local police.

In 1999 the legislature expanded the law to include a number of other offenses, ranging from unlawful sexual contact to non-parental kidnapping.

From that date forward, all people convicted of those offenses also had to register.

In September 2001, the state Legislature made the 1999 law retroactive to the original 1992 date. All offenders convicted of any of the crimes added in 1999, and who were convicted between 1992 and 1999, were required to register by Sept. 1.

The plan of action now is uncertain.

“We will now regroup and decide what our next steps are going to be,” McCausland said.

The State Bureau of Identification, which oversees the sex offender registry, has other tasks as well, he said, so officials will have to look at what else is required of that division before deciding how to handle the sex offender issue.

In the meantime, state police will wait for sex offenders to have background checks run on them, or have other contacts with law enforcement.

When sex offenders who should have registered do encounter police, McCausland said, they may be subject to “enforcement action” based on their failure to register.

Criminal background checks, he said, are common in many fields as pre-employment checks, including most jobs dealing with children, including school employees, daycare providers and scout leaders.

Thursday, August 29, 2002

Cape schools juggle budget changes

Published in the Current

An unexpected increase in federal funding has the Cape Elizabeth School Board breathing a bit easier in the current climate of concern over state budget cuts, but the specter of additional state cuts still looms.

For now, $39,800 in state cuts will be offset by an estimated $40,000 in federal grants for students who have additional needs but don’t qualify for special education.

“We’ve heard rumors there may be more,” said Business Manager Pauline Aportria.

The board has an additional $232,000 in surplus, beyond their expected end-of-year surplus of $285,000, as a result of $60,000 in state agency payments for special needs students and savings due to an end-of-fiscal-year spending freeze.

The board, meeting as its finance subcommittee, decided to use $200,000 of that additional surplus to begin a capital improvement fund. They expect to use some of that money to either offset the cost of the high school and Pond Cove renovation projects, or to perform some needed roof repairs, if the
renovation project fails to win voter approval.

The money could be reallocated to other purposes if, for example, additional state funding cuts meant the schools needed the money sooner. The Town Council would need to approve such a reallocation, Aportria said.

After a discussion of whether to keep additional money in an undesignated reserve to bring the district’s reserve funding up to 2 percent – the “generally accepted accounting principle” – the board gave up under budget pressure from the council in the spring.

Board member George Entwistle said keeping the reserve at 2 percent would provide the district a strong negotiating tool when returning to the council during this year’s budget process.

But board members agreed that putting the money in a building fund would be the wisest move, particularly because they could move it if needed.

Superintendent Tom Forcella said the $200,000 for building expenses could make a big dent in the initial years of any bond that would be passed for the project.

“Ultimately, it’s going to reduce the tax rate,” said board member Kevin Sweeney.

School Board chair and building subcommittee chair Marie Prager said the high school building project, in particular, had been projected to cost more than they had imagined.

The $9.2 million proposal from HKTA Architects is far more than an initial survey, conducted by SMRT Architects, which projected high school renovation costs at $2.5 million, Prager said.

The big jump, she said, would pay for “redoing the high school the way everyone thinks it should be done,” including staff requests and $2 million in site work. Prager said she expects to get 20 to 25 years of use out of the upcoming renovation, but the cost is too high right now.

“We will bring it down,” she said. She warned, however, that the cost would not be cut to $2.5 million.

In its regular August business meeting, which followed the finance subcommittee meeting, the Cape Elizabeth School Board hear the following reports:
–Middle School Principal Nancy Hutton said there will be 34 new students at the middle school this year, including 11 new eighth-graders. She said there were 17 seventh-graders participating in the laptop iTeam program, in which they will help their peers and teachers better use the laptop computers. Hutton also spoke about the middle school outdoor education trips to Camp Kieve and Chewonki, and fund-raising activity to pay for the trips.
– Superintendent Tom Forcella told about new district employees hired over the summer.
– Pond Cove School Principal Tom Eismeier said he is accepting questions to be answered during his upcoming trip to learn about education in Japan.
– High School Principal Jeff Shedd said the state has mandated all high schools have in place at the end of this school year a local assessment program ready for implementation in the fall.