The Spark

Brilliant songwriter, painter, recording artist, entrepreneur, and father of 2 Terian Mack has been affiliated with mainstream artists like Kanye West and 8-time grammy award producer Mailk Yusef for the better part of 4 years. Terian also serves as a creative artist mentor for United Masters- which provides music and content to the world's biggest brands. Most recently, Terian Mack's music was highlighted in by the NFL. 

Mack says that his sound is very unique to the ear, "I'm just like really different. I like things that are different and I'm on this whole kick of like just being totally like independent in a sense of my mindset. Like I don't want to be like, influenced by anything other than like what I'm choosing or, you know, so is like breaking down who who I am, who where I came from. Like why we like what we like, stuff like that. So sound wise, I like to just call it like. Like punk rap.

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It’s been a significant week at the State Capitol – especially when it comes to election-related issues.

Lawmakers are looking to move up the state’s primary election in 2024 from its scheduled date of April 23rd because it conflicts with the Jewish holiday of Passover and so that Pennsylvania voters could have more of an impact on the outcome of choosing the nominees for president.

The House prefers moving the primary to April 2 while the Senate has already approved March 19 for a new primary date.

Either way, the state's 67 counties aren't thrilled with moving the primary up, because they say they need time to prepare for an election like nailing down polling places, making sure there's enough poll workers and getting mail-in ballots out.

Legislators also considered other election-related proposals like requiring voters to present identification when voting and allowing counties to pre-canvass or count mail-in ballots before election day.

Nothing was settled, but everyone admits time is running short to make election changes.

Also, the 2023-24 fiscal year state budget isn’t finished.

To bring us up-to-date on The Spark Friday was Stephen Caruso, the Capitol reporter for Spotlight PA.

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Many rural hospitals are struggling financially. It’s estimated that more than 600 or 30% of the nation’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing. Eleven of them are in Pennsylvania.

Rural hospitals serve relatively small populations and don’t have enough business to cover their fixed costs.

Bucktail Medical Center in South Renovo, Clinton County has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the hospital. Bucktail’s CEO Timothy Reeves was on The Spark Thursday.

Reeves states that, "Our service area is about 3100 people. We do a lot of things. Here we are. We are an acute care hospital. We have 16 inpatient beds. We have an emergency room that's open 24/7. We have a long term care facility that is 43 beds. We have a community clinic with two providers that serves as the primary care provider for people in these communities. And we also offer a basic for ambulance service, and I only ever have one Doctor here at a time. Our volumes are slow and that Doctor works both in the E.R. and in the acute care hospital. 

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Crime and gun violence declined in the U.S. over a 20-year period starting in the early part of this century.

But then came the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and murders surged by 30% across the country, but especially in cities like Philadelphia, Baltimore and Chicago. However, smaller cities in our region like Harrisburg and York weren’t immuned either.

There are signs the number of shootings has actually gone down nationwide in 2023, but there still are way too many.

What is noticeable is the age of the shooters and the victims of gun violence.  The nationwide homicide rate for 15 to 19-year-olds increased by 91% from 2014 to 2021.

Something else that has proliferated during the last 20 years is the use of social media. Has it had an impact on gun violence?

Our guest on The Spark Thursday studies that topic. Joining us was Dr. Desmond Patton, a professor of social policy, communications and psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. Who explains that, "It is extremely hard to determine whether or not a Facebook post, if you will, actually caused a violent act, because usually there are a number of factors at play. Number one, it's really hard to interpret social media posts and to understand if that interpretation caused harm. And so we spent a lot of time trying to make meaning of social media posts, working with youth in particular to translate and interpret context in meaning in social media posts. But even with that local level context, it's still extremely hard to accurately interpret the meaning of a social media post. And then everything that happens in the real world, whether or not there was an event that happened external to the social media engagement, or if there were additional reasons why someone might be angry or have the desire to cause harm. And so it's really hard to put a clear and direct pinpoint on direct columns in this space. 

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The Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra is one of Central Pennsylvania’s cultural treasures. The Orchestra opens its season this Saturday and Sunday at the Harrisburg Forum with Jonathan Bailey’s Holland’s Motor City Dance Mix.

The Masterworks concert will kick off a season of seven high-caliber classical concerts featuring favorite composers in addition to introducing new music with the world premiere of Jonathan Leshoff’s Saul.

Maestro Stuart Malina explains the size of this production, "There will be probably 105 musicians on the stage playing. Not not there's not a chorus. Sometimes people say, Oh, well, yeah, it's a chorus. 60 people know 105 instrumentalists playing two sets of timpani, a huge brass section, big percussion section. Everything will be big. And it's one of the great works in the history of classical music. It's it's familiar to many audiences from the movie Fantasia. But it is it is a marvelous work of art, and we're excited to be performing it.

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Lancaster Historian Randy Harris has been recognized by the National Park Service with two prestigious awards for submitting 20 Pennsylvania resources to the Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Listings. He is the first person in the Network to Freedom’s 25-year history to win both the Robert G. Stanton and Wilbur H. Siebert Awards.

These awards may not be familiar to those outside historian circles but they are the Oscars of verifying Underground Railroad sites.

Southeast Pennsylvania was a strategic location for many enslaved people seeking freedom due to its proximity to the slave state of Maryland and free Blacks and Whites working to help the enslaved escape bondage.

Randy Harris explains, "At the end of the revolution when Pennsylvania was forming as a state, creating its own governance structure, the folks at the time had the foresight to create the Gradual Abolition Act of 1780, which was the first unit of government in the Western Hemisphere to begin the dismantling of this horrible institution of slavery in the Western Hemisphere, in the Americas. In doing that as currently, of course, it was gradual. It wasn't a free get out of slavery writ by anybody. If you were born before 1780, unfortunately, you were enslaved for life. If your "owner" wanted you to remain in that capacity or that status. If you were a child born after that, you had to wait till age 28. And they were all made in sorts of ways that people could barter their time, sell their time, or these even hate to say the word these owners could could claim a monetary effect and sell years of time of someone who was in their indentured servitude. It was, in essence, slavery by another name, but it was at least a glimmer of hope to freedom".

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Seventy-years-ago, Tom Lambert, who lives in New Cumberland, witnessed two atomic tests when he was in the military.

Now, he may be one of the last living witnesses to a mostly forgotten historic event that had immense foreign policy implications.

Lambert -- who lived most of his life in Aliquippa -- shares his memories of experiencing the only time a nuclear projectile was fired from a cannon -- during what is known as Shot Grable.

Tom Lambert is WITF Director of Special projects and Morning Edition Host Tim Lambert's father. Tim joined us on The Spark Thursday to provide more details of his father's story.

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ASSETS is an organization based out of Lancaster, who’s mission is to provide in-depth training and financing for entrepreneurs, and works with established businesses to improve their social and environmental footprint. Recently Assets celebrated 30 years of creating economic opportunity and cultivating entrepreneurial leadership to alleviate poverty and build vibrant, sustainable communities. As a non-profit organization Assets focuses on transforming communities through business. They’re diverse team of innovators with extensive experience in entrepreneurship, social change, and economic development, has provided Lancaster entrepreneurs a place and space where they can grow their business, and get the assistance needed.

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Renowned filmmaker Ken Burns’ latest documentary is called The American Buffalo.

It will air on WITF-TV and PBS October 16th and 17th ,  but there will be a special preview screening this Thursday, October 5th at 5 pm at the Willow Valley Communities Cultural Center in Willow Street, Lancaster County.

The American Buffalo traces the importance of the buffalo to indigenous people and how the buffalo was all but wiped out in the late 19th Century.  The loss of Native Americans’ major source of food, clothing, shelter and an important part of their religion contributed to the loss of their way of life.

Joining us on The Spark Tuesday were two of the panelists who will join us Thursday night after the preview screening: Sandi Cianciulli, who hails from the Oglala Sioux Nation and is a member of the National Congress of American Indians and served on the White House Committee, Urban Indian Coalition and Dr. Marlene Arnold, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Providence Project at Millersville University.

Cianciulli was asked about the importance of the buffalo in American Indian culture,"Indian people look at all of life differently than of the European model. They. They consider the earth. They're their mother. They consider the sky their father. They consider the trees and the wings and the four legged -- all relatives because we're all in this together. We're all on this earth at a period of time together and we share it and we share with each other. And what the buffalo did was give of themselves so that the native communities could survive. So it was there. They considered it their relative, the word for it."

The buffalo even played a part in religion but the white buffalo was especially meaningful as Cianciulli pointed out,"It's like a sign of better times coming. I'm very saturated and entrenched in contemporary native communities and not much we can do about history, but there's always something we can do about the future and looking out for the best interests of Native people. When the White Buffalo was born, it was inspiring. It was a sign that things would get better for the native communities and that was. Anything that can interject hope."

Watch the trailer to The American Buffalo here.

Dr. Arnold said the Burns film may go a long way toward helping Americans understand how destruction of the buffalo by the U.S. Army, government sponsored hunts and hunters was the downfall of much of Native people in this country,"Native people weren't really in contact directly with Europeans before Lewis and Clark in 1805, but even jump to between 1840 and 1890 in the span of 50 years. The real connection with Europeans just starting in 1840. But within 50 years, all of those native cultures were under such destruction and attack. And really, by 1890, it's considered the death of Plains Indian culture, although, of course, many of those cultures survived. But their way of life of the 19th century and earlier was quite destroyed through destroying the buffalo. So those 60 million buffalo, by 1902 there were 100, only 100 buffalo in the wild. So this destruction of the buffalo went hand-in-hand with the destruction of many Native American people and attacks against their culture. I think if Americans understood this piece of history, it would really help toward setting in motion healing for this destruction against native people."

Cianciulli summed up what the loss of the buffalo meant to Native Americans,"I asked my father one time what was the hardest thing about growing up in abject poverty? And he said, being hungry. And not being able to do anything about it. And it kind of affected, impacted his whole life. Everywhere we moved, he would build shelves. And with the last nail, he would pound it in so hard. And he was a big, strong guy. I don't know how they didn't all fall apart, but my mother would have to fill them up with food in order for him to feel secure. I only use that as an example because I can't imagine myself. What it must be like to have everything you ever knew collapse. In your lifetime, and then you have to figure out how to. How to live. You wake up every morning, What do I do now? And that's a position that there's still. What do I do now?"

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The Red Rose Film Festival is dedicated to the growth & enrichment of the Central Pennsylvania film & small business community. Through the promotion of independent films, local economic development, and diverse perspectives from around the globe RRFF seeks impact Lancaster tourism, industry education, job creation, and better incentives. The Festival works with the thriving art community, small businesses owners and Lancaster Leadership to build a foundation as a new arena for filmmakers from around the world to showcase their diverse perspectives and independent thoughts. The Red Rose Film Festival (RRFF) promotes programming and events that lift Global Perspectives for Local Impact. They share these films to begin critical conversations. They often share stories of a person or a community that might otherwise struggle to be heard. 

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