Many of the friends and neighbors of Old Mill Village Museum may have read the Public Notice ad recently published by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) requesting letters of interest in the sale of the property of Old Mill Village. This notice may have cause some concern, and to allay that concern is the purpose of this letter.

Despite the impression the ad may have given, there are no plans to sell Old Mill Village. The Associate Members of Old Mill Village Museum, the local non-profit group that has managed and operated the site for over 40 years, is in the process of working with PHMC to obtain local ownership of OMV. Over the last few years, PHMC has failed in its obligations to fund OMV, and the Associates have been forced to cover 100% of the financial responsibilities to keep the Village open. Given that situation, it was a logical decision for our group to request a formal “buy-back” of the property. The Public Notice was just one of the bureaucratic requirements we have had to fulfill in that process. Rest assured that the Associates are as committed as ever to preserving and operating the Village.

To that end, we are currently seeking new volunteers to assist in operating Old Mill Village. Anyone is welcome to volunteer, whether your goal is to learn a craft to demonstrate, be a Village docent, or even to help behind the scenes with maintaining the buildings and grounds of the Village. There are many opportunities at OMV to serve your community, and help to preserve the rich heritage of our region. Interested volunteers may contact us by mail at Old Mill Village, PO Box 434, New Milford, PA 18834 or by email at omg.museum@oldmillvillage.org.

Sincerely,

Timothy Button, President

Associate Members of Old Mill Village Museum

What's the latest example of equalphilia in the Obama administration? Equality of income? No. Marriage equality for same-sex couples? That's old hat. Then what about educational equality? Strike three. This time it's equality in school discipline.

The Department of Education sent a “guidance” letter to all school superintendents. The missive reminded them of Titles IV and VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in public schools.”

And how, exactly, is The Department of Education to determine if school discipline is administered without regard to race? By equality of results.

Let's examine this latest foray for equality.

Imagine a school with a population of 1,000. Eight hundred students are white and 200 are black. Further, suppose that 20 white students were suspended and 20 black students were also suspended. Is that equality of results? Far from it.

Since there are four times as many whites as blacks, 60 more white students should have been suspended but were not. Obvious violations of Titles IV and VI with penalties hanging over the school district's head like the sword of Damocles.

The superintendent might be asked to justify the disparity of suspensions to the The Department of Education (lots of luck) or he could try to iron out the difference by suspending just five black students and letting 15 go unpunished. Facing the prospect of a battery of lawyers from the Department of Justice and huge legal fees for the school district, he would probably choose the latter.

But why stop with schools? Let's extend equality of discipline from school to prison.

We'll use FBI statistics from 2011 to compare white and black crimes. Since whites makeup 78 percent of the population and blacks 13 percent, we'll eliminate the difference by comparing criminal offenses in units of 100,000.

For murder, it is 1.6 for whites and 10 for blacks. For forcible rape, it's 4 for whites,12 for blacks. Robbery is 14 for whites and 115 for blacks. Lastly, for violent crime it's 100 for whites and 393 for blacks.

If we apply Titles IV and VI to equalize white and black incarceration rates, as the Department of Education is attempting to do for school punishments, a number of black convicts would have to be released: 3,400 murderers; 3,200 rapists; 40,000 robbers, and 117,000 inmates convicted of violent crimes. And perhaps the pardoned felons would be eligible for compensation for being wrongly convicted of a crime because of their race.

Lost in this mindless quest for equality are the majority of white and black students who would be deprived of an acceptable learning environment and the overwhelming number of citizens in the general public (whites and blacks) put at risk by the release of a few thousand dangerous criminals.

Looking at the problem of equality from the white perspective, we see that whites are being discriminated against in the NFL. Only 50 percent of the players are white, despite the fact that whites outnumber blacks 6 to 1. That's prima facie evidences of discrimination.

It's worse in the NBA where only 17 percent are white and 76 percent are black, the reverse of what it should be. Blacks in the NFL and NBA must be drastically reduced and white players proportionately increased to achieve equality.

Of course this is ludicrous. The point is that the Department of Education's latest crusade for equality is equally ludicrous. Could it be that more black students are disruptive than whites, black lawbreakers outnumber whites because they commit more crimes, and blacks are overrepresented in sports because they are more talented than whites? Discomforting questions?

It is paradoxical that in Obama's obsessive pursuit of equality for minorities, the majority---blacks as well as whites--- is swept away in a riptide of indifference.

Equality is a phantom goal; it doesn't exist; it can never be achieved. Striving to realize it for a few has only resulted in a greater inequality for the many.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA