Editor Rachel Pastan says goodbye to The Swarthmorean and shares final thoughts about issues facing the borough.
All in Editorial
Earth Day 2021
Editor Rachel Pastan suggests looking for solace in nature this Earth Day.
A Soft Place to Land
In honor of National Poetry Month, associate editor Satya Nelms shares the importance of poetry in her life.
Call It What It Is
In the wake of the brutal murders in Georgia on March 16, associate editor Satya Nelms on the importance of calling things what they are.
How Far We’ve Come
Editor Rachel Pastan looks back to a year ago, when COVID hit Swarthmore, and considers the future.
Love of My Life
Associate Editor Satya Nelms recalls how she first met her husband, and talks about the Valentine’s Day traditions they now share with their children.
What Bubble?
In this editorial, editor Rachel Pastan asks herself what the role of a small-town newspaper editor is when it comes to writing about the January 6 assault on the Capitol in Washington D.C., and reflects on connections between our community and the greater world.
Journalist vs. Engineer
Engineer and contributing opinion writer Stefan Roots highlights the dismal state of education in Chester, and muses on why his writing skills are currently more in demand than his engineer’s credentials.
The Swarthmorean: A Year of Growth
A catalog of the Swarthmorean’s changes over the past year, and a shout-out to the many who helped.
Festival of Lights
Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, began last night. To me, the menorah always looks forlorn on the first night, with just the one candle (plus the shamash) burning. But I like knowing we’ll add another every night. It seems like recompense for the minute or two of sunlight we are still losing daily. It’s been a dark year by pretty much any measure. As we move into winter, I hope all of you have lights to kindle. Glimmers of promise for the new year.
Built on a myth about how this country came to be, Thanksgiving might be the best occasion of all to remember the inequities that have shaped the world and our place in it. After giving thanks for what we have, perhaps we can ask ourselves what we might do to reshape it.
What Are We Celebrating?
I was at the Swarthmore Farmers Market when the news broke that Joe Biden had won the election. People started cheering in the streets. Honking their horns. I saw some people break down in tears. I understood it, but I didn’t feel it.
Uncertainty
The stakes of this election feel immense. Whatever the outcome, many people will doubtless be furious and despairing. And COVID-19 will continue to stalk us. And Black men and women will continue to be killed in disproportionate numbers by the pandemic and the police alike. Whatever deliverance we’re waiting for, we’re unlikely to find it in the election results. It will take a tremendous amount of work to unravel the patterns of animosity and fear surrounding us.
Swarthmore, the Police, and the Pursuit of Perfection
A few weeks ago, I went to a meeting where the borough council’s Public Safety Committee discussed police-community relations. Chief Stufflet, Mayor Marty Spiegel, and Swarthmore resident and sociologist Virginia Adams O’Connell came to the meeting to report on conversations they’ve been having about Swarthmore police policies, training, and attitudes. I like to think that Swarthmore is small enough and has enough resources and good will that it comes as close as any town could to being perfectible. Doubtless that’s a romantic notion. But I’m guessing I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Could Smaller Houses Enrich Our Community?
As houses in the borough keep getting bigger, they fetch higher sale prices when they turn over. This means that the people who can afford to move to this town have to be increasingly rich. But while the property belongs to one person or family, the town belongs to all of us. This is about me. It’s about who I want my neighbors to be. This is about us, and what kind of community we want to be.
Status Report
I could write a whole editorial about the decline of newspapers as a kind of found poem: a series of dire headlines. Even before the pandemic — even before accelerated attacks on the press by the occupant of the White House and police targeting of journalists during protests across the country — things were looking grim for newspapers.
The New Normal
This is not the year they were imagining. This is not the year any of us was imagining. And as our community confronts the gap between what we had hoped for this school year and what it has turned out to be, a question keeps coming up. When will we get back to normal?
Selective Memory: The Women the Suffrage Movement Forgot
Passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, ratified on August 18, 1920, and taking effect on August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote in all elections. But women of color are often erased from the suffrage story, and their influence and contributions remain unacknowledged.
August, COVID Summer
As we slog through this dark time, there are also moments of light: the cardinal in the tree, the child’s chalk drawing on the sidewalk, the sight of my neighbor — hospitalized for over a month with COVID-19 — walking swiftly around the block. The rare face-to-face talk with a friend, with six feet of grass between us.
A Place to Call Home
Underneath the newspaper’s name, the Swarthmorean banner reads “Serving Swarthmore and Surrounding Communities Since 1893.” This publication seeks to support and lift up the community it represents. I find that a noble mission and ambition for a local paper. When I learned that the position of associate editor was available, that mission drew me in.