Take On Life

Hi everyone,

Still without work and still without closure a year after her affair with former ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips led to her firing from the company, Brooke Hundley is suing ESPN for unspecified damages.

To be sure, the affair wasn’t pretty last fall when it grabbed national headlines.

But it’s about to get uglier. Maybe a lot uglier.

In court documents filed Friday, Hundley, an ex-production assistant at ESPN, claims Phillips “forced himself on her” in a St. Louis hotel room in July 2009. She also contends that Phillips, now 47, continued to sexually harass her, even though the two ultimately had a brief sexual relationship.

The affair turned sour — really sour — in August 2009 when Hundley drove to Phillips’ home in Wilton to confront his wife, Marni, about the affair. The police were called, but no charges were ever filed.

ESPN launched its own investigation into the affair in August 2009 and eventually chose to reassign Phillips and Hundley, not fire them; Phillips was pulled off the “Baseball Tonight” program and Hundley went from covering Major League Baseball to NASCAR.

Hundley and Phillips weren’t fired, however, until October 2009, when their affair went public in the New York Post and ESPN decided to re-open its investigation — under pressure, according to Hundley.

“ESPN acknowledges the fact I went to my supervisors to file a sexual harassment complaint (in August 2009) during their investigation and nothing was done to look into it,” the 23-year-old Hundley said.

In the amended complaint filed by her attorney, Richard E. Hayber, Hundley claims that ESPN defamed her, fired her without merit and did nothing to resolve her complaint of sexual harassment against Phillips, a married father of four sons.

Hundley also contends in court documents — with six separate examples — that ESPN defamed her by trying “to impugn (Hundley’s) honesty and trustworthiness and (trying to injure) her in her trade or business” both during and after the company’s investigations into her sexual harassment claims.

Josh Krulewitz, vice president of communications at ESPN, disputes the allegations of defamation and wrongful termination.

“Hundley’s claims are without merit and we are vigorously defending against them. Her current charges do not accurately portray ESPN’s handling of the matter,” Krulewitz told The News-Times via e-mail Friday night.

To support Hundley’s charges, Hayber deposed two high-ranking human resources officials at ESPN, Doug Adkins and Donna Hricisko, and videotaped their depositions.

Although Hayber has not decided if he will depose Phillips, he said ESPN plans to depose Hundley on Nov. 17, and Phillips and his wife, Marni, on Nov. 18 and 19.

According to court documents, Adkins, ESPN’s vice president of human resources, did not take any notes during Hundley’s initial sexual harassment complaint against Phillips, nor did he interview any of the four witnesses Hundley provided to allegedly collaborate her story about Phillips’ advances.

“(Adkins) also confirmed that he did almost no investigation of Ms. Hundley’s complaint that Mr. Phillips sexually harassed her other than to ask Mr. Phillips if it was true,” Hayber said.

To read more about Brooke Hundley’s defamation lawsuit against ESPN, check out my “Take on Life” column Sunday.

Exclusively in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

I’ve heard the voice a million times, but never quite in the context I did the other day.

“Dad,” my son asked from the back seat of the car. “Are you going to vote for Linda McMahon?”

It was a curious question, especially coming from an 11-year-old boy who is more interested in Xboxes than soapboxes. But I was glad he asked it.

Actually, I was very glad.

It gave me a chance to talk to him about the privilege and the importance of voting in America.

It gave me a chance to remind him about the sacrifices so many have made so we can fill in a circle or close a curtain.

So, after I delivered my impassioned speech in the rear-view mirror, I flipped the question.

“Would you vote for Linda McMahon?” I asked.

“Sure,” he replied. “I wish I could.”

It was an honest answer and I appreciated it. Even more, I appreciated that we could have a discussion about Tuesday’s election without tempers flaring or epithets flying.

This is a teachable moment for our children, not just in terms of civics, but in terms of civility.

It’s good for kids to have a basic understanding of the issues and a general idea of who is running for office. At the same time, we need to teach children that ideas, not decibels, solve problems.

As I told my son, the people who shout don’t have anything to say.

It’s important for children to develop critical thinking skills and to approach issues both theoretically and empirically. Americans are never going to agree on everything, especially politics, I told my son.

“But what we can all agree on,” I said, “is to listen to each other and to respect each other’s views.”

I cringe every time I see a debate or a town hall meeting on TV with people in the crowd screaming just to drown out a particular position they don’t espouse.

Is Jerry Springer hovering with a microphone somewhere? Are bouncers standing around with their arms crossed and their black T-shirts rolled up a cuff or two?

As I told my son, I may not agree with all of McMahon’s views and platforms. But I think her campaign is essential to the political process in this country.

Unopposed races — no matter how beloved the candidate might be — are never a good thing.

Voters should have choices. They need choices to shed light on new ideas and better solutions.

To read more about Linda McMahon and Tuesday’s election, check out my “Take on Life” column Friday.

Exclusively in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

Robin Viklund isn’t afraid of dying.

As a nurse educator and case manager for Regional Hospice of Western Connecticut, Viklund works with terminally ill people every day. It is more of a calling, really, than a career.

Make no mistake, Viklund is very good at what she does, whether it’s dispensing medicine or a punch line. We could use more people like Robin Viklund.

So could the folks in Tanzania.

During a recent humanitarian trip to the sub-Saharan nation, Viklund saw a death sentence — with little hope of commutation — in 31 faces at a rural AIDS clinic.

Most of these faces, with their beautiful cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes, belonged to young people, many of them teenagers. There was nothing fair about their fate.

And that only made treating them even harder.

“I’ve never felt so powerless and so helpless in my life,” Viklund said. “There really wasn’t anything I could do to help. They just don’t have the resources we have here.

“I sit by people here when they’re dying, and even when I can’t get their pain under control, I at least know that I’ve done everything I can to help them,” Viklund said. “There, the reality of the situation is so disarming. I felt sick to my stomach.”

And no one could blame her.

Viklund was joined on the trip to Tanzania — and the Ndolage Lutheran Hospital — by three peers from Regional Hospice: Susan Tanner, president of the board of directors; executive director Cynthia Roy Squitieri and George Mulvaney, a member of the board of directors.

“To see people who were dying of diseases we can cure here — or at least, contain and live with — was really hard to take,” Roy Squitieri said. “They don’t have all the advantages that we do, but as a culture, as a society, they care very deeply for each other.

“At its core, they’re doing the exact same work that we do here. They’re just doing it with far less and they’re doing it a whole world away.”

Ndolage Lutheran Hospital was the group’s home base for most of its visit.

The hospital, which treats 500 patients with HIV, AIDS, cancer and tuberculosis, beared little resemblance to American hospitals, or even, a walk-in clinic for that matter.

An amber-colored ribbon of fly tape hung in the operating room.

Medical staff held X-rays up to the closest window to read them.

Blood-stained mattresses were barely thicker than a paperback book, hardly a fitting place for a 16-year-old bride to inhale her last breath.

To read more about Regional Hospice’s trip to Tanzania, check out my “Take on Life” column Sunday.

Exclusively in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

Afraid of things that go bump in the night? Afraid of ghosts and goblins that will steal your scream just as easily as they’ll steal your soul?

Not Dr. Darla Shaw, professor of education at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury and a coveted storyteller.

But that doesn’t mean Shaw hasn’t heard about the phantom who haunts WestConn’s Berkshire Theater. According to legend, the ghost’s name is Daphne and she appears only late at night.

It doesn’t mean Shaw hasn’t heard about the young woman who allegedly committed suicide at WestConn’s Fairfield Hall and continues to haunt the building’s tower. Or even, the ghost who haunts Meeker’s Hardware on White Street.

“I’m not a great believer in ghosts, but I am a great believer in storytelling,” said Shaw, a career educator who has taught for more than 50 years in Ridgefield and Danbury. “These are all stories that were handed down to me.

“This town is rich in history. In fact, it’s incredibly rich,” Shaw said. “If telling ghost stories and listening to ghost stories helps weave in some of Danbury’s history, then so be it. Storytelling should be fun. History should be fun. It doesn’t have to be dry.”

So about six or seven years ago, Shaw helped to organize a 90-minute ghost tour of Danbury. There were cemetery visits and stops along Main Street. There were stops at WestConn’s Midtown campus and the old Fairfield County Courthouse.

Although the ghost tours lasted only for a few years, it would be terrific to see someone bring them back from the dead. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

“I love oral histories and I love to dress up,” said the 72-year-old Shaw, a Ridgefield resident. “But the promotional part and the ticket sales, that’s not me.”

But it could be — and it should be — someone else.

With a little research, a ghost tour of Danbury has the potential to be a great fundraiser for a local civic group or a high school service club.

All you need are some black capes, a couple of lanterns and you’re all set, although a full moon would be cool, too.

More importantly, as Shaw accurately pointed out, a ghost tour of Danbury is a chance to pass down stories of colonial Danbury and the old Danbury State Teachers College, among others.

To read more about Darla Shaw and ghost tours in Danbury, check out my Take on Life column Friday.

Exclusively in the print edition of The News-Times.

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P.S. Check out Zillow’s top 10 haunted homes in America:

http://www.zillow.com/blog/top-10-haunted-homes-in-the-u-s/2010/10/04/?scid=emm-102110_OctBuzz-seeall

Hi everyone,

Every time I walk past the Danbury Library, or visit my old stomping grounds in Carmel, N.Y., I see Sybil Ludington frozen in time.

Or at least, cast in bronze.

Sybil, the daughter of Col. Henry Ludington, is the 16-year-old girl riding horseback in the statue beautifully crafted by the late Anna Hyatt Huntington of Redding.

Without much effort, I can imagine Sybil splashing 40 miles through the back woods of Putnam and Dutchess counties in New York on a dark and rainy night in 1777.

Her mission: to summon the 400 men of the 7th Regiment of the Dutchess County Militia so they could battle the British troops who had burned Danbury and were headed to Ridgefield.

Although some discount Sybil’s ride as pure fancy, many others, including author and historian V.T. Dacquino, are convinced Sybil sounded the alarm that night.

Kim Robinson is also convinced the story of Sybil’s ride is true.

Robinson is pastor of KICKS Ministries in Sunbury, Ohio. She is also the writer, director and producer of “Sybil Ludington,” a 2010 movie that premiered last March in Southland, Texas.

Now, Robinson wants to bring the Christian-based movie to Danbury. The film has already been shown at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival and the Kids First Film Festival.

“We would LOVE to premiere our movie in Danbury!” Robinson wrote to The News-Times the other day.

Robinson seemed genuinely excited about the idea. In fact, I’m pretty sure her “Caps Lock” key wasn’t jammed when she wrote “LOVE.”

To me, “Sybil Ludington” would fit perfectly in next year’s Connecticut Film Festival in Danbury. Can’t you imagine Sybil galloping across the big screen at The Palace Theater?

To read more about Sybil Ludington — the young woman and the movie — check out my “Take on Life” column Sunday.

Exclusively in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

Despite 27 years of marriage, Marie Perry didn’t recognize her husband, Roger.

This wasn’t the man she fell in love with all those years ago at Ball Pond. This wasn’t the man she built a family with and a home with in New Fairfield.

“His face was swollen and bleeding. His whole face was absolutely fractured,” Marie Perry said Wednesday night from her hotel room in Wallingford, not so far from Roger’s room at Gaylord Hospital.

“His nose was broken. His right eye socket was destroyed. The doctors said his injuries were like he had been in a high-speed car crash or something,” Perry said. “I honestly didn’t know it was him until I looked at his hand and saw his wedding ring.”

One feeding tube, two hospitals and four titanium plates later, 49-year-old Roger Perry is slowly healing from the traumatic brain injury he suffered in a bizarre and vicious softball accident that nearly took his life Sept. 8 at Rogers Park in Danbury.

According to eyewitnesses, after Perry sprinted from the outfield to catch a pop fly, he dove to catch the ball. At the exact same moment, the team’s shortstop tripped going for the ball and his knee shot up and met Perry’s face head-on.

“Everyone heard this sickening smash,” Marie Perry said. “They told me grown men were crying. That’s how bad it was. When we got to the hospital, we didn’t know if he was going to make it.”

But as Roger Perry, a father of three, climbs back to health, his medical bills climb right with him.

So next weekend, Perry’s friends and fellow softball players have organized a benefit softball tournament to help the Perry family pay for his medical bills.

The tournament will be held Oct. 23 — and Oct. 24, if enough teams register — at Rogers Park.

The fundraiser is the brainchild of Jerry DeJulia and Ken Waterhouse. Registration costs $150 and the deadline to sign up is Sunday. Call DeJulia at 203-798-3639 or Waterhouse at 203-994-8009 for more information.

Every penny of the proceeds will be given to the Perry family, DeJulia said.

To read more about Roger Perry’s recovery and the benefit softball tournament to help pay his medical bills, check out my “Take on Life” column Friday.

Exclusively in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

Luis Galarza pulled out a thick pile of pictures like he was pulling out his winnings from an all-night poker game.

In some ways, the Danbury man had every reason to smile. He had played the most important hand of his life.

And won.

A year ago this time, Galarza’s daughter, Kelly, was a sick little girl. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer and wasn’t expected to beat the odds. At least not for very long.

A year later, 3-year-old Kelly Galarza is running and laughing and gearing up for Halloween like all the other kids on her street. And no one is happier than Luis Galarza.

“We are so grateful to all the people who helped us,” Galarza said. “It was very hard, but we made it. People have been so good to our family. Looking at Kelly now, I can’t believe it.”

In the pictures her father spread across the table in downtown Danbury the other day, Kelly is holding an ice cream in her hand.

The ice cream never stood a chance — much like the cancer that once threatened her life, but is now quietly and patiently in remission.

On Sunday, Kelly will join her father at “Karing for Kelly,” the fundraiser George Korres, the owner of Nico’s Pizza & Pasta, started last year in her honor. The event will be held at the Palace Theater at 165 Main St. in Danbury from 1 to 5 p.m.

With Kelly in remission, this year’s fundraiser will benefit Maria Arano, a 3-year-old Danbury girl with leukemia. Admission to the event is $20 for adults, $10 for kids, and includes food, music, raffles and, weather permitting, a classic car show.

“There are sick children out there in our community. We have to give back,” said Korres, who is sponsoring the event with Joe DaSilva, Jr., owner of the Palace Theater; Ultimate Restoration, LLC; and South Street’s Nejame & Sons.

“We give the family every last penny,” Korres said. “Whatever money comes in — 100 percent of it — that’s what we give to the family to help pay for little Maria’s medical expenses. You can’t take life for granted. You can’t take for granted that we live in a perfect world because we don’t.”

Maybe not, but for one day, George Korres and dozens of generous businesses and volunteers will make it as perfect as they can for Maria Arano and her family.

To read more about Maria and her upcoming fundraiser, check out my “Take on Life” column Wednesday.

Exclusively in the print edition of The News-Times.

Hi everyone,

Sometime after the ABCs but before the state capitals, American kids memorize the same poem about Christopher Columbus that their parents — and grandparents — once did.

“In fourteen hundred and ninety-two,” the well-worn verse begins, “Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”

Or did he?

If you ask Danbury attorney Americo “Rick” Ventura, the navigator who led three ships across the Atlantic wasn’t Christopher Columbus, the famed Italian sailor, but rather, Salvador Fernandes Zarco, a Portuguese explorer.

Columbus, Ventura will tell you, is simply the name historians have mistakenly affixed to the man credited with discovering America. His real name was Zarco and he came from Cuba, Portugal, not Genoa, Italy.

Never mind that for more than 500 years, the name Columbus has been synonymous with the New World. The way Ventura sees it, it’s time for a New World Order — with Zarco at the front of the line.

“It’s very, very interesting when you think about it,” Ventura said Friday, just three days removed from Columbus Day. “How the hell is a tailor’s son going to get an audience with the king?”

According to conventional beliefs, Columbus grew up as the son of a humble weaver in Genoa. His social circles were far removed from royalty such as King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, who bankrolled his famed voyage in 1492.

For one scholar, the story just doesn’t add up.

According to Dr. Manuel Luciano da Silva, a Rhode Island historian, Zarco — the man Americans know as Columbus — was the son of Dom Fernando, First Duke of Beja.

In the book he co-wrote with his wife, Silvia — “Christopher Columbus was Portuguese!” — da Silva claims that Columbus never signed a document in his life, let alone, one with an Italian signature.

Instead, da Silva contends, Columbus used a sigla, an ancient monogram that is difficult to interpret. The most famous sigla, according to da Silva, is “INRI” written on top of the cross when Jesus Christ was crucified.

The letters stand for “Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum” — Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews. The letter “I” was used in place of “J” in the Roman alphabet at that time.

When the Columbus sigla is translated, da Silva said, it contains two names — Cristovao Colon and Salvador Fernandes Zarco — both of which have their origins in Portugal, not Italy, Spain or France.

To read more about Christopher Columbus — or Salvador Fernandes Zarco — check out my “Take on Life” column Sunday.

Exclusively in the print edition of The News-Times.