Reframing Older Adults’ Violence Toward Staff as Self-Protection

One of the first studies on workplace violence in nursing homes was published in 1985. Forty-five (45) years later, resident violence against staff continues to increase in incidence and severity. At the request of a state senator, a New Hampshire psychiatrist formed a research group to conduct the first New Hampshire survey on staff experience of workplace violence. Study questions focused on experiences of workplace violence and incident reporting, and the availability and benefit of workplace violence training programs. Results were consistent with recently published literature: violence is an expected, normalized element when providing care; potential repercussions and perceived resident lack of intent were major reasons for incident non-reporting. Analysis of study results and review of the literature led to the question: Are older residents’ violent behaviors towards staff an act of self-protection?

Tammany Hall and the Machine Style in Black Politics

“I seen my opportunities and I took ’em,” explained George Washington Plunkitt speaking to the journalist William L. Riordan at the dawn of the twentieth century. For many college students, William Riordan's collection of musings and reminiscences from New York State Senator Plunkitt, delivered at a shoeshine stand on Manhattan's West Side, offers a definitive introduction to the history of urban machine politics. Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics, first published in 1905, has become a ubiquitous text, frequently assigned in political science courses and excerpted in U.S. history source books. Plunkitt's reflections, while entertaining, present a transactional and opportunistic form of political practice. He famously differentiates between honest graft and dishonest graft; insists that showing up at fires to help victims is key to holding your district; declares the Irish to be natural born leaders; and derides reformers as “mornin’ glories.” He rages against the key urban reform project of the era, civil service examinations, as “the curse of the nation,” amounting to “a lot of fool questions about the number of cubic inches of water in the Atlantic and the quality of sand in the Sahara desert.” Civil service exams blocked machine politicians from distributing jobs to loyal followers, which in the case of the New York Democratic machine typically meant recently arrived Irish immigrants. As Plunkitt explains, “The Irishman is grateful. His one thought is to serve the city which gave him a home. He has this thought even before he lands in New York, for his friends here often have a good place in one of the city's departments picked out for him while he is still in the old country.” Plunkitt's characterization of the linkage between migrant arrival and municipal work points to the central role that access to city payrolls played in the economic and political history of the New York Irish. Arguably, the only other urban group that relied as heavily on city jobs for economic mobility has been African Americans.

The Promise of New Blood

This chapter examines State Senator Bill Weber's address at the University of Minnesota Southwest Research and Outreach Center (SWROC) outside Lamberton, Minnesota. The regional development-vested folks — mayors, city managers, extension agents, educators, tourist board representatives, and chamber-of-commerce types — are all focused on a single Herculean challenge: how to bring economic development to the hinterlands. Weber brings a business lens to the conundrum of youth out-migration in southwest Minnesota and eastern South Dakota, and he is predisposed to see the problem as originating in economic opportunity. As an example he points to two long-lived businesses founded in his hometown of Luverne: Luverne Fire Apparatus and Luverne Trucking Equipment. Though they retain Luverne in their titles, both relocated across the border to Brandon, South Dakota, a suburb of Sioux Falls, decades ago, taking several hundred jobs with them.

Marshall H. Twitchell: Selected Financial Records of a Vermont Carpetbagger in Louisiana

ABSTRACT Farmer, teacher, law student, Union Army soldier and captain, Freedmen's Bureau agent, plantation owner, entrepreneur, state senator, and U.S. consul were among the many positions held by Marshall Harvey Twitchell. This paper draws from an archive to illustrate some of the business dealings of a successful Vermonter in postbellum Louisiana.

Without Warning and Defenseless

This chapter describes how the public also vented anger and frustration at agents of government whose job it was to protect people before a natural disaster occurred. The public was incensed at having received no warnings from the National Weather Service (NWS) and demanded to know why their local civil defense organizations had failed in the midst of the crisis. The public expected to hold someone responsible for the death and the destruction of property. Assigning blame is an integral component of American democracy; in order for change to occur, the electorate must assign responsibility when the government fails so they can pressure officials into improving public policy. In response to the public outrage, elected officials conducted a series of hearings into what went wrong before and during the Hurricane Agnes disaster. State senator Bill Smith, who was unable to get Governor Nelson Rockefeller to agree to a special legislative session, teamed up with Senate majority leader Warren Anderson to hold special hearings into government failures during the disaster. These investigations would show just how tattered the disaster safety net had become in the days before Hurricane Agnes.

Who’s in Charge?

This chapter discusses how, during the crisis spawned by Hurricane Agnes, the untrained, ill-prepared, and uncommunicative local officials were forced to make decisions and take action with only the limited resources they had at their disposal, often with tragic results. Their situation was the result of federalism, a political system which divides powers, responsibilities, and jurisdictions between the national and state governments. Natural disasters that threaten health and safety are ultimately the responsibility of local officials, who turned to state and federal authorities and to the private sector to assist them in reorganizing and rebuilding after the flooding from Agnes. State governments may have the resources to cope with the disaster, but due to political considerations, most elected officials want to maximize the amount of financial support from the federal government while minimizing the cost at the state level. Scholars have termed this response to disaster “the crying poor” syndrome, in which states exaggerate the cost of a disaster to demonstrate that they are not capable of paying for recovery. Moreover, in 1972, few state governments had kept pace with the changing nature of disasters. The chapter then looks at how Governor Milton Shapp, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and state senator Bill Smith responded to the flooding.

Two North Carolinians, Same Goal, Different Approaches

The volume’s final substantive essay compares and contrasts the public careers of two of the most important members of that generation of North Carolina politicians who rose to prominence after the founding era. Archibald D. Murphey was an Orange County judge and state senator who became known as a champion of constitutional reform and state support for education and internal improvements. Nathaniel Macon served 24 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and 13 years in the Senate and acquired a reputation as an archconsevative. This essay suggests traditional accounts may exaggerate their differences. Macon’s opposition to the Sedition Bill of 1798 showed a civil libertarian streak. Both men owned slaves and neither supported any significant steps to end slavery. Both men supported the University of North Carolina. Their differences stemmed in part from the different realms in which they operated. As a member of Congress, Macon felt compelled to address the constitutional limits of federal power, issues which Murphey, as a state politician, did not have to confront.

50 Years of NJ History

The following remarks were delivered by NJ State Senator Loretta Weinberg at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the New Jersey Historical Commission on December 4, 2017 in Trenton. The New Jersey Historical Commission (NJHC) is a state agency dedicated to the advancement of public knowledge and preservation of New Jersey history. Established by law in 1967, its work is founded on the fundamental belief that an understanding of our shared heritage is essential to sustaining a cohesive and robust democracy. The NJHC receives its funding primarily by legislative appropriation. It fulfills its mission through various initiatives, including an active grant program. The goal of the grant program is to engage diverse audiences and practitioners in the active exploration, enjoyment, interpretation, understanding, and preservation of New Jersey history.