Dispatch #434: Much Better Off

 

Three years ago this week, in March 2021, I was extremely grateful to finally get vaccinated against Covid-19 through my local health department.

On the day in question, I joined a large number of my fellow Hoosiers also hoping to do the same over at the Allen County Memorial Coliseum.

In years past, I'd attended circus performances, hockey games, concerts, and even my high school graduation at the venerable arena, but never a mass-vaccination during a global pandemic.

I remember being quite nervous that day—Covid-19 was killing people all over the world, and I wanted to get the shot before it got me, too. There was also an additional concern—I have allergies and wasn't sure if this new Pfizer shot would trigger any of them.

Those of us with similar concerns that day were instructed to report post-vaccine to a waiting area, where we sat on metal folding chairs for 15 to 30 minutes to see if we suffered any adverse reactions.

Two nurses from the Allen County Health Department hovered nearby to render assistance to those who did feel any ill effects.

I've always liked to diffuse tense or nervous situations with a bit of humor, so after sitting in silence for a moment or two with a dozen or so my fellow vaccinees, I posed a question to one of the nurses.

"I know it's only been a few minutes," I said to her, "and I feel okay so far, but do you think I'll be able to play the piano after this?"

The nurse looked up from her laptop with a reassuring smile.

"Oh, of course," she told me. "That won't be a problem."

"Wow," I replied, "that's great, because I never could play it before."

It took a second for one of the oldest jokes in vaudeville to sink in, but the very calm medical professional eventually laughed.

Immediately afterward, I sensed her sizing me up as some kind of wiseacre (which I am), but after 30 minutes had elapsed and I hadn't turned blue, she graciously allowed me to exit the waiting area.

As I stepped outside the Coliseum that afternoon, I felt a great sense of relief and security—something I hadn't felt in the months since the Pandemic first hit US shores. The little laugh I'd shared with the nurse made me feel better, too, if only as a way to relieve some tension. 

Still, while it's often said that laughter is the best medicine, if the global pandemic taught me anything, it's that there's no substitute for actual science-based medicine. Thanks, Pfizer!

When I first realized this week marked the three-year anniversary of my first Covid shot, I recalled that old campaign slogan: "Are You Better Off Now Than You Were Four Years Ago?" 

Remembering how truly terrible 2020 was: the rampant fear, uncertainty, and death—along with widespread school and business closings—it's incomprehensible to me how anyone say anything but a resounding "yes!"

There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe

Dispatch #416: A Tale of Two Shootings

 

FWPD SWAT team vs.76-year-old woman.

On the morning of Thursday, March 7th, FWPD responded to a call from employees of a tree-service company working on Central Drive. According to a local news report, those workers told police a woman in the neighborhood had threatened them.

When FWPD arrived on the scene, the woman, identified as Corrine Ann Nahrwald, a 76-year-old white woman, emerged from her home and fired a gun.

Officers returned fire, striking Nahrwald in the leg. She was eventually taken into custody and is currently hospitalized in non-life-threatening condition.

Despite the initially jarring images on local TV of a highly militarized FWPD presence outside the home of an elderly woman, I couldn't help but remember the very different police response to DaChe'na Warren-Hill a few months ago.

Hill, a twenty-year-old Black woman, was unarmed when she was shot and killed by FWPD office Mark A. Guzman in November 2023.  

One has to wonder what impact implicit bias had on the FWPD response to Hill, who was fatally shot seconds after the responding officer arrived on the scene—despite being unarmed and driving away from that officer. 

Nahrwald's interaction with the FWPD was quite different: despite firing a gun in the direction of multiple officers, she received a non-lethal shot in response, and—after a prolonged negotiation—was taken into custody and hospitalized for her injury. 

So why was one Fort Wayne woman shown mercy and patience by the FWPD and the other a victim of a rapid extra-judicial execution? The answer might be as simple as black and white.

There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe

Dispatch #407: A Killing on Babcock Drive, Part Three

   In distressing local news, Allen County Prosecutor Michael McAlexander has declined to charge Fort Wayne police officer Mark A. Guzman for shooting 20-year-old DaChe'na Warren-Hill.

 Back in Dispatch #383, I guessed this would be the case. Much like his former boss, Karen Richards, McAlexander "always backs the blue", which makes for a catchy political slogan but like so many Republican stances, smacks of fascism. 

 Police, like any other public servants, should be supported when they perform their jobs well, but held to account when mistakes are made. 

  A local doctor can face a malpractice suit for a botched procedure and a teacher fired for striking a student, but no charges are brought when a member of the FWPD hits a pedestrian with their car or shoots an unarmed young woman?

  Since the Allen County prosecutor has chosen to "back the blue" instead of letting a local jury examine the facts, the only hope for the family of DaChe'na Warren-Hill to find justice now is to attract the attention of a high-profile lawyer like Benjamin Crump or to get the Justice Department involved. 

  By this point I'm sure that I sound like a broken record, but I'll say it once again: it is long past time for a citizen's review board—aka civilian oversight of law enforcement—in Fort Wayne. 

  And one more thing: Michael McAlexander needs an opponent in the next election, because running unopposed obviously emboldens his contempt for those he's paid to serve.

There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe

Dispatch #396: Reader's World

 

  Today's dispatch features a vintage ad from a vanished Fort Wayne business: Reader's World. Although they carried a variety of hardcover and paperback books, Reader's World was primarily known for its selection of magazines and newspapers.

  I remember buying my first Doc Savage paperback at their store in Georgetown Square—immediately after seeing George Pal's 1975 film about the pulp hero at a Mallers-Spirou theater in the same shopping center. 

  At one time, Fort Wayne was home to a bevy of bookstores. Besides the aforementioned Reader's World, there was a B. Dalton Bookseller and a Waldenbooks in Glenbrook and Southtown Mall, a Borders at Coldwater and Coliseum, and a Little Professor in Covington Plaza and Dupont Village. 

  Those seeking older or out-of-print titles headed to The Book Rack—which had multiple locations around town. I loved browsing the shelves of their store at Calhoun & Rudisill for vintage paperbacks.

  Today, the choices for Summit City book lovers are greatly reduced. There's a Barnes & Noble at Glenbrook Square and Orchard Crossing and used books can be found at Hyde Brothers or Half-Price Books, but the days when Fort Wayne booklovers had a multitude of shops in which to browse are long gone.

  Call me an old bookworm, but I think the city is much the poorer for it.

There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe

Dispatch #383: A Killing on Babcock Drive, Part Two

Several of these billboard pleas for justice can be seen around town.

 Today's dispatch is a follow-up of sorts to a post from December 2023 about the extra-judicial killing of 20-year-old DaChe'na Warren-Hill by Fort Wayne police officer Mark A. Guzman.

 According to a local news report, now that the FWPD and Indiana State Police have completed their investigations into Ms. Warren-Hill's killing, Allen County Prosecutor Michael McAlexander's office will conduct an additional investigation.

  In other words, now that the city cops and state cops have finished stonewalling, the prosecutor's office—the best friend law enforcement ever had—will sweep the whole thing under the rug. 

  McAlexander doesn't like charging cops even when the evidence clearly points towards negligence (see Dispatch #246), so I'm not hopeful that DaChe'na Warren-Hill's family will ever see justice done, despite the recent billboards around town demanding just that—making an already tragic situation even worse.

  As I've said before, it's long past time for a citizens review board in the city of Fort Wayne. If local law enforcement continues to demonstrate they cannot adequately police themselves (and the Allen County Prosecutor continues to turn a blind eye to the issue) then Summit City residents need to get organized and demand a change.

 

 There's more to come in the next dispatch.

 ©2024 SummitCityScribe

Dispatch #334: A Killing on Babcock Drive

 

  Back in Dispatch #200, I wrote about winning tickets in a local radio contest to see a sneak preview of the very first Indiana Jones movie back in 1981.

  I attended that screening with my school friend Danny, who at that time lived on Babcock Drive, just off Winchester Road in southwest Fort Wayne. 

  A few years earlier, on a Friday night in either fifth or sixth grade, I'd slept over at Danny's house. The next day, he showed me around his quiet, residential neighborhood—a collection of modest, post-WWII homes with neatly manicured lawns.

  I suppose that's why news about the shooting of DaChe'na Warren-Hill by FWPD officer Mark A. Guzman in that very same neighborhood initially seemed so surprising—for its location—but sadly, not for its outcome.

  It is a grimly disturbing fact of life in the USA that Black Americans, who make up 13% of the U.S. population, face death through extrajudicial killings by law enforcement at nearly three times the rate of whites.

  Nearly a month after the shooting, details on incident are still frustratingly scarce and we may never know the exact circumstances surrounding Warren-Hill's death outside of official police statements. Attempts to view the body camera footage of the incident by the press have so far been rebuffed.

  At this point, all we know for certain is that a 20-year-old Fort Wayne woman is dead. Meanwhile, officer Guzman has returned to duty after five days of administrative leave.

  It's a disturbing reminder of the case earlier this year involving FWPD Seargent Joshua Hartup—who faced no repercussions for the death of attorney Henry Najdeski.

  Fort Wayne needs to acknowledge that it's long past time for a citizen's review board to hold local law enforcement responsible for their actions, because letting the FWPD police themselves is clearly not working.

  There's more to come in the next dispatch.

  ©2023 SummitCityScribe

   

Dispatch #326: A Tragedy in Waynedale

 

  Yesterday there was a horrifying incident at a local Kroger grocery store that resulted in the tragic death of a long-time employee.

  I've shopped at that Kroger occasionally and remember seeing Ms. Nieto there. She always seemed to be in good humor—with just a hint of world-weariness that anyone who's ever worked in retail would instantly recognize. A candlelight vigil for her has been announced.

  Those who work in close proximity with the public regularly meet their share of troubled individuals, although most of those encounters end without tragedy—unlike yesterday's.

  I didn't know Ms. Nieto except to nod hello while scanning my items at the self-checkout but I extend my heartfelt condolences to her family, friends, and co-workers in their time of grief. 

  As many learned during the pandemic, those toiling in retail are essential workers who work long hours, sometimes for subsistence wages.

   Those employees shouldn't have to fear for their safety—or their lives—as well. Kroger's current net worth is estimated at around 32 billion dollars. It would be nice if they spent as much money safeguarding their employees as they do their merchandise.

  There's more to come in the next dispatch.

  ©2023 SummitCityScribe

Dispatch #311: The Strange Death of WKJG

 

    Yesterday marked the 70th anniversary of Fort Wayne's first local TV station, WKJG-TV 33. It should have been a big local story, but it wasn't—primarily because the station many of us grew up with doesn't really exist in 2023.

   WKJG made its debut as an NBC affiliate on November 21st, 1953 (CBS affiliate WANE joined the local line-up in 1954, followed by ABC's WPTA in 1957). 33 was owned by William Kunkel, who also owned Fort Wayne's morning newspaper, the Journal Gazette, which explains the origin of WKJG as its call letters.

  Perhaps because it was the oldest station in town, but I always perceived WKJG as a bit stodgy when I was a kid. The on-air personnel—Hilliard Gates, Dick Floria, Dick DeFay, Wayne Rothgeb—seemed older to me than anchors at the other two stations, and more like teachers I knew from school.

    Even so, WKJG could be a comforting presence. I was a big fan of WKJG's John Siemer, for instance—known to legions of Fort Wayne kids for his Engineer John cartoon show. 

  For years the station was also home to local reruns of the classic Star Trek series. I still remember WKJG promotions director Larry Bower dressing up as a Klingon to hype the show in a memorable local ad.

   I first knew WKJG was in trouble early in 2003 when the channel's new owners promptly renamed it WISE-TV "in honor" of the station's 50th anniversary. Unfortunately, things only got worse in the years that followed.

  In the digital TV era, all NBC programming would be eventually relegated to channel 21.2, a secondary digital offering from WPTA—our local ABC affiliate—which prioritized their local newscasts at the expense of the WISE staff (I can only imagine what Dick Florea thought about that).

  WISE itself evolved into local digital channel 33.1, becoming home to programming from the CW instead of NBC. So, in November 2023 on the 70th anniversary of WKJG's debut, what really remains of the old station? Precious little, apparently.

   The story of how the Summit City's pioneering TV station first lost its call letters, then it's personnel, and finally its network identity, is a very strange one indeed (and a little sad, too). 

   While we're on the subject, someday I'll have to relate the strange tale a retired Fort Wayne first responder once told me about an odd encounter with WANE-TV legend Ann Colone in downtown Fort Wayne—a story that's been kept very hush-hush in the Summit City for decades.

  There's more to come in the next dispatch.

  ©2023 SummitCityScribe

#304: Ghosts of Junkyards Past

 

   When I was a kid, there was a huge scrapyard on Clinton Street just across from Fort Wayne's Lawton Park. Despite a corrugated metal fence along the property—originally known as Superior Iron and Metal—stacks of junk cars and scrap metal eventually grew so tall they were easily visible to passing motorists.

  That junkyard eyesore is long gone, but recent announcements about new developments slated for the property (which you can read about here and here) made me wonder how many people remember what used to be on that land—and what may still be there.

    Back in the year 2000, a soil study of the former junkyard revealed unsafe levels of argon, cadmium, lead, mercury, and PCBs—all pretty bad stuff—and spills of diesel fuel, gasoline, and cleaning solvents were reported on the site. At this point I'm sure you're thinking: but that report was over 20 years ago, so surely everything's all good now, right? 😟🤞

   Normally, I think any news about the continued development of downtown Fort Wayne is good news, but in this case, I intend to steer well clear of any future developments on the old OmniSource site. I mean, who wants an ice-cold PBR with a PCB chaser?

    There's more to come in the next dispatch.

    ©2023 SummitCityScribe

Dispatch #289: Fort Wayne's Horror Hosts

 

WPTA's Shock Theater in the 1950s (left), the 1970s (center), and WFFT's Nightmare Theater (right) in the 1980s

     I've covered some of this material previously at this blog, but it's just a little over a week until Halloween, so what the heck...

    Today's Dispatch spotlights Fort Wayne's horror hosts—that trio of spooky gentlemen who fronted broadcasts of horror movies on local TV over the years.

     The first was WPTA's Dr. Meridian, who hosted their weekly airings of classic Universal Horror movies from their Shock Theater syndication package in the late 1950s. As the good doctor was before my time, I have no idea what he looked like or if his hosting style was campy or sinister.

     Actor Jeff Gibson's Asmodius was the frontman for WPTA's Shock Theater airings in the 1970s that I watched religiously as a kid. Gibson's tone changed gradually during his tenure, going from mostly serious to fairly campy. Years later, I got to meet my childhood horror host when we worked together briefly at a Fort Wayne bookstore.

     Finally, Summit City residents in the 1980s thrilled to weekly visits from The Shroud, a black-clad figure portrayed by Don Paris on WFFT's Nightmare Theater. In sepulchral tones, the deadly serious Shroud dispensed fascinating bits of trivia about the classic monster flicks he showed each week.  

     In the early 1980s, I got to meet Paris in his Shroud persona when he did an autograph signing at Dick Stoner's legendary magic/gag shop in downtown Fort Wayne.

     Sadly, the era of Fort Wayne horror hosts came to an end when Nightmare Theater ended its run on WFFT. These days, Summit City residents have to get their Saturday night fright-flick fix with out-of-town horror hosts such as Svengoolie or Lord Blood-Rah.

     My childhood experiences watching Jeff Gibson's Asmodius led me to create the fictional horror-host Count Mortius, frontman for the Shock Theater broadcasts beloved by 12-year-old Samantha "Lizzie" Stanton in my e-book, Samantha Stanton and the Mysterious Library.

     There's more to come in the next dispatch.

     ©2023 SummitCityScribe

Dispatch #259: The Hoosier Plagiarist

     On most mornings, I usually enjoy reading the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, but that routine is occasionally soured for me by an unhinged rant from some right-wing crackpot on the letters page or the appearance of an editorial by Tim Goeglein.

     You'd think the Journal would know better than to publish someone who in 2008 was found to have plagiarized material in at least 20 pieces he wrote for their former rival newspaper, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. 

     Nancy Nall Derringer was the first to uncover Timmy's poaching back then. You can read all about it here. 

     So far, no one's come forth with evidence that Goeglein's been up to his old tricks in his latest material, but shame on the JG for giving him a platform in the first place given his past actions. 

     Journalistic integrity aside, the JG would be better to remember that old proverb, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."

     There's more to come in the next dispatch.

     ©2023 SummitCityScribe

249: Misguided Monument

 

Fort Wayne's Civil War Monument in Lawton Park.

     Allen County has had a monument to its Civil War dead since October 1894, when the one pictured above was dedicated in what is now Fort Wayne's Lawton Park. A plaque on that monument identifies it as a "Tribute for the patriotic citizens of Allen County who fell in defense of the Union 1861-1865". You can read more about the memorial here and here.

     Of the over 4,000 soldiers Allen County sent into battle to defend the Union, 489 were lost. Two members of my own family served in Indiana's 85th Infantry Regiment (Company C) and lived to return home. A third Midwestern ancestor was not so lucky—captured by the Confederates, he died in their notorious Andersonville prison.

     Because of that family connection, I was angered by the recent unveiling of a brand-new memorial at the Veterans National Memorial Shrine and Museum on O'Day Road in Fort Wayne.

The new "War Between the States" memorial

      Rather than simply honor those who from Indiana who served in defense of the Union, this new monument stands for all veterans in The War Between the States—a term, by the way, which originated in the American South. 

     An online article over at fwbusiness.com even states the monument was designed "to honor soldiers who fought and died in that conflict on both sides". In addition, the slab displays a map highlighting both the Union States and the Confederate States as well as blue and grey soldier's caps.

     To me, this smacks of the very fine people on both sides comment made about Charlottesville back in 2017. The U.S. Civil War was a conflict between the States loyal to President Abraham Lincoln and the Union versus the rebel Confederate States who seceded from the Union and took up arms against it. Those Confederates—traitors who fought against the U.S. Army—were responsible for the deaths of over 300,000 Union soldiers (including my Midwest ancestor who died in Andersonville). 

    The idea that there is now a memorial honoring Confederate soldiers in my hometown of Fort Wayne, in the historically Union-supporting state of Indiana, is outrageous to me. Any Civil War memorial in Indiana should only honor the brave soldiers who left their Hoosier homes to defend the Union, not the Confederate traitors who killed nearly 500 of those same men. 

     There's more to come in the next dispatch.

     ©2023 SummitCityScribe

Dispatch #246: Life is Cheap

      On April 19th of this year, FWPD Sgt. Joshua Hartup, 46, struck and killed pedestrian Henry Najdeski at the intersection of Main and Calhoun Streets in downtown Fort Wayne. Najdeski, 52, had the green light and was in the crosswalk when struck by Hartup's vehicle.

    Recently, Sgt. Hartup appeared in court before a local magistrate, where he learned the penalty for recklessly ending a human life:  a $35.50 fee for failing to yield the right of way. Thirty-five bucks. 

     Even though Sgt. Hartup had four other incidents while behind the wheel and had received both letters of reprimand and a suspension, Allen County Prosecutor Michael McAlexander declined to prosecute Hartup in Najdeski's death. 

     Najdeski's senseless death remains heart-breaking but Hartup's slap on the wrist is an outrage.

     Update: 21 September 2023—Najdeski's family has begun a scholarship in his honor at Fort Wayne's Canterbury School, a worthy tribute to which Joshua Hartup, Michael McAlexander, and every dues-paying member of the Fort Wayne Patrolmen's Benevolent Association should contribute.

 There's more to come in the next dispatch.

 © 2023 SummitCityScribe