from Iconic America at the Little League Parade
As our readership has happily increased and the archives are filing up, we occasionally revisit one our longstanding series. Today, it is the Town of Brighton.
Over the years, my fellow Brighton High School graduate and our political commentator Bruce Kay has on one or two occasions waggishly referred to our town as Pax Brightonia. Apparently, Pax Brightonia is a play on the terms Pax Brittania and perhaps Pax Romana, the extended periods when the British and Roman empires held sway.
I believe Bruce was implying that Brighton has a certain imperious undertone. At one time in Brighton’s history, Bruce might have been right that it was an upper crust, homogeneous locale. But today Brighton is Monroe County’s most diverse town: ethnically, racially, religiously and economically. Brighton is home to many progressives who — not choosing to live in an outer ring suburb — are actively engaged in city life.
Anyway, who says Pax Romana was so bad? In Scene 10 from Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Before the Romans Things Were Smelly, the Judean rebels are plotting to overthrow the “Roman Imperialist State.” The rebels have a discussion on what the Romans have ever actually done for them. Quickly, the rebels realize the Romans have done a lot for Judea:
REG: All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
XERXES: Brought peace.
REG: Oh. Peace? Shut up!
So maybe Pax Brightonia isn’t so bad.
Below are most, but not all, of our Brighton stories by category.
ACTIVISM
An anti-racism vigil and Black Lives Matter signs in Brighton
Helping to find Trevyan Rowe at the Twelve Corners Memorial Park
ARCHITECTURE
Seeker of Light: Re-Viewing Louis Kahn’s First Unitarian Church
ART
BEST TOWN IN NEW YORK
EDUCATION
An MLK Day of symphonies, service and Sneetches at Hillel Community Day School
Young citizens show their mettle at the Brighton High School Walk Out
FARMS
FILM
AMVETS saves the day at film shooting in Brighton; Talker pitches in.
FOURTH OF JULY
Celebrating diversity on the Fourth of July at Meridian Centre Park in Brighton
Celebrating the Fourth of July at the Game at the Corners. And much more.
GARDENS
Brighton-Pittsford Post prints “Garden blooms at local 7 Eleven”
HISTORY/LITERATURE
Brighton High School remembers its New Wave/retro punk/Art punk past: The De Grads
A poem from former Degrad Jonathan Caws-Elwitt, BHS ’80. And advice to young writers.
After Parkland, discovering fallen Brightonians from World War Two
HUMAN INTEREST
Good Luck continues. And what the Torah says I should do. And the Mystic’s stick
LIBRARIES
A ribbon cutting and the Pages of the Brighton Memorial Library
In search of Shirley Jackson and finding the Brighton High School Alumni author display case
MARKETS
MEADOWBROOK
What is a Meadowbrook Parade without the First U.S. Girl On The Moon?
MUSIC
Forget EastplaceMarketview when you can Get Hip at Black Vinyl Friday at Bop Shop Records
In line and inside the Bop Shop for National Record Store Day
NATURE
PARKS
The ground breaking of the Brickyard Trail in Brighton and “Memories of the Crab Apple battles”
On a stainless steel American Bald Eagle in Buckland Park and endorsing Sandra Frankel
Ghosts MIGHT walk the beautiful Brickyard Trail in Brighton.
Visiting a Talker haunt: the Brickyard Trail with Leslie Frances and Audrey
The difference between guys and girls in coed softball at Brighton Town Park
How do you make it to Carnegie Hall? Go to the Rochester Academy of Music & Arts!
PEOPLE
From Brighton to LA: Andria Langston, a bright actress sharing her light with the world
I Was Racially Profiled In My Own Neighborhood Today. Again.
PHILANTHROPY
POLITICAL HISTORY
SPORTS: baseball, chess, football, softball volleyball
Brighton fans celebrate hometown hero Ernie Clement in victory
Talker gets some Little League love from the Brighton-Pittsford Post
Barons prevail in first televised football game at Reifsteck Field
Pygmies of ’69 remain Brighton’s last undefeated football team
Farewell Boys and Girls of Summer! Under-40 MVP smashes 5 home runs off Over-40 MVP in Sunday finale
THEATER
King ‘Drew and his new Crew at JCC CenterStage: “Bloody, Bloody, Andrew Jackson”
Once again, charmed and challenged at the JCC CenterStage: Church and State