Oh the people you meet

As photojournalists, we meet all kinds of people in all sorts of circumstances. We get a chance to tell their stories. We give our readers a look into their lives. Three such people are Amy Zott, Caron Butler, and Bernice Thomsen. These people (to my knowledge) did not know each other. But each play a part in our community and it was my job to photograph the part they played.

I watched David take on Goliath in a Racine courtroom . David, in the person of Amy Zott, beat Goliath, represented by Racine County.

Reporter Wendy Parks and I wanted to show our readers how anyone can seek to have wrongs righted in our courts. I was struck by the beauty of how the law and our judicial system worked in this case. I've covered dozens of criminal cases, but few civil cases.

This was really the "people's court." Though the facts seem relatively simple, there are many legal nuances to the case. Zott, who was a staff attorney in the child support division, was eight months pregnant when Mark Vannucci, her supervisor, forced her to resign, with five months' pay, or be fired.

Judge Alan Torhorst discusses his ruling in Amy Zott's court case Wednesday July 21, 1999. Photo by Mark Hertzberg

Amy Zott listens to arguments in court Wednesday July 21, 1999, about her case against Racine County and how she was terminated from her job. Photo by Mark Hertzberg

The county didn't want to pay her, saying only the personnel department, and not Vannucci, has the authority to hire and fire employees. Judge Alan Torhorst referred to the great imbalance of power between the two parties, weighing Zott's financial distress in terms of her loss of income, with the ability of the county to pay her pending next week's hearing (Zott would have to then post a bond to ensure she can repay the county if she ultimately loses the case).

He described Vannucci's actions as "Neanderthal," not the typical term used by a judge to describe a county government manager. Torhorst ruled that Zott should gain two month's back pay, pending an evidentiary hearing next week. Only three observers were in the courtroom at the peak of the hearing, but this morning, 33,000 copies of the paper had a story and photos about Amy Zott's afternoon in Racine County Court.

There was no blood or gore, and it was a very low key and low pressure assignment. Still, my last assignment of the day bothered me immensely. The assignment was to photograph Caron Butler's announcement that he will sign to attend the University of Connecticut in 2000-2001.

Caron is a local basketball star, and UConn is the defending NCAA champion. Caron was expelled from Case High School in Racine as a freshman after his arrest n 1994 for possesion of cocaine and a firearm. He served time in a youth facility. We did a story about two years later when he was attending another high school in town, and had straightened his life out. He then opted to go to a prep school in Maine for his last two years of high school to play basketball after being denied an extra year of eligibility in Wisconsin. We've done periodic follow-up stories. Today's paper previewed this afternoon's announcement. Wally Booker, a local coach of his, proclaimed Caron to be "the best high school basketball player in the country."

Caron Butler. Photo by Mark Hertzberg © 1999 Racine Journal Times

Hyperbole? I don't know, but we printed the quote in the story, and then highlighted it in bold text. We also reprinted quotes from an earlier interview with Caron in which he said that the NBA could be his way out of "the 'hood" and that he wants to show other youngsters there is a way out of "the 'hood." His professed way out is with a basketball, a career option open to few children from "the 'hood" or even "the burbs." Yet the example he apparently wants to set for kids is to look to the NBA as their ticket to success, not to education and any one of a number of other jobs.

I went to the "press conference" at the George Bray Community Center. Our reporter, Peter Jackel, interviewed Butler and Jameel Ghuari, his mentor, beforehand. Peter's eyes had lit up when Jameel and Caron talked about Caron even skipping UConn if he were drafted by the NBA out of high school, and said he'd "play up" that angle. I shuddered.

The press conference was really just an announcement for a few dozen friends and relatives and two reporters. I was the only photographer there.

I photographed Caron as he greeted friends outside the center, waiting for all the invited guests to arrive for the press conference. Those photos were stronger than the ones from the press conference which were, predicatably, photos of people holding a microphone. I didn't find a stronger way to shoot the press conference so I didn't submit any photos from it. I told Peter back at the office that I thought that an NBA contract could be one of the worst things that could happen to Butler next year.

He asked me if I'd turn down a $10 million contract at age 18. That wasn't the point, I told Peter, what would Caron do at age, say, 28, with all that money, for the rest of his life, if he had even a 10-year career in the NBA? It's certainly true that a college education doesn't guarantee success, but my gut tells me that in general four years of college can help one mature better than being thrust into the NBA before the age of 20.

This is a big sports story. The Associated Press and the Hartford Courant called asking for photos. I should be happy to have gotten to cover a story with national interest, but instead, I'm leery of it. One of my co-workers summed it up best for me when he said we just don't see people celebrate like this when someone gets into law school or makes the law review staff.

Ahhh, Bernice. How do I begin to tell you about Bernice Thomsen, who died just a few days shy of her 88th birthday? Bernice Thomsen was a local legend, who repulsed as many people as she attracted in her years of dealing with the Racine Unified School District.

She was the self-appointed watch dog of the district and its finances, but her conduct often fell short of the standards she set for everyone else.

My introduction to Bernice came in December, 1978, just a few months after I moved to Racine. She had slapped a Hispanic student at Case High School, when she was there to give a speech, and then demanded that the school board pay her legal fees because she was a school board member.

Her response to the fury that erupted was to call Margo Wilson, one of our reporters, allegedly refer to the student as a "black bitch," and allegedly suggest that the Ku Klux Klan come to Racine.

A pensive Bernice Thomsen listens as school board members discuss whether or not she should be censured for allegedly making racially insensitive comments, at a December , 1978 school board meeting. She had called a Journal Times reporter and allegedly said the Ku Klux Klan should come to town, and referred to some people as "black bitches." The people were responding to an incident in which she had slapped a Latino high school student. Photo by Mark Hertzberg © Racine Journal Times

I was assigned to the next board meeting, and photographed Bernice, her finger dug into her cheek as she listened to some of the ensuing debate. A censure meeting was scheduled. My photograph of that meeting was of her empty chair, since she skipped the meeting. I next photographed her at Hansche Elementary School, when she had invited a rock band from the Great Lakes Naval Training Station to play for the school. Bear in mind that if anyone else had suggested that afternoon classes be canceled at a school so a rock band could play, well, Bernice would have gone through the roof. She would have placed her customary call to the local morning radio talk show and let loose about the waste of tax dollars. Bernice poured through vouchers even when she was between terms on the board (though Bernice served on the board for 15 years, she was never elected to consecutive terms).

One controversy erupted when she inflamed her loyal legions with one of those calls to the talk show, complaining about the price a home ec. teacher had paid for grapes. That was all well and good, except that the teacher had bought bananas, and not grapes, (or vice-versa) and so the price was not out of line. She called that talk show regularly, and whether her facts were right or not, she drew legions of supporters who voted for her at the polls and in our letters to the editor columns.

I had several phone conversations with her in which she would complain about the "Urinal Times," and this or that "shit," and it seemed that she didn't want the facts to interfere with her notion of what was wrong with whatever the topic of the day was.

You can bet that she would never stand for a teacher or administrator using the language she used on the phone.

One day she and "my Bill," as she referred to her late husband, were invited to tour a friend's home which was under construction. The Thomsens later sued their friends alleging that she had fallen and been injured at the construction site.

That was like the time her car was hit in the school district parking lot and our watch dog of the school's finances demanded that the district's insurance carrier cover the damage. When they refused, Bernice threatened to have the district insurance policy moved to another company. Bernice loved to give me a hard time, but I may have been the only one who was able to coax her into our studio for an election portrait.

She wore terribly thick glasses, and hated to be photographed. She mooned me once at district headquarters when I was covering a school board election. The district superintendent told me that when I finished talking to Bernice and walked away, she turned her back to me, lifted up her great big fur coat, and thrust her rump out in my direction. Wintesses were relieved that she had not, well, pardon the thought, but, pulled her pants down first. You may wonder why she had it in for me.

It could've been the picture of her with the finger in her cheek, or it could've been the fact that I work for the "Urinal Times." Or, was it the two photos we ran of her dancing with a teacher that afternoon at Hansche School? Those pictures were innocent enough, until the defense entered them into evidence in the law suit against her friends, saying that there was no lasting injury from Bernice's alleged fall at that construction site.

I was chatting with Morris Reese, the president of the local NAACP chapter this morning about Bernice. He said that interestingly, more often than not, when she was at a student expulsion hearing she would urge that the student be given another chance to finish his or her schooling.

We have lost someone whose very name would ensure a lively debate at any time, any where in Racine. That can't be said for many people in their communities. I don't want to sound irreverent, but St. Peter, make sure your finances are in order, because Bernice is on her way, and you can rest assured that she will be looking over your shoulder.

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