Category: Delco

23rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration

23rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration — I just returned from the  23rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration held at the First United Methodist Church of Media. It was chaired by Dr. Cecelia Evans, one of my favorite people.

The Media Area Interfaith Choir directed by Christine Schroth was fantastic, albeit may have been outdone by 9-year-old Emmanuel Armstrong’s reading of “What Do You Know About Dr. King?”. Emmanuel got a standing O.

Emmanuel, however, may have been out done by his grandmother Viola Benson’s solo singing.

The welcome was given by Maria Kotch, president of the Media Fellowship House and the invocation by Rabbi Linda Potemken of Congregation Beth Israel. Media’s excellent mayor, Bob McMahon, welcomed the community and asked for prayers for the children of the Chester School District whose teachers are working without pay as powers-that-be try to work out their budget issues. It’s almost like a teachers strike in reverse.

The only downside to the night was keynote speaker Annette John-Hall, a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, who gave an unnecessarily political and divisive speech. Mrs. John-Hall made no attempt to hide where she was coming from and strongly implied that all  who disagreed with her were filled with hate and possibly racist.

Quick question Annette, that poor woman fearful of losing her food stamps as she is about to pay her high property tax, why is her property tax so high? How about her energy costs? Wouldn’t it be great if she paid less for her gas because the supply was a bit closer to home?

And Annette, a lot of those people turning against President Obama voted for him. Are they racists now but were not racists then?

On a day to celebrate a great man who was dedicated to unity and inclusiveness there is a word to describe your speech, and that word is irony. Check this video from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show and see if you can pick up on what I mean (foul language warning).

You made it clear you thought yourself a Christian and I believe you. There are a who lot of people, however who think themselves Christians, but don’t agree with you on anything. It’s not because they hate but because they love, and this includes poor people and minorities. And it’s not because they don’t understand your reasoning but it’s because they do and have concluded it doesn’t make sense.

Ask yourselves questions like these:  What is the point of money? Why do people start businesses? Why do they hire people? How does food get to the supermarket? Why do I drive the kind of car I drive?

Ask yourself, why the people of Greece can’t get aspirin?

The benediction was given by Rev. Kevin S. West who is associate pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Chester where Rev. King served his internship. Rev. West ended the night by leading the crowd with “We Shall Overcome.” Jacob Manny provided a trumpet solo.

The sponsors of  the event were the Media Fellowship House, the Media  Area Unit NAACP, the Unitarian University Church of Delaware County, the Reformation Lutheran Church, Congregation Beth Israel, the Second Baptist Church of Media, Media Friends Meeting and First United Methodist Church of Media.

23rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration

The Lights Of The Barry Or Things You Don’t Know About Delco

That a quasi-popular musician has actually written a song called  Lights of The Commodore Barry is tidbit about which most people living in Delaware County are unaware.

The musician is Matthew Ryan — who shares the name with both the late speaker of the State House and Chesco-born quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons. Ryan was born in Chester in 1971 and his style of music is described as alternative country.

While he may not have had any popular chart toppers his songs have been featured on numerous television shows including One Tree Hill and House.

And while we can’t find Lights of The Commodore Barry on the web here are the lyrics.

Here is Ryan’s Follow The Leader.


Rogers Howard Has Unveiling Before Delco Pats

G. Rogers Howard, the man who hopes to replace Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi as the senator for Pennsylvania’s 9th District told an enthusiastic crowd of 60 at The Delaware County Patriots, tonight, Jan. 11, that it was his grandchildren who are motivating him to run.

Howard said the state plus its municipalities are $125 billion in debt and that this debt is a form of taxation without representation on the unborn and the young which include his grandchildren all of whom are under 7 years old.

He said that the state Republican establishment is quite happy with the status quo regardless of what suffering should occur, and that this especially applies to Pileggi. He noted that the GOP took over  the executive and legislative branches of state government  last year after sweeping the 2010 elections.

“You expect to see the reform legislation that occured in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana,” he said. He said what we got though were long discussions about “red light cameras in Chester.”

Howard, who will be using Roger as his first name throughout the campaign, pointed out that Pennsylvania gets about $27 billion in revenue annually but actually spends about $65 billion. The money to cover the gap comes from bond issues, and regarding bond issues he said the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program is basically just a huge slush fund.

The program which was begun with $400 million in 1986 was given the ability to borrow up to $700 million in 1993 which was increased to $1.2 billion in 1999 and with continued periodic increases now stands at $4.05 billion.

The program is used to give Aker Philadelphia Shipyard its annual $42 million payoff to keep from closing. It’s also used to fund things like the Arlen Specter Library and the John Murtha Library which have each received grants of $10 million apiece and the Comcast Center which has gotten a grant for $35 million.  Howard explained that the actual cost of that $10 million grant is $33 million when funded with a 30-year bond.

Howard lives in Unionville, has a Ph.d in chemistry and served in the 82nd Airborne Division. He has pledged not to participate in the state pension system. He answered audience questions in which he spoke out in opposition to teachers strikes and in favor of the right to work. He said he is against gay marriage.

He says he will be getting a better website.

In other business, the Patriots passed out flyers regarding legislation passed by the State House that is being held up in the Senate run by Pileggi including HB 42, a bill that would make parts of ObamaCare impossible to enforce in the state.

Regina Scheerer announced that 12 members of the Pats including herself were running for committee seats — most against party wishes — and that help and funding were needed. She also issued a plea for help and funding for Howard.

 

Pileggi To Have Tea Party Challenger

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi will face a Tea Party challenger for his 9th District seat this April 24 in the Republican Primary.

The challenger, Rogers Howard,  is a Unionville resident with a PhD. in Chemistry.
 
“I met Rogers Howard yesterday for two hours,” said Tea Party activist Bob Guzzardi.  “He may the smartest candidate I have met – so smart that he can admit he doesn’t know something.”

Howard served in the 82d Airborne Division.

See here for an update.

 

With Pen In Hand Starts Winter Session

With Pen In Hand Starts Winter Session — The With Pen in Hand Family Writing Program winter session starts Jan. 7 and  ends June 2.  This non-profit program, sponsored by Media Fellowship House  meets 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays  at the Fellowship House 302 S. Jackson St. Media,  Pa. 19063.

It is designed for families with children from ages 5 to 18.  Parents and/or mentors are encouraged to come and participate in activities that help to improve skills and allow one to enjoy writing.  Help for the SAT and PSSEA tests is offered.  Attendance is not compulsory. Late registrations are accepted.

And the program is free although donations are happily accepted.

This inter-generational, multi-racial  program began 11 years ago and has served over 400 families. Participants are encouraged to publish their writings in the anthology which is distributed at the end of each year.  Several have published books of their work and many have gone on to further study in writing.

Program sponsors have included the Rose Tree Media and Wallingford-Swarthmore school districts, the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce and West Chester University. Funding came from The Ethel Sergeant Clark-Smith Foundation, PECO, The Connelly Foundation, the Douty Foundation and individuals.

This program is directed by Cecelia Evans, a retired educator from the School District of Philadelphia and founder of With Pen in Hand. She is also a fellow of the Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project West Chester University West Chester, PA.  Instructors  include  Janice Ewing,  Carolynne Glover, Jodine Mayberry, Darrell Blair and Joyce Ellis who also serves as computer specialist.
For information or to register call 484-483-7986 or 610-565-0434; or send an e-mail to cevans9118@comcast.net.

 

With Pen In Hand Starts Winter Session

Auction Gives John du Pont Snapshot

 

John DuPont Train Set Auction Gives John du Pont Snapshot

The electric trains with which John duPont played while a lonely boy in a large, fatherless home with a coddling mother are among the items from his estate which are being auctioned tomorrow, Nov. 26, in Ludwig’s Corner, Pa.

DuPont, the richest man to ever be convicted of murder for the 1996 killing of Olympic gold medal wrestler Dave Schultz, died Dec. 9 in minimum-security state prison in Mercer.

He had grown up and lived in Newtown Township, Delaware County.

In the  1980s, duPont was on the lists of the magazine rankings of the richest Americans, and presidents were  hosted at his home.

The auction starts 9 a.m. at Griffith Hall, Ludwig’s Corner Fire Company 1325 Pottstown Pike (Route 100), Glenmoore, PA 19343

DuPont Portrait Auction Gives John du Pont Snapshot
This portrait of duPont in garb of the Foxcatcher wrestling program which he ran at his Newtown estate and which led to his ultimate downfall is expected to bring between $500 and $700. Auctioneer Ted Wiedersiem says duPont paid artist Hubert Shuptrine $100,000 to have it done.

 

 

Auction Gives John du Pont Snapshot

R.I.P. Dottie Reynolds

I was just informed that Dottie Reynolds has died.

Dottie was a wonderful writer who worked for the Delaware County Daily Times and the Press Newspapers of Delaware County.

She was one of the founders of the Delaware County Press Club.

She had been living in Florida.

R.I.P. Dottie.

 

R.I.P. Dottie Reynolds

Mountain Lions In The Northeast?

Mountain Lions In The Northeast? — Two persons reported seeing a mountain lion the afternoon of Oct. 26 near the Drexelbrook Apartments near Darby Creek in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby, Pa.

Police investigated and declared the sightings unfounded.

Coincidentally, though NBC is reporting that a mountain lion has been seen in Washington D.C.

Interesting coincidences are worth a mention.

About 15 years ago, there was also a spate of mountain lion sightings in Delaware County, Pa..

In the early 1980s, a fisherman  in Crum Creek in Newtown Township thought he saw a tiger. He threw down his rod and reel, a wade a mile through the creek to a road where he flagged down a car to take him to the police station where he reported it. Police investigated with shotguns at the ready. They found the “tiger” to be a striped great dane.


Mountain Lions In The Northeast?

Pennsylvania Public Schools Doomed, Doomed, Doomed Say Dems

Pennsylvania Public Schools Doomed, Doomed, Doomed Say Dems — A sparse crowd of about 200 heard a panel of Democrat state legislators from Delaware County, Oct. 13, at the Upper Darby Center For Performing Arts describe how public schools in Pennsylvania are doomed unless they get back in charge.

The event was sponsored by PA PASS, a public education advocacy group.

The initials stand for Parent Advocates for Public Education To Achieve Student Success.

On the panel were Sen. Daylin Leach (D-17), Rep. Greg Vitali (D-166), Rep. Margo L. Davidson (D-164), Rep. Maria P. Donatucci (D-185), and Rep. Ronald G. Waters (D-191) along with Michael Stoll, who is communications coordinator for State Rep. Bill Adolph (R-165) and Jeffrey S. Miller who is the Republican budget analyst for the Appropriations Committee for the State House, which Adolph chairs.

Leach started things off by saying that there was a “severe and existential threat to public education”.

He cited state budget cuts, proposed voucher and charter school bills, and Act 25‘s  removal of exemptions  in which school boards can hike budgets without a referendum.

He said the referendums always lose since only 10 or 15 percent of voters have children in public schools.

Ms. Davidson, who had to leave early, said she agreed with Leach’s points.

“Ed Rendell would never have proposed such a thing,” she said.

Vitali echoed the despair.

“I truly believe it is a dire situation,” he said. He said the budget cuts were driven by “ideology not necessity.

“(Gov. Tom) Corbett put the interest of oil drillers over children,” he said referring to the reluctance of the governor to levy additional taxes on drilling in Marcellus Shale.

He also pined for the days of Gov. Rendell.

“Rendell was an aggressive fighter for public education,” he said.

He compared public schools to public libraries and said the 9.1 unemployment rate comes from layoffs in the public sector. Whatever it was he was smoking it would probably have been polite if he offered to share it.

Ms. Donatucci clearly feared for the children.

“It’s raining on our school children,” she said.  “. . .Our children aren’t going to get any money and they need to. . . An educational train wreck is going to happen and our children our tied to the tracks.”

Besides blaming Republicans she also blamed newspaper editors.

Waters was more philosophical.

“Elections have consequences,” he said. He noted Corbett said he was going to do the things he’s doing.

He claimed the state had a budget surplus and that money could have been used to keep education spending at the rates it had been the previous year.

Stoll pointed out, however, that there is no surplus and what Waters thought was a surplus is actually budgeted. He noted that 40 percent of state spending is for education. He explained that the reasons for the budget cuts were because federal stimulus money ran out.

After the comments by the panelists, parent representatives for the Radnor, Wallingford-Swarthmore, Interboro, Ridley, Southeast Delco, Haverford, Chichester, Springfield, Penn Delco, William Penn and Upper Darby school districts made presentations describing how excellent their districts were and how much harm the new changes in state policy are causing them.

A PA PASS moderator said that 173 teaching professionals, 148 para professionals, 11 security guards, 11 office support workers, nine maintenance workers, eight administrators and five social workers lost jobs in school districts in Delaware County due to budget cuts.

After parent presentations, PA PASS read to the panel questions submitted by the audience. The questions chosen by the moderator were generally along the lines of how can the vile Republicans  be stopped.

The unseen presence of the Tea Party was felt in the room most strongly it seems by Leach who made a Freudian slip of referring to legislative behavior as not being a “tea party” instead of a “garden party”.

He corrected himself.

Haverford School Director Larry Feinberg, who was one of the event’s organizers, ended things with some strange comments about the proposals for charter schools and vouchers being part of some conspiracy by “Main Line” millionaires looking to make money at the expense of innocent children.

Stoll several times during the night had to emphasize that 40 percent of the state money goes to public education and that there are no plans to end public schools.

The organizers of the event, the parents, and even the legislators all struck one as being sincere and even caring.

Leach and Ms. Donatucci both spoke out passionately against using the cruel residential property tax to fund schools as we now do.

The problem, however, was none of the Democrats or their supporters were able to face the big, fat grinning gorilla in the room, namely the 3 and 4 percent annual raises — which remember are on top of  automatic step raises — that the teachers always seem to get during contract negotiations because they have the right to strike and/or perform unsatisfactory work during their “work to rule” job actions.

The always growing salaries, of course, get the icing of very sweet pension and health plans.

And this is the reason why services are being cut, not because some greedy Republican hates children, as some implied.

Milk does not flow forever.

Pennsylvania Public Schools Doomed, Doomed, Doomed Say Dems

 

Pennsylvania Public Schools Doomed, Doomed, Doomed Say Dems

Why We Need ‘Right To Work’


Reader Cathy C submitted an email she received from Mark Mix of of  National Right To Work Committee.

While Mix’s group is pushing for national reform,  Pennsylvania becoming a “right to work” state would likely do as much if not more to save the Delaware River refineries than relief from thoughtless environmental regulation.

BTW, Delaware County Daily Times columnist Gil Spencer, with this column and one written Friday, is joining the crusade to highlight the havoc stupid, quasi-religious regulations are creating with the lives of Delaware Countians.

Welcome Gil and thank you, Cathy.

Here is Mix’s letter.

Dear Cathy,

“You guys slash my tires, stab me in the neck, try to beat me up,” the construction company official explained to the union organizer.

Given all that, he asked, why should the company hire such aggressive union militants?

“The positives are that the negatives you are complaining about would go away,” the union operative reportedly replied.

According to the Buffalo News, the “negatives” include hot coffee thrown at independent-minded workers, sand dumped into the engines of company vehicles, and the wife of a company representative threatened with sexual assault.

And the union toughs just might get away with it.

You see, ever since the Supreme Court’s infamous 1973 Enmons decision, union bosses have been granted immunity from federal prosecution for acts of violence and vandalism they orchestrate in the so-called “pursuit of legitimate union objectives.”

AFL-CIO union lawyer Jonathan D. Newman told the Buffalo News that “we simply want to make sure that the [federal law] is not interpreted in a way that could have a chilling effect on legitimate union activity.”

The union violence in Buffalo is hardly an isolated incident.

As you may recall, the Associated Press reported that hundreds of Longshoreman union militants held security guards hostage for hours at the Port of Longview in Washington State on September 8.

Union thugs reportedly committed numerous acts of vandalism and violence including breaking windows, cutting brake lines on railroad cars, and threatening police officers with baseball bats.

Weeks later, local police have only made two arrests in connection with the September 8 raid.

And now Longshoremen union officials have launched a Wisconsin-style recall campaign against the county sheriff investigating the raid.

Union officials know that if they intimidate local authorities, they can get away with anything.

The loophole in federal law ensures that union officials who may have orchestrated and encouraged the union violence may never be brought to justice, especially where they can intimidate and use political connections to stop local or state prosecutions.

That’s why the Freedom from Union Violence Act (FUVA) is so vital. To learn more about FUVA and how you can help urge Congress to take action, please click here.

Your National Right to Work Committee has an aggressive plan of action to force the politicians in Washington, D.C. to stop turning a blind eye to union violence.

Thank you once again for helping us fight back.

Sincerely,
 
Mark Mix