Philadelphia held its first Veterans Day Parade, yesterday, Nov. 8, and among those on the Delaware County Veterans Memorial float were Margaret Lozinak Lawrence and noted actor and director Peter de Feo.
Mrs. Lawrence, a Korean War veteran, will be among the recipients of this year’s Freedom Medal bestowed by the Memorial and Delaware County Council.
The Delaware County Veterans Day Parade is 11 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 11 — the right date for it — on State Street in Media. It starts on Edgmont Street and ends on Veterans Square in front of the Courthouse.
For Kinij, a immigrant from Croatia, it is injustice. For Foster, a Germantown resident, it is corruption. For Hart, a Socialist, it is workers’ safety and the minimum wage.
In fairness, all three have about as much of a shot as winning as the GOP candidate Melissa Murray Bailey. Democrat Jim Kenney is almost certainly going to be the next mayor.
The Newsworks article reveals that there are as many independents registered to vote in Philly — about 100,000 — as Republicans. There are 800,000 registered Democrat voters.
While we do not advise people to register as independents in a close primary state like Pennsylvania, that fact that so many are insisting to do so is a strong argument to end closed primaries.
In his homily, today, Sept. 27, in his Mass on Benjamin Franklin Parkway that climaxed this cycle’s World Meeting of Families, Pope Francis said that love is shown by the little things and it is the little things that grow faith.
Francis, whose English is weak, made the speech in Spanish.
“Jesus tells us not to hold back these little miracles. Instead, he wants us to encourage them, to spread them,” Francis said. “He asks us to go through life, our everyday life, encouraging all these little signs of love as signs of his own living and active presence in our world.”
Much of the ceremony was in traditional Latin with Vietnamese and Spanish also making their presence felt along with English.
Among those receiving missionary materials at the end of it was a family from Syria who will be returning next week to Damascus.
21st Street north of Cherry Street at 11:19 a.m.A window sign on 21st Street expressing a common opinion regarding the city’s security measures.
While Francis shined in his visit, Philadelphia did not. The security was overwhelming and ridiculous. It took hours to get through the checkpoints. Well after the ceremony ended, authorities were still making people go through scanners if they needed to return to the event grounds. SEPTA stopped answering its phones on Thursday it seemed, and the directions on its website were far from adequate. Even those who got tickets found themselves at unexpected destinations. The train that left Media made its last stop at University City, not 30th Street Station to the dismay of many.
Why not just keep the regular schedule and run more trains?
Anyway, thank you Pope Francis for your inspiring visit and we will pray for you as you requested.
The next World Meeting of Families will be in Dublin, Ireland in 2018. Hopefully, the organizers will take into account that the ladies need more restrooms.
Here is the full text of his sermon: Today the word of God surprises us with powerful and thought-provoking images. Images which challenge us, but also stir our enthusiasm. In the first reading, Joshua tells Moses that two members of the people are prophesying, speaking God’s word, without a mandate. In the Gospel, John tells Jesus that the disciples had stopped someone from casting out evil spirits in the name of Jesus. Here is the surprise: Moses and Jesus both rebuke those closest to them for being so narrow! Would that all could be prophets of God’s word! Would that everyone could work miracles in the Lord’s name!
Jesus encountered hostility from people who did not accept what he said and did. For them, his openness to the honest and sincere faith of many men and women who were not part of God’s chosen people seemed intolerable. The disciples, for their part, acted in good faith. But the temptation to be scandalized by the freedom of God, who sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike (Mt 5:45), bypassing bureaucracy, officialdom and inner circles, threatens the authenticity of faith. Hence it must be vigorously rejected.
Once we realize this, we can understand why Jesus’ words about causing “scandal” are so harsh. For Jesus, the truly “intolerable” scandal consists in everything that breaks down and destroys our trust in the working of the Spirit!
Our Father will not be outdone in generosity and he continues to scatter seeds. He scatters the seeds of his presence in our world, for “love consists in this, not that we have loved God but that he loved us” first (1 Jn 4:10). That love gives us a profound certainty: we are sought by God; he waits for us. It is this confidence which makes disciples encourage, support and nurture the good things happening all around them. God wants all his children to take part in the feast of the Gospel. Jesus says, “Do not hold back anything that is good, instead help it to grow!” To raise doubts about the working of the Spirit, to give the impression that it cannot take place in those who are not “part of our group”, who are not “like us”, is a dangerous temptation. Not only does it block conversion to the faith; it is a perversion of faith!
Faith opens a “window” to the presence and working of the Spirit. It shows us that, like happiness, holiness is always tied to little gestures. “Whoever gives you a cup of water in my name will not go unrewarded”, says Jesus (cf. Mk 9:41). These little gestures are those we learn at home, in the family; they get lost amid all the other things we do, yet they do make each day different. They are the quiet things done by mothers and grandmothers, by fathers and grandfathers, by children. They are little signs of tenderness, affection and compassion. Like the warm supper we look forward to at night, the early lunch awaiting someone who gets up early to go to work. Homely gestures. Like a blessing before we go to bed, or a hug after we return from a hard day’s work. Love is shown by little things, by attention to small daily signs which make us feel at home. Faith grows when it is lived and shaped by love. That is why our families, our homes, are true domestic churches. They are the right place for faith to become life, and life to become faith.
Jesus tells us not to hold back these little miracles. Instead, he wants us to encourage them, to spread them. He asks us to go through life, our everyday life, encouraging all these little signs of love as signs of his own living and active presence in our world.
So we might ask ourselves: How are we trying to live this way in our homes, in our societies? What kind of world do we want to leave to our children (cf. Laudato Si’, 160)? We cannot answer these questions alone, by ourselves. It is the Spirit who challenges us to respond as part of the great human family. Our common house can no longer tolerate sterile divisions. The urgent challenge of protecting our home includes the effort to bring the entire human family together in the pursuit of a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change. May our children find in us models and incentives to communion! May our children find in us men and women capable of joining others in bringing to full flower all the good seeds which the Father has sown!
Pointedly, yet affectionately, Jesus tells us: “If you, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Lk 11:13). How much wisdom there is in these few words! It is true that, as far as goodness and purity of heart are concerned, we human beings don’t have much to show! But Jesus knows that, where children are concerned, we are capable of boundless generosity. So he reassures us: if only we have faith, the Father will give us his Spirit.
We Christians, the Lord’s disciples, ask the families of the world to help us! How many of us are here at this celebration! This is itself something prophetic, a kind of miracle in today’s world. Would that we could all be prophets! Would that all of us could be open to miracles of love for the sake of all the families of the world, and thus overcome the scandal of a narrow, petty love, closed in on itself, impatient of others!
And how beautiful it would be if everywhere, even beyond our borders, we could appreciate and encourage this prophecy and this miracle! We renew our faith in the word of the Lord which invites faithful families to this openness. It invites all those who want to share the prophecy of the covenant of man and woman, which generates life and reveals God!
Anyone who wants to bring into this world a family which teaches children to be excited by every gesture aimed at overcoming evil – a family which shows that the Spirit is alive and at work – will encounter our gratitude and our appreciation. Whatever the family, people, region, or religion to which they belong!
May God grant to all of us, as the Lord’s disciples, the grace to be worthy of this purity of heart which is not scandalized by the Gospel!
Mondelez, the Illinois food giant that was spun off of Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 shut its bakery at Roosevelt Boulevard and Byberry Road last week reported today’s (July 1) Philadelphia Inquirer.
So 350 workers union workers are out of work along with the hundreds of drivers who shipped its products under the Nabisco, Standard Brands and Kraft corporate labels.
The suspicion is that the products will now be made at a government-subsidized, largely-automated, multimillion-dollar facility in Monterey, Mexico, where the pay is not $24 per hour and benefits.
Wonder when the union rank and file is going to wake up to the reality that the money automatically deducted from their paychecks is used to lobby for causes that are anything but in their interests.
Wonder when it is is going to dawn on them that the most successful political organizations are those whose officers are paid with dues collected voluntarily and not automatically.
Wonder when it’s going to dawn on them that the power to withhold a contribution is a pretty strong bargaining chip.
Philadelphia City Council, yesterday, May 29, moved forward legislation that would create a cabinet-level department combining the functions of several bodies including the Planning Commission, Historical Commission, Housing Authority, Art Commission, and Zoning Board of Adjustment.
The idea is to make the city more attractive to developers.
It can be fairly summed up as corruption and it is a type of corruption intrinsic to Democrat-controlled communities.
Corruption exists in Republican controlled counties, however, it is exponentially less than Philly (or any historic D ones). Partly, this is due to less centralization. It is easier for a community of 15,000 to watch the activities of their zoning boards and commissioners and mobilize opposition to wrong-doing than in one of 1.5 million.
It is also due, however, to the nature of the constituents of the Rs. The Republican rank and file tend to be better educated — especially on economic matters — than the Democrats and less susceptible to unfulfillable promises of “free” lunches (or health care or phones).
Further, Republicans are far less likely to look at their political party as their religion. Democrats seem to identify the D with virtue and that being one makes them somehow a “good person”. Republicans look at their political affiliation as more of a means to an end and their primary motivation — at least for the rank and file — is not to milk the public cow but to protect themselves from the Ds.
Sociopaths are disproportionately attracted to politics and the GOP is not immune to this, but unlike Democrats, the Republican constituency usually gets this.
Duckman’s Injury by David Lynch is among the works available at Artsy.net
David Lynch Art — Nicholas of Artsy.net has found our story concerning Loren Kantor’s woodcut work which includes noted director David Lynch as a subject. He points out that Artsy has actual paintings by the auteur himself.
The Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted, Feb. 18, to approved five of the 39 applications for new charter schools.
Gov. Tom Wolf chimed in decrying the decision. Oh, the Philadelphia School District can’t possibly handle it he said. He cited the district’s $80 million budget deficit.
Charter schools, of course, are cheaper to run than traditional schools so one would wonder what exactly is Wolf thinking until one realizes that he, like the rest of the Democrat Party, is in the pocket of the teacher unions. These entities get the lion’s share of the blame for the inflated cost of public education.
Anyway, this creates a very nice opportunity for the GOP. Charter Schools are strongly supported by a significant section of the city and these supporters had in the past not been willing to look twice at a Republican candidate. If the party starts championing Philadelphia charters there is a pretty good chance this will change for many of them.
You would not need all of them or even most of them to start making a difference in elections.
Philadelphia held its first Veterans Day Parade, yesterday, Nov. 8, and among those on the Delaware County Veterans Memorial float were Margaret Lozinak Lawrence and noted actor and director Peter de Feo.
