My Experiment With Trump Is Over

When Trump was elected in 2016, as a conservative I approached his term with guarded optimism.  After all, maybe an outsider wouldn't be a bad thing, especially aided by some people whom I respected.   Over the next two years, as these advisors peeled off,  I said well,  some of them are still on board, until they were all gone.  I did cringe when Trump berated the departed, who all knew more than he would, ever.

Allowing Turkey to enter Syria, at the peril of the Kurds, is the deal breaker for me. While diehard justifiers might cite ending endless foreign missions,  it was neither the time or the place for that.  We are clearly serving Turkey's interests, not our own.  Trump's ramble about the Kurds not being our allies in WW2 pretty much sums up his lack of any historical perspective.

Assuming Trump remains the Republican nominee in 2020, I may be forced to vote for the Democrat, whoever that may be.  This experiment in outsider governance is over for me.  I suspect that I may not be alone about this being a deal breaker.  Many of his supporters consider themselves patriots,  and the notion of abandoning an ally in the field is completely contrary to their values.  One thing is certain,  there are no new supporters coming forward to replace them.  Trump may soon feel like the Kurdish fighters he abandoned.

photo of betrayed Kurdish fighters

Icon Of Allentown's 10th Ward

While the pulpit section of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Orthodox Church is adorned with murals and icons of Mary, parishioners may notice that there is no such imagery on the beautiful stained glass windows. More careful inspection reveals that while there are no graven images in the glass, Stars of David and scrolls can be seen. As the ancestors of the current members came from eastern Europe and the Czarist Russian Empire, so did the building's original congregation. The gothic edifice was built as a synagogue in 1909 by Allentown's Jews. The Orthodox Jewish congregation, Sons Of Israel, utilized the structure for 50 years, before it was repurposed by the current American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox congregation.

The stained glass windows are surely among the most beautiful in Allentown.  The synagogue turned church is located on the northeast corner of 6th and Tilghman Streets in Allentown.  The area, Allentown's 10th Ward,  has a strong neighborhood group. The exterior photograph of the church is from their facebook page.  The large round window shown above is behind the balcony,  in the back of the church. Inside, the congregation faces east,  toward Jerusalem.


reprinted from March of 2016

The Sabaean Mandeans of Iraq

I'm glad that the plight of Christians in Iraq is starting to attract main stream media attention, but there is another persecuted group you may not hear about. The Mandeans predate Christianity, do not believe in Christ, and are believed to have been followers of John the Baptist. Accepting no converts, their numbers have always been small. Apparently, they migrated to the swamps south of current Baghdad after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Their writings are in Aramaic, the language of the Bible in the time of Jesus. Their rules and ethics are similar to Jewish tradition. Baptism is their central ritual; they call the water Jordan.

reprinted from 2010,2013, 2014 and 2017

previously scheduled for Wednesday publication 

The Misconception Of Hamilton Street

There's not many mid size cities that can boast having two national chain stores within one center city block, Allentown could. Not too many cities could say that one of those stores was one of the biggest producers in a chain of over 7000 stores, Allentown could. There's not many cities that are ignorant enough to tear down their most successful block, a virtual tax machine, Allentown is. This horrible mistake took a combination of political arrogance and public misconception. The arrogance is well known, so let me concentrate on the misconception. The perception was a few undesirable people, buying cheap things. The reality is Family Dollar sells the same merchandise in their suburban and rural stores. Rite Aid fills the same prescriptions and sells their standard merchandise. The new upscale stores, visioned for the arena front, will never produce the sales tax produced by Family Dollar and Rite Aid. The arena will never have that amount of employees, nor produce that much earned income.* The traffic congestion and lack of parking for arena events will destroy the new restaurants. Welcome to the white elephant, welcome to the ghost town.
Shown above and below is the early morning delivery to Family Dollar, every week of the year.
*sales tax and earned income currently going to city and state will now go to debt service for arena
reprinted from December 5, 2011

ADDENDUM OCTOBER 8, 2019: While The Morning Call promotes Allentown's new NIZ zone, only this blogger documented the reality of the former Hamilton Street. While the Moravian Book Store could have been restocked from a small hand basket once a month, the previous Family Dollar Store needed a full tractor trailer every Sunday.  Retail is virtually destroyed on Hamilton Street. Over seven years later, and the Morning Call is still deceiving about Hamilton Street, and this blog is still delivering the truth.

Urban Renewal In Allentown

Urban renewal projects are nothing new to Allentown. Every couple decades some Mayor thinks he has a brighter idea. In a previous post, I showed the historic Lehigh and Union Street neighborhood, totally destroyed by city planners. Today, an under used Bank calling center sits awkwardly alone on that Lehigh Street hill. The picture above shows another hill of merchants and residents, fed to a mayor's bulldozer. The picture is from 1953, and shows Hamilton Street, from Penn Street down toward the railroad stations. At that time we still had two stations, The Lehigh Valley Railroad and The New Jersey Central. The current closed bar and restaurant occupies the Jersey Central. Everything on Hamilton Street, west of the bridge over the Jordan creek, with the exception of the Post Office, was demolished up to Fifth Street. Government Center would be built on the north side of the street, and a new hotel on the south, to accommodate the many anticipated visitors. Recently we had to remove and replace the facade of the county courthouse, which leaked since it was constructed. The hotel is now a rooming house.

Unannounced plans are underway for a new hotel to service anticipated visitors to Pawlowski's Palace of Sports. It will be up to some future blogger to document how that hotel becomes a rooming house.

reprinted from June 2011

UPDATE OCTOBER 7, 2019: Quite a bit has changed since I wrote this post in 2011. Many historic mercantile buildings of Hamilton Street have been replaced by large glass boxes. Although the amount of new construction and office workers is notable, revitalization has yet to occur. Come 5:00PM, those new workers can't wait to get out of Dodge. The former mentioned mayor has been incarcerated. The new hotel mentioned, subsidized by our tax dollars, sits virtually empty.

Camden On The Lehigh

Last evening when I entered City Council Chambers, as is my custom, I scanned the document table for the agenda and specific ordinances under consideration. There on the table, printed, fastened and disguised as an official document complete with charts, was an attack piece against one of the nay-sayers or reactionaries who challenge the administration. The victim was Robert Romancheck, who served on the zoning board for 12 years, and is a neighborhood leader in the Raub Middle School area. The fabrication stated Romancheck mismanaged Perkasie, resulting in a tax increase. Coincidentally, todays' Morning Call has an article on Perkasie which features that borough's financial stability. The victim or misinformation to me is irrelevant, the fact that it was on the document table was outrageous. Between the committee meeting and the regular Council Meeting, I approached our elected, appointed and hired officials with this document and my discontent about it. Their reaction, to the man, ranged from amusement to indifference. I contribute this cavalier attitude to the one party sweep this past election. I believe Mayor Pawlowski, although a misguided micro-manager, has integrity and is free from corruption; however, an arrogance has taken over city hall, and we know where that will lead us in the coming years.

reprinted from November of 2007

UPDATE OCTOBER 4, 2019: Although I would learn of Pawlowski's  shortcomings before most, and long before he became the subject of an investigation,  I was giving him too much credit back in 2007.  However,  I reprint this piece to reference the arrogance.  This is a trait that won't be addressed by any prosecutor, but affects every citizen of the city.  While I find O'Connell himself humble enough, the pre FBI swagger remains with some of his subordinates.

shown above older postcard of Lehigh River, with former Hamilton Street Bridge and A&B Meats