Partisan Politics of Lehigh County

Glenn Eckhart is one of the partisan smiley faces in Lehigh County. Eckhart  had backed Marc Grammes for state rep in the primary race,  to replace retiring Julie Harhart. Another candidate, Cindy Miller, successfully challenged Grammes' nomination petition. The Republican victor ended up being Zach Mako, a young man backed by Harhart. Like dutiful partisans, Grammes and Eckhart are now baking cakes for Mako. The fly on the cake icing is that both of them are totally aware of how unprepared Mako is for such a position.  I suspect that they expect Democrat Phillips Armstrong to prevail, allowing Grammes his fourth try in 2018.  But, never mind that,  Mako is the party's candidate this election, and they're baking him a cake.

As a disclaimer, I should reveal that I tested the water to run as an outsider Republican, but received no feedback from the party machine. As an independent on the ballot in 2014, even the Morning Call conceded that I stood out in the debate with Harhart and the Democrat.

Allentown's NIZ, When Free Isn't Cheap Enough

Another business, paying minimum rent, bit the dust in Allentown's NIZ. Others, like Moravian Bookstore, are probably being paid to stay there. Pawlowski, The Morning Call, and a few apologists hoping for a crumb or two, keep saying that the sky looks bright, when in truth it has already fallen. The city, acting like a cannibal, would rather sacrifice Symphony Hall than say no to J.B. Reilly's subsidized real estate scheme. They keep hoping that perhaps he's right, in that a few more millennials will turn the tide. They don't understand that with the subsidizes there is not a normal relationship between demand and his new construction.  This boutique legislation, essentially crafted for him, allows him to attach ever expanding state taxes to his debt service, and nobody is counting those chickens. If and when the chicken count gets low, Pat Browne simply adds another amendment, finding yet another revenue source.

The Synagogues of Jerusalem

Except when barred by one conqueror or another, Jews had lived in Jerusalem since King David. Prior to Jordanian rule in 1948, there was a Jewish majority for 150 years. In 1864, eight thousand of the fifteen thousand population was Jewish. By 1914, two thirds of the sixty five thousand residents were Jewish. In 1948 the United Nations Partition Plan divided the British Mandate of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. Jerusalem was to be initially an international city, with access guaranteed for all. This plan was rejected by the surrounding Arab nations, which attacked Israel in concert immediately upon the UN vote. When the truce was declared, Israel had survived, but East Jerusalem(walled Old City) was in procession of TransJordan. The Jordanians subsequently destroyed over 50 synagogues in the Jewish Quarter, which dated back to the 1400's. For hundreds of years both Christians and Jews were prohibited from building higher than Muslim structures. The few synagogues which survived were the ones built mostly below street level. The oldest surviving synagogue, The Jerusalem Synagogue, was built by the Karaite Jews in around 900. Shown above is the Ben Kakai, a Sephardic Synagogue built in the 16th Century.

Perhaps the most famous synagogue destroyed by the Jordanians was the Ashkenazi Hurva Synagogue built in 1720, it's dome visible in the top center of this photograph from the 1920's. It's replacement was completed in 2010.

reprinted from September of 2015

Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria

The Church and Theology School in Alexandria was  established by
the Apostle Mark in 60AD.  Most of the early converts were common Egyptians who spoke Coptic.  Although, Christians became the majority before the Arab invasion in 636, by the 12th century they were the minority.  The concept of monasteries in Christianity was started by the Coptics in the deserts of Egypt.  Currently,  many Christians are threatened by transitions in the Arab world, let us pray for their safety.

photograph of St. Marks Coptic Church in Alexandria, Egypt.



reprinted from December 2014

The Entitlement People vs. The Silent Majority

The title for this post is derived from a comment submitted to a prior post.  The commenter was hoping that the silent majority comes out  from the shadows and votes for Trump, to begin to change the status quo.  As an advocate for decades on local issues,  I think that, unfortunately, the key word is silent,  and if so,  it doesn't matter if they are a majority or not.  Now, I will say this;  I believe that Trump has motivated a previous uninvolved citizen,  and I believe that such people will come out and vote for him.  The question is how big is that constituency?  The Democrats do have an organized ground game.  I think it's fair to say that the Trump camp is completely unorganized at getting out the vote.  He is depending on individual volition,  which doesn't have a strong track record when it comes to voting.

We are in an era where political fortune is determined by the entertainment industry.  The liberals are willing to have their opinions shaped by the writers for  Jon Stewart and SNL.  Likewise, the conservatives look for guidance from Rush Limbaugh and other talk show disc jockeys.

I'm blessed by not being politically invested in this presidential election.  When I go to breakfast the morning after, on November 9th,  I will be equally entertained by both the happy camp winners, and the despondent losers.

2016, The Voting Against Election

In 2016, so many voters are going to the poll to vote against one candidate or another. Rather than who is more popular, it may come down to who is more disliked. Below are two local comments expressing that sentiment.

Flawed vehicle we are forced to own
That is for your average conservative an apt description of this year’s presidential race. Trump is not a conservative; he is not even a real Republican. He has no ideology as far as anyone can tell; he is, however, the candidate who became the nominee of the Republican Party. He is the only option conservatives have. We have to support him in order to arrest the country’s dramatic move to the left of the newly radicalized Democratic Party. Hillary has taken up the hammer and sickle from the term limited Obama and has vowed to preserve and extend the power of central authority. The pipe dream of a caretaker government, with open borders, free college education, single payer health care, a government controlled economy, and extensions of every sort of government assistance are being sold as a can do to a deluded nation that has apparently forgotten or was never taught that, historically, socialism provides us no record of long term success. To stop this march towards madness, bankruptcy, calamity, and destruction conservatives are forced to root for an inarticulate boob in the debates and pray this enigma of a man manages somehow to pull out a victory in November. To make matters worse, he is not only running against the Democratic Party but many of the nation’s moneyed interests (corporations, Wall Street, big labor) and last but not least, the media. Even with this massive assembly of power arrayed against him, he has managed to catch up to the power elite’s candidate/Hillary in the polls. It is nothing short of a miracle. None of this makes it any easier for those such as me who wonder who and what he is. His inability to articulate any cogent message is painful. His demeanor is an insult to comportment. He is unfortunately the champion that has been forced upon us. All we know is he is not Hillary, the candidate of absolute corruption that we detest and fear. We must support him because the alternative is just too terrible.
                                                  Scott Armstrong, Allentown

Considering the recent reports on her many and varied health issues, I thought she'd have to be carried off the stage, but she held up pretty well. It was I who nearly fell off my chair when I heard her strongly imply that there were "moral" differences between her and Mr. Trump that make her clearly the better candidate. Since when is morality a strong point in the Clinton household? A lawyer fired for being a sneak, a first lady who muscled her way into the health insurance issues with a plan developed by nitwits, a Secretary of State who failed even to understand her responsibility to maintain confidentiality and security,and then quit the job, and a husband who's been off the track for their entire marriage but apparently still has political capitol she can spend on herself. This is a perennial candidate, who's strongest trait is hubris, not morality. As potentially the first woman president, she's a well-poisoner at best and a toxic dump at least. With Trump, there is immaturity and arrogance and vindictiveness, but I do believe he will listen to the people and have hope that he will make a few needed changes to immigration, national security and trade and debt, and maybe even keep us out of war. Like Obama, Hillary is neither listening nor talking to me.
                                                Christine Sforza, Whitehall

ADDENDUM:  

Michael, just read the comments of your viewers urging voters for Trump. I think September was Trump's high water mark. His obvious incompetence for the White House is now penetrating subliminally to rational Republicans. Enough of them are going to either not vote for President, or will even vote for Hillary, making up for the drop off in the black vote, that Hillary couldn't mobilize. You think Ford & Bush 41 & Bush 43 have been wiped out of the collective Republican memory? So that the only Republican President in modern history was St. Ronnie? Guess again. Trump will be like those "forgotten" Egyptian Pharaohs that successors kept defacing by chiseling their names off of the monuments. Never.To. Be. Mentioned. Again. He & Ailes will start Trump TV; and, of course, in perfect irony, it will not take audience share away from NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, or MSNBC, but, will fragment a chunk away from Fox! There, folks will hear how Trump actually won the 2016 election, but, was robbed...it was rigged. And how climate change is a hoax, black families were more stable under slavery, the earth is flat, the moon landing was a hoax, evolution is just a theory, creationism real, Jesus is coming back soon, the Holocaust never happened, and smoking does not cause cancer. The commercials will be never ending and continue to fleece the viewers like Fox and talk radio does now ........selling gold, reverse mortgages, meteorite insurance, "male enhancement" potions/devices, survival seeds and Depends....... targeting white non college & senior citizens to purchase Life Alert systems, stool softeners, and cheap flooring. And now, they will get pitched Trump shirts/ties/dresses etc., all made in China & Mexico. Gotta move product, you know.
                                               Hillary Supporter, South Florida

The Transfiguration of Ed Pawlowski

I've written before how Pawlowski is trying to re-image himself. On his facebook page he can be seen cultivating the little people,  who will be important supporters, if he can beat the coming criminal storm.
He is also trying to tidy up and explain away some dirty deals that may or may not factor into the investigation of his administration.

One of those shenanigans factored into the recent announcement of unlimited bicycling in Trexler Park.   Pawlowski purchased two distressed real estate parcels from Abe Atiyeh, at a 400% gain for the developer.

The Park Department will shortly announce an ambitious bicycle trail,  extending from the useless Basin Street parcel purchased from Atiyeh,  through Atiyeh's distressed former fertilizer plant parcel, all the way to Trexler Park.  The spandex yuppies will applaud, and Pawlowski will have transformed a sleazy deal into an accomplishment.

As a defender of the traditional park system,  I am particularly appalled at this scheme.  Precious resources will be alloted to construct this path,  while the irreplaceable WPA structures crumble away.  We are in the process of losing the iconic double stairway in Lehigh Parkway.  The landings are breaking up,  allowing rushing water from the roadway to steep through the steps below.

There is no less than three parties who must stand silently by to enable such misappropriation.  That would be the Park Director, the Trexler Trust and City Council.

photocredit: molovinsky

The Dinosaurs Of Sumner Avenue

Up to the early 1950's, Allentown was heated by coal, and much of it came from Sumner Avenue. Sumner was a unique street, because it was served by the West End Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The spur route ran along Sumner, until it crossed Tilghman at 17th Street, and then looped back East along Liberty Street, ending at 12th. Coal trucks would elevate up, and the coal would be pushed down chutes into the basement coal bins, usually under the front porches of the row houses. Several times a day coal would need to be shoveled into the boiler or furnace. By the early 1970's, although most of the coal yards were closed for over a decade, the machines of that industry still stood on Sumner Avenue. Eventually, they took a short trip to one of the scrap yards, which are still on the avenue, but not before I photographed them.

reprinted from 2016