Letters: August 10

Posted 8/10/16

Thanks for a great concert series

This year’s Pastorius Park Concerts (PPC), our 68th season, finished on July 27 and our stage is back in storage for another year.We had a fabulous season of …

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Letters: August 10

Posted

Thanks for a great concert series

This year’s Pastorius Park Concerts (PPC), our 68th season, finished on July 27 and our stage is back in storage for another year.We had a fabulous season of wonderful performances in the Park!

A big thank you to all our hard working PPC volunteers: Tia Burke, Bob (The Stage) Rossman, Doug Knauer, Andy (CHCA membership King) Kite, Christopher Plant, Adeline Mandel, Arianna Neromiliotolis, Art Howe, Barbara Bloom, Bart Miltenberger, Christina Reichert, Dan Pulka (CHCA membership King), Denise Chapline, Janet Lippincot, Jay (King of the Hedge) Valinis, Jeremy Heep, John Leonard, Karl Martin, Kathy Gannon, Lisa Howe, Maggie Lechleitner, Maria Vecchiolli, Meridith Nath, Michele Sage, Mike (IceMan) Chomentowski, Rod Bartchy, Steve (Sharp Shooter) Feistel, MC Steve Pearson, and Talia Burke.

The Pastorius Park Concerts would not happen without our dedicated volunteers who put up the stage at the start of the season; set up and clear away for each concert; MC for the performers; sell concessions, CHCA memberships and performer merchandise; collect donations; and take down the stage at the end of the season! Our volunteers work hard, but we have a lot of fun!

Thanks to our CHCA team (Ryan Rosenbaum, Noreen Spota, Janet Gala, and our summer interns Netti, Ian and Emily) for their support; Philadelphia Parks and Recreation; Friends of Pastorius Park for their dedication to the maintenance and improvement of Pastorius Park; and McNallys Tavern who supply ice for our concessions.

Thank you to our friends at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, who make us so very welcome, although we were pleased to only see them once this season!

Thank you to our sponsors who generously funded this year’s concert series: Chestnut Hill Community Fund, Chestnut Hill Hospital, Condon and Skelly, and Caleb Meyers. And to the local businesses who also supported us: Bowman Properties, Elfant Wissahickon Commercial Real Estate, Kilians Hardware, Merrill Lynch, Nolan Painting, Norman Rubin Agency, Trolley Car Diner, Valley Green Bank, and Weavers Way Co-op.

Last but not least, a big thank you to all the wonderful performers who entertained us, ably supported by our friends at Pro Audio.

We hope you all enjoyed our 68th Pastorius Park Concert Season, here's looking forward to 2017! If you'd like to help with next years Concerts drop me a note at pastoriusparkconcerts@gmail.com.

Julie Byrne

Chair Pastorius Park Concerts for Chestnut Hill Community Association

 

Users of park, act like adults

I really liked the article by Julie Chovanes (“50 years after first walking the Drive, much has changed,” Aug. 4). I am not quite as old as Julie, but I have been walking and jogging along Wissahickon Drive for almost 40 years. I hate to sound like an old fogey (I am 48), but as Philip Colton wrote in a letter last week, I also see much more bad behavior than I saw decades ago.

In addition to the things Colton mentioned, I see more mountain bikers coming down the trails up above at high speeds, forcing walkers and dogs to jump to get out of their way. Also people who let their dogs off the leash, and if you say anything to them, they will say, “Oh, don’t worry, he is so friendly,” even though he is a huge German shepherd or other scary looking dog.

And then there are the dog owners who do not pick up after their dogs’ feces. This is obviously not healthy. And all the discarded cigarette butts that are also unhealthy. The Friends of the Wissahickon do a good job, but they can’t do everything. I love the park, but adults who use it should behave like adults and have some respect for their fellow citizens.

Eileen Mortimer

Chestnut Hill

 

Petty name-calling schoolyard bully

And so, I am given a choice between an experienced woman of integrity, perceived by many, for no reason other than a decades-long smear campaign by (understandably) fearful rivals, to be a “liar,” and an uninformed, insulting, name-calling schoolyard bully who verifiably, rarely speaks the truth.

Donald Trump is a petty, self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing compulsive liar with insufficient leadership skills and experience who will say anything to advance his ever-tarnished brand.

Trump will insult Hillary. He will maliciously misinterpret her well-earned battle scars as blemishes. He will shuck and jive and soft-shoe shuffle. And Hillary will eat his lunch. Almost every poll in the country has Clinton beating Trump. She has the education, the experience, the social consciousness, the worldview, understanding and contacts to lead.

Is she flawed after years of service and decision-making under the public microscope? She'd better be! Has she stumbled? Has she changed her mind, her positions? Have you grown over the past 25 years?

No one in public life is clean. If you're looking for a virgin, you're dreaming. She attempts to get things done for the public good. Sometimes she succeeds; sometimes she fails, like an American, like a human. Sometimes she gets conspiracy theorists all riled up looking for drama where there is none.

She is a woman who would negotiate unstable and inclement weather with the cautious competence born of knowledge, diplomacy, humility, compassionate wisdom, team building and, most importantly, years and years of national and global experience that does not come from sitting behind a desk issuing orders to go-fers who kiss his ring and hang on his every word as he bamboozles and swindles unsuspecting investors through a succession of business failures (3,500 lawsuits!) from which he has time and again emerged unscathed.

We have witnessed a simmering right-wing anti-social, bigoted, anti-American, “South shall rise again!” myopic witches’ brew concoction that would continue to deny subsets of our fellow citizens their basic human and legal rights.

Raymond Culver, Sr.

Pocono Lake

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