October 26, 2006 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Online Editor Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or ©2006 Chestnut Hill Local Winner of One |
From our readersTit for tat Unfortunately I have no choice but to respond to your editorial that was a distortion of what I wrote and rather rude to me personally [Local, 10/5]. But I have one apology to make before beginning. Yes I do miss Mt. Airy; but the article was really about West Mt. Airy Neighbors (WMAN) and its role compared to, not versus, the CHCA. Here are my credentials for writing the letter that appeared in the Oct. 5 issue of the Local which I eliminated to maintain brevity. • Block captain, unit block E. Abington Ave. 1998-present. • Pennsylvania Society of Goldsmiths (a non-profit group of metalsmiths making art jewelry, not big time jewelers), board member 1998-2006, president 2003-2006 • Board member West Mount Airy Neighbors. 10 or so years. • Founding member and former vice president of The Mt. Airy Express, produced by WMAN & EMAN and delivered free to all Mt. Airy residents in an effort to keep the community informed of important issues. • Weaver’s Way membership and merchandise committees. • 500 Block W. Sedgwick Neighbors, President, 1978-1990. I hope that the above has established that I am familiar with boards and that I am eminently qualified to express why I miss WMAN and to regret the design and current actions of the CHCA. WMAN is an organization dedicated to resolving conflict, not facilitating it. WMAN has the interests of all of West Mt. Airy in mind, not just a select group as I see in the CHCA. Here are some specific comments on particular criticisms made by our editor. I do not think the conflict being waged in CH is a harbinger of the decline of Western Civilization … I think it is people acting out, a waste of valuable time and energy, and my $30 annual dues. I read the editorial page with relish as a real life comedy act laughing at the participants, not with them. I am wholly familiar with the arguments that WMAN and other boards have. The Local keeps the CHCA honest??? Aren’t you the ones reporting on missing money, inappropriate and undocumented expenses, special contracts to friends, and a community association that cannot keep a manager or an editor? Sounds to me like you are reporting that the horse got out of the barn, not preventing its escape! I believe WMAN still has a public voice in The Mt. Airy Times-Express. And guess what? I thought of a few more suggestions. How about the CHCA aesthetics committee monitoring the tree trimming destruction in the area and fight with PECO to have trees trimmed in an effective and attractive manner. They look awful! How about establishing a jury so the “Art” festival has more art? As a metalsmith, I saw 1 (ONE) real art jeweler. There were some nice photographers and painters but what seemed like the participants were ‘buy and sell’ people, not artists who produce their own work. There were local merchants (nice but not artists) and community activists (same argument). Or an easier solution would be to change the name to the Chestnut Hill Street Fair. Arrange parking for the people visiting the “Arts” festival. Apologize to those new residents who put up a fence just like two or three other neighbors on their street already have. How about a ‘Welcome Wagon’ so new neighbors could know what the rules are that affect the quality of others’ lives. And lastly for today, Perhaps the editor might edit the Local to eliminate misspellings, ungrammatical writing, and misused words that spellcheck doesn’t get. BTW, you didn’t capitalize the “i” in my headline. Thank you for allowing me to exercise my need and right to dress down those who disagree with my world view in unruly prose. Esta Jo Schifter Editor’s note: Ouch and touché… Go fair trade for Halloween We recently learned something distressing about children and chocolate. Over 40 percent of the world’s chocolate comes from Africa’s Ivory Coast where the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the U.S. State Department have reported widespread instances of child slavery and labor exploitation. Despite abundant alternatives to slave labor camps, corporations like Nestlé continue to source their cocoa from the Ivory Coast. Now, five years after major chocolate companies agreed to voluntarily put an end to child labor abuses, forced child labor continues, with tens of thousands of African children still in forced labor camps. Halloween is a special time for our children, but it is difficult to think of candies as treats when we now know that children are suffering for it. There is another way. Why not include Fair Trade chocolate among the treats you serve this year. Fair Trade is an already existing international system that pays a minimum fair price to farmers, guarantees cocoa producers the income they need to send their children to school and pay their workers fair wages, while providing customers with a trusted guarantee that no forced or abusive child labor was used in the making of their products. Look for Fair Trade logos when you shop. Or, order online. For $7.95 you can order 42 pieces of delicious organic chocolate which fairly supports small farmer families in the Dominican Republic and Paraguay at www.gxonlinestore.org (type in chocolate). We can’t change our shopping habits overnight, but with each thoughtful purchase, we can make a big difference. The few dollars extra we pay will be supporting families around the world and ensure that no children are exploited. If enough of us start buying more fair trade products, large corporations will need to change the way they do business. For more information about Fair Trade for food, coffee, clothing and accessories, you can visit www.globalexchange.org. Tamar and Phil Stern Chestnut Hill Friends expands In June, Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting completed the purchase from United Cerebral Palsy of the long-unused parking lot on the 100 block of East Mermaid Lane, behind the Mermaid Inn. Our neighbors may have noticed the beginnings of new activity on the lot. In late September we held the first of what we hope will be regular work days, attempting to clean up the site and remove trash, weeds and dying or unwanted trees. The work is under the supervision of Carol Franklin of Andropogen Associates, a leading landscape design firm from our area. The Meeting has purchased the lot as a site for a new meetinghouse and we are now in the early stages of design work with architects James Bradberry and Associates, Andropogen Associates, and renowned “light” artist James Turrell, who has agreed to donate a significant artistic element to the new meetinghouse. We are still very much in the planning and funding stages, and it is not yet clear when any construction might begin. When we have more definite plans, we will be looking for ways to share them with the community before beginning the filings and disclosures required by building and zoning laws. We hope that we will not just obtain permission for our building project but the support and enthusiasm of our immediate neighbors (with whom we are already communicating) and the larger Chestnut Hill community. It is the Meeting’s intent to make our new property and, when it is built, our new meetinghouse, an asset to the Chestnut Hill community. Our current meetinghouse (100 East Mermaid Lane) is used as a meeting place for the Mount Airy Learning Tree and other community organizations, as well as a polling place. Our desire is to create an attractive new space that will serve the community in expanded ways and also enhance the aesthetic and spiritual life of our neighborhood. Meanwhile, if you encounter a crew of volunteers at work on our new site, please drop by to say hello!
Warren Witte, Clerk Not so fast… The cover-ups and lies foisted off on an unsuspecting public by dyed-in-the-wool rodeo proponents have been exposed. The truth is now out of the chute. Rodeo can no longer be defended. There’s more than enough horrific video evidence to refute claims that rodeo animals are treated well. One wild horse advocate described rodeo as an “absolute orgy of animal abuse.” It’s been said that animal welfare rules are nothing more than public relations. There are loopholes in virtually every one of the 60 “specific rules” Mr. Woodruff mentioned in an earlier letter [Local, Oct 5.] Tools of torture are used with abandon on terrified animals. They drive these animals into a frenzy, according to large animal veterinarian Dr. Peggy Larson. Without these there would be no rodeo. All manner of injuries commonly occur and are even expected. Death is no stranger either. Battered, used-up animals are trucked to slaughter. A Wyoming-Eagle Tribune article reported, “For years the general media around the country have promoted rodeo and almost completely ignored the massive evidence of blatant cruelty.” Rodeo is billed as great family entertainment. HELLO! Fans already corralled by these violent spectacles need to take stock. Bridget Irons Lack of confidence in vote counting Philadelphia has been a center of analysis and activism for verifiable voting. Among the local luminaries who have written about the loss of accountability are Steve Freeman at University of Pennsylvania, Lynn Landes at Temple University, Stephanie Singer of Haverford College, and Rob Kall, who edits OpEd News on the web. Half of Pennsylvanians, in a recent Zogby poll, expressed a lack of confidence that their votes are being properly counted. Philadelphia County votes on pushbutton machines made by Danaher. The voter has no way to know whether the votes recorded in the machine’s memory cartridge are the same as selections he made on the machine’s screen. (Computer programs in the machines are validated before each election by activating a switch in back, placing the machine in “test mode.” For anyone programming the machines with malicious intent, it would be an obvious precaution to make sure that they work as advertised while in ‘test mode’. In fact, ‘test mode’ bypasses the very memory cartridge that will record and transmit the official tally on election day.) Danaher machines became infamous in the 2004 election when they created a debacle in New Mexico. Over 26,000 votes were lost — simply un-recorded by the machines — predominantly in Native American and Hispanic communities. Nominally, George Bush won the state by 5,988 votes. Last month, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced HR 6200, Federal legislation that will mandate paper ballots, counted by hand in full public view, with results posted prominently on the door of each precinct. There were 20 co-sponsors. Pundits dismiss paper ballots as impractical, but in fact this is the way votes are counted in most of Canada, England and Germany. Paper ballots provide a physical record of the voter’s intent, which can be audited or re-counted if there is any question of error or impropriety. Americans vote locally, with only 600 votes in the average precinct. Experience has shown that these can be hand-counted in an hour or two. Hand-counting of votes may introduce small errors, but the opportunity for large errors is greatly reduced. HR 6200 is a great improvement over Gerald Holt’s bill, HR 550, which allows for auditing of just 2 percent of precincts, and fails to specify an appropriate follow-up procedure when, inevitably, disparities are discovered in these audits. Philadelphia’s Congressional delegation has not yet signed on to H.R. 6200, but we can encourage them to do so now, while the bill is still gathering core support, and while elections have our attention. Josh Mitteldorf |
