Letters
No room for vanity
It’s wonderful to know that the good brothers of Hiram Lodge, instead of simply throwing their building to the highest bidder in an open market, are making an honorable attempt to give something to our community by offering a purchasing plan to the Community Association. It’s also wonderful to know that the good leaders of the CHCA are making an honorable attempt to make the deal work. Of course, these things take great care, time and considerable quiet effort before the specifics can be made public, there is no guarantee of final agreement and, as always, final decisions must and will be made by the CHCA board.
Which is why I find the to-do list and darkling insinuations of Lawrence Walsh (Local, June 9) both baffling and insulting. Does he really believe that the leaders of the association must be reminded to inform the community and the board of all of the facts of the case before asking for support? His long cautionary list implies that CHCA executives would prefer to hide the cost of the building, mortgage, usage and revenue plans from the board while driving through a yes vote.
Mr. Walsh is great at innuendo, but offers no concrete proof of any wrongdoing or plans for wrongdoing. And he ends with a flourish when he warns us against the blandishments of “advocates driven by vanity and self-aggrandizement.” This calumny, a reprise of his personal attack on the CHCA president a few months ago, is beneath contempt.
As someone who’s served as CHCA president, I can assure him that: (1) the only opportunity for self-aggrandizement in that volunteer post is a small hope that one has done a decent job, and (2) the bruises and contusions suffered in the office leave no room for vanity.
Carol Cope
Chestnut Hill
Pass go
You did a great story on Monopoly (Local Life, June 9). Nice graphics too.
It is definitely one of most eye-catching covers of Local Life that I've seen in my 13 years as a subscriber.
Really enjoyed reading about the Germantown and Quaker connections to one of the world's favorite games.
Stacy Edmonds
Wyndmoor
Selective tourism
The “Accidental Tourist” Michelle Bowen (From Our Readers, June 9), who was squired about by Bowman Properties, missed a few hot spots. Perhaps the unfortunate would-be tenant Maurice Lavasani was not outside with his nose pressed against the plain brown wrapper at “Coming Soon-Shundeez Persian Restaurant” where his debt grows and his grand opening is nowhere in sight. (See the Chestnut Hill Local’s archive for the Feb. 17, 2005 issue.) Aside to the building owner: my eyes may be old, but not dead, and a check earlier this week (through the cracks) found sparse evidence of Men At Work.
Perhaps Under The Blue Moon was not on the itinerary as well. Maybe the guide stopped in the nick of time before slip-sliding down to the next block where the former “Resellers” dwelled and the rotting self-same brown paper indicates serious leaks inside the building — or the clever theatrics of having merchandise from Lavender Hill planted in three (or four or five) empty storefronts in the 8100 block of Germantown Avenue.
While she raved about the natural light and “verandas” in Bowman’s residential properties, I wonder if she had to inconvenience any tenants. The casual reader of the classifieds can attest that on nearly any given week, Bowman Properties certainly keeps up its end of supporting the economy with its rental ads. Perhaps Mr. Snowden is as vigilant in vetting his apartment dwellers as he is his merchants.
In a slight diversion, one wonders why the Chestnut Hill Business Association and non-member entrepreneurs do not appear to be offering Mr. and Mrs. Lavasani any support in their now year-long attempt to bring life to the deadest corner on Germantown Avenue.
M. Ni h'Uailaighe
Chestnut Hill
215-753-1633
Join the center
In the April 14 issue of the Chestnut Hill Local, you graciously featured the Cecilian Center for Earth, Arts and Spirit. Now that we have had our dedication and open house, we are looking forward to launching additional programs, and we welcome your readers to join us.
Schedules for programs are published in the Mt. Airy Learning Tree brochure. Additional programs will be published through our own mailing list. We welcome anyone who is interested. We also welcome recycled wooden bookcases, frames, art supplies and musical instruments. To add your name to our mailing list or to make a recycled contribution, please call 215-849-3364.
Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark, SSJ
Director, Cecilian Center for Earth, Arts and Spirit
Please respond
Editor’s note: the following is an open letter to U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah.
Since December 2004, the members of Northwest Greens have sought a meeting with you to discuss the war in Iraq.
We believe that there are profound moral implications to America’s pursuit of an unprovoked war: the killing of innocents, the institutionalization of torture, the plundering of Iraq’s oil reserves for private profit, and the squandering of American lives and financial resources.
This war is not supported by American public opinion, and in your home district, opposition to the war is particularly high. We are disappointed that your opposition to this war has been muted, and that you affirmatively supported the war in a vote on HR 1268 for supplemental war funding on March 16, 2005.
We ask again that you schedule a meeting to discuss the ongoing U.S. occupation of Iraq with representatives from Northwest Greens, a nonpartisan group of voters from Chestnut Hill, Germantown, Mt. Airy and Roxborough. We have been disappointed that our several requests over a period of five months have not generated a meeting or even a return call from you.
The undersigned members of Northwest Greens:
Chris Robinson, Bernadette Soltis, Kathryn M. Lopez, Carol McLean, Norma B. Brooks, Rev. Angela J. Rapalyea, Beverly Rolfsmeyer, Belinda Davis, Richmond Gardner, Josh Mitteldorf
Clean the station
Another correspondent has called attention to the disgusting state of the news boxes at the R7 underpass on Willow Grove Avenue. Boxes are broken, strewn with trash, and there was even a small fire. Someone in the neighborhood continually leaves shopping carts to add to the mess. I have contacted SEPTA to no avail as yet.
This situation is disrespectful of an important historic marker to Mower Hospital at the station. I would think that all users of this station and local residents would want this situation improved!
Sanford P. Sher
Chestnut Hill
Where do we begin?
As I read that every day almost 8,500 people die of AIDS worldwide and 14 million people die from transmissible diseases such as malaria, sleeping sickness and leishmania every year, I get frustrated. Our resources are limited in promoting one of the basic human rights: health. How can we eliminate suffering and how can we improve health? We not only need money to provide existing medicine to those who are suffering, but also we need more research and development to come up with cures to devastating diseases. We need empathetic leaders to distribute available funds wisely and effectively. Also, we must choose compassionate people to serve communities in dire need for health improvement and health education. Where do we begin?
Let’s start thinking globally not in terms of war, oil or boundaries, but in terms of peace, justice and human rights. Human rights are universal. Every human on this planet deserves freedom, peace, justice and good health. We must all think within the paradigm of social service. How can we live in peace? How can we stop violence? How can we all get along? Where do we begin?
Let’s stop violence and think of a better way. Wars are violence and are not solution to human rights and justice. The only way to promote justice is through peace. We must learn how to spread peace without violence. The collaboration, alliance, and education are among the tools for global autonomy and peace. How can we care for others? How can we eliminate hatred and misconceptions? How can we live with peace and good health? We must promote equilibrium thorough dedication, consideration, and education. We must endorse human rights. Where do we begin?
Aisha Ghias
Mount Airy
Unforgivable
How far will the Bush administration go to deny the dangers of global warming?
The New York Times, in an article published last week, reported that Philip A. Cooney, a White House official without scientific training, “removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors had already approved.”
The government office that produced the documents altered by Mr. Cooney is called the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. A 10-year plan for climate research issued by this office had been endorsed by the National Academy of Science. However, the scientists who endorsed the plan described in the altered documents “warned that the administration’s procedures for vetting [evaluating] reports on climate could result in excessive interference with science.”
Mr. Cooney, in his editing, removed whole paragraphs that described specific effects of global warming and inserted modifiers such as “possible,” “might” or “may,” making conclusions reached in the report appear to be in doubt.
Pressure from the administration’s strongest allies appears to have no influence on President Bush. One of Tony Blair’s objectives, in his recent visit to meet with the President, was to persuade him to intensify U.S. efforts to curb greenhouse gases recognized by science to be the major cause of global warming. Bush’s response was to reiterate that the current voluntary measures by industry to slow emissions are enough.
Global warming threatens the existence of all inhabitants of our planet.
As both the world’s leading nation and the largest producer of greenhouse gases, U.S. denial of the crises of global warming is unforgivable.
Dena Sher
Chestnut Hill |
