Parking and traffic

I wish to make two comments on issues recently raised in the Local:

1. Parking lot usage

I think the proposed link between the lower usage of parking lots and the distance needed to walk from the lots to the stores ("Hill residents scrutinize business district" 11/25) is more farfetched than a link to the lack of diversity of stores and empty stores. Another aspect of the reduced use of our stores (and therefore parking lots) could be attributed to the greater number of two-career families and lack of evening hours.

2. Power of the press

Over a year ago, the neighbors of the unit bock of Abington Avenue petitioned the Streets Department to put four-way stop signs at Abington and Ardleigh. Most of the neighbors on the block signed the petition; there was only one person opposed. About 20 people showed up for a meeting on the corner with the Streets Department. We were turned down definitively despite having overwhelming neighborhood support and the support of the local council people.

What we did not do was call the Chestnut Hill Local.

Recently, the neighbors of Winston Road made an appeal for stop signs just one-half block from the corner at Abington. I think they prevailed, and quite quickly too, because of the serious coverage given by the Local. While we are not likely to get a stop sign at our corner now because of the closeness of the Winston Road signs, we hope to benefit by people slowing down for that sign.

Esta Jo Schifter
Chestnut Hill

Community-building time

With election 2004 I can't help but put my mind on the future of this country. Theories and accusations of voter fraud are throughout the Internet and are gradually making it onto the airways. What will all this do for our country? Yes, it will make our voter system more reliable in the long term. No, I'm not saying people should sit back while we are denied the right to vote. But, in this campaign to elect Senator John Kerry president, neighborhood organizations as well as national groups made a real concerted effort at community building and voter turnout.

In my district we increased voter turnout by 56 percent, the largest increase in our ward. We need to maintain the connections all of us made in getting out the vote. I see real possibilities for community building and neighborhood unification that could be sparked out of this movement.

People all across the country are angry at our leader and at our administration for things they have done to our population and to the world. If we can transform our anger into well-meaning actions in an organized manner, I think we can change things all over the country and in the world.

How do we go about doing this radical idea? The answer: people need to go back to the houses they canvassed, churches, mosques, synagogues and community centers they interacted with and organize people to get together and hash out ideas. We need to build communities and have a stronger base of support next time an election comes around, whether it be in one year, the local elections, two years, for the senate, or in four years. People can begin organizing now while they already have millions of personal connections.

On a national level we can also make a difference. Letter-writing and lobbying are very effective. Through the connections people made during this campaign season it would not be too difficult for people to organize a letter-writing campaign or a bus full of neighbors to go to the state capitol to lobby for a cause.

All this comes down to one simple fact. Don't stop here and don't let your hopes diminish. With President Bush heading for a second term, this is a wonderful time to begin the real work -- community building. It will be difficult at times, but we need to do it so we, the people of the United States of America, can retake our government.

Carl Sigmond
Mt. Airy

Love's lessons

Editor's note: Beth Stroud, the associate pastor at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown, will go on trial this week before a church committee for being an avowed lesbian.

I just finished reading the article about Beth Stroud in the local Mt. Airy paper. My mother, June LaFollette, attended FUMCOG until her death last December a few months before her 83rd birthday. I well recall her coming home one Sunday, obviously upset about something. She wandered about the house, read her Bibles, and finally sat down with me and said "One of the preachers at church has announced that she is a lesbian. I have never really thought about that, but I have always simply believed that it was wrong. But she is such a good person. I can't find any reason to believe that God would condemn her for being as she is. Don't you think that must be right."

I supported her conclusion. I have not met Stroud, nor heard her preach, but I must believe that my mother's assessment of her was correct -- that she is a good person. I have no doubt that her union with her partner is as important, as blessed, as dear to God as is my 32-year association with my wife. I also believe and pray that one day we as a society will learn to see past the superficial differences and understand that love is too precious to squander by limiting its expression. We will then, I hope, look back with sorrow at our current attempts to diminish those creatures whom God has chosen to bless with unfamiliar gifts.

Beth Stroud is doing much to hasten the arrival of that day. I cannot adequately express my admiration. Her choice to walk in the truth clearly touched my mother, challenged her thinking, and brought her to a deeper understanding of God's wonder and love. May she ever feel God's loving presence giving her strength and courage.

Paul LaFollette
Mt. Airy

A gift to the world

As we begin to celebrate this holiday season, many of our homes and places of worship, and visible at the avenues, the poinsettias decorate this festive activity.

The Flor de la Noche Buena (flower of Christmas Eve), a plant that was introduced from Mexico. The Aztecs called them Cuetlaxochitle and used their bracts or modified leaves to make a reddish dye.

After the advent of Christianity, it became associated with Christmas.

American scientists decided to call the plant poinsettia in honor of the American ambassador Joel Roberts Poinsett, former ambassador to Mexico who introduced and propagated the plant in the United States.

How it acquired his name is a story in itself.

President Andrew Jackson appointed Joel Roberts Poinsett as the first American ambassador to Mexico in 1820. He was an amateur botanist and was responsible for introducing the American elm into Mexico. Eight years after his appointment, he was wandering in the countryside in search of a new plant species. To his surprise, he saw a hillside that was dark the day before. Now, it was covered with red "flowers." His guide told him the lore of how the Flor de la Noche Buena acquired its name and its red "flowers."

It was Christmas Eve. He said that everyone was going to the cathedral with gifts for the Holy Infant, The Light of the World. Everyone, but a little girl who was too poor to acquire anything for the newborn Jesus noticed a green plant and its leaves turning red. The child broke off the part that had the colorful bract and presented it as her gift to the Christ child.

Ambassador Poinsett sent species of the Flor de la Noche Buena to his South Carolina plantation. From there, cuttings from the plants were distributed to other botanists and by 1835 there was a strong interest in the plant.

It is Mexico's Christmas gift to the whole world but it bears the name of an American ambassador.

Orgelius Wolff
Chestnut Hill

Vote against rezoning

On Dec. 8, the Springfield Board of Commissioners will render a decision on the Tecce property-rezoning proposal, with critical implications for all open spaces in the township. Mr. Tecce and his associates wish to rezone his 41-acre tract in the Springfield Panhandle to an amended classification allowing an age-restricted community. The proposal would allow building density at 3.5 times the current limit, reduce setback requirements and permit building on environmentally sensitive steep slopes. Most importantly, the proposal would overturn the property's current AAA zoning classification, enacted just 18 months ago with the specific intent to encourage creative site design and preserve our precious remaining open spaces.

On Oct. 21 of this year, over 150 people packed a Springfield auditorium to express their opposition to the rezoning proposal. The Board of Commissioners therefore has a dual opportunity: 1) To respond to the overwhelming community desire to refuse the rezoning proposal and 2) To voice unwavering support for Springfield's creative and visionary AAA zoning classification.

The board can best seize these opportunities by voting in the affirmative on an explicit motion to deny the Tecce proposal. We urge the commissioners to take this action.

Brennan Preine for the Friends of the Springfield Panhandle