February 21, 2008 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of Two |
Opinion
Footinmouthitis The governor, known for his underwhelming impulse control, opined on would-be Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama’s electability in Pennsylvania to a group of Pittsburgh newspaper editors and said: “You’ve got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate.” It wasn’t long before the criticisms of Rendell began to pile up, the most notable local critic was Philadelphia NAACP head J. Whyatt Mondesire who said, “It was callous and insensitive … We want him to apologize to all people, white and black.” Even those who can’t help suspecting a bit of political gamesmanship in the comment — Rendell is an avowed supporter of Obama’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and sowing seeds of doubt about Obama’s electability could help Clinton —would have to acknowledge their truth. After all, Pennsylvania is known to contain a sizeable population of white supremacists. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 21 white supremacist groups are operating in Pennsylvania. In that light, Rendell’s statement is as profound an insight as noting that grass is green. Though this may be the case, political observation (particularly the observation of a seasoned politician like Rendell) might have noted that a statement so obvious perhaps wasn’t really accurate. He might have allowed for the fact that Obama’s race has not slowed him down significantly elsewhere. In fact, the man seems to be defying a lot of conventional wisdom in his historic run. A year ago, I was certain that Obama wasn’t much more than a media darling of the moment, a guy who could inspire political reporters and disaffected Howard Dean fans still smarting from 2004. There’s no way I would have bet that an African-American man with the name Barak Hussein Obama could possibly win a single election in America. Yet now he stands poised to win the Democratic nomination with a decisive win in either Ohio or Texas. I guess I’m lucky I didn’t write of my doubts… I’d be eating a lot of crow right now. I think Rendell did not mean any harm by his remarks. He’s been honest even when it’s not in his best interest. Remember he once famously angered the entire Democratic party when, as national committee chair in 2000, he called on Al Gore to concede. But, it’s a wonder that he would say something that is likely not going to prove true, or at least not decisive. If he was really honestly considering the Democratic choice, he probably should have admitted in the same breath that those conservative candidates might be hard-pressed to vote for a woman, too. It is likely Rendell’s gaffe was not veiled racism, but rather the expression of a political observation lacking credibility and insight. Pete Mazzaccaro
Opinion: This liberal supports the war As a liberal, I support the war in Iraq for the same reasons that I supported the Bush I war in Kuwait, the Clinton war in Bosnia-Kosovo and the Bush II war in Afghanistan. For me, that goes to the heart of the matter. Four wars over three consecutive Republican-Democratic administrations with three different presidents tells me there’s a lot more at stake here than Bush II and “his” war in Iraq. I mean, like (a) our support of Iraq in its eight-year war with Iran, (b) the Clinton-British “no fly” zone and air strikes, (c) a borderless nation of some 32 million Kurds who spill out of Turkey into Iran and Iraq, where they were poison-gassed by Saddam, (d) Israel’s preemptive destruction in 1981 of a nuclear reactor being built in Iraq by the French, (3) a 15-0 United Nations vote, including that of Iraq’s immediate neighbor Syria, to impose sanctions on Iraq for its non-cooperation with international nuclear inspectors and (f) the Clinton resolution, ratified by the Congress in 1998, declaring “regime change” in Iraq to be “official policy of the United States.” Years ago, the Balkans became a vortex of ethnic and national instabilities that created a “Tinderbox of Europe” where the assassination of somebody’s archduke set off World War I. Re-program that lesson exponentially for today’s Middle East with its more expansive geography and a far larger population with a highly volatile mix of national, ethnic and religious extremisms. Factor in the nuclear component and we’re confronted with a sobering array of possibilities. Which brings me to my problems with liberals who passionately oppose the war with nary a nod to the implications of their position. Where would we be if Saddam were still a player in the simmering stew of Israel-Palestine-Syria-Lebanon-Egypt-Pakistan-Gaza-Hamas-Saudi Arabia-Iran-Taliban-Hezbollah-West Bank-AlQueda? Saddam was every bit as dedicated to the destruction of Israel as is Ahmadinejad, his counterpart in Iran, and both of them were clearly pursuing a nuclear arms program. Ahmadinejad has recently reported that he ended (suspended?) his nuclear program years ago. That would not have happened if Saddam were still on the scene. And how can any of us cast a blind eye on the millions of human beings who “disappeared” during the reign of Saddam? A study reported in the National Geographic got the total at 27 million. Even the lower figure is substantially more than the entire population in Philadelphia. The real tragedy here is not the war, but what Saddam did to his own country. Rich with oil revenue, Iraq was a thriving economy with a prosperous, cultured middle class. Saddam drove that economy into ruin and the middle class into poverty. Ten years of UN sanctions brought painful hardship to everyone and death to a quarter of a million people. The unforgivable failure of the Bush administration is that it had no program for rebuilding the country. A Marshall Plan for Iraq could have been the key to a brighter future for the Middle East and the international community at large. Barack Obama says we should have let Saddam fade into “the dustbin of history.” That would have meant another decade or so of his horrors followed by yet another generation or so of Qusay and Uday, who were even more sadistic and, no doubt, would have been even more reckless internationally than their father. The world should be most thankful that Obama’s was a road not taken.
Plea to Rendell to address effects of construction on local businesses Today, I received an e-mail from Joe Certaine, a representative of Governor Ed Rendell’s office, concerning my request for marketing dollars to keep businesses along Germantown Avenue open during PennDOT construction. I was shocked by his reversal in position and the state’s refusal to accept any responsibility relating to PennDOT construction on Germantown Avenue. PennDOT is carrying out a $17 million reconstruction of Germantown Avenue from Nippon Street in Mt. Airy to Mermaid Lane in Chestnut Hill. This one-year project began in September and will continue through the end of 2008, assuming the contractor stays on schedule. Street closures began on Martin Luther King Day, and nearly 100 businesses have been significantly impacted. The Trolley Car Diner & Deli recently laid off seven employees, revenues at TLA Video are down 25 percent and Cresheim Cottage Café has been forced to close a couple of Saturdays at lunch time because of a lack of parking space, just to name a few. To be clear, it is PennDOT, a state agency, that initiated and is conducting the construction on Germantown Avenue in Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. Certaine’s statement that the community should look to the city’s Commerce Department and not the state for funding as a result of a state project is counter-intuitive. When Certaine sat down with me and a group of local business people at the offices of Mt. Airy USA, he said clearly that if our elected officials — state representatives, state senator and city councilwoman — showed leadership on this issue by agreeing to provide funding to keep our businesses alive, the governor would support our efforts. Now that some of our local elected officials have opened their wallets, Certaine is changing his tune. According to Certaine’s e-mail, the “governor’s office does not fund requests for marketing from business entities.” There seem to be plenty of funds available when the governor wants to help big businesses, but when small businesses are struggling to survive as a result of state intervention there is no money to be found. Certaine said in his recent e-mail that we “should contact the Commerce Department of the City of Philadelphia.” Done. He said that we should contact our state legislators. Done. He also requested that we should work with Mt. Airy USA. Did that. The Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill business community have now jumped through every hoop that Certaine has put in front of us. We kept our end of the bargain, now it is time for Certaine to keep his promise of funding. I have to assume that Certaine is speaking for himself, not for Governor Rendell. I cannot imagine that the governor would unleash a major reconstruction of Germantown Avenue with total disregard for the business community that he so strongly supported over the years. I remember the opening of Cresheim Cottage Café in 1997 when then Mayor Rendell cut the ribbon and said that Cresheim Cottage is exactly the type of new business that we need in our city and region. More recently, I remember the overwhelming, positive reaction that Governor Rendell had when he heard that there was now an authentic, stainless-steel diner on Germantown Avenue. Certaine cannot be speaking on behalf of the governor because our governor would never give us so much encouragement and assistance as a business district and then show a total lack of interest in keeping us alive. Certaine mentions in his e-mail that the “infrastructure upgrades and streetscape improvements have taken 16 years in planning and compromise.” Where was the planning to keep businesses open during and after construction? Where was the thoughtful analysis of dealing with the jobs that would be lost and the lives affected as a result of the intrusive PennDOT construction? Sixteen years of planning, and yet none of the short- or long-term effects on the local business district were taken into consideration. The local community is doing what it can to continually support local businesses. I am heartened every time I hear someone say that they are going out of their way to eat at local restaurants, buy from local retailers and do business with local service providers as a result of the PennDOT construction. The Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill business community can only overcome the challenges caused by PennDOT with the strong support from and an increase in spending by our neighbors. But we need the governor’s support as well. I call on the governor to speak for himself and directly address the need to keep jobs and businesses in Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill during the next year of PennDOT construction. The governor’s absence in this discussion has been noticeable and needs to change. How many more jobs need to be eliminated before the governor acts? Ken Weinstein is owner of Trolley Car Diner & Deli (www.trolleycardiner.com) and serves as chair of the Mt. Airy Business Improvement District.
Your freedom to swing your cat ends where my nose begins This is a column about how your cats kill our our birds and we don’t like it. Occasionally, believe it or not, I look up from my reading and writing and notice a few things happening in the real world. For instance, today, under the bird feeder, I saw a cute little fluffy mound of feathers. Beautiful, delicate colors. I think I knew that bluejay. There were three that came into my yard and now I see only two. Last week all the birds were calling and scolding, as were the squirrels, and I went out and found a Yellow-shafted flicker in its death rattle near the back fence, a gray tabby batting it around for pleasure. The world seems to be divided between people who love wildlife, especially birds, and people who say they love wildlife, but let their cats out anyway. From the moment a cat leaves the house it has only two things on its mind. The first is: what objects in my neighbor’s yard can I pee on so I can mark my territory; and two: what living thing (smaller than I, of course) can I creep up on and then grab, torture and kill?All day long I see them coming over or under the fence, slinking along the side, staying in the shadows, hoping to catch and kill a small animal. I never see a chipmunk in my backyard anymore. Haven’t seen a snake, tortoise or frog in ages. I used to see ground or low-canopy nesting birds, like ovenbirds, every year, but I’ll probably never see them again. All gone, killed by cats. Wiped out. On a national basis, a number of species are near extinction because of domestic cat predation. If the cats were wild, their numbers would perhaps settle down — if people didn’t feed them. It would take a while though, because they are the equivalent of an introduced foreign species in their impact on the environment. There are millions of them loose in America. But they are not wild. They live in warm, comfortable homes. If I can judge by the ones I see coming through my yard every day, they are well-fed too. They do not hunt because they’re hungry. They are just hard-wired to kill. Ok, they are beautiful and they have a supermodel’s ability to pretend they like you by rubbing against you to get you to do favors for them. For certain easily-flattered, easily-manipulated people they make perfect house pets. Felix domesticus. But they don’t belong outdoors. They are creating havoc with America’s wildlife. Responsible people, who care about the delicate balance of nature, or what’s left of it, should keep their cats indoors. I’m often tempted to say something to my neighbors about their cats stinking up my lawn furniture, my bushes, my steps, my garden “statues” and any boxes or bags I leave around outdoors. And I really want to go the whole cranky route sometimes and complain to them about the birds their cats kill for no good reason. But first of all, I don’t know who owns these three cats. There’s a gray-striped tabby, an orange thug, and a delicate black-and-white splotched cat that come through here. I think I know the tabby’s owners, but, if I’m right, I could never complain because they chased a burglar away from my house a few years ago and I can’t be an ingrate. And I know also that anyone who goes around complaining about the cats who come through his yard sounds like a nutty old crank. Next thing you know, he’ll be complaining about the price of oil, the war or that he recently saw an advertisement to purchase a plastic “Santa Kneeling with the Magi” Christmas creche. The problem is not “cats just being cats.” The problem is people being people. People being thoughtless. People remaining willfully ignorant of the effect of their personal wants and pleasures in destroying the world other people also have rights in. And people being gutless, in that they are not willing to say “no” to their cats’ desires for personal fulfillment. I know that sounds ridiculous. But anyone who has an outdoor cat knows that if they try to keep the cat indoors the cat will howl, and scratch, and cry, and purr and rub up against them, and play the violin off-key and do whatever it takes to make their weak owners open the door with a sigh and say, “What can I do?” I went on the Internet looking for advice. I considered “Wanted” posters — you know “Wanted for Blue Jay Murder,” etc. I didn’t know whose house to hang them in front of, and nobody walks in this neighborhood. I considered “Havahart” traps, but they’re probably illegal for domestic animals in our town and I couldn’t figure out where to release the cats afterward. I considered hiring a Cat Sheriff, a big cat who walks the yard wearing a badge, committed to protecting the birds and chipmunks. What I settled on was a “Supersoaker.” That’s a “water pistol” to older folks. Shaped like a space gun it holds a lot of water and shoots it about 20 feet. Unfortunately they make no aesthetic colors for such things, so mine is neon orange, lime and yellow. The Internet says that if you wet the cats a few times they’ll learn to stay away from your borders. We’ll see. I fully expect any wet cats to return with lawyers or protection orders or hunting permits. There is no crime a cat would not commit if it could. Hugh can be reached at gilmorebooks@yahoo.com.
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