An association of their own

  It’s now official. The Chestnut Hill Business Association has declared war on the residents of Chestnut Hill. It began with a skirmish last fall when Greg Welsh (president of the CHBA) and Mike Hickey (board member of the CHBA) came to a CHCA board meeting with the intent of controlling the editorial content of the Local. It continued with attempts to portray the Local as a badly managed money-losing entity, when the real sick cows are the chronically under-funded CHCA and the Chestnut Hill Community Fund, which has lost a big chunk of its principal. This all culminated in a late-night attempt to fire the editor of the Local.

  What precipitated this attack? The first goal is obvious. The CHBA wishes to control what’s written in the Local in order to make it a chamber of commerce mouthpiece. The second goal is more insidious. The CHCA has long been recognized as the community’s means of regulating development. If business interests control the CHCA there will be no safeguards to protect the residents of Chestnut Hill.

  The “Positively Chestnut Hill Team” is portraying itself as fresh leadership with new ideas. These are the same people (and their fellow travelers) who through the CHBA, the Parking Foundation and the Business Improvement District have presided over a business district with a crumbling streetscape and many long-vacant storefronts, some of which have facades that would look at home in Baghdad.

  It is time for something new. It is time to give up on the CHCA, which has become an albatross that provides little benefit to the residents of Chestnut Hill. It is time to establish a new democratic entity which truly represents the will of those who live here.

  Look forward to hearing from the Chestnut Hill Neighbors United, a new non-dues-paying organization that will include all residents in the 19118 Zip Code. Save the date, Wednesday, May 6, for an organizational meeting at the Chestnut Hill Library.

Joseph A. Pizzano
CHCA Board Member

New digs, new name and thanks to be made

During the past few weeks, the Chestnut Hill Senior Center has undergone several changes. It has changed its name to the Chestnut Hill Center for Enrichment or CHCE; it has moved to the very heart of town at 8431 Germantown Avenue, and it has joined other non-profits and become part of the Mt. Airy Community Services Corporation (MACSC). What has not changed are the many and varied programs that the center has been offering for more than 30 years.

First of all, thank you to the CHCA and CHCF for their support for so many years. Without the yearly grants, the center would not have survived. Secondly, we are grateful to the Chestnut Hill Village for allowing us to extend our lease several times as we searched for a new site. Thirdly, thanks to the members of the Board of Governors of the CHCE who helped pack, move, unpack, hang curtain rods, etc. They, of course, were led and joined by the center’s director, Mary Zell, and the assistant director and grant writer, Sue Davis. Mary and Sue kept us on task!

Finally and most importantly, my thanks go to Richard Snowden, without whom we would not have a home in such a prominent spot in Chestnut Hill. Our search for a new location took us up and down the “Avenue,” until Mr. Snowden came forward and offered us the space at 8431 Germantown Ave., at a rental fee that we could afford. The new center has been painted from top to bottom, has had the floors re-done, and was had a kitchen installed, all thanks to Mr. Snowden and his ever-helpful staff.

We are now open for business. Please come to visit us and discover what we are all about.

Marilyn M. Paucker, President
Board of Governors, CHCE

Reader offended by ‘racist’ quote

I have been a resident of Chestnut Hill for the past two years, am employed in the area and am familiar with many of the local faces, shops and businesses. I am writing to express my disappointment with an article in your March 19 issue (“Ex-Marine/antiwar protester now ‘Best’ in both Hill and Center City”). While the writing  by Len Lear is wonderful, the fact that you published a clearly racist quote by Schieber (owner of Jonathan Best) about the “inspiration” he gained from the “nice, 70 percent black” staff at Reading Terminal Market was extremely offensive and disappointing to me, and several other Chestnut Hill residents and business owners.

I was expecting a note in the article about the ignorance of Schieber’s comments, but there was none. Because the quote was published in the article with no recognition, it gives the perspective that the Chestnut Hill Local not only sympathizes with beliefs such as these, but also gives the illusion that everyone in the area is as ignorant, and as outspoken with their ignorance, as Schieber.

In times like these, it would seem appropriate to cut a quote like that, or, if you must choose to publish it, maybe to do a footnote that illuminates the fact that Schieber is clearly not deserving of the attention or patronage that he, and his store, receive.

I can guarantee that any minority reader, and non-minority reader as well, who does not have racist beliefs, was extremely outraged with the comments published in the article. While I do not mean to point any fingers at you, your editor or the other writers for the Local who let a quote like this make it into the paper, I feel it is your responsibility to properly represent the area and the people in it, so maybe a head’s up that a racist comment was made would have been appropriate.

Mikaela Jensen-Roseman
Chestnut Hill

Len Lear replies: Dave Schieber is probably one of the most open-minded, non-racist people in Chestnut Hill. I do not believe his comment was racist, and we received no other calls or letters of complaint. But even if I did object to the comments of any interview subject, it is not our job to censor the comments (unless they are obscene or libelous), add “footnotes” indicating our disagreement or enforcing any kind of ideological orthodoxy. Any reader who is offended by any article can write to us with their complaints, and we always print the letters.

Guns and butter again

 Here’s President Obama on his “new”Afghanistan policy: “At stake in taking on our adversary is nothing less than the safety of people around the world. We are increasing U.S. forces and training so the Afghan military can defeat the Taliban and take control. This is how we will ultimately be able to bring our troops home.”

Afghan President Karzai embraced the additional U.S. help.

SOUND FAMILIAR? Why not? It’s not so new.

  Substitute South Vietnam for Afghanistan and you will hear the ghostly voices of  President Lyndon B. Johnson, the original “Guns and Butter” exponent, 44 years ago, and his warhawk spokesmen Dean Rusk, secretary of state, and Robert McNamara, secretary of defense. And, of course, the South Vietnamese government “embraced the additional U.S. help.”

Well, as we all know, we were forced to bring our troops home after defeat by the National Liberation Forces at a cost of 53,000 U.S. and three million Vietnamese dead.

The current president promised that the U.S. would hold itself and others accountable by using “benchmarks.” How about the “benchmark” of previous invasions by the British and Soviets who were eventually forced to leave Afghanistan?

Lawrence Geller
Logan

Octomom not the issue

The recent news story about Octomom prompted the following connections for me.

The public and the media seemed to be generally horrified not only with the desire of this mother of six to have so many more children but with the complicity of her doctor or clinic in making her pregnancy possible.  Why would someone who is a single mother six times over desire to have so many more children?  Why would a doctor agree to such a procedure, especially when the risks of defects in the babies would be so high?

This woman followed her desires and the clinic acted as a vehicle for those desires.  She wanted more babies and she got them.

I, too, am horrified by her and the clinic’s actions, but I cannot understand why the public is so horrified in light of the great weight given to individual desire in making important decisions in our society today.  After all, our laws are interpreted to imply that a fetus is not a baby unless one desires to have a baby.  That is to say, if one becomes pregnant, one gets to choose how to regard the fetus — an inconvenient piece of tissue to be evacuated or a baby with whom one begins to fall in love from the moment one finds oneself pregnant. Perhaps Octo-mom has some sort of mental illness, but she was just following her desires. Like an abortion clinic, the reproduction clinic made this possible.

If it is legal to follow our desires in procuring abortions, what is all the fuss about one woman following her desires in procuring multiple children?

For the above reasons, and others, I am pro-life.  I don’t think our desires should determine whether a fetus is a person or not.  I know my feelings are just too changeable, and I am pretty certain most other people’s are as well.  (For example, the feelings of over 50 percent of married people change, ending their marriages in divorce.)

So, given the context of our culture, I feel no righteous indignation toward this woman.  What I feel is sadness for her children, who will likely never know a healthy mother’s love or the presence and love of their father.  I am disappointed that my taxes must probably be used to support these children, but it’s the least I can do, given this start to their lives, for which they have had no choice.

Mary Dempsey-Lau
Chestnut Hill

‘Honored’ to be in Local article

On behalf of John and me, I wanted to thank you very much for the lovely article on us in this week’s Local (“Hill activist named ‘Favorite Straight Person of the Year’”).  We were so honored that the Local wanted to run this story about us and even more thrilled when we saw what a nice and flattering job you all did!

Please thank Chris DePaul (writer) and Erin Vertreace (photographer) as well for their efforts. I doubt there will be many Locals left on the stands after today as John and I are busy scurrying around to buy them out!

Again, thanks so much for your kind coverage. It is especially wonderful to be honored in “one’s own country” of Chestnut Hill!

Take care and keep up your good work at the Local. Len Lear’s articles alone are worth the price of the paper!

Ruth S. Cella
Chestnut Hill

Remembering Dermott Glackin

On the fifth anniversary of the search for Dermott Glackin, we are comforted by memories of the unceasing efforts and support so many members of the community and surrounding areas put forth in an effort to find him. We will always be grateful and forever keep you in our prayers. Thank you again and may God bless you all.

The Family of Dermott Glackin