Monday, October 16, 2017

Visitors from California

My brother-and sister-in law are visiting from California.  I’m having some difficulty explaining Pennsylvania customs to them.  For example:

Why are there so many villages?  There seems to be one at just about every crossroads.  Trachsville, Klecknersville, New Mahoning, Little Gap, and thousands more.

Why are some boroughs, like East Side or Parryville, smaller in population than many townships like Penn Forest or Mahoning?

Why must you go to one store to buy rum, another to buy a case of beer, and a third to buy a six-pack?

Why hasn’t Pennsylvania imposed a severance tax on fracked gas when every other state in the country has done that?

How can a township supervisor run for office and then work for the township, being, in effect, his or her own boss?

Why do judges run in partisan elections?  Shouldn’t they be non-partisan?

Why hasn’t Pennsylvania formed a commission to draw legislative boundaries that make sense?

Why do we have partisan “row offices” for what should be civil service jobs?

Why are our parks so badly underfunded?  


I have an answer for them.  I just shrug and say, “It’s Pennsylvania.” 

2 comments:

  1. That's correct. I guess its the way things were set when this country got established and never changes. We just stay with the status Quo.

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  2. I think the best one is that we still have a prothonotary. I taught a course in state government, and I'm still not exactly sure what a Pennsylvania prothonotary does. I just hope I'm spelling it correctly.

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