Pennsylvania lags behind

There’s a headline that could be used for so many posts–on public infrastructure, ease of obtaining absentee ballots, reform of property tax, quality of the state legislators, quality of secondary education, etc., etc., etc.

In August the New York Times ran a map of where the action was in government reform.  The article looked at current “vote reform efforts,” a relevant topic with our presidential election less than a month away.

The article listed four types of reform.  The list included lawsuits against gerrymandering on racial or partisan grounds, gerrymander reform efforts, a push to amend the Constitution to overturn the Citizens’ United ruling, and ballot initiatives on clean money.  South Dakota was listed for three of the four.

Pennsylvania was not listed for any of the reform efforts.  On the other hand, neither were Mississippi, New Jersey, South Carolina, or West Virginia, if that makes you feel any better.

Albertine Anthony, Award Winner

Each year the Towamensing Township Historical Commission presents an award to a township resident who has done the most to preserve township history.  This year’s award went to Albertine Anthony of East Stage Coach Road.  

Ms. Anthony, who owns a 90-acre preserved farm, recently had repairs made to her bank barn, which I believe to be the oldest existing barn in the township.  The barn is unique in our township; most bank barns are two-story, but Ms. Anthony’s barn is three stories tall; you back the wagon into the third story.  According to my father, who knew much more about these things than I do, there were no other three-story barns in the entire township.

Ms. Anthony also owns a historic cool cellar, and her house is over 100 years old.  She still maintains a garden that is weed-free and puts mine to shame.  She is an amazing woman and a township treasure.

She is also one of the main opponents of the proposed PennEast pipeline.  She said that if she wanted to ruin her farm, she would have done it herself.  Now a pipeline company proposes to cut a trench across her fields above her spring.  It’s not right.

Panther Valley drug forum

Tonight I attended a forum on drugs held at the Panther Valley High School.  Congressman Matt Cartwright and his Republican opponent, a staff member from Congressman Lou Barletta’s office and his Democratic opponent, and three candidates for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives–Democrat Neil Makhija, Libertarian Matt Schutter, and Republican Doyle Heffley–attended.

The staffer from Barletta’s office brought up Barletta’s “efforts” to seal the border with Mexico to prevent the importation of heroin, ignoring the fact that meth can be cooked in people’s kitchens and the fact that as long as the demand is there, people will get heroin.  Lou Barletta sings in one note, and it is off-key.

Heffley was his usual self, contorting himself to pat himself on the back for his bill to “combat addiction,” written by big pharma, since it involves selling “non-addictive” drugs at four to five times the cost.  Neil Makhija pointed out that similar bills had been vetoed in New Jersey, New York, and Maine as being ineffective.  Makhija also noted that Heffley had voted against the medical marijuana bill, denying cancer patients a treatment that would be to their benefit.

Someday Heffley may actually put the interests of his constituents before those of his party and his campaign contributors, but don’t hold your breath.

An editorial opinion

A number of newspapers like The Dallas Morning News, The Arizona Republic, and The Cincinnati Enquirer have endorsed Hillary Clinton, although they either had never endorsed a Democrat or had not endorsed one for years.  The USA Today had never endorsed any candidate for president until this year, when it endorsed Clinton.

Last week an article in the New York Times, which itself endorsed Clinton, was entitled “Editorial Writers Have Spoken, but Will the Voters Listen?”  The article noted that editorials don’t seem to influence many people.

Nonetheless, it is time for this blog to take a stand.  I hereby endorse Hillary Clinton for President.  I am doing this in part because she has a long record of fighting for the right causes, beginning when she was in college.  Because she sucked it up after Obama won the nomination in 2008 and loyally supported him.  Because the misogynists can’t stand the idea of her winning the presidency.  Because the issues that people hold against her are, in the face of global warming, income disparities, and international problems, minor stuff like email servers.  She is smart, able, and will probably do better than President Obama at dealing with Republicans in Congress.  She deserves our vote.

How many people will this endorsement affect?  I thinking it may tip the election. 

Debate questions I would have asked

Whose side are you on, the Indians or the pipeline company?

According to a report in the October 9 New York Times, victims of American torture continue to suffer both physical and psychological problems.  Do you condone torturing American prisoners?  If yes, would you use techniques of ISIS, the Nazis, or the Stalinists?

Are you a Lockean or a Hobbesian?

When I was a teenager in the Fifties, we usually experienced our first frost in early September.  Now it occurs in early October.  Is global warming really a hoax?

The Robbs fringe-limbed tree frog, discovered in a Panamanian forest in 2007, has already gone extinct.  The tadpoles of this frog lived in water-filled cavities high in trees.  Lacking food, the male frog would lower himself into the water, where the tadpoles would rasp the skin off his back for sustenance.  Now this frog is gone.  We are in the midst of what is sometimes called the 6th great extinction, of which this frog is one example.  Do you have any recommendations?  Do you even think this is a problem?

Missouri is an open carry state where anyone can buy a gun with no background check and no training and carry it around loaded.  Would you be willing to give a speech in Missouri with no Secret Service protection?  Would you let me know when it will occur?

Lincoln-Douglas debates

There wasn’t a lot of give and take at the Lincoln-Douglas debates.  One candidate spoke for an hour, followed by the other candidate for an hour and a half, followed by the first candidate for 30 minutes.  There were seven debates, and the candidates took turns being first.

In one of the debates Douglas accused Lincoln of believing that blacks were equal to whites, much to the amusement of the crowd.  When Lincoln had his turn, he brought in the philosophy of John Locke, and said that when a black man mixes his sweat with his labor, the product of that labor belongs to him, and in that regard he is the equal of Mr. Douglas or any other man.

His audience, quite familiar with Locke’s philosophy, agreed with Lincoln.

I wonder if tonight’s debate will reach that level.  I wonder if the audience will reach that level.  I have my doubts.

Anti-pipeline rally in Riegelsville

Today Linda and I attended a rally in opposition to the PennEast Pipeline in Riegelsville, a small community about eight miles south of Easton.  We heard from the Delaware River Keeper, a representative of the Sierra Club, a Lenape Indian, and about eight other speakers, including the president of “Save Carbon County,” a local environmental group that is fighting the pipeline.

That speaker, our very own Linda Christman, noted how Carbon County is still suffering the effects of the last extractive industry–coal.  Blighted towns, acid mine drainage, giant culm banks, black lung disease.  Now PennEast proposes a pipeline that will actually bring fewer benefits to the county than coal once did, but will add to water pollution, air pollution, declining property values, forest fragmentation, and harm to the tourism industry, all to benefit a few corporations.

The rally was held at a site along the Delaware to stress that people from both states are working to defeat this pipeline.  References were made to the fight in South Dakota.  The anti-pipeline movement is going national.  Actually, it is going international, with groups in Canada fighting pipelines as well.