So happy to be back in Paris ! The 2013 France diaries, Part I

We were so happy to be back in Paris. The last time we were in Paris was during our sabbatical in 1999 and we never thought it would be almost 14 years before we returned. After the dollar tanked in relation to the Euro in the early 2,000’s, we started going to Latin America and had some great trips to Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Puerto Rico for a fraction of the cost of a European vacation.

But when we retired, we came face to face with the reality that there was no longer a seemingly infinite expanse of trips ahead of us. Some hard choices had to be made. We decided we were too old to put off going where we really wanted to go and so we started going back to Europe –-several trips to Portugal, Spain and Southern France.

This year we had planned to go to Istanbul. Rick wanted to see Hagia Sophia and we both thought that Istanbul was a city we should see, but somehow we couldn’t seem to focus on planning for the trip.

A few months ago a friend called and told us she was planning to go to the Dordogne in September. When I got off the phone, I said to Rick, “Joanne is going to the Dordogne.” He said wistfully, “I’d like to go back to the Dordogne.” I said, "I’ve always wanted to go back to the Dordogne.” (We were there in the mid- 1980’s.) We looked at each other and decided to forget Istanbul. We were going to France!

We no longer had trouble focusing on our trip and started happily making plans to go to France. The itinerary was: 3 days in Paris, 4 days in the Dordogne, 4 days in Bordeaux, and another 3 days in Paris at the end.

Our first day in Paris, we were deliriously happy just to be there. Despite being seriously jet-lagged, we walked all over Paris visiting familiar beloved places such as the courtyard of the Louvre. We had a glass of wine at a cafe right in front of the now iconic glass pyramid and watched the long lines at the entrance to the museum. (There is no such thing as off-season for the Louvre.) We decided this trip we'd take a pass on the Louvre. We went to Paris many times during our working years and have been to the Louvre many times. The crowds and the overwhelming size of the Louvre are just too much for these senior travelers.

We visited the d’Orsay Museum of 19th century art which is worth it for the building alone—a converted 19th century train station. All we managed to see was the very extensive impressionist and post-impressionist collection on the 5th floor, but we planned to go to the d’Orsay again on our return to Paris. The d’Orsay has what is surely one of the most spectacular museum restaurants in the world.
Those 19th century major city railroad stations where very elaborate affairs—with lavish waiting rooms and restaurants. The building,the restaurant, the views of Paris from the museum windows are worth a visit in and of themselves!!!

The War on Drugs: The shame of the baby-boom generation.

The movement to legalize marijuana is getting more attention of late. At the recent PA Democratic State Committee meeting, delegates were raising the issues with candidates for the 2014 gubernatorial and legislative races. The State Committee Black Caucus considered a resolution in favor of legalization but decided that it made more sense at this point to raise the issue with candidates.

In support of these efforts,I've decided to re cycle an op-ed piece, “War on drugs: Time for boomers to 'fess up” published in the Philadelphia Daily News in 2006. The Daily News editors are responsible for the silly title. My original title was "The War on Drugs: A War Against Women"; I was emphasizing the gender dimension as I was writing in my capacity as then president of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women.

The op-ed Is unfortunately still timely. Too many people are being locked up, too many lives ruined for low level drug offenses. From the op-ed:

The willingness to incarcerate large numbers of people for minor drug offenses is the shame of the baby-boom generation.

A generation of young people in the '60s and early '70s experimented with drugs and for the most part did so with impunity.

Many powerful and successful women and men in our society experimented with drugs in their youth. But their careers were not derailed; their families were not torn apart. Sadly, they are now willing to ignore the fact that another generation of women and men are being incarcerated in appalling numbers for drug-related crimes.

In 1972, Ms. Magazine published a petition headlined: "We have had abortions." Fifty-three well-known U.S. women declared that they had undergone abortions - despite state laws rendering the procedure illegal.

Perhaps we need a petition like this to address the issue of illegal drugs. (I'm not equating abortion with using illegal drugs, just suggesting a strategy to call attention to a problem.)

We need people who experimented with drugs and became productive citizens who are willing to say, "I used illegal drugs and went on to become a productive member of society. I and other members of my generation were not incarcerated for long periods of time for what would be considered low-level drug offenses. The current war on drug is having a devastating impact on low-income families (particularly low-income communities of color) and our current policy of mass incarceration must be stopped."

Such a petition might be what we need to get action on Pennsylvania House Bill HB 751, which seeks to address prison overcrowding by abolishing mandatory minimums for certain non-violent offenses. Any takers? *

Book Event for Feminism in Philadelphia at Giovanni's Room: Why We Need Independent Bookstores

Last week I had a book reading/signing event for Feminism in Philadelphia: The Glory Years, 1968-1982 at Giovanni's Room. It was my second event—the first was at the national NOW Conference in Chicago in July.

The Giovanni’s Room event was so much more enjoyable. For one thing, many of the attendees were personal friends including many of my CCP colleagues and Philadelphia NOW sisters. Also, three of the women featured in the book were there. We had NOW's founding members, NOW's current leaders, and young people who might become the future of NOW engaged in intergenerational dialogue.

But what also made the event really special for me was that it was held in Giovanni’s Room, a legendary bookstore which has been a resource for the LGBT community for forty years. I felt really honored to do a reading in a place with such a rich history.

I recently learned that Giovanni's Room is up for sale. Let’s hope it’s bought by someone who intends to maintain its history as resource to the LGBT community. Independent bookstores have been critical to the growth of social justice movements, sponsoring cultural events as a service to the community. It would be a great loss if we no longer have independent bookstores playing this vital role.

Ed Hernance, the owner of Giovanni’s Room told me that there are still many independent bookstores in France and Germany because of government regulations that prevent conglomerates from slashing prices in order to drive small businesses out of existence. So it doesn’t have to be this way.

It’s unlikely in our largely unregulated form of capitalism that we could get such regulatory reforms, but we can make choices as consumers which might give stores such as Giovanni’s room a shot at surviving. I have vowed to resist the temptation to buy books from Amazon. Yes, it’s easy and cheap, but Amazon has been systematically destroying those independent bookstores which have sustained so many communities.

And yes, you can buy Feminism in Philadelphia: The Glory Years, 1968-1982 from Amazon but you can also order it from Giovanni’s Room.

Japanese Anemone, Asters, Sedum: The Stars of my Fall Garden

Japanese Anemone

In the first week of September, I went to a garden center which has a well-deserved reputation for correctly diagnosing all sorts of garden problems. I brought in some infested leaves and asked if the problem was aphids. I was fairly certain that was the case but wanted confirmation. Diagnosis confirmed—-I had a major aphid infestation.

I asked if there was something that wasn’t too toxic that would kill aphids. The only option was not terribly effective insecticidal soap. I briefly considered one of the powerful poisons, but resisted temptation and bought the insecticidal soap.

The man who sold it to me said: "Why don’t you just cut the perennial plants to the ground and throw out the annuals—-it’s the end of the season."

What? There’s a whole Fall season ahead of us. The Japanese anemones, now at peak bloom, are the stars of my Fall garden. They start blooming at the end of August and bloom until frost. The blend beautifully with the asters which are tough plants but unfortunately have a shorter season of bloom.


Aster

The sedum are in bloom all Fall and the seedheads persist into the winter, providing food for birds.

Sedum


In addition to the Fall blooming perennials there are the summer annuals which bloom non-stop into Fall, like the tough,always reliable Cleome
Cleome

And then there are the berries. They may not be fragrant flowers but they sure provide color.

Crabapple Berries

The season does not end in the beginning of September! (At least not in the Delaware Valley.)

Early Voting is a women’s issue

On September 4, 2013, I was among the many concerned citizens testifying at President Obama’s non-partisan Commission on Election Administration Testimony on behalf of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women . Let’s hope some real reform occurs as a result of this. From my testimony:

The Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women is committed to making voting easier in Pennsylvania. This is especially important if we are to increase participation in non-presidential year elections. If the people who came out in November 2012 had come out in 2010, we’d have a different congress and in Pennsylvania a different state legislature with major consequences for redistricting. People may be willing to wait in line for hours to vote for the President, but this generally doesn’t carry over to state legislators.

Although making voting easier impacts both men and women in a sense this is a women’s issue as women are the ones most likely to be juggling work and family and thus having trouble getting to the polls—especially, when their work place is far from their home or, as is increasingly the case, they are also juggling several part-time jobs.

Long lines disenfranchise voters who simply can’t take off more time from their jobs and have to leave the polls before casting a vote. This is a far greater threat to our democracy than in-person voter fraud which nonpartisan analyses have generally found to be extremely rare.

Charles Stewart Ill, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that the impact of lines is more likely to disenfranchise Blacks and Hispanics who waited an average of 20.2 minutes, compared with 12.7 minutes for whites. In the most populous areas --those with more than 500,000 voters in a county­-the wait time was more than double what it was in counties with fewer than 50,000 voters. Early voting and other measures for making voting easier such as no excuse absentee ballots will take the pressure off Election Day and reduce those lines.

The research about early voting is at this point inconclusive, but as more states move in this direction, we should have a better understanding of the impact. Much of the research was conducted in the early days of early voting and probably does not reflect the current political landscape. There are also so many permutations. It seems to matter what early voting is combined with. Barry C. Burden and Kenneth R. Mayer, professors of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that early voting is most likely to increase turn-out when combined with same-day registration.

Even if it does not increase turn-out, making it easier for citizens to vote and taking the pressure off election day --thus reducing those long lines—has got to be a good thing in itself.

Another by-product of giving voters more flexibility may be that voters will be under less pressure and might spend more time on the down-ballot races often ignored by voters . Early voting along with mail-in voting and no–excuse absentee ballots would give voters more time to consider their choices in these low profile but nonetheless very important races.

Clearly political leaders are acting on the belief that early voting expands access. Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia offer early voting. A recent report from the Brennan Center in its round-up of states passing laws to expand access reports that “At least 19 states[16] have introduced bills that would newly introduce, or expand, opportunities for early in- person voting.”

Even in Pennsylvania (which according to a recent Pew Charitable Trust study, has been found to be among the least voter-friendly states) two early voting bills (HB 361 and HB 548) have been proposed in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and it is my understanding one will soon be introduced in the senate.

As President Obama said at his second inauguration. "Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote." It’s time to give voters the flexibility to participate in the electoral process, even if they cannot be there on Election Day.

The last of the lilies: color returns to my August garden

The finale of the lily season comes with the species lilies--lilium speciosum rubrum (pictured above) and lilium speciosum album (pictured below). The flowers are not as spectacular as the Orientals and the fragrance nowhere near as overwhelming but they come at a time when my garden desperately needs something fresh and colorful

My Magic Lilly (sometimes called a Rain Lily) made its always brief appearance. The reason it's called a Magic Lily is that its leaves appear in Spring and then disappear without a trace. It’s easy to forget about it until the flower stalk suddenly appears as if by magic.

It is also peak season for Rudbeckia Herbstone. It’s so easy to grow, some folks consider it a weed, but those fresh lemon yellow flowers which bloom for about a 5-6 week period (unusually long for a perennial) blend well with my usually abundant phlox.

Unfortunately this year some creature—not sure which predator—destroyed most of my phlox and the rainy conditions made what was left susceptible to fungal disease. But at least some survived:

And then my crape myrtle finally bloomed. I think it’s the last crape myrtle in the Delaware valley to bloom.

Probably the reason it’s so late is that we cut it way back each year to control for size. Earlier this year I was beginning to regret planting so many shrubs and trees—I had less and less room for perennials.

But after this year with many of my perennials eaten by garden predators, I think I made the right decision. A deer or groundhog can easily lay waste to a bed of phlox but they can't do that kind of total damage to a woody plant—at least it hasn’t happened yet to my shrubs!

Caryn Hunt's Review of Feminism in Philadelphia: The Glory Years, 1968-1982

Feminism in Philadelphia: The Ground Floor of the Women's Movement by Caryn Hunt (a version of this review will be posted shortly on Caryn Hunt's blog RightsOfWoman.com.)


Last Spring the New York Times lamented – in the Fashion & Style section – that the women's movement had not found another Gloria Steinem, one dynamic leader to be the “voice of feminism.” This reflects the media's hangups more than any problem in the women's movement. Women are half the population; there are bound to be multiple leaders, just as there are multiple feminist issues. So it was a breath of fresh air to read Karen Bojar's Feminism in Philadelphia: The Glory Years, 1968-1962, a lively account of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women. Bojar traces the chapter's history from its unlikely founding in 1967 by Ernesta Drinker Ballard, a socially prominent, wealthy Republican and lifelong feminist, through the campaign for abortion rights and workplace equality, and against racial and gender discrimination, to the eventual defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1982. Bojar's engaging book brings the movement home, outlining the development of Philadelphia NOW and its interaction with the Pennsylvania state chapter and national NOW. She offers a glimpse into the day to day struggle of many committed feminists over time who have worked continuously to improve the status of women, in Philadelphia and beyond. The movement is made up of these women; they are the boots on the ground, then as now.

Bojar debunks pervasive myths about the movement and about NOW. Despite NOW founder Betty Friedan's fears in 1969 of a “lavendar menace” hijacking the feminist movement, NOW quickly evolved to embrace the struggle for lesbian rights in 1971, and it has been a core mission ever since. The Philadelphia chapter elected NOW's first out lesbian president, Jan Welch, in 1973. Contrary to depictions that feminists are man-haters, NOW has welcomed male members all along: Richard Graham was elected the first Vice President of national NOW. As Bojar says, NOW “stressed that individual men were not the enemy; the enemy was the patriarchal system.”

The critique that NOW is a primarily middle class white woman's organization – a charge Steinem's face on the movement reinforced, but one she herself has worked tirelessly to debunk – has “more than a grain of truth” according to Bojar, but she shows how grappling with the intersection of racism, poverty, and sexism played out in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania as women of color joined NOW and assumed leadership roles within it. Jocelyn Morris, originally a member of Philadelphia NOW, convened Germantown NOW to specifically tackle the issues of racism and sexism and to include women of color in the local movement. Pennsylvania NOW made combatting racism a top priority during the late 1970s, and Morris went on to serve on the national NOW board and the national Combatting Racism committee.

Bojar admits that the hierarchical structure of NOW is sometimes seen as a drawback to young feminists, but she argues persuasively for NOW's multi-issue approach as well as its system of local, state, and national groups which parallels the US political system. While young feminists are essential to sustained progress, Bojar believes “A revitalized feminist-led labor movement is essential to addressing the needs of women trapped in low-wage jobs...” Indeed, NOW has increasingly turned its attention to economic empowerment issues.

In recounting the backlash against Roe v. Wade, Bojar reminds readers just how long ago were begun the battles being fought today. Due to the current, relentless “war on women” it's easy to despair, and feel that women's rights have taken a huge step backwards, and they have. But Bojar's history reminds feminists of all the progress that's been made through the years by an army of sisters of all ages, ethnicities, classes, and sexual orientation living and working all over the country. It reminds us that our history, like our fate, is inextricably bound together through the actions we take collectively to reach equality. The stories of battles fought and won in our own communities, naturally led by different people at different times, are the true stories of the movement. This is the way movements progress, and there is ample room for many leaders, as Feminism in Philadelphia illustrates.

Feminism in Philadelphia is available at https://www.createspace.com/4191325 and also at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=karen+bojar

My August garden in the year of abundant rainfall

This is not how my garden usually looks in August—-lush, green, incredibly over-grown. Usually, at this time of the year, the grass is turning brown and the exuberant growth of early spring and summer is a thing of the past.

This year thanks to the abundant rainfall, I have not once used my garden hose. True, I had to bring out the watering can for the plants in pots, but it's been wonderful not to have to lug that hose around.

Of course everything has its down side and my plants have been plagued by more fungal disease than usual; the garden may be greener but there are fewer flowers and less color. However, I’ll take abundant rainfall over drought any day and after all green is a color too. And didn't a poet once refer to a garden as a “a green thought in a green shade.”

When the Oriental Lilies Rule!

Chinese Trumpet Lily, Golden Splendor

As retirees, Rick and I travel in the early spring and fall when prices are lower and crowds are thinner. Another great advantage of this: I don’t miss my beloved lilies.

True, a short trip like our trip to Chicago over 4th of July weekend can mean that we miss peak blooming period. We caught a glimpse of the Chinese Trumpet Lily, Golden Splendor, just emerging the day we left and when we returned 6 days later it was on its way out. Although we missed peak bloom, we did see it and did smell that intoxicating fragrance.

The tall Orientals begin the first weeks of July. First comes the amazing hybrid of Oriental Lilies and Chinese Trumpet, known as Orienpets. Their fragrance is weaker than the Orientals but their flowers are the largest and most spectacular of all.

Orienpet lily, Conca d'Oro

What I love most of all are the mid-July orientals with their musky fragrance I can’t get enough of.

Stargazer Lily


Casa Blanca Lily

I’m sure that Casa Blanca is the lily DH Lawrence had in mind when in Sons and Lovers he described a pregnant Mrs. Morel pushed out of her house after an ugly fight with her husband:

She became aware of something about her. With an effort she roused herself to see what it was that penetrated her consciousness. The tall white lilies were reeling in the moonlight. and the air was charged with their perfume, as with a presence. Mrs. Morel gasped slightly in fear. She touched the big, pallid flowers on their petals, then shivered. They seemed to be stretching in the moonlight. She put her hand into one white bin: the gold scarcely showed on her fingers by moonlight. She bent down to look at the binful of yellow pollen; but it only appeared dusky. Then she drank a deep draught of the scent. It almost made her dizzy.

Mrs. Morel leaned on the garden gate, looking out, and she lost herself awhile. She did not know what she thought. Except for a slight feeling of sickness, and her consciousness in the child, herself melted out like scent into the shiny, pale air. After a time the child, too, melted with her in the mixing- pot of moonlight, and she rested with the hills and lilies and houses, all swum together in a kind of swoon.

When I first read Lawrence I wasn't a gardener and didn't pay much attention to the way Lawrence often used his characters’ reactions to flowers and trees as a way of probing their emotional states. But when I re-read Sons and Lovers years later, after I became hooked on gardening, I appreciated this dimension of Lawrence. And I was convinced that the lily described in this passage this was Casa Blanca—or more likely an earlier less hybridized version.

When the Orientals fade in late July/early August, the heirloom species lilies emerge. The first-- usually in the last week of July-- is Black Beauty. It has the tremendous virtue of being disease free and able to bloom in deep shade, but unfortunately has little fragrance. You just can’t have it all in one flower!

Black beauty

So the lily season is coming to an end, but there are two more to look forward to in mid-August: lilium speciosum album and lilium speciosum rubrum. They are nowhere near as tough and reliable as Black Beauty but they are fragrant—-although not that powerful musky fragrance that made Ms. Morel swoon.

Chicago is a great restaurant town!

Chicago is a great restaurant town! Frontera Grill (Zagats 27) is surely one of the best Mexican restaurants in the country. Rick and I have made 5 trips to Chicago together and there are two must-do’s for us—a visit to Chicago’s Art Institute and to Frontera Grill. This time we went for brunch and it is rightly considered the best brunch in Chicago. Rick and I spent a leisurely morning sipping Oaxacan hot chocolate at Frontera Grill’s outdoor dining area. It was hard to force myself to go back to the conference.

Some other restaurant recommendations:

Chez Moi No Zagat’s rating but voted one of the best new restaurants in Chicago. It’s the only French restaurant I’ve ever been to with large portions. The food was wonderful [and reasonably priced for Chicago] but the service was incredibly slow. We were with a group of old friends and didn’t mind hanging out and running up a bar bill, but I wouldn’t recommend Chez Moi for anyone who didn’t have the time for a long wait.

Riccardo Trattoria (Zagats 28). If you want reasonably good food at an affordable price as well as prompt service, I‘d recommend Riccardo Trattoria. I don’t agree with its Zagat’s rating--I’d give it about a 23 or24 tops , but then I live in a city of great Italian restaurants and my standards are high.

Shanghai Terrace Generally considered the best Chinese restaurants in Chicago, it also has one of the best locations—a roof top restaurant where you are surrounded by the towers of some of Chicago’s most spectacular skyscrapers. We were afraid it might be like the Philly area’s high-end Chinese restaurant, Susanna Foo, with its minuscule portions at sky-high prices. But this was Chicago, the city of large portions and we did not go hungry.

Arun (Zagat’s 27) This one is for lovers of Thai food. It requires a long trek to an outlying neighborhood and its fixed price menu is a lot more than we usually like to spend, but the food is fantastic—by far the best Thai food we’ve ever had or are likely to have. Rick and I were there 24 years ago and we both remember it as having exceptional food with presentations that were works of art. Our faulty memories in this case did not fail us. The food and the presentations were every bit as good as we remembered. I was about to bite into a carrot and Rick stopped me to say, “look at it before you eat it.” The carrot was sculpted into an extraordinarily beautiful representation of a butterfly. Food as a work of art may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for lovers of Thai food, it as an experience not to be missed!

Summer in Chicago

Rick and I went to the national NOW conference in Chicago over the 4th of July weekend. We decided to spend a few extra days and make a mini-vacation out of it. We were afraid that Chicago in July would be hellishly hot, but we lucked out and got weather in the low ‘80’s with a welcome lakeshore breeze.

I was at the conference primarily to do a presentation on “Documenting our History” and to promote my book,Feminism in Philadelphia: The Glory Years, 1968-1982. The lure of Chicago drew me away from the conference more than I had intended. When I was a NOW chapter president, I felt obligated to go to all the plenary sessions and to as many workshops as I could fit in. Now I’m perfectly comfortable opting for a visit to Chicago’s fabulous Art Institute rather than conference workshops.

Chicago (at least downtown Chicago) is filled with gorgeous municipal plantings—whoever does these plantings is a horticultural genius.

Then there is the architecture. I first learned to appreciate modernist architecture when I went to Chicago in 1989 with Rick, who knows a great deal about architecture and served as my tour guide to Chicago. Unlike NYC where the skyscrapers are all jammed together, in Chicago the buildings have space around them and you can see the outline of each building silhouetted against the sky.

Restaurant recommendations in the next post!

Here come the lilies!

The official start of summer means my garden is filled with lilies. That includes the much despised orange daylilies which grow by roadsides. I have more than I can use, but I can’t give them away. Most people view them as little better than weeds. But there’s nothing more beautiful than a huge mass of orange daylilies. I’m sure if they were rare and hard to grow they would be considered beautiful and be highly prized.


Next come the regal lilies. The most beautiful of all is lilium regal album which has the most astonishing fragrance. I realize this sounds strange, but the best way I can describe it is a sweet lily fragrance mixed with a peppery scent.


Then the Asiatic lilies. They have large, showy flowers but unfortunately no fragrance. I've found that the yellow Asiatics are most likely to return year after year.



The hyper-hybridized Asiatic lilies which come in spectacular colors like Landini, a deep burgundy, bloom for one year and disappear. It's so beautiful,I succumb to the temptation to buy new bulbs every year.

Then the hybridized daylilies with gorgeous flowers in a wide range of colors and sometimes with a little bit of fragrance. One of my favorites, a re-bloomer Rosy Returns:

Then the first of the Orientals-a miniature oriental, Mona Lisa. Its musky oriental lily fragrance is far from miniature and it has the advantage of not needing to be staked.

I can never keep up with staking lilies in July when the tall orientals rule!

More lily photos to come.

Good-by to the glorious spring of 2013!

Good-by to the glorious spring of 2013

Today is the first day of summer, but for me summer begins with Memorial day week-end. There have been years when we’ve had weeks of blistering heat before the summer solstice, but this year, for the most part, we have had had relatively cool sunny weather interspersed with seriously abundant rainfall. I haven’t had to drag out the hose once and my garden looks like a jungle.

This is a good time to pay my respects to the glorious flowers of Spring. The show starts in the winter with the snow drops and crocus and then in March the daffodils and hyacinths which are tough enough to handle a March snowfall:

Then in April the tulips! I plant hundreds each year, and most are eaten by voles and groundhogs, but they usually leave me few:

Then the flowering trees and shrubs of late April and early May. Some of my favorites:

cercis canadensis,otherwise know as redbud

,

purple sandcherry

In May the wondrous combination of allium and iris:

In June the peonies, clematis and roses:

clematis henryi

peony

With the summer solstice we have the lilies and right now I have one of the most fragrant of them all blooming in my garden:

Good news/ bad news from the June 15 PA Democratic State Committee meeting

First the good news: resolutions sponsored by progressive caucus members calling for online voter registration and early voting passed unanimously and a moratorium on fracking passed by a clear majority. A resolution in support of social security passed unanimously.

The early voting and online voter registration resolutions called for state committee to support efforts currently in the PA legislature to allow for early voting and online registration. And online voter registration bill (Senate Bill 37) passed the Senate unanimously and is currently before the House. Two early voting bills (HB 361 and HB 548) have been proposed in the House. The Republicans have been ruthless in their attempts to suppress voting rights; the Democrats must fight back with a proactive agenda that ensures that voting is as easy and accessible as possible.

While the voter access resolutions were non-controversial, the resolution on fracking was contentious. Areas in the western part of the state which have experienced job growth as a result of the fracking industry were for the most part opposed to the resolution. Given the powerful interests involved in the fracking industry, it’s not clear what impact this resolution will have, but having PA state committee on record in favor of a moratorium has got to strengthen the position of anti-fracking activists.

With regard to the social security resolution, as one member of the progressive caucus said, “it’s incredible that the state Democratic Party has to pass a resolution in support of social security. Isn’t that a given?” Not so long ago such a resolution would have been totally unnecessary. But since we now have “centrist” Democrats who argue that we must cut “entitlements" to reduce the budget deficit, we are forced to defend social security and Medicare within the Democratic Party. This is surely the world turned upside down!

Now for the bad news: the bylaws change calling for due process for aggrieved committeepeople failed. A bylaws change requires a 2/3 majority and it’s not easy to reach that threshold. Since the Chair thought it was clear we didn’t have 2/3’s, he didn’t call for a head count. I really would have liked to have had those numbers. It looked to me like we had at least 50% of the members present and progressive caucus chair Bruce Slater thought we had a majority, but the bottom line was we didn’t have 2/3’s.

The big surprise (for me) was that the intense opposition that scuttled the bylaws amendment came from Montgomery County. I had heard that there was opposition from Philadlphia County, but at the Philadelphia County regional meeting there was a civil discussion rather than the hard sell I expected. Lou Farinella who chaired the meeting was opposed to the bylaws change, but he acknowledged that there were legitimate concerns about due process. He complimented Irv Ackelsberg’s defense of Tracey Gordon, whose expulsion from her ward committee set in motion the progressive caucus attempt to get the state Democratic Party to guarantee due process. Farinella even told an anecdote about how he was once kicked out of his ward in the late 1970’s for support of then Mayor Bill Green—as if to say I myself have had experience with arbitrary and capricious behavior and understand your concerns even though I disagree with your proposed solution.

When I left the Philadelphia caucus meeting, I felt optimistic about the possibility of passage of the bylaws amendment. Irv Acklesberg and Walter Sullivan made effective arguments in favor of the bylaws change and it appeared that some of the opposition within the Philadelphia delegation might have softened a bit. (It may have been, as some of my fellow progressive caucus members stated, that Farinella did not engage in a hard sell because he knew that had the votes to defeat the amendment.)

The most intense opposition to the bylaws change came from Montgomery County spearheaded by Montgomery County Chair, Marcel Groen. Delegates are seated by county, so when people stand up to cast their vote, you can see what parts of the state support or oppose a resolution. When the entire Montgomery County delegation stood up in opposition, it was clear we had a problem.

Marcel Groen’s speech against the motion was shockingly self-centered. He stated that Montgomery County had instituted fair procedures and that due process for committeepeople existed in Montgomery County. He was opposed to any appeal beyond the county level as there was no need for anyone in Montgomery County to appeal any of his actions to state committee. He is alleged to have told a progressive caucus member that “he didn’t want anyone telling him what to do.”

Assuming it is true that there are no problems and never will be problems in Montgomery County, there clearly have been problems in other parts of the state. Groen was voting to prevent extension of due process in other parts of the state because he saw it as an encroachment on his power in Montgomery County. No county should be a law unto itself. Philadelphia County has a reputation for such arrogance, but Montgomery County appears to be just as bad, if not worse.

Apparently at least some of the Montgomery County delegates voted against the amendment based on a misunderstanding of what it involved. One delegate said he had been told the bylaws amendment would require changing the process that Montgomery County currently has in place. Not true. The amendment would require only that the county rules be consistent with the state party rules and that a committee person who believed that the county process has been applied unfairly in her case would have the opportunity to appeal to Democratic State Committee. In short, the amendment simply provides for due process. When Irv Ackelsberg asked the Montgomery County delegate if he had read the amendment, he said he had not. Apparently there were quite few delegates who voted against the bylaws change because they were told to do so and never bothered to read the amendment.

Bruce Slater said he was not discouraged that we failed at this point to reach the 2/3 threshold for a bylaws change. He said at least 50% of the delegates voted for the amendment and many state committee delegates, including some of those in leadership, now acknowledge that there is a problem and are talking about ways to address it.

Fortunately, not all county chairs insist upon having the final word with regard to what happens in their counties and recognize that there might be times when a committeeperson has been treated unjustly and should have the right to appeal. The bottom line: A Democratic Party should have democratic procedures.

The Magic of Toledo:The Spain and Portugal Diaries, Part VIII

In the mid 1980's when Rick and I were in Spain, we took a day trip from Madrid to Toledo. It was frustrating to be in that beautiful town for only a short time and I longed to get back there. I especially wanted to see Toledo at night. That amazing painting by El Greco "The View from Toledo" had a hold on my imagination.

Toledo was not on the direct route back to Madrid and involved more driving than we liked to do on one day, but we decided to do it anyway as we might not have the opportunity to see Toledo again. I still very much liked Toledo but it was not as magical as I remembered. It seems whenever I fall in love with a place, it’s never as wonderful the second time around. Sometimes it’s a real disappointment as in my return trip to Santiago . (Tuscany is an exception to this. )

Anyway, we did get to see Toledo at night and we also visited the major synagogue, El Transito.

Toledo at night

There are two synagogues in the Old Town of Toledo and in 1986 we saw the 12c synagogue which had been converted into the Christian church, Santa Maria la Blanca. This time we visited El Transito and the adjoining Museo Sefardi with a collection illustrating the history and culture of the Sephardic Jews in Spain. If you have time for only one synagogue, El Transito is the one.

El Transiito courtyard of El Transito

As far as I’m concerned, there are three “must see’s” in Toledo, the synagogue, the gargantuan cathedral which has an astonishing collection of paintings and a small chapel, Iglesia de Santo Tome containing the Burial of Count Orgaz which we missed in 1986.

There are some paintings that a photograph can’t begin to capture and this is one of them. Although I’m not as in love with El Greco as I used to be decades go, there are still some of his paintings I could look at for hours. This is one of them.

I’m very happy we managed to visit Toledo once again and it was much more enjoyable in March without the crowds and intense heat of mid-summer.