One of the best things about book discussions/ readings about Feminism in Philadelphia is meeting some of the women featured in the book.

One of the best things about book discussions/ readings about Feminism in Philadelphia: The Glory Years, 1968-1982 is meeting some of the women who were featured in the book. Recently at an event at Watermark Retirement Community, I met Sharon Wallis, a key figure in 1970’s feminist movement in Philadelphia, and at a reading at the Cosmopolitan Club I met Philadelphia NOW’s first treasurer Pat Corboy. Pat said she really regretted not having played a greater role in Philadelphia NOW but that she was struggling to establish her career in finance—-a field with very few women in senior level positions.

Her comment made me realize that being active in the movement was not the only way to advance a feminist agenda. Women like Pat Corboy were trailblazers in fields once closed to women and their success must certainly have inspired other women to pursue non-traditional careers. That’s another book I hope someone will write—-Philadelphia’s trail blazers in non-traditional careers!

Feminism in Philadelphia is now available in a kindle edition.

2013 was not a good year for supporters of abortion rights, but there are hopeful signs for 2014!

2013 was not a good year for supporters of abortion rights—especially in Pennsylvania. Randy LoBasso documents reduced availability of abortion in PA

A Southeast Pennsylvania abortion clinic closed in late 2013, bringing the grand total of commonwealth closings since 2012 to eight. And at least five of those are directly related to a law passed by the state Legislature in 2011 which put new construction restrictions on clinics and was referred to as a “back-door ban” on abortion services when it was passed.

And Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law a bill banning abortion coverage in the health insurance exchanges authorized by the federal healthcare reform law.

Apparently despairing of making gains in securing abortion rights in Pennsylvania, feminist advocates in the state have signed onto a Women’s Health Agenda that does not include a strong defense of abortion rights, other than calling for a 15-foot buffer zone around health clinic entrances. Many good bills are proposed and they deserve strong support. I understand the rationale behind this strategy of working on a range of women’s issues separate from the more politically charged issue of abortion rights. But if the list of bills doesn't include bills repealing restrictions on abortion rights and calling for Medicaid funding for abortion, then we shouldn’t call it a Women’s Health Agenda.

However, despite the bad news in 2013, I sense renewed commitment to defending abortion rights. National NOW President Terry O’Neill also believes the forecast for 2014 looks brighter. From O’Neill’s press release:

The tide, however, is turning. Voters rejected the radical Tea Party agenda in the 2012 elections nationwide and again in 2013 in Virginia.

Also, women's health allies in Congress are pushing the Women's Health Protection Act. From Cecile Richards, President Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Your rights shouldn't depend on your zip code — so we're fighting back. Women's health allies in Congress are pushing the Women's Health Protection Act, and it will make a difference in communities where the Roe v. Wade decision is under direct attack.

Please take a minute to tell Congress to support the Women's Health Protection Act

The Women's Health Protection Act is designed to protect the rights promised by Roe v. Wade. It will stop the outrageous laws that are undermining women's health and rights in state after state. Laws that require doctors to perform state-mandated procedures on women seeking abortion. Laws that impose bans on abortion at 20 weeks in states like Texas, Louisiana, and Indiana — and at just 6 weeks in North Dakota. Laws meant to force abortion providers to shut down and deny women the right to make their own medical decisions.

And NARAL’s is mounting a campaign to demonstrate that pro-choice values are shared by the majority of Ameicans. From Ilyse G. Hogue
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

We put together this graphic because the vast majority of Americans support the principles of Roe, and we need to show these politicians we won’t be silent. Like our graphic on Facebook so we can show them, loud and clear, that we are in the majority; pro-choice values are American values.

Recent national polls data have brought some encouraging news: Seven in 10 Americans believe Roe v. Wade should stand, according to new data from a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, as the landmark Supreme Court abortion-rights ruling turns 41 on Tuesday. According to the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

That is the highest level of support for the decision, which established a woman's right to an abortion, since polls began tracking it in 1989. The shift is mostly the result of more Democrats backing the decision—particularly Hispanics and African-Americans—and a slight uptick in support from Republicans.

The poll is not all good news for advocates of abortion rights. There is still majority support for some restrictions on abortion rights. However, the generational trend lines are favorable. We are moving in the right direction and this is not the time for an advocates of abortion rights to retreat from the position that abortion is an integral part of a Women’s Health Agenda.

Reinvigorating the Grassroots: NOW/CLUW How to Run for Committteeeperson Workshop

In 1998 and in 2002 Philadelphia NOW organized workshops to encourage women to get involved in grassroots politics by running for committeeperson. For a variety of reasons we did not have much success—we started too late and we didn’t have the broad-based networks to reach significant numbers of women. We did much better in 2002 thanks to Liz Terry who organized the project and trained our members to run workshops. Interestingly the people who actually ran (and won) were our members who were giving the workshops. They were convinced by their own pitch!

It wasn’t until 2013 when we teamed up with the Coalition of Labor Union Women, City Commissioner Stephanie Singer and Deputy City Commissioner Tracey Gordon that we were able to reach a wider community. In January 2013, we held a well-attended workshop, “How to Run for Judge of Elections and Election Inspector.”

On January 14, 2014, thanks to Tracey Gordon’s amazing organizing skills we held a very well-attended workshop on “How to Run for Committeeperson” in the May 2014 primary. Commissioner Stephanie Singer made a powerful case for the critical role played by committeepeople. She cited a body of research demonstrating that the most effective way to encourage people to vote is having a neighbor/friend speak to them directly. Nothing is as powerful as personal contact with someone you know and trust.

The Obama campaign demonstrated the importance of door-to-door, in-person contact with voters and used sophisticated data analysis to target exactly those voters who needed a nudge to get to the polls. According to Jonathan Alter, in The Center Holds, “ Like the ward heelers of old who knew a lot about their neighbors when they rang their doorbells, Obama field organizers, armed with the fruits of Big Data, could bring a presidential campaign to the front porch as never before.”

I recall when I was going door to door in the 2008 presidential election, some of my neighbors told me that the Obama campaign had been in the neighborhood and were knocking on doors. I wondered why they hadn’t stopped at my house. Then the light bulb flashed—they knew they didn’t need to. Their data told them how best to use their volunteers. And from all accounts, the 2012 campaign was an even more sophisticated operation, precisely targeting those voters most likely to be responsive to persuasion.

National campaigns are not a permanent presence in a neighborhood and can’t possibly replace the reliable committeeperson who knows the neighborhood terrain and is out there in every election reminding neighbors to vote and providing the information they need to cast informed votes.

But in so many divisions in Philadelphia there are no functioning committeepeople and this has had an impact on over all turn-out. Many of our voters are presidential year voters and tend to skip non-presidential years. If the 2008 voters had come out in 2010, the Pennsylvania political landscape would be very different.

In off-year elections, like our recent municipal election, there was no barrage of television commercials to remind voters an election was coming up. As one of the voters in my division said, "there hasn’t been much in the media about the election, and if you hadn’t knocked on my door and reminded me, I wouldn’t have known it was Election Day.

Will our efforts to encourage civic-minded folks to run for committeeperson make a difference? There was a lot of enthusiasm at our January 14 workshop, but will this translate into people actually getting the required signatures and running in the primary? Stay tuned.

Sometimes the good guys win!

On January 10, I attended the robing ceremony for newly elected Judge of Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas, Giovanni Campbell. I had worked for his election and was so happy that the candidate I strongly supported actually won. (So often, that’s not the case.)

I have long been opposed to Philly’s deeply flawed method of selecting judges. But sometimes somebody really good manages to get through this awful process.

It was a truly inspirational ceremony with moving testimonials to Judge Campbell from his colleagues. And all my friends in the political world were there celebrating. Although we agree on values and issues, we sometimes have serious disagreements about which candidate can best advance those issues. Giovanni Campbell’s campaign was a real unifier. Everybody in the Philadelphia progressive community supported Giovanni!

We might as well enjoy this brief moment of unity because it looks like we are not going to be unified in the upcoming gubernatorial race. When I asked a good friend whose opinion I really respect who he was supporting, he said, “Well, I’ll tell you who I’m not supporting, who’s at the bottom of my list.” It turned out to be the person I’m leaning towards supporting. The conversation with my good friends made it clear to me that my candidate didn’t have much support in the progressive community--at least not much support among this group of committed progressives. For me, one of the hardest parts of electoral politics is dealing with sharp disagreements about candidates with good friends I work with in progressive/ feminist organizations.

But we were all together celebrating Giovanni Campbell’s victory. There was general agreement that his judicial career would go beyond the Court of Common Pleas. The federal bench? The PA Supreme Court?

My 2014 New Year’s resolution: Campa un giorno e campalo bene. Live for the day and live it well.

I have just one New Year’s resolution this year. No, I haven’t learned Italian. "Campa un giorno e campalo bene" was the recipe for happines--Neapolitan style-- which concluded a New York Times travel article on Naples.

I don’t have one of those sunny personalities which savors the pleasures of the moment. But it’s time to practice a little cognitive therapy on myself and try to live more fully in the present.

I am very happy with my life and love just hanging out with my husband, seeing friends, writing, working for social change. It’s a good life.

But at this stage in our lives, we can’t ignore the fact that some very difficult experiences may be not too far down the road. We’re both in good health now, but unlike the "young invincibles" we can no longer take this for granted.

I tend to think about this too much. But why spoil the present moment worrying about the future? I need to make every day count--"Campa un giorno e campalo bene"

If you’re in NYC this holiday season and want to avoid the crushing crowds at the Met and MOMA, I recommend the Armory Show at NY Historical Society.

If you’re in NYC this holiday season and want to avoid the crushing crowds at the Met and MOMA, I recommend the Armory Show at NY Historical Society. My husband, son and I were there on December 18 and it was wonderfully uncrowded.

The exhibit recreates the famous 1913 New York Armory Show which sent shock waves throughout the art world. Not all the works of the original show are on display but the exhibit includes major works by Duchamp, Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Van Gogh as well as woks by American artists such as John Marin and Stuart Davis. The Europeans are the stars, but some of the American paintings are quite impressive. It made Rick and me want to finally get to the Whitney Museum of American Art which incredibly we’ve never visited. As a result of the Armory Show, I’ve developed an interest in Stuart Davis and would like to see more of his work.

Servant Girls by Stuart Davis

Rick and I promised ourselves that when we retired we’d go up to NYC more often including day trips like the one on December 18, but somehow we are going to NYC about as often as we did during our working years. We really need to remedy this.

It’s mostly my fault—-the older I get the more of a homebody I become. If it weren’t for Rick’s prodding, I’d probably never leave Mt. Airy. But when I do manage to bestir myself I am so glad I did!

We also discovered a very good affordable Mexican restaurant Cafe Frida which is just a couple blocks from the Historical Society.

Now we have to manage to get up to New York for the Vermeer exhibit at the Frick before it closes on Jan. 19. Will we get it together???

I’m feeling very optimistic about the future of Philadelphia NOW!

Nina Ahmad, new President of Philadelphia NOW


I’m feeling more optimistic about NOW and very optimistic about the future of Philadelphia NOW. We have a diverse new leadership team and one of our active members and past president, Caryn Hunt, is the president-elect for Pennsylvania NOW. From our press release:

Nina Ahmad, Ph.D. to lead the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Organization for Women

New Slate of Officers Elected to the Philadelphia Chapter of the multi-issue progressive feminist advocacy group

Philadelphia, PA – The Philadelphia Chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW), a key feminist advocacy group in the region has elected its new slate of Officers for the 2014-2016 term. Nina Ahmad, Ph.D., co-owner and Executive Vice President of Government Affairs of JNA Capital, Inc. has been elected as the President of the Chapter. Dr. Ahmad brings a wealth of experience in engaging diverse audiences through community outreach as the Chair of the Mayor’s Commission on Asian American Affairs of Philadelphia and is involved with a host of other organizations including serving on the Board of Women’s Campaign International, which focuses on women’s equality through building skills that help women become effective agents of change. Dr. Ahmad stated, “As a mother of two daughters I am alarmed at the current regression of women’s rights in our country; hard-fought rights earned with blood, sweat and tears. Our future generations should not have to fight these same battles.” She further stated, “I envision our Chapter being engaged in ensuring the promise of equal opportunity for all women by leveraging our collective assets. To that end, I am committed that our chapter membership will be multigenerational and diverse, and from all walks of life.”

In addition to Dr. Ahmad, the following slate of Officers was voted in for the 2014-2016 term:

Executive Vice President: Natalie Catin, Principal for Grover Cleveland Mastery Charter School is a fierce advocate for enhancing educational opportunities for all children and furthering the feminist agenda.

Vice President for Finance: Kathy Black, Health and Safety Director for AFSCME DC47 is also the Philadelphia Chapter President of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, will continue to fight for women’s rights.

Vice President for Membership: Sharon Hurley, computer specialist with extensive administrative experience is focused on engaging our membership in feminist issue areas and on creating strong member network.

Secretary: Melody Lam, recent graduate of Temple University with a Bachelors of Science in Biology, is eager to leverage her organizational skills and experience in civic engagement/minority empowerment.

Treasurer: Louise Francis, the Consulting Principal and founder of Francis Analytics and Actuarial Data Mining, Inc. is a long time member of the Chapter, who has been engaged in advocating for feminist issues.

Delegate to the State Board: Karen Bojar, Professor Emerita of English and Women’s Studies at the Community College of Philadelphia, is a longtime feminist activist, past President (2001-2009) of Phila-NOW and looks to strengthen the relationship between Philadelphia NOW and Pennsylvania NOW.

Delegate to the State Board: Sharon Hurley (see above) will liaise with Pennsylvania NOW.

Delegate to the State Board: Sharon Williams Losier, practicing attorney and owner of Losier & Associates, is a civil rights activist engaged in furthering the feminist agenda and will liaise with Pennsylvania NOW .

NOW on all levels –national, state, and local-- has struggled to build a diverse organization and our success or failure will determine whether or not the organization will continue to thrive. The founding generation, now over 65, is part of a demographic cohort which is largely white; feminists under 25 are part of a demographic cohort which is far more racially/ethnically diverse. If NOW is to look like America, it must figure out how to reach this younger, far more diverse group. NOW’s continued existence depends on it.

Nina Ahmad is the first woman of color to head Phila NOW. Given the diversity of the city, it’s surprising it took so long. Nina is not the first woman of color to be a NOW chapter president in Philadelphia. In 1980 Jocelyn Morris founded and served as president of Germantown NOW which was founded to combat both racism and sexism and to build support for the passage of the ERA among women of color.

Despite her incredibly hard work, the chapter was short-lived and folded soon after Morris moved out of Philadelphia. The history of Germantown NOW is documented in chapter 6 of Feminism in Philadelphia: The Glory Years, 1968-1982. Morris was ahead of her time and as Chair of NOW’s combating racism committee she is continuing the work she began in 1980.

NOW’s national leaders are well aware of the need to reach the diverse millennial generation, but change at the grassroots level has been slow. Philadelphia NOW is making a real contribution here and the fact that a woman as talented as Nina has decided to devote her time and energy to NOW certainly gives me hope that NOW will survive and thrive.

Discussion of Feminism in Philadelphia with Veteran Feminists Florence Cohen ,Judy Mathe Foley and Sharon Wallis

I have so enjoyed the opportunity to discuss Feminism in Philadelphia: The Glory Years, 1968-1982 with many of the wonderful women who were part of the story of second wave feminism in Philadelphia.

Many thanks to Sherrie Cohen for arranging a reading/ discussion of Feminism in Philadelphia at the Watermark retirement community where her mother, NOW member and life-long feminist activist Florence Cohen, currently resides. Florence Cohen, a legend in Philadelphia politics, is one of the veteran feminists featured in Feminism in Philadelphia and this event focused on local feminists’ involvement in electoral politics. From Feminism in Philadelphia:

In the early years, many Philadelphia NOW members were deeply suspicious of direct involvement in electoral politics. In the early and mid-1970’s, Philadelphia NOW dealt with the distrust many members had of political involvement by farming out electoral politics to the Philadelphia Women’s Political Caucus (PWPC) formed in 1971. Philadelphia NOW members were instrumental in the formation of PWPC but wanted to keep NOW itself unsullied by the messy compromises of electoral politics. Distrust of electoral politics was not confined to NOW members but was pervasive among the progressive movements in the late 1960’s and early 1970's.

Yet despite this distrust, electoral politics and social movement politics were closely intertwined in Philadelphia in the 1970’s. African-Americans (many of whom had been involved in the Civil Rights Movement)and feminists (usually under the banner of the Philadelphia Women’s Political Caucus) organized against the Democratic machine, fighting for inclusion and fair representation as elected officials and as Democratic Party ward leaders and committeepersons…

PWPC launched …a political education initiative designed to encourage more women to run for political office, including Party offices such as committeeperson and ward leader. The organizational genius behind the feminist political education effort was Florence Cohen who wore several hats; she was a member both of Philadelphia NOW and of PWPC and a group she led called the New Democratic Coalition.

Florence Cohen organized a series of political education workshops sponsored by PWPC which dealt with the basics of the political structure in preparation for the 1972 primary election. According to Cohen, “We have to get a new type of woman--an independent woman--involved in politics.” In a handout she prepared on the political structure, she defined what she meant by an “independent,” someone motivated by issues rather than by political allegiances and loyalties.

Cohen was well aware of the distaste many feminists had for partisan politics; she challenged the attendees at the December 1971 political workshop to overcome their reluctance to get involved: “Politics is dirty but we MUST have a part of it. The machine will control parties to the extent that there is apathy, to the extent that we are disorganized. We must use our collective strength--women are 52% of the electorate.”…

Florence Cohen, noted that in 1971 only 7 out of 66 Democratic ward leaders were women, but according to Cohen “none whom you’d call independent women.”

When Philadelphia NOW in 1998 and again in 2002 organized a series of workshops to encourage women to run for committeeperson, we thought we were doing something new and different. But unknown to us at the time, Florence Cohen had spearheaded a much more successful effort 3 decades earlier. We are launching this effort again in 2014. and with a dynamic speaker City Commissioner Stephanie Singer, we hope to be more successful than we were in the past.

It was wonderful to have feminists featured in the book at the event, and in addition to Florence, Judy Mathe Foley and Sharon Wallis were in the audience. I was really happy to have finally met Sharon. Jean Ferson, President of Philadelphia NOW and Sharon Wallis, President of Philadelphia Women's Political Caucus in 1971.Judy Mathe Foley arriving in Springfield Illinois for May 1976 ERA rally.

Sharon confirmed that Judy was the organizational genius behind Philadelphia NOW and apparently the Philadelphia Women's Political Caucus as well. I am really happy to have had access to the archival material which demonstrated Judy’s crucial role behind the scenes and to have been able to document this.

There is so much of the history of social changes organizations in Philadelphia (and elsewhere) that has yet to be documented---so many rich dissertation topics awaiting a new generation of young scholars. Let’s hope these histories are written!

Feminism in Philadelphia is available at https://www.createspace.com/4191325 and from Giovanni's Room at http://www.queerbooks.com/book/9781482693065 and is further discounted at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=karen+bojar

Also, for people who like to buy hard copies at book stores, there are some on the shelves at Giovanni’s Room in Center City Philadelphia.

Happy Thanksgivukkah!

Another wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my sister and her extended family of relatives and friends!

I really enjoy these intergenerational holidays. Since Rick and I do not have grandchildren and my sister does not have grandchildren, and most of my good friends do not have grandchildren, we don’t have much contact with little children in our lives.

Fortunately my sister's good friend’s daughter and her husband have produced two gorgeous babies, so we have 3 generations at our Thanksgiving celebration.

In addition to baby Nathaniel, there was something else different about Thanksgiving this year—-the convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, dubbed "Thanksgivukkah. " This will be my first and only time at which a menorah was lit at Thanksgiving dinner. Supposedly, it won't happen again for more than 70,000 years!

Why are central Paris hotels so expensive? The 2013 France diaries, Part IV

One of our first Paris hotels, Les Maronniers

When we returned to Paris we stayed at Hotel Le Six in Montparnasse, a charming, well-located hotel which (like all Paris hotels) costs far too much for a small room. This is our favorite part of Paris and over the years we’ve usually stayed in Montparnasse and thereabouts.

When I started looking for Paris hotels I was stunned to find that the little hotels we used to stay in had doubled and sometimes tripled in price. One of our first hotels in the 1980’s was Les Maronniers --if I remember correctly less than 100 dollars a night. It’s now well over 200.00 dollars a night.

The same with another favorite La Varenne which used to be about 100 dollars a night but is now over 300 dollars. Of course one expects prices to go up over the years, but it seems far worse in Paris than in other major cities. Where are those deals on small hotels we used to get? Why is central Paris so expensive?

I think I found a clue in a Guardian article about Chinese tourists who had been targeted by thieves:

One problem is the lack of security in suburban hotels. In central Paris, hotel capacity is at saturation point and new ones can only be built outside the ring road, in precisely the areas now avoided by the Chinese tour operators. Jean-François Zhou, the founder of Ansel Travel, says that the Chinese blacklist hotels whose clients have been the victims of theft. He now tries to get his clients into central hotels, even if it raises the cost of his services.

The demand for Paris hotel rooms has skyrocketed since Rick and I began traveling together in the early 1980’s. The Chinese economy has grown tremendously since then with the consequent rise in Chinese tourism; also Eastern Europeans are free to travel and increasingly have the resources to do so. In short there are more people with the means to travel and Paris is the world’s number one tourist destination. Combine this increased demand with a prohibition on building hotels in Central Paris and the result is sky high prices for tiny hotel rooms. But Paris is worth every penny!

Up until this point in the trip we had reasonably good weather, but our last three days in Paris were gray and drizzly. But this was Paris and it didn’t matter. In fact, I really like Paris in the rain. One of my favorite Paris paintings is that iconic Caillbotte painting of a Paris street scene:



There’s a reason the whole world wants to go to Paris!

Bordeaux, the Medoc and St. Emilion: The 2013 France diaries, Part III

The Main Square, Place de la Bourse, in Bordeaux


We really didn’t want to leave the Dordogne. That’s the downside of trip with a pre-planned itinerary. We had already booked the next stop and so off we went to Bordeaux—the only major French city we’d never visited. Bordeaux has a gorgeous old town—-in this case the old town is the 18th century city. But outside the old town it’s not an especially attractive city.

What drew us to the region, wine–lovers that we are, was the opportunity to visit the fabled vineyards of the Medoc and St. Emilion. The Medoc really gives one a sense of just how much of the French economy still revolves around wine—the vineyards go on and on and on.
Vineyards of the Medoc

The real surprise for us were the vineyards around St. Emilion and the town of St. Emilion itself. The terrain is lush with steep hills--unlike the flat, monotonous expanses of land in the Medoc. The town has an incredibly rich architectural heritage and I advise anyone going to the area to consider using St. Emilion as a base.
The medieval ramparts of St.Emilion

View of the vineyards form the old town of St.Emilion

We stayed in Boulliac a beautiful little town outside of Bordeaux. We came across a good deal on a luxury hotel, the St. James Hotel which offered 3 nights for the price of 4. We were intrigued with the idea of a hotel located in a vineyard and having grapes growing outside our window. Well, we were a little late for the grapes. In that area they were picked at the end of September, but the grounds were beautiful just the same. The hotel had a Michelin star restaurant; we would not have gone out of our way for crazily expensive haute cuisine, but we thought since we were staying there, why not just this one time?

We discovered that at this stage in our lives we much prefer French country cooking—-the reasonably priced food with fresh ingredients and generous portions we had at Hotel du Moulin de la Beaune. We no longer want to pay those crazy prices for a thimbleful of food, beautifully presented. Food as a work of art no longer appeals. The St. James Hotel also ran a little inexpensive bistro a block from the hotel and we would definately recommend it.

We were happy to have seen Bordeaux and the wine country but were itching to get back to Paris.

Philly Voter Turn-out: How low can it go?

Election Day was a depressing affair. My Mt. Airy division had a turn-out 3 times that of the city wide average of 11.3 %, but that’s not much of a consolation.

According to an article posted in Philly.com “only 11.3 percent of the city’s 1.1 million registered voters bothered to show at the polls, which, if it stands, would make it the lowest turnout in at least 20 years, if not the least in modern city history, for a general election.” The trend over the last 20 years has been steady decline—a drop of 14.7% in off-year general elections since the 26% turn-out in 1992.

The low turn-out is in part explained by a lack of competitive races. In most races for Philadelphia municipal offices, the Democratic lead in registered voters is so great that the result is all but decided even before any votes are counted. But the race for Judge of the Pennsylvania Superior Court was a close contest decided by a few percentage points.

The Superior Court makes decisions affecting all Pennsylvanians. It hears appeals from Courts of Common Pleas, including their Family Divisions, in both civil and criminal cases. The Superior Court interprets unclear legislation; unless overturned on further appeal, its interpretation remains final. This was an important race, but you would never know it from the almost non-existent media coverage.

Most voters in my division told me they were unaware of the Superior Court race until they received the letter my committeeperson partner and I delivered to all the households in our division. A few people told me they did not even know there was an election until they received our letter! The lack of media coverage was clearly a factor. Our daily newspapers continue to shrink both in their coverage and in their audience, and candidates in non-competitive races don’t buy TV ads.

Also, it appears that in many neighborhoods around the city, committeepeople were making little effort to inform voters and get out the vote. Apparently the Democratic Party chair didn’t think this election was worth the effort. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, :

Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.) had warned the city's political foot soldiers Election Day would be slow, quiet.

"I told my committee people, 'Not much you can do about this one,' " he said Wednesday. " 'But be prepared. It won't be like this next year.' "…

Brady, longtime chair of the city's Democratic Party, noted that Democrat John McVay Jr. narrowly lost a statewide run for Superior Court after barely setting foot in the city --and getting little support from it.

"He should have paid a little more attention to the city of Philadelphia," Brady said. "No one knew who he was, including me."

Isn’t the Party Chair’s job to educate voters about what’s at stake in the election and motivate committeepeople to get out the vote—not to complain about the candidates' failure to get to know him??

The drop in turn-out is getting really scary. I've heard the argument that we could not possibly go any lower in off year elections than 10-11% because we have the old, reliable super-voters who come out in every election, no matter what. But voting is a very age-graded affair—especially so in off-year elections—and those old reliable super voters are getting older. When our age cohort fades away, we may very well be down to single digits.

So what we do? There is no one solution for a problem of this magnitude--making voting easier (e.g. online registration, early voting) would no doubt help. Encouraging more civic minded young people to run for committee person and re-invigorate a moribund Party would certainly help. (Elections for committeepeople will occur in the 2014 primary.)

The door-to-door work we do in my division and throughout the 9th ward explains (at least to some extent) our significantly higher turn-out than 11.3% city-wide average. But the Democratic party is going to have to become more “democratic” if it’s going to attract the civic-minded young people it so desperately needs.

Sarlat, Eyzies-de-Tayac, the Dordogne: As beautiful as I remembered: The 2013 France diaries, Part II

Rick and I visited the Dordogne in the mid-1980’s and I had always wanted to return. The Dordogne is farming country and those gorgeous vegetable gardens were every bit as beautiful as I remembered. And yes, a row of lettuce can be heartbreakingly beautiful.

This time, in a concession to old age, we did not go hiking. Also, instead of re-visiting the magical cave at Font de Gaume which required navigating steep steps, we went to the senior friendly cave Rouffignac where we rode around in a little electric train deep into the bowels of the earth to see wall paintings from 40,000 years ago. We appreciated the train, but the paintings seemed less magical than they had decades ago.

I think it was more enthralling the first time because it was such a surprise. I knew a little about the cave art but had never seen it and was stunned by the astonishing skill of the painters. This time I was prepared for the artistry and as a consequence was less moved by the experience--less moved than I was decades ago, perhaps, but deeply affected nonetheless.

We took leisurely walks around the old medieval towns of Perigueux and Sarlat. Sarlat is especially magical with all the buildings made of gorgeous golden stone—dazzling on a sunny day. When we were in Sarlat in the summer in the mid-1980's, the square was thronged with tourists and street musicians. The atmosphere was so much more festive. I enjoyed the tranquility of October but missed the festivity of high summer. Trade-offs, trade-offs.
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In addition to revisiting beloved towns we went to the Museum of Prehistory which was not open when we were there in the mid-1980’s. The museum is amazing for the building carved into the steep cliffs above Eyzies-de-Tayac.
However, the exhibits were more for the specialist than for the tourist and I enjoyed the site much more than the exhibits.

Also, we visited the amazing gardens of the Manoir d”Erignac which were not open to the public when we were there last time.
We spent almost an entire day wandering around the gardens--our senior citizen “slow travel.” We see far fewer towns, historic sites, museums etc., but what we see, we really savor.

Thanks to Rick’s research, we discovered a wonderful and very affordable hotel, Hotel du Moulin de la Beune in Eyzies-de-Tayac.
It was a 2 star hotel--no flat screen TV, no minibar in the room, spotty internet etc. -- but it couldn’t have been more charming. A babbling brook ran through the property and there really was an old mill.


Best of all, it had a seriously good restaurant—-first rate French country cooking at affordable prices. We had dinner there every night. At this stage in our lives we really enjoy having dinner at our hotel. We are a lot more careful about drinking and driving than we were in the days when our reflexes were far better. Having dinner at the hotel means we can indulge in a bottle of wine and after dinner drink and not worry. This hotel was probably the best in terms of good value that we’ve stayed in all our years of traveling in France.

We probably won’t make it back to the beautiful Dordogne. At this stage in life there are just so many return trips we can make, but I’m very happy to have visited the Dordogne again.

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? *