I have been writing about Anna Maciejewska for what? Over three years at this point? I was thinking about her again recently as I was watching some crime solving mystery show hosted by Paula Zahn on Discovery ID. Then I stumbled across this random You Tube by someone unknown.
There hasn’t been any media coverage since December, 2019 when 6 ABC ran this:
This report was done as Mike Noone and Tom Hogan were winding up their time in the Chester County District Attorney’s Office. I know Mike a little bit and I can tell you this case always weighed on him and Tom Hogan. People love to be hard on these offices but this investigation is also the responsibility of the Pennsylvania State Police. When is the last time we heard from them? Is the case still active or is it just gathering dust as the proverbial unsolved mystery on a shelf in a storage room somewhere?
Sorry not sorry, it bothers me. It always has. You watch news report after news report of other missing women. You see their cases worked on and resolved, why not Anna Maciejewska? Why doesn’t she matter?
I would love to ask current Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan for an update but don’t know how to do it. I also don’t want to sound like a bitch dogging law enforcement and the district attorney, but lordy people, is there any news? I know ongoing investigations mean folks in the know are tight lipped, but I think of Anna’s elderly parents and in the COVID19 world in which we live and they live many thousands of miles away. When is the last time they saw their beloved grandson? He must be so big now, right? It makes you wonder if he has any memories of his beloved mother and if his father keeps her memory alive? Allen Gould, the perpetual puzzle. Anna’s presumed widower at this point and he has never really spoken of her has he?
And then there is Dateline NBC, 48 Hours on CBS and 20/20 on ABC. Can we get ANY of these people interested?
I just think that is what it is going to take to get this moving again. National media coverage. Other missing women get it, why NOT Anna Maciejewska?
Crimestoppers PA still has a page up about Anna. The Finding Anna Facebook page is still up. And everything is kind of frozen in time. Waiting for justice for Anna Maciejewska Gould.
Please contact the Chester County District Attorney’s office, the Pennsylvania State Police and any media outlet you can think of especially on a national level. It is way past time to bring Anna home and provide her family with closure.
I never knew Anna. But I have three women who are friends of mine who are from Poland. Like Anna, highly educated. Like Anna, they emigrated to the US for a better life. But unlike Anna, they are still alive and I am so lucky to have them in my life.
Anna we haven’t forgotten you. Even if we never met you. We want you to come home for your family. For your memory. For your son. That little boy deserves more than a question mark next to your name as he grows up.
📌”Dec 27, 2019 · Bentley Homes heads back to the Main Line, buys land from Valley Forge Military Foundation. Valley Forge Military Academy Foundation has sold five properties adjacent to its Wayne campus to Bentley Homes for $1.65 million.”📌
I realized where it was yesterday on my way home from a skin cancer procedure at Penn Medicine in Radnor. That corner where Upper Gulph Road meets Radnor Road (Radnor Street Road when down the road a piece in Radnor Township, Delaware County.)
This location is Tredyffrin Township, Chester County.
Now Valley Forge has been selling and or leasing land since 2010 according to an old article I found in the Delco Times. So it shouldn’t be a surprise. Except in 2010 this deal was with a neighboring academic institution, Eastern University.
Valley Forge is one of the academic institutions that people wonder if they will survive COVID19. There are a lot of schools across the country that may or may not. This global pandemic affects enrollment (see Forbesarticle from April, 2020 and Deloitte.com for example.) Schools were already rocked by student visa issues given the current isolationist tenor of this country which is affecting the ability to host foreign students. Coronavirus just puts them more into uncertain times, financially.
But a development on this corner? High up on a hill? Will everyone around them be their storm water management program? And why does another Main Line McMansion project need to occur?
The irony is in a time when people are starting to question whether or not they want to live on top of one and other as we are still experiencing a global pandemic , development is not slowing down. It seems to be at a fever pitch. And this development will also impact the Tredyffrin Easttown School District which seems to be rather crowded already?
📌”Valley Forge Military Academy Foundation has sold five undeveloped lots along Radnor Road at Upper Gulph Road to Bentley Homes for $1.65 million, writes Natalie Kostelni for Philadelphia Business Journal.…“I was building on the Main Line for years and the market died,” Tom Bentley said. “Now, we’re coming back to the Main Line. We return.”
During the Great Recession, Bentley built smaller homes, townhouses and multifamily properties further west in Kennett Square, Chadds Ford and Exton…..Bentley has also accumulated three lots on the east side of Radnor-Chester Road not far from Lancaster Avenue in Radnor and a dozen lots off Newtown Road in Easttown.”📌
Development keeps on rolling doesn’t it ? Are there really people to fill all these developments from single family to townhouse to apartments?
Pay attention to Tredyffrin’s neighbor Easttown. They also have development looming. Which will also feed into Tredyffrin Easttown School District. And then head west. More and more development.
We all have that one building or place that makes us look at the world differently. That one inspiration that makes us realize we can’t just sit idly by as our history disappears building by building, acre by acre.
For me, it was Beechwood House in Bryn Mawr. Part of the Shipley Campus, it was designed by Addison Hutton, who was also the architect of beautiful Loch Aerie Mansion in Frazer, PA.
It was the 1990s. I had never even been to a meeting at my township building or spoken in front of everyone in a crowded room. But this place mattered to me and I joined The Friends to Save Beechwood. I guess I started going to meetings in the late 1990s about this. Below are embedded links to articles I purchased out of the newspaper archives:
Shipley wanted to tear Beechwood House down. This required professional mediation. Eventually Shipley said they would keep Beechwood if money was raised to save it by a certain deadline in 2001. To this day, I still think the school thought it would never happen. But it did. Heather Hillman was the main driving force along with Jean Wolf (Wolf Historic Preservation) a preservationist who has done amazing things. (The saving of Beechwood was kind of a big to do at the time. There were many articles about it in a few publications.)
As mentioned, I had never gone to a township meeting or spoken out in public. It got easier with time, but at first I was terrified. And in awe of these fierce women who did literally so much with a smile on their face and I don’t recall them raising their voices. I raised my voice, I was somewhat appalled by my alma mater when this started, and even when it was over – kind of like when they basked in the glory of the end result which was a successful restoration and adaptive reuse of a building we had to fight them to save because they didn’t think it was worth saving. (You can also read about Beechwood here.)
Standing on the steps of Beechwood House for our 25th Shipley reunion
As a matter of fact around 2006 when we had our 25th class reunion, we were able to get Beechwood House for our reunion. A lot of my classmates had contributed to the fundraising and along with me were listed up on the brass plaque inside the building. The headmaster at the time was making the reunion party rounds and was talking about the restoration of Beechwood. He got heckled by one of my classmates because he didn’t mention me but mentioned almost everyone else on the Friends to Save Beechwood committee. But it was a penultimate example of we might not as well have been there.
But we were, and saving that structure still brings me joy every time we go by. Shipley can have the glory, what matters is it is saved. And loving Beechwood introduced me to Addison Hutton, which inspired me to write about another of his gems, Loch Aerie.
I guess my whole point of this post is find your passion. Be a voice in your community. Life is too short for regrets.
3:30 PM UPDATE: From the chair of the East Whiteland Supervisors Scott Lambert (who like many others is having a hard time posting to Facebook today):
📌The original requirement of the builder was to renovate portions of the wall that had fallen in disrepair and remove a few trees that could endanger the wall in the future. However,with the wall now leaning badly and in danger of collapse, the builder agreed to rework the wall and replace broken sections to return it to original condition. As with the initial work review the descendants of people buried in the cemetery were consulted as was our engineer and historical commission representation. An agreement with the contractor concerning the scope of the work was also executed.📌
EARLIER:
There is a historic cemetery on Flat Road. It seems to be in peril. East Whiteland Township approved a development plan there and wasn’t one of the things supposed to be that this cemetery (which I believe is Amish) would be protected?
Social Media post that appeared with photos
I don’t have the answers. And someone said well maybe they’re doing work on it. And this doesn’t look like work to me this looks like a wall collapse. A lot of these walls do collapse and I saw one not that long ago at a church in Upper Uwchlan and then they rebuilt the wall. When they rebuilt the wall then you could see they were telling people to stay away from it and using caution tape until it was set.
Reader submitted photo
The other thing to consider is a development is being built next door and vibrations from heavy equipment can affect old structures and that includes walls and headstones etc. doesn’t it?
Reader submitted photo
I don’t have the answers, but I do know that East Whiteland needs to go look at this. This is literally a historic site, and it matters. #thisplacematters
Reader submitted photo
Walls fall down. But this is a historic site. So again, something needs to be done sooner rather than later. This is a sacred place. And our historic sites should be as respected as much by municipalities as the developments they constantly approve.
Stay cool it’s so darn hot out there.
Reader submitted photo
PS: I am adding more photos here at the bottom that were just sent to me by concerned residents!
1 cup unfed sourdough starter, at room temperature (if you store your starter in the fridge, just let it sit out for about an hour before starting)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 to 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (I used three large bananas)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
for the glaze (optional):
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 – 2 tablespoons milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and generously spray a Bundt pan (you can use a 9″ x 13″ pan if you would prefer). In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the sourdough starter, mashed bananas, oil, yogurt, egg and vanilla. Mix together until everything is fully combined. In a (separate) large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, sugar and spices. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (The recipe offers a cooking time of 35-40 minutes if you are using a 9″ x 13″ pan.) Allow the cake to cool in the pan (on a cooling rack) for about 10 minutes, then turn the cake out onto the rack itself and allow it to cool completely. To prepare the glaze, mix the melted butter and confectioners’ sugar in a bowl, then slowly add enough milk to make a smooth, flowing glaze. Stir very well to ensure that you have removed all of the lumps. Once the cake is completely cool, use a spoon to drizzle on the glaze.
By Jim Tankersley and Ben Casselman New York Times July 15, 2020
WASHINGTON — The United States economy is headed for a tumultuous autumn, with the threat of closed schools, renewed government lockdowns, empty stadiums and an uncertain amount of federal support for businesses and unemployed workers all clouding hopes for a rapid rebound from recession.
For months, the prevailing wisdom among investors, Trump administration officials and many economic forecasters was that after plunging into recession this spring, the country’s recovery would accelerate in late summer and take off in the fall as the virus receded, restrictions on commerce loosened, and consumers reverted to more normal spending patterns. Job gains in May and June fueled those rosy predictions.
But failure to suppress a resurgence of confirmed infections is threatening to choke the recovery and push the country back into a recessionary spiral — one that could inflict long-term damage on workers and businesses large and small, unless Congress reconsiders the scale of federal aid that may be required in the months to come.
This is no joke. I know people who are losing their jobs. I know people who have lost their jobs. I know people struggling under major salary cuts. This is not a joke.
This is not some “liberal conspiracy” folks, this is death in real time, in real life. Compounded with riots and protesting because of the racism that is so insidious in this country, and based upon what comes out of that man’s mouth on a daily basis, how much worse is everything going to get before it gets better?
And look at all the time that was wasted on impeachment proceedings? Nothing was ever going to happen because there were never the votes to make anything happen. The votes we need come from us in November. And if we allow four more years of they are not Republicans, they are Trumpublicans, will our country actually really and truly hit the skids? Instead of dancing on the precipice? If this is a precipice and not a slow slide?
My personal opinion is we can’t wait to find out. With Coronavirus alone, we need change. As in different people. That is the power of the vote, people.
Please don’t shoot the messenger here. For years and years and years I was a moderate Republican. And happily so. I of course split my ticket because I resent being told how I am supposed to vote to be considered “good”. I still split my ticket.
But this fall, America needs to vote for herself and we as Americans need to vote as if our very lives depend upon it. Because our lives depend upon it. We can’t take four more years of living a very bad reality TV show.
True story. A niece of mine went to visit her boyfriend’s parents at their summer home. She and boyfriend were invited to a party of a friend of his. My niece and her boyfriend decided they were not comfortable going to a party with people they potentially would not know because of COVID-19. They were also unsure how many people would be there, would everyone social distance and wear a mask. A couple of weeks later, every person who went to the party they did not go to tested positive for Coronavirus.
Yes every person. That is how easy it is.
It’s like when you run across a person on social media whom you know to have had Coronavirus. And there they are taking selfies out in the world. You don’t want to be paranoid but when family members say they are still sick, what are they doing out?
I will be honest. I have had to go out to keep medical appointments. But nothing much more than that. I am just not comfortable. It’s very weird being out. And we are supposed to be wearing masks and social distancing and people just aren’t. And some of the grocery stores have even removed some of the Plexiglas barricades between cashiers and customers. I wouldn’t know personally because I have not been in a grocery store since the first week of March. But that is what I have been told.
I am afraid we are going to face new stay at home orders because people are kind of throwing caution to the wind. Being in a green status might mean “open” but it doesn’t mean we are out of danger.
What if this rundown house was your only choice for a home?
I am not deliberately trying to pick on East Whiteland Township no matter what some may think. But unlike many other municipalities (and I have been checking), East Whiteland does not have a person or people to regularly and routinely inspect rental properties in this township. They do not even have enough fire personnel to do all the life safety checks on rentals do they? (Asking the question because I heard there were people paid to do that I thought once upon a time out of the fire department or something?)
West Goshen (for example) has a rental property ordinance online. They have someone dedicated to rental inspections. That is in addition to the guys in the zoning department who inspect when the township gets complaints on rental properties.
The Borough of West Chester also has an ordinance and I am told as well as two dedicated rental property inspectors although residents say there are so many rentals they need more.
East Whiteland has a Rental Occupancy Report from 1992. I also found a form to fill out if you have a rental property. It mentions life safety, which is great and necessary. But I do not see anything about specific ordinances pertaining to rental properties and inspections of rental properties. And it is long past time to have that. East Whiteland is growing as a township and has grown exponentially in recent years. Does this township even know out of ALL of the new construction that is complete how many are rental units? And with ALL of the development still in the works and in various stages of construction, let’s get real, they are not all going to be owner occupied, aren’t some of these places going to be rentals? And what about the hotels? Are some of those like long term rentals at times? Sometimes when people can’t find housing they live in hotels/motels don’t they? Motor home parks? Trailer parks? No matter where the rental, shouldn’t people be safe?
Deception, coercion, recruitment, and abduction are just some of the tools of trade for traffickers.
Trafficking in America is a billion-dollar business in all 50 states, where women, children, and men are being exploited; their lives of no value other than the profits they earn.
Where sex trafficking can occur:
Moving around in your daily life, in the city, suburbs, rural areas
Transportation systems: Septa, Uber, and Lyft
Brothels (houses), motels, and major hotel chains
Escort services
Bars, strip clubs, high-end baller parties
Online via social media, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
The stretch of Lancaster Ave/Route 30/Lincoln Highway where these rentals exist is a no man’s land. No one sees the people who live there, not because they aren’t visible but because people don’t want to see them. Mostly immigrant, with little choice in housing. And by culture, used to living in close quarters. So one would think rental inspections along that strip and elsewhere would make sense, right? So everyone was safe?
According to Patch, “The apartments used were at street addresses 483, 577 and 609 Lancaster Ave. in East Whiteland Township…”
Someone sent me screenshots off ChescoViews and Google Earth I guess it was (I am not very good at using Chesco Views):
This stretch of Lancaster is the one that looks so desolate and run down when you drive by except for the too many cars on the D’Ambrosio property (one of the sites of human trafficking right?):
People always ask how East Whiteland can be focused on this grand future of over-development without “seeing” these properties or their residents. During COVID19 especially when we were all at home, you couldn’t help but see as soon as the weather warmed up how many people live in these rental properties alone. I have also had people tell me in confidence that there are some awfully crammed rental properties in some of the townhouse developments.
So….maybe it is time for East Whiteland to look at this differently? They need an updated local ordinance on rental properties right? And I think they need a full time inspector of rental properties and possibly more staff, like maybe a part time one.
East Whiteland needs this NOW, yesterday and into the future. They have to find the money to have proper inspectors because I doubt there enough in the Fire Marshall category, and how much work are they supposed to do anyway? Aren’t they already stretched thin?
So you know how the fire by the Wawa was December 2016? How about that building which is uninhabitable has just sat there and rotted since then? Seriously here are some photos taken over the past few years (a real slum lord special, right?):
Photos taken between 2017 and 2020
I was a renter for years. Face it, a lot of us were, and some still are. Would you want to live in any of these properties? What if you had no other choice? And were these landlords in the human trafficking locations 100% oblivious as to what was going on?
I also want everyone to know as per my sources, the East Whiteland Police Department truly went above and beyond the call of duty with this. It wasn’t just this girl messaging family that went into this. For a smaller department by comparison to large cities and boroughs, they put lots of man and woman power into this.
East Whiteland Police Department did exhaustive investigation and follow-up and coordinating with all different kinds of other agencies and states and it really does show their dedication to our community. These men and women should be publicly recognized for their efforts. In a time when police departments are being criticized, these men and women deserve to be commended. Ok yes, this is the job they sign up for, but this is huge. Or in my humble opinion it is. And kudos to our Chester County District Attorney as well.
I have many questions regarding human trafficking an how it happened. I will be curious to learn if the families of these girls who were rescued had ever reported them missing? If they did not, why not? Immigration fears or something darker? I ask because if my kid was missing I would leave no stone un-turned.
However I think we need to work as an extended community to prevent these things from happening and I think that means they need to have a system in place in East Whiteland Township and elsewhere in which rental properties are routinely and regularly inspected. Everybody’s been talking about this strip of rental properties in particular for years it’s nothing new. And East Whiteland like many other municipalities in Chester County are experiencing crazy amounts of development and growth. Why not have developers who want to be in our communities chip into programs like this? Isn’t it kind of part of infrastructure and municipal services? I mean it’s all great that mythical theory of build it and they will come but who keeps track once the developers have gotten their money out of sites and moved on?
I am calling on people in East Whiteland and Chester County to contact East Whiteland Township and ANY OTHER TOWNSHIP that does not have proper rental property ordinances and inspectors to catch up with the times. A lot of municipalities like East Whiteland are experiencing growth that is off the charts. Renters deserve safe places to live. Low income residents deserve truly affordable housing and safe housing.
Be safe out there. Thanks for stopping by.
Residential rental Properties along Route 30 Malvern. Not all that exist.
A friend of mine took this photo today Pennswood Rd Bridge, Bryn Mawr, PA
This is not a post about Chester County it’s about orphaned and other bridges in need of repair in our area, state, country.
Pennswood Rd Bridge 2007
The bridge in the photo opening this post and throughout this post is the orphaned railroad bridge on Pennswood Road in Bryn Mawr, PA. It’s in Lower Merion Township. This bridge has been falling apart for decades quite honestly. I started photographing it in 2007.
Pennswood Rd Bridge. 2007.
It takes far too long for unsafe and run down bridges to be repaired in this country. I photographed the deterioration of this Pennswood Road bridge between 2007 and 2012. I think I had some other photos once upon a time but I can’t find them.
Pennswood Rd Bridge 2012
This bridge had holes that you could see through to the railroad tracks and rattled like all get out. Underneath this bridge runs Amtrak and SEPTA trains. The bridge is on the orphaned list like many others that were built by railroads and then orphaned – original railroad companies go out of business successor railroads disavow responsibility. I don’t quite understand how it all works but that seems to be how it works.
Pennswood Road Bridge at some point between 2007-2012
What happens is the federal government will pay for most of this repair, the state will pay for some of the repair, and the final bit will be the responsibility of the local municipality. In this case, Lower Merion Township. After the bridge is rebuilt it becomes the responsibility of the municipality.
Pennswood Bridge 2012
I have to give credit here to the local commissioner in Lower Merion (Scott Zelov) who has been at this since he became a commissioner in 2006. It’s absolutely ridiculous that it took so long to get to this point. And the bridge was failing long before he took office. It’s been failing since I was in high school.
This is a definite problem across the country. I have seen programs on news shows that run nationally like network news on orphaned and dangerous bridges. In 2019 Pennsylvania was still on the short list of states with the worst bridges. Our state was number 2 in the country according to the CBS news affiliate in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Post Gazette also covers the topic.
HUMAN SEX TRAFFICKING ORGANIZATION DISMANTLED IN MALVERN
A 14-year-old’s message, “I don’t want to be here anymore,” assisted in an investigation that uncovered an East Whiteland Township human sex trafficking organization that entrapped child and adult victims in Malvern, PA.
East Whiteland Township police, along with the Chester County Detectives and Homeland Security Investigations, rescued the 14-year-old victim at a Wawa parking lot in Malvern on May 30, 2020, after she was held against her will for weeks at various locations in the area. Investigators subsequently learned that she and an 18-year-old were both victims in a human sex trafficking organization run by three men, as well as other unidentified and unnamed individuals. These codefendants engaged in a criminal conspiracy and criminal course of conduct by recruiting, enticing, soliciting, transporting, obtaining and maintaining individuals who they benefited from financially while they were subjected to sexual servitude, as well as other sexual assaults and criminal activity.
A Facebook message from a 14-year-old girl asking for help led to the discovery of a human trafficking ring in the Philadelphia suburbs.
East Whiteland Township police, Chester County detectives and Homeland Security investigators rescued the girl from the parking lot of a Malvern, Pennsylvania, Wawa on May 30, Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan said Wednesday.
Investigators said the girl had been held for several weeks against her will in various locations in the area. Investigators then found out the 14-year-old and an 18-year-old woman were being forced into sex by three men and others….Authorities want to know if other girls or young women were victimized.
“The allegations in this case are difficult to digest because of the calculated and deviant sexual exploitation of the two victims,” Ryan said. “Our office will continue the investigation to determine if there are other victims of this human sex trafficking organization.”
So this all took place in that no man’s land of ramshackle rental properties that go from like the Wawa at Planebrookthrough to Sloane Toyota? All along Lancaster Avenue a/k/a Route 30? And maybe from the Wawa headed east on Route 30? I’m all turned around. I have an idea where a couple of the locations were because of the NBC10 video.
Sorry not sorry this is just horrible and very scary.

Interestingly enough I learned courtesy of the East Whiteland Township meeting this evening that they have no rental inspectors.So basically no one keeps tabs on any rental properties? Does Chester County keep track of them? This is foreign to me because municipalities along the Main Line do have rental inspector people.
I asked if they knew all of the property owners involved in these various Lancaster Avenue rental properties especially those involved in the trafficking bust and yikes? The answer came from someone who I am not sure of was residents can look things up on Chesco views (paraphrasing).
Well yes, kind sir, I realize that but the maps get confusing. What is it they don’t understand about the fact that news like this makes residents in the area feel uneasy?
Human trafficking is terrifying stuff. And it’s crazy that it was going on in Chester County. Maybe I’m naïve. But you just don’t think of hideous crimes like that here. You think about that in big cities. One of the other things that I can’t wrap my head around is did the parents of these girls report their daughters missing?
Be safe out there. Hug your kids. Love your kids. What a cruel world we live in sometimes.
This is just one of my photos. It has absolutely nothing to do with the post.
I am beginning to understand why people move to cabins at the tops of mountains and don’t talk to people. We are living in very strange and angry times and I really wish people would just hit the pause button or take a freaking breath sometimes.
I saw pictures (media coverage) this weekend of people who went to Washington DC. They went to party with Trump on the White House lawn for 4th of July. Now no one can dispute going to Washington DC on the Fourth of July is a very American patriotic thing, the thing that disturbed me is all the coverage I saw of this event no one really was wearing masks. No one was social distancing. And it looked more like a political rally than a celebration of the nation’s birthday. That in and of itself was very distasteful to me. Right or wrong, to me it was very much a Marie Antoinette let them eat cake pre-French revolution kind of a thing.
But now I can’t help but wonder who in those crowds will get COVID-19 or bring it home and give it to somebody else? Because I don’t think they’re going to self quarantine do you?
I had another friend tell me again yet today about how uncomfortable their neighbors make them because all they’ve done essentially is party since coronavirus broke out. And I’m not trying to be a wet blanket, everyone likes to get together with their friends and family. But we don’t live in normal times and there are things we have to pay attention to. The proof is in the pudding as it were because there are spikes occurring all over the country of this pandemic virus.
Then there is the incredible tension because of well, racism in this country. We’ve had protests, incredibly violent protests at times from coast to coast. We are long overdue in truly addressing this heinous issue.
No one can have a conversation about anything and every conversation is combative and too many of them take place online and not face-to-face. Again, because of the times we live in having newly emerged from stay at home orders. We are truly living in the era of nasty keyboard idiots.
And another new thing that keeps happening. For every community where you say “Hate Has No Home Here“, “ Black Lives Matter“, or other similar signs there are also signs once again supporting local police departments. The impetus of course is to remind people that not everyone in law-enforcement is a bad person. And that’s true. I think, however, all of these different kinds of signs are stirring up people positively and negatively and I have to wonder can we take our protest signs down for a while across-the-board in general? And learn to co-exist peacefully?
And then there is the economy. There are a lot of people out of work. There are a lot of small businesses who are suffering greatly and will never open their doors again in some cases. There are people who also have gotten their salaries cut. I think with everything that has been going on since 2020 started is just creating so much tension that no one knows how to process it.
We need a do-over on 2020.
Global pandemic, unstable economy, and racism. They say bad things come in threes let’s hope this country is done now for a while, right?
Here’s a novel idea: maybe we should all just stop fighting one and other for five minutes and try to shut our mouths and open our ears and listen to what other people are saying. Maybe we should be open to hearing the points of view of others. Maybe we should all try to be better people. Maybe we should pay it forward with something positive however we can.
Part of the problem today again is no one can have a conversation any longer. No one can have a civil discussion about anything. You never know when you open your mouth if you’re going to say the right thing or the wrong thing, so I find myself for me being unusually quiet. Until now.
The impetus for this post, is all the stupid stuff I see going on in community Facebook groups. We’re all supposed to be neighbors, yet all I see is people who want to tear other people down or just starting fights. I would like to think that therapy is cheaper and perhaps anger management as well.
We live in an angry, hateful world right now. And we have to do our part to make it better to enact positive change. But change comes with trying to be tolerant of other people, walking away from stupid online arguments. I think life is hard enough right now at times, so hard, we need to just pause.
Once again, as I’ve said before, I think a lot of the fuel to the fire of negativity in this country comes from Washington DC. They only have one goal: benefiting themselves.
Our forefathers fought and bled and died and suffered so that all of us could be free. What would they think of us today? Would they be shaking their heads in disgust?
I don’t have the answers. I wish someone had the answers. But it’s too damn hot and I think people have to start to take a breath so we can come together as a nation.
