Tonight NBC10 Investigators did a new report. I am not sure what was breaking new ground, other than they got the Pennsylvania State Police to talk about the case. They did reiterate her husband, Allan Gould, is still a person of interest. That was kind of new, right?
I, like many others, wonder why the district attorney in Chester County has been mum on this case quite literally? Why didn’t they have anything to say in this report?
I was glad to see Anna’s parents interviewed. I wonder if they get to see their grandson?
Hopefully now thanks to NBC10 in Philadelphia, more media will pick up Anna’s story.
But one small correction: the flyers may have faded away, but Anna Maciejewska has not faded from our minds.
I almost titled this post “Hey Willistown don’t let reality get in the way of your delusion”, but then I decided that was just a little too rude. But it’s about these signs. We all keep seeing them and not all of them are actually in Willistown.
It makes you wonder why these signs have to be so nasty and where they originated from.
First of all, these are NOT non-profit organizations as there is a common misconception that you have to be a nonprofit to get a “.ORG” domain.
But let’s back up. I am sure this post will cause another Willistown Tempest in a Teapot. Sorry not sorry, it can’t be helped, and I am entitled to my opinion. And this is yet another issue in this particular township which is exhausting because it is again so nasty.
When I was growing up on the Main Line, Willistown to those of us on the eastern Main Line was this magical place of rolling hills, horses, Radnor hunt, farms. I can safely say I have been coming out to Willistown for decades longer than some residents have lived there or known how to spell Willistown.
No, I do not live in Willistown, but I have friends there. Quite a few friends. But Katie bar the door, they will be revoking my passport into Willistown. Again. You know because I have had a thing or two to say about things like the NOFIMBY neighbors of Castlebar Lane and WildFlower Farm? (No Farms In My Back Yard = NOFIMBY)
But sweet darling baby Jesus, and yes I am taking the Lord’s name in vain. This has seemed to stop really being about the sewer issue and more about destroying the good names of two men who have given a lot to their community named Bob Lange and Bill Shoemaker. Are they perfect? Are any of us? And these are people anyone can come to. They don’t see residents as political persuasions. Oh and speaking of that, are these signs somehow politically motivated? I ask because there is a third supervisor in Willistown. Her name is Molly Perrin. Why is Molly never mentioned? Molly why do you not ever say anything in defense of the other supervisors? Molly do you actually ever say anything at all?
(Oh is that too mean? She’s a politician so might as well ask her where she stands on this behavior in her township, right? Molly, do you have a voice? What does it sound like? )
And why are these signs targeting two individuals in Willistown all over as in also outside of Willistown? If y’all don’t want us non-Willistownians commenting, maybe don’t post the signs outside of the township for starters?
Ok, I am waiting. I know it is time to cue the refrain of “She doesn’t live in Willistown, she shouldn’t say anything!”
No I don’t live in Willistown. I wouldn’t want to at this rate because people are mean as snakes. There is this nasty edge meets a misplaced sense of entitlement no matter what the issue. And to me, this whole sewer issue has turned personal, which defeats the purpose of trying to win an argument in the first place. Next example? Here, this screenshot:
Campaign contributions being mentioned are rather interesting because first thing that caught my eye was Tom Hogan stepped down as D.A. in 2019. Before COVID. So what is the date on the small contribution to Bill Shoemaker? The reality is ALL of these corporations hedge their bets. They give to all candidates regardless of political party. I mean is this guy implying in his opinion that an honorable man sold out his municipality, an entire municipality, for $250? For real? My opinion is political candidates should not take donations from big old corporations. All of these corporations want something, even if it is just a certain perception. And then these donations will always do more harm than good, also because of perception at times.
And I go back now to these new street signs because they only target two supervisors. There have always been three supervisors, yet only two are ever targeted. I think that is done as a political motivation and personal animus, and just like the First Amendment may allow individuals to pay for street signs like this, I am also allowed to have that opinion. These are after all the same people who like to point out that Bill and Bob are related by marriage and the families are large landholders. Are they the largest landholders? I don’t know and I don’t care. What that says to anyone rational is they have a vested interest in the Willistown community. Family roots. Generational connections to the land. Why is that bad and they didn’t become supervisors to have a gateway to other things, did they? They have deep roots in the community, which doesn’t make them villains in some bad play or made for Lifetime TV movie. AND if they were NOT involved in the community the same folks would criticize them for that too.
But this is how all issues are approached in Willistown: lay siege and destroy the reputation of your neighbors. Don’t fight fair, act like gutter snipes. We’ve seen it over Wildflower Farm and other issues. Remember when M. Night Shyamalan wanted fences? That made regional papers and national entertainment news. Now it’s like “Oh he’s our wonderful neighbor”.
Let’s talk other issues for a moment like development. I am not a fan. No secret there. But I am a realist. The reason gets approved is simple: the Municipalities Planning Code of The Commonwealth of PA is woefully outdated by freaking DECADES. So it really doesn’t matter how local government officials might feel about development the reason above all others they can’t stop developments is zoning. Local zoning is guided by the Municipalities Planning Code so until it is changed to PROTECT our communities this is wash, rinse, repeat. It requires I think an act of the state constitution to update/overhaul the municipalities planning code comprehensively. There have been little things here and there, but not a comprehensive overhaul.
The county planning authority, AKA the Chester County Planning Commission keeps track of all developments in the county. I personally think they suck and are too pro development, but check out what they have to offer and be prepared to be horrified by the sheer volume of development marching across Chester County.
In Willistown, they talk about where developers already are, but not where they aren’t and what should also be saved. In Willistown they talk about land without conservation easements, but more so often than not when the horse is out of the barn and developers are already submitting plans. Willistown is not alone here. Most municipalities are like this. But where Willistown is different and should be better at conservation is the fact that Willistown is home to the Willistown Conservation Trust. So why isn’t more land in conservation?
Look at what is also brewing also in Westtown. Everyone wanted to preserve Crebilly. That time is here, and it’s possible. But will it happen? If the the Westtown Township Open Space Tax Referendum for Acquisition of Crebilly Farm doesn’t happen will Crebilly be saved? I mean do people think land conservation is actually FREE?
In Willistown there are lots of opinions on preserving open space. But someone politely pointed out the other day after a meeting that getting land into preservation requires money. And yes, you need to negotiate with a fat wallet if residents want more land conserved, especially when the developers have entered the ring. We as residents are NOT protected anywhere in PA because of the outdated, outmoded, skewed to developers and development Municipalities Planning Code. So basically communities have to BUY what they want to SAVE in order to actually save it. We might like how something looks, but if our communities don’t own it or us as individuals, does it matter in the end?
I am not saying that any of this is right, but it is reality. A very sad reality.
Another comment is those who are slamming two families over certain land parcels in Willistown isn’t going to get people where they want to be, either. With one family in particular, I find it egregious since they have literally given so much to Willistown. That is all I am saying on that topic.
People do not have to put their land into conservation. Some people don’t want to. I wish they did, but for some that was never the plan. And I still say that as someone who hates and despises all of this development. And I feel for Willistown residents over one huge parcel in particular. But I don’t see it stopping, sadly. But that doesn’t mean you all as residents can’t go look at all of the other parcels which you consider important that are not in play and work towards more conservation as a community, right?
But back to the verbal sewage over the sewer. A lot of municipalities can’t afford them long term now, so they are selling them to companies who are protected by state law when it comes to rate hikes. I have a problem with those rate hikes, but once again, it’s state law protecting what isn’t positive for Pennsylvania communities everywhere. So why aren’t people expressing outrage to State Reps and State Senators? Those are the people who can change this crap. Just like those state level elected officials are the people who can help communities worried about public water versus those on wells when it comes to all this new development….a lot of which doesn’t necessarily want to pay for public water and public sewer hook-ups and why shouldn’t they do that? Developers are adding all of these new people to communities and taking the profits and leaving? So why shouldn’t they have to do public sewer and public water hook-ups? Developers seem to be shielded from paying their fair share of anything, don’t they?
And there is this article from NBC News for which you won’t hit a pay wall:
I understand why municipalities shed these sewer responsibilities, BUT Aqua is growing to be a bit of a monopoly and the state laws (fair market bill, etc) protecting their ability to jump the rates is disturbing. Privatizing water systems has become a contentious issue around here in Chester County, as well as across the state. I understand that improvements have to happen, and that is what causes a majority of these sales in the first place, but I have been doing research and where rates have been jumped it has been astronomical.
I feel as more and more of these sales are inevitable that the PA PUC should amend the laws and have staggered tiers of rates (as in they can only increase rates every so many years) and that rates should be capped and people on fixed or low incomes and seniors, they should pay less. State elected officials need to amend the laws so people aren’t so scalped with rate increases. It’s not the fault of the residents of PA when their municipalities decide to sell. If Harrisburg did something about the rates to protect residents, people wouldn’t object as much.
And if you paid attention to what I have said for years about OVER-development out here, you would realize that ALL along part of the problems with all of this development are the stresses placed on infrastructure. D’oh infrastructure in part are sewer systems.
Which is again why I have maintained all along you can’t just storm the local proverbial Bastille, y’all need to Git R’ Done in HARRISBURG and get the elected officials there to amend the laws that have sway on a local level.
In East Whiteland, the sewer sale has been approved it looks like based on a press release I found yesterday as a matter of fact.
BRYN MAWR, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE: WTRG) announced today that its Pennsylvania wastewater subsidiary has acquired the municipal wastewater assets of East Whiteland Township, Chester County for approximately $55 million.
East Whiteland Township’s wastewater system serves approximately 8,200 customer-equivalents including residential and commercial connections. The system is comprised of 57 miles of collection mains and 12 pump stations. The collection system accepts waste from the neighboring municipalities of Malvern Borough and Charlestown Township. Its waste passes through Aqua’s Valley Creek Trunk Sewer system to the Valley Forge Sewer Authority for treatment. Essential’s unregulated subsidiary, Aqua Resources, purchased the 9-mile Valley Creek trunk system in December 2018, which consists of gravity sewers, force mains and two pump stations, from the Tredyffrin Municipal Township Authority.
“It’s particularly pleasing to be entrusted with the wastewater assets of East Whiteland Township, a municipality for which we’ve provided water service for years,” said Essential Chairman and CEO Chris Franklin. “Our excellent water service in the East Whiteland community brought important credibility to our offer to handle wastewater service in the township. We look forward to serving both water and wastewater customers throughout the township in the future.”
Aqua Pennsylvania President Marc Lucca said, “We look forward to providing excellent service to the East Whiteland community and have already identified the need for $17 million in infrastructure improvements over the next decade including two major sewer extensions. That work will likely begin with the Planebrook and Bacton Hill roads’ sewer extensions,” said Lucca.
East Whiteland is the second acquisition completed by Essential’s Aqua companies in 2022. The company currently has six additional signed purchase agreements to acquire water and wastewater systems in three of our existing states, which have a total purchase price of more than $363 million and represent approximately 216,000 equivalent retail customers or equivalent dwelling units.
Essential is one of the largest publicly traded water, wastewater and natural gas providers in the U.S., serving approximately 5.5 million people across 10 states under the Aqua and Peoples brands. Essential is committed to excellence in proactive infrastructure investment, regulatory expertise, operational efficiency and environmental stewardship. The company recognizes the importance water and natural gas play in everyday life and is proud to deliver safe, reliable services that contribute to the quality of life in the communities it serves. For more information, visit http://www.essential.co.
Aqua Pennsylvania Wastewater is a subsidiary of Aqua Pennsylvania and serves approximately 43,000 connections in 16 counties throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Visit AquaAmerica.com for more information or follow Aqua on Facebook at facebook.com/MyAquaAmerica and on Twitter at @MyAquaAmerica.
I have to be honest, I don’t even know if this registered with East Whiteland residents. And again, I am not saying communities should NOT object to these sewer sales. I have not actually ever said that. It’s the misinformation and attacks lobbed at two good men in Willisotwn which bothers me. So yo’ Willistown, you wonder why your last township manager decided to leave? You wonder why we looking at you from different parts of the county ask if there is literally something in the water?
Another sewer issue related article from August 9th to note:
Now of course we go back to the PUC Public Utilities Commission which is SUPPOSED to act to ensure the safety and well-being of Pennsylvania residents, but all you have to do is look at the pipelines issue to see how much they “care.”
Pennsylvania is kind of a cesspool. It doesn’t mean our local communities have to be. But lots of local communities cannot see the forest for the trees.
Nasty signs now aimed at two good men accomplish nothing. They are just nasty signs. We all know I am an equal opportunity offender when it comes to politics and politicians. But Bob Lange and Bill Shoemaker are good guys. They care about their communities. You don’t have to like them or agree with them, but remember these are two people who will actually have a conversation with residents.
But these signs? They literally accomplish nothing and are abhorrent. You want to fight to save your sewer system although your municipality is saying they can’t afford to keep it? That’s fine, fight for what you believe in…but do it without these nasty signs.
We haven’t talked about Anna Maciejewska in a while have we?
While most of us never knew her, we came to feel as if we did know her because she was a member of our community and a mother to a beautiful little boy who will forever miss having her in his life.
It’s like law enforcement (Pennsylvania State Police) and the Chester County District Attorney’s office just gave up on her or forgot her, didn’t they? And yes, I realize they’ve had a lot of stuff going on these past few years. But Anna still matters to people. And the community at large and her family, especially her little boy (who will never really know her other than a lady in a photograph) and family from Poland deserve answers and closure.
She’s missing /presumed dead/murdered 5 years as of this past April, 2022.
I don’t want to say our justice system and law enforcement has failed her, but have they?
The media hasn’t covered her in forever. Dateline NBC must not think she is newsworthy enough and she is quite LITERALLY “Missing in America”. There is a show on Hulu called Missing. Well producers, Anna is “Missing” and has been for 7 years. Unsolved Mysteries? Hey now producers of that show, Anna IS an “Unsolved Mystery”.
There is nothing more to add. Anna Maciejewska Gould is still #missing.
This was left for a new resident of an East Whiteland Township neighborhood known as Spring Mill Farms in Malvern. I don’t know who the recipient of this horrible poison pen letter is, I don’t know who wrote the poison pen letter. But the bottom line is simple: this is freaking unacceptable.
Spring Mill Farms is one of the many developments in East Whiteland Township and I think dates back to the late 1960s. Really nice part of the Malvern area. But this development does NOT have a homeowners association or HOA. It’s just a few neighborhoods. It does have a civic association, but that is not the same as an HOA.
When I first moved to Chester County it kind of drove me crazy that people didn’t refer to the road on which they lived, they referred to the development. And as a newcomer I couldn’t keep up with what development was where, nor was that how I identified where someone lived. It still seems foreign to me. What is not a foreign concept is the reality of a nasty neighbor. And apparently there is one or more living in Spring Mill Farms.
Nasty neighbors are sadly a universal issue. And to leave an anonymous poison pen letter like this for a newer neighbor is well…WRONG.
Apparently the letter writer leads a very perfect life. My guess from the tone of the letter is that it’s probably a woman. I could be wrong but that’s the way things are phrased and the things that seem to bother this person. And they are literally telling these people how to place their trash cans, how their windows should be dressed, where the sports equipment for their kids should be, and essentially where the kids should be: in the backyard not seen by the public.
I don’t have neighbors like this. My neighbors are actually nice. Have I ever had crappy neighbors in my lifetime? Yes, who hasn’t?
Also, shock and horrors, this person apparently doesn’t like seeing BBQ grills. Basically this neighbor of Spring Mill Farms would like everyone and every thing placed neatly behind a hedge and to have shutters of distinction. Do you know who this neighbor is? If you do, by all means out them.
Years ago when I lived in Lower Merion Township and was considered a community activist and was also an early blogger, I sometimes had nasty anonymous notes like this literally stuck in my mailbox. I actually had a neighbor write an entire guest editorial to the Main Line Times signing all of her familial names with great pretentiousness directed at me.
The notes left for me in my mail were sometimes truly horrible. I was a bad person, who did I think I was, and more. I remember how horrible some of the notes were and how they made me feel at first. So I feel for whomever got this poison pen letter.
But to the recipient of this letter, I also suggest pink plastic flamingoes. And I would have them playing soccer or doing whatever sports the sports equipment you have set up in the front yard really represents. Fight the nastiness with humor.
To the scribe: when your neighbors expose you (and they will), perhaps apologize? Life is difficult enough without someone like you doing something so wrong like this. We all don’t have to love every neighbor, but this is just wrong.
To the civic association I say simply: deal with this.
Life’s Patina is a beautiful, happy place to visit. The seasonal barn sales are fun to go to. It’s a dream of creativity and just pretty things to look at.
Friday, April 29. 10 AM – 5 PM
Saturday, April 30th. 10 AM – 5 PM
Sunday, May 1st. 10 AM – 4 PM
A portion of Life’s Patina Spring Preview Party ticket sales and merchandise sold during our barn sale will be donated to CARE’s Ukraine Crisis Fund, which aims to reach 4 million in Ukraine with immediate aid and recovery, food, water, hygiene kits, psychosocial support and cash assistance, prioritizing women, girls, families and the elderly.
These events are both indoor and outdoor. The parking is field parking so if the weather looks like it’s going to be funky check their Facebook page or website.
Even if you don’t need to buy anything you may find a little something or a large something that you cannot live without. And you will enjoy every minute that you are there!
LOCATION: Willowbrook Farm, 1750 N Valley Rd, Malvern, PA 19355
Cancel culture or call-out culture is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. … The expression “cancel culture” has mostly negative connotations and is used in debates on free speech and censorship.
~definition of cancel culture
As a blogger, I suppose you can say cancel culture is nothing new. After all isn’t cancel culture good old-fashioned mob mentality? Sheesh, I have been experiencing that for daring to have an opinion since early 2000s when blogging was in it’s infancy. I was originally part of something called PhillyFuture.org which no longer exists. It was this amazing group blog/blogging community that gave people a voice from neighborhoods all over Philadelphia and elsewhere. Some of us joined it to fight eminent domain…in Ardmore, parts of Philadelphia, Camden, NJ.
Blogging = bad mostly because people didn’t understand it. And it was giving issues local governments and others wanted to sweep under the carpet air-time. It was like what broadsides were to the American Revolution.
“Well-behaved women seldom make history” ~Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
For my opinions on Lower Merion Township and eminent domain for private gain especially, people were constantly on the attack. Especially because I thought eminent domain sucked as a concept. You don’t know from ad hominem attacks until you disagree with cheerleaders for Lower Merion Township. One of the early attempts on cancelling me came from two then Ardmore business owners who thought they would benefit from eminent domain. They actually wrote a nasty editorial about me that Main Line Times published. Sometimes it was attempted at public meetings during public privilege to the floor (public comment out here.) That was always amusing, because I wasn’t an elected or appointed official. They just didn’t like my opinion.
It didn’t cancel me.
Obviously I still blog, and this blog is now 10 years old. Periodically someone wants to cancel me. Sometimes several times a week. If I was a mommy blogger talking about Disney trips, diapers scented like Febreeze, which mani-pedi was the best, or various pyramid schemes it would be o.k. But if they can’t put you in a convenient box from Crate & Barrell, they short circuit.
The past few days it has been insane, and it is everything swirling around the Benjamin Pennypacker House in Exton, West Whiteland. (see THIS post and this OTHER post.) I have decided that a bunch of rabid realtors sent by the realtor I criticized are even more ridiculous that the anti-maskers/anti vaxxers or the Stepford Wives for Totalitarianism who periodically put out a jihad on me. (You know they do and there was the one who posted photos of me in a hospital gown from some where in between surgery and treatment during Breast Cancer Awareness month and wondered why people found them tone deaf?)
Pro Tip: Don’t say the word HOOEY. It really unhinges them.
The past few days have even surpassed the hubub when I made fun of Ladies Hat Day at Nouveau Devon quite a few years back and commented on the coup at Devon also a few years back which speaking of is it just me or are those people just driving Devon straight into the ground? Who will be making book on when someone down the road will say Devon is archaic let’s build apartments or something?
The Nouveau at Devon didn’t cancel me either….
Now today and yesterday some have given it their best shot. One girl (says she is a college student) was so gleeful that I had forgotten the hyphen in low-class attack rat. She needs to get out more. And there have been two today people calling my writing drivel!! Usually it’s just this one woman who needs to lay off the teeth whitening or whatever because after a while it gives that Mr. Ed appearance, but she was joined by a self-described “Renaissance Man.” Also funny because true renaissance men don’t have to self-describe as such because everyone knows they are.
These people love to leave comments. Then they get outraged if I delete their comments but preserve screen shots. They don’t get that everywhere they post on social media they are guests until they wear out their welcome. They get all up in arms about people removing their comments. And blocking them. What is it they don’t get? No one is holding a gun to their heads they can choose not to read what I right? But hey don’t forget those “ladies” who talk about “packing heat” and then me. So are we supposed to conclude they are threatening to shoot me? Then they call me “ugly”, a “progressive liberal” or a “communist” or “vile” and then they want to pray for those THEY deem to be lacking in judgement and character.
Bless their hearts . They fear for my immortal soul too because of my writing. Then of course there is the back and forth from people who speak emojis about whether I can write or not. Lucky for them, I can or what would they have to talk about?
And all of these people “don’t get hate” as they tear people down whom they don’t have the intellectual capacity to understand? Then it’s I have a skewed perception of freedom and I must be crazy? Yay!!! Pretzel logic, and don’t let the acrylic nails get in the way as you type furiously.
Truly, I find these people fascinating. You see all these slogans out there like “Dare to be Different” but if you are, you must be bad.
One of my readers said today:
Isn’t it weird how the people that scream and cry about cancel culture are exactly the same people that want to take away your opinion?
“Cancel culture,” as a concept, feels inescapable. The phrase is all over the news, tossed around in casual social media conversation; it’s been linked to everything from free speech debates to Mr. Potato Head….As the logic behind wanting to “cancel” specific messages and behaviors caught on, many members of the public, as well as the media, conflated it with adjacent trends involving public shaming, callouts, and other forms of public backlash. (The media sometimes refers to all of these ideas collectively as “outrage culture.”)
There was a great op-ed in the Courier Journal a year ago:
Seriously, it’s kind of an interesting topic. I guess we could all be canceled? But what does it really mean if the people doing the canceling don’t matter in the first place? Then is it just acidic pabulum being regurgitated to make them feel better? Would they like a binkie too?
To me it boils down to if you put them out of their comfort level, you are bad, so you should be canceled. You don’t write about or speak about or converse about what they are comfortable with, so you should be canceled. They said the moon is made of green cheese and you asked as of when, so you should be canceled. If you are the least bit different from them, you should be canceled.
How about all of you do you, and the rest of us will do us? Oh no wait…we might get canceled?
From Philadelphia to Pittsburgh they are a bunch of mean girl bobble headed Stepford wives.
Let’s start with their website image. The American flag is supposed to a symbol of our history and our values as a nation. While it is fine to have clothing or hats with the flag ON IT, to WEAR an actual flag is a sign of DISRESPECT for Old Glory.
This group is born out of the Trumpublican movement which has destroyed the Republican party. Were they born out of the Tea Party? Maybe in part, and while old GOP politicians Tom DeLay may have been skunks, he and others kept these faux Republicans out of the RNC 2000. I know because I was there, and I listened to conversations perhaps I shouldn’t have listened to, but that is what happens when big wigs think volunteers are invisible like their help at home.
Anyway, did you know on yesterday’s date In 1776, Thomas Paine anonymously published his influential pamphlet, “Common Sense,” which argued for American independence from British rule? Do the purported Pennsylvania Conservative Women even know that or have they read it or are they busy studying acrylic nails and big hair and brassy color shades not found in nature?
This mission statement and this group are FULL of hooey. They are all about banding together like a bunch of sheeple and to say they are God fearing and take responsibility for nurturing and protecting the traditions that America was founded on, is in a word, OFFENSIVE. All of these people actually FORGET what this country was founded on and why.
They claim the advocate for freedom, yet their definition of freedom is subject solely to their interpretation of the word. And again, they forget if our forefathers hadn’t quite literally bled and died for us centuries ago, they would not have their freedom to espouse their bullshit and hooey. Well I can’t title a post bullshit so I chose hooey. But I digress.
I find it endlessly amusing that the crap they spout is in part what our forefathers fought against, yet they also fought for the rights for people to have freedom of thought no matter how ridiculous their thoughts were. Hence why I asked if these students of self-focusedness actually remember their American history? Do they actually know what it is to be an American?
Thomas Paine wrote how he thought it was in essence stupid that Americans should be loyal to a mother country that he considered similar to an unfit parent. “Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families,” he wrote. He said our real connection as newly minted Americans was to people everywhere who yearned to escape oppression. “This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe,” Paine proclaimed. “Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still.”
Thomas Paine wrote about a new country with a strong government than protected the rights of the people. And can it be hypothesized that Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” influenced the Declaration of Independence and all that followed? I think so.
But back to these women who are the nouveau champions of our proverbial values and home fires burning. Of course home fires burning implies these women keep house and cook and clean. Ummm ok, they are why take out and delivery were invented, weren’t they?
“As God-fearing women, we take responsibility for nurturing and protecting the traditions that America was founded upon.”
~ From “Mission Statement” of Pennsylvania Conservative Women (PACW) formerly known as Conservative Women of the Mainline.
Traditions America was founded on as interpreted by them? That’s actually funny.
They also claim they are “women modernizing traditional values.”
That doesn’t even make sense. Traditional values don’t require modernizing, they are based in traditions. When you “modernize” them, they stop being “traditions.”
Who decided they were the bosses of women, men and children anywhere? They are more like religious fanatics or cult leaders aren’t they? (Purple Kool aid and a doily anyone?)
Then there are the boobs at Moms for Liberty. Note the amusing mistake in their “About” section of “Moms for Liberty, Chester, PA” . They wouldn’t survive 5 minutes in Chester, PA which is in Delaware County. Now they are a national Stepford Wives consortium. That group has people tied to a group called Patriot Voices which is a 501(c)(4) which means donations aren’t tax deductible. Oh and Moms for Liberty is also a 501(c)(4) meaning donations to THEM are also not tax deductible. And upon looking at CONservative Women of the Main Line now rebranding to whatever, I noticed their donation button is not a donation button it is a “pay now” button which means they aren’t non-profit either are they?
I wonder how many people donating to these organizations which are not registered as tax deductible non-profit organizations think what they are donating is tax deductible? Makes you wonder where they money goes right?
Then there are the other groups and these groups all discussing anti-vaxxing, anti-masking and what works (in their little minds) against COVID (this is supposedly from Moms for Liberty group):
And I find myself circling back to their use of the word freedom. So they have freedom to choose? Ok, so do I, but when did freedom become subjective? When did their freedoms become more important than everyone else’s?
Let’s talk COVID for example. If they were less concerned about the hooey that getting a shot impinges on their freedoms would we have so much COVID on the rise again? Because let’s get real, the COVID cases in the hospitals taking most of the beds are the UNvaccinated. They exercised their freedoms but are now infecting us? How are their freedoms more important than ours? What if they had been around when this country was battling things like TB, leprosy, polio?
Is freedom subjective? Or did our forefathers fight for us to equally have freedom?
And if these women are modernizing traditional values does that mean they are updating tuna noodle casserole recipes? Inquiring minds want to know what the hooey is really all about because to this inquiring mind, they are Stepford Wives Sheeple and they better check their kool aid. And at the end of the day, I do know actual real conservatives and Christians and what is predominantly roaming around self describing as that? Not any of them, nor do they actually get it by a country mile.
Bless their hearts, I am finished thinking about insanity for the day.
I have to be honest, I feel like I should be playing Taylor Swift while I write this.
Not sure if I should go with “You Need to Calm Down Lyrics”:
“And we see you over there on the internet Comparing all the girls who are killing it But we figured you out We all know now, we all got crowns You need to calm down”
Or maybe from “Shake it Off”:
“And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”
Yes, shocking as it might seem, I actually like Taylor Swift and as a lyricist she is a genius at times. It’s like she sings what people are thinking.
So why the lyrics? Well I am taking a minute because it has been a day or two.
I am a blogger (d’oh, I know you love when I restate the obvious) and that makes people uncomfortable. Men and woman.
Woman think I am going against some adult woman code by actually speaking my mind. I can’t do that, they say. They want me to be like them, in all their Stepford glory and limited comfort level.
Nope, life doesn’t work that way and I never liked cliques. Ask my high school friends and sorority sisters. If that’s your speed, that’s quite all right, it’s just not my jam.
Now the men, they can be a little more tricky. My opinions make some really uncomfortable. I have never understood that.
How does my opinion threaten their world and masculinity? Why do they feel the need to “school” me? Don’t they have enough to do at home? Or did they just peak in high school and haven’t gotten over their varsity blues?
So this week a couple of things. I went back to CVS to get some answers about our local stores. I don’t get paid for this, don’t have to do it, but as a CVS customer I wanted answers and shared with my community.
One would think they could just say thanks for the information or better yet, say nothing at all. I ended up closing down posts a couple of places I posted because for some strange reason it became the mission of some of these man children (and “ladies”) to just berate me:
How I was entitled to my opinion, but not entitled to spin things and and deceive people on reality. (Whatcha talking about Willis? Not opinion, but information provided to me by CVS.) Oh and because I shut down comments on my post because I didn’t feel like endless bits of this dude’s bullsheit I didn’t have the facts (as he saw them.)
Of course this guy then took to private messaging me so he could just keep spewing. According to him he had the right to do so and it wasn’t invading my privacy by sending unsolicited messages, I was invading everyone else’s privacy by posting on social media in general. (Yes you have to love pretzel logic combined with mansplaining.) Before I figured out how to just block him he was crowing with his pyrrhic victory “I am surprised by how many people are on to you!!! You are so busted! You really lost this one!! Ha” (I am confused. What did I lose? All I did was relay information told to me so how do you figure?)
Then there were the women. They just wanted to complain some more and correct me. Ladies, it’s not a competition, never was. And of course there was the one who had to know what was going on but couldn’t see because I blocked her. She was positively gleeful to hear people being miserable to me. (The funny thing is I don’t know her, and hadn’t remembered that I blocked her. I just don’t feel like dealing with some of these people so I just block them. It makes it out of sight, out of mind.A social media dusting so to speak. Clean and toss the rag, the dirt is gone like magic.)
Then there was some other thing. This guy who crops up here and there. He likes to trash talk me, usually behind my back. This time it was to my face. He went to high school with a guy who also doesn’t like me for whatever reason. That one doesn’t say anything to me, last time I saw him somewhere I said hello and was polite (because that is how I was raised) and he basically just grunted and scowled, which is fine because they don’t matter. So if they don’t matter to me, why am I so fascinating to them? And do I really know them? Nope, never have. It’s like they just decided to hate me on principle, but based upon what in reality, who knows?
Oh and what was the other thing that sent so many into a swivvet? Oh yeah my opinion on OTB (Off Track Betting) and casinos in communities. I think they are like dancing with the devil because they bring a lot of negative with them. Actually, you don’t have to believe me. If you know anyone in law enforcement who deals with the by-products of these establishments in communities, they will tell you. Plenty share my opinion on these establishments, and some don’t. And those who disagree but maintain respect for the opinion of someone other than themselves is completely fine, but then there are the others. They can’t have a conversation, they have to verbally pummel others. It’s crazy.
I don’t understand why these people feel the need to behave like this towards me or anyone else on social media. Male or female they need to get over themselves. Or they need to stop the world as it revolves around them personally…you know so the rest of us can get off?
It’s almost Thanksgiving, do we think they can tamp down the hypocrisy and harping and just try being normal? Or is that asking too much? Will they be posting at a fever pitch on Thanksgiving Day as well?
Whatever, just thought I would take a moment to address the armchair critics. Bottom line? They can keep doing them, that’s all they know, bless their hearts. (And they hate when I say THAT too which makes me say it more.)
Essentially this has nothing to do with anything and is just a painting I saw a while back that I found interesting- and it’s women and that’s the topic of this post.
Before I dive into writing my post, let’s talk about Gwyneth Paltrow for a second. Personally I think she’s bizarre. And narcissistic.
Gwyneth has announced she is going Sex Ed, including a new show that will be launching on Netflix this week. I saw an outtake of the show this morning on the Today Show, and they were talking Wolverine Claws. Yep sharp pointy claw things that can literally draw blood. Sex Ed with a side of kink, anyone? And like two in Bravo’s Real Housewives franchises , she will be selling vibrators on her Goop website and some female libido pill. But it’s a Goop product so they will be more wholesome, right?
I totally get her whole women having body issues. I especially get it after having breast cancer because quite frankly I have an uneven chest but I don’t want fake plastic boobs. Oh I guess this is going to be too much for some of my male readers, so I apologize in advance. But I have always said this blog is about whatever strikes my fancy and today the topic is women. This was just a quasi related segue.
Someone asked me the other day about a woman who used to be a very close friend. when we were in our 20s even up to my 30s. We did tons of stuff together. It wasn’t a weekend if I didn’t hang out with her at some point. She was a lot of fun and is still one of the most naturally beautiful women I have ever met. Men literally fell at her feet. Mostly they ignored the rest of us with her, although they would often buy us cocktails just so they could be in her presence. She was often a lot nicer to some of them than they deserved.
Our friendship started to change and wane a little when she got involved with this weird cult-like group. The group sold seminars under the whole guise of personal wellness and well-being but I remember going to a couple of things with her and it was like freaky Friday at least for me. I felt like the people that ran it were a bunch of charlatans and they were very happy to take people’s money, but I couldn’t get if the “help“ they offered had any value. But she was a friend so I didn’t say anything and I accepted this was something she needed in her life.
Then one day she asked me to help her rewrite her résumé. So I did it for her and she got a fabulous job in New York. And dropped me like a hot potato. There was no argument or disagreement, she was literally just done with me. Reinvented herself and was finished with those who knew her when. It really hurt. At this point in my life, this was the first time I had ever experienced anything like this. I have seen her fly by here and there over the years on the social media of others and she looks happy, and she got married. I hope she has everything she wants in life. But I hope she’s learned to treat people better.
Now this was a woman whose company I enjoyed very much, so she is someone I actually miss from time to time. But I think I just can’t let people in again all the time after great hurt. It’s not about not being able to forgive someone, it’s more about being practical because if they’ve done it once they will inevitably do it again and do you want to put yourself through that?
Next came a woman who was a very close friend, I was even one of her bridesmaids. Our parents kind of knew each other through other people, there was a lot of commonality. But I always kind of knew in the back of my head if I was honest she wouldn’t last.
When I realized this about this woman, ironically it was at her wedding. There were a lot of people she invited that none of us in her current circle had ever known existed in her world. She was one of those people that has one set of friends and then moves to the next set of friends and so on and so forth. She is also someone who would periodically disappear for long durations of time (years) from her friends’ lives and then just pop up like nothing had ever happened. She did that to me actually. And it was really weird, and hurt. But I forgave it the first time because it was nice to have her back in my life.
The second time I walked away from her entirely. The second time it occurred when I moved to Chester County. When I moved to Chester County I was the out of sight, out of mind person. And coming out here when I did in my 40s was a big change for me. I had lived my life and practically its entirety in only one other place except for early childhood. Chester County was completely unknown although I wanted very much to be here. So it wasn’t the simplest of transitions because it was so emotionally loaded. Here I am standing on the precipice of the rest of my life where I very much want to be, yet at the same time nervous because I was literally leaving everything else I knew someplace else.
This woman literally just stopped returning my calls after I was out here a little over a year. I was no longer geographically convenient for her as a friend, I suppose. But because I had given our friendship a second chance when she disappeared the first time, I was just quietly done. I am not going to chase after someone whom I had fulfilled my end of the friendship so to speak. And I had told myself after the first time, if it happened again, the life door was just not going to reopen.
The other thing I discovered with this other woman is she has become dependent on extreme forms of Christianity. That is her comfort level. It keeps her insulated from I think the reality she is trying to escape. That’s her jam, and I respect it because I think she actually deeply believes it. I have also seen her a couple of times here and there, and it made me realize that while I was over the hurt she caused me, I just I’m not going to let her back in this time. I will always be happy to run into her, but I just can’t again.
I have had some missteps with new women in my life moving to Chester County. There was one woman I actually really enjoyed. But she used confidences we shared with each other to curry favor with others. That’s a disloyalty that I can never get my head wrapped around. At the time when that happened, I was so new to Chester County and feeling the loss of my aforementioned friend, so this was briefly hurtful. But I just walked away. I closed the door. I realized after a bit they had their own issues, and this was for the best. And I hadn’t invested that much in knowing them at that point so it stung, but it wasn’t a permanent hurt.
Trust is a big value with me. And once you feel like it’s broken in a relationship for me that’s really hard to go back and deal with. Maybe that’s a character flaw on my part, I don’t know.
Then there were a couple of women that were kind of out of my childhood, and I was delighted to find them out here. Well one I already knew was out here, the other came out here after I moved here.
These couple of women are women I used to have a lot of fun with. And then one really wanted to just be the controlling person in the relationship like I was a child, and the other was kind of a copycat on things I liked. And of course then there were the extreme political views that emerged just like with a lot of people. I kind of said goodbye to both of these women at once. With one of them it wasn’t so hard a decision. The other one it was a harder decision, because I knew her longer and better. But having either of them in my life, meant chaos and unreal drama, so I chose myself and peace.
But as we grow and evolve as human beings, sometimes our friendships don’t grow in the same way. However, when you experience the loss of longer-term friendships it kind of makes it hard to trust sometimes the new people you meet. You want to let them in because they just seem so nice, but it takes a minute, know what I mean?
So there’s this one woman I met within the past couple of years whom I really enjoyed. I really thought she’d be a new friend. And maybe someday again she will be, but she did something I found completely disloyal. And when I kind of called her on it privately, she turned it around that it was my fault.
What my fault was is that she wanted to have a political discussion on a day where my head was just too full. You know those days, you just know that you can’t do one more thing. And I was working on something for a client. When I am working, I am working, and with the onset of Covid-19 a lot of people blur those lines. But I can’t be all things to all people 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year. So I said I couldn’t talk. Because I literally couldn’t – I was working and I was just tired, physically and emotionally.
The other things people don’t realize is because I’m a blogger, some days I literally get private messages and reach outs from people around the clock. Can I look at this, can I comment on this, why haven’t I done that or the other thing? Some days I just get tired.
So this person blamed me for her essentially kind of being crappy to me. And I’m just done for now. This is not somebody I really want to walk away from because I think they’re really interesting, but this is a question of mutual respect and friend loyalty. Which means I’m letting go of them for now. I am not angry, although it has made me pissy. But it’s something I’m hitting the pause button on. At least for now. And it wasn’t an easy decision, either.
But as I said to someone who once taught me, and as an adult is a dear friend, these situations are one of those things that you think as you get older maybe the people will get better? But still it almost goes back to the same stuff you were dealing with in high school, just on a different playing field. Sociologically it’s interesting. Personally it can be hurtful, and you also get to a point in your life where you feel like you just need to hit pause.
And this is a very female on female or female response, because I also have encountered women who will just throw men and women under the bus just because they are threatened by change. Or they just crave attention good bad or indifferent.
My male friends aren’t this way. If one of my male friends has a problem, they don’t post it on social media they contact me and they pretty much say “so what’s up?”
I don’t pretend to be perfect, or to have led a perfect life. But I find women to be cruel and hurtful to one and other over the dumbest sheit.
I guess this just makes me a little sad because as I have settled into life over the years in Chester County, I have met some amazing women. But as we age as women, trust and loyalty go a long way.
If as a woman if you really have a problem with a woman you know, talk to them. And if they tell you one of the days you want to talk to them they just can’t do it, accept that at face value and try again another day. Maybe it will be a while, but sometimes it isn’t about what you want, it’s about what they need and whatever they have asked you to hit the pause button on.
Well ladies, that’s all I’ve got for today. Thanks for stopping by.
I have always been a fan of former United States Secretary of State, General Colin Powell. Today he died due to complications of COVID19.
He WAS fully vaccinated. He was however, immunocompromised due to battling cancer. He suffered from a breakthrough case of COVID-19 and before fake news takes over, this isn’t an issue of the lack of efficacy of the vaccine, this is about the breakthrough COVID-19 variants health officials have been warning us about. I am sure the rabid anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers won’t pay attention to this, or will twist it up, but this is how and why he died. This virus is a killer and doesn’t care who you are, or where you’re from it will take your life anyway.
If you are immunocompromised in any way , this is what you fear. Here we had a literal lion, an amazing human being, and COVID-19 has taken him from his family, and this country.
So for all of you who want to send me articles about how COVID-19 still isn’t real, etc. just stop. It is.
I actually met this amazing human being once upon a time way back when Philadelphia hosted the RNC 2000, or when you still recognized Republicans NOT as a party corrupted and ruined by Donald Trump.
I was a media relations volunteer at the RNC 2000. I was stationed primarily at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. I met all sorts of fascinating people during this time. I met Powell the same day I met Larry King and an ABC network news guy.
Larry King was with his super tall blonde wife (# 7) and was so short and his face was pulled so tight he resembled a praying mantis. The ABC network news guy was just too important to talk to anyone and quite rude. I don’t remember his name. But I believe he’s retired.
But Colin Powell? He was just amazing. He was gracious and pleasant and spoke to us volunteers. Meeting him was a complete fluke, he was at the train station to pick his wife up from the train.
That was a crazy volunteer experience that was very memorable. I got to meet people like Arnold Schwarzenegger and his then wife Maria Shriver. I also helped a then slightly harried young Congressman from Mississippi named Chip Pickering. He had taken a train up from Washington without his wallet. I let him cab fare to get to the convention center or I believe he was a platform speaker of some sort. I remember somebody saying to me “You just lent a stranger money. You’ll never see that again!” Well not only did he pay me back, but his secretary sent me tickets to some of the best parties that week!
But meeting Colin Powell? That was the best.
What I have always liked about Colin Powell is he is the definition of a true patriot, and lived his life that way. In recent years, people have kind of tossed that word around like a verbal potato chip. But Colin Powell lived it. He served his country, not just some political party.
📌In an interview on CNN, the host, Fareed Zakaria, asked Mr. Powell if Republican Party members “realize that in a sense they caused, that they encouraged at least this wildness to grow and grow,” referring to Mr. Trump’s chaotic governance, which culminated in the violence last week.
Mr. Powell, 83 and a longtime Republican Party member, replied, “They did, and that’s why I can no longer call myself a fellow Republican.”
This country lost someone special today. R.I.P. Colin Powell and God speed.
