This Saturday I went to Church Farm School with a dual purpose: to go to the West Whiteland Township holiday craft show, but first I wanted to see the Church Farm art exhibit of Amos P. Kennedy, Citizen Printer at the Buck Family Center For The Arts.
Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. is an American printer, book artist, and papermaker best known for social and political commentary, particularly in printed posters. Mr. Kennedy is 76 years old, so I wanted to see what he saw and created because he has lived through so much. Artists, even though who wish to be seen as just citizen printers, see so much through their eyes, and we can learn from that.
According to Wikipedia:
Kennedy creates prints, posters and postcards, often incorporating chipboard, using letterpress printers that operate with handset wood and metal type. Many of his posters are inspired by proverbs, sayings, and quotes related to social justice and the political movements that Kennedy supports.
The exhibit was amazing and powerful. I’m glad I went. Church Farm has really cool things like this. It is an academic institution that is a gem in Chester County.
I will share my photos and links to a couple of articles about Mr. Kennedy and his work.
There’s a building in Malvern that houses an establishment that I went to once and never again, so I never knew about the small business called Sensory Fit that was in the same building, on a lower level.
Then I saw this one little video on Facebook and I looked at it and a few others and just learned about a small business nightmare:
I actually know of a business in Ardmore that is going through a nightmare because they were on the first floor of the building that got flooded. And I have known many people who have had small businesses and this is something that is just so horrible to hear, and I don’t even know the business owner.
Who inspects buildings that house businesses in this borough?
Does anyone in the actual borough give a good goddamn that this happened to a small business?
Again, there is a GoFundMe. I don’t share those very often, but this is a special circumstance, and the holidays are almost upon us and this woman who owns this business spends her life doing good things from what I have been told?
As to who owns this property, it’s public record. I will note everything I found has been posted publicly. It’s terrible what happened to this business.
Supervisor Peter Fixler spent most of the day Election Day wandering around like a demented sandwich board man hawking mattresses on the edge of a highway.
As a current elected official representing a township of literally like 20 people shy of 15,000 he should be embarrassed at his behavior Election Day, but he won’t be because he doesn’t really like any of us anyway, does he?
Good thing he has his day job and it was nice of them to give him the day off to be snarky, baiting, and mostly unpleasant and disrespectful to all he encountered throughout Election Day, isn’t it?
He literally spent all day from many reports (and not just people volunteering), trying to get into the heads of the citizenry who put out the effort to get the referendum on the ballot.
I know he really didn’t like it when people started talking about him as the sandwich board man at the township building in East Whiteland but wasn’t he? We didn’t have any reports of any other East Whiteland Supervisors dressed up with posters did we?
I’m not quite sure what the Republicans were doing, where I volunteered they were pleasant, but they didn’t really do anything. They didn’t even introduce voters to state rep candidate Joe Lewis when he was visiting the poll, and that was just dumb. (The rest of us introduced him.) It blows my mind that the East Whiteland Republicans wasted their breath on Melissa Dicranian running for something else to lose, and like the Great Valley Democrats, fighting to defeat representative democracy.
I realized when I was talking to somebody who called after the election that we actually did something kind of cool. Not only did we get our ballot referendum passed, but we actually faced down two local political machines who were just being jackholes about us asking for two more supervisors.
Now they want to tell us that they can’t find candidates and it’s true, but is it kind of because of the way they do things? It is a big-time commitment, but the way both political parties do stuff is a huge turn off to a lot of people who are actually interested in serving, but they just feel like they make it too daunting.
Now I wonder if the Great Valley Democrats and East Whiteland Republicans are just stewing in their juices over this? I wonder if they have the intellectual capacity to look inward a little bit and see how they got there? The way they both acted you would’ve thought we were asking for a ballot referendum to have meth labs on Route 30 or something right? And because of their political hyperbole on this, the negative sample ballots, their campaigning against their very own residents and party members, it backfired.
These two political parties picked this one issue to be unified about of all the things that are wrong in this township, this county, the state, and this country they picked going after residents for doing what we’re legally allowed to do.
We should send the local chairs of both parties a thank you note. Why? Because they actually helped us come together even more in a bipartisan manner for the greater good. They should try it sometime.
Something I learned while volunteering was verification of something we had heard within the last I don’t know a couple weeks or so whenever they had the last gathering of the clan of the Great Valley Democrats in East Whiteland Township building. Can you say it’s really disappointing to hear from two separate sources, especially those who were complete strangers who said two supervisors were at one of those meeting asking them to get involved and I guess do the “NO” sample ballot etc? I looked at their calendar and apparently they had a meeting today? (Oh to have been a fly on the wall, right?)
I’m sure both political parties want to see everyone fail because getting two additional supervisors means a shift in power doesn’t it? The vacancy board chair doesn’t have as much fun when there’s five supervisors versus three for example.
With two additional supervisors, my personal hopes include diversity including backgrounds. Also quite frankly, I want less political posturing at the local level. I mean, leave your national politics at the door. This is your local community. This is why I like the idea of New England selectmen.
A select board or board of selectmen is basically your local government structure throughout New England. I don’t believe it’s uniform but it does exist in many areas. If I recall correctly, it’s like 3 to 5 members and their terms are a shorter duration than ours are here in Pennsylvania under the second class township code. I don’t know if aldermen in New Hampshire are a similar function in New England to selectmen but I know they’re not Republicans or Democrats. They just are people. They don’t run on political parties.
The Philadelphia Inquirer published an article today that said we had 64% voter turnout in East Whiteland, which is kind of amazing for a technically “off year” election.
Yesterday, watching people walk into the polls you literally had people giving us the thumbs up saying things like “We’ve got this, we won’t let you down.” The last time I saw that on an Election Day where I lived was that election day many many years ago where residents flipped half of the board of commissioners in Lower Merion Township because of eminent domain for private gain. When people come together, they are a mighty force for good.
The Philadelphia Inquirer article also said the following with respect East Whiteland Board Chair Scott Lambert saying the following:
Scott Lambert, chairman of the East Whiteland supervisors, said Wednesday he respected the voters’ decision.
Alrighty then we shall see right?
In the meantime, take a bow Jess Larkin, you put this all together and did an amazing job.
The postscript here is a recent post from Ginny Kerslake captured and screenshots to make you understand why people could start believing in conspiracy theories due to coziness yes?
Just a heads up to those concerned about the truly disturbing behavior of Great Valley Democrats lately that yesterday evening, Jerry Pyne, who is one of the most vocal Great Valley Democrats against adding two more supervisors try to infiltrate a data center group.
He lasted I think about half an hour.
We had to laugh because all of a sudden he claimed he was against data centers and then my friend Ginny Kerslake reminded him about a certain email.
If residents would like another example of why we need two more supervisors I think this is it. After all, politicians and political parties who are secure in their mission don’t try to destroy the efforts of the plurality when it comes to representative democracy. If they were secure, they would embrace it.
East Whiteland Republicans in between their worshipping of big orange clowns and their bad runs for everything candidates like Melissa Dicranian is robo texting everyone under the sun whether they want it or not… and please note that their sample ballot includes a no vote on representative democracy- yes that’s right – JUST like the Great Valley Democrats they want you to say NO to expanding the board by two members.
Say NO to both East Whiteland Republicans and Great Valley Democrats by voting YES to add two more supervisors.
Both of these political parties are the way it used to be in Philadelphia city politics for example, for a very long time. So they don’t have people fighting against one another and conflict, all they do is make deals and that’s done at the expense of the plurality.
If both the Democrats and Republican parties and party heads in East Whiteland Township are working so hard to defeat what literally the people wanted and got on the ballot, you know that the people are on the right path not the political party heads who are just out of touch.
As far as the Great Valley Democrats go, it seems the supervisors in East Whiteland currently are against adding two more supervisors doesn’t that mean they are also out of touch?
As Americans, we deserve to have good government. But good government must also be realistic government.
It used to be that there were moderates on both sides that enabled governing to get done. I think thanks in part to the current administration in Washington those days are gone. All we are seeing are extremes and politics further ruining our Democratic system of government just as I first said 20 years ago.
Where we can take the opportunity to exercise our rights peacefully, and politely as Americans, even on the most local of levels, we should do that. And one of the ways we can do this is to pay attention to ballot initiatives even in off-year elections.
This November, I am imploring all voting residents of East Whiteland Township to vote YES to add two more supervisors. It is our legal right to ask for better representation under the second class township code.
Spin doctors have been retained and we will undoubtedly be made to wonder if normal wants and desires with regard to wanting additional representation is bad. Undoubtedly people will be gaslit, probably including people like me or anyone who is outspoken.
Ignore the spin doctoring. Spin doctoring only works to divide people, not unify them.
This ballot referendum it’s not about political parties. It is about the citizenry. We have had too many years of feeling like we are not adequately heard. Adding two more supervisors is two more pairs of ears to listen, not doomsday as both political parties would have you believe.
So let’s review: this week you were rude to our State Senator and abysmal towards residents, both local and visiting. Like you called the cops on them and where did that paranoia come from?
Here’s the 411: we live here and we pay taxes and for some stupid reason we voted for each and every one of you. Part of our fundamental rights in this country is the right to public comment, opinion, questioning government, or do you forget about all those little details?
You don’t seem to listen to anyone, even officials in neighboring municipalities do you? I mean it’s not just the residents who are having a hard time with this township is it?
Among the things we saw at this week’s meeting is the tail is wagging the dog. Do you guys even know what goes on in your own township building? Why does your manager talk in circuitous word salads these days?
Here’s a video of the comments:
Peter Fixler, why are you a supervisor? You obviously don’t want to be around residents, so why did you run in the first place? What are you getting out of this? Do you think you’re going to get some further political cherry? With the way you treat residents every meeting? You don’t even follow the meeting rules that you like to lob at people do you? (Note 3 and 4 below.)
Peter, this past meeting there were a couple things that stuck out. First was your comment “That is inappropriate.”
How are you the arbiter of appropriateness? You are literally a jerky boy every meeting. You smirk, you, sneer, you mock, you badger, you lecture, shall I go on?
You attempted to be cheeky with the ladies of General Warren over Bishop Tube when they commented that most everyone wasn’t around when the whole Bishop Tube saga started and you said you were? Well Peter, there’s a difference between being around and being present, isn’t there?
Then Peter, you said when Ginny Kerslake was speaking “Ginny everything you say is half truths.” Ginny only deals in facts, and you essentially called her a liar. Do we want to talk about inappropriate for real?
You all seem to like to paint Ginny as the antichrist, and why? Because she tells the truth?
Scott Lambert, you honestly disappointed me this past meeting.
We will start with your cutting off the public comment. I heard you actually cut someone off who was getting up to compliment you guys on something? Good job.
If you don’t want to take public comment anymore why are you all sitting up there? Not that we want you to step aside Scott because then Jerry Pyne comes into play and that’s a shit show isn’t it? But we need you to lead and not hide behind the solicitor or anyone else and IMHO you know what is going on here is wrong don’t you?
Also wrong? Refusing to let our State Senator Katie Muth speak. and then you made it worse by saying “Katie would you show some respect here?”
And then there was your snarky comment “We are out of the public comment shouting period.”
Facts matter, and at that meeting on Wednesday night, you showed State Senator Katie Muth whom has been very good to this municipality, enormous disrespect. She helps you get things like grants (I mean, I know you probably think it’s because of she of the bad cat eye, your assistant mismanager, but it’s really probably more because of Katie Muth isn’t it?)
You showed Katie Muth disrespect and rudeness that embarrassed your residents. That behavior was not a show of strength. It was a political tactical error and unforgivably rude.
There are so many things I don’t get and you all have such a sense of disconnect from the people who elected you to look out for them, it is quite simply astounding.
This is part of why we want two more supervisors. This is why residents worked to get that question on the ballot, and you’re doing everything you can to stop that, while you should be probably enforcing stop work orders and making sure that the developers over at Foote Mineral are doing things the right way don’t you think?
And then there’s the zoning officer that we heard was was hired to replace the one who was disappeared who didn’t last seemingly long enough to even make it into the township directory and why was that really? Why can’t you get a zoning officer? Have you asked yourselves that question?
And the magical monopole (is that the right term for that giant pole with the electrical stuff coming off of it?) at Foote Mineral? None of you will answer anything about it and why?
So then you hire a PR firm. A PR firm that are as you know damage control specialists and political fixers aren’t they?
So you hired a PR firm at the tune of $6800 a month which is like $81,000+ a year instead of getting a public information officer? How is it you think they’re going to be answering emails and performing duties that somebody that for example isn’t a sworn right to know officer? We don’t want to get our answers from Spin Doctors. That is just as bad as all of your non-answers at present.
You know what I think? My opinion is you hired a PR firm with taxpayer funds to gaslight the taxpayers further. And you actually have the brass balls to say it won’t add another layer between you guys and the residents? Do you really think we’re all that stupid?
I think the main problem with all of you is probably that you expected us all to just be little sheeple. You never expected residents to question anything that was happening. The irony is of course that’s how all of you got into office in the first place so is it power corrupts?
I should be fair to Clint and not really lump him in with everything because he looks like a deer in headlights most meetings. He’s probably regretting that he ever ran for office?
You guys are doubling down on bad decisions in my opinion instead of trying to actually find solutions. You’re committing political suicide, and I don’t know where your moral compasses have gone? Do any of you have a true north anymore?
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got to say. Not that what I say or what anyone else says appears to matter to any of you. Please read the message from the Chair of the West Whiteland Supervisors. That’s what leadership is all about.
So the real scandal of the week, other than the continuing circus that is known as East Whiteland Township has to do with Great Valley Democrats who recently at their meetings which they hold inside the East Whiteland Township building, voted against representative democracy, which seems to be like it should be a hallmark of Democrat politics or ideologies, but maybe not here because here it’s about control and if you don’t have control it’s no good?
So I know that, of course Bill Holmes and Jerry Pyne have been beating their big drums and small appendages about this adding two more supervisors issue. Not only do they seem to want data centers, but they have their little fifedom of control as far as the Great Valley Democrats.
Now you can thank politician Michele Vaughn for Bill Holmes. And if someone dug into her, how much time does she put in at her county row job at the Register of Wills? And why is she always trying to get municipalities to use specific engineering firms, etc.? What does she get out of that?  I mean, there are a lot of things about that politician that I still wonder if you really peeled back the layers what would you find?
In full disclosure she was my first exposure to how shady dell acres East Whiteland politics are. That was many moons ago when she didn’t like it that I wrote about Bill Holmes lawn signs and mocked them. She called up the then head of the East Whiteland Republicans, who had no idea who was on voter rolls since we had just moved into the township that recently, and she was all sputtering on the phone with this woman calling me a tea party operative, whatever the heck that was and is that normal?
But all the pieces fit together. Now back to the Great Valley Democrats.
What I’m hearing is, they took some kind of a vote at a meeting? That there was a 6 to 4 vote? So East Whiteland has what five precincts? You multiply those precincts times committee people and you get 10 right?
What’s the story on the six committee people that voted to come out against the ballot measure or question??
And are the committee people that voted to not come out against the measure, are those united pairs of certain precincts?
A friend of mine said today regarding this oddness from both the Democrats and the Republicans and this ballot question the following :
For both organizations, that’s 6 new committee spots….Bigger org? Who doesn’t want that, other than someone who might has well be a potted plant… or dead? Because they aren’t contributing to living. But even a potted plant, absorbs some carbon.
Then there is the question I have for people about the bylaws of the Great Valley Democrats and East Whiteland Republicans. And the question is simple: did they violate their bylaws by taking a stand against democracy and representation? (If somebody has copies of their bylaws and has read through them, please send me the bylaws.)
Now I also know that the chair of the East Whiteland Supervisors Democrat Scott Lambert is against growing the board. And it was reported he pretty much said as much at a recent Great Valley Democrats meeting held in the boardroom of East Whiteland Township.
This poses the question especially with local Democrat and Republican organizations: are they against representative democracy and transparency?
👉🏻Again, this is why if you live in East Whiteland Township please no matter what your political persuasion vote yes to add two more supervisors and add more representation. We need to shake up local government if we’re going to get better local government. And not just in East Whiteland, but in other municipalities as well. 👈🏻
Vote YES, to add two more supervisors to East Whiteland Township under the second class Township code. Our futures depend upon it.
Tonight was one for the record books. The entire meeting devolved into chaos and it was at the hands of the township itself. They did it.
Peter Fixler essentially called Ginny Kerslake a liar. Scott Lambert refused to let State Senator Katie Muth speak.
It’s obvious that East Whiteland despises her residents.
No, my favorite part of the evening was when Ginny Kerslake did make the poor widdle baby face at Peter Fixler along with the voice.
I’m beginning to think no PR spin doctors can handle this dumpster fire of municipality.
This meeting demonstrates again quite clearly why East Whiteland residents have to vote YES to add two more supervisors when they go to the polls in November.
