Hate should have no home here, Chester County. Not at Christmas or at anytime. The photo you see is READER SUBMITTED. It came to me a little before 9:30 AM on Christmas Eve (this morning as I write this.)
It was in response to a message I received overnight after midnight and posted this morning:
Hello. I came across some racist graffiti in Exton. It’s under the underpass at rt 100 and 30 bypass. It’s new as I travel the area frequently and don’t think it’s more than 2 days old. Not sure how to have it removed.
Apparently they tried to call the police yesterday, but calling the non-emergency number after hours, is well, after hours. That is the problem with a centralized 911 system – you can’t just get someone from a local police department easily on the phone. In the old days, you could just simply call a local non-emergency number to report things like hideous graffiti.
I don’t expect a Christmas miracle out of West Whiteland Township on Christmas Eve, but either they or PennDOT need to remove this as soon as possible. Hate should truly have no home here, especially at Christmas. Say a prayer for the person who did the graffiti because they need to lose the hate in their own heart that drove them to tag in such an awful way.
2017 has been a brutal year. My Christmas wish is for peace at Christmas and in 2018. All of this hate from coast to coast in the United States accomplishes nothing…except it foments more and more hate. Somehow it needs to stop.
This graffiti in Exton isn’t art, nor is it a political statement. It’s just hate.
Please stop the hate. Hate has no home here at Christmas or any other time.
I can’t stand it. Every day, something more wicked this way comes. People using vehicles as weapons and mowing people down in Charlottlesville and killing them, is the latest.
Earlier this year we had lovely things like shooting a United States Congressman at a softball practice for a charity match (Alexandria, VA). In this country, they also shoot police officers these days, people in malls and schools and movie theaters. Pick your atrocity.
The United States of America is our collective home, so when did we stop respecting it?
When did we as one nation under God stop respecting what our forefathers did for us?
When did we get so ugly and angry?
When did we become a country of angry seething and racial and religious bigotry?
When did we become a country that hates immigrants and we are a country founded by immigrants?
When did peaceful resolution and polite and respectful dialogue go out of fashion?
Why are so many conservative pundits in papers, on the radio and television, and on social media stoking the fires of hatred? I don’t understand it, since given the administration in Washington, this should be their time, they should be happy, not angry and hateful.
I am someone who was once a political junkie, now I hate politics as much as I hate news. Politics is a dirty business, and the harsh reality is more people are in politics for the wrong reasons, versus the right reasons.
Extremism is the name of the game these days, and extremism in politics is so bad for this country, yet we as Americans seem to allow it?
The USA is turning into one long night of hell with this current administration in Washington. And we are turning into a joke with the rest of the world.
This terrifies me and makes me sad. What are we teaching our children? What is the legacy we are leaving our children and future generations?
People, we need to find peace. We need to stop the hate and violence. We need to take our country back from political extremism. Peacefully. Hate begets hate and violence begets violence. It has to stop.
Be kind to one and other, remember what made America great is actually none of the crap we are seeing currently. What made America great was our fight for freedom, our independent spirits, our ingenuity, our grit, our kindness, our ability to love one and other, our ability to unite as one people.
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
When you see photos like this they just make you happy. Obviously in love, on their wedding day, their whole lives ahead of them. Until ICE (immigration) shows up like modern day Nazis at the Septa train station in Haverford and arrests the husband.
I used to live in Haverford. I used to work near Haverford Train Station. I grew up in Haverford. I just can’t imagine the terror this man felt. I learned about his plight when a friend posted on Facebook:
I thought this possibly couldn’t be true, then I remember conversations I have had with people even locally in Chester County about ICE going into schools, ICE raiding restaurants and other businesses country and city, ICE rounding people up off the streets and throwing them into vans, asking for papers at SEPTA stops in Philadelphia (a supposed “sanctuary city”), tales of immigrants with “go” bags packed by their front doors in case they have to run, and does this seem crazy that we are living in a country that allows this?
We are a nation formed of immigrants. Give us your tired, your hungry, your poor. I have friends who emigrated to this country. I thank God that all of them are legal citizens.
Jonatan Palacios is his name. His lovely wife Lillie Williams has a You Caring Page up. I don’t know them personally, but what is being done to them is a crazy horror show at the hands of the US Government.
My name is Lillie Williams and early yesterday morning, on May 11th, immigration ripped me away from my husband.
We are working with a lawyer to get him out and get him back home to me as soon as possible, but we need help covering all of the expenses, fees, and loss of income as we work to do everything I can to get Jonatan out and back to his home and family.
Why did we get caught in this mess? Because we were going through proper legal motions. We submitted an I-130 spousal petition for him in October. We were working with the system to correct his legal status from his case when he entered as an unaccompanied minor at the age of 16.
Jonatan is my best friend and soulmate. I appreciate any help and support that you can provide to help us through this difficult time.
Background:
Jonatan and I had went on our first date the summer before my Junior year at Bryn Mawr College, on May 24th, 2010.
My roommate at the time had been dating Jonatan’s older brother for about a year before we started dating. Always thinking herself the matchmaker, she had made several attempts at getting Jonatan and I together before it finally happened. The final straw that brought the two of us together was a mishap one night, where my roommate had accidentally locked me out of the apartment in my pajamas when she was late to a date with Jonatan’s brother. I called my forgetful Italian friend to please turn around and let me back in, but instead she sent Jonatan to my rescue. He then had my number and asked if he could keep it.We started dating only a few months later and it was as if there was a magnetic force that brought us together. We were inseparable. Then, several hard events in my life happened which brought us even closer together. We both became each other’s home.
We were legally married at one one of our favorite restaurants in Philadelphia, Amada on October 11th, 2014 and a year later we had our religious wedding ceremony with friends and family at Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens on October 15th, 2015.
The pastor from Jonatan’s church officiated with the service in Spanish and translated into English so that everyone there would understand. It was one of the happiest evenings of our lives.
When we were getting ready to get married, I learned about Jonatan’s case. I thought that it was something that we would be able to resolve with marriage– since I am a born United States Citizen and my ancestry goes back in the United States to colonial days I thought it would be a simple case of petitioning for him once we were married. I found out after that the case was a lot more complicated than either of us had thought.
It turns out that people don’t become citizens simply through marriage to a US Citizen Spouse. It is a long and difficult process and sometimes, if you are unlucky, things can go wrong with your case.
More About the Issue:
If you would like to know more about the overall issue, there is a whole organization of families like mine that have gone through or are going through similar issues, American Families United. You can learn more by going to http://www.americanfamiliesunited.org/.
This is so unreal. Their crime was being naïve and thinking they could trust the United States of America. They filed what they thought was the correct paperwork and instead of help, he gets arrested at the Septa station in Haverford with assistance by Lower Merion Police Department. Ok, so let’s be fair, I am guessing Lower Merion Police Department did not have much choice in the matter when the Federal Government comes calling, but can you imagine the abject terror he must have felt along with anyone else who was around there on May 11th?
Ok so those of you who are die hard conservatives are getting ready to sharpen your keyboards and read me the riot act for this post, but please.
Don’t.
Stop and think about this for a moment. This young couple were trying to right a wrong. They were not trying to be deceitful. Now this guy is sitting in some jail facility in York, PA and do we even know if he has been able to see his wife? Or other family? They were not hiding and they were punished anyway.
For every one of these stories I hear, the mental image of World War II come to mind. The stories of Holocaust survivors and immigrants of another century telling the stories of Nazis demanding papers during World War II era Europe. Tell me, how is this different? Because it is happening under the banner of the United States of America?
What is it that is carved on Lady Liberty? What is the exact figure of immigrants who came through Ellis Island and passed the Statue of Liberty between 1820 and 1920? 34 Million? This is the poem Lady Liberty wears:
“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “”Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!”” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
I am the descendant of immigrants. I am descended from three nationalities which were once discriminated against and disparaged against – Irish, German, Italian. I grew up with many tales including “Irish need not apply” and WOP jokes and disparaging German comments . I fear for my legal US citizen friends who emigrated here because some still have the lingering traces of the countries they were born in. What could be done to them in error because they don’t have your typical American accent?
Whether you know this couple or not, if you can peacefully or peaceably help, help. Attend the vigil, write elected officials (including all 14 commissioners in Lower Merion Township to ask WTF??, essentially.)
Whose America is this? Whose America are we living in? I am not sure and I am so sad at this latest turn of events.
This is a post that some may have a problem with. But it is my opinion.
Today is Ash Wednesday. I am Catholic. It is a very holy day, the first full day of Lent.
The voices of many priests float through my head “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
When I was a child, I loved being Catholic. We lived in Society Hill and we had two amazing churches right in my neighborhood. Across the street was Old St. Mary’s and down a little bit on Willings Alley, our church where our family pew still sits, Old St. Joseph’s, Philadelphia’s oldest Catholic Church founded by Jesuits in in 1733.
I was baptized and received my First Holy Communion at Old St. Joe’s. I received my catechism from Father Drain, one of the Jesuit priests at Old St. Joe’s. He was a marvelous man. I still remember the room in the rectory – full of stiff and formal Victorian furniture.
The Jesuits were my foundation as a Catholic. A couple of weeks ago, some fellow Catholics on a Facebook thread said Jesuits weren’t even really Catholic. I found that sad and offensive.
As an adult, I have had a love hate relationship at best with the Church and with being Catholic. I have yet to join a church in Chester County, as a matter of fact. Maybe that means my immortal soul is at peril, I do not know.
My love hate relationship lives in the pomposity and hypocrisy I see today in the Catholic Church. Let’s start with the whole sexual predator priest issue. They excommunicated a priest and put him back in the neighborhood where I used to live and he roamed free for years until he was arrested a second time and went to jail on a guilty plea as a sexual predator. Until he was convicted, we the neighbors had to watch him because no one else was.
Then there was the Monsignor from a parish in Wayne I was introduced to at a viewing. He berated me in front of people at a viewing for the fact that at the time I had said that I would be choosing NOT to be married in a Catholic church and that I found modern Pre Cana to just be about the money. He was awful. Ironically, he was removed a few years later as a pedophile priest.
I move out here, and one of the first Catholic things I am hit with are exceeding graphic pro-life signs along the property of a large Catholic church. Horrible glaring and angry signs. Who is the God they worship? Is he mine? I don’t recognize anger commingled with religion as healthy.
Recently, attending a funeral of a friend, I was actually in a church that finally did not feel alien to me. Philip and James in Exton. I found out later it was also designed by a friend’s late father. It was the first church in years that felt welcoming and warm when I walked in. And their stained glass windows were beautiful. As a Catholic struggling with the faith of my birth, it was a really positive experience.
Then came the recent issue of Villanova University and the larger than life crosses over Lancaster Avenue. It is something I have never understood and right or wrong, I think the university president is wrong. It’s not about his legacy, it’s not about a Catholic institution, it’s about the multi-faith world we live in. And a public road, a state highway.
I am Catholic, and if this was solely on Villanova’s campus NO ONE would care. But this footbridge is going to cross a public road that gets public funds, and to build this they will get some public funds, correct? This is NOT being anti-Catholic or a being a bigot it’s a question of a PUBLIC road. Not everyone in the world is Catholic, so how others feel about this bridge being overtly religious over a public highway should matter.
I challenge everyone to look at the bridge over City Line Avenue St. Joe’s University bult. It manages to be there without throwing Catholicism in everyone’s face. But then Saint Joe’s is a Jesuit Roman Catholic University and Jesuits aren’t really Catholic, right?
We live in a world of many faiths. I think if the bridge design featured crosses on the piers in bas relief, it would be in better taste. It would represent the religious foundation of the school without non-Catholics feeling as if someone else’s religion was being shoved at them.
As a Catholic I have always felt it was wrong to foist the religion of my birth on anyone. I know who I am, and strangely I retain my underlying faith, so how is it I am a bad Catholic because I agree with the critics of the bridge design? Look, we are not living in medieval Spain or France, we live in a country that is a melting pot of religions. We can maintain our own religious identity while being sensitive and considerate to the religions of others, right? Or we should be able to?
One of the critics of the bridge of crosses is a very close friend of mine. She is a senior citizen and a grandmother. She gives more to her community in a year via her generosity than most people give in a lifetime. Her comment about the bridge was that perhaps a more ecumenical approach to the bridge was better in today’s world. She also had the thought of why couldn’t the crosses be more subtle, carved into the stone piers instead of challenging everyone over a public road.
My friend feels the frightening aspects of attacks on certain religious groups quite keenly as her 17 year old granddaughter works after school at a Jewish community center and is being trained on how to evacuate children and adults in the event of threats like the recent bomb scares. This is the world legacy we are foisting on our children. It’s the whole hate begets hate.
Because my friend was interviewed by some media and expressed her opinion publicly, albeit very gently and politely, she has been demonized and vilified. Publicly, including in the media. She has even had conservative radio show hosts want her to come on the air, and I know damn well it’s not because they want to fairly represent her right to her opinion. It’s because they know she would be ratings gold if they put her on the air so people could phone in an essentially abuse her without accountability.
So she is now branded an anti-Catholic and a bigot and “she must have a bunch of pink crocheted hats.” She and others of a similar opinion, which I guess must include me are being compared to perpetrators of hate crimes. Hate crimes, you know like those horrible people who destroyed gravestones at historic Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia. Now these same critics are saying that even more people are anti-Catholic because not enough media attention and public attention was paid to a similar desecration of gravestones at Holy Redeemer Cemetery in Philadelphia. Doesn’t matter that no one can control the if it bleeds it leads philosophy of what is newsworthy to television station managers and newspaper publishers, right?
I am sorry but do these people HEAR themselves? People with a different opinion are anti-Catholic? Even if they are Catholic? Jesuits aren’t really Catholic even thought the current Pope himself is a Jesuit? It’s like committing a hate crime to say maybe rethink all those crosses on a footbridge crossing a public road driven by people of many different religious beliefs?
Religious pretzel logic.
Yes…religious pretzel logic. I am sorry but it is upsetting. And it’s why people struggle with being Catholic, or with any other faith when people are pushed to slavish devotion with no room for individual thought.
I was not raised to be this type of Catholic. Have I ever felt people went out of their way to make me feel bad for being a Catholic? Sure. How many Ash Wednesdays did I go to Our Lady of Victory in Lower Manhattan for ashes to return to my trading desk where I worked to have way too many people tell me I had schmutz on my forehead? And that continued for over a decade in my old office in Conshohocken every Ash Wednesday when I went to St. Matthews at lunch for ashes.
I found it offensive but I said nothing. It was not worth getting into it. I knew who I was.
But today after the past couple of days, I once again question the faith of my birth. I just do not understand how people who call themselves Catholic and Christian can spout what I feel to be such ugliness at the onset of one of the most holy seasons of the year? Maybe this is just a by-product of the ugliness of the politics that swarms our country at present. Whatever it is, it is sad.
Norman Rockwell had a painting truly appropriate for this post. Here it is:
