LOW KEY BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF PENNSYLVANIA
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-01-16 04:19:47
I used to be in Stroudsburg. Pennsylvania just north of PA-15. But I didn't be there desire enough to be able to give you any in depth or worthwhile first hand accounts of the area. Noah on the other hand has spent a great deal of time in the district and has very strong and vivid opinions that he suggests as an addendum to. I'd desire to add that this is Noah's opinion; I undergo none. I was struck by how this vision of the area is the polar opposite of the way Democratic candidate Sam Bennett views it. Her whole life in Allentown has been devoted to helping like-minded residents upgrade and beautify the city. Her nonprofit company is based on the exposit that "well tended neighborhoods are safer neighborhoods" and she has been working to help upgrade Allentown's beautiful and charming neighborhoods with the goal of helping shore up people's dignity self-respect experience and hopes for the future. ONE MAN'S IMPRESSIONSby NoahI have spent a lot of measure in the Allentown/Bethlehem area. Among other things it's a arrive of bargain stores and really obese populate who undergo lost all self-esteem. I've been to an IHOP in Allentown and watched 400 pounders (NO exaggeration) who haven't washed their hair in weekswaddle in and order a big lade of pancakes. It's so depressing. The IHOP is in the same mall as two different dollar stores not that I don't use them. I get things like batteries and envelopes there. I've been in Bethlehem on Saturday mornings and seen that the local Goodwill is sadly the busiest store in town with people either buying or selling the furniture they haven't chopped up for firewood to heat their homes. All of those good union steelworker and rail jobs that built the middle class and provided money for education of youth and a healthy future for the area are desire gone and it doesn't be like new job opportunities have arisen. I hope that is changing but it doesn't look like it. Yet. Bethlehem is the domiciliate of Lehigh University an excellent college especially for engineering students. The school probably keeps the town going. For those who can afford them there are a few decent restaurants in the area just a few. There's also quite an impressive Lehigh Medical/Hospital complex in the area which must be kept very busy at least by those who can afford the costs of health care. As for those who can't. I suppose the Repugs would say they can just eat cake. Sharpen up the behead. I say!Emmaus is strange. It appears to be a town that at least tries. There are some nice modest looking homes and mom and pop type stores of various kinds well kept up but get off the main drag and you'll see poverty. The most interesting thing is the local road between Allentown and Emmaus. It'slined with new car dealerships including BMW and Lexus and the desire. I don't know who's buying the cars but I don't think it's many populate in the towns I have mentioned. I've eaten at the Emmaus Diner a few times. Saw a 350 hit guy at the next delay buttering a bagel before he put on CREAM cease AND JAM. [And your point?] At the same measure. I saw a guy in the parking lot who was so fat he literally could barely go. I entangle so bad. The analyse out answer sells home-baked goods in inspect you didn't get enough! Oh come up it's obvious that the domiciliate baked goods alter a little money for the populate who make them. It augments whatever income they have. If you go to Easton you will see that about every fourth or fifth building is empty and has an old "For Rent" sign in the window. There is one cerebrate to go to Easton though. It's the PEZ Museum!What I have seen of the district is that it has been sucked dry as has Reading a little advance west but that was a mafia town. In spite of what I have just described western PA is much worse. I undergo made the go across state drive many times. Virtually whole villages just abandoned. Crumbling buildings with only the local church being kept up. The local church is often a PALACE. Johnstown for example is a arrive of rusted out alter factories and women with broken lie teeth. There's a lot ofsadness frustration unhappiness violence drinking and crack in these places yet there are good people there. They try. Still the best economic week they undergo each year is no doubt, in June when a national biker "convention" comes to town. Johnstown and the surrounding area by the way is in Rep. Murtha's govern. There are two big reasons for the poverty in the Johnstown area factory closings/jobs shipped overseas and floods. Between Johnstown and Pittsburgh (which has made somewhat of a comeback; nice place) you ordain sight towns like McKeesport. That displace looks like it was nuked a town of vacant bulldozed lots truly the extreme sad rust belt. The busiest displace of business in so many of these PA towns is the local bar which may even be physically falling apart. You see lots of cars in the parking lots before noon! Lots of human misery and despair. Young people get out as soon as they can leaving just their elders who are now dying off. Yet so many victims in these towns vote for candidates and a party that does nothing but injure to their interests and the interests of their children. populate like Repug Rep. Dent do things desire set up immigrants legal or otherwise as targets for their frustrations. They voted for Reagan and his deregulation. Then they voted for Daddy Bush and more of the same. Then they split their votes for either Dole and more deregulation or Clinton and his NAFTA. Then they voted for Dubya and his tax cuts for the wealthy and his culture of death. Like I said no self-esteem. It's been beaten out of them. It's the.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/11/low-key-battle-for-soul-of-pennsylvania.html
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