The idea of reparations expressed in a letter to the editor in the July 17 edition of the Swarthmorean is terrible. This is an expression of the bigotry of low expectations from some of our fellow Americans by telling some of our other fellow Americans they cannot compete because of the false narrative of “systemic racism.” These types of attitudes are destroying the promise of the civil rights era.
Follow the science!
Readers of the Swarthmorean may have noticed the signs with a timely public health message that have been popping up in yards all over Swarthmore. The signs read: “COVID-19* Follow the Science* Save Lives.” I am part of a team of concerned citizens from neighboring Media Borough who purchased the lawn signs with our own money and have been distributing them to neighbors throughout Delaware County. We are delivering the signs right to the front doors of folks who order one.
Can you breathe now?
NO MORE we say, NO MORE, speaking as Planetarians not just Americans, thrusting feet from our necks with a roar of NO MORE in a bloody rebirth of a possibility for America to at last become the dream awakened, to finally remove the foot from its collective, administrative, racist neck.
What Thomas Jefferson meant
I am writing this in response to the letter in the July 10 Swarthmorean entitled “Happy birthday, America.” It could be useful to parse the entire letter, but in the interest of brevity I skip to the last two paragraphs in which Thomas Jefferson is quoted: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” Mr. Smith holds these words up with the hope that we will determine if they mean what “we hope Jefferson meant them to mean.” The problem is that we know perfectly well what Jefferson meant by those words. He meant whites, specifically white males.
Thanks to the Co-op
In all honesty, I haven’t always been a consistent Co-op shopper. I used to go from one store for bulk items, to another for meat and produce, and yet another for specialty. Recently, that has changed. I have come to truly appreciate what it means to have the Co-op in our community.
Reparations in Swarthmore?
Many of us have participated recently in vigils or marches to protest police brutality and larger structures of systemic racism designed to oppress and exploit Black citizens of our country. Many of us are also wondering what to do in practical terms to begin dismantling these structures of injustice. I think we also need a public, communal response in order to begin trying to redress a very public and communal wrong.
White churches must act
As a lifelong Christian, I read the letter from the Interfaith Council of Southern Delaware County (ICSDC) in the June 5 edition with hope and fear. I hoped that the strong letter would be followed by strong, public actions confronting the vile doctrine of white supremacy. I feared that the actions would be pusillanimous.
Opening schools this fall
I’m grateful that I live in a community in which the overwhelming majority recognizes the value of education for our children and society. As an educator, I am desperately hopeful that I will be able to teach classes face to face this coming fall, for as many of my students as are able to be there.
Peter Pan is among us
I struggle to understand the spectacle of maskless, non-social-distancing hordes on beaches, and at gatherings in bars and other public spaces. The sight fills me with dread. I don’t expect the courtesy of a thanks, or an acknowledgment of my existence; but feeling invisible in this age of COVID-19 is disconcerting.
Living green cathedral near Morgan Circle
Swarthmore’s Favorite Tree candidates failed to include the weeping fernleaf beech on Harvard Avenue at the entrance to Morgan Circle. This is one of two remaining such specimens from the four once locally extant. (The other is on Columbia Avenue near Cresson.)
‘Happy birthday, America’
“Happy birthday, America.” Those words are fresh in my mouth and my mind. This is my 77th Independence Day, and it is definitely the strangest.
The Swarthmore Senior Citizens Association is compiling a list of African American-owned businesses in our area, so that we can support them and help a solid community become even stronger. Please help us add to the list.
Shout-out to the Co-op
From early March until late June, we did not step foot into a grocery store. Due to the selfless volunteers and hard-working staff at the Swarthmore Co-op, our family took advantage of the curbside pick-up option on a weekly basis.
Small business funds for nonprofits
Delaware County has become the first (and so far the only) county in the Philadelphia region to disburse their small business funding to nonprofits as well as for-profits. The council last week created the Delco Strong 2 Non-Profit Fund with an initial $4 million, recognizing that nonprofits don’t just provide valuable services, but are also employers, with many small businesses depending on them for their livelihoods. We need them to survive the pandemic and economic downturn if we are to fully recover.
Whose house?
I was a little bit surprised, but charmed, to read that Ben Yagoda’s house was still called the “Anderson House” for at least 15 years after they moved in. I am a member of that Anderson family.
SHHS students: ‘Say their names’
On Juneteenth at 7 a.m., the Wallingford-Swarthmore Sunrise hub executed a banner drop over the bridge on Chester Road over I-476. June 19, also known as Juneteenth, is the day on which enslaved people in Texas were finally granted freedom — two and a half years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The banner read “Say Their Names” and listed the names of recent Black victims of racially motivated police brutality and violence.
Friends, I just came into the house after an unexpected adventure in front of our favorite hardware store. After I finished my business and got back into the car, I removed my mask, moved to close the door, and out fell my hearing aid! Anxious to retrieve that expensive piece, I crawled around looking under my seat and under the car and the neighboring car in case it had bounced. What has moved me is the gracious, generous intervention of four or five of our community members, also down on their knees and/or bellies, hunting for the device, completely sympathetic and intent.
Thank you, Andrea LaPira
Andrea, we thank you for your steady hand during uncertain times. For your leadership, for your example, and for instilling confidence in us as professionals at a time when all of our jobs, roles, and expectations were upended without warning. We thank you for working without stopping, with no desire to be in the spotlight. As we move into new uncertainties of next year, we thank you for keeping us afloat and together, feeling supported and heard.
Denying reality kills people
Donald Trump’s character failings will likely extinguish his chance to be re-elected. But those failings have extinguished the lives of thousands of Americans.
Join the fight for criminal justice reform
Want to work with an organization seeking criminal justice reform? Consider joining the local chapter of the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration (CADBI-DELCO).