Free Press – May 04, 2006

United Friends Auction Democrat GOP Joy Hirokawa Math Quakertown Boro Auto Telephone Answering

Dear Friends,

Good morning. Today’s topics are Quakertown Borough and the union, the status of “new” math in public schools, Captain Morgan at the United Friends School Auction, the Democrat and GOP congressional campaigns, and automatic telephone answering machines.

Joy Hirokawa is a music teacher and the Director of Bell Canto, a wonderful singing group for youngsters and teenagers. Joy is a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) for the Quakertown public schools. A year or so ago, I wrote about her unhappiness with math instruction. On May 15, the CAC will learn the results of the student surveys, which Joy and her team conducted.

Lawrence Handy would be interested. He’s the retired math teacher and former Pennridge School Board member who criticizes the methods used in math instruction. Handy says that children can’t add, subtract, multiply and divide because the schools give calculators to the students. He’s an advocate of having the kids memorize…the old fashioned way.

What will Joy disclose to CAC? Stay tuned.

Item.

The United Friends School had a successful auction a few weeks ago. It raised over $60,000 and featured 35 live auction and 308 silent auction items. Joe Smalley was the auctioneer. It was his 17^th for UFS. Joe’s conducted 41 auctions this year…17 charity auctions and 24 regular auctions. He’s a busy fellow.

UFS used the event to replace the windows at the 10^th street school. I believe the 10^th street building served as Quakertown’s original senior high school. Those windows must have been in that building since the 1800’s.

“It was a real community effort,” Mary Hanisch told me. She’s the Business Manager at UFS. Mary praised Carol Taylor and Lydia Tuno who co-chaired the event. “They did the lion share of the work,” she said.

No one left hungry. Local restaurants provided all the food at no charge, as did the caterers. I particularly liked the way patrons purchased drinks. There was a container sitting on a table where the thirsty deposited the appropriate fee…using the honor system.

Dave Phillips made quite a hit. He dressed in his Captain Morgan’s pirate costume and enthused the crowd. Phillips is an actor who plays the part of the rum company’s famous logo. I’ll bet that he’s close to seven feet tall…handsome too, Mighty Betsy says.

We met four teachers who’ve been with UFS for a long time: Kathy Leber, 20 years; Nancy Donnelly, 19 years; Eileen Gallow, 17 years; and Carol Clemens, 18 years. It was quite an evening.

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Congressional elections continue to be the main focus this year. Because President Bush is seen as a liability for the Republicans, look for the GOP to use gay marriage to maintain control of the House and the Senate.

“About 50 prominent religious leaders, including seven Roman Catholic cardinals and about a half-dozen archbishops, have signed a petition in support of a constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage,” the New York Times wrote on April 24.

“Organizers of the petition said it was in part an effort to revive the groundswell of opposition to same-sex marriage that helped bring many conservative voters to the polls in some pivotal states in 2004,” the Times continued. “The signers include many influential evangelical Protestant, a few rabbis and an official of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints [Mormon].”

The GOP used this issue to reelect the president in 2004 and reasons it can fool the public again. Why? The Republican Party can’t afford to have its candidates run on the president’s record.

The opposition has a plan too. “Democrats are pressing their support for embryonic stem cell research in Congressional races around the country, seeking to move back to center stage an issue they believe resonates with voters and to exploit a division between conservatives who oppose the science and other Republicans more open to it,” the Times reported.

A very conservative fellow, congressman Mike Fitzpatrick is campaigning hard to remain in Washington. Like the president and Senator Rick Santorum, Mike opposes abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Although the majority of his constituents don’t agree with his position, Mike is a strong campaigner. Will his energy carry the day? Will pro choice and pro stem cell voters look the other way? He hopes so. Stay tuned.

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Quakertown is in a pickle. The Operating Engineers Local Union 542 is doing its best to have borough employees choose its union for negotiations. Last year, the borough narrowly won a union fight by a mere two votes. At a recent borough work session, 29 employees showed up with questions about how Quakertown conducts its business?

My bet is that the union will win when it seeks to represent borough employees. Will that spell the end of borough manager David Woglom’s reign? Who knows? But my prediction is that incumbent councilmen will face uphill election campaigns in 2007 and 2009.

It may be time for Quakertown to seek help from its neighbor. Richland Township to the rescue? Stay tuned.

Finally.

Last week, I attended a community organization that was considering the installation of an automatic telephone answering system. Anyone who’s ever tried calling Social Security, medical insurance, or the telephone company knows exactly how frustrating an automatic answering system is.

Typically, the opening line is: “Press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish; press 5 for this; press 8 for that.” It takes minutes to finally reach a human being. Fortunately, we decided to continue with a live person to answer the phone, arguing that it’s more friendly.

I thought of a possible skit for “Saturday Night Live.” A human answers the phone and says, “Hello, you’ve reached the XYZ Company. I’m having a terrible day and I hope you have one too. Now, where may I direct your X!*#@* call?”

Until next week, I am,

Sincerely,

Charles Meredith