Amanda and I bought our first house together, here in Lancaster city, just over a year ago. This season we were eager to spruce up our backyard and use the space to do some urban gardening (if it qualifies as that—it’s an unusually large yard for a city property).
Here are some photos of the color that has emerged and that we’re enjoying today.
Thanks for allowing me to share some of the natural beauty of our Lancaster backyard!
Laura Duran, the Lancaster County Convention Center’s PR consultant, reports today on her blog that the convention center will be celebrating its one-year anniversary on Friday.
Since the official ribbon cutting on June 18, 2009, the integrated facility has been host to more than 850 events by more than 300 different organizations. More than 300,000 people have been through its doors to attend events or stay at the hotel. Additionally, two dozen new restaurant, retail, and service businesses have opened in the Downtown core and Northwest quadrant of the city since the opening.
Which events have you attended at the convention center, and what was your experience? At the one-year mark, does it seem to you that downtown Lancaster is better off now that it has this facility and these events?
If BP is truly going to foot the bill to cover all the damages its inconceivably massive oil spill is causing, won’t that cost so much money that BP will go out of business?
I’m not an expert in economics, but the monetary liability here for BP is going to be gigantic. If they stay in business, it’s hard for me to envision them making a profit for decades, because their expenses will be so high from paying off the debt this disaster is going to incur for them.
It seems to me that there are three possible outcomes here for BP:
I’m a betting man, and my money goes on outcome No. 3.
Am I being too cynical? Am I missing a possible outcome for BP?
Tell me how I’m wrong.
The cultural significance of Congress’ move to overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is so great that I think the comparison with Brown v. Board of Education is warranted. This should be a moment of great pride for many good Americans who have worked hard to move the national attitude so far so fast.
Just seventeen years ago, in 1993, a majority of U.S. citizens opposed gays serving in the military, Mark Shields recently pointed out in his recent appearance on the PBS NewsHour. Today, there is a three-to-one margin supporting gays openly serving—75% of Americans. Among women, the support is 80%.
Certainly that kind of sea change in America and in our cultural thought is gigantic and something we don’t often see. It’s positive and profound.
Much of the credit goes to the small but very determined efforts of a lot of individuals and groups on the local and personal level. The courage of many individuals who do not stay in the closet but instead come out and say who they are and that they have just as many rights as any other person does has earned the respect of their neighbors. Also groups like Lancaster Pride and their annual festivals have made an impact by going far beyond saying, “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it,” have instead sent a message of unity and love and acceptance. Their message has been that it’s important that we learn to live and work together and not just tolerate each other but love each other and respect each other.
I hope that some of us straights, including straight Christians like me, have had some small and humble role in this shift. I was, for instance, deeply touched by the scenes of an Evangelical Christian man confessing the sins of the church to gay men and women at a pride festival in the excellent documentary Lord, Deliver Us From Your Followers.
This kind of cultural change does not come easily and is not to be taken lightly. The cultural impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1950s to overturn the segregation of public schools was gigantic by simply allowing and in fact forcing children to interact with one another. Just as the military has been a force in a similar way, creating brothers out of blacks and whites who served together, I think we’ll see a similar impact of gays and straights who serve together, and see a breakdown of this idea that manliness and homosexuality are opposing forces.
One Lancaster resident whose efforts on this front I would like to single out and celebrate is Mark Stoner, who was recently recognized in the Central Penn Business Journal‘s twenty-fifth anniversary issue as one of the most influential minorities from the midstate from the past twenty-five years.
I’m heartened and excited by Ethan Demme’s announcement that he is running as a candidate for Chairman of the Lancaster County Republican Committee.
His announcement was covered first by Tom Murse of the Intelligencer Journal, and then Ethan himself wrote about it on his blog.
It was by looking at this LancasterOnline story that I came late to the news that Lancaster Newspapers has, at long last, completely taken down the cesspool of faux-conversation that was the TalkBack forum. I wanted to see what the reaction was from people who likely don’t know Ethan personally (as I do).
I’m a registered Democrat who puts a lot of priorities and allegiances ahead of my political party. A healthy degree of civil discourse in our community is one of those priorities for me, and I know that’s something Ethan will bring with his chairmanship.
As for TalkBack, the first impression is that it will make it harder to quickly get a finger on the pulse of a news story as it is being received by Lancaster County residents. The truth, however, is that the mood in the TalkBack forums rarely reflected the mood of the community at large. Where will those online conversations take place now?