Tag Archives: Pennsylvania

The Hana Chronicles: Month 10, Day 11

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Posted by on in children, Family, Hiking and Nature, Historical, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Travel

November 1, 2026- Hana was constantly pointing to the mantle of the living room fireplace. I took each item off it and showed her. It turned out that she was most interested in the pair of readers that I keep up there, to help me read the Baha’i prayer book in the morning, when it is still semi-dark. She loves to place her hands on the book, as I recite several prayers. If I put on the glasses, she wants to put them on , too. I tell her that I hope she never has to do that.

She doesn’t nap much on weekends, perhaps hoping to maximize time with Mommy and Daddy. As it happened, Aram had a Navy ceremony to attend this afternoon and Yunhee needed to take a rest. So, I proposed a walk in the park, which delighted Hana greatly. We made our customary loop past the Middle School and through the west end of Hoblitzelle. We found the Sourdough Bakery open, so I picked up some pizza sourdough. Mommy was waiting for us, when we got back, and we all had a light snack.

HANA’S NOTE- I got to wear Daddy’s Navy cap, when he came home. It is almost as big as I am.

EXPANDING CIRCLES: Pennsylvania- There is no place like the Keystone State. It is almost as much home to me as Massachusetts and Arizona have been. I first passed through Philadelphia in 1969, on that train trip from Washington to Boston. In 1972, I first heard about the Baha’i Faith, after having hitched a ride from Havre de Grace to King of Prussia. Then came Bethlehem, Stroudsburg and Milton.Brother’s family lived in three PA locations, over the years. Now they are spread out in the suburbs of Philly. Dear friends live in Oley, not far from Reading, yet in a dreamlike place.PA was the first state that let caretakers use the restroom of their opposite gender charges, when we went across to New Jersey, in 2007. My solo years have also found me in Allentown, Scranton, Easton, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport, Du Bois, Clarion, Pittsburgh, Erie and blessed Bedford. I have enjoyed visits to Harrisburg and York, and been humbled by time in Gettysburg.

The Turf- Western Pennsylvania features the Allegheny Plateau, a series of ridges and valleys, extending nearly to Ohio. A lake plain runs along PA’s shoreline at Lake Erie. The Appalachian Mountains run from the southwest to the northeast of Pennsylvania. They include the Allegheny and Pocono Ranges Southeast of the mountains, the land is covered by Coastal Palin.

Pennsylvania is drained by the Delaware, Susquehanna, Allegheny, Monongahela, Ohio,Schuylkill, Lehigh, Lackawaxen, Juniata, Lackawanna, Chemung and Shenango Rivers, along with their tributaries. The Allegheny and Monongahela flow into the Ohio, at Pittsburgh. In turn, the Ohio flows into the Mississippi, at Cairo, IL and its waters thus empty into the Gulf of Mexico, in southern Louisiana.

First Nations- Pennsylvania is the ancestral home of the Lenapehoking(Delaware), Shawnee, Erie, Munsee, Susquehannock, Haudenosaunee(Iroquois Confederacy), Honniasont, Saluda, Saponi, Tutelo,Tuscarora, and Wenrohrenon peoples. Through the deception of the Penn family, the Lenape were stripped of title to 1.2 million acres of hunting land (The Walking Purchase of 1737). Most Lenape now live in Oklahoma, as the Delaware Nation. The Susquehannock were slaughtered by the Paxton Boys, a vigilante mob, in 1763. The Erie (Erielhonan) were wiped out by the Iroquois Confederacy, in the Beaver Wars of the 1650s, which were instigated by European fur traders. The Seneca, members of the Iroquois Confederacy, were themselves deprived of significant portions of their land, by one of the less seemly projects of the New Deal: The Kinzua Dam, which resulted in the flooding of large tracts of the Seneca’s reservation land. The “trade-off” was the protection of Pittsburgh, downriver along the Allegheny from its constant springtime floods. There is no Indigenous reservation or recognized tribe in Pennsylvania. The Zimmerman Center for Heritage, in Wrightsville, documents what information is available about the Susquehannock people. The Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania continues to preserve Lenape language and culture.

Where I most feel at home- Oley, Exton, Downingtown, Wilkes-Barre, Clarion, Bedford, Harrisburg,York

Where I most feel at peace- Oley, Exton, Bedford, Bushkill Falls, York

Future Five: Lancaster, Johnstown, State College, Erie, Bird-in-Hand

NEXT: New Jersey

The Road to Diamond, Day 137: Infamy at Passover

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Posted by on in Assistance, Community, impediments, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 14, 2025- On Saturday evening, as the Governor of Pennsylvania, his family and close friends were concluding their celebration of the onset of Passover with a festive seder (feast), a disgruntled individual made his way into the Governor’s Mansion, a house of the people of Pennsylvania and set the building afire.

The suspect had reportedly written several messages on social media, expressing anger at various politicians. Two days ago, he appears to have escalated his behaviour. Some feel that stochastic (indirect) terrorism is at work, with the suspect merely acting at the instigation of other actors. The official investigation, alone, will have to establish that. Speculation by lay people may only serve to add fuel to the figurative fire, and possibly spark even more mayhem. In the final analysis, the person or person who committed this crime are the ones responsible for their actions. Blame cannot be passed along to those of either greater or lesser stature.

We are in very unsettled times. Those entrusted with power are variously embarking on untried courses of action or are passing the baton of their own statutory power to the more intrepid ones, “to keep the peace”. The attempt on the life of a sitting elected official, regardless of party affiliation or of ideology, is reprehensible. It is a slap in the faces of the people who voted for that official, as well as an attack on the concept of the State. I felt this way at both of the attacks on then-candidate Donald Trump, and at this most recent incident.

I hold out hope that the full weight of the Federal justice system will be brought to bear on anyone who seeks to wreak havoc on any part of our Democratic process. This, in addition to the resources of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania-or any state, District or territory that may experience subsequent acts of terror.