Karen,
I am glad that you have seen through how systematic this bullshit is.
Jim Cummings
On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 1:42 PM, Karen Allen <kallena...@msn.com> wrote:
> Well, Al, looks like they're "gettin' the band back together", and today's
> Daily Pennsylvanian report about the Campus Inn puts yesterday's post into
> context.
>
> It's the same old bullshit: West Philadelphia is a hellhole that we need
> Penn/UCD/Tom Lussenhop to rescue us from; unannounced closed-door astroturf
> presentations in front of a handful of handpicked so-called "community
> leaders" ready to regurgitate Penn's lies and to rubberstamp whatever Penn
> shoves in front of them. I guess next the propaganda machine will kick into
> gear again to explain to us igoramuses why it's so important that Penn
> should be able to do whatever they want.
>
> Regarding certain "panelists", this just proves that there are some people
> who are incapable of embarassment or shame...Even Professor Marvel gave up
> the smoke and mirrors once his "Wizard of Oz" persona ("Pay no attention to
> the man behind the curtain!") was exposed as a sham.
>
> See ya at the Zoning Board hearings, folks... luckily I saved my "No Hotel
> In the Hood" posters!
> ------------------------------
> From: krf...@aol.com
> Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2009 08:55:59 -0400
> Subject: [UC] Penn and the community -- take, er, I lost count when it hit
> six digits
> To: UnivCity@list.purple.com
>
> From today's DP. Emphasis (color) and snide remarks *(parentheses)* added
>
> You read it here, first, on the ever-popular *Popu-List*
> Courtesy of Al Krigman
>
> ------------------------------
> *University seeks to build more bridges with community partnerships*
>
> Maanvi Singh
>
> While Penn's relationship with the West Philadelphia community has been
> tumultuous in the past, last night a group of community leaders and
> educators discussed Penn's recent focus on interacting positively with its
> neighbor. *(Recent focus? Maybe they mean dumping Lewis Wendell.)
> *
> The audience of community members, who filled a little over half the
> chairs* (nobody I know was aware of this... so -- little wonder that only
> half the chairs were filled and I can only imagine who from "the community"
> was there)* set up in the Arthur Ross Gallery, listened as the panel
> recounted Penn's historical interactions with West Philadelphia, as well as
> the University's current programs for community involvement.
>
> Ira Harkavy, associate vice president of Penn's Netter Center for Community
> Partnerships, moderated the discussion on what he said was "the single
> most important issue that the University is focusing on" - helping to
> develop neighboring West Philadelphia. *(This is the "single most
> important issue that the University is focusing on" ??? I would have
> thought that a world class research university would be focusing on less
> important things like education, research, bringing their endowment back up
> to the point where they don't have to fire people or raise fees to give it's
> president a big raise and otherwise stay afloat, etc.)
>
> *West Philadelphia has come a long way since the 1990s, when crime was on
> a major upspring, said panelist and member of the Spruce Hill Community
> Trust Board of Directors Barry Grossbach. *(See. Someone still thinks
> Barry is a community "leader." Maybe they don't know about the sad fall from
> grace and standing of the Spruce Hill Community Association.)
> *
> Penn faculty and students, as well as West Philadelphia community members,
> have many more opportunities today to help ameliorate their neighborhoods,
> he added, citing the recent success of tutoring endeavors in the community
> and the Penn Alexander Elementary School. *(Well, we can give them that
> one, anyway -- ignoring the real reason for Penn's involvement with the
> school.)
> *
> According to Grossbach, these outreach programs have been so successful
> that outside organizations have started to follow Penn's footsteps. For
> instance, the Teacher's College of Columbia University wants to create a
> program similar to that of Alexander Elementary School. *(Do you think
> they hired Omar Blaik as a consultant?)
> *
> "I've seen the change," Leslie Rogers, a Penn doctoral candidate, said. As
> a Penn undergraduate and graduate student, she said, she felt that West
> Philadelphia community members were very skeptical of her intentions when
> she went to volunteer and later teach there. Now, Penn faculty and students
> are more warmly welcomed, she said.
>
> Rogers said Penn undergraduates getting involved in West Philadelphia is a
> key to community-building.
>
> Thanks to an array of recently established programs, these students now
> "get to actually problem-solve in the community," she said. *(These
> students are like the bright-eyed busy-tailed types that get hired at UCD.
> They are enthusiastic and well meaning -- but naive as newborn lambs and
> haven't a clue about the "problems" faced by people from a side of the
> tracks other than where they, themselves, were born and raised.)
> *
> Still, attendee Glenwood Charles, a Penn graduate who now oversees the
> Netter Center's tutoring program and reading initiative, argued that there
> is still more to be done. *(Yes, but how can they raise the probability of
> doing more good than harm? Is there anything in the Penn curriculum that
> teaches the facts of life? ... no, not "those" facts; the other facts.)
> *
> "Get more involved," he told students. "There are a lot of opportunities."
> *(As above... to do harm unless they somehow are brought to understand the
> situations in which they are getting involved.)*
> **
> *------------*
> **
> *plus ça change, plus c'est la même
> chose*<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_French_phrases_used_by_English_speakers#P>
> ----- Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
>
>
--
Jim Cummings
