What’s wrong with this picture
PLENTY
©opyright Wynne Alexander 2015
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 Source: Wynne Alexander Wynne Alexander |
| By: Wynne Alexander Political Director, CollegeHipHop.com Wynne Alexander is an investigative journalist who has interviewed national and international artists, icons, sports stars, business and political leaders including Muhammed Ali and Coretta Scott King. She is also the author of the pioneering civil rights book, Get It From the Drums. |
Philadelphia’s got the Pope coming and the United States Secret Service and the City of Philadelphia have already engaged in blaming and fault-finding for a ridiculous number of ‘what-the-hell-is going-on-here’ moves designed to guarantee residential torture while creating traffic nightmares where the security ought to be.
Here’s the short-form – you decide:
Philadelphia is making a huge expenditure – $12 Million big ones for $ecurity, telecommunication$, porta-pottie$ which have taken over the city, extra police $hift$, road re-routing$, truck$, per$onnel amid a history of tremendous budget crunches over the years. So where are they getting all this Money? Supposedly they’ll be reimbursed by the papal host organization. And I bet that $12 mill is Bud Lite on the actual Do-Re-Mi.
But how many more millions will it cost the City in lost Revenue$ and $ervices?
Plus, there’s all this hardship and hardly any Philadelphia businesses will benefit because they all had to shut down for the duration, because of the pre-engineered traffic jams and public transit snarls and closures. How do we begin to calculate the actual loss in business and city revenues between the closed museums, cultural institutions, restaurants, retail and service shops, legal and social services? Additionally there are the added expenses for residents who had to move their otherwise legally parked cars. Some of them blew the deadline and were towed and given fines and expenses totaling $251 plus. And if you’re thinking the martial law scenario is far-fetched—the District Attorneys’ office is closed too. The courts are closed. All city offices are officially closed.
Happy Vacation – except for all the suffering.
Everyone who can – is leaving town.
There’ll be a brisk business at the shore over this September weekend.
The Mayor Mike Nutter Administration and the Secret Service began a micturating contest in August, blaming each other for the business closings, transit closings, etc – etc. And technically, the federal office of Homeland Security is also large and in charge of this – what to call it – The Keystone Cops meet Colonel Klink and Big Mamma Mess.
Having the Pope moved to the suburbs for an overnight stay is a violation of a cardinal rule (all puns intended) in military and security operations –
do not expand the theatre of vulnerability.
The rule is: ‘Contain – contain – contain.’ Your mission is to decrease vulnerability.
Why then is the Pope staying in a suburban Seminary in Montgomery County which is outside Philadelphia County. It would have been standard procedure to secure him near his stops in Philadelphia and then get him to the airport.
He should have been put up at the Bellevue Stratford or any of the other Philly hotels, put a security ring all over it, and it’s a relatively easily secured location. If the Pope didn’t like the image of himself staying at a luxury hotel, then do what every real estate and cinema pro does. Pick up the phone and outfit those numerous offices in the Philadelphia Archdiocese and Basilica, turn them into bed rooms and living areas for a fraction of the price of the insanity of extending into Montgomery county.
So he will be at a seminary in another county, turning that suburban neighborhood into a study in traffic jams, potentially swollen with thousands of papal pilgrims, helicopters and the National Guard. Every major road around it is being closed. They’re closing the I-76 expressway, plus I-95 exits, U-S Route 1, Route 30 – we’re talking miles of multiple-county closures. But that’s looking normal once you hear they are closing the Ben Franklin Bridge for 4 days. They are absolutely going to create traffic jams and inch-by-inch crawlings.
They are CREATING them.
Why?
Why would you make a jammed situation worse on purpose and in advance.
I swear Philadelphia drew the short straw on this hornswoggle. All the smart Big Cities said, “HELL NO – No POPES HERE. We’re not going to put up with that mayhem. Take the Pope somewhere else. Try Philadelphia. Maybe they’re stupid enough to fall for this crap.” [Try Mikey – he’ll eat anything]
For the record, I have no finalized opinion on this Pope. Although I will say the syrupy idolatry oozing through network television coverage seems completely unprofessional. Historian and patriot Gore Vidal often spoke against worshipping the United States President – well what the hell would he make of this? On another hand, this Pope Francis is the most positive breath of fresh, humane air in the history of the Vatican. [And the Jesuits have always been cool…]
If some ‘chatter’ has made all this necessary, then that would be of interest. But without some explanation – surely this could rank as the greatest fool’s escapade since Philadelphia Mayoral Embarrassment, Frank Rizzo’s paranoia wrecked the Bicentennial of 1976. His documented alarmist rhetoric and repeated hallucinations of radical threats killed any financial gain for the city.
