All by Stefan Roots
Almost 3,000 people died on 9/11, and the cry has been to “never forget.” On each anniversary, solemn ceremonies recall that tragedy. Bells ring and someone reads out the names of the dead. Fast forward to 2020. So far this year, we have had the equivalent of 10 9/11s each in March, April, May, June, July, and August. That makes 180,000 dead courtesy of COVID-19.
The price Black folks pay for living in an all-Black community is underfunded education, poor housing stock, a lot of Dollar Stores, pollution, and receivership. Yet folks would rather put up with all that than to live beside neighbors who don’t want them there. That type of neighbor gathered up their motorcycles, pickup trucks, confederate flags, and surely their guns, to harass a Black Lives Matter march going through Ridley Township earlier this month.
The topic of education has come up a lot in the past few weeks as decisions are being made about how schools will respond to the coronavirus this fall. Some colleges are going all online, and some are limiting their campuses to just freshman and sophomores. Local school districts are trying to decide whether to go fully open or to mix in-school and home-school learning. I know it’s not on the table, but maybe one day someone would consider allowing students from one Delco public school to use vouchers to attend school elsewhere in the county. Right now, Chester-Upland funding follows the student to a charter school. What if it also followed them to Strath Haven, Garnet Valley, Haverford, or Radnor? Opinion Piece
Why do you call the police if someone falls asleep in their car at a fast food drive-thru? Couldn’t an employee or someone in one of the other cars tap on the window to see if he was okay? Have we already forgotten how cops kicked in the door and shot up Breonna in Louisville while she was under the sheets trying to sleep?
Several years ago, I dipped my toe into reporting youth sports by covering Chester Panther youth football. Back then, there was one 8-year-old on the Chester Panthers peewee team who stood out. Every game this kid played, he was the highlight reel. As he grew up and moved into the upper divisions of the football program, he continued to dominate. He kept growing, and he kept getting better. I was looking forward to seeing him play this fall as a 13-year-old. And then I got the text that this 13-year-old boy was shot in the head. He died the next day.
We are all in this together, but we’re all not going through it the same way. Visit BlackCovid19.com and learn something new every day.
Phil was like my big brother in the newspaper business. I watched him run the Daily Times when I worked there, and it was clear to me Phil knew what he was doing and how to get the most out of his staff. I was one of the first let go in a wave of departures that has finally reached the top guy. I’ve often said, I don’t know how they put out a paper every day when they have less than 20% of the staff they had when I worked there. It’s only because of Phil they could pull it off.
The day after the two boys were shot and killed playing basketball on Broomall street a couple weeks ago, I was sitting on my front porch chillin. The phone rang. It was Brownelle. The first thing out her mouth was, “Why you sittin on the porch like that? You think you’re bulletproof?” I was at CVS in Brookhaven and she drove by with a car full of people with the window down, talking loud like she did. I texted her, telling her to slow down or I’d call the cops. She replied, “I’m sorry.” That was our last contact.
Swarthmore College was defeated by Johns Hopkins 73-71 on Saturday, February 29, in a game that proved all the basketball-isms true: it’s hard to beat a team three times in a row; Sports Illustrated feature stories are always followed by bad luck; three-pointers are worth more than two-pointers; UCLA’s 88-game win streak will never be shattered; and, basketball games become way more interesting with four minutes left to play.
The nation’s number one team in Division 3 basketball put on a shooting clinic Saturday, February 8, as they trounced Franklin & Marshall 85 - 68. It was a tough game, though. For 35 minutes of the 40-minute contest, it wasn’t as lopsided as the final score suggests.
Politics encourages party allegiances. Like most people, I’m registered to a particular party. But I’m far from partisan. As an individual, I can’t be bipartisan. So I’m adopting the term “dual-partisan” to describe my willingness to take the best of either major party and throw my support behind it.
It was first reported in the Delaware County Daily Times that The Larimer Beer Company was almost open and you’d think no one in Chester saw the article. About a month after the Daily Times ran their article, the brewery had opened and I stuck my head in early one evening to see what was going on inside. I met the owners, had a couple great beers, and created a blog post to simply say I stopped in and we’re going to do an interview for this issue.
Out of curiosity, I drove down Engle Street to take a peek at the brewery with the intent of driving by and polishing off a hoagie in the car at the waterfront when I saw a couple cars parked on the side of Larimer Beer Company, and the lights on inside. I tried the door and it opened.
