Scranton Lives Matter! Ch. 24

“PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN’S FIRST SCRANTON PRESS CONFERENCE” would kick off at noon.

Untested presidential impersonator Timmy Kelly wallowed in visions of fame and fortune as he spent all day Friday tacking up notices throughout Biden’s old Green Ridge neighborhood, even dropping off flyers at the blah Times Tribune newspaper and at the one local television station with an office downtown.

Timmy Kelly flirted with the TV station receptionist.

Our Joey’s back in town tomorrow, he said.

Joey who?

The president.

Of what?

Of these United States.

Whatever, she said.

Thank God that hillbilly hater Earl released him, Gino and Harry Davies. Timmy felt like Patty Hearst. The next thing you know he’d be wearing a beret and going to the bank carrying a machine gun. Harry would figure out a way to deal with those white power bulletheads at Earl’s church.

Timmy had more important things to consider.

By 11:45, 11 people including a TV reporter and her cameraman gathered in front of Biden’s old homestead. Two white uniformed police officers (one beer-bellied man named Pat and one beer-bellied woman named Patty) stood on the sidewalk in front of the comfortable middle-class house in the still-lace-curtain Irish neighborhood.

Class marked the difference between Scranton’s lace curtain Irish and shanty Irish. Lace curtain descendants often attended privileged Prep high school and went on to Catholic colleges and universities. Too many became lawyers. Shanty Irish gravitated toward local politics, the police and fire departments or worked clerical jobs in health care or higher education. Some of their kids went to college, too. Too many became lawyers, as well, usually from lower-rung law schools. As a result, Scranton boasted more lawyers than feral cats, and so many diseased cats prowled city streets they even had their own non-profit sanctuary in Nay Aug Park where animal lovers gave them more thought than they did abused children.

Rather than calling himself a lapsed Catholic, Timmy Kelly called himself a collapsed Catholic, a faithless heathen unable to cope with the rules of the Church no matter how liberal they became. He hated altar girls, guitars in church and didn’t believe in God, anyway. He feared death like millions of Irishmen and their descendants but did nothing to change his drinking, smoking and eating habits that might extend his life expectancy beyond 61. Strokes, heart attacks and drunken driving accidents dominated as the leading causes of death among Scranton men his age.

Timmy Kelly stepped to the mic.

Ahem, he said.

A homeless guy carrying a quart of beer in a bag laughed out loud.

Thank you for having me, Timmy said.

The homeless guy laughed again.

Removing his aviator shades and flashing his best uncapped toothy smile, Timmy dug deep into character.

It’s good to be home, he said.

When you elected me president I promised we’d win the fight for the soul of America. For you poor old souls waiting for vaccinations, I have good news. My pal and former mayor Harry Davies has founded a local vaccine company to help the people of Scranton. I have personally approved his government contract. No needles needed. All you do is swallow a sugar cube.

Timmy Kelly pointed to Harry Davies standing beside a U-Haul truck parked beneath the new Joe Biden Way street sign. The mayor bounced around, raising his hands over his head like Rocky dancing on the Art Museum steps. Harry planned to make a killing by selling the hijacked truck load of real vaccine to a couple of Indians who ran illegal bingo games. As for his latest scam, he planned to hand out doses of Scranton tap water and call it the miracle cure. By the time anybody caught on, the worst of the virus would have ended and Harry could retire to Clearwater Beach, Florida, after applying for all the federal Medicare reimbursement money he could invent. He made Timmy Kelly a full partner in the venture but, of course, had no intention of cutting the goof in on any profits.

Timmy Kelly’s voice quivered with excitement.

Give the mayor your name before you leave and he’ll personally deliver your vaccine to your door first thing in the morning, he said.

The homeless guy cheered.

Make mine a six pack, he said.

The cops moved in his direction.

Timmy Kelly was on a roll.

It’s one thing to have the vaccine – which we didn’t have when we came into office, he said.

Of course that was another scripted direct quote right out of the real Joe Biden’s mouth that Timmy stayed up all night practicing. Of course it was a lie.

The homeless guy swayed and slurred a raucous question.

How’s your buddy Barack, Mr. President?

Timmy Kelly flashed his choppers.

Still mainstream African American, still articulate and bright and clean, still a storybook, man.

Quick on his feet and more impressed with himself than ever, Timmy Kelly pondered his future.

I can see it now, he thought, my name in lights. All I want is a nightclub audience for my act, a shot in the arm, so to speak, that will propel me to a gig or two at the Jersey shore and maybe one day a summer residency in a casino or nightclub in the Poconos. Forget about running for mayor. This new gig could last four years or however long it takes Biden to keel over from all the stress of having that Black colored woman vice president behind his back waiting to take over as soon as he chokes on a huge hunk of hoagie.

The TV crew packed up and left. People lost interest and straggled away. The homeless guy sat on the curb trying to play Hail to the Chief by blowing over the top of his beer bottle. Timmy spotted Mabel and Zerelda headed his way.

But who was that spooky-looking stalk of a man with them? Bushy sideburns stuck out from both sides of his head. Long sleeves of a red, yellow and purple tie-dyed t-shirt hung over his fingertips. Frayed bell bottoms on torn and worn blue jeans dragged on the street. His hair blew in the wind like unruly weeds that sprouted from the grounds of an abandoned insane asylum. With a goatskin wine canteen slung over his shoulder, he chewed gum and blew avocado-sized pink bubbles. Wearing a beanie cap with a spinning propeller on top, he walked like a man on a mission.

When they got close Timmy wrapped up his speech.

God bless America and God bless our troops, he said.

The freak spoke.

Dude, I hear you’re looking for somebody to help distribute the vaccine, Casey Weatherhogg said.

Petrified of Zerelda and Mabel, Timmy nodded toward Harry Davies.

Talk to the boss, he said.

Tell him Joe Biden sent you.

Scranton Lives Matter! Ch. 23

Menace pumped up the volume in Mabel’s voice.

Somebody better let me out of this closet soon or I’m peeing all over this nice American flag folded in a triangle and stored in this damn closet, she said.

Earl jumped up from the table.

Goddamn, that’s the flag from my daddy’s funeral.

Mabel squealed.

Oooh, here’s another one, a Confederate stars and bars, she said.

Sumbitch, that’s my great-grand-daddy’s rebel flag that’s been in the family ever since his grand-daddy headed up the KKK down there in Luzerne County.

Yeehaw, I’m going to burn this one, Mabel said.

Earl tore open the closet door and grabbed Mabel by the front of her red flannel shirt just as Zerelda walked in.

Mabel, what are you doing here?

I brought you a nice chocolate cake I baked for you being so kind to me, Mabel said.

Zerelda gave Earl the dead eye.

Where’s the cake?

Timmy Kelly and Harry Davies both used both hands to wipe devil’s food crumbs off their mouths.

I didn’t have any, ma’am. I’m trying to lose weight, Gino said.

Gino wanted out. These nuts would get him killed or locked up with the same kind of yahoo convicts he used to guard at the penitentiary. Retirement was supposed to be nice, comfortable, sunny and bright. What about his dream of reeling in catfish in the South Carolina twilight? What about standing on the beach casting his line into the surf? What about fish fries and French fries and Southern fried tomato pies? Why bother losing weight at 50, anyway? These guys were worse than an outlaw motorcycle gang. These guys weren’t his brothers.

I’m sorry about the cake, Gino said.

Zerelda fired off a scalding gaze.

I’ll run down to Joe’s Kwik Mart and get a replacement, he said.

Timmy Kelly perked right up.

You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking, Timmy said.

You really do sound like Joe Biden, Harry Davies said. That’s right out of his mouth. I’m impressed.

Zerelda swung a jam-packed bullet belt, caught Timmy in the back of the head and knocked him off his chair.

It was meant as a compliment, he said.

Nose-to-nose with Earl, Zerelda’s whisper sounded like hellfire hissing in a snake pit under siege.

You ate my cake. You locked my friend in the closet. You assaulted her and disrespected me.

Balling his fists and puffing out his chest, Earl refused to back up. Who did this uppity woman think she was, Michele Obama? Embarrassing him in front of his new recruits was going too far for any woman, especially his woman.

This old bag is an enemy of the people, Earl said.

Zerelda closed her eyes and clenched her teeth to keep from striking. She purposely slowed her breathing like the woman in the yoga videos she secretly watched told her to do when life seemed just too hard to handle.

Harry Davies moved to the rescue.

Hey, c’mon, pastor, that’s no way to talk to a senior citizen or to the little lady, for that matter, he said.

Stepping toward Mabel he spoke in a gentle tone.

We mistakenly thought you were some kind of terrorist, he said.

I am some kind of terrorist, Mabel said.

Harry waved her off.

Let me make it up to you, he said.

Running out to the car and back in two minutes, Harry Davies placed a box big enough for a microwave on the table.

Roll up your sleeve, grandma, he said.

Mabel and Zerelda threw each other quizzical looks.

Get your COVID vaccination while it’s hot, Harry Davies said.

I’m not just another pretty face, Mabel said.

You stole vaccine, Zerelda said.

I know a couple ex-Mafia guys who hijacked a truck, Harry Davies said.

Timmy Kelly looked up from the floor where he was afraid to move.

How much you got?

Enough to fill a 15-foot U-Haul truck.

Zerelda already knew the whole QAnon, UAnon, ScrewAnon  church would soon crash and burn. She better get out while she still could.

Mable might help.

Mable was smart.

Mabel wasn’t afraid.

But Mabel had her own idea of freedom.

Mabel mulled over murder.

These boys definitely needed to go – even that polite, pudgy Gino

Resist Friendly Sons’ Racism

Countless white women in Scranton, PA, long ago gave up fighting sexism or never cared enough to begin with.

One of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s largely unspoken questions in today’s battle for equal opportunity is whether Black women in President Joe Biden’s birthplace will take up the cause.

Will a Black woman be the first woman to attend the annual all-male dinner hosted by the Lackawanna County Friendly Sons of St. Patrick that Biden’s great-grandfather organized in 1906?  Will a Black woman publicly resist this segregated group’s white power where Biden has appeared three times as the featured dinner speaker?

Or will frequent dinner guests such as Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. and Rep. Matt Cartwright continue to support denying Black women a fair chance to succeed?

Staff for Biden, Casey and Cartwright refused to respond to my recent inquiries about the president’s, senator’s and congressman’s positions on Friendly Sons’ bigotry.

Banning women from a public gathering the way the Friendly Sons have banned women from their dinner from the beginning defines a blatant form of discrimination. Barring Black women from the traditional Irish-American event stacks an odious layer of racism on top of the Sons’ already cruel bigotry.

When Biden’s great-grandfather formed the Friendly Sons, a woman’s place was where men placed her. Without male supremacy at home and in the community, women might one day even want to vote. If given the chance, who knew what Black women might want?

If white men in Scranton kept their own families’ white women in line, they could easily prevent an independent Black woman from challenging established white power.

Slavery requires obedience.

White men’s long-term suppression of white women might even create a norm among their oppressed victims to willingly accept the gender stranglehold with arguments such as, “I don’t want to go to the men’s dinner, anyway.”

Scranton women eventually did establish their own St. Patrick’s Day dinner after more than a century of exclusion. Men can attend the Society of Irish Women affair but few do. Male political candidates often attend both galas to meet voters, raise campaign funds and do what politics requires of current and aspiring public servants.

Truly a confederacy of chauvinists, the Sons have gathered each year for 116 years for the event that currently draws about 1,500 political and business leaders, including tuxedo-clad federal, state and county judges, congressmen, state lawmakers and other high-powered public influencers.

They make myriad connections at the dinner that propel them, their sons and grandsons into a privileged existence. Generations of these men have used this gathering to solidify and enrich their lives and financial portfolios.

Described as “gentlemen” in Friendly Sons’ President W. David FitzPatrick M.D.’s Jan. 4 letter soliciting applications for membership, the group poses a serious threat to human development.

Banned from the dinner from the beginning, too many women have seemingly accepted their subordinate position and refused to push for inclusion. To the best of my knowledge, in the 25 years I’ve covered this issue no woman has seriously challenged the Sons’ prejudice. Years ago one well-respected female attorney considered trying to break the green glass ceiling but eventually succumbed to fear of retaliation.

No discrimination lawsuits have yet been filed.

Since the Sons’ membership roll is private, I have no idea how many, if any, Black men are dues-paying members or have attended the dinner. Likewise, I have no idea how many Black women attend the women’s dinner. One fact is certain, though: No Black woman has ever attended the Friendly Sons’ gathering.

To the best of my knowledge, no Black woman has ever held elected office in Scranton, either. Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, the city’s first woman mayor, has made a point of opening public service to women of color. As hard as it is for a progressive white woman to get elected here, for a Black woman to succeed politically in Scranton she must at least have the basic access to power and money men enjoy.

The Friendly Sons stand in the way of such civil rights.

Perhaps that’s one sad reason why the most famous Black woman in Scranton history might be Brenda Williams, whom three white city police officers shot five times and killed in 2009 when they said the 52-year-old naked mentally ill Air Force veteran threatened their lives with a kitchen knife. State police and the district attorney cleared the officers of any wrongdoing.

Racism and sexism continue to govern this overwhelmingly white, tribal city of immigrants’ descendants from Ireland, Italy, Wales, Poland and elsewhere in Western Europe.

Still, Biden has created Scranton as the center of the political universe, citing values he learned “growing up” here for about the first decade of his life as honorable rules of behavior to guide American progress.

Sexism remains one of those stunning Scranton values.

Racism also thrives.

When it comes to fairness, no Black women need apply.

Scranton Lives Matter! Ch. 22

Awakening from his nap in a cold sticky sweat, Casey rolled off the couch and called for his mother.

Ma?

Ma?

Where was she?

Feeling older every day at 75, Casey’s dream images from his nap remained stuck in his head and more vivid than the Day-Glo paint he sometimes used to draw tribal markings on his face.

Today would have been Lily’s 75th birthday. Mabel would have loved her, Casey thought.

But mother never knew.

At 95, Mabel still didn’t know.

In his mind Casey saw Lily’s face in 1966 when she saw what he brought home for her 20th birthday and heard the tiny wolf puppies whimper as they scampered around the room yelping at the Jefferson Airplane black light posters hanging on the wall.

Casey groked at the memory the same way he did when the joyful happening actually took place. To grok meant to merge with experience, to be and always be. Like it or not, bad trips got groked, too.

On that beatific day, though, Lily shivered with joy.

Where did you get these babies?

A Hells Angel in scuffed motorcycle boots gave them to me, Casey said.

Why?

Man slid his Harley off the road and I pulled him out of a ditch.

Did he name them yet?

One’s Bob, the other’s Dylan, he said.

They are so cute it hurts my teeth when I laugh, Lily said.

With that, Casey & Company, as he called his growing family, settled in to eat mashed potatoes and fresh broccoli Lily made for dinner in the communal kitchen and fell asleep early in each other’s arms. Casey dreamed about orange gum drops and red candy apples. Lily watched giant redwood trees slow dance in the sunset. Bob and Dylan kept their dreams to themselves.

More than 50 years later almost nothing sweet survived in Casey’s dreams. Indelible, dark, horrible visions, these everlasting images refused to go away and release him from their grip, instead spewing poison, death and doom into his subconscious like a wood screw tearing into a log. Night after nightmare night, he watched smoke pour from the broken windows of the abandoned factory, streaking the gum ball blue sky with thick plumes of black and gray lines that reminded Casey of zebras. Tripping did that to him sometimes when harsh reality took on different circus shapes, creating happiness nudged by chemical osmosis in the brain. Now sad slow motion took over the zoo.

Firefighters poured water into the three-story building that once served as a shirt factory, a massive assembly line where mostly Filipina women labored long hours seven-days-a-week sewing French cuffs and pastel collars on fine men’s clothing. Capitalists all over the world wore these stiff, starched shirts to work disassembling fairness around the globe. Bankers and other model citizen businessmen preened like albino peacocks caught in corporate cages.

Casey, Lily and about three dozen friends squatted in the crumbling structure as a hippie band of free spirits during a preamble to the summer of love that supposedly dawned as the Age of Aquarius. Casey, Lily, Bob and Dylan shared a tight room with a view of Moo Gum’s Chinese restaurant. At night they drank Cribari red wine and ate brown rice with sunshine-showered cauliflower for which they traded home-grown weed with young Mexican farmworkers who came to town Saturday night to party in America after crossing the border to cut vegetables in nearby fields.

When Casey’s belly growled the wolf babies always responded in kind, as they did the night he and Lily played with them on the water bed until their sharp claws punctured the mattress and a waterfall went from the third floor to the ground in about five minutes. The whole commune gathered on the first floor to watch the wet display. Five Groovers (that’s what members of the group called themselves) sat cross-legged beneath the flowing deluge, letting the run-off spill over their heads like they were meditating in the shallowest part of the Pacific Ocean on a stormy day at Stinson Beach as swells washed over their heads. One seasoned freak later explained how he became one with the water, merging major aqua that flowed through his body with the cascading flow of H2O from above. Casey and Lily laughed as Bob and Dylan lapped up all the water they could drink.

Water’s life, Casey said.

Life’s water, Lily said.

Water’s what we mostly are, Casey said.

Water, water, everywhere, Lily said.

Then Casey’s family disappeared.

First responders pulled the remains of 36 people and two tiny pups from the building where up-to-code wiring never existed even when the sweat shop operated around-the-clock. The building’s owner paid bribes to city inspectors and took kickbacks from tenants to let people stay, but never reciprocated with anything even remotely resembling a safety standard.

Casey would carry his loss forever. Existence would never get better. Mabel now posed his only cherished responsibility. Standing alone and stoned in his long underwear with the flap unbuttoned in the back, Casey wondered where his mother went.

Then he asked himself the question he and Lily often asked each other before she went away.

What’s on the other side of forever?

Scranton Lives Matter! Ch. 21

Scribbling notes in red pen on a yellow legal pad to keep up with the judge’s hallucinations, the psychiatrist grimaced.

Your visions don’t seem to be going away any time soon, she said.

Lackawanna County President Judge Stanley “Stash” Dombroski giggled.

You’re a tulip. I’m a mint julip, he said.

Yes, your honor, life’s a flower garden of sorts, the doctor said. And the Kentucky Derby is a wonderful event I once attended as a young woman.

Dombroski yelled.

And they’re off!

Up like a shot and racing from the couch before she could say Seabiscuit, the judge broke into a full gallop around the therapy room. Reacting like the versatile college volleyball player she once was, the doctor immediately gave chase.

My money’s on him, said a long-time third-floor psychiatric unit patient looking up from his jigsaw puzzle. A buddy playing an imaginary piano pointed at the doctor.

Put me down for twenty on the old gray mare, the piano player said.

The judge whinnied.

Your honor, please, the doctor said.

With the other patients cheering him on, Dombroski crossed the imaginary finish line and fell back onto the couch breathing loudly through his nostrils, exhausted but victorious. The judge collapsed beside him, deeply pondering his case.

Do you have a history of seeing things?

Dombroski got agitated.

Do you have a history of your nose melting off your face? Because that’s what happening right now and you better catch that big old beak of yours you old witch before you can’t smell the roses anymore, the judge said.

Unflappable, the doctor probed deeper.

Is it possible somebody slipped you something? Like maybe dropped a mickey in your drink? After all, you are a law and order judge and some people might not like some of your rulings.

The judge’s eyes widened.

 Look! Look! A Polish falcon’s perched on top of the coffee maker.

A figment of your imagination, the doctor said.

That bird just flipped me the bird.

Now, now, your honor.

Goddammit, he did.

What’s the falcon doing now?

Singing in Polish.

Can you make out the lyrics?

Let’s name the baby kielbasy.

The doctor checked her watch.

OK, time’s up.

Back in her office the doctor took a call.

I see, she said.

The voice on the other end of the line explained some of Judge Dombroski’s predicament.

I see, the doctor said.

Then she hung up.

Returning to the treatment room, she set up chairs for group therapy. The judge took his seat quietly humming a polka. Taking a seat beside the judge, the doctor gave him an injection of supercharged Thorazine plus and a gallon jug of orange juice.

Drink this, she said.

The doctor leaned in to whisper in Judge Dombroski’s ear.

A strange man called to tell me he sabotaged you with LSD more potent than anything Timothy Leary ever cooked up. He said he’s part of a guerrilla environmental army fighting to save Scranton. He said you better get ready for more happy hallucinations, that everybody better get ready for more happy hallucinations. I have to call the Scranton police anti-terrorist tactical team. The cops won’t be happy.

The judge started to get groggy.

Now turning her attention to the group she spoke in soothing tones.

We must always be honest with each other, she said.

No one in the group spoke.

Would you like to begin, Stanley?

The judge seemed befuddled.

Where am I?

Safe among friends, the doctor said.

The unhinged piano player tightly folded his arms across his chest before blurting out his feelings.

I don’t care if he won the Kentucky Derby or not, he’s still a horse’s ass to me, he said.

Blackballed by Biden?

Next time somebody tells you how important local journalism is to democracy I’d like you to think about my first and maybe last experience with President Joe Biden’s White House press team.

In a Jan. 21 email I asked White House regional communication director Seth Schuster three simple questions.                

I wrote, “A recent story in the local daily paper raised questions about President Biden’s religious background. I’m writing a column to hopefully clear up any confusion about the president’s roots in the Catholic Church.

Did Joe Biden get baptized in Scranton? If so, where and when? Who are his godparents?

Thanks for your help in this matter.

I look forward to a good working relationship in the future.”

On Feb. 3 I contacted Angela Perez who responded to my first White House inquiry and directed me to Schuster, who handles media inquiries from Scranton. I said I had not heard from Schuster and also had another question.

I wrote, “The Lackawanna County Friendly Sons of St. Patrick is a male-only organization where the President appeared three times as the featured speaker.

Will President Biden continue to endorse this group’s ban on women? Will he attend a future dinner if he’s invited? Will the president support Vice President Kamala Harris and all other women who might one day want to attend this discriminatory annual dinner where about 1,500 men, all political and business leaders, attend, campaign and do business?”

Perez got back to me at 1:10 pm the same day.

“I will flag this for him, again,” she wrote.

Schuster got back to me at 4:44 pm the same day.

He wrote: “Apologies for not getting back to you. It’s been an absolute flood over the last few weeks and some inquiries have regrettably slipped through the cracks. I’m glad you reached back out to Angela to get ahold of me.

As for your request – I don’t have any information on that matter right now, but if I learn of anything, I will circle back.

Be sure to contact me on any further inquiries and I’ll do my best to help. Thank you.”

Schuster never circled back.

I asked Schuster in an email the same day, “Will you obtain answers to my questions? If so, when? As I told Angela, I will be writing regular columns that relate to the President and his connection to Scranton.

 The baptism issue matters because of history.

The gender issue matters because of human rights, the President’s commitment to equality and the gender of the Vice President.

Many people in Scranton take these issues seriously.”

One scrappy kid from Scranton to another, I hoped Biden would understand the value of a response from him and his staff. After all, he issued a statement about his crack press team shortly before taking office.

“Restoring faith in government by speaking honestly and directly to the American people will be a hallmark of my administration,” Biden said.

“Our communications and press staff are integral to this effort and are committed to building this country back better for all Americans. I’m proud to have them serve the American people in the White House.”                

Schuster never responded with answers to my questions.

I tried again.

In a Feb. 16 email to Schuster with a copy to Perez, I wrote, “No need to immediately respond to my questions concerning the simple details of President Joe Biden’s baptism in the Roman Catholic Church. The big picture historic context of this issue still matters but pales in comparison to my most recent inquiry.

Does President Biden still endorse the sexist Lackawanna County Friendly Sons of St. Patrick all-male dinner where he has appeared three times as featured speaker?

Does President Biden believe Vice President Kamala Harris should be banned from this dinner as a featured speaker simply because of her gender?

Does he plan to send a video to this year’s March 17 dinner? Has anybody from this organization that discriminates against women asked him to say a few words on the group’s behalf?

Fighting and defeating sexism and discrimination are crucial cornerstones of President Biden’s vow to heal the soul of America.

I can think of no better place to start than Scranton.”

We even have a new mayor who is the first woman mayor in the city’s 165-year history.

Again Biden’s White House press staff ignored my concerns about sexism.

A week ago, on Feb. 17, I sent Schuster and Perez a reminder that Biden had made Scranton the center of the political universe. I said I would be writing regular “Greetings from Scranton” columns centering on the president’s relationship with those of us who live here and voted for him.

Again, nobody responded.

On Monday I wrote my last email to Perez at the White House.

“I read with great interest recent news of the White House Gender Policy Council.

This initiative is one reason I contacted you and Seth Schuster on Feb. 16 with questions about President Biden’s position on the Lackawanna County Friendly Sons of St. Patrick annual all-male dinner.

I’m perplexed why you have not responded to my inquiry.

President Joe Biden made his hometown of Scranton the center of the political universe. All public policy roads lead here. Yet, gender discrimination pervades Scranton’s political and business culture.

Here’s my Feb. 17 column about the Friendly Sons’ sexist attack on equal opportunity.

I plan to focus on President’s Biden’s position on this crucial matter in another column later this week.”

That’s the best I can do for now.

Scranton doesn’t matter as much to Biden and his staff as he and they would like us to believe.

Build back better?

C’mon, man.

Scranton Lives Matter! CH. 20

Deep in thought, Zerelda talked to herself all the way to the gun store to buy bullet belts for shotgun shells. The Bugaboo was already getting her down. Zerelda simply wanted peace and good government. She didn’t want to kill anybody anymore.

Nobody’s fooling me, she said, especially nobody walking around wearing a penis.

None of them listen to what I have to say. Earl lied. Nobody listened to me except that old Mabel woman I met at the bus stop. She helped me calm down. Last time I saw her I told her about meeting Earl.

You’re smarter than he is, honey, Mabel said. He doesn’t respect you for your mind, Mabel said.  Excuse me for saying so, but he sounds like one big, dumb Pennsylvania Dutchman, Mabel said.

Zerelda thought back to her only friend.

I wonder where Miss Mabel is?

Back at the makeshift church, Earl stood before the three men squeezed around a dinette-sized table.

OK, boys, I’m recruiting you to join the Bugaboo. Each Christian soldier gets a big share of the Eternal Pot of Gold when we take over America. We call our heaven on earth Old Glory. This Planetary Plan sounds crazy but I know these things because I’m God, the Master Blaster of the Universe. Timmy, you’re U, our earthly mortal leader, anointed by me to be the real Joe Biden.

Timmy Kelly beamed.

So I can act like Joe Biden all the time?

You are Joe Biden all the time, Earl said.

Timmy Kelly put on his best smug look.

My dad always said “Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up,” Timmy Kelly said.

Attaboy, Earl said.

Next Earl focused on Harry Davies.

Harry, I christen you the White Knight of the Realm, a Caucasian hero, a bleached battler who leads our people to forever Bugaboo Bliss.

Gino waited for what seemed forever.

What about me?

You’re one of the three wise guys, Earl said. See, you’re not colored or we wouldn’t let you join. You’re full-blooded Guinea. My Google research shows Mafia in your bloodlines. We might need mob connections for political hits when we ignite the Bugaboo. We’re making you an offer you can’t confuse.

Frustrated, Gino quickly got distracted.

What about Zerelda?

Busy with cooking, cleaning, laundry, making babies, that sort of thing, Earl said.

Men rule, Harry Davies said.

White men rule, Earl said.

Where we all go we all go, Harry Davies said.

Gino hadn’t heard a peep out of the Biden camp since he sent his letter asking for ghost government contracts. He knew he was shit-out-of -luck with the Corn Pop scam so he might as well go along with this Bugaboo business. At least here he belonged.

Bugaboo forever, he said.

Earl clapped his hands.

I got a surprise for you boys, he said. We got ourselves a prisoner.

The new far-right militia members looked at each other.

I kidnapped a good citizen for us to hold for ransom, Earl said.

We can make a hostage video, said Harry Davies.

Restore the soul of America, Timmy Kelly said.

Oh, God, Gino said.

A voice snarled from the deepest reaches of the locked hall closet.

This is no way to treat an old lady, Mabel said.

Scranton Lives Matter! Ch. 19

Voted the Class of ’87’s most likely to succeed, best dancer and biggest bull-shitter respectively, Harry Davies, Gino Maraschino and Timmy Kelly loved high school where they pretty much did as they pleased.

Easy living followed them into adulthood.

Welsh, Italian, Irish and other Caucasian ethnic, working-class Scranton guys always knew somebody in a position to help. So jobs on the police force, the fire department or hanging off the back of a city garbage truck easily came their way. Overtime appealed to them more than wearing a business suit to Wall Street. Prestige often meant free beer, free tickets to ball games or the fights, and a free ride when city cops stopped them for driving under the influence.

Gino used his uncle’s connections to put on a guard’s uniform for the feds at the prison, Harry won a City Council spot at 30 and then election as mayor, and Timmy knocked around from one dead-end sales, security or school custodian job to the next, always landing on his feet.

Now here they were together again.

Let me do the talking, Harry Davies said.

I’m not saying shit, Gino said.

Don’t mention anything about me and Shannon being an item, Harry Davies said.

Timmy will kill you if he finds out you were dating his sister.

Shannon said Timmy doesn’t know anything about her fling with Dombroski, either, Harry Davies said.

Timmy really believes she’s saving herself for marriage.

Shannon’s 47 years old, Gino.

Zerelda answered the door.

Good afternoon, Miss, I’m Mayor Davies and this is my business associate, Gino. We’re looking for Timmy Kelly.

You must have the wrong address.

No, his sister, Shannon, told me he was coming here to talk to the pastor.

Then she must have the wrong address.

Zerelda adjusted the crown of shining armor-piercing bullets she wore snug on her head. Only she knew what really happened to Shannon. But Zerelda wasn’t talking, especially to anybody walking around wearing a penis.

Shannon passed the other day, Harry Davies said.

Zerelda smirked.

Passed what, a breathalyzer test?

Earl Schmidt’s voice boomed from behind a multi-colored plastic beaded curtain hanging between the living room and the kitchen.

Who’s at the door?

A government agent and some spook, Zerelda said.

Gino closed his eyes and bit his lip.

Tell them to come in.

Zerelda stood aside as Harry Davies and Gino stepped into the foyer leading to the chapel. Earl appeared from behind the curtain and shook hands with both men.

What can I do for you boys?

Our buddy Timmy Kelly went missing and his sister said he’s here.

Mr. Kelly is in the back getting ready for the revolution.

Gino perked up.

What revolution?

The Bugaboo.

You mean like that siege at the Capitol?

I wasn’t even there, Earl said.

Gino started to sweat.

You mean like the crazies that wanted to hang Mike Pence?

Bugaboo is different.

Harry Davies seemed skeptical.

How so?

We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore, Earl said.

That sounds familiar, Gino said.

Earl patiently explained.

The Washington rioters are at war with Nancy Pelosi porn, fake vaccines made from baby blood and Jews bearing laser beams. They follow a mysterious leader named Q. Not us. Bugaboos like us follow U, Earl said.

Gino raised the thick black eyebrow that grew uninterrupted across the center of his forehead.

Me?

No, U.

U who?

Don’t be a smart ass, Zerelda said.

Harry Davies finally had enough.

Knock it off, goddammit. Who’s U?

With that, Timmy Kelly walked in wearing aviator shades and a big Joe Biden grin.

Here’s the deal, man, he said.

Walking the Ensnow Forever

Bright, dark or psychedelic, the enso Zen circle in Japanese art contains everything and nothing.

With gray hair growing down my back and a scraggly goatee touching my chest when I lower my chin, I envision myself painting enso as a laughing bent old man sitting seiza in the frigid attic of my home until my last frail breath.

For now, though, a snow shovel is my brush.

My cold art exists in the Zen garden behind our Scranton PA home, nature’s gift in the midst of a winter storm, an empty white space upon which I carve out a zone to mindfully walk kinhin meditation around the circle I call ensnow.  

Ensnow disappears when the snow melts. Another ensnow awaits when frosty fine flakes fall once again.

World peace guardian Kazuaki (Kaz) Tanahashi, one of my teachers, paints beautiful enso.

See for yourself

https://www.brushmind.net/

As a teenager in Japan, Kaz practiced a new dynamic art with O’Sensei, the founder of aikido, the way of peace and harmony. When the pandemic attacked our planet last year, after decades of practice I stepped off-line, left my aikido/aikijujutsu training partners in the dojo and adapted. Since the vital life energy called ki is where you make it, to protect myself and others I searched for a new path.

When winter arrived, I found refuge in a frozen circle.

Like Kaz, now ensnow is my teacher.

How many intrepid travelers over time have walked a similar path on a wondrous icy day? Who else might have made an ensnow? What future seeker might one day discover its enlightened stillness and dance within its form?

One breath.

One stroke.

Meeting in the moment.

Casey & Cartwright Scorn Women

Men who mistreat women must suffer legitimate consequences. Yet, white hot sexism shapes the molten core of Pennsylvania’s most powerful public service. Discrimination adds fuel to the misogynistic fire U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. and U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright light each time they discriminate against women.

Since these two Democrats no longer respond to my questions I can only wonder if Casey and Cartwright continue their segregationist practice of attending and enabling bigotry at the all-male and overwhelmingly white ethnic dinner founded by President Joe Biden’s great-grandfather. As featured speaker, Biden has attended the Lackawanna County Friendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner three times.

I’ve written about the dinner’s unequal opportunity for about 25 years. But for the past few years my congressman and senator ignore all my written questions about the power imbalance, blackballing me even though we’ve conducted amicable interviews in the past.

I supported Cartwright’s initial bid for Congress when other Democrats treated him like the political party outlier he was at the time.

During the decade I hosted a daily local radio talk show I even met with Casey in his Scranton office to talk about his embarrassing bias. At the end of our meeting he agreed he and other powerful men would likely one day change their ways, extending equal political and business opportunity to women.

When Casey failed to denounce the group’s male chauvinism, I publicly protested, walking back and forth outside his downtown office carrying a large, green-painted wooden shamrock on a picket sign.

My professional exchanges with Casey and Cartwright stopped when I ramped up my attack on their shameful gender discrimination.

Sexism alone is reason enough to expel Cartwright from the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a crucial legislative body that requires members to uphold the goal of “advancing justice, dignity and peace for all.”

Casey is no progressive but hopefully believes in his own Democratic Party platform that stands “committed to ensuring full equality for women. Democrats will fight to end gender discrimination in the areas of education, employment, health care, or any other sphere. We will combat biases across economic, political, and social life that hold women back and limit their opportunities.”

OK, so anti-abortion zealot Casey wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, the law that offers the safe and legal constitutional right for a woman to end a pregnancy. But when it comes to reproductive rights, Democrats always give a Casey a pass.

Women in Northeastern Pennsylvania largely ignore the discrimination their husbands, fathers, brothers, judges, lawmakers, political opponents, business associates and other alpha/beta/zeta males launch against them.

The Irish Women’s Society even started their own dinner in Scranton that allows men to attend. Men running for public office often show up at both events. But women political candidates and their female supporters can only campaign at their own green gala. Campaign contributions there easily pale in comparison to the money male candidates raise at the no-girls-allowed gathering.

Back in September 2019, Cartwright wrote on Facebook that he “Had a wonderful conversation today with Dr. Mary Frances Berry on the best ways we can drive change in our country and strive for progress. Thank you for your wise words, Dr. Berry!”

Before Berry’s appearance with Cartwright at the Milford Readers & Writers Festival to discuss how “History Teaches Us to Resist,” the professor, human rights advocate and former chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and I communicated about Cartwright’s pattern of gender discrimination. Berry said she would ask Cartwright about my concerns.

After her discussion with Cartwright, Berry got back to me and said, “I discussed this with his staff and him before the open session. Apparently, Wilkes Barre hasn’t enforced policy since elected officer or honoree bought female relative. Sounds like the tradition won’t be changed official but perhaps someone could bring a female relative for starters. Just a thought.”

Did Cartwright purposefully mislead Berry by referencing a different dinner in another city and not the one Biden’s great-grandfather founded that Cartwright had faithfully attended and endorsed?

True to form, Cartwright’s not saying.

So what about this year? The 2021 dinner is virtual. No easier way exists to host the more-than-a-century-old dinner’s first woman guest than on a computer screen. Will Friendly Sons organizers invite Democrat Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, Scranton’s first female mayor? Vice President Kamala Harris? First Lady Jill Biden? Will Casey, Cartwright and Joe Biden advocate this historic change? Or will these privileged Democratic white men once again turn their backs on the somber promise tied to the credibility of their own party platform?

Like Hillary Clinton said, “Women’s rights are human rights.”