Dressed in casual summer wear, Pennsylvania State Rep. Kyle Donahue slid through the crowd with the ease of a smug political hack on his way to an afternoon clambake. Carrying one of his children on his shoulder as his wife walked with another little one, the self-absorbed state lawmaker was making a public appearance more to improve his image than for constituent service.
Democrat Donahue represents the 113th District where I live in Scranton’s Hill Section. He was attending the June 14 “No Kings” anti-Trump rally on Scranton’s Courthouse Square. Later in the day he addressed the crowd through a bullhorn, vowing to help lead the fight to save democracy.
“We are here to remind people today that we are not subjects, we are citizens,” Donahue said according to the Scranton daily newspaper.
“Across history, people have said enough to crowns, to empires. To systems that put power in the hands of the few, and demand silence from the rest,” Donahue said according to a local television report.
A few weeks ago I asked Donahue in an email if he would help me repatriate the human remains of a 2,000-year-old “mummy” Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art in Scranton claims is Peruvian. Museum officials should have returned these human remains to Peru decades ago.
Everhart representatives now refuse to disclose more details about the mummy, discuss the one or two shrunken heads they also publicly displayed in the past as well as explain the human remains of a Native American that Everhart “experts” claimed decades ago on a form federal law required them to file.
Hoarding human remains tarnishes the Everhart Museum’s reputation. Covering up and trying to ignore ethical and moral responsibility humiliates countless decent people this cultural institution serves, people upon whom the museum depends to survive. I expected city native, resident and state lawmaker Donahue to help me do something about it.
As a former president of Scranton City Council, former director of the Scranton School Board, board member of the Scranton-Lackawanna Human Development Agency and board member of Scranton Tomorrow you’d think Donahue would want to help.
But my state representative never responded to my email even though a staffer in his office told me on the phone he received the email and would make sure Donahue saw the three columns I wrote about the Everhart Museum’s three separate sets of human remains.
After exchanging polite small talk with Donahue at the protest rally I asked if he planned to get back to me on the mummified human remains. He said he would reply to my inquiry.
“When?” I asked.
Donahue floundered, murmuring he’d respond when he better understands what’s going on with the issues I raised. I gave him a look you give bugs at a picnic. Donahue should know all he needs to know had he read and understood the shocking columns I sent him via his PA House of Representatives website.
I told Donahue a high-ranking Peruvian Embassy official in Washington D.C. with whom I spoke has expressed interest in helping repatriate the mummified human remains. I said a federal law enforcement investigation into the Native American human remains could also take place. I told Donahue looted human remains matter.
Any smart sensitive public servant would have expressed some level of awe at the disgraceful Everhart Museum news. Instead, Donahue gave me the spiritless look of a soft stuffed animal before sailing into a whiney monologue about how busy he is with the budget and other dull duties his Democratic Party masters tell him to perform. Donohue truly seemed impressed with himself as he described the hack labor he gets paid far too much money to undertake supposedly on behalf of good citizens like me. Obviously uncomfortable, Donahue skulked off into the crowd.
Donahue would have no doubt expressed immediate interest and deep compassion if the mummy’s remains were the body parts of a long dead Irish coal miner discovered after years trapped underground. Outrage over old Irish bones discovered in a Scranton Irish neighborhood cave-in where the miner’s ancestors still live and vote would likely send a lace curtain phony like Donahue springing into action.
Boasting about his Irish heritage on his official government website, as a member of the St. Patrick’s Parade Association of Lackawanna County and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of Lackawanna County, Donahue at least shows some concern for ethnic ancestry.
His own.
So it’s easy for him to ignore the ancient human remains of a dead Peruvian teenage boy, an indigenous person of color about whom few of Donahue’s tribe cares. Mummified South American human remains pale in comparison to the kiss-me-I’m-Irish power of Scranton white privilege Donahue carries into his re-election bid.
Everhart Museum officials gravely smear Scranton’s reputation.
Rep. Kyle Donahue discredits his city, his Irish roots and himself.
