[PRCo] Re: Coatesville Arson
Jerry MATT Matsick
mtoytrain at bellsouth.net
Mon Feb 23 12:36:22 EST 2009
Fred
Amen and Amen to what you have so carefully stated in this message!
--
From: Jerry "Matt" Matsick "PHD"
Living without trust in God is like driving in
the fog.
-------------- Original message from Schneider Fred <fwschneider at comcast.net>: --------------
> I am sorely afraid that this is a subject that we should not be
> touching because it is bound to offend people on this list.
>
> Yes, I will agree that it is the drug culture. And drugs are
> related in ways to alcohol. They all do things to the body that
> take us beyond control.
>
> Problem is that every family I have met and gotten intimate with
> seems to have someone lurking in the shadows that had a problem with
> alcohol. Today many of them have a similar problem somewhere in the
> family with something harder. Therefore I am reluctant to post the
> subject because it hurts other people. But we need to understand
> that you are not responsible for what someone else does with their
> life ... because you have or don't have legislation aimed at
> preventing it, it is still their problem. It only becomes your
> problem if you gave them the drugs or insisted they get drunk and
> provided the booze.
>
> I am trying to approach it realistically. Understand that I have a
> daughter who has done virtually nothing with her life since high
> school. The granddaughter claims that "Mom did nothing with her ex
> husband's pension that she got in the divorce except blow it on drugs
> and alcohol." I saw her growing illegal crops in a closet under a
> grow light. One of these days she will die of a total system
> failure. Isn't my fault. I did not set that example.
>
> But I am afraid to issue such pronouncements know that Mark is
> hurting right now. I think Mark is one very nice person. And I'm
> also afraid to touch this issue in front of John because of his
> sister whom I affectionately called "Sarge". I have to stop and
> apologize for any hurt this causes to those two, and to the rest of
> you who no doubt all have some relative somewhere who have a similar
> issue.
>
> Some nations seem to have a worse problem that others: USA, Holland,
> Britain, the countries in South America that grow the stuff. My
> instincts tell me that some of the Germanic countries are so
> accustomed to being regulated that it isn't the same issue there.
> And India has an incredibly low incarceration rate, perhaps because
> they are simply so poor that they cannot afford the luxury of going
> broke buying drugs and that their only crimes are petty theft.....
> I'm thinking out loud and I could be dead wrong. Remember the story
> about the blind men patting the elephant and each getting a different
> opinion of what the elephant was like? Well, maybe I don't
> understand the elephant.
>
> I will postulate, John, that there is something wrong in a culture
> when we have come to allow our children to do whatever they want in
> school. Where it is their option to fail if they choose. What kind
> of a society allows a child to sit in front of a teacher and text
> message to someone else and then hide the "brownberry" in her pants
> and claim she wasn't doing it? In my generation, you simply didn't
> do stupid things or if you did, you owned up to it and served
> detention and didn't do it again. And pop gave you a licking when
> you got home. Now you get it trouble in school, dad sues the
> school. The kid gets a message that it's OK to defy authority. Do
> what ever you want. Flunk out. Thn you can earn $200,000 a year
> dealiing drugs because you can't get a legitimate job.
>
> Should not the parent who gives the kid the phone to take to school
> also be fined? Maybe we need to force parents to again be parents
> and start there.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Feb 23, 2009, at 9:12 AM, John Swindler wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > The problem seems to be a drug culture, and I don't know what can
> > solve it. It's one of the reasons we have one of - if not the
> > highest prison rates in the world. And it's not cheap. Far too
> > much of our tax dollars goes into this field. It's too profitable
> > for those who are looking for 'get rich quick' options.
> >
> >
> >
> > This is another instance where I'd like to hear Rich's viewpoint,
> > being that he is somewhat on the front lines.
> >
> >
> >
> > Throwing money at a problem does not solve it. This country has a
> > lot of practice trying to do that.
> >
> >
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > John
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
> >> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Coatesville Arson
> >> Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:05:26 -0500
> >> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>
> >> Look 20 minutes to either side of your home, John. None of this
> >> world is what it was 40/50 years ago. It isn't where your mum came
> >> from either. I noticed in Sheffield, England, ten years ago that
> >> the hoodlums from the council homes (reads projects in American) were
> >> removing the streetcar fare vending machines from the posts and
> >> taking them home to smash them and get the money. Then you find the
> >> broken and empty ticket machines in the dumpster. I remember a
> >> distinct feeling that I was being trailed in Manchester, England,
> >> once. My solution was to walk into a McDonalds, walk through and
> >> out the other door. It solved the problem. The guy disappeared.
> >> Funny ... never had that feeling in Germany, Austria, Switzerland or
> >> even India.
> >>
> >> I used to kid (heckle?) the business write of the Reading Eagle /
> >> Reading Times, before I retired, that the front page of his newspaper
> >> was the murder of week page. Lancaster was still rather sedate.
> >> The drug culture has reached Lancaster County with a vengeance and
> >> now we see it here too ... hardly a week or two goes by that we don't
> >> have another murder somewhere in the county ... mostly in the city
> >> but, as I recall reading in a Minnesota paper two years ago, that
> >> those who sell illicit drugs love the country and small towns because
> >> the police are not as efficient.
> >>
> >> If we go back much more than half a century, murders in this county
> >> were so rare than when one happened (about 1950 or 1951), it was
> >> narrated on a prime-time TV show called "The Big Story." They did
> >> not normally happen here. This was a God fearing county where you
> >> knew your neighbors and no one would have thought of stepping over
> >> the line. And the last place you wanted to do something was a little
> >> town like Columbia where the police knew everyone; you could be sure
> >> 50 years ago to be arrested there within minutes if you did something
> >> wrong because the town cop knew every bad egg. People in Lancaster
> >> County left their doors unlocked 50 years ago ... city or county.
> >>
> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Story_(radio/TV)
> >>
> >> My township hired it's first policeman in 1953 or 1954. We had
> >> 7,000 inhabitants then and one cop. Today we 33,000 people and more
> >> policemen, detectives, etc., than the city of Lancaster did in
> >> 1953. Then the big offense was the guy who forgot to stop for a
> >> stopped school bus or, in 1957, the speed trap they set up on the
> >> Lititz Pike to get the high school kids in a 35 mph zone at after
> >> school. This month the went into the high school with a team of
> >> police and dogs and arrested three seniors as coccaine and heroine
> >> dealers and put them in jail. They knew who they were after before
> >> they went in.
> >>
> >> I was having dinner the other day. Some how I got into a
> >> conversation with the waitress who was taking a semester of work at
> >> University of Pittsburgh on-line because she had to come home and
> >> take care of a sick mother. I asked where she planned to go after
> >> she got her degree. There was no doubt in her mind. She likes
> >> Pittsburgh. Her field is criminology and police work. And she said
> >> there is no shortage of demand for her field in Pittsburgh today.
> >> (When I worked out there 25 years ago, it was a very safe place.)
> >> Like Bob Dietrich's daughter and the rest of us, there is a certain
> >> allure to the people in that part of the state. But sad that we
> >> have to admit that there is no shortage of demand for police.
> >>
> >> But we know the problem exists in Montana and Philadelphia, Maine and
> >> and Portland, probably Lancaster SC as well as Lancaster PA.
> >>
> >> And there is at least one person on this list who sees the results of
> >> drugs first hand every day ... a doctor working in a hospital in a
> >> ghetto in North Philadelphia.
> >>
> >> fws
> >>
> >>
> >> On Feb 22, 2009, at 10:11 PM, John Swindler wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>> Hi Phil
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> I am reminded of the admonition: "be careful what you wish for -
> >>> you just might get it".
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> So when people 'wish' for and undefined 'change', they just might
> >>> get something far different.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> As for Coatesville and Wampum, those are singular instances. It's
> >>> the murders in Homewood and North Philadelphia that go on almost
> >>> daily. The Post Gazette is available on line, and while checking
> >>> for PAT news, one is struck by realization that this is not the
> >>> Pittsburgh I remember from 40/50 years ago. Certain neighborhoods
> >>> are much more violent today.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> The trouble with history is that, with few exceptions, there really
> >>> isn't much new under the sun.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Cheers
> >>>
> >>> John
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:54:06 -0800
> >>>> From: pcc_sr at yahoo.com
> >>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Coatesville Arson
> >>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>>>
> >>>> Mr.Swindler;
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> There are more than exceptions available aren't there. As we
> >>>> observed elsewhere
> >>>> we are expecting great change with our new president but official
> >>>> historians say
> >>>> we are still struggling with the same social ills of President
> >>>> Lincoln. Actually,
> >>>> many of those 'ills' are millenia old aren't they. Same for crime.
> >>>>
> >>>> King Solomon said: "There is nothing new under the sun." While the
> >>>> specific
> >>>> reference is to human creative ability (actually, lack thereof) it
> >>>> can also be
> >>>> 'applied' to the destructive ability of 'humans.' Murder started
> >>>> with Cain and
> >>>> Abel and has been with us ever since at all ages. However, it is
> >>>> always startling when the murderer is young isn't it. You will
> >>>> find the same
> >>>> with every generation since time began; it's not new is it.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Phil
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>> ----- Original Message ----
> >>>>> From: Phillip Clark Campbell
> >>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>>>> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 11:35:48 AM
> >>>>> Subject: Re: Coatesville Arson
> >>>>>
> >>>>> This made national news as well.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Phil
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> ----- Original Message ----
> >>>>>> From: John Swindler
> >>>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>>>>> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 6:46:13 AM
> >>>>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: [PRCo]
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Motive? Didn't have a life, and way too much free time on his
> >>>>>> hands.
> >>>>>> There's a lot of that going around. Our society has become way
> >>>>>> too wealthy.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> It was some 35+ years ago that Geissenheimer commented "didn't
> >>>>>> know
> >>>>>> any young railfans that got themselves into trouble". Of
> >>>>>> course the
> >>>>>> nit-pickers will come up with exceptions, but what Harold was
> >>>>>> trying
> >>>>>> to say was that hobbies and sports, etc can help keep kids out
> >>>>>> of trouble.
> >>>>>> I doubt if there are any ax murderers or arsonist on THIS list.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Cheers
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> John
> >>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>>>>>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
> >>>>>>> Subject: [PRCo]
> >>>>>>> Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:13:29 -0500
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Since this was on this website, I'll ask John Swindler openly
> >>>>>>> if he
> >>>>>>> saw the news today ...
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> This didn't break in time to make the Lancaster papers but it
> >>>>>>> is on
> >>>>>>> Comcast's home page late tonight ...
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Roger Barlow, age 19, was arrest for setting 7 arson fires in
> >>>>>>> Coatesville in the last year. He is considered a "pyromaniac
> >>>>>>> who set
> >>>>>>> the fires so he could watch the homes burn." He is in jail in
> >>>>>>> lieu
> >>>>>>> of $9,000,000 bail. That's a lot of zeros. No motive given.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> _________________________________________________________________
> >>> Access your email online and on the go with Windows Live Hotmail.
> >>> http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?
> >>> ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_AE_Access_022009
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Windows Liveâ„¢: Discover 10 secrets about the new Windows Live.
> > http://windowslive.com/connect/post/jamiethomson.spaces.live.com-
> > Blog-cns!550F681DAD532637!7540.entry?
> > ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_ugc_post_022009
> >
>
>
>
More information about the Pittsburgh-railways
mailing list