A Terrible Day in Squirrel Hill

If you read our recent blog, “Famous Movies Made In Pittsburgh,” you know that we live in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, which was the site yesterday of the horrific shootings at a local synagogue.  Unfortunately, attacks like this occur at an appalling rate in this country.  It’s a sickness that leads (mostly) men to take out their rage on defenseless people.  No other economically advanced country has recurrent mass killings like we do.

Each time this happens we all say it has to stop, that we have to take away automatic weapons that have only one purpose, killing people.  Then after a few days, we move on to other things.  

Let’s see if we can make this time different.  Like us, you want to leave the world a better place for your children and grandchildren. Gun reform is a good place to start. And we have the time to work on the issue.

The steps that we need to take are obvious.  With the election coming up, we need to do what we can to make a statement by voting only for candidates who support gun control.

A second step is to give money to candidates and organizations that support gun control. We have been giving regular donations to Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut, who since the Sandy Hook school shooting has been a relentless advocate for gun control.  The NRA spends tons of money on its message.  We need to be part of a movement that provides a counter-balance to the NRA.

Third, if the House of Representatives does turn Democratic in this election, we need to hold them to passing a gun reform bill.  Even if the bill doesn’t get through the Senate, it would create a framework for future actions at the state level and hold Senate Republications and any Democrats who vote against the bill accountable for failing to do anything to prevent the recurrent mass killings.

We don’t know what we will say to our 6 year old grandson about these events when we pick him up at his school in Squirrel Hill.   What do we say to him so that he is not fearful, but maybe wary?  It would be nice to be able to say that good people are making progress to take guns away from people who shouldn’t have them.

There was one humorous moment yesterday in all the sad coverage on TV.  Our local congressman, Mike Doyle, was being interviewed.  In the banner at the bottom of the screen, Rep. Doyle was listed as “R-PA.” Republican from Pennsylvania.  We thought he was a Democratic, but there it was, R-PA. When he was asked a question about what could be done to prevent situations like this, he eloquently spoke about the need for responsible gun control, including restricting automatic weapons.  We looked at each other and said, “Is he really a Republican?”  It turns out he’s not.  It’s really a shame that public safety should be a partisan issue.  It’s a shame that a political party would be so craven as to use an issue like gun control to gain power.  

And for you, Mike Doyle, you’ve got our votes!

It’s Time to Vote

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette carried a story today on a familiar theme--older people vote at proportionately higher levels than other age groups.  We want to add our voice to encourage you to vote, whether you are old or young, or somewhere in between.

The news each morning should be enough to get you out to vote.  But if that is not enough, there are issues that affect you directly.  

For us old folks, there are direct threats to Social Security and Medicare.  The tax cuts that Congress enacted last year are producing massive deficits in the federal budget.  Current law allows Congress to respond to large deficits by making cuts in Social Security and Medicare.  This is not a liberal fantasy.  Paul Ryan and other leading Republicans have stated that this is their goal. 

If that is not enough to get you out to vote, consider the environment.  The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change worries that we are already too late to avoid significant degradation to the climate due to global warming.  We worry about the kind of world our grandchildren will live in.

So vote, and get your friends to vote.   Get your children to vote.  Get your grandchildren to vote, too, if they are old enough.

You may be telling yourself your vote doesn’t make a difference.  But even if the important statewide and local races in your area look lopsided in the polls, we know now the polls can be wrong.  

And if you happen to be in the area, stop by at our polling place.  Some of Judy’s cookies and cakes will be on sale at a fund-raiser organized by the pre-school our granddaughter attends.

Read about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/10/07/science/ap-us-sci-climate-ambitious-goal.htm

Famous Movies Made in Pittsburgh and Other Retirement Musings

The Manor Theater in Squirrel Hill

Pittsburgh is currently carrying out celebrations of the 50^thAnniversary of the release of one of the most famous movies made here, George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.  It’s an example of what we are finding out about Pittsburgh.  It has a strong feeling of community and honors the people who lived and worked here and who have made substantial contributions in their fields.  Downtown bridges are named for Roberto Clemente, the outstanding Pirates outfielder, painter Andy Warhol, and Rachel Carson, author of the book, Silent Spring, that made people aware of the harm that pesticides were doing and led to the environmental movement. 

A movie currently filming here is about another Pittsburgher, Fred Rogers.  An excellent documentary about him was released earlier in the year, Won’t You Be My Neighbor.  In the forthcoming movie, Mr. Rogers is played by Tom Hanks, who dressed up in a Rogerian red cardigan sweater and a wry smile, looks very much like Mr. Rogers.

We actually live in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood, an area called Squirrel Hill.  Mr. Rogers owned a home about a mile away from us, and would often walk to the local shops and restaurants.  There is a feel to the neighborhood, too, that is very much like Mr. Rogers.  Although it is in the middle of the city, the area feels like a small town, with lots of restaurants and local stores, many of which have been here for years.  There is also a great deal of diversity in age and ethnicity.  When we walk down the shopping streets we see infants and young children, teenagers going to and from school, college students who make a short commute to University of Pittsburgh or Carnegie Mellon, working age persons, and older people, some who appear to be doing quite well and others who need help to get to get around.  It is really a refreshing change from State College.  

In terms of ethnic diversity, the Jewish population is probably the largest in the area.  We live within a mile of 8 synagogues.  Many of the college students in the neighborhood are Asians.  As a result, there are numerous Asian restaurants in the area.  We are still working our way through all the restaurants. There are smaller numbers of Hispanics and African Americans, but there are some.  We pick up our grandson from school a couple of days a week, and see the diversity in his classmates.  It is perhaps not surprising, but kids don’t make distinctions about race or ethnicity unless they are taught to do so.  We are enjoying being part of a much more heterogeneous neighborhood than we have been in since we left Los Angeles.

Of course, there are a lot of things to see and do in Pittsburgh beyond our neighborhood.  Like everywhere else, however, Pittsburgh is not perfect.  There are still neighborhoods that remind you that there was a terrible economic disaster here several decades ago, when one third of the population left.  While the influx of tech workers (brought here by companies like Google, Uber and DuoLingo) has spawned a building boom in the Bakery Square area, there still needs to be more affordable housing and better paying jobs at the lower end of the wage spectrum.  

And grocery shopping here has been a challenge for us.  We bounce between Giant Eagle Market District, Whole Foods, and Target, with occasional trips to the Strip to find Asian ingredients.  When all else fails, we order from Amazon.  So we really, really miss Wegmans. 

On balance, the move here has been everything we’d hoped it would be.  We are becoming a part of the fabric of the everyday life of our grandchildren, we’re experiencing a kind of diversity that we’d missed, and we’re being forced to move out of our comfort zone at times to try new things or be more creative in solving problems.  So, six months in, we’re finding Pittsburgh to be a great place to live in retirement.