NRA Coming to Emmaus

The National Rifle Association is sending a mystery speaker to Emmaus tonight to make a presentation on "gun rights". This event is sponsored by The Concerned East Penn Taxpayers Association and will be held at the Fire Company club at 6th and Broad Streets, Emmaus at 7:30 pm.

Bloomberg's "Mayor's Against Illegal Guns", The Brady Campaign, and Cease Fire PA were all invited to present the opposite point of view. but, according to CEPTA, all refused. They were probably afraid someone might shoot their eye out.

Emmaus Mayor Winfield Iobst (a member of Bloomberg's group) has also declined to attend, according to Concerned Citizens.

Julian Stolz, who wants to turn Winnie into a losie, really wants me to come. But after my last post about him, in which I depicted him in his prom gown, I'm afraid I'd be singled out and sexually molested.

I watched Deliverance, Julian.

Stolz Running For Emmaus Mayor To Protect America

Most people pass through life like a cloud. You don't even know they've been there until they've faded away. But every now and then, a sharp bolt of lightning livens things up for everyone. Julian Stolz is one of those lightning bolts. He's running for Mayor in Emmaus. He's also running for Borough Council. That way, he can veto his own resolutions.

Though he lives in Emmaus, he still sometimes comes to Northampton County Council meetings. I met him when I first started blogging and he first became an East Penn School District Director. He's managed to piss off just about everybody over this time, so I like him. I may disagree with him on just about everything, but we bastards have to stick together.

He calls his bid for Mayor a "lifelong dream," but it hasn't been a long life. He's about 12 years old. He claims his "devotion to the cause of Liberty and the Constitution demanded that I step into the ring." He talks like that and even sleeps in a three-piece suit.

He's taking on Winnie Iobst because Hizzoner has signed onto Mayor Mike Bloomberg's Mayors Against "Illegal" Guns coalition. Now, I think Julian would shoot his eye out if he started packin', but there it is. First they take our guns, then they take our Big Gulps.

He's also concerned about drones.

Julian promises to go back to "afflicting the comfortable (Teacher's Union) in the East Penn School District" if Winnie pulls out of Bloomberg's coalition.

"Til then, I am basing my campaign on Community, the Constitution, and Capitalism.

"Community - If elected, I will strive to serve the town where I enjoyed a wonderful childhood and where I have made my home as an adult. I will listen to and use the bully pulpit of my office to give voice to all the citizens of Emmaus regardless of social standing, background, or partisan identification.

"The Constitution - This is what compelled me to run in the first place. While our rights are under assault Nationally, we must stand up for our Constitution locally.

"Capitalism - This past year, the borough passed a budget that included a tax increase. The tax increase was considered "necessary" to adequately fund our fire department. As a proud resident of the borough, I believe our firemen and police officers should receive everything they need to do their jobs and I might have been inclined to support this budget if it had not contained thousands of dollars in grants for private businesses in the Emmaus "Main Street Partnerships". At all levels, the tangled relationship between business and government is strangling our Republic and economy."

He signs his announcement

In Liberty,

Julian Stolz

Ice Sculpture at Emmaus Triangle

This ice sculpture was created last weekend at Emmaus' 7th Annual SnowBlast Winter Festival. Like the native American depicted, it will fade away.

Patch: No Tax Hike Planned For Emmaus

AOL Patch Invades Emmaus

Did you know Upper Milford is facing its first tax hike in thirty years? That the Emmaus police department is down two officers?

You will if you read AOL Patch, an online journalism outlet that emphasizes community reporting. Emmaus Patch has hit the Internet news stands today. Check it out here. I will add a link on my sidebar.

Hellertown is next.

Emmaus Considers Baseball Stadium For Kids, Instead of Millionaires

In a two-part series, Pennsylvania Independent reports that under Republican Governor Tom Ridge and Democratic Governor Ed Rendell, taxpayers have invested over $1 billion in sportscenters like hockey arenas and baseball stadiums, including Coca Cola Park, home to the IronPigs. Without question, this public investment creates a lot of pride and spurs other kinds of economic development, but it's still corporate welfare. They make rich owners like Craig Stein and Joe Finley even richer. But who could possibly oppose publicly funding a baseball stadium for kids? Look no farther than Emmaus.

Yesterday, someone forwarded me this email from Otto Slozer, enshrined in Bill White's notorious Hall of Fame for reasons lost in the mysts of time:

"We are trying to put together a 'Strike Out the Stadium' rally Monday before the Council Meeting. We are going to meet outside Boro Hall at 6:10 until 6:30 then proceed to the Council Meeting Room to be seated. We believe events are about to move forward and the Council needs to see that we ARE STILL ON TOP OF THIS ISSUE!

"In case of rain, skip the rally BUT PLEASE GO TO THE MEETING!"

According to WFMZ, Emmaus' baseball fields are in such bad repair that high school teams have been playing in Lower Macungie over the past dozen years. East Penn School District wants to bring baseball back home, but it costs too much. And that's when somebody, somewhere, decided that the school and borough could work together and rehab one of the diamonds used by the Legion at Community Park.

Built in 1967, the current field has seen no significant improvements, other than the installation of lights, in 43 years. Dugouts are falling apart, the field is uneven and the diamond is starting to
deteriorate. So the idea was to combine resources and kill two birds with one stone. East Penn School District ($300k), Emmaus ($100k) and private sector donors ($50k) would build a stadium for the kids.

Borough Council has been besieged with a petition signed by 900 people, who mostly have no objection to fixing the field, but hate the notion of a stadium. One Emmaus resident even suggests that the Borough forget about baseball and instead build a skate park for the grunges and goths, where they all can do kickflips and nosegrinds.

Sounds good to me.

School Board member Julian Stolz, who voted against the stadium, complains there is no money and no real need. He likens it to "keeping up with the Parklands."

Over the past few years, my grandson has competed against those nasty Emmaus Hornets in baseball, football and basketball. No matter what the sport, those little thugs (most of them are juvenile delinquents) come ready to play. Just a few weeks ago, they clobbered the Bethlehem Steelers in youth football.

Enough already!

So I'm all for depriving these little monsters and screwing with any attempt to improve their high school programs. If they want a stadium so bad, let them do it the old-fashioned way. Become millionaires. Then Rendell will bring over a few cardboard checks faster than you can say Comcast.

Emmaus Everyman Recounts WWII Experience

"I thought I would always be a spectator. I would always be sitting on a bench while others were out on the playing field."

That's what swirled through 18-year Bob Kauffman's mind as he lay in a Normandy ditch, waiting to be evacuated with other wounded soldiers after a failed assault. He was, after all, a replacement. Second team. But this young Emmaus man had just discovered that he was very much part of the action, and he'd be returning for more of the same. He issued no orders. He followed them, and against Germany's most elite military unit.

Kauffman spoke at last night's LV Veterans History Project Roundtable, attended by about 80 people. Once a month, this group invites a vet to share his personal recollections with the Roundtable, although they conduct and tape private interviews, too. They then forward this first-hand oral history to the the Library of Congress' Veterans history project.

This diminutive grandfather, with a soft voice and unassuming demeanor, is the last person I'd expect to see as a combat soldier, but was actually wounded twice during WWII.

After recuperating from his first wound, he rejoined his unit just in time to be greeted by the Battle of the Bulge.

"When you give the Germans two months to get ready for you, you're going to pay a hell of a price."

And that's exactly what happened. On his first night back with his unit, he could hear a German machine gun firing in the distance, at an amazing 1,200 rounds per minute. "That's a sound you don't forget."

Also unforgettable is the unit he faced the very next day, known as the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, an elite unit that had been Hitler's personal bodyguard and whose soldiers had just executed 150 American POWs in the Malmedy massacre. "We got the crap kicked out of us," he bluntly admitted. The Germans eventually ran out of fuel and were surrounded, but Kampfgruppe Peiper (whose picture accompanies this blog) was still able to escape with 800 men.

Guess who was next? That's right, it was the 2d SS Panzer Division, which Kauffman described as "notorious."

Kauffman's company. which originally consisted of 200 men, was down to 14. They had one tank. That's when they got the orders to take a village.

It was in this village that Kauffman was shot again. He had seen two German soldiers, barked out that they should surrender, and their hands went up in the air. What Kauffman did not realize at first was that, while one of these German soldiers may have raised his hands in surrender, he was holding a pistol in one of them. By the time Kauffman noticed that little detail, he was shot. He grabbed the German and the two bear-hugged each other until one of Kauffman's fellow soldiers shot the German.

Now you might think this guy would end up hating the Germans. But like many WWII vets, he befriended many of them. One of them, a German officer, always referred to Kauffman as my "dear half brother," and paid his way to Europe for five visits.

Kauffman visited the Normandy cemetery in 1999, above Omaha beach, and was chilled by the relentless pounding of the waves along the nearby beach, which he called "God's eternal reminder of the enormity of the price we paid." Thinking of his fellow fallen soldiers, he said they were robbed, "but we were robbed, too. We lost their friendship, their children, their grandchildren."

Unlike most WWII vets, who rarely talk about their experience, Kauffman has also written a book called The Replacement.

The only negative feature about last night's Roundtable was the presence of Congressional candidate Jake Towne, who was there with his clipboard and pamphlets, trying to drum up support. If he was there to hear this story, I'd have no problem. But he was there to tell his own.

Give it a rest and come up for air, Jake.

East Penn School Board Cancels Questionable Meeting

East Penn School Board, located in the Emmaus area, was poised to conduct a closed meeting last night to "identify and seek agreement on top goals." Because the meeting would be a policy-making session, I complained that the board would be violating Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act

That's nothing new. Municipalities do that nearly every day, knowing the law is toothless.

But what floors me is that School Board Prez. Francee Fuller, after first classifying my blog as "misinformation," decided to err on the side of the Sunshine Act and canceled the meeting. That's a credit to her and the entire board.

Domestic Abuse Awareness Night This Thursday at Emmaus Fire Co.

The Beginning Over Foundation will feature a short film, silent witness exhibit, speakers, information and light refreshments on Thursday, March 6, at 7 PM at the Emmaus Fire House, 100 North Sixth Street, Emmaus, PA.

A fifteen minute film, “Something My Father Would Do,” will be followed by several speakers, including Assistant DA Jacqueline M. Taschner, the spearhead of Northampton County's domestic violence unit. A silent witness exhibit, life size silhouettes representing specific victims of domestic violence in Pennsylvania, will also be on display throughout the night.

“Residents in every community need to be educated on the issues of domestic abuse,” says Heidi Markow, founder of Beginning Over Foundation. She adds, “People need to feel the same way about domestic violence as they do with about convicted sexual predators. Families need to be protected from repeat offenders, and children need to be protected from parents if they are convicted domestic violence felons.”