So What's Life Like in the Can?

For as long as I've known him, Lehigh Valley peace activist Joe DeRaymond has been trying to get his ass thrown in jail. He thinks he really can make a difference by getting his ass thrown in jail. But he's a lousy criminal.

Joe is one of the geriatrics who refused to leave Congressman Charlie Dent's office at quitting time after walking in unannounced and demanding to see him. Dent wasn't even at his office that day, but that made no difference. At quitting time, Joe was hauled away, but the cops refused to throw his ass in jail. They just gave him a ticket.

Another time, during the course of a shouting match with Northampton County Councilman Ron Angle over the Ten Commandments of all things, DeRaymond was waving his arms and knocked a cup of iced tea (unsweetened) all over His Eminence. When deputies came in to talk to DeRaymond, he freaked out. For that, he got a cavity search, but the deputies refused to throw Joe's ass in jail. They just gave him a ticket and kicked him out of the courthouse for the rest of the day.

Joe's wish finally did come true. He went to Fort Benning to protest the School of Americas, and hopped barbed wire fences and that sort of thing. He was one of forty people who got arrested. They take turns, and it was his turn that year. Finally, his wish came true. They threw his ass in jail. Three months.

According to the Pew Center, 1% of our adult population is sitting in a hoosegow. So maybe there's nothing really special about getting your ass thrown in jail. But Joe did it! Now he talks about being a POC, and that does not mean a pile of crap. It stands for prisoner of conscience. Joe has even written a gripping account of his three months in the slammer, called Three Months in Prison Nation.

Pretty cool title, huh?

He says things like, "Tear down the walls," even though he was in a minimum security facility with a "quarter mile track to walk, bocce, basketball, softball, bridge, chess, television, radio, work in the garden."

I guess bocce is for the mob guys.

So Joe finally got his ass thrown in jail, and I guess that means something in his little world. Good for him. But I can't help thinking how much valuable time has been wasted that could have been better spent on organizing real grass roots efforts to effect change in our government locally. We do have some bad public officials. We do have hungry and homeless right here in the Lehigh Valley. Joe doesn't have to go to South America.

LEPOCO Tries, And Fails, To Be Relevant

LEPOCO, our local peace advocates, use 60s tactics for 21st century problems. Instead of taking advantage of the blogosphere, they engage in Quixotic publicity stunts that just marginalize them and make us more divided. These include peace demonstrations next to an armory and a refusal to leave a Congressman's office after hours, when he wasn't even there. Their latest plunge into irrelevance? The Lehigh Valley Independent Press.

You've got to admit, the name sounds good. And the subheading is even better - "News and opinion from the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania." There's definitely room for something like that, staffed by citizen journalists. Maybe I could find an article about the Lehigh Valley's homeless problem or how recent LANTA rate increases will hurt the disabled. Most LEPOCO members are brilliant and well-spoken, so we could look forward to articles promoting light rail or condemning the way undocumented workers are scapegoated in this area.

But guess what? There's practically nothing about the Lehigh Valley in The Lehigh Valley Independent!

This goofy production is mainly a chronicle of neverending trips to El Salvador. Last time I checked, that was outside the Lehigh Valley. And the reporters who make up this strange online publication look for their Lehigh Valley news in places like FOR Colombia Program and Nicaragua Network. Articles are undated, and there's no way to publish a comment, something local newspapers and blogs allow.

Its "news gallery" is an essay about Catholic priests murdered in El Salvador in 1977 and 1980.

Earth to LEPOCO! That's not news! It's history, and it's not Lehigh Valley history. It's not even American history.

Although it asserts independence, it sure has a strange way of showing it. A section, "Letters That Should be Read," is an unsorted catalogue of letters already published in the mainstream media. I guess that gives these letters more credibility, but it doesn't do much for LEPOCO'S online journal.

Sadly, The Lehigh Valley Independent News is neither independent nor focused on the Lehigh Valley. It's just another vanity project without any real commitment or attempt at citizen journalism.

About the only thing local about this "news" source is an entire section dedicated to slamming local Congressman Charlie Dent. Anti-Dent articles, penned by Joe DeRaymond, contain this pious disclosure. "It should be noted that Charles Dent did have me arrested (with 8 others) for reading the names of the Iraqi and US dead in his office, after closing hours."

That's not exactly true. DeRaymond was arrested, but not by Dent. Nor did Dent have him arrested. Nor was DeRaymond arrested for reading the names of Iraqi war dead. He was arrested because he was a trespasser. And he was convicted, too, something he conveniently fails to mention. Maybe he forgot. Joe's group, which had already met twice with Dent, barged into the office one day when Dent was absent, and demanded to see him. Joe's arrest was the decision of the Bethlehem police department.

Other than its name, this latest attempt at relevance by LEPOCO is an abysmal failure. LEPOCO has so many brilliant members that it could easily maintain a daily blog that focuses on local, state, national, international and interplanetary matters. It's got the interplanetary aspect down. Now when the hell is LEPOCO going to start thinking and acting locally?. Until it does, it should call its online chronicle "Tilting at Windmills."

Greta Browne for Congress: She's the Queen of Lehigh Valley Greens!

As one or two of you may have heard, there's a third party candidate in the Congressional race for Charlie Dent's seat in the 15th District. She's Greta Browne, Queen of the local Greens. Remember her? She's the same person who betrayed Greens in her last run at Congress by throwing her support to Democrat Joe Driscoll on election eve.

This time she's means it. Really!

Her supposed focus is getting our troops out of Iraq and ending our reliance on foreign oil. Yet I didn't see her at an oil independence rally this summer in South Bethlehem, only blocks from her house. I did see Charles Dertinger, the Democratic nominee.

No matter. She has the support of our local King of the Greens, Joe DeRaymond. He's issued a royal proclamation to the Express Times, ordering us to vote for Browne. In his edict, DeRaymond disingenuously maintains Dertinger "has brought the manic Ron Angle into the campaign." That should be news to Dertinger, Dent and Angle.

King Joe, you may recall, is one of the bullies who barged into Congressman Dent's Bethlehem office without an appointment and refused to leave at quitting time. He was convicted of trespass, and LEPOCO just threw him a party.

Whoopee!

When Queen Greta first favored us with her candidacy, King Joe was highly critical. "[Browne] at the last minute, on her own, decided to throw our support to Charles Driscoll, Democrat for Congress. Mr. Driscoll did not even publicly oppose the War in Iraq." And in a letter sent directly to Her Highness, King Joe scoffed at Browne's assertion that She supports alternative energy and was somehow "betrayed" by the press. "Bush supports alternative fuels and 'environmental protections'. You say you were betrayed by the press, yet it is not the press who made the decision to support Driscoll, it was you. Where is Driscoll today in the battle for the environment? On the war in Iraq? On the paving over of the Lehigh Valley?"

Now that Queen Greta is on the ballot, King Joe is whistling a different tune. He talks about "new politics," but offers the standard fare of hypocrisy you'll find on the menu of both major parties.