QuakerRanter.org

It’s obvious that the Center is just a holding pen for big bus trips. It’s not as much a museum or national shrine as it is a highway rest stop. On your left’s the super-sized cafeteria, on your right the store for crappy hats and t-shirts. And for this we rip up Philadelphia?

I was almost assaulted by a Philly cab driver on my way home this afternoon. He was rolling through a crosswalk I was trying to use to get to the train station (he had a solid red light, I had a solid green one). Once safely across, I politely pointed out the crosswalk and he took it as some sort of challenge to his manhood, getting out of his cab, coming right up to my face, threatening to beat me up, run me down, etc. He also called me a choice name (one whose use polite company limits to female canines). Ah, life in the big city. I spent my train ride composing the complaint letter going to the cab company and the PUC.

Useful sites for locals: Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission (they have an online form for Taxi complaints). PhillyWalks, a group that educates about pedestrian issues.

I cross that intersection twice a day and it’s right by one of the city’s main cab stops. If this is the last blog entry you’ll know he didn’t like my letter.

Strangely enough, the Philadelphia Inquirer has published a front-page article on leadership in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Friends frustrate some of their flock, Quakers bogged down by process, two leaders say. To me it comes off as an extended whine from the former PhYM General Secretary Thomas Jeavons. His critiques around Philadelphia Quaker culture are well-made (and well known among those who have seen his much-forwarded emails) but he doesn’t seem as insightful about his own failings as a leader, primarily his inability to forge consensus and build trust. He frequently came off as too ready to bypass rightly-ordered decision-making processes in the name of strong leadership. The more this happened, the more distrust the body felt toward him and the more intractible and politicized the situation became. He was the wrong leader for the wrong time. How is this worthy of the front-page newspaper status?