Allentown's NAACP Candidate's Night

Last time I was at a NAACP candidate's night, I was a candidate.  Unlike Michael Donovan,  I really was the independent third man on the ticket, not the relabeled second Democrat.  The evening was rather explosive, because the organization's president, Dan Bosket, asked me to prove that I wasn't a racist.  I had said earlier in the campaign that Allentown was becoming a poverty magnet.  That phrase has now become main stream,  even Alan Jennings uses it.  At the time, in 2005,  it was outspoken and controversial.  Ed Pawlowski was there, running for his first term as mayor, against previous Republican mayor Bill Heydt, and this outspoken independent.  Heydt lost and hasn't been heard of since,  but I've never stopped advocating for the Allentown that I believe in.  Pawlowski spent the night pandering. He looked around the room and said that if he was elected, there was a man who would be working at city hall,  there was a woman that he would hire.  I said that I would hire no black people,  nor would I hire any brown or white people.  Afflerbach, the current mayor in 2005, had just given the store away to the police union, and I thought an austerity program was in order. Pawlowski would get elected, and ignore the problem until this year,  then sell off the water we drink.

Flash ahead eight years, and the NAACP had a  candidate's night this week.  Although I didn't attend, I did sit down with Michael Donovan yesterday morning.  Dan Bosket is still the organization's president. Dan works for Alan Jennings in Allentown's growth industry, poverty.  In addition to Pawlowski and Donovan,  unopposed county commissioner David Jones and Julio Guridy were there.  Despite the campaign signs all over Allentown, the four City Council candidates are unopposed. Things don't change much in Allentown, and I'm still an outspoken independent.