No lie, Manhattan moms are hiring handicapped tour guides to avoid long lines at Disney

Not that I know what it’s like to be a millionaire but I’m sure the perks are great. Nice house, nice cars, great vacations, the finest in dining out. You name it. And trust me, I don’t think I should criticize anyone for making a ton of money. Heck I wouldn’t turn it down.

But then comes this kind of story that makes you sick and makes you want to just smack someone.

The New York Post – and yes, it’s the New York Post, is reporting that rich moms from Manhattan are more or less renting handicapped tour guides in order for their own children to avoid waiting in long lines for rides. I am not kidding. If this is true, it probably ranks up there in my top five most despicable things anyone has ever done. Here is a link to the story: http://bit.ly/15Ny6No

To begin with, how awful is it for the handicapped tour guide to know they are being rented out and exploited so that some brat and his mom can cut the long lines to ride Space Mountain or other rides? I’m not sure how they are taking it or if they are aware of it. I would hope they are…

New York Post reporter Tara Palmeri wrote that “The ‘black-market Disney guides’ run $130 an hour, or $1,040 for an eight-hour day.”

“‘My daughter waited one minute to get on ‘It’s a Small World’ — the other kids had to wait 2 1/2 hours,’ crowed one mom, who hired a disabled guide through Dream Tours Florida. You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge,’ she sniffed. ‘This is how the 1 percent does Disney.’ ”

According to the Palmeri story, the woman said she hired a Dream Tours guide to escort her, her husband and their 1-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter through the park in a motorized scooter with a “handicapped” sign on it. The group was sent straight to an auxiliary entrance at the front of each attraction.

“Passing around the rogue guide service’s phone number recently became a shameless ritual among Manhattan’s private-school set during spring break. The service asks who referred you before they even take your call,” wrote Palmeri. “‘It’s insider knowledge that very few have and share carefully,’ said social anthropologist Dr. Wednesday Martin, who caught wind of the underground network while doing research for her upcoming book ‘Primates of Park Avenue.’

“‘Who wants a speed pass when you can use your black-market handicapped guide to circumvent the lines all together?’ she said.”

No one is talking about this. Not the tour guide providers and not Disney, reports Palmeri.

So how pathetic is this? Who could live with themselves after hiring someone who is handicapped to bypass the system for their own gain?

There are some things I can never see myself doing. I’d rather stand in line for two hours and be able to look at myself in the mirror at the end of the day.

And so this is why the have-nots despise the haves. It’s a shame it has to be that way but the haves who do stuff like this need to be quiet and not complain how the have-nots look at them sometimes. It’s the people like the Manhattan moms who bring this on.

So in the lingo of Facebook and other social media – SMH.

– Andy Hachadorian

WCU mini-riot shows the power of social media — unfortunately for some

Full disclosure: I am a graduate of West Chester University.

Total honesty: I was disgusted when on Saturday I heard about the mini-riot on South Walnut Street. The mini-riot involved hundreds of college-age kids. I’m sure the majority were WCU students.

Total surprise: Just how powerful social media really, really is these days.

While I will save my disgust of the events on Saturday for later in this post, most of this post is really about Facebook and Twitter and just how powerful these two beasts of communication are to our society.

We have both a Daily Local Facebook page and a Twitter account. More than 9,400 people “Like” our Facebook page and we have nearly 4,000 followers on Twitter.

So this weekend – Saturday afternoon to be specific – there was to be a party in the 400 block of South Walnut Street. Apparently the police knew about it, the landlord of the property in question knew about it and the organizers of this soiree were warned NOT to have it.

I guess I will let you know the next time an 18-21-year-old actually pays attention to an adult – even if it IS the chief of police of the town and that person in law enforcement says “no” to a major springtime party.

To recap in brief, police said they responded to a disturbance at 411 S. Walnut St. to shut down the party at 12:42 p.m. There were about 500 people on Walnut Street at the time. Once the police broke up the party inside the residence, people moved to the front yard and into the street. As people were leaving the property, some people congregated in the street and a few stood on parked cars chanting, witnesses and police said.

Witnesses said a group leaving the party pushed a van on the street. Several people in a group then pushed an automobile on its side, damaging its passenger side, police said.

While this is all going on – naturally – someone had the brilliance to videotape it. And in further brilliance they sent it to me.

As a parent and proud WCU grad, I was disgusted. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. As a member of the media, I was doing a dance on the desk (obviously, not really dancing) because I knew this had some potential for readership. Let’s face it, even negative events like this are news and people want to watch the video, read the accounts and see the photos.

Boy did I underestimate that theory.

I placed one paragraph and the video on our Facebook page. Less than 10 minutes later there were nearly 700 people who had seen the posting. By evening on Saturday the number had grown to more than 90,000 and as of about 2:30 p.m. Monday – as I write this blog – the number has crossed the improbably number of 200,000. That means 200,000+ people have viewed this posting on Facebook.

To put it into perspective, that number approaches nearly half the population of our fair county. We picked up more than 300 people as new “Likes” to our Facebook page, more than 1,000 people shared the post and more than 300 posted comments of their own. To sum it up in the words of Frank Barone, my hero from the TV show “Everybody Loves Raymond,” – holy crap!

Yes, those numbers are astronomical and it shows the power of social media which seems to be the way we all communicate these days. Yes there was the day of instant messaging (anyone remember that?) as well as cell phone CALLS. Now, we just text or Tweet to communicate and post on Facebook when we want to share something or just vent.

Back to Saturday.

Honestly if I was a resident of that area of South Walnut Street I’d be looking to move. I really don’t see much changing when it comes to these sorts of young folks and the endless parties. And it’s tough to blame the police, the landlords or even the university. What can be done when hundreds of young people flock into the streets or to a house? I’m not so sure the town is prepared for that scenario although one would like to think they are. If the police chief calls the kids thinking of hosting a giant party and tells them not to do it and then they do it anyway, what else can you expect?

I get it that West Chester is a college town but there are lot of college towns where the students realize they have some responsibility to not constantly act out and ruin it for the full-time residents. West Chester University students at times seem to forget that. Honestly, being featured on television, radio and in newspapers as rowdy, drunken fools isn’t the way to go.

Enough preaching.

I would invite any of the students there for the party to write to me and explain how their actions were justified or why it should be condoned. Here is my e-mail address: andyh@dailylocal.com. C’mon in and we will even videotape your side of the story.

I’m not sure anyone will as if it were me, I’d be staying as far away as possible from this mess.

– Andy Hachadorian

A mom long gone but not forgotten returns but to what?

Desperate people do desperate things.

Whether it’s the person who robs the bank because he or she has absolutely no money for food for their kids or to pay their heat or something similarly horrific, there’s a reason why people say to always try and put yourself in the other person’s shoes.

Brenda Heist left her husband and kids 11 years ago. Believed to have fallen to foul play, Heist was declared dead. The Lititz resident recently turned up in the Florida Keys.

Stories in newspapers and on web sites have detailed the unbelievable surfacing of Heist, detailing some of the events leading up to her disappearance. Police spent huge amounts of time looking for the woman and her husband was even considered as a suspect before being cleared.

When the story broke of her being alive – and it made national news – commenters slammed the woman calling her horrible names saying things like it was a shame she resurfaced and that she should have died, etc.

One look at a recent photo of Brenda Heist and it’s obvious she went through some tough times. Now none of us knows what she was going through when she disappeared. The stories say she was going through a divorce and that she met some travelers in a Lancaster park and that was the end of that.

According to an Associated Press story, Brenda Heist told police she slept under bridges and survived at times by scavenging food from restaurant trash and panhandling. But Lititz Police Detective John Schofield said he is looking into reports that have come in over the past day suggesting Brenda Heist’s time in Florida included much less miserable periods.

“We’re getting several calls from people down in Florida that knew her who want to say she’s not being truthful with us,” Schofield said.

Brenda Heist told a detective with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office that she had recently been arrested in the Tampa Bay area and might be in violation of probation. She told the detective she used the name Kelsie Lyanne Smith and provided a date of birth.

Jail and court records show Kelsie Lyanne Smith, with a matching birth date, was arrested in January on misdemeanor charges of marijuana possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and providing false identification to law enforcement. After pleading guilty, Smith was sentenced to time served and was released on Feb. 13. She was also ordered to pay court costs but failed to do so and was found delinquent on April 15.

What’s really sad is that in spite of all the drama and who knows what happened in Florida, her family doesn’t seem to be in a rush to see her again. And putting myself in her husband’s shoes of those of her two children, I get it. There can’t be any feeling worse than knowing your parent or spouse basically dumped you and took off.

Heist’s teenage daughter, according to the AP article, said the return of her mother has angered her and she is not eager to restart their relationship.

Morgan Heist, said the AP, said the news has made her recall with bitterness the years of mourning she endured when she assumed her mother was dead and feared she’d been killed.

“I ached every birthday, every Christmas,” said 19-year-old Morgan Heist, a freshman at Montgomery County Community College. “My heart just ached. I wasn’t mad at her. I wanted her to be there because I thought something had happened to her. I wish I had never cried.”

She and her father live in Norristown.

Morgan Heist said she’s not sympathetic, partly because her mother had a choice, unlike the family she secretly abandoned.

“It’s definitely very selfish,” Morgan Heist said. “She clearly did not think of me or my brother or my dad at all with that decision. She thought of herself.”

Heist told police she made a spur-of-the-moment decision in 2002 to join a group of homeless hitchhikers on their way to Florida, walking out on Morgan, then 8, and her brother, then 12.

When Brenda Heist vanished, Lee Heist was investigated but was cleared as a suspect. He raised the children without Brenda and got the courts to declare her legally dead. He has since remarried, according to the AP.

The AP quoted Brenda Heist’s mother, Jean Copenhaver, as saying her daughter “had a real traumatic time” but was doing OK.

Brenda Heist was released from police custody on Wednesday and is staying with a brother in northern Florida for now, Copenhaver said.

“She just said she thought the family wouldn’t want to talk to her because of her leaving,” Copenhaver said. “And we all assured her that wasn’t the case and we all loved her and wanted to be with her.”

I’m not so sure that’s the case for all of her family. And that is the saddest part of the story.

We are taught to forgive. Forgiving in this instance is going to be really, really hard. The woman ran out when things got tough. And for a parent that’s the ultimate sin. Her kids needed a mom and a dad – not just a dad and a guy who by the way was obviously was under false suspicion of having something to do with her disappearance.

But in the end I hope that her kids – and her husband – will find a way to move past this. Their lives were forever changed – twice; the first time when Brenda Heist took off and a second time when she came back much to their shock.

This is a strange story to be certain. But in our world of fractured families and torn up relationships maybe there can be a happy ending here. It will be really hard but maybe Morgan Heist, her brother, her dad and his new family can send the message that no offense is too great to forgive. Wouldn’t that be nice.

– Andy Hachadorian

‘Helicopter coaches’? Nah, I just won’t believe it

We have all heard of “helicopter parents.” We have seen them and heard them. Now, according to a Time Magazine article, they have taken their acts to the Little League fields.

Author Dan Cray says that that frightening phenomenon on the grassy fields across our nation has taken flight to other venues where little children and supposed to enjoy sports like little children. Here’s a link to his article: http://ti.me/10q08oO

“Parents taking meaningless games too seriously is an all-too-familiar Little League problem, but in games involving the youngest children—ages five to nine—it’s now the coaches who are creating an unsettling new offshoot.  The issue, psychologists say, is that ‘helicopter parents’ who are obsessed with winning often join the coaching staff for their child’s team, becoming ‘helicopter coaches,’ literally perching themselves next to the outfielders or near the batter’s box so they can continually shout instructions to the children.”

Those of you who have seen this please raise your hands? OK, those millions of hands can be lowered now.

I guess the reason this struck a nerve for me was my recent weekend experience officiating the youngest of ice hockey players – the mites. You have seen them if you have ever attended a Flyers games. They are the adorable little boys and girls who skate and fall – mostly fall – as they follow each other around in endless pursuit of the hockey puck.

Their joy comes in smacking their sticks on the puck and perhaps watching it go into the net. Then they can do their best Danny Briere celebration motion and hopefully not fall on their butts as they do it. It is clearly a joy to watch. At least it is for me. I enjoy these games as these are the most innocent of athletes, out there to simply have fun or to knock their best buddy “Bobby” or “Johnny” on his behind.

When a goalie makes a great save I pick up the puck and give him a little “fist bump.” They get all smiles and it gives them the sense that we are the referees but we’re having some fun like they are.

We had a team of coaches last weekend that had to be the poster boys for the “helicopter coaches.” There was constant yelling, screaming, an endless litany of instructions to the point that even I was getting confused – which ain’t hard.

Cray quotes Temple professor Lois Butcher-Poffley, a Temple University sports psychologist and a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s sports psychology registry who says “This is a way for the helicopter parent to gain access where they were banned before.”

And I can see that.

I love this paragraph from Cray’s story:

“Reggie Jackson once created a firestorm by telling reporters, ‘When we lose and I strike out, a billion people in China won’t care.’  Reggie understood: sports is entertainment, and for the players, it’s about enjoyment — something that the youngest children understand intuitively. Sports can be a powerful way of teaching children about discipline and responsibility, but it may be just as important for the lessons it teaches coaches as well. Why can’t they just let the kids play?”

I couldn’t agree more.

These coaches last weekend made my skin crawl. And honestly I think most people watching understood their misdirected coaching techniques. I did notice more than one set of rolling eyes and the yelling, shouting and berating continued on and on and on.

I was definitely happy when that game ended. I felt embarrassed to be out there and even more embarrassed for the coaches. One even challenged a penalty call of which at that level is less of an event than with the older kids.

There was a potential for injury and my game is that I am out to have fun with these little guys and girls but their safety is primary. And if a player does something that borders on a safety issue then I have to address it. It’s my job. Apparently the coach disagreed and the penalty shot cost him the game – or so he says as no one keeps score with the youngest of players.

My response? “Coach, don’t worry — life will go on.”

I’m certain he told his son on the ride home in the car that the ref cost him the game. And I’m sure that little kid probably could care less.

Maybe it’s time to put some of the maniac parents and the “helicopter coaches” out in the parking lot and let the kids just play. I’m sure they would have a much better experience and definitely a lot more fun. We all would.

– Andy Hachadorian

When it comes to this raffle, timing can mean everything

This is something I guarantee will be an issue. And I would also say it reminds me of something that’s doing possibly the wrong thing for the right reason.

There is a charity raffle happening where the prizes include $100 in cash, a Savage .22-caliber bolt-action rifle, and a Colt AR-15 5.56mm Carbine rifle. The guns had been donated to the Chester County Deputy Sheriffs Association from a county resident.

The raffle, which is being held to benefit the Chester County Sheriff Department’s K-9 unit programs, will be held at the Downingtown Country Club on May 13. Raffle tickets are $20 each. According to Chester County Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh, the proceeds from the raffle will go to paying for training in the department’s K-9 units. She noted that the recent training of a K-9 arson dog cost more than $6,000, none of which comes from taxpayer funds.

I applaud the sheriff for her work. She seems to be someone who cares about her department and her county and has a sincere heart. But in this instance I believe there are probably better ways to raise funds.

And here are my reasons why, of which there are only a few.

First, in the current climate of what I’d call gun nervousness, any talk of assault-style weapons draws a crowd. For example, in Philadelphia a few weeks ago an assault-style weapon was used in one murder and suspected in a second shooting. Also, there was a report that an assault-style weapon disappeared from the Philadelphia Police evidence room. That shook the police department to the point where the police commissioner ordered new locks.

The mere mention of assault-style weapons brings to mind some of the notorious mass murders in this country including most recently in Sandy Hook where little children were gunned down. So it’s fair to say phrases like abortion rights, sexual abuse by priests, racism, gay rights, etc., are going to stir up some rather high emotions.

Add to that mix assault-style weapons.

Now of course I am not silly enough to think that Sheriff Welsh would put the county residents in peril by carelessly condoning the raffling off of such a weapon. In fact, she assured reporter Michael Rellahan that winners of the guns will have to submit themselves to a federal background check before the weapons will be legally transferred to them.

“I can understand that there may be people who are concerned,” Welsh said. “But you need to understand two things – this is a legal weapon, and the individual (who wins it) has to undergo a background check.”

As the elected official responsible for overseeing the issuance of gun permits in the county, Welsh said she is an ardent supporter not only of gun safety, but also of responsible gun ownership.

“I am very diligent in assuring that anyone who has a license to carry (a concealed gun) is a responsible citizen,” she said. “It certainly is not my intention to be insensitive.”

However, the e-mails have been flying around since it became widely known about the raffle.

“I find the whole thing shocking,” Stephanie Marksman of West Chester told Michael Rellahan. Marksman said she was alerted to the gun raffle through an e-mail from a friend late last week.  “I just think the whole thing is irresponsible, and in light of everything that has been happening recently I find it appalling.”

Terry Heyman, a West Whiteland mother and former prosecutor in the County District attorney’s Office, echoed her sentiments.

“I think that gun violence is the biggest threat to the public safety that we face today, and it is irresponsible to throw another gun into the mix,” Heyman said on Monday. “This seems insensitive coming from a law enforcement agency, and it also seems unnecessary. To think that an agency charged with protecting the public is auctioning off an assault weapon is just crazy.”

Sheriff Welsh said that the gun raffle had drawn considerable interest from law enforcement officers, members of the deputies’ association, and local sporting associations. It was recently advertised by the South Chester County Sportsman’s Association, for example. “There would have not been as much interest in the raffle if we’d been giving away something else, like a flat-screen television,” she said.

The item that drew most strenuous complaints was the Colt AR-15. Some of those interviewed by the Daily Local News on Monday noted that it was a model very similar to the weapon used in the mass shooting of children and teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn. The gun was originally manufactured for use by the U.S. Army, similar to the M-16 rifle.

West Chester Mayor Carolyn Comitta was somewhat more receptive to the raffle, or at least the way it is being organized, according to Rellahan’s report.

“While this is not the way I would choose to raise money for a government agency, I applaud the sheriff’s office for ensuring that the winners of the AR-15 and the (other gun) undergo background checks,” she said in an e-mail in response to questions from the Daily Local News.

The sheriff maintains her position that there’s nothing wrong here.

“It was certainly not our intention to be insensitive,” she again stressed. “However, this is a legal weapon that will be transferred to a law abiding, legal resident.”

In the end I am sure that will be the case. But if perception can be reality sometimes, there seems to be a lot of people that aren’t happy about the raffle and its prizes.

Again, it sure looks to me to be a case of bad, make that really bad timing. As we all continue to move on from these horrific shootings where assault-style weapons were the weapons of choice of “non-law abiding, legal residents,” it seems that maybe it would have been a better idea to either NOT include the AR-15 (and throw in the big-screen TV) or wait a bit before raffling such a weapon off to Joe Public Citizen.

As they say, timing can be everything.

– Andy Hachadorian

Our new reality, our new world…do you like what you see?

It was a long, long day Friday in the town of Watertown, Mass. And Friday night, it ended. At least part of it.

Dzhokar Tsarnaev, one of two brothers eyed as the prime suspects in the bombing of the Boston Marathon, was taken into custody after a long day and thousands of law enforcement officers who shut down Watertown and many of the areas outside of Boston. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, his older brother, died earlier after a shootout with police.

The younger Tsarnaev was discovered hiding in a boat by a citizen who called police. But that citizen wasn’t alone. For anyone who doubts the power of social media and other technologies, tens of thousands of people around the city of Boston along with those on Facebook, Twitter and other social media should stand with the police and other law enforcement in taking some credit for the ending of this nightmare.

Some estimates had more than 250,000 people monitoring Boston police and fire radio on their computers or smart phones. And while there is some debate on the safety of that practice, citizens working with police is not the worst thing that could happen. People were vigilant, they were staying inside as ordered yet they were the eyes and ears of the police. People sent in videos and photos from the Marathon and law enforcement gives the public a lot of credit.

Social media has changed our world. Technology has changed our world. Some of it may be a bit scary like video cameras seemingly everywhere but if you’re not committing a crime or doing what you shouldn’t be doing then you really shouldn’t complain. In this world we live in, cameras may now be just part of the way we live. As long as there are crazy people going around doing crazy things, what choice do we have?

But the ending to the events in the Boston area in a week we’d all love to have never happened is bittersweet. All together four people – including an 8-year-old boy – died. Hundreds were injured. Law enforcement expended probably thousands of hours of time and I’m sure the price tag for the investigations, apprehension and soon the prosecution of the younger Tsarnaev will reach into the millions of dollars. It is bittersweet. I have watched video of the relatives of the suspects. It’s a very sad story. We watched as an aunt defended the boys, their dad defended his sons and yet an uncle called them “losers” who brought shame to their family. It’s a tragedy all around no matter what you think.

But it could have been a lot worse. These two could have had the opportunity to set off more bombs. There seems to be some evidence that there were more available to them. So that is something to be thankful for.

And for those of us in the news business, this can be called what it’s been called by some – a game changer. Monitoring police scanners gave the watching world an instant update: “suspect in custody.” And thousands of people tweeted and retweeted and posted to Facebook before most of the news organizations even knew what happened. Cameras, videos, photos, police scanners monitored on the web, it’s a new world for all of us.

It’s a new world in terms of technology and the web and all that went into this event. But it’s the same story when it comes to the terror that is in our face every day. One of the commentators said tonight that we can wage the war on terror, the war on crime, the war on drugs. But these are wars that we can never really, totally win. We can do our best but it will never end.

And while we are all celebrating a victory as police and law enforcement brought this horrific episode to an end, the truth of the matter is that tomorrow is another day and another chance for another tragedy. Every time we hear of things like explosions in Texas at a fertilizer factory, terrorism is the first thing that comes to mind.

That’s a shame. That’s our world. This is our new reality.

 

A sad story but one that shows people are still good at heart

Ronnie Polaneczky is a columnist for the Philly Daily News. I have found that most of the time she is writing about what she sees as injustices for Joe Average Citizen. Whether it’s a traffic court issue or other wrongs she is on top of it. Sometimes people give her a lot of crap for what she writes. Frankly, I give her credit because her kind of writing is slowly disappearing.

Last week she wrote a column about a young lady named Linda Belz. Belz is a woman who is dying from ovarian cancer. As Ronnie wrote (here’s the link: http://bit.ly/14wKnVH) doctors have told Belz there is nothing more they can do for her – she is going to die soon – and that is just so, so sad. From all accounts Belz is a wonderful, caring person who worries more about everyone else than she does for herself.

The proof is the column Ronnie wrote. Belz told the columnist that her biggest worry was that her parents would have the burden of paying for her funeral after she passes away.

She hoped that somehow she would be able to raise the funds. Her goal, Ronnie wrote, was to raise $9,000 to cover the funeral and other medical bills.

According to Ronnie, more than $10,500 has been raised through a page on gofundme.com that a friend set up. But that’s not all…

From Ronnie’s column:

“But independent fundraisers are pulling in money, too.

“Kiddie Garden Daycare in Fishtown held an all-day bake sale Tuesday for Linda, covering the cupcakes in teal-colored frosting, since teal is the “awareness” color for ovarian cancer. By 4 p.m., it had raised more than $700.

“A group called ‘Comedians for a Cause’ is holding a comedy night Friday at the Arts Parlor in South Philly, with all proceeds going to Linda.

“S&C Sweet Factory in Port Richmond is selling “Lollies 4 Linda,” and Penn Treaty Middle School is doing a dress-down jean-day funder.

“Local photographer Judy Newton is auctioning off a family photo shoot – a $300 value – to benefit Linda. Fishtown and Port Richmond bars are organizing 50-50 raffles. And the softball tournament organized for Linda by the Philadelphia Sport and Social Club has already signed up four teams for a May 18-19 tournament.

“The list goes on, but you get the point. Linda’s story has deeply touched not just her friends and neighbors in Port Richmond, where she has lived her whole life, but strangers, too.”

I suppose the point of all this is that while we wait for law enforcement to arrest the scum who decided to bomb the Boston Marathon – and they will – there are still really good people out there. There are the people all raising money for Linda Belz and there is Linda Belz who is worried that her parents will have to struggle to pay for her funeral.

Seriously. And the greatest part of this is that the people came through for Linda Belz. Like the first responders who ran into the bombing chaos at the Boston Marathon. And those who gave blood, and those who helped the injured.

Yes sometimes the world really stinks. And then we all feel lousy. And then Ronnie writes a story about a terminally ill cancer patient who cares more about her parents than her own life and people gives tons of money to help.

Good news for a change.

From Linda in Ronnie’s column:

“I’m hoping it will be fabulous in heaven and that I’ll be reunited with my aunts and uncles, and grandpop and grandmom,” she says. “I just wish it wasn’t happening so soon. But I guess God chose a different path for me.”

This is true. There are paths for all of us. Yes, events like Boston’s bombing make us think twice about what the hell is going on here and now. But keep the faith. It is people like Linda Belz who keep us going. And thanks to Ronnie for telling her story.

– Andy Hachadorian