Is Valley closer to getting statewide respect?

What the heck is this column about anyway?

All the words make sense, it's grammatically correct (for the most part) and I assume the names, dates and events are accurate but I only get one point: Don's a cry baby who doesn't want his poor valley ignored.

So you want to be treated like an important suburb of Philadelphia!

Or like Scranton and Wilkes-Barre!

And you want valley-ites be able to get a train to Philadelphia, New York, Boston or Baltimore- a train that runs both ways.

The Valley I knew has steadily and inexorably gone to heck in a hand cart.

It look like you want to accelerate the process.

That the Valley still survives with some shreds of value and decency inherited from the proud independent agricultural past is nothing short of a miracle.

Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.

That a region could gain respect and recognition by producing judges and headline grabbing prosecutors is an idea that only a self-important lawyer could dream up. But on second thought, if those judges and prosecutors leave town and go somewhere else to work, then the Valley will indeed become a better place to live.

Don Fador wrote:

That a region could gain respect and recognition by producing judges and headline grabbing prosecutors is an idea that only a self-important lawyer could dream up. But on second thought, if those judges and prosecutors leave town and go somewhere else to work, then the Valley will indeed become a better place to live.

....and Russo will hang on Morganelli's shirt tails and polish his shoes wagging his tail. WE don't want more of the same! Sweep ALL the dirt under the rug! LV doesn't make a pimple on Philleys map.

So, let me paraphrase this op-piece:

The Valley will improve if we get a train to NYC and Philly, AND if we fix a few things with who sits on what judicial bench?

Adding rail service is something that many of us can agree would be helpful. Though I have to agree with Don Fador above, the other stuff is all self-important-lawyer stuff.

Perhaps fewer lawyers in the Valley would be a bigger improvement. I thorw up in my mouth everytime I hear a "See you on Cedar Crest..." comercial.

Don Fador wrote:

That a region could gain respect and recognition by producing judges and headline grabbing prosecutors is an idea that only a self-important lawyer could dream up. But on second thought, if those judges and prosecutors leave town and go somewhere else to work, then the Valley will indeed become a better place to live.

Boy, did you nail it! Lawyers in love.

I don't know about 'respect', but certainly we are "recognized" as one of the burbs of Philadelphia.. AND New York. Not necessarily for good reasons either!

BTW: We need to do the federal cases here in the valley. Anyone who ever got a subpoena and had to go into Philly knows suffering.

If you ever need to hire a Lawyer in this region, you are in for an experience. Sort of like a John Grisham novel gone way out of bounds and off script where the fox is guarding the hen house and the reality is unbelievable at best. You have to literally sleep with them to get any representation that comes close to the guide lines set by the ABA as a standard of practice.

Can you explain how proud the community should be with John Morganelli hat in the ring since he ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination, this is he third run. Along with his nomination, the choice of Sam Bennett to run against Dent really lowers the credibility of this region where cronyism and ass kissing is an Art. A place where many believe that if you repeat a lie often enough, it will turn into the Truth.

The best phrase to use in describing this regions perspective is," If you work in a fish factory, you don't know it stinks!"

Expand US Federal Courthouse in Allentown and Scranton. Do we really need all these single judge courtrooms and scattered around the state? PA would be fine to hear US District Court in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Harrisburg, Scranton, State College, York and Erie. You would never be beyond 2 hour drive from any of these places as an attorney.

Russo's column was pointless. Why did Morning Call print this?

Yes, the Lehigh Valley could clearly become a dominant economic and political center in PA, if it combined into 1 county and reduced the number of municipalities down from 62 to under 40.

It also would help if US Census designated area for Allentown MSA was changed to include Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Monroe, Carbon, Schuylkill, and Warren, NJ. Then it would be 1.5 million persons which would put Allentown in Top 50 MSA in the country.

1. Political clout is earned by good leadership. There has been a dearth of that in this region for 50 years.

2. Economic clout is earned by entrepreneurialism. There has been a dearth of that in this region for 40 years.

3. Federal judgeships are earned by being the political power in residence in Washington and with a higher probability of being a graduate of HLS, or Yale Law School with experience as a law clerk at Supreme Court, US Court of Appeals. There is a dearth of candidates like that locally in the past 20 years.

This region has exported its best talent since the mid 1980s. It explains why this region has become the way it currently is.

Don Russo is like everyone else. He is a dreamer expecting someting that has not existed since his youth of the early 1960s. He is waiting for something to be handed down, rather than earned from the bottom up locally.

When Lehigh Valley produces entrepreneurs and the highest legal talent, you will see true men and women of competence and leadership ascend to the highest levels of government, business and law. Until then, we are all leaving.

Amen.

The Lehigh Valley is one of the 65 largest metropolitan areas in the country, larger than Harrisburg-York, Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Little Rock, Baton Rouge, Des Moines, Syracuse, Madison Wisconsin, and dozens of other areas that get more respect - and have more clout. Our leaders need to pull together to take care of the Valley.

"Maybe we're gettin respect"

e have gambling, a bUts kickin murder rate, ASD will graduate anything with a pulse and wacko libs are all over the place... We're on our way!

We already have one of your judges giving out pis poor sentences for to a %^$&% who robbed and raped an 82 years old woman. And after public outcry, he changed. One of his other legal friends tjr, stole money by virtue of an illegal pay raise and actually by illegal means was elected to the legislature which has about 95% illegal goons and so called representatives of the people, Take your law license and go somewhere, we have enough legal eagles taking our money.

Lost my respect for any state legislators and offials wherever they are in power. They'll get a little respect back when Corbett throws them all in jail with help from Piccola .Pay the money back and then find a job away from any type of government affairs and you may get a little respect back.

Ex Beauty Queen (Miss Lay Back Sally,Dauphin County),Angela Bertugli is still on the state payroll for more that Mike Manzo paid her.
Come on Angie, you knew what was expected of you when you took the job. The only thing you did right was pick your vocation. Law School?

Who cares? It is nothing new that the Lehigh Valley's delegation in Harrisburg has no clout and is a weak group of weak people, but really does it matter? What does ``statewide respect'' mean? Nothing.
Boscola is probably the worst of a bad lot.

The writer of this article has been hanging out with too many people in the hood.

Russo, I don't read your columns, just a word here and there ? You're just taking up space in the MC and not getting to the action.
You gotta get a little lower in life where the rubber meets the road to be able to comment on anything. Get Real for Christ's sake?

The reason the Valley doesn't get more respect is because of the attitudes of its people. All you have to do is read the anti-Valley opinions being posted. No matter what anyone tries to do to elevate the Valley, the purveyors of doom shoot it down!

The Valley is loaded with locals who are backward thinkers who don't want to spend their money. The Valley is filled with vindictive, jealous people who blame everyone else for their problems.

We're still living in the seventy's and before. I didn't realize even in the seventy's we were voted the most corrupt state in the union . After the pay grab,slots passage witout discussion and now bonus gate . Yeah I'm a local and if I never knew it before I am certain now that we're the most corrupt state in the US.

Respect, is something our legislators have to earn and learn how to get it. So far their is no respect because our State Government has no changes in place to gain it's citizen's respect. We still have the crooked PGCB and BIE in place and everybody went on vacation without finalizing a budget or even talking about a constitutional convention to change the amount of privelege or the way things are run in this state. J. Piccola knows how crooked we are ,but I don't hear any others with power doing any thing other than business as usual.

joe poli wrote:

The Valley is filled with vindictive, jealous people who blame everyone else for their problems.

Yes, and Phil Graham was right, too!

...and notice how Russo wants to earn respect for the Lehigh Valley: by importing more Wall Streeters to put their heads on pilows in our community each night. We have to privide them with high speed rail...then they can go to work and rape our economy...then head home to Forks Township at 8 p.m. to kiss their kiddies good night and repeat the same the next day.
How about bringing the jobs to the Valley and leave the tracks with their weeds.

Not-so-old Allentown wrote:

...and notice how Russo wants to earn respect for the Lehigh Valley: by importing more Wall Streeters to put their heads on pilows in our community each night. We have to privide them with high speed rail...then they can go to work and rape our economy...then head home to Forks Township at 8 p.m. to kiss their kiddies good night and repeat the same the next day.
How about bringing the jobs to the Valley and leave the tracks with their weeds.

Congratulations, loser! BTW nobody is providing anybody with rail, high-speed, slow-speed, or pedal-powered.