Vets Rage Against Whitehall, Pa.

Vets angry Whitehall mayor temporarily took down POW/MIA flag
Author: Randy Kraft , WFMZ.com Reporter,

"They were angry because the mayor had a POW/MIA flag taken down from a flag pole so a Syrian flag-raising event could be held outside the township building on April 18, 2015."

My Comments About The Article AboveHow about this... One flag pole. Fly only the United States flag no matter how noble the cause. There was some talk about putting other poles up. Hell if we try to accommodate everyone soon these public properties will start looking like the front of the United Nations building. If this is the way people want to carry on, I say no one gets to fly anything but the American flag. Get over it!


Paranoia On Steroids
The world sees a middle eastern conspiracy under every rock. Yesterday Allen West Thinks He Got Sharia Law’d at Walmart-- "In a post originally entitled “Sharia Law Comes to Wal-Mart,” former Representative Allen West wrote Monday that he was almost refused service at a Texas Wal-Mart this weekend over the cashier’s religious beliefs, a claim he later admitted was mistaken." Turns out the clerk was under 21 and wasn't allowed to transact liquor purchases in the checkout aisle he was waiting in.


Here's one of the comments left at the 'Express-Times'. "The mayor must be an Obama protégé disgracing our Military Vets in favor of a foreign muslim country. If the syrian muslims want to celebrate their countries [sic] independence then go the hell home and do it. Don't know why they are celebrating the countries independence when they no longer live there because the Cowards wouldn't fight for their country instead running like the Cowards they are. This is OUR country and NOT YOURS. Go Home."

FYI(1) HISTORY: Most Syrians have been here longer then our Lehigh Valley's recent arrivals. The Lehigh Valley has one of the largest populations of Syrian-Americans in the United States (around 15,000). They have been settling here for over a century. At one time most found work in one of the dozens of silk mills owned by other Syrians. They didn't just get here off the boat. They've been here longer then the idiot who wrote that comment has been alive. Also read 'Molovinsky On Allentown'- Allentown's Syrians of The 6th Ward (06/15/2013)

(2) RELIGION: While Christians in today's Syria make up only about 15% of the population (after half were driven out or slaughtered) here in the Lehigh Valley almost all are of the Christian faith WFMZ (09/04/2013): : A closer look at Lehigh Valley Syrians--""We are the largest Syrian community in the United States of America," said Father Anthony Sabbagh of Allentown's St. George Orthodox Church. A tiny handful of immigrants started the church in 1916, just a few years after the very first Syrians arrived in the Lehigh Valley."

(3) CRIME: When you look at the number of crimes being committed in Allentown there are few being committed by members of the Syrian population. Yet there are huge celebrations in this city for certain other ethnic groups who have committed crimes in far greater numbers.

March 2015



Anna Mae Schwartz Growing up in the 6th ward. "I grew up in the 6th ward ("the ward") of Allentown in the 40's and 50's as an American of Syrian descent. Ninety percent of my neighborhood was made up of Syrians. Held together by its ethnicity, it instilled in me a strong sense of belonging and pride. And situated within two blocks from my home was the Girls Club, which reinforced that closeness and provided a "haven" for me and my cousins throughout our growing up years. The ward and the Girls Club provide the backdrop for a wonderful childhood, a childhood to be envied."



FINAL THOUGHJTSI'm disgusted by the ignorance, hatred and prejudice so prevalent in this country. In the past we hated on blacks. Then it was the Germans & Japanese. Followed by the Vietnamese. Today's it on anyone who people suspect are Muslim. Mankind disgusts me when generation after generation we find some group to hate on. Enough already!

The stories I intended to share about my personal relationships with Syrians would make this post longer then it already is. Suffice it to say.. I'll take any one of them over the kind of behavior this person made in comment or zealots behaving disrespectfully in Whitehall. I understand how your POW flag is important to you. I also understand what the Syrian flag means to the oppressed and slaughtered Syrian Christians as well.

Most importantly I believe the American flag should not be shared on the same pole with any other country or cause what-so-ever. The flag in of itself should represent all of us. It matters not the cause, ethnicity or where we came from. Let that be reason enough to not share it on the same pole.

When people start creating divisions over who gets to fly what under it the time has come to end this practice.