An Address to Northampton County Council, 13 Dec 2018

An Address to Northampton County Council, PA, USA

by Ron Shegda,

December 13, 2018

Honorable Mr. Council Vice-President, Councilors, County Executive, All Servants of the People of Northampton County, PA, USA, Fellow Citizens:

I am here as a witness of chronic cruelty and intense abuse by Northampton County Human Services. This culture of cruelty and inhumanity has pervaded Northampton County Human Services, similar to local governments across America and Western nations, for decades. For our family during these last 8 years, I have come to re-name this #1 funded department in the County as “Human Disservices,” or “In-Human Services.”

This enduring and endemic abuse of citizens has deeply spread among the host of sub-agencies to Human Services here and everywhere. Why? These contracted agencies are addicted to County and government funding and will lie about vulnerable people and their families and inflict them with their own brand of cruelty—all for sake of their 30 pieces of silver. These sub-agencies are populated with former employees of the County—or by their relatives, friends and lovers. Agencies that contract with Northampton County like LifePath, Community Options, Pine Brook Family Services, Kids Peace, Quality Progressions, and every such agency that enforces brutal and wicked dictates of separating Families, and imposing an iron will of horror from their depravity on Families and especially vulnerable members of our community, should have no such place in a County that professes “Mercy and Justice.” 1

I bear the wounds of specific employee and sub-agency cruelty, along with my near-twin Sister, Lorraine, with Down Syndrome, whom Human Services by Charter was supposed to care for and serve. Instead, she was separated from her Family for 6 years with no knowledge of her whereabouts; she was drugged beyond belief; bodily dragged from our home by “Guardian” Deborah Jean DeNardo; sexually abused; had her identity as a human being confiscated; her neck was broken from neglect after 8 months of warnings when I was finally “allowed” to see my flesh and blood, and was hospitalized in the EU on a ventilator with near death; then she was placed in the same severely deficient facility—widely known in the community for negligence—where she aspirated twice and was again placed on a ventilator, clinging to life. This was after the in-human Developmental Programs moved her to under 12 different roofs.

For me, the super-intense and unrelenting stress imposed by Human Services and so called “Court Officers, ” including April Cordts and Deborah Jean DeNardo, has led to a ruptured abdomen, heart attack, stroke, and now a debilitated spine.

Since 1990, The Morning Call has routinely reported abuses committed by County Human Service agencies, concerning the breaking up of Families without warrants or evidence—with Northampton County “committing 90% of these offenses.” No one in government cared, with Stephen Barron as an evanescent exception. Ross Marcus could care less and took an illegal job with CACLV. The endless stream of Title-IV federal money kept flowing, in support of this ill-gotten inventory of “legally kidnapped” vulnerables—children, the handicapped, elderly.

It doesn’t require much spiritual depth and preparation to realize you are running a bureaucracy where daughters and sons of God are hemorrhaging their souls.

The same tune is flatly sung by such departments across America and The West since passage of CAPTA in 1974 (the Child Abuse Protection and Treatment Act): where incompetent and disordered case-workers are hired to find abuse where it doesn’t exist. 80% of the 400,000 Families falsely accused every year and their Families are smashed apart for the sake of federal funding and social worker depravity in children’s cases alone. Georgia State Senator Nancy Schaefer and her husband Bruce were brutally assassinated on March 26, 2010 because she continually exposed the horrific crimes against humanity by such agencies.

I ask and expect nothing from this solemn body. No one has given our pleas over the years any heed. Some who harbor similar witness are gathered here, or at home in solidarity. Like Rhett Butler said at the end of Gone with the Wind, no one in office gives a damn. Providentially, I ran into Lamont McClure at an Iron Pigs game last August. He NEVER had the decency to answer my several previous letters as a candidate and then as an elected County official. During that summer night, while walking on a cane because of this persecution, Mr. McClure assured me he would look into this atrocious, enduring and scandalous account of abuse. To this day, Mr. McClure has remained silent.

There is an idea for Northampton County Government and these hallowed halls of the Courthouse concerning this culture of cruelty: remove the huge County Seal proclaiming Mercy and Justice that all employees are invited to glean while leaving the building—quoted from The Book of Baruch and St. Matthew’s Gospel. Certainly, our Family and so many I know in The Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, across the United States, and overseas have not received an iota of Mercy nor Justice, nor any sign of such professions of virtue, from Northampton County Government.
___

I would be happy to answer any questions. Thank You.


1 If anyone gives a damn about these remarks, you should closely study a scholarly book by 7 authors that documents how such agencies rampantly and falsely accuse families of “abuse and neglect” for the sake of “legally kidnapping family members,” all by a predominant coterie of “social workers” who lead “disordered lives.”

See the acclaimed and highly researched book, Child Abuse, Family Rights, and the Child Protective System, by Dr. Stephen Krason and 6 other scholars (Scarecrow Press, 2013).

Covenantal Love

Covenantal Love


by Ron Shegda


What holds the world together? What forms bonds between people that rivals an atom’s integrity? And do these powers relate to the vocational state of priest, religious and married?

The answer for each of these questions is one Biblical word: covenant. Its Latin root, convenire, means “to agree, to come together.” More than an oath or promise, a “covenant” implies a lasting and all-inclusive pact. God has continually taken the initiative for establishing and updating His covenant with the people of the earth.

In Genesis, upon His magnificent creation, Yahweh establishes a covenant with our first relatives. This is the original “fertility and dominion” covenant. Yahweh later renews this covenant with Noah, his family and descendants. In this “rainbow covenant,” God firmly declares: “When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings” (Gen. 9:14-15).

God’s fidelity again stands true with Abraham and Sarah. Yahweh and Abraham establish both the covenants of the Promised Land (Gen. 15) and of circumcision (Gen. 17). The curious part of the Holy Land covenant is the strange ritual in Genesis 15:7-21. The covenant between Abraham (he was actually not yet renamed from Abram) and God concerning the Promised Land takes place between the divided carcasses of sacrificed animals. The prophet Jeremiah later explains the significance of this bizarre practice.

Parties who establish a covenant invoke upon themselves a similar fate as these dismembered animals if they fail to keep their word. In other words, making a covenant includes the expectation that “my body will be ripped apart or sacrificed if I willingly break this covenant.” (See Jeremiah 34:18f.) We will note in a moment that taking religious or marital vows harkens the same dramatic seriousness of commitment.

As an aside, it's interesting to note that present-day Middle Eastern conflicts originate in the struggle between Abraham’s sons Ishmael and Isaac living out the covenant of just who “wedded” this land.

Perhaps the most famous of God’s pre-Christian covenants was made on Mount Sinai with Moses. There, God gave the world the 10 Commandments. For the nation Israel, the sum of their Law would follow. Then in further anticipation of Jesus, God updates His covenant with King David: “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever” (2 Samuel 7:16). Psalm 89 subsequently affirms both the enduring dimensions and new expectations of the Davidic covenant.

So how do these strong and sturdy covenants with the Chosen People become transformed for reaching out to all people? Quite simply, the Old Covenant could only give way to the New and Everlasting Covenant of Jesus if one of the members died. "Until death do them part" is the strength of a covenant. It's not a mere contract from which you may walk away, perhaps with a financial penalty or jail term. Covenants are unbreakable as long as the two members live.

God therefore took it upon Himself to die on a cross and form the New Covenant. The Father has not abandoned His Chosen People. He has opened His arms through His Son on the cross to now include all people in His family.

This is why in the Church---Holy Orders and Marriage---as sacraments, are covenantal signs of Jesus unto death. Priests and religious enter a covenantal relationship with the Church that lasts in perpetuity. Spouses establish a permanent covenant with each other.

Pope John Paul II lovingly called married people, who have temporarily lost touch with their vows, to a renewed state of fidelity: “Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance, which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity with Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage” (The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World, ¶84).

From the beginning of salvation history, God has revealed true love to His people. He wrote His everlasting love letter known as The Holy Bible. God holds the world together in love. No force in nature rivals this love. He reveals His awesome and gentle power through a history and presence of covenantal love.

# # # 03/10/01

Sarah Rocks!

Did you hear the Governor on Rush Limbaugh today? Or maybe a few words from her book tour beginning in Grand Rapids.

Sarah Palin's book subtitle is no accident, also the autobiography name of a recent great President, Ronald Reagan: An American Life.

It's interesting comparing POTUS 44 with a potential and welcomed POTUS 45. Both lived in Hawaii, yet Sarah does a climate-change gotcha and also claims Alaska.

When 1939 Hollywood produced its greatest ever crop of films, including Mr(s?!?). Smith Goes to Washington, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Gunga Din, Stagecoach, and The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind has captured more hearts than any of these. A conclusion? Women held the South together.

From Abigail Adams to women of The South during our Civil War, to Susan B. Anthony's democratic birth pangs and Governor Palin's leadership, America knows her near future. Hey Todd, you now rival Lou Gehrig as the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

Ron Shegda, Hellertown, PA, USA
http://ronshegda.com/wgpa/

Should PA Tax the Arts?

State Senator Bob Mellow (D-22) has held this position since 1970. He's Harrisburg's version of Arlen Specter, including a list of notable accomplishments such as S-CHIP. That program has been replicated nationwide. Although it has achieved the excesses of overly-liberal eligibility.

Firmly entrenched with an opinion that the State knows best and should lead the way for economic vitality through taxing and spending, Senator Mellow wants to tax the arts. And he wants to tax non-profit theatres and museums. By his very words, he says "they're not non-profit because they spend their revenues on salaries." Say what? Is Michael Moore advising him?!?

Moreover, Senator Mellow looks concert and theatre goers in the eye (sports fans are exempt) and says, "This is not a tax. It's a user fee. We're not taxing the arts. We're charging a user fee on the person who buys a ticket."

Accomplishments are what we look for in our public servants. When their policy thinking from too many years in office yields this kind of mumbo-jumbo, it's time Voters in Lackawanna, Luzerne and Monroe Counties consider another Candidate. Voters may reasonably expect that Senator Mellow will not change his Party.

Ron Shegda

Play that Budget Again, Sam

Hopefully the House Republicans will stand united
and oppose the "compromise" budget from the Floor.

Todd Eachus, Democratic Majority Leader, is wrong-headed.
Instead, the House R's wisely chose not to participate in something
wrong-headed. This does not mean they have nothing valuable
to say to Pennsylvanians.

A new point amongst many: a budget should follow policy,
not set policy. A delayed budget because of the Governor's
political gamesmanship should not open our Commonwealth
to expanded gambling. Didn't we learn from midnight slight
of hand in 2004 that nefarious policy shifts need the light of day
and citizen participation?

Pennsylvania still has many unsettled issues from the first
round of gambling legislation. Consider: Licenses and construction
for the original 14 casinos have not yet concluded. We have not
carefully considered the human, worker and economic value
of "jobs created" at gambling halls. Gambling revenues are down
in the States that legalized it. Casinos here have shortchanged
the PA Lottery. Meanwhile, China's economy is booming.

As far as I know, the Attorney General and State Police are still
not properly involved in completing background checks for casino
operators. And property owners have given up on Ed Rendell's
promise in 2003 of "a 30% reduction in school taxes within 6 months"
of his election. That was standing on his head!

Add to--or subtract from!-- this: draining our state reserves,
further taxing small businesses and the poor, counting on unreliable
revenues, and spending more than we'll have on top of a deficit year.
Common sense tells us this compromise is neither wise nor prudent.