Saturday
July 27, 2024 
Dear Friends,
Before we get to my conversation with Arlene Price, a former Democratic committeewoman from Quakertown who worries about the Trump presidency (as we do), first a heads up.
Here are the hours for the public to see the James Schucker art exhibit at the Richland Library on Main Street in Quakertown: 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays. Shucker was a famous illustrator and portrait painter whose magazine covers graced the Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s during the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.
Shucker paintings are so graphic that they look like photographs. Mighty Betsy and I have lent several of our “Schuckers” to this exhibit.
And now to business. Last week, while at the QNB bank in downtown Quakertown, I saw our friend of nearly 80 years, Arlene Price. She’s still a beautiful woman who continues to be strong willed. Arlene worries that President Trump will win reelection in November. So do we.
Here’s what USA Today wrote Feb 6. “Just minutes after the U.S. Senate vote to acquit President Trump last week, he tweeted out a 30-second video featuring a Time Magazine cover with the blaring headline: ‘How Trumpism Will Outlast Trump.’ The clip included mock campaign signs showing Trump running for president every four years through the next century and ends with the phase ‘Trump 4 EVA.’”
I tried to calm Arlene’s fears by proposing that Trump’s logical opponent should be Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City billionaire who served three terms as mayor … as a Republican, a Democrat and an Independent. Bloomberg is a real billionaire, not a fake one.
I still believe that Trump’s greatest worry is being exposed as a fake through the revelation of his tax returns. It’s just a matter of time until the public sees the evidence.
On the eve of the impeachment vote in the Senate, here’s what the Quinnnipiac University poll said: 75 percent of voters said allow witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial.
And 53 percent believed Trump was lying about Ukraine; 57 percent wanted Trump to provide more details about his actions involving he Ukraine; 52 percent thought Trump obstructed Congress regarding his actions involving the Ukraine; and 52 percent thought the Trump administration’s withholding of U.S. aid to the Ukraine was not justified.
With the exception of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, Senate Republicans would not vote to convict Trump, although most of them admitted that his actions were wrong. Republican senators and House members are so afraid of Trump that they continue to do his bidding. My prediction is that history will not be kind to the Republican senators who allowed this president to continue in office.
Will Senate Republicans be swept out of office in November? We’ll see.
In the meantime, here in Quakertown, it appears that the St. John’s Lutheran Church property at 10th and West Broad Street has been sold to a developer. In its bell tower, there’s a bell that is inscribed with the names of the two churches that started as a union-church in 1861. St. John’s Lutheran and the German Reformed Church of Quakertown continued that union for 33 years until they dissolved in 1894.
The two congregations went their separate ways; St. John’s Lutheran remaining at its original site while the German Reformed congregation moved to 5th and West Broad streets.
Shortly before 1963, the Reformed Church merged with the New England Congregationalists becoming the United Church of Christ (UCC). The church moved to its present location at 4th and Park Avenue in Quakertown.
It is hoped that the developers will not need the bell as it plans its future. The former Lutheran Church property stretches over parts of 10th and 9th streets, so there’s plenty of room for residential and commercial development … but not as a church.
Douglas and Joyce Donigian are the co-pastors of the First United Church of Christ, Quakertown. Since the First UCC is the successor to the old German Reformed Church, it would be historically correct for the UCC to take possession of the former union-church bell … if the developers have no need for it.
The UCC pastors would like to display that old bell at its sanctuary at 4th and Park Avenue. Will the developers agree? I hope so.
Sincerely, Charles Meredith
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