BLOCKS OF BACK TO SCHOOL The Burning PlatformThe problem isnt that Johnny cant read. The problem isnt even that Johnny cant think. The problem is that Johnny doesnt know what thinking is he confuses it with feeling. Thomas Sowell. Over the last few weeks there have been a couple mornings where the Schuylkill Expressway was jammed and I had to take my alternative route through the 3. Blocks of Squalor. I hadnt had this inspiring dystopian experience all summer. There is nothing like West Philly when the punks, punkettes, and future prison convicts finish a summer of not working, not reading, and not picking up the trash in their neighborhoods, go back to West Philly High and not learn again. The problem isnt that Johnny cant read. The problem isnt even that Johnny cant think. The problem is that Johnny doesnt know what thinking is he. First of all, when we refer to the ACN Scam we are not trying to say that what ACN does is illegal in any way. ACN the corporation is not a scam. Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get. Thoughts, tips, stories and questions about China, America and our families blended lives between the two. The observations will be rehashed in a stream of consciousness format, as West Philly is a smorgasbord of squalor, sordidness, filth, apathy, crime and epic government incompetence. As I inched my way down West Chester Pike in heavy traffic towards the 3. Blocks of Squalor I was seeking signs of the economic revival I keep hearing about from the mainstream media talking heads and our Make America Great Again president. Despite my efforts to see signs of an improving economic situation I witnessed a further deterioration of the suburban landscape. More businesses have closed. More bars and restaurants are shuttered. More space available signs have sprung up on commercial properties. More unfilled potholes are proliferating on the highways. A once thriving Dairy Queen sits empty, slowly putrefying, just like the neighborhood surrounding it. The lights are mistimed at 6. Street, causing unnecessary traffic gridlock. Exasperated drivers trying to survive another commute to their soul crushing office jobs either fume silently or check the twitter feed on their i. Big Thinkers Kindergarten Crack Load' title='Big Thinkers Kindergarten Crack Load' />Gadget. The people on the streets shuffling toward the ancient decrepit subway trains, smelling of urine and BO, look like they could be extras on The Walking Dead. It is interesting the largest commercial footprint at 6. Street is occupied by our beloved Federal government. It seems putting  Army, Navy, and Marine recruitment centers all next to each other in the heart of one of the poorest areas in Pennsylvania is good for business. Nothing like luring low IQ boys with no job prospects into the military as cannon fodder for the military industrial complex. Theyve reduced the mental and physical requirements for recruits to such an extent, any mouth breather can make the grade. Mafia 2 Ride Mod on this page. It does make you wonder how well our military would really perform against the Russians andor Chinese. Once I made it through the Milbourne speed trap and crossed the county line into Filthadelphia, the low lights began to proliferate at a breakneck pace. As you navigate the 3. Blocks of Squalor beneath the MarketFrankfort El you cant help wondering whether this is actually America or some third world hell hole city in Iraq or Syria. Along this boulevard of broken dreams, decay, debris, dilapidation and delusion rule the day. You are more likely to see a cop car than you are a woman with a wedding ring or a kid being walked to school by his father. Words cant possibly describe the level of foulness you experience driving from Cobbs Creek Parkway to 4. Street along Market St. The filth and squalor is rampant on every block. The few businesses operating must barely scrape by or are subsidized by taxpayer dollars extracted by the government. The employees must fear for their lives on a daily basis, as gunfire rings out on these blocks regularly. You look at the collapsing boarded hovels along this stretch of squalor and are convinced no one could possibly live there, and then you see the Direct TV satellite dish on the roof. At 7 1. 5 am on a weekday morning every business has their roll down metal gates fully engaged. In a civilized community where citizens abide by social mores of behavior, there is no need for roll down gates, barbed wire on fences, bars on windows, or an overwhelming police presence. Big Thinkers Kindergarten Crack Load' title='Big Thinkers Kindergarten Crack Load' />West Philly has descended into a lawless, disgusting shithole where young male thugs and gangbangers operate outside the law like savages. The people who live here dont care about there community as garbage piles up on their sidewalks, bullet holes are common in plate glass windows, and they somehow manage to all have the latest i. Phone and Lebron sneakers. Its hard to comprehend the degradation of this community without seeing it in person. The putrification of this community continues unabated. Obama campaigned under the Market Frankford El in 2. The Obama 2. 00. 9 porkulus plan poured millions into building low income housing and unnecessary zoo parking garages in order to keep his union vote firmly in hand. In 2. 01. 4 he declared the Mantua section a Promise Zone, promising more of your tax dollars to people unwilling and incapable of pulling themselves out of squalor. Ive driven through these mean streets every day during this entire timeframe. I can guarantee you there has been absolutely no revitalization. Phony promises from a phony president and he got 1. Mantua. The poverty rate and true unemployment rate in these West Philly neighborhoods exceed 5. Over 8. 0 of the children are born out of wedlock. The crime rate is off the charts. The residents are functionally illiterate and completely dependent on the state for their sustenance. Drug dealing is the main form of commerce. There are as many vacant boarded up, dilapidated, crumbling fleapits as there are occupied eyesores. Ive witnessed some of these pigsties fall down after a heavy rain. The steady deterioration of West Philly continues unabated as Democrat welfare policies encourage dependency, ignorance, sloth, and depravity. Sink holes appear and are ignored for months by the less than pro active government drones. They dig holes to fix whatever sewer or water line has broken underground, but feel no obligation to refill the holes. Gaping chasms in the middle of streets remain for months, as incompetent, uncaring, union government workers and their bureaucrat paper pushing apparatchik bosses care more about their gold plated pension plans and retaining their bennies than serving the public. Exploding water mains flood entire neighborhoods on a regular basis as city taxes are funneled to corrupt politicians and their cronies, rather than basic infrastructure needs. On a recent morning trek, as I approached 4. I started to see high school students shuffling towards the six year old 1. West Philly High School. With a cost exceeding 2. Even that shining beacon of liberalism, Hillary Clinton, held a rally at this school last year. At least they made a good decision in making all the students wear a uniform white shirts, tan pants, and ties. But, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it doesnt make it a runway model. You have a brand new school, modern computers, top notch science labs, and a low student to teacher ratio, but the ghetto culture and complete lack of fatherly responsibility keep these students ignorant and trapped in squalor. Does this sound like an educational success story Enrollment has dropped from 8. Less than 2. 0 of the students meet the minimum standards for math and science, with less than 4. There are 6. 59 public high schools in Pennsylvania and West Philly ranks 6. Trophies for everyone. Hispanic. I wonder how welcome the 5 white students feel Brawls, drugs and violence plague the hallways. Taxpayers foot the 1. Of the 3. 00 or so urban scholars at West Philly High eligible to take the SAT exam in 2.