Girls' Day Out to Philadelphia, the Historical City

Philadelphia is a historical city, less than 2 hours drive from Bethlehem, PA. The first impression once I got there was it’s busier than our previous visited cities, more offices building, and more tourists cause I saw tourism bus often passed by. Before we leaving for Philadelphia, we went to the City Hall of Bethlehem and met a councilman called Mr. Will. He is originally come from Bethlehem and grew up in Bethlehem too. He was in his early 20s when elected to become a council man. Before elaborating further on our discussion, my fellows in Indonesia or country other than US might not sure what this council men do, who are they, etc. So let me explain based on my best knowledge. The City Hall is a public services office which has similar function as Regional Government Office in Indonesia. The offices consist of the Council Men which functioned as “house of representative in the city level” or in Indonesia we call it DPRD tingkat Kota Madya, Mayor who lead the city (Wali Kota), and other department on public services. The Council Men’s job is primarily accomodate people’s aspirations; complains on daily services such as water, streets, health, park, fire, police, etc, oversee what’s going on with day on day basis, (un)approved government’s budget proposal, and so on. They hold a general meeting at least once a month and it’s open to public. The council men itself consists of 7 persons and each of them will be given 5 minutes to deliver his report. The incumbent council men and also for the last 15 years, all of them are democrats. Interestingly, all the council men are part-timers. Why is that so? Because the City of Bethlehem is considered as a small city, thus they can handle it with 7 part-time council men.

How’s the demography of The City of Bethlehem?

65% White, 20% Hispanics, 5% African-American, and the rest mixture. Around 50% people in Bethlehem are over 18 years old. 65% own home. In addition, Bethlehem comprised of many elders. I guess that’s interesting knowing that many elders who predominantly Republicans yet the council men are all democrats. Maybe the amount of young Democrats exceed them.

Mr. Will is an interesting young council man. He seems passionate and do a lot of share with us in his personal perspectives. I love his quote, “If there’s no 10% people who hate you, it means you have not do anything. You don’t really stand up for something” in response to Shannon’s question: “What decision that has been made in this room that you didn’t agree with?”. He explained that most of the council men are afraid to be critized or hated by some people who has different interest. I get it as: most of them are afraid to be unpopulist decision maker. And I agree with the idea that when nobody hates you, then you never do something, doesn’t necessarily as a good one. Anyway, Mr. Will said he’s going to campaign for the 2013 election. I wish you a good luck and make a better change for the society!

Group picture with Mr. Will

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Next: Philadelphia!

Do you know that the American’s Constitution was drafted in Philadelphia?

We went to the National Constitution Center and watched a dramatic show about American’s constitution. To me, it was an interesting museum because their collections are complete or at least can give the visitors an understanding on how the political system works in the US with an interactive way. From what I saw, US constitution is highly emphasize on "We the People" which I understood as the system should be based on people's interest. In a way that the government should be conducted from, by, and for the people. I actually need more time to explore the place, I think I can spend my whole day there. Seriously.

Do you know that this city had been functioned as the first Capital City of the US? Philadelphia is rich of historical sites.

Do you know that the grave of Abraham Lincoln is located in Philadelphia? Yes, we went there. There is an interesting practice that people will throw some coins to his grave, they said to have a good luck. Doesn’t it sounds familiar? Haha.

Do you know that the house of the two-first President of the United States was also sited here?

The original building itself doesn’t exist anymore yet they still preserve the ruins. This house become an attraction because of the paradox happened in that time when slavery still exist. It’s paradox because the President of US who also drafted the constitution which guarantee the freedom of people, yet they still practising slavery on their houses and business. What an irony!

Martha, the wives of one of the President, had 200s slaves to work on their farm in another state. And one of the President even kept 7 slaves on his house temporarily. Worth to be noted, in that time, some states legallized slavery and others didn’t. So what happen was, the President moved the slaves to his house in Philly temporarily then moved them back to other states so that they won’t be freed. Nearby the house site, there is the liberty bell, but we didn’t go there cause there were sooo many people queue for the entrance.

Do you know Bruce Springsteen?

In the National Center Museum, there was an exhibition about Bruce Springsteen. Do you know him? I personnally don’t :D

He was a singer and musician wrote many criticism songs toward government or social condition. Maybe almost similar as Iwan Fals in Indonesia. Anyway, one of the collection shows his shirt “Made in Indonesia”. I guess it’s a batik. We were wondering what's the correlation between a Musician and Constituion?
Well, I guess the lyrics he wrote explains why they put him into the building :D

The last destination today was the National Museum of American Jewish History. It tells us how the Jewish community immigrated 350 years ago, how they settled and fit the American’s society, also the development of Jewish’ life in the US. Similar to the Arab community, the reasons of Jewish immigration to US was either to get a better life by gaining the freedom, to avoid the persecutions, or both. The great immigration era happened between 1880-1924 when hundred thousands immigrants from all over the world overwhelmed the US. The immigrants had to go to Ellis island, it’s a kind of quarantine place before immigrants could proceed to the US, and changes on their name often happened as a result of accidentally misspelling (because their original name hard to be  written in Western spelling or alphabet) or false documents they brought. It’s hard to trace back since their name had become a western one. On 1919, 8 US cities bombed then on June 2, 1919 there was an attempt known as Palmers Raid to arrest the anarchist, in consequence hundreds of immigrants deported. In 1924, US government issued Johnson-Reed Act which imposed immigration quotas.

This museum has one big map reveals what was going on in Jewish history overtime such as:

586 BCE: Babylonians destroyed Solomon’s temple in Jerussalem and forced Jews to exile

70: the 2nd temple was destroyed bby Romans

1939-1945: around 600.000 Jews murdered in Holocaust

May 14th, 1948: the birth of Israel

1654: Arrived at New Amsterdam (now New York)

1730: The first synagogue in NY.

Other than that, American Jewish Museum offers a better understanding on Jewish’ culture and religious practise such as Hanukkah, Ketubbah, Shabbat: prayer begin on Friday when sun goes down, Torah the Holy Scriptures read every Shabbat, Mondays, and Thursdays. Torah scroll is a vital part in a service more than synagogue itself. From what I saw, I get an impression that Jewish community has a strong bond to help each other, especially the one who still left behind either in economy aspect or others. They have what so called Purim Ball (which using Purim mask) in order to do fund raising for other Jewish who need help. Jews also view education as a key of success in the US. Usually, the younger will get higher education than the older sibling who obigated to help the parents.

There was also section on Jews political life. Before the Bill of Rights, the requirement to become public officers is Christiant. However, it was imperfect freedom because the federal government didn’t restrict states from discriminating on the basis of religion: the applicants must pass the religious test oaths. On 1905, there was an issue about plan Jews domination called the Protocol. In 1920s, anti-semitism evolved in US. Henry Ford attacked Jews in his “Dearborn Independent” newspaper. I need more time to explore further, yet some points that I wrote can explain some issues regarding Jewish today.

I notice that in the two museum that we visited today, I saw “Kimmel” last name. When asked about this to American’s counterpart, she said they are big donor in some museums. For the one who read Dan Brown’s books, Smithsonian Institution must be familiar. When I asked this, they said that it’s just the name, many historical museums in US has Smithsonian on it. Anyway, just wanna tell the whole story that I think interesting though sometime I’m still grasping what this thing is.. so many new things I learned.

Philadelphia, June 26th, 2012