For the outgoing 2010, the Award is to the almost ‘Over the Hill Gang’ who recognized an impending community tragedy and had sufficient confidence in their own abilities and integrity to ‘go where Angels fear to tread’, that is to take the leadership of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music.

Holmes Morton, MD and Tom Godfrey, MD were not deterred by the turning on the Academy by its past benefactor and chair and the public chagrin and anger over the loss of the $30 million dollar signature building resulting from the unrealistic vision of the artistic founders, Michael Jamanis and Fran Veri, as countenanced by the Academy’s Board of Trustees and its generous but inept past chairman, Paul Ware.

Both Morton as chair and Godfrey as president served as volunteers.  Attorney Jacques Geisenberger took on representation of the Academy, successfully  facing down large law firms who were intent in dismantling the Academy per the whim of their clients.

(The Steinman Foundation by and large played a constructive role.)

Shutting down PAM would have been a classic example of “throwing out the baby with the wash.” Morton and Godfrey recognized that the Academy was not  real estate, but rather a living institution; nor was it about its founders and history, but rather its faculty and students.  Undeterred by public criticism and unafraid to joust with pillars of the Lancaster establishment, they asserted PAM’s legal rights through Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures and successfully relocated the Academy back to Liberty Place.

There it provides instruction for a reported 170 students and generates a variety of musical events for the public, performed at Liberty Place and at other venues throughout the county.

Unlike their well meaning but less more passive predecessors,   Morton and Godfrey were not native to the area and, as such, not deterred by long term establishment relationships.   Rather they had but one goal in mind:  Preserving and helping PAM to flourish in the future.  And they were not to be deterred.

Lancaster would benefit from a couple of dozen more leaders like them.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Although Siobhan Reynolds was not  easy to work with, her motivations were pure and her efforts selfless.  She fought for years to obtain adequate pain treatment for her husband and continued the crusade for others after his death.   The latest medical findings support her contentions that doctors through ignorance and / or fear of censure and prosecution inadequately medicate pain patients, which leads to a chronic condition that is difficult to treat in a late state. Little wonder than those severely suffering are likely to self medicate with alcohol or illegal drugs.   Siobhan fell prey to the last of the drug warriors, even as the sand sinks away from beneath their feet.

To: The Pain Relief Network Community
From: Siobhan Reynolds
Dec 29, 2010

The Members of the Board of Directors and I have decided to shut down PRN as an activist organization because pressure from the US Department of Justice has made it impossible for us to function. I have fought back against the attack on me and PRN but have received no redress in the federal courts; so, the board and I have concluded that we simply cannot continue.

It is important to note that PRN has been refused standing in federal court to sue the federal government in defense of the patients’ Constitutional rights; this, when the Sierra Club has been given leave to sue powerful entities on behalf of insects. Even after changing tactics by suing under the names of persons directly injured both materially and Constitutionally, the federal courts in the 9th Circuit denied standing to a doctor and a group of his oppressed patients; preventing them from suing the State of Washington for their dangerous and lawless attack on the rights and personal welfare of Washington doctors and patients.

It certainly appears that the legal deck is stacked against pain patients and doctors. Despite this, others will keep trying because so very much is at stake. A group of us may bring another action in the Western District of Washington in the near future; but exactly how that will be framed is not yet clear. In any event, the action will not be undertaken under the auspices of PRN.

People in pain are still being abused, neglected, and left to die by the entire system. Physicians brave enough to treat chronic pain continue to be intimidated and prosecuted. It breaks my heart that we have to stop, but there is simply no way forward for PRN.

With the dissolution of PRN, I will be bowing out, but a group of former PRN leaders are going to keep the web site up (minus the donation page), as a resource for information. Members are free to set up their own talking area elsewhere. I suggest the PRN community put together a Facebook page where the conversation might continue. I would be happy to put the word out about any separate patient efforts. We will also continue to update the news on the site as a public service.

We are proud of all we have accomplished given how little funding we received. The Drug War is a beast. I believe the only legislative efforts that have a chance at changing the current state of affairs are those supported by Congressman Ron Paul. He and many of the groups he supports are aware of what patients suffer. If you want to continue to push for a change in the drug laws, I suggest you do what you can to support their efforts

–
Siobhan Reynolds
President
PRN

NEWSMAX:  Fresh off the success of the U.S. Senate’s ratification of the New STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty last week, President Barack Obama and his administration are marshaling an ambitious plan to denuclearize the United States further by banning all nuclear explosions on earth — whether for military or for peaceful purposes. It would be accomplished through the controversial Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to a McClatchy Newspapers report.

Republicans in the Senate, however, led by Jon Kyl of Arizona, are girding to block the treaty, invoking the help of five new additional GOP members taking office Jan. 5.

Kyl and other Senate Republicans who tried to kill Obama’s New START, which reduces the size of American and Russian nuclear stockpiles, say the United States can’t risk relinquishing its ability to test nuclear weapons, even though it hasn’t conducted an underground nuclear weapons test in nearly two decades… (more)

PATRIOT NEWS… Supermarket wine kiosks were designed to address this lack of convenience, but they are hardly the answer.

The LCB dismisses these objections, insisting that its primary mission is not to serve customers but to protect them. “Alcohol is a dangerous product and it needs to be judiciously sold,” LCB Chairman Patrick Stapleton III said recently…

If that is the LCB’s main reason to exist, it should be disbanded immediately…. The reality is that Pennsylvania is no better or worse at protecting the public than states with private liquor stores… (more)

TRIBUNE-REVIEW: Gov.-elect Tom Corbett, confronted with new spending figures Thursday, said he will review Gov. Ed Rendell’s last-minute, multimillion-dollar grant awards closely when he takes office next month.

“We will review everything that isn’t signed, sealed and delivered,” the Shaler Republican said.

Rendell’s office estimates the outgoing Democratic governor approved $100 million in fully executed project contracts and $400 million in new commitments across the state since Sept. 30. The projects, part of the Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program, are financed with borrowed money that taxpayers will repay over 20 years… (more)

TRIBUNE-REVIEW:  As his time in office winds down, Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in borrowed state money on projects across Pennsylvania, and his lawyers say he might be out of office before state officials release a list showing how much and where the money went.

The governor’s office on Wednesday estimated Rendell has approved $100 million in ”fully executed” contracts and $400 million in commitments since Sept. 30…

“The good news for taxpayers is that Ed Rendell’s promises with taxpayers’ money come to an end at noon on Jan. 18,” said Kevin Harley, spokesman for incoming Republican Gov. Tom Corbett…  (more)

NEWSMAX:  A majority of Americans say that the GOP takeover of the House of Representatives is a good development, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll. They also like the Republican Party slightly more than they do President Barack Obama, and far more than the Democratic Party.

…Americans actually seem to like divided government, the poll reveals. Fifty-one percent of respondents said Republican control of the House will be good for the country — virtually unchanged from the 52 percent who held that opinion immediately after the elections…

Even more disturbing for the president: 41 percent of self-described independents chose congressional Republicans, and only 31 percent chose Obama…  (more)

FINANCIAL NEWS:  US mortgage foreclosures jumped in the third quarter as fewer borrowers qualified for loan modifications that would have reduced their monthly payments, bank regulators have said.

The rise in repossessions and decline in loan modifications are further signs that problems in the US housing market are persisting, in spite of forecasts by some analysts of a recovery before the year-end…

 As these properties come on the market, they are expected to depress home prices by between 5 per cent and 10 per cent during the next year.. ..  (more)

GLOBE AND MAIL:  Fresh signs of weakness emerged Tuesday in the long-suffering real estate sector, renewing worries that housing will act as a drag on the broader economic recovery.

Housing prices slid 1.3 per cent in October from September, according to the closely followed S&P/Case-Shiller index, surprising economists who had forecast a smaller decline. Compared with a year earlier, prices also fell back, a sign of how persistent the sector’s problems remain.

U.S. home prices are still above their recent lows, touched in the spring of 2009. But Tuesday’s data raised the disturbing prospect that the worst may not yet be over. In six of the 20 metropolitan areas tracked by the index, prices dropped to their lowest levels since the collapse of the housing boom… (more)