Molly Henderson runs for reelection

For most of the past year I have been trying to keep quiet on the political front, with getting married soon and other things on my plate. But, the political scene in Pennsylvania and the rest of the country seems to be getting worse, not better. Take the subject of this blog as an example. For those of you who live in Lancaster County, you are aware of the major problems we have been having with our commissioners. Molly Henderson is a part of this problem. If you all remember, she along with the other two county commissioners were all part of the scandal involving the sale of the county nursing home. She claims she only had a small portion in it, but that is not what this blog is about.

Recently, she has decided to run for reelection for commissioner (Feb 4,2007 Sunday News). The first move she made toward this is to appoint Lois Herr as her advisor. Now, if you all remember Lois Herr ran against Joe Pitts in the 2006 elections. One of her major campaigning points was that nothing had to be done with Route 23 that runs from Lancaster to Leola, New Holland, and Blue Ball. With Lois Herr as her advisor, Henderson has also taken up this cry. For those of you who live in this area, myself being one of them know the problems with this major road. You should try driving from Lancaster to New Holland around 3:30 in the afternoon. This road ends up being like a parking lot. There have been many proposals to fix the problem over the years dating back to the ‘70s. The recent past is no exception, but the proposal that these two have agreed on is so left field you have to wonder what they are thinking. They think that if you widen the current road and put in turning lanes that everything will be fine. Wrong! If you do that you will have to take most of the homes in Leola and New Holland with you. There is just not enough room to expand the current road without taking down most of the buildings. The only real solution is to use the already, mostly built, "Goat Path" up to 772, then build the rest. The section that was built in the ‘70s is still owned by the state and not the Amish. The Amish are using this land to graze their live stock and will just need to put them elsewhere. I agree that the existing traffic lights need to be synchronized, but that won’t fix the major problems.

This area is getting to crowded with developments, which brings me to my next point. She has already came out against any improvements to the farm preservation act. First of all, I haven’t seen them preserve anything. Now I know what you are thinking the route 23 project is going to take farmland away. Well, yes but in the whole picture it’s not as much and there won’t be anything built along the new highway. With this done the majority of farmland will be preserved. But, seriously something needs to be done before all of our farmland, that makes this country beautiful, is all used up.

Now on to my last point, Commissioner Henderson says that nothing needs to be done to our aging Prison system. Instead, she favors a rehabilitation system to rehabilitate prisoners and get them ready to reenter our society. The problem is that if you are soft with criminals they’re going to go right back and repeat the same crime. But this time do it more intelligently. This system will be an easy out for prisoners looking for a way out. So, all they are expected to do is play nice for awhile and they can get back on the streets. Whatever happened to "you do the crime, you do the time". This slap on the wrist system has to be changed and Henderson’s rehabilitation system is not the answer. What we need to do is expand the current over crowded prison system, or build a new prison somewhere else. Then we need to get tougher on criminals who break the law and show them that if they continue this way they are going to face tougher penalties. The death penalty is being one of these tougher penalties.
In conclusion, I just don’t think Molly Henderson is the right choice for Commissioner. She just doesn’t seem to be in touch with what really is going on in this county and we will be in worse shape if she is reelected.