It’s Wednesday afternoon, and it’s been a hearty week. I just finished editing a novel by debut author E. H. Jacobs. Parisian Phoenix Publishing plans to release the book, Splintered River, in September before the upcoming presidential election. Somehow, by the skin of my teeth, I managed to pay all the bills another month.
As a small business owner, there is always a hustle. And while I typically work seven days a week, I love what I do and it often doesn’t feel like work.
And this week I had a special surprise– Armchair Lehigh Valley asked me to cover First Lady Jill Biden’s visit to Allentown, the largest city in the Lehigh Valley region and third most populated city in the state. For comparison, it stands behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Philadelphia has 1.6 million people. Pittsburgh has more than 300,000. Allentown has about 125,000.
Harrisburg, the state capital, has 50,000 residents and is number 16 on the list of most populated Pennsylvania cities. Bethlehem, the center-most city in the Lehigh Valley, is number 7 on the list with 78,000. Lancaster is number 12, which isn’t what you’d expect since Lancaster is known for its Amish communities.
The city closest to my small town is Easton, which is number 41 on the list with 28,000 people.
Anyway, Allentown’s population is 50% Latin, so lawmakers like to stop by to woo the Latin voter. Yesterday, Jill Biden visited Lehigh Carbon Community College to promote Career to Classroom, a proposal from the Biden administration to “reimagine high school” by connecting students to jobs, training and opportunities to learn skills and an associate’s degree while still in high school.
I haven’t attended an event with politicians that required Secret Service in decades. I arrived early, parking at the PPL Orange garage.
I arrived at the LCCC campus in downtown Allentown around noon, and the Allentown police were already outside with the people coordinating the event. Media had to line up along the building after receiving their press passes. The Malinois K9 sniffed our stuff and we headed inside two people at a time.
K9’s have to be high-energy and driven, and this guy was no exception. He played with his toy and barked when he didn’t have enough to do. You could see the disappointment when he didn’t find anything in our stuff, because for him, this was a game and he wanted to find whatever he needed to find to win the game.
Once I arrived inside, the Secret Service scanned my person and another agent checked my bag. He saw my cookie that my friend Laurel had given me in case I didn’t eat. It was a Panera oatmeal berry cookie, which is one of my favorites. The agent looked at me in all his Secret Service seriousness, and said, “Ma’am, all chocolate chip cookies must be confiscated by me.”
“That’s fine, Sir,” I said. “But it’s oatmeal.”
“Then you are free to go,” he said.
I headed into the elevator and up to the third floor. As we arrived, I saw the sign for the restroom. So, I asked the Secret Service agent if I could go to the restroom. I was told yes. When I returned, I entered the room and saw a random sign for “media entrance.” I saw all the video news crews and photographers setting up their tripods. To stay out of the way, I wove farther into the room and sat down.
I ended up sitting with the audience, unintentionally, but got a great view of everything.
To read the article, which the editors at Armchair focused on the workforce development legislation Biden has proposed, click here.
If you want to read a speech only a few words different from the one Jill gave yesterday, click here.
Angel Ackerman 