Neurotics Anonymous ...

If there is one central location where a self-help group could be formed from almost any random number of citizens it would be Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania. Now I hail from adjacent Mt. Airy, which some have described as an assembly of weirdos, fruit loops, extremists and malcontents, (I will admit to the latter category) but few there are in denial of their self-directed pathways.

Not only do residents of Chestnut Hill lie to each other, it is de rigeur to lie to oneself to reinforce the myth that the emperor of the moment has a functioning brain, let alone clothes. Myth after myth is laid upon falsehood after falsehood, with the circle only growing smaller and smaller in the Northwest corner as the community looks more and more like something from the twilight zone.

Fahrenheit 451 could be filmed again here in color on any given day, as they have burned all the books, and the library is just a meeting place for the CHCA, which should be renamed Neurotics Anonymous. Despite being Philadelphia's community built on money and power, their affiliated trust fund is run by folks who can't read a financial statement, and are near running out of inheritance.

Denial reinforces all, and this once-respected institution (CHCA) produces one falsified financial report after another and everyone salutes it in scenes reminiscent of the film classic King of Hearts where everyone becomes what the moment requires, for thinking past the day is much too difficult to handle.

Living the lie and hoping desperately for the return to what never was in the first place is the mission of the moment, and lots of new and old Hillers have signed up, put on the uniform and are ready to face the enemy. But what they do not realize is that Pogo was right many years ago when he stated - - - "We have met the enemy - -- and he is us".

Jim Foster