A Postcard From Froendenberg to Rochester: Absence Doesn't Make the Heart Grow Fonder.

And a distance of over 3,000 miles doesn't improve the way it looks, either!

I have been spending a lot more time in Europe these days, specifically in Germany.

I know that there are certain people in Rochester who are delighted to have me gone, while they don't seem to understand that I find it more refreshing and peaceful to be away from our dying hometown.

But then, those people don't seem to understand my extremely low opinion of them. I am long past the point where their opinion means anything to me.

Thanks to the internet and instantaneous news reporting, it is easy to keep abreast of what goes on in the world, even about Rochester, New York.

Apparently, our city "leaders" are either unaware of that fact or simply don't care how Rochester is perceived across the world.

It isn't flattering.

When people ask where I am from, I tell them.

It is not my job to lie for our city government. That's what City Hall's Communications Department gets paid to do.

Nor is it my job to whitewash the abject nincompoopery of City Council, whose asinine antics are to promote woke progressivism in its worst forms, not to provide essential services to the city, which is what its real job is supposed to be.

When they want more information, I tell them to check out Rochester, NY, on the internet.

That's when the surprises begin.

Over dinner last week, a German acquaintance asked why Rochester's mayor, Mahweak Evans declared a "State of Emergency" after he took office a year and a half ago, and it is still in effect.

I corrected her and pointed out that he had declared states of emergency thirteen times since taking office, each for a few weeks and then extending them for a few more weeks.

Thirteen times!

She asked why he kept doing it over and over again when it was clear that it wasn't working.

I informed her that he had no plans to combat crime and violence in Rochester, and that his regular declarations were merely intended to shut up angry residents, to pretend that he had some sort of real plan.

He doesn't.

I also stated that Rochester's mayor has the IQ of a dead flashlight battery and requires braces on his brains.

That seems to have sated her curiosity.

To be fair, all large cities the world over suffer their share of crime, violence and homicide, yet for its size, Rochester is seen to have abused the privilege!

And the fact that both the mayor and City Council are anti-cop has made the situation even worse, since they are Hell-bent on frustrating and demoralizing the Rochester Police Department, making it more difficult to serve, protect and defend the law-abiding residents of Rochester.

And they have no serious plans for combatting crime and violence in Rochester.

They have no plans to do anything positive for our city, relying on shop-worn, woke progressive rhetoric about instituting a liberal agenda that costs the taxpayers plenty, improving nothing but providing only temporary insufficient relief to freeloaders, who are willing to sell their votes and themselves to such politicians.

Two business associates of my husband invited me to spend a few days in Bavaria, where they live.

One of them invited me to his home, where I had the pleasure to meet his parents.

They were curious about why I liked staying in Germany so much.

The other business partner then stated that it was because of all of the crime, violence and corruption in Rochester, NY!

There was no reason to correct him, because he was on the money. 

It is even more ironic since these two business partners live in suburbs of Wuerzburg, Rochester's "sister city" in Germany!

Froendenberg is my husband's hometown.

It is a small city, of only 20,000 people.

Some people might regard it as a bit dull, but it is restful and peaceful.

I can walk through any part of the city at any hour of the day without being worried about gunshots, without tripping over bullet casings, without seeing blood pooled on the streets and sidewalks or crime scene tape decorating large areas of the city.

Or corpses littering the street.

Like we do in Rochester.

And my acquaintances and friends in Europe are aware of it, too.

Yet there was a time when Rochester was a peaceful, yet exciting place to live, without all of the crime and violence that city government is either unable or unwilling to combat.

I remember those days.

But now downtown is deserted and some neighborhoods like Joseph Avenue, Clinton Avenue North, Clifford Avenue and Conkey Avenue resemble downtown Beirut.

And I mourn their passing as Rochester has entered its terminal phase of existence and starting to resemble a third world country despite all of the puffery City Government vomits up for our delectation, insisting that the best is yet to come.

But they have been saying that for thirty years, ever since Rochester began to die.

Yet, when I am asked if there isn't anything that can be done to turn the situation in Rochester around, I say "Yes."

But it is hindered by the elephant in the room. 

A brief explanation to my European friends about what this means should suffice here.

The elephant in the room means that there is something too obvious going on that nobody dares mention for fear of being branded racist or sexist, which is what woke progressive and BLM activists shriek when confronted with people who won't back down when describing Rochester's terminal state.

An incompetent Black mayor cannot be called out as such simply because he or she is Black.

Criminals of color cannot be called criminals. Their "supporters" refer to them as victims of racism and White privilege, as though they are not responsible for their own criminal activities.

Women who are incompetent at their jobs cannot be called that, since they have been subjected to "oppression," which is mostly in their minds. And they were only hired to fill quotas set up by Woke progressive organizations, like what the Human Rights Campaign has become.

But it the only way that these groups can receive "assistance" to level the playing field despite their lack of qualifications, which has produced the mediocritizing of our society.

That has been the result of President Johnson's "Great Society" and "Affirmative Action," which have been outstanding failures and have not really benefitted the Black community.

In fact, they have hindered the Black community in seeking equality, while doing their damnedest to destroy the Black family as a unit.

But nobody not of color or male will point that out.

At least not frequently enough to give people pause to think.

And it becomes more apparent at a distance, with plenty of people in the world becoming aware of it, not just the native-born Rochesterians who are leaving the city and the state for greener pastures.

Many are my relatives and friends, few of whom remain in Rochester above ground.

So, I lift my stein of beer in mourning and salute the city that once was.

Ein prosit!

And I have become desensitized to all of the crime and violence that is a regular, daily feature of life in Rochester.