Protecting and Preserving Our Two Neighborhoods – July 21, 2019

By Carlino Giampolo
Panther Hollow

2nd Annual March from Panther Hollow to The Run

I want to thank the residents of Panther Hollow and The Run and our supporters here today, for having the courage and confidence to publicly demonstrate your desire to protect and preserve our two neighborhoods from those who seek to destroy them with an ill-conceived roadway plan. We will continue to take the high road by putting our values, ideals, and principles into action, and knowing that the means to an end is more important than the end itself.

These actions will continue to be taken with wisdom. There are those who believe a person is wise based on one’s I.Q., the number of letters after one’s name, one’s accumulation of wealth, or the position one holds in the workplace. This is the general consensus of society. However, there is another characterization that says wisdom is:

1) Moving beyond logic and reason without abandoning them.

2) Being a bit irrational without losing sight of the rational.

3) Looking at where you are going more than where you are coming from or where you have been.

4) Looking to where something can lead you more than what it can get you.

5) Looking to see what you can learn more than what you can reaffirm.

6) Seeing the symbols and metaphors, and looking in and beyond them to find the value that lies in their meaning and significance.

7) Seeing the bigger picture without losing sight of the current picture.

That last tenet reminds us that the bigger picture of our problem is that of the uncontrolled expansion of the University of Pittsburgh that is threatening our two communities. Most of us know the story of Pitt’s past chancellor, Edward Litchfield, who sought to destroy our neighborhoods in 1963 with his ill-conceived 21st Century Research Park. Our parents’ generation succeeded in defeating Litchfield. This story is on the website: www.SavePantherHollow.com.

However, that destructive consciousness still exists today at the university. Our generation is now willing to take on the mantle of being free from that destructive consciousness which threatens our two neighborhoods, as well as being free to create a new consciousness at the university that respects our dignity and the right to determine how we are going to live. In the near future, when there is a call to action to support these freedoms, I trust each of you will respond in a positive way.

Oftentimes when individuals dream impossible dreams, think out of the box, or attempt to embark on a journey against insurmountable odds, they are characterized as crazy or “not all there”. There are some who think all of us are crazy or “not all there” for even attempting to triumph over the two largest universities in our city, the three largest foundations, the city government with its vast resources, as well as all the friends and supporters of these entities. So, in the words of the country and western song: We’re all here cause we’re not all there.

We are going to continue to be wise and crazy, and to move forward to do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do.

As we did one year ago, we are once again taking a stand to let city, university, and foundation leaders, as well as their supporters who want a roadway through our two neighborhoods, know that they will never take away our dignity, diminish our intensity, shackle our freedom, or break our spirit. They will never silence the voice of our soul.

We will triumph. There will be no roadway through Panther Hollow and The Run.