Jason and I, in tuxedos with pink shirts and rainbow bow ties for visibility, spent last weekend at the Pennsylvania Society, an event with one of my favorite little ironies. Despite its name, the Pennsylvania Society does not meet in Pennsylvania. It has gathered almost every December at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City since 1899. Tradition matters.<\/p>\n
Nearly a thousand people attend each year \u2014 bankers, leaders of major medical institutions, entertainment executives, heads of law firms, elected officials, and the wealthy and well-connected. In other words, the titans of business and political power. It\u2019s a black-tie dinner and, without question, the best networking event in the Commonwealth \u2014 outside the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
We attended this year for a very personal reason. A dear friend, David L. Cohen, was receiving the Society\u2019s Gold Medal. David and I have known each other for more than 35 years, dating back to when he served as chief of staff to Mayor Ed Rendell \u2014 a man we both deeply admire and who shaped much of our civic and political thinking.<\/p>\n
David hosted two tables, and for me, it felt like an old homecoming weekend. The three of us \u2014 Ed, David and I \u2014 grew up politically together, and over the decades we\u2019ve continued working alongside one another on civic projects that mattered to us and to our beloved Philadelphia. As David said so eloquently in his acceptance speech, and I paraphrase here, \u201cPennsylvanians share a belief in working with all sides of an issue, respecting whoever holds power, embracing compromise and logic, and maintaining an unshakable bond to our state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sitting at our tables were Gov. Josh Shapiro and Mayor Cherelle Parker, who I see as the next generation of leaders carrying forward that same philosophy: working across party lines to get things done and deliver for the people they serve. Both of them have done just that.<\/p>\n
There were many poignant moments for me that evening. One was hearing both Josh and David honor Ed Rendell in their remarks. Another was Mayor Parker and Gov. Shapiro making a lighthearted joke about me and a project we\u2019re working on. We all swapped stories with David about our past adventures. It all came down to not just our words, but in the values we\u2019ve carried forward, and the friendship and loyalty we\u2019ve built over many years.<\/p>\n
Then there was a moment that caught me by surprise. Former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett came over to pay respects to David and Ed. Years earlier, I had worked with him to help bring marriage equality to Pennsylvania \u2014 a full year before the Supreme Court made it the law of the land.<\/p>\n
I turned to Jason, shook Corbett\u2019s hand, and said quietly, \u201cThank you for my marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some moments stay with you. That was one of them.<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019ll wait for David\u2019s email explaining the mistakes I\u2019ve made in this column. I\u2019ll treasure that.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason and I, in tuxedos with pink shirts and rainbow bow ties for visibility, spent last weekend at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":451541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,20497,207331,207332,10577,403,1448,2830,207333,1311,207334,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,98317],"class_list":{"0":"post-451540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-cherelle-parker","10":"tag-david-l-cohen","11":"tag-ed-rendell","12":"tag-josh-shapiro","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-pa","15":"tag-pennsylvania","16":"tag-pennsylvania-society","17":"tag-philadelphia","18":"tag-tom-corbett","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa","25":"tag-waldorf-astoria"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115730889034786739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}