Vol. VI, No. XVI
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
Cash Strapped City of Rye Finds $9,000 to Make Whistle Blower Disappear
Thursday, April 19, 2012,,,,$1.00
JOHN F. McMULLEN Spreadsheets Page 4 RICH MONETTI Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant Page 5 SHERIF AWAD The Alexandrians Page 6 JOHN SIMON Hispanic and Scottish Accents Page 13 ABBY LUBY Hidden Worlds Page 18 BARBARA BARTON SLOANE Panama Canal Page 20 HEZI ARIS Governance in Silence Page 28
By LEON SCULTI, Page 23 WWW.WESTCHESTERGUARDIAN.COM
HENRY J. STERN Crooked Lines Crooked Deals Page 30
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THE WESTcHESTER GUARDiAn THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THE WESTcHESTER GUARDiAn
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Of Significance Of Of Significance Significance
Community Section ...............................................................................4 Community Section................................................................................3 Community Section ...............................................................................4 Business ................................................................................................4 Calendar................................................................................................3 Business ................................................................................................4 CalendarDisruption. ...............................................................................................4 Creative ............................................................................4 Calendar ...............................................................................................4 Charity ..................................................................................................5 Wesfoodies............................................................................................5 Creative Disruption ............................................................................5 Charity Cultural Perspective............................................................................6 Contest..................................................................................................5 ..................................................................................................6 Ecology..................................................................................................8 Cultural Perspective ...........................................................................7 Contest ..................................................................................................6 Creative Disruption ............................................................................6 History...................................................................................................8 Energy Issues .......................................................................................8 Creative Disruption ............................................................................6 Education .............................................................................................7 International.......................................................................................10 In Memoriam ....................................................................................10 Education .............................................................................................7 Fashion ..................................................................................................8 Internet................................................................................................11 Medicine .............................................................................................10 Fashion ..................................................................................................8 Najah’s Corner....................................................................................12 Fitness....................................................................................................9 Najah’s Corner ...................................................................................11 Fitness....................................................................................................9 People...................................................................................................12 Health ..................................................................................................10 The Spoof. ............................................................................................12 Movie Review ....................................................................................12 Health ..................................................................................................10 History ................................................................................................10 SportsScene. ........................................................................................13 Music ...................................................................................................12 History ................................................................................................10 Ed Koch Movie..................................................................................13 Review ...................................................................12 Eye On Theatre. Community ........................................................................................13 Ed Koch Movie Review ...................................................................12 Spoof ....................................................................................................13 Children’s Section..............................................................................14 Writers Collection.............................................................................14 Spoof Writers Collection.............................................................................16 Sports....................................................................................................13 Scene .......................................................................................13 Books ...................................................................................................16 Sports Scene .......................................................................................13 Books. . ..................................................................................................18 Najah’s Corner ...................................................................................13 Travel. ...................................................................................................20 People ..................................................................................................18 Najah’s Corner ...................................................................................13 Writers Collection.............................................................................14 Shifting Gears.....................................................................................21 Eye On...................................................................................................16 Theatre ..................................................................................18 Writers Collection.............................................................................14 Books Government Section.............................................................................22 Leaving on a Jet Plane ......................................................................19 Books ...................................................................................................16 Transportation...................................................................................17 Budget..................................................................................................22 Government Section Transportation ...................................................................................17 Albany Correspondent.....................................................................22 Government Section ............................................................................20 ............................................................................17 Campaign Trail ..................................................................................20 Government Section ............................................................................17 Investigation. .......................................................................................23 Albany Correspondent ....................................................................17 People...................................................................................................24 Economic Development....................................................................17 ..................................................................20 Albany Correspondent Mayor Marvin’s Column .................................................................18 Government. .......................................................................................25 Education ...........................................................................................21 Mayor Marvin’s Column .................................................................18 Government .......................................................................................19 OpEd .........................................................................................26 TheSection. Hezitorial ....................................................................................21 Government .......................................................................................19 OpEd Section Letter to the .........................................................................................23 Editor............................................................................26 Legal ....................................................................................................23 OpEd Section .........................................................................................23 The Hezitorial.....................................................................................28 Ed Koch Commentary.....................................................................23 People ..................................................................................................24 Ed Koch Commentary.....................................................................23 Ed Koch Letters toCommentary.....................................................................29 the Editor ..........................................................................24 New York Civic. ..................................................................................30 Strategy Letters to...............................................................................................24 the Editor ..........................................................................24 Weir Only Human ............................................................................25 Weir Only Human. .............................................................................25 ...........................................................................30 OpEd Section .........................................................................................25 Weir Only Human LegalNotices. Notices...........................................................................................26 Legal .........................................................................................25 ..........................................................................................27 Legal Notices ..........................................................................................26
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TalkRadio.com/WestchesterOntheLevel. Join ofthe conversaallegations, programming be suspended for the days March 29, 2012. Westchester On the Levelwith is heard from Monday to Friday, from2610toa.m. to 12YonNoon tion by calling 1-347-205-9201. Please stay on topic. kers Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor James Sadewhite is our scheduled guest Westchester On the Level is heard from Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 12Friday, Noon on the Internet: http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterOntheLevel. Join March 30. th on the Internet: http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterOntheLevel. the conversation by calling16toll-free to 1-877-674-2436. Please stay on topic. Join On Monday, April , Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano’s presenIt is howeverby anticipatedtoll-free that thetojury will conclude its Please deliberation on either Monthe conversation 1-877-674-2436. stay on Richard Narog andcalling Hezi Aris are your co-hosts. Incase, the week tation the FY2012-2013 Proposed Budget will bewe cause for thetopic. day or of Tuesday, March 26 or 27. Should that be the willbeginning resume ourFebruary regular 20th and ending on Richard Narog andhave Hezi Aris your InYonkers the week beginning th February 24th, we anto exciting entourage of guests. programming schedule and announce thatco-hosts. fact on the Tribune website. Monday programming be are pre-empted. On Tuesday, April 17 , February 20th and ending on February 24th, we anAris exciting entourage ofshow. guests. Richard Narog and Hezi are co-hosts of the Every Monday is have special. On Monday, February 20th, Wade, co-hosts Richard Narog and Hezi Aris will focus Krystal onto the im-a celebrated participant in http:// Every Monday is special. On Monday, February 20th, Krystal Wade, participant in http:// www.TheWritersCollection.com is our guest. Krystal Wade is a mother of three who works fifty miles pact of Mayor Mike Spano’s proposed budget presentation. Ona celebrated www.TheWritersCollection.com is our guest. Krystal Wade is a mother of three who works fifty miles from home and writes in th her “spare time.” “Wilde’s Fire,” her debut novel has been accepted for publication Wednesday, April 18in,her Yonkers Police“Wilde’ Benevolent Association President Detective Keith Olson from home and writes “spare Fire,” her debut has sbeen accepted and should be available in 2012. Nottime.” far behind iss her second novel,novel “Wilde’ Army.” How for doespublication she do it? th with present a union’s perspective of the proposed budget. On April 19 , Wayne Schaffel and available it? Tuneshould in andbefind out. in 2012. Not far behind is her second novel, “Wilde’s Army.” How does sheofdoWii Limousine will out. discuss one of New Rochelle’s businesses. On Friday, April 20th, Yonkers Mayor Tune in and find Co-hosts Richard Narog and Hezi Aris will relish the dissection of all things politics on Tuesday, February MikeYonkers Spano willNarog speak to President the crisis he theofnew Mayor of the Yonkers. Co-hosts Richard and Hezi ArisChuck willcontends relish thewith dissection all things politics onCity Tuesday, February 21st. City Council Lesnick willasshare his perspective from the of august inner 21st. Yonkers Lesnick will share 22nd. his perspective from theEsq., august sanctum of theCity CityCouncil CouncilPresident ChambersChuck on Wednesday, February Stephen Cerrato, will inner share sanctum of the CityonCouncil Chambers Wednesday, February24th 22nd. Esq.,bewill share his political insight Thursday, Februaryon 23rd. Friday, February hasStephen yet to beCerrato, filled. It may a propihis political Thursday, February 23rd. Friday, February 24th has yet to be filled. 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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
Page 3
CommunitySection
When was the last time CALENDAR you dealt with Hastings Alumni Association Sports Lexington Capital Associates? / Movie Memorabilia Auction
Own a piece of sports history and benefit the students of Hastings High School. Bid for sports and movie memorabilia online in a silent auction and come to the live auction at Hastings High School on Friday, April 20, 2012, at 6 PM, moderated by Rick Wester, president of Rick Wester Fine Art in New York. Items are authenticated by various prestigious organizations and sold with satisfaction guaranteed by the Hastings Alumni Association. A truly exciting item list -- as well as auction details -- can be found at www.hohalumni.org or www.art-cetera.com/hastings, (in both cases, look for -- and click on -- the “Sports Memorabilia Night” picture). Also, please consider participating in an on-
line memorabilia silent auction running until 11:59pm, Thursday, April 19th. Auction night at the school, Food will be served by the Hastings Booster Club during the auction at Hastings High School. In honor of the Little League opening the next day, the Hastings Alumni Association will show a classic baseball comedy in the auditorium for the kids to watch during the live auction. (Contractually, we cannot name the film, but the Booster Club might be selling THE “SAND” wiches a “LOT.”) Learn more by visiting the following online sites: www.hohalumni.org or www.art-cetera.com/ hastings.
News & Notes from Northern Westchester By MARK JEFFERS The boys of summer, those being the Yankees and Mets, have started their seasons… the birds are chirping, the Buds are opening, (the plants probably, too), so spring has sprung, and it’s time again for this week’s, “News and Notes…” My wife tells me that Bedford resident Martha Stewart is looking to build a 3,200 square foot storage facility on her property next to Ralph Lauren, I can just hear them discussing it now, “Hey Ralphie boy, you mind if I build a shed next to your pad,” or something like that… It’s time again for the Helping Neighbors for 20 Years Art Contest, sponsored by our good friends at the Community Center of Northern Westchester. You can create a drawing for a tote bag to help celebrate the Center’s 20th Anniversary. Your drawing should illustrate the caption “Helping Neighbors for 20 Years,” think of the Community Center, sharing with others, helping your neighbors, the number 20, and having a birthday. The entry needs to be a line drawing using black marker only, draw below the line in the space provided on the form or on white paper the size of the entry form. All entries must be received by April 30, 2012 and is open to children up to age 13. Entries can be dropped off, mailed, or scanned and emailed to the Center. Sounds
like fun to me, now if I could only draw… If drawing is not for you, how about joining your neighbors for an inspiring afternoon of song and celebration at the Antioch Baptist Church Choir Gospel Concert, an annual event to benefit the Community Center. Free-will offerings are welcome to aid the Center’s work. The concert will take place at Antioch Baptist Church in Bedford Hills with a reception to follow immediately at the Bedford Hills Community House on April 22nd. Since 1992, the Community Center of Northern Westchester has been dedicated to helping neighbors in need by sharing the essentials of living. With the support of 29 Community Partners, and the generosity and volunteer power of residents from all over Northern Westchester, they offer food and clothing, as well as other programs designed to meet the needs of those living in the Northern Westchester community. A job well done… Congratulations to the Fox Lane Middle School Sports Leadership group for their help with the Pioneers Special Olympics basketball game. This young group realized that this annual game often goes unwatched and they wanted the Pioneer Team to experience the thrill of playing before a crowd of fans. By sponsoring and promoting the game, over 300 people packed into the high school gym to cheer both teams on! With Earth Day on our minds, everyone Continued on page 4
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Page 4
CALENDAR
News & Notes from Northern Westchester Continued from page 3 should take the opportunity to participate in the furniture drive in Armonk. Furniture Share House is collecting gently used furniture in good condition at North Castle’s Zero Waste Day on Saturday, April 21st, from 9AM to 3PM. Furniture Sharehouse will be collecting furniture to benefit Westchester families in need. The Drive is part of the Town of North Castle’s “Zero Waste Day” and will take place rain or shine. I hope my wife doesn’t use this as an excuse to go out and buy the new furniture she has been hinting at that! Since you did not win the Mega-millions jackpot, perhaps there’s something in your attic that is worth more then you think, here is an opportunity to find out…Hudson Chorale will be hosting an Antiques Appraisal Fair on Saturday, April 21st at the Scarborough Presbyterian Church in Scarborough. Highly experienced, professional appraisers will be on hand to examine your fine jewelry, watches, porcelain, art, furniture and other antiques and provide a verbal appraisal of the value. Fees are $25 for the first item and $5 for each additional item up to a maximum of 3 pieces. All proceeds will benefit Hudson Chorale, the area’s largest not-for-profit community chorus. The Business Council of Westchester is now accepting nominations for its annual “Rising Stars, 40 under 40” awards, sorry I am not eligible; too young…call 914-948-2110 for details. The month of May and college finals are just around the corner…good luck to all the area college students, study hard and get home safely to your loved ones… see you next week. Mark Jeffers successfully spearheaded the launch of MAR$AR Sports & Entertainment LLC in 2008. As president he has seen rapid growth of the company with the signing of numerous clients. He resides in Bedford Hills, New York, with his wife Sarah, and three daughters, Kate, Amanda, and Claire.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
CREATIVE DISRUPTION
Spreadsheets Changed Our Lives
A Tale of Luck, Timing, Opportunity, Success, Failure, and Joy By JOHN F. McMULLEN In 1978, Barbara McMullen and I were in the process of leaving Morgan Stanley & Co, to form our own consulting business (we were blessed with the support of Morgan president Bob Baldwin and managing partner Fred Scholtz who, in return for previous accomplishments, gave us paid time while we formulated our plans). Between us, we had twenty-fours years of experience with large computer systems, of which seventeen was with Securities Processing Systems. Our plan therefore was to concentrate on working on large “mainframe” brokerage systems and we had already signed a small retainer agreement with a data processing services firm to begin our independent life. While still with Morgan Stanley, we were about to get on the elevator to go to lunch one day when a coworker from another area of the firm, Seth Gersch, met us and said, “I understand you’re leaving.” When we nodded in affirmation, he said, “Have you seen the computer up on Ben Rosen’s desk?”“No” (I couldn’t imagine a computer on a desk) “Then you should go look at it. There might be something in it for you.” So, instead of going down in the elevator, we pressed 34 and went up to our Research Dept. We had never met Ben but knew that he was the firm’s well-renowned Electronics Analyst but he couldn’t have been nicer when we showed up at his desk – and, on his desk, we saw for the first time an Apple II! Ben showed us a modem connection to a Farmer’s Weather Service in Kentucky, a Dow Jones Portfolio Program, and a game running off cassette tape. Not much there – but very intriguing. I decided on the spur of the moment to buy one if only to do some programming, something I had been away from in the years that I moved into management. As luck would have it, shortly after that we
saw an ad in a local Pennysaver for the sale of an Apple II by a fellow who was moving on to another hobby and we bought it, complete with two disk drives. A few days later, we were in the office of Charlie Griswold, the president of our client and I happened to mention the purchase of the Apple II. He surprised me by saying “You should talk to a friend of mine, a doctor. He’s the South Jersey distributor for Apple.” “Your doctor is a distributor for Apple?” “Yes, he gets into a lot of things.” – and Charlie gave us Dr. Bill Merlino’s phone number. It turned out that Charlie was off a little; Bill wasn’t a distributor for Apple – he had opened “Jonathan’s Apple,” a computer store in Marleton, NJ and was watching it expand rapidly. We spoke to Bill and not only became the closest of friends but wound up collaborating on a number of business deals over the years in which he supplied the equipment and we provided the applications expertise and the customer interface. All this would have been of little impact on our lives had another Morgan Stanley friend, John Smith, called our attention to a piece in the Morgan Stanley Electronics Letter written by our friend Ben Rosen about a new software product called “VisiCalc.” VisiCalc was the first electronic spreadsheet! (When the product was shown to some non-computer people, some said “So what? Isn’t that what computers do? – do things with numbers.” On the other hand, computer people, knowing that a program had never been written for spreadsheets on a mainframe or a minicomputer were more than taken aback – “astonished” would be a better term.”). Ben had gotten an early copy of the program and rather rapidly perceived the possible impact of the program. His article (http://www.bricklin.com/history/rosenletter.htm) discussed the product and then ended with one of the most prophetic quotes in the history of the business world, “So who knows? Visicalc could some day become the software tail that wags (and sells) the personal computer dog.”
What Ben’s quote to the uninitiated meant was that, up until this time, mainframe computers and minicomputers would be purchased and then the buyers would either write programs for their needs or buy software already written for their particular industries. Ben’s meaning was, that once people understood the value of spreadsheets, they would want to buy VisiCalc (at that time, $100) and “something to run it on” (at that time, only an Apple II, which could cost from $4,000 to $10,000 depending on the quality of the printer and monitor attached to the system). We rapidly became proficient with VisiCalc and, as many in the financial community struggled with their initial attempts at using a personal computer, began to both design VisiCalc models for personal business use and train in the use of Apple II’s and VisiCalc. We were recommended to many in the community by Ben and, when necessary, did a “turn-key” installation with computers purchased from Jonathan’s Apple. We also developed a cassette and diskette-based training program for VisiCalc and marketed it through a newsletter that we began. We sent copies of the training material to Software Arts, the firm started by the developers of VisiCalc, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, two special persons who soon became friends. When Popular Computing Magazine asked Dan to write an article about VisiCalc, he recommended that Barbara write it instead – and that led to a long career as writers (we repaid Dan somewhat a few years later when we wrote a cover article for “Computers and Electronics” Magazine , formerly “Popular Electronics”, -- Dan had said that, growing up, he had always wanted to be written about in Popular Electronics). The marketing of VisiCalc was done by a company founded by Dan Fylstra and Peter Jennings, “Personal Software,” leaving Bricklin and Frankston free to develop new and improved versions of Visicalc including one for the unsuccessful Apple III and one for a Hewlett Packard computer. As VisiCalc sold more and more Apple IIs, other software developers looked for opportunities to provide products to the same marketplace and one of the early ones was Mitchell D. “Mitch” Kapor, who developed a statistical and graphing program based on a mainframe product known as “TROLL” which he named “Tiny Troll” and marketed for $100. We got an early look at the product and began to install it for our customers. While customers were pleased with both products, they soon came to what we referred to as “the next level of dissatisfaction.” They were first blown away by the new products, VisiCalc or Tiny Troll, but, once proficient, then began to find things that they wish were improved – a big one in this case was the programs “did not talk to each other” so the same data had to be keyed into both programs or the results of calculations from VisiCalc had to be keyed into Tiny Troll. Quickly, the bright group of players came Continued on page 5
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
Page 5
CREATIVE DISRUPTION
Spreadsheets Changed Our Lives Continued from page 4
up with solutions – Bob Frankston developed an interface format, “dif”, which he published for developers and users to use in transporting VisiCalc data. Personal Software, to capitalize on the VisiCalc brand, changed its name to “VisiCorp” and reached an agreement for Kapor to develop a new product based on Tiny Troll that would both contain color graphics and interface with VisiCalc. The resultant product actually turned out to be two products, “VisiTrend + VisiPlot,” which contained both the graphics and statistical functions, and “VisiPlot” which was intended for those who only wanted to develop graphics from manual or VisiCalc input.
For a while everything was wonderful – Software Arts and VisiCorp were making money hand over fist; Bricklin, Frankston and Kapor were software heroes and were the toast of the Apple community; and Barbara and I had built a consulting firm with professional and office staff and were travelling all over the US and Latin America training customers and developing systems! Looking at this scenario in retrospect, we can see a number of things. Luck – We met Seth Gersch at the elevator and went off to Ben Rosen, who happened to be at his desk and had time to infect us with his enthusiasm. We later found Dr. Bill Merlino
through a coincidence. Had these things not happened, our story would have been very different. Timing – In the “The Self-Made Myth: And the Truth about How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed”, authors Brian Miller and Mike Lapham point out the importance of timing and the luck behind it. Had we started our business two years before we did, we would have been embarked on a mainframe-based consulting business and perhaps never moved into microcomputer solutions or writing; had we started two years later, we would have been behind the curve and probably not established the relationship with the important and brilliant people that we did. Opportunity – We were of a mindset and work ethic to seize the opportunities and capi-
talize on them and we early-on recognized the importance of “networking” and the need for it always to be a “two-way street”, never one-sided. Next week, it all comes apart! Creative Disruption is a continuing series examining the impact of constantly accelerating technology on the world around us. These changers normally happen under our personal radar until we find that the world as we knew it is no more. John F. McMullen has been involved in technology for over 40 years and has written about it for major publications. He may be found on Facebook and his current non-technical writing, a novel, “The Inwood Book” and “New & Collected Poems by johnmac the bard” are available on Amazon. He is a professor at Purchase College and has previously taught at Monroe College, Marist College and the New School For Social Research.
WESFOODIES
Lalibela - Ethiopian Restaurant
Adding Distinctiveness to Mt. Kisco’s South Moger Avenue
By RICH MONETTI
Every time a business closes in a downtown Westchester area, part of the soul of the said city escapes into oblivion. Even more so when its replacement
operates in accordance with Wall Street rather than the pulse of the community that supports it. In turn, with ever rising rents and all the financial upheaval, says Mt. Kisco small business owner Selamawit Tesfaye, “Now, there’s a bank on every corner.” But that doesn’t mean Mt. Kisco hasn’t held up against the big boxes; she’s definitely
doing her part in uplifting the distinctiveness of Mt. Kisco alive. “I serve traditional Ethiopian food,” says Selamawit Testaye, proprietress of Lalibela, situated at 37 South Moger Avenue. She best describes the food from her native land as similar to Indian. “I tell people its mostly beef, lamb and chicken slowly cooked into stews with spices.” A little less on the zest than Indian food, Continued on page 6
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
WESFOODIES Lalibela - Ethiopian Restaurant Continued from page 5 Lalibela dishes out the entree in traditional Ethiopian form. “We eat off the same plate,” she says, “and a flatbread called ‘injera’ sort of serves as the utensil.” Of course, if hands-on isn’t your style, customers can opt out with a fork but eating by example turns out to be a good way to get kids interested in something other than hamburgers and grilled cheese. “Getting to use their hands,” she says, “kids seem to like that.” She obviously has had a taste and touch for cooking since childhood and learned how to prepare these dishes at home, by her mother’s side. The proof came full circle in her mother’s first visit last month to Lalibela from Ethiopia. Despite the maternal pride that couldn’t be denied, mother may still have been reluctant to pass the baton. “Surprised,” Tesfaye said, “She didn’t think I could cook this well.” Nonetheless, opening her own business was always a dream and settling in America gave her the best chance to realize that possibility. Arriving in 1995, she had to get her business bearings first. “I used to think coffee shops, because Ethiopia is known for coffee, but there were Starbucks everywhere,” she emphasized. Working at the Crab Tree Kittle House for nine years as a waitress, bartender, and all else they had for her to do, gave the future entrepreneur
Selamawit Tesfaye serves Ethiopian cuisine with flatbread and a smile. By Rich Monetti the restaurant experience she needed. Customer curiosity about Ethiopian food focused her attention toward the right venue. “Many people asked me about Ethiopian food and cuisine so I thought perhaps a small Ethiopian restaurant in Mt. Kisco would work,” she continued. Ms. Tesfaye considered her hometown of Irvington, but decided the downtown area too small, while White Plains was avoided for just the opposite rationale. Mt. Kisco slid nicely into a logical middle ground. In fact, Mt. Kisco’s welcome of her two years ago was a relationship that clinched her deciding to open Lalibela in Mt. Kisco. “I came first to Mt. Kisco from my country, and I like the place and the people so I said,
‘Why not?’,” she recalled. That said, Ms Tesfaye was certainly aware of the high rents and the large Moger Street turnover that has been all too common. “So far, it’s been alright,” she says. “We’re making it.” Ms Tesfaye senses Mt. Kisco understands the importance of a vibrant, independent downtown. Tucked in off the “avenue,” she is comfortable being out of sight (and sound) of the foot traffic. “A lot of first time customers say they didn’t realize we were here, but they’re happy to leave all the noise on the main drag behind.” What they take, though, is what she likes most about running Lalibela. “Introducing people to Ethiopian cuisine, and having patrons
meanor. The Alexandrians was written and directed by Metod Pevec, a Slovenian filmmaker who studied philosophy and comparative literature in Ljubljana. Upon conclusion of his formal studies, Mr Pevec ventured into directing several feature films and documentaries. For a long time, Pevec wanted to present the story of Slo-
venian women in Alexandria. He was however concernes that the telling would recall too many sad memories and would reveal the prejudices they suffered and the impact of knowing would negatively impact their descendants. According to Pevec, many people know the story of “The Alexandrians,”the name used to collectively refer to the young women of that time, over which, to this day, few will speak to their suffering and travail. Pevec shared, “During the shooting of the film, the greatest difficulty was nurturing trust among the Slovenian interviewees in order they be comfortable enough to reveal their most intimate memories in front of the camera. It was very poignant for most of them.” The Alexandrians is a heartwarming and pleasurable experience thanks to the talents of the Slovenian crew, including cinematographer Miso Cadez, music composer Aldo Kumar, and the deep voice of its narrator, Slovenian leading actor Primoz Pirnat. The archival footage from The British Pathe and Global Image afforded the old family portraits and images of The Alexandrians to reveal the strong visual elements and authenticity of the documentary. It took Pevec and his crew two years to finalize the search for this documentary and to track down interviewees in Egypt, Slovenia, Europe and the United States. Particularly in Vipava Valley, Slovenia, Pevec succeeded in meeting
try the various foods, and come to like it - that’s what gives me the most satisfaction.” She takes the difficulty of 13-hour days in stride. “They say it gets easier after two years so I’m looking forward to that,” she says, “but it’s been good.” Lalibela is open every day for lunch and dinner, except for Monday. www.lalibelamountkisco.com
Rich Monetti lives in Somers. He’s been a freelance writer in Westchester since 2003. Peruse his work at www. rmonetti.blogspot.com.
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
The Alexandrians By SHERIF AWAD
The Mediterranean Sea was the center of world history that always connected its countries through humanistic bonds across the ages. Premiered in Cairo during the latest 4th European Film Panorama, the new Slovenian documentary, The Alexandrians, went to investigate the relationship between Egyptian people and young Slovenian women, who emigrated to the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria in the late 19th century, only to settle down for decades as wet nurses, nannies and housewives. The Alexandrians traces back their origins to the year 1869 when The Suez Canal was built, which attracted many wealthy European entrepreneurs and their families to take up residence in Cairo and Alexandria. Meanwhile, approximately 5000 Slovenian women left the often poor, and remote villages of their homeland, to emigrate to Alexandria seeking employment in the households among the foreign businessmen. Over the years, the Slovenian women earned a reputation for their honesty, eclipsing the British nannies for possessing a more congenial de-
Boutros Boutros-Ghali with and interviewing the last three Alexandrians, all over 100 years of age. One of them is Doreteja Arcon, who still remembers some of the Arabic words they used to call her like Taali and Roohi (“Come here!” and “Go away!”). Some of the children raised by the Alexandrians, now adult, many figures of renown, also spoke to Pevec about how they still vividly remember those nannies who looked after them and often spent Continued on page 7
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
Page 7
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
The Alexandrians
Contined from page 6
The Alexandrians more time with them than their own parents. Counted among them are Egyptian politician Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Secretary-Gen-
The Alexandrians eral of the United Nations, who mentioned his Slovenian governess Milena and how she raised him and his siblings in their grandparents’ house. Juxtaposed to the fond memories are the sad revelations that refer most viscerally to several forced separations between mothers and their children. These situations too often occurred when Slovenian women od the Catholic faith married Egyptian men of the Muslim faith. In that context, the film raises the questions about the fate of love and relationships between Easterners and Westerners and the inferred religious divide. Among those, Pevec interviewed Magda Ibrahim who lives in Alexandria today. She had a Slovenian mother who converted to Islam after marrying an Egyptian. Unbeknownst to her, the mother had two children in Slovenia from a previous marriage. The mother maintained her connection to her children by sending letters and gifts for fourteen years.
On the other hand, there were more exuberant stories. “During my research, Pevec says, “I was surprised that there were many successful or even happy marriages between Egyptian Muslim men and Slovenian Catholic women. Inter-religious difference were obviously not as fatal as it may be considered today. Even Slovenians, who have returned from Egypt, spoke about Egyptians with niceties and respect.” In Atineos Café, on Alexandria Corniche, Gilberto Civardi, who was born to a Slovenian mother and an Italian father, still visits his hometown twice a year for nostalgic reasons. Civardi
Metod Pevec
Continued on page 8
Magda Ibrahim
Gilberto Civardi
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CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
The Alexandrians Contined from page 7
told a story he used to hear when he was a young boy in the English school near Atineos. It was about Jova, the beautiful Slovenian lady who was not a nurse or a nanny. She was the most elegant and richest Slovenian lady living in Alexandria after she married Oswald James Finney, the wealthy British businessman who was once the
co-owner of the Egyptian Gazette after WWII. Under the Church of The Sacred Heart in Alexandria, Civardi took The Alexandrians crew to photograph the chapel or the family crypt where The Finneys both lie alongside their antique collections. Pevic had no problem obtaining the necessary permits to shoot in Egypt. The Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) assisted him with an Egyptian crew, which gave wider
dimension to the film. Because of this successful collaboration, Pevec hopes for future projects between Slovenia and Egypt. “The Slovenian film industry is very small and still depends on governmental funds to produce around five major films a year. However, I still dream that the story of The Alexandrians can be presented in a feature film co-produced by Egypt and Slovenia,” he explained
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is a film/video critic and curator. He is the film editor of Egypt Today Magazine, and the artistic director for both the Alexandria Film Festival, in Egypt, and the Arab Rotterdam Festival, in The Netherlands. He also contributes to Variety, in the United States, and Variety Arabia, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
ECOLOGY
SavATree to Revitalize Greenburgh Nature Center’s Orchard By HEZI ARIS SCARSDALE, NY -- The Greenburgh Nature Center (GNC) is in the process of bringing back the orchard, thanks to SavATree donating their time, services and expertise for the initial phase of this project. At one time, the acreage of the Greenburgh Nature Center property consisted of farmland and an orchard. Today, only three fruit trees remain, in part because invasive trees and vines had overtaken much of the area. Even so, GNC is strengthening vital connections to the Earth. Continued donor support and sponsorship permits GNC to abide by their tenets of maintaining a cerebral and physical bon with Mother Nature. Sponsors and volunteers are reclaiming and restoring vital and historic areas of the property. In so doing, they are creating living, breathing, growing ‘classrooms’ where visitors and school groups can fully comprehend and thereby appreciate the importance of healthy habitats and healthy habits. SavATree has become a valued partner to the Greenburgh Nature Center. In addition to donating over $3,500 in man-hours and equipment for revitalizing the orchard, SavATree have committed to plant trees in the orchard when
(L-R): Dean Fausel, GNC Environmental Educator and Facilities Manager, John Morris, SavATree Branch Manager, Courtney White, GNC Executive Director, Karl Whipple, SavATree Operations Manager, and Steve Skyer, SavATree Arborist - Mamaroneck branch. the grounds are ready for planting. In addition, SavATree will be on hand at the Nature Center’s annual Earth Day Celebration on Sunday, April 22, to do a tree planting demonstration and lead a discussion on root collar disorders. They will also have a featured activity at GNC’s Fall Festival on October 21, offering rides on their zipline. GNC is focused on working on a fully developed plan to re-plant the orchard. Fruit tree
purchases and naming opportunities for the public will be available in the future as GNC plants a green future! The Greenburgh Nature Center is a 33-acre woodland preserve with trails, pond, gardens, and outdoor animal exhibits, including a birds of prey aviary. The indoor exhibits include a live animal museum with over 100 specimens; exhibit areas focusing on nature and the envi-
ronment, a greenhouse with botanical exhibits, and a gift shop. The mission of the Greenburgh Nature Center is to offer inspiring, hands-on environmental education experiences, to foster an appreciation of nature, and to promote sustainable practices. Learn more by visiting www. greenburghnaturecenter.org. The Nature Center is located at 99 Dromore Road, off Central Park Avenue, in Scarsdale, NY. Parking is free, and handicapped parking is available. The Center’s grounds are open daily dawn to dusk throughout the year. The Center’s indoor exhibits are open daily except Fridays and a few holidays, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on weekends. Grounds open dawn until dusk every day. SavATree provides experience, reliability and expertise in environmentally sensible tree, shrub and lawn care programs through their tree experts. Their award winning team of arborists is committed to beautification through arboricultural excellence. They are proud to be able to improve the quality of life in the communities they service by providing unique tree services that preserve and enhance the environment. Located throughout the tri-state area, you can find a SavATree representative near you by calling (914) 777-1399.
HISTORY
Railroad Pioneers, 3: Peter Cooper’s Tom Thumb Locomotive By ROBERT SCOTT The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 brought unanticipated results beyond its planners’ dreams. Within a year, 42 barges were eastward each day, carrying a thousand passengers, 221,000 barrels of flour, 435,000 gallons of whiskey and 562,000 bushels of wheat. Shipping costs from Lake Erie to New York City fell from $100 a ton to only nine dollars. Badly undercut commercially and facing economic catastrophe, rival cities on the East Coast desperately attempted to retaliate by ex-
ploring the possibilities of digging their own canals to compete with the Erie. Boston’s canal would have been prohibitively expensive because the city was even farther from the wheat fields of the West. Its capitalists shifted their investments into manufacturing. Lacking routes through the rugged Appalachians that would match New York’s easy access through the Mohawk Valley to the fertile West, Philadelphia’s investors put their money into coal mining. Although Baltimore was actually closer to Western agriculture than any other city, the cost of digging a canal still proved to be unaffordable. In 1827, the Maryland legislature chartered a rail-
road to be called the Baltimore & Ohio, making it the first chartered railroad in the United States. On July 4, 1828, Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, broke ground for the B&O in a celebration that included fireworks, floats and speeches. Initially the B&O planned to use horses as motive power, even though locomotives had already demonstrated their superiority in England for a quarter-century. When horses proved to be impracticable, the B&O turned to a New Yorker for help.
An Inventor to the Rescue
Peter Cooper, whose ancestry included Dutch, English and Huguenot roots, had grown Continued on page 9
Peter Cooper, inventor, industrialist and philanthropist.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
Page 9
HISTORY ing and modern business. The B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore is a mecca for train buffs from all over the world. With the Tom Thumb, the B&O became the first railroad to operate a locomotive built in America, to earn passenger revenues and to publish a timetable (May 23, 1830). It built the first passenger and freight station (Mount Clare in 1829). On December 24, 1852, it became the first rail line to reach the Ohio River from the eastern seaboard.
Railroad Pioneers, 3: Peter Cooper’s Tom Thumb Locomotive Continued from page 8 up in Peekskill, N.Y. After helping his father with at hatmaking and brewing, young Peter moved to New York City to become a coachmaker’s apprentice. Next, he invented and sold a clothshearing machine. In 1821, Peter Cooper bought a glue factory at Sunfish Pond, a sylvan setting of clover fields and buttonwood trees between today’s Fourth and Lexington avenues and 31st and 32nd streets, near the village of Kip’s Bay. After cattle yards and slaughterhouses opened nearby and produced a steady supply of cows’ hooves, Cooper set about devising new methods for using such byproducts. He soon became the principal supplier of glue, gelatin, household cement, isinglass and neat’s foot oil to the city’s factories and merchants. He also became the city’s largest polluter. Sunfish Pond had to be drained and filled in 1839. Convinced the new B&O railroad would cause real estate values to skyrocket, Cooper purchased 3,000 acres near Baltimore. In the course of draining swamps and leveling hills to develop his property, he found iron ore. Ever enterprising, he built furnaces and a foundry with the intention of forging rails to sell to the new railroad. When the B&O encountered problems with motive power, Cooper, who had his money invested in the railroad and who had several in-
ventions already to his credited, offered to create his own engine. “I believed I could knock together a locomotive which would get the trains around,” he later recollected for the Boston Herald in 1882, a year before he died, “so I came back to New York and got a little bit of an engine, about one horsepower, and carried it back to Baltimore. “I got some boiler iron and made a boiler about as big as an ordinary wash boiler and then how to connect a boiler with the engine I didn’t know. I had an iron foundry and some manual skill in working it. But I couldn’t find any iron pipes. The fact is that there were none for sale in this country. “So I took two muskets and broke off the wood parts, and used the barrels for tubing to the boiler. I went to a coachmaker’s shop and made this locomotive, which I called the Tom Thumb because it was so insignificant. I didn’t intend it for actual service, but only to show the directors that it could be done.” On a blazingly hot August day in 1830, with Cooper at the controls the Tom Thumb hauled a coachload of officials on a 13-mile demonstration trip to the end of the B&O track at Ellicott’s Mills (today called Ellicott City). A measured mile was covered in 3 minutes and 20 seconds, which translates into a speed of 18 miles an hour.
This replica of Peter Cooper’s locomotive Tom Thumb is featured in the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.
On the return trip to Baltimore, a horsedrawn coach was encountered plodding along the adjoining double track. Someone proposed a race. It turned out to be a disaster when the leather belt powering the auxiliary blower fanning the locomotive’s fire slipped from its drum. The horse-drawn coach won the informal race, but results of this doleful contest was quietly hushed up. After new of the successful locomotive test was announced, investors rushed to purchase millions in B&O stock and bonds. The railroad used the proceeds to buy Peter Cooper’s iron rails, earning him his first fortune. From the start, the B&O was a commercial and financial success and devised many new managerial methods that would become standard practice in railroad-
Railroads Come to the New York Area
Railroad construction in New York City began in 1831 when John Mason, president of the Chemical Bank, and two Harlem landowners, Benson McGowan and Thomas Addis Emmet, were granted a charter for a New York & Harlem Railroad. The Common Council granted the NY&H the right to operate horse-drawn cars over a double track from City Hall to the Harlem River along Fourth Avenue. Construction began in February of 1832. Rails were not nailed to wooden ties but bolted to one-footsquare granite blocks. Because the rails were well above street level, crosstown traffic became a nightmare. Horses pulled coaches up the Bowery from Prince Street to 14th Street and then Continued on page 10
Page 10
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THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
HISTORY
Railroad Pioneers, 3: Peter Cooper’s Tom Thumb Locomotive Continued from page 9
along Fourth Avenue to 27th Street, where the NY&H built a passenger depot, plus a produce terminal and stables for the line’s horses. By the autumn of 1833, the tracks had reached 32nd Street, where they encountered a major obstacle: a hill of dense, unyielding black mica schist. The tunnel through it—still in existence--took until 1837 to complete. The NY&H operated its first steam locomotive in June of 1834. It exploded on the 28th of the month, causing railroad management to return to horse-drawn cars for the next three years. The line resumed the use of steam motive power in 1837. In the meantime, tracks were laid on wooden ties through the town of Yorkville near 86th Street. In 1836, another tunnel had to be cut through the hill called Mt. Pleasant, between 92nd and 94th streets. Here the railroad opened a hotel in hopes of attracting visitors to the bucolic surroundings. A 658-foot-long timber viaduct allowed the line’s rails to reach its northern terminus at the Harlem River in 1837.Three years later, the NY&H constructed a bridge across the Harlem River at 131st Street and began its push northwards through Westchester County. A new kind of train passenger, the commuter, now came into existence. Tuckahoe was reached in July of 1844;
White Plains on December 1 that same year; Pleasantville in October of 1846; Mount Kisco the following February. The line plodded on through Putnam and Dutchess Counties, reaching Croton Falls on June 1, 1847 and Dover Plains on December 31, 1848. It reached its new northern terminus, Chatham Four Corners (now Chatham), 131 miles from New York City, on January 19, 1852. The idea of a direct, water-level railroad along the east bank of the Hudson River had been suggested as early as 1832 and rejected. It was inconceivable that a railroad could compete with the luxurious steamboats that offered low fares and fast travel. The success of the NY&H changed the climate of opinion. The Hudson River Railroad was granted a charter by the legislature on May 12, 1846. Its success owed much to English-born merchant and banker James Boorman, who proposed hiring John B. Jervis, of Croton Aqueduct fame, as the chief engineer. The usual controversy over motive power ensued. The city finally authorized in 1847 the operation of trains and the laying of track from Canal Street and Spuyten Duyvil. Construction of the Hudson River line progressed at a fast pace, thanks to the money and talent behind it. The segment extending from Canal Street to Poughkeepsie was opened on December 31, 1849. Builders reached East Albany on June 12, 1851, and regular service was offered on Octo-
Bureau of Public Roads artist Carl Rakeman’s painting of the famous race between the Tom Thumb and a horse. ber 8, although passengers had to cross Spuyten Duyvil Creek on a ferry until a bridge was opened in 1853. The total cost of the line came to $11,328,990. Because of continuing steamboat competition and despite its superior design and many innovations, especially in motive power, the
INTERNATIONAL
Syrian Disinformation About Christian Persecution By AYMENN JAWAD al –TAMIMI, OSKAR SVADKOVSKY, and PHILLIP SMYTH First published in Ha’aretz, on April 6, 2012. http://www.meforum.org/3208/syria-christianpersecution
Recent reports out of Syria have warned of the ethnic cleansing of 90 percent of the Christian population of Homs, the city that has been ravaged by the conflict between Assad’s forces and armed opposition groups since the uprising against the regime began in February last year. The responsibility for the mass killings and expulsions has been pinned on an armed opposition group known as the “Al-Faruq Brigade.” This claim first gained wide distribution in a report published on March 21 by Agenzia Fides (the official Vatican news agency), which declared its source to be “a note sent to Fides by some sources in the Syrian Orthodox Church.” Fides added that “in the ‘Faruq Brigade,’ note other sources, there seems [sic] to be armed elements of various Wahhabi groups and mercenaries from Libya and Iraq.” The claim of 90 percent ethnic cleansing can actually be traced to a report put out on
The Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch (also known as the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch). Bartholomew I and Pope Benedict XVI in Turkey, 2006. Photo by N. Manginas and courtesy of Ecumenical Patriarchate. March 13 by an online Arabic outlet known as Al-Haqiqa (Arabic for “the truth”). A quick Google search reveals that the original memo sent to Fides by the church leaders had been copy-pasted almost down to the last word from the SyriaTruth site, which is notorious for its pro-regime propaganda. Officials of the Syrian Church did not confirm the story with anybody in Homs before sending out the memo. They must have presumed that the SyriaTruth writers did. As a matter of fact, Al-Haqiqa had already
been taken to task by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which specifically referred to its reporting of extensive Al-Qaida and international jihadist presence among the Syrian opposition as “bogus.” Shortly after publishing the memo, Fides began backpedaling, in an attempt to mitigate the impact of the original report. [1] Later, it released another report quoting the “Jesuits of Homs,” who told the outlet that there were no cases to their knowledge of Christians being forced out of their homes by Islamists. Homs happens to be around 30 kilometers from the border with Lebanon, which is home to a large and relatively powerful Christian community, making it a natural destination for Christian refugees - indeed, around 20,000 Iraqi Christians have found safety there since the 2003 invasion. Nevertheless, there has been no reported upsurge in Syrian Christian refugees to Lebanon in recent weeks. On March 8, the Christian Science Monitor reported a few thousand Syrian refugees fled to Lebanon - mostly Sunnis from the Bab Amr quarter of Homs. Understandably, Christians have fled their homes amid fears of being caught in the crossfire. According to a report in Lebanon’s Daily Star, some Christians have been temporarily
Hudson River Railroad failed to earn a profit until 1865, one year after a rapacious Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had enough money to match his ambitions, acquired control of the company. Robert Scott is a semi-retired former book publisher and now an avid local historian. He lives in Crotonon-Hudson, N.Y.
forced out of their homes by Sunni fighters, but only because they needed space to fight government forces; further, contrary to the claims of the Al-Haqiqa report, the fighters allowed the Christians to take what they needed. Besides, the claims of straightforward ethnic cleansing by Islamist militants do not add up, because that is not how jihadist groups deal with Christians. For example, the standard practice in Iraq for jihadist groups like Al-Qaida - renowned in Iraq for its brutality - is to first demand jizya, which is a “poll-tax” imposed on Christian and Jewish minorities, in traditional Islamic theology. [2] If the minorities fail to pay jizya, they face bomb attacks or other violence. Yet the reports in Al-Haqiqa and Fides make no reference to imposition of jizya. There is little reason to doubt the motivation of Vatican and church leaders, who after Iraq have become extremely worried about the fate of the remaining Christian communities in the Middle East. Yet, over-the-top, sensationalist reporting by SyriaTruth and similarly pro-regime sites, combined with church leaders both in Syria and abroad responding by crying wolf before confirming the news, makes for an explosive and dangerous mix, with the potential of turning unfounded rumors or deliberate disinformation Continued on page 11
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INTERNATIONAL
Syrian Disinformation About Christian Persecution Continued from page 10
into self-fulfilling prophecies. With the death toll in Syria running in the thousands, and many times more wounded or tortured during the heavy crackdown by security forces on this predominantly Sunni uprising, there is a steady buildup of anger and frustration on the Sunni street with regard to the position of Syrian minorities, who often either are supportive of the regime or have adopted an “on the fence” approach. As the rebels are reportedly running out
of ammunition in many areas, the opposition leaders are pinning their last hope on the international community. News in the global media about Syrian Christians disseminating such reports about their Muslim neighbors can easily become the last straw that will break the back of the camel of sectarian coexistence. The Vatican and the local church leaders, preoccupied with the protection of their communities in Syria, may have the best intentions in the world. But when they fall for such sites as SyriaTruth, it is tempting to diagnose their
case as one of “With such protectors, who needs Islamists!”
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and an Adjunct Fellow at the Middle East Forum. Oskar Svadkovsky is a computer networking professional based in Tel Aviv and the owner of the “Happy Arab News Service” blog. Phillip Smyth is a journalist and researcher specializing in Middle Eastern affairs. He travels regularly in the region. Footnotes:
[1] In particular, the wording of the original version was changed from “there is ‘an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Christians,’ carried out by members of
the ‘Faruq Brigade’” to “carried out by some Islamist members of...”; and from “the ‘Faruq Brigade’ is run by armed elements of Al-Qa’ida and various Wahhabi groups and includes mercenaries from Libya and Iraq” to “In the ‘Faruq Brigade’, note other sources, there seems to be armed elements of ...and mercenaries from …” [2] Observe in the demographic maps of Baghdad that over time one starts to see the emergence of a few predominantly Christian areas, especially in southern Baghdad. The Islamist militant groups would expel or kill without reservation Muslims of the rival sect but allow Christians to remain while extorting jizya from them, in accordance with traditional interpretations of Qur’an 9:29.
INTERNET
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
NAJAH’S CORNER
No Where
By NAJAH MUHAMMAD Wanting to go Hoping to go Needing to go home I know not where home is I am longing to go home Because now I am here and here is not there Nothing is held inside me but a constant rhythmic fear It keeps tempo to the pace of my heart beat A vile screeching in my ear The very wind whispers words of discouragement I cannot breathe in this atmosphere Choking I am choking While this evil I am revoking so effortlessly manipulates it’s presence into that which I thirst for This is not the first nor last time this will happen A shape shifting lord Causing you to lose more than you can afford while crossing this bridge you and I know as life And right when you realize you have been shammed It’s too late because you’re already crammed Stuck Still like a vegetable As uneasy as a garden gnome Wanting nothing more, needing more Longing for nothing more than to go home But a pity, you’re lost It’s too late Failed the test and the quiz For you forgot what they taught you now you know not where home is Najah Muhammad is a 17-year-old senior in high school. She plans to attend college next year majoring in communications.
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
PEOPLE
Chef Alexandra Sampaio at the Helm at Westchester Broadway Theatre! The Westchester Broadway Theatre (WBT) has happily welcomed their new executive chef, Alexandra Sampaio. Alex was born and raised in Tarrytown, NY. She is a graduate with a degree in Culinary Arts from The Art Institute of New York. She has had over ten years of experience in the hospitality / restaurant industry, including being the executive chef of her own restaurant in Valhalla, NY, and the head district chef for The Bedford School District. She also is a sought-after caterer and event planner. She is very excited to join the WBT family, “I love the business. My interest in food came from a very early age. Food has been the highlight of my life. My father, Jack and Uncle Tony, both chefs, have been my mentors and have influenced
me tremendously. I enjoy the atmosphere of being in the kitchen, the excitement, the timing and the teamwork involved, in preparing and serving the dishes in a timely fashion. My staff is wonderful and welcomes the challenge! An avid fisherman, she loves to cook all types of fish, especially, Bacalao. Some of her signature dishes which she will
be adding to the Luxury Box and Main menus include: Pan seared tofu with Ratatouille, Boneless Trout Almondine, Monkfish with red pepper-basil sauce, Tilapia with lemon butter capers with orzo, Salmon Wellington over Ratatouille, Eggplant Cannelloni over noodles, Lemon Garlic Lamb Kabobs with couscous, Prosciutto Chicken Cacciatore, Maple Pretzel Pork Chop with Polenta, Zesty Chicken over pasta Primavera, Veal Scallopini and her personal cultural heritage gift, Porco Alentejana , a pork and clams specialty. “I’m looking forward to the years to come, as I bring a new twist and my own special flair to the WBT.” Photo by and courtesy of John Vecchiolla.
THE SPOOF
The Snake at the ATM Machine First Interview By GAIL FARRELLY
The trouble began when a customer found not only cash but also a snake waiting for him at the ATM machine in Spain. Eek! All’s well that ends well, though. Local authorities were called and released the snake from the machine’s cash-dispensing mechanism. They then transported him to an animal shelter. The world has seen the story from
the perspective of the humans involved in this situation. But we bring you the story from the viewpoint of the snake. A reporter knowledgeable in snake talk was dispatched to the animal shelter to get the first interview and file a report. Sam the snake said he survived the ordeal in good spirits, asking the reporter, “What’s the big deal?” and pointing out, “I was just picking up a few bucks from my bank account.” He’s happy in his new home and was grateful for the free transportation (no moving expenses!) to get him there. It
amazed him that one little snake like himself could cause such a ruckus, especially when people seem totally oblivious to the danger of so many unethical bankers (Sam calls them ‘human vipers’) hanging around trying to grab their money. “I was minding my own business and only there to collect my own funds,” the snake told the reporter, “not to gyp anyone else out of theirs.” Sam concluded the interview by saying, “Have to admit I enjoyed the whole episode. It gave me a good laugh. And as comedian Milton Berle once said: Laughter is an instant vacation.” Learn more about The Farrelly Sisters - Authors: http://www.farrellysistersonline.com/ on the Internet.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
Page 13
SPORTSSCENE
Sports Scene By MARK JEFFERS Welcome to this edition of “Sports Scene,” where we take a look at the sports action here in Westchester County… Good luck to Somers’ Brian Realbuto… the threetime state high school wrestling champion has “pinned” down Cornell University and will attend the upstate school this fall. Calling all future hoop stars; time to sign up for the Furture Stars Basketball Camp at SUNY Purchase College, running June 11th to August 17th, call 914-341-2713 for more information. In Boys lacrosse results, it was Eastchester beating Sleepy Hollow 11 to 6 with Tom Cirillo banging in eight goals for the winners and Pelham got by Scarsdale 9 to 6 with Gram Lambdin scoring four tallies. On the girls side, John Jay beat host Pearl River in a shootout 1915, Lauren Murray scored six times and Kelsey Davey added 5 goals for John Jay; Harrison
defeated Keio 18 to 9 led by Jessica Finkelstein who scored 5 goals. On the softball diamond, it was Dobbs Ferry over Pleasantville 8 to 3, as Andrea Abbatiello struck out 11 for the winners. Mahopac slid by John Jay by the final score of 8-5; Teresa Ricci belted out a home run and had four RBI’s for Mahopac. In baseball, Lakeland hammered Ossining 15-7; Ray Bozek drove in 4 runs. Dobbs Ferry pounded Croton-Harmon 12 to 5, with Danny Crowe leading the way with 2 hits, 2 RBI’s and 2 runs scored. Turning to golf, Yorktown chipped away to defeat Lakeland 226 to 257. Over on the tennis courts, Somers beat North Salem 6-1, and Fox Lane defeated John Jay by the same score, 6-1. In track and field action, the Brewster boys ran past Yorktown by the final score of 76 to 56 and the Brewster girls also came up winners over Yorktown in a tight meet, 66.5 to 65.5. Good team work by Iona Prep’s Greg Gallagher and Matt Urbano as they combined to set a meet record of 27 feet to win the pole vault relay at the 11th annual CHSAA Relay Carnival. The MVP Basketball Camp is holding a
ping-pong fundraiser at the Westchester Table Tennis Center in Pleasantville on April 27th; you just might see me there as I fancy myself a pretty decent pong player… Grab your poles and head out to your favorite fishing spot as trout season is now officially open. In Westchester college sports action, it was the Pace men’s lax team beating visiting Adelphi 10 to 2 and on the women’s side, it was Iona over Marist 11-3, the Gaels were led by Casey Scully’s five goals. Mercy College softball team swept by St. Thomas Aquinas, 2-1 and 12-2. The Fox Lane Sports Booster Club, upon which I serve as a proud board member will be holding their fourth annual Golf Outing and Dinner on Monday, May 21st, at the Mt. Kisco Country Club. The feedback from the last two years’ events was so positive that they are once again using the same venue and format (including those fantastic ‘steaks on the barbie’). The day will include a buffet lunch / brunch and golf followed by an evening of adult refreshments (which I love), dinner and the ever popular silent/live auctions. Everyone is welcome… if not a golfer (or if you are a golf widow or widower) or you have conflicts during the day; please join for the dinner portion of the event. The funds
raised from the golf outing will help upgrade various fields on the Fox Lane campus including the two “upper” high school fields (scoreboards, bleachers, grading soccer field, etc.) and the “upper” field at the middle school (resurfacing, etc.). Proceeds from the event will help complete those projects. Love this casting idea…Scarsdale native and former “Bosom Buddy” TV star Peter Scolari plays Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach, L.A. Lakers owner Jerry Buss, and Lakers coach Pat Riley in the new Broadway play “Magic/Bird,” about NBA superstars Earvin “Magic”Johnson and Larry Bird. Good luck to our local NHL squads, the NY Rangers and NJ Devils as they head into the Stanley Cup Playoffs…see you next week. Mark Jeffers successfully spearheaded the launch of MAR$AR Sports & Entertainment LLC in 2008. As president he has seen rapid growth of the company with the signing of numerous clients. He resides in Bedford Hills, New York, with his wife Sarah, and three daughters, Kate, Amanda, and Claire.
EYE ON THEATRE
Hispanic and Scottish Accents By JOHN SIMON So now we have an elaborate, even grandiose, revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical Evita, fresh from London, in a new interpretation directed by the eminent Michael Grandage. Coming on the heels of their earlier just revived Jesus Christ Superstar, this reveals Lloyd Webber modestly evolved, but Rice pretty much the same second-rater. Back in 1978 I called the show an “artfully produced monument to human indecency”; though less artful now, the rest still applies. There are ipso facto problems with an unlikable protagonist. Eva Duarte began as an ambitious woman of easy virtue, and ended as co-dictator with her equally amoral husband Juan Peron. Though she favored the descaminados
Elena Roger (shirtless ones) from whose ranks she stemmed, her hypocritical saintly act was nonetheless odious. Ruthless she certainly was, like her ex-colonel husband, whose dictatorship she crucially aided. That she died from cancer at age 33 only added to the adulation the prominent early dead usually accrue. In the hands of greater creators, Evita might
nevertheless have justified its success. As it is, we get flat, prosaic lyrics enhanced by serviceable music, climaxing in only one memorable number,
“Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina,” which, on top of a couple of reprises, provides leitmotivic echoes Continued on page 15
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
Spring has sprung and we’ll all...
Newspaper Fun! www.readingclubfun.com
...be doing spring cleaning at home.
Annimills LLC c 2012 V9-15
Spring Cleaning! planting trimming
repairing
paving beating
__________ __________ __________ __________ __________
trees weeds flowers roofs driveways
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3 sowing 7
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painting setting
11 Can you find and circle 10 words that begin with the letter “s?”
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6. __________ laundry 7. __________ up pools 8. __________ fields 9. __________ bushes 10. __________ lawns
pulling
10
watering
waxing
hanging
There are many jobs to be done after a long winter. 15 People in the city, town and country all do spring cleaning and chores based on their needs. Read the clues to fill in the crossword Tee hee! with chores. How many of these jobs have you seen people doing? How many No spring did you help to do? (Hint: use a pencil to fill in the clues below first. This is tricky!) chicken! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
4
2
5 mowing
I’m setting up a fresh, clean nest!
washing
1
sweeping 8
I spring upon the pests in gardens to help clean them out!
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
__________ __________ __________ __________ __________
rugs windows cars fences sidewalks
Free ! Visit our web site to print out new puzzles: Spring Sayings, By Any les Other Name (synonyms) and ABC April Puzzle. Don’t forget to print Puzz out the spring reading log set, too: www.readingclubfun.com
Dad wants to get indoors Before It Rains! before the showers get near.
Can you help him finish mowing?
h!
“Spring” Sayings!
Lots of things spring to mind when we think of the word “spring.” Can you match each “spring” phrase to its meaning?
1. She’s no spring chicken. 2. The ideas spring to mind. 3. The dogs spring to life when I feed them. 4. Daffodils are springing up. 5. I will spring for a new basketball. 6. My brother likes new jokes that he can spring on me.
A Sunny Chore!
We’re cleaning out our closet.
Ahhhh
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A. growing B. not young anymore C. are thought of right away D. start moving around E. surprise me with F. buy
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Connect the dots to 57 see what we 52 have to wash 9 so that sunlight can 51 come into our homes! 28 29
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
Page 15
EYE ON THEATRE venson’s long one-acter, Federer versus Murray, interested me both as drama critic and tennis fan. A middle-aged, Scottish working-class couple are followed through five scenes in their basically devoted but often quarrelsome coexistence. Their daughter is away at college, their son died soldiering in Afghanistan. Factory worker Jimmy is presently unemployed, auxiliary nurse Flo is overworked at the hospital. Their differences are reflected in Jimmy’s internationalist worship of the Swiss champion Roger Federer, and yearnigs to experience the Swiss mountain Matterhorn, as opposed to the parochial chauvinism of Flo, rooting for the Scottish ace Andy Murray, not to mention her localizing involvement with an invalid mother. Jimmy dreams of travel to Switzerland, Flo exaggerates the romantic importance of a platonic
Hispanic and Scottish Accents Continued from page 13
almost throughout. But, alas, some leitmotivs are just too light. Still, much of the music has a Latin flavor, which endows it with a certain exoticism mistakable for originality. A dubious device is the conceit of having Che Guevara, a charismatic historical Marxist figure, as narrator-commentator on the action, as well as intermittent participant, even though historically he had nothing to do with the Perons. True to the vacillating aspect of the entire show, this character, meant as her moral counterweight, sometimes approves of Eva: ”She had her moments. She had style.” Grandage has to a degree defanged the show, even somewhat depolitcized it, and Christopher
Ricky Martin and Elena Roger. impenetrable; but neither actor (Lewis Howden and Susan Vidler) is to be faulted if the author does not sufficiently probe his characters’ psyches or make things less limitingly Scottish. It is all much like those European wines whose bouquet regrettably does not travel. Photos by and courtesy of Richard Termine.
John Simon has written for over 50 years on theatre, film, literature, music and fine arts for the Hudson Review, New Leader, New Criterion, Elena Roger and company. Oram has provided eye-filling décor such as the starker, more acerb original production under Harold Prince dispensed with. There remain the effective documentary projections, largely of Eva’s epic funeral, and the new choreography by Rob Ashford, which, without being remarkable, fulfills the necessary. As the eponymous heroine, we have the Argentine Elena Roger, even farther removed from comeliness than the real-life Evita. Though plain, she is a good dancer; but neither her singing, which becomes strident in the upper register, nor her fairly thick Hispanic accent, can be reckoned as an asset. Most damaging is a basic charmlessness, which neither progressively more flattering wigs nor ever more opulent costumes can mitigate. The usually excellent Michael Cerveris, affecting a bogus Spanish accent, cannot offer more than competence in the somewhat underwritten role of Juan Peron. (Patti LuPone and Bob Gunton did better in the original production.) As for Ricky Martin as Che, he is neither made up to resemble the man, as Mandy Patimkin was in 1978, nor tries to emulate him. But he acts and dances engagingly, and has perfect diction when singing. Max Von Essen and especially Rachel Potter do nicely in supporting roles. The chorus and orchestra, conducted by Kristen Blodgette, are on the mark. You could do worse than this show, but—if I may borrow the authors’ duality—you could also do better. Two plays, part of Scotland Week, are available at the worthy 59E59 Theaters. Gerda Ste-
Michael Cerveris.
National Review,New York Magazine, Opera News, Weekly Standard, Broadway.com and Bloomberg News. Mr. Simon holds a PhD from Harvard University in Comparative Literature and has taught at MIT, Harvard University, Bard College and Marymount Manhattan College. To learn more, visit the JohnSimon-Uncensored.com
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ex-patient admirer. Jimmy needs to unburden himself about their dead son, Flo cannot bear to talk about him. He is evoked by an otherwise mute saxophone player who constitutes transition between scenes. (Both father and son are or were sax players.) It is a nice little, essentially two-character play, whose intimacy is somehow intensified by the author’s having directed it and playing Flo. Disappointing, however, is David Harrower’s equally two-character but much longer play, A Slow Air, far inferior to his Blackbird, previously seen in New York, to be sure without distancing Scottish accents. This is one of those tricky plays consisting of alternating monologues by a middleaged brother and sister who, for somewhat vague reasons, have avoided each other for many years. Some connection between them is achieved by her grown son, an unseen character; but here the unseen characters are no more interesting than the seen ones. Morna drinks heavily and sleeps around; Athol is a rather timid, one-time-only adulterer. His Scottish accent is mild, hers nearly
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 19 2012
The Wr ters Collection
Denn gran is Sheeha d n res i South children. http://www.TheWritersCollection.com He h des in We Ame as tra stche succe rica a v s s gues s and his nd Africa eled exte ter with h t n . s is w H o siv e n We i c Nancy B. Brewer stche ond thril s first nov ely and h ife, four c ler; G ster o a el Pu re rchas s worked hildren a n the in 1964, at the rate of one class per year, Kilgore, Denn n the entire company pirates. Leve en to Rover e into Cthese d Pow ed w hina, d four i l s w Nancy B. Brewer is an Texas, would come screaming and fighting into e S i i r h t l home early Rusabout h sand h He Helwent gran N sia anhis beethought zi Ar be othere dchil eehan res ut sowasano full racial integration. ByanDENNIS award winning author, n cy B.Sou SHEEHAN predicament, way out; these lousy i d d a s i o d huge n. He Bretw know h eAm ren. He h es in We pirates .were By the end of the first month of their sev i s storyteller and poetess. going to get everything a reg he had n fosrucc r ise arica as tra stche uover stori Malcolm hisd desk; thevefeeln aat w l an s enth grade year, Feinstein and Jackson had esa t r e re ssso fatnd sat worked for. Genpac was now valued at a bill She is known for her e r e s, sugu eheSlocomb d ext ardA w with friicould so uhtihim. c ings of despair engulfed How this c e s a s h tablished a confederacy, not of dunces, but of h t n . n s i H o s s it from scratch. 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UK, Peself-sufficient r is a ur aiste a regusaid. “It appeared there first.” company l ther he d inbecome r Magd Regional Crime Squad in m p l s y a n M h neffected lar stery y of h ationtoby a ncheerfluctuations s aul aatwall ard w s, asmarket He pulled out a paperback copy of Ray , um a riegany Kenn lenae and Manchester, the Special sold division to Meredith for Cxappenot tero,f tt soAuntthh on anthat inniGenpac encuiceh assthis uriresparticular y eth Heson noc e s l acommodity, s h e that gave Genpac n : e e r Bradbury’ s Fahrenheit 451, his thumb stuck in g aut and simultaneously Meredith sold ved w s in L"Caro Specin stylr$385 million arip. iIonna i s atno Awr Branch, the anti terrorist branchwork ina Ral Br e and ith Chor, st ondolGenpac ing o re a substantial i treeits geen, teedge over f r competitors. l t u the middle to hold his place. f i a parts of the o but n and ain" aback n l actoion Magd nch, to pthem prcetsioen and other national agencies in London cerdr b mbsmall oyrshare ssiuotwo elleintegral riar yCtThese i sSm thea for elsewcompany nd alena ahad sthiipmarket lale44% and within of the ntraetgweeks n Feinstein looked at the book, then back at r c f , " a a a $ 5 million. two components I o h p B r D n n s i r a ve dfoing resacquisition and elsewhere. He uses his personal f sky rocketed here eyondti‐ter weav, the Rd poe keoslpiticto .sohad ides o nA it a 57 % marr c a . p Jackson. He smiled as he reached in his lunch r e r t l i i H o e S a o i e n n a i the ofdthe galmost re,n e uvalue tem in Y deetm s ionalshalf. st br g hiby rnea ttreduced hair sesa hn Ltorrigboy” experiences to write fiction regarding yr Ricompany h ecst itvhthe anchstotook CHe ket share. N had . She issack iornilAt du Bey aof a, ti r“fair i r and drew out an identical copy. “I thought . e become riCm l d i i e c s g e n 3 o’ c lock Calvin Wight great r a a e p d e s l l po, rmu ron ,t h and ly ac erson" n tfhleect u almost SqHe crime thrillers, murder mystery, epleasure u t B r financial reporting. was mentioned i c o r a I smelled smoke on you,” Feinstein said as he n d l u a a U t d p a t e h r l itisrthis ke,e R in M K, Poan na at Sherman ate er na rpilin lkaeycalling mycounterpart intrigue Magdaevery sterhe ancand ul Atnure& Selman espionage, terrorism, political tiona papers oshf telling day in the financial in every made an inside joke about the book. l e e h , y x n h and him now owned the e , p t a a u s l age honnyd s erien financial Cand e ism ter, t apumonthly an Steph Kennetweekly and the interplay of human relationships n p magazine. s h c “That’ s my inner fire,” Kindred said. “It’s alc i r r e e e e i s h es in Specompany p o ans to w eitdu w awould ari. scompany liitty. pay only $300 million on cial B rvand Lonrun Woorokin HThe thrill en w ritwas took over a family Inifolunagisehe A ways simmering, just beneath the surface.” e h r d , the call or they could take the company. The r t r g d f o C t e i a e r er or epre ction n and umbr lationenowners nch, n oisn aa c and H ag fibusiness (http rs. M the of “Mine, too,” Harry said. They shook hands, regsell elday, ia CISelman shciepds bryhad entat to m, pstrying CEO sewthe n aotltleocthe ardin next Shisabeen anSherman n oaover ://ve e bdloaglesfor D, th called t o . i i ti‐ter & h o v r l r i k n e e n t e a year. He had paid an honestly fair price, g e i r e n e one of the few traditions of their Southern cul nture crim cursingeas spea cal infor in Wight Vseindtes y/oafu pt oe R . r he agreed to the $300 million. H o e rist b g e use re, Lo trigu tern e thr ien G galone urnow h m w NaY s hthim going lerithat ranchdol-ional ture that they embraced, and Harry sat down s hiof ahad Magdalena Capurso illmade hoa ht everything. rd ByeThey tionjust Ce.r toorcost a profit $80 million a es.cwas e l s n l r p d s r a a erson om/ahe had ipurchased ron, B the inl port, murd ase fw e lerct u The company manufactured was sold backnd next to him. utho s lakdays aiticompany ttepno n nlars. Two Magofdthe raw rplrathe e, Rteilater st er myste al r/stehe needed and itiwas f three i y “I doubt anybody else in this school has ever a v alena materials l Magdalena Capurso is t o e k ugrae a for notes to leGenpac ry, Malphen e, svaluing Kenhis. hef ihs u$370 man million, l njust wood d spmade now heard of that book,” Jackson said. neth Capurso Steph colm had a $10 million dollar profit an Art representative for i r Hari did not ituali n ) at an Archeapfibut orThat “They can’t even spell Fahrenheit,” Harry . Influ is come ty. corporate bonds to a kingcompany thrill en Ww and rid the company of the o international portraitist o t d r enche would recoup on a of growth e ep in f Magcurrent laughed. Then he thought for a second. “Maybe dianle ins arate (http rs. Hethe n atctollecti ed by Sha resentati straight loan fixed at 1% over LIBOR. Kenneth Hari. Influenced blothan ://ve less a g o o ve foThat afternoon Malcolm could not resist, he four years. He had discussed it with r s kesphis we could start a club, just the two of us. We can r n e n o s o e n i n f d y r V t p e / e by Shakespeare, Lord i u entwilling are, L oem agive ntern s into At 30 regalthat were uthhim banks thes tmoney u read books and talk about important stuff the N r o e o a Y sent a stick, an eye patch, and a three cornered l r e h , r t C G w ional ries.c d Byr I h ad . aller advisor ho haat refl Byron, Blake, Rilke,pshe working olicis port & Selman with a a ma om/financial ie s convinced oCEO rest of these people don’t care about.” He mo but his long-term ecthat n s to the of Sherman , e w B m a u r r s l a u p a sive shim a corporate bond issuuance itist thor/ was the way to itten f on n ke, R on a collection of apoems . My fter athatanreflect tioned at the kids playing chase on the school a t note, “I have just put this stick in your eye, use i i s r l t v c k t o u e leg re a ar e, she ke. 1raised over $400 million.ephen 3rdMagdalena s upon nature and spirituality. They al put non yard. 8 mo d the deserve wood troke eer Setnedgo. i s the patch, and hat you as the s p e i n r ituali tGenpac , I wr phde A hs la now had 61% of itsfin ) pirate you truly are, Best wishes, a tyear resides in NYC. Kindred liked the idea. “What shall we call ero alater Malcolm Slot t y thirtiell! nf W e . r, I r od 2fand nd still growing, e market share that this club?” His school-teacher mother insisted comb.” rnewith ok ae s etubut (http rs. He blo in i sst arn d to w ttoor nI to target. :debt that he use proper English. //vethey weregan s oeasy ork eyo/ka upcalled ntuCEO Vent & regalof n The Sherman Selman u At 3 0 “How about the Pirate Club? Everybody th opra inat as a u r e l e G w i r iestop hon gh.a No lleridemandtradersaand .com around here thinks we are renegades anyway.” Dennis Sheehan polic em, I had a ma meeting with all of his e w s s wr,i t auGenpac ssedivthey thor/ bonds, an. M quietly purchase all of/the ten fi WOODFIN “I’m Okay with that, as long as I get to be after By STEPHEN e s s y v t t r e leg ca e lastoone a 3rd phen ke. 1 of8them. They established aeprice, Blackbeard,” Kindred said. Harry was slow to get al Dennis Sheehan resides stro re every wood mthe Dre ennndinto onfuture k e e f d taking account value of the bonds i t , it, but when he saw the expression on Kindred’s i n h a Harry Feinstein and Kindred Jackson were I s s f in Westchester with his ) S t l e h r a r gw e i t t rand er, Iover ehgo aas ec! anddecided 2r nhigh an to as 15% value to face, he burst out laughing. outsiders by birth, classmates by federal edict and d r e h s e wife, four children and t i urne Soassure detrso ikThe ren. Hof thesibonds. uth Atheldcapture were d to w friends by choice. sotraders “I’ll be Long John Silver,” he said. ne W e I m four grandchildren. t h e o o asincrements stcashoenot sucthen rk A ks uto trav ca ainnsmall told etoribuy so a They exchanged an impromptu secret c federal district judge in Tyler, Texas, had s p e A s a p t e s t e a ti l d Afr 30, Igu alert anyone He has traveled acquisition. ni g. Nthe opportunity for their alliance. The ica. H ed extens r witin haeds t o and hofisthe handshake, lowered their heads as they surveyed hcreated h p s o s e o a l i n i i c w v m aW extensively and has worked s fitook cem a if w ndthe other kids said he was a commurst nonly aely anparents eisvtech oof ssacquisition the playground to be sure no one had eaves, f,o thrbonds n y The afteand d has ofethe ur ch America ovel iller; months stersothem in China, Russia and South r a 3r . M tkere ofor several carThey ildrthought month. held until P w dropped on their conspiracy. G u nist. Harry and Kindred him a hero. o e r r . 1n8 t m e r e er en c d str k n e h e h n a a d in Ca mere n eo Lnput tothe oke, rates dropped Africa. His first novel Purchased Power d fou d Pothe interest then on Red seFor ethvsealcall They agreed to finish the book that night jurist, twenty-five miles h I wri ded afand w i r na, R will b teimmediate lawtith er ha r a 2n payment e! bonds. They tdemanded has been a huge success and his second N ussitoo and discuss it at lunch the next day. eand ones hundred years late, had eeztiu A away outonly b d str er, IH rof a e ancy e a soon n a hHarry and rnriesd. B. Bmillion. Malcolm $380 sat there staringokdown Each day they sat and talked, oblivious to thriller; Green to Red will be out soon. Hekn e so at . He i with uge nd Kin to wthat beginning rewe I too ordered ownthe shigh oryear a rewhite r demand notice, his advisor had already told k k their classmates, caught up in a world of ideas. i f dred’ s first in junior students and is a regular guest on Westchester on the s o u a g an a r her s p u stori a l p a whe intiwould es,him a could do, the banks oft snothing Shortly after the Christmas break, Harry black aones but ng. N no longer attend r“separate sucthere swas Level with Hezi Aris. outh rd winni owthat as:tied were hnow withethe Frank Dodd law and n , had a proposal for Kindred, a simple invitation r "Caup g equal” schools. From first day of instruction n a s u t r y t o hor, s le n to hand linwas credit was tight, he a Rgoing born of friendship. d to ain" to ahave and " passion f ryteller and p or w Beyo ea As a nd Sa o d ndy R ving hist etess. Sh o Crim etective, e is i ricall d ge" e S in y
THE TOPIC OF THE WEEK: PIRATES Pirates
Pirates
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
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THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012
The Wr ters Collection
http://www.TheWritersCollection.com
Stephen Woodfin “Kindred, do you think your mom could bring you by my house Saturday so we could hang out? You’d love my room. It’s filled with all sorts of books. We could walk to the park and ride the merry-go-round. It’s a hoot. It will make you sick at your stomach if you stay on it too long.” Kindred didn’t smile. “Your folks won’t go for that, Harry?” “What do you mean? My folks are cool.” “I mean I’m black and you’re white.” “I’ll talk to them tonight. It will be all right. You’ll see.” Kindred picked up his notebook and paperback. He waved at Harry as he walked away. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Harry called out to him. He watched Kindred until he was out of sight. The next day, Harry didn’t meet Kindred for lunch, or the next day, or the next. When spring break came, Kindred’s mother withdrew him from school and enrolled him a private academy back east, a place where he would receive an education fit to prepare him for an Ivy League college. Harry only saw him one more time. In his senior year, he was sitting in his truck at the Dairy Queen when another car pulled beside him. A tall black kid Harry’s age got out. He had a huge Afro, wore tinted glasses and bell bottom jeans with the cuffs frayed from dragging the ground. Harry knew it was Kindred. He had read Mrs. Jackson’s obituary in the paper and knew the funeral had occurred the day before. Kindred looked at Harry, then at the girls leaned up against Harry’s truck. He never said a word, just shook his head, got back in his car and turned north on the highway, the red clay of Kilgore slaking off his tires as he went. “Who was that creep?” one of the girls asked Harry. “Just a pirate I knew a long time ago,” Harry said as he watched Kindred’s car move out of sight.
The Pirate in All of Us By BOB WEIR
Remember when we were kids and enjoyed dressing up as comic book heroes and cartoon characters? We looked forward with eager anticipation toward those neighborhood costume parties and school theater productions where we could change identities and become our favorite alter egos. Not that such vicarious fulfillment is limited to children; I’ve continued to enjoy masquerade parties all my life. One of my most enjoyable forays into self-delusion has been when I spent a good deal of time creating the most authentic pirate costumes with accompanying makeup and jewelry. There’s just something lib-
erating about the thought of being a buccaneer with an eye patch, dangling earrings and a parrot on my shoulder. The idea of sailing the high seas on the Jolly Roger and winning the hearts of fair maidens as I accumulate a treasure chest of baubles and beads, gives me a sense of adventure that stimulates a primitive gene in my DNA. I think about that when I notice how many young people are wearing jewelry these days. I don’t mean wristwatches, bracelets, and finger rings. I’m talking about nose rings, lip rings, tongue studs, bellybutton rings, and even baubles dangling from pierced eyebrows. I’ve heard of several other places that have been pierced and “adorned” with trinkets, but propriety prevents me from mentioning them in a public forum. In addition, tattooing has apparently become one of the hippest methods of disfigurement since ancient civilizations painted their bodies with the blood of slain animals. I’m not referring to a couple of artful tattoos on an arm or leg. I’m talking about a multicolored quilt of gargoyle-like images that block out every inch of skin, turning the wearer into a human mural painting. So, what’s it all about? Has self-mutilation become chic? Is it the ultimate expression of adolescent rebelliousness? Are contemporary kids just struggling to be different like their parents and grandparents once did? Is it because they feel so insignificant and bored with their lives that they need to deface themselves in order to be noticed? Or, is it a genetic impulse, struggling to achieve a sense of freedom that has been practically erased by modern civilization? We can all understand that each new generation wants to display their independence from the prior one. Okay, so why not express themselves in hair styles or clothing fashions? Have Mohawk cuts and muttonchops become passé? Are baggy pants and sloppy shirts too yesterday? At least the aforementioned can be accomplished without bloodletting or permanent markings. (Do you know how tough it is to remove those tattoos?) It often seems as though it’s a contest to see who can be the most bizarre. Recently, I saw a TV news spot that included students at a California college. They were complaining about the environment. Every one of them looked like they were auditioning for a part in a horror movie. Thick eye makeup, teardrop tattoos, garish hair colors, and trinkets swinging from every available epidermal space. Obviously, they’re unconcerned about the natural visual environment of their faces. Keep in mind; they’re attending school that way. I suppose every child dislikes hearing an adult begin a sentence with, “When I was a kid……” However, when I was a kid, not only didn’t I have even a passing acquaintance with a ring or any other piece of jewelry, but I was so busy working after school for enough nickels and dimes to pay for my lunch money the next day that it never occurred to me how much
fun it would be to mutilate myself. In those days, you’d occasionally see a guy with a tattoo on his biceps or forearm, the result of a drunken binge one night while on shore leave from the Navy. Today, many young kids, as well as, shall we say, younger adults, from both genders, are sacrificing every inch of skin to connect a patchwork of illustrations that bears a strong resemblance to the comics section in your local newspaper. When I was a kid, if I had come home with a ring in my nose, my mother would have…., well, I think you know what I mean. Today, the kids come home and compare nose rings with their parents. “Whatta ya think, Mom; does this crescent shape go with the curvature of my nose?” “Well, son, I don’t mean to be judgmental, but, I think the curly shaped danglers are more suitable for the kind of nose you have. Especially if you stud your tongue with pearls like I did.” “Dad, get a load of these new tattoos on my neck. I wanted to give the impression of flames shooting out from under my collar.” “Not bad, son, but cast your peepers on the latest addition to my lower back. I’ve got most of the Disney cartoon characters in 3D.” I don’t know. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m just not hip. Not with it. Not cool. But, it seems to me, disfiguring large areas of one’s body with multicolored ink or drilling holes into flesh, bone, and cartilage in order to attach shiny metals is a lamentable sign of extremely low self-esteem. I mean, it’s not exactly comparable to combing one’s hair in a bouffant and growing sideburns. Even Johnny Depp, with all of his swashbuckling cinematic flair for Barbary Coast piratical expeditions, didn’t make any permanent alterations to his body. He was merely playing a role, just like I do when I become Blackbeard or Captain Kidd for an evening. Perhaps we all have a pirate chromosome deeply imbedded in our bloodstream. But, it’s important to have limits on our capacity for whimsy. Nevertheless, if current trends are merely a step in the evolutionary scale of fashion, what are we in for with the next generation? Tattooed eyeballs? Snakes slithering out of ears? Antlers hammered into skulls? I just hope I’m not giving anyone ideas. A different topic is addressed weekly on www. TheWritersCollection.com. Each participant author, as well, as guest bloggers, are encouraged to write on the chosen topic. The intriguing aspect of each of their efforts is that by infusing their specific mood and / or genre, we can better appreciate the complexity, frivolity, or seriousness of the issue they are challenged to distill for all our readers to celebrate, critique, or be cajoled to delve in the joy of writing.
t (h
Stephen Woodfin is an attorney/author who has written five legal thrillers. He blogs on Venture Galleries (http://venturegalleries. com/author/stephenwoodfin )
At 30 polic , e after m a 3
Philip Catshill
At 30, I had a massive stroke. 18 months later, I returned to work as a policeman. My career ended after a 2nd stroke so I took up painting. Now, after a 3rd stroke, I write!
p af
Jack Durish
Jack Durish was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1943. He is a soldier and a J sailor, a decorated veteran an of Vietnam, a husband, Ve father, and grandfather. Jack is the author of Rebels on the Mountain, available at all eBook retailers, and a blogger at JackDurish.com, TheWritersCollection.com, Cale and VentureGalleries.com. b
scree n South e
Caleb Pirtle, III
Caleb Pirtle III is the author of more than 55 published books, the screenwriter for three made for TV movies, and a former travel editor of Southern Living Magazine
A mo t time her o ".
Krystal Wade
A mother of three who works fifty miles from home and writes in her ”spare time” Krystal’s debut novel “Wilde’s Fire” has been accepted for publication and should be available in 2012
A m time "
Page 18
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
BOOKS
Seeing Hidden Worlds
David Hall and “Beneath Cold Seas” distant mountains and sky like a lush, satin ribbon. Seeing the three layers - sea, land and sky, somehow reflects Hall’s philosophy of the how vital it is to preserve all life on earth. “We need to understand about other living things, about oceans and wildernesses, the watersheds and sustainable space. We could lose what we have. Appreciation has to happen before conservation.”
By ABBY LUBY A sculpted, steely grey fish, fins flanged and mouth agape, lusts after the tendrils of a gelatinous burst of orange, just out of the fish’s reach. But for us, viewing one of many splendid photographs in David Hall’s newly released “Beneath Cold Seas, the Underwater Wilderness of the Pacific Northwest,” we could almost grab this bright, delicate wistful plume and feel it glide through our fingers. This image, one of the first you see in Hall’s new book, is a blue rockfish ready to pounce on
a lion’s mane jelly (a type of jellyfish), exemplary of the award-wining Hall and his innate ability to capture unique moments of undersea life. Our gift from these images? A chance to limitlessly hold our gaze on incredible creatures that exist in a world few of us ever see. Hall is internationally known for his photography and as a photojournalist. He is unassuming and soft spoken and his passionate explanations about his work are often emphasized by a jump of the eyebrows that set off his twinkling eyes. His work is found in numerous high profile publications including National Geographic, Smithsonian, Natural History, Time, BBC Wildlife, Geo and Terre Sauvage. Hall co-authored ten children’s books in Scholastic’s Undersea Encounters series and in 2009 he co-authored a scientific paper with evolutionary biologist Ted Pietsch for discovering the psychedelic frogfish off Ambon Island in Indonesia. Hall lives with his wife Gayle Jamison, their three snakes, a cat, and their dog Moby in Woodstock on Ohayo Mountain Road. It is a spread of
a house that Hall purchased from Bob Dylan 38 years ago. In a large, well lit room that was more like an indoor garden, Hall recalls how he first got into photography. “When I was eight years old I was fascinated with all living things. I was first exposed to marine life in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. But in 1968, when I went snorkeling in St. Croix for the first time, I was completely blown away. I knew then I had to get a camera.” Hall purchased a Kodak Instamatic camera and built his own plastic housing. “In those days there wasn’t an off-the-shelf housing and there were no strobes so we had to take about 36 flashbulbs with us in a mesh bag. You had to get out of the water to change a roll of film.” Undoubtedly, the digital age was a boost to underwater photography and Hall fully embraced the new and ever improving technology that rendered his lens a paintbrush, pixels his palette, his canvas a digital spread for infinite possibilities. “Moon Jelly and Clouds,” was shot with the lens submerged halfway in the water. A translucent blue and pale pink jelly fish bursts through the surface of the water, its hair-like filaments reaches out from its watery habitat, kissing the small, curved sweep of land under a vast blue sky replete with cumulus clouds. Hall calls these “over-under” photographs where you see under the water, the land and the sky. These rare views delight the eye, but are difficult shots to get. Hall perfected his signature technique where he jettisons himself out of deep water while snapping the split image at the precise moment. “It takes a lot of concentration, trial and error. I do it over and over again to get exactly what I want.” The effect is magical. Another - “A moon jelly and cross jellies” show silvery blue iridescent jellies as corpuscular creatures orbiting around a larger moon jelly under converging currents of water whose texture separates the jellies from the
The Retired (Try To) Strike Back Chapter 46 – Did We Lose? By ALLAN LUKS Candidates plan election parties not knowing if they’ll be winners but as a way to thank campaign workers and, if they
lose, excite their volunteers for the next campaign. Myron made his concession speech about twenty minutes ago but the hotel ballroom is quiet. His supporters, mostly seniors, are eating and talking as if relaxing from another day’s work. Then Bob walks to the empty stage and
Hall is as expressive in his writing as he is with his images. He describes his pursuit to immortalize aquatic life with an articulate, down to earth voice which, at times, is wonderfully poetic. He relates his years of frustration in finding decorative warbonnets, which he describes as “long, slender bodies and a remarkable coiffure,” and that his luck had been “rotten” rendering him an “underwater beggar.” Fortunately for us, Hall’s luck changed and we are thrilled to now know what a warbonnet actually looks like. Other sections read like an adventure novel, where Hall is waist deep in a fast moving current and finds the pull overpowering him, pushing him downstream laden with equipment. Luckily, his diving partner grabbed him and reined him in, the two anchored against a fallen tree. The underwater life in “In Beneath Cold Seas” (North American Publishers: Greystone Books, University of Washington Press) was shot off the Pacific Coast from California to Alaska, a region known for its wide range of diverse marine life than any other cold-water ecosystem. Here in the Northeast, we associate this region with sockeye salmon and Hall’s remarkable shots of these wild fish are particularly stunning. In the photograph “Sockeye Salmon at Dusk,” a group of salmon looks directly at us, lit from below, their heads gleaming in tri-colored splendor of bright grasps the floor microphone. “I want to hear victory noise! Our messages are spreading about senior candidates and their need to make honest change happen quickly. And the senior women’s marches, which started in our district, are now in several cities. They’re getting strangers talking to each other about public issues and can force donothing politicians to start cooperating. We’re strengthening what researchers call our vital social capital. Can we stop now? No! Of course, Myron
red and yellow-green. We become witnesses to what Hall tells us is their incredible transformation before mating, a shot that deems the lens an instant conduit of communication, putting us right there in the water with him. The images are evocative, sensuous, tactile. We can just feel the gentle opaque fingers of the rose anemone sway to the ebb and flow of the water as they surround the flushed pink, inner petals. We get a visual ‘shout’ from the Frosted Nudibranch whose spikes emanate from a warm, peachy glow. Hall states that his inspiration comes from the color landscapes and bird photography of Eliot Porter and from Douglas Faulkner for his early, artistically directed work and exploration of underwater photography. He also says Christopher Newbert, who wrote the forward to his book, was key because of his “uncompromising approach to art and for showing us that the whole is not necessarily equal to the sum of its parts.” Hall says that one of his publishers (there are four) told him to “take the reader down under the water with you.” He furthers his intention: “This book is for people who never dive to better understand how close you are to things you don’t see.” For those whose curiosity goes beyond the photographs, Hall provides an organized compendium of information at the end of the book in “Notes on the Photographs,” which carefully lists all the plates with interesting factoids. For a slideshow glimpse of the book, visit www.beneathcoldseas.com Abby Luby is a Westchester based, freelance journalist who writes local news, about environmental issues, art, entertainment and food. Her debut novel, “Nuclear Romance” was recently published. Visit the book’s website, http://nuclearromance.word- press.com/. will be back and need us for the next election-and we’ll win!” Clapping, and a number of workers standing and then more clapping and everyone standing, as Myron steps onto the stage and Bob raises Myron’s arm in victory. Myron takes the floor mike. “Senior candidates won in local elections in three different cities and said they copied our campaign. And we Continued on page 19
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
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BOOKS The Retired (Try To) Strike Back Continued from page 18 only lost in our district by five percent. Yes, this is because of you. And maybe, as Bob said, I will call on you to help me run again in the next Council election in four years--“ “Not maybe,” shouts Bob. “Definitely.” And he again raises Myron’s arm in victory and the remaining campaign workers are standing and applauding. . . . After the ballroom is empty, Myron and his six closest supporters meet in a small hotel room, sitting on the couch, two chairs and the floor. It’s nearly midnight. Myron, still wearing his suit jacket and tie, says, “I’ve known many of you since high school. I love you all.” He then looks at Bob, sitting on the floor with a coffee and doughnut. “Bob, you can’t tell people I’ll run again. I don’t know if that’s true. The major appeal of our campaign is that seniors, with their last big projects, have to be honest. I have to be.” Bob stands quickly, doughnut crumbs falling
from a rarely worn sports jacket. “It’s unthinkable for you not to run. Here’s the real honesty: People, at least in this city and other big cities, are finally noticing seniors as being needed. Their attention has been building over the last several years especially because of us in this room. First, with the movie we made to advise single seniors how to forge new relationships and now Myron, your campaign. We can’t just stop and go back to the sidelines. Because believe me, society out there would love to forget about us.” “Bob, you directed our film and kept saying how our advice had to be completely honest,” replies Myron. “It’d be very bad for the volunteers who helped us to find out in the media that I never intended to run again but kept saying I might. I’m tired, many of us are tired.” “Tired isn’t what you say when your campaign is a fight to get society to recognize seniors as important new public leaders,” argues Bob. “And keep us from being sidelined.” Bob’s wife, Joan, stands.“All of you know, several advertisers are also considering commercials with seniors as spokespersons. And our group gets calls from seniors about copying our campaign in
their cities. Bob, I’m your wife--but I agree with Myron. I’m happy but also tired. I need to relax before saying yes to another campaign--“ “The calls will stop if we stop,” Bob replies. He pauses—“Tell me, everyone in this room, who’s tired and who, like me, doesn’t want to go back to the sidelines and be forgotten, and agrees that tomorrow Myron should announce he’ll run in the next election? Who can’t decide today? Yes, raise your hands.” His friends’ hands slowly rise, including Myron’s. “Bob, we’re not saying no,” Myron pleads. “Just that we need time.” Bob shaking his head, “No, we finally got all this attention about seniors. Voters are going to forget us if we look old and tired to them by delaying an announcement.” Roz suddenly says to the group, “With Kenny gone, I’m considering moving permanently to California to be with my son’s family, my two grandchildren--and now there’s a third expected in six months.” Roz smiles. “Bob, that’s what I know gives me energy.” “Roz, congratulations,” Bob says. “But society
thinks that’s the only energy we have left. To take care of ourselves. So why shouldn’t we just disappear from their attention?” Myron reaches up and places his hand on Bob’s shoulder.“It has felt good being center stage, I confess. Give me a few days to decide about running again.” Myron looks at his friends. “Let me know by the end of the week if you want to sign on if I try again. Bob has a good argument. We said in our campaign that we see the ticking clock and can make decisions quickly. Honest decisions. Let me know.”
Send me you experiences: This column tells the story of four retired couples, who want to show that seniors are vital and discover that they also can offer new leadership to society. Each column is based on conversations I’ve had with seniors and non-seniors. I’ve heard from many of you, and encourage other readers to contact me with their related experiences so I can include them in the remaining columns about the retired’s story as they (try to) strike back. Direct email to allan@allanluks. com.
Bruce Fabricant Recaptures ‘That Perfect Spring’ in Championship Baseball many fly ball homeruns today, the younger fan might be shocked at a team batting average of .245, which consisted of one triple and no dingers. ‘Good defense and pitching wins,’” said the start-
By RICH MONETTI Without a cloud in the sky, a spring day begs for baseball for kids across Westchester, as the High School Sectional Championship is on the line in Mt. Vernon, New York. The normal butterflies apply and the players understand the magnitude of the game. It’s safe to assume that the school and the city are equally as excited, or perhaps not. “Save a few dads who came to watch,” reveals present Somers, New York, resident and 1959 Mount Vernon Baseball player Bruce Fabricant, “No one gave a hoot or a holler.” “But it was a different time,” he admits. One that he has recaptured in a self-published novel called, “That Perfect Spring.” Despite baseball being king at the time, he believes the lack of hoopla emanated from the simple expectations parents had back then. “Mostly first or second generation Americans,” Fabricant continues, “They basically wanted us to stay out of trouble, go to school, and have fun.” So long before the 1959 season, a tenet developed on Mt. Vernon’s baseball fields. “You played all day long,” said Fabricant. Unfortunately, the hyper-structure of sports today has put kids at a loss. In order to reserve fields, rosters had to be filled out and forms submitted at city halls. “Our parents didn’t do any of this,” he advised, “and it taught us responsibility.” “In turn, the process probably helped kids put aside the politics of deciding who played where. We knew in our hearts who was the best shortstop or leadoff hitter,” Fabricant continues, “and there were no arguments.” On the other hand, Mt. Vernon was one of the first Westchester cities to have Little League Baseball. “It was very organized,” Fabricant noted,
“and when the coach showed up at your house in uniform, it felt like I was receiving a gift from Bloomingdale’s.” “Entering high school, the core of the Westchester Interscholastic Athletic Association Champs started as sophomores on Junior Varsity (JV). Otherwise, the 1959 season began unceremoniously. Among a league consisting of schools such as White Plains, Roosevelt, and Yonkers, after four games, we were 2-1-1,” says Fabricant with great pride. Belief emerged in the form of a fifth game no-hitter. “We had tremendous pitching from Eddie Martin,” Fabricant notes, “who finished the season 7-0, and propelled the team to a 123-1 record.” “Given the bigger biceps that produce so
ing second baseman. “In this team’s case,”Fabricant says,“phenomenal defense, but another difference is the manner Continued on page 20
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
BOOKS
Bruce Fabricant Recaptures ‘That Perfect Spring’ in Championship Baseball Continued from page 19 by which the title was won. Mt. Vernon needed a win, coupled with a second place loss, to secure first place and the championship. No sectionals,” he added, “Basically, you played your season and that was the end.” Despite only a passing reference in the school newspaper didn’t dissuade Fabricant “That Perfect
Spring.” It came together for him at his 40th High School Reunion in 1999. Coupled with and inspired by a book called, “The Glory of their Times,” Fabricant mirrored his book after the oral history of turn of the century baseball players. Written by Lawrence Ritter, the author traveled the country interviewing baseball players in the 1960’s and came up with what Fabricant suggests is, “the greatest baseball book
ever written.” Tracking down his teammates, Fabricant took his tape recorder and let them talk. Aside from one season in the minors by the team’s catcher, it doesn’t matter that most of these stories ended in slow-pitch softball leagues after high school. In fact, for Fabricant, the most important payoff came only years later. In those days, he
says, dads would never give out compliments and mostly remained silent. But through his uncle, he learned that his father couldn’t say enough about his playing baseball. Concluding in yet another instance of this lost past, Fabricant asserts, “It was like the cat’s meow!” Rich Monetti lives in Somers. He’s been a freelance writer in Westchester since 2003. Peruse his work at www. rmonetti.blogspot.com.
LEAVING ON A JET PLANE
Panama Canal Explorer Cruise Going with the Flow Takes On a Whole New Meaning By BARBARA BARTON SLOANE My Morning Stretch class at 7:30 am was just the ticket to get me moving in a smooth, leisurely and undemanding way. Now bright-eyed and ready to greet the day, I’m heading to the pool for Aqua Aerobics. I figure it will end just in time for me to get to the Showroom at Sea for a preparatory lecture titled Through the Canal which will inform us of what we can expect to see and experience as we glide through the various locks of the Panama Canal. I am aboard Holland America’s SS Statendam and happily this lecture will end just in time for the deck-top luncheon buffet.
SS Statendam, Holland America Line After my morning work-out, which has me feeling very pleased with myself and not a little self-righteous, I’ve vowed that lunch will be healthy and low-cal. Luckily, aboard this ship, along with copious amounts of delicious 5-star fare, guests also have the choice of sensible, tasty offerings that won’t blow your diet. Contrary to what you may think, when cruising with Holland America, it is truly not necessary to pack on the pounds. There’s even a Culinary Arts Center on board, allied with Food & Wine Magazine, where one can learn to prepare calorie-conscious, low-cal dishes. Our first port of call was the island of Aruba. Then, after another day at sea, gliding through the impossibly emerald-blue Caribbean, we slowly approached the first lock of the Panama Canal. Going through the six locks till one reaches Golfo Dulce and the open waters of the Pacific was a remarkable, photo-op experience involving countless workers and taking a full day. Our next port was Costa Rica. From there we cruised to Mexico,
stopping in Huatulco and last, the deluxe and posh destination of Cabo San Lucas. Although we’d heard that George Clooney was there at the time, and peering intently from our perch at a seaside café, sadly no sighting of His Royal Hunkness. However, suffice it to say, our lush surroundings were quite enough to evoke a blissful, happy mood that followed us back to the ship. This delightful ambiance lasted into our very special “An Evening at Le Cirque Dinner.” Because Holland America works with New York’s Le Cirque Executive Chef Craig Hopson, on board Master Chef Rudi Sodamin recreates the legendary eatery’s whimsical and award-winning culinary experience, all under the careful tutelage of Pinnacle Grill Manager Colin D’Souza. We dined on the fanciful and original orange Le Cirque china and ended our meal with the restaurant’s famous crème brûlée. Altogether, a brilliant day; but just one of 14 - each day memorable in its own significant way. For over 137 years, the award-winning Holland America Line has been a recognized leader in cruising, taking guests to exotic destinations around the world. Its fleet of 15 mid-size ships completes more than 500 sailings a year and visits all 7 continents. The activities on board our ship
Cabo San Lucas. Photo by Michael Sloane; courtesy of Michael Sloane Travel Photography. were mind-boggling. There’s plenty to do if you’re so inclined. If you’re a do-nothing, that’s ok, too. You can merely sit on your veranda and gaze out on a gently undulating blue scene unfolding before you, one of my particularly favorite pastimes. One day, as we silently cruised along, I spied a host
Port of Aruba as seen from the deck of the SS Amsterdam. Photo by Michael Sloane; courtesy of Michael Sloane Travel Photography. of small gray dolphins cavorting right next to the ous journey “at sea.” First, the thrill of boarding, ship, flying high, then diving deep, repeating this standing at the rail and hearing the ship’s horns play again and again, accompanying me for at sound their powerful blasts signaling our deparleast 15 minutes. Later, I caught a quick glimpse ture. Then, as we slowly slip away from the harof a whale tail slipping slowly into the brine – a bor, the horns sound once more as we enter open sight, which made my day. One afternoon, we water. Typically, as the cruise begins, I check out took a bridge tour and had a chance to meet my stateroom and find it cute and comfy, donning our erudite and utterly charming Captain, Althe lifejacket and going through the safety drill is bert Schoonderbeek. Activities on board include silly fun, and exploring all the decks, rooms and trivia games, Singles and Solos parties, Book Club goings-on is way exciting. Departing is always fun reads, Mixology classes and Sunset Tai Chi, to - coming into our final port and debarking – not name but a few. so much. I invariably feel: are we there already?! Each morning the Captain made an anHowever, our last-night-at-sea party was rollicknouncement, a run-down of our precise posiing and over-the-top, lasting well into the night tion, the conditions at sea, the speed at which we and insuring happy thoughts to carry ashore. were traveling and what we could expect at our Debarking, I thought back to something I’d next port. This was informative and a broadcast learned while onboard: Holland America has a we looked forward to each day. Informative also Ship to Shelter program where valuable and reusand incredibly helpful were the ship’s technology able goods from its ships are collected for donaclasses.Through them I learned to work the Wintion to charities, serving people in need. It also dows Live Photo Gallery as well as Digital Camsponsors On Deck for the Cure Walks which benefit era Basics and Creative Photo Editing, insuring breast cancer’s Susan G. Komen for the Cure. that my images from this voyage would be prettier Thus far guests and employees have donated over than in the past. Daryl and his Piano Bar seemed $1 Million - more good thoughts to take away. to call to us each evening as we formed a group An African safari, a Mexican fiesta, the Alasto sing golden oldies - a wonderful icebreaker, as kan wilderness, a Japanese shrine, a European we joined in raucous singing and made friends masterpiece –all coming up with Holland Amerwith our fellow passengers. Karaoke nightly in the ica this year. The Line’s motto: “Through excellence Crow’s Nest is still another way to show off your we create once-in-a-lifetime experiences, every time.” vocal abilities. You say you have no abilities? Each That they do. night you can count on top-notch entertainment If You Go: in the Showroom at Sea, and – the fail-safe – cocktails flowing until the wee hours in the Ocean www.HollandAmerica.com Bar where you can dance the night away. And for Travel Editor Barbara Barton Sloane is constantly confirmed do-nothings, how about a new release globe-hopping to share her unique experiences with movie and hot, buttered popcorn? It’s yours for our readers; from the exotic to the sublime. As Beauty the viewing, nightly in the ship’s theater. / Fashion Editor she keeps us informed on the capriFor me nothing can quite compare to a joycious and engaging fashion and beauty scene.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
Page 21
SHIFTING GEARS
2012 Fiat 500
The Italian Gem from Detroit By ROGER WITHERSPOON The old guy with the shaggy white beard and wide grin started it all. “Hey,” he shouted from two parking rows away. “A Fix It Again Tony! I had one back in the ‘70s and it was always in the shop.This one looks a lot better! How is it?” The initial shout breaking the calm on a Sunday afternoon drew attention in the parking lot. But the word “Fiat” hooked everyone in the area. “Hey,” said a woman who was trailed by a teenage girl with braces wearing a high school jacket. “My daughter is starting high school and is begging for something other than my eight year old heap. Do you mind if she sat in this one and turned on the music?” And for the next 20 minutes, the copper-
colored, sub-compact, four seater 2012 Fiat 500 became a way station for a score of shoppers who wanted to look at, sit in, listen to, and imagine owning the European side of the resurrected Chrysler. Fiat bought Chrysler in a shotgun marriage arranged early in the Obama administration that offered something for each company: Chrysler got to stay alive with a partner knowledgeable about small, fuel efficient cars; and Fiat got a second chance to enter the American auto market. So far, Chrysler has gotten a lot out of the marriage with an entirely revamped domestic line, including the iconic muscle car, the Dodge Charger and its off-road Jeep group. But Fiat has been slow to hit American roadways, with the company taking time to make sure it had a stylistic winner that could appeal to American tastes. Which is why the Fiat draws a crowd: everyone has heard of it and seen the Jennifer Lopez commercials, but few have had a chance to get close to one. The 500 is a head turner. It is a sub compact car and at 11.5 feet in length and just under five feet high the Fiat is not much larger than the Smart-for-Two and smaller than the Mini Cooper. The style can best be described as “cute” as it turns heads wherever you go. Under the hood is a small, four-cylinder engine producing just 101 horsepower and 98 pound-feet of torque.
While those numbers seem anemic, the power plant provides more than enough juice to give the little car some pep once it gets under way. It is not, however, as fuel efficient as one might expect from a sub-compact import. The 500 carries an EPA rating of 27 miles per gallon in city driving, and 34 miles per gallon on the highway – and the little engine prefers being pampered with premium gasoline. The engine is mated to a six-speed, automatic transmission and it is a performer. On
rear seats are more for show than use, unless the passengers are children. The dash provokes mixed reactions. The plastic molding is color coordinated with the exterior of the car. And the controls and dials are raised, light colored, plastic buttons. Men who sat in the car invariably exclaimed positively that the buttons were convenient and easy to get used to. Women who sat in the car disdainfully said it was like “driving a blender.” The 500’s blender does control a wealth of
dry or wet winding roads the Fiat operates more like a sport sedan. And on unpaved, pot-holed roads the MacPherson suspension and twintube, sport shocks smooth out or minimize even the roughest bumps without disrupting ‘Trane’s “Love Supreme” in the CD player. The interior of the Fiat 500 provides the biggest positive impression on neighbors and strangers who see the car – and is likely to do the same with the thousands of visitors to the New York International Auto show, at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan, that opened on Friday, April 13th. The seats are double-stitched, Italian leather with equally thick padding on the doors and arm rests. The front seats are manually operated, but they can be heated. And while there is ample legroom for six-footers in the front, the
gadgets. There is Bluetooth cell phone and audio connections; and the glove box contains MP3, iPod, and USB connections. And the Bose sound system can satisfy any type of music lover. But the price of the 500, at about $23,000 is puzzling since it puts this sub-compact in a category with several, large, compact cars under $25,000, such as the Hyundai Elantra, Mazda 3, Honda Civic, and Chevrolet’s Sonic and Cruze ( http:// bit.ly/Io8dSv ). But the Fiat 500 is unique and difficult to categorize. It is, physically, a small sub-compact car. Yet its quality, styling and precision handling would tend to pit it against a more upscale competition. For variety, at the New York International Auto Show, the automaker put its Fiat 500 Abarth model in the spotlight. This variation, with a scorpion logo, has a four-cylinder power plant producing 160 horsepower and 170 pound-feet of torque. That amount of power on such a light car puts it in the performance category of the Mini Cooper – which costs nearly twice as much – and would run the Fiat head to head with the $27,000 Nissan Juke, which has a four-cylinder, turbocharged engine and cannot resist a drag race. The 500 does not have a navigation system, which is a drawback for a car costing just above $23,000. But there is a factory installed Tom-
Tom navigation setup with a three-inch screen installed on top of the dash. The Tom-Tom is more cumbersome and less user friendly than its competitor, Garmin. It seems to have been designed by members of the Flat Earth Society who didn’t get Christopher Columbus’ message and still think the heavens revolve around the earth. As a result, there is no true north orientation, and the Tom-Tom landscape spins merrily around the always upward-moving avatar. The result is a system best used with Dramamine. In addition, while the Bluetooth function is set through Tom-Tom, the system does not turn off or pause the entertainment system when you have an incoming phone call. Unlike Garmin, it simply plays both through the same set of Bose speakers and subwoofers, though there is a button on the blender to mute the music. It remains to be seen what kind of splash the reintroduction of the Fiat will have on American car buyers. But considering the excitement in engenders on the street, this second coming of the Italians should be a lot more productive than the first venture. --Roger Witherspoon writes Shifting Gears at
www.RogerWitherspoon.com
2012 Fiat 500 MSRP: EPA Estimate:
$23,250 27 MPG City 34 MPG Highway
Performance / Safety: 1.4-liter, aluminum alloy engine producing 101 horsepower and 98 pound-feet of torque; 6-speed automatic transmission; power rack and pinion steering; MacPherson front suspension with twin-tube shocks; rear twistbeam suspension with twin-tube shocks; 4-wheel, anti-lock brakes; stability and traction control; 15-inch aluminum wheels; halogen projector headlamps; fog lamps; front, side mounted, and side curtain airbags. Interior / Comfort: AM/FM/Sirius satellite radio; Bose premium sound system with 6 speakers and a subwoofer; USB, iPod, and MP3 connections; Cd player; Tom-Tom navigation with Bluetooth; power sunroof; tilt and telescope, leather wrapped steering wheel with fingertip audio, phone, and cruise controls; fold flat, split rear seats; leather seats; heated front seats.
Page 22
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
GovernmentSection The Perilous State of the States By FRANK V. VERNUCCIO, JR.
The recent scandals involving several Westchester elected officials pales in comparison to the national crisis of state elected officials engaging in irresponsible budget practices. Westchester residents pay the highest taxes in the nation, but despite their “contributions,” Albany, along with most other state capitals, continues to endure major budget problems. The federal deficit absorbs the national media headlines, but the individual states face their own financial dilemmas. According to the National Governors Association (NGA,) their budgets account for almost $667 billion in general fund expenditures, with a total $95 billion shortfall in 2013. Profligate state and local government spend-
ing has led to an outstanding debt of $2.447 trillion (according to the Center for Fiscal Accountability), and a $3.1 trillion shortfall in projected pension spending. Politicians eager to win the support of public employee labor unions have long promised benefits that they couldn’t pay for. Unscrupulous politicians hide the problem with a variety of accounting tricks in order to keep promising voters irresponsible benefits in anticipation of their next re-elected bid. From 1985 to 2005, most state budgets doubled, and some tripled, in size, notes the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC.) Of course, during that time, most New York State incumbents enjoyed successful re-election campaigns, with just a few exceptions. In the past, states looked to the federal government to bail them out. That era has ended, thanks to the federal deficit, and the end of Washington’s failed “Stimulus” program. Indeed, Wash-
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
ington’s actions will cause more harm than good in the future due to Obamacare. The NGA believes that related unfunded mandates will impose new costs of $118 billion through the next decade. In 2011, our state had the third highest cost of government per day in the nation, according to Americans for Tax Reform. The end result is clear: from 2000—2009, New York was the biggest loser in migration of all 50 states. The state’s onerous individual taxes are matched by the highestin-the nation corporate tax rate of 15.95%, reports ALEC. State governments cannot continue on the path that led to their current precarious position. The Heartland Institute is advocating a 10-point program to address fiscal problems in the states: 1. Keep taxes low. High taxes hinder economic growth and prosperity. 2. Don’t penalize earnings and investment. 3. Avoid ‘sin’ taxes. Taxes on specific goods and services are often unfair, unreliable and regressive. 4. Create a transparent and accountable budget.
Focus attention and resources on providing those services that are the core function of state government. 5. Privatize public services. 6. Avoid corporate subsidies. Subsidies to corporations and selective tax abatement are questionable politics and bad economics. 7. Cap taxes and expenditures. 8. Fund students, not schools. States and cities that have experimented with school choice have seen gains in academic achievement. 9. Reform Medicaid programs to eliminate waste and fraud. 10. Prohibit state and local unions from deducting funds used for political purposes from the paychecks of public workers. Politicians have placed their own careers over the fiscal health of their jurisdictions, and have caused this crisis. The time has come to end their assault on the financial stability of the states.
Contact Frank Vernuccio by directing email to: nycommunityaction@gmail.com.
THE ALBANY CORRESPONDENT
Cuomo’s Healthcare Order By CARLOS GONZALEZ
ALBANY, NY -- Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday issued an Executive Order to establish a statewide Health Exchange, a move that will significantly reduce the cost of coverage for individuals, small businesses, and local governments.The New York State Legislature is in recess this week. Cuomo’s order overrode the Senate Republicans’ opposition plan to stall the governor’s focus; the healthcare plan was passed by the Democrat controlled State Assembly. The Health Exchange is to be entirely financed by the federal government and may be instrumental in establishing the first-ever comparative marketplace to bring down the cost of
health insurance. The Health Exchange is estimated to help more than one million uninsured New Yorkers afford coverage. “The bottom line is that creating this health exchange will lower the cost of health insurance for small businesses, local governments, and individual New Yorkers across the state,” Governor Cuomo said. “The sky-high cost of insurance in New York is driving businesses out of the state and preventing lower income New Yorkers from being able to afford needed coverage… establishing the Health Exchange will bring true competition into the health care marketplace, driving costs down across the state.” If New York fails to establish a Health Exchange, the federal government will step in and establish a federally operated Health Exchange in the state, in order to comply with the Affordable Care Act. The Health Exchange will be financially self-sustaining, requiring no state subsidy, by January 1, 2015. The Health Exchange will eventually allow New Yorkers to obtain health coverage and facilitate the purchase and sale of qualified health plans
in this state. Additionally, the Health Exchange will ensure eligible small businesses and individuals receive premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions. In addition, the Health Exchange will save New York taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year by helping connect New Yorkers and businesses to health insurance that will be made available under the Affordable Care Act. Currently, state and local governments pay more than $600 million every year to cover the health care costs of uninsured individuals. Unreimbursed costs are passed on to individuals and small businesses, adding an additional $800 in premiums on a family’s average cost each year. The Executive Order allows for regional advisory committees consisting of consumer advocates, small business consumer representatives, health care providers, agents, brokers, insurers, labor organizations, and any other appropriate stakeholders to advise and make recommendations on the establishment and operation of the Health Exchange, including recommendations about relevant regional factors. The advisory committees will provide opportunities for public input. The order is Cuomo’s 42nd since he came into office, and this decision was expected for quite some time.
Judge Issues Low Blow to Senate Democrats
By CARLOS GONZALEZ ALBANY, NY -- A judge has turned down a petition from state Senate Democrats trying to block creation of a 63rd Senate district in New York, according to a decision released Friday. State Supreme Court Justice Richard Braun wrote that he found it “disturbing” the Republican majority in control of redistricting used two different methods for establishing boundaries in Queens, Staten Island and Nassau and Suffolk counties.
But he says the Democrats didn’t establish that the process was unconstitutional. Braun also dismissed the Democrats’ argument that “information was withheld from the public to thwart public comment regarding the plan,” noting that redistricting is driven by formulas applied to census data, not public opinion. Michael Murphy, a Senate Democratic spokesman, said they will appeal the decision. “We are confident that the Court of Appeals will see through this blatant, unconstitutional power grab by the Republican majority,” he said.
Part of the Obama administration’s heath care plan, the exchanges have been a major campaign target for Republicans in the presidential race. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos stated last month that his conference would not challenge Cuomo’s executive order. The issue is a hot topic and a contentious one to the Republican base. The order gives the Senate GOP an out on the issue. Senate Republican spokesman Scott Reif has not commented publicly on this issue. Senate Democrats wasted no time indicating that “the Senate Republicans held the health and well-being of New Yorkers hostage by refusing to pass the exchange legislatively, instead forcing the Governor to us his executive prerogative,” said Senate Minority Leader John Sampson (DBrooklyn) in a news release. Senator Greg Ball (R-Putnam) released a statement saying the state shouldn’t “move forward with the Health Exchange while the president’s healthcare plan is before the Supreme Court.” Share your thoughts with Carlos Gonzalez,The Albany Correspondent, by directing email to carlgonz1@ gmail.com.
Republicans applauded the judge’s decision. “As Senate Republicans had maintained from the beginning, we were required to add a 63rd seat to comply with the Constitution,”GOP spokesman Scott Reif said. “We’re pleased that the court decided this case in our favor and believe it’s time to move on.” The Republicans hold a 32-30 majority in the Senate. Democrats have a voter enrollment advantage of 2-to-1 in the state. Share your thoughts with Carlos Gonzalez, The Albany Correspondent, by directing email to carlgonz1@gmail.com.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
Page 23
INVESTIGATION
Cash Strapped City of Rye Finds $9,000 to Make Whistleblower Disappear
ics meeting. According to sources, the city has not had RYE, NY - They refuse to much success in shaking Mr. Dapolite since investigate charges of corruphe first filed his complaint. The accused city tion against their hand-picked manager has served his accuser with a workembattled city manager. They related reprimand, which was widely viewed say they have no money to as retribution by the community. They have hire an independent counsel threatened him with more disciplinary action. to conduct an investigation, And they have tried to force a settlement with or to ensure due process for all. They claim him before. they don’t even have enough money to fix the Apparently, attorneys for the city decrumbling sidewalks and sewers. manded Mr. Dapolite respond to their settleBut somehow, it’s been learned, that the ment offer by the end of the business day on City of Rye might be able to find $9,000 to April 4th so the city council could quickly make whistleblower Andrew Dapolite go approve the deal in executive (closed) session away. that night. At that time, sources say, the dollar The shocking revelation came on April figure being offered was less than $3,000. The 12th, when sources close to the situation said real sticking point, however, was Mr. Dapolite’s corporation counsel, Kristen Wilson, of Harabsolute refusal to withdraw his complaint as FeBruarY 23, 2012 ris Beach, notified parties involved that Page 26 The“some WesTchesTer part Guardian of the settlement. Thus, at 5:00pm ThursdaY, that of the City Council members” were experiafternoon, the city was left empty-handed. encing more “comfort” with a “$9,000 figure” Since thwn, Mr. Dapolite has been repas a payday for Dapolite. CLASSIFIED LEGAL NOTICES resented by former City ADS of Rye Judge and The timing of the offer was not inconseMayorOffice JohnSpace Carey,Availablewho recently told the Rye FAMILY COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK quential. PatchPrime thatLocation, Mr. Dapolite Yorktown would Heights leave Rye TV COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER The $9,000 figure surfaced the same day In the Matter of ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE 1,000 Ft.: Carey’s $1800. Contact Wilca: 914.632.1230 overSq.Mr. “dead body.” SUMMONS AND INQUEST NOTICE that Mr. Dapoilte showed up at an Ethics “I would vote to spend money on the Prime Retail - Westchester County Chelsea Thomas (d.o.b. 7/14/94), Board hearing armed with stacks of docuprocess after wein Yorktown made the walkway around Best Location Heights A Child Under 21 Years of Age Dkt Nos. NN-10514/15/16-10/12C ments he called “evidence” to support his1100 Sq. Boston Ft. Store $3100; Sq.safe... Ft. storeand $2800after and 450 Sq. Ft. Post 1266 Road we’ve done Adjudicated to be Neglected by NN-2695/96-10/12B claims that his boss, Rye TV Access CoordinaStore $1200. something about flooding, I may spend a FU No.: 22303 for any type of business. Contact Wilca: 914.632.1230 tor Nicole Levitsky, and City Manager ScottSuitabledime on a lawyer,” said Deputy Mayor Peter Tiffany Ray and Kenneth Thomas, Pickup, had concealed a public record from Respondents. X Jovanovich at the March 14th City Council HELP WANTED NOTICE: PLACEMENT OF YOUR CHILD IN FOSTER CARE MAY RESULT IN YOUR LOSS OF YOUR elected city officials and the public. Dapolite A non profitmeeting. Performing Arts Center is seeking two job positions- 1) DirecRIGHTS TO YOUR CHILD. IF YOUR CHILD STAYS IN FOSTER CARE FOR 15 OF THE MOST RECENT tor of Development- FT-must have a background in development or expehas also asserted that Ms. Levitsky asked him “I have a feeling that most of the citizens 22 MONTHS, THE AGENCY MAY BE REQUIRED BY LAW TO FILE A PETITION TO TERMINATE rience fundraising, knowledge of what development entails and experiYOUR PARENTAL RIGHTS AND COMMITMENT OF GUARDIANSHIP AND CUSTODY OF THE to lie and that she actually tampered with the would feel, let me2)get this straight, youhave can’t ence working with sponsors/donors; Operations Manager- must a CHILD FOR THE PURPOSES OF ADOPTION, AND MAY FILE BEFORE THE END OF THE 15-MONTH public record, lowering the volume to make good knowledge of computers/software/ticketing systems, duties include even spend $10,000 to $20,000 to fix side- PERIOD. Wash & Fold Service • Dry Cleaning & Pressing overseeing all box office, concessions, movie staffing, day of show lobby the video taped recording of an open meeting UPON GOOD CAUSE, THE COURT MAY ORDER AN INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE WHETHwalks and you’re toMust hirebe outside staffing such as Merchandise seller,going bar sales. familiar withattorPOS ER THE NON-RESPONSENT PARENT(s) SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS A RESPONDENT; IF less audible (a class D felony punishable by system up andney’s willing to time plus hours. (203) toorganize fix theconcessions. process,”Full continued theCall deputy DryTHEClean ByBEThe • Shirts THE COURT DETERMINES CHILD SHOULD REMOVEDBulk FROM HIS/HER HOME, THE Laundered 438-5795 and ask for Julie or Allison to seven years in state prison). COURT MAY ORDER AN INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE NON-RESPONDENT mayor, “The process can wait.” PARENT(s) SHOULD BE SUITABLE CUSTODIANS FOR THE CHILD; IF THE CHILD IS PLACED AND Mr. Pickup and Ms. Levitsky, who have Leather & Suedes Cleaned / Treated But, apparently, convincing Mr. Dapolite REMAINS IN FOSTER CARE FOR FIFTEEN OF THE MOST RECENT TWENTY-TWO MONTHS, THE avoided answering a single question regardAGENCY MAY BE REQUIRED TO FILE A PETITION FOR TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS OF to accept $9,000 to disappear cannot. THE PARENT(s) AND COMMITMENT OF GUARDIANSHIP AND CUSTODY OF THE CHILD FOR THE ing the allegations made against them for over OF ADOPTION, EVEN IF THE PARENT(s) WERE NOT NAMED AS RESPONDENTS IN Leon Sculti is a freelance journalist and an inde- PURPOSES two months now (protected by a city council THE CHILD NEGLECT OR ABUSE PROCEEDING. pendent film maker. that refuses to investigate the matter) simply A NON-CUSTODIAL PARENT HAS THE RIGHT TO REQUEST TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT CUSTODY OF THE CHILD AND TO SEEK ENFORCEMENT OF VISITATION RIGHTS WITH THE CHILD. refused to attend the impotent Board of Eth-
By LEON SCULTI
Yorktown EconoWash Your Full Service Laundromat Since 1966
BY ORDER OF THE FAMILY COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
TO THE ABOVE-NAMED RESPONDENT(S) WHO RESIDE(S) OR IS FOUND AT [specify address(es)]: Last known addresses: TIFFANY RAY: 24 Garfield Street, #3, Yonkers, NY 10701 Last known addresses: KENNETH THOMAS: 24 Garfield Street, #3, Yonkers, NY 10701 An Order to Show Cause under Article 10 of the Family Court Act having been filed with this Court seeking to modify the placement for the above-named child. YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear before this Court at Yonkers Family Court located at 53 So. Broadway, Yonkers, New York, on the 28th day of March, 2012 at 2;15 pm in the afternoon of said day to answer the petition and to show cause why said child should not be adjudicated to be a neglected child and why you should not be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of Article 10 of the Family Court Act.
914-562-0834
914.962.5539
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE, that you have the right to be represented by a lawyer, and if the Court finds you are unable to pay for a lawyer, you have the right to have a lawyer assigned by the Court.
2018 Crompond Rd. (Rear) Yorktown Hts. BY ORDER OF THE COURT CLERK OF THE 35 COURT & 202 -Crompond Routes
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE, that if you fail to appear at the time and place noted above, the Court will hear and determine the petition as provided by law. Dated: January 30, 2012 2 column
Get Noticed
1 column
Get Noticed
Page 24
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
PEOPLE
Councilman Trangucci’s Priorities Focus on Protecting Residents of New Rochelle By PEGGY GODFREY Councilman Louis Trangucci is known as the defender of the taxpayers, not only for those who live in his district, but also for any one living in New Rochelle. His interests, focused on making New Rochelle a better place to live, extends to all aspects of city government which impact the lives of all residents. Only a few days ago the New Rochelle Talk of the Sound blog reported Councilman Trangucci inquired as to when the City Council had approved joining ICLEI and City Manager Chuck Strome responded by advising the term “joining” was “implied” by the virtue of an ICLEI representative being invited to speak before the City Council. The Westchester Guardian approached Mr Tangucci to explore his views on this and other issues. GODFREY: You are presently serving a second term on the New Rochelle City Council. With your first term as the foundation of your experience as a councilman, can you define any areas of the Council’s policymaking abilities and the powers it holds that you believe must be changed or de-emphasized? TRANGUCCI: I think one of the more important things are that IDA (New Rochelle Industrial Development Corporation) abatements given to developers should be changed to make developers come to the City Council for their approval. Also term limits were discussed at Council last year and I feel that the Mayor and Council should be limited to two terms and be out. We have people serving beyond two terms now. GODFREY: Your efforts in exposing corruption in New Rochelle are well documented. Do you have any opinion on whether any more corruption exists anywhere in City Government? TRANGUCCI: I don’t at this time, but I want to recognize Pat Pappalardi for coming forward and helping us uncover the situation that was going on in the Department of Public Works. My door is always open to anyone who wants to come forth with information. GODFREY: This year you voted against the budget, which included the 2% tax cap and an increase on the refuse fee from $66 to $233. Do you feel the City should continue along this path or use other fees to raise revenue for future needs? TRANGUCCI: Even though the City had a 2% tax cap it was allowed 5.96% because of pension obligations. When you include the refuse fee that was equivalent to a 9.1% increase, it was really equivalent to a 15% tax increase. I do not support this kind of increase. Republicans had presented $800,000 of cost savings and none of it was supported by the [Democrat] majority of the City Council. I think the refuse fee should be a tax, not a fee; so that people could write if off. GODFREY: Do you feel more retail and / or residential development is necessary in down-
town New Rochelle? Are you in favor of the development consultant who was recently approved? Why did you feel the staff of the City and the BID could not attract retail that would be successful, especially in the downtown? TRANGUCCI: I do support the development consultant and feel there should be a moratorium on any residential development in the short term. We need to explore retail and commercial in downtown and I do support that. I would encourage mixed residential, with a primary use of commercial and retail and a limited residential component. GODFREY: Do you feel the City Council stresses their policy making power, or do you feel they tend to approve the initiatives of the City Manager? TRANGUCCI: We, as Council members, with the economy the way it is, need to challenge every initiative to make sure it’s in the best interests of the taxpayers. GODFREY: Do appointments to various boards and commissions that have powers, such as the IDA or Planning Board, reduce the power of the electorate to influence important decisions in the City? Trangucci: Only in the way they are appointed, because the IDA should have a member chosen from each district. Planning Board members should be appointed by the New Rochelle City Council; not exclusively by the Mayor. If you want truly open government that’s the way it should be done. GODFREY: What do you envision as the best way for citizens and civic organizations to present their concerns to the City Council? TRANGUCCI: I think the best way for citizens is to reach out to their Council member and Mayor through a group such as a neighborhood association. That would get the best response, especially if there is follow-up speaking to the Council at Citizens to be Heard venues. GODFREY: Echo Bay’s developer may be given another MOU (memorandum of understanding) extension. What do you feel is the best course of action for the City at this time? TRANGUCCI: No, I do not feel the MOU should be approved based on what the developer has presented to the Council. They have not presented any cost-benefit analysis to the taxpayers. This project will cause an undue amount of financial and infrastructure burden to the residents of New Rochelle. GODFREY: Do you have any ideas or suggestions you would like to share? TRANGUCCI: I want to focus on revenue generating projects in terms of retail and commercial as the primary developments. We need to develop projects that have a combination of retail, commercial and residential components to alleviate the financial burdens on the taxpayers. Peggy Godfrey is a freelance writer and a former educator.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
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GOVERNMENT
Yonkers Deputy Mayor Sue Gerry to Step Down from Yonkers Parking Authority Board By HEZI ARIS YONKERS, NY -- Yonkers Tribune / The Westchester Guardian have learned that Yonkers Deputy Mayor Sue Gerry, a recent appointee replacement of a retired Board Director of the Yonkers Parking Authority Board of Directors by Mayor Mike Spano, has chosen to remove herself from the contentiousness of her appointment by virtue of her being a non-resident of Yonkers. In a letter to the Yonkers Parking Authority Board of Directors, Mayor Spano writes that while he does not concur with the YPA bylaws that stipulate residency, he will withdraw his appointment and replace Ms Gerry with that of James Cavanaugh. Mr. Cavanaugh, best known to most Yonkersites as the former Westchester County Republican Chairman, who only in October 20122 was disgracefully removed from his post as CEO of the Battery Park City Authority over a scandal in which New York State Inspector General
Joseph Fisch blasted Mr Cavanaugh for special criticism, as well as his top aide, Laura Wilson Kimball, a onetime assistant to former New York State First Lady Libby Pataki, and present employee who replaced Yonkers Downtown Waterfront Development Commissioner Jim Pinto, for squandering taxpayer money. Inspector General Fisch said, “Such excess spending by a state authority was outrageous!” Then and now, Mr Cavanaugh refuses to answer questions about his personal relationship to Ms Kimball though their relationship is known to be amorous. Mr Cavanaugh was noted in a New York Post article to have stated that Inspector General Fisch’s findings were “nonsense” and further, the report “comes close to being slanderous.” At the time of this reporters writing the article “Inspector General Fisch Exposes James Cavanaugh, the “Pig” Feeding at Public Trough By HEZI ARIS,” it was learned that
Mr Cavanaugh, upon thereafter learning of the Yonkers Tribune article said, “I am going to cut that man’s balls off!” Happily that man has not undergone castration. The Yonkers Tribune wrote of Mr Cavanaugh on November 17, 2011, “…his past demeanor precludes him from being considered legitimately.” Furthermore, we then wrote, “Cavanaugh would be an albatross on the… mayor’s neck. For that reason alone, he must not be considered in any capacity.” It seems Mayor Mike Spano has chosen to overlook Mr Cavanaugh conduct. Were Mr Cavanaugh’s appointment appropriate, it would have been exclaimed with pride, instead, the administration has chosen to keep it quiet, evidently embarrassed or ashamed of their own action. One thing may be said about Mr Cavanaugh, and that is what he shared with me this past
Tuesday afternoon, he now resides in Yonkers. Welcome to Yonkers, Mr Cavanaugh. In fact it was on Tuesday, April 10, 2012, that the Yonkers City Council authorized sending the New York State Legislature, that is, the NYS Assembly and NYS Senate, a Hon=me Rule message requesting the expansion of the Yonkers Parking Authority Board of Directors from the present five membership by an addition four members. Should the Home Rule message gain acceptance by the New York State Legislature, the nine member YPA Board of Directors would have four additional appointees chosen by Mayor Mike Spano’s Administration and thereby extinguish the control presently managed by former Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone’s appointees. When Mr Cavanagh officially takes his place on the YPA Board, and assuming the YPA Board of Directors is approved to be expanded by four more people chosen by Mayor Spano, a majority of five people will be able to eclipse the present four whose allegiance may lean toward the former Mayor Amicone.
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C.M.J. REALTY NO. 2 LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 2/24/12. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of The LLC 11 Quaker Ln. Harrison, NY 10604. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
C.M.J. REALTY NO. 1 LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 2/24/12. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of The LLC 11 Quaker Ln. Harrison, NY 10604. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
C.M.J. REALTY NO. 4 LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 2/24/12. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of The LLC 11 Quaker Ln. Harrison, NY 10604. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
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C.M.J. REALTY NO. 5 LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 2/24/12. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of The LLC 11 Quaker Ln. Harrison, NY 10604. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
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GEORGIO FAMILY III LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 12/5/2011. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process C/O Patricia G. Micek, Esq. 2180 Boston Post Rd. Larchmont, NY 10538. Purpose: Any lawful activity. TREMBLANT LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 2/22/12. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of Patricia G. Micek, Esq. 2180 Boston Post Rd. Larchmont, NY 10538. Purpose: Any lawful activity. RAAS PARTNERS LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 1/27/12. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of C/O Nancy Brady 125 Parkway Rd. Ste. 1303 Bronxville, NY 10708. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
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SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE NEW YORK COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER NATIONAL CITYMORTGAGE, a division of NATIONAL CITY BANK, Plaintiff, Index No.: 3532/11 against- SUMMONS THE DARTMOUTH PLAN, INC; KIEL BARNETT; LAWRENCE BARNETT; FLORINE BROWN; ALOYSIOUS BROWN: ANDREA MAXINE BROWN; ORENE BROWN; SHANNON NICOLE WILLIAMS; WENDELL WILLIAMS; Defendants. -------------------------------------------------------------X TO TT{R ABOVE NAMED DEFENDANTS: THE DARTMOUTH PLAN INC.; KIEL BARNETT; LAWRENCE BARNETT; FLORINE BROWN; ALOYSIOUS GARRET BROWN; ANDREA MAXINE BROWN; ORENE BROWN; SHANNON NICOLE WILLIAMS; WENDELL YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the Complaint in the above entitled action and to serve a copy of your Answer on: the plaintiff’s attorney within twenty (20) days after the service of this Summons, exclusive of the day of service, or within thirty (30) days after completion of service where service is made in any other manner than by personal delivery within the State. The United States of America, if designated as a defendant in this action, may answer or appear within sixty (60) days of service hereof. In case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the Complaint. Plaintiff designates Westchester County as the place of trial. The basis of venue is the County in which the defendant resides and where the transaction took place.
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
OP-EDSection
Strip Search The Supreme Court By LARRY M. ELKIN The Supreme Court bench, like a crowded jail, is a place where a person can do a lot of damage. I therefore propose that incoming justices be subjected to a strip search by a member of the same gender promptly upon taking the oath of office. I do not suggest there is any reason to believe the justices are hiding drugs or weapons beneath their robes, though some of the court’s opinions do lead one to wonder what they may be smoking in chambers. According to the court, however, reasonable suspicion is no longer a prerequisite for a visually intrusive strip search, so long as it is in the service of security. The court ruled 5 to 4 last week that corrections officers at two New Jersey facilities did nothing wrong by strip-searching a man who was detained after being mistakenly arrested for failure to pay a fine. The searches were standard operating procedure when new individuals were admitted to the general jail population. Albert Florence had paid the fine years earlier. He had proof of this fact with him when he was arrested, en route to his mother-in-law’s with his wife and young son, but the state trooper who stopped him refused to believe the document. According to court papers, Florence and other recent arrestees arriving at Essex County Correctional Facility, where he was taken after first being held for six days at the Burlington County Detention Center, “were instructed to remove their clothing while an officer looked for body markings, wounds, and contraband. Apparently without touching the detainees, an officer looked at their ears, nose, mouth, hair, scalp, fingers, hands, arms, armpits, and other body openings.” Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy argued that corrections officials “must have substantial discretion to devise reasonable
solutions to the problems they face.” The jailers argued that allowing people arrested for minor crimes, as Florence was, to enter jail populations without maximum searches would give those intent on smuggling contraband a means of doing so. Kennedy did not tell us how Florence might have known in advance that a hyper-vigilant trooper would wrongly arrest him and accordingly prepare himself for contraband carriage. It is not yet clear exactly what the impact of the ruling will be. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. each wrote separately to emphasize the limitations of the holding. Both pointed out that the ruling applies only to people who are committed to the general population of a jail, not necessarily to all people who are arrested or detained. In his concurring opinion, Roberts stressed that Florence “challenged suspicionless strip searches ‘no matter what the circumstances.’” Therefore, Roberts said, in ruling against him, the majority establishes only that there are some circumstances in which suspicionless searches are reasonable, not that they are reasonable in all circumstances. He added that, in Florence’s case, “there was apparently no alternative, if Florence were to be detained, to holding him in the general jail population.” Roberts also pointed out that “Florence was detained not for a minor traffic offense but instead pursuant to a warrant for his arrest,” apparently making the search somehow more reasonable. That the warrant was issued in error is beside the point. Alito, meanwhile, suggested that correctional facilities may have a responsibility to hold certain minor offenders, though not all, separately in order to spare them the indignity of an intrusive search. “For these persons,” he wrote, “admission to the general jail population, with the concomitant humiliation of a strip search, may not be reasonable, particularly if an alternative procedure is
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
feasible.” With his acknowledgment that undergoing strip searches is “undoubtedly humiliating and deeply offensive to many,” Alito is the member of the majority who comes closest to everyday decency. But even he, by joining Kennedy’s opinion, claims that there are times when it is reasonable to force a person who has not been proven guilty of any crime, and who is not even suspected of a major crime, to endure this “undoubtedly humiliating” and “deeply offensive” experience without reason to believe that he or she may be trying to conceal anything. There are no such times. If corrections officials have no reasonable basis to search someone but are worried about placing him or her in the general inmate population, they have three options. They can hold the person separately, release him or her, or go before a judge to get a warrant for a search. One of these three options ought to be used in every case, not just in cases in which such “alternative” procedures are judged “feasible” by those whose own privacy is not at stake.The court majority apparently overlooked the Constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure. Nobody forfeits any rights, including the right to control access and display of one’s own body, merely by virtue of being detained or arrested. Justice Stephen Breyer, in his dissent, which was joined by the rest of the court’s more liberal wing, referred the 2009 case of Safford Unified School Dist. #1 v. Redding. In that case, the court ruled that school officials were wrong to require a 13-year-old to strip to her underwear, shake her bra and pull aside her panties in a search for the over-the-counter painkiller ibuprofen. Quoting the majority in that case, Breyer writes, “We have recently said, in respect to a schoolchild (and a less intrusive search), that the ‘meaning of such a search, and the degradation its subject may reasonably feel, place a search that intrusive in a category of its own demanding its own specific suspicions.’” But as I wrote at the time, the court did not
go far enough even in that case. It did not say, as it could have, that a search of this nature would have been wrong under any conditions. It did not address the concerns parents might, and should, feel about the prospect of having a son or daughter endure such an ordeal. Instead, it suggested that the search could have been reasonable if only the officials’ suspicions had been a bit better founded. And, appallingly, Justice Clarence Thomas thought the school officials had been entirely in the right. This is not the sort of reasoning we would expect from individuals who truly understand the extent to which this sort of search falls into “a category of its own.” In his dissent, Breyer also referred to the precedent set in the cases of Bell v. Wolfish and Turner v. Safley that “Prison walls do not form a barrier separating prison inmates from the protections of the Constitution.” The problem here seems to be a different barrier – one separating justices of the Supreme Court from the concerns of ordinary citizens. Adding a strip search as a requirement for membership on the nation’s highest court might not turn up any contraband, but it would destroy this barrier. In doing so, such searches would do far more to protect the public than did the searches to which Florence was subjected.
without physical pressure, has led to numerous false imprisonments and has extended incarcerations based upon these illegally obtained confessions. That is especially why Miranda is so important. The rule of law always has been one in which the rights of the individual should be superior to the rights of the greater society. Society somehow seems to take care of itself. It is the individual that needs protection. Mayor Koch in citing the cases that he does, really has overstepped his bounds. While he is entitled to his opinion, no matter how foolish, he is by no means sophisticated enough to recognize the necessities of the Miranda decision. Without commenting on the various decisions of the Supreme Court especially the Howes v. Fields matter which is not really relevant to the cases generally. Mr. Koch should look to the language of Miranda itself. He should also rec-
ognize the needs in our society, for the youth of America and the less educated to be advised of their rights before they waive those rights and place themselves in jeopardy. I am saddened by the fact that a person that held himself out at one point as the great liberal and another point the great conservative, is wrong on both accounts. Neither the conservatives nor the liberals wish a diminution of individual rights. In a world that is otherwise trampling on the Constitution, this wish of his would be disastrous. Mayor Koch ends his commentary by saying he believes that police and district attorney interrogations of persons of interest related to a criminal investigations should be video taped. This has long been the advocated policy of persons who are concerned with their civil liberties. He had the opportunity to impose such action
Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®, is president of Palisades Hudson Financial Group a fee-only financial planning firm headquartered in Scarsdale, NY. The firm offers estate planning, insurance consulting, trust planning, cross-border planning, business valuation, family office and business management, executive financial planning, and tax services. Its sister firm, Palisades Hudson Asset Management, is an independent investment advisor with about $950 million under management. Branch offices are in Atlanta and Ft. Lauderdale. Website:www.palisadeshudson.com.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
RE: MIRANDA WARNINGS
Recently I read a commentary in your March 22, 2012, paper by former Mayor Ed Koch in which he states that he “believes the Supreme Court should end the now required Miranda warnings”. His argument is based upon the necessity for the greater good of the society. He claims that the uncovering of crimes and the use of confessions when obtained without physical force is helpful to our society. That is why the Supreme
Court should end the Miranda requirements. Ed Koch, who is supposed to be an attorney, who to the best of my knowledge, has no criminal experience other than being Mayor of the City of New York during one of the most corrupt periods of time, seeks to negate the entire purpose of what the Constitution is about. Any totalitarian regime has always argued be it of the left or the right that the greater good of society benefits for the diminution of individual rights of the individual.The Constitution of the United States which was promulgated in 1787, for the purpose of protecting the rights of the individual against government overreaching. It was not created for what was purported to be the society’s greater good. It has been shown that over the years that confessions have created more problems than they seem to alleviate in criminal matters. The perpetration of the falsified confessions,
Continued on page 27
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
Page 27
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Continued from page 26
when he was Mayor of New York and failed to do so. In fact, his police department stood head and shoulders above all others in avoiding the audio or video taping of these alleged confessions. Now it has been generally accepted by the district attorneys of the State of New York and its present leader that it is desirable to video tape interrogations. Mayor Koch should spend more time searching the subject thoroughly than commenting without thinking. Murray Richman, a Bronx Attorney, is the Past-President of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and hosts a weekly radio program on WVOX-1460 AM. MURRAY RICHMAN Law Offices of Murray Richman Bronx, NY 10461
An Open Letter to City of Rye, New York, Mayor Douglas French By RAY TARTAGLIONE Dear Mayor French, Today I attended my 4th Rye Board of Ethics meeting convened at your request, this one specifically referencing what is now known locally as the Dapolite Complaint. Mr. Dapolite asked the Rye City Council for a Council led investigation of his direct superiors who had di-
rected him to mislead the public. But somehow your “Un-Fabulous Four” council majority that presently controls through a single seat (that being the seat that you personally occupy) – continues to protect you and your directives. Your Un-Fabulous Four tactically insists on having someone else conduct the dirty work of public damage control, like when senior city staff get caught lying over and over again. So you’ve invented a process funnel to a now reduced 3 person panel that lacks the authority to investigate, lacks the power to take testimony under oath, lacks the power to marshal all the facts and operates fully outside the scope of its city charter authority. Many now refer to it simply as “The Whitewash Crew.” As I sat in the room observing all these people in attendance a thought occurred to me that I’d like to share. It’s a thought founded out of a concern for the good names of the sitting members of this so called “Ethics Committee,” Mr. Dapolite, Rye City Manager Pickup, Rye TV Access Coordinator Livetsky and anyone else that is or will soon be roped into this or the previous managerial malfeasance mess’s that you
have personally created here in Rye. I thought of how all of the people who were in this room were there solely because of your actions and inaction’s as Mayor of the City of Rye. I thought of how all of the people who were in this room were there solely because of your self centered desire to protect yourself regardless of the consequences to others and I thought about all the people that were involved or will soon be involved solely because of your inability to govern Rye honestly. Mr. Dapolite was attending this Ethics meeting to ostensibly discuss his written complaint. That complaint accused a fellow coworker and her supervisor of multiple inappropriate and illegal actions that were undertaken because you didn’t want certain public meetings televised to the public. Mrs. Matthews, Ex-Mayor Dunn and Judge Alfano were in the room to “evaluate” the words and actions of two senior Rye City employees that apparently had a very good relationship with Mr. Dapolite for years prior to your order that the public be lied to. Mrs. Matthews, Ex-Mayor Dunn and Judge Alfano were back in this awkward room with me for the 4th time in as many months solely because of
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your inconsiderate wishes. That thought also brought me memories of the previous Ethics Board meeting where Ms. Eckman (Building Inspector) and Ms.Whitty (Tax Assessor) were in attendance. At that meeting, as in this one, you took respected members of the Rye community and asked them to open their own reputations to question simply to protect one person - you. What you refuse to recognize (and some here are still afraid to say) is that you are the one that has created the stain on this community because of your illegal actions, your selfish ego and your refusal to take responsibility for your inability to govern this City within the boundaries of integrity. So rather than simply stepping down from the Council, you continue to require multiple City employees to commit crimes and jeopardize their lifelong careers to protect you. Politicians like you successfully ruin the reputations of many good and decent people. I know shame is a concept you’re unfamiliar with – perhaps others will soon advise you of its parameters. Ray Tartaglione is the founder of www.HEALtheHARBOR.com.
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
OP-ED
Justice Served to Obama By J. MATT BARBER Eric Holder is a busy man. When President Obama’s chief law enforcement officer isn’t tied up selling guns to Mexican drug cartels, refusing to prosecute self-serving cases of voter intimidation or ignoring “wanted dead or alive” bounties placed by black militants on the heads of private citizens, he’s busy conspiring with pro-abortion extremists to bring the full weight of the federal government down upon innocent pro-life advocates. So much tyranny, so little time. Eric Holder is much more than just incompetent. He’s an extremist pro-abortion activist who shares his boss’s goal of “fundamentally transforming America” to reflect both men’s secular-socialist self-image. The most recent and obvious example of this administration’s serial abuse of power in furtherance of a radical pro-abortion agenda came when the Department of Health and Human Services mandated, in contravention of the First Amendment, that all religious organizations provide contraception, sterilization and various forms of abortion to employees. This may be the single greatest violation of our constitutionally safeguarded religious liberties in our lifetimes. The mandate remains in place to this day. But individual citizens haven’t escaped a
forced fiduciary tie to abortion homicide. A few weeks later HHS arbitrarily attached a “final rule” to Obamacare requiring that every American, pro-life or otherwise, pay one dollar per month earmarked expressly for an abortion services pool.This validates pro-life forewarnings that the president was simply lying when he issued a toothless executive order supposedly banning federal dollars for abortion. (What do we call someone who chronically lies?) Still, every once in a while the good guys win one. For several months now the Obama administration has been abusing our judicial system through a concerted political intimidation campaign via the federal courts. Obama has instructed the Justice Department to sue a number of pro-life counselors and volunteers for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance (FACE) Act. You won’t hear it from the mainstream media, but the Justice Department has just faced an embarrassing smack down on the highest profile of these cases. It has dropped an appeal in Holder v. Pine against pro-life sidewalk counselor Mary “Susan” Pine, who is represented by the civil rights firm Liberty Counsel. The DOJ has agreed to pay $120,000 for this frivolous lawsuit which, as the evidence indicated, was intended to intimidate Ms. Pine and send a shot over the bow of pro-lifers around the country. Mr. Holder unsuccessfully sought thou-
sands of dollars in fines against Ms. Pine, as well as a permanent injunction banning her from counseling women on the public sidewalk outside the Presidential Women’s Center (PWC) abortion mill (or any other “reproductive services” clinic). After 18 months of litigation, the DOJ’s case was thrown out of federal court, and the department was chastised in a scathing ruling by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp for filing a case with no evidence. Judge Ryskamp wrote that Holder’s complete failure to present any evidence of wrongdoing, coupled with the DOJ’s cozy relationship with PWC and their apparent joint decision to destroy video surveillance footage of the alleged “obstruction,” caused the court to suspect a conspiracy at the highest levels of the Obama administration. “The Court is at a loss as to why the Government chose to prosecute this particular case in the first place,” wrote Judge Ryskamp. “The Court can only wonder whether this action was the product of a concerted effort between the Government and PWC, which began well before the date of the incident at issue, to quell Ms. Pine’s activities rather than to vindicate the rights of those allegedly aggrieved by Ms. Pine’s conduct.” After the ruling the DOJ appealed on the last day possible and gave indication that President Obama had personally ordered the appeal. A little over a week later, the president apparently decided to cut his losses and reversed course. Harry Mihet, senior counsel for Liberty Counsel, said of the judge’s ruling: “It’s not every day that a federal judge accuses the Justice De-
partment of a full-blown conspiracy.” Ironically, this past December, in the midst of the case, Ms. Pine actually counseled a woman outside of PWC and convinced her not to have an abortion, thus saving the life of the child and possibly the mother as well. Her email to Liberty Counsel read simply: “We saved a life today.” Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, pulled no punches: It is irresponsible for the U.S. Department of Justice to place politics above principle when deciding to prosecute, and thus attempt to silence, a pro-life sidewalk counselor without any evidence of wrongdoing. When the nation’s highest law enforcement officer files suit against any citizen, the suit must be based on the law coupled with compelling evidence. Anything less is an abuse of the high office. Susan Pine will not be silenced or detoured from her mission to save the lives of innocent children. Indeed, “politics above principle,” intimidation of private citizens and jaw-dropping abuses of power are but a few hallmarks of this Obama administration. History will be no more kind to this president than he has been to the citizens he was sworn, and failed, to honorably serve. Matt Barber (@jmattbarber on Twitter) is an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. He serves as Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action (LCA on Facebook). (Title and affiliation provided for identification purposes only.)
THE HEZITORIAL
Silence Evokes Governance Devoid of Accommodation, Consensus, or Prudent Direction By HEZI ARIS Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano’s proposed FY 2012-2013 budget will at last be daylighted from behind its opaque hideout. The contention of whether the budget deficit is $89 million or $150 million is moot. At issue is how does the City of Yonkers (CoY) sustain its viability as it presumably pursues a doable financial paradigm true to the city’s plight and reflective of its needs and desires. A wishlist that leads to success as opposed to the make believe, pie in the sky schemes proposed over the many years passed is professed to be the goal. Neither of the camps of power has afforded anyone a clue. They have coalesced into the one and “true” party. The names refer to the “One,” God-like in the deference given Him, called upon under various names. Some will cry out for Jehovah, while others prefer to call him Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent and even Working Families. To those who work diligently to undermine public understanding of how things are, a feigned battle cry espousing the righteous tenets of one name for the Almighty is described by calling out
his name. While the Almighty is the One and only Almighty, he is known by disparate names. He responds to all with adherents under many names, god-like in His name being heard, the budget will be divulged on Monday morning, April 16th, to the agony and acrimony of some, quiet jubilation of others, and the ‘I told you so!’ admonitions of others. Each facet of those we have chosen to govern us will share by differing percentages responsibility for failure or success. Let us open those opaque doors to find out where we may be. The one and only focus must be the budget deficit that has been revealed to loom between a low end figure, just shy of $90million, and a figure of $150 million at the more onerous end of the fiscal crisis. It was difficult to see through the maze born of old and the crisis born anew. The old has been on stage before all Yonkersites to see, a five-ringed circus of issues that need attention, but can await the greater concern, that is, the fiscal health of a city panting for a much fatter coffer. Will Mayor Mike Spano come clad in gear made for a long drawn out fight now or will he cower to a date in the calendar years hence? Will he slash the budget by say 15 to 20 percent
across the board, including the 2nd floor or will only those in the “friends and family network” get their piece of the pie? Will water rates rise to compensate for the con games of the past in which some paid, while others got away with a simple wink and a nod? What about the real estate tax arrears overdue 20, 30, even 40 years? Will they stay forgotten, or will they be demanded? Will those in arrears find foreclosure insinuate itself into their comfortable world of deceit and theft? Will their properties be sold of to make Yonkers coffers whole today? Will the Yonkers Board of Education Central Office find itself gutted out of its spending sprees and thefts? Will the Gasboy pumps be closed to those who are not entitled access? Will the city fleet of cars be turned in for sale now rather than later? Will City Hall pay its fair share? Will City Hall conduct itself fairly by showing proof of those that use the parking lots, pay their parking tickets, etc.? Will City Hall demand payment for arrears from developers? We are talking millions here? When will it be returned? Who is responsible to return money lost to Tara Circle, Yonkers Baseball, Philipsburgh Performing Arts Center, the money Yonkers id owed yet over which words
are expended but little else. It is only talk. What is the city doing about the allocated funds held by the Hudson River Museum for a project not authorized by New York State? The questions are endless. Yonkersites have the answer. So do we. What will be the administration’s answer? Will Yonkersites be consumed over whether the Yonkers Parking Authority is a cesspool of hacks and has-beens who protect the status quo of corruption and greed? They are heard raising their voices in weakness and now recognized to be outmaneuvered by their lack of forthrightness. In similar fashion Leakes & Watts, and the Hudson River Museum remain the tomb of those not worthy even to be seen, much less spoken about. When will the Yonkers Chamber of Commerce cease stealing funds from the Department of Social Services? When will DSS find the intestinal fortitude to shut down this Kevin Cacace / Bernard Pierorazio scam that has endured for over 8 years with the full knowledge of former Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone who refused to set it straight? When will Yonkers City Hall demand Yonkers Corporation Counsel claw back the money awarded the Continued on page 29
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
Page 29
THE HEZITORIAL
Silence Evokes Governance Devoid of Accommodation, Consensus, or Prudent Direction Continued from page 28 Regan brothers for skirting the intent of the law? When will the contract to pay off former Yonkers City Councilman John Murtagh be dissolved? When will Lisa Mirjaj pay legal costs to protect her son in a court of law at her expense or her son’s expense rather than at the Yonkers taxpayer’s expense? When will the failures of Corporation Counsel over a property seized by eminent domain, later to be relinquished halfheartedly, be permitted to progress through the process by which all matters are permitted to evolve toward resolution? When will the bigotry end? Who will pay for trampling on the Yonkers City Charter, the New York Constitution, and the U,S, Constitution. If former Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone was permitted to stick a finger at the courts who will be first to cut off his hand? Will Monday, April 16th be the day of reckoning which will place the entire city on notice to the heavy lifting required or will the city dissolve into a sea of malcontents comfortable in stalling a process with more smoke and mirrors or can Mayor Mike Spano keep us on the straight and narrow, focused on an amenable outcome to the benefit of more than only some? If Mayor Spano cannot drive the equation forward by setting the tone at Monday morning’s presentation of Mayor Mike Spano’s Pro-
posed FY2012-2013 Budget, Yonkers will find itself mired in the respective election process for New York State Assemblypeople and New York State Senators that will embroil the city in what they do best, have a slugfest between the political parties to the detriment of the public for whom they have the temerity to claim they will speak. Will this be the scenario that befalls Yonkers again, passive approval, and a welcome wagon to meet the New York State Control Board the they are permitted the keys to the city? What will it be? If I were a betting man, I would put my money on those that will bitch about anything and everything but shrink from uttering a discernible sound to make the changes most people require to survive. The unions have yet to speak. What are they waiting for? Yonkers Tribune / The Westchester Guardian have learned that Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano is contemplating the reduction of Yonkers Firefighters by 60 and the closure of two firehouses. With former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky and former Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch completing Governor Andrew Cuomo’s delegation to turn Yonkers into a success, will the union membership say what needs to be said or will they release another brood of white rats to roam City Hall? Will it all be accompanied to the cacophony of fire engines
wailing throughout the environs of City Hall? Will the Yonkers City Council show themselves worthy to maintain and revitalize the City of Yonkers to some sense of self respect or will they consume themselves in anticipation of the next election? Are they even worthy of their part-time salary and staff, potentially over $1 million in savings right there, if they cannot be a potent balance as a Legislative body in a city in which there is a strong Mayor form of government? Is Yonkers City Hall the stepchild to City Hall, nothing more than a smaller version for maintaining patronage? I am certain there will be many who will cringe at dismantling the Yonkers City Council. Find the answer by asking yourself what they have they done in the last 16 years that merits their being maintained and paid? Those whose answer is nothing get the big prize, those who responded otherwise are part of the problem. The same goes for Yonkers Corporation Counsel. Yonkers is self-insured, yet Corporation Counsel has yet to divulge the legal fiascos over which they have blundered but have kept the truth from being known to Yonkersites all, not just a few. Refer to the eminent domain inferred above. It seems almost pointless to make rational argument to an entrenched power structure hell bent on taking every crumb off the table
and sharing it among their “friends and family” network. The silence is the promise never afforded those who would quietly await their turn at the trough. Even so, they wait obediently for the largesse that they are only permitted to see but never touch or feel. It is the one narcotic for which there is no antidote. Will Yonkers remain a patient waiting in the emergency room purgatory while others are soothed by the comforting attention of those who believe they are worthy of attention? Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano won election because he was a “nice” guy. He is young, handsome, a family man, married to an accomplished woman, a growing family, and with a name that has earned worth and respect. Will Mayor Mike Spano prove himself worthy of the adulation heaped upon him? Is he benevolent or has he taken Yonkers for a ride? If Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano defines the fiscal severity confronting the city and defends nothing but the citizenry to the best of his ability he will climb to heights he cannot fathom. If he protects con artists of the past and present, he will lose the mayoralty, the support from Governor Andrew Cuomo, and tarnish his name for generations. I have faith in Mike Spano the man. Does the Yonkers City Hall team he has amassed have the ability to see his vision bear fruit or have they still to be convinced that Mike Spano IS the Mayor of the City of Yonkers?
ED KOCH COMMENTARY
Tom Friedman’s Skewed Vision of Non-Violence By EDWARD I. KOCH In an April 4th New York Times op ed article, Tom Friedman endorsed what he designated to be “non-violent resistance by Palestinians” against Israel. He added that Palestinians need to “accompany every boycott, hunger strike or rock they throw at Israel with a detailed map” delineating their territorial demands. Friedman, I’m sorry to say, is allowing himself to be used by radicals whose goal is not peace but the destruction of Israel. Two prior prime ministers of Israel, Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, offered the Palestinian Authority a return of all but between 7 and 9 percent of the West Bank. That area would bring into the State of Israel most of the 300,000 Israeli Jews living on the West Bank, referred to by Israelis by the biblical names of Judean and Sumaria. The 7 to 9 percent would then be replaced by land swaps. Those offers from Israel were turned down by the Palestinian Authority. In “Foreign Affairs,” of August 2011, Eliot Abrams wrote, “At Camp David in 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat 94 percent of the West Bank; ten years later, Ehud Olmert offered Abbas 93.6 percent with a one-to-one land swap.” The Palestinian Authority has refused to return to high-level peace
negotiations for the last year and a half unless Israel agrees to its preconditions which include a settlement freeze on all construction of Jewish homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem and a stipulation that negotiations proceed from what Israel believes are indefensible pre-1967 borders. The Palestinian state called for under the two-state solution—which has been accepted by the current prime minister Bibi Netanyahu and his immediate predecessors—also includes Gaza. Under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the latter territory was totally evacuated by the Israelis. Since that evacuation in 2005 and after an election won by Hamas, the Palestinians in Gaza under Hamas have continued their war against the Jews. Recently, in one day, Hamas sent 150 rockets into southern Israel, disrupting the economy of the area and endangering its population. The rockets are simply sent in the general direction of cities and towns with their civilian populations as the targets. The supporters of the Palestinian Authority and its two components, Hamas and Fatah, hold Israel to blame for the lack of progress in peace talks. They are furious that Israel refuses to cede more territory under these conditions and thereby commit suicide in pursuit of an illusory peace. Supporters of the Palestinian Authority include Jews in Israel itself and here in the U.S. However, it is rare that any Jewish supporters of the Palestinian Authority would urge the Palestinians to resume violence against the Jews of Is-
rael. It therefore came as a shock to read in Tom Friedman’s op ed that he endorses the resumption of rock throwing against Israelis. Friedman’s article was itself, in effect, a rock thrown directly at Israel and the peace process. I caution Friedman not to recommend violence lightly. Having been a victim in 1991 of rocks thrown by Palestinians in the first Intifada – an injury requiring 9 stitches to suture my scalp where it was struck by a stone—I couldn’t help but wonder: how would Tom Friedman feel if a child in Israel were to be struck by a stone, perhaps losing an eye or worse? Would Friedman blame himself for having encouraged the Arabs on the West Bank to hurl stones in what he describes as a “non-violent” measure? I thank the Times for publishing my letter to the editor denouncing Friedman for including stone throwing as a “non-violent” tactic. I also wonder why the Times editorially has not denounced or chastised his behavior, so as to reassure its readers it does not agree with their premier pundit on the Middle East. Friedman welcomed the Arab Spring, which in Egypt and elsewhere has produced governments that are now dominated by Islamic groups like the Muslim Brotherhood that support the use of terrorism. Friedman is fast becoming the darling of Islamist terrorists everywhere. Friedman did not provide his opinion on whether Israeli soldiers or police officers might defend themselves from a rock assault by shooting the person engaged in
throwing rocks at him to deter injury to himself or others. My letter published by the Times, dated April 6, 2012, follows: Rock Throwing by Arabs To the Editor: Thomas L. Friedman (“A Middle East Twofer,” column, April 4) endorses what he calls “nonviolent resistance by Palestinians” against Israel. He adds that Palestinians need to “accompany every boycott, hunger strike or rock they throw at Israel with a detailed map” delineating their territorial demands. I was attacked by “nonviolent” Arab rock throwers while touring the old Jewish quarter of Jerusalem in 1991. I needed nine stitches but was fortunate to have suffered only relatively minor injuries. If my attackers’ aim had been a little sharper, I could have lost an eye, or worse. Many Israelis as well as foreign tourists have been badly injured, sometimes permanently maimed, in such “nonviolent” assaults. Israelis have even been murdered by rock throwing. Last September, Asher Palmer, 25, and his infant son, Yonatan, were killed when “nonviolent” rocks were thrown at their car, causing a fatal crash. We may disagree on borders, settlements, refugees or other contentious ArabIsraeli issues. But can’t we all agree that in the English language, the terms “nonviolent” and “rock throwing” are mutually exclusive? The Honorable Edward Irving Koch served as a member of member of Congress from New York State from 1969 through 1977, and New York City as its 105th Mayor from 1978 to 1989.
Page 30
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
NEW YORK CIVIC
Crooked Lines Lead to Crooked Deals By HENRY J. STERN Looking down at Albany as the 2012 legislative session begins its slow march into local history, we see an aura of tranquility, justified pride in a handful of modest achievements and, above all, relief that the institution survived its decennial brush with the New York State Constitution which regrettably now permits the disgraceful gerrymandering which enables a minority party to remain in power despite diminished political strength and popular support. The state’s daily newspapers unanimously, and strenuously, railed against the current scheme of districting which gives the legislature carte blanche to district itself at will as long as no ethnic minorities are offended. This results in boundaries, which protect the number of minority voters in a district, but leave the decision as to which individuals hold these seats to the politicians who crafted the lines. The injustice of malapportionment extends to every fiber of the legislature and permeates whatever action it takes, even if the act is oth-
erwise legitimate. New York has the ultimate opposite of a level playing field: a field that shifts capriciously and arbitrarily at the whim of favored players whose mission it is to make certain that no other faction, tribe or party gets the privileged place in government and the influence over the private sector which the insiders have enjoyed, sometimes justly and often unjustly, for a half-century. The full manifestation of the power of the legislative leaders to draw district lines in their respective houses lies in imposing conformity and the values of the caucus on the entire house, which is done by imposing or threatening punishment on those who defy the decisions of the leadership. Such actions reinforce the structure of the legislative body as a series of factions representing different economic and social interests but which places the benefit of their political party and its leader above all else. The year began with the governor publicly committed to redistricting by an impartial body rather than by the legislature itself.The legislative session so far has already seen the abandonment of that principle, which had been rejected, and the great majority of the legislators, including
A Banana Republic Sliced to Order
all of the Senate Republicans, renouncing their public pledge to Mayor Koch and a coalition of civic leaders. The public may ask why anyone should believe promises made by politicians, even if they are in writing, signed, sealed and delivered. One could argue that politics involves the exercise of judgment by elected officials and that any prior commitment which impairs or limits the free exercise of that judgment, would impair the legislative process. A few of them used that excuse for not signing the pledge, claiming that it would limit their freedom to use their own judgment. If you believe that rationalization, there is no reason to seek or accept any pledge by a political candidate or to ask anyone to take a position on any matter. One could not violate a standard of truthfulness if there were no such standard. Others believe that, at least on basic issues and the absence of completely changed circumstances, candidates will appeal to the public to support them on the basis of certain issues and that voters who rely on candidates’ promises have a right not to be ignored and for their views to be respected. If the only remedy for lies by politicians is the opportunity to defeat those politi-
cians in the districts they have gerrymandered for their personal convenience then democracy has suffered. Our newspapers look at countries around the world and grandly call them free, partially free or un-free dictatorships. If the electoral process is so corrupted by permanent fraudulent districting, which denies the public the right to elect representatives of their choosing, then we must consider ourselves only partially free, like Myanmar. Just because names of candidates appear on the ballot, does not necessarily mean that voters have a real choice between candidates of different viewpoints. As long as districting is done arbitrarily, in secret and for the benefit of incumbents at the expense of everyone not part of the insider’s scheme, we can not say that New York State government is truly free. Our ship of state carries a great deal of baggage, which slows it up and threatens to drag it down. The voters may have the last word, but by then there may not be much left to say. Henry J. Stern is the founder and president of New York Civic (www.NYCivic.org).
WEIR ONLY HUMAN
Are There Any Frank Serpicos in Elective Office? By BOB WEIR Kleptocracy is a term applied to a government that extends the personal wealth and political power of government officials and the ruling class via the embezzlement of state funds at the expense of the wider population, sometimes without even the pretense of honest
service. That sounds pretty close to what we have in America today. Have you ever seen so much in your face corruption being dangled in front of us? It’s as though elective office were an entitlement which, once achieved, gave the holder veto power over the laws the rest of us must abide by. Just about every week there’s another news article about some elected or appointed official caught using his influence to rip off the American public. We can assume that there are many more that just haven’t been caught yet. But, let’s also assume that the majority of our elected reps are honest. We also can conclude that they are at least as aware of the crooks among them as we are. Yet, how often do we hear one of them speak out against their corrupt colleagues? Even after one of those bums gets arrested and indicted there’s a suspicious silence among those who have worked with, and probably partied with, the crooks. When William Jefferson, the Louisiana congressman who got caught by the FBI with 90 grand in his freezer, was arrogantly running for reelection, did anyone hear an elected official criticize him for his moral turpitude? Surely, one congressman could have taken to the floor of the House and given a verbal thrashing to the man who made the term, “cold cash” a punch line on the late night comedy shows. When California Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham was able to buy a $2.5 million mansion, a yacht, a Rolls Royce and a condo in suburban Washington, why didn’t it sound an alarm to at least
some of the other 434 members of the House? They, more than anyone else, knew that such luxuries were not possible on an annual salary of $160,000. Cunningham sat on a powerful subcommittee that approved billions of dollars in spending for defense programs. Did it take too much detective work for his colleagues to figure out that his larcenous largesse was a reward for his influence? Keep in mind, his coworkers at the Capitol are some of the most educated people in the country and a majority of them are lawyers. They’re not exactly the type of people who are easily fooled by such obvious perfidy concerning one’s oath of office. It seems to me that their failure to blow the whistle on the malevolent renegades in their midst makes them accessories during and after the fact. No, not legally, but certainly morally. It’s not as though we don’t hear our esteemed reps blasting the excesses of the business community. When a corporate executive is awarded a hefty bonus or a golden parachute, the cries of “greedy capitalist” are either insinuated in press releases or raucously bellowed in the hallowed halls of our legislative bodies. Yet, when one of their own is drinking imported champagne on a domestic beer budget, it doesn’t seem to motivate our “leaders” to make their own inquiry. Instead, when one of these sticky-fingered frauds is nabbed it’s because an outside agency, like the FBI, has handled the probe. In police departments, when a cop is aware of corruption but refuses to expose it or testify against it, we
call it “the blue wall of silence.” What’s it called in the higher echelons of power? Police departments have had their Serpicos, and the Mafia has had their Sammy “the Bull” Gravanos, but, to my knowledge, we’ve never seen an informer in the House or Senate? How can the public be expected to have any confidence in the government or the system of laws generated by that once august body if the good people inside refuse to expose the bad? The idea that someone who “drops a dime” on a thief is going to be known as a “rat,” is a childish admonishment that may have been acceptable in grammar school, but has no relevance in adulthood. That is, unless everyone has skeletons in their closets and are therefore afraid that exposure of others will lead to their own undoing. The cop who’s been getting away with taking bribes is not about to publicly condemn another cop who is under indictment for the same crime. Therefore, unless there’s some kind of unwritten law that says you can’t “tattle” on people who you know are corrupt, it must be that you are as guilty as they are. Refusal to expose evil, while pretending to be good, is nothing less than hypocrisy. Bob Weir is a veteran of 20 years with the New York Police Dept. (NYPD), ten of which were performed in plainclothes undercover assignments. Bob began a writing career about 12 years ago and had his first book published in 1999. Bob went on to write and publish a total of seven novels, “Murder in Black and White,” “City to Die For,” “Powers that Be,” “Ruthie’s Kids,” “Deadly to Love,” “Short Stories of Life and Death,” and “Out of Sight.” He also became a syndicated columnist under the title “Weir Only Human.”
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
Page 31
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2012
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Graybar Building - New York 420 Lexington Ave, Suite 1603 pisabrothers.com
800.729.7472 mgr@pisabrothers.com
*All fares are in U.S. dollars, cruise-only, for new bookings only, per guest, double occupancy, subject to availability, and valid only for residents of the Americas. Some suite categories may not be available. Government Fees and Taxes are not included. Fares are not combinable with any other offer, may vary by sailing date, are capacity controlled, and are subject to change without prior notice. Seabourn reserves the right to charge a fuel supplement for all guests, without prior notice, if the NYMEX oil price exceeds $70.00 USD per barrel, and may collect such a supplement even if the cruise fare has been paid in full. Complimentary upgrades are up to two categories on select voyages in oceanview, balcony & veranda categories only and are subject to availability at time of booking. Upgrade will be reflected in fare paid for selected suite category. Certain restrictions apply. Value of onboard credit is for two guests. Ship's registry: Bahamas. Pisa Brothers strongly recommends the purchase of travel insurance. We reserve the right to correct errors and omissions. For complete terms and conditions contact Pisa Brothers.
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