It has been a while, a long while, since The Gentleman [of Manonaplane] put ink to paper, or finger to iPad, as is the case.
It may be that I was too ambitious in my previous attempts to publish every day, much like my dog who seeks to lick the scraps off the dirty plates in the dishwasher only to get her head caught. Or maybe I just did not have anything useful to say [not likely]. Perhaps, like all of you, especially those of you kind enough to read my posts in the past, I had grown tired of the constant barage of negative material to write about (I think of that great line from the Crowded House song: "[like] try to catch a deluge in a paper cup").
Well, I think both were true.
I have since taken on a new job which is both busy and challenging (and much removed from the supervision of some more than morally challenged individuals), I have 4 children to raise and, yes, I have largely grown bored of finding myself writing, much as a record, scratched and rutted finds its needle unable to skip to a new line, the same things.
That said, as "the election" approaches, I find myself asking: "is this the best we can do?".
What is that line from the song of 1970's fame: "clowns to the left, jokers to the right, here I am". Only here we are. We await a verdict on what is worse, not what might be better. We stand, like 8th graders on opposite sides of the gymnasium at a school dance, not knowing how to begin a conversation, let alone merge to complete a graceful or, even as only teenagers in their braces and acne can do, an awkward movement of dance and togetherness.
We, the majority of this fine nation, have allowed ourselves to become marginalized by a radical and self-serving, often self-immolating, few (sound anything like Islam to you?). We have allowed what should have been a triumph in the election of our first African-American president to fall to a door-to-door activist, who had never held a job prior to his brief stint in the daycare center we call Congress. We tainted that potential glorious legacy, erasing perhaps the painful legacy of a black and white past, with a man who thinks hard work should benefit those who choose not work ("I made this"). We gave up our ideals to a sound bite, a liar and a hypocrit.
Now, before you going crying to the teacher that I've pulled your hair or pinched you cheek, if you know me, and have half a brain (I am willing to give half-a-halves credit), then you know there is no one across the proverbial "isle" that I think any more highly of, though many rival in their loathesomeness (Hello, Harry, Nancy, Sarah P, Al, Chuck, and Maxine, to name a few).
We have chosen to allow this election to be an indictment of have and have not.
Is it really that easy?
If it is, and we are happy with editorialists, not journalist, like Rachel Madow or Glen Beck, to report their opinions to us as if it were news and not the babblings of mental midgets who see their constant teleprompting as a means to escape from Oompa-Lumpa Land; well then, we get what we deserve (at a minimum we should demand someone do something for Rachel, that poor homely creature).
I am no liberal, but I also think the only party I want to attend involves friends and bourbon (didn't we learn the value of tea and politics when we threw those posers, the Brits out of here 200 plus years ago?).
I'll pay more tax, if you will get to work and stop demanding things for free. I'll give you a few more percentage points if you promise me you won't waste it in graft (yes, Congress, graft, there is no other word for it.) and pet projects, white albatrosses and unicorns. I'll do my fair share, but if you want more, or worse, demand more, then do me (us) a favor, move to France. There you can have everything you want, as long as all you want is nothing.
Well, au revior, for now.
I think I'll try to stay on this, once a week. Nothing too ambitious (sound like anyone else you know? B. O.). And, by the way, if you don't like what I have to say, feel free not to come back.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Friday, October 21, 2011
Land of Broken Dreams
No, the title is not original, but as I sit here late on a Friday evening, I think there little more appropriate.
I am raising 4 children with my wife. I work a job. I give to my community and care to help to raise, not only my children, but those of my friends and neighbors with the time I have. I coach. Not just the sports, but lessons often learned in playing those sports. Those lessons which were handed down to me about life and how to live it, how to honour, and to honour in teaching that which was taught to me by my parents and their friends, those very tenants of a "right way of life" to my children and their friends. And, as such, I seek to honour my parents, grandparent and all those who came before me and who knew right from wrong and sought to instill it in me as they sought to instill in me the importance of the word honour.
Yet no matter how hard I try, today and really of late and most recent memory, I find the few of us who stand at the walls of the gate which guards decency, merit and right to be a dwindling honor guard, reduced by apathy and exhaustion and the prospect of an unjust defeat at the hands of the vicious horde of ego, greed and selfishness. I look across the ramparts (please, forgive the garrison's analogy but I am ever more convinced it is a war, if not a losing war, which we wage to try to find some light or glimpse of hope) and I see a growing despair in our shrinking ranks and closing enemies. I vainly seem to seek someplace or strategy from which we can snatch back our world, our lives, our communities from those who would seek to subvert all that made this world, and this country, what it was: a place where respect, hard work and courtesy enabled all to rise from slave and serf to king.
Whether it is the ooze which seeps from our media or the venom of our self-promoting politicians, somewhere we have all gotten it very wrong. Shame on us. We allow individuals with no more depth and complexity than an amoeba to roam and rule the halls of our government, subverting the people's voice with their own piped-in self-delusions of importance. We allow slackers and miscreants, who by nature assume that all should be given and not worked for, a spotlight, when instead we should use the light of truth and real sacrifice to shine upon them to send the scurrying like the parasites they are back into the shadows. We allow people into our towns and neighborhoods who seek to live according to their own selfish needs. Their mantra is the underlying belief that they are the only and most important planets in their solar systems, when it should be "do unto others as you would have them do unto you".
It is late, and I am tired and my exhaustion is not merely that of lack of sleep but of broken promises, of living in a world where a man's word is no longer his bond, where "please" and "thank you", those very basic building blocks of civility, have disappeared from most corners, allowing the evil in words like "entitled" and "demanded" to envelop most of what we see every day.
I wonder what our children will say on that day, years from now, when what was good on this planet is a relic as dusty and unremembered as a tablet of an ancient civilization, cast in the corner of some museum as a curiosity with no real meaning.
I am not a religious man. I am a faithful man. I know that I live - I should say I try to live, as I fail, as we all do, no matter how hard I try as is the nature of being human, but also find some measure of success in realizing my failures and seeking to rectify them and not repeat them - by a code. It is a simple code and one that we have heard since someone was hear on earth to speak it.
I honour my parents and my ancestors, my family and friends. I seek to be the model I want my children to see and become, as I saw in my parents and have tried to become in their example. I understand the value of friendship and seek to always apply the maximum amount of time and energy I can to ensure that those bonds of more than just acquaintance count for what they are: two-way bridges and bonds of shared experience and joy. I seek to always tell the truth, to spare the feelings of others and to understand that a hard day's work is reward in itself in the feeling achieved of accomplishment, satisfaction and pride (as I often tell my son, and find myself thinking of the advice I am giving in tasks I do: "If you are going to do a job, do it well").
With all of this in mind, and seeking to gain some sway of momentum back in the battle we wage every day against the dark which seems determined to envelop this world of our, this is my manifesto, my rallying "Magna Carta", my "Declaration of Independence". It may start small, but in these little actions, the swell may rise as if a tidal wave in grace, honor, and civility that may turn the tide back our way.
Say "please" and "thank you" with everything you do and receive.
Hold a door for a lady
Rise when a woman enters a room
Shake hands firmly and make eye contact
Lend a hand even when you don't have one to give
Think of others before yourself
Take time to write a note of thanks, in penmanship, and, in such, show real thanks in your efforts
Respect your elders
Read more
Watch more, speak less
Have faith in your God, your friends and your neighbors and demand of them exactly what you demand of yourself
And remember, if a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well.
I am raising 4 children with my wife. I work a job. I give to my community and care to help to raise, not only my children, but those of my friends and neighbors with the time I have. I coach. Not just the sports, but lessons often learned in playing those sports. Those lessons which were handed down to me about life and how to live it, how to honour, and to honour in teaching that which was taught to me by my parents and their friends, those very tenants of a "right way of life" to my children and their friends. And, as such, I seek to honour my parents, grandparent and all those who came before me and who knew right from wrong and sought to instill it in me as they sought to instill in me the importance of the word honour.
Yet no matter how hard I try, today and really of late and most recent memory, I find the few of us who stand at the walls of the gate which guards decency, merit and right to be a dwindling honor guard, reduced by apathy and exhaustion and the prospect of an unjust defeat at the hands of the vicious horde of ego, greed and selfishness. I look across the ramparts (please, forgive the garrison's analogy but I am ever more convinced it is a war, if not a losing war, which we wage to try to find some light or glimpse of hope) and I see a growing despair in our shrinking ranks and closing enemies. I vainly seem to seek someplace or strategy from which we can snatch back our world, our lives, our communities from those who would seek to subvert all that made this world, and this country, what it was: a place where respect, hard work and courtesy enabled all to rise from slave and serf to king.
Whether it is the ooze which seeps from our media or the venom of our self-promoting politicians, somewhere we have all gotten it very wrong. Shame on us. We allow individuals with no more depth and complexity than an amoeba to roam and rule the halls of our government, subverting the people's voice with their own piped-in self-delusions of importance. We allow slackers and miscreants, who by nature assume that all should be given and not worked for, a spotlight, when instead we should use the light of truth and real sacrifice to shine upon them to send the scurrying like the parasites they are back into the shadows. We allow people into our towns and neighborhoods who seek to live according to their own selfish needs. Their mantra is the underlying belief that they are the only and most important planets in their solar systems, when it should be "do unto others as you would have them do unto you".
It is late, and I am tired and my exhaustion is not merely that of lack of sleep but of broken promises, of living in a world where a man's word is no longer his bond, where "please" and "thank you", those very basic building blocks of civility, have disappeared from most corners, allowing the evil in words like "entitled" and "demanded" to envelop most of what we see every day.
I wonder what our children will say on that day, years from now, when what was good on this planet is a relic as dusty and unremembered as a tablet of an ancient civilization, cast in the corner of some museum as a curiosity with no real meaning.
I am not a religious man. I am a faithful man. I know that I live - I should say I try to live, as I fail, as we all do, no matter how hard I try as is the nature of being human, but also find some measure of success in realizing my failures and seeking to rectify them and not repeat them - by a code. It is a simple code and one that we have heard since someone was hear on earth to speak it.
I honour my parents and my ancestors, my family and friends. I seek to be the model I want my children to see and become, as I saw in my parents and have tried to become in their example. I understand the value of friendship and seek to always apply the maximum amount of time and energy I can to ensure that those bonds of more than just acquaintance count for what they are: two-way bridges and bonds of shared experience and joy. I seek to always tell the truth, to spare the feelings of others and to understand that a hard day's work is reward in itself in the feeling achieved of accomplishment, satisfaction and pride (as I often tell my son, and find myself thinking of the advice I am giving in tasks I do: "If you are going to do a job, do it well").
With all of this in mind, and seeking to gain some sway of momentum back in the battle we wage every day against the dark which seems determined to envelop this world of our, this is my manifesto, my rallying "Magna Carta", my "Declaration of Independence". It may start small, but in these little actions, the swell may rise as if a tidal wave in grace, honor, and civility that may turn the tide back our way.
Say "please" and "thank you" with everything you do and receive.
Hold a door for a lady
Rise when a woman enters a room
Shake hands firmly and make eye contact
Lend a hand even when you don't have one to give
Think of others before yourself
Take time to write a note of thanks, in penmanship, and, in such, show real thanks in your efforts
Respect your elders
Read more
Watch more, speak less
Have faith in your God, your friends and your neighbors and demand of them exactly what you demand of yourself
And remember, if a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
"In the Course of Human Events, We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident"
-It is time to throw off the shackles of this sham of a current government. These men and women and Washington do not represent "We the People" but themselves and their own ways and means. They sit in complicit gridlock, shaking sticks of ideology at each other as a means for justifying their complete intransigence. They define greed and sloth, avarice and pettiness. To use the old adage, they are "not worth the salt they are made of" and certainly not the value of our hard earned vote.
-When will we, as a nation, realize that our differences are less than our commonalities? No one is arguing for socialism, but clearly blurred have been the lines of fairness where an hour worked, earns an hour's wage. Too many assume, as has been nurtured by the "lifers" in D.C. and other capitols, that wage and benefit is a right, nay a guarantee, stapled, not even to citizenship, but mere presence within our borders. "Taxation without representation", should never have become representation without contribution through taxation.
-When do we band together to throw out the savagely self-aggrandizers who claim to represent us while lining their own pockets with crooked contracts and backroom dealings? Why do we spend so much time shouting at each other in support of individuals who care nothing for us, save our ability to keep them ensconced in the hollow halls of our democracy? Have we not learned from the past?
-"The Declaration of Independence" reminds us that our revolution was not a one time event. It states: "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends (Life Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness), it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government". Furthermore, our founding document states: "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government".
-Let us not pick at the scab of Republican or Democrat. Let us just recognize the whole wound that festers under their incompetent rule. Let us amputate the gangrene. Let us send a message that they are subservient to "We the People" and not the other way around. If they choose to serve, they do so at our pleasure and not for theirs. And, let us not, when they stray, allow them a long rope; but rather demand they be hanged as we would hang those within our communities who violate our laws and sacred trusts.
-Mediocrity is unacceptable. It is time to stop allowing it to pervade all aspects of our lives as an acknowledgment of futility in changing the course.
-It is time to demand change. It is time for "We the People" to take back our rights and thus our Government to ensure it serves us - "The People".
-When will we, as a nation, realize that our differences are less than our commonalities? No one is arguing for socialism, but clearly blurred have been the lines of fairness where an hour worked, earns an hour's wage. Too many assume, as has been nurtured by the "lifers" in D.C. and other capitols, that wage and benefit is a right, nay a guarantee, stapled, not even to citizenship, but mere presence within our borders. "Taxation without representation", should never have become representation without contribution through taxation.
-When do we band together to throw out the savagely self-aggrandizers who claim to represent us while lining their own pockets with crooked contracts and backroom dealings? Why do we spend so much time shouting at each other in support of individuals who care nothing for us, save our ability to keep them ensconced in the hollow halls of our democracy? Have we not learned from the past?
-"The Declaration of Independence" reminds us that our revolution was not a one time event. It states: "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends (Life Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness), it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government". Furthermore, our founding document states: "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government".
-Let us not pick at the scab of Republican or Democrat. Let us just recognize the whole wound that festers under their incompetent rule. Let us amputate the gangrene. Let us send a message that they are subservient to "We the People" and not the other way around. If they choose to serve, they do so at our pleasure and not for theirs. And, let us not, when they stray, allow them a long rope; but rather demand they be hanged as we would hang those within our communities who violate our laws and sacred trusts.
-Mediocrity is unacceptable. It is time to stop allowing it to pervade all aspects of our lives as an acknowledgment of futility in changing the course.
-It is time to demand change. It is time for "We the People" to take back our rights and thus our Government to ensure it serves us - "The People".
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
friends and Enemies
-As we wake up this week to the fact that enemy number one, Osama Bin Liner, was living in the relative lap of luxury (see the Bloomberg story yesterday) in Abbotabad (should probably be called Headinthesandabad or Stabinthebackabad), a Pakistani Army garrison town which is home to the West Point of Pakistan (though, given their army's performance that is a huge insult to West Point and our cadets). Osama was drinking Coke and Pepsi (though we don't know which he preferred), shopped for by a few guys who often showed up to the local grocery mart in a minivan, taking quantities for some 10 people. Shopping for 10 would not be out of the question in Pakistan - any more than it would be here in the US - save for the fact that the goods being purchased were largely the international products which command a hefty premium. In a country in which the average per capita income is $1027, this should have raised at least a few "red flags".
-The fact that Osama was also living in the largest "villa" in the area (a 1.5 acre estate with high walls and security fences) right under the nose of a Pakistani authority which claimed no knowledge of his whereabouts is ridiculous (the villa was seemingly purpose built in 2005, implying that Osama, having escaped a cave in the Tora Bora mountains, has been sunning himself for some 6 years). That, or it points to the complete incompetence of a national institution which is so unconcerned with its own security that it would allow the mastermind of terrorist activities to live within spitting distance of its major military training ground. Then again, many have argued that Osama, in his ability to maintain hidden, has benefitted from illicit aid of both the ISS (The Pakistani version of the CIA) and the Pakistani military.
-Now that we have executed this blight (an interesting outcome as he was not the head of a nation and thus exempt from the Nixon era operative that disavowed our ability to assassinate state heads), the question clearly becomes what do we do with the Pakistanis. Not all Pakistanis can be painted with the same brush, though it is easy to question their true commitment to the "war on terror" and their role to us as an ally. Do we ostracize them, cut off aid and add them to the "axis of evil"? Do we make unrealistic demands of a government and regime which has had a spotty record of democracy? Do the Pakistanis care what we demand or do? As with the children's "Magic 8 ball", the answer would seem to be: "All Signs Appear to Be No".
-That said, they, as a sovereign nation, do have to deal with significant internal issues which require a deft touch in maintaining stability. They have a significant radical Muslim population which disagrees with any alignment with the "Great Satan" and quite frankly is of the ilk of returning the national social policy back to the stone age, denying women the right to education among other more draconian social and criminal philosophies. They have regions, bordering Afghanistan (Waziristan, for example) which are as lawless as the Wild West of the mid-to-late 18th century and largely off limits to any federal administration (they are in all fact called autonomous zones). To antagonize any of these radical elements too much could result in a dissolution of a democratic regime (however loose the use of democratic may be in the Pakistani case) into some sort of chaotic or evil empire which could threaten that corner of the world, not to mention the whole of the world, with the exportation or use of its nuclear weapons.
-Osama is D-E-A-D, either that or living in one of the many foreclosed condos in some small hamlet outside Las Vegas in the witness protection program, having actually been captured and convinced to roll on all his other plastic explosive wearing colleagues (if you are true "Smoking Gun" conspiratist, you would add his killing to the fact that we never landed men on the moon; that Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix are alive and living on some commune in Goa or northern Australia; and that the Beatles were, in fact, Satan worshippers and when playing their records backward they were trying to send dark messages). Whatever the case, as simplified as this analysis is, the application of Sun-Tzu's "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer" is certainly the right path for US-Pakistani relations going forward.
-Not all Pakistanis are evil America-haters, and our ability to exercise some influence among the enlightened members of that society should be considered at every turn. That is not to say that we should bend at all when complained to about guided drone missile forays within their national borders. Nor should we cease our decision to operate covertly or overtly when necessary to achieve a national or global goal in eliminating the "world's most wanted" (Message to one Egyptian Doctor: your time is coming, my friend. Be ready for a group of well trained, well conditioned gentlemen in camo to pay you a "house call"). We should embrace Pakistan with all the sincerity of Shirley MacLain in "Steel Magnolias": full of syrupy charm and drawl, masterfully masking a string of venom.
-We don't need to be nice. We just need to be smart.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Wait for What
-Early spring nights are good nights. You have a few friends over whom you feel you have not seen since you crawled into the cave that is winter, you stand around a grill, you yell at the moon in unison about the ills of the world, or at least your corner of it, and you are thankful for the arrival of better weather and easier times.
-Last night, I stood around a fire pit, flipping burgers and drinking a few of Kentucky's bottled best with a couple of really good friends. They are both neighbors and members of my extended family, and more importantly, as it applies to this discussion, active members of our community here in Camelot.
-Between the 3 of us, we have 10 children varying an ages from 10 to 3. We are busy with school, sports, and the lunacy which can be a small village, its politics and gossip. Last night we enjoyed, pondered and berated all that these topics had to offer.
-As it is imminent, and of great importance, our conversation managed to make its way to the referendum on sidewalks. Now, we have discussed this topic ad nausea (though my feelings are no less passionate), but a very good point of the true issue at hand, not really discussed much in this battle between good and evil here, was raised last night. In sending the town's plan back for a re vote, we are opening up ourselves to a reconsideration of everything we, as a town, decide to do.
-One letter writer to the "Advertiser", this week, admittedly not in discussion about the referendum but rather as regards the derelict red brick eyesore at Mead Park, recommended that one course of action, preferred by this writer, would be, instead of tearing down the building as is finally to be done, for the decision to be held, to wait for a different town government to be elected to handle the matter differently (the writer did not like the fact that the dilapidated red brick nothing was to be torn down and instead thought it should be resurrected into some Shangr-i-la, as if putting lipstick on the proverbial pig would not longer make it a pig).
-Since when do we get to override the mandate of the majority to ensure our own selfish, and generally half-assed and whimsical, desires? The point of majority rules is that it speaks the mind of the majority.
-I have to endure the reign of this current flea-bitten regime of half wits. I did not vote for them (before, you roll your eyes, remember, if you read this with an frequency, you know I think we replaced one group of self-centered knuckle-draggers with yet another, and am seriously trying to figure out how to raise Teddy R from the grave amid his everlasting dreams of the charge up San Juan Hill). That said I must endure this administration, and unlike Prius-driving, cause "du jouring" morons like Baldwin and Hoffman, I do not intend to flee the country for four years to a self-imposed political exile (a promise they never, unfortunately, made good on despite my promises of free airfare - one way, of course).
-What this scribe of such supreme lack of intelligence to the "Advertiser" pointed out, and left me with, was a feeling that the view of the majority should not prevail. Time, in this illiterate's mind, should be used to wait out all things and life should be mothballed (a smell I am sure that permeates this writer's life and house) into a closet somewhere until the plan for town or life or community meets with each individuals (or, in this case, this former Larchmont - please fell free to move back - denizen's) desires.
-Damned the voice of the rest of us. Let chaos ensue, time stand still and our town becomes encrypted in a sarcophagus of our own inaction.
-I will be the first to express my disappointment should the "Yes" vote win this week's referendum, but I will live with the vote. I will not, however, allow this town to submit to the vagaries of a referendum on every decision made. I'll be damned if I will stand by idly on that front, and so I have a suggestion, nay a solution, for both the writer of the dribble to the "Advertiser" this week, and to the "Yes" vote party: time capsules. Let us pack you and your "frozen in time" moments up in a box. We can bury you down in the cemetery (hopefully, reachable by a sidewalk at that point) and from time to time, when we want to see what true folly is all about, or just to muse about how small minded and selfish people can be, we can dig you out and parade you in front of school-aged kids like the old "Car55" movie reels of car crashes and resulting dismemberment, showing those children a true example of what happens when we, as a town, allow a small group of truly challenged people, to hijack the process of democracy and community.
-Last night, I stood around a fire pit, flipping burgers and drinking a few of Kentucky's bottled best with a couple of really good friends. They are both neighbors and members of my extended family, and more importantly, as it applies to this discussion, active members of our community here in Camelot.
-Between the 3 of us, we have 10 children varying an ages from 10 to 3. We are busy with school, sports, and the lunacy which can be a small village, its politics and gossip. Last night we enjoyed, pondered and berated all that these topics had to offer.
-As it is imminent, and of great importance, our conversation managed to make its way to the referendum on sidewalks. Now, we have discussed this topic ad nausea (though my feelings are no less passionate), but a very good point of the true issue at hand, not really discussed much in this battle between good and evil here, was raised last night. In sending the town's plan back for a re vote, we are opening up ourselves to a reconsideration of everything we, as a town, decide to do.
-One letter writer to the "Advertiser", this week, admittedly not in discussion about the referendum but rather as regards the derelict red brick eyesore at Mead Park, recommended that one course of action, preferred by this writer, would be, instead of tearing down the building as is finally to be done, for the decision to be held, to wait for a different town government to be elected to handle the matter differently (the writer did not like the fact that the dilapidated red brick nothing was to be torn down and instead thought it should be resurrected into some Shangr-i-la, as if putting lipstick on the proverbial pig would not longer make it a pig).
-Since when do we get to override the mandate of the majority to ensure our own selfish, and generally half-assed and whimsical, desires? The point of majority rules is that it speaks the mind of the majority.
-I have to endure the reign of this current flea-bitten regime of half wits. I did not vote for them (before, you roll your eyes, remember, if you read this with an frequency, you know I think we replaced one group of self-centered knuckle-draggers with yet another, and am seriously trying to figure out how to raise Teddy R from the grave amid his everlasting dreams of the charge up San Juan Hill). That said I must endure this administration, and unlike Prius-driving, cause "du jouring" morons like Baldwin and Hoffman, I do not intend to flee the country for four years to a self-imposed political exile (a promise they never, unfortunately, made good on despite my promises of free airfare - one way, of course).
-What this scribe of such supreme lack of intelligence to the "Advertiser" pointed out, and left me with, was a feeling that the view of the majority should not prevail. Time, in this illiterate's mind, should be used to wait out all things and life should be mothballed (a smell I am sure that permeates this writer's life and house) into a closet somewhere until the plan for town or life or community meets with each individuals (or, in this case, this former Larchmont - please fell free to move back - denizen's) desires.
-Damned the voice of the rest of us. Let chaos ensue, time stand still and our town becomes encrypted in a sarcophagus of our own inaction.
-I will be the first to express my disappointment should the "Yes" vote win this week's referendum, but I will live with the vote. I will not, however, allow this town to submit to the vagaries of a referendum on every decision made. I'll be damned if I will stand by idly on that front, and so I have a suggestion, nay a solution, for both the writer of the dribble to the "Advertiser" this week, and to the "Yes" vote party: time capsules. Let us pack you and your "frozen in time" moments up in a box. We can bury you down in the cemetery (hopefully, reachable by a sidewalk at that point) and from time to time, when we want to see what true folly is all about, or just to muse about how small minded and selfish people can be, we can dig you out and parade you in front of school-aged kids like the old "Car55" movie reels of car crashes and resulting dismemberment, showing those children a true example of what happens when we, as a town, allow a small group of truly challenged people, to hijack the process of democracy and community.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Garbage Patch
-As we approach the referendum date, April 27th, I thought I would take a moment to see exactly how high I could force my blood pressure by reading the "opinion" section of the "New Canaan Patch". I think there are a number of other descriptive words which could be used to replace the noun "Patch" in the title of this less than even-handed rag.
-The reporting and prominence of the "Yes" camp (as relates to the sidewalks/no sidewalks referendum) on the pages of the "Patch" give clear definition to the editorial stand, which is fine. It is fortunately not a subscription service, for if it was I would certainly not pick up a penny in an attempt to save for my daily access.
-That said, part of the problem, as I see it, is that the "No" camp, of which I am a member, has allowed the "Yes" camp to run roughshod over the airwaves with their half-truths and rabble rousing. They are permitted, largely unchecked, to direct false statements and vitriolic froth at the people, as represented by the "No" camp, who truly care about New Canaan (the fact that the referendum was worded so poorly as to make "Yes" a vote to send the current plan back for a redrawing is, well, baffling, but then most of current politics is) .
-The "Yes's" are lazy, ne'er-do-wells, who have been many of the same nitwits behind the rejection of the plans for a hockey rink as well as attempts to save a dilapidated red brick building at Mead Park under the guise of "historical preservation". These are the same people who contribute to our town only if it serves there direct purposes and needs. They do not understand the nature and necessity of rational discourse, preferring in their own deluded minds to steamroll all others in pursuit of their singularly narrow-minded and short-sighted goals.
-Should we be surprised? Well, hell yes. I though those folks lived in towns like Greenwich.
-Why don't we ask the real questions here? What is the "Yes" vote really all about? They want their street paved (the founders of the CRS are "Main Streeters" who aim to gain no matter what here, when their road is paved as is scheduled in the current plan). What they have not relayed to their lemming followers is that the elimination of the sidewalks in the current plan only gets one-half mile of additional road paved.
-More interestingly, as we question real motivation, why don't we also ask the "Yes" camp how many have fences and walls which would need to be moved as they are on town easement, should the sidewalks be approved?
-Seems to me that those who have so vociferously screamed at the moon here are truly among the lowest common denominator in our town. If we do not band together to hold the line, then we get what we deserve.
-Please read this anonymous (unless you give the individual credit for his/her penname: "NC Skeptic") posting on the "Patch":
This is the best the pro-sidewalk group can do? Lame.
We're supposed to delay re-paving Main Street and pay $600k for new sidewalks on lower Main (where there's little foot traffic) because some eight-year-old, "state-required" plan says they should go there?
Please. The argument for sidewalks is weaker than I thought.
In fact, this is a costly scheme cooked up by a handful of politically connected families who want all of us to pay for new sidewalks that will benefit them and only them. Vote YES on April 27.
-All I will conclude with here, is that classic quote attributed to Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing".
Please. The argument for sidewalks is weaker than I thought.
In fact, this is a costly scheme cooked up by a handful of politically connected families who want all of us to pay for new sidewalks that will benefit them and only them. Vote YES on April 27.
-All I will conclude with here, is that classic quote attributed to Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing".
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Plane of Thought
You will forgive my choppy stream of thought as I pound out a few lines between cart service and yet another "Home and Garden" magazine. Yes, I read those slick paged editions of homes and decor that always leave me wondering: does anyone actually live there or are these just show home, tv sets, fantasy models. I actually got to flip through one today which I rather enjoyed. Not a home or garden but a stylish read, one I grew up with and am glad to rediscover: "Town & Country".
I am biased. The new editor is a good friend and a man who truly oozes style. Being somewhat of a strange bird myself, I enjoy when we get together with his wife and him as I can talk shop, his sho, not mine. He knows fashion, art, and yet is a good old Texas boy who can talk a hunt or sport. When he took the job I mentioned that "Town & Country" was a staple on my prent's coffee table and I hoped, and had full confidence, his touch would return it's allure to mine.
I wish him well, and all the success in the world.
So, as usual, my flight was delayed. Not the biggest problem in the world, but in three weeks of flying, I have yet to have a flight hit the on time mark. Thanks Delta.
I am biased. The new editor is a good friend and a man who truly oozes style. Being somewhat of a strange bird myself, I enjoy when we get together with his wife and him as I can talk shop, his sho, not mine. He knows fashion, art, and yet is a good old Texas boy who can talk a hunt or sport. When he took the job I mentioned that "Town & Country" was a staple on my prent's coffee table and I hoped, and had full confidence, his touch would return it's allure to mine.
I wish him well, and all the success in the world.
So, as usual, my flight was delayed. Not the biggest problem in the world, but in three weeks of flying, I have yet to have a flight hit the on time mark. Thanks Delta.
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