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.

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":

 

NC Skeptic

7:55am on Tuesday, April 19, 2011

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".

 

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.

March into April Madness

-First, how about Obama, amidst signs of the apocalypse, deciding timing was right for him to announce the launch of his campaign for re-election in 2012. Hey, buddy, how about you focus on a few of the problems we have now and try concluding some of your, as yet unfinished, works of art from this term before you sign up for next term.

I mean, really? How arrogant is this guy. Let's take a check list of things he has really been absent on: 1) The civil War in Libya, 2) Preparations for drawdown in Afghanistan and its implications especially given the continued chaos there, 3) Nuclear disaster in Japan and US aid and relief efforts - not to mention the environmental impact for our West Coast, 4) The budget impasse, 5) Entitlements, 6) Charlie Sheen's self-destructive behavior. Ok, maybe the first 5 are really asking too much from the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania, but you would think, given his love of sport and celebrity, that he would actually have an opinion and a firm plan for intervention with Charlie.

-Second, I have always screamed that moderate Muslims must take back their religion from the zealots, and the vocal minority, who debase the faith globally. So who is this clown in Florida: Pastor Terry Jones who paints Christianity in such a similar bad light. Really? Where did this guy get ordained at the 1800's church of mutton-chopped biker bars (get a load of him in his photos)? It is not bad enough he looks like a clown with a mustache out of a bad 1960's western, but then in his burning of Islam's sacred book. he has invited the same radical minority issues that we charge Islam extremists with: inciting hatred and terror while hijacking a perfectly good religion and belief system for many.

Pastor Jones was quoted as saying: 'We had a  court process. We tried to set it up as fair as possible, which you can imagine, of course, is very difficult". Of course it was difficult. First of all, you moron, learn to speak English properly. "Fair" is an adverb, not an adjective, so it is "fairly". That said, haven't you seen "Footloose"? We all wind up dancing in the end, having seen the error of our ways. Get some religion yourself, you muppet.

Aside from the cell in Guantanamo that you should be sent to (note: your cellmates will love you), I can only hope that the vision of hell, as portrayed by the likes of Dante, is really just a daycare center and you burn and burn and burn - like my grandmother's pot roast.

What will this beloved pastor do next, burn his bra? 

-Third, why are U.S. domestic airlines all so pathetic? A combined 4 hours worth of delays this weekend in a flight down and back to Atlanta just highlighted the incompetence or the apathy we suffer these days. The airlines, who were much in the news this weekend after the attempt to open the sunroof on a Southwest Air jet and a Continental Airliner missing the end of the driveway, clearly could care less about their passengers, who, less we forget, bailed them out the last time they overbought aircraft and kowtowed to their unions, creating leverage which was unsustainable. Then again, airlines are the new greyhound buses and no matter what you pay, you might as well stay home.