January 24, 2013 - WestchesterGuardian.com

PRESORTED
STANDARD
PERMIT #3036
WHITE PLAINS NY
Vol. VI I No. IV Thursday, January 24, 2013 $1.00
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
The State of...
JOHN F. McMULLEN
Aaron Swartz Is Dead
Page 3
The Village of
Bronxville
Page 12
Town of
Bedford
Page 14
SHERIF AWAD
Nomadic Telematch
Page 5
EVAN S. LEVINE, MD
Hundreds Likely
to Be Killed
Page 6
JOHN SIMON
Faltering Feline
Page 10
BARBARA BARTON SLOANE
Waltzing About
Tennessee
Page 10
Mayor Mary C. Marvin
Bedford Town Supervisor Lee Roberts
HENRY J. STERN
Sentenced
Page 13
C.E. Astorino Hires Cronies
While County Languishes
by NANCY KING, Page 16
CARLOS GONZALEZ
Coo, Coup,
Or KooKoo
Page 17
HON. ED KOCH
Letter to Prime
Minister David Cameron
Page 21

ience fundraising, knowledge of what development entails and experience
working with sponsors/donors; 2) Operations Manager- must have a CHILD FOR THE PURPOSES OF ADOPTION, 1,000 AND Sq. MAY Ft.: FILE $1800. BEFORE Contact THE END Wilca: OF THE 914.632.1230
15-MONTH
YOUR PARENTAL RIGHTS AND COMMITMENT Prime OF GUARDIANSHIP Location, Yorktown AND CUSTODY Heights OF THE
good knowledge of computers/software/ticketing systems, duties include PERIOD.
overseeing all box office, concessions, movie staffing, day of show lobby
UPON GOOD CAUSE, THE COURT MAY ORDER Prime AN INVESTIGATION Retail - Westchester TO DETERMINE County WHETHstaffing
such as Merchandise seller, bar sales. Must be familiar with POS
ER THE NON-RESPONSENT PARENT(s) SHOULD Best BE Location CONSIDERED in Yorktown AS A RESPONDENT; Heights IF
system and willing to organize concessions. Full time plus hours. Call (203) THE COURT DETERMINES THE CHILD SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM HIS/HER HOME, THE
438-5795 and ask for Julie or Allison
1100 Sq. Ft. Store $3100; 1266 Sq. Ft. store $2800 and 450 Sq. Ft.
COURT MAY ORDER AN INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE NON-RESPONDENT
THE WESTcHESTER GUARDiAn
THURSDAY,
PARENT(s)
FEBRUARY
SHOULD BE SUITABLE
23, 2012
CUSTODIANS FOR THE CHILD; Store IF THE $1200. CHILD IS PLACED AND
Page 3
Page 2 THE WESTcHESTER THE WESTCHESTER GUARDiAn GUARDIAN THURSDAY, REMAINS THURSDAY, IN FEBRUARY FOSTER
JANUARY MARCH CARE 23, FOR
24, 2012 FIFTEEN Suitable 2013 29, 2012 OF for THE any MOST type RECENT of business. TWENTY-TWO Contact MONTHS, Wilca: 914.632.1230
THE
Page 3
Of Significance
Of Significance
Community Section ...............................................................................4
Community Business ................................................................................................4
Section ...............................................................................4
Business Calendar ................................................................................................4
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Calendar Charity ..................................................................................................5
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Charity Creative Contest ..................................................................................................5
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Disruption ............................................................................5
Contest Cultural Creative ..................................................................................................6
Perspective Disruption ............................................................................6
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Creative Energy Education Issues Disruption .............................................................................................7
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Education In Fashion Memoriam ..................................................................................................8
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Fashion Medicine
Fitness....................................................................................................9
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Najah’s Fitness....................................................................................................9
Health ..................................................................................................10
Corner ...................................................................................11
Health Movie
History
Review ..................................................................................................10
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History Music
Ed Koch
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Movie Review ...................................................................12
Ed Community
Spoof Koch ....................................................................................................13
Movie ........................................................................................13
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Spoof Writers
Sports ....................................................................................................13
Scene
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Books Sports Najah’s
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Scene Corner .......................................................................................13
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People Najah’s Writers
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Corner Collection.............................................................................14
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Eye Writers Books
On
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Theatre Collection.............................................................................14
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Books Leaving
Transportation ...................................................................................................16
on a Jet
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Plane ......................................................................19
Government
Government Transportation Section
Section ...................................................................................17
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Government Campaign
Albany Correspondent
Trail Section ..................................................................................20
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Albany Economic
Mayor Marvin’s Correspondent Development
Column ....................................................................17
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Nancy Mayor Education
Government Marvin’s ...........................................................................................21
King: .......................................................................................19
Column 914-831-1300
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OpEd Government The Hezitorial
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the Human Editor ............................................................................25
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OpEd Hezi
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Westchester BY Community ORDER On OF THE the Section.............................................................................................. FAMILY COURT Level good OF knowledge THE STATE of OF computers/software/ticketing NEW Narog YORK and systems, Aris duties
TODY OF THE CHILD AND TO SEEK ENFORCEMENT OF VISITATION RIGHTS WITH THE CHILD.
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or Tuesday, March 26
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
Page 3
CommunitySection
CALENDAR
News and Notes from Northern Westchester
By MARK JEFFERS
Our neighbors cheered
and our electric company
cried, as we finally
took down our outside
holiday lights, polar
bears, frosty, flamingos (yes, I said flamingos)
and tons of lights have been
stored away. My daughters will now
have their friends back over and all is
well, so please enjoy this week’s ornament
free edition of “News and Notes.”
Good news to report, the Cortlandt
Emergency Food Bank’s pantry
is full again after last month’s successful
appeal.
Thank you and good luck are in
order for two of our neighbors… first,
thank you to Whitney Serrell Barbera
for her service as the secretary for the
Bedford Hills Neighborhood Association
(BHNA), as Whitney steps down
after two years, and good luck to Britta
Vander Linden who stepped forward
to fill Whitney’s shoes.
CREATIVE DISRUPTION
By JOHN F. McMULLEN
That much we know
for sure – Aaron Swartz
is dead. We also know
that he took his own
life at the age of 26 – a
terrible tragedy. We also know, from
all accounts, that he was a victim of
depression, a terrible disease underestimated
by all who do not have it. We
also know that he was gifted technically
and, from the age of 14, attracted
the admiration of many in the industry
both for his technical brilliance and his
energy in working to make the Internet
a place of openness to all. His work with
“RSS,” “Reddit” (http://www.reddit.
com), “Creative Commons” (http://creativecommons.org),
“RECAP”(https://
www.recapthelaw.org), and “Demand-
Progress” (http://demandprogress.
org) were all aimed at this goal and he
invested great time and money into his
RADIO
Another note from the BHNA…
Save the date for the 4 th annual BHNA
Run for the Hills 5K road race on Saturday
April 13 th in beautiful Bedford
Hills. Everyone is invited to join the
runners both young and old on this often
grueling spring morning… maybe
it should be called Run Up and Down
the Hills… my wife thinks she has
talked me into participating this year,
but we will see how the training goes…
stay tuned.
Did you know January is National
Tea Month and this week NoKa and
NoKa Joe’s in Katonah are celebrating
with their very own tea week where you
can get a discount on your tea all week,
I wonder when we celebrate coffee…
Congratulations and good luck
goes out to Hastings-on-Hudson’s
Benh Zeitlin and his independent
movie, ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild,’
for receiving four Academy Award
nominations, including Best Picture.
“Love, Loss and What I Wore”
Aaron Swartz Is Dead
work in this regard.
I did not know Aaron personally
but I do know slightly (through
e-mail and Internet connection over
the years) lawyer and Internet activist
Lawrence Lessig (http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig) and writer
/ science fiction author Cory Doctorow
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Cory_Doctorow) and greatly admire
their work. Both were close to Aaron
and spoke eloquently about him as
did Sir Tim Berners-Lee and many
others (Doctorow -- http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.
html; Lessig - http://creativecommons.
org/weblog/entry/36298; Other Tributes
-- http://www.guardian.co.uk/
technology/2013/jan/12/aaronswartz-internet-twitter-tributes).
Berners-Lee even wrote a poem about
Aaron:
Continued on page 4
Westchester On the Level with Narog and Aris
Westchester On the Level is heard from Monday to Friday,
from 10 a.m. to 12 Noon on the Internet: http://www.
BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterontheLevel.
Join the conversation by calling 1-347-205-9201.
will be performed at the Conant Hall
in Pound Ridge at 8pm on January 17,
18 and 19. Written by Nora Ephron
and Delia Ephron and based on the
book by Ilene Beckerman, at our house,
this title means my wife would love to
lose the clothes I choose to wear, enjoy
the show…
This event could be out of this
world…the Sci-Fi Book Club will be
reading “Cinder” by Marissa Meyer at
the Katonah Village Library on January
19 th .
It’s nice to see the New York
Knicks give back to our community
as members of the team will serve as
coaches at the Harvey School’s Martin
Luther King, Jr. Youth Basketball
Clinic on Tuesday, January 22nd.
The sold-out clinic at the Katonah
private school will feature Jason Kidd,
Steve Novak, Ronnie Brewer, Rasheed
Wallace, Chris Copeland and Pablo
Prigioni alongside other coaches affiliated
with the Knicks community youth
WestchesterGuardian-5.5x4.875.indd 1
program.
Dawn Orza will present a talk
about Briarcliff Manor and its history
at the February 8 th Briarcliff Manor
Garden Club meeting.
The Vietnam Veterans of America
are looking for some slightly used
clothing for their drive this year, they
will be in our area on January 21 st ; give
them a call at 800-775-8387 to schedule
a pick up.
Okay all you Winter Olympic
want-to-bees, Hickory Hill Figure
Skating Club’s sessions for adults have
begun so if you are interested in improving
your basic skating techniques
it’s time to sign up. Skating will take
place at the Maxwell Evarts Memorial
Rink at the Harvey School in Katonah.
Our Katonah neighbor and friend
Michael Balkind has released his latest
book entitled “Gold Medal Threat,” hope
to see it on the best seller list soon.
Speaking of books, Reading
Dream’s 4 th Annual ‘Snow’tacular Kids
Fair will be held on Saturday January
19th from 1pm – 3pm at the Cyrus
Russell House in Cross River. Reading
Dream is a nonprofit organization that
sends books to children and schools in
need, there will be hand-made crafts for
sale, face painting, games, and delicious
baked goods for sale.
Here’s an event that could help
save your house from damage…the
Bedford Garden Club is holding a
post-Sandy Tree Symposium at the
Bedford Historical Hall on January
17 th at 7pm. This event is open to the
public for a fee of $5. A moderated
panel discussion, with three tree experts,
will address the best strategies for
saving, maintaining, and preventing future
damage and will answer any questions
from the audience.
Area hospitals and medical authorities
say we are in a very bad flu
season…as we all know, I am not very
brave, but I got my flu shot, so check
with your doctor and go get a flu shot
today…see you next week.
Mark Jeffers resides in Bedford Hills,
New York, with his wife Sarah, and three
daughters, Kate, Amanda, and Claire.
SOUTH STREET SEAPORT
EXHIBITION CENTRE
10/25/12 12:18 PM

Page 4 THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
CREATIVE DISRUPTION
Aaron Swartz Is Dead
Continued from page 3
“Aaron is dead.
Wanderers in this crazy world, we
have lost a mentor, a wise elder.
Hackers for right, we are one
down, we have lost one of our own.
Nurtures, careers, listeners, feeders,
parents all, we have lost a child.
Let us all weep.”
--Sir Tim Berners Lee, January 11,
2013
So the above is clear – Swartz was
extremely bright, technically gifted, depressed,
an activist in the area of public
access, and well respected by those who
knew him. What else is clear is that he
was arrested on January 6, 2011 and
was under indictment for wire fraud
and computer fraud, facing a potential
sentence of up to 30 years. He was alleged
to have set up a server in an MIT
closet and downloaded about 4 million
academic documents from the J-
STOR library.
This was not the first time that
he had gotten involved with obtaining
documents for release to the public.
In 2009, he accessed, through a
free trial program, “PACER” (“Public
Access to Court Electronic Records”
-- http://www.pacer.gov/), to obtain
19,856,160 pages of Federal Court records
from the database (an estimated
20% of the data base) and then stored
them in the RECALL system, available
to all at no charge (saving subsequent
searchers from the fees that
Swartz or others would have paid of
.10 per page and / or $2.40 per audio
file for the material). The Government
Printing Office terminated the
free access when Swartz’s actions were
found out and a few weeks later, an official,
Richard G. Davis, told librarians
“the security of the Pacer service was
compromised. The F.B.I. is conducting
an investigation.” After investigating,
no action was taken against Swartz.
(John Schwartz’s New York Times
story, “An Effort to Upgrade a Court
Archive System to Free and Easy” on
this incident may be found at http://
www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/
us/13records.html).
For his actions at MIT, however,
the weight of federal prosecution came
down on Swartz. Even after JSTOR
declined to sue Swartz and asked the
government to drop the charges (MIT
did not do the same), the prosecution
went on. Lessig took a strong position
on the government action – “From the
beginning, the government worked as
hard as it could to characterize what
Aaron did in the most extreme and
absurd way. The “property” Aaron had
“stolen,” we were told, was worth “millions
of dollars” — with the hint, and
then the suggestion, that his aim must
have been to profit from his crime. But
anyone who says that there is money to
be made in a stash of ACADEMIC
ARTICLES is either an idiot or a liar.
It was clear what this was not, yet our
government continued to push as if
it had caught the 9/11 terrorists redhanded.”
(Lessig blog -- http://lessig.
tumblr.com/post/40347463044/
prosecutor-as-bully).
What is not clear and can never be
totally clear is what role the ongoing litigation
had in leading Swartz to take his
own life. Robert Swartz, Aaron’s father,
is adamant in blaming the prosecution
for his son’s death, saying, “He was killed
by the government, and MIT betrayed
all of its basic principles” (http://www.
huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/15/
aaron-swartz-father-says-killed-bygovernment_n_2482646.html).
Lessig
was not as blunt but his description
of the toll of the ordeal on Aaron brings
us to the same conclusion -- “For in
the 18 months of negotiations, that
was what he was not willing to accept,
and so that was the reason he was facing
a million dollar trial in April — his
wealth bled dry, yet unable to appeal
openly to us for the financial help he
needed to fund his defense, at least
without risking the ire of a district court
judge. And so as wrong and misguided
and f*%#*#g sad as this is, I get how
the prospect of this fight, defenseless,
made it make sense to this brilliant but
troubled boy to end it.”
Since Swartz’s death, a petition
relating to the actions of U.S. Attorney
Carmen Ortiz, the prosecutor in
the case, has been placed on the White
House Petition system. It has since
reached the threshold of 25,000 signatures,
requiring a response from the
President’s office. The petition (Full
text at https://petitions.whitehouse.
gov/petition/remove-united-statesdistrict-attorney-carmen-ortiz-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/
RQNrG1Ck) urges the administration
to “remove United States District
Attorney Carmen Ortiz from office for
overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz.”
(http://www.huffingtonpost.
com/2013/01/15/petition-to-remove-carmen-ortiz_n_2479458.
html). While Ortiz understandably
had no comment on the attacks on
her actions, her husband, Thomas
Dolan, went on the offensive on Twitter,
claiming that a plea offer had been
given to Swartz, “Truly incredible that
in their own son’s obit they blame others
for his death and make no mention
of the 6-month offer.” Dolan’s response
led to a further deluge of criticism concerning
both Ortiz and Dolan and the
tweet was removed.
On January 16th, Ortiz broke her
silence and issued the following statement
“As a parent and a sister, I can only
imagine the pain felt by the family and
friends of Aaron Swartz, and I want to
extend my heartfelt sympathy to everyone
who knew and loved this young
man. I know that there is little I can say
to abate the anger felt by those who believe
that this office’s prosecution of Mr.
Swartz was unwarranted and somehow
led to the tragic result of him taking his
own life. I must, however, make clear
that this office’s conduct was appropriate
in bringing and handling this case. The
career prosecutors handling this matter
took on the difficult task of enforcing a
law they had taken an oath to uphold,
and did so reasonably. The prosecutors
recognized that there was no evidence
against Mr. Swartz indicating that he
committed his acts for personal financial
gain, and they recognized that his conduct
-- while a violation of the law -- did
not warrant the severe punishments authorized
by Congress and called for by
the Sentencing Guidelines in appropriate
cases. That is why in the discussions
with his counsel about a resolution of the
case this office sought an appropriate
sentence that matched the alleged conduct
-- a sentence that we would recommend
to the judge of six months in a low
security setting. While at the same time,
his defense counsel would have been free
to recommend a sentence of probation.
Ultimately, any sentence imposed would
have been up to the judge. At no time
did this office ever seek -- or ever tell
Mr. Swartz’s attorneys that it intended
to seek -- maximum penalties under the
law. As federal prosecutors, our mission
includes protecting the use of computers
and the Internet by enforcing the law
as fairly and responsibly as possible. We
strive to do our best to fulfill this mission
every day.” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/aaron-swartzprosecutor_n_2492652.html).
Andrew Leonard, writing on Salon,
(www.salon.com/2013/01/14/
aaron_swartz_freedom_fighter/),
had a different understanding of the
plea negation and of Ortiz’s role –
“Facing a maximum possible prison
sentence of 35 years and a fine of as
much as a million dollars, Swartz killed
himself Friday night, just two days after
prosecutors rejected a plea bargain deal
that would have allowed him to avoid
jail time. Previously, U.S. District Attorney
Carmen Ortiz had sweepingly
dismissed the notion that “morality”
had a role in Swartz’s actions: “Stealing
is stealing, whether you use a computer
command or a crowbar, and whether
you take documents, data or dollars.”
(Leonard’s column is worth reading
for his analysis of the economy theories
underlying a discussion of digital rights
– as are Lessig’s and Doctorow’s writings
on the subject).
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who
heads the House Oversight Committee,
has stated that he has an investigator
looking into the handling
of the case, saying “I’m not condoning
his hacking, but he’s certainly someone
who worked very hard. Had he
been a journalist and taken that same
material that he gained from MIT,
he would have been praised for it. It
would have been like the Pentagon
Papers.” (http://www.huffingtonpost.
com/2013/01/15/darrell-issa-aaronswartz-_n_2481450.html)
On the policy side, one thing has
come out of the tragedy. Rep. Zoe Lofgren
(D-Calif.) announced, on the service
that Swartz helped create, Reddit,
that she will introduce legislation honoring
Swartz, posting “I’m Rep. Zoe
Lofgren & I’m introducing ‘Aaron’s
Law’ to change the Computer Fraud
and Abuse Act.” She explained “The
government was able to bring such
disproportionate charges against Aaron
because of the broad scope of the Computer
Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)
and the wire fraud statute. It looks like
the government used the vague wording
of those laws to claim that violating
an online service’s user agreement
or terms of service is a violation of the
CFAA and the wire fraud statute. Using
the law in this way could criminalize
many everyday activities and allow
for outlandishly severe penalties. When
our laws need to be modified, Congress
has a responsibility to act. A simple way
to correct this dangerous legal interpretation
is to change the CFAA and the
wire fraud statutes to exclude terms of
service violations. I will introduce a bill
that does exactly that. In addition to
the posted link, a draft copy of the bill
is available here. In coming days, I will
seek cosponsors for the bill from both
political parties.”
No matter what good comes out
of the actions by Lofgren and others, it
cannot reverse the tragedy of a brilliant
young man’s death and, no matter how
egregious the government’s actions
seem to some, it must be remembered
that the tragedy was due, in large, to
Swartz’s depression.
Hopefully, this tragedy will cause
us to focus on the overall questions
concerning the use and value of data
and the rights of the public relating to
data, public and otherwise. If it does, it
will give even more meaning to Adam
Swartz’s life and struggles.
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
Page 5
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
Nomadic Telematch
SHERIF AWAD
Through a series of
artistically acclaimed
and successful exhibitions
Egyptian artist
Wael Shawky made
a name for himself in the art scene
worldwide. Although he was not an
immigrant or an artist living in the
diaspora, Shawky leads a nomadiclike
lifestyle; he frequently travels,
but is deeply bounded with his home
city of Alexandria where he opened
an educational art space he called
MASS. Between scholarships in Turkey,
the Unites States, Greece and
Switzerland, Shawky also landed
in Korea where he became one of
two-dozen international artists gathered
for a social and anthropological
project organized by the Gyeonggi
Creation Center. Before travelling
there Shawky also realized two solo
exhibitions showing his recent videos
and drawings. The first was in Cairo
and entitled Clean History in which
was included the new installation
Wael Shawky.
Telematch Suburb. The second was
in Darat al Funun, Jordan, where
he showed a retro of his Telematch
video series. Near the end of 2010,
the Sfeir-Semler Gallery in Beirut
presented Contemporary Myths II,
Wael Shawky’s exhibition that took
his practice to new horizons in the
realm of filmmaking as he presented
an epic marionette animation called
Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show
File, in which he was retelling, in
contemporary style, the story of the
first crusades (1096-1099) using
old-fashioned Italian marionettes.
In 2011, Shawky was recognized the
new winner of the bi-annual Ernst
Schering Foundation Art Award,
which also included a solo exhibition
at KW Institute for Contemporary
Art in Berlin.
In the last five years, an obvious
shift in Shawky’s work both on the
levels of concept and practice can be
observed. For instance, unconventional
use of material in Shawky’s
installation works started in molid
Telematch Crusades.
seedy alasphalt (Birth of Senior Asphalt)
where he used asphalt, liquid seek more knowledge and power.
as stories of departure in order to
tar, graphite, silver paint, speakers, a Although the audience may consider
video and mixed media installation. his 12-minutes recitation is a selfportrait
sociological translation, it is
“My function as an artist is more of
a translator… I translate my observations
into visual elements related to that have nothing to do with each
also a presentation for two systems
social changes and religious turmoil”, other, a supermarket and a religious
says Shawky while trying to explain speech.
his creativities to both regular and Telematch Series
specialized art viewers.
Aired on Egyptian TV back in
Religious transitions and social the 1970s and 1980s, Telematch was
displacement can also be observed a world-famous popular TV show
in Shawky’s video series The Cave. featuring live time-clocked tournaments
between different German
Created in 2004 during a residency
of seven months in Istanbul, the cities, where the competitors used
to be dressed up in funny medieval
outfits. For Shawky, this show was
not only a game show targeted to
entertain a third party, but it also
looked like a nostalgic essay for Europe
to retrieve its history during the
Crusades and a stage to examine the
relationships between genders, social
Cabaret Crusades. classes, contesting cultural, economic
and political models. In this context,
Shawky constructed his series of video
installations and drawing by the
same name, comprising Telematch
Upper Egypt, Telematch Market,
Telematch Sadat, and Telematch Suburb.
“In most of my recent works over
the last period, I have been trying to
construct a society. A system of soci-
Contemporary Myths.
Continued on page 6
first video had Shawky walking inside
a supermarket while reciting
verses of Quran from Surat al-Kahf
(al- Kahf means The Cave). Contextually,
the video tried to reflect a
discourse in the Turkish society and
government in their aim to join the
European Union in the foreground
of an Islamic and Sufi heritage. On
the other hand, Shawky, as a temporary
emigrant and resident walking
inside a symbol of new capitalism,
retrieved the celebration of Hijra
(the historical emigration of Muslims
from Mecca to Medina) and
other emigration tales mentioned in
this Surat including the story of the
cave people and the story of Moses
Telematch Sadat.
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Page 6 THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
Nomadic Telematch
Continued from page 5
ety in transition that is heightened the
closer I come to a system of an actually
existing society”, he said.
Telematch Market was set in an
empty hypermarket where trucks carried
miniature figurines, jammed with
vehicles driven by children. The performance
seemed like a cross between a
military invasion and a traffic jam. The
same manufactured vehicles appeared
HEALTH
County Executive Robert P. Astorino
announced today that the Westchester
County Department of Health will offer
free flu shots to residents on Thursday,
Jan. 24 , from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the
Westchester County Center in White
Plains.
“With so much demand for the flu
shot right now, some doctors and pharmacists
are having a hard time keeping
up ,” Astorino said. “By offering free flu
shots, we aim to help those residents
who have not yet gotten vaccinated.’’
The county has 1,000 doses which
can be given to adults and children ages
By ROBERT SCOTT
again as part of the parade scenes in
Telematch Sadat, a video installation
realized in 2007 that restaged the assassination
of former Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat, who was shot during the
military victory parade on the 6th of
October 1981. In Telematch Crusades,
Shawky worked through the same
principle but this time he shot young
Kenyan children reenacting Muslims
and Christians in a battle during the
time of The Crusades, marking a retro
commentary on historical milestones.
9 and up. Residents are strongly encouraged
to register in advance for the
flu clinic at www.health. ny.gov/Go-
2Clinic. Those without internet access
can call (914) 995-7425, weekdays,
starting Tuesday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“It’s important for everyone six
months and older to get a flu shot every
year,” said Health Commissioner Sherlita
Amler, MD. “We hope residents
will take advantage of this opportunity,
because flu season can last well into the
spring. It’s also equally important to
wash your hands frequently, to avoid
sick people and to stay home when you
Crystal Eastman was a
pioneering feminist, an
influential labor lawyer,
a founder of the Woman’s
Peace Party and the
American Civil Liberties Union, a cofounder
and co-editor of The Liberator,
and one of the most beloved women of
her generation.
Ironically, despite her distinguished
record of accomplishments,
Crystal Eastman is mostly remembered
as Max Eastman’s older sister.
She was born in Marlborough,
are sick. Most people will recover on
their own from the flu with no need to
Mass., in 1881. Her parents, Samuel
and Annis Ford Eastman; were ministers.
Her father had caught pneumonia
while on active duty during the Civil
War and suffered from ill health for
many years afterward, causing the burden
of family support to be assumed by
his wife.
In his exhibition Contemporary Myths
II, Shawky created a highly intricate
30-minute animation short film starring
200 year-old marionettes from
the Italian Lupi Collection. Featuring
scenography by Paola Sommaruga, this
gothic experience was called Cabaret
Crusades and it followed the events of
the First Crusades where Papal mandate
sent half-a-million Franks (present
day French) on a military campaign
to ‘reclaim’ Jerusalem from the Muslim
armies. Mining this transformative historical
moment for its profound resonance
today, Shawky’s film examined
the cause and effects of religious war
and its impact on European and Arab
relations while laying bare the question
of who pulls the strings of history.
It is an ongoing project that Shawky
will continue to implement until the
Fourth Crusades, taking the book by
Amin Maalouf, The Crusades Through
Arab Eyes as his guide.
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is a
film / video critic and curator. He is the
go to an emergency room or the doctor.”
Residents can also visit the health
department website to find providers
and pharmacies who are giving flu
shots. Physicians can call the health department
if they have excess vaccine to
share with other providers or if they are
willing to give vaccines to people who
are not their patients.
The flu shot is safe and provides
protection against the three strains of
the flu that are circulating this season.
To prevent spreading the flu,
cough or sneeze into your elbow and
At a time when women’s place was
in the home, Annis Ford had defied her
father and had gone to Oberlin College
in Ohio to study theology, where she
met her husband. When illness caused
her husband to give up his profession
in Elmira, N.Y., Annis became the first
woman in the state to be ordained a
Congregational minister. Even after
Samuel resumed preaching, his wife’s
career was more successful than his.
film editor of Egypt Today Magazine
(www.EgyptToday.com), 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 is the film critic of Variety Arabia
(http://varietyarabia.com/), in the United
Arab Emirates (UAE), the Al-Masry
Al-Youm Website (http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/198132)
and The
Westchester Guardian (www.Westchester-
Guardian.com).
County Executive Astorino Announces County to Offer Free Flu Shots to Residents
By EVAN S. LEVINE, MD
Many people read
this week that New
York State Governor
Andrew
Cuomo, due to a
significant and early
flu epidemic, declared a public health
emergency. His goal was to get more
people, especially the young, easier access
to flu vaccination. But what no
one is talking about and what is killing
patients right now is that the majority
of hospital workers, the ones caring for
sick patients are not getting vaccinated.
It’s not because many hospitals
aren’t going out of their way to do so.
I have witnessed a very strong program,
in a hospital I work at, to vaccinate anyone
who wishes, at their greatest convenience,
and for no cost. It’s because
many workers just don’t want to get
vaccinated.
In the past few weeks I’ve spoken
to infectious disease doctors as well
as some hospital workers, and I was informed
that as many as two- thirds of
the hospital staff was not vaccinated.
Most told me that they didn’t take the
vaccine because they were healthy and
when they did take a flu vaccine in
the past they felt as if they got a minor
case of the flu. But the viruses in the
flu shot are killed (inactivated), so you
cannot get the flu from a flu shot and
the risk of getting any serious reaction
is extremely small. Sure some people
do complain of some soreness at the
injection site and some may have a day
or two of muscle aches or a low grade
fever, but that doesn’t mean you can get
the flu from a flu shot!
According to the infectious disease
doctors I spoke with, hospitals
have attempted to make flu vaccination
mandatory but were beaten back by
lawyers representing union members.
Right now you cannot force workers,
at a hospital, to have a flu vaccination,
even if they work on an oncology floor
caring for immunosuppressed patients
on chemotherapy.
Too many hospital employees are
now coming to work, thinking that
they may be coming down with a cold,
when in actuality they have early stages
of the flu. They work in close contact
with immunosuppressed patients, the
elderly, cancer patients, and patients
just recovering from major operations;
wash your hands often with soap and
water. If you do get a respiratory infection,
stay home until 24 hours after
your fever subsides, to avoid spreading
your germs. Clean surfaces you touch
frequently, such as doorknobs, water
faucets, refrigerator handles and telephones.
Get plenty of rest, exercise and
eat healthy food.
For more information, visit www.
westchestergov.com/health, like
them on Facebook at facebook.com/
wchealthdept, follow them at Twitter
@wchealthdept, or call us at (914) 813-
5000.
MEDICINE WHAT YOUR DOCTOR WON’T (or CAN’T) TELL YOU
Hundreds WIll Likely Be Killed by Hospital Workers Not Being Innoculated for the Flu
CHRONICLES OF CROTON’S BOHEMIA
Crystal Eastman, 1: Brains and Beauty
they are unknowingly infecting them
with the flu. There will likely be hundreds
killed, just in the New York area
by hospital workers, who foolishly and
selfishly refused the flu-vaccine. Hundreds!
And there is nothing we can do
about it
Dr. Evan S. Levine is a cardiologist in
New York and a Clinical Assistant Professor
of Medicine at Montefiore Medical
Center – Albert Einstein College of
Medicine. He is also the author of the book
“What Your Doctor Won’t (or can’t) Tell
You”. He lives in Connecticut with his wife
and children.
Crystal Eastman found role models
in both her mother and father.
“When my mother preached we hated
to miss it. There was never a moment
of anxiety or concern; she had that
secret of perfect platform ease which
takes all strain out of the audience.
Her voice was music; she spoke simply,
without effort, almost without gestures,
standing very still. And what she said
Continued on page 7

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
Page 7
CHRONICLES OF CROTON’S BOHEMIA
Crystal Eastman, 1: Brains and Beauty
Continued from page 6
seemed to come straight from her heart
to yours.”
Crystal found strong support
for her latent feminism in her father.
“When I insisted that the boys must
make their beds if I had to make mine,
my father stood by me. When I said
that if there was dishwashing to be
done they should take their turn, he
stood by me. And when I declared that
there was no such thing in our family
as boys’ work and girls’ work, and that
I must be allowed to do my share of
wood-chopping and outdoor chores,
he took me seriously and let me try.”
“Once when I was twelve and
very tall, a deputation of ladies from
her church called on my mother and
gently suggested that my skirts ought
to be longer. My mother, who was not
without consciousness of the neighbors’
opinions, thought she must do something.
But my father said, ‘No, let her
wear them short. She likes to run, and
she can’t run so well in long skirts.’”
“A few years later it was a question
of bathing suits. In our summer
community I was a ringleader in the
rebellion against skirts and stockings
for swimming. On one hot Sunday
morning the other fathers waited on
my father and asked him to use his influence
with me. I don’t know what he
said to them but he never said a word
to me. He was, I know, startled and
embarrassed to see his only daughter
in a man’s bathing suit with bare brown
legs for all the world to see. I think it
shocked him to his dying day. But he
himself had been a swimmer; he knew
he would not want to swim in a skirt
and stockings. Why then should I”
Her mother started a series of
summer “symposiums” at their home
in Elmira. Once a week, neighborhood
mothers and children “and any
fathers who happened to be around”
would gather on the Eastman’s front
porch to listen to a paper and then discuss
it. Crystal’s contribution was titled
Crystal Eastman in a photo in the
Library of Congress.
“Woman.”
“The trouble with women,” Crystal
wrote, “is that they have no impersonal
interests. They must have work of their
own, first because no one who has to
depend on another person for his living
is really grown up, and, second, because
the only way to be happy is to have an
absorbing interest in life which is not
bound up with any particular person.
Children can die or grow up, husbands
can leave you. No woman who allows
her husband and children to absorb her
whole time and interest is safe against
disaster.”
The author of these words was 15
years old at the time.
“The moment I saw her and heard
her voice I liked Crystal Eastman,” said
Claude McKay, black poet and seminal
figure in the Harlem Renaissance,
in his autobiography. “I think she was
the most beautiful white woman I ever
knew. She was of the heavy or solid
type of female, and her beauty was not
so much of her features but in her magnificent
presence.”
Crystal was almost six feet tall,
athletic and vigorous. One of the first
women in the country to bob her hair,
she wore short skirts at work, pointing
out that this style was not only “comfortable,
hygienic, and becoming, but a
step in the direction of freedom, for it
gave women freer use of their legs than
they had known for hundreds of years.
Incidentally, it gave them back use of
the left-hand which in the days of trailing
skirts have always been used for
holding the ugly things up out of the
dust and dirt.”
She added, “Surely the best thing
about bobbed hair is the new sense of
freedom it brings to the wearer. What
the short skirt has done for women’s
legs, short hair is doing for their heads.
And outside of musical comedy, a
woman’s head is ever more important
than her legs.”
After graduating from Vassar College
in 1903, Crystal earned a Master’s
degree in sociology from Columbia
University and was second in the class
of 1907 at New York University’s
School of Law, specializing in labor law.
In 1907, Paul U. Kellogg, editor
of social work magazine Charities and
the Commons, hired her to investigate
labor conditions for the Russell Sage
Foundation’s Pittsburgh Survey. She
moved to Pittsburgh and over the next
year conducted the first comprehensive
sociological investigation of industrial
accidents ever undertaken.
Her pioneering 1910 report on
worker safety in Pittsburgh, “Work
Accidents and the Law,” caused New
York Governor Charles Evans Hughes
to name her the first and only woman
among the 14 members of the Commission
on Employer’s Liability and
Causes of Industrial Accidents. On this
commission, Crystal Eastman drafted
the state’s (and the nation’s) first workers’
compensation law.
Existing industrial safety legislation--called
“protective” legislation by
male legislators responding to what
they saw as the “special” needs of women--regulated
working conditions, but
only for women.
“Feminism has entered upon a
new phase,” Crystal wrote. “No longer
content with asking for their rights,
Crystal Eastman’s trail-blazing study of
industrial accidents was first published in
this magazine.
women have begun to question their
privileges. They have begun to examine,
with some shrewdness, the whole body
of more or less benevolent legislation
which has been gradually built up during
the last half-century for the ’protection’
of women in industry.”
Instead, she advocated the objectives
of British feminist groups, which
was legislation for the protection of the
worker based not upon sex but upon
the nature of the work.
Less than a month before her 30th
birthday, in May of 1911, Crystal surprised
her friends by marrying Wallace
Benedict, a good-looking insurance
Sunday, Jan. 27 th
agent, and moving to Milwaukee, even
though it meant letting her husband’s
career choice take precedence in the relationship.
Her friends felt that Benedict
was a poor choice as a husband:
He had the wrong occupation, lacked a
social conscience and his home was far
from New York.
Crystal made up for these shortcomings
the following year by managing
the unsuccessful fight for women’s
suffrage in Wisconsin, which was defeated
by the big breweries and liquor
interests.
The marriage lasted only two unhappy
years before Crystal returned to
New York and filed for divorce--but
refused alimony, scorning the practice
as a woman’s admission that she could
not take care of herself.
For two years after divorcing
Benedict, Crystal led the suffrage
movement in New York, but had no illusion
that gaining the vote for women
would bring true equality. “Today when
there is no longer a single, simple aim
and a solidarity barrier to break down,”
she wrote, “there are a hundred difficult
questions of civil law, problems of education,
of moral and social custom to be
solved before women can come wholly
into their inheritance of freedom.”
Much work still lay ahead for
Crystal Eastman before women would
achieve a measure of equality.
Robert Scott is a semi-retired book publisher
and local historian. He lives in Crotonon-Hudson,
N.Y.
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Page 8 THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
MOVIE REVIEW
Ed Koch Movie Reviews
By Edward I. Koch
“The Central Park
Five” (+)
This Ken Burns documentary includes
television footage taken in 1989 when
police officers in Central Park arrested
one Latino and four black juveniles for
allegedly raping and assaulting a jogger.
It also contains statements made by the
youths at the time, claims of supporters
alleging they were innocent, demands
of some for swift prosecution of the
young men referred to in some papers
as a wolf pack, and the comments of
others made before and after the five
were subsequently freed.
“Wilding” was the term used by
the youths to describe their activities in
Central Park that night.
In one clip of me in the film, I
refer to the incident as “the crime of
the century,” which it was in terms of
interest around the world. All five received
prison terms ranging from 5-10
years or 5-15 years. Each was convicted
on evidence consisting solely of confessions
made to the cops and to the
District Attorney’s office. Their confessions
were made while their parents
were standing by and available to their
children. Further, a judge has found in
a lengthy decision that the confessions
were made voluntarily.
After sentencing and during the
incarceration of the youths, one of
them, Kharey Wise, met Matias Reyes.
Reyes, a convicted rapist serving time
for another crime, told his jailers that
he raped the young woman in Central
Park, not the convicted five. An examination
of the DNA found in the jogger
(sperm) established that Reyes had
raped her. No DNA of the five youths
was found on the jogger or her clothes.
The lawyers, based on the new
evidence provided by Reyes, moved in
court to free the youths. Manhattan
District Attorney Robert Morgenthau,
while not himself passing judgment on
their guilt or innocence -- a jury having
found them guilty - stated that he had
a doubt with respect to their guilt. As
everyone knows, guilt must be established
beyond a reasonable doubt. Mr.
Morgenthau acceded to the defendants’
motion and the youths were freed.
The five men have now sued the
City of New York for $250 million in
the aggregate. The law concerning such
suits is the following: the city is only liable
if the police or any other city agency
violated the Constitutional rights of the
defendant. The reason is obvious. If the
city does everything right, a jury finds
for a defendant, and the law requires
the city to pay damages, it could find
itself unable to provide services. A huge
amount would be removed from its
operating budget which is used to pay
the cost of services provided to all New
Yorkers. There are many acquittals during
the course of a year. The percentages
vary in each of the boroughs.
Some will ask why there should
ever be an acquittal in cases where a defendant
confesses. The Innocence Project,
which has represented a number
of defendants it believed were wrongfully
found guilty, has offered its opinion
stating that “in about 25 percent
of DNA exoneration cases, innocent
defendants made incriminating statements,
delivered outright confessions or
pled guilty.” Also, the Innocence Project
provided some reasons for those false
confessions: duress, coercion, intoxication,
diminished capacity, mental impairment,
ignorance of the law, fear of
violence, the actual infliction of harm,
the threat of a harsh sentence and misunderstanding
the situation.
The film is superb. It provides
a host of interesting interviews and
undoubtedly caused many viewers to
conclude that there was a miscarriage
of justice. Supporters of the five men
say the city should pay them damages.
Each defendant in this case has asked
for $50 million. I, like District Attorney
Morgenthau, with less information
than he had available to him, concluded
after seeing the picture that there is a
reasonable doubt and the defendants
were rightfully freed.
I do not believe the city should
simply give away its money, except
pursuant to law. I do not believe the
defendants will be able to establish that
the city violated their Constitutional
rights. So how can justice be achieved
The state has provided another remedy
allowing a suit in these circumstances
to be brought in the Court of Claims,
where there is no jury. A judge makes
the decision. Historically, those awards
are far lower than in cases where juries
make the awards.
There is a problem using this second
route. That law provides that the
plaintiff does have to establish that he
did not by his own conduct cause or
bring about his conviction. That generally
means that if the plaintiff voluntarily
confessed (albeit falsely) and/or
pleaded guilty, for example, his claim
could be barred.
These cases are very difficult. I believe
the state should remove this provision,
a form of Catch-22. It seems to
me to be an unfair requirement, particularly
in view of the Innocence Project
finding that 25 percent of defendants
freed as a result of DNA evidence have
made incriminating statements, which
under the law could ban them from
being eligible for a monetary award as
a result of their wrongful confinement.
As a result of this case, I believe the
state legislature should correct the law,
and the defendants should be allowed
to immediately file their claims under
that law. Let justice be served.
However, there are responsible
people in the criminal justice system
who believe not every injustice has a
remedy or requires compensation from
government. I believe wherever reasonably
possible the government has a responsibility
to eliminate injustice, level
the playing field and assist those who
are victims in our society. The city and
state government should find a way
to do so in this matter. The movie was
produced, written and directed by Ken
Burns, David McMahon and Sarah
Burns. They deserve high praise for
bringing the problem to light in such
an interesting and provocative film.
Visit the Mayor at the Movies to learn
more: http://www.mayorkoch.com/. The
Honorable Edward Irving Koch served
as a member of Congress from New York
State from 1969 through 1977, and New
York City as its 105th Mayor from 1978
to 1989.
MUSIC
This two disc package is all about the
previously unreleased set from ’83 as
“Texas Flood” has been re-released
several times including the so-called
bonus track “Tin Pan Alley.” But it’s
important to note that this album
was Stevie’s very first recording, its
executive producer was the legendary
John Hammond Sr., it reached
number thirty-eight on the Billboard
charts, and it received two Grammy
THE SOUNDS
OFBLUE
By Bob Putignano
nominations. Not bad for a debut
album! But many of us know “Texas
Flood” (some of us note for note,) so
onto the live Philly show from nearly
thirty years ago.
October 20th, 1983 was the date
this show was recorded at Ripley’s
Music Hall in Philadelphia; it was
later aired on the nationally syndicated
King Biscuit Flower Hour. Well
known DJ (WLIR & WMMR)
Stevie Ray Vaughan 30th Anniversary Edition:
“Texas Flood” 2 CD’s Sony Legacy
“Disc 1 has been issued several times, but the live ’83 gig debuts here.” Rating: 7
John DeBella emceed. This is the trio
configuration with bassist Tommy
Shannon, drummer Chris Layton
and Stevie. Two instrumentals open
the show in high-gear; “Testify” is a
whirlwind tour with Stevie heavily
leaning on his Hendrix interpretations
and bends, Shannon’s on fire
too, as the rhythm section stays right
there with the rapid-fire Vaughan.
Vaughan’s “So Exited” is also performed
instrumentally and shuffles
into a blues vamp, here Stevie sounds
more like his other mentor Albert
King, the entire band fascinates as
they move through various twists and
turns, then Vaughan takes it down a
bit for the final setup where Stevie
lifts off. Next up is Hendrix’ “Voodoo
Child (Slight Return,)” (other live
Continued on page 9

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
Page 9
MUSIC
The Sounds of Blue
Continued from page 8
versions are more lengthy) this one’s
somewhat short (7:45,) but nonetheless
Vaughan and company deliver
on all cylinders, also tossing nods to
“Power of Soul” then it crashes into a
sea of well executed distortion. “Pride
and Joy” takes us back to the blues
and the band pounds it out. More
(deep) blues ensue on Larry Davis’
“Texas Flood” where the band (temporarily)
bring down the tempo, but
that doesn’t last long, as about midway
through this ten minute version
Vaughan opens up and roars, then
takes it down one more time before
some emotional moans and groans
emit from Vaughan’s guitar and vocals.
“Love Struck Baby” kicks, its
short (3:09) and it’s a bit disjointed.
Buddy Guy’s “Mary Had a Little
Lamb” is okay, but not memorable.
“Tin Pan Alley” has never been one
of my favorite SRV covers, and this
version doesn’t convince me otherwise
as this tune meanders for over
eight minutes. Roughly forty-six
minutes into their set it’s almost
time to go home with a twelve plus
minute Hendrix parlay “Little Wing”
that segues into “Third Stone from
the Sun,” and it’s a good one sans
vocals. The band obviously saved
their very best performance for last
as they start (somewhat) softly with
jazzy leads from SRV, but towards
the end of “Little Wing” they really
SPORTSSCENE
News and Notes from Northern Westchester
By MARK JEFFERS
Welcome to the
NHL is back edition
of “Sports Scene,”
where we take a look
at the great sports
action here in Westchester
County…
In her first race as an unattached
runner, Bronxville junior Mary Cain
ran one of the fastest times ever for a
high school girl in the 3,000 meters,
winning indoors at the University
of Washington Preview in a time of
9 minutes, 2.1 seconds…it takes me
that long just to put on my sneakers.
Westchester Hoopers AAU
Girls tryouts will be held on February
23, 24 and March 4 th at Hooperstown
in Mount Vernon.
Turning to some high school action,
in track and field, at the Armory
in New York, Somers finished first
in the League 1-C Championships,
North Salem came in second and
Kennedy finished third.
On the hoops court, let’s start
with the girls…Blind Brook just got
by Horace Greeley 48 to 47, Ali Silfen
had 20 points and 12 rebounds
for the winners. Mount Vernon beat
New Rochelle 69-54, Lubirdia Gordon
fired in 28 points for the Knights.
In boys’ action, Ossining got by
Pleasantville 51 to 49, Kayvon Murray
fired in 15 points for the winners.
In another nail biter, it was Rye Neck
with a 50 to 47 victory over Blind
Brook; Matt Franks led the way with
22 points, 11 rebounds and three
blocks.
Jumping into the pool…Hackley
swam past Sacred Heart with the
final outcome of 91 to 73. Horace
Greeley beat Suffern 102-84 at Purchase.
Here’s a look at some bowling results,
Lakeland boys rolled past Hen
Hud 5-2 at Cortlandt Lanes and
Scarsdale blanked Woodlands 7-0 at
White Plains Bowl. In girls’ results,
Lakeland won 7-0 over Hen Hud
and Woodlands returned the favor
7-0 against Scarsdale.
Vaulting over to some gymnastics
action, Edgemont 1 took home
the Class 3 title at the Mahopac
Gymnastics Invitational with a score
of 59.7 as Isabella Puig scored 30.65
in the all-around. Brewster defeated
Eastchester 155.6 to 139.95.
In Squash action, Rye Country
Day took two 4-3 victories over Suffield
and host Millbrook to raise their
record to 9-2.
The RCD girls’ squad blanked
Holy Child 7-0.
Over on the mats, New Rochelle
pinned Mamaroneck 34-31. Yonkers
defeated Scarsdale 51 to 32.
Engarde…how about some high
school fencing results, Rye Country
Day boys foil team beat visiting Nyack
6 to 3, Kevin Collado and Eric
Duarte each scored two wins for
RCD. In girls sabre, RCD also beat
Nyack 6-3, Olivia Nichols won three
bouts.
On the ice, Hen Hud skated past
Ossining by the final score of 5 to 1
at the Brewster Ice Arena; Robbie
kick into hyper-overdrive where the
tempo erupts perilously with raw and
reckless abandon into a killer “Third
Stone From the Sun.”
All in all this live performance
is just under one hour, which I figure
had to do with the limitations of prerecording
this set for the radio broadcast.
But given those confines this is
still a pretty fiery set that captures the
band at their beginnings, which is
good enough for me to recommend
owning this two CD set, as having
Albano scored two goals for the winners.
John Jay shutout Mahopac 4 to
0, Frazier Bostwick netted a hat trick
and Matt Lanza made 21 saves for
the Indians.
In girls’ action, Rye Country Day
defeated Pingry by the final outcome
of 7-3; Rosie Rathr scored 4 goals for
the winners.
Over on the slopes at Thunder
Ridge, North Salem ski team sped by
Mamaroneck and Brewster ski teams
and Yorktown defeated Ardsley at
Tuxedo Ridge.
Here’s a look at some area college
action, in hoops, Joy Adams
scored 23 points and grabbed nine
rebounds to lead the Iona women’s
basketball team to a 76-46 victory
over Manhattan. Jonathan Merceus
poured in 17 points to lead the Pace
men’s squad to a 73-59 win over St.
Michael’s.
Purchase College’s Lineker St.
Hilaire was named Skyline Conference
women’s basketball player of
the week as was Andre Nixon after
his performance at the Hampton
Inn/Naismith Classic where he was
named MVP averaging 19 points.
an additional release of SRV music is
all good to have legally available. Add
to this mix Ashley Kahn’s liners (author
of Coltrane & Miles books) and
even though my copy only included
excerpts, Kahn’s work is consistently
impeccable, so I look forward to
reading his always insightful words.
Long story short: May the SRV spirit
live on!
Bob Putignano www.SoundsofBlue.com
The Fox Lane Sports Boosters
Club’s Winter 2013 Gala Dinner
and Fundraiser will again be a day
long bowling event at Grand Prix
New York in Mount Kisco on Saturday,
January 26th. The Boosters will
take over the entire facility for the
day (12 pm - 7 pm) including the 7
VIP lanes from 12:00 pm - 11 pm.
The day will be divided into 4 sessions
(12:00 - 1:30 and 2:00 - 4:00
for kids and families, and 4:30 - 6:30
for adults and 7:30 - 11:00 on VIP
lanes). “Light” adult refreshments
will begin with the 4:30 adult bowling
session and continue throughout
the evening. The evening portion will
begin with lighter fare from 5:00 pm
- 7:00 pm and a buffet dinner at 8:00
pm.
Here’s a real shocker, Lance
Armstrong admitted last week to using
performance enhancing drugs to
Oprah Winfrey… see you next time.
Mark Jeffers resides in Bedford Hills,
New York, with his wife Sarah, and
three daughters, Kate, Amanda, and
Claire.
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Page 10 THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
EYE ON THEATRE
Faltering Feline
By JOHN SIMON
Two of Tennessee Williams’s
plays, “The Glass
Menagerie” and “A
Streetcar Named Desire,”
are uncontested
winners. The others are on the cusp
between drama and melodrama, pathos
and bathos, comedy and grotesquery.
The yet again revived “Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof” is such; a strenuous teeterer.
It is, as you may recall from its perhaps
overfrequent revivals, mostly the
story of Margaret’s—Maggie the cat’s—
desperately determined efforts to get her
husband, Brick, to have sex with her
again. At stake is the inheritance of the
28,000-acre plantation of Big Daddy
Pollitt—prime Mississippi Delta land—
to be left either to beloved younger son
Brick or to disliked elder son Gooper
and his wife Mae, a greedy and grasping
but philoprogenitive couple, with
their five “no-neck monster” children, as
Maggie has dubbed them, and a sixth
one under way.
The problem is that former college
football star Brick and his chum Skipper
had a perhaps abnormally close relationship,
so that when Skipper recently died,
Brick turned alcoholic and lost all interest
in Maggie, incurring even a needless,
nocturnal, self-destructively hurdlejumping
broken ankle. Meanwhile Big
Daddy is dying of cancer, although he
and his unloved wife, Big Mama, are
assuming all he has is a spastic colon.
Maggie, who knows the truth, must
urgently seduce Brick into cohabitation
and producing an heir; otherwise,
what with Big Daddy dying intestate,
the property might go to lawyer Gooper
and nasty Mae.
The plot twists and snakes from a
LEAVING ON A JET PLANE
By BARBARA BARTON
SLOANE
Delta Queen, the renowned
1926 steamboat,
bills itself as
“Chattanooga’s Most
Memorable Overnight Stay.” It is. I
can attest to that from up close and
very personal experience. This beloved
boat, a fixture of America’s rivers, was
the last traditional vessel carrying overnight
guests on inland waterways. It is
an historic landmark, a member of the
National Maritime Hall of Fame and,
today, a hotel on Chattanooga’s vibrant
Waltzing About Tennessee
riverfront.
After a long, tiring flight and an
equally long dinner, I finally stepped
aboard the Delta Queen and was
shown to my room - small, neat, cozy,
with a bed that compelled me to hop
in. Finding this hugely more appealing
than joining my fellow travelers for
an after-dinner cocktail, I happily surrendered
to the pull of the pillow and
began drifting off. Suddenly, abruptly,
I was jolted by a face that appeared
before me - that of a woman - gentle,
soft-featured, benign, and…. just there!
I immediately knew, sensed, that this
was not your run-of-the-mill image
Benjamin Walker and Scarlett Johansson.
first act that is largely Maggie’s monologue
trying to bed the boozing Brick,
through a second act that is chiefly a
father-and-son barbed confrontation
between bibulous Brick and lovingly
berating Big Daddy, into a final act in
which some things are glumly resolved,
but others are left vaguely hopeful, as
Maggie makes a supreme effort to get
Brick to impregnate her.
One reason the play is mounted
so often is that it provides all the principals
with meaty roles, especially with
the alternative third act that Elia Kazan
had Williams provide for the 1955
premiere—more theatrical and more
hopeful—and espoused by most revivals
including the current one.
What made the play especially
interesting in the buttoned-up Eisenhower
fifties is that it dealt, however
guardedly, with a quasi-homosexual
relationship between Brick and the unseen
Skipper, more or less avowed by the
latter but vehemently repressed by the
former. It led to an unsuccessful attempt
at sex between Maggie and Skipper—
like Brick, chums in the Ole Miss student
days—and indirectly to Skipper’s
demise. This latent but at the time daring
homosexual element was, and perhaps
still is, part of the work’s fascination.
We now have Scarlett Johansson
as Maggie—hard-working, forcing her
voice into a near-growl, and looking
rightly ambiguous, i.e., attractive but not
especially sexy—a decent performance
but somehow lacking in clear definition.
We should empathize with Maggie’s
resolve and hope it succeeds, but get
The Delta Queen.
that one sometimes sees before dozing
off. No, this was the face of a lady from
long ago - real, true, and insistent on
being acknowledged. I was left feeling
slightly unsettled and wondering, “what
the heck was that”
The next morning, a guide gave us
mostly an actress manifestly engaged but
insufficiently compelling.
She is not much helped by the
Brick of the not untalented Benjamin
Walker, who hobbles persuasively and
drinks awesomely, but does not convey
why his parents should so prefer him to
his elder brother. It may just be that he is
too gangly for the petite Johansson, but
something is missing here. Perhaps he
just isn’t macho enough. Cioran Hinds,
conversely, is a convincing Big Daddy,
even if he shouts more than necessary.
This may be partly because, the occasion
being Big Daddy’s 65th and presumably
final birthday, there are fireworks,
a tour of the boat, beginning her talk
by saying that the Delta Queen has a
resident ghost named Captain Mary
Green. Bingo! I immediately knew
who my nocturnal visitor had been. I
asked if there was a photo of her and
when shown - you guessed it…the lady
herself! I told the guide about Mary’s
visit and she showed no surprise. “Happens
all the time” she replied. Mary was
the first woman ever to be licensed to
captain a boat, and I further learned
that she lived in the room just opposite
my own. The Discovery Channel’s
Ghost Lab (http://www.youtube.com/
watchv=iUEv_awZPYk) has done
a fascinating story on her and I must
confess I feel quite special that Captain
Mary B. Green chose to visit me!
Benjamin Walker and Scarlett
Johansson.
and later even a thunderstorm, far too
loud and disruptive. The otherwise good
Debra Monk, as Big Mama, is especially
drowned out.
Rob Ashford’s direction, generally
apt enough, allowed the sound designer,
Adam Cork, too much leeway, including
inexplicable sforzandos to crashingly
end each act.
Supporting performances, led by
Michael Park (Gooper) and Emily Ber-
Ciaran Hinds and Benjamin Walker.
gl (Mae), are satisfactory, including those
of the suitably obstreperous five no-neck
monsters.
I did, however, have difficulties with
Christopher Oram’s set, which is a bit
too operatic, what with too many grandly
floor-to-ceiling windows (or are they
French doors), almost more suitable to
a ballroom, and not occlusive enough for
a desiderated sense of suffocation.
So, all in all, a “Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof ” that is neither too catty nor too
tinny, which is fine, but not very hot either,
which is rather less commendable.
Photos by and courtesy of Joan
Marcus.
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof - Richard
Rodgers Theatre - 226 West 46th Street,
(between Broadway and 8th Avenue),
New York, NY 10036.
1-888-847-4869.
John Simon has written for over 50 years on
theatre, film, literature, music and fine arts
for the Hudson Review, New Leader, New
Criterion, 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
A Contender
At one time, Chattanooga had
the lamentable distinction of being
the dirtiest city in America. Then, a
turning-point. In 1992 The Bluff View
Art District was born thanks to founders
Dr. Charles and Mary Portera and
a group of forward-thinking citizens.
Today this area is home to a collection
of cultural delights sprinkled atop a
bluff overlooking the Tennessee River.
There’s an art gallery, specialty kitchens,
gardens, fine restaurants, a coffeehouse,
a banquet/conference center and a bed
and breakfast inn – making Chattanooga
now a contender for one of
America’s favorite cities!
Continued on page 11

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE
Waltzing About Tennessee
Continued from page 10
Into the Woods
Celebrating its 78 th anniversary
this year, the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park is America’s most visited
park. It straddles the border between
Tennessee and North Carolina and is
one of America’s 20 World Heritage
Sites - a showcase for some of the most
inspiring natural and cultural treasures
that the Southern Appalachians have
to offer. What a delightful photo op
it was to wander in the morning light
through the forest canopy’s lush mountain
wilderness. Water is a constant
companion on this journey – cascades,
rapids, and falls adorn the trails and
the sound of rushing water is never far
away. The air is cold, pristine, perfect,
Steam Train Ride at Dollywood.
TECHNOLOGY
By LARRY M. ELKIN
A midrange Swingline
stapler from Staples.
com costs $14.29 –
if you click “buy” in
Scarsdale, N.Y. Twenty
miles south, in Manhattan,
the same stapler shows up costing
$15.79.
Staples, along with other retailers,
has taken online personalization to its
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
and when you’re in the park, you inevitably
feel energized. That mountain
over yonder I’ll just climb on up and
take some pictures. Planning a 4-hour
hike Count me in! You feel, well, really
healthy.
Healthy…..ummmm…mustn’t forget
to stop at the Ole Smoky Moonshine
Holler, that purveyor of liquid pleasure.
Tasting your way through the woods is
not such a bad idea. In these mountains,
Tennessee’s moonshine tradition runs
strong. Scots-Irish ancestors brought
their knowledge and skills of whiskeymaking
with them as they came to Appalachia.
Conditions in the area were
good for growing corn, but it didn’t take
long to realize a lot more money could be
made from a gallon of corn liquor. Once
the law began cracking down on the industry,
the nature of these people and the
rugged mountain terrain made way for
the heyday of bootlegging.
Out of the Woods
Besides forests, there’s much in
this part of Tennessee to experience, to
learn, to discover. My visit was four full
days and yet, upon leaving, I wished I
had more time. There’s the amazing little
town of Sevierville, about 25 miles
from Knoxville with a population of
just 15,000. It calls itself “Your Hometown
in the Smokies” and its offerings
are many: amusement parks, mountain
adventures, unbelievable shopping with
over 120 high-end outlets, galleries,
antiques, boutiques, flea markets and
dining that ranges from down-home
to international cuisine and authentic
mountain cooking.
The village of Gatlinburg has
mountain peaks rising higher than
6,000 feet and an aerial view of the
Smokies aboard the Ober Gatlinburg
Aerial Tramway, a 120 passenger, 15
minute, 2.1 mile tram ride up to the
summit of Mt. Harrison. We took a
nighttime stroll through the downtown
area. Gatlinburg’s Winter Magic
program brightened up the night
with millions of spectacular lights and
Christmas displays. We received complimentary
admission to some amusing
attractions along the way and we
shopped in a few of the more than 450
stores and boutiques.
And then there’s the little burg of
Pigeon Forge. It may be small but its
major attraction is grand! That would
be Dollywood, known the world over
and larger than life, exactly like the person
it’s named for. This park was given
the International Applause Award for
being one of the world’s best theme
parks with attractions, crafts, music,
logical limit, tailoring not just which
products it suggests to specific customers,
but what it charges for those
products as well, according to a recent
investigation by The Wall Street Journal.
(The article is located behind a pay wall).
The Journal found that prices varied
based on IP addresses for around onethird
of the more than 1,000 randomly
selected Staples.com products it tested.
Most of the price differences appeared
to be based on the customers’ presumed
shows, special events and rides - lots of
rides; at last count over 100 and the latest,
the Wild Eagle, is a thrilling roller
coaster that takes you soaring over the
Smoky Mountains. No, I didn’t …but
I watched!
A Centenary Celebration
Taking a break from all the hijinks
and frivolity of those irrepressible
Smoky Mountain towns, one day we
visited Arrowmont, a school of arts
and crafts. Founded in Gatlinburg in
1912 by Pi Beta Phi, the first fraternity
for women in the country, its mission
was to discover, preserve, and promote
knowledge and appreciation of traditional
and contemporary crafts of
the Appalachian region. Bill May, the
Executive Director, further elucidates:
“We don’t try to tell the story of how art
was…but rather what it is today.” This
beautiful campus, nestled on a 14-acre
hillside, mere footsteps from the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park, feels
like a world of its own.
Walking through classrooms offering
education in ceramics, fiber, metals,
jewelry, painting, drawing, woodworking
and photography and admiring the
students’ art exhibits was exhilarating.
The place pulses with creativity yet,
equally important, Arrowmont offers
students a time apart from the everyday;
experiences here revolve around
conversations, shared meals, evening
lectures and quiet reading in the woodpaneled
library. The entire place puts
one in mind of a simple, peaceful Frank
Yield Management We’ve Got That
zip codes. Customers in areas with competing
office supply stores generally
saw lower prices, while those without
alternate brick-and-mortar options saw
higher prices. On average, the discounted
prices were 8 percent lower.
Staples confirmed that it offers
different prices to different users on
its website but did not give a detailed
explanation of its online pricing algorithms.
Discover Financial Services, Rosetta
Stone and Home Depot were also
Tennessee’s Smokey Mountains.
Lloyd Wright design – inspiring in itself!
The hours we spent there were seductive
enough for me to make plans to
return soon, take a class, and submerge
myself in the imaginative and inspired
ambience that is Arrowmont
Leaving Tennessee, I was overwhelmed
by warmth and affection for
a state that, prior to this visit, I knew
nothing of. I thought of the words of
a Tennessee poem by Naval Adm. William
Porter Lawrence: “Strong folks of
pioneer descent…simple, honest, and
reverent.” Not wanting to seem irreverent,
may I also offer a quote by that
renowned personage of mystical bon
mots, Miss Dolly Parton herself: “The
way I see it, if you want a rainbow, you
gotta put up with the rain.” Out of the
mouth of a Babe…
Tennessee 411:
Tennessee Tourism
www.tnvacation.com
Dollywood Vacations
www.dollywood.com
Dancing Bear Lodge & Restaurant
www.dancingbearlodge.com
Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts
www.arrowmont.org
Travel Editor Barbara Barton Sloane is
constantly globe hopping to share her unique
experiences with our readers; from the exotic
to the sublime. As Beauty / Fashion Editor
she keeps us informed on the capricious and
engaging fashion and beauty scene.
found to alter online pricing and product
offerings based on user characteristics.
There is no law against charging
different prices in different places or to
different people for the same things.
To see proof of this, just try visiting the
airport version of your favorite fast food
chain or asking the person next to you
once you get on the plane what she paid
for her seat. A 1996 case in federal court
in New York held that there was nothing
wrong with Victoria’s Secret mailing
out multiple versions of its catalogs that
showed the same products, but differ-
Continued on page 12
Page 11
NAJAH’S CORNER
Defeat Is a
Thing I Can Not
Find To Explore
By NAJAH MUHAMMAD RYAN
They told me not to go out in
the rain
I get in trouble every time I do
I always go out in the rain
Soaring spirit I am a chough
Black rain coat and red rain
shoes
I love the rain, they haven’t a
clue
They told me not to go out side
Finally I cooperated with an innocent
smile
Then I heard it tapping the window
Calling for me to come out a
while
In this dreary house I stayed put
Dazed out the six by two
At first it rained hard, beautifully
dancing upon the yew
I waited long enough
My spirit hung with unease
Then it just drizzled
The sky, how it teased!
I told myself No! All listened
but my knees
Before my knowledge I was
dashing about the floor.
With my black rain coat and red
rain shoes I hastily left the door
Down came the drizzle
Cool drops drummed my face
Dousing drifting beat
Eyes closed and I removed my
shoes
Mud submerged my feet
Toes Clinched firmly in the wet
earth
Defeat is a thing I can not find
to Explore
They told me not to go out in
the rain
But I love the rain
So I will meet trouble once more
Najah Muhammad Ryan is an
18-year-old freshman attending
the University of Maryland
Eastern Shore, in Princess
Anne, Maryland. She is double
majoring in English and Agriculture.

Page 12 THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
TECHNOLOGY
Yield Management We’ve Got That
Continued from page 11
ent prices. Nor is there any law – yet
– against gathering information online
about customers and potential customers
for commercial purposes.
But many shoppers’ gut response
is still that outright price-adjustment
based on electronic information is unfair.
In a poll cited by the Journal article, more
than three-quarters of Americans said
they would be bothered if they knew a
website was offering others lower prices.
Part of the sense of outrage may
stem from an apparently unintended
consequence of Staples’ pricing strategy.
By basing its prices on the availability
of shopping alternatives, Staples ends
up showing higher prices to customers
in lower-income areas, which can support
fewer large retail stores. Customers
in more affluent areas, meanwhile, get
discounts. This can result in the appearance
of price discrimination on the basis
of race or national origin, which is illegal.
Staples’ pricing in New York City,
however, suggests that access, not income,
is the company’s real target. Despite
the fact that Manhattan is the most
affluent of the five boroughs, customers
there pay more for their paper and paperclips
than shoppers in Brooklyn and
Queens. While the Journal reporters did
not offer an explanation for this difference,
my guess is that it has to do with
space and tolls. Many Brooklyn and
Queens neighborhoods have most of
the characteristics of middle-lass suburbs,
including space for larger, suburban-style
stores. Residents of Brooklyn
and Queens also have the option of
driving to authentically suburban Nassau
County on Long Island without
facing tolls.
Meanwhile, shoppers in the other
New York City outer boroughs, the
Bronx and Staten Island, pay the higher,
Manhattan-style prices – the Bronx,
I presume, because it continues to be
underserved by most retail stores and
Staten Island because its geographically
isolated shoppers are bounded by toll
bridges.
Although few consumers realize
it, online price customization is not
new. As early as 2000, Amazon faced a
wave of negative publicity when users
discovered that customers looking at the
same item saw different prices. Amazon
claimed the variation was random, not
based on customer profiles, but many
customers were unconvinced.
It’s also possible for online retailers
to tailor their offerings far more carefully
than Staples appears to. Available
software can generate sophisticated
customer profiles based on browsing
histories, allowing companies to hypothetically
charge those who routinely
peruse designer goods more, while still
giving regular bargain hunters the low
prices they are bound to seek. Although
it claims not to adjust prices, the travel
website Orbitz has even admitted to using
software that detects what kind of
device a customer is using to access its
site and then recommending hotels it
thinks are best suited for either Mac or
PC users.
While I do not have any particular
desire to pay more for products based
on my viewing history or address, I also
don’t see anything wrong with companies
trying to charge me as much as
they think I will pay. Ultimately, it is
the customer who makes the choice of
whether or not to buy. If a price seems
too high, online shoppers are free to look
elsewhere, and on the Internet, the next
store is never more than a click away.
Whether we like it or not, the mission
of most businesses is to maximize
revenue and profits, not to determine
the “true” price for an airline seat, a hotel
room or a stapler and to ensure that everyone
pays it. Airlines, which have more
experience than office supply stores
in anticipating and responding to the
behavior of particular customers, have
coined the term “yield management” to
describe this process. As the name suggests,
the goal is simply to maximize
yield, or profits; retailers have no nefarious
plan to punish Manhattanites or reward
suburb-dwellers.
We have already become accustomed
to yield management when it
comes to airline prices. I suspect that,
with time, shoppers will come to accept
that now Staples carries yield management
too.
Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP ® , has provided
personal financial and tax counseling to
a sophisticated client base since 1986. After
six years with Arthur Andersen, where he
was a senior manager for personal financial
planning and family wealth planning, he
founded his own firm in Hastings on Hudson,
N.Y., in 1992. That firm grew steadily
and became the Palisades Hudson organization,
which moved to Scarsdale, N.Y., in
2002. The firm expanded to Fort Lauderdale,
Fla., in 2005 and to Atlanta in 2008.
GOVERNMENTSection
MAYOR Marvin’s COLUMN
By MARY C. MARVIN
The Governor’s
State of the State
address this week
caused me to turn
my attention to the
Village’s relationship
to our State government and the attending
ramifications of decisions
made in Albany.
In his speech, Governor Cuomo
quoted Governor Al Smith saying,
“Let’s look at the record” to use as a
rubric. From the Village’s standpoint,
the record of the 2012-year in Albany
was one of inaction and thus failure.
It was a lost opportunity to help the
taxpayer – the most important special
interest group. Relief from the over
200 unfunded State mandates that
are crippling every government, large
and small, was non-existent.
The following is just a sampling
of necessary reforms/measures that
either never left committee and in
some cases never even had a sponsor
to go forward as a bill:
The MTA payroll tax costing
Village taxpayers ½ of a tax point every
year was not repealed.
GOVERNMENT
The Village of Bronxville Vis-à-Vis The State of New York
The Wicks Law which results in
municipal construction projects costing
20% to 30% more than the same
projects in the private sector was left
unchanged.
The Taylor Law provisions requiring
compulsive arbitration with
police and fire unions when contract
negotiations reach an impasse were
not amended or stricken. The Taylor
Law allows an arbitrator who has no
ties to a community, shoulders none
of the tax burden and does not have
to consider “ability to pay” as a major
factor in his decision, to make final
contract determinations for municipalities.
The Legislature also failed to
amend the 2% tax cap legislation to
allow municipalities to exclude funds
for major infrastructure repairs and
matching grant monies, as is allowed
for school districts, from the cap limitation.
As a result, many communities
are not seeking the benefit of Federal
funds, nor repairing municipal infrastructure.
The tax cap legislation
created a powerful disincentive for
governments to undertake capital
improvements, even though New
York has one of the most aging infrastructures.
Most egregious was the lip service
given to the albatross around all
our necks, the pension benefit system.
Instead of confronting the current
unsustainable fiscal matrix, the
Legislature instead created a Tier VI
pension level. This level will only affect
new hires who then retire twenty
years hence. Not only is no community
hiring because of the current
crushing financial obligations, relief
20 years away is useless.
I would proffer that our elected
officials should have instead led the
way by changing their own defined
benefit pension plan to a defined
contribution plan, thereby replicating
the retirement arrangement of 80%
of their constituents.
As illustration, if a government
worker making an average of $60,000
annually retires after 20 years, his
counterpart in the private sector doing
the same would need to have a
$1.3 million nest egg just to replicate
the State pension benefits, not even
taking into account the cost of the
generous State retirement health care
package.
All of the above unfunded obligations
are unsustainable and causing
local government to continually decrease
municipal services.
To bring it home, last year the
Village of Bronxville got a bill from
the State for $3,205,376 to cover our
portion of the over 200 State mandates
and in turn we received $64,713
in direct State aid. Put another way, in
the first year of the 2% tax cap, Albany
sent Bronxville a bill for increases
in mandate costs that equated to a
4.5% tax increase to Villagers.
Net net, continued poor fiscal
stewardship, mismanagement at the
highest levels and elected officials
who lack the courage to confront
special interests will keep tax bills rising
and local services diminishing.
To add to this disheartening
picture, the State Comptroller just
released a report delineating New
York State’s debt burden as one of the
highest in the nation. Our debt per
capita of $3,253 is nearly three times
the median of all states and second
highest among peer states.
New York’s outstanding debt
now totals $63.3 billion, second only
to California’s $96.4 billion and more
than 80% higher than third place finisher,
New Jersey.
To make matters worse, 95% of
the debt incurred in the last ten years
was obligated without Legislative
or voter approval. Article VII of the
State Constitution prohibits issuance
of any debt unless approved by
both the Legislature and voters. To
circumvent this check and balance,
“public authorities” were created to
avoid voter approval.
The Westchester Municipal Officials
Association, which represents
every community in the County and
in which the Village is an active participant,
met last week to craft our list
of needed legislative reform.
Since absolutely none of our priorities/initiatives
were addressed in
the last Legislative session, in a sad
commentary, the document was simply
re-dated.
As Mark Twain said in 1866,
“No man’s life, liberty or property is
safe while the legislature is in session.”
Mary C. Marvin is the mayor of the
Village of Bronxville, New York. If you
have a suggestion or comment, consider
directing your perspective by directing
email to mayor@vobny.com.

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
Page 13
NEW YORK CIVIC
Sentenced
By HENRY J. STERN
“Cash & Carry Larry”
Seabrook,
An Elected Official for
27 Years,
Will Spend the Next
Five in Jail
New York Civic is now in its eleventh
year of publishing articles about
government and politics in New York
City and New York State. The first
one we wrote was on March 21, 2002,
“A Money Tree Grows in Brooklyn,”
which dealt with former councilmember
and Brooklyn Democratic
leader, Clarence Norman.
Today’s article is No. 823. There
has been a hiatus in the last few
months as we and the American public
were appropriately preoccupied by
the terrible catastrophes of hurricanes
and massacres. Those awful events are
now receiving the full attention of
national and state authorities. Momentum,
for the nonce, is on the side
of common decency and respect for
human life. This enables us to return
to the familiar but insistently aggravating
themes of municipal corruption
and incompetence.
In this case, the news is the sentencing
of former City Councilmember
Larry Seabrook to five years in
prison and restitution of $620,000 to
New York City for money he fraudulently
received through anti-poverty
groups he controlled.
The five-year sentence that
Seabrook received from Federal
Judge Deborah A. Batts follows the
27 years he served as an elected official
from The Bronx. He was elected
six times to the Assembly, State Senate
and the City Council, losing an
election only when he attempted to
unseat Congressman Eliot Engel in
2000.
Benjamin Weiser reported in The
New York Times on January 8:
“He was convicted in July of orchestrating
a broad scheme to funnel
hundreds of thousands of dollars in
city money to friends, relatives and a
girlfriend through a network of nonprofit
groups that prosecutors said he
controlled.”
Seabrook’s repeated plundering
of the non-profits he secretly
controlled dwarfs the more frequent
political corruption cases, where an
elected official is brought down on
the basis of a handful of incidents.
It indicates pervasive dishonesty in a
system where politicians fund community
groups, ostensibly to encourage
community participation but in
reality to provide kickbacks to their
supporters.
The City Council has made a
number of changes in its procedures
for allocating these funds, but it has
not ended the practice of having
particular elected officials determine
the nature and extent of subsidies to
alleged nonprofits, which often generate
substantial profits for their officers.
The process of stamping out
corruption is made more difficult
because of the ingenuity of officials
who manipulate the system to protect
themselves and the people whom
they are shielding.
An immediate improvement
could be made by requiring a larger
number of people to approve a subsidy,
prohibiting the receipt of funds by
relatives or close associates of elected
officials and their staffs, and requiring
the frequent submission of documentation
to prove the effectiveness
of the allotted funds.
Intensive review by accountants
would be helpful, but we should not
be required to spend as much money
checking out the grantees as we
spend on the grants.
Probably the best remedies for
this type of institutional corruption
that permeates many agencies are
the vigorous prosecution of cases,
prison sentences long enough to
discourage recidivism, required restitution
of all ill-gotten gains and a
substantial effort to change behavior
patterns which lead to dishonest actions
by public employees and those
who would lead them to unethical
conduct.
Years ago we reported that the
indictment rate for City Council
members was higher than that for
teenagers in the South Bronx. For any
elected officials convicted of felonies,
which prompt automatic removal of
office, there were others whose improper
behavior could not be proven
to reach that level of criminality.
In certain countries salaries of
public officials are relatively low and
they are expected to receive much of
their income from tips from people
they have assisted in the course of
their duties. (Bribes, you may call
them.)
In New York City and State, we
do not accept that view. We believe
that public officials’ compensation
should come from their salaries, not
the largess of those their action may
favor. That is the basic attitude that we
should require of our public officials:
accept no money from businesses or
private citizens for doing one’s job.
Hire no relatives whether spouses,
significant others, and no one where
personal friendship is the principal
aspect of the relationship. Publish
monthly the list of organizations, including
their officers, receiving public
funds. Prosecute those who have used
their positions for personal expenditure.
The poster boy for this type of
action is Pedro Espada of The Bronx.
But he is far from the only practitioner
of this particular vice.
In many investigations into political
corruption, the question arises:
who knew What other officials were
there who were aware of the schemes
but did not report them It is likely
that many people knew what was
going on but were in no position to
report it for fear of losing their jobs,
therefore the degrees of culpability
vary.
Henry J. Stern is the founder and president
of New York Civic.
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Page 14 THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
FINANCE
DiNapoli Approves Terms of $3.14 Billion Tappan Zee Bridge Contract
Comptroller to Closely Monitor Thruway Authority Finances
ALBANY, NY -- State Comptroller
Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced
he has approved a $3.14
billion contract between the state
Thruway Authority and Tappan Zee
Constructors to design and build the
new Tappan Zee bridge.
“Replacing the Tappan Zee
Bridge is New York state’s largest
single infrastructure project and is
vital to our economic prosperity,”
DiNapoli said. “To protect taxpayers,
my office will closely scrutinize the
Thruway’s oversight of the construction
of the new bridge. The Thruway
Authority is responsible for proposing
a financing plan and must live
up to its commitment to pursue the
lowest cost options and ensure that its
customers are paying the lowest possible
tolls. Every effort must be taken
to minimize costs for this project and
protect the long-term fiscal health of
the Thruway system.”
DiNapoli’s contract approval
does not constitute approval of any
financial plan, toll increase or debt issuance.
The Comptroller’s office will
examine these matters separately and
will monitor and audit the Thruway’s
finances to hold the Authority accountable
on issues of transparency,
fiscal stability and operational efficiency.
The 66-month contract was won
by Tappan Zee Constructors, a joint
venture of Fluor Enterprises, Inc.,
American Bridge Company, Granite
Construction Northeast, Inc. and Traylor
Bros., Inc. The Thruway Authority
received three bids for the project.
The approved contract takes effect
immediately.
To read the approval letter, visit:
http://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/
releases/jan13/tappan-zee-bridgecontract.pdf
SOURCE: Press Release.
Page 26 The WesTchesTer Guardian ThursdaY, FeBruarY 23, 2012
Bedford Supervisor Roberts Discusses State of the Town
By RICH MONETTI
Three of the five highest
property taxed
counties in the nation
are in New York
State and Westchester
County is among the lucky. Therefore,
the 2% property tax cap that
New York has imposed obviously
will make April 15 th a little easier to
endure in the Town of Bedford. Of
course, that’s until the resulting lack
of funds hits your door step in some
Advertising Sales
Nancy King: 914-831-1300
Glenn Weissman: 347-353-6128
Hezi Aris: 914-562-0834
CLASSIFIED ADS
respect Office advises Space Bedford Available- Town Supervisor
Prime Location, Yorktown Heights
1,000 Sq.
Lee
Ft.: $1800.
Roberts.
Contact Wilca: 914.632.1230
“What this means is that the
Prime Retail - Westchester County
parks Best are Location going Yorktown close Heights earlier, that
we’re not going
Store $1200.
to have the police
force that we’ve had or your road is
not going HELP to WANTED get plowed or paved
when you want it,” Supervisor Roberts
said.
In short, Roberts asserts there is
nothing left to cut – except maybe the
financial stress test forms the state
sends to placate the situation. “It’s so
1100 Sq. Ft. Store $3100; 1266 Sq. Ft. store $2800 and 450 Sq. Ft.
Suitable for any type of business. Contact Wilca: 914.632.1230
A non profit Performing Arts Center is seeking two job positions- 1) Director
of Development- FT-must have a background in development or experience
fundraising, knowledge of what development entails and experience
working with sponsors/donors; 2) Operations Manager- must have a
good knowledge of computers/software/ticketing systems, duties include
overseeing all box office, concessions, movie staffing, day of show lobby
staffing such as Merchandise seller, bar sales. Must be familiar with POS
system and willing to organize concessions. Full time plus hours. Call (203)
438-5795 and ask for Julie or Allison
LEGAL NOTICES
frustrating,” FAMILY COURT OF THE shared STATE OF NEW Roberts, YORK as she
COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER
wonders In the Matter of whether ORDER TO SHOW the CAUSE state is simply
SUMMONS AND INQUEST NOTICE
trying to cause municipal bankruptcies.
Chelsea Thomas (d.o.b. 7/14/94),
A Child Under 21 Years of Age Dkt Nos. NN-10514/15/16-10/12C
Adjudicated Pensions to be Neglected come by to mind NN-2695/96-10/12B most
FU No.: 22303
readily and the tenuous position it
Tiffany Ray and Kenneth Thomas,
leaves communities Respondents. in because not
X
NOTICE: PLACEMENT OF YOUR CHILD IN FOSTER CARE MAY RESULT IN YOUR LOSS OF YOUR
everyone RIGHTS TO YOUR is CHILD. contributing. IF YOUR CHILD STAYS IN “It’s FOSTER an CARE FOR 15 OF THE MOST RECENT
22 MONTHS, THE AGENCY MAY BE REQUIRED BY LAW TO FILE A PETITION TO TERMINATE
enormous YOUR PARENTAL benefit RIGHTS AND and COMMITMENT we’ve OF got GUARDIANSHIP to AND CUSTODY OF THE
CHILD FOR THE PURPOSES OF ADOPTION, AND MAY FILE BEFORE THE END OF THE 15-MONTH
just PERIOD. get a grip or else we’re not going
to
UPON
be
GOOD
able
CAUSE,
to carry
THE COURT
on
MAY
in
ORDER
New
AN
York,”
INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE WHETH-
ER THE NON-RESPONSENT PARENT(s) SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS A RESPONDENT; IF
noted THE COURT the DETERMINES sitting THE CHILD supervisor SHOULD BE since REMOVED FROM HIS/HER HOME, THE
COURT MAY ORDER AN INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE NON-RESPONDENT
2003. PARENT(s) SHOULD BE SUITABLE CUSTODIANS FOR THE CHILD; IF THE CHILD IS PLACED AND
REMAINS IN FOSTER CARE FOR FIFTEEN OF THE MOST RECENT TWENTY-TWO MONTHS, THE
AGENCY Escalating MAY BE REQUIRED the TO squeeze FILE A PETITION to FOR sustain TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS OF
THE PARENT(s) AND COMMITMENT OF GUARDIANSHIP AND CUSTODY OF THE CHILD FOR THE
resources PURPOSES OF ADOPTION, is the growing EVEN IF THE PARENT(s) homeowner WERE NOT NAMED AS RESPONDENTS IN
THE CHILD NEGLECT OR ABUSE PROCEEDING.
trend
A NON-CUSTODIAL
toward
PARENT
property
HAS THE RIGHT
reassessments
TO REQUEST TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT CUS-
TODY OF THE CHILD AND TO SEEK ENFORCEMENT OF VISITATION RIGHTS WITH THE CHILD.
or small claims assessment reviews
BY ORDER OF THE FAMILY COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
(SCARS). The widespread practice
TO THE ABOVE-NAMED RESPONDENT(S) WHO RESIDE(S) OR IS FOUND AT [specify
has address(es)]: taxpayers then wondering why
Last known addresses: TIFFANY RAY: 24 Garfield Street, #3, Yonkers, NY 10701
their contributions still go beyond the
Last known addresses: KENNETH THOMAS: 24 Garfield Street, #3, Yonkers, mentary NY 10701 Gasland, heard her own horror
2% cap. “It’s an automatic tax increase
An Order to Show Cause under Article 10 of the Family Court Act having been
stories,
filed with this
and
Court
been to Williamsport,
because
seeking to modify
we
the
still
placement
have
for
to
the above-named
pay our
child.
budget,”
located she at 53 So. says. Broadway, Yonkers, New York, on the 28th day of March, 2012 at 2;15 pm in the
YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear before this Court Pennsylvania, at Yonkers Family Court to see it for herself, she
afternoon of said day to answer the petition and to show cause why said, child “we should have not be a lot to learn and it has
adjudicated To help to be a neglected offset child and budget why you should scramble,
Bedford does partner across the
not be dealt with in accordance with the
provisions of Article 10 of the Family Court Act.
to be much more regulated.”
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE, that you have the right to be represented Trickling by a law-bacyer, and if the Court with finds you other are unable municipalities
to pay for a lawyer, you have the right to have a lawyer
to Bedford, the
county
assigned by the Court.
water situation interestingly keeps
to reduce
PLEASE
expenses
TAKE FURTHER
in
NOTICE,
such
that
areas
if you fail
as
to appear
Bedford
at the time
indigenous
and place
when it comes to
noted above, the Court will hear and determine the petition as provided by law.
emergency preparedness, recreation,
Dated: January 30, 2012
BY ORDER OF THE COURT commerce. Sitting over their aquifer,
police 2 column and fire issues and CLERK water 1 column OF THE storm COURT
large chains cannot meet requirements
when it comes to water waste
runoff, but Bedford does own its
drinking water issues, as anyone Get
Get Noticed Noticedliv-
ing in the town can attest. A $20 mil-
because there are no public sewers.
While that helps the town maintain
lion filtration plant almost 914-562-0834
in place,
a distinctive appeal, it’s another challenge
faced in terms of the tax base
she says, “we’re going to WHYTeditor@gmail.com
deliver the
Legal Notices,
best water in America.”
Legal Notices, Advertise Today Advertise Today
without large chain contributions.
At the same time, when it comes
Otherwise, in the private sector,
to “fracking”, Before she speaking endorses to the police... caution. call the economic crisis has certainly left
Having seen the well-known docu-
George Weinbaum
ATTORNEY AT LAW
FREE CONSULTATION:
Criminal, Medicaid, Medicare
its mark – especially in the housing
market. At this point, she sees some
movement in real estate but the natural
turnover of older retirees leaving
in favor of younger residents has created
an unmistakable absence in the
schools. “You’re seeing the school
districts losing population,” she says.
The empty space and the implications
aside, school security has
obviously appeared as a major issue
and the solutions are clearly divided,
according to the tidal wave of emails
that have arrived on the town’s server.
Some are adamant about keeping the
schools from becoming armed camps,
while others demand their kids be
adequately protected – regardless of
appearances. The latter of putting an
officer in each school, according to
her discussions with Bedford Police,
would tally beyond $4 million a year.
A figure NYSEG might dally
with municipalities like Bedford, have
upped their efforts to get them to go
underground. “I know this would be
expensive, but they are already spending
enormous sums to restore us every
year as it stands,” she says.
Realistically, Supervisor Roberts
understands the preliminary initiatives
communities are directing at
NYSEG are mostly just a conversation
starter, but she’s far from ending
her decade long service to the town.
Never a dull moment, she concludes,
“I love this job.”
Rich Monetti has been a freelance writer
since 2003 and lives in Westchester.

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
Page 15
LEGISLATION
Governor Cuomo Signs Groundbreaking Legislation that Will Give New
York State the Toughest Protections Against Gun Violence in the Nation
ALBANY, NY – January 15, 2013 --
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today
signed into law the NY SAFE Act
(Secure Ammunition and Firearms
Enforcement Act) that will give New
York State the toughest gun laws in
the nation. The legislation includes
provisions to keep guns out of the
hands of convicted felons and potentially
dangerous mental health
patients, and ban high capacity magazines
and assault weapons.
Under the legislation, New York
will be the first state in the nation to
ban any magazine that can hold more
than seven rounds and run instant
background checks on all ammunition
purchases at the time of sale.
The legislation will allow authorities
to track ammunition purchases in
real time to alert law enforcement to
high volume buys, and will include a
statewide standard requiring recertification
of pistol permits every five
years. The legislation also closes a
private sale loophole to ensure all gun
purchases are subject to a background
check, and toughens criminal penalties
on those who use illegal guns.
“The new law will limit gun violence
through common sense, reasonable
reforms that include addressing
the risks posed by mentally ill people
who have access to guns and banning
high capacity magazines and lethal
assault weapons,” Governor Cuomo
said. “This legislation is not about
hunters, sportsmen, or legal owners
who use their guns appropriately. It
is about reducing gun violence and
making New York a safer place to
live. I thank leadership of both the
Assembly and Senate for their action
on this important legislation.”
Key provisions of the NY SAFE
Act include:
Mental Health Alert: Under the
legislation, mental health professionals
will be required to report to local
mental health officials when there is
reason to believe a patient is likely
to engage in conduct that will cause
serious harm to themselves or others.
This information will then be crosschecked
against the new comprehensive,
and regularly updated, gun
registration database. If the patient
possesses a gun, the license will be
suspended and law enforcement will
be authorized to remove the person’s
firearm.
Tougher assault weapons ban:
The legislation outlines a stricter definition
of assault weapons, and implements
an immediate ban of defined
assault weapons. Under the stricter
definitions, semi-automatic pistols
and rifles with detachable magazines
and one military style feature will be
considered assault weapons. Semiautomatic
shotguns with one military
style feature will also be considered
assault weapons. Assault weapons
possessed before the effective date
must be registered within a year and
recertified every five years. Owners of
grandfathered assault weapons may
only sell out of state or through an in
state federal firearms licensee. Under
the legislation, the Bushmaster used
in the Newtown, Connecticut shooting
will be illegal.
Stronger regulations on ammunition:
Under the legislation, New
York will have the strongest ban on
high capacity magazines in the country,
with a limit on capacity of seven
rounds, down from the current limit
of ten. The legislation includes a ban
on possession of pre-1994 high capacity
magazines, and will require
owners to sell the banned magazines
out of state within one year. Existing
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Page 16 THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
LEGISLATION
Governor Cuomo Signs Legislation that Will Give New York State the Toughest Protections Against Gun Violence in the Nation
Continued from page 15
ten round magazines can be grandfathered
in, but may only be loaded
with 7 rounds.
To track high-volume ammunition
purchasers, the legislation will
make New York the first state in the
nation to track ammo purchases in
real time. All dealers in ammunition
must be registered with the State
Police, and each sale will require
both a state background check and
transmission of a record of the sale to
State Police, so as to enable alerts of
high volume purchases. Ammunition
records will be purged within a year
of submission. Dealers must report
any loss of inventory. The legislation
will also include a ban on direct
internet sales of ammunition. Ammunition
ordered over the internet
must be delivered in a face-to-face
transaction with a firearms dealer
and the purchaser will be subject
to the state background check. The
Aurora shooter reportedly amassed
6000 rounds through direct online
purchases.
Statewide recertification of
handguns and assault weapons: The
legislation will require individuals
who have a handgun license or have
registered an assault weapon in New
York State to recertify every five years
through their county of residence.
With this more accurate information,
the state will establish an electronic
gun permit database that may be
run against other databases containing
the names of people who will be
disqualified from possessing firearms,
including those with criminal convictions,
involuntary commitments, and
those subject to orders of protection,
as well as death records.
Universal Background Checks
– closing the private sales loophole:
The legislation will require all
gun transfers between private parties,
except immediate family, to be
conducted through a federal firearms
licensee, subject to a subject to a federal
National Instant Criminal Background
Check.
Webster Provision: Under the
legislation, murder of a first responder
who is engaged in his or her duties
will become a Class A-1 felony,
with a mandatory penalty of life in
prison without parole. This provision
was created to honor the memory of
Lt. Mike Chiapperini and Tomasz
Kaczowka who were victims of a fatal
shooting in Webster, New York, on
December 24, 2012.
Extending and Strengthening
Kendra’s Law: Kendra’s law will be
extended for two years – through
2017 – and the period of mandatory
outpatient treatment will be extended
from 6 months to one year. In addition
a review will be required before a
mentally ill inmate is released.
Protecting Families: When a
judge issues an order of protection
and finds a substantial risk that the
individual subjected to the order will
use a gun against the person protected
by the order, the judge is required
to the surrender of the weapon.
Safe Storage: To better ensure
that guns are kept inaccessible to
those who are barred from possessing
them, the legislation requires safe
storage of firearms in households
where individuals live who have been
convicted of a crime, involuntarily
committed, or are subject to an order
of protection. Existing state law
already requires that all guns sold at
retail in the state be sold with a gun
lock.
Keeps Guns Out of Schools:
Under the legislation, the penalty
for possession of a firearm on school
grounds or a school bus will be increased
from a misdemeanor to a
Class E Felony. The state’s SAVE
Act (Safe Schools Against Violence
in Education) requires school districts
to develop school safety plans
including evacuation, dismissal, community
response, and alerting family,
law enforcement and other schools
in the area in the event of a violent
incident or other emergency. The
legislation will allow school districts
to submit their school safety plans
to a newly created New York State
School Safety Improvement Team,
consisting of representatives from
state agencies with relevant expertise
(e.g. DHSES, State Police, DCJS),
which will review plans and assist
localities in developing plans. Some
designated safety system improvements
will be eligible for enhanced
re-imbursement under the state’s
School Building Aid formula. New
York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers
and Syracuse will be exempted.
Tougher penalties for illegal
gun use: The legislation establishes
tougher penalties for those who use
illegal guns as well as measures to
help combat gang violence. Tougher
penalties under the legislation include:
• Possession of an unloaded gun
will be raised from a misdemeanor to
a Class E felony.
• Recklessly injuring a child by a
firearm will become a Class D felony
• The purchase of a gun for
someone the buyer knows to be disqualified
because of a conviction of a
crime, an involuntary commitment or
other disqualifier, will be raised to a
Class D felony from a misdemeanor.
This also raised to a class D felony
the sale or transfer of a firearm to an
individual known to be prohibited
from possessing a gun.
• Tougher penalties to permit
more effective gang prosecutions,
allowing a prosecutor to ask for 25
to life (previously was just 15 years)
for an entire group when a gang is involved
in murder.
• Using or carrying a firearm
during drug trafficking or a violent
felony will include a 5 year mandatory
minimum sentence if the gun
is loaded and a 3½ year mandatory
minimum if unloaded. (The Court
could impose a lower sentence in
drug trafficking cases depending on
mitigating factors).
• Sharing a gun with an individual
who is not authorized to possess a
gun and commits a crime will constitute
criminal facilitation.
SOURCE: Office of Governor
Andrew Cuomo
PATRONAGE
C.E. Astorino Hires Cronies While County Languishes
By NANCY KING
County Executive
Rob Astorino appointed
three new
members of his administration
this
week despite claiming during budget
negotiations that there was a hiring
freeze and that there was just no
money in the budget for essential services
like child care and community
health care. The latest appointees, in
no particular order are, Dr. Iris Pagan
who will now be the Director of Youth
Services, Francesca Bossey who is slated
to be the Deputy Budget Director
and Lynn Colavita who will be joining
the county attorney’s office. Between
the three of them, their annual salaries
will cost taxpayers in Westchester
County roughly $320,000.00 a year.
Not surprising is that all three appointees
have ties to the previous Astorino
campaign or are leaders in the Westchester
Republican Committee. Plain
and simple, they’re a part of the friends
and family network.
Nobody really faults an elected official
with putting a team of his own
“people” in place; it’s done all the time;
but at a time when layoffs and service
cuts are the norm, it’s an act that is not
only in poor taste, but it leaves a really
bad taste in your mouth. And, all three
appointees come with considerable political
baggage.
Dr. Iris Pagan ran in the last election
cycle for the District 5 seat against
incumbent Democrat Bill Ryan. Her
campaign focused on holding the tax
levy flat and bolstering the educational
needs of county students. That’s an oxymoron
if there ever was one; most of
our inflated taxes are a direct result of
overspending by our 38 school districts.
How much more did one expect to pay
in order to get better test results When
it came to actual solutions on how she
would lower taxes as a County Board
Legislator, Dr. Pagan was at a loss for
words and solutions. She lost miserably
during that election cycle and went on
to re-post stories all over the Internet
about the importance of education. So
after putting in her “time” and waiting
it out, she was rewarded for her embarrassing
loss… she now has a top administrative
position. Even though Dr.
Pagan’s story of achieving a Ph.D after
starting out as a lowly GED recipient,
is compelling, one has to wonder if she’s
really in touch with the educational,
social and financial needs of our youth.
Lynn Colavita, the former wife
of Eastchester Supervisor Anthony S.
Colavita, is also a new hire. She joined
the County Attorney’s office as an assistant
county attorney. She will be
making $103,000.00 (before benefits).
Ms. Colavita might be a great attorney
but she’s even more important to this
administration during Astorino’s reelection
bid. Eastchester is staunchly
Republican and has long supported the
County Executive (CE) and his administration
will see to it that it remains
this way. A favor is a favor, especially if it
means carrying the Town of Eastchester
this election cycle.
Francesca Bossey’s promotion to
Deputy Budget Director however is
the one appointment that is making
heads shake. Ms. Bossey has no governmental
experience with municipal
budgets! She does however have a husband
who is a Yonkers City firefighter
and the Astorino camp needs all the
help they can get to carry Yonkers. Getting
a plum endorsement from a union
that large would certainly help the CE
with his re-election. Without Yonkers,
it’s all over for those on the 9 th floor and
they know it. But that isn’t what makes
this appointment so troubling; it’s the
fact that her resume had been padded
to make it seem as if she had the experience
necessary to do the job. Even more
troubling was that the communications
office for the CE released information
that they knew was inaccurate and never
apologized for their misstep. Instead,
we’re told that County Executive Astorino
can choose whomever he wants
for a position. That sort of reply is best
defined by one word… arrogance.
Mary Jane Shimsky, Democratic
Legislator from Greenburgh feels the
same way. “Im concerned if they are
going out to justify her appointment
by putting out info that’s not accurate,
and she has no government experience,
that’s a problem”. I guess Ms. Shimsky
didn’t get the message that prior
to being appointed to her new role as
Deputy Budget Director, Ms. Bossey
had been languishing across the street
at the Board of Elections where all
patronage positions receive their tutelage.
Who needs to follow job descriptions
to the letter of the Westchester
County Charter when you can go to
the “School of Deceit” and merely just
wait your turn to be called to the family
dinner table.
Nancy King is a freelance investigative
reporter; a resident of White Plains, New
York.

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
Page 17
SERVICES
Controversy Over Increased Fee for Subsidized County Childcare Program
By BARY ALYSSA
JOHNSON
Westchester County
Executive Robert Astorino
has announced
that effective February
1 st , the parental contributions – or
“family share” – for the County’s subsidized
child care program will increase
from 20 percent to 27 percent
above the federal poverty level. Currently
the federal poverty level sits at
$19,000 for a family of three.
The increase is what Astorino
has called a “compromise” between
himself and the Board of Legislators
(BOL) that was written into the
2013 County budget. Astorino had
originally sought to increase the family
share from 20 to 35 percent, however
a group of seven Republicans
and two Democrats from the BOL
worked with the County Executive
to come to an agreement on a 27
percent share when this year’s budget
was approved in December.
According to Astorino, this increase
is the necessary result of a
multi-million dollar deficit that the
County-piloted program ran in 2012.
“Last year, the Democratic majority
did not put enough money in
the budget to cover costs and the program
had a $3 million deficit by the
end of the year,” Astorino said.
However, according to a spokesperson
for the BOL the Board budgeted
“exactly” what the Astorino
Administration had asked for last
year. In addition, some members of
the BOL disagree with the decision
to increase the fee, maintaining that
Astorino’s numbers on the program’s
finances are incorrect
These members deny the alleged
$3 million deficit and point to budget
information from the Department
of Social Services (DSS), which is in
charge of the child care program. According
to this information the program
actually ran at a $1,276,930.35
surplus in 2012.
“The entire reason for raising
the family share for this program, according
to the Administration, was to
keep it solvent, but last year the funding
ran a surplus – event at a twenty
percent family share,” said Legislator
Alfreda Williams (D-Greenburgh).
“With this in mind, I can’t be confident
about the financial rationale
for increasing these costs for working
families this year.”
To translate the family share increase
into hard numbers, for a family
of three with an income of $25,389
(which is 133 percent of the federal
poverty level, the median for the
program), the weekly contribution
will go from $24.33 to $32.71. This
equates to an annual increase of approximately
$436.
The fee is based on the portion
of income that exceeds the federal
poverty level and is not per child –
families taking part in the program
pay the same fee regardless of the
number of children.
“The 27 percent parent share
means a typical family will pay about
a dollar more a day. In return the program
is on a firm financial footing for
2013,” Astorino said. “The end result
is a compromise that is fair and realistic.”
Members of the BOL have
pointed out that what Astorino has
deemed fair and realistic may not be
seen that way by all, particularly the
parents who will be forced to struggle
to pay the increased share.
“To trivialize or minimize the
impact of these cost increases to poor
working parents signals ignorance of
the financial stress under which they
live,” Williams said. “A few hundred
dollars more out of their pockets
represents a good percentage of their
weekly take home income, and that
will cause many parents to search for
less safe alternatives.”
In addition, the DSS has published
information showing that
increases in the family share for the
child care program force some families
out of the program. When asked
by members of the BOL to comment
on this issue, DSS Commissioner
Kevin McGuire, who is behind Astorino
in his decision to increase the
family share, declined comment.
However, Astorino’s Administration
will proceed with the controversial
increase to the County’s child
care program despite objections. According
to the County Executive, the
process of notifying parents of the 7
percent increase will be completed
this week.
THE ALBANY CORRESPONDENT
Coo, Coup, or KooKoo
By CARLOS GONZALEZ
ALBANY, NY – A
race in the 46th Senate
District race has
produced a new winner
and it is not a Republican.
Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk
surged to a 19-vote lead over Republican
Assemblyman George Amedore
and is the unoffical winner in the race.
Amedore’s Campaign Released
the Following Statement
“I want to thank the constituents
that I’ve had the honor to serve,
as well as those who supported me
in this campaign. I am proud of the
honest and clean campaign that I and
my team, ran in this extended race. I
was supported by the hard-working
upstate families who are faced with
tremendous challenges in these trying
times. The time for politics has ended
and the time to govern is at hand. As
a small businessman born and raised
in upstate New York, I understand
the everyday issues. I believe our representatives
need to act on behalf of
those who call upstate their home. As
I’ve done throughout my life, I will
continue to advocate for the people’s
needs and hope for a brighter future.”
Tkaczyk Released this Statement
Declaring Victory
“It is an incredible privilege to
have been selected by the people of
the 46th District to serve as their
State Senator. No one believed our
campaign had a chance in a district
hand-carved by Republicans, and yet
the power of good ideas and a strong
campaign proved itself. Thanks to all
those who volunteered both on the
campaign itself as well as the successful
post-election ballot counting
process,”
Tkaczyk said, “I am honored to
stand with Democratic Conference
Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins,
and my fellow Democratic Senators,
in pursuing the common sense,
progressive agenda that New Yorkers
demand. I look forward to hitting the
ground running to serve my new constituents
because there is no time to
waste addressing the many challenges
facing our state.”
Tkaczyk’s victory shows that the
Senate has more Democrats than Republicans
in the chamber, making the
power-sharing agreement between
the IDC and Republicans vital.
If Amedore had won the seat,
the Republican conference (with
Felder) would have had 32 members
– enough to pass legislation without
Democrats or IDC members.
IDC spokesman Eric Soufer, indicated
to the press that he’s not yet
prepared to issue an official statement
on the 46th SD outcome. He said
that Tkaczyk’s win will not impact the
IDC-GOP coalition – even though
the Democrats would now be able to
control the chamber outright if the 5
IDC members returned to the fold.
Pressure on Senator Jeff Klein
Mounts.
“Now what,” says a top ranking
political insider in the Senate “Now
that the people have elected a clear
Democratic majority, isn’t it time for
Senator Klein to drop the GOP-flirt
and develop the same power-sharing
approach with Senate Democrats
Isn’t that what it’s all about”
Sources in the Republican party
say that it’s now likely for Klein to
have conversations that would reunite
the party, while keeping with the goals
of the IDC.
“The win will put more pressure
on the IDC, especially from special
interest groups and unions who may
have supported Klein and his team
in the past,” said the key Republican
operative. “Yesterday, our agreement
with the IDC was for power-sharing.
Today, that agreement can legitimately
be perceived as a power-grab. He’ll
try to resist change, but ultimately, the
major pressure is coming.”
So can one consider the current
IDC-GOP arrangement a coup
Though there were still 32 Democrats
and 30 Republicans in the Senate
on June 8, 2009, Senator’s Pedro
Espada (D-Bronx) and Hiram Monserrate
(D-Queens) were part of what
was described by the Associated Press
as a “parliamentary coup” and voted
with the 30 Republican members to
install Senator Dean Skelos (R-Nassau)
as the new majority leader of the
Senate, replacing Senator Malcolm
Smith (D-Queens).
Like Senator Jeff Klein’s previous
comments pertaining to the IDC
creation and recent power-sharing
agreement with the GOP, Espada
emphasized that “I remain a staunch,
reform Democrat. I have not switched
parties.” and that his actions were
intended to help end the “gridlock,
paralysis, secretiveness, threats and
partisan politics” that the Senate had
experienced in the previous months
and that he was not part of “a power
grab or a coup” but was working to
build a coalition to serve the needs of
all New Yorkers with open and transparent
government.
On December 14, 2010, Espada
and his son, Pedro G. Espada, were
both indicted on six federal counts of
embezzlement and theft. The indictment
was by U.S. Attorney Loretta
E. Lynch, and also announced by
New York State Attorney General
and Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo.
Both Espada’s, father and son, surrendered
to federal agents on Wednesday,
Dec. 15.
On May 14, 2012 a federal jury
found Espada guilty of embezzling
money from federally funded healthcare
clinics, after 11 days of deliberation.
So is it coup-like That’s not for
me to decide.
Democrats recently elected
Yonker’s Senator Andrea Stewart-
Cousins as leader of its conference.
Stewart-Cousins is the first Yonkers
legislator to hold such position, a first
for being a woman too.
It’s time for Senator Klein and
Senator Stewart-Cousins to talk.
Carlos Gonzalez pens The Albany
Correspondent column. Direct comments
and inquiry to carlgonz1@
gmail.com.

Page 18 THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
PORTFOLIO
NYS Senator George Latimer Named Ranking Minority Member of Senate Education Committee
ALBANY, NY -- New York State
Senator George Latimer has been
named the Ranking Minority Member
on the State Senate’s Education
Committee, his office announced today.
Latimer will now be the leading
advocate for the Democrats on educational
issues in the New York State
Senate. Senator John Flanagan of
Long Island is currently the Chairman
of the Education Committee.
“All of the school districts in
Westchester accurately represent a
cross section of the rest of New York
in my opinion. Every school district
has unique needs and deserves an
advocate that will keep the best interests
of our children in mind and
I am confident that my background,
experience and knowledge of the
needs of Westchester students has
appropriately prepared me for this
assignment. I am very grateful to our
Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-
Cousins for giving me this appointment
and I look forward to working
with Senator Flanagan, school districts
and other education advocates
as we fight for the true next generation
of our State,” stated Senator
George Latimer
Latimer also received assignments
to other committees including
Environmental Conservation
and Local Government. During
Latimer’s time in the Assembly he
served on both committees and has
extensive background and familiarity
with the subject matter involved with
these committees and intends to help
shape those public policy areas. Latimer
was also assigned to the Consumer
Protection, Mental Health
and Racing, Gaming and Wagering
committees, the latter of which will
be critical as the State is in the process
of legalizing full-fledged casino
gambling.
Latimer stated, “Serving at different
levels of government has given
me unique opportunities to advocate
for my constituents on a wide range
of issues and individual concerns.
Moving from the Assembly to the
Senate, gives me an opportunity to
continue working on some issues and
also gives me a chance to grow as a
public official expand my own base of
knowledge to be the best supporter
for my constituents that I could possibly
be.”
INTERNATIONAL
Abbas Needs to be Replaced
By EFRAIM INBAR
First published in The
Jerusalem Post.
JERUSALEM, IS-
RAEL – January
16, 2013 -- A-littlenoticed
Reuters item published
January 10 reported that Mahmoud
Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian
Authority, has rejected a conditional
Israeli offer to let Palestinian
refugees in war-torn Syria resettle in
the West Bank and Gaza, because
it would compromise their “right of
return” to homes in Israel lost during
the 1948 War.
According to this report, Israel
agreed to allow refugees’ descendants
to resettle in Gaza and the
West Bank on the condition they
sign a statement waiving the right of
return to Israel. Abbas rejected this
condition and reportedly said: “It’s
better they die in Syria than give up
their right of return.”
This is nothing new; in the
past, Palestinians have rejected attempts
to alleviate the conditions
of their refugees by resettling. They
kept the refugees, and millions of
their descendants, as a political card.
Moreover, the refugees constitute
an important element in their selfpropagated
image of victimhood
and martyrdom.
Instead of helping his people in
distress, Abbas, in the best Palestinian
tradition, prefers to cling to the
right of return – a demand that no
Israeli government is ever going to
accept. Moreover, most of the international
community rejects this
Palestinian demand, understanding
that there is broad consensus in Israel
against a mass influx of Palestinians
that could destroy its Jewish
character.
The Palestinians just missed another
opportunity to demonstrate
that they can behave in a constructive
fashion and be of help to its people.
Instead of pragmatic politics we
see once again Palestinian adherence
to radical goals that continues Palestinian
suffering and that produces
obstacles to peace.
Another recent display of such
typical Palestinian preference was
provided by Abbas, the “moderate,”
when he addressed his countrymen
on January 4. He avoided mentioning
the land-for-peace formula, or
the establishment of a Palestinian
state beside Israel that could bring
an end to the conflict and the suffering
of his people.
He did not prepare his people
for the need to make concessions
for the sake of peace. Instead, Abbas
stressed the perennial need to
adhere to the path of struggle in order
to realize “the dream of return”
of the Palestinian refugees and their
descendants.
The only explanation for this
Palestinian Authority Abbas gives speech marking Yasser Arafat’s death. Photo by
and courtesy of The Jerusalem Post / Mohamad Torokman / Reuters.
behavior is that the Palestinian national
movement is very serious
about the right of return, despite
the attempts by pundits to propose
that goodwill and Israeli territorial
concessions can bring about a
Palestinian flexibility on this issue.
Dismissing Palestinian behavior and
rhetoric, or belittling its importance
in regard to the refugees amounts
to putting your head in the sand.
Unfortunately, the DNA of the
Palestinian national movement contains
the unrealistic demand for the
right of return. Genetic engineering
might be possible to induce some
pragmatism, but it may take generations.
People do not give up easily
upon their dreams.
This is why Abbas met Khaled
Mashaal, the Hamas leader, in Cairo
on January 10. Despite their fundamental
ideological differences, they
share the same dream – the destruction
of the Jewish state. They may
find a way to cooperate in an attempt
to attain this objective, even if
this could doom prospects for Palestinian
statehood.
This explains why Abbas insists
on not acknowledging that Israel is
a Jewish state and on denying any
links of the Jews to their ancestral
homeland.
Abbas also takes measures to
encourage armed struggle against
Israel, even if they undermine the
state-building efforts of the PA. He
condoned at the end of December
2012 several parades of armed members
of the Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades,
the militia of Fatah, in honor of the
anniversary of the founding of the
Fatah movement.
Tolerant attitudes toward Palestinian
terrorists run counter to the
main litmus test of a state – the monopoly
over the use of force. Turning
a blind eye to the reemergence of
armed groups in Palestinian society
erodes the main achievement of the
PA in recent years – the restoration
of law and order following the formal
dismantlement of militias.
The Palestinian armed groups
may be tempted to engage in violent
clashes with Israel that will turn out
to be disastrous for the Palestinian
self-determination and peaceful existence.
While promoting non-violence,
Abbas is inciting to violence, in the
apparent hope that a third intifada
will bring better results than the second.
Abbas promised negotiations
and moderation after the upgrading
of the PLO to observer state status
by the UN General Assembly in
November 2012.
Instead, we get inflammatory
rhetoric and irresponsible, self-defeating
policies.
The Palestinians, like much of
the Arab world, continue to be in
urgent need of better political leadership
to extricate them from pathological
self-destructive behavior.
Efraim Inbar is a professor of
political studies at Bar-Ilan University,
the director of the Begin-Sadat
(BESA) Center for Strategic Studies
and a fellow of the Middle East
Forum.
Reference:
http://
ww.meforum.org/3432/replaceabbas

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
Page 19
OP EDSection
Civil War’s A-Brewin’
By MATT BARBER
A pretty, young, auburn-haired
woman –
mid-20s – drove down
a lonely country road
somewhere in Oklahoma.
Appearing in her rearview
mirror, at the back windshield, were
two menacing orbs of light floating
amid ashen dusk. The guttural roar
of a souped-up big block shook the
tiny Volkswagen Rabbit as a van-load
of inbred thugs lurched left and drew
alongside her. A ponytailed passenger
taunted inaudibly and blew foul kisses
between crude hand gestures. He
pointed for her to pull over as the van
repeatedly swerved dangerously close.
Inside the car a man, asleep in
the reclining passenger seat, was
startled awake by the commotion.
He rose and darted his head about,
calmly assessing the situation. This
only spurred the evil-bent goons. As
they ramped-up efforts to run the
car off the road, the man reached in
the glove box, withdrew a militarygrade,
semi-automatic handgun – an
“assault weapon,” if you will – and,
with intentionality and great theatre,
leaned across his young bride, pointing
the gun out the open bay and
directly between dirt bag’s boozeflushed
eyes.
Van vanished amid a plume of
gray smoke as wheels locked, tires
screeched and “assault vehicle” fishtailed
– jerking to a halt with taillights
aglow skyward from the ditch.
Not a shot was fired.
Back at the couple’s rural farmhouse,
two boys – boys who would
not be orphaned that night – played.
We most likely played – my brother
Pete and I – with assault rifles fashioned
from sticks. I always love to
hear Dad retell the story. He does
it with an ornery, satisfied grin. “No
one’s taking my guns,” he’ll say.
This might be a good time for
me to add that no one’s taking my
guns either. Period. And if Dianne
Feinstein orders me from her lofty
perch on the left-coast to retroactively
register them with some federal
autocracy, I think I might just forget
I even have them. Tens of millions of
law-abiding, God-fearing Americans
just like me and Dad, I suspect, feel
the same way.
I love guns. Grew up with ‘em.
As a former police officer with 12
years in the U.S. military, I know how
to use them, too – use them well. I
plan to buy more – a bunch more. In
fact, who’s to say I don’t already have
a veritable arsenal
Point is, tain’t Big Brother
Barack’s nor any other candy-keistered-liberal-cream-puff
’s bloody
business whether I do or not.
See, the left’s totalitarian brand
of “gun control” has nothing to
do with controlling guns – or bad
guys. Rather, it has everything to do
with controlling – disarming – the
law-abiding masses. It’s not about
protecting the innocents. It’s about
rendering the innocents defenseless.
Clichés become clichés for a
reason, and the old cliché, “If guns
are outlawed, only outlaws will have
guns,” rings as true today as it did
whenever it was that some homespun
fellow coined it.
I was disgusted – physically sickened,
in fact – when Barack Obama,
president of these Divided States of
America, shamelessly exploited the
Sandy Hook memorial service to lay
the groundwork for his unconstitutional
gun-confiscation scheme. It
was slimy to the extreme.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.
That’s what liberals do. Every
time some evil nutjob – pumped full
of psychotropic drugs by NEA members
who don’t want to deal with
them – shoots-up the place, the left’s
collective mouth begins to water.
“Now, finally, now!” they say, rubbing
together soft hands that have
never felt the surprising weight of a
Sig Sauer 45. “This time we have the
political momentum for sweeping
gun control. This time the American
people will roll over and let us trample
the Second Amendment beneath
jackbooted executive order or congressional
fiat.”
“Let no good crisis go to waste,”
right, Rahm
Well, not so fast, cupcake. As the
U.S. Constitution guarantees – and
as the Supreme Court has repeatedly
affirmed – “the right of the people to
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
It ain’t, “should not be infringed,”
or “shall finally be infringed once
‘progressives’ have assumed total
dominance.”
No, “shall not” means shall not.
There’s only one way to take my
guns, slick, and that’s through a constitutional
amendment – an amendment
that will never happen – ever.
Try it any other way and we have a
problem.
And this whole “assault weapons
ban” angle Sensationalist propaganda.
I prefer to call them “defense
weapons.” Contrary to left-wing revisionist
pabulum, the Second Amendment’s
not about squirrel hunting.
Notice a trend here What do
Sandy Hook Elementary, Aurora
Colorado’s Century 16 theatre and
Columbine have in common They’re
all “gun free zones.”
Places you don’t see mass murder
and mayhem Well, there’s a reason
bad guys largely avoid shooting-up
Push Comes to Shove on Big Guns in America
By BOB K. BOGEN
As this is written, our
state has just leaped
over generations of irrationality
on gun control
against gun makers
and sellers. The President has just announced
an even more comprehensive
set of Congressional proposals
as well as 23 administrative actions.
There is still more to be done. But
this is surely a historic moment. As
the President said, it is on our actions,
as a nation, as states, and as individuals
that we will be judged. At last, finally
after hundreds, even thousands
of deaths, some substantial controls
are to be urgently established. And
if not now, when. How many more
innocent adults and children will be
slaughtered before we can act.
Many of us have had legitimate
personal experience with guns, often
with parents, siblings, or in military
service. As a result many are generally
comfortable with handling guns and
their appropriate use, either in hunting,
varmint removal, firing range
experience, and possibly in competi-
Continued on page 20
gun shows, ranges, households with
signs that say: “This home insured by
Smith & Wesson” and Texas in general.
It’s because they know – even
while thick-skulled liberals don’t –
that, as recently noted by the NRA’s
Wayne LaPierre, “The only thing that
stops a bad guy with a gun is a good
guy with a gun.”
Oh, that rather than “gun free
zone,” Sandy Hook had a sign reading:
“Staff heavily armed and trained.
Any attempts to harm those herein
will be met with deadly force.” Might
some of those beautiful babies have
still died if the P.E. coach and four
MP5-bearing teachers had ended the
bloodshed soon after it began Perhaps.
But how many precious lives
could have been saved
No, you won’t disarm me. You’re
not going to neuter my household
and tear away my ability to defend
my wife and precious babies like Dad
did all those years ago.
I really, really hope this president
and his authoritarian cohorts
in Congress will slow down, take a
deep breath and realize that, right
now, they’re playing a very dangerous
game of chicken. If they try what
I think they might, but hope they
don’t, I fear this nation – already on
the precipice of widespread civil unrest
and economic disaster – might
finally spiral into to utter chaos, into a
second civil war.
But then again, that may be exactly
what they have in mind.
Matt Barber (@jmattbarber on Twitter)
is an attorney concentrating in
constitutional law. He serves as Vice
President of Liberty Counsel Action.
(This information is provided for identification
purposes only.)
The Friends of the Hastings Library present:
Douglas Rushkoff
“Talking in Code: HTML to LOL”
Sunday, January 27, 2:30 p.m.
James Harmon Community Center
44 Main Street, Hastings-on-Hudson
Douglas Rushkoff is a Hastings resident who wears
several hats: media theorist, blogger, author, lecturer,
graphic novelist, and documentarian. Many of his books,
including the upcoming Present Shock: When Everything
Happens Now, explore the intersection of media,
technology, and culture.

Page 20 THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
OP-ED
Push Comes to Shove on Big Guns in America
Continued from page 19
tion as well as in military training and
warfare. As an example, readers will
know I additionally served as an officer
to train and supervise military
personnel in the use of semi-automatic
weapons abroad
The more rabid of gun enthusiasts
live in fear that their hunting and
other legitimate gun ownership is
threatened. Most of us cannot imagine
our government moving to such
official action, to confiscate all types
of firearms from law-abiding citizens,
and certainly not by international
action in such matters from our essential
but largely toothless United
Nations. Some enthusiasts even insist
and threaten that they expect to
use their military style weapons in
civil war, a violent revolution over our
American government when they
now expect it to become totalitarian.
In their irrational fear and panic they
suggest the President should be impeached
for putting people, and our
children, ahead of guns!
But in regard to the televised
threats of gun enthusiasts to start a
civil war, I rather expect nearly all,
at least in our own nation, strongly
believe that our long experience
with representative government has
demonstrated that our system can
and will persist and improve without
another civil war. In fact our nation’s
history has provided a model for peoples
around the world for centuries,
despite many details that require our
continuing political action to perfect
our system. Current hot debate on
gun control even serves to demonstrate
the strength and vitality in our
system of representative government.
It has always been recognized
that a primary, essential innovation
in our founding was the provision for
continuing amendment in our basic
as well as annual legislation. This enables
our society to deal with changes
and benefits of widespread public
education, growth in social change
including race relations and related
matters, as well as positive and negative
results of amazing technological
developments [including in communications
as well as other information
systems and, clearly, in weapons technology.]
Absolutely none of our nation/s
founding fathers could possibly have
imagined in their wildest dreams the
development from the muzzle loading
flintlock muskets they knew to
the current technology of military
rapid-firing rifles with magazines
of 30 to 90 bullets. If they had, they
would have cursed themselves on the
prospect of the current corruption in
misreading the Constitution’s second
amendment providing ‘for a well ordered
militia‘ as a law that no controls
on rights to firearms shall ever be
limited or regulated. Even among the
most ‘conservative’ Supreme Court
members there is explicit agreement
on the need for government regulation
of firearms. .
If these gun enthusiasts had
their unrestricted so-called Second
Amendment purchases rights, would
they next want free access to bazookas,
stinger missiles and other military
weapons. Sensible leaders have
pointed out that no civilians have any
need for military style assault rifles.
Certainly not for hunting or even
training and fun at a target range.
Certainly not small caliber, highvelocity,
armor-piercing bullets as
used in assault type weapons. Those
who wish such military style weapons
might want to move to Mali or Syria
where revolutions seem unavoidable.
I recall my lawyer father got interested
in guns only when he saw
Hitler’s Second World War coming.
It became a hobby. He eventually
owned 15 guns. It has even been
suggested that such hobbyists might
rather shift to stamp collecting, [and
thus help the Postal Service with
their purchases for collections and
even help it to prosper before it is
privatized, as some commercial organizations
seek now.] Others may
offer such enthusiasts the sort of firearms
known to those who wrote the
second amendment to our Constitution,
a musket in exchange for their
modern military style rapid-fire assault
type weapons.
Even in the face of any prohibition
on purchase of some firearms
and more Background Checks, we
have to deal with the fact that we already
have an estimated 300,000,000
firearms, including 3,000,000 military
style rifles in private hands. That
problem will probably have to wait
for more tragedies to solve, and as
citizens attitudes develop. Official
Buy-Backs of weapons have seemed
useful in some cities, and substantial
penalties for possession of illegal firearms
may also be necessary.
The amazing actual signing of
the new New York state gun control
law in such rapid action will no
doubt require some specific refinement
and changes as its application
moves ahead. One detail that varies
with proposed national laws is the
new legal size of cartridge magazines/
clips. The limit set is seven cartridges,
a far cry from the 30 or 90 in the
common military style assault rifles.
That number is probably confusing
to some, in part as it contrasts with
the ten-cartridge clip maximum in
the President’s proposal, based on the
amazing consultation by Vice President
Biden’s Task Force with hundreds
of organizations on all sides of
the issue.
The first military style rifle I carried
deer hunting in the California
High Sierras as a teen-ager was the
Krag Carbine, adopted just after the
Spanish-American war. I recall it accepted
five 30-caliber cartridges, not
in a clip, but loose in a built-in magazine
box on the right side of the firing
chamber. The number seven limit in
the just-signed New York law probably
derived from the Colt forty-five
caliber semi-automatic handgun. As
readers may recall, it was also adopted
just after the Spanish-American War
at the end of the 19 th Century as a
replacement for the formerly early
universal 38 Caliber Smith and Wesson
revolver, used also by police until
recently. As some will recall the 38
revolver accepted six cartridges in its
revolving magazine, but did not have
the impact to reliably stop seriously
motivated Philippine fighters in that
war The Colt 45 accepted a sevencartridge
clip in its pistol grip handle,
as in other current semi-automatic
handguns. Some even say civilians
never need more than three cartridges
in a firearm either for hunting or
other civilian use.
In any event, the current historic
moment of action, will require, as the
President indicated, a vigorous and
continuing widespread active movement
by citizens around the country,
if not to shove New York Democratic
legislators who will likely need less
pushing. Still readers here will have
to pay attention and encourage the
national movement for strong, effective
legislative action in the weeks
and months ahead if we are not going
to, once again, loose the current
great concern and action momentum
against the merchants of death and
misguided enthusiasts, surprisingly
driven into fear by the gun industry
and its huge financial resources for
lobbying and campaign contributions.
Bob K. Bogen served as comprehensive
long-range facilities planning director
for the New York Metropolitan Regional
Planning Commission; as planning
director for the New England Regional
Commission; as a major United Nations
official in Pakistan; Board Chairman
of the Communications Coordinating
Committee for the United Nations; and
Principal Representative of Architects/
Designers/ Planners for Social Responsibility
to the United Nations.
ED KOCH
COMMENTARY
Enforcing The Law
By ED KOCH
The National Rifle
Association which
announced it had enrolled
100,000 new
members in one week
after the national tragedy that took
place in Newtown, Connecticut, is
apparently so strong in Congress that,
according to The New York Times of
January 11, “The White House has
calculated that a ban on military-style
assault weapons will be exceedingly
difficult to pass through congress
and is focusing on other measures it
deems more politically achievable.”
We learned what the new approach
would be three days later.
The Times reported, “Nearly 80,000
Americans were denied guns in 2010,
according to Justice Department
data, because they lied or provided
inaccurate information about their
criminal histories on background
check forms. Yet only 44 of those
people were charged with a crime.”
The Times article goes on, reporting
on a Justice Department
study which “show[s] that people
who do so [lie on their application]
are more likely than the average person
to commit violent crimes after
they are denied a firearm purchase.”
Hosanna in the highest. I agree
that it would make great common
sense were all of these people who
have perjured themselves - lying
under oath - to be prosecuted. Indeed
there are more convictions in
these fraudulent gun applications
-- 44 have been prosecuted -- than
in frauds committed by bankers and
Wall Street brokers in the Great Recession,
where no CEO of a Wall
Street firm or banking corporation
has been prosecuted for fraud. The
Great Recession cost the American
public an estimated $6 trillion
in losses. Indeed, some bankers and
Wall Street brokers have admitted
to criminality, but the federal government
in all of these cases has not
charged a single CEO or director
with criminality. Instead, the federal
government announced on a number
of occasions with pride civil settlements
involving millions and on occasion
more than a billion dollars
which the CEOs and directors accepted
with alacrity and undoubtedly
consider as the cost of doing business.
Who pays the fines Ultimately, the
stockholders.
Just as prosecuting those who
lied on their gun permit applications
might deter them from future criminal
activity, so might the brokers of
Wall Street and the bankers be deterred,
were some of them to spend
some time in prison.
There is still time. The statute of
limitations hasn’t yet run out on all
cases.
I believe now is the time to close
the gun show loophole where buyers
do not have to be checked for mental
illness or felonies. Remember, 40
percent of all guns sold are sold at
gun shows. Surely the most ardent
N.R.A. member doesn’t want a gun
to be in the hands of a mentally disabled
person or a felon.
The Honorable Edward Irving Koch
served as a member of Congress from
New York State from 1969 through
1977, and New York City as its
105 th Mayor from 1978 to 1989.

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
Page 21
ED KOCH
COMMENTARY
Letter to Prime Minister David Cameron
By ED KOCH
Following is my letter
of December
20, 2012 to Prime
Minister Cameron
on actions taken
by him vis-à-vis Israel and his
response of January 15, 2013.
* * * * *
December 20, 2012
Dear Mr. Prime Minister:
You may recall we met at the
White House when President
Obama held a state dinner in your
honor. Your comment at the time, “I
studied you in school,” elevated my
spirits.
I am enclosing a commentary
that I wrote following the statement
of Khaled Meshal, leader and head of
the Hamas government in Gaza, and
an earlier vote by the UN Assembly
granting statehood to Palestine made
up of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel
and the Palestinian Authority
have not agreed to final borders and
the Gaza government has said - the
speech of Khaled Meshal is set forth
in my commentary - that it will never
recognize the legitimacy of the state
of Israel and will continue to pursue
violence against that state including
the kidnapping of its soldiers.
The official head of the Palestinian
Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has
refused for the last two years to come
to the peace table to negotiate without
preconditions.
You ask Israel to cease building
settlements on the West Bank,
which are intended not only to house
Israelis, but to provide a defense bulwark
when the Islamist armies of the
surrounding states, Egypt, Jordan,
Lebanon, Syria - Assad or his opponents
- and Iraq, again try militarily
to crush Israel.
Will Britain come to Israel’s aid
I recall when in one of those wars,
Britain declined to deliver to Israel
tanks it had purchased from your
country. Britain under Chamberlain
participated in the Munich sellout
of Czechoslovakia. What you and
your European colleagues are doing
now is repeating the sellout, this
time of Israel. The Czech Republic,
mindful of what happened to it, is
the only European country to vote no
to Palestinian statehood. When one
of your predecessors told the world
that he offered “peace in our time,”
he wrote himself into history as a disgrace.
How will history on this issue
recall you
Why would you expect Israel to
cooperate in its intended lynching
All the best.
Sincerely,
Edward I. Koch
* * * * *
Ed Koch Commentary
December 17, 2012
Collaborators Then,
Collaborators Now
The war against the Jews - and
against the State of Israel - continues
unabated.
For the past year, Israel has been
subjected to rocket bombardments
directed at its cities including Jerusalem
and Tel-Aviv. A million Israeli
civilians in Southern Israel had their
lives disrupted as 8,000 rockets rained
down on them since 2005. The Israeli
government decided to respond militarily
against Hamas which governs
Gaza and has its own prime minister,
Ismail Haniyeh.
The Israeli army, the Israeli Defense
Force (IDF), is made up of reserves
that can be called up within 48
hours. Approximately 75,000 Israeli
soldiers were sent to the Israeli frontier
with Gaza. They didn’t cross the
border, relying instead on the Israeli
Air Force to wreak havoc. The IDF
was successful in killing a significant
number of Hamas terrorists including
its major battle commander,
Ahmed Jabari, responsible for the
rocketing barrages, as well as numerous
other acts of terrorism. Terrorists
in Gaza often surrounded themselves
with civilians in an attempt to prevent
Israel from responding militarily.
Injuries and deaths of Palestinian
civilians - children, women and men
- are inevitable based on the terrorist
actions of using civilians as shields - a
war crime. The Israeli Air Force also
eliminated a huge armory of rockets
that Hamas had received over the
years from Iran and Sudan.
The leaders of the western world
- France, England, Germany and
others - sought to deter the IDF
from entering Gaza with troops. The
New York Times of November 19 reported
an interesting statement from
the British Foreign Minister, William
Hague. The New York Times stated:
“William Hague, the British
foreign minister, said in a television
appearance on Sunday that he and
Prime Minister David Cameron
‘stressed to our Israeli counterparts
that a ground invasion of Gaza would
lose Israel a lot of the international
support and sympathy that they have
in this situation.’”
The Israeli government has few
friends at the United Nations, primarily
the U.S. and Canada. Instead
of entering Gaza with its soldiers
so as to more effectively destroy
the Hamas army and kill more of
its leaders it decided, I believe erroneously,
not to enter Gaza. What
was the result When the armistice
was achieved through the efforts of
President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt,
himself an Islamist and supporter
of Hamas, and those of Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, Hamas declared
a victory.
What was their stated victory
Keeping the IDF out of Gaza and
having the elected leaders of Egypt,
Turkey, Qatar and others tour Gaza,
praising Hamas and its unwillingness
to recognize the State of Israel.
What did the Israelis gain by satisfying
Hague and Cameron An enemy
strengthened by the Israeli effort to
keep casualties down.
After the armistice was achieved,
the citizens of Gaza were visited by
Khaled Meshal, their leader who
normally resides in Syria or Lebanon.
As reported in The New York Times of
December 8:
“The long-exiled leader of the
militant group Hamas, Khaled Meshal,
entered Gaza for the first time
on Friday, a symbolically powerful
visit that sought to reinforce Hamas’s
contention that it was victorious in its
eight-day clash with Israel.
On December 9 The New York
Timesreported:
“Speaking before tens of thousands
of supporters to celebrate the
25 th anniversary of the founding of
Hamas, Mr. Meshal said the Jewish
state would be wiped away through
‘resistance,’ or military action. ‘The
state will come from resistance, not
negotiation,’ he said. ‘Liberation first,
then statehood.’
Where were the condemnations
of Francois Hollande, the President
of France, David Cameron, the Prime
Minister of Great Britain, and Angela
Merkel the Chancellor of Germany
They didn’t think it necessary
and their silence was deafening. Yet
at the UN Assembly, reported in the
Times on December 12:
“Israel’s blunt-talking foreign
minister, Avigdor Lieberman, gave
vent on Wednesday to the government’s
anger over recent diplomatic
gains by the Palestinians paired with
international rebukes for Israel, comparing
Israel’s situation to that of
Czechoslovakia in 1938 before the
Nazi invasion.
“Israel was dismayed last month
when all the countries of Europe,
other than the Czech Republic, supported
the Palestinians or abstained
when the General Assembly voted
overwhelmingly to upgrade the status
of the Palestinians at the United
Nations.
“Speaking in English at a conference
for foreign diplomats in Israel
sponsored by the newspaper The Jerusalem
Post, Mr. Lieberman said,
‘When push comes to shove, many
key leaders would be willing to sacrifice
Israel without batting an eyelid
in order to appease Islamic radicals
and ensure quiet for themselves.’ He
added, ‘We are not willing to become
a second Czechoslovakia and sacrifice
vital security interests.’”
What occurred at the UN was
another intended Munich and this
time the intended victim was Israel.
Make no mistake about it. The goal
is the ultimate destruction of the
Jewish state. The Czech Republic
understood this, and it was the only
European country not to vote to create
a state of Palestine. The state voted
on by the UN is without agreed-upon
borders and also has two prime ministers
- one in Gaza and one on the
West Bank. It is an entity where the
terrorists of Hamas in Gaza have
greater prestige and support of the
Palestinians than the President of
the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud
Abbas.
Is it any wonder that the Foreign
Minister of Israel, Avigdor Lieberman,
denounced the European nations
An Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz
reported that Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman “compared the EU’s
policy toward Israel to the behavior of
Europe toward the Jews during the period
of the Holocaust.”
Remember, it was not just Hitler
and the Nazis who ordered the Jews
rounded up and taken to concentration
camps. Many of the countries
on the European mainland and their
people assisted the Nazis in sending
the Jews to the death camps. They
collaborated then and they are collaborating
now.
The settlements of Jews on the
West Bank that the European countries
and the U.S. denounce are there
to protect Jerusalem and the State of
Israel when the Palestinians and their
allies attack Israel. Israel does not expect
the troops of any other country
to come to its defense when the Arab
armies attack as they have on prior
occasions. It will depend for its security
and survival on the Jewish citizens
and soldiers in those settlements
to give it time to marshal its reserves.
They also believe in God.
The Palestinian Authority led by
Mahmoud Abbas has refused to sit at
a peace conference without preconditions
for the last two years. President
Abbas may desire peace, but he
knows that if he were to negotiate a
peace treaty with Israel, the Muslim
Jihadists worldwide as well as his
neighbors on the West Bank and
Gaza, supporters of Hamas, would
kill him. The European leaders know
that but continue to blame Israel for a
lack of peace when they know better.
Shame on them.
* * * * *
Letter From Prime
Minister David Cameron
10 DOWNING STREET
LONDON SW1A 2AA.
THE PRIME MINISTER
15 January 2013
Dear Mr. Koch:
Thank you for getting in touch
and for sending me a copy of your
recent article, about the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
Let me reassure you that the UK,
is and will remain a firm friend of Israel.
I share your deep concern about
the recent inflammatory statements
made by Hamas leaders, including
Khaled Mesha’al on 7 December,
denying Israel’s right to exist. The
UK also utterly and unreservedly
condemns the recent call for a third
intifada and a suicide campaign by a
Hamas official. Incitements to violence
and terror are unacceptable. We
therefore welcome President Abbas’
public rejection of these statements
and acceptance of the State of Israel
within 1967 borders.
Continued on page 22

Page 22 THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
ED KOCH
By JACKIE HILLY
It was a proud day for
all New Yorkers. With
wide bipartisan agreement,
New York has
passed the New York
SAFE Act of 2013 - one of the most
comprehensive bills in the nation
aimed at reducing needless gun injuries
and death. Provisions of this bill
will be a model for states across the
country as well as the federal government.
The NY SAFE Act of 2013 will
ensure the safety of New York families
and communities for many years.
It contains important changes to keep
guns out of the wrong hands. “We at
New Yorkers Against Gun Violence
OP-ED
COMMENTARY
Letter to Prime Minister David Cameron
Continued from page 21
By DAMON K. JONES
On January 15, 2013,
the New York State
government passed historic
gun control legislation.
The signing makes
New York the first state to enact tighter
restrictions on guns after the December
14, 2012, massacre in Newtown, Conn.
The gun-control legislation makes
changes and additions to the existing
state law, ranging from requiring
universal background checks for all
gun and ammunition sales, boosting
the state’s power to confiscate firearms
from the mentally ill and increasing
penalties for gun-related crime.
The new laws provide for an immediate
ban on semi-automatic rifles,
We firmly believe that the people
of Israel have a right to live peacefully
and free from terror. But we also believe
that the only sustainable way to achieve
this is through a negotiated two-state
solution. As friends of Israel, it is important
we do whatever we can to reach
that ultimate objective: two states, living
side by side, in peace. We ask Israel
to stop building settlements because
they are illegal under international
law, an obstacle to peace and make a
two-state solution, with Jerusalem as a
shared capital, harder to achieve. They
are, ultimately, not in Israel’s long-term
interests. Simply building a fortress
without a negotiated agreement with
the Palestinians cannot deliver lasting
OP-ED
New Yorkers Against Gun Violence Applauds Passage of New Law
Making New York’s Gun Laws the Toughest in the Nation
shotguns and pistols with a “militarystyle
feature,” such as a flash suppressor
or a bayonet mount. Guns that had
been legal but are being banned would
be grandfathered in, but their owners
must register with the state.
The legislation also limits ammunition
magazines to a maximum capacity
of seven bullets, down from the
current ten.
The legislation includes a “Webster
provision,” a life-without-parole sentence
for anyone found to have killed
a first responder. The provision is a reference
to the Christmas Eve shooting
in a Rochester, N.Y., suburb where two
firefighters were shot and killed.
An additional provision permits
gun licensees to opt out of having their
personal information available to the
security for Israel.
I do not share your analysis regarding
the recent Palestinian UN General
Assembly resolution. The UK’s position
on this resolution was determined by
the guiding principle of ensuring a rapid
return to negotiations. Given this, we
had asked Palestinian President Abbas
not to move a resolution at the UN
General Assembly in November. In
the period prior to the vote, we engaged
intensively to seek a commitment from
are proud to have worked with Governor
Cuomo on this historic legislation
and to have joined with Leadership
and Members from the Senate and
Assembly as the Governor signed it
into law. We congratulate the Governor
and legislators for their courage
and leadership in making New York
State gun laws the strongest in the
nation,” said Jackie Hilly, Executive
Director.
“This comprehensive package will
help save innocent lives like those of
the children in Sandy Hook, the first
responders in Webster Lake, and New
Yorkers who each day are killed and
injured by guns. As a New Yorker,
a mother and someone who lost her
brother to gun violence, I thank the
Governor and the leaders of the Senate
and Assembly for passing this legislation
so quickly,” said Leah Gunn
Barrett, a board member of New
Yorkers Against Gun Violence.
Major provisions of the NY
SAFE Act of 2013 will:
Require universal background
checks: Every sale of a gun in New
York will now require a background
check of the purchaser.
Strengthen the assault weapons
ban: New York’s current state assault
weapons ban will be strengthened by
making it a one-feature test. Assault
weapons possessed before the effective
date of the new law must be registered
and owners must submit to a background
check.
Ban high capacity ammunition
magazines: New York is now the first
public under the state’s Freedom of
Information law. It’s reported that this
provision was inserted after the high
profile controversy when The Journal
News published the names and addresses
of handgun permit holders in
Westchester and Rockland Counties.
On January 14, 2013, as a representative
of a national law enforcement
organization, I attended the sessions in
Albany along with representatives from
the National Latino Officers Association
and the Grand Council of Guardians
as the guest of Senator Malcolm
Smith. We met with Senator Andrea
Stewart-Cousins, the Senate Majority
Counsel, Senator Jeff Klein, Governor
Cuomo’s aide Larry Schwartz and we
attended a press conference to show
our support of the legislation.
the Palestinian leadership to return
immediately to negotiations without
preconditions and that they would not
pursue immediate action in UN agencies
and the International Criminal
Court. In the absence of these assurances,
the UK abstained on the vote.
We must now look forward. This
year is an important one for peace in
the Middle East. The UK will work
urgently with the United States, our
other international partners and with
state in the nation to completely ban
any high capacity ammunition magazine
that can hold over 7 rounds.
Make pistol permits renewable:
The new law require 5-year re-certification
of pistol permits for those
counties in New York that currently
issue lifetime permits.
Regulate ammunition sales:
Provide a comprehensive system to
regulate ammunition sales including
banning direct online ammunition
sales, tracking ammunition amounts
to alert law enforcement to large purchases,
and mandating background
checks for all ammunition purchases.
Increase penalties for gun crimes:
Increase penalties when guns are used
in crime.
Keep guns out of the hands of
What was notably absent were
the masses of police unions and organizations
in support of legislation that
would keep illegal weapons off the
street. You would think that legislation
that includes “life without parole sentence
for anyone found to have killed a first responder”,
many law enforcement unions
and/or organizations would be in attendance.
This wasn’t the case.
In the U.S., between 1990 and
September 18, 2012, there were 1,302
police officers killed of which 1,132
(87%) were killed by a firearm (75%
were handguns). Police officers carry
guns, yet 40% of all gun homicides of
Police Officers are due to ambushes or
being surprised by suspects with firearms.
“N.Y.S. passing a bill that puts
the Israelis and Palestinians to drive
the peace progress forward before the
window for a two-state solution closes
forever.
Sincerely,
David Cameron
The Honorable Edward Irving
Koch served as a member of Congress
from New York State from 1969
through 1977, and New York City as its
105 th Mayor from 1978 to 1989.
prohibited gun purchasers: The new
law will strengthen the state’s ability
to keep guns out of the hands of those
with dangerous mental illness.
Since 1993, New Yorkers Against
Gun Violence has been advocating
for common sense policies, including
banning assault weapons and high capacity
magazines and improving the
background check system, to reduce
the incidence of gun violence in New
York’s communities. More information
about common sense state and
federal policies to combat gun violence
is available at www.nyagv.org.
Jackie Hilly is executive director of New
Yorkers Against Gun Violence.
The Absence of Law Enforcement Unions and Organizations on our State Gun Legislation
a ban on assault weopons, is a step in
the right direction in saving lives and
reducing the risk of a law enforcement
officers encounters against an assault
rifle.” said, Darrin Green, Firearm Instructor,
President of the Long Island
Chapter, Blacks In Law Enforcement
of America
In a probe of illegal online firearm
sales conducted by the City of New
York, undercover investigation found
that 62% of private gun sellers they interacted
with were willing to sell guns
to a buyer who said he could not pass
the background check. In New York
alone there are 700,000 military style
assault weapons in homes that authorities
know about. This means an
unknown amount in the streets, cities
Continued on page 23

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
Page 23
OP-ED
The Absence of Law Enforcement Unions and Organizations on our State Gun Legislation
WEIR
ONLY HUMAN
By BOB WEIR
Continued from page 22
and suburbs where our police officers
serve.
No law enforcement officer can
forget the February 28, 1997, LAPD
police confrontation with two heavily
armed and armored back robbers.
Eleven police officers and seven civilians
were injured, and numerous
vehicles and other property were damaged
or destroyed by the nearly 2,000
rounds of ammunition was fired by
the two bank robbers.
“Doing his or her daily job as a
Law Enforcement Officer, and being
equipped with a hand gun, is no
match for the criminal who decides
to break the law and is armed with
an assault rifle,” said, Darrin Green,
Firearm Instructor, President of the
Long Island Chapter, Blacks In Law
Enforcement of America. “These confrontations
lead to the officer being
out gunned and posses a potential life
threatening situation.”
Its amazing that Pat Lynch, president
of The Patrolmen’s Benevolent
Association of the City of New York
is the only police union boss that has
publicly called for a ban of assault
weapons.
“There is no legitimate reason
for an assault weapon with their high
capacity magazines to ever be in the
hands of a private citizen,” said President
Pat Lynch. “We’ve said it before,
when police officers were shot
or where armor piercing bullets were
used.
Illegal guns in urban cities like
Westchester are now more American
than Apple Pie. Not only there have
been public silence from many Law
Enforcement Unions and Organizations
of the recent gun legislation.
They have also been AWOL on the
issue of illegal guns and the constant
reports of shootings. In Westchester,
cities like Mt. Vernon or Yonkers
youth gang shootouts are a common
occurrence within the city. Mt. Vernon
has seen approximately 42 homicides
An Unforgettable Night
from 2008 to 2012 and approximately
37 of which was by and illegal weapon.
“Since 2007 Mount Vernon residents
have been sitting in a wallow
of despair. As I ride through, I wear
my shades because I see the valley of
strange fruit that our city bares,” said
Cynthia Turnquest- Jones, president
of The Brown Mothers Group. “I am
not unmindful of the trials and tribulations
of our mothers on a quest for
an arrest and the plethora of numb
minds plus deaf ears.”
On January 15, 2013, the Affiliated
Police Association of Westchester
held a press conference in front of
the Westchester County Court House
denouncing The Journal News for it’s
printing of registered gun owners
names and addresses. If this organization
was in Albany the day before,
they would of known that the prevision
gun licensees to opt out of having
their personal information available to
the public under the state’s Freedom of
Information law was included in the
On Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.’s birthday,
I’m reminded of
a dreadful event that
occurred when I was a
rookie cop. April 4, 1968 is a day I’ll
never forget. I was working the 4 to
midnight shift with my partner, Leroy
Spivey, in the Bedford/Stuyvesant
section of Brooklyn, New York. We
were on radio motor patrol during
an unusually warm spring evening in
the predominantly African-American
neighborhood. It would get a lot
warmer before the night was over. We
had been working together for about
a year as the first black and white (referred
to as “salt-and-pepper”) team in
our precinct, and one of the first in the
city. The tour of duty in the high crime
area had been pretty much a routine
affair during the first half of our shift:
burglaries, robberies, vehicle accidents,
family disputes, etc.
Then, about 8 o’clock, a tragedy
occurred that would change the
course of history. It began for us when
someone yelled over the police radio,
“Martin Luther King was just shot in
Memphis.” Leroy, an African-American
who had often spoken proudly
of the man who for many years had
led the civil rights movement toward
equality in America, sat in stunned
silence. As I steered the car along the
dark street, I looked toward my partner
and said, “Aw, don’t believe that.
It’s some jerk with a depraved sense
of humor.” But a few minutes later, a
voice said, “King is DOA. A sniper
got him.” Leroy covered his face with
his hands and shook his head slowly
as if trying to block out the truth of
the message.
It was only moments later that
the shocking news swept the country
and the riots began. Calls for police
response flooded the airwaves, as a
segment of the population took to the
streets, burning and looting in a mad
frenzy of outrage and frustration. We
spent the next 12 hours racing from
one riot to another, chasing down
looters, handcuffing them and taking
them to a central booking location so
other officers could process them, allowing
us to return to the street. I don’t
remember how many arrests we made
during that long, tumultuous night,
but we worked continuously until 8 the
next morning. Although the violence,
bitterness, and hatred I witnessed during
that 16 hour tour would long be
remembered, the most unforgettable
sight was the intermittent tears that
filled my partner’s eyes as he struggled
with his emotions but did his job with
a profound courage and dignity. He
berated those we caught looting and
condemned them for besmirching the
memory of Dr. King.
Several times during the night,
when we collared someone who had
just crashed through a store window
and was running away with stolen
property, my partner would grab
them by the throat and push them up
against a wall. “This is how you honor
the memory of Dr. King” he shouted
menacingly in the person’s face. “You
think this is what Dr. King would have
wanted” He hissed, struggling to keep
from pummeling those who used the
death of an icon as an excuse for criminal
activity. It should go without saying
that the overwhelming majority
of black Americans had nothing to do
with those riots, but Leroy instinctively
knew that a segment of the white
population would label the entire race
responsible for the behavior of a few
violent opportunists.
The experience was difficult for
me, but it was devastating for my partner.
From his perspective as a black
man raising a family in the America
of 1968, not only had he suffered the
new gun legislation.
“These organizations sound more
like the NRA instead of focusing on
the laws that was passed to keep illigal
guns off the street,” said Cynthia
Turnquest-Jones.
The sensitive nature of the rally
is understood but as law enforcement
professional who actually lives
in the community that I serve. Many
Westchester unions, and police organizations
have yet to rally about proactive
ways of taking illegal guns off the
street, safety and security of our jails
and the ineffective policing policies
that have cities like Mt. Vernon and
Yonkers literally combat zone. Being
absent from the real life issues that affects
everyone continues the divide of
law enforcement and the communities
that they claim to serve, especially, the
poor white and brown communities.
Damon K. Jones is the New York Representative
of Blacks In Law Enforcement
of America.
loss of the most powerful spiritual and
political civil rights leader of the century,
but he had to endure the indignity
of seeing members of his race turn
to the streets in an orgy of destruction
that could only be detrimental to the
memory of his idol. I don’t pretend to
understand the emotional roller coaster
he and millions of other blacks had
to deal with as they faced an uncertain
future without their beloved leader.
King represented more than the civil
rights movement in America. He was
the conscience of a nation that needed
to be continuously reminded of its sins
against those who were being judged,
“by the color of their skin, rather than
by the content of their character.”
Prior to that horrendous night,
I hadn’t understood the impact the
Nobel Peace Prize winner had on the
hearts, souls and minds of millions of
African-Americans. If it weren’t for
the tremendous display of courage and
character I witnessed from my partner,
I suppose I would not have been
able to see the other dimension to that
tragedy. Thanks to him, my education
was significantly broadened in the
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The Right to Bear
Arms
As a post script to the publication
of the home addresses of gun owners,
the late Federal Judge Richard
A. Daronco, was killed and it was
alleged that the murderer found
his home address fro the list as an
owner of a license gun.
Publication is a great risk especially
for judges who serve us with
dedication, devotion and discipline
and little public acclaim.
As to the NRA argument that
the 2 nd Amendment of the Constitution
gives the “right to Bear
Arms”, we must remember that
this amendment was passed in the
18 th Century at a time when 95%
of American lands was occupied by
Indian, and necessary in the continuous
wars.
Remember Washington, Jackson,
Lincoln all fought the Indians
with muskets. There were no invention
of assault weapons.
That is the forgotten history of
The Right to Bear Arms; conditions
which no longer exist.
John N. Romano, Esq.
Yonkers, NY
space of 16 hours, and I became more
proud than ever to call myself Leroy’s
partner.
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.”
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