Town Board of Greenburgh Remarks 5-12-04

Remarks given at the Meeting of the Greenburgh Town Board

5-12-2004

 

 

My name is Richard J. Garfunkel, a resident of Tarrytown, and a member of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.  Here we all are gathered again. Its is our next chapter of the bi-monthly Kabuki dance of political theater by our regular players, This Cabal of political malcontents shows its toothless grin, not unlike the a jack-o-lantern meant to scare the smallest of children. Not unlike the apocryphal “bad penny” that turns up unexpectedly, these Cabalists are back with their boorish rapidity. Of course, when this meeting was at Town Hall, their usual playground, they had their full team on the floor. It was political guerrilla theater at its best when these Apocalyptical Horsemen spewed forth their dire warnings and threats of conspiracy and malfeasance. But at the last meeting on April 28th, at the Highview School, far away from their usual hunting ground, and in front of strangers, regular citizens not used to their antics, in a neighborhood that had legitimate concerns; the venom of their usual bite was tempered. No one really cared about their tired insipid tirades about Town Hall or the cable studio.

 

Town Hall is a marvelous reality, which will stand to serve as a beacon regarding and symbolizing excellent planning and forethought for into the future, when the dust of these Cabalists is long forgotten. Of course local cable access is another “smoke screen” issue for this group, and it is obviously available for their vaudeville act when they get it ready to go on the road. But, in truth, all of Greenburgh is waiting for their “See it Now” programming. Maybe the Cabal will go back in history to re-enact Henry IV or Richard the Third. The public pines with desperation to hear these closet Walter Cronkites or Ted Koppels bring exposé after exposé to the waiting public ears. Of course this cry for access to public cable is not unlike Cato, whom Plutarch often quoted as saying “Delenda est Carthago” or “Carthage Must Fall.”  Of course the real meaning of this Cabalist refrain, which like Cato, who added this mantra to the end of all of this speeches, is really politics and more politics. This tagline about cable access is their hypocritical attack on real “open” government. Their sign off always serves to remind us how deprived they really are. Of course they think by making a mockery of the public’s time and turning these important meetings into a recreation worthy of the circus maximus, they can win what was lost at the ballot box!

 

Of course, many of us are not entertained by these lothario wannabes. These Cabalist conspirators do not entertain us and we will not be intimidated by their distortion of the facts by their promulgation of half-truths and their feeble attempt at intimidation.

 

As Aristotle said in the 4th Century BCE, “Liars when they speak the truth are not believed.”

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