It is always cold in early February here in the northeast. Up here on Watch Hill, which looks down on the wide, frozen Hudson River, it can be especially windy and bone chilling in the winter.
In the Gregorian calendar, Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year, a date between January 21 and February 20. This means that the holiday usually falls on the second (or in very rare cases third) new moon after the winter solstice. In traditional Chinese Culture, lichun is a solar term marking the start of spring, which occurs about February 4.

This year, 2012, the holiday period begins on the first day of the lunar New Year, January 23rd. This year, according to the Chinese Zodiac, is the Year of the Dragon.

A dragon is a legendary creature. All legendary stories about Chinese dragons are from the sky, which means heaven in China. The image of dragon is blurred, misty, mystic, occulted, noble and untouchable. For China, it is the symbol of power from heaven. The Chinese emperor was considered the son of heaven. An emperor has the authority to send command to Dragons. One Chinese story mentioned an emperor killed a dragon in his dream. After 581 AD, Chinese emperors began to wear imperial robes with dragon symbols. During the Ching Dynasty (1644-1911 AD), the dragon can be seen everywhere on the roofs, doors, pillars, bridges, utensils in the forbidden city. The most powerful dragon is the five-clawed dragon. It appears only on the yellow imperial robe. Because of this, Dragon is one of most auspicious animals in China.
They say that Dragon has nine sons. People didn’t know too much about the Nine Dragons until Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). However, there is more than one version of the Nine Dragons story. One story is the following.

The Dragon sent its nine sons to help the first emperor of Ming Dynasty to conquer China. After completing the mission, nine dragons were preparing their journey to return to heaven. But the emperor wanted them to continue to help the Ming Dynasty. The nine dragons wouldn’t stay and the emperor couldn’t stop them. However, the emperor decided to play a trick on the most powerful dragon, the 6th son. He tricked the sixth dragon son to carry a magic stele with a carved inscription, which could suppress any ghost, spirit or evil creature. The 6th dragon couldn’t move under the magic stele, and all of his other brothers wouldn’t leave without him. However, they wouldn’t work for the emperor anymore. They decided to no longer show their dragon identities and turned themselves into evil creatures. Since then, the nine dragons have stayed in China.

The nine dragon have different themes, and they all have different versions too. We skip their names because all of their names are hard to remember. One version is:
• The 1st son loves music. The head of Number 1 son becomes a decoration for music instrument, such as two-stringed bowed violin (huqin).
• The 2nd son loves fighting. Many different handles of weapons have the symbol of Number 2 son.
• The 3rd son loves adventure and keeping guard. He has prestige and is the symbol of safety, harmony and peace.
• The 4th son loves howling. The image of Number 4 son can be found on the big bells. It is a symbol of protection and alertness.
• The 5th son loves quietness, sitting, fire and smoke. His image is often found in temples, such as on incense burners.
• The 6th son has the power of strength. He loves to carry heavy stuff to show off his magic energy. He is a symbol of longevity and good luck.
• The 7th son loves to seek justice. Chinese like to apply his symbol around law, court, or jail.
• The 8th son loves literature. Chinese like to put the 8th son as a symbol around steles. When used in this way, it is a symbol of knowledge or education.
• The 9th son loves water. He is a symbol to prevent fire disasters.
The Tiger is the 3rd sign in the cycle of 12 animals that makes up their Zodiac. The Tiger is the sign of courage that legend tells us wards off three household disasters; fire, thieves and ghosts. On this day one should be happy, to have a smiling face and refrain from quarreling and being critical. The Tiger, being a beautiful animal, is feared and revered equally. It symbolizes, in many Asian cultures, courage, power, passion and regal strength. In the celestial sense of Feng Shui, it is one of four animals which include the Green Dragon, the Red Phoenix, the Black Tortoise and the White Tiger. The Tiger is the female counterpart to the male dragon. The ancient Chinese sages saw in the markings of the Tigers forehead the Chinese character “Wang” or “King.” In the days of Imperial China, the dragon was the insignia of the Emperor, and the Tiger was the military emblem of the emperor’s greatest, most fearless, and victorious commanders. The Tiger also represents earth, while the Dragon represents heaven. The Tiger is a natural born leader, who is courageous, passionate, daring, active, and self-assured. The Tiger can be optimistic, passionate and independent, along with this independence often comes rebellion and unpredictability.
Alongside the 12-year cycle of the animal zodiac, there is a 10-year cycle of heavenly stems. Each of the ten heavenly stems is associated with one of the five elements of Chinese astrology, namely: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The elements are rotated every two years while a yin and yang association alternates every year. The elements are thus distinguished: Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, etc. These produce a combined cycle that repeats every 60 years. For example, the year of the Yang Fire Rat occurred in 1936 and in 1996, 60 years apart.
The Chinese character for “Yin Earth” represents a field or a garden. It is associated with the quality of moderate, peaceful, intellectual, charming and charitable kind of person. People born in a day of “Yin Earth” are often moderate and harmonious and slim.

People born in the Year of the Tiger are straight forward and uninhibited in nature. They will never give up no matter how frustrated they become. Quite often they love competition, cannot pass up a challenge, appear cool and are unpredictable. Some people born in the Year of the Tiger are gentle and full of sympathy. Among some of the well known personages born in the Year of the Tiger are; Queen Elizabeth II, Mary Queen of Scots, Marilyn Monroe, Tom Cruise, Agatha Christie, Diana Riggs, Jodi Foster, Norma Shearer, Charles De Gaulle, Dwight Eisenhower, Tony Bennett, Tennessee Williams, Alec Guiness, Rudolph Nureyev, Marco Polo, Beethoven, Isadora Duncan, Renoir, Karl Marx, Hugh Hefner, Chuck Berry, and Mel Brooks.
Meanwhile, many confuse their Chinese birth-year with their Gregorian birth-year. As the Chinese New Year starts in late January to mid-February, the Chinese year dates from January 1 until that day in the new Gregorian year remain unchanged from the previous Gregorian year. For example, the 1989 year of the snake began on February 6, 1989. The year 1990 is considered by some people to be the year of the horse. However, the 1989 year of the snake officially ended on January 26, 1990. This means that anyone born from January 1 to January 25, 1990, was actually born in the year of the snake rather than the year of the horse. Many online Chinese Sign calculators do not account for the non-alignment of the two calendars, using Gregorian-calendar years rather than official Chinese New Year dates.
Traditionally the color red is worn on and during the Chinese New Year to scare away evil spirits and bad fortunes. Red is a bright and happy festive color, which is sure to help bring the wearer a sunny bright future. It is considered lucky to hear a songbird or a swallow or a red-colored bird. One should not greet a person in their bedroom, and therefore even the sick should be dressed and be seated in the living room. The use of knives and scissors should be avoided because their use may cut off good fortune. No borrowing or lending should be done on the New Year and the use of off-colored language is strictly forbidden. Good luck is encouraged, by opening doors, windows, switching on lights at night to scare away ghosts and spirits, and candy is eaten to insure a “sweet year.” One also will avoid bad luck by not buying shoes, pants or having a haircut. It is said that on the first day of the New Year one should not sweep the floors or buy any books!

According to custom, the entire house should be cleaned before New Year’s Day. On the eve of the New Year’s all cleaning equipment should be stored away. Shooting off firecrackers on New Year’s Eve is the Chinese way of sending out the old year and bringing on the new. One should open all their doors in windows to allow the old year to escape forever. If one cries on New Year, they could be cursed to cry throughout the year.

All over this site, and many like it, I hear two themes constantly repeated: President Obama and the Democrats are socialists, and take back the country to the people. Of course, the idea that this country is socialist is economically incorrect, unrealistic and a misunderstanding of history. For over a century, since Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive movement there have been efforts to provide safety nets for the workers, public education, and job safety. Because of people like Ida Tarbel, Upton Sinclair, Frances Perkins and others, the meat packing industry, the drug industry and the issue of clean water were addressed. There has been a century old evolution of reform, including; women’s suffrage, the end of the poll tax and the literacy test, the passing of wages and hours legislation, Social Security, child labor laws, sweat shop regulation, safety in the work force, Medicare , Medicaid and the end to Jim Crow Laws. These are just the major elements, but there are many other reforms that were basically addressed to the middle class and the working poor. There is nothing socialist in any of these efforts.

As to government controlling the means of production, setting wages and price controls, and restricting one’s ability to seek employment, none of that exists in America. We have all sorts of markets and exchanges from the NY Stock Exchange, to the NASDAQ, to the every type of commodity exchange from coffee to sugar to cotton. In other words, one can invest where they want, freely work where they wish to and to “organize” for their own benefit, as is done in the sports leagues, American industry and in civil service. The right to organize goes back to the 19th Century and the founding of the American Labor Movement to the New Deal and the Wagner Act in 1935. This right is as American as apple pie. Why shouldn’t there be a counter balance to capital through organized labor. How is the right anti Middle Class? It isn’t.

As to which party represents the Middle Class, the Republicans or the Democrats, why don’t we look at the record. The Republicans have been on the record against Social Security and Medicare for generations. GW Bush worked for six years to privatize Social Security. In a sense that is why his popularity crashed and the Republicans lost Congress in 2006. Currently Rep, Paul Ryan wants to privatize Medicare and have every senior buy into a private plan for $6,000 or more dollars. Will that cost be stable? Who knows? Is there any evidence that private health insurance is stable? Well it isn’t. In the last two years private health care insurance plans have skyrocketed in cost. Most people who not in a group cannot get insurance, pre-existing conditions are more prevalent then ever, and the cost for a private plan, if one can get one, is prohibitive. The average employee is paying a co-premium of $4000 with a $1,000 deductible. That means, with a plan provided through an employer, the average worker is behind $5000 before a dollar is reimbursed. How does this help the Middle Class or the working poor? The current tax plan put forth by the GOP frontrunner, Mitt Romney calls for a 1% tax cut for the lowest brackets and a 38% cut for the most highly compensated workers. Another tax plan calls for a 20% flat tax for all earners, zero capital gains tax and a zero corporate tax rate. Is the revenue neutral? No! Is that fair for the average worker? Are you kidding? The average upper income taxpayer is paying a lower affective rate than when President Reagan pushed through his two tiered tax rate of 15 and 28%. In terms of the economy, since Harry Truman, the presidency has been in controlled by Republicans for 36 years and the Democrats 28 years. Over that period of time, the Democratic Administrations have created 2 million jobs per year as opposed to the Republicans. Those are the facts. With regards to government jobs, there are 4.43 million federal workers and that number has been stable for years, There are 18,8 million state and local workers and that number, reflective of the Bush Recession, has shrunk by a few hundred thousand workers. With regards to federal expenditures, less than 20% of all government workers are paid by your withholding tax, and over 50% of those federal workers are members of the Armed Forces, So the argument framed here about “big” is with the states, much more than with the federal government.

With regards to the argument that 47% of the public does not pay taxes well that is patently false. Every worker is paying a payroll tax of a maximum of 8% up to $106,000 in income. In fact, every America worker is paying down weekly, through the payroll tax, our greatest, future liabilities we face: the entitlements Social Security and Medicare. In fact, as a worker earns more than $106,000, their percentage of reducing the entitlement deficit is reduced. Who benefits from Social Security and Medicare? It is the Middle Class and the working poor. In fact, most Americans who pay zero taxes should probably pay a minimum tax. But, would another $500 or $1000 per low income family equal raising the top bracket from 36.5 to 39.5%? It would not. Today, with a capital gains tax rate of 15% on dividends and venture capital income, the rich are very, very well off. Of the 400 richest Americans, only 200 are employed and therefore, they for sure do not create jobs. In fact, of the remaining 200, are they creating jobs? Many of these individuals make their huge incomes in the financial sector and do not create jobs or new businesses. There are $375,000 Americans making over $1 million per year. They are paying the lowest taxes since the Crash of 1929. But even when the Constitutional Amendment creating the income tax was passed in 1914, there was always a very high bracket, of at least 90%, for the richest of all Americans. Why would a return to the Clinton Era top tax rate of 39.5% and a graduated capital gains tax hurt these folks? I believe it will not. The Middle Class would be better served by an increase in the payroll tax to $212,000, which would save Social Security and Medicare for generations, and would not affect any one of you! In reality an increase in the top bracket to 39.5% would affect anyone of you either. Therefore, why are you fighting against your own self-interest?

This is my response to the recent favorable comparison of Tyson Chandler, the newly acquired NY Knickerbocker, to the great and legendary Bill Russell by Coach Mike D’Antoni,

There was no one like Bill Russell!

For me there are certain sacred aspects in sports regarding both hero worship and generally accepted accounting practices, of which Alan Rosenberg is our resident expert. With regards to Bill Russell, he is the gold standard of both in any sport, no less basketball. Bill Russell’s balance sheet rates the highest by all standards of evaluation.

By 1955, the Celtics who had led the league in scoring the three previous seasons understood they needed a big man in the middle. Bill Reinhardt, Red’s old coach from George Washington advised him to keep his eye on San Francisco’s big center Bill Russell. Two great coaches advised Red, Phil Woolpert, of the Dons and Pete Newell of California, along with Fred Scolari and Don Barksdale, who were on the Celtics, that Russell was the genuine article. Therefore Red realized that he had to plan carefully if he wanted to acquire the rights to Russell. Eventually Red learned that his old friend and now nemesis Ben Kerner intended to draft Russell with his second round choice. Cincinnati, who had the first choice, felt they could not afford Russell, who would also be entertaining bids from the Harlem Globetrotters. The Royals already had great rebounding strength from their rookie sensation, the ill-fated Maurice Stokes and were going to draft All-American Sihugo Green. Therefore Red had to make a deal with Kerner. His star center Ed Macauley was from St. Louis and his child had taken ill with spinal meningitis and the young boy was transferred to specialists near his home in St. Louis. Macauley had also graduated and starred at the University of St. Louis and would be anxious to play at home and be near his son. Kerner also demanded that Cliff Hagan be thrown in on the deal. Hagan, who with Frank Ramsey, came from the University of Kentucky, had been drafted a few years earlier, but because they could play another season in college and then had service obligations weren’t available until 1956. Ramsey had played a little for the Celtics when he was discharged early and Hagan was a rookie. Ramsey would later play for the Celtics and become famous as the first “Sixth” man and Hagan went on to star with the Hawks along with Bob Pettit. The Celtics had a “territorial” draft pick and used it to acquire Tommy Heinsohn, another All-American from Holy Cross. When Russell returned in December from Australia with the Olympic Gold medal, and joined the Celtics in mid-season, the “Dynasty” was finally pieced together. The Celtics went on to win eleven of the next thirteen NBA titles. They probably would have won in 1958 but Russell sprained his ankle and the Hawks, led by Petit and Hagan, won the two last games 102-100 and 110-109. In that final game, the great Bob Pettit scored 50 points. Personally I doubt that would have happened if Russell had been healthy. But it did. After that setback, the Celtics went on to win 8 straight titles. It could have easily had been 10!

One great and lasting college basketball memory occurred when I came to the new Garden, on a cool March 19, 1966 afternoon, with Mount Vernon friend and NYU junior Alan Rosenberg. A good NYU (15-9) team, led by former White Plains star guard Mal Graham, met lily-white Brigham Young (17-5) in the National Invitation Tournament finals. NYU had beaten DePaul, Wichita and Villanova, while Brigham Young had defeated Temple and Army. Graham, a high school All-American, who had torched Mount Vernon High School, in our senior year (1962-3) for 42 points in two separate games, led the Violets with an outstanding average of around 25 points per game. The next year he would average 29 points per game and be second in the nation in scoring. The other star on NYU was the 6’4” Bruce Kaplan from James Madison High School in Brooklyn. When we arrived Alan took me into the locker room where I met Graham and Kaplan. It was my first and last time that I was in the locker room of the Garden and unfortunately it was a blowout for the Mormons from Utah, whose quick guards ran the Violets ragged and won going away, 97-84. Interestingly, the coach of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was the famous Bobby Knight, who was an Ohio State teammate of two of the current Celtics, John Havlicek and Larry Siegfried. When I was in college I got to meet Siegfried at a number of Boston University parties. Knight always felt he was a better ballplayer than Siegfried. They were both selected in the 1962 NBA draft and both wound up sitting at the end of the bench of their respective teams. Siegfried was signed for $1000 bonus and Knight for $500. When it came time for cuts to be made by their respective teams, Knight was cut because his team had only invested $500 in him, wherein Siegfried, who was on the Cincinnati Royals was kept around because $1000 was a larger investment. Siegfried was eventually cut and Red Auerbach, and the Celtics, liked his style of play. He remained there for years, and contributed mightily as a scrappy ballplayer who collected 6 championship rings and averaged over 13 points per game for a number of seasons. After a 9-year career, in which he averaged over 10 points per game, he retired. Knight felt he should have been drafted higher than Siegfried and therefore gotten a bigger bonus. He blamed his low draft position to a poor performance in Madison Square Garden. His father had died right before the tournament and the scouts, who were all there, saw an underachieving Bobby Knight.

Part II Bill Russell

Russell was the greatest of all players. He was like a giant bird of prey. His timing was impeccable and brought an incredible level and style of defense to the sport that had never existed before. Before Russell and the 24-second clock, which forced a team to take a shot within a time parameter, basketball was slow, defensive, plodding and very physical. Games could be slowed down to a crawl. With the advent of the 24-second rule the game opened up and scoring increased immediately. The “fast-break,” which was instituted by guards like the pre-war stars Hank Luisetti and Bob Davies, came into its own with Cousy, who made it into an art form. When Russell came into the fray he became the engine of that system. Russell’s ability to block shots, to intimidate the opposition and to control the ball after it was blocked was unique. Almost no one else could do what he did, and even today 50 years later, no one has really mastered that skill at the level Russell had developed right from the start. Others who followed, batted the ball away, as did Chamberlain. But Russell, not only grabbed rebounds, both defensive, but the all important offensive ones, but he set up the fast break with his remarkable outlet passes from controlling the blocked shots of his opponents. That was and still remains unique. Others like Jerry Lucas, Bill Walton and Wes Unseld were strong and mobile and could move the ball and shoot. But they did not have Russell’s uncanny timing, and they could not shut down the middle off to the opposition like Russell could. I went to the Boston Garden often and the games that I saw that pitted Russell against Wilt Chamberlain were monumental. The “Wilt” was unlike any other athletic specimen. No one could stop him, but at least Russell could keep him contained. The fact that Chamberlain averaged 50.4 point per game throughout one season (1961-2) probably remains the most remarkable achievement in sport’s history. Therefore without Russell in his way, Chamberlain would have bulldozed the whole league and owned all of the championship banners that were available. The Russell-Chamberlain rivalry was probably the greatest confrontation in the history of sport. It far outweighed; Borg-McEnroe, Jimmy Brown-Sam Huff, Joe DiMaggio-Bob Feller, Helen Wills-Helen Jacob, Floyd Patterson-Ingemar Johanson, Ali-Frazier, Gordie Howe-Rocket Richard, Bird-Magic, or even War Admiral and Seabiscuit. In this greatest of all battles between these titans of the game, Russell and Chamberlain matched up 142 times, not counting All-Star or exhibition games. Wilt; who outweighed Big Bill by 50 pounds, and was at least 5 inches taller even grabbed an amazing 55 rebounds against him in 1960. But in these classic struggles Russell’s Celtic teams won 86 games or 60.6% of the time. In those 142 games, Chamberlain averaged 28.7 points and 28.7 rebounds per game, wherein Russ averaged 14.5 points and 23.7 rebounds per game. In their respective careers, including both regular season and playoffs Russell averaged 15.24 points per game and 22.8 rebounds, while The Wilt averaged 29.07 points per game and 23.10 rebounds per game. Statistically there is no “smoking gun” between them. Russell and Auerbach always felt that Chamberlain would get his points, so it was more critical to limit his teammate’s contributions and therefore win the game. Russell could shoot when he wanted to and averaged between 16 and 18 points per game through his middle years with the Celts. The truth is that Russell didn’t have to shoot and was much happier and productive setting up his teammates.

So any comparison to Russell must be carefully weighed and judiciously framed within the context of a player’s career and accomplishments. Russell played in a unique era when after league contraction, the best players in the world were vying for very few starting spots. The NBA, through most of Russell’s career, had 8 to 12 teams and making the starting five was incredibly difficult. Every team had great players and because basketball rules traditionally favored offense in the post 24 second clock era, defense became much more critical. The great success of the Celtics, in the heart of the Cousy-Russell era, was that not only could they shoot and run with the best of the best, but their defense, led by Big Bill Russell and ably assisted by other All-Pro defensive greats like KC Jones and Tom “Satch” Sanders was unmatched. Russell will always be regarded as the greatest winner of “All-Time: in any sport, but the innovator who changed his sport and made it his own.

On Friday, I had picked up Linda at the White Plains Harlem Division RR Station, at around 12:30pm and we made terrific time going northeast on the Merritt Parkway. At Exit 54 (Milford) we headed due east to I-95, which I attempt to avoid like “death of a thousand cuts.” But to get to Newport all roads lead to that overused and impossible road. Once we were safely on the NE Turnpike, we hit some early afternoon head winds as traffic surrounding New Haven was heavy and slow. Any slight incline on, I-95, or the Mass Pike, causes incredible slowdowns and backups. There seems to be no other explanation for the stop and go patterns that plague these heavily trafficked arteries.

Meanwhile, Newport on the Memorial Day weekend was hopping and the roads, restaurants, restorations and “cottages” were jammed with humanity. It was like the winter ended this weekend. As we descended from Pell-Newport Bridge (now $4 each way) and swung around the ramp to terra firma, Linda noticed the Long Wharf Seafood emporium which advertized live lobsters to be steamed to order. So even before entering Newport, we bought a very nice 1.5 lb lobster, coleslaw and clam chowda’. Therefore, dinner was now guaranteed. We also were able to fill up the tank at $3.99 per gallon, which was a lot cheaper then the current $4.15-25 for 87 octane, in Westchester.

The Northeast, like the rest of the country has had a rotten winter, and it seemed like springtime had never really arrived. The last number of weeks has been cold and wet and other then a few isolated days, here and there, nothing has been too terribly pleasant.

During our last trip to Newport, which was last Christmas, we were inundated by a major snowstorm which paralyzed all but a few lunatics who were surfing in the ocean off the Cliff Walk. After entering Newport on Farewell Street, past the old cemetery, we headed to the Brickyard Market. Meanwhile, once on Thames Street, which parallels America’s Cup Way, one could not get a space for love or money. I doubled park in front of the NY Historical Society, while Linda stretched her appendages. Seeing that parking in downtown Newport was beyond impossible, we headed toward Memorial Drive and Bellevue Boulevard. We inched our way passed the ancient Casino and the Tennis Hall of Fame. But since we were unhappy bucking bumper to bumper traffic, we decided to avoid the long looping way around past Doris Duke’s old stomping grounds, Rough Point, to Ocean Drive, by cutting though to Wellington and across to Harrison. This was the short cut we continued to use to get to and fro to the Ocean Cliff which is a beautiful resort and time-sharing overlooking the often fog-shrouded Narragansett Bay. It was there we unloaded, unpacked and planned our next move!

After our lobster dinner, and a small carafe of wine, we watched a little television and fell quickly into the arms of Morpheus.The next morning we were up early, had breakfast in our small kitchen area, and we were off to the Thames Street stores for post cards and the Antique Armory. The only way to find parking downtown was to get there before anyone else. After strolling around the an hour or so we made our way to the American Museum of Illustration, which is located in a marvelous 113 year old mansion located on Bellevue Avenue. Vernon Court, which was built in 1898, was designed, conceived and completed in the heart of the Gilded Age. This Beaux Arts adaptation of a 17th Century French chateau has been described as one of the greatest mansions in America. It was designed by Carrere & Hastings, the architects for the New York City Public Library. The interiors were designed to replicate the Marie Antoinette suites at the Versailles Palace. Not to be outshined by the French influence, the elegant gardens were inspired by the Pont Garden, which Henry VIII built for the ill-fated Anne Boleyn at her Hampton Court Palace.

Meanwhile, the property remained in the hands of the Richard Gambrill family heirs until 1956, when it was auctioned. From 1963 until its closing in 1972, it served as the administration building for Vernon Court Junior College, an all-girls school. Over the next two and a half decades it passed through several different owners. In 1998, it was acquired by Laurence and Judy Cutler, founders of the National Museum of American Illustration..

Since we were the earliest visitors on Saturday morning, we serendipitously met both Mr. and Mrs. Cutler and complemented them on their remarkable restoration of this national treasure. But, what was even more remarkable was their fantastic collection of American illustrative art, which focused on works by JC Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish and NC Wyeth. The collection alone was breath-taking, and their arrangement was done with exquisite taste. We left with an enhanced feeling for this now lost American art form, which dominated advertising and magazine covers like; The Saturday Evening Post, Look, the first Life Magazine and The Ladies Home Journal for almost a century. The current exhibition focused on the remarkable connection and influence JC Leyendecker had on the young Norman Rockwell.

At the end of our most engaging time, we drove back to Memorial Drive, turned right and headed down past Easton’s Beach and into Middletown. We found our way to Wave Avenue and Flo’s Clam House for lunch. After a Greek salad and some clams on the half-shell, we worked our way to Portsmouth looking for a wine-tasting and antiques. Missing the wine-tasting tour, we found our way to the Eagles Nest Antique Center and Linda got the steal of the week, five yellow Limoges plates for $6.00 (cheap as Mad Magazine often noted!)

After returning from Portsmouth we headed toward Rosecliff, one of the few mansions we had never visited. In 1891 two sisters, Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Her sister Virginia Fair bought an old wooden cottage and eleven acres that located on Bellevue Avenue. It was owned at one time by George Bancroft, a noted statesman and a prominent amateur horticulturist, who had a passion for roses. The celebrated, “American Beauty” rose, America’s national flower, was developed by Bancroft.

As to the house that stands there today, it came from the purchasing power of Theresa Fair Oelrichs, a silver heiress from Nevada, whose father James Graham Fair was one of the four partners in the Comstock Lode and her husband Hermann Oelrichs, American agent for Norddeutscher Lloyd steamship Line Mrs. Oelrichs, her sister and her husband, commissioned the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White to design a summer home suitable for entertaining on a grand scale.

The principal architect, Stanford White, modeled the “cottage” after the Grand Trianon of Versailles, but smaller and reduced to a basic “H” shape, while keeping Mansart’s scheme of a glazed arcade of arched windows and paired Ionic pilasters, which increase to columns across the central loggia. White’s Rosecliff adds to the Grand Trianon a second storey with a balustraded roofline that conceals the set-back third storey, containing twenty small servants’ rooms and the pressing room for the laundry.
After our self-guided, audio tour we ventured outside to the great lawn at the rear of the building that overlooks Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. They were setting up white chairs and a chupa for a wedding, we learned, which would host approximately 175 guests. What an effort, and we could only imagine the cost.

We headed back into town and drove to Bowen’s Wharf which is right off America’s Cup Way. After finding a rare metered space with two hours already paid we headed for the Aquidneck Pier, where they sell wholesale lobsters, clams and shrimp. We ordered a lively 1.75 crustacean to be boiled along with ½ pound of shrimp. While waiting for our dinner we spent some time on the pier speaking to one of the vendors and looking at her beautiful inventory of jewelry, handbags and scarves. Besides all of that, she’s a good Democrat. We headed back to Ocean Cliff. The afternoon fog had burned off and we walked out to the back lawn which adjoins the main hotel where there was not only a wedding to be celebrated, but Adirondack chairs to be used. We were able to finish our respective books, and as it approached 6 pm we headed back to our rooms for dinner. Linda boiled and pealed the shrimps, we enjoyed a great Stilton cheese, Linda had bought in a wonderful market located in NYC at 110th Street and Broadway, and then we had the shrimp and cracked the lobster. Meanwhile, the lobster was great!

Sunday morning brought more fog, and after our showers and breakfast we headed into Newport, parked at Washington Square, right next “Yesterdays” that features a statue of Oliver Hazard Perry. We walked along Spring and Touro Streets, found Spring Street Books, a corner store, which had a nice selection of excellent quality used books at terrific prices and we gobbled up six of them. From there it was off to Patriot’s Park and the venerable Touro Synagogue, which dates back to 1763.

This Orthodox Temple was built from 1759 to 1763 for the Jeshuat Israel congregation in Newport under the leadership of Cantor (Chazzan) Isaac Touro. The cornerstone was laid by Aaron Lopez, a prominent merchant in Newport involved in the spermaceti candle making business and other commercial ventures. The Jeshuat Israel congregation itself dates back to 1658 when fifteen Spanish and Portuguese Jewish families arrived, probably from the West Indies, and many settled near Easton’s Point. The synagogue was formally dedicated in December of 1763. Many years earlier we had attended a Friday night service, which was crowded with US Naval personnel who were based in Newport. In fact, the US Naval Academy was re-located to Newport during the Civil War to protect it from southern sympathizers and possible sabotage. It was located on the corner of Pelham and Bellevue, but that location was razed long ago. Newport presently is the home of the US Naval War College which was founded in 1884. It is an education and research institution of the United States Navy that specializes in developing ideas for naval warfare and passing them along to officers of the Navy. The docent at Touro gave a great talk about the history of the congregation, where the first members came from and the history of their 500 year old Portuguese Torah which was made from the skins of deer.

On this weekend, one could not give up one’s parking space, so rather then trying to drive somewhere else we fed the meter, and walked to Thames Street, the Brick Market and found a place two blocks up called Lucia’s. It was just what we wanted; pizza and salad. We ordered a small Margherita pie with mushrooms and for $19 we were quite satiated. We finally had enough and after returning to the car we decided to work our way around the massive traffic delays. We circled around to Touro Street, then Bellevue, but we were again stymied by the traffic heading towards Ocean Drive. We made another course correction and found our way to Wellington, Harrison and eventually to Ocean Cliff. We changed for a swim in their pool, soaked in the hot tub and all was well with the world. We had dinner again in our rooms, watched a little television, read some, packed, and turned in for the evening. The next morning we were up early, we loaded the car and by 8 am we on our way. It was a smooth trip home, because we left early, and at 11 am in Tarrytown we unloading the car and catching up on mail, emails and the news of the day.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Address on the 4th of July, 1942

For 166 years this Fourth Day of July has been a symbol to the people of our country of the democratic freedom which our citizens claim as their precious birthright. On this grim anniversary its meaning has spread over the entire globe–focusing the attention of the world upon the modern freedoms for which all the United Nations are now engaged in deadly war.

On the desert sands of Africa, along the thousands of miles of battle lines in Russia, in New Zealand and Australia, and the islands of the Pacific, in war-torn China and all over the seven seas, free men are fighting desperately–and dying–to preserve the liberties and the decencies of modern civilization. And in the overrun and occupied nations of the world, this day is filled with added significance, coming at a time when freedom and religion have been attacked and trampled upon by tyrannies unequaled in human history.

Never since it first was created in Philadelphia, has this anniversary come in times so dangerous to everything for which it stands. We celebrate it this year, not in the fireworks of make-believe but in the death-dealing reality of tanks and planes and guns and ships. We celebrate it also by running without interruption the assembly lines which turn out these weapons to be shipped to all the embattled points of the globe. Not to waste one hour, not to stop one shot, not to hold back one blow–that is the way to mark our great national holiday in this year of 1942.

To the weary, hungry, unequipped Army of the American Revolution, the Fourth of July was a tonic of hope and inspiration. So is it now. The tough, grim men who fight for freedom in this dark hour take heart in its message–the assurance of the right to liberty under God–for all peoples and races and groups and nations, everywhere in the world.
On Liberty:

In 1936 FDR stated, “Liberty requires opportunity to make a living – a living decent to the standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.”

With regards to our Republican Tea Party Patriots:

In 1937, FDR stated: “The Test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

We headed into NYC on Saturday on a crisp, but cool late Saturday morning. Linda wanted to head to the Westside Market which is located on Broadway at 110th Street which is not far from her old Barnard College apartment. This place is sort of a super Zabar’s without the Jewish salamis, cold cuts and Nova Scotia. But it has oodles of everything anyone cold imagine. We parked on Broadway, bought some bread, pickles, NE clam “chowda,” chopped liver, capers and couscous salad.. We then ate a quick lunch and headed down Broadway to meet Jon at his 24 West 64th Street apartment.

We then zoomed south to the Chelsea Market on 9th Avenue and 14th Street. There was practically no traffic. I wanted to re-visit that interesting area and Jon also wanted to take a look at what they offered. The Market Place was crowded with both the neighborhood regulars and the tourists like us. The Market Place goes on forever and there are some remarkable stores that offer everything from butchered meat, to delis, bakeries, sweet shops to wonderful ethnic delicacies at Buon Italia where Linda bought some tortellini and Calamata olives.

After we finished we headed east on 14th Street back to Broadway. We turned right on Broadway and a left on 12th Street where Jocelyn lives. Jon went to meet her and we then walked up to the Union Square Market, which was incredibly crowded with their Christmas Week Holiday bourses and their regular fruits, vegetables and bakery stands. It was a bit chilly, but tolerable, and some cups of hot cider bolstered our constitution. We were searching for Martin’s Hard Pretzels, which is located in Lancaster, Pa., and has been selling their great, salty, dark, handmade, oversized pretzels ever since this market opened over three decades ago. We found them at the north end of the park, got our $5.00 bags and headed around the park to 12th Street.

Our next stop was the Jewish Museum which is located on 5th Avenue and 92nd Street. I parked on Madison Avenue and we walked one block over to Fifth, where the museum, which is free on Saturdays had an exhibition on “The Radical Camera, NY’s Photo League, 1936-1951,” whose photos chronicled life, in and out, of the desperate neighborhoods and mean streets of NYC, from the middle of the Depression, through WWII and into the McCarthy, Red Scare Era. On another floor was a selection of Hanukkah Lamps selected by the artist Maurice Sendak.

After the Museum we headed back to the West Side and Jon’s apartment, to split up all the goodies from the Chelsea Market and light the Hanukkah candles. Once, all of that was done, we again headed out to dinner at Bella Luna’s on Columbus Avenue at 88th Street. Parking was easy. At 6:15 pm the restaurant was quiet, but within an hour almost every seat was taken. I had a great pasta dish of linguini and meatballs with Bolognese sauce for $12.95. Can’t beat that in Manhattan.

We are awash in idiocy in this country amongst the people who on one hand blame the elitists on Wall Street, but have all their money tied up in 401ks. IRA’s , 503bs and every other type of invest vehicle, but do not want transparency and regulation and cry when criminals and brigands steal their savings. But we hear from these same right-wing philosophers about the spending of government and the debt, but conveniently forget that Reagan tripled out National Debt, unemployment averaged almost 8% (was over 10% for two years) in his time cut taxes for the 1% and that his clones the Bush twins did worse.
As to FDR and the New Deal, expenditures on WPA projects through June 1941, totaled approximately $11.4 billion. Over $4 billion was spent on highway, road, and street projects; more than $1 billion on public buildings, including the iconic Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, and the Timberline Lodge on Oregon’s Mt. Hood; more than $1 billion on publicly owned or operated utilities; and another $1 billion on welfare projects, including sewing projects for women, the distribution of surplus commodities and school lunch projects. One construction project was the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, the bridges of which were each designed as architecturally unique. In its eight year run, the WPA built 325 firehouses and renovated 2384 of them across the United States. The 20,000 miles of water mains, installed by their hand as well, no doubt aided in a more fire protected country.
The direct focus of the WPA projects changed with need. 1935 saw projects aimed at infrastructure improvement; roads, bringing electricity to rural areas, water conservation, sanitation and flood control. In 1936, as outlined in that year’s Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, public facilities became a focus; parks, buildings, utilities, airports, and transportation projects were funded. The following year, saw the introduction of agricultural pursuits in projects such as the production of marl fertilizer and the eradication of fungus pests. As the Second World War approached, and then eventually began, WPA projects became increasingly defense related.

The PWA spent over $6 billion in contracts to private construction forms that did the actual work. It created an infrastructure that generated national and local pride in the 1930s and remains vital seven decades later. The PWA was much less controversial than its rival agency with a confusingly similar name, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), headed by Harry Hopkins, which focused on smaller projects and hired unemployed unskilled workers.

More than any other New Deal program, the PWA epitomized the progressive notion of “priming the pump” to encourage economic recovery. Between July 1933 and March 1939 the PWA funded and administered the construction of more than 34,000 projects including airports, large electricity-generating dams, major warships for the Navy, and bridges, as well as 70% of the new schools and one-third of the hospitals built between 1933–1939.

Streets and highways were the most common PWA projects, as 11,428 road projects, or 33% of all PWA projects, accounted for over 15% of its total budget. School buildings, 7,488 in all, came in second at 14% of spending. PWA functioned chiefly by making allotments to the various Federal agencies; making loans and grants to state and other public bodies; and making loans without grants (for a brief time) to the railroads. For example it provided funds for the Indian Division of the CCC to build roads, bridges and other public works on and near Indian reservations.

The PWA became, with its “multiplier-effect” and first two-year budget of $3.3 billion (compared to the entire GDP of $60 billion), the driving force of America’s biggest construction effort up to that date. By June 1934 the agency had distributed its entire fund to 13,266 federal projects and 2,407 non-federal projects. For every worker on a PWA project, almost two additional workers were employed indirectly. The PWA accomplished the electrification of rural America, the building of canals, tunnels, bridges, highways, streets, sewage systems, and housing areas, as well as hospitals, schools, and universities; every year it consumed roughly half of the concrete and a third of the steel of the entire nation.
Some of the most famous PWA projects are the Triborough Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel in New York City, the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state, the longest continuous sidewalk in the world along 6½ miles of Bayshore Blvd. in Tampa, Florida, and the Overseas Highway connecting Key West, Florida, to the mainland. The PWA also electrified the Pennsylvania Railroad between New York and Washington, DC. At the local level it built courthouses, schools, hospitals and other public facilities that remain in use in the 21st century.

So what troglodyte or mental midget would reject the reality of those accomplishments?

Last night I was the guest of my old buddy Alan Rosenberg at 92nd Street Y’s “Evening with Jerry West,” one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Along with me was Bob Trupin, another great basketball fan, player and friend of Alan’s and mine. Thanks to Alan’s great planning we had seats in the front row and we were all able to shake West’s hand, the one that scored 25,192 points in the NBA regular season (27 ppg) and 4457 in the NBA playoffs (29.1 ppg) and 2309 (24,8 ppg) at West Virginia University,

The star of the evening was Jerry West, who has written a new and interesting book, West on West: My Charmed and Tormented Life. It’s a revelatory treatment of his life, regarding his parents, the tormented relationship with his father, the loss of his older brother in the combat of Korea, the agonies of his defeats in championships games from the 1959 NCAA finals to losses to the great Boston Celtic teams of the 1960s and 1970’s along with his relationships with the great players of his time and his years of angst as GM of the Lakers. It also tells of his co-captaining the victorious USA team in the 1960 Olympic Games, an NBA title in 1972 and his great success as the General Manager of the LA Lakers.

The 92nd Street Y was crowded with hundreds of fans wanting to get a glimpse at an American sports icon and hear his story in his own words. After the almost two hour interview, he signed books for his multitude of fans. The demand was so great for his book that the supply quickly ran out. Alan, Bob and I were able to get into the signing area, where Cal Ramsey, a good friend of Alan’s, the former great NYC scholastic standout and basketball star at NYU, was receiving plaudits from his legion of admirers.
Jerry West was one of America’s greatest basketball players. He played his entire professional career for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames include “Mr. Clutch,” for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation, such as his famous buzzer-beating 60-foot shot that tied Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks; “The Logo,” in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; and “Zeke from Cabin Creek,” after the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia. Playing the small forward position early in his career, West was a standout at East Bank High School and at West Virginia University, leading the WVU Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game, earning Most Valuable Player honors despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome, a squad that would be inducted as a unit into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Playing the guard position as a professional, he was voted 12 times into the All-NBA First and Second Teams, was elected into the NBA All-Star Team 14 times, and was chosen as the All-Star MVP in 1972, the same year that he won the only title of his career. West holds the NBA record for the highest points per game average in a playoff series with 46.3. He was also a member of the first four NBA All-Defensive Teams, which were introduced when he was 32 years old. Having played in nine NBA Finals, he is also the only player in NBA history to be named Finals MVP despite being on the losing team (1969). West was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980 and voted as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history in 1996.
Cal Ramsey, a native of Selma, Alabama as a youth, has been part of the NYC athletic landscape for over fifty years. Since his graduation from NYU in 1959, where he starred in basketball as an All-American, he still holds many team records and was a member of NYU’s Scholastic Honor Society. Because of his excellent career on the hard courts, he has been enshrined in a number of regional sport’s hall of fames. He is even a member of the famed Friar’s Club. After two seasons in the NBA with both the old St. Louis Hawks and the NY Knicks, his basketball career was cut short by a knee injury. He then began work in the NY Public Schools. He has devoted his life to working with the youth of NYC with regards to an emphasis on education and staying-in-school. Cal has had a three decade career in broadcasting and public relations with the NY Knicks, and has also devoted his considerable energies to NYU’s alumni affairs department.

My old buddy, Alan Rosenberg graduated from AB Davis/MVHS and New York University. He is a long-time CPA, who has offices in both New York City and Scarsdale and is an avid sports fan and memorabilia collector. Alan also played basketball for NYU, and has been heavily active in NYU alumni affairs.
Bob Trupin another friend and an All-Ivy Basketball star at Yale has been a coach, camp director, teacher, and commentator. He has had a long career as camp director, he has taught at places as varied as the NYC school system, Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, the Guilford Arts Center, the Shoreline Foundation, and college summer programs. His sport’s column, “Handle on Sports” appeared in the Shoreline Times newspapers for many years.

Bob, who originally grew up and was educated in Mount Vernon, NY, was a Westchester High School All-County Basketball player, played basketball at Yale University, where he was selected All-Ivy and was drafted by the NY Knicks. He worked for the Knicks in the publicity department in the late 1960’s. He also has an MBA from NYU’s Graduate School of Business and a MS from Fordham University. Bob, Alan and Cal Ramsey have been guests on The Advocates over the years. On December, 14, 2011, both Alan, and Bob will join Bruce Fabricant and The Advocates again on my annual “Sport’s Roundup” program of WVOX. Tune in at www.wvox.com.

Nothing has changed in the decades since FDR’s times. Just listen to the current crop of right-wing brigands that represent the Republican Party and their Teabag Brigade Masters.

Just listen to their anti-women, anti-environment, anti-union, anti-safety net, anti-minorities, and anti American rhetoric. Just open your ears to their support for flat tax idiocy. Just listen to their rejection of the reality of global warming. Just listen to their flat-earth thinking. From Bachmann with her mindless diatribes, to Citizen Cain’s confusion on everything, to Romney’s flip-flops on every single issue, to the religious fanaticism of Santorum, the craziness of Paul, the hypocritical cynicism of Gingrich, and not left out, the lunacy of Perry, the GOP has rejected almost all of the positions they once stood for and are ready to thrust us pack to not only Jim Crow, but maybe even to the Articles of Confederation. They are the do-nothing party of hatred, the poor house, the sweat shop, the pollution of the past, and the triumph of the inter-locking directorate, the monopoly, the trusts and rule of the few over the many.

FDR summed it correctly in this passage from his speech at Madison Square Garden in October of 1936.
“They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.
I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.”

What was the message then and now? Should we turn our country over to these modern day flat-earth/flat-tax zealots? Should we reverse the clock back to not before the Great Society, or the New Deal, or the Progressive Era or back to the Articles of Confederation? Should we listen to Romney, who tells the distressed home owner, and I paraphrase, “there is no help for you, so let the market forces take your home and then you can rent it back!” Should we listen to Citizen Cain who wants to lower corporate taxes from 39% to 9% and the top bracket for 375,000 people (the 1%) who earn more than $1 million to 9%? But he is willing to add a regressive 9% to everyone including the working poor!
Governments can err, presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that Divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales.
Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.
Nothing has changed in the decades since FDR’s times. Just listen to the current crop of right-wing brigands that represent the Republican Party and their Teabag Brigade Masters.

Just listen to their anti-women, anti-environment, anti-union, anti-safety net, anti-minorities, and anti American rhetoric. Just open your ears to their support for flat tax idiocy. Just listen to their rejection of the reality of global warming. Just listen to their flat-earth thinking. From Bachmann with her mindless diatribes, to Citizen Cain’s confusion on everything, to Romney’s flip-flops on every single issue, to the religious fanaticism of Santorum, the craziness of Paul, the hypocritical cynicism of Gingrich, and not to be left out, the lunacy of Perry, the GOP has rejected almost all of the positions they once stood for and are ready to thrust us pack to not only Jim Crow, but maybe even to the Articles of Confederation. They are the do-nothing party of hatred, the poor house, the sweat shop, the pollution of the past, and the triumph of the inter-locking directorate, the monopoly, the trusts and rule of the few over the many. Whatever progressives they had from the party of Lincoln, which included folks like TR, Holmes, Dewey, Rockefeller, Javits and a number of others has long disappeared into the rebirth of the new Know-Nothings from the middle of the 19th Century.

FDR summed it correctly in this passage from his speech at Madison Square Garden in October of 1936.

“They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.

I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.”

What was the message then and now? Should we turn our country over to these modern day flat-earth/flat-tax zealots? Should we reverse the clock back to not before the Great Society, or the New Deal, or the Progressive Era or back to the Articles of Confederation? Should we listen to Romney, who tells the distressed home owner, and I paraphrase, “there is no help for you, so let the market forces take your home and then you can rent it back!” Should we listen to Citizen Cain who wants to lower corporate taxes from 39% to 9% and the top bracket for 375,000 people (the 1%) who earn more than $1 million to 9%? But he is willing to add a regressive 9% to everyone including the working poor!

FDR said: “Governments can err, presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that Divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales.

Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.

There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.”

There is no class warfare in those 1936 campaign remarks, just the truth. The class warfare started with the Reagan Years, his alliance with the old Dixiecrats of the South and the lowering of Federal taxes to two brackets 28 and 15%.

My name is Richard Garfunkel, and I want to thank this body for inviting me to speak tonight. I come here as a concerned citizen, who was raised in this lovely city over 66 years ago. I started high school at the AB Davis building approximately 50 years ago and I was in the last class to graduate from that edifice, and in the first class to be called the modern MVHS. I played varsity sports there and worked closely and developed a life-long friendship with the legendary Hank Littlefield and got quite friendly with the new coach Gene Ridenour, who spent many years serving this district.

In those years I got to know people like John Branca and Irv Halstead who guided athletics in Mount Vernon for many years. I even met the great Mount Vernon star quarterback Frank Carideo of Knute Rockne’s last Notre Dame team. I knew the coaches and leaders like: Dave Rider, Lorenzo Thomas, Ed Williams, Harry Bright, Al Cain, Randy Forrest, Bill Sywetz, Sully Mott, Arzelia Strong Thornton among others. Though we were from different backgrounds they were all critical to my development and knowledge of how to work with people. In fact, two of the schools in this district are named after Ed Williams and Nelly Thornton.

I met my wife Linda Rosen Garfunkel, who was student teaching at MVHS, while she was finishing her Masters degree at Columbia University after graduating from Barnard, while I was substitute teaching at the high school. I was temporarily working there while I was awaiting my OCS Class in the Air Force.

In my college years at Boston University, Mount Vernon hosted for the first time the Section I three county wrestling championships and I was asked to serve as the tournament director for Coach Henry Littlefield each of the years from 1965 through 1967. We won the Section I title every year from 1963- through 1967.

In the ensuing next years, even though I was married in 1969, I volunteered many hours and weekends to work with Dave Rider and Randy Forrest and their respective sports. By the mid 1970s, with a growing family, a business to run in NYC, and other responsibilities, my activities at the high school waned.

But, I have here a copy of a note and a telegram, sent to me by the then Congressman Richard L. Ottinger, who represented this district in 1975. When a MVHS track star named Ken McBryde, who was attending Manhattan College, was selected to be on the first America (AAU)-Chinese Track meet, the head of the NCAA banned him and other college athletes from the meet by threatening to have their scholarships revoked. I called Congressman Ottinger and he wrote Walter Byers and along with others pressured him to back down! Ken McBryde was allowed to participate in that critical international meet, which had a great deal to do with normalizing relationships with the People’s Republic of China. I have always been interested in MV and the rights of its residents.

In 1994, in the wake of the untimely death of my high school friend and classmate, Jon Breen, a former president of our class, a Dartmouth College, and Harvard Law School graduate and a Fulbright Scholar, I went to Superintendent Pratella, Brenda Smith, and LE Smith the head of the MVHS History Department, and suggested a yearly essay contest with a public policy theme.

Many in our Class of 1963, like Jon, went on to achieve excellent academic records in our best colleges and graduate schools. As I person who ran and assisted with all of our reunions; the 20th, 25th, 30th, 35th and the 40th, I got to know the life story and achievements of many, many of our classmates. I can say that without hesitation that MVHS and AB Davis HS produced an inordinate amount of doctoral scholars in many disciplines. I could easily say that Davis and Mount Vernon, with a pluralistic student body, all through those years, was one of the best suburban schools in America.

Over the years, from 1994 through last year, I have seen and met many of the best and the brightest students of MVHS. The Jon Breen Scholarship Fund, which I have chaired, has raised over $30,000. Much of it has been spent totally on giving out prizes for award winning essays on public policy. With the help of John Alberga and his successor Paul Court, the Chairs of the History Department, I was able to meet with their honors and AP Classes and give master class lectures on mid 20th Century history.

During the past five years I have hosted a radio show on WVOX called The Advocates, which specializes on public policy issues that range from education, health care, justice in America, and to a whole host of other issues.

On my program, I have had many shows devoted to education in America. I have interviewed your current Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Tony Sawyer, the volunteers and the director of the “Amazing Afternoons” program at the Ed Williams School, Mr. Daniel deVise, The Washington Post education editor, Professors Mark Taylor of Columbia University, John Loase of Concordia, Victor Cahn of Skidmore, John Valenti of the College of New Rochelle and a number of others whose concern is the future course of education. I have heard perspectives on all sorts of issues relating to how we improve our schools from the earliest grades through graduate studies.

Over these years I have witnessed a great change from my graduation over 48 years ago through my period of teaching and volunteering to the 17 years working with the Jon Breen Fund, the MVHS College Scholarship Committee, and Project 2000, a group founded by Brenda Smith and I to rehabilitate the MVHS auditorium and create a school of the performing arts.

I have watched the change from one of the great public school systems in America to one that is on the verge of bankruptcy. Of course, one can never discount the negative impact of the current recession and economic malaise, the widening gap between rich and poor, the breakup of the nuclear family and the demographic changes Mount Vernon has experienced over the past 45 years.

Over the years, until very recently, I could come into the MVHS on any afternoon to meet with school officials, teachers or students to discuss projects of interest without an iota of fear and with the utmost sense of security.

I am sad to say tonight that I cannot do that today with the confidence that I had in the past. In fact, I find the high school threatening. With the need for a chained parking lot, metal detectors, scores of hanger-ons sitting on the stone wall on California Road and the milling around of students in the halls, I have no desire to come to the high school under these conditions. Whether I am right, or wrong, these conditions give me the impression of a state of lawlessness, lack of over all control and fear. This attitude has been re-enforced by my many conversations with teachers and counselors.

The building complex is rundown, the lawns are unkempt, there is rust on the support columns outside, and the damaged curbs reflect decades of neglect. Recently when I went to our annual summer meeting of the MVHS Scholarship Committee, I noticed many cars parked in the fire lane, where parking is prohibited, though there were scores of spaces available on each side of the building. The building is drab, display cabinets have been vandalized, and there is a dreary look to the building. The building is under-utilized as the high school population continues to shrink. It seems to the casual observer to be half-empty, while there are two other high schools at other locations, with an obvious duplication of services and staff, draining off valuable resources. The whole concept of the new Mount Vernon HS, which is located far away from most of its students, was to unite the students, faculty, and administrators of both the old Davis and Edison campuses. Therefore the question must be asked, with this under-utilized campus, cannot these three entities be housed again under the same roof?

In recent years, we have witnessed a revolving door of principals and support staff, which has featured short term incumbents with no sense of permanence. This lack of continuity spills back on educational continuity and drives leery parents away from investing their children’s future into a system that has no idea of where it is going. The stories of fights, knifings and shootings has blared for years across the local the newspaper headlines.

Along with the physical and moral deterioration of the school system, there have been many changes regarding the internal educational structure. There was a multiplicity of plans that incorporated house leaders and all sorts of different educational configurations that have come and gone. I do not have the time here to review the multiple changes and the amount of people who have come and gone. For sure, few over the past 17 years have had any knowledge or interest in what I was doing.

When I started the Jon Breen Essay Contest in 1994, I received hundreds of essays, which were written by hand and typewriters. By 2008 I could hardly get more than two dozen and they were all computer generated and many were lifted directly from Wikipedia. In the last few years, after being totally frustrated by the lack of student and faculty interest, the cavalier plagiarism, and the handful of submissions, I discontinued the essay contest and asked the English and History Departments to submit the resumes of their best students and I would give a scholarship prize to them in the name of Jon Breen and Henry Littlefield. Recently I even stopped requesting the few transcripts that were available and left the choice to the advisors.

The change has been profound, disastrous and depressing. I will conclude my statement with one last vignette which focuses on the failure of the past Boards to fund adequately the capital improvements to this school system. On January 22, 2009, I met Superintendent Sawyer in his office at the Education House. My colleague, Mr. John Berenyi, an internationally known financier and an advisor to state and international governments, accompanied me that morning.

Mr. Berenyi and I had just finished a year long effort to review the structural integrity of the Mount Vernon Doles Center, the Griffin-Valentino Fire Station, City Hall, create a jobs incubator, review antiquated zoning laws, bring businesses to the City of Mount Vernon and create a vision statement for the City. This was all accomplished, except the creation of the jobs incubator.

In that period of time, I was referred by Dr. Lewis Perelman, a Mount Vernon HS graduate, a Phi Beta Kappa, CCNY graduate in physics and the recipient of a doctorate from Harvard University, an innovative educational thinker from Washington DC’s McKinley Tech. Dr. Perelman, the author of the well-know received and respected book, “School’s Out,” which predicted many of the problems we have experienced over the past two decades told me how the McKinley Tech HS, which was an urban school on the brink of bankruptcy, was turned around by an innovative programs involving the collaborative work of parents and teachers and the introduction new age technologies.

The purpose of my meeting with Dr. Sawyer was strictly focused on curriculum and the possible meeting between Dr. Sawyer and the people from McKinley Tech. I had no contract with or no agreement to represent these people in any financial way, and no other interest, except suggesting alternate ideas for the district.

At the meeting on January 22, 2009, I was introduced to another attendee, Mr Bill Weinmann, whom I was told was the Director of School Facilities and Operations, of the Mount Vernon City Schools. I have a copy of his card for your inspection. Since this was a meeting strictly scheduled to talk about curriculum, I had no idea why he was in attendance.

After I made my presentation to Dr. Sawyer, he answered very quickly that he had no money for any project and seemed to show no interest in what I was saying. I was basically suggesting a meeting, at no expense to the district, to have the people from the McKinley School’s ideas expressed, but quickly that was ruled out.

Since John Berenyi and I had just finished a year-long needs analysis for the city, I turned to Weinmann and casually asked him if the school district had recently had a “needs analysis” on their buildings. He answered that the district already had an analysis completed. I asked him who had completed this project. He answered, and I quote, “my company.” I was a bit taken aback and astounded. Immediately I wondered about the specter of conflict of a interest, but showed no change in emotion. I then asked him directly, “How much did your people charge?” He answered that the job was “done pro-bono!” At that time I had no idea whether the work was really done for the school system, or that he, as an employee of a company, contracted to do the work on the grounds and the buildings. In fact, I later learned that he was not on the payroll of the school system.

Eventually, since I didn’t feel that I had the right to ask any more questions, the meeting ended and we departed. On April 12, 2010 the massive wall at the MVHS, near the auditorium collapsed destroying a number of classrooms. Luckily, it was late in the day when the wall collapsed, or many lives could have been lost along with the potentiality of scores of injuries and countless lawsuits. Just by blind luck an absolute disaster was avoided.

On April 14th, two days later, in the wake of that disaster, which has cost the district $500, 000 above the insurance reimbursement, I wrote a letter to Mr. Brian Bochow Jr., the assistant to the Mayor, reminding him of my earlier discussion regarding the meeting the year before with Dr. Sawyer and Bill Weinmann. I inquired whether the city administration had an interest in the structural safety of the MV public schools. I asked him in that letter the same questions I am going to ask you tonight. I have included a copy of that letter and a follow-up letter sent to Mayor Clinton Young on May 26, 2010. I never received an answer from both gentlemen.

So here we are, a few years later and the wall was finally repaired at the cost of $1.5 million. The questions still remain:

A) Did a needs analysis ever really take place?
B) If it did, why was the roof and walls not thoroughly checked by engineers?
C) Was Weinmann’s company paid for this supposed work and what was his connection to the school system??
D) Where is the report, and what did it say? Were there other reports?
E) What was the conclusion regarding the investigation of why the wall collapsed?

I believe that this new Board has an obligation and responsibility to search out the answers and to find out the truth behind this costly incident. It is critical to know whether these building were really inspected and why the students of Mount Vernon were placed in imminent danger.
As to the City, I would hope that the public would demand to know why the current city administration did not follow up this request which was sent to them in writing.

If the current Board of Education wants to turn around this obviously declining system from its curtain free-fall, it must start right here and now. It must seek out the records, follow the money and open a new era of transparency, openness and responsibility. It must follow every lead and find out where the money has gone. It must ask the tough questions about its previous capital budgets and the neglect of its properties. It is therefore incumbent of the Board to question the previous policies regarding the lack of capital improvement and therefore, answer the question of happened to the $120 million that was allocated. The Board should question why in the last fifteen years the school population has been reduced by 15% from 10,000 students to 8,500 and why you have added more schools along with two extra high schools, while older ones remain in the state of severe deterioration.

The public rightly knows and believes that the key to turning around the city begins with the school system. Most communities rise and fall on the success of their school system. Property values are intrinsically tied to how well the school system prepares its students for the world outside. Education helps establish community roots, and a strong community will encourage businesses to come to Mount Vernon and prosper. That prosperity will create jobs.

This effort should start with the wall collapse, the contract with Bill Weinmann and the history of the “needs analysis.”