May 29, 2014 - WestchesterGuardian.com

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May 29, 2014 - WestchesterGuardian.com
PRESORTED
STANDARD
PERMIT #3036
WHITE PLAINS NY
Vol. VI, No. XXI
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
Thursday, May 29, 2014 • $1.00
SHERIF AWAD
Opera During
the Revolution
Page 8
JOHN F. McMULLEN
Creative Disruption
Let’s See Now
Page 13
JOHN SIMON
A Dose of Losses
Page 14
One More Obscene
Circus in Washington
By BOB K. BOGEN, Page 3
DEFINING MARRIAGE
DANIEL PIPES
Islamism with a
Human Face?
Page 16
LARRY M. ELKIN
Chasing a Chinese
Fire Truck
Page 18
LAW
The Making of
History or the
Unmaking of Our
Society?
By LUKE HAMILTON, Page 4
Brian Fanelli
Indicted on
Federal Child Porn
Charges
By NANCY KING, Page 4
WWW.WESTCHESTERGUARDIAN.COM
rience 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
Page 2
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THE WESTcHESTER GUARDiAn
THE WESTCHESTER
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Community Section ............................................................................... 4
Community
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Business ................................................................................................
Business
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Calendar
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Charity ..................................................................................................
Creative
Disruption
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Creative Disruption ............................................................................
Energy
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Education ............................................................................................. 867
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Writers
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Albany Correspondent
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Albany
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Mayor Marvin’s
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Education
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Mayor
Marvin’s
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Government
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The Hezitorial
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Government
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OpEd
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LegalSection
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OpEd
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Ed Koch Commentary.....................................................................23
People
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Ed
Koch
Letters
toCommentary.....................................................................23
the Editor ..........................................................................24
Strategyto...............................................................................................24
Letters
Editor............................................................................25
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Weir Onlythe
Human
OpEd
Section
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Weir
Only
Human
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Legal Notices ..........................................................................................26
Legal Notices ..........................................................................................26
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CLASSIFIED ADS
YOUR PARENTAL RIGHTS AND COMMITMENT OF GUARDIANSHIP AND CUSTODY OF THE
CHILD FOR THE PURPOSES OF ADOPTION, AND MAY FILE BEFORE THE END OF THE 15-MONTH
PERIOD.
Office Space Available-
Prime Location,
Yorktown
Heights
UPON GOOD CAUSE, THE COURT MAY ORDER AN INVESTIGATION
TO DETERMINE
WHETHSq. Ft.: $1800.
Wilca: 914.632.1230
ER THE NON-RESPONSENT PARENT(s) SHOULD1,000
BE CONSIDERED
ASContact
A RESPONDENT;
IF
THE COURT DETERMINES THE CHILD SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM HIS/HER HOME, THE
COURT MAY ORDER AN INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE
NON-RESPONDENTCounty
PrimeWHETHER
RetailTHE
- Westchester
PARENT(s) SHOULD BE SUITABLE
CUSTODIANS
FOR THE
CHILD;
IF THE CHILD
IS PLACEDHeights
AND
Thursday,
MAY
29,Best
2014
Location
in Yorktown
REMAINS IN FOSTER CARE FOR FIFTEEN1100
OF THE
RECENT
TWENTY-TWO
Sq.MOST
Ft. Store
$3100;
1266 Sq. MONTHS,
Ft. store THE
$2800 and 450 Sq. Ft.
AGENCY
MAY BE REQUIRED
TO FILE
PETITION FOR TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS OF
THURSDAY,
FEBRUARY
23,A 2012
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Store
$1200.
THE PARENT(s)
AND
COMMITMENT
OF
GUARDIANSHIP
AND
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OF
THE
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FOR
THE
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MARCH
29, 2012
Page
THURSDAY,
FEBRUARY
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PURPOSES OF ADOPTION,
EVEN IF23,
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IN
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Of Significance
HELP WANTED
A NON-CUSTODIAL PARENT HAS THE RIGHT TO REQUEST TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT CUS-
A non profit OF
Performing
Arts
Center
is seeking
two job positions- 1) DirecTODY OF THE CHILD AND TO SEEK ENFORCEMENT
VISITATION
RIGHTS
WITH
THE CHILD.
tor of Development- FT-must have a background in development or expeBY ORDER
OF THE FAMILY COURT OF THE
STATE
OF NEW YORK
rience
fundraising,
knowledge of what development entails and
Feature
Section..................................................................................................................................
3 experience working
with sponsors/donors;
2) Operations
TO THE ABOVE-NAMED RESPONDENT(S)
WHO RESIDE(S)
OR IS FOUND
AT [specifyManager- must have a
Bogen
Perspective........................................................................................................................
good knowledge of computers/software/ticketing systems, duties3 include
address(es)]:
overseeing all box office, concessions, movie staffing, day of show lobby
Westchester On the
Level
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to Friday,
from NY
1010701
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Marriage.........................................................................................................................................
4 POS
Last known addresses: TIFFANY RAY: 24staffing
Garfieldsuch
Street,
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Merchandise
seller, bar sales. Must be familiar with
Noon on the Internet: http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterOntheLevel.
system
and
willing
to organize
concessions.
Full time plus hours. Call (203)
Last
known
addresses:
KENNETH
THOMAS:
24
Garfield
Street,
#3,
Yonkers,
NY
10701
The Law..........................................................................................................................................
4
Because of the importance
of a Federal court case438-5795
purporting
corruption
bribery
and ask
for Julie orand
Allison
An Orderwith
to Show
Cause under Article
10 days
of the of
Family
Court 26
Act to
having
been
filed
with this Court
allegations,
programming
be
suspended
for
the
March
29,
2012.
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Monday
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Section.........................................................................................................................
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the from
placement
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on
Internet:
http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterOntheLevel.
Join
YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear before this Court at Yonkers Family Court
Calendar.........................................................................................................................................
6
March
30.
on
the
Internet: by
http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterOntheLevel.
Join
the
conversation
calling
toll-free
to
1-877-674-2436.
Please
stay
on
topic.
located
at
53
So.
Broadway,
Yonkers,
New
York,
on
the
28th
day
of
March,
2012
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Richard
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week
beginning
February
20th
and
ending
February
24th,
we
have
an
exciting
entourage
of
guests.
programming schedule
and of
announce
fact on
theAct.
Yonkers Tribune website.
Economic
Development.............................................................................................................
9on
provisions
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February
24th,
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have
an
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of
guests.
Richard
Narog
and
Hezi
Aris
are
co-hosts
of
the
show.
Every Monday is Gre’s
special.
On
Monday,
February
20th,
Wade,
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is a novel
mother
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who works
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People.
..........................................................................................................................................
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from home and writes
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Dated: January 30, 2012
BY ORDER OF THE COURT
Reunion........................................................................................................................................
12
Tune in and find out.
Co-hosts Richard Narog2 and
Hezi Aris will relish
the1 column
dissection
column
CLERK
OF
THE COURTof all things politics on Tuesday, February
Co-hosts
Richard
andPresident
Hezi ArisChuck
will relish
the
dissection
of his
all things
politicsfrom
on Tuesday,
February
21st. Yonkers
CityNarog
Council
Lesnick
will share
perspective
the august
inner
Technology/Creative
Disruption.
............................................................................................
13
21st.
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share 22nd.
his perspective
from the
august
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of theCity
CityCouncil
CouncilPresident
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on Wednesday,
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Esq.,
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share
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on Theatre.
............................................................................................................................
14
sanctum
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Wednesday,
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Government.
.................................................................................................................................... 17
The Week That Was
(TWTWTW).
For those who cannot join us live, consider listening to the show by way of an MP3 download, or on
Mayor
Marvin.............................................................................................................................
18link
For
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or
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ending,
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ouranarchive
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Within
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show’s
ending,
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can
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in
our
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link
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Corrent
Commentary...............................................................................................................
16
Legal Notices,
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
Page 3
even
producing an
annual
budget
surplus.
Of
c o u r s e,
Clinton
could not
foresee, or
even imagine,
the
following
decade
of the war in
Afghanistan, much
less the obscenely dishonest Iraq War. In any
event the following eight years of
the Bush Administration made available
some additional funds for the VA. These
were totally inadequate to rebuild the VA
system of hospitals, other facilities, staff,
professional training and administration to
meet the huge demands of enormous groups
of new war veterans.
Surely those Republicans who blocked
Congressional action to meet this large
growing demand are the villains. Stop
the cheap shots at one of our most highly
regarded and experienced military experts,
and deal with the problem caused by
Republican Congressional obstructions.
Name
the real
villains and
make them
pay at the polls in
November and for as long
as they remain to blight our nation and
our veterans.
FeatureSection
THE BOGEN PERSPECTIVE
One More Obscene Circus in Washington
By BOB K. BOGEN
One more political diversion
from critical issues is well
underway. This one seems
designed to take advantage
of Memorial Day for another
pathetic attempt to divert attention from a
real and major problem… our failure to meet
our obligation to care for our veterans of
military service.
Of course the purpose of the new circus
is not simply to dishonor those who have
chosen to serve our nation in military service
at the risk of life and limb as well as substantial mental disability for any following
civilian life. The clear intent of Congressional
malefactors is to gain political advantage at
any price and divert funds from veterans’ care
to the pockets of those who control them by
paying for their election campaigns.
Let’s get real. Veterans’ care has been
slashed from the 1990s, when the number of
veterans of earlier wars from World War Two
have almost all gone to their eternal reward,
the number of Korean War vets has very
largely been reduced, and even the number
of Viet Nam vets has substantially faded
during the presidential terms of men with
no foreign war experience. Most recently
even our Congress has lost the presence of
war vets who can appreciate the related life
and death experience and perspective.
I, myself, have only limited military
experience: several years including two in the
Far East. Since then I have been a practicing
member of the Religious Society of Friends,
Quakers, and so have become less and less
sympathetic with foreign wars. I have always
doubted much of our nation’s sad military
adventures, many of which were basically
on behalf of related corporate interests, and
although as a teenager I followed daily the
“Good War after Pearl Harbor, including
my older brother’s military service and that
of other relatives and friends in the West
Pacific and Europe.
Nevertheless veterans’ service was
undertaken on our behalf, under our
elected federal government’s programs,
and obligates all of us to take responsibility
for their care. As one personal and, strong
example, my wife devoted her career as a
helping professional to decades in a Veterans
Administration hospital, assisting veterans
with Viet Nam disabilities often including
Post Traumatic Stress Disorders, PTSD,
from brain injuries caused by military
explosives.
Many hundreds of vets were given
intensive retraining under her care, along
with medical, psychological, and psychiatric
therapy. Many went out to productive and
satisfying lives after discharge. My wife still
hears from some, decades later. But at the
time of her retirement, massive cuts in such
programs started, while many still needed
such help.
It is extremely irritating to hear the
current blather in Congress and in the media
concentrating attention on attacks against
the head of the Veterans Administration,
General Shinseki, the president, and anyone
who is a member of the “blue” Democratic
Party, but even some major Democrats.
Some will recall that the Army Chief
of Staff, Four Star General Shinseki was
forced to leave military service, when top
officials in the George Bush Administration
dishonestly promoting the obscene war in
Iraq objected to his, later validated, accurate
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estimate to a Congressional hearing inquiry,
that several hundred thousand US military
would be required to manage Iraq after the
proposed invasion.
One of the first acts of President Barack
Obama, in the first month after his 2008
election, was to bring Shinseki back into
government as Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Shinseki was highly decorated and a much
regarded leader in military affairs, a wounded
veteran of the Viet Nam War and largely
effective head of the VA.
Despite all the accusations and even the
likely legitimate complaints about administration, the problem of the VA long delays in
dealing with vets is more basic. Quite surely
the true basic problem is the drastic cuts in
VA appropriations in Congress. These cuts
led to the closing of VA hospitals and related
facilities, cuts in key programs, and related
loss of highly trained, experienced staff.
These budget cuts were originally justified by the decline in Viet Nam veterans’
needs, but also by Southern Democrat Bill
Clinton’s stampede to balance the federal
budget, without the obvious need to increase
taxes on the very rich, as was done by
President Eisenhower decades before. The
budget was more than balanced by Clinton,
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Page 4
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
DEFINING MARRIAGE
The Making of History or the Unmaking of Our Society?
By LUKE HAMILTON
It seems there isn’t a news
cycle which goes by without
someone “making history”
these days. Everyone and
everything is making history
everywhere at all times, apparently. It’s hard
to pinpoint when this trend started, but the
“historic”election of Barack Obama certainly
brought the fascination with history-creation into vogue. Now it seems that a story
isn’t worth covering unless some history has
been made. What is behind this trend? Why
the fascination with making history? Does
the predictive power of potential importance
really imply worth and meaning?
Just this week, history was apparently
made during two significant events. The first
was Oregon becoming the 18th state to recognize so-called gay marriage. This change
was achieved by adherence to the same
playbook which has brought so-called gay
marriage advocates success over the past year:
they brought a case against the state, challenging the constitutionality of a so-called
gay marriage ban, and found themselves
arguing the case in front of a highly-sympathetic federal judge. Much like the judge
who ruled on Proposition 8 in California,
Judge Michael McShane found himself in a
situation where he could grant a ruling from
which he stood to reap the benefits. Judge
McShane is himself in a same-sex relationship and could not resist the opportunity to
make history by overturning the will of the
people, as it had been expressed via the legislative process.
In 2004, Oregonians had voted overwhelmingly to define marriage as being
solely between a man and a woman. This
had never been rescinded by subsequent legislation, despite claims that a majority of the
state now supports so-called gay marriage.
For some reason, the judge was not forced to
recuse himself in this case, despite his own
subjective position on the matter. Would a
self-professing Christian judge be allowed
to overturn a ban on teaching intelligent
design in the public school classrooms? One
can almost hear liberal pinheads popping in
angst over the thought of such history in the
making.
was called by one reporter—wait for it—an
“historic victory”.
Why this fascination with making
history? It’s clear that progressives and social
do-gooders get a tangible thrill up the leg
from being a part of history in the making. So
much so that they look for opportunities to
recreate the feeling by forcing radical change
rewarding a slur-ridden, incoherent screed
with the National Debate Championship?!?
Because it will be HISTORIC! Duh…”
And let’s not neglect to highlight a
favorite nuance of progressives here. By
putting these unnatural abrogations of the
rule of law in the context of history-beingmade, they are subliminally implying that
The second significant history-making
event this week was the crowning of Towson
University’s debate team during the 2014
Cross Examination Debate Association
National Championship. The topic was the
War Powers Resolution, which Towson’s
team used as an opportunity to launch
into a jarring cacophony littered with racist
slurs and college-speak. (Just the mention
of “otherness” provokes the desire to stop
by the student union for a pick-up drum
circle. (Am I right?) The debate performance
was unpalatable and awful, yet the Towson
team walked away with the trophy in what
on the rest of us in increasingly drastic ways;
much the same way a junkie isn’t born overnight but moves from an occasional joint
to popping pills to quivering in line at the
methadone clinic, always moving in search
of a higher high. They got such a buzz from
foisting the first Marxist President on the
rest of us that they’ve had to look for more
drastic means to “make history”.
“Override the political wishes of the citizenry, while bypassing the legislative reform
process? HECK YEAH! Roll out those
rainbow limos, it’s so-called wedding time!!!”
“What do you mean, why are we
this is a one-way street. History cannot be
un-made and so if they are truly making
history by forcing the acceptance of their
worldview, they are planting the theme of
inevitability and immutable change in our
minds. To quote network television, they
hope that this is now “the new normal”.
Progressives have been using this technique for ages, attempting to draw us into
knocking down one social foundation after
another, always in the name of progress
and history. This has been readily apparent
in the admonitions surrounding the global
warming debate. If the “science is settled”
and the “debate is over” then we should get
straight to the business of buying government Yugo’s and tugging a forelock in Al
Gore’s general direction.
What Oregonian matrimony and
Towson U’s championship demonstrate is
that for leftists, feeling good is better than
doing good. It feels good to give someone
something they don’t deserve. But the very
act of bestowing undeserved favor on the
unworthy necessarily creates injustice. God
is able to bestow salvation on the unworthy
because He placed the resultant injustice of
the act upon His Son, Who carried it willingly. The difference being that when man
does it, he usually seeks to ignore the injustice or define it away. Towson University
wins the championship despite turning in
a terrible performance. This is unjust and
unless the adjudicating body acknowledges
the injustice and atones for it, the injustice is
allowed to thrive and grow, until the criteria
of merit is so unbalanced and unrecognizable
that the very definitions of “good” and “bad”
in debate performances are meaningless.
None of this is lost on those who are
making it so. It is, in fact, their goal. They
seek to strip our cultural institutions of all
meaning so that we are left rudderless and
vulnerable to their reprogramming. Sadly,
the feel-good sheeple are more than willing
to carry the water to their own drowning.
Luke Hamilton is classically-trained,
Shakespearean actor from Eugene, Oregon who
happens to be a liberty-loving, right- wing,
Christian constitutionalist. When not penning
columns for ClashDaily.com, Hamilton
spends his time astride the Illinois-Wisconsin
border, leading bands of liberty-starved citizens
from the progressive gulags of Illinois to [relative]
freedom. Hamilton is the creative mind/voice
behind Pillar & Cloud Productions, a budding
production company which resides at http://
www.PillarCloudProductions.com.He
owes all to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
whose strength is perfected in his weakness.
LAW
Brian Fanelli Indicted on Federal Child Porn Charges
By NANCY KING
Former Mount Pleasant
Police Chief Brian Fanelli
pled not guilty to Federal
charges of distributing and
sharing child pornography
over the Internet this past week. Fanelli,
52, had just three months prior to his arrest
in January, been promoted to chief of the
Mount Pleasant Police Department upon
the retirement of Lou Alagno. As if these
charges themselves were not shocking
enough, Fanelli was also the first high
ranking officer on the scene at the October
2010 shooting death of DJ Henry in the
parking lot of a strip mall in Thornwood, NY.
At the time of Henry’s death, Chief Alagno
was out of town and Fanelli took over as the
commanding officer of the scene. Henry
was shot to death by Pleasantville Police
Officer Aaron Hess. It is being alleged by the
family of DJ Henry that Fanelli manipulated
the written reports of what actually transpired that night. Simply put, Fanelli lied to
keep the thin Blue line intact.
After multiple police units were
cleared of all wrong doing in that case by
Westchester County District Attorney Janet
DeFiore, a Federal Civil Suit was filed by the
family and after nearly two years, depositions
by witnesses have only just concluded. Every
bar patron at Finnegan’s was deposed, every
student and every police officer as well.
The patron’s and the students account of
the events of that night were quite different from the account of the police reports;
reports that had then Lt. Brian Fanelli’s signature on them. The lone police officer who
corroborated the testimony of those private
citizens about the events of that night was
former Police Officer Ron Beckley. Under
oath, Beckley testified that that Pleasantville
Police Officer Aaron Hess was indeed the
aggressor who lunged onto the hood of
Henry’s car and shot him. The knee injury
that Hess claimed was from Henry mowing
him down with his car camera was instead
from a bullet wound from Beckley’s department issued firearm.
What makes this case so confusing and
unbelievable is not so much whether Fanelli
is guilty of viewing and distributing child
Continued on page 5
lead on this issue at a minimum underscores
the inadequacy of the federal minimum
that is still $7.25. But it also demonstrates
that cities are prepared to consider policies
that are specifically suitable to their own
needs, most notably their respective communities’ higher costs of living. This is
clearly the case with both San Francisco
and San Diego in a state that just raised its
statewide minimum to $9.00 an hour.
LAW
It also demonstrates that localities are
willing to take the lead and adopt bold
measures at a time similar measures stall in
the halls of the U.S. Congress. For decades,
the issue of the minimum wage has been
Continued
from page
4 where each side of
mired in partisan
politics
pornography but the question as to whether
there was always a flaw in his character. Was
he known to lie and manipulate facts? The
final burning question as to whether there
were those in the office within the Town of
Mt. Pleasant who may have seen some sort
of flaw in this guy and chose to look away.
Was this an upstanding citizen of a community or was he really nothing more than
a master manipulator? Had he manipulated other cases as well? If those who
worked side by side with him for 30 years
noticed something just slightly “off ” with
Fanelli, why was he allowed to move up
the ranks? Sure he’s been touted as a technology whiz who maintained the Police
Department’s website and saved them the
cost of hiring an IT guru, but there had
to have been something more that went
undetected all these years. One has to
wonder if this is a case of see nothing, say
nothing.
Though Fanelli pled not guilty and
pre-trial conferences are being scheduled,
more has come to light about this strange
and twisted case. Fanelli was part of a
ring of 71 child porn viewers and distributors that were all tied together in a sting
known as Operation Caireen, a sting that
was initiated after Fanelli’s initial arrest in
January. Included in this take down was a
Boy Scout leader, a youth sports coach, a
Rabbi, an NYPD sergeant, EMS workers
and a nurse from the Westchester Medical
Center. All of these people appeared to be
respected members of the community…
just like Fanelli.
You can’t help wonder if this indictment and the indictment of so many
others will change the game in the
wrongful death suit brought by the family
of DJ Henry. Will it be proven that
through a strange psychological disorder
that Fanelli was compelled to fabricate the
actual evidence of that night’s events? Did
he do it to gain favor from the District
Attorney’s office to ensure that his promotion to chief would go as planned? Or was
he always the type of person to manipulate an event or situation to satisfy his own
need to dominate his environment?
The indictment and subsequent chain
of events this week has a creep factor
of a bazillion degrees. One can’t even
imagine what the Henry family is feeling
at this juncture. While they always had a
sneaking suspicion that Fanelli had altered
the recorded events of the night of their
son’s murder, they are probably wondering how many other cases Fanelli had the
wage might represent a tipping point — the
point at which any minimum above would
start to bite — it is probably safe to infer
that a minimum wage at $15.00 an hour
is still going to be below a market clearing
wage, and all the more so with a $13.00 an
hour wage.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
And yet, the benefits to local communities could be enormous. The recent
report of the Congressional Budget Office
made it clear that at least sixteen million
American workers would get a pay raise.
When we consider that those earning
in wage intervals above the statutory
minimum will also get a raise, it isn’t hard
to see how the benefits will trickle up the
Local communities taking the lead on
this issue only brings back to life Brandeis’s
famous expression of states as laboratories
of democracy. This idea certainly applied
to localities, where the Framers of the
Constitution believed democracy would
have its fullest expression. That there have
been no adverse effects in localities where
borders are porous, suggests that the
minimum wage is a viable policy at the
national level.
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
Page 5
Oren Levin-Waldman is professor of public
policy in the School for Public Affairs at
Metropolitan College of New York (olevinwaldman@metropolitan.edu ) and author
of several to
books
on wage
include
proclivity
alter.
If he policy.
decidesThey
to take
a
plea in order to lessen the federal pornography charges being levied against him,
they might just get the truthful answer
they were looking for all along. It won’t
change the events of that night and it
won’t bring their son back from the dead,
but at the end of the day justice will be
served. I have a friend who loves to say
that justice delayed will always be justice
denied. I tend to disagree with that statement, sometimes justice just has to be
delayed long enough for Karma to kick in.
Brian Fanelli Indicted on Federal Child Porn Charges
Nancy King is a freelance who resides in
Westchester County.
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Page 6
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
CommunitySection
CALENDAR
Experience a Variety of Cultures at Kensico Dam Plaza
Albanian Festival Kicks Off Annual Series of Heritage Festivals in County Parks
WHITE PLAINS, NY -- The culture
of Albania will come alive through music,
dance and activities for all ages during the
Albanian-American Heritage Celebration
at Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla on Sunday,
June 1, 2014, 12 Noon to 7 p.m., the first in
the annual series of cultural heritage festivals
in county parks.
Enjoy live music and sports activities
including soccer and volleyball. Traditional
arts and crafts items will be available
for purchase, and there will be delicious
Albanian foods and beverages for sale.
The festival will be held rain or shine.
Seating is informal; bring blankets or folding
chairs for seating on the lawn.
The other heritage festivals in the series
are as follows:
· Asian-American, June 14, noon to 6 p.m.,
Kensico Dam Plaza, Valhalla
· African-American, June 22, noon to 7
p.m., Kensico Dam Plaza, Valhalla
· Irish-American, June 29, noon to 6 p.m.,
Ridge Road Park, Hartsdale
· Polish, July13, noon to 6 p.m., Kensico
Dam Plaza, Valhalla
· Hispanic, July 20, noon to 7 p.m., Kensico
Dam Plaza, Valhalla
· Italian, July 27, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Kensico
Dam Plaza, Valhalla
· Indian, August 3, 12:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.,
Kensico Dam Plaza, Valhalla
· Jewish Music Festival, August 17, noon to
6 p.m., Kensico Dam Plaza, Valhalla
All festivals are sponsored by
Westchester County Parks.
Please be advised that on June 1 and
22 the Bronx River Parkway will be closed
for Bicycle Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
between Scarsdale Road in Yonkers and
the Westchester County Center in White
Plains. The park can be accessed via Route
22, from the north or south.
For more information and directions
to the parks, call (914) 864-PARK or go to
www.parks.westchestergov.com .
Yorktown Library Host Author Patrick Raftery’s June 12th Discussion of
African American Cemeteries in Westchester
By RICH MONETTI
You cannot travel very far
in Westchester without
coming across a burial
site that dates back well
beyond our current century.
Each stone contains hidden historical
value, advised author Patrick Raftery of the
Westchester Historical Society. Raftery has
written three volumes on the subject and
will be presenting a discussion at Yorktown’s
John C. Hart Memorial Library on African
American Cemeteries in Westchester
County.
“I think through burial practices, you
learn a lot about people and the situations
they faced,” noted Raftery, author of The
Cemeteries of Westchester County.
Easily forgotten, most New Yorkers
don’t associate Westchester County with
slavery and segregation. The institution of
slavery was not abolished until 1827; equal
consideration thereafter was far from the
norm. “Both of them definitely did exist,”
says Raftery, and cemeteries provide the
most concrete proof.
A resting place for slaves finally untied
the dead from the land after abolition, but
a place beneath land worked by slaves was
only reserved if the owner set aside burial
plots. “Generally, slaves were buried in a
potter’s field environment,” Raftery advised,
and those have largely been lost by their
anonymity.
After abolition, death still carried indignity for African Americans and conformed
to the demeanor and attitudes of the times.
“It’s interesting to see how these burial
processes evolved. First, there were slave
burial sites; quickly followed by cemeteries
becoming segregated,” noted Raftery.
The documentation clearly bears
this out. “Cemetery deeds specified that
black people couldn’t be buried at specific
cemeteries, and so it is realized why these
segregated burial grounds were established,”
Raftery emphasized.
In the case of St Paul’s Church in Mt.
Vernon, among other locations, a section
was reserved for African Americans, but
Westchester certainly had people who
realized that their home wasn’t living up to
the ideals of our society. “There are however
two cemeteries that were donated – one
in New Rochelle and the other in Rye,”
Raftery shared.
The New Rochelle cemetery established by a Quaker evokes the Quaker
tradition that’s calls for a very basic remembrance. “For the most part, the sites are
marked by simple rocks,” Raftery pointed
out.
That obviously upped the ante in terms
of identifying those particular families, but
it was a process no matter where he looked.
“I had to get a good deal of information to
figure out who those families were, what
their background was, and so that involved
going through volumes of census and genealogy records,” said Raftery.
The Quakers also played a part in
remembering African Americans in death
by giving them the gift of life. Many freeing
their slaves in the late 1700s, Quakers set up
families in an isolated section of Harrison
to give them cover from the prejudice that
Continued on page 7
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
CALENDAR
PELZ_Westchester_14_Layout 1 5/19/2014 6:03 PM Page 1
Yorktown Library Host Discussion of African American Cemeteries in Westchester
Continued from page 6
was in the area about them. “They had a
church and the Stone Hill Cemetery still
stands,” noted Raftery.
Other than that, there is only one
African American family plot Raftery
knows of. It is located in New Castle. By the
time of the 20th Century cemeteries would
be made available to all. “The idea of segregated cemeteries faded away, and so did the
idea of taking care of them,” Said Raiftery.
There has been a concerted effort in
recent years to resurrect those old cemeteries; their secrets uncovered in the process.
“They went from being symbols of segregation to symbols of people’s ancestors, and
Centennial Golf Club
Rich Monetti has been a freelance writer since
2003. He lives in Westchester County.
Nice weather must be
fast approaching as I
have moved our outdoor
cushions to the front
porch, cleaned my grill and washed
the patio furniture; exhausted, but still
found enough energy to write this week’s
“summer coming soon” edition of “News
& Notes.”
Congratulations to two Bedford
locals who will be honored at the Friends
of Karen Charity Gala in June. Former
White House Press Secretary Ari
Fleischer and former president of The
Junior League of Northern Westchester
Becki Fleischer will receive the Sheila
W. Petersen Award. Named in honor of
Friends of Karen’s founder, this award is
given to people who have demonstrated
outstanding commitment to Friends of
Karen’s mission and children. Proceeds
from the gala will benefit the hundreds
of children battling cancer or another
life-threatening illness in the tri-state
area whose families turn to Friends of
Karen for help every day. Since 1978 over
13,000 children and families have been
touched by this giving organization.
Our friends at the Community
Center of Northern Westchester in
Katonah have secured 35 spots for
children of families who visit the community center, to attend sleepaway camp
in New England this summer. These kids
will need camp gear. If you would like to
donate gently-used sleeping bags, rain
gear (boots and jackets) or sunscreen and
bug spray… please drop them off during
center hours.
Put this sweet event on your
calendar…The 77th Annual Strawberry
Festival in Chappaqua takes place on
Saturday, June 7th, from 11am to 4pm,
at the Episcopal Church of St. Mary the
Virgin. Kids from toddler age to teens
can enjoy a day of games & prizes, bounce
castles, music, BBQ and, of course, the
Festival’s traditional strawberry shortcake
and smoothies. The featured musical act
is the long-adored Annie and the Natural
Wonder Band, which will perform on the
great lawn from 12-12:40pm, and again
from 2-2:40pm. For adults, the event also
features a wide variety of craft vendors,
attic treasures, raffles, a bake sale and
other musical acts throughout the day.
Proceeds benefit the parish’s outreach
fund that supports a number of local
philanthropic organizations.
Students of the Katonah Art
Center will display their best work to
family friends and the community at the
Katonah Village Library from May 31st
to June 29th. This is the 17th annual event
and kicks off with a grand opening reception on Saturday, May 31st from 2 to 4pm.
The Vietnam Veterans of America
is looking for your reusable clothing and
household items; they will have a local
northern Westchester pickup on May
29th. Call 800-775-8397.
Summer campers at Muscoot Farm
can now have the best of both worlds:
learning how children in days past spent
their leisure time both in the world
CHIP CLOSER • SINK MORE PUTTS • IMPROVE WEDGE & SAND PLAY
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their perseverance through tough times,”
Raftery suggested.
Raftery believes that the value of his
talks are worthy of being heard. It is often
erroneously thought that the African
American experience began with the great
migrations after the Civil War, yet Raftery
counters, “There definitely was an African
American presence going back to the
earliest times of settlement in Westchester.”
Raftery’s presentation may sincerely be
considered worthy of remembrance because
they invoke historical fact.
June 2 - July 12 - Sign Up Today!
News & Notes from Northern Westchester
By MARK JEFFERS
Page 7
of nature and in creative play, during
Muscoot’s Outdoor Theater Camp
and the new Naturalist Apprenticeship
Program. Both are being offered this
summer at the farm in Somers.
Congratulations to Claire Furio of
Armonk for her art piece: “Tiger Eyes,”
which was the grand prize winner of the
2014 Congressional Art Competition.
A “Warbler Walk” to hear and see
these small, beautiful birds as they travel
through the Pound Ridge Reservation on
their way back for spring will take place
on Saturday, June 7th, at 8am.
This is the last weekend of
LIGHTSCAPES at Van Cortland
Manor in Croton-on-Hudson and it
is a “must see” event. Ideal for all ages,
LIGHTSCAPES illuminates the night
with a walk-through, land-art experience where visitors enter through a
rainbow and emerge from a bubbly
haze into a dreamland of curiosities
spread throughout a historic landscape.
LIGHTSCAPES takes place, rain or
shine, and admission is by timed ticket
only, with the first slot at 8:30 pm. Time
slots and dates will sell out, so Historic
Hudson Valley strongly recommends
buying in advance online or by phone
914-366-6900.
Congratulations and good luck to all
the area college graduates. Welcome to
the real world; it really isn’t so bad… see
you next week.
Mark Jeffers resides in Bedford Hills, New
York, with his wife Sarah, and three daughters, Kate, Amanda, and Claire.
512-263-7668
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Page 8
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
Opera During the Revolution
By SHERIF AWAD
Many foreigners fell in
love with Egyptian culture
and the Arabic language,
so much so, that Egypt
became their second home.
Italian-born singer and actress Sarita
Marchesi was among those who lived
in Egypt during the most recent three
troubled years, experiencing and sharing
Sarita Marchesi.
all the good and bad with the people about
her.
Born and raised in the Italian City
of Florence, the Renaissance’s source
in European history, Sarita Marchesi’s
Dutch mother was an art collector; her
Italian father was a renowned Italian
classic guitar player of South American
music. Marchesi’s father named “Sarita”
which means “Little Sara” in Latino countries. The artistic family used to organize
art exhibitions inside their Tuscany house
where Sarita was growing up in an aesthetic environment varying between
paintings and sculptures. This drove her
to devote herself to arts and music in her
teen years until she ultimately studied art
history in Leiden University and classical music and opera in Theater Academy
Amsterdam.
Although she worked with renowned
theater directors like Peter Sellars at
Amsterdam Opera House, Marchesi considers the internationally renowned Dutch
star Rutger Hauer to be her true tutor and
real mentor in acting and performing arts.
Hauer, who was famous for his roles in
films like Blade Runner and The Hitcher,
started Film Factory, an Amsterdambased workshop in acting and directing,
where Marchesi was enrolled in 2006
only to become assistant Hauer in his
masterclasses.
Later, an accidental meeting with
Iraqi-born, Amsterdam based film critic
Intishal al-Tamimi at the Rotterdam
International Film Festival introduced
Sarita Marchesi to Arab film and culture.
“Intishal invited me to join him as one of
the co-organizers of the Rotterdam Arab
Film Festival”, she remembered. “There is
a lot of tension and prejudice between the
Dutch people and the Arab community
across The Netherlands. The Arab Film
Festival in Rotterdam helped to create this
intercultural dialogue through cinema in
order to bring them together”.
The exposure to Arab films and the
acquaintance of their filmmakers during
the annual editions of the Arab Film
Festival in Rotterdam affected Sarita so
profoundly; to the extent that she decided
to come to Egypt in 2010 in order to
learn Arabic and to discover Egyptian
arts, ancient and contemporary. Arriving
Sarita teaching Bedouin children how to brush their teeth.
in Alexandria, Sarita was introduced to
baritone Dr. Gaber El-Betlagy who cast
her to sing a repertoire of Arie Antiche
at the Alexandria Bibliotheca (Library).
Her performance drew the attention of
AUC Voice Teacher Neveen Allouba,
who invited her for additional training
at the Cairo Opera. Then suddenly, the
revolution intervened in 2011. “I was
at the Lotus Hotel near Tahrir Square
Sarita Marchesi, Bedouin’s Style.
Egypt. It was like a new world opening in
front of my eyes, a treasure I never knew it
existed and a piece of Italy that reminded
me of our grandparents”.
During the days of the revolution the
Italian Consulate asked the Italian community to evacuate Alexandria and offered
free tickets and transportation back to
Italy. However, Sarita was inquisitively
intrigued, so much so, she decided to stay
Rutger Hauer, Sarita Marchesi’s acting mentor.
when two of my friends told me to leave
Cairo because something big was going
to happen”, Sarita remembered. “So at
six o’clock on the morning of the 25th of
January, I went back to Alexandria where
I stayed at La Casa di Riposo Vittorio
Emanuele III, a building designed in 1927
by the Italian architect E. Verrucchi. In
the past, it was a meeting place for Italian
families living in Alexandria, thereafter it
became the Hospice of Italian Old People
who never left Alexandria. I was familiar
with that place which is next to Alexandria
University because I first visited it back in
the summer of 2010 when I first arrived in
and started to shoot her own documentary
about the revolution. “While I was in the
hospice, Franco Greco, an old Italian man
who has been in Alexandria his entire life,
asked me to sing opera for the old people
to comfort them and prevent them from
hearing the gunshots outside. Soon all
the people about me became my second
family in Egypt. My old audience was the
best I could ever have hoped for: funny
old ladies with great spirit presenting a
portrait of Italian women that do not exist
nowadays in my own country.
Fiorina always wore black because of
the death of her husband many years ago.
Gennaro remembered his youth during
the British occupation of Egypt. When
Mubarak stepped down, I took the first
train and went celebrating in Tahrir Square
with millions of Egyptians. The Egyptian
revolution ran in my blood, carrying it for
the rest of my life. Cairo and Alexandria
Cairo was a blessing. Young people were
cleaning the streets and metro stations
featured graffiti about the new Egypt that
everybody dreamt of. I was walking along
many streets, smoking shisha and talking
for hours and hours. I learned so much
from the Egyptian people.”
After the high adrenaline experienced
in the revolution, Sarita decided to take a
break in South Sinai far from the madding
crowd. “I spent four months in Nuweibaa
where I volunteered in the “Habiba”
Learning Center that tries to overcome the
lack of children’s education in this amazing
area of Egypt where thousands of stars
shine at night”, she said. “In “Habiba, we
tried to teach children another language
accompanied by some music while also
showing them some hygienic disciplines
like bathing and brushing their teeth. It
was hilarious when I started to sing opera
for them and their families. Children in
these remote areas are neglected due to the
nomadic lifestyles of their Bedouin parents
who move from one place to the other in
accord with various seasons throughout
the year. Another factor is the geographical aspect that separate South Sinai from
the rest of Egypt and the lack of investment in this area”.
Gaining the trust of the Bedouin
tribes that are very suspicious by nature,
“Habiba” was already fully-packed with
kids coming to learn even before the full
Continued on page 9
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
Page 9
how Egyptian TV drama approaches historical events and real-life figures, which
is quite different from European productions”. Sarita continues to reside in Cairo,
Italy, and Amsterdam.
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.
WestchesterGuardian.com ).
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
Opera During the Revolution
Continued from page 8
project was complete. “Some days, we did
not have paper to teach children where to
draw, so we started to use stone to draw
on the sands,” Sarita said. “The results were
amazing and the kids were very happy. So
from that day, we decided to create our
own tools from recycled materials like
plastic bottles, boxes, shells, bamboo and
even camel skeleton”.
When she returned to Cairo, Sarita
worked another year as a full time English
teacher in Maadi Narmer School. While
there, she was cast in bit roles in two
Ramadan series and one TV commercial
for Mienta House Appliances. “I played a
British secretary visiting Dr. Aly Mostapha
Mesharafa in the 2011 series Ragol Lehaza
al-Zaman that focused on the life of this
great Egyptian scientist. The following
year, I was cast as a French doctor as part
of Napoleon’s Egyptian Expedition in the
historical series Napoleon Wee al-Mahroussa”, she said. “It was interesting to see
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is a
film / video critic and curator. He is the film
editor of Egypt Today Magazine ( www.
EgyptToday.com ), and the artistic director
for both the Alexandria Film Festival, in
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
IDA Assists 150 Room Hotel Project on Tuckahoe Road
The Yonkers Industrial Development
Agency (YIDA) today approved assistance
to facilitate a 150-room hotel on Tuckahoe
Road, adding to the City’s growing roster of
nationally-branded hotel chains.
“With two other hotels already in
various stages of development within the
past year alone, this is a strong indicator of
the City’s growing attraction as a destination
for business and leisure travel,” said Mayor
Michael Spano who chairs the YIDA. “It’s
the business community casting a vote of
confidence in the City’s favor.”
The five story, 188,000 square foot
hotel will be built on vacant land located at
555 Tuckahoe Road, adjacent to the POP
Displays building. It will be developed by an
affiliate of Al Weissman Real Estate, which
owns the land.
The hotel will provide an estimated 50
permanent positions ranging in pay from
$22,000 to $100,000, as well as 200 temporary construction jobs. The developers expect
to spend $12 million in construction costs,
plus another $3 million in fit-out costs.
“As a vacant lot, this property is contributing virtually nothing to the City’s
economy,” noted YIDA President Ken
exemption on sales taxes for construction
materials, plus a temporary property tax
incentive that is still to be negotiated.
The property is located in a CM zone,
Jenkins, adding, “In future it will provide
jobs, as well as expand the tax base by paying
income, sales, property and occupancy taxes.”
According to today’s YIDA authorization, the project will receive incentives
including an estimated $270,000 mortgage
tax exemption, an estimated $653,250
GREG’S CORNER
Senator Ball Honors Yorktown Vietnam Veteran and
Former CEO of HBO at NYS Veterans’ Hall Of Fame
ALBANY, NY -- Senator Greg Ball
(R, C, I –Patterson), Chairman of the
Senate Veterans, Homeland Security
and Military Affairs Committee,
honored Vietnam Veteran Bill Nelson
from Yorktown at the New York State
Senate Veterans’ Hall of Fame Monday
afternoon.
The New York State Senate Veterans’
Hall of Fame was created to honor and
recognize outstanding veterans from the
Empire State who have distinguished
themselves both in military and civilian
life. Senator’s from each district across
New York State recognized veterans from
their district during Monday’s ceremony.
Bill Nelson previously served as the
CEO of HBO, a position he held since
May 2007, until his retirement in the
beginning of 2013. He is currently the
Chairman and CEO of Eleven Bravo
Continued on page 10
Sleep-Away
Camp
(L-R): Bill Nelson with NYS Senator Greg Ball.
which the City Council recently amended
to include hotels as a special permit use.
The project will still require approval by the
Yonkers Planning Board.
The Weissman organization said the
hotel will be a first class nationally branded
hotel.
Page 10
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
GREG’S CORNER
Senator Ball Honors Yorktown Vietnam Veteran and Former CEO of HBO at NYS Veterans’ Hall Of Fame
Continued from page 9
Enterprises, a consulting firm he founded
in 2013.
Mr. Nelson has received numerous
awards and recognition for his work
on behalf of our veterans, including the
Veterans Advantage TOPVET Award
and the Vietnam Veterans of America’s
Excellence In The Arts Award, as well as
their highest award, The Commendation
Medal for Exemplary Service to Veterans
and the Community. In 2013, Mr. Nelson
received the U.S. Army’s inaugural
Soldier’s Patriot Award.
“I am extremely proud to have had
the opportunity to honor Bill Nelson at
this year’s Veterans’ Hall of Fame. He has
demonstrated an immense dedication to
serving his country, and his patriotism
should not go unrecognized,” said Senator
Greg Ball. “Recently, Mr. Nelson has
joined our efforts and has been a driving
force behind the 6% service-connected
disabled veteran state set aside that was
just signed by Governor Cuomo.”
“It is extremely humbling for me
to be chosen by Senator Greg Ball to
join the NYS Senate’s Veterans Hall of
Fame and stand alongside my very distinguished and dedicated fellow veterans
also named to the Hall of Fame. We all
share a deep commitment to bring honor,
respect and support to those who went
into harm’s way, especially our post-9/11
veterans, to preserve America’s freedom
and now need assistance,” said Bill
Nelson of Yorktown. “We are motivated
to do so not for recognition, but because
it is simply the right thing to do. This is a
great privilege for me and I thank Senator
Ball and his fellow senators for recognizing the veterans of this great State.”
Bill Nelson is a Vietnam combat
veteran, having served with the U.S.
Army’s 2/502nd “Strike Force” Infantry
Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division.
His awards and decorations include the
Combat Infantryman Badge, Bronze
Star, Air Medal, Army Commendation
Medal, National Defense Medal,
Vietnam Service Medal with 4 Bronze
Service Stars, Vietnam Campaign Medal,
Valorous Unit Award with oak leaf
cluster, Vietnam Gallantry Cross with
Palm Unit Award and the Vietnam Civil
Actions Honor Medal Unit Award.
PEOPLE
Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins Inducts
William F. Moye of New Rochelle into Veterans Hall of Fame
ALBANY, NY - Democratic Conference
Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D/I/
WF – 35th District) inducted William
F. Moye of New Rochelle into the 2014
New York State Senate Veterans Hall of
Fame to represent the 35th District. The
99 year old is a World War II veteran
who served in Africa and Europe. He
is currently the Chaplain Emeritus for
the American Legion Post 8 and the
United Veterans Memorial and Patriotic
Association of New Rochelle.
New York State Veteran’s Hall of
Fame inductees are chosen annually
by each Senate member from each
Senate district. The inductees are distinguished veterans who continue to
give back to their community after their
military service has ended. This year, the
ceremony was held on Tuesday, May
20th at the Legislative Office Building
in Albany.
Senator Stewart-Cousins said, “Mr.
Moye’s service did not end when WWII
came to a close. Since his honorable discharge, he has worked with the veterans
of his community and the State and
continued to live a life of giving. I am
honored to nominate this patriot for the
Senate Veterans Hall of Fame. I thank
him for his service to his nation, to our
state’s veterans, and to the city of New
Rochelle.”
Mr. Moye began his military career
as a bugler, playing the trumpet by ear for
USO’s and Officers’ Clubs. In early 1943,
Mr. Moye’s outfit sailed on the Cristobal
for “Destination Unknown.” They were
eventually stationed in Oran, Algeria for
four and a half months. Moye served as
an interior/exterior guard and continued
to play his music at dances. He served on
numerous campaigns including Tunisia,
Sicily, Rome-Arno, Po Valley, North
Apennine, and European- AmericanMiddle Eastern and earned the rank of
Private First Class. After his honorable
discharge, Mr. Moye became an active
Veterans’ activist and joined VFW post
2882. He continued to serve as a bugler
and served as Commander of the post
from 1969 until 1975 when he became
County Commander in Westchester.
Mr. Moye continues to be a loved
member of his community by buying
groceries for homebound neighbors,
sharing his stories and sharing his music.
Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins presenting New York State Veteran’s Hall of Fame inductee William F. Moye newest
inductee with official recognition.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
Page 11
people
Former Step Up! Program Participant Comes Home to Mount Vernon as Navy Seal
MOUNT VERNON, NY – Before
going to A.B. Davis Middle School to
speak with students, former Step Up!
Participant, First Class Navy Officer
Anthony Burgess, home on leave for
two weeks, took time to speak to two
young men at the Mount Vernon Youth
Bureau earlier this week. He discussed
with them how making smart choices
now would affect their lives in the future.
“Our Step Up! Program offers our
time.
The students were pleasantly surprised and impressed with how candid
Officer Burgess was. During the Q&A
period, participants asked questions
ranging from his daily schedule and how
early he has to wake up, how it felt to fire
his first weapon to if he has seen combat.
When asked if Officer Burgess could
shoot another person, he responded
by telling the students that the Navy
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First Class Navy Officer Anthony Burgess.
young people another alternative to life
after high school,” said Mayor Ernest D.
Davis. “In the case of this young man, he
entered the Navy and hopefully, he will
choose it as a career option that offers
good pay, chance for advancement, educational opportunity and retirement
benefits.”
At A.B. Davis, Officer Burgess
spoke with a group of young men regarding character development, academics
and the importance of a good education. The students also spoke about their
future aspirations and life in the military.
“It’s more than shooting a gun” Burgess
explained. “It requires a tremendous
amount of studying handbooks and
manuals with rules and regulations on
handling various types of machinery and
military protocol.” He also explained to
the group that many enlisted men and
women go to college during their free
teaches them to “only fire when under
fire.” He admitted that he is still uneasy
firing his weapon, even on the practice
range, but that the military is an excellent option for young men and women
that feel that college may not right for
them immediately after high school
graduation.
The Mount Vernon Youth Bureau
Step Up! Program meets every
Wednesday during 8th period with the
group of 17-25 young men in partnership with the A.B. Davis Guidance
Counselors. The program provides
academic support, character building
strategies and job readiness skills to participants at this and four other schools.
For more information regarding
this program call Wayne Woodbury at
(914) 665-2344.
SOURCE: Shari Harris, Special
Assistant to Mayor Ernest Davis.
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
MUSIC
Grateful Dead “Dick’s Picks 19” 10/19/73
SOUNDS www.RealGoneMusic.com
THE
OFBLUE
By Bob Putignano
Here we go again making our way onto
the way-back machine. Set your controls
to 10/19/73, destination the Fairgrounds
Arena in Oklahoma City. This CD set
includes three discs - all from the same
show. The sound quality and the band’s
performance are initially shaky, but
as recording engineer Bill Candelario
improves the mix, the band kicks in too.
That being said you can probably disregard most of disc one except for (when
things change for the better) on an upbeat
cover of “They Love Each Other.” Disc
two opens with a mind blowing “Playing
In the Band” (18:23) that lifts off quickly
from the vocal intros to a wild but solid
spaced-out jam. Garcia and Lesh are telepathically joined by each-others brains
and create fascinating scenarios on the fly,
eventually they find their way back to the
main theme at full throttle, and conclude
their first set.
The second set opens with “China
Cat Sunflower” and again they quickly
turn away from the vocal microphones
and start the instrumental jam, during
the bridge segment it’s obvious that the
entire band is dead-on creating stories
within songs until they make their way
to a rousing “I Know You Rider.” Other
second set standouts include a pretty
hot “Big River,” but the heavy portions
occur on a gorgeous and somewhat long
(15:45) “Dark Star” that melds into (what
couldn’t be more appropriately named)
“Mind Left Body Jam” for almost eleven
minutes. Finding their minds the band
segues to “Morning Dew” it’s a very
pretty and gorgeous reality, during this
tune there’s also explosive soloing that’s
also giftedly sweet, and Garcia’s vocals
are clearly emotive. I’d expected that this
was the set closer, and it did end the set,
but the band returned to encore with a
swirling “Eyes of the World” (14:31) with
a superb Lesh bass solo then the band
abruptly shifted to “Stella Blue.” Don’t
leave your seats yet, as they rock and roll
us home with “Johnny B. Goode.” Good
night everyone, you got your money’s
worth with over three hours of music, the
majority coming from the second set.
This show represents that in 1973
the Dead were rapidly evolving as
musicians, demonstrating an advanced
state of instinctive concepts. They were
also fueling their passions to expand
without limitations, generating flexible
forms of cohesive expressions with
remarkable segues that flowed with elasticity from a beginning tune sculpture, to
highly sophisticated instrumental jams,
that (eventually) were woven into the
next tune. This was a rare and powerful
commodity, the likes of which I had
never heard prior, or since. Unfortunately
the band soon could not (with any regularity) contain and capture their unique
and intuitive abilities to connect these
miraculous dots/songs, as most of their
powers increasingly eroded and eventually evaporated- poof! That being said;
enjoy this nineteenth edition of Dick’s
Picks, it’s mystically special.
The rear cover of Dick’s Picks 19
carries the following: Caveat Emptor:
“Despite a rather skeevy ouverture, the
sound quality of this release quickly
settles into a nice, warm groove. Listen
closely, however, for you may just find
that your mind will be blown by the
music contained herein.”
For fifteen years Bob Putignano has been
pivotal at WFDU with his Sounds of Blue
radio show: http://www.SoundsofBlue.
com; Previously a senior contributing editor
at Blues Revue, Blueswax, and Goldmine
magazines, and Music Editor for the Yonkers
Tribune and The Westchester Guardian.
Putignano can be contacted at: bob8003@
yahoo.com
REUNION
College of Mount Saint Vincent Welcomes Alumnae/i for 2014 Reunion Weekend
RIVERDALE, NY -- The College of
Mount Saint Vincent will celebrate
its annual Reunion Weekend Friday,
June 6 through Saturday, June 7, 2014.
Attending this years event are the classes
ending in 4 and 9 (from 1934 to 2009),
with special tribute to the Class of 1964
celebrating their 50th Anniversary and
the Class of 1989 celebrating their 25th
Anniversary.
Events
planned
throughout
the weekend include a Champagne
Reception, Reunion Celebration Dinner,
the Mass of Remembrance, and a Red
Monkey Theater Group performance of
Crimes of the Heart. College faculty will
give lectures on their area of expertise
and Sr. Joy Pellegrino will offer a MiniRetreat on personal transformation.
Alumnae/i will also have the opportunity to visit a nursing simulation lab and
the Sisters of Charity archives and take
part in
a historic ghost tour in the
evening. There will also be
plenty of time for alumnae/i
to relax and catch up with
old friends and classmates.
Over 300 attendees are
expected to attend this years
Reunion. All alumnae/i are
welcome and encouraged
to attend Reunion Weekend. For more
information, please contact the Office
of Alumnae/i Relations at (718)
405-3334.
Founded in 1847 by the
Sisters of Charity, the College
of Mount Saint Vincent offers
nationally recognized liberal
arts education and a select array
of professional fields of study on
a landmark campus overlooking the
Hudson River. Committed to the education of the whole person, and enriched
by the unparalleled cultural, educational and career opportunities of New
York City, the College equips students
with the knowledge, skills and experiences necessary for lives of achievement,
professional accomplishment and leadership in the 21st century.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
Page 13
with our lives. Certainly we do not want
anyone stealing our money or masquerading as us – but we too easily banish the
surveillance concerns from our attention.
When was the last time you heard anyone
talk about the Snowden revelations or ask
whether there have been any changes in
the FBI’s response to criticism of its use
of Zero Day bugs. The President said that
we would “fix” the NSA surveillance so it
must have been done – right? Psst – the
implementation of it was illegal – but we
have other things to do.
The world has changed – and is continuing to change. If we don’t try to direct
the changes, we may be the poorer for
them!
TECHNOLOGY / CREATIVE DISRUPTION
Let’s See Now
By JOHN F. McMULLEN
It’s ok for our government (The United States)
to monitor the phone calls
of German Chancellor
Merkel ... but it’s not ok for
the Chinese Government to hack into the
systems of US companies and unions ...
but it’s ok for our government to compile
data on all of us from our phone records
and e-mails.
Confusing? The whole new cyberworld of web searches, e-mail, on-line
purchases, etc. would be confusing to most
of us – if we ever bothered to think about
it – but most of us don’t – and maybe it’s
a good thing that we don’t; if we did, we
might unplug everything and go back to
face-to-face communication only.
The basic fact that many forget or
choose to forget is that everything we do
online – every e-mail we send or receive,
every web search we do, every Facebook
posting, every Amazon purchase, every
tweet we send – is recorded somewhere.
Once it is recorded it may be used as a
trigger to cause ads to be sent to us – or
sold to a collector of such data to develop
a profile of us – or searched by prospective
employers or college admission officers.
In short, we give up privacy to reap the
benefits of this wondrous global communications network.
There are, however, some on-line
activities that are beyond the pale. We read
constantly of “identity theft” where criminals break into databases containing credit
card numbers and other identifying information to assume the identity of others,
usually to use credit cards to purchase
merchandise (the information can also be
used by terrorists to assume other identities to
purchase airline tickets, open bank accounts,
obtain driver licenses, etc. – anything to hide
illegal activities from law enforcement).
Another type of cybercrime, not as
much in the public eye, is the holding
of companies hostage through threat
of damage to their web sites or corporate databases unless a ransom is paid.
A recent USA cover story by Donna
Leinwand Leger, “Hackers holding computers hostage” (http://www.usatoday.
com/story/news/nation/2014/05/14/
ransom-ware-computer-dark-webcriminal/8843633/), details the use of
“CryptoLocker, computer malware that
freezes access to every file, including photos,
documents and programs with a secret pass
key known only to the hacker” and states that
there is no known solution to undo the
malware.
The same article gives the reader an
insight into the magnitude of the use of
this software, referred to as “Ransomware”
– “Computer-threat researchers at Dell
SecureWorks, who along with other security
companies first identified the CryptoLocker
attacks in September, estimate that the virus
struck 250,000 computers in its first 100 days
last fall. An Italian researcher who traced
ransoms paid by victims in the anonymous
digital currency bitcoin discovered that the
hackers had set up more than 2,000 online
“wallets” to accept ransoms. In three months,
the researcher traced 771 ransom payments,
eventually worth $1.1 million as bitcoin rose
in value. Those ransoms, the researcher found,
were transferred to a central online wallet
on Nov. 23 that contained bitcoins worth $6
million.” and “Computer security company
Symantec said a CryptoLocker imitator,
CryptoDefense, struck computers at least
11,000 times in March alone, extorting more
than $34,000 from the owners.”
Ransomware is only one of the
Internet-related stories that have surprised many of us in the last year. By far
the biggest were the revelations by Edward
Snowden about the massive electronic
surveillance that the National Security
Agency (“NSA”) had instituted on all of
us – US citizens and foreigners (including Angela Merkel) in clear violation of
the guidelines imposed years before by
Congress (Glenn Greenwald, the ex-Salon
and UK Guardian columnist to whom
Snowden revealed the surveillance details
his part in the John le Carre-like story of the
release of the data in his new book, “No Place
to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and
the U.S. Surveillance State”).
Then we had the stories concerning the break-in to the retailer Target’s
customer database putting its clients’ credit
card information at risk. Then, not as well
noticed as the Snowden revelations, was
the story that the FBI is exploiting “Day
Zero Bugs” (software errors in operating
systems, web browsers and other commonly
used programs) as ways to infiltrate the
computers of “persons of interest.” While
the use of Zero Day Bugs provides the
ability to gather evidence against suspected
terrorists, criminals, and pedophiles, it also,
by not telling the software provider about
the bug, leaves the rest of us vulnerable
to identity thieves, Chinese hackers, and
other criminals.
The mention of “Chinese hackers”
brings us back full circle to the beginning
of this column. Earlier this week, the US
Justice Department indicted five Chinese
military officers for allegedly breaking into
the computer systems of five US companies and a labor union (Westinghouse,
SolarWorld, Allegheny Technologies,
Alcoa, United States Steel, and the United
Steelworkers Union).
China immediately denied the allegations with Foreign Ministry spokesman
Qin Gang referring to the charges as
“extremely absurd” and releasing a statement “This move seriously violates the basic
norms of international relations and damages
Sino-U.S cooperation and mutual trust. The
Chinese government, military and associated personnel have never engaged in online
theft of trade secrets.” In an interview with
USA Today, FBI Director James Comey
strongly took exception with the denial,
referring to Chinese hackers, when he said
“There are two kinds of big companies who are
victims. Those who have been hacked and those
who haven’t discovered it yet.” (USA Today
has an excellent graphic with its initial story
on the allegations, depicting how the alleged
intrusions work -- http://www.usatoday.
com/story/news/nation/2014/05/19/
us-accuses-china-of-cyber-espionage/9273019/).
Speaking of the purported Chinese
attacks, FBI Executive Assistant Director
Robert Anderson said “This is the new
normal” and then went on to comment on
the specifics of the case. The term, “the new
normal,” however, may have referred to
any of the items referred to in this column
– The NSA surveillance, the Target breakins, the “Day Zero Bug,” etc., as well as the
Chinese hacking. We are in a new world –
one that gives us many, many benefits but
it is also fraught with some dangers.
We tend to forget about the dangers
as they fade from memory and we get on
Creative Disruption is a continuing series
examining the impact of constantly accelerating technology on the world around us. These
changers normally happen under our personal
radar until we find that the world as we
knew it is no more.
John F. McMullen is a writer, poet, college
professor and radio host. Links to other
writings, Podcasts, and BlogTalkRadio
broadcasts at www.johnmac13.comhttp://
www.johnmac13.com/.
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Page 14
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
EYE ON THEATRE
A Dose of Losses
many middle-class folks Inge had encountered, with Lila representing himself: the
artistic outsider who cannot thrive in their
midst.
Helen is well portrayed by Deborah
Hedwall as a blend of selflessness and selfrighteousness, reasonableness somehow
freezing out maternal love. Kenny is no less
well embodied by handsome Ben Kahre,
who conveys both the character’s frustration and mild rebelliousness admirably. But
Jean Lichty, the essentially central character,
is, alas, a disaster, which, obviously, does not
preclude highly flattering reviews from most
of my colleagues.
All right. Lila is a neurotic, histrionic
presumably poor actress and occasional,
probably deliberately unsuccessful suicide,
even so meant to be likable. Ms. Lichty,
however, is neither particularly attractive nor
especially talented, and is, above all, horribly
actorish. Sadly lacking in charm, she thrusts
herself into choppy movements accompanied by staccato line deliveries. Even in her
quieter moments, she suffers from a certain
emotional frumpiness, ungraceful even in
affability.
I am not saying that she ruins a play that
manages to be fairly ruinous even without
her contribution, but I am saying that what
chances “A Loss of Roses” has of somehow
squeezing by are effectively squelched by the
Lichty persona and performance.
This said, it should be noted that the
worthy Peccadillo Theater Company has, “in
association with La Femme Theatre [note
the different spelling] Productions”—of
which Ms, Lichty is a co-founder—mounted
a generally apt evening, decently directed
by Peccadillo’s Artistic Director, Dan
Wackerman, with a satisfying indoor and
outdoor set by Harry Feiner, who has also
provided good lighting and projections. I
particularly enjoyed his painted backdrop of
a pastel-colored townscape, topped by wellbehaved clouds and nicely distributed stars.
I am not at all sure what the title’s roses
refer to, but the losses are evident enough.
The production claims to be a restoration of
the author’s original text, apparently manhandled in the Broadway premiere. But
restoration is hardly good enough where restitution to the audience is called for. And one
other thing. In the bios, we get for William
Inge a word-for-word, lengthy reproduction
of the entire Wikipedia biographical entry, a
rather shabby display of lack of imagination.
Venue Details: Theatre at St. Clement’s,
423 West 46th Street, New York, NY 10036
Islam: ‘Appalling and Abhorrent’ in the Eyes of a Blind World?
and profound; it encompasses freedom of
thought on all matters, personal conviction
and the commitment to religion or belief
(emphasis added).
If, as Amnesty International declares,
flogging and executing a person, in this case
a pregnant woman, because of her “religious
choice” and marrying a man of a “different
religion” are “appalling and abhorrent”; if
they are a “flagrant breach of international
human rights law”—what do we make of
the fact that Muslim converts to Christianity
are punished and sometimes killed all across
the Islamic world?
Consider the following anecdotes, a
few examples, most from 2013 alone (culled
from my monthly “Muslim Persecution
of Christians” series and listed in country
alphabetical order):
Afghanistan: A member of
Afghanistan’s Parliament said that all
Afghans who convert to Christianity should
be executed. His exact words: “Afghani
citizens continue to convert to Christianity
in India. Numerous Afghanis have become
Christians in India. This is an offense to
By JOHN SIMON
Despite considerable success
as a playwright and screenwriter, William Inge was
an unhappy man. A timid,
closeted homosexual in
unenlightened times, who also had some
depression-provoking artistic failures, he
was even driven to drink and Alcoholics
Anonymous. But worst for him was the
unfavorable comparison of his plays to those
of his friend, mentor and chief influence,
Tennessee Williams, which they resembled
but for one significant difference.
Williams, with similar proclivities,
had something the playwright Inge largely
lacked: poetry. There was in Williams’s
language (to quote an O’Neill title) a touch of
the poet.The characters might be as unhappy
as Inge’s, but they could suffer more lyrically.
They were, to be sure, also more original and
more interesting.
When Inge had one of his fiascos, as so
many good playwrights have, his preceding
successes were to him no consolation. The
problem, too, was that the very nice Inge was
also very shy, indeed timid, as I discovered
when, a member of the Bard College faculty,
I invited him to give a lecture at Bard. In
spite of his having taught at several colleges
and universities, he very politely declined,
intimating that such a thing was well beyond
his competence.
Anyway, several of his plays are likely
to live on in revivals: “Come Back, Little
Sheba,” “Picnic,” Bus Stop” and perhaps one
or two others; the movie he wrote that Elia
Kazan directed, “Splendor in the Grass,” is
a classic. Not so the now revived “A Loss of
Roses” (1959), whose failed premiere (after
a mere three weeks) is chiefly remembered
as Warren Beatty’s only appearance on
Broadway.
This is the Depression era story of
Helen and Kenny Baird in “a small town
outside Kansas City,” which raises questions about small towns inside KC. Helen
is a church-going widow and hospital
nurse; 21-year-old Kenny works at a filling
station and enjoys barroom beer binges and
occasional wenching. They are typical smalltown Midwesterners, such as Inge, born in
Independence, Missouri, knew all too well.
Along comes Lila Green, an old friend
of Helen’s and, way back then, babysitter for
Kenny. Now a small-time actress, a tent show
in which she appeared has just closed nearby,
and she hopes to recuperate in Helen’s house
and affection. Unemployment during the
Depression was serious business.
Kenny at first resents Lila’s coming,
necessitating his giving up his room and
having to sleep on the living-room couch,
but, in the course of a month, he warms up to
the much older Lila, professes love with even
marriage a prospect. He seduces her and, like
so many other men before, dumps her. Hurt,
she bids farewell to the sympathetic Helen,
and goes off with a callous former boyfriend
to what promises to be a humiliating job but
the only resort.
Such is the drab gist of it, but the entire
play is hardly better, involving a bunch of
stock minor characters as well as the three
rather stock principals. The Bairds reek of so
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. He reviews books for the New
York Times Book Review and Washington Post.
To learn more, visit the www.JohnSimonUncensored.com website.
MIDDLE EAST FORUM
By RAYMOND IBRAHIM
A few days ago in Sudan, an
eight-month pregnant wife
and mother was sentenced
to death by hanging for
refusing to renounce Christ
and embrace Islam. According to the Los
Angeles Times:
The court also ordered Ibrahim to be
flogged for having sexual relations with her
husband, since her marriage is not recognized by officials.
Ibrahim refused a court order Sunday
giving her several days to renounce her
Christian faith, which resulted in the sentencing Thursday….
Ibrahim, currently jailed with her son,
will be allowed to give birth and raise her
second child until the age of 2 years but then
faces execution. Sudanese authorities refuse
to allow Ibrahim’s son to reside with her
husband because the husband is Christian.
Tragic as this story is,it is also immensely
commonplace in Islamic countries. Why?
Because Islamic law does in fact punish
the apostate from Islam—including with
death—in accordance with the commands
of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
Indeed, many Muslim clerics believe that
“If the [death] penalty for apostasy was
ignored, there would not be an Islam today;
Islam would have ended on the death of the
prophet,” as top Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi
once declared on live television.
Of more significance is the Amnesty
International statement concerning Meriam
Ibrahim’s plight. While its criticism is
aimed at Sudan’s legal system, the statement
unwittingly provides a glimpse of how the
international community would view Islam
if it could actually understand that these
human rights abuses are not products of this
or that government or regime, but of Islam
itself.
According to the Amnesty International
statement:
The fact that a woman has been sentenced to death for her religious choice, and
to flogging for being married to a man of an
allegedly different religion is appalling and
abhorrent.
Adultery and apostasy are acts which
should not be considered crimes at all. It
is flagrant breach of international human
rights law. The right to freedom of thought,
conscience and religion, which includes
the freedom to hold beliefs, is far-reaching
Continued on page 15
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
Page 15
being severely beaten by local Muslims. In his
words: “No one was willing to let me live the
life I wanted [as a Christian]—they say Islam
is not a religion of compulsion, but no one
has been able to tell me why Muslims who
don’t find satisfaction in the religion [such as
myself] become liable to be killed.”
Saudi Arabia: After a woman was
exposed as having converted to Christianity,
she was sentenced to six years in prison and
300 lashes. Although she managed to flee the
nation and went into hiding, the Christian
Lebanese man accused of introducing her to
Christianity received six years in prison and
300 lashes.
Somalia: The Al-Qaeda linked Al
Shabaab (“The Youth”), which has vowed to
cleanse the Horn of Africa of all Christian
presence, has slaughtered countless Muslim
converts to Christianity—men, women,
and children—in the last few years. Most
recently, Al Shabaab shot to death 42-yearold Fartun Omar, a widow and mother of
five, for converting to Christianity. Months
earlier, they had killed her husband for the
same “crime,” and had been hunting for
the wife. In a separate incident, Al Shabaab
publicly executed a 28-year-old man after
determining that he had in fact become a
Christian. Al Shabaab Muslims also seized
Hassan Gulled, 25, for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity, and imprisoned him,
and tortured him. According to local sources,
“Al Shabaab have been torturing him to see
whether he would deny his Christian faith.
Since last week, no information has surfaced
concerning Gulled. There is a possibility that
he could have been killed.”
Tanzania: At the time pregnant and
with three children, Lukia Khalid explained
how when she told her Muslim husband
that she had converted to Christianity, “He
threatened to kill me if I was to stay with
him. I then decided to escape that night with
my three children to a neighbor’s house….
We left only with the clothes that we were
wearing. The command was so urgent that
MIDDLE EAST FORUM
Islam: ‘Appalling and Abhorrent’ in the Eyes of a Blind World?
Continued from page 14
Islamic Laws and according to the Quran
they need to be executed.” As one of many
live examples, Said Musa, an amputee
and father of six young children, was once
charged with apostasy and pressured to
renounce Christianity, but he refused. So
he was imprisoned, suffering “sexual abuse,
beatings, mockery, and sleep deprivation
because of his faith in Jesus.”
Algeria: The wife of Ali Touahir, a
52-year-old Muslim convert to Christianity,
left him, taking their seven-year-old daughter,
and is divorcing him in court. One of his wife’s
brothers openly threatened to kill apostate.
The wife’s lawyer asserted: “It is not possible
that my client [the Muslim wife] still remain
under the same roof with a man who has
renounced his religion, as he became apostate;
and we are not ignorant of the punishment
that is due an apostate under sharia [death].”
Cameroon: Two Muslim converts to
Christianity were shot dead and two others
wounded, in the Christian-majority African
nation where Muslims make approximately
20 percent of the population. One of them
was previously threatened by the Nigerian
Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram to return
to Islam or “face Allah’s wrath.”
Egypt: A court sentenced an entire
family—Nadia Mohamed Ali and her seven
children—to fifteen years in prison for converting to Christianity. A born Christian,
Nadia had earlier converted to Islam and
married a Muslim man; reconverting back to
Christianity after the death of her husband,
-
she attempted to reflect this change formally
on her identity card and her children’s, which
created suspicions among security, who
arrested the family. Separately and days ago in
Egypt, after a former Muslim woman on live
television announced her apostasy and lack
of faith in Muhammad as the “Messenger of
Allah,”she was insulted, ridiculed, and thrown
off the set by the host.
Iran: Imprisoned American pastor
Saeed Abedini was reported as “facing
physical and psychological torture at the
hands of captors demanding he renounce
his beliefs.” The 32-year-old married father
of two, who left his home in Boise, Idaho, to
help start an orphanage in his former country,
once detailed “horrific pressures” and “death
threats” in a letter to family members: “My
eyes get blurry, my body does not have the
strength to walk, and my steps become very
weak and shaky… They are only waiting for
one thing…for me to deny Christ. But they
will never get this from me.” The imprisonment and torture of Muslim converts to
Christianity in Iran is quite common (recall
the plight of Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani).
According to Adnkronos News, “renouncing
the Muslim faith is punishable with the death
penalty [in Iran]. Over 300 Iranian converts to
Christianity have been arrested over the past
two years, according to opposition websites.”
Kyrgyz: After a young Muslim girl converted to Christianity, her parents “wanted her
to recant and renounce her faith in Christ, so
they began to beat her systematically till she
lost consciousness… It was winter when all of
this happened, so her parents put her into a
cold room and kept her there for several days.
Still they were unable to break her spirit. They
then started pulling her hair and put her face
against the stove, burning her face. In spite of
this, she remained faithful.”
Morocco: A fatwa, or Islamic decree, by
the government’s top religious authority, calls
for the execution of those Muslims who leave
Islam, causing many Christian converts to live
in fear. Lamented one Christian: “The fatwa
showed us that our country is still living in
the old centuries—no freedom, no democracy. Unfortunately, we feel that we aren’t
protected. We can be arrested or now even
killed any time and everywhere. The majority
of the Christian Moroccan leaders have the
same feeling. We are more followed now by
the secret police than before. Only the Grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ gives us courage and
peace.”
Pakistan: A 16-year-old Muslim boy
who converted to Christianity was abducted
in Peshawar by Taliban-linked Islamic militants “and his fate may already be marked,
as he is considered ‘guilty of apostasy.’” As
one Pakistani pastor explained, “If a young
Muslim converts to Christianity in Pakistan,
he is forced to live in hiding. Every Muslim
might feel compelled to kill him. The change
of religion is not punished by the civil law, it
is punishable by Islamic law. For this reason
cases of Muslim conversion to Christianity
are very rare and some convert in secret.”
Muhammad Kamran, a Muslim convert to
Christianity, exemplifies the pastor’s words.
After he told his wife of his conversion, she
abused and exposed him, resulting in his
Continued on page 16
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Page 16
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
MIDDLE EAST FORUM
Islam: ‘Appalling and Abhorrent’ in the Eyes of a Blind World?
Continued from page 15
Islam, some questions and observations are
in order:
Are all the other anecdotes listed above
not equally “appalling and abhorrent”—to
use Amnesty International’s words describing Meriam’s specific plight? Are they not
all a “flagrant breach of international human
rights law”?
If so, and if the international community is actually serious about putting a stop to
them, should it not try to ascertain the true
source behind them?
After all, considering that Muslim
converts to Christianity are being attacked all
throughout the Islamic world—including in
nations as diverse as Algeria, Iran, Pakistan,
Egypt, and Kyrgyz—surely the source is not
something as simple as “Sudan’s legal system.”
The fact is, Muslim converts to
Christianity are even under attack in Europe.
In Norway alone, for example, two Iranian
converts out for a walk were stabbed with
knives by masked men shouting “infidels!”
One of the men stabbed had converted in
Iran, was threatened there, and immigrated
to Norway, thinking he could escape Islam’s
apostasy penalty. Earlier, an Afghan convert
to Christianity was scalded with boiling water
Islamism with a Human Face?
asked about her thoughts on elementary
schoolgirls wearing hijabs, replied that “A girl
cannot decide on her own to wear the headscarf at such a young age. She should decide
for herself when she is old enough.” With
Gül in charge, could Turkey’s AK Party
actually become the socially conservative
movement of teetotalers, modestly dressed
women, Ottoman sentimentalists, and capitalists it now only pretends to be? Or would
he become as aggressive as Erdoğan?
In Iran, Hassan Rouhani’s promise of
a less rigorous Islamism touched a chord
in an electorate longing for normality.
Symptomatic of this, hijabs in Iran have
evolved away from the stark and frumpy
coveralls of yesteryear. Led by designer
Farnaz Abdoli and her Poosh line of
clothing, Iranian women now enjoy fashion
choices inconceivable a generation ago.
we could not wait any longer. We had to leave
immediately.” Last heard, they were living in
destitute conditions.
One can go on and on with examples
(see Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New
War on Christians, pages 96-135, for a more
thorough expose, including on the doctrine
and history of apostasy in Islam, and dozens
of more recent examples).
Returning to Meriam Ibrahim, the
pregnant Sudanese mother set to be executed
for refusing to recant Christ and embrace
By DANIEL PIPES
Until now, Islamist rule has
implied violence and dictatorship; can it evolve into
something decent?
Put differently: if the brutality of
Ruhollah Khomeini and Osama bin Laden
marked them as yesterday’s men, and the
autocracy of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and
Mohamed Morsi make them today’s men;
can tomorrow’s Islamists – Muslims seeking
a consistent and global application of Islamic
law under the rule of a caliph – become democratic and humane?
Islamism has significantly evolved over
the past 13 years. As recently as 2001, its
adherents were synonymous with criminals,
terrorists, and revolutionaries. In this spirit,
I wrote three days after 9/11 that many
Islamists “are peaceable in appearance, but
they all must be considered potential killers.”
These words ring archaic now, at a
time when Islamists find the ballot box a
more effective means to power than the
gun. Terrorism and coercion remain widely
in use, to be sure, implemented by barbaric
groups like ISIS and Boko Haram. Yet, some
reforms of Islam are already underway.
The cutting edge issue now concerns
form of government: Can Islamists transit
not just from terrorism to politics but also
progress from dictatorship to democracy?
Can they eliminate their own seemingly
inherent supremacism, bellicosity, immorality, misogyny, and antisemitism? Examples
suggesting changes include:
In Turkey, a few key Islamists – notably
Fethullah Gülen, leader of the country’s
most influential Islamist organization,
and President Abdullah Gül – seem to be
evolving away from aggressive dictatorship. For example, Gülen criticized the
Turkish government’s role in the 2010
Mavi Marmara incident against Israel. Gül’s
willingness to treat the Gezi Park protests
sympathetically contrasted with Prime
Minister Erdoğan’s ferocious response.
Gül’s wife Hayrünnisa (who covers her
head) visited London in 2010 and when
and acid at a Norwegian refugee processing
center: “If you do not return to Islam, we will
kill you,” his attackers told him.
Of course, the true source for all these
attacks on Muslim converts to Christianity—
in nations that do not share race, language,
culture, politics, or economics—is Islam itself.
Anyone with common sense, anyone with the
ability to be honest with oneself, must concede
as much. There is no other reasonable way to
explain such identical patterns of abuse in
such a wide array of nations.
But so long as the international community and human rights organizations fail to
employ some common sense and honesty—
fail to call a spade a spade—so will they ensure
Alexander Dubček tried to create “socialism
with a human face” but Soviet troops
intervened.
Hayrünnisa Gül, wife of the Turkish president.
Left: A chador-clad Iranian woman from the time when the Islamic Republic got started in
1979. Right: Fashion magazines for covered women, such as Âlâ, Aquila Style, and modestyle,
symbolize the changes within Islamism and the attempts to make it less austerely doctrinaire.
In Jordan, the Zamzam Initiative has
broken away from the Muslim Brotherhood,
arguing against its “monopoly on Islamic discourse” and calling for Islam to be “a cultural
framework that encompasses the nation
while emphasizing religious, sectarian,
political and racial pluralism.”
In Egypt, many younger activists
repudiate Morsi’s power grab. Spokesman
Hamza Zoba’a accused the Muslim
Brotherhood of having “committed errors”
and of falling “into the trap of ruling alone.”
Ali Khafagy, a leader in Giza, held that “The
that countless more innocent humans like
Meriam Ibrahim continue to suffer “appalling
and abhorrent” treatment, simply for trying
to exercise their “right to freedom of thought,
conscience and religion” under Islam.
First published in Human Events
on May 21, 2014.
http://www.meforum.org/3829/
islam-apostasy-christians
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again:
Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians
(Regnery, April, 2013) is a Shillman Fellow at
the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an
Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
time will come to hold our leaders accountable and demand change. And there must
be changes. We need people who are more
open, more willing to work with everyone.”
One observer, Tarek Osman, sees the
brotherhood succeeding by tamping its dictatorial urges and evolving “almost beyond
recognition.”
In Tunisia, as the ruling Ennahda party
faces crises, Vice President Abdelfattah
Mourou has shown an uncharacteristic
openness to compromise with non-Islamists
while the party itself works with its leftist
rival, Nidaa Tounes.
I have argued for decades that Islamism,
like fascism and communism, is by nature
dictatorial, for all three share a radical utopian
mentality, a glorification of the state, and a
drive for global hegemony. I disdainfully
compared a moderate Islamist to moderate
Nazi, noting that while Erdoğan and Osama
bin Laden deploy different tactics, they both
aspire to apply the same medieval law code.
Communism suggests two possible
paths of evolution. In the Prague Spring of
1968, Alexander Dubček sought to build
“socialism with a human face,” meaning a
communist order with multiparty politics,
abundant consumer goods, and freedoms
of speech and movement. The Communist
Party of China has overseen a radically unMarxist capitalist boom.
The deeply anti-modern and authoritarian nature of Islamism leaves me highly
dubious that something civilized and worthy
can emerge from this ideology; most likely,
recent positive developments are merely
tactical and temporary. But I no longer
can reject with certainty the possibility of
Islamism evolving and somewhat improving
First
published
in
The
Washington
Times
on May 20, 2014.
http://www.danielpipes.org/14362/
islamism-human-face
Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org) is president of the
Middle East Forum.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
Page 17
read the contents of the lawn products
you purchase and/or inquire with your
lawn care service exactly what is being
placed on your property.
Water is the ultimate shared
resource and a small change in lawn care
habits and landscape expectations will
have long term healthy implications.
GovernmentSection
MAYOR Marvin’s COLUMN GOVERNMENT
Water: The Shared Element
By Mayor Mary C.
Marvin
At the most recent
Westchester
County
Mayors’ meeting, the
featured speaker was
Diane Lewis, MD, an internist, nephrologist and author of “The Great Healthy
Yard Project”. This project is national in
scope and piloted locally by our neighbors in Bedford.
Its goal is to educate citizens on the
relationship between the synthetic pesticides, fertilizers and weed killers we
put on our lawns and the quality of our
drinking water.
We place 80 million tons of fertilizer
on 30 million acres of lawns equating to
10 times the amount farmers use on the
same acreage.
There is a direct relationship
between this pesticide exposure and
diseases including non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, prostate cancer, Parkinson’s
disease and lung cancer.
Some of our lawn chemicals rub off
directly on children and pets but most
are washed with rainwater into streams
and rivers or are absorbed as ground
water. Fifteen years ago, a study by the
U.S. Geological Survey found at least
one pesticide in every stream and fish
sampled.
The amounts of these chemicals
that we often use unknowingly on our
lawns cause long term health problems
in ways only recently understood. What
were thought to be acceptable amounts
of chemicals, scientists now know have
a cumulative effect, most notably of disrupting the endocrine system.
The Endocrine Society, a group
of doctors, researches and educators,
released a study linking lawn chemicals
and resulting endocrine disruption to
increased risk for prostate, breast and
thyroid cancers, infertility and diabetes.
Just last year, an EPA test found
fertilizer in more than half of our water
nationwide and up to 71% in East Coast
water.
Simply put, what we put on our
lawn ends in in our drinking water and is
not removed by water treatment. Bottled
water is not the answer because it comes
from the same sources and thus susceptible to the same contaminants.
How did we as a nation become so
enamored with the perfect lawn?
Early colonists had no use for a lawn
– something they saw as time consuming and useless, rather they grew gardens
with edible and medicinal plants.
However in the mid-1800’s, literate
Americans were exposed to magazines
and books touting a lawn as an essential
ingredient to a beautiful home. It was
also a time when emulating the British
upper crust reached great popularity. A
lawn said one had the staff to cultivate
a place that was used only for leisure
making it a status symbol in the U.S. as
well as in England.
In 1870, the push mower came on
the scene, thus making a lawn affordable
to many more homeowners.
Lawns were equated with an
improved lifestyle and the Department
of Agriculture joined forces with the
Garden Clubs of America and the U.S.
Golf Association promoting the gospel
of grass. “Best lawn” contests were held
and neighborhood uniformity encouraged. A lawn become a moral imperative.
Post World War II, gas powered
mowers were in widespread use and all
the chemical companies that had warehouses full of potent chemicals left over
from the war effort repurposed them
into chemicals and pesticides for the
lawn. This new industry came at the
perfect time for the post war boom generation when everyone seemed to want
to be a suburbanite.
Scientific study simply did not keep
pace with manufacturing production so
there is no reason to believe that just
because something is on the store shelf,
it is safe.
Given what we are now learning
from scientific research, the perfect lawn
should not be a source of envy but a sign
of potential harm.
The Great Healthy Yard Project
asks residents voluntarily to refrain from
using chemicals on their lawn so as to
improve the quality of the drinking water
in their area. In Bedford alone, owners of
3,831 acres have pledged to take care of
their property free of chemicals. I think
it is an effort worthy of emulation.
As a start, I would encourage you to
Mary C. Marvin is the mayor of the Village
of Bronxville, New York. If you have a suggestion or comment, direct your perspective
by e-mail to: mayor@vobny.com .
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Page 18
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
CURRENT COMMENTARY
Chasing A Chinese Fire Truck
By LARRY M. ELKIN
My favorite example of
pointless activity is the
dog that chases the fire
truck. He has no idea what
to do with a fire truck if he
should catch one, and he may get hurt
during the chase, so why does he bother?
Attorney General Eric Holder’s
decision this week to announce the
indictment of five Chinese Army officials
for hacking the computers of U.S. companies and labor unions reminds me of that
dog, desperately barking at the fire truck.
I tried to think of some purpose, some
benefit to America, in making this display
of prosecutorial paperwork against a sovereign power. I could not come up with
anything, beyond the Obama administration’s proclivity for “sending a message”
against something of which it disapproves without actually taking concrete
measures to change anything.
The five accused spies are highly
unlikely to ever see the inside of a U.S.
courtroom. China has no extradition
treaty with us, and even if it did, it would
not extradite its own spooks any more
than we would hand over the staff of the
Beijing desk at the CIA. In fact, unsealing the indictment merely ensured that
the five men whose photos now appear
on “Wanted” posters will never make the
mistake of traveling to the United States
for business or pleasure, thus unwittingly
exposing themselves to arrest. Holder’s
announcement does nothing to bring the
alleged offenders to justice; it just warns
them to stay away.
This self-destructing prosecution makes even less sense as a matter
of foreign policy than it does as a law
enforcement effort. As law enforcement,
the indictment is merely a bust. But as
foreign policy, it actually stands to hurt
us in many places while benefitting us
nowhere.
Start with China itself. I am no
admirer of the Beijing government, and I
have no reason to doubt that it systematically engages in cyber-misconduct to hurt
its enemies and benefit itself. Beijing’s
bosses do this, more or less openly, to their
own citizens. Why would they not do it
abroad? They will spy on rivals and try
to silence critics wherever and whenever
they believe they can get away with it,
which for now appears to be most of the
time in most places, because neither the
U.S. nor other nations – even those facing
Chinese bullying in the oceans east of
Asia – want to push confrontation too far.
Despite this apparent impunity, the
Chinese government reacted with rage at
the indictment, which is not surprising.
The indictment brands five underlings as
criminals for activities aimed at maintaining their bosses’ power. If the underlings
are criminals, what of the bosses? Bringing
public charges against members of the
People’s Liberation Army for following
their orders is tantamount to declaring
the PLA, and maybe the government
Photo via the Foreign & Commonwealth Office on Flickr
itself, a criminal enterprise. That’s a very American companies gain commercial
advantages. To China, this is a meaningsensitive subject for a regime that holds
power through a combination of force, less distinction. Many of China’s largest
companies are arms of the state; comintimidation and economic bribery of its
mercial interests and state interests are
population.
On top of this, the Chinese identical. Also, China’s leadership understands, even if the Obama administration
deeply resent American intelligence
activities aimed at them. This is not a does not, that economic strength is the
post-Snowden development. Chinese cornerstone of military and diplomatic
military aircraft have harassed American advantage. China’s prominence as a world
power over the past 35 years has risen
surveillance planes for years, which led to
a midair collision that killed a Chinese in lock step with its financial clout. A
strong economy does not ensure national
pilot and forced an emergency landing by
a U.S. spy plane on Hainan in 2001. The security, but it makes it possible. Besides,
Edward Snowden’s disclosures have
American crew was held for 11 days until
demonstrated that we, too, have used
the Bush administration said it was “very
sorry” for the pilot’s death. The Chinese espionage to help in trade negotiations.
The timing of Holder’s press conferheld the American spy plane for nearly
ence was also bizarre, coming just as the
three months before releasing it – in
pieces, dismantled by Beijing’s intelli- administration needed Chinese support
to isolate Russia diplomatically over its
gence services.
interference in Ukraine. China had been
China’s leaders surely will not be
impressed with the distinction drawn by mostly on the fence, refraining from
American officials who claim that our endorsing Russia’s seizure of Crimea and
its support of militants in eastern Ukraine,
espionage is strictly for national defense
but not joining in Western efforts to
and security purposes, and not to help
push Russian President Vladimir Putin
to step back. Putin, as it happened, was
on his way to China on Monday for a
trade conference. Two days later – after
Holder’s announcement – the Chinese
gave him a big boost, announcing a longterm deal for Siberian gas exports that
had been held up for a decade. This will
help immunize Putin against the threat
of reduced European purchases, giving
him a freer hand to continue meddling in
what he sees as his country’s post-Soviet
sphere of influence.
Holder’s announcement won’t help
bring the spies to justice; it won’t stop
or slow Chinese spying; and it will hurt
U.S. efforts to get China’s cooperation on
everything from Russia to Iran, which
also supplies gas to Beijing.
What did Holder gain by chasing
the Chinese fire truck? All I can see is
that it gave him another chance to bark.
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.
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
State Senator Gustavo Rivera Endorses Oliver Koppell
THE BRONX, NY—State Senator
Gustavo Rivera announced his support for
former Attorney General Oliver Koppell for
State Senate over Republican-enabling Jeff
Klein on Thursday, May 22, 2014.
“Primaries are about protecting the
values and the integrity of our party. Oliver
Koppell is a man of principle who stands
strong for those values, which is why I am
proud to support him in this critical race.
Electing Oliver means that we can finally
achieve progress on so many issues blocked by
the Republican led coalition that are important to New Yorkers and the constituents
that I represent, including the Dream Act,
the Women’s Equality Act, real campaign
NYS Senator Gustavo Rivera.
NYS Senate Candidate Oliver Koppell.
finance reform and a true minimum wage
hike,” asserted Senator Rivera. “Jeff Klein
first ran for Senate against another turncoat
Democrat, but he has become the exact
thing he once railed against. He has blocked
our Democratic agenda, and even gone so
far as to recruit anti-choice, anti-equality,
conservative former-Republican Fernando
Cabrera to run in my district. We need
change in this seat, and we need it now.”
“Nobody has fought harder to improve
the Senate Democratic conference than
Gustavo Rivera, and I’m proud to receive
his endorsement for State Senate as I seek
to restore Democratic integrity to this seat.
Together, we will make our State Senate
the voice of progressive leadership that the
people of New York deserve,” stated Oliver
Koppell.
Oliver Koppell has served the voters of
New York as a State Assemblyman, New
York City Councilmember and as State
Attorney General. Prior to serving as the
61st Attorney General for the State of New
York, Mr. Koppell represented the residents
of The Bronx in the State Assembly where
he was the Chair of the Judiciary Committee.
Following his service in the State Assembly,
Oliver Koppell was elected to the New York
City Council where he served from 2002 to
2013.
For more information on Oliver Koppell’s
campaign, please visit: www.Oliverkoppell.com
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Before speaking to the police...call
George Weinbaum
ATTORNEY AT LAW
FREE CONSULTATION:
Criminal, Medicaid/Medicare Fraud Matters
White-Collar Crime & Healthcare Prosecutions
T. 914.948.0044 F.914.686.4873
175 MAIN ST., SUITE 711-7 • WHITE PLAINS, NY 10601
BRONX APARTMENTS
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Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
Page 19
LE G A L N O T I C E S
SPUD HOLDINGS LLC Articles of Org. filed NY
Sec. of State (SSNY) 3/31/14 Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom
process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of
process to The LLC 27 Country Club LN S Scarborough, NY 10510. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
BELMONT CORONEA LLC Articles of Org. filed
NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 5/7/14 Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon
whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail
copy of process to The LLC 26 Belmont Ave Yonkers, NY 10704. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
COWLES AVENUE LLC Articles of Org. filed NY
Sec. of State (SSNY) 4/8/14 Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom
process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of
process to The LLC 69 Cowles Ave. Yonkers, NY
10550. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of The Beauty Parlor, LLC.
Articles of Organization filed with NY Sec. of
State on 1/14/14. Office located in Westchester County. SSNY is designated as agent upon
whom process against the LLC may be served.
SSNY shall mail process to: the LLC, 100 Main
St., Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522. Purpose: any lawful
activity.
S&G WEALTH MANAGEMENT, LLC Articles of
Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 4/14/14 Office
in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC
upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall
mail copy of process to C/O Donald Giannattasio
Seligson & Giannattasio, LLP 723 North Broadway White Plains, NY 10603. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
CYPRESS CORLISS LLC Articles of Org. filed NY
Sec. of State (SSNY) 5/7/14 Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom
process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy
of process to The LLC 18-20 Cypress Street Yonkers, NY 10704. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
CASSIDY & SONS PROPERTIES LLC Articles of
Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 5/16/14 Office
in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC
upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall
mail copy of process to The LLC 771 Nepperhan
Ave Yonkers, NY 10703. Purpose: Any lawful
activity
Notice of Formation of Atikin Entertainment LLC.
Art. of Org. filed Sec’y of State of NY (SSNY) on
01/22/14. Principal Office: Westchester County.
SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC
upon whom process against it may be served.
The name and address of the registered agent,
upon which process may be served and which
will receive copies of service from the SSNY, is:
United States Corporation of Agents Inc., 7014
13th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. Purpose of LLC: any
lawful activity.
WESTCHESTER
GUARDIAN
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Page 20
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, MAY 29, 2014
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