A Dream for Dr. King
February 4, 2010
Please consider how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, dream could apply to so much that we need. To me, the non-violence dream, above all, means protecting the innocent and enforcing the laws that ensure public safety, government’s first Constitutional duty. Fire and crime fighting forces should not be reduced, nor should hospitals and schools be closed. Move traffic safely, not swiftly (walkers too!). Encourage and support only transit accessible to all citizenry. Lower the speed limit. [Read more]
Natural and Unnatural Disasters
January 21, 2010
Yes, earthquake prediction and preparedness are most on this columnist’s mind, but first some tips to prevent and cope with all too commonplace home fires. These are courtesy of a guest speaker, one of New York’s Bravest, who attended the January meeting of the East 79th Street Neighborhood Association.
We all need reminding to replace smoke/carbon-monoxide detector batteries with the two annual “time changes,” and to replace detectors every seven years. Lighted candles need extreme caution; consider the battery kind. Don’t overload outlets. Extension cords are for temporary use only. Don’t use water to put out a grease fire on the stove. Remove lint from clothes dryers. Yell “Fire!” not “Help!”, and if trapped in an upper story, wave something large, like a sheet, out the window to draw attention. As for smoking—a leading cause of fires—get help to stop. Need more incentive? You’ll even look better. [Read more]
Meaningful Holiday Traditions
January 8, 2010
To quote the greatly missed Fred Rogers, “We’ve got a lot to talk about.” Like the still-glowing-through-mid-January Park Avenue Memorial Trees, the city’s most meaningful holiday tradition. After sundown, you just must experience this reverently beautiful scene. Again, because so many still don’t know, these trees honor all who made (and are sadly still making) the ultimate sacrifice in this nation’s wars. Lest we forget, this sacred tradition was begun by several city mothers who lost their beloved sons in World War II. [Read more]
That December Glow
December 23, 2009
“I wish that glow would never fade away,” is a line from the lamentably overlooked Perry Como song, “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Forever,” featured in all his Christmas shows. It is a CD I most heartily recommend.
It’s all about the glow December bestows—in the lighting, the music and more frequent smiles and kindly exchanges. Whatever our background, we are affected by places, sounds and social mores whether we know it or not. [Read more]
Extended Season of Thanks
December 9, 2009
“Thanksgiving should be at least a week earlier,” my neighbor Karyn, a teacher, wisely opined. Too much is crunched into December. Personally, there’s also my birthday on St. Nicholas Day (a most kindly saint) and two family birthdays Dec. 30, and it’s also family reunion time.
Too much to crunch into this column, too, but here goes: Yorkville’s mighty thankful that the Cherokee Post Office has been saved—but use it or lose it. And here’s hoping that all-out civic “endeavoring” will now be directed against some too-little assailed chronic oppressors, like: [Read more]
Thanksgiving 2009
November 25, 2009
We’d have a lot more to be thankful for if even a fraction as much attention were paid to what’s said “over the plate” as to what’s served on top of it. This traditional pre-church sermon prayer could help: “May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable…” And smile.
Again, I maintain there’d be far more to be thankful for if we just smiled. I dared to nod at the stony-faced stranger sitting next to me at a recent funeral. Although she looked startled, she not only nodded back, but smiled. [Read more]
Preventable Violence
November 11, 2009
Again, too many newspaper clippings, press releases, observations and events that need airing to make life safer, saner (more humane!) and just. And someone just called to report another horrific shooting spree in an Orlando office complex. “At least one person killed and gunman still at large.” This, after the unspeakable massacre of 13 soldiers by one of their own at the Fort Hood army base. And recently, the beloved New Jersey priest, Edward Hinds, was stabbed to death by a church janitor. [Read more]
Tips from Joan and Lidia
October 29, 2009
Where have all the grandparents gone? Well, like the poignant song so movingly sung by Carole King at Clifton Maloney’s funeral, they’re “So Far Away,” surely off the radar screen of the custom- and view-shapers. Anyone hear about existing grandparents in the non-stop “Balloon Boy” coverage?
Grandparents tend to be a bit more, say, socially conservative than their adult offspring, and they worry about their “youngers” in an ever more dangerous world, and maybe in their home world, too. But they’re taught not to “interfere” or be off the radar screen permanently. Interventions or mediations are rarely arranged to bridge the family divides from which every generation potentially suffers. [Read more]
Role Model Men
October 15, 2009
We are deeply saddened by two departures from this life, one “wrongful” and one “natural,” but premature. Fifty-year-old Stuart Gruskin was struck down by a wrong-way-riding cyclist while walking to work near West 43rd Street last summer. It might not have happened if the City Council had immediately passed Jessica Lappin’s intro 624, which would make commercial bike-using businesses more liable for their riders’ law-breaking cycling habits. Instead, it was stalled for two years in the Transportation Committee, headed by Council Member John Liu. Even now, a top elected official’s aide told me, “The Council doesn’t think commercial bikes are a real problem, so we need a big turnout to pass this bill.” [Read more]
Not Only for High Holy Days
October 1, 2009
“Don’t let it be one day of remembering in a year of forgetting,” we say about Mother’s and Father’s days. But ditto for other holiday/holy days, like the High Holy Days, which are now officially over. We need all the help possible in taking the high road, which also requires (ouch!) some repentance.
Now, don’t turn off, we’ll focus mostly on government’s sins of omission, like giving over-drinking a pass. It is our fervent hope for Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum to openly war against this awful dependence, which took her daughter-in-law’s life. George W. Bush should speak about how his wife, Laura, intervened and got him to stop. [Read more]
