Editorial Letters To The Editor
A Big Heart Re Firearmi
A small group of local people are working dilli-gently
behind the scenes concerned with the suffering
in Southeast Asia.
In recent months the group has collected necessities
and commodities and raised monies to mail
what seems like tons of supplies to the commanding
officer of an American military pacification unit in
South Vietnam. The gesture is then translated into
an effective means of helping to win over the people
when the pacification unit takes over a village. The
people- to people* effort has proven to be a much
more effective tool than a direct Uncle Sam handout
to these poor unfortunate people. Several metropolitan
daily newspapers have already given feature
story coverage to this activity. In fact several
of the military skirmishes have been named in
honor of the group.
The idea of doing something to help out the South
Vietnamese people was the adopted Manchu division
men's idea, when local people contacted
government officials on what they could do to help.
Frequent letters from the Commanding Officer tell
of how and where distribution was made and its good
effect on their behalf.
The second in a series of fund raising events
to meet the high postage costs, will be held this
Saturday evening in the form of a benefit dance at
the Bethpage Country Club.
Close The Door
The formation of a Citizens Advisory Committee
by the school District 22 Board of Education sounds
like a good idea in light of the recent lowering of
assessed valuation of the Republic Aviation facilities
by $ 1,152,000. The severe blow came as a
surprise to the taxpayers as well as to the Board.
The vast majority of taxpayers in the Town of
Oyster Bay segment of the school district will have
to pick up the brunt of the tax rise. Doesn't seem
fair.
Although it seems like the barn door has been
closed a little late, there is still much to protect.
The case in point is the nearly 200 acre airfield
itself.
A citizens committee can not only do considerable
research, which is time consuming, but the
group could make enough noise to make the officials
responsible for any such further action to take
notice.
In this particular case, the school board officials
feel that they were completely left out of the behind
the scenes negotiations. All they got was the bad
news.
* * *
A red letter day in Plainedge is marked for this
Saturday when ground is broken for the new public
library.
About a dozen years ago a group of about 22
Kiwanians began the project on a volunteer basis.
Saturday will mark the fruition of this humble beginning
. The community has grown and progressed
to a point where the Public library is now supported
by taxes. This is how it should be.
Jfanmtigftal? ( Obsrrurt
Published every Thursday by
THE OBSEKVER. IMC.
MYrtle 4— 6367
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Vol. 5 Mo. 6 *
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the view of The Observer
Dear Frfitor:
hi May. 1919. a group of allied
intelligence officers raided the
lwiwlmani i '• of a revolutionary
group in Dusseldorf, Germany.
One document seized was entitled
"" Rules for Bringing About A
Revolution/ Three basic rules
were set out. The first involved
corruption of die young by instilling
in rhem contempt for religion
and traditional morality.
The second involved capturing
means of communication so that
• evolutionists could control die
if » iis\ iiaw of the people and the
programs of government. The
drird read: " Cause die registration
of all firearms on some pretext,
with a view to confiscating
them and leaving the population
helpless."" France had a national
gun- registration law before
world war II. Ma/ is confiscated
the records and die guns, making
offeuUve resistance impossible.
Czechoslovakia, also, had a registration
and control law which
left them helpless when the com-nsssBSts
decided to take over.
The British had been disarmed
by their government and when die
INh^ i invasion of England seemed
imminent, they made an impassioned
plea to Americans for personal
firearms to defend their
bonnes and families.
Before we fall for the " Bleeding
Heart" pleas of die firearms
control proponents, just consider
this other side of die story.
Especially, since only die honest
and lawahiding citizens is effected
by d* e control legislature.
No penalty for the criminal use
of firearms is included in die
proposed legislature.
Francis A. Collins
Marino Has Guts
Dear Editor:
I have to hand it to Ralph
Marino. He has guts. He comes
oat and says what he believes
even ti* ough some others in the
pressed by writers when they
learn of some activity of the
library is due to their total
lack of interest in the past,
which we all regret.
From personal experience, I
can attest that for many months
prior to Mr. Gorton's activities
in the spring of this year, not
a single person, including Mr.
Gorton attended one complete
board meeting. No wonder there
is such vast ignorance of the
library! At least we have some
current interest although its not
great if one judges by board
meeting attendance based on district
population of some 22,000
potential voters.
Let me illustrate further the
ignorance of library affairs
abounding in our district. Just
prior to the recent budget vote,
an ad appeared in the local ]
under die sponsorship of tine
Friends of Farmingdale, ( which,
incidentally, gave evidence of
apparent financial support from
outside the district), which referred
to a portion of our fines
and fees account of $ 12,419.28
as an amount which had been
spent. This illustrates the ignorance
on the part, even of
people who profess to be " exposing
the machinations" of the
board.
For the future, we may hope
that at least some people will
become informed to the point
that when a new list of routine
information comes to their attention
that tihey will no longer
be amazed.
PaulTilford
161 Aster Street
Massapequa Park
I agree that supporting the
chattel revision as it is presently
before the voters will be
very costly and not give Oyster
Bay Township residents adequate
lejneseidation.
I also agree with his stand
sfjanjajfoj the Ombudsman checking
on the police.
Because of his beliefs I will
vote for him and hope that others,
who will want to reward one
with gats, will also vote for
Stalph Marino on election day.
Jules Teck
320 N. Michigan Ave.
North Massapequa
Library Controversy.
Edntor:
hi a letter to your newspaper
of September 21, Farmingdale
fihrary trustee Carl Gorton
writes that his position on the
hoard enables him to " oppose
and expose their machinations
and irresponsibility.'' Apparently,
this is a reference to the
other hoard members.
if so, it would be of general
interest if he would explain what
these nefarious acts are. In ad-dstion,
I would like him to tell
as of the activities of the board
tint he has become aware of by
virtue of his board membership
that he could not just as easily
have discovered had he not been
a board fnember.
The point of this suggestion
i s that the board's actions are
open for everyone to review.
Any citizen can review the
hoard's activities whether he is
a board inember of not.
Another writer in your same
issue expresses amazement at
learning that we have a fines
and fees account with approx-aanstriy
$ 34,000 in it. Every
asonth this account is fully shown
hi our fhssnrial accounting. Nor
it have been necessary
trustee to garner this
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ for this " amazed"
writer to your paper. As a citizen
he has full access to this
Only a few brief years ago, it
would have been unthinkable for
anyone to call die President of
me United States a liar or to
charge that the President was
sacrificing die lives of young
American servicemen in order
to secure a political advantage.
It is a measure of the deep
difficulties in which our nation
finds itself that such charges
were made last week, not by
radical elements, but by two
respected journalists.
The blasts were issued by
Harry S. Ashmore, a Pulitzer
Prize winner, and by William
C. Baggs, editor of the Miami
News. The pair said that they
had been authorized to contact
North Vietnamese President Ho
Chi Minn last January and February
in an attempt to launch
peace negotiations but that, without
their knowledge and before
their efforts had been completed,
President Johnson wrecked the
peace bid in a tough letter to Ho.
The pair said that the North
Vietnamese ruler had appeared
to be sincerely anxious for peace.
These two men are skilled in
the use of words. They are not
ranting and raving. When they
charge the President with « < de-l
i be r a t e dissembling" and
" double dealing" they do so reluctantly
but with the full knowledge
of what they are saying
concerning this country's first
citizen.
The President's reaction to
this harsh criticism was predictable.
When Lyndon Johnson
runs into trouble these days, he
retires to his political foxhole
and is unavailable for comment.
The counter- attack is made by
cabinet officers and the answers
are provided vicariously by White
House spokesmen or heads of departments.
I have from the outset deplored
the playing of politics with the
Viet Nam war and American lives.
It's tragic mat 150 or 200 young
Americans are dying each week
for a cause that they believe just.
How much more tragic it would be
if, as these highly reputable men
and otiiers are charging, the
President is waiting for the right
political time to make some sort
of major move to change the
situation.
For that matter, bow tragic
that we now live in so cynical
a climate that the charge can be
made, can be reported and is not
personally answered at once. No
one could have leveled such accusations
at President Eisenhower
or President Kennedy. What
a sorry mess we are in! The
once- subtle " credibility gap" is
now the Grand Canyon!
{ THE WASHINGTON WATCHI
{ By Congressman John W . Wydler
S S ^ B * * * * * * * * * * * * s*** ss** sa* 1* ss** asssaa*
Most of the " surprise" ex-
Page 4
It is becoming more and more
apparent that the President's tax
increase plan has less and less
chance of passage by Congress.
This results from the Administration's
calls for more and
more federal spending while
claiming the tax increase is
chiefly needed to halt inflation.
More and more spending followed
by more and more taxes will
increase rather than reduce inflation.
As our nation verges on a
sickening inflationary period, the
President and his leadership in
Congress continue to sponsor
" pump priming'' programs that
directly feed the fires of inflation.
Take; < for example, the so-called
" Appalachia Program"
just extended to the sum of several
hundreds of millions of dollars.
You would hardly think
there was a war on. Members
of the Ways and Means Committee
had to leave hearings
where Administration spokesmen
called for a tax increase and
spending cuts to vote for a pump-priming
program for an expanded
and inflated Appalachia program.
In fact, to get enough votes to
pass it, the region covered was
expanded to include parts of New
York and Mississippi. The
" pork" in the barrel was mainly
in the form of road building
funds.
This is not only fiscal double-talk
but it is disgraceful mismanagement
of our national r e sources.
We are spending $ 2
billion a month on our war effort
in Vietnam. S would seem
that some of this could be used
in our depressed areas. A tiny
percentage would match the Appalachia
pump- priming which is
fiscally destructive.
This same principle of managing
our wartime emergency
spending to meet our domestic
emergencies seems ajidkahleto*
the cities and urban problems. 1~
the main need is good jobs, the
$ 2 billion a month cost of Viet
Nam could be managed to do some
good. The nation's poor could be
aided if the Administration were
to mar shall the assets and turn
wartime spending into productive
jobs for the ghettos.
This takes imagination and effort.
But it would he good for the
country. Certainly better than the
Administration's political maneuvering
to slip through Congress
a make- work bUl designed
for a depression period.
Wartime spending should he
channeled where it will do the
most good.
Farmingdale OBSERVER Thursday, September 2 8 , 1967
Farmingdale Public Library-The Observer 1967
