SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Former Congressman Forbes On The Gun Issue

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Former Suffolk Congressman Michael F. Forbes has written a strong article, a “guest commentary” published in the The Kansas City Star on February 23, headlined, “I switched parties and lost my Congressional seat over the gun issue. Two decades later, what has changed?”

“As a Republican member of the Congress, I was compelled to abandon my party over the gun issue in 1999,” wrote Mr. Forbes, who represented the Suffolk’s lst Congressional district in the House of Representatives for three two-year terms from 1994 to 2000. The lst C.D. included most of Smithtown, all of Brookhaven town and the five East End towns during his tenure in Congress. Forbes resided in Quogue then. He and his family subsequently moved to Texas where Mr. Forbes is now an ordained deacon of the Catholic Church.

“American children had been murdered in their school in Columbine and my party, the party that controlled the fix to gun violence, did nothing about it,” he relates.

“I listened to the debate on gun control in the” in the House in June 1999, he goes on, alongside then Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy of Long Island “whose husband had been murdered and son wounded by a deranged gunman on the Long Island Railroad in 1993.”

But it was “the unspeakable tragedy of Columbine, outside Denver, in April of 1999 that had sparked the intense debate on the House floor about what could be done to protect America’s children, our children, our future. It could have been my child, or your child, so surely we would do something.”

“Then, however, the National Rifle Association unleashed its powerful army of lobbyists and millions of dollars to make sure that we did not,” Mr. Forbes goes on. ”I lost friends and supporters in my Long Island district when I became a Democrat, and I lost my reelection bid the next year.”

“In the 19 years since then, an untold number of children and adults have suffered wanton destruction in their schools, their churches, their neighborhoods and communities and the National Rifle Association is still making sure nothing meaningful will be done to stop the violence.”

”After Sandy Hook, and Virginia Tech, and Las Vegas, some of us continued to hope that the spectacle of all those coffins would surely prompt the Congress to act. Even when gun violence wounded our own, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, badly wounded while meeting her Arizona constituents [and] Congressman Steve Scalise and others shot up during baseball practice, surely that would prompt Congress to act.”

“So why is the latest rampage with a gun any different? It is not, I’m sorry to say.”

“Very eloquent, impassioned teens are making an optimal case for action” in the wake of the Parkland, Florida massacre. ”And good for them. They have every right to expect our leaders to respond.”

“But, trust me. I was there. The politicians and their benefactor, the National Rifle Association, will still do nothing.”

The forum at the White House, a town hall gathering on cable television, a march on Tallahassee and another expected in Washington—all of these are worthy efforts, but efforts the NRA itself might encourage, as ways to ‘blow off steam.’”

“In 1999, the Senate passed background checks for purchases at gun shows, but the House refused to act. That was all.“

“And in 2018, Congress will I predict attempt to appear to be doing something by passing a few feel-good measures such as a ban on bump stocks, raising the age at which one can purchase certain firearms, or a cosmetic fix to background checks with the private assurance that the Senate will not pass a similar bill.”

“Then the U.S. Senate, particularly to offer political cover for Senators Marc Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, will pass its own cosmetic fix to appear in an election year to be doing something, anything—again, with the private assurance that the House of Representatives will not pass a similar bill.”

“Lawmakers will say they tried, and Donald Trump, who received $30 million from the NRA, will have earned his take.”

“That’s because as one of the nation’s wealthiest, most influential and most mobilized lobbies, the NRA is integral to any Republican politician’s financial lifeblood, and that of some Democrats, too. Their death grip on our culture will not be easy to loosen, and if we’re to have any chance of doing so, we must not underestimate what we’re up against.”

What an indictment of the NRA and the gun lobby in the U.S. by Mr. Forbes!

Theater Review – ‘Nunsense’

Theater Review – ‘Nunsense’

Produced by Theatre Three – Port Jefferson Reviewed by Jeb Ladouceur  A hilarious combination of singing, dancing, and slapstick

Photo by Brian Hoerger, Theatre Three Productions, Inc. When in real life Dan Goggin first created a line of clerically skewed greeting cards featuring one-liners delivered by a witty nun, he probably had no idea where the concept would take him. But the idea proved so popular that his resulting 1985 Off-Broadway musical titled ‘Nunsense’ (for which Goggin wrote the book, music, and lyrics) ran at new York’s Douglas Fairbanks Theater for an astonishing 3,672 performances. Only the indefatigable ‘Fantasticks’ has had a longer run (42 years) in Off-Broadway musical theater history.

Anyone who has ever been disciplined in school by those remarkable women attired in black and white, will recognize Don Goggin’s zany clerical on-stage quintet. As interpreted by five Theatre Three standouts in Port Jefferson (Phyllis March, Linda May, Sari Feldman, Tracylynn Connor, and Jessica Contino), the madcap Little Sisters of Hoboken that they portray are respectively: Sister Mary Regina-(Mother Superior,) Sister Mary Hubert-(Mistress of Novices,) Sister Robert Anne, Sister Mary Amnesia, and Sister Mary Leo.

The superb group, currently starring under the direction of Jeffrey Sanzel, incredibly joins a sorority of some 25,000 women who have once played in ‘Nunsense’ productions worldwide (the musical has been translated into 26 languages). Some of the American notables who’ve contributed to the ‘Nunsense’ nonsense are, for example: Edie Adams, Kaye Ballard, Peggy Cass, Phyllis Diller, and Sally Struthers. Among the characters they have played in this show are nuns who have been … a circus performer … a streetwise Brooklynite … a Novice who longs to be a ballerina … and an amnesia victim whose been conked by a tumbling crucifix. Ouch!

This group decides to combine their talents in order to raise cash for the unlikeliest of reasons. It seems the convent cook, Sister Julia Child of God (who else), has inadvertently poisoned all but 19 of the order’s 71 members with her tainted vichyssoise, and with four of the convent’s deceased still on ice in the fridge, Mother Superior has run flat out of burial money. What’s an impoverished convent supervisor to do?… let’s see … hey, why not tap all that pent-up show biz savvy and run a talent show?… that should provide the needed cash, by golly!

What follows is a hilarious combination of singing, dancing, and slapstick that doesn’t let up for a minute. 

Musical Director, Steve McCoy and Choreographer, Sari Feldman couldn’t be more in sync if they were Siamese twins. Scenic Designer, Randall Parsons has the show’s trickiest assignment because the Good Sisters are putting on their creation in a school theater that’s still decorated from a recent 8^th grade performance of ‘Grease.’ Naturally, the stage has to look like that … and it does. Likewise, Robert W. Henderson, Jr.’s lighting must have presented a major challenge. Anyone who thinks it’s easy to light a show that’s basically a black and white production … and still keep it ‘colorful’ … hasn’t tackled the challenge. The same goes for those habits provided by costume designer Teresa Matteson. Costumes play an extremely important part in this musical, and Lord knows, they’d better fit properly.

This is the fourth time I’ve seen ‘Nunsense’ and my third review. One might think the show would get stale after so many exposures to it, but that’s far from the case. Indeed, the current incarnation of Don Goggin’s rollicking invention is the most entertaining I’ve ever taken in. It’s even got a dozen or so Jeffrey Sanzel-style variations that look like the maestro could have borrowed them from my old Catholic school.

In conclusion, each of the ‘Good Sisters of Hoboken’ provides a unique version of hilarity in Theatre Three’s current riotous proceedings. Accordingly, it’s impossible to determine which of the five is funniest. Suffice it to say the rambunctiousness builds without letup until veteran hoofer Linda May (Sister Mary Hubert) belts out the gospel-style showstopper, Holier Than Thou. It’s a fitting conclusion to this inimitable show. By all means, see it … you’ll be glad you did!__

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Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of a dozen novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His recent hit, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Ladouceur’s newly completed thriller, THE SOUTHWICK INCIDENT, was introduced at the Smithtown Library in May. The book involves a radicalized Yale student and his CIA pursuers. Mr. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Seven Dems Ready To Challenge Zeldin

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Suffolk County’s lst Congressional District—made up of all the five East End towns, all of Brookhaven Town, two-thirds of Smithtown and a slice of Islip—has been designated one of 101 “battleground” districts by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

This means the committee will provide campaign workers and fundraising.

The incumbent in the lst C.D. is Lee Zeldin of Shirley who won the seat in 2014 by defeating Tim Bishop of Southampton, previously provost of Southampton College. Two years later, he defeated Anna Throne-Holst of Noyac, the former Southampton Town supervisor.

Mr. Zeldin, an attorney and former state senator, is a conservative Republican, politically and personally close to President Donald Trump. Mr. Zeldin’s spokesperson, Jennifer DeSienna, says that while “several Democratic Party candidates” will be “trying to out-liberal each other for the Democratic designation, Congressman Zeldin will remain completely focused working harder than anyone else to deliver positive results to grow our economy, protect our security, and improve in many other ways our community, state, and nation.”

There are seven Democratic rivals to Mr. Zeldin, an unprecedented number of would-be Democratic candidates historically in the lst C.D.  

Indeed, if the crowded field doesn’t thin out and most of the candidates continue on and wage a Democratic primary challenge, Mr. Zeldin could be at an advantage.

In the 2016 primary, Ms. Throne-Holst defeated David Calone of East Setauket, former Suffolk County Planning Commission chair, by 260 votes, splitting the Democratic vote. Ms. Throne-Holst spent $1.73 million and Mr. Calone $1.3 million in the primary, money lost for the general election fight against Mr. Zeldin. Suffolk Democratic Chairman Rich Schaffer has said that while he will work to avoid a primary by getting an agreement on one candidate, “based on the number of candidates, that’s unlikely.”

Moreover, because Ms. Throne-Holst was a longtime member of the Independence Party until a year before the primary, she was accused by Mr. Calone of not being a “real Democrat”—and this could reoccur this year. One hopeful this year, Kate Browning of Shirley, term-limited after 12 years as county legislator, was a long-time member of the Working Families Party until last year (although she ran for legislator, as Ms. Throne-Holst had for supervisor, with Democratic cross-endorsement).

It’s not just the money expended on a primary and creation of a division among party voters, but also the lost time campaigning as a general election nominee. The date of the primary in New York State this year is June 26. Election Day is on November 6—a little over four months later.

Those seeking the lst C.D. Democratic nomination in addition to Ms. Browning are:

*Vivian Viloria-Fisher of East Setauket. Like Ms. Browning she also was term-limited after 12 years as a county legislator. For six of those years she was deputy presiding officer of the legislature. She came to the U.S. at 16. She is strong on many matters including social issues and the environment. She has been a long-time teacher.

* Perry Gershon is extraordinarily tough on the connection between Messrs. Zeldin and Trump. Nearly every other day he’s out with a strong statement. A businessman in Manhattan, he and wife bought a home in East Hampton 22 years ago.

* Elaine DiMassi of Lake Ronkonkoma was a physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory for 21 years until she decided to make the race and thus, because of the Hatch Act, had to resign from BNL. Her campaign slogan is “Scientist for Congress.”

*  David Pechefksy grew up in Patchogue and went on to became a staff member for the New York City Council. He worked for a non-profit in the city promoting civic engagement among the young. He is in the process of moving with his family back to Suffolk, to Patchogue. 

* Brandon Henry of Center Moriches was a teacher and is now a bartender. “I got involved in this because I felt our votes aren’t being heard,” he said at a recent Democratic candidates’s forum. “When it comes to the struggle of living on Long Island, I don’t have to relate to it. I am in the struggle of living on Long Island.”

* Just announced is Bruce Miller of Port Jefferson who declares on his campaign leaflet that he is “A Democrat with…An Appetite for the fight!” He is a Port Jefferson village trustee, a former teacher and ex-Port Jefferson school board trustee, and says “I can help reinvent the party.”

Ms. Browning is originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland and was a school bus driver for the William Floyd School District before being elected a county legislator. She notes that one of her student passengers was Lee Zeldin.

Hauppauge Girl Scouts Earn Silver Award

Six Hauppauge Students Receive Girl Scout Silver Award

HAUPPAUGE, NY—Girl Scouting’s highest awards—the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards—are a girl’s chance to make a lasting difference in the world. Girl Scout Troop 2861 and 428 was honored to present Rylee Agosta, Elizabeth Combs, Elizabeth Holdorf, Emely Rodriguez, Alexeus Ruland and Renae Smith with the Girl Scout Silver Award, the highest recognition for achievement in Girl Scouting for girls in grades 6-8.

This award recognizes girls who demonstrate—individually or as a group—extraordinary leadership through sustainable and measurable Take Action projects that address important community needs.  In attendance were some special guests- Legislator Tom Cilmi, Sal Nicosia, a representative from Senator Croci, Hauppauge BOE Member, Gary Fortmeyer, the Hauppauge Middle School Principle Mrs. Maryann Fletcher, Service Unit 26 Coordinator, Mrs. Rose Vermillion and Girl Scouts of Suffolk County staff.

Elizabeth Combs and Emely Rodriguez joined forces to collect various donations for Long Island Feline Adoption Center, which had recently relocated.  They sat with the volunteers, figured out what their needs were and took action.  They requested donations through a donation box in the library, at Service Unit events and by pamphlets they distributed.

Elizabeth Holdorf created an educational brochure on Cookie Booth Sales and a Set Up and Go Cookie Booth for Girl Scouts in Suffolk County to utilize. Her cookie booth will be used by troops during cookie sales to guide them in proper etiquette and give them a readymade/travel ready cookie booth. She decided to do this because she felt that girls could benefit from a transportable cookie booth and pamphlet with information. “Girls need to know how to sell cookies properly with good cookie selling etiquette in order to get more of a profit,” Elizabeth says. She wanted to help her service unit with hopes that other service units will follow in her footsteps. This way, when Girl Scouts are out selling cookies, they can look and sound their best.

Alexeus Ruland wrote and produced an Autism Awareness Video for Hauppauge Middle School to help fight the stigma of others that are different. She chose to do this project because a close family member has Autism and she would love for everyone to know how Autism works and what it is.  In the video, she gave the science behind Autism and some of the signs and struggles a person with Autism might show. Alexeus hopes this will make people realize that even though someone may act differently, sometimes they cannot change it, and that people can try to be more understanding.

Renae Smith chose to raise money to donate two iPad’s to Stony Brook Children’s Hospital Child Life department.  The Child Life department provides young patients being treated in the pediatric unit a place to socialize, play, learn and hang-out. Renae chose to do this because the Child life Department holds a special place in her heart.  When she was seven years old, she had open-heart surgery due to some complications with a hole in her heart. When she was in the hospital, Renae visited the Child Life department play room and played with other kids and make various crafts, including sewing a pillow case, which she still owns and cherishes. 

Rylee Agosta helped with a Beautification Project at St. Thomas Moore.  She started with a sit down with Father Anthony of St. Thomas Moore Church.  Father Anthony wanted help to stop people from parking on the lawn of the church property.  They agreed on an initial plan to plant Azaleas along the road.  This need changed when the town notified Father Anthony that they were going to put in a sidewalk. So, Father Anthony gave Rylee the St. Francis Garden to work on.  The one side of the sanctuary was beautiful, and the other side was full of weeds, which was a large eyesore.  Rylee’s Silver Award Project turned the area into a beautiful section to sit and enjoy.

“Girl Scouts take a pledge to serve others and help people at all times,” says Yvonne Grant, President & CEO for Girl Scouts of Suffolk County. “The inspiring accomplishments of these young women are a testament to this promise.”

The members of Troop 2861 and 428 used their strengths, talents, and skills and put their plan into action to earn the Silver Award while each taking a leadership role.   This would not have been possible without the support of their sister scouts, family, friends and the community.

Girl Scouts of Suffolk County is the largest youth-serving agency on Long Island. It serves more than 40,000 girls between the ages of 5 and 17, with the dedicated support of more than 7,000 volunteers. For more information about Girl Scouts, please call 631.543.6622 or visit www.gssc.us.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Does Sheriff Toulon's Election Signal A Post Racial Suffolk County

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

The election in November of Errol Toulon, Jr. as Suffolk County sheriff—the first African-American ever elected to a (nonjudicial) countywide government position in Suffolk—was unprecedented.

And unprecedented, too, was a “Media Day at the Sheriff’s Office” held earlier this month. In my memory, going back more than 50 years in Suffolk, I cannot recall an event in which the press was invited to “a round-table discussion” in which the new county sheriff laid out his agenda and vision and took any question asked by the press, To top it off, then there was a tour of the Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Yaphank where the “Media Day” was held.

The word for this is transparency.

For 45 minutes Sheriff Toulon spoke on a broad range of issues—beginning with a declaration that “one of my goals is to be as transparent as possible,” how he is “very impressed with the operations in the sheriff’s office” but has his own “managerial style,” and wants “to see how things can be done better.” 

“I’m not going to hide the fact that we all know—how the sheriff’s office had had issues in the past,” he said. He’ll be emphasizing ethics, he went on, and will “set a strong model top down…Politics will not be a factor in any decision….I will keep politics out.” This includes “not accepting political contributions“ from any staff member.

Edward Walsh, a lieutenant in the sheriff’s department and also the politically powerful Suffolk County Conservative Party chairman was sentenced last year to two years in jail after his jury conviction on federal charges of wire fraud and theft of government services. He was found guilty of pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the department while golfing, gambling and politicking on county time.

Mr. Toulon emphasized having the sheriff’s office participate fully with other law enforcement agencies in the fights against the opioid epidemic and gang activity in Suffolk. 

It would be “very active” in communities in Suffolk “getting to kids before they get to me” and to “break down barriers between law enforcement and the community.”

He said he would be working to “create a support system” for women in the sheriff’s department, only 12 percent of its staffers now.

“I’m going to be very tough on crime,” he went on, and this will include gathering “intelligence” from inmates about gangs.

Still, he would strive to prevent “recidivism,” having “individuals return back to the same environment” that was a factor in their criminal behavior.

“I’m a big proponent of education,” said Sheriff Toulon, noting he has a master’s degree as well as a doctorate in education. Speaking of unprecedented, I believe Sheriff Toulon is the first sheriff of Suffolk County—since the position was established in 1683—to hold a doctorate.

Then he opened the “Media Day” to questions and I asked the first—why hadn’t he mentioned the unprecedented, indeed historical nature of his winning the Suffolk post as an African-American?

He looked at me and said he didn’t regard his victory as involving ‘the color of my skin.” He believed Suffolk voters saw “a qualified individual” and voted for qualifications and credentials.  He said that, in fact, he was unaware he was the first African-America to run for any countywide position in Suffolk (other than judicial office) until two weeks after he was nominated by the Suffolk Democratic Party.

He noted that he resides in Lake Grove where very few African-Americans otherwise live. Moreover, one of his activities, he said, is serving as a coach for an ice hockey team, not a sport in which many blacks compete, he pointed out. And as an ice hockey coach, he has “never been treated differently.”

Sheriff’s Toulon explanation was along the lines of what has been termed “post racial”—a sign that racism, at long last, might be fading. (You wouldn’t know it from some of the things that have been happening nationally over the past 15 months.) Suffolk County, with its long history of racism and prejudice, has with the election of Sheriff Toulon shown the way.

Sheriff Toulon is extremely qualified for the position. He previously was a deputy corrections commissioner in New York City and before that, for 22 years, a uniformed officer in the city’s corrections department. He knows Suffolk well having been an assistant deputy Suffolk County executive for public safety. Being Suffolk sheriff is a big job involving the supervision of almost 900 corrections officers, 250 deputy sheriffs and 130 civilian personnel and running the county’s jails in Riverside and Yaphank. The electorate has chosen a man who can ably fill it.