By Barbara Morris
The Christian communities, of course, celebrated Ash Wednesday on Feb. 6, preceded by Mardi Gras, which to me has one redeeming feature: pancakes for breakfast. Year after year, we hear stories about the bawdiness of that date in some parts of this country and elsewhere. I sincerely hope that our areas continue to stay as far away from such “celebrations” as possible.Some years ago, I had friends who lived in New Orleans and others who lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where both families had to leave their home and get as far out of town as possible, for the safety of their families – especially for the sake of their young daughters. Fun is fun, but when things are allowed to get out of hand to the extent that people are hurt or killed, that is just too high a price to pay. Most of the time, I'm afraid excess is a dangerous thing. We should all recognize that É including some of those in elected office.Turning to another issue, the use of eminent domain has become overly popular over the past year, as far as I'm concerned. I believe that process should be used only in the rarest occasions. Lately, however, some of our elected officials seem to feel they have the right to snatch someone's home or property so that they can make some kind of profitable deal with some real estate establishment for what he or she may consider to be for the greater good, fully ignoring the rights and feelings of the property owner.In late January, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, state Sen. Jose Serrano, state Assemblyman Herman Farrell, and City Council member David Yassky have joined forces to support the demand that property owners of vacant lots and/or vacant residential buildings make them available for housing or register them and if they are to be retained vacant, pay an annual fee up to $5,000. They indicated this is necessary to gain tax money for the city to provide desperately needed housing opportunities for the burgeoning city population and revitalize the target areas. There is also already in place a program called Home Share that matches home owners with another person or persons in need of living space. What will be next in regard to property owner rights or lack thereof? Voluntary acceptance of a Home Share person is one thing, but the word “voluntary” is the key. In a single residential area, the home owner is really not supposed to rent space to anyone outside of his or her own family. Isn't that interesting? Another interesting thing is I haven't heard any one of our elected officials who are trying to stem the tide of potentially new residents. Do we suspect they only see potential voters? What some people have anticipated for a very long time is a potentially “sinking city's lifeboat” with the first forced to bail out É voluntary or otherwise, being the present tax paying property owners.We have pleaded to have the mansions that are changing the characters of so many communities stopped. Our pleas have fallen on deaf ears É unless someone with political pull has some interest in the area. Threats to home owners by unscrupulous builders don't seem to get support from those in power either É at least from the majority of them.Those who have wanted to protect the character of our own country have advocated to make English our national language, but those requests have been refused time and again, as have the requests to have immigration laws long on the books enforced. I have not heard from any of these people that they are anti-immigrant. I have heard they don't want those who choose to enter legally to be tagged fools for abiding by this country's laws that have been made by our esteemed legislators. God Bless America! And let freedom ring!
