Last week, state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone) circulated a letter that appeared in local newspapers which attempted to distance herself from the ongoing outrage in Albany. A similar letter was printed and mailed by Sen. George Onorato (D-Astoria) to his constituents. Each letter blamed the Republicans for the stalemate in the Senate. Each ignored the fact it was Hiram Monserrate (D-East Elmhurst) whose vote gave Republicans their claim to a majority.
What Stavisky, Onorato and the other senators forget is their office is a privilege, not a right. It has been during their tenure this historical outrage has occurred. Fervently do I hope somewhere there is someone with sufficient money and integrity to create a new broad coalition party with the resources to nominate new faces with fresh ideas to run against all incumbents in this state, be they Democrat or Republican.
The change our hypocritical politicians advocate for and will not or cannot consummate will not be achieved until there is a thorough housecleaning. Until then, our current crop of representatives will continue to rely on the electorate’s short memory, a strategy that relies on H.L. Mencken’s observation that “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
John J. Cox
Woodside
