The Advocates

with

John Berenyi

Wednesday,
September 17, 2008, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting my show “The Advocates” on
WVOX- 1460 AM on your dial, or you can listen to the program’s live streaming
at www.wvox.com.  One can call the show
at 914-636-0110 to reach us on the radio. 
We have a return guest today with Mr. John Berenyi, who is no stranger
to these broadcasts.

The
topic today is, “What is the current situation with the financial markets.” Mr.
Berenyi was on The Advocates almost one year ago (October 25, 2007) talking
about the Subprime mortgage meltdown, he accurately predicted there would be
more rough waters ahead in the financial marketplace. Mr. Berenyi was also a
participant on our New Year’s prediction program panel (December 26, 2007) and
articulated the same concerns.  

Some
of the questions Mr. Berenyi will address are the following:

·       
Why did Lehman Brothers collapse?

·       
Can there be other situations like this?

·       
What is the impact on other companies like AIG?

·       
Why is there a failure of government action?

·       
What happened to regulation?

Mr.
John Berenyi, has undergraduate and graduate degrees in, engineering,
management sciences and applied economics from Columbia University.
He has been an investment banker, who has specialized in alternative energy and
environmental finance for the past 25 years. In the early part of his career,
as a Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Studies at Harvard
University, he developed the composite
set of environmental indicators to measure the quality of life in cities across
the United States.
Cities, counties, states, and academic institutions have adopted this work,
across America,
as a tool for public of public policy and evaluation. Today, after a long
career serving companies like Citicorp, HSBC Capital and IF Rothschild, he is
the managing director of Ecocite, a Canadian-based company that works as an
energy investment trust for eco-property development. He is also the Senior
Advisor on Energy to the AJ Congress to implement the US-Israeli Energy
Independence. Act.

John Berenyi has appeared on The Advocates and has talked to
us about such varied subjects as: “Our Crumbling Infrastructure,” August 23,
2007, and “The Subprime Mortgage Crisis,” on October 25, 2007. One can listen
to our guest by accessing The Advocates website: http://advocates-wvox.com. His other
appearances were on December 26, 2008, January 23, 2008, and April 16, 2008.

Meanwhile, the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the
public differing views on current “public policy “issues. “Public policy,”
therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the
years, the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has
been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public
policy of the United States.
Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction
of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs.
emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces
or the “draft.”

Criticism of my Letter to the Editor and my Response!
September 12, 2008

 Criticism of Palin elitist Letter

Richard J. Garfunkel's
Saturday letter, “McCain's pick tough to take seriously,” attempting
to prove Sarah Palin's inexperience for vice president, has instead
demonstrated the classism and elitism rife in liberal critique of the Palin
pick.

As the self-proclaimed
ideology championing the voice of the little guy, liberals repeatedly use the
geographical and socio-economic status of Palins constituency as evidence for
her political inadequacies. The terms in Mr. Garfunkels letter, for example
“small-town,” “tundra of Alaska”
and “backwoods primitivism” both demonstrate my point and insult
small-town America.
At what point did D.C. politics and law degrees become prerequisites for POTUS?

I'd be proud to have Sarah
Palin represent my country as the VP, and when she decides to visit New York, be the first
to treat that “backwoods” piece of trailer trash to her first NY
mooseburger.

Kyle G. Krueger

Cortlandt Manor

RJG Answers small-town guy
from Cortlandt Manor!

As a G-d-fearing so-called elitist, I am proud to be a
card-carrying middle of the road Democrat. It is true, like many so-called
elitists I read, study, and remember. I remember John McCain and the “Keating
Five” and how his “heroic” background helped whitewash him from the fate
of the other Abscambers. I also recall that unlike the “elitist”
president of the Harvard Law Review, Barack Obama, he was fifth from the bottom
of his class of 900 at Annapolis.
I assume he was an affirmative action selection because of his illustrious
name. I also remember how he dumped his first wife after she was injured in a
car accident. I also remember that he was the Chairperson of the Commerce
Committee that overseas things like regulation and the financial marketplaces.
I also remember him as a knee-jerk supporter of the Reagan-Bush-Bush troika who
worship at the throne of deregulation and the free (for all) market. These are
the same people who decry government, and its bigness, but scream for help when
they get into trouble. But this time the libertarians of the right really have
gotten us in the slippery slope soup. My friend from Cortlandt Manor, Mr.
Krueger was unhappy with my characterization of Governor Palin's home hunting
grounds. Basically Alaska is not like the
small home towns of almost any Americans, no less the good folk of Cortlandt Manor
and Westchester County. In truth Alaska is 93% white, has a majority of men,
has tremendous social problems, has one of the smallest populations and has by
far the fewest people per square mile on this side of the earth, and its
“tundra” is not like any other state. Look, some Alaskans really like
the governor for bringing home the “bacon” (pork.)

In fact, Sara Palin
was able to “earmark” almost $220 for every man, woman, child and
moose in our 49th State. Can you imagine if Barack Obama could have increased
the Illinois
earmarks from $22 per capita to her number, we would all be broke.

But I really appreciate Ms Palin for her GOP family values
that seem to replicate her running mate and America's Mayor who is on wife
number three and whose children don't seem to want to talk to him. But no one
should bring up the fact that the governor has had management problems with her
own family while she is pontificating about others and their “elitist”
G-d depracating ways. But the governor has some resume problems that accompany
her moose hunting credentials. She didn't seem to be a corruption fighter, she
seems to be involved in a modern day book burning, she seems to be involved in
abusing her power regarding her familial problems, she seems to not have sold
her jet bomber on Ebay, she seems to have criticized her Wasilia predecessor,
Mayor Stein for not being Christian. It seems he is a Lutheran.  Maybe being a Lutheran is not Christian
enough to a “newly” born Evangelical. It seems she thinks our efforts
in Iraq
are a new chapter in the Crusades and that our “western G-d” has
blessed that ill-conceived and executed adventure. But we in Westchester
are elitists when we want our elected officials to have half a brain. We should
applaud Sara Palin and her vast educational and academic experiences at five
colleges. Of course she eventually graduated, I think from the Harvard of the
Rockies, the University
of Idaho. But of course a
famous North Dakotan, GOP US
Senator Roman Hruska, defended Nixon's mediocre choices for the Supreme Court,
G.Harold Carswell, and Clement Haynesworth, by saying that being a
“C” student was under-represented on the Court. The Senate and the
public didn't buy that load of malarcky and rejected those two idiotic choices.
So Sara Plain isn't a genius. Who needs smart
people? Look at the trouble we got in with another Ivy Leaguer George Bush II.
But maybe he was a legacy just like John McCain! Do we really believe that he
got in on his own?

Well with Sara Palin, and John McCain, who has made
flip-flopping and newspeak an art form, the blush maybe off the rose. His
economic doubletalk and nonsense has finally penetrated into most voters’
heads, and the GOP ticket of old and dumb with young and dumber seems to have
peaked. I am glad that Mr. Krueger will head her parade of anti-elitists and
book-burners down to the public square where they will bow to the Golden Calf
of Creationism, flat-earthism, and hiss at Darwin's memory. I recommend that he
re-see “Duck Soup” with the Marx Brothers and see how the Country of
Fredonia worked (Karl wasn't in that film!)

Richard J. Garfunkel

Letter to the editor of the US News and World Reports

Editorial about FDR and the most important election-
1932

September 11, 2008

 Richard J. Garfunkel

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the
abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who
have too little.”  FDR, the Second
Inaugural Speech, January 20, 1937

“The immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the
sins of the cold blooded and the sins of the warmhearted in different scales.
Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in the spirit of
charity than the constant omissions of a government frozen in the idea of its
own indifference.” FDR, from remarks he made in 1936.

Thank G-d for Franklin Delano Roosevelt! Ken T.
Walsh's column hit the nail squarely on its head. The three years of Hoover
inactivity on top of the Coolidge five-year sleep-a-thon created, as Arthur
Schlesinger articulated in his book, “The Crisis of the Old Order,”  a climate of despair and a reality of
collapse, panic and the inability to cope. One should read his great prose. The
Great Depression threatened the very essence and survival of our Democracy. All
over Europe, country after country turned to dictators, and desperation was
changing into the distinct possibility of social disorder and revolution in America. Roosevelt stopped the bleeding, reversed the slippery
slope of the collapse and engineered the greatest period of financial, economic
and social reform in our history into 100 days. The recovery to the pre-crash
inflated and unrealistic market numbers advanced every year until the Dixiecrat
forces and the Wall Street plutocrats demanded a slowdown in New Deal spending.
When FDR exceeded to their wishes the economy quickly reverted to almost
pre-recovery status. FDR realized almost immediately that the pump must be
still continued to be primed, and he reversed course quickly, and the severe,
but short recession of 1938 was stopped. As to foreign affairs, FDR warned us
of the totalitarian rise in Europe and Asia
with his Quarantine Speech, but he
was silenced by hundreds of editorials, egged on by the American First
isolationists, which sought his impeachment for his warnings. Eventually with
the passage of Lend-Lease, the repeal
of the Neutrality Laws, and the authorship of the Atlantic Charter created from the essence of the Four Freedoms
State of the Union
Address of January 1941, the country started to take re-armament seriously. FDR
beat back the Lindbergh hatred and the isolationist insanity, racism and
xenophobia. After Pearl Harbor, he made the United States into “The
Arsenal of Democracy,” created a winning strategy and partnership with
Winston Churchill, and selected excellent military leaders to prosecute the
war. He became truly “The Soldier of Freedom,” as named by James
McGregor Burns in his award winning book of the same title. His leadership
established the GI Bill of Rights, the Bretton Woods Monetary Reforms, the
United Nations, and established the basis for Eleanor Roosevelt's authorship of
UN’s “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” The future world is
more in the image of FDR than any other person. It is his world we live in. Roosevelt's dual leadership through the panic and
recovery days of the Great Depression and the dark days of WWII made him the
“essential” and “indispensable man.” Churchill said,
“Franklin Roosevelt was the greatest man he had ever known.” President
Roosevelt’s life, he said must be regarded as “one of the commanding events of
human destiny.”  Enough of the
revisionism of the far right!

The Advocates

“The Democrats in the
Red Zone

Ms. AF Cook

Wednesday, September 10, 2008, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting
my show “The Advocates” on WVOX- 1460 AM on your dial, or you can listen to its
live streaming at www.wvox.com.  One can
call the show at 914-636-0110 to reach us on the radio. My guest this afternoon
from Arlington, Va., is A.F. Cook, the author of “Democrats
in the Red Zone: an Independent Voter’s take on the game of political
perception”!

A.F. Cook is an author, sometime blogger, and average
American citizen whose recent book, “Democrats in the Red Zone: an Independent
voter’s take on the game of political perception” was published in November
2007. Cook wants Democrats to be savvier about how they play the political
perception game. She believes Republicans retain an edge in their understanding
of American cultural biases, and that Democrats must sharpen their rhetoric and
cultivate more mainstream perceptions of their constituencies to gain an upper
hand.

In a direct challenge to the organizational culture of the
Democratic Party in particular and liberal culture in general, Cook asserts
that such a strategic shift will only occur when barriers to inclusion based on
class and educational credentials are broken down within those two cultures.
Cook believes that America’s
voting majority — especially football fans — detests one trait even more than
dishonesty: pretentiousness. In her view, the impact of Sarah Palin’s
nomination as the Republican Party’s vice presidential candidate clearly
illustrates this reality.

Cook lives in Virginia,
which she calls a “red state going purple.” Originally hoping for a
presidential run by former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, she is currently a
supporter of Barack Obama

Today’s discussion will be an update on the state of
American politics in the wake of the last eight months of campaigning since our
guest, A.F. Cook was last here. AF Cook will tell our audience how she perceives
the strengths and weaknesses of all four candidates, and why both Joe Biden and
Sarah Palin were added to the national tickets. Some of the questions A.F. Cook
will address are the following:

 ·       
What is meant by the term “game changer?”

·       
What does the term the “American People” mean to
politicians?

·       
Has American feminism been advanced by the
candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin?

You can also access on The Advocates’ website, http://advocates-wvox.com and hear A.F.
Cook’s last interview, discussing her book, “Democrats in the Red Zone,” which
was originally broadcast on January 2, 2008.

Meanwhile, the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the
public differing views on current “public policy “ issues. “Public policy,”
therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the
years, the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has
been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public
policy of the United States.
Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction
of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs.
emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces
or the “draft.”

Letter to the California Progress Report –September 9, 2008

Column by Irwin Novick “Happy Days are Here Again, the Resurgence of FDR.”

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/09/happy_days_are.html

Thank you Mr. Nowick!

FDR was the single greatest elected politician in modern history and was
able to overcome the devastating physical challenge of Polio. He was a vigorous
man who overcame a lifetime of sickness. He had wonderful mentors, Theodore
Roosevelt, Al Smith, and Woodrow Wilson. He took something from all of them,
and was smart enough to avoid the problems they all experienced. He shaped his
own destiny, built the new Democratic Party, halted the panic that paralyzed America after four years of Depression, created
the New Deal, and led America
towards recovery. He was labor’s greatest friend, created social safety nets
for the average American. He restored faith in the market places, the banks and
government. He created the Social Security, and rebuilt America’s
devastated middle class. He was one of our greatest conservationists and he
brought electricity to parts of rural America that had been ignored for
200 years.

He rallied the public, instilled great respect from the world at large, and
inspired great enemies and opposition. He took on the Fascists when America wanted
no part of that fight, created the United Nations, and built the “Arsenal
of Democracy.” Through his actions at the Atlantic Conference in Argentia Bay, he put forth his vision of the
world based on the “Four Freedoms.” His vision is the vision of
today’s modern world; his vision is of the world community pulling together for
the common good. FDR had to withstand an “American First” style isolationism
that cut across almost all social and political barriers and subgroups. FDR had
to use his unequaled mastery of the America
political landscape to, on one hand, re-arm America, and on the other hand,
battle the limitations of our Neutrality Laws and the passion of people like
Charles Lindbergh, who were his most vocal critics.

FDR mobilized the American economy in an unprecedented way, as we fought an
effective and remarkable two-ocean war. He selected and appointed our excellent
overall leadership with his Joint Chief’s Command, led by Admiral William D.
Leahy, who coordinated the activities of Generals Marshall and Arnold along
with Admiral King. FDR's selections, in all of the theaters of his
responsibility, of MacArthur, Nimitz, Eisenhower, reflected excellent and
carefully thought out judgment. Their choices of subordinates, which included
Bedell-Smith, Clark, Bradley, Patton, Hodges, Simpson, Eaker, Doolittle,
Stillwell, Halsey, Spruance, Vandergrift, Smith, Lemay and many others spelled
eventual success. His speeches and cool leadership gave the people confidence
after Pearl Harbor and the loss of the Philippines. FDR's leadership of
the wartime conferences at Argentia Bay, Quebec, Casablanca,
Teheran and Yalta
were the driving force behind victory and the post-war dominance of the West.
His sponsoring of the Bretton Woods Conference had the most lasting effect on
the future world's economies vis-à-vis monetary stability. All in all FDR's
domestic leadership before and during the war were unprecedented. The late
President, the architect of victory, won a hard earned election in 1944, with
excellent majorities in Congress, even with his health suffering from advance
heart disease and arterial sclerosis. One of FDR’s final achievements was the
“GI Bill,” which brought educational benefits, training and opportunity to
millions.

He was able to maintain his majorities in Congress all through his tenure in
office, and even though the Democrats narrowly lost Congress in 1946, they
quickly recovered their majorities until the Eisenhower landslide of 1952. But
from 1954 until the 1980's the FDR-New Deal coalition of Democrats maintained
Congressional hegemony.

FDR's legacy was one of not only unprecedented leadership, but of government
innovation, reform and restructuring. Both have great-unequaled places in the
history of our world and our time. Not only did James McGregor Burns write his
wonderful book, “FDR, The Lion and the Fox,” but he followed it up
with the award-winning, “FDR, The Soldier of Freedom.”

Both books still make great reading. FDR is the most written about man in
history, and I had the pleasure of being at the Roosevelt Summer reading Fest
at Hyde Park, NY this past June 21st. It was hosted by the
FDR Library under the wonderful leadership of Ms. Cynthia Kock. I also had the
pleasure of having a number of the authors there that day as a guest on my
radio show, “The Advocates.” One can hear the broadcasts of those
shows by accessing its archives at http://advocates-wvox.com.

Richard J. Garfunkel
Tarrytown, NY

September 4, 2008

 Letter to the Editor:of the Journal News

Since the time of Herbert Hoover, most nominees of the two
major parties have selected outstanding people to serve as their running mates.
A number of these individuals had a lifetime of experience in the mainstream of
American political life. Harry Truman selected veteran United States Senator
Alben Barkley, a former majority leader, and John F. Kennedy picked a powerful
United States Senator, Lyndon Johnson, who was also a Senate Majority Leader.
Aside from one’s philosophical perspective, Presidents Roosevelt, Eisenhower,
Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Reagan and George W. Bush picked individuals with
records of substance. At times Presidents have made mistakes with failures like
Spiro Agnew, and Dan Quayle. On the other hand, losing presidential candidates
have also made embarrassing mistakes with choices like, Bill Miller and
Geraldine Ferraro. But all of them, with few exceptions, had maturity, national
experience and exposure, and were not seen as radicals outside of the
mainstream. Again, with politics aside, most could have succeeded the
presidency without the public being overly concerned. During the Republican
National Convention, one GOP spin doctor compared the choice of Governor Sarah
Palin with Harry Truman, stating, he was an unknown Senator. In truth, Truman
was 60 years old, had served with distinction during WWI as the Commander of Artillery
Battery D, served as a well-respected administrative county judge for ten years
in Missouri,
and was a United States Senator for ten years. He created and led the
critically regarded Truman Committee, a WWII oversight sub-committee, dealing
with waste and corruption. Unfortunately as a matter of expedience, Senator
John McCain, the newly minted GOP standard bearer has selected Governor Palin
of Alaska, whose libertarian and reactionary views are far outside the
mainstream of American thinking, whose experience beyond the small town life
and tundra of Alaska is nil, whose confused set of values smacks of abject
hypocrisy, and whose prejudices reek of religious bigotry, insensitivity, and backwoods
primitivism. She may be lauded by her sycophantic supporters as a gun-toting,
all-American “hockey mom,” but it seems to all that her teenage daughter was
badly compromised by a self-confessed foulmouthed “hockey” lout. The first and
most important choice of any candidate for the presidency is their running
mate. No matter how her blind supporters bleat, it is mighty tough to take this
pick seriously.

 Richard J. Garfunkel

“The Advocates”

 With

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio
1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

September 3, 2008

All archived Shows at:

http://advocates-wvox.com

Wednesday, September
3, 2008, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting “The Advocates” on WVOX- 1460 AM, or you
can listen to the program’s live streaming at www.wvox.com.  One can call the show at 914-636-0110 to
reach us on the radio.  My guest this
week is the distinguished journalist Mr. Milton Hoffman. Our discussion this
afternoon will revolve around the recent national political conventions, and
Mr. Hoffman’s impressions of how they have changed over the past decades. Mr.
Hoffman covered seven Republican and Democratic Conventions from 1976 through
1988.

Mr. Hoffman was a journalist with the Westchester
daily newspapers for 50 years until retiring 6 1-2 years ago as senior editor
with The Journal News. During his career, he covered Westchester County
government, state government and politics, and attended seven national
presidential nominating conventions for the Gannett Westchester Newspapers. His
political column, Tales of Hoffman, appeared for more than 30 years.

His writings as a reporter, columnist and editorial page editor helped
fashion public opinion that led to the creation of a Board of Legislators to
replace the Board of Supervisors as the county's legislative arm, the state
takeover of the dangerous Westchester Parkway System so that it could be
rebuilt to modern standards, and the erection of a modern terminal at
Westchester County Airport. He also championed the building of affordable
housing and the adoption of a handgun re-registration law. Currently, he is a
member of the Westchester County Fair Campaign Practices Committee, a board
member of the Greenburgh Historic and Landmarks Preservation Board, a board
member of the Westchester Historical Society, a board member of the Collegium
program for senior adults at Westchester Community College, and a member of a
state-appointed citizens committee dealing with the possible replacement of the
Tappan Zee Bridge.  A Navy veteran, he is
a graduate of White Plains High School and the former Champlain
College of SUNY, and has been a resident of the Town of Greenburgh for 52 years. Below are some of
the questions and thoughts Milt Hoffman will address:

 ·       
How conventions have changed?

·       
Have they lost their meaning?

·       
How has coverage changed over the decades?

·       
His experiences as a reporter

By accessing The Advocates website Milt Hoffman can be heard on the
August 2, 2007, program talking with County Legislator Martin Rogowsky on How
Politics Has Changed in Westchester. He can
also be heard on the May 5, 2008 program talking about the 75^th
Anniversary of FDR’s First Inaugural on March 4, 1933.

Meanwhile, the
mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current
“public policy “issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation
legally and traditionally follow. Over the years, the “public policy” of the United States
has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public
education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time
great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public
policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation,
state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the
“draft.”

The Program is
sponsored by the Green Briar Adult Home, in Millbrook, Dutchess County, NY.
One can find my essays on FDR and other subjects at https://www.richardjgarfunkel.com
and one can also see and hear all of the archived shows at: http://advocates-wvox.com. 

Letter to
the Editor: The Jewish Advocate of Brookline

August 28, 2008

Robert T.
Abrams said that I need a history lesson. I stated that Auschwitz
was not known as the final death camp terminus. (By the way my parents were
married by Stephen Wise in June of 1935) First of all, Sir Martin Gilbert, the
world’s leading expert on the Holocaust, states that fact in his book, “The
Allies and Auschwitz.” Second of all, a vast
amount of those two million Jews were killed by SS Units/ Einsatzgruppen troops
following regular Wehrmacht forces, and third of all, the Death Camps were
basically set up to systemize that killing, conceal the acts, and to take the
pressure off many of the regular German troops who were exposed to such
murderous activity. The Allies knew of Auschwitz/Monowitz as a work camp
dealing with war production, and until two heroic Jews were smuggled into the
death trains and left a message imbedded in the wooden frame of one of the
cattle cars, little was known, or believed about what Auschwitz
was about. Why don’t some of you arm chair experts read Lucy Dawidowicz’s book,
“The War Against the Jews.” You should blame the NY Times for putting
the story on the back pages. In Lucy Dawidowicz’s seminal book, she never even
mentions President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once in her 487 pages. But she
does cover in detail what really happened.

Ms. Racelle Weidman’s wrote that the War Refugee Board
was created with pressure from Congress, the Treasury Department and Jewish
Activists. The basic account of its creation has been written many times. She
should refer to “Mostly Morgenthau” by Henry Morgenthau III, the son of
Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. who went to FDR and told him of the
obfuscation and anti-Semitism of Breckenridge Long. It was FDR who created the
WRB and it had nothing to do with Congress. There is no doubt that thousands of
Jews were saved and a greater effort by the United States could have helped
many more. What I said was, and I quote,  “In fact that official process
did not become policy until the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942. By the
time World War II had started and France
and the Low Countries had fallen, the ability
of any Jews to get on a neutral or Allied ship was virtually impossible. In
fact, 95% of the Jews that were murdered in WWII lived east of the Oder-Niesse River,
in areas of the Baltic States, Poland,
the USSR and Hungary
where they were trapped.”  I said, and I reiterate, it was virtually
impossible to get on a neutral or Allied ship to “America.”  In the limited
space allowed by these letters any detailed historical statement is impossible.
Again, my statement was in regards to Mountain’s diatribe, the beginning of the
Holocaust, the creation of the Death Camps, and the lack of concrete
information determining what the real purpose of Auschwitz
was. I defy Rafael Medoff, Racell Weiman, or any one else to disprove that
history. Accordingly of the 8,861,800 European Jews in the pre-final solution
population, 5,933,900 were murdered. Of that total, 546,000 Jews came from Belgium, Norway,
Holland, France,
Italy, Luxembiurg, and Finland. Of
that amount, 44% or 243,000 Jews were murdered. Obviously these people, mostly
from France, Holland and Belgium were swept up by Nazi forces, with the
connivance of local Nazis and anti-Semites, and their ability to escape was
virtually impossible. Therefore 95% of the murdered Jews came from Germany and eastern countries (including Greece)
where access to rescue was “virtually impossible.” The numbers are the numbers.
To blame FDR and even the xenophobic Congress, along with its America First
allies for aiding and abetting the Holocaust, as does Tom Mountain
and others, is ridiculous, insulting and a blood libel. If Jewish revisionists
want to find an answer to the Holocaust, re-read Hitler’s words. Also they
should read the “War of the World,” by Niall Ferguson, and “The Appeasers” by Martin Gilbert and Richard Gott. After a few weeks
or months of critical reading, one could be better informed about both what the
European Jews faced in almost every country they lived. Also, one could be a
lot more knowledgeable about the anti-Semitism that emerged in America
in the 1930’s. Franklin Roosevelt made a commitment to prepare and move an
isolationist country, which almost unanimously opposed even helping England
survive, defeat the Nazi/Fascist aggressors. That is the issue, not the small
minded hatred from people like Tom
Mountain.

 Richard J.
Garfunkel

Reflections on the
Democratic Convention

the speeches of

Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama

8-29-08

 Richard J. Garfunkel

 
I expected no less
from the greatest woman in the world. I expected no less from one of the best
and brightest of our time. Linda and I met her a few years ago in Scarsdale, and I was
astounded and flattered when she said, “hello Richard,” to me. I was mesmerized
by her famous speech at Wellesley
College many years ago
and I am still one of her greatest admirers today. It is no wonder that she had
the support of millions of millions of voters. I remember campaigning with her
in Mount Vernon when she first ran for the
United States Senate with my friend Rosemary Uzzo,
who was her co-chairperson for Westchester
County. I remember the
electricity she generated when she and Big Bill visited the Scarsdale
Mid-Chester YM & WHA a few years ago.

It is not easy to run for office, and over the past 39 years or so, I
was able to meet many national and statewide candidates like Hubert Humphrey,
Frank Church, Michael Dukakis, George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Mario Cuomo,
Howard Samuels, Charles Schumer, Liz Holtzman, Richard Ottinger and countless
others. Politics is a tough business, not for the faint-hearted, and there is
only one opening for each job every election cycle. In the distant past some
women were able to get into political office through their husband’s name. Some
like Margaret Chase Smith did, and were quite accomplished. Others came and
went. Today we are blessed with many talented women from every corner of the
nation, who made it on their own, and they represent our country quite well and
affectively. Many said that Hillary’s election to the Senate was wholly
dependent on her name, and that she didn’t really earn it on her own. Well, I
for one find that incredibly offensive. She had been a great First Lady of
Arkansas, a great First Lady of America, and is one of the outstanding Senators
in Washington
today. For my money she ran a great campaign right to the end. She was the very
essence of “The Happy Warrior.”  Despite all the insults and crassness
thrown her way by people like Chris Matthews and others she endured. Even
tonight women like Campbell Brown and Gloria Borgias couldn’t wait to sharpen
their nails and extend their vapid tongues. It must be a jealousy thing. Fred
“Beetle” (Brain) Barnes on FOX News bad mouthed her. What else is new? What
were these talking head fools listening to?

Meanwhile, Linda
and I backed her from day one, and we were quite disappointed that she was not
the party’s nominee or Obama’s choice for Vice-President. But we are both
realists and being long-time politically involved people we knew “it is what it
is.” Tonight she electrified a basically moribund convention. I thought that
Governor Warner’s keynote address was incredibly mediocre and forgettable. He
certainly was no Frank Church, Ted Kennedy, Mario Cuomo, or Barbara Jordan. But
he was lucky that he was followed by Senator Clinton, Because of her brilliant
eloquence, his speech, whether it was rated by the pundits, good or bad, will
be quickly forgotten. Tomorrow the headlines will be all HILLARY Conquers All
she Surveys!

Certainly after
such a bravura performance, there will be a period of enhanced “buyer’s regret”
from many delegates and millions of Americans. But, all in all, she did what
she could to rally a basically split party behind Barack Obama. I look forward
to Bill Clinton’s ringing endorsement and Obama’s acceptance speech. This
family will certainly vote straight Democratic in the fall, and hopefully the
country will wise up and throw the Bush Brigands and their surrogate John
McCain into the dustbin of history. Enough is enough!
     

More than 70 years
ago, FDR stood in the rain at Franklin Field, on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, and accepted the
nomination of the Democratic Party for the 1936 presidential race. More than
100,000 intrepid souls braved the inclement weather to hear FDR proclaim that
“this generation has a rendezvous with destiny.”  

This famous passage
has echoed through the portals of history. FDR said, “Philadelphia is a good city in which to write
American history.”  At one point during his address he lost his balance as
the startled crowd reflected its anxiety. But the “master” quickly regained
both his balance and his composure, as he went on to speak of the ”economic
royalists” who had helped drive the country into the Great Depression, and how
the “clouds of suspicion, tides of ill will and intolerance gather darkly in
many places.” How correct FDR was then and how prescience he was in view of
what we face today. Near the end of his great acceptance speech, FDR had a
sense of things to come when he mentioned “a mysterious cycle in human events.
To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This
generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.” History has reaffirmed,
time and again his brilliance and foresight.

There are many
parallels to that bygone era, we seem them in the concentration of wealth in
the hands of the few, the decline of our middle class, the collapse of our
housing market, the speculators manipulating our energy markets, and the
decline and fall of many of our lending institutions and brokerage houses.

As FDR said in
1933, “We need change, and change now!” Last night Barack Obama put the
argument squarely on the table. Do we need more of the same? Do we need more of
the Reagan-Bush–Laffer curve economic voodoo? Do we need more of the same old
economic royalism of McKinley, Taft, Coolidge, Hoover and the other GOP failures of the
past? The answer is a resounding no!

We have a choice
before us, whether to go down that old trodden path of flat-earth thinking,
fear of the unknown, and the dark prejudice of hatred, or the new highway that
beckons us into a new era of cooperation, understanding and enlightenment. The
choice is ours this November like it was back in 1936. The future is in our
hands and in the ballot box. Let us not squander another opportunity.

 “The Advocates”

 With

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio
1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

August 27, 2008

All archived Shows at:

http://advocates-wvox.com

Wednesday, August 27,
2008, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting “The Advocates” on WVOX- 1460 AM, or you can
listen to the program’s live streaming at www.wvox.com.  One can call the show at 914-636-0110 to
reach us on the radio.  Our subject is
“The Importance of Public Art, and how what is its affects of our communities?”
Our guests are Barbara Segal, Rosemary Uzzo and Yonkers Public Works
Commissioner John Liszewski who will discuss this important topic.

Barbara Segal is the
public Art Consultant to the City of Yonkers, NY. She has had many “One Woman
Shows,” she has been involved in many group exhibits and has written numerous
articles that have been published in the NY Times, the Journal News, and other
publications. She is a graduate of the Pratt Institute and has a degree from
L’Ecole Nationale Supericure, des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France,
and a BFA degree from Pratt.

Barbara Segal has earned a
firmly established reputation as an important public artist and advocate of the
arts in New York State. Her exhibitions and larger scale
public works have consistently met with rave reviews. The New York Times
describes her sculpture as “provocative and exquisitely carved”,
responding to her installation exhibit at the Neuberger Museum of Art in 2000.
“Tour de force well describes Barbara Segal’s achievements in sculpture.
She is a master at creating complex, detailed and unusual objects from hard
stone”, states the Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs at the museum. The
fall of 2003 welcomed the opening of a sculpture park on the Hudson River
waterfront in Yonkers, N.Y. The City of Yonkers exclusively contracted Barbara Segal
to organize and design this ambitious project as a symbol of its extensive
cultural revitalization. Completed in 2005 is “Muhheakantuck”,  an MTA Arts for Transit commission is a
two-part seventy foot cast aluminum wave, charting the original borders of the
Sawmill River. It runs along both sides of the historically land marked
Metro-North viaduct in the heart of downtown Yonkers. 
Barbara
Segal in partnership with JMC Art Partners created Yonkers Artrucks, launched
during Business Week 2007 for the Dept. of Public Works. Together the team
developed the concept and implemented the project to transform 6 garbage trucks
into “mobile art galleries” with artist-designed vinyl wraps
promoting environmental awareness. Currently Barbara is a consultant for the
City of Yonkers
working with the Dept. of Public Works and the Downtown Waterfront Development
Corp. She spends everyday in her studio in Parkhill creating new works of art
for galleries, museums and private collectors.

Rosemary Uzzo, a
member of “Who’s Who in Education,” has a BA and an MA from Fordham University.
She was a member of the Yonkers Board of Education from 1961 through 1996.
During that period of time she served as the Director of Information Services,
for the Yonkers Board of Education, served as an Assistant Principal, a
curriculum Coordinator, and a curriculum writer. She is still active as an
Instructor for Adult Education through BOCES, been the director of the Jewels Learning
Center at the Yonkers
YMCA. Ms. Uzzo has been an instructor at Mercy
College, and an adjunct professor at Fordham University. She is the author of
“Exploring New York,” and activity text for fourth grade students in New York State. She has served on numerous Boards
and Councils, which include Mayor’s Community Relations Board, Westchester
Council on crime and Delinquency, National Council of Christians and Jews,
Bronxville Women’s League, the Italian-American/African-American Dialogue
Group, American Association of University Women, among a number of others. 

Commissioner of
Public Works, John A. Liszewski, started his career in the City of Yonkers in 1987 as a
senior budget analyst. He became Administrator for the Yonkers Police
Department, then Director of General Services in the Department of Public
Works. He was then appointed by Mayor Terrance Zaleski as Commissioner and was
reappointed by both Mayor John Spencer and currently by Mayor Phil Amicone.

As Commissioner of
Public Works, Mr. Liszewski holds full administrative responsibility for all
phases of the public works operation, including the water system, the sewer
system, solid waste collection, snow removal, recycling, bulk pick-up, and the
maintenance of all public areas (streets, bridges, highways).

He continues to work
on increasing the percentage of recycling that we do as a City. His duty as
Commissioner of Public Works has always been to continue to enhance the quality
of life for all residents of Yonkers
and to maintain our proactive approach. In addition, he participated in
collaboration with the City’s Art Community to create an exciting project to
transform six garbage trucks into mobile art galleries.  The outcome was
to promote environmental awareness and educate the public on the integral role
DPW plays in sustaining a clean and save environment.

He is a member of
Westchester Counties Solid Waste Advisory Board, American Public Works
Association, Westchester County Public Works Association, Westchester Counties
Water Works Association, as well as many other community and civic
associations.

He was born and
raised in Yonkers,
were he currently resides with his wife.  He has three children and two
grandchildren.

 Our guests will
address some of these following questions:

 ·       
How does
public art impact a Community?

·       
Who
should pay for it?

·       
What is
the difference between public art and gallery art?

·       
Is there
a discernible economic impact regarding public art?

·       
Why have
public art in a community?

Meanwhile, the
mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current
“public policy “issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation
legally and traditionally follow. Over the years, the “public policy” of the United States
has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public
education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time
great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public
policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation,
state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the
“draft.”

The Program is
sponsored by the Green Briar Adult Home, in Millbrook, Dutchess County, NY.
One can find my essays on FDR and other subjects at https://www.richardjgarfunkel.com
and one can also see and hear all of the archived shows at: http://advocates-wvox.com. 

Richard J. Garfunkel