- By Casey Stevens
- Opinions
Print 
I always liked the game show sound of the phrase 'lightning round', so in order to clear out a lot of niggling 'thoughts' from my pseudo-desk, here goes a 'lightning round' of Thoughts. Call them a moving target, if you wish.The headline read "Tompkins County Begins Work on Route 13 Corridor Study". Specifically, the area of Route 13 between Warren Road and the western boundary of the Village of Dryden.
"Begins Work"? How many of you long-timers can snort in disbelief at that one? Hey, D.O.T., you have at least one study in your dusty files that took that exact same stretch of road into consideration and that study is almost thirty years old.
In case you don't remember it, it was called the 'Dryden Bypass', utilizing Route 366 as a corridor through Freeville to Route 38 and Route 13 at the east side of Dryden, near TC 3. It doesn't actually save any 'time', but relieves pressure on the stretch of 13 you're proposing to 'relieve'. You, dear D.O.T. engineers, played around with that one for years upon years.But, I'm sure you must have access to more money so you can again try to reinvent the wheel.
After all, the state has only a six billion dollar deficit (which will magically disappear on April 1st, due to creative Albany accounting), and a governor who wants to put more Medicaid spending on the shoulders of the county taxpayers. And you want to 'study' the same stretch of road that you 'studied' and answered almost thirty years ago with a bypass that would solve Dryden's snake pit of traffic? But, hey, blame it on private driveways and 'cuts' that enter Route 13, or blame it on anything but poor engineering, lousy driving, excess vehicles and useless surveys meant to 'listen' to 'stakeholders'. Your answer gathers dust somewhere in D.O.T. hell...I mean the Albany snake pit.
A quick note to reference my columns on the Electoral College. I mentioned the 'National Popular Vote Interstate Compact' which could be declared unconstitutional, but which could basically emasculate the essence of the Electoral College if declared in effect. It now appears that Virginia is preparing to sign on, and that will bring the electoral vote total of signatories to 209. The last sixty one (to 270) could be a tough row to hoe, but guaranteed chaos could result as lawsuits gather steam which would possibly put the presidential election in limbo, also known as the Supreme Court, in 2024, not necessarily 2020. There are other issues to be resolved for the 2020 election. As I have previously opined, watch the Colorado 'faithless elector'case scheduled for April before SCOTUS. As the Chinese once opined (way before the corona virus): "May you live in interesting times."
I must comment on Bernie Sanders. This self-described 'democratic socialist' (who is not a Democrat, which I think is what really frosts the Democrats' Pop-tarts) was asked about his defense of Fidel (democratic socialist?) Castro. Sanders' response? "...it's unfair to say everything is bad...when Castro came into office (Sanders actually used that phrase to describe a bloody, murderous revolution) you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing even though Castro did it?"
Yes, Bernie, it actually was a terrible thing (even discounting the fact that Cuba had an 80% literacy rate in 1959, almost the highest in Latin America). For one thing, he didn't "come into office", but shot his way into it, executing hundreds if not thousands before firing squads, drove tens of thousands into exile, stole thousands of family owned businesses and jailed tens of thousands more in the name of 'socialist revolution'. The beneficiaries of the 'revolution' were not the children and the illiterate, but the ones carrying the guns.
Bernie, the two worst examples of genocide in the twentieth century (you may pick which two among several) had 'socialist' in their party's name and thinking, and perhaps I can also point out that that Cuba's 'literacy program' was only to inculcate thousands of peasant children with communist screed after outlawing all other literature, newspapers and broadcasts.
Counter-revolutionary tools of capitalism, you know. You know that phrase, don't you Bernie? Yep, that was a real literacy program. Oh, and didn't you refuse to characterize Nicolas Maduro (bless his socialist soul) in Venezuela as a 'dictator'? And haven't you praised Daniel Ortega as a freedom fighter of his people?
Mr. Sanders has a large contingent of under 30's (millennials, if you wish) who support him, which is laudable as a political effort to engage younger people. But, I have thought about the fact that the phrase that rung out at the Berlin Wall in 1988, a clarion call of Ronald Reagan to herald the beginning of the end of 20th century totalitarian communism: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!!" , was exclaimed before the current crop of socialism supporters were even born.
They have no idea of the Berlin Wall, the Iron Curtain, demilitarized zones, the outlawing of religion and jailing of clergy, and, most assuredly, the Gulag. Historically, they are ignorant of what radical socialism has foisted upon tens of millions who didn't know that these 'revolutions' frequently resulted in 'dictatorship of the proletariat', in the imprisonment of tens of millions, the execution and imprisonment of additional hundreds of thousands, all in the name of social equalization and 'people power', anti-capitalist and anti-individual freedom.
Is this an outrageous interpretation of the proposed future of a socialistic America? Possibly. But count on a counter-push, and the extremists advocating a 'socialist revolution' have been at the forefront of violence in other countries and cultures since 1848. It's not the adherents we need distrust, but the leaders who can utilize a mass of history-ignorant followers as 'useful idiots', as Lenin described intellectuals.
One more thing, dear Bernie. Your description of "the authoritarian 'nature' of Cuba." Nature? Is that how we describe a regime that shot its way into control, a regime which turned a formerly relatively well-off island paradise into a client welfare state where everyone reads what the government decides is 'appropriate revolutionary literature' (and imprisons you if caught with anti-revolutionary material), but your citizens can only earn the state dictated monthly income of $35.00? Authoritarian 'nature' indeed, Mr. Sanders.
If Sanders has a shot at the White House, I suggest that we Americans who still have a shred of hope and belief in free will, human dignity (and free enterprise still beats in our hearts) that we start stocking and provisioning the lifeboats on the shore like the freedom loving Cubans, and Vietnamese did. And, don't ever forget the barbed wire that still surrounds so many millions which profess the 'socialist revolution'. Am I a Cold Warrior? You bet. We don't need to fight it militarily, yet; we fight it with our hearts, and ballots.
One last note, of positive hue: Kudos to Mike Sigler for chairing the county legislature for a couple of 'cat herding' weeks, while the majority party tried to cut each others' throats in back room juggling. I am a man of no party persuasion these past many years, so I feel comfortable and non-partisan in stating that Mr. Sigler assumed that temporary mantle with no ulterior motive, probably in humility and complete understanding of the nature of the post, accomplished much, and I think he relinquished that mantle in the same attitude of humility and grace which befit a leader.
These days, a person who did what Mike did is a person deserving our respect, in the finest tradition of leadership and quiet determination to do his best under difficult and unusual circumstances. We need more like him, regardless of 'party'. Congratulations Mike, and congratulations to the people of Lansing who support good government in the interests of the people by electing Mike and those like him.
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