Letters To The Editor

Misleading Ad

To The Editor:

I feel you, your readers and the homeowners of Garden City should be aware of the deceptive and deliberately misleading ad that was placed in your fine paper [on July 27] by Dougall C. Fraser Real Estate. The facts are as follows:

Taylor Warner Realty is the oldest and finest real estate office in Garden City, established in 1919, and family-owned and run since 1952. We are members of The Multiple Listing Service of Long Island, and considered it, in some cases, to be a useful tool in marketing and selling homes. However, it is only one resource of many to provide excellent service and a satisfactory result when selling a home in a swift and rewarding manner for the homeowner. MLS is a relatively recent phenomenon in Garden City and is in no way the only option a homeowner has. Indeed, most of the homes sold by Taylor Warner are never listed as MLS properties. In fact, they have been sold by our large team of experienced professionals who are noted for their talent and integrity prior to resorting to this worthwhile alternative for homes that do not sell immediately. Our roster of loyal customers, a first-class website and advertisements in The Garden City News and other local and metropolitan papers usually allow our crew of gifted salespersons the opportunity to sell a home within a short time. This data is never reported to the MLS organization or included in any of their reports.THIS FACT WAS NOT REVEALED IN THE DECEPTIVE AND DECEITFUL bar graph and percentages shown in this misleading advertisement. Homeowners and editors should employ critical thinking at all times, whether choosing a realtor or choosing an advertisement.

This letter is meant to set the record straight as a public service announcement to homeowners, to be cautious with whom they place their trust and possibly their most valuable asset, when marketing their home.

Mary and Bob Krener

Taylor Warner Realty

St. Paul's Fiasco

To the Editor:

Frank Kiernan's statement on the St. Paul fiasco that has been going on for far too long. He expressed my wife's and my sentiments on this problem very (very) well. We have lived in Garden City for over 31 years. And I must state, I am proud of the fact that we voted against its purchase. It was a boondoggle to the tenth degree from the beginning. No preplanning or forethought was ever done on that before the purchase. That is before we stuck our necks into that seven million dollar purchase.

The great story of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart and the creation of Garden City and, I must add, St. Paul's was paramount in all news releases. I do not mean to diminish what the Stewarts had done or accomplished. But life and times change every second and some do not seem to understand this fact.

This was before the initial "voting" took place. After that purchase, many good ideas were suggested. All were discarded. There was and still is a minority group with the financial ability to legally enforce their opinion on the majority of GC property owners. We now have bought the property (formerly owned by yes; the same previous owner as St. Paul) across from St. Paul for five million dollars. Why did we do this? To build baseball diamonds, which were there to begin with?

In my old age, I have come to the conclusion that there exists in this village an extremely high opinion of itself. I do not have any allegiance to St. Paul. I am a Brooklyn born, raised and educated man.

If you want to call it dedication, allegiance or what ever. I have to turn to St. Cecilia Grammar in Brooklyn and Haaran High School in Manhattan, then on to the USAF. I have no feeling for the Stewart family with the exception that they made a nice "village." They further added to their fortune by doing so. That is the American way.

We, the present property owners and tax payers of this village, have lived this (St. Paul) boondoggle for years. It is long past the time to put it to rest. Further tax increases is not the way to do it. Take the building down or do something constructive (pay its own way) with it. But let's get off this irresponsible tug of war.

Our Board of Trustees has a very good handle on how to make regulations to suit a few. I say Trustees: Get off the center line and go one way or the other. We do not need any more "consultants". We have already spent a small fortune on that "profession." The experts are the people paying the taxes ($).

And to add, thank you Frank.

Michael Falabella

Words Of Wisdom

To The Editor:

At times I come upon a few paragraphs spoken years ago but so well put that the words apply to our sad situation today. Please allow me to share with you.

Benjamin Franklin on June 2, 1787, at the sixth session of The Constitutional Convention, expressed the opinion about politicians held by most of his peers. 'And of what kind are the men that will strive for the profitable pre-eminence through all the bustle of cabal, the heat of contention, the infinite abuse of parties, tearing to pieces the best of characters? It will not be the wise and moderate, the lovers of peace and good order, the men fittest for the trust."

"It will be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits. These will thrust themselves into your government and your rulers."

Franklin spoke of the dangers the new nation would face when it elected it's leaders. He warned "Fear the hack politician. Place before the eyes of such men a post of honour that shall be at the same time a place of profit and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it. The struggles for them are the true source of all those factions which perpetually dividing the nation."

If old Ben was correct men will sell out themselves and their country for money. I believe that to be partially correct. The small man and now the woman, grasping politicians absent character, will follow the path of Judas. Thirty pieces of silver. A pittance for which to be so well remembered.

Ben was not speaking solely of money. He understood the profit sought would be the acquisition of power, power and control over you. It was his use of the word rulers that hit me right in the belly. RULERS! Among the candidates for the presidency in 2008 there is one with that mindset. Ignore the recent past at your peril.

For several generations we have witnessed acquisition and abuse of power at every level of government, Washington, Albany, New York City and it's environs. Did I neglect to mention Nassau County?

You may be old enough to have experienced the iron control of the Republican Party in Nassau County and in the Town of Hempstead. It's tentacles soon reached into Washington further corrupting a hapless HUD. Sure we knew about the one percent kickbacks, the insurance scams, influence peddling, Roosevelt Raceway and Unisys. All done under the cover of patronage. We looked the other way, sometimes we even chuckled. If the little guy, the peon, was hurt, so what!

Most of those Republicans are gone and good riddance, they hurt us terribly but we did not understand that at the time. So now we have Suozzi and the Democrats in charge. It will take time for them to achieve the "success" of the Republican machine. Will we allow that? Probably, and we will be granted the political crumbs we so richly deserve.

I may not have these goals in their correct order but in our nation we now equate profit with the moving of heaven and earth to obtain money. sex, and power. Go ahead rearrange them as you see fit.

As Ben Franklin prepared the text from which he would speak I believe he had in mind the words from Mark 8:36. "For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul."

True when written by Mark, true when referred to in 1787, and absolutely true today.

Edward J. Heaney