August 20, 2018 Governor Andrew Coumo

August 20, 2018

Governor Andrew Coumo,

Brother William Francis, FMS; Brother Ignatius Anthony, FMS; Brother Vincent Jerome, FMS; Brother James Gerard, FMS; Brother Christopher Robert, FMS; Brother Kevin Luke, FMS; Brother Raymond Richard, FMS; Brother Thomas Alban, FMS; Brother Hugh Arthur, FMS; Brother Leo Francis, FMS, Brother Charles Marcelin, FMS; and, of course, Brother Leo Sylvius, FMS. 

Recognize any of those names? 

They were some of the Marist Brothers at Marist High School in Bayonne, NJ. That there may have been some overlap when you were at Archbishop Malloy in Queens. That you were always available as a RC,mAL –[Retired Catholic, modern American Liberal] beach balloon-sized target of opportunity, there is no doubt. That I pulled back, not out of fear of missing the target, but rather out of concern that I may have, as is my wont, of hitting it too well and disturbing some of the above-mentioned Brothers

I am cured of that dread because whatever your academic strong points were American History was not one of them.

[I cannot mention the name Cuomo, father or son, without mentioning 2 letters, both unanswered. One went to your father while the other went to you. Your father gave a speech at Notre Dame where he said that while he was personally opposed to abortion he had no choice but to uphold it because it was the law of the land. I avoided the obvious Thomas More example, the Gandhi example, the Maximillian Kolbe example, the Solzhenitsyn example, the MIndszenty example, the Martin Luther King example, the Mandela example – Doubtless we can stipulate that the above is a list of super stars, yes? – of men, who facing the same choice, chose the heroic path. The question I asked was what if you were the Governor when Dred Scott was on the loose and he was captured in New York. Would you have ignored the legal request for his extradition, remembering that the Constitution specifically mentions it, in Article IV, Section 1? “Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state”. At least Hobson gave you a choice, however limited. Here, none was allowed. Would you have succumbed to the discredited on the field of battle Theory of Nullification of John C. Calhoun or would you have put his felonious Black ass back on the midnight train to Dixie? I am not going to get an answer from your father but how about you?]

Thus the template, not the paradigmatic template of “eclectic indignation” and political cognitive dissonance, without which modern American Liberals would surely go quite mad, I mean absolutely bonkers, if they possessed even a sliver of their souls, but the one that I hope you did not learn from either of the first 2 mentioned Brothers.

I can begin my History lesson with a clear conscience and a light hand.

Can we make America “great” again? Or, to quote you, “It never was that great”, remember?

Let us count the ways and note the dates.

July 4, 1776 – The Declaration of Independence. The codification of rights “that were ours from beyond the stars”. If that’s not great you will not like the next one.

September 17, 1787 – The Constitution. What government can do, and more importantly, what government cannot do. That’s pretty great too.

April 12, 1865 – Appomattox, Virginia – Dred Scott is repealed. Also great, too.

September 2, 1945 – Tokyo Bay - “These proceedings are closed.” Was there ever a country more powerful than we were that day? We rebuilt our enemies and guarded the World. If that ain’t “great” what the Hell is?

July 21, 1969 – The moon. Or to cite The Onion, “the firggin’ moon”. And back.

November 30, 1989 – The Wall comes down, the Russkies are beaten and the World is saved, Thanks Ron, plus a tip of the hat to the Polish Pope and Lady Thatcher.

And now, if we listen to the wing-nut moon bats who serenade you like you were a half-assed Ulysses, the only thing holding back mankind from reaching and stepping over the horizon, is that silly law involving gravity. That’s the first thing on the list next time you get the whip hand.

Kevin Smith

Marist High School – 1961

WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET

PS – addendum – I mentioned a few big great things. Here’s a little great thing that shows how “great” America was and how great she can be. No apologies. No excuses. No global mea culpa tour. September 22, 1948 – Captain Gale Halverson, United States Air Force, commanding a C-54, opened his window and “parachuted” out a whole bunch of Hershey Chocolate Bars, all of which had almonds. He was on final approach to Templehof Air Field, Berlin. It was the Berlin Air Lift. A whole lot of kids thought he was “great” and that America was “great”. Do you? Does “Breathes there a man with soul so dead who never to himself has said, ’This is my own, my native land’”? I guess you haven’t. Your loss. As Marley said, “Save yourself” or “your fate is stark and plain, unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung”.