Letters to Artvoice

THE SQUABBLERS

I found Bruce Jackson’s interview with local developer Carl Paladino to be an endless source of amusement (“Dancing With Paladino,” Artvoice v5n45).

Hard to believe my lil’ ol’ tribe caused two grown men, both respected at what they do, to act like 10-year-old kids fighting over a playground football game.

Jackson: That was out of bounds, Carl!

Paladino: The tree’s out of bounds, Bruce, and you know it!

Jackson: Do over!

Paladino: There are no do over’s, Bruce! I’m taking myball and going home!

Senecas must be doing something right.

Tim Saracki

Buffalo

You would think three aging baby boomers with the influence, intelligence and egos of Carl Paladino, Bruce Jackson and Mike Powers would be able to come up with a sound strategy for dealing with the Buffalo casino.

Palladino, Masiello and our entire Western New York Senate (Byron Brown) and Assembly members are fools and generally incompetent for not making sure local restaurants and hotels were protected from tax-free operations at the Seneca casinos in the original compact. It never gets passed without their support. Their failure to get in writing adequate protection for local businesses that pay taxes and fund their generous salaries and pensions is criminal.

Since we already have five casinos within a half hour drive of Buffalo, one more will simply re-allocate where some of that money is wagered. The real question is how do we maximize the positive impact on Buffalo. I’m not a big-time developer, lawyer or columnist, but I believe two things should be a priority:

1. Western New York host communities must demand a much greater share than 25 percent of the 25 percent New York State share of slot revenues. What is Albany doing for their 75 percent share? Our Western New York state delegation, with vocal support from the Seneca’s, should make this priority #1 in the next session and actually deliver for their constituents. For added pressure, Carl Paladino can hire Mike Powers to bring a lawsuit which Bruce Jackson writes about weekly!

2. A pre-determined formula for sharing that revenue should be put in place with very specific designations geared towards funding things like waterfront development, tourism, the Buffalo Zoo, Albright-Knox, Darwin Martin House, Shea’s or the Olmsted Parks.

Today we are looking at about $5 to $7 million dollars per year getting sucked up by the City of Buffalo and Erie County bureaucracies with little positive impact. $20 to $30 million yearly going directly to these agencies and culturals would likely have a far greater impact and offset many of the negatives from the casinos. We took on the Power Authority and won. We took on Thruway Authority and won. Now it is time to go after the casino compact and take back money that rightfully belongs to this area and use it to build our local economy and create jobs in Western New York.

Aaron Walker

Snyder

REMEMBERING THE ORPHANAGE

I recognize that this is quite late, but am forwarding the following in view of the observation that the Toronto group that did the photography not only wanted to complete a history but that the “job of finding the true history of a place is difficult” (“An Orphan of History,” Artvoice v5n43).

The photographers got their conclusion wrong that what they found at the German Roman Catholic Orphanage were the remains of the orphanage.

When the orphanage burned and subsequently closed in 1956, most of the children were placed in foster homes. It had been considered proactive to place children, who had been found to be legally neglected, in orphanages even if they had living parents, but by the 1950s attitudes had changed, and foster parents were considered a better option for the children.

The building was at that point not abandoned. It was subsequently taken over by the Ladies of Charity, who had their headquarters there and who worked on many of their projects there, including layettes for indigent families and Christmas gifts for needy children, as well as those in foster care. The building was also used for some diocesan activities, including parties.

When the Ladies of Charity moved, the diocese opened a school for children there that would meet the needs of the immediate neighborhood. This school ultimately was closed-—as were many other Catholic schools.

As an employee at Catholic Charities during this period, I was caseworker to some of the children who had previously resided at the orphanage, and later obtained layettes and gifts for needy children, as well as attending one party there. Subsequently one of the children with whom I worked in the community attended school here, when the public school was unable to meet his needs. It was an excellent school while in operation. Regrettably I have no recollection when the school closed, since I began working elsewhere.

As one very interested in history, I regret the loss of historic buildings which are the roots tying us to our past, as well as provide examples of architecture of different eras. We have a past; we are not “raw” newcomers to the community.

I also grew up with the Wallenburg mill on Koons Avenue, and am deeply saddened that it has burned.

Phyllis O’Donnell

Buffalo

WE ARE TOO A DEMOCRACY

Dr. Niman’s recent article “Not a Democracy” (Artvoice v5n45) points out some of the most formidable challenges to our current democracy. At the same time, however, Dr. Niman overstates these claims to the point where he doubts whether or not the United States is a democracy at all. While it is important not to downplay the effects of these challenges, I believe we do just as great a disservice by inflating them as well.

Dr. Niman claims that our democracy is invalid due to “lost votes.” He cites a Caltech and MIT study of the 2000 presidential election that projected that between 4 and 6 million votes were lost. These numbers are striking; but when we compute the percentage of voters that this number represents, we find that these “lost votes” constitute a 3.5 to 5.5 percent disenfranchisement. That is: although votes were lost, 94.5 percent to 96.5 percent of the American population’s votes were effectively counted.

I’m not making excuses. The best democracy would be one in which every vote was counted, but to state that something is broken because it works at 95% capacity is an attempt to oversell the point.

But this isn’t the only reason Dr. Niman believes that the United States is no longer a democracy. He writes that redistricting, campaign contributions and biased media are directly responsible for the decisions made by voters. His suggestion is that we lack a democracy because a great portion of the population votes in a way that he finds objectionable. He is positing that we cannot trust the American populace to make educated decisions despite external influences. Dr. Niman’s thesis is: Since there is media bias and gerrymandering, we must therefore assume that voters are not capable making competent decisions. This insinuation is punditry at its worst, and it represents a complete lack of respect for the principle of democracy.

Once we accept the assumption that voter competency cannot be trusted, we begin to attack the fundamental hypothesis of democracy itself. There is no reason an avid conservative couldn’t, using Dr. Niman’s reasoning, determine that the Democratic victory in this most recent election was due to the brainwashing effect of countless online harangues from misinformed populists.

Dr. Niman’s critiques of our current political system are insightful, and our democracy would be better if we paid closer mind to them. It is not true, however, that we no longer live in a democratic state because of these challenges. If we pretend that difficulties render us undemocratic, we’ll be less attentive to those offering warnings when our democracy really is in danger. This idea is as old Aesop’s boy who cried wolf.

Let’s not fool ourselves.

Daniel Rera

Buffalo