You are Attacking Your Own People, Dummy
The work of Town Supervisor St. Lawrence is well appreciated by most of the Town’s residence. The Supervisor’s work is SO indisputably great, that Preserve Ramapo resorted recently to attacking the acts of a body that they supported strongly until recently. The story is this:
A few months ago, elections were held for a few seats on the East Ramapo School District Board. Among the candidates were a few people of the Chasidic community who pay property taxes to support the Public School system despite the fact that they send their kids to private schools, and on the other hand were running a few people who were incumbents on the board, supported by some in Preserve Ramapo.
The Chasidic candidates ran on a platform to enhance the quality of the Public School system by employing policies that lead to the beautiful upbringing that kids from the Jewish private schools have. In addition, the Chasidic candidates ran on a promise to curtail reckless spending of the budget, such as the five-year contract signed last year between the BOE and the superintendent, granting him a pay much higher than the Governor of NY and Vice President Joe Biden. On the other side of the debate, were a few bored cry babies, organized under Preserve Ramapo, who actively supported the statuesque of the board, which included giving the Superintendent a lavish contract.
Election Day arrives. Yearning that all kids in the district should get quality education on the same level as their own kids get, and wanting to put a stop to the reckless Board spending, Chasidic people came out in a democratic manner to support candidates that stand with them on the issues, while some PR people came out to vote for the statuesque. The results were strong: the candidates who wanted to enhance the public school system and cut reckless spending won with flying colors, while the other candidates got less than a third of the vote.
End of story.
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The elections for Town of Ramapo Supervisor are heating up and Preserve Ramapo, as in the past, is again trying to attack the Supervisor. Not having relevant substance to run on, and seeing that their empty attacks against the Supervisor does not blur voters’ approval of the Supervisor’s work, Preserve Ramapo went on a skating attack against… the Board of Education for its last year’s action of approving the Superintendent’s salary, which costs taxpayer’s a lot of money.
In other words: instead of promoting their own candidate who is running against St. Lawrence, the Preserve Ramapo people are attacking a body which has nothing to do with the Supervisor, and for actions the body took when a bigger part of its members were people supported by Preserve Ramapo.
Yup, one result of boredom and hate is losing focus of your objective, an act which Preserve Ramapo displayed boldly in recent days by attacking the actions of the very people they supported just a few months ago.
Categories: Reserve Ramapo, Campaign 2009, Preserve Ramapo
Tags: East Ramapo School District Bruce Levine Preserve Ramapo Reserve Ramapo New York ublic School system Relevant Substance East Ramapo School District Board Town of Ramapo Christopher P. St. Lawrence Ramapo
So, since Preserve Ramapo is pointing out something they feel the Ramapo taxpayers should be aware of, unusual and questionable BoE election practices, they are bored or unfocused? This article seems to express your belief that P.R., as a group, exists to attack Mr St Lawrence. I think that is incorrect. I view the focus and direction of P.R. as providing information and supporting actions that will benefit Ramapo citizens at large - not just a few. They highlight the actions that seem focused on benefiting a smaller constituency, which impact the landscape and infrastructure of the entire town, often negatively. The fact that Mr St Lawrence is the driving force behind these actions is his responsibility to bear. Holding someone accountable for their actions and the outcomes associated with those actions is not an attack, unless the bearer feels guilty about or sees wrong in what they have done.
In addition, I feel compelled to comment on your imitation of an organization you obviously have a strong distaste for. Why use a name so close to theirs unless you want people to mistake you for P.R.? Why link your website to a slogan that imitates P.R.? I'm not trying to attack you, I'm curious as to the choice of this as a motive for bringing people to your website. Is trickery good internet marketing these days?
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If PR is here to work of the benefit of the people, why did they support in the last two elections the very people who gave the lavish contract to the Superintendent? Why did PR support the BOE members who put our money to waste? Why did the writer on PR call the last two election cycles "undemocratic," when in fact it was just that Hasidic voters says 'enough is enough and we got to make this system work, and work for le$$ of our $$$'?
Therefore I conclude, that the main agenda of PR is to attack the Hasidic community and block their work, even if it comes with a price of paying more property tax (as seen from the fact that PR was/is against the Hasidic Board member).
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[quote]Therefore I conclude, that the main agenda of PR is to attack the Hasidic community and block their work, even if it comes with a price of paying more property tax (as seen from the fact that PR was/is against the Hasidic Board member).[/quote]
I, personally, am sincerely saddened that you see it that way. We live side by side in a rather nice community. It seems such a shame to let that relationship dissolve over political agendas. Why do we need to be spending our energy pushing against each other? Why can't we put that same energy (any money) toward living as peaceful neighbors? Finding improvements that will benefit ALL of us?
In the last two elections, we had potential BoE representatives up for election that backed out very late in the campaign - and named their replacements. The replacement candidates were unknown did not provide details on their association with Ramapo, their background, or their interest in serving on the Ramapo BoE. Yet, they were elected - by a common number of votes and margin over their opponents.
How does it happen that potential BoE members, who the public outside of the Hasidic community, has ANY biographical information on, can take seats on the Board of Education? Why would they NOT provide this information to a larger audience, in order for everyone in the district to be comfortable that their choice as representatives was legitimate and not slanted toward the private school community?
I don't ask these questions on behalf of Preserve Ramapo - or anyone else. I am a parent of 2 kindergarteners entering the East Ramapo Public School system this year. From my point of view, there was something unusual that happened at the last 2 elections. The facts simply seem very odd. Oddness attracts scrutiny by those educated enough to see it. I've read comments from both sides of "the fence" (if you choose to call it that) in an attempt to sort things out. Call it parental due diligence, if you please.
It seems that the information I'm seeing published by PR is factual, whereas the information I'm seeing here is opinion. Very slanted opinion. This blog seems to answer the postings of the other with excuses and accusations of attack - whereas PR seems more intent on providing facts. Those facts are strongly flavored by opinion no doubt, but they are hard, quantifiable facts - backed up by public record. I analyze facts and come to my own conclusion.
As a member of the Ramapo community, I find myself confused by the acrimony. Why are we trying to push each other into a corner? It's frustrating to think that our collective dollars are being spent fighting with each other, instead of improving our town. We ALL pay taxes here, we ALL deserve improvements that will improve our quality of life. Yet, it seems that each faction is so intent on improving the quality of their own lives - "those others" be damned - that it stalls the progress that would benefit the larger group.
When will it stop?
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In short: those on the Hasidic side are not at all pushing anyone in any corner. they are just pushing back at people who take every and any news story of the Hasidic community to make all of them look bad, or perhaps blaming the Hasids for all, such as the BOE contract that IS outrages, when in fact the contract was signed before any of the Hasid candidates were board members. Regarding the "replacement" of candidates. well, local newspapers, and "standard" ways of going public is not Mandatory to be a candidate in the US. if anyone does not like it, they can vote against these people. it is so, that the Hasidic people come out voting in large numbers, which permits them to put in candidates that do work that they (the Hasids) want, such as cutting crazy budget spending and using some successful private school practices to change the run-down PS system. Regarding opinion and facts. well, we here DO write opinions, but they are all based on facts, vs some others who give opinion under the cover of facts. or perhaps producing facts that are non-existent, as with the Preserve Ramapo article attacking Cristopher St. Lawrence, and we here debunked that one. Yitzchok Shreiber, Chairman - Reserve Ramapo, Editor - ReserveRamapo.org
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