“Next time, I might kill a kid.”
If Joe Biden were more like my grandfather, America might be inaugurating a Democratic President on January 20.
Grandpa would have liked Biden, and thought he reminded him of the friendly, plain-speaking Irish guys he met working on the docks when he first came to America.
Francesco Aniello Vespe was born in a little hilltop village in the poorest province in Italy, migrated with his family to New York before the turn of the twentieth century, and obtained one of the first taxicab licenses in the city.
He drove professionally for many years, both as a chauffeur for high-society types in Manhattan and later in his own cab. He was proud of his driving ability, and how anyone he drove…passengers or family…could feel safe when he was behind the wheel. And so could other drivers, and pedestrians.
He still drove for pleasure after selling his cab and retiring, driving out from Astoria to Franklin Square at least once a month to visit his three granddaughters, but then one day in his eighties…about as old as Joe Biden is now…he did something he had never done before.
He ran a stop sign.
He didn’t notice it himself, but my grandmother did. “Frank!”, she yelled in horror, “you went through that stop sign!”
That night he called my father and his two other sons: “I’m giving up my driver’s license. Sell the car. I can’t drive no more. “
One of my uncles questioned if this wasn’t a bit drastic, but grandpa was insistent…“Next time, I might kill a kid.”
It’s too bad the President of the United States couldn’t have taken a tip from a retired taxi driver who never went past the fourth grade and realized when it was time to quit something he loved.
I hope President Biden enjoys a healthy retirement; I know he has a Corvette which he enjoys driving around Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.
But please, Mr President, if you ever run a stop sign……admit you can’t drive no more, either.
Because next time, you might kill a kid.
James Vespe, Mamaroneck
“Populist Conservation & Constitutional Order:” (Part 1)
This was a talk delivered by a well- known historian/novelist to a gathering at a Midwestern college-in which he said “in part”-
“The Top Down elitist brand of politics that has dominated the United States since the end of the cold war—under Republican & Democratic administrations alike—has failed. Yes we are materially richer than we were in 1991, and our largest corporations are more profitable. But we are militarily & strategically weaker, fiscally endangered, and spiritually enervated. As a result, public trust in the vaunted institutions that our elites control—political, scientific, journalistic, educational, religious—has evaporated. And populism—especially on the conservative right, is on the rise.”
“The fact is, elite institutions have become the people’s and the nation’s enemies. They are openly waging cultural war on those they ostensibly serve. They cannot be negotiated with or accommodated. They must be defunded, disbanded, and disempowered .The rewards for doing so—for putting American Families first again—will be greater than we can know.”
Joe Pettit, Yorktown Heights
Source: Kevin D. Roberts at Christ Chapel-Hillsdale College on Oct. 23rd 2024.
Letter to the Editor:
The article “Major Push to Pass HEAT NY Act” (Dec. 20-27) quotes many local officials supporting the measure, which would, among other things, cap energy costs at 6% of income. But nowhere in the story does it say how this would be paid for.
Will energy companies charge everyone else more to make up for the lost revenue? Or will New York State subsidize this with my tax money? And who is going to check to verify the income requirements each year?
Another “benefit” according to proponents will be a reduction in carbon based energy usage. But there will be no incentive to conserve for those at the 6% level – they will pay the same amount no matter how much is used.
So much for turning off the air conditioner and lights when no one is home.This is a poorly thought out legislative measure that I hope is rejected by those elected to represent the hardworking taxpayers of New York.
John Farrell
Yonkers
