WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE FOR ME, by ED GROSSMAN
I have been a practicing CPA for over fifty years. Currently licensed and certified to practice in New York State and Florida. You can read my resume in the UCO reporter so I won't bore you with the details. Suffice to say that I have been a leader in multi-national corporations and would like nothing better than the chance to bring my years of experience and expertise to play for the benefit of the village I call home.
I am also the publisher of The CV Messenger, a very popular publication, bringing all the news fit to print to Century Village.
I threw my hat in the ring because I believe if I am elected to the position of Vice President of UCO I can make a lot of improvements in the way the village operates.
I am dismayed at the following issues and the way they are managed. If given your vote of confidence I fully intend to do something about them.
1) The waste of our hard earned money in deals that are engaged without delegate approval, without competitive bids being sought and the lack of consultation with the delegates.
2) The consistent contravention of the bylaws by the current administration and the lack of enforcement of the bylaws by the executive branch of UCO.
3) The abandonment of dedicated accounts for budgetary items and the co-mingling of funds as practiced by our current Treasurer. In my opinion this method of accounting is a temptation for administrators to abuse their fiduciary duty in making expenditures.
4) The new Millennium agreement and the amended long term lease that gives Beneson Capital and WPRF ( The owners and managers of Century Village) an unfair advantage by giving them the ability to spend large sums of our money to improve their property without UCO administrators objecting or initiating the procedures which could require the owners to pay out the millions of dollars it takes to improve their property.
5) The censorship practiced by the administration where any question that the administration deems objectionable is denied access to the village media (Channel 63 and The UCO reporter) whether they are objectionable or simply are contrary to the direction the administration is following.
6) The divisive policies and behavior that has created warring factions within our village . When we stop listening to each other and we disenfranchise valued contributors to the management of the village for petty egotistical reasons , we can see that the village is broken into factions that are slowly but surely pulling us apart . If we are not pulling together, then surely we are pulling apart.
2) The consistent contravention of the bylaws by the current administration and the lack of enforcement of the bylaws by the executive branch of UCO.
3) The abandonment of dedicated accounts for budgetary items and the co-mingling of funds as practiced by our current Treasurer. In my opinion this method of accounting is a temptation for administrators to abuse their fiduciary duty in making expenditures.
4) The new Millennium agreement and the amended long term lease that gives Beneson Capital and WPRF ( The owners and managers of Century Village) an unfair advantage by giving them the ability to spend large sums of our money to improve their property without UCO administrators objecting or initiating the procedures which could require the owners to pay out the millions of dollars it takes to improve their property.
5) The censorship practiced by the administration where any question that the administration deems objectionable is denied access to the village media (Channel 63 and The UCO reporter) whether they are objectionable or simply are contrary to the direction the administration is following.
6) The divisive policies and behavior that has created warring factions within our village . When we stop listening to each other and we disenfranchise valued contributors to the management of the village for petty egotistical reasons , we can see that the village is broken into factions that are slowly but surely pulling us apart . If we are not pulling together, then surely we are pulling apart.
It is imperative that the residents of the village have an administration that works in the best interests of the village with the proper checks and balances in place that regretfully no longer exist.
I can only hope, and I do believe that my friends and neighbors in the village will see beyond the hyperbole and the smoke and mirrors, and will come together to support me in my quest for fair play, truth and justice in this most critical election.
I can only hope, and I do believe that my friends and neighbors in the village will see beyond the hyperbole and the smoke and mirrors, and will come together to support me in my quest for fair play, truth and justice in this most critical election.
When reading of the Holocaust or even going further back in history to the expulsion from Spain and Portugal or even before that to the expulsion from England under Edward II, one often wonders as to why the clues were not read, why they were not acted upon - why did they stay?
Well, first and foremost is the problem of where to go when leaving one's homeland or place of residence. Where to find the welcoming country who will accept the refugees, make them welcome? We, as did many others for the most part, found that refuge here in the colonies and then the USA though unhappily it was not until much later in time so could not provide refuge till then. But at least it was there and Jews came over from the old countries to a new country where the first President, the heroic General Washington, had given them a letter stressing their welcome, their contributions, and they felt safe, even though there was always a sense of awareness, alertness, to the ever remaining taint of anti Semitism.
The countries of Europe, particularly those of eastern Europe, remained with blatant and physical anti Smeitism and so the Jews, thousands, left, but some remained, so the question is why? Well, there are the standard reasons, ranging from lack of funds, to family problems, to stubborness. But when the violence even tok place, when the signs and actions of a most vicious hatred of Jews broke out in Germany and Austria, why did they not move? Why did they not leave for the safety of other countries?
Well, first of all, other countries were not so easily found, including the USA, with its anti immigration laws rising from the 1924 anti immigration bills. Second, after one's family had lived in a country for hundreds of years, had made a home, established a business, had educated their children - why leave? The reasoning said to hunker down, play it safe, and though more violent and harsh than standard (!) anti Semitism, perhaps this too would pass. So, many stayed until it was too late and there were no welcoming shores, not even our country as they turned away the St. Louis, sending the passengers back to certain death, refused to take in refugees from openly disastrous countries, refused transports of children, and only the few and the rare helped rescue Jews, especiallly children.
And now? What to do? For as long as I can remember, there have always been discussions as to whether we would recognize when it was time, time to go? And luckily for us, there was that one welcoming place, the state of Israel, where despite the efforts of so many nations, we remained a viable, prospering country which even in the extremely dangerous days of the War of Independence, broke and fighting, literally for its life, welcomed in the refugees from Europe, from the continent that had murdered their families, welcomed the refugees from Arab countries who had struck and killed so many at the establishment of Israel and then threw them out minus their accumulated wealth and posessions.
But now, now what is going on? And we have all, unfortunately, gained more of an understanding of the question - is it time to go? Is it time to pack up and get the hell out of here before the gates are slammed shut andother gates, the gates of ghettoes and death camps, slave labor camps, the doors to hell, open up to swallow us up?
You scoff at the thoughts? Well, scoff not. The level of oral threats and words of anti Semitism, the rising violence contained within, the rising tide of violations of Jewish property, the beatings, at least 12 in Crown Heights in recent weeks, and the killing, the deliberate murders of worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh - and do not forget the other shootings, such as the boys years ago who were shot in their car as they were on the ramp to the Brookly Bridge. One mother, Deborah Halberstam makes sure we remember. The dramatic rise in incidents has risen dramatically this past year.
Thoughts of - time to go, time to leave, maybe we had better get out of here or maybe we will stay, too old to grow new roots, but the kids, the grandkids? And yesterday's shocker was what, the last straw? In LA, a community center, supposed to be a place of welcome for all, in California, where Jewish people have raised so much funding and materials and places of refuge for immigrants, a frightening mural was painted and the ones who commissioned it defended it as freedom of speech. It depicted a most horrifying skeletal and witchlike figure with long bony claws Wrapped in the American flag embellished with Jewish stars, it held a dead baby, dangling from one claw and stacks of dollars, of snakes, were there as well.
Folks, this is not freedom of speech. It is the fire in the crowded theater. It is the equivalent of open urging of hateful people to take action. Words of hate, incitement to violence are never to be allowed and if we punish people for blackface when they were teens or college students, then we can punish people for this, or disallow it from the getgo.
Yesterday was a day when I truly looked around and asked mysefl if it was worth our lives to remain here. It would be hard to start over, a strain on financial resources, a rending of the souls as we left what until now felt like home, but is it time? Should we recognize it as such? And once again, there appears no other country to welcome us as the horrific rise in anti Semtism in the countries of Europe is frightful. France has allowed its innate and constant anti Semitism to rise to the surface. Britain has again allowed it to surface from where it has been hiding just beneath.
I do not know why this happens. Labelled the 'chosen people', meant to spread and share the light of G-d, of morals, of a moral society, of a caring society, it appears that we have been more chosen for death than for anyting else. And yet, Jews have made contributions from time immemorial and it continues today - just open your phone! There is no rhyme or reason, no sanity behind, it just nasty hate.
And when the nastiness rises in the USA, when the leader of the band is sitting in the White House with his recognition of "fine people" in white supremacists, with his seeking the favor and support of them,with the KKK daring to march again, with threats, physical and oral, rising, with his former partner in crime telling all of us that he is a racist, well, time to go?
I agonize over the thoughts that race through my mind? I wonder if the fully assimilated Jew will remember the ancestry? I wonder if just as some other countries have begun to do will be done here - test the DNA and track us down? Where will it end? When and how will it escalate? Should we take the chance that it will not, that if we get rid of that man and show disaproval of all that, will it subside, hide below the surface, but not be acted upon? Will it then be safe for us? And what about the growing fears that should he still be in office for another campaign and he lose - will there be a possible violent reaction and where then will we be - blamed by all sides for this mess as has been done throughout history?
Time to go? Time to abandon our homes? Time to go to our other home where we are welcomed? But what then, for Israel, without the personal intervention of a divine miracle, cannot stand alone. No country can. And what then? Time to go? Time to go? Time to go? Round and round it echoes in my head. Time to go?
No comments:
Post a Comment